Whenever possible, always say yes to an invitation to do just about anything – a lunch, a meeting, anything with anyone.  It is always a great way to grow your network.  Speaker and author Craig Price took me up on a Facebook invitation posting and ended up on this podcast. www.speakercraigprice.com

Click here to listen: Speaker Craig Price

Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s Late Night, was recently asked about hosting his hit evening talk show. He had a great observation, that it’s like throwing a party. When you have a party, you can have fun but ultimately it is your responsibility to make sure everyone else is having fun, that there is plenty to eat and drink.  That’s the key to a successful party.

That is also a great definition of networking. It may be your party but you need to make sure everyone else is taken care of and having a good time. That’s what makes for the best party…or networking.

Dayna is the author of Rock to the Top: What I Learned about Success from the World’s Greatest Rock Stars. Her next book “I’m With the Band: Network Your Way into Anything, Anywhere, Anytime” is scheduled for release in January 2011.

In the September 2010 issue of Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine, there is a great tidbit of information about cows. I know because I have read it six times this month already.  Seems that cows with names produce 68 more gallons of milk every 10 months than cows without names.  Farmers who referred to their cows by name saw a spike in production. That made me think of Martha…..who is not a cow by the way.

I walk into the same post office in the same small town at the same time and say hello to the same cleaning woman almost every weekday morning.  It wasn’t long after I started this routine that I introduced myself and asked the woman her name. Martha. Her name is Martha.

This morning ritual had been going on for almost two years when I decided one holiday season that I needed to get Martha a Christmas present. Excited to be playing Santa Claus, I arrived, as I had done for hundreds of mornings, unable to find Martha. This went on for a couple of days and I got worried. So I rang the package doorbell which is there to be rung for packages but inevitably always makes whoever has to answer it disagreeable.  But I digress.

A postal employee, who has been at this particular post office longer than I have been checking my P O Box, ‘cheerfully’ opened the window and said “what do you want?” I inquired as to where Martha had been the last couple of days to which Ms. Happy replied, “who’s Martha?” I explained that Martha had been sweeping around her feet for the past few years as the post office cleaning lady. “Oh, well I don’t know her name. And I think her car is broken. She should be back tomorrow.”

Martha returned, I was able to play Santa Claus and I have since told people in my neighborhood this story, many of whom pick up their mail at the same post office and now give a cheery hello to Martha, by name, each time they go.

The moral of the story? Is there a Martha in your office or somewhere in your life? Do you know his or her name? Well, what are you waiting for? 

By the way, I’ve always wondered if Martha ever wonders how all these people know her by name.

As an author and a speaker, I am often called upon to talk about networking — like there’s a big secret to how it’s done.  It’s actually quite simple.  Networking is not about getting out and meeting people. Networking is about what you do after you meet people, the follow-through and keeping in touch.

Speaker, author and Help A Reporter creator Peter Shankman likes to tell the story of Paramount Pictures executive Barry Diller. Barry used to go through his Rolodex every day and call 10 different filmmakers and others, just to touch base and find out what they were working on and how they were doing. These filmmakers and others often thought of Barry first when they had a hot project. Many credit the huge success of Paramount Pictures during this time to Barry’s daily calls.

You may not be Barry Diller, but there is no reason you can’t do the same thing he did. Successful relationships, business or personal, take time and nurturing.

Here are just a few things that should be a part of your networking repertoire:

• Write a personal note after an in-person meeting – either to say thank you or a simple, “It was nice to meet you (or see you).” An email is fine, but a handwritten note stands out more.
• On Facebook? Check each morning to see who is having a birthday and leave a message on their wall or actually make a personal call.
• See an article or blog post that makes you think of someone? Copy the URL and send it to that person with a note: “This made me think of you.” We ALL like to know others are thinking about us.
• ALWAYS write a thank-you   note when anyone does something nice for you – an introduction, a client lead, free tickets to something, a meal, whatever.  If you are doing things right, you should be writing at least five thank-you notes a week — if not more.
• Did you talk about a specific thing or information the other person needed that you had?  Follow through with that promised information or item within 48 hours, even if it’s just to say you are still gathering the information.
• Go through your network – your address book, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter – and touch base with several people each day. This keeps you top of mind just like the aforementioned Mr. Diller.

Here’s a recent example of how I work.  Earlier this week, a local food critic invited me to join her at one of Houston’s newest restaurants.  Management wined and dined us thoroughly. (It’s always nice to go to a restaurant with a food critic).  I followed up with a thank-you note and a copy of my book to the restaurant manager. The food critic and I had talked about my husband’s new novel, so she got a thank-you note and a copy of the book, Specific Impulse.  I posted the pictures of the food and information on the new restaurant on Facebook, with links to the establishment and the chef.  Not to mention, I’ll be back – the food was amazing!

Networking is not for sissies. It takes work and it takes work on a regular, daily basis. Who have you networked with today?

*Originally posted on The Vollmer Voice from Vollmer Public Relations.

Never underestimate the power of the smile in customer service. Not that I encourage this but you can almost get away with a mediocre product, service, meal, anything – when it is served with a smile.

My birthday request was simple this year, especially after renting a castle in England last year. All I asked for was that Charlie the Wonder Husband and the boys do their version of dressed up and take me to a local upscale steakhouse. They rummaged through the bottom of their closets, found a clean pair of socks and a collared shirt and off we went.

“A smile is a powerful weapon; you can even break ice with it.”  –Author Unknown

Love my husband, teenager tried his best to be pleasant, 10 year old was ok once he found out they had chicken nuggets and the food was amazing, but our server never smiled. OK. She smiled once, after we had written in the tip and handed the bill back to her. Not good timing on her part.

Not sure if she was training, tired, didn’t feel well or just disliked her job, whatever the reason, she never smiled. The waiter next to us smiled and had quite the personality with his table. I felt deprived.

“People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.”  –Lee Mildon

For almost 22 years I played either Freebird or Stairway to Heaven every day, read the same weather forecast, observed “Two for Tuesday,” served “Electric Lunch” and tried to make people happy on the request line, which I actually answered.

It didn’t matter how I felt, whether or not I was sick or if I had overachieved the night before, I had to be happy to be there and 99% of the time, I was! There were those days however where I just wanted to be left alone but I continued to deliver the best show I could with a smile on my face.

“Smile – It’s the second best thing you can do with your lips.” –Author Unknown

Smile today. Smile all day. Smile at everyone you meet. You’ll be amazed how much bigger the tip gets in whatever you do today.

How do I get a record deal, how do I get into the music business, how do I get a radio station to play my songs? I am always surprised how often I am still asked those questions, even though I have been out of music radio and the music business since my 14 year old son was born. Yet, I still get the question almost weekly from friends, neighbors, on my Facebook page, etc.

Here’s the answer I gave an aspiring rapper (how do these people find me) yesterday:

• Take advantage of social media – Facebook and Twitter – and make it easy for fans sign on to follow you
• Post the song occasionally and other songs
• Create a website
• Do a hot or funny video for YouTube
• Create a t-shirt and sell it on Cafe Press
• Use every method you can to get your music and name out there
• If the stuff is good, it will start to spread and the record companies will take notice
• Always better if the record companies and radio stations come to you!
• Work it every day
• Network, 24/7, what can you do for them?

Tony Shelton, crisis communication expert and good friend, sums it up best with his three questions he always asks clients:

• What do you want?
• Who can give it to you?
• And most important of all, why should they?

Whether you want to be a rap star or a business star, it all works the same.

Kill’em with kindness.  You get more flies with honey.  Engage the customer.

All strange things to be thinking while sitting stage side in the Hustler Club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans but that’s how I think. The first five dancers to hit the main stage starred at a spot on the wall, never smiled and went through the motions to do their routine. Then a dancer smiled and made a little effort to actually look at the audience. A few more dollar bills started to magically drop on the stage. Then SHE came out. SHE hit the stage with a huge smile looking directly at her audience. SHE went straight to the people and engaged them. Smiling, talking “Hey, where y’all from?” The dollar bills were flying fast and furious and SHE hadn’t even hit the pole yet. SHE had the audience in the palm of her hand until her money bag was full. SHE gave the customers what they had been looking for all night. A smile, welcoming conversation and eye contact. That’s all it took.

Which now poses the question – why was I in the Hustler Club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans? Isn’t the saying “what happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans”? Well, it should be.

In honor of National Garlic Day, I am sharing the Justiz Family garlic salad dressing recipe:

Justiz Family Cuban Salad

2 average size garlic cloves pulverized with salt
*salt keeps garlic from jumping out of the container while being pulverized

1 TB Sour Cream  (or nonfat plain yogurt)

1 TB Mayonnaise

1 TB regular vegetable oil  (other oils including olive oil will not work)

Ground black pepper to taste

Juice of ¼ fresh or bottle lime juice

Mix all together well
*use more oil or water to thin if needed

Toss with iceberg and/or romaine lettuce and avocados.  Don’t add any other items, such as tomatoes, they change the taste.

Enjoy the salad and remember, that’s what social media and networking are all about – sharing information with others and mutual benefit for all.  With the occasional garlic breath.

Have you given thought to your New Year’s resolutions yet? How could you not. Everyone is talking about what they will – or need to – do in 2010.

Here’s my list. Steeleworkers unite and hang on to this. Check in periodically and make sure I am on track. That’s what networking and friends are for…

1. Practice yoga every morning,
2. No sugar during the month of January, a crazy pact I made with my friend Liesbeth.
3. Do a ‘verb’ everyday – walk, kayak (thank you Santa), run, water ski or bike.
4. Improve my golf game. Geez.  Did I just really say that? When did I become a golfer?
5. Write the sequel to Rock to the Top now available as a paperback or ebook at iUniverse and soon to be available for the Kindle.  Finally.
6. Help others learn to publish their book with the first in a series of workshops.  It is truly a great adventure.
7. No alcohol on weekdays during January (see the above Liesbeth).
8. Produce a new speech demo.
9. Do the commencement speech at a college graduation ceremony.
10. Learn to use my new kayak.
11. Review sugar and alcohol pact as well as friendship with afore mentioned Liesbeth.  How did she talk me into this pact?
12. See Graceland.  (Memphis meeting planners I’m serious, let’s make a deal.)
13. Figure out more ways to utilize Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc and tie them all together for small business.  I love this stuff.
14. Help publish and market Charlie the Wonder Husband‘s first science-based thriller novel Specific Impulse due in stores, online and on the Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader on March 1, 2010.
15. Be more diligent about reading all three emails a day from HARO.
16. Go to China.
17. Kick www.smartgirlsrock.com into gear.
18. Gather more videos for www.operationnationalanthem.com and do more for the 4-73 Cav on the ground in Afghanistan, the unit our family adopted.
19. Try my best not to get irritated at the TSA at the airport and new on board aircraft regulations. Just keep me safe.  And, come up with a better plan.
20. Love, kiss and hug my husband and boys every chance I get.  Even the teenager.

So, 2010 (and Liesbeth), game is on!

As most of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota celebrates the Minnesota Vikings victory last night; I am in my hotel room preparing to speak on the second day of a travel conference to a group of travel agents at the St. Paul River Centre.

To so many, a conference means endless hours of travel, crammed airplanes, confusing rental cars and GPS directions, sessions on things we already know and, let’s not forget, chicken and rice and/or beef tips and asparagus.

However, a conference should mean learning new things, meeting new people and opening many more doors to success.  Here are a few things you can do to take advantage of the conference experience and continue to build a stage for success in anything you do:

• Utilize social media and all it has to offer.  Prior to leaving for your conference, join Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  Get familiar with all three.  And find out if the conference has a Twitter hashtag associated with this particular event.  Learn what that means and how it works.  You don’t want to miss any chance to network in business.  You’ll also appear forward thinking instead of totally out of touch.
• Take plenty of business cards.  This is not the time to leave them at home or back in your hotel room.  And remember, don’t force that card on people but have it available if a connection is made with someone and both of you would like to keep in touch to share information.  Have that card readily available so you’re not digging in the “goodie bag,” through your purse or in your pockets.  Nice, neat business cards – nothing bent and crammed into a pocket.  *If you can have something a little different as a business card, all the better.  I use a guitar pick – definitely gets attention.  Peter Shankman uses a poker chip.  Houston clothing designer Bob Stover uses a card with pop-out collar stays.
• Traveling to the conference?  Take that time to pick up a magazine or newspaper at the newsstand while waiting for your flight or train – but pick up a periodical on something you know nothing about or could care less about.  For me that would be NASCAR.  No offense guys, but I just don’t get the whole car sport thing.  However, NASCAR does brand better than any business, anywhere, hands down.  I picked up some great marketing ideas from a NASCAR publication.  Reading something you don’t know anything about opens up your mind in new ways and will make you more open to new ideas and ways of doing things.
• Sign up for at least one session that is totally out of your field, which has nothing to do with your expertise.  You just may find a new expertise to add to your resume.  Never stop learning.  Never stop trying new things.  This is the place to do it.  You are here, you have the time and the experts are here with the information.
• Sit with strangers at lunch.  Don’t gravitate to the people you already know.  This is not high school, this is an excellent opportunity to meet and network with others in your field of business and form new relationships.  And, by the way, relationships are EVERYTHING.
• This is not the time to be shy.  During sessions, in the hall, at lunch, at the cocktail party.  Again, relationships are everything.  You are here to learn AND to network.  As someone once told me, “you’ll never get a date sitting on the couch at home.”  Or in your hotel room watching Friends reruns.
• Do your homework and find out as much as you can about the conference before and during the event.  Look over the event website before you go and read everything in the conference giveaway bag when you get there.  Most of it you probably already know and really don’t need, but you won’t know that until you look at all of it.  Familiarize yourself with who is at the conference, the facilitators and speakers, and all the sessions.  Something just may catch your eye.  The worst thing you can do is wait to read it all when you get back on the plane and realize you missed a great opportunity to see a speaker or attend a session.
• Last but not least, don’t forget the follow-up.  Take those cards you have gathered and send a brief note saying “it was nice to meet you” and “hope we can work together in the future” or, even better, “let me know if there is anything I can do for you in the future.”  Emails, a Facebook post, a tweet on Twitter, a message on LinkedIn – all are good ways to follow-up.  The best way though?  A handwritten note.  That will make the biggest impression.

Despite the travel hassles and the same food across the country at the lunch and/or dinner, a conference is still one of the best ways to keep up with your industry, network with like-minded individuals and form relationships and, open your mind to new ideas and new ways of doing things.  You are away from home and loved ones.  Make it worth the sacrifice and make that stage for success even more secure!