The weather has given us a strange few weeks. As I have driven about, I have seen icy glaze on streets and huge piles of mud on the side of roads and pushed to the back of parking lots that on second look were dirt covered snow and ice. On the very same run to the store or wherever else, I have also seen water rushing in the ditches beside the road and had my shoes fill with water as I step onto grass that was hiding all the moisture that our sodden yards can no longer absorb. I also experienced an early evening when fog obscured my backyard. It is just water in its many forms, but it has gotten the attention of most of our nation. Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring our conservative message in a variety of attention getting forms?
Consider what we would hear if several people reported what they saw during an accident. Each would tell the particulars of the event, but with their own twists.
In the last newsletter, I related part of the message Pylar Pinkston gave to the Kaufman Chamber of Commerce on Networking. This month, I would like to give my impressions about the second C of Networking: Communicate.
COMMUNICATE
You may have the perfect product, but if you are not sharing what you are doing, you may never make a sell. I have seen over the years that a person from my professional organization worked with someone I had just met, but had never asked him or her to join. People want to be asked. They want those new gizmos explained or demonstrated. They want individual attention. And sometimes they want to be left alone, but not as often as we fail to speak to them.
People don’t want to be the last to know what is going on. Have an expected way to keep everyone in your organization in the know, like a daily message. Check just about any kindergarten classroom and you will see the teacher leading them through the morning message. Advertise what you are doing. Tell folks you are looking for exactly eight people for a square dance.
Listen to people. Put your phone in your pocket. Look them in the eye. Keep your eye off the clock. If you want the support of that person, remember they want your support too, and it may be just five minutes of your time.
Barbara Jo