I've heard a lot of presentations over the years, although not many have struck me as so relevant as Maribeth Kuzmeski's "The Connectors" presentation at the Oct. 12 PWCC luncheon. 
 
As President of Red Zone Marketing, Maribeth is an internationally recognized speaker and has consulted with CEO's, entrepreneurs and professionals.   Very engaging and funny, I enjoyed how she sprinkled her presentation with personal anecdotes. 

Maribeth stressed the importance of relationships and how we need to be better at all of our interactions, by taking time to listen, paying attention, and focusing on the other person.   She asked us to think of our most important relationship -- what did that person mean to us and why? -- and then brought up hers, which was her grandmother.  

Being from Wisconsin, every Sunday during football season Maribeth and her grandmother would watch Green Bay Packers games and her grandmother would teach her about football.  After each game, her grandmother gave her a "pop quiz" on what she learned about the game.  She always made Maribeth feel special and lavished attention on her.  What a great idea to take this approach with people we do business with (or want to do business with.)
 
All of us can create better connections in our businesses.  Here are some of the suggestions Maribeth shared:
1.    Listen Curiously.   People like us more if we listen to them talk about themselves, not talk about us.   According to recent research, the average attention span in the U.S. today is 17 seconds!  Condition yourself to listen for "the remarkable," so you can remember something unique about the person you are interacting with.
2.    Seek the Remarkable & Ask Big Questions.  Ask questions that require an answer, and force people to believe you want to listen to what they have to say.  For example, “What is your biggest challenge?” or “What is the one thing you wanted your current firm to do?”
3.    Contrarian Networking.  Make it your goal to meet people who are potential advocates.
4.    Be Memorable.  Determine how to differentiate yourself and exploit your uniqueness.  How are you different?  (Not just better, but different?)  You want people to remember you.
 
It was an inspiring presentation and one of many reasons I find my involvement with PWCC so valuable!
 
Submitted by Alyssa Burns, who serves on the PWCC Board of Directors and is Chairperson of the Communications Committee.  Alyssa is a public relations and communications professional with experience in Fortune 100 and top-10 PR agency settings, including Kraft Foods and Edelman.  She is the owner of Alyssa Burns Communications and can be reached at alyssa.burns@sbcglobal.net.