I am attending the Global Networking Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this week. Roughly 550 people from more than 22 countries are attending the event. It has convinced me that “thinking globally and acting locally” is no longer true for entrepreneurs. We are living in a global economy, and it is becoming easier and easier to do business around the world. When a local dentist (Dr. Fay Yunus) can give an international referral, you know this is true. This is a GREAT VIDEO showing the power of local b...

I’ve been working with a group of authors since January of this year, and quite a few of them have been contributing some great networking articles to a subscription website I’m affiliated with called NetworkingNow.com. I was actually referencing that website when I named this blog and it occurred to me recently that many of my blog readers might not even know about the site, so I thought I’d let everyone know what it’s all about. NetworkingNow.com is a site where you can gain instant access t...

By now, most people have heard of the phenomenally successful movie The Secret, which talks about the Law of Attraction and how it can be used to change lives. The Law of Attraction has been used for thousands of years by some very successful people. Jack Canfield, originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series and a good friend of mine, is one of them. He appeared in The Secret to teach about the Law of Attraction, and now he has written an excellent book called Jack Canfield’s KEY to Living the Law of Att...

As I sat on a plane bound for Orlando, Florida, this week, I began sorting through a stack of books that various authors have sent me as gifts, and I came upon the updated version of Susan RoAne’s How to Work a Room. I immediately had to smile because Susan has been a friend of mine for quite some time.  Anybody who knows her can tell you that she not only knows how to work a room, but she knows how to do it with what she calls “charm and chutzpah”–in other words, she is one funny lady! I loo...

I read a book awhile back called Solutions Focus by Mark MerKergow and Paul Z Jackson, and it really struck a chord with me. I ran across some of my notes from the book yesterday as I was organizing my desk (no small task, I might add), and I think that networking groups everywhere–and businesspeople in general–can greatly benefit and gain a higher level of success from learning to maintain and exhibit a solutions-focused attitude. As MerKergow and Jackson say, it’s the most effective way to natural...

Most people I meet while networking think they’re great networkers, but a lot of them are still making some of the biggest networking no-nos in the book. I went to a local networking event this week and saw one guy blatantly trying to gather as many business cards as he could, never spending more than a minute with any one person. This type of behavior indicates that he only had one goal–to acquire a nice, big stack of business cards to add to his cold-calling stockpile. Confusing networking with direct s...

During a recent interview, I was asked what my thoughts are on why my networking organization, BNI, has become so successful. Well, I’ll be the first to admit that success didn’t happen overnight. It took me 23 years, and a lot of bumps along the way, to learn what it takes to operate a successful networking group anywhere in the world. But as I told the interviewer, I attribute BNI’s success to some key steps that are sure to move any networking group toward achieving excellence. I’d like to ...

Someone recently asked me about some of my more unusual moments in business, and that took me back to a short stint I did working as the general manager of a light-manufacturing plant in Los Angeles. This story actually begins many years earlier when, as a young boy, I stayed up late watching old Twilight Zone episodes with my mother. There was one in particular that I loved about a little boy named Anthony who had incredible powers and completely controlled a small town. He would do horrible things to people and ani...