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Each year, a few days before New Year’s Eve, I head off to my mountain retreat in Big Bear Lake, California, to recharge my batteries. It’s a great opportunity to spend time with the family and prepare for the onslaught of the coming year. It’s also a good time to give some thought to the vision you have for your business and life over the next year. It’s hard to hit a target you’re not aiming at. The new year is a great time to think about some of your plans and goals for the next 12 mo...

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Have you ever heard someone in your network say, “If you don’t do one to ones effectively, you might as well talk to yourself”?  Well, it really is true–if your one-to-one meetings seem more like a waste of time than productive, relationship-building, referral generating sessions that equal time well spent, I highly recommend you watch this fantastic video. In this short video, Lawrence Conyers of UK based Anson Corporate Media, who is not only an experienced networker but also a gifted and c...

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Marketing isn’t something I was always confident about.  When I first started out in business, my degrees were in Political Science and Organizational Behavior.  I had very little marketing experience until I went to work for a transportation company in Southern California and, within a two week span, went from a role in purchasing to a significant role in marketing–a huge change that was an even bigger learning experience. My marketing experience was trial by fire and reading.  I just started reading ...

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In this video, my Business Networking and Sex co-authors and I explain the very different ways in which men and women shop for any given item and, aside from learning a thing or two from this one, I guarantee you won’t be able to keep from laughing at Frank and Hazel’s antics! After watching the video, come back and leave a comment . . . do you think the observations we talk about in this video ring true in your experience?

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I’m excited to tell all the readers of this blog that my next book, Business Networking And Sex (not what you think), will be released in January.  There was a substantial amount of survey data(*) that my co-authors and I were unable to use in the book so we plan on sharing much of that data on the BusinessNetworkingAndSex.com blog. The following table shows the response to a question about having a “system to track money” in relation to whether or not the respondent felt that networking has ̶...

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    The new video for International Networking Week 2012 has just been released! This short, 9-minute video, sponsored by Referral Institute (www.ReferralInstitute.com) and Entrepreneur Press (www.Entrepreneur.com), explains how the week of February 6th-10th, 2012 will bring about great opportunities for businesspeople around the world and increase worldwide awareness about the powerful benefits of business networking. 2012 will mark the 6th annual celebration of International Networking Week which is now r...

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            I received an e-mail this year from a man named Robert and it contained an excellent question.  The full message read: Good morning, Dr. Misner. I was wondering if you could answer a question for me. When it comes to networking and being a connector, how do you handle requests from people you barely know (or don’t know at all) who ask you to give them the names of your contacts so they can connect with those people for their own ventures or projects? For example, I rec...

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I’ve been following the development of online business networking for several years now; particularly at the inception of sites like Ecademy.com and LinkedIn.  That said,  I’d like to state for the record: If you’ve had any lingering thoughts that social media is just a fad, you may want to lose them. Are you aware that LinkedIn’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) has a valuation of 4.3 billion (USD)?  That’s right, I said BILLION.  If you haven’t been taking social media seriously...