When you think of networking, what is the first thought that comes to mind? I’ve done some subjective research on the topic of networking and I am considered to be a master networker (MN) myself. Most people consider networking as a way to meet new people and build a network of individuals that work at the same company in the same industry or at a different company in a different or in the same industry. Business professionals attend networking events hoping to land their next opportunity. While I think that networking is extremely important, especially with social media playing a major role in how we network today, (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) I think it’s on a lower scale compared to traditional networking.

During my time as a Wealth Manager at a major financial services firm, I had an opportunity to see how true networking works and it begins with the legacy that your family has left behind. Traditionally, networking was based on who your father knew or who he could connect you to and his reputation was on the line for referring an individual, but this is how people make it to the next level and beyond middle management. Let me give you a couple of examples: Jamie Dimon is the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, but it was due to his father’s (Theodore Dimon) influence and his reputation that propelled Jamie to the next level. Jamie has been very successful at JP Morgan and managed the risk of the one the nation’s premier financial services firms. Jamie graduated from Harvard Business School, and because of his father’s reputation and his relationship with Sandy Weill, he had some success and created a series of mergers that helped Citi become one of the premier financial services organizations in the world. Eventually he moved onto Bank One, where he was CEO and after a series of mergers and acquisitions he became the CEO of JP Morgan. He was well positioned to succeed, not because he went to hundreds of networking events and collected hundreds of business cards, he was positioned like a company marketing a product. His father helped elevate him, by helping him get over the hurdles and around the red tape.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “what’s in a name?” Your name means everything. People associate everything that you do by name and if your name goes back generations and has a good reputation, you are generally in a position to reap a good harvest. This makes so much sense to me in the natural and spiritually. Let me give you another example: Do you recognize the name Trump? You and everyone else, but people in New York City have recognized the name for years. His father (Fred Trump) was heavily involved real estate for years and his reputation was great among his peers and the banks the he had business relationships with. It was an easy transition to bring Donald into the mix. Donald Trump took the real estate business to the next level.

Are both of these individuals extremely successful without the help of their fathers? Yes they are without a doubt, but what if they didn’t have fathers that created the legacy for them? Would they have been at this level? It’s possible, but the power of traditional networking allowed them to leverage the use of their name to position them higher.

How does this affect your blueprint or your definition of “networking?” It’s more than collecting business cards, sending emails, and sending networking profiles to people at the company you desire to work at. Networking is so much more; it’s about creating a legacy and opportunities that will have a positive impact on you and your family for generations.

The examples that I used are on a large scale, but situations like this happen every day. One more example, I am sure that Chelsea Clinton was an exceptional student, but the with the influence of her parents and the name that she carries, she continued her graduate studies at Oxford and received a six figure job with a major consultant firm after graduating. How many people do you know that make the transition from college to a six figure role?

Learn how make your name stand out and experience how true networking impacts you for generations.

I can remember writing out my goals this time last year and I posted them on my dream board. I believe I worked extremely hard achieving all of my goals, but it is that time again, where I look at my life and establish new goals based on where I am and where I want to be. I thought the below information could be impactful to those that want to make their goals actually happen.

Another year and another set of resolutions. If you’re like most Americans, you’ll probably forget your goals by mid-February. So how do you make your resolutions actually happen this year?

First, keep in mind that goals are dreams; but don’t stop at just dreaming. Turn your dreams into bite-sized pieces that will gradually create a big event in your life. If you’re waiting on an outside variable to change your life, you have a long wait. You have to do something. It’s your responsibility to fix your life, not someone else’s. It’s time to sit down, make some goals, and take control.

Goal setting is how you win. Once you’ve made your resolutions, they will drive you forward. The goals will motivate you to seek activities that will help you succeed. It’s not always fun, but those exercises bring you closer to your goal and make you a winner.

If you want to actually achieve your goals this year, then consider the following:

Be specific. 
When setting goals, be specific in what you want to achieve. Vagueness will only cause you to feel overwhelmed, and you will just give up.

Make your goals measureable. 
In order to know if you achieved the goal, it must be measurable. For example, if you want to lose weight, don’t simply write down “lose weight” as a goal. How much weight do you want to lose? Or don’t just write “spend more time with family.” How much time do you want to spend with your family every night

Are they your goals? 
Only you can set your own goals. If your spouse, co-worker or friend sets a goal for you, you’re not going to achieve it. Taking ownership will give you more incentive to meet your goal.

Set a time limit. 
Setting a time frame will help you set realistic goals. For example, if you want to save more money, list how much money a month you want to put into your savings account.

Put them in writing. 
Putting your goals in writing will make you much more likely to achieve them. Write down your goals and review them often. This will give you motivation to make them a reality.

This is the process to succeed. Successful people reassess their lives and then start living intentionally, in writing, on paper, on purpose. Make your resolutions a reality in 2010.

This was a repost from Dave Ramsey

The President of the United States started off his campaign by saying that, “change was hope that you could believe in.” That phrase or the buzz word “change” was the theme for all of 2008 and it was the most used word and searched word on the internet. I have been thinking about what change really means to an individual. Everybody likes using the word change and corporations believe in change to carry out ambitious objectives, but what does it really mean. I posed this question to my Facebook community and I had a ton of different answers and thoughts, but the most important thought that I received came from a former colleague. He believes that, “change is simply the recognition that something is either wrong or can be improved. Creating a gameplan, accepting it and taking the applicable action to effect the change the hard. Thus why we all “talk” about change instead of taking action.”

I can remember on election night President Obama saying that change could not take place if every American did not do their part in the change that they want. Why is it that people opt to do the same thing as opposed to changing their situation. I have learned that change makes people uncomfortable. It creates a feeling of discomfort and they hate it. People want change, but they don’t want the growing pains of change. For example, it has been documented that a person most likely will never change the bank that they are with. They will go through every bank merger and deal with additional fees and perhaps poor customer service instead of making a change. Another example is how people hate to change their phone service to a better provider or a low cost provider. Verizon will stay in business for landline service for years to come because people have paralysis in making a change to a VoIP service (computer phone service). These are two small examples, but to get a better idea, check out this book: Who Moved My Cheese.

Here is my definition of change: Change is making a conscious decision to open your mind to a new way of living or operating and then putting forth effort to make it a reality. There are always opportunities to make changes to your life, but the question is, will you? Will you make the decision to change and then put forth the action to change your life. Only you can make that decision. Let’s apply this to President Obama’s plea for help in changing America. If you believe that healthcare, education, and energy need an overhaul, what are you going to do to help the cause. What doors are you knocking on? Who are you calling? I have noticed that people have a difficult time making a commitment to change, they would rather complain because it is easier than making an effort to change.

This will be an ongoing process, just as it has since the beginning of time. We all possess the power to change because it is inside of us, we have to make the decision to change. We have to inspire ourselves to change because true change is inner directed. Outside motivation is temporal, but inside determination is everlasting.

Michael Vick was given a second chance at redemption on the football field by the Philadelphia Eagles.

I have never been a Michael Vick fan or supporter, however as a life coach that works with professional athletes I am excited that he is going to have his second chance at life and football. I am shocked that the people of Philadelphia along with the media have been extremely critical of the decision to sign Vick or his past. As I was watching the news on a local TV station, the reporter went to a local dog park to get fan reaction about the signing of Vick in Philadelphia. It seems that people and the media have made an example out of Michael Vick because of his high profile status, but contrary to what has happened to other athletes that have killed people, been involved with murder, involved in sexual indiscretions, and other illegal plots, Vick’s case seems excessive and it seems that the media wants him to fail.

I think we all understand the nature of the crimes that Vick committed and by no means am I giving him a pass, but I am a believer that Michael Vick has paid his debt to society and now it is time to get on with his life.

As I watched Eagles owner Jeffrie Lurie say that, “he needed to see enough self-hatred in Vick,” for what he had done, I thought to myself self-hatred is not what Michael Vick needs. Vick made a severe mistake and lacked sound judgment, but does not need self-hatred to make things right. I am glad that Vick has an advisor in Coach Tony Dungy to assist him in making the right decisions for his life and for football. Michael Vick the person is more important than football. I think Michael Vick was great during the introductory news conference and I like how he handled  the media’s questions and took personal accountability for everything that he has done.

It’s time to look past his heinous crimes and look at his future. He has three children and a fiancée that are happy to have him home. He has people in place to ensure that he makes the best possible choices for his future. He has an opportunity to be back in the NFL and to learn from one of the most successful coach and quarterback tandems in the NFL. He will continue to be a spokesperson for the Humane Society. Vick will start to re-build his life and create the most out of this opportunity. That is what changing your blueprint is all about.

Vick has started the process of changing his blueprint by making the decision to change. Having everything stripped away along with almost two years in prison is enough to make anybody humble. I know that there are people who have the opinion that Vick is still a bad individual, but we were not created to cast judgment, but to forgive. I wish you much success Michael Vick and congrats on discovering your blueprint of change.

While on a recent trip to Florida, I had an opportunity to seriously “think” about this topic. What you don’t know is that I had this topic prepared for about a month, but because of how important it is, I really wanted to convey my thoughts as clear as possible. I have been reading, studying, researching, and listening to material that dealt with the power of the mind. I have listened to a CD by Earl Nightingale called, “The Strangest Secret,” about 50 times and I get something new out of it every time I listen to it and I strongly recommend it.

While listening to the “The Strangest Secret,” Earl Nightingale believes that, “we become what we think about.” I never understood the power behind that statement and how what I have done in the past has shaped my blueprint. Having a good mindset is being on the right track to renewing your blueprint and/or to create the level of success that you want to reach for yourself. Ralph Emerson stated this about the power of our mind, “A man is what he thinks about all day long.”

As we are going through our daily lives and situations we feed our minds with the junk of the media or we are just concentrating on our own situations. Our minds conform to what we do on a daily basis. The mind is the most powerful resource that we have and I feel that we let it go to waste at times, not waste as in not utilizing it, but using it to accomplish the wrong goals. Normally when I am working with clients, I always ask, if they have created a 5 year plan. Sadly, not many of my clients have a 5 year plan. In many cases people have conformed to allowing circumstances to shape their life or just going day by day. Our minds were never created for us to go day by day. I’m sure many of you have been told the importance of writing goals, but do we actually accomplish them? Is it because we are afraid of failing? The bible tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that, “God has not given us spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

I chose to stop conforming and to sit down and write my vision for 5 years to change my life and the life of my family. I focus on those goals everyday and I know I will become successful because I “think” about creative ways to achieve those goals. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A mind once stretched, can never return to its original condition.” When is the last time you stretched your mind? During my time in Florida, I was not connected to the internet, my phone, or to my computer. Being away gave me time to think and many times, just sitting and thinking can allow you to use the most powerful resource that God has given us. As I was reading, I learned that is what the Apostle Paul did, as he walked from city to city, he would use that time to talk and think.

Walter Isaacon, wrote in his book, “In Search of the Real Bill Gates,” about a story when a young Bill Gates was sitting and doing nothing and his mother saw him and asked what he was doing. His response was, “I’m thinking, Mom, I’m thinking.” We all know how this story turned out.

If anyone needs help developing their five year plan, contact me to set up a consult.

Additional Quote:

What I lack is to be clear in my mind

what I am to do, not what I am to know…

The thing is to understand myself,

to see what God really wishes me to do…

To find the idea

for which I can live and die.

~ Soren Kierkegaard

I am often asked this question over and over again, I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you more about life coaching and how it can impact your life.

Life coaching is a process that is designed to help an individual achieve their goals and dreams and drive results in their careers, business, relationships, finances, and health. A life coach can help a person achieve a work life balance in a society that does not recognize the importance of a having such a balance. In addition the relationship between coach and client is one that is built on trust and confidence in each other.

You may be asking how can a life coach help me? That’s a really good question. When I meet with clients, my goal is to:

• Assess where you are now in each of the major areas of your life.
• Setting goals for each of these areas.
• Defining action steps for moving towards those goals.

Are there changes that you want to make in your life? If so, don’t delay, call me for a FREE 30 minute consultation.

If you want to find out what coaching is like, call me for a FREE 30 minute coaching session.

I work with individuals in these areas:

• Financial Counseling and Coaching
• Career Transition Coaching
• Goal-Setting
• Time Management
• Retirement Coaching
• Entrepreneurship Coaching
• Life Skills

Please contact me if you have questions about life coaching or leave a comment.