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You can tell a lot about a person by his/her handshake. More importantly, there are a lot of people who will form their impression of you from your handshake. So, you want to take that into consideration before putting out your hand. For example, you want to offer a firm handshake with fingers extended (web to web) rather than clumped together. Avoid the dead fish handshake but don’t go overboard with a bone crusher. Beyond your shaking style, be sure to shake hands in the proper order. … [Read more...] about Grip it, don’t rip it. The professional handshake.

In My Pinnacle Network, we refer to the elevator pitch as your verbal brand. For sake of clarity, we will use E.P. in this piece and over the next several weeks. Yet every one of us should not only reconsider what we call our elevator pitch but how we deliver it and what exactly we say. If you fall into the camp that tries to fit as much as humanly possible into your E.P. before you run out of breath/pass out or the person you’re talking nods off or, worse, walks away, you are far from alone. … [Read more...] about When to get personal in business

Last year's Networking Ninja awards had a surprise award--an Unsung Hero honor for yours truly. This year will also have two surprise awards--Rookie of the Year and Lifetime Achievement. We will announce both at the ceremony on Tuesday, April 16 at the joint networking event of My Pinnacle Network and the South Shore Networking Professional Group, held at the Cask & Flagon in Marshfield. Speaking of the Ninja awards, this is the FINAL week of voting. If you do want to cast your vote for … [Read more...] about Ninja surprises

That stands for follow up. You can schedule all the one-on-ones humanly possible. Without following up on the action items discussed during your one-on-one, the entire meeting is pointless. Last week’s e-newsletter talked about some of the musts for one-on-ones. One of those was concluding the meeting with next steps or action items. So, if you say you’re going to introduce the other person to somebody in your network that means putting a timetable on it—I will introduce Steve to Jonathan … [Read more...] about When it comes to one-on-ones, F.U.

The season of giving often puts us in an awkward position with clients and colleagues. Should you give a gift? Is a card enough? Will it make others feel like they have to give a gift or send a card? Valid questions but really not what the season of giving is and should be about. So, when it doubt, give a kind word. Huh? A testimonial or recommendation can also be a nice thing to do for a client, colleague, vendor or other people in your network. If writing is not necessarily your thing, … [Read more...] about Give a kind word…or more

The secret is it is not much of a secret to having a productive one-on-one. As mentioned during the Two-Minute Drill at this month’s My Pinnacle Network meetings,there are some tried and true keys to conducting a successful one-on-one: After you schedule the one-on-one be sure to confirm the meeting the morning of the appointment. If it’s a morning meeting, confirm the day before. Things come up and you want to be sure the meeting is a go. It also shows the person you are meeting with that … [Read more...] about Secrets to a successful one-on-one

As a writer, I sometimes run into a mental roadblock over thing that should be second nature. Basics like: Is it who or whom? Are all titles always capped or only in certain situations? Compliment or complement? That why having a handy style guide—hard copy and online—provides necessary reinforcement of things I already know. In networking, it's also helpful to get an occasional refresher on the basics. An article on networking that I came across recently, the 59 commandments of … [Read more...] about Why we forget the basics