As you may remember, Rod Lee wrote an article about me for his newspaper. Frankly, when he asked, I was a little surprised and a little hesitant, but went along with the idea. I know that the way that I work and live my life won’t work for everybody. It works for me. Occasionally, someone comes along and likes something that I do and I’m typically willing to share. Sometimes, sharing is not the thing to do. Let’s face it. Just because Elaine and I have been married for 34 years doesn’t mean that I should give everyone advice on marriage. Just because my sons, Mark and Matt, are perfect, doesn’t mean that I should give everyone advice on child rearing. My father was a carpenter and taught me many of those skills. My mother made sure that I knew how to cook, do laundry, sew, and other stuff so I wouldn’t be a burden on my wife. (Well, not everything worked.) Anyway, the point is, that my life has worked for me and when someone tries to “copy” one part of it, like the way I network, they really need to remember that what they’re trying to imitate is part of a bigger picture and they may need to change more than one piece of themselves.

Sorry! Back to the topic…

As a result of Rod Lee’s article, I was asked to speak to a couple of small groups. Jacki Rose was in one of the groups. She gave me very nice feedback and coming from her, I took it to heart. Someone else told me that another person in the audience said that I was “like a god”. That I didn’t pay attention to, but I’m glad that he got something out of it. Generally, I got very positive feedback and I’m satisfied that I delivered something of value. One person told me that they got some negative feedback. “…approach….wasn’t genuine and authentic….didn’t have…prospect’s best interests at heart…people have so many hangups and personal biases about sales….make the way they sell…some reflection of their ‘inner being’. On the other hand, I am really glad you came. There were some people in the room that needed to hear what you shared.”

I also appreciate the “negative” feedback. It was the most positive stroke of all. 30 years ago, Bob Jiguere told me that 1 out of 10 would buy anything from anybody. One out of 10 wouldn’t buy anything from anybody and the 8 in between, it depends how good you are. Based on the feedback, it sounds like I “sold” the ones that will buy from anybody and all of the ones in between, so the only ones left are the ones that won’t buy from anybody. I’m OK with that. Thank you, Bob!