Realising the value – THE END of the beginning

On the 19th February my online business networking paid off.

Well, by the time the invoice got sorted it was much later than that, but the point is that an ex-colleague of an ex-colleague to asked meet me, then offered me a busy role that kind of didn’t allow time for learning to network.

Well, I have still carried on networking when feasible, but I have not had time for the luxury of researching and reporting on the topic. However I have learned so much by sharing this experience that I am determined to apply many of the publishing and marketing skills on something that is close enough to my day job to make it compatible and feasible

SO IT’S GOODBYE FROM LEARNET.wordpress.com

Look me up on

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Arthur+M.+Gallagher%22

CUround

Artemgy

Happy memories for the unhappy event

Jason Alba, founder and CEO of the excellent job seekers’ and networkers’ companion Jibber Jobber is celebrating the first anniversary of the event that started it all – being fired! You can read his story in JibberJobber Blog » Happy Anniversary!

His is a great example of how something that seems like a cataclysmic death at the time, is actually a rebirth leading to previously unimaginable opportunity. The great thing in Jason’s case is not only that he came out stronger, happier and more satisfied, but that he has also given something very valuable to everybody else who finds themselves in the same (apparently unfortunate) situation. His advice, as with many networking experts, is start using the tools before you need them. Networking and career management take time, and in the circus of life its better to have the safety net ready before some clown pushes you off the tightrope 🙂

CRM – first pass

So the other thing I have done is to make my first step in trialing CRM (contact tracking) systems to trace my networking activities in a more relaible storage place than my sieve-like brain.

I have signed up for an account with JibberJobber.com, an online repository for noting contacts, their details, and the activities and interactions you have with them. I will be trying out various aspects of their service over the next few days, and hope to be able to give some feedback. However I can already say that the associated blog contains some well written articles and very interesting and relevant links. This prompts me to try and work out how I can add this to my own blogroll here. The irony is that I am probably more excited about bestowing this accolade than its recipient, Jason Alba, might care (“Great! A zero traffic site has linked to me – so?”). Still, I am sure that he would be grateful (if ever he discovered 😉 ).