Build A Killer Network

Tip #6: Build Your Contacts
by Jennifer Kushell, co-founder YSN.com

Having a great network of friends and contacts can totally change how happy and successful you are. When you’re in trouble, struggling, or experiencing a rough patch, your network will be there to help you get through it.

Check out 5 great tips on how to build your network from our speaking tour with American Express.

A few ground rules for savvy networking:
- Realize your life will get more interesting as you expand your network.
- Have fun.
- Don’t always have an agenda.
- Make it a point to meet interesting people everywhere you go.
- Make sure you surround yourself with successful people. Collect a broad mix of great mentors along the way who can teach you about a variety of areas.
- Keep a list of people you want to meet (or the types of people i.e. entrepreneurs, doctors, MBA grads, non profit leaders) and share it with your more connected friends who may be able to refer you to people in their networks.

Always try to help others whenever you can. Just do it because it’s good to do it. Wonderful things do sometimes come back to grace you too. Allow me to explain.

In the Podcast of our book Secrets of the Young & Successful we spoke about How to Meet Anyone.

Here are the audio links in two sections:
Manage Your Network

As you start to meet more and more people, the biggest piece of advice we can offer is to make sure you capture all of their critical contact info right away, keep it in one place, and make sure it’s digital. Then keep it up to date and back it all up regularly.

Spend the time and money (if you can) to invest in a simple online database, PDA (personal digital assistant) or mobile device that can hold all the information you collect on your contacts (from name to birthday, cell, city/state…whatever is most appropriate).

Then make sure you stay in touch, taking good care of your people and treating them well. Check out our tips on how to Create Your Own Networking Event. Make sure you take care of your network too, and show them ongoing love and attention. We've got some tips on that too with our blog post on how to Keep Those Contacts.

Meet Powerful and Influential People

In every business, industry and society, there’s a group of people who are considered the power players -- the movers and shakers. They make the decisions that affect hundreds, thousands, sometimes millions of lives. Having access to them can get you a voice in their circles. Building relationships with them can get you in the game and make you a part of the action. Getting to almost anyone you want to meet is possible, you just need to know a few secrets, and a new perspective on the whole thing -- what we like to call the House on the Hill (audio podcast).

When you finally get the chance to meet someone really great, make sure you don’t blow it! Check out our top 5 tips (from TONS of experience!) on how NOT to miss another opportunity.

And whatever you do, don’t forget the gatekeepers!

SIFE Competition Preview

Significant to what SIFE does throughout the year, is our regional and national competitions that takes place in the spring. We work all year to develop the strongest and most impactful program in our community. We take that information with us to compete against top SIFE programs at colleges and universities throughout the country.

SIFE has a uploaded some video to YouTube of what these events are like. Check out these videos here.

Here is a presentation made by Graceland University, the 2006 USA National Championship team.

SIFE.org

Have you taken a few minutes to check out SIFE's official website?

Log onto www.sife.org to see what the bigger SIFE organization is about. While you are there, take a minute and register as a SIFE student. This is necessary for our team and for competition purposes.

There are a lot of great resources and content if you take the time to look it over.
Kyle

Build Your Competitive Edge

Ten Tips for the Young & Successful

#8: Build Your Competitive Edge
by Jennifer Kushell, co-founder YSN.com

In this economy, you need every possible advantage to survive—let alone find success—in your
job or career. So what can you do to build your competitive edge?

1. Beef up your bio or resume. Challenge yourself to keep adding notable experiences to your repertoire. Take advantage of weekends, vacations, or evenings to get active in industry associations, volunteer, intern, work part time, or pick up some consulting work.

2. Become invaluable. Whatever you may be doing for work, be someone your bosses or partners can’t live without.

3. Be someone people want to have around. Particularly in rough times, a great attitude can make all the difference between people wanting to work with you, go out of their way to help, or cut you loose.

4. Help as many people as you can. Go out of your way to be a good person and make lots of friends…especially with people who can help you with your career. Be a resource to them. Offer to help, even work for free.

5. Network like crazy. Stay well connected to your existing network and keep those relationships strong. At the same time, expand your contact base and make an effort to surround yourself with new, interesting and successful people. Your exposure and your access to opportunity will increase dramatically.

SIFE is seeking Business and Community Leaders

SIFE is great for students, that is apparent through our projects, but did you also know SIFE is great for business and community leaders?

I'm the VP of Sustainability and one of the biggest part of my role in SIFE is working with business and community leaders. It is one of the best parts of my role as well!

Here at SIFE ee are always looking for ways to partner with leaders in Anderson, Madison County and Central Indiana. If you are looking for a new way to get involved in the lives our students and make an impact partnering with SIFE is your chance. We are looking for mentors to help guide students on career paths and the projects that we are working on.

Some specific needs:

-Teachers - we have programs for the classroom and we are looking to expand those
-Consultants - A big portion of our projects is consulting. We work with growing business in Anderson and are looking for people who are willing to help students grow in their consulting skills
-Attorneys/Lawyers - As our SIFE chapters grows we need someone on board who can help guide us in any legal decisions that could arrise. Also, we are trying to establish a 501(c)3 status for the orphanage that we are working with in Africa.
-Business leaders - We are always looking for use to promote SIFE and any business leader that would be willing help in the promotion is always welcome our team!

There are so many other ways to get involved. If anything you see on this blogs sparks your interest just let me know and I will find the spot for you! You can e-mail me directly at kakaiser@anderson.edu or reply to blog post.

Enjoy the start of the Holiday Season,

Kelly Kaiser

SIFE Welcomes Ron Ernst

Monday, Indianapolis' Ron Ernst joined us for our executive staff meeting. He shared from his book and his experience working with leaders and entrepreneurs. To view a copy of his newest book, stop by the SIFE office.

About Ron from: http://www.ronernst.com/

Ron Ernst is an executive development coach, seminar leader and professional speaker based in Indianapolis. As president and founder of Leadership Horizons, he has coached first, second and third generation entrepreneurs in a variety of industries - service firms, manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers through various stages of growth. The executive development workshops based on his first book "RealTime Coaching" have been attended by more than 3,500 managers in the US and Canada. His new book is "The Conscious Entrepreneur."

Save a Turkey. Give a Chicken.

Happy Thanksgiving from SIFE!

2008-09 Presentation Team Named

As of 11/11/08, SIFE is proud to announce the presenters for this year’s team:

Todd Baden
Ashley Casterline
Bethany Masters
Philip Martinez
Leah Samples
Jason White

Brandon Deaton will be the Executive Director of the Presentation Team and will be ultimately in charge of all SIFE Competition dealings.

Ryan Ray will be the SIFE Competition Media Coordinator and will oversee all media related content.

Bryce Woodyard will be working with Ryan Ray on the SIFE Competition DVD and other graphic design projects.

Rachael Riley will continue for a second year as director of the Annual Report.

This is an excellent team containing a diversity of talents and skills to make our competition team as strong as it can be.

Wyatt Bales, Vice President for Competition, has done a tremendous job of coordinating this selection process. Contact him with any questions.

Chickens Top 200!

As of today, SIFE's Give-A-Chicken project (http://www.giveachicken.com/) has sponsored 209 chickens, topping our Thanksgiving goal of 200.

Ambrosia Davidson has done an excellent job leading these efforts. Contact her for more information.

Thanks to everyone who has worked on this projected and/or sponsored a chicken.

Code of Ethics Implimented in Anderson Chamber of Commerce

On Tuesday 11/18/08, the Anderson/Madison County Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously to amend its mission statement and accepted a code of ethics into its bylaws. Also on Thursday, December 4, Ethics Advancement is on the agenda at the Fishers Chamber of Commerce for a similar recommendation.

Their mission statement now finishes with the phrase "...through ethical business practices".

GREAT JOB to the entire Ethics Advancement team led by Erick Russell. Contact him for more information.