Social Capital

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Social capital, otherwise known as the value behind your social contacts, can be an extremely important resource in both business and life.  If you take as much care in raising and investing your social capital as you do your financial capital, you will experience benefits that can greatly enrich your life as well as multiply your material returns many times over. Investing in your networking is one of the best investments you can make to secure future success for yourself and others with whom you network. Below, I share my 4 step process to build your social capital, the international currency of networking.

Social Capital

This is acquired through networking because successful networking is all about building and maintaining solid, professional relationships. The trouble is we don’t have the natural community-like business relationships that existed before. Many business owners hardly know their neighbors, let alone the local businesspeople in town. Therefore, networking is critical to an individual’s success in business.

Effectively developing your networking can be a daunting task. However, doing so within a structured, organized networking framework will leverage your efforts. You begin building your capital to positively impact your bottom line.

Here are some keys to creating social capital

  • Give your clients a personal call
  • Call all the people who have referred business to you
  • List 50 people to stay in touch with
  • Follow up with everyone

As you invest your time in developing your networking, you are increasing your bottom line. Strive to make the most effective use of this investment. Do everything possible to thoroughly enhance the relationships you develop in the coming year because social capital leads to improved financial capital.

Watch the video and then take a minute to leave a comment below. I would love to hear your story about how investing in your social capital significantly paid off for you.

More Business Through Networking

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In this classic video, I explain a proven way to get more business through networking.  I also discuss the results from a survey I conducted.

Everyone wants to be successful in or at something in their life. Success is determined largely by hard work, but also by good choices. Everyone feels like they deserve better at some point. Get over it. The most successful people plan their work and work their plan. They put serious effort into making good choices and carrying them through. Therefore, if you spend more time doing one thing, you will get more business through networking.

The Secret to Getting More Business through Networking

I’ve been asked time and time again by people all over the world what I consider to be the secret to getting more business.  I can, without a doubt, say that there is, indeed, one thing you can do to get more business from your networking efforts.  However, do you know what it is?  The answer may surprise you . . .

Watch the video and then take a minute to leave a comment if you have the time . . . I’d love to hear what some of your guesses were in regard to what the “secret” to getting more business through networking was going to be.  Chances are, some of the guesses you came up with are pretty good networking tactics as well and it would be great to get a conversation going about them!

competitors

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My solution on how to deal with competitors is simple: Don’t pay attention to competitors. Success in business is about constantly improving your product or service, team, and culture. If you focus on these aspects, you’ll improve your position in the marketplace.

Focus on the fundamentals of your business. Keep up with metrics and constantly share your organization’s core values. These are a few ways that you can improve your business. But whatever you do, don’t obsess over what competitors are saying about you. If you keep bettering your own business, you’ll have no need to fear your competitors.

“The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.” – Henry Ford

Watch this video

In this video, I discuss how to deal with competition in business. This is a part of what I call the “Ivanisms Series”, all of my personal quotes and phrases and why they have worked for me. Please watch this video to understand what Ivan means.

christmas

Merry Misner Christmasstring(22) "Merry Misner Christmas"

I hope you take a few minutes to watch and enjoy this video. I shared a fond memory from one specific Christmas in the Misner family that really stands out in my mind. When I watch this video, it makes me shake my head and smile all at once.  I really had fun recording this. I got to reminisce a bit and furthermore reflect on the joys, the stresses, and all the wonderful, challenging, unforgettable, and irreplaceable memories that are made each year by families around the globe during the holiday season.

A Merry Misner Christmas Video

With this video, I’m taking a break from my regular educational business/referral marketing videos. I’m taking a few minutes to spread some holiday cheer and wish a very Merry Christmas to those around the globe who take part in observing Christmas Day.

On behalf of Beth, myself and the entire Misner family, we wish you a Christmas full of joy and hope. May your heart be filled with the joy of giving. It is the “Givers Gain” expression of the love in your heart and the kindness in your soul.

I hope this video stirs up some great holiday memories for you and if you’d like to share any of your standout funny, heartwarming, entertaining or unforgettable family holiday-time stories, I’d love to hear them–please share them in the comment forum below.  Thanks!

Merry Christmas to all from the Misner family!

Thousand

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In this classic video, I talk about productivity and setting priorities. This Ivanism, “If you want to scale a business, do six things a thousand times; not a thousand things six times“, is one of my quotes that I’m asked to talk about a lot and I thought I’d post this video again.

What does this quote really mean?

  1. Focus on key priorities and making them perfect (or close to it) before moving on to other projects or tasks.
  2. Making your business the best at a few services, not simply OK at several.
  3. Success comes from being like a dog with a bone.

Classic Video Feature–Networking Faux Pas: Not Following Upstring(65) "Classic Video Feature–Networking Faux Pas: Not Following Up"

I have been doing video blogs for quite a few years now and a while back it occurred to me that some of the videos I’ve previously posted focus on timeless topics that deserve to be revisited and not buried way back in the video blog archive.  For this reason, I decided to occasionally feature a “classic” video blog from my blog archive and today I am sharing the fourth one–”Networking Faux Pas: Not Following Up”

In this video, I talk about the faux pas which I see happen most out of all the faux pas which can possibly occur in the world of networking.  It also happens to be the faux pas which frustrates me the most (Seriously–it drives me crazy!)–it’s when you give a networking partner a referral and they drop the ball and don’t follow up on it.

Remember, if you aren’t following up when your referral partners call you and/or aren’t following up on the referrals you’re given, you’re not just losing business . . . you’re also losing your credibility and that’s something which is extremely difficult to earn back.  So, for those of us in parts of the world who are currently starting a brand new year, why not make a vow right now to make following up our number one networking priority this year?  I guarantee it will pay off in big ways. 

Have you had an experience where you gave a referral to someone and they didn’t follow up on it?  If so, will you continue to give that person referrals?  Or, have you dropped the ball on following up on a referral before?  If the answer is yes, did you learn a lesson from it?  Please share your experiences in the comment forum below.  Thanks!

Classic Video Feature–What Do Most Successful People Have in Common?string(74) "Classic Video Feature–What Do Most Successful People Have in Common?"

I have been doing video blogs for quite a few years now and a while back it occurred to me that some of the videos I’ve previously posted focus on timeless topics that deserve to be revisited and not buried way back in the video blog archive.  For this reason, just this past JulyI decided to occasionally feature a “classic” video blog from my blog archive and today I am sharing the third one–”What Do Most Successful People Have in Common?”

In this video, I talk about the one thing the majority of successful people have in common–a positive attitude.

In the video, UAE networking expert Bijay Shah and I discuss how a positive attitude is one thing that you’ll find in almost any successful person anywhere.  More importantly, we explain how YOU can stay positive and headed toward success, despite challenging situations in both your business life and personal life.

After watching the video, I invite you to leave your feedback in the comments section–what do you think of our strategies for staying positive?  Have you personally used any of these strategies already?  If so, how effective was the strategy you used in helping you maintain a positive attitude in the face of the challenge(s) you were facing?

Classic Video Feature–How to Invest Your Time & Money for the Highest Returnstring(87) "Classic Video Feature–How to Invest Your Time & Money for the Highest Return"

I have been doing video blogs for quite a few years now and a while back it occurred to me that some of the videos I’ve previously posted focus on timeless topics that deserve to be revisited and not buried way back in the video blog archive.  For this reason, just this past JulyI decided to occasionally feature a “classic” video blog from my blog archive and today I am sharing the second one–”How to Invest Your Time & Money for the Highest Return.”

In this video, I talk about how to invest time and money into your business in the way that will ultimately pay the highest return–education.

Many businesses fail within their first three years of existence because they only pay lip service to education yet aren’t willing to invest the time, effort, and money into learning about how to continually grow and develop in order to achieve the business goals and the vision they outlined for themselves at the start.

The fact is, people who immerse and engage in a culture of learning are much, much more successful than those who don’t. Watch the video now to learn about an action you can take this week that will help you measure whether or not you’re investing enough of your time and money into what will truly help your business earn more and achieve more. 

I’m quite interested in hearing your thoughts on this video, your comments about what you currently do in order to invest in educating yourself to build your business, and also your results from carrying out the action item I explain at the end of the video.  Please leave your feedback regarding any or all of these things in the comment forum below.

Classic Video Feature–“Making a Difference in Someone’s Life”string(85) "Classic Video Feature–“Making a Difference in Someone’s Life”"

I have been doing video blogs for quite a few years now and it occurred to me that some of the videos I’ve previously posted focus on timeless topics that deserve to be revisited and not buried way back in the video blog archive.  For this reason, I’ve decided to occasionally feature a “classic” video blog from my blog archive and today I am sharing the first one–“Making a Difference in Someone’s Life.”

There are little ways and big ways of making a difference in someone’s life.  More likely than not, there’s someone you can immediately call to mind who has impacted you and really made a difference in your life, whether it happened recently or even back during your formative years.

There are definitely certain individuals in my life who have made a big difference for me and in this five minute video, I tell the story of how one of these people in specific really made a positive impact on my life back in high school and helped shape me into who I am today simply by believing in me and giving me a chance when it seemed that no one else would.

After watching the video, please share a story of your own in the comment forum below about a person you are grateful to for the way they positively influenced your life and made a difference for you.  Taking this opportunity to tell your story and publicly recognize a special person who impacted you is a great way to show them gratitude and a fantastic way to inspire others to strive to be positive influences themselves.