if he could assist me in any way, I told him I’d love to visit the Main Press Centre at Olympic Park. “I’ll get you a pass,” he said. Sure enough 24 hours later I was visiting the centre and the same evening Sammie took me to the Media Village where journalists from every country worked all night. They were either working at their computers sending stories all over the world by email, or in the main dining room chatting and eating with fellow journalists from every corner of the globe. It was fun to be part of this non-stop party for one night during the Games.
I gave Sammie one of my books and the next day he told me he had emailed the Government in his country suggesting they invite me to speak to the Nigerian businesswomen. It was exciting and I’m so glad I stopped working for 17 days to just visit Business Club Australia every day.
While at the Club I met international business people working for Austrade who offered to help me officially launch a book I had co-published several years ago in Japan. The book is nine biographies of successful businesswomen in Japan, Australia and USA, titled “Success Stories – Nine Executives Around the Pacific Ocean”. The Australian women in the book wanted to tour Japan but we had never been able to organise it. I was offered the use of the Japanese Embassy as the launch pad.
My lifelong passion has been to “unite the women of the world in the 21st Century” and help businessmen and women share their unique differences in business. I believe Business Club Australia can make this dream become a reality.
Since the tender age of 21 years I’ve been in business. I started a computer training centre for women in 1968 and have owned and operated a dozen successful enterprises since then. In 1986 I founded the Australian Executive Women’s Network so I could help women to meet and share their business experiences and knowledge.
I was co-founder of the National Speakers Association (South Australia chapter) as Vice President with Adelaide businessman, David Griggs as President.
In 1987 I created the Australian Executive Woman of the Year Award sponsored by Telstra and today my award has become the prestigious Telstra Businesswomen’s Award.
All of these projects dim in the light of what Austrade has started with its Business Club Australia. John Rich and I want to assist the Club to reach more Australian businessmen and women and those around the world with common interests, hopes and dreams.
Meet the Cartoonist – Steve Panozzo
A professional cartoonist since 1983, Steve Panozzo’s work has regularly appeared in The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and magazines, as well in trade and specialty magazines including Traveltrade. The International Hospital & Aged Care Journal, National Newsagent and Burke’s Backyard Magazine. During 1999-2000 he was the daily cartoonist for the innovative farmers’ website, farmindex.
His career began at the age 6, when he was inspired by Zorro to slash the walls with a 6B pencil. His newspaper caricatures first appeared in The Manly Daily in 1985, where he worked as the paper’s first Artist-in-Residence. For ten years Steve worked on a casual basis for Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire in Sydney.
Highly regarded for his corporate presentation caricatures, he has produced hundreds for clients including Channel Nine, NSW Rugby Union, Warner Bros., Telstra, Citibank, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, BMF and AMP.
His on-the-spot brilliance has enlivened conferences, corporate functions and product launches for clients including Civil & Civic, L.J. Hooker, ABN-AMRO, IKEA, IBM, Samsung and David Jones.
His cartoons and caricatures have appeared in more than 32 books, and his work has been hung in over 27 exhibitions in Australia and overseas. In 1996, he designed and co-edited The 1997 Phantom Diary for Trielle Corporation. He has designed 11 CDs and Elton John has a Panozzo hanging in his home in England.
Steve served as President of The Australian Black and White Artists’ Club in 1992 – 1993 and again in 1998- 1999, and was made a Life Member in 1993. In 1994, Steve was among the first Australian cartoonists to be accepted into America’s National Cartoonists’ Society. In 1997, Steve represented Australia at the Guinness International Cartoon Festival in Rathdrum, Ireland.
Preface
This book is a guide to successful, international networking. It’s your opportunity to learn how to meet others, gain contacts and turn them into long lasting relationships and future business income.
Networking Games demonstrates how simple it is to network effectively and follow up professionally. Life long business contacts will be yours if you read and re-read the pages in this book and apply our experience in your life.
The networking tips in this book apply to any function you attend as once you learn how to practise them they will become second nature.
Networking is about building relationships with people who will become your business partners in the future.
There is no more powerful business tool in the 21st Century than to fully comprehend the benefits networking brings to your business. It is relatively inexpensive to network, you just have to make the time available and include it in your daily activity planner.
Word of mouth advertising is not only FREE but it creates ongoing REPEAT business. One of the reasons for this is that people prefer to do business with those they have personally met or who have been recommended to them by people they know. Today’s business is being driven by relationships and trust.
Chapter One
Casting the Net
Networking is about making lasting connections with people you have never met in your life. Does that sound impossible? You may think so, but we will show you how it’s done.
Rehearse Your Story – The first time you meet someone new you have a very short period to make a positive impact and connection. During the first few minutes they will decide whether they like you or not. You need to hold their interest quickly so they will decide to like you straight away. Make sure you are prepared with what you are going to say so you can get to the point quickly when introducing yourself and your business.
You don’t want them to make a decision on your personality, as you need them to understand what you do. Your introduction therefore needs to be short, to the point and interesting enough to make them want to ask questions about your service or products.
When I introduce my business I say, “Hi my name is John Rich, I’m a management consultant and rate the financial performance of companies. But that’s my ‘night job’, during the day I organise Around Australia Yacht Race. It’s an event for people like you and me, just ordinary people with an extra-ordinary dream, of one day setting off and sailing around Australia. By the way, what do you do?”
I try to get the person not only interested in my business but more importantly speaking about themselves and their business so I can listen and ask questions which will keep them talking about themselves.
When you are new at networking it’s natural to want to talk about yourself and your business; however, you can benefit more by learning about others. To build a memorable first impression it’s important for you to be a
