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I LOVE traveling. Like, seriously, love it. There’s no better feeling than being on a bus or train, and watching the miles speed by (or km, in most of the world). Many of my best memories involve some type of travel. Like the time a security guard fro’ed my hair in Cuba. Or the time I bonded with some teachers on a boat in the Philippines because they were listening to my favorite Rascal Flatts song on repeat. Most of my most life-changing experiences on the road involve connecting with others. And when I’ve had the privilege of traveling with others, I’ve seen more, pushed myself to challenge my …

I’ve recently gotten really into Twitter. So much so that for days, the first thing I did in the morning was check how many new followers I gained during the night. All day I would savor the sounds my phone made whenever I got a new follower or someone retweeted or favorited a tweet. I would load and reload Twitter, staring as the numbers went up, feeling like I had accomplished something. With Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, our social success now literally seems quantifiable. How many LinkedIn connections do you have? How many Facebook likes? Your number of followers, fans, and connections says nothing about your worth as a …

Imagine this: You’re sitting at a bar, enjoying a beer when a cute guy or girl comes up and sits next to you.  You exchange a few pleasantries.  You’re starting to warm up and getting interested in where this is going.  Then, without warning, your new “friend” leans in and plants a big wet kiss on your lips.  Unless you’re already more than a little inebriated, you would probably be a bit put off by this sudden unasked for advance.  And if you are already drunk, you will probably see this person as an easy hook-up, not someone that you’re excited to have a relationship with. But that’s what …

Over the past few months, Evernote has become my BFF.  I seriously LOVE it.  It’s amazingly versatile.  And it is incredible when it comes to building and keeping track of relationships with other professionals.  Why waste money on another Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool when you can use Evernote at every step of the process, from meeting people for the first time, to keeping track of what you talk about over time, to following up?  Wondering how?  Read on. Set It Up Before you use Evernote as a powerful relationship management tool, you’ll have to do a tiny bit of set up. 1. Create a new notebook to keep …

I’ve talked to over 20 small business owners (so far) about how they build their networks, and I’ve noticed 2 startling things: Talking to these successful business owners has totally shifted the way I think about networking.  Be prepared to be surprised. Mindset shift #1: BEFORE: I need to know a lot of people NOW: I need to be strategic about whom to meet and with whom to build relationships. When I first started networking, I thought that I should just meet as many people as possible, and then I would have a great network.  But then I started going to networking events.  I met a lot of people …