NAWBO-Columbus Member Blog

As always, the Good to Great luncheon was a crowd favorite, and NAWBO-Columbus has received several compliments from participants and presenters alike.

To refresh, here were the table moderators and what the spoke of:

But despite the prescribed topics, there also was a lot of advice, support, and encouragement offered that we’d like to share with you here:

“An interesting conversation around — if you want to know your values — look at where you spend your money and time.”

“Karen [Hough] is amazing!  I know everyone got some good insight from: improving communication, facing change, elevator speech and much more.”

“TaKeysha was a wealth of information, and she genuinely seemed interested in all our businesses.  After providing us lots of information about boards of advisors, she then sought to learn from our businesses and how we could not only help each other, but how she could help us.”

Did you have a great experience at the Good to Great roundtables this year and what to put your two cents in?  Fill out the online meeting feedback form on the NAWBO-Columbus website, and your responses might be included in this blog post, too!

Thanks again to our table leaders, moderators, and all the great participants who once again made this event a success!

Would you like to see more pictures from the 2010 Good to Great Luncheon? View the slideshow!

I was a shy kid. Really. I remember, early in my junior high school years, sitting on my bed sobbing my eyes out because junior high was so rough, I didn’t know anyone, and quite possibly just wouldn’t be able to live as a result. Drama aside, my mother proved to be a wise woman. Her advice was pretty simple; she told me I could, “sit on the sidelines or get in the game and play,” and then followed up with, “you are what you want to be.”

Mom-isms and clichés aside, those few words had a significant impact on me. I interpreted her wisdom to mean that I would have to go out and forge my way because the world and all of its opportunities were not going to miraculously appear at my doorstep!

I first joined NAWBO in late 2005. I attended lunch meetings and got to know just a few members. When my first year of membership expired, I did not renew. I decided to explore membership in other organizations, thinking they were better for building my business. By the way, I equated building my business with making overnight sales.

This year, one of the NAWBO board members asked me to help with NAWBO’s membership drive. I wasn’t even a member, but she knew how to reel me in. I agreed, ended up rejoining NAWBO myself, and haven’t looked back. Remembering my mom’s wise advice, I decided to get into the game this time. The reality is, the membership is only as good as I make it. I am on the board of another organization, and the same holds true. I’m getting out of both of these organizations exactly what I put into them. Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way to help me define the value of NAWBO, or membership in any organization, on MY terms.

Get into the game and play, as mom says. When I was first a member of NAWBO, I attended meetings. That’s it. In return, I learned some interesting things from the speakers. That’s it. This time around, I became involved in a short-term task force before I even rejoined the organization. I got to really learn about my fellow task force members and they got to learn about me. Ingenious.

Start small. Actually, this continues the previous point. Jumping in as a full-blown committee member just simply may not be what you can do. Take on a short-term or one-time only project. It’s a great way to get to know other people without over-committing yourself.

Have a goal. Don’t just go to lunch, sit at a table and leave after the program. Make a plan to talk to everyone at your table and find out what they do. Try not to focus on yourself and what you need, for once. It’s liberating. When you understand the diversity of the membership, you start to see how many amazing women (and men) you really ought to know. This helps your business, too.

Make it a policy to expand and further explore at least one of those new relationships you’ve just initiated by inviting someone new to coffee each mont. I have some amazing friends in this organization and some people I trust and am confident to recommend to others. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in reciprocity.

Just ask. Learn more about the benefits of membership. If you’re not sure everything that NAWBO offers, then ask questions. You might be pleasantly surprised. Let me give you an example. I recently decided to open a new checking account. Key Bank is a NAWBO corporate sponsor. At the time, Key was offering a GPS for all new accounts, with the premium account offering a premium version of the GPS. I was only in the position to open a basic checking account, but by asking and learning that NAWBO members could take advantage of the premium account, I was able to get “bumped” to a different level. Thanks, NAWBO! My challenged sense of direction appreciates you.

Take advantage of the various programs, new members offers, and benefits such as the Roundtables. I have extrapolated and interpreted what I’ve learned from these “freebies” or low-cost opportunities back into my business and have seen focused, solid growth. Yea, me!

At the end of the day, what’s important is that the benefits of any membership, regardless of the organization, are exactly proportionate to what I invest. Are you taking charge of your membership and getting out of it all that you can?

Sharon DeLay, MBA, SPHR, CPCC is the president and owner of BoldlyGO Career and Human Resource Management and a member of the NAWBO Columbus Communications Committee. To learn more, please visit http://www.boldlygocoaching.com or call Sharon at 614-473-0122.