Interview with Adam J. Kovitz | CONVERSATIONS THAT COUNT

Conversations That Count with Rob Brown

This is my first blog post for the TNNW, having been asked by my good friend Adam to contribute to this wonderful community.


My name is Rob Brown. I'm based in the UK and am the founder of the Global Networking Council. This is a high-level, invitation-only ‘mastermind’ group for thought leaders, authors, experts, facilitators and gurus on the topics of business networking, relationship building, trust, connecting and referrals.


Part of my role is to interview these top relationship thought leaders and share with you their insights and tips for building social, financial and relationship capital.


To kick this off, here's an interview I did with the incredible Adam J. Kovitz recently. It lasts around 18 mins and is packed full of some amazing gems about the science and theory of networking. In it you'll discover things like:

• Why networking is simply a flow of information, and how you use it defines you as a networker.
• How to manage data and leverage a network into social and financial capital.
• How physics, resistance and friction can explain whether or not you'll get referrals!
• Why there is no such thing as a born networker (or a born anything)!
• You can analyze and quantify a network, and even predict the behaviour of your network over time.
• Why online networking will never take the place of face to face networking – we will always need the sensation of touch!
• How the global economic crisis and inflation in the price of oil and food means that it becomes more expensive to meet with people face to face.
• Why we are like ‘kids in the candy store’ when it comes to the many ways in which we connect.
• Why the networking future belongs to those who analyze and quantify their network and utilize the many tools available to connect.
• Every network you have is an asset (a constantly evolving portfolio of holdings) that you invest and it pays you.

It's an enlightening discourse with a true thought leader in the field of networking. I was particularly taken with Adam's view that a network is an asset.


As Robert Kiyosaki taught us in the stepchange book Rich Dad Poor Dad, a liability costs you, while an asset brings you a return.


In my own role as a networking authority and author, I've long since argued that a network in and of itself is worthless to you. You've got to do something with it.

A network needs leveraging! That either means exploiting it, selling it, selling to it, using it to open doors for you, extracting ideas, support, resources or information from it or playing with it.


Listen to or download this interview with a true thinker in this crucial area, and see what it takes to become a leading networker and connector in your field!


For more information, please visit Rob's TNNWC Bio.

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Interview with Adam J. Kovitz | CONVERSATIONS THAT COUNT

A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER: Getting Your Facts Straight

Getting Your Facts Straight

by Adam J. Kovitz

I love satire...I love comedy...I like laughing in general, which is why I am a huge fan of The Onion...a completely fake and satirical look at current events.

I love the publication so much that I even re-broadcast their articles through my Facebook profile, Twitter profile, etc.

Why? Because in these dark economic times, it's good to remind oneself that we can take things so seriously that it becomes detrimental to our physical and emotional health.


One of the things I find even funnier than many of The Onion's articles is when one of their articles is taken as gospel, editorialized and virally propagated across the internet.


Such an event happened recently when The Onion published an article with the following headline: "Report: Unemployment High Because People Keep Blowing Their Job Interviews" in which,

"According to the findings, seven out of 10 Americans could have landed their dream job last month if they had known where they see themselves in five years, and the number of unemployed could be reduced from 14.6 million to 5 million if everyone simply greeted potential employers with firmer handshakes, maintained eye contact, and stopped fiddling with their hair and face so much."

In it U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is "quoted" as saying,

"If we're going to dig ourselves out of this mess, Americans need to stop wearing blue jeans to interviews, even if they're nice blue jeans, and even if that particular office happens to have a relaxed dress code."

This, to me, is funny...how can you NOT laugh reading this? One person, in particular, saw this article and did not see it for what it was. As a result, they posted it to an employment network of over ten thousand readers and said,

"We have all seen this report earlier, and we know how ridiculous it is. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is completely off mark here. From her remarks, do we take it that American employers have kept 9 million positions vacant, just because millions of candidates stuttered and otherwise blew their interviews? How much more absurd this could get?"

How much, indeed?

And while this is an hysterically funny example, it accentuates a great point: as we continually look to grow our own enterprises and rely heavily upon marketing tactics such as branding, advertising and networking to improve our credibility through visibility, we must be careful not to misrepresent ourselves or others, make claims we cannot back up or refer people to others without doing proper due diligence.

Let's get our facts straight - it's much harder to re-build credibility than it is to simply build it right the first time.  Sure, it might take more time, but consider the cost of a mistake or the loss of your own credibility.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to make sure my cousin's three-headed, illegitimate love child doesn't get abducted by aliens...again. I hate when that happens.

Speaking of credibility...

TNNWC is always looking for good writers with real-world experience and credibility. This week we are proud to welcome David J. Dunworth, serial entrepreneur and all-around busy guy. David currently owns 7 businesses and calls himself, "The Over-caffeinated Entrepreneur". His column of the same name debuts this week in which he talks about life lessons learned while growing his various empires. WELCOME DAVID!!!

Next week: We've always been a fan of BNI...next week TNNWC and BNI take things to a new level. Stay tuned!


All my best,

Adam


www.TheNationalNetworker.com
http://adamjkovitz.blogspot.com

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Capital, Traffic Building, International Customers and unique SERVICES.
The National Networker Publications™ produced by TNNWC Group, LLC
“Empowering Emerging Enterprises”

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A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER: Getting Your Facts Straight

A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER: Who do you trust more for your financing?

Who do You Trust More for Your Financing?

by Adam J. Kovitz

It was recently announced in CNNMoney.com that Sam's Club (owned by Wal-Mart) is venturing into discounted small business loans through a partnership with SBA lender Superior Financial Group.

Why are they doing this?

Two reasons mentioned:

1.)  They want to make the attainment of funds easier for emerging enterprises, and

2.)  Less altruistically, if the majority of their market are such businesses or consumers who may work for them, if they're funded, there will be more money spent at their stores.

Rival wholesaler Costco also tried providing financing in the past but to dismal results and having gone through three separate financial partners from 2000 through 2007, citing that their prospects already had relationships developed with their banks.

Yet, with the recent economic woes facing entrepreneurs and emerging enterprises, where can one turn to for credit and financing?

So...do you trust a bank that has received bail out money in the past or labeled "too big to fail" or do you trust the world's biggest company (Wal-Mart) with over $400 billion in sales? (BP and Toyota are also in the top 5)

From the standpoint of the entrepreneur/emerging enterprise, can so-called "small businesses" really trust any large corporation?

Something upon which to ponder...I would certainly love your opinions on this.

In other news, we are getting ready to launch version 3.0 of our website which includes some exciting new additions to our proprietary suite of services on July 15th.  For other news, please check out this week's Update Bulletin.

We hope you like the new website and all the changes we are making, but more importantly, we hope that we continue to earn your trust.

All my best,

Adam

www.TheNationalNetworker.com
http://adamjkovitz.blogspot.com

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A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER: Who do you trust more for your financing?

THE POSTILLION: Interviews National Networker Chairman and Founder Adam J. Kovitz

The Postillion with Michael Phillips

Insights and thought leadership on the adoption of best practices and emerging technologies.

It is hard to believe that the 5th year anniversary of the National Networker phenomenon has arrived. In keeping with The Postillion mission of featuring thoughts, leaders and innovators that are positive catalysts of the networking “Hyperlution” (Extremely rapid evolving change), it is apropos to interview the Chairman and Founder of the National Networker, Adam J. Kovitz. The Postillion got Adam to hold still long enough to answer some questions about his launching of the National networker.

The Postillion: What prompted you to start the National Networker.?

Adam J. Kovitz: I started TNNW back in late 2004/early 2005 when online networking and social media were in their infancy. What I did see was a growing amount of confusion as to what networks people should join, and I began to do research on not only what was out there, but what was really working for others. I became one of the first networking “watchdogs” and quickly developed a reputation.

I remember once at a networking function that someone came up to me and asked for my opinion as to what networks were best for them, to which I responded (something like), “What you’re asking me is the equivalent of asking a financial advisor ‘I have $100,000 to invest. What should I invest in?’ The answer is simply ‘it depends’.” At that moment, I made what I thought was a significant discovery: every network is an asset in that:
- You invest in it (money, time, energy and effort) in the hopes that it will pay you back in time
- It is run by a group of “managers” that you hope will add credibility to the bottom line, and

- It has a constantly evolving portfolio of holdings.

With that in mind, I realized that networking was an industry, much like the financial industry and that all network builders were just like investment houses looking to build a better investment vehicle. I saw, however a huge gap – the financial industry had its Barrons and Wall Street Journals but this new “networking” industry did not. I set out to create the first “Consumer Reports of Networking”. This concept has since expanded, but that was the original intent of the publication.

The Postillion: Who do you feel your audience has become?

Adam J. Kovitz: While our original audience was small business and entrepreneurs, we have seen significant growth in the area of business professionals and emerging businesses. Much of this is due to our efforts over the past year to attract more sophisticated readers while retaining our existing base through some of our long-time “veteran” writers.

The Postillion: Is the publication meeting your expectations?

Adam J. Kovitz: TNNW has exceeded my expectations in terms of the quality of our content. Of course, Douglas and I are never truly satisfied and are looking to roll out a truly unique and proprietary suite of services to our member/subscribers; some that are refined versions of “old favorites” and others that are brand new. Expect continued growth in 2010.

The Postillion: Do you have any concerns about misuse of social networking?

Adam J. Kovitz: Social networking in and of itself, is like a car or a gun; innately neutral, yet can be used to solve problems and promote freedom or they can be used as weapons in very divisive ways. It’s always the people behind the various technologies we have created as a society. If I have any concern, it’s over anyone who misuses any technology or system to benefit themselves or the few over the many.

The Postillion: What do you consider to be some of the most exciting developments that happened in 2009?

Adam J. Kovitz: We released a new supplemental publication called the BLUE TUESDAY REPORTTM aimed to provide the same level of content our readers have come to know and trust but in short, powerful bursts of information and usually with a bit of quirkiness the reflects our sense of humor. Additionally, we added the “tastelessly named, yet potent” The National NewspickerTM, which contains the latest news from the world’s most respected news sources, including The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Reuters, CNN and Business Week. Furthermore the NewspickerTM (I’m still trying to get comfortable with the name) can be downloaded and placed on our members’ websites and/or blogs.

In terms of writing, we have brought in some phenomenal new talent including Linda de Seife (a former Presidential appointee), John Lee (a former Disney Executive), Dr. Franco Oboni (an internationally-recognized risk analysis expert), Rosanne D’Ausilio, Yossi Feigenson, Teri Aulph, Christine West, John J. Hogan (the hotelier) and so many others.

From an operational standpoint, we started TNNW BUZZWORKSTM, our marketing arm aimed to provide TNNW (as well as our members) social media domination. They are quite an impressive crew and have helped us to reach out to tens of millions of people for the purposed of recruiting new talent, increasing market awareness of the TNNW brand, our writers and our members and closing the feedback loop with our members to a newer level of interactivity.

Saving the best for the last, we have begun developing the concept of the Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community (GICBC). We have begun a proof-of-concept on our BUZZWORKS team which has proven effective and will be doing much more with this in 2010.

The Postillion: What new innovations do you see in your crystal ball for 2010?

Adam J. Kovitz: As we celebrate our five-year anniversary this year, expect newer and better writers – for our subscriber/members this should be a given. Expect more regarding the GICBC. Expect a re-designed website. Expect TNNW in more countries.

Anything more than that, I’m simply not telling…you will have to wait and see as 2010 unfolds (I’m such a tease!).

The Postillion: It is safe to say that The Postillion speaks for many people in congratulating Adam on 5 successful years for The National Networker. Thank you Adam! We all look forward to 2010 and the continued growth of TNNW.

Michael Phillips, A.K.A. The Postillion, lives and works in Tampa Florida and has over 30 years of experience in leading innovative development and trends within the information technology industry. Comments and suggestions for future interview personalities can be emailed to ThePostillion@gmail.com.

For more information, please visit Michael's TNNW Bio.

Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free For Your TNNW Newsletter and THE BLUE MONDAY REPORT! - Click HERE.
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THE POSTILLION: Interviews National Networker Chairman and Founder Adam J. Kovitz

Update! [Google "The National Networker"] January, 2010, Week 2

January, 2010, Week 2 - Update!
Update Issue # 26

You've asked, so we've answered...and we've printed it in teal.

Q: What will it mean to be a "Member of The National Networker GICBC?"

A: Being a Member of TNNW's GICBC (a fancy acronym for Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community) will be the best decision that you have ever made for yourself, both personally and professionally. Membership will continue to be free, and all Members signing in on our homepage (http://www.TheNationalNetworker.com) will receive our weekly Newsletter, our Blue Tuesday Report (although persons in France will be receiving 'Le Mardi Bleu') and frequent announcements, intel and opportunities from our e-presses. And... the additional benefits will be unsurpassed:

• Working collaboratively (i.e. up "close and personal") with other Members to develop, improve and to grow every significant aspect of YOUR business;

• Access to an international pool of talented, experienced and connected individuals from the entire International Community;

• Access to ongoing mentoring, and to ongoing mentoring opportunities;

• Constant promotion and Search Engine Optimization of your business' product or service brand (this part will still be free, and more powerful, with more media outlets and media crossover and echo than ever before);

• Access to all of our Members Only (*like those jackets some of us wore in the early 1980s) Suite of Services, including News Releases, Buzzing, Branding, International Joint Venturing, Financing, Risk Management, Advertising, Market Research and a host of others...

More importantly, being a Member will mean being a part of an interactive community with proactive personal introductions, suggested partnerships and constant connection to other Members who will get to know you, and whom you'll get to know -

Most importantly, being a contributing and participatory Member will lead to your becoming a stakeholder in our organization. We won't be selling shares; we'll be giving them to worthy Members in exchange for their Human Value contributed to the GICBC. Think of it like this:

"It's sort of like doing a group of friends a good turn when they're startin' their business and having them issue you stock in their company for your efforts. And then, well then, their company goes public and the help that you offered turns into your fortune. I reckon it's a bit like doin' Bill Gates a favor right before Microsoft gets capitalized. It's the ultimate win in life's 'bein' in the right place at the right time' lottery." - An actual quote from a friend in Oklahoma.

You, and everyone whom you consider a colleague, will want to join. We say this with absolute certainty. And Membership will continue to be free. Join us.
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TNNW: Supercharged Networking. Making meaningful contacts. Turning these contacts into allies and partners. Making these alliances and partnerships into highly-profitable friendships. Converting ideas that matter into matter.

-THE NATIONAL NETWORKER COMPANIES.

• Synthesizing;
• Synergizing;
• Mobilizing;
• Marketing*;
• Financing*: and
• Monetizing.

It's what we do. And we do it for you. Yep... " Financing and Marketing," too. We provide some amazing services to make it possible for you to connect your product, brand or service with the customers and clients who need it. Then, we solidify that connection. We'll even help finance you to get you to your market.

Remember, Networking is only the beginning. The National Networker Companies provide outstanding publicity, marketing, financing, co-venturing and other services to our Members, both in the United States and throughout the entire World. It is true...our "Nation" is truly global, and our territory is the limitless universe of cyberspace.

We are, indeed "THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORKER." We don't just publish the industry's best newsletter with the best Featured Columnists and Contributing Authors... we are an engine for the development of your business.

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Join us today at http://twitlik.com/IN. Get a free subscription to our RSS feed or our Daily Email at http://twitlik.com/Daily. Pay it forward. Tell your associates, colleagues to join us too. Tell them that you've decided to become part of a revolutionary idea, and that you are going to ride that idea into a reality.

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THE NATIONAL NEWSPICKER GADGET - NEW AND IMPROVED! - READ ON...

ABOUT THE NATIONAL NEWSPICKER™

The NATIONAL NEWSPICKER™ and THE NATIONAL NEWSPICKER PAGE™ are both Trademarked and Copyright © 2009 by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER COMPANIES™ with all rights reserved, and licensed with written permission. The logotype, as set forth below, is the intellectual property of THE NATIONAL NETWORKER COMPANIES:

WHAT THIS GADGET WILL DO FOR YOU DIRECTLY:

It is the purpose of this gadget to be able to provide each TNNW Member and every other user with a means of investing only 20 minutes of time daily (preferably in the morning) in order to be the best-informed, most up-to-the-minute attendee at any meeting, presentation or social encounter. It is no great secret. If you are better informed, the majority of people will believe that you are 1) more intelligent and 2) more vitally involved.With a combination of continuous feeds from the best informational sources on international breaking news, capital markets, politics, social media, pop culture, major transactions, leadership, networking, team-building, public relations, branding, future trends, technologies, legislation, communications and a host of other key topics essential to personal, professional and business success, this verdant and tastelessly named tool will be your ULTIMATE DAILY READ. You will find it indispensible.

You can acquire this gadget at no charge and enjoy unlimited daily use of it by either clicking on the tab attached to the bottom of the widget, of by clicking on the gadget’s home page at http://TheNationalNewspickerPage.blogspot.com.

WHAT THIS GADGET WILL DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS:

In addition to the information that it can provide you, if you embed this gadget on your website, blog, newsletter, or other e-media, it will greatly increase the traffic to your sites, the length per visit, and your search engine prominence. You may place this gadget in as many spots as you choose, without limit or restriction. Yes!

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Ladies and Gentlemen - We proudly present to you...another individual who is softening up and will eventually overcome his own resistance and sign on with us...

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With the promise of great things to come,


Adam J. Kovitz, Chairman and CEO (Go on...Google him)
Douglas Castle, Vice Chairman and Director (Go on...Google him, too)






Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free, and get your BLUE TUESDAY REPORT, too. - Click HERE.

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Update! [Google "The National Networker"] January, 2010, Week 2