TNNWC Publications: trust

Showing posts with label trust. Show all posts

Monday, July 11, 2011

Friends, contacts and trust | A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER

Friends, contacts and trust

by Adam J. Kovitz

The backbone of any successful entrepreneurial venture is based more upon who you know, rather than what you know. I call the "what you know" Relationship Capital, or "RC".

A well-connected individual has access to more capital (RC, and otherwise), talent and resources than most. As the saying goes, "no man is an island unto himself" and therefore, we are forced to rely and trust in others while managing multiple relationships as well as expectations if we truly want to be successful.

Often times, however, things go astray, expectations are not met and feelings are hurt, and that hurt can come from those who you thought were friends.

Recently one of my closest contacts confided in me a harsh realization about one of his long-time friends. I've actually spoken with the individual in question before, and their name came up in countless discussions. My contact, wanting to help this person (because they were financially desperate) introduced them to a business venture where this individual would stand to make a considerable sum of money. Talks broke down - my contact's friend was deemed by the other party to be inflexible, one-sided and rude.

It occurred to my friend, upon hearing the news, that:

a.) They may have damaged their credibility with their business acquaintances to whom they introduced their friend

b.) Even though we was a friend, they should have never introduced them to their business contacts, and

c.) Their friend was never really a friend as their manner has always been inflexible, one-sided and rude, even when it came to my contact.

There was a sadness in my contact's voice, and I empathetically felt for him, as I have experienced similar phenomena. In fact, those of us who have been disappointed and hardened by such circumstances might justify these experiences by stratifying their connections into friends, supporters, colleagues, acquaintances, contacts, rivals, competition, enemies and arch-nemeses.

Other more scientifically-minded (like myself) use an RC scale from -10 to 10 for certain key contacts, reassess those values periodically (weekly or monthly) and examine how they might change over time.

Yet other, more cynical, entrepreneurs simply leave friends and family out of any business dealings and take a much more sterile corporate approach to business as a defensive measure from dealing with such hurt. Over time, blocking or suppressing emotions can have their own detrimental effects upon one's mental and physical health.

I believe, however, that most entrepreneurs desire a more balanced approach to business. They don't deny their own emotional state and those of their team, but they do establish strong boundaries and enforce them to stay on target.

There are those who say that there are varying levels of trust and that the highest levels indicate a greater tolerance to being disappointed by their friends, colleagues, etc., but in the end it comes down to how we react to such changes or shifts in our relationships that truly define each and every one of us.

How about you? How do you manage your relationships? Feel free to comment on this article below or email me directly. I would love to hear from you.

All my best,

Adam

www.TNNWC.com

www.TheNationalNetworker.com

http://adamjkovitz.blogspot.com

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: It's a Question of Trust - A Conversation with Vanessa Hall, Part 2

Connecting Is Not Enough with Andy Lopata

Last month I introduced you to Vanessa Hall, the award-winning speaker and author of Trust in Business. Vanessa outlined her model for understanding the foundations of trust and what you need to do to maintain trust in business relationships and ensure it doesn't erode and destroy relationships.

In the second part of the interview I asked Vanessa to elaborate on the role of trust in referral relationships and how to approach referrals with trust in mind.

A: In my new book I’ve been talking about how a trusted introduction can help a salesperson reach their prospect far more easily than cold calling and trying to get past the "gatekeeper." Clearly that’s valuable for the salesperson, but how can the person passing the referral protect the trust they have with the prospect?

V: One of the key things about referred trust that I talk about is understanding both the benefits but also the risks involved, so we have to be quite careful when we’re referring someone else to somebody with whom we have a trust relationship. This is where my theory of situational trust comes in as well. One of the important things which a lot of people don’t do when they’re giving referrals is to understand in what situation or what context does their trust relationship with this person exist.

Often what happens, for example, is that I might know somebody through the fact that our kids play soccer together. There’s a trust relationship that’s been built around picking up kids, dropping them off, those sorts of things. There’s still a trust there, but it’s very specific to that particular situation. If I refer somebody to that person, somebody else with whom I have an element of trust, but they’re looking for a business type referral, the person who we’re referring them to trusts me more from a social context. If I’m not clear about who this person is that I’m referring them to and why I’m referring them you can actually open yourself up to some confusion.

In understanding the situational trust that exists between two people we can also begin to develop and understand the expectations that we have, and the expectations that the person referring into them might have as well. The process of referrals works much better when you acknowledge the trust relationship that you have and then communicate the context of that contact.

Often what people do is refer people and then leave the relationship up to them but I’ve been caught out a number of times. Just giving a contact is not enough if we want to build trust. If we don’t frame it properly, not only is the relationship not bridged between this new person and the contact but it can also damage the relationship between that person and you -- the person who’s giving the referral in the first place.

A: Framing is vital. I talk a lot about "qualified" and "unqualified" referrals, based on the relationship you have with someone. You may, for example, pass a "qualified" referral to someone you have only just met, by making that clear to the prospect. Where you know and trust the person you are referring though, the referral is "unqualified." You are clearly recommending their services, by saying for example, "Talk to this person, they’re superb. "

How much time do you spend following up the introductions you make to ensure both parties are working well together?

V: I like to know and I always ask for feedback whenever I’ve given a referral because there are a number of referrals made and if one of them doesn’t work for some reason then I have to sit back and ask what’s happening in this process. Am I not connecting the right people or am I building up an expectation that’s not being delivered? What’s actually going on?

If you never ask for that feedback you simply don’t know. You just keep referring people and sometimes you can really end up wasting a lot of people’s time if you’ve not done it properly, so I certainly look for feedback.

Just going back to your point before about when you say, for instance, "Talk to this person, they’re superb," what can happen in making a statement like that is you can certainly build up an expectation but there’s also an implied promise. I talk about the difference between implicit and explicit promises, there’s an implied promise. The minute you give somebody a referral, there’s a very good chance that this is going to turn into a business referral, which to me is the implied promise that can break down trust more quickly.

So in not being clear about that and making a simple statement like “this person’s fantastic” or “they’re a real go-getter” or “they’re really friendly” or whatever, you’ve made an implied promise and built up an expectation in that person’s mind about how their interaction might play out, and if it doesn’t play out exactly in the way they expect and the way they believe it was promised to them and it doesn’t meet their needs then their trust in you can break down very quickly.

It’s about respecting the trust that you have. I talk about handling it with care. I compare trust to an egg, it can break very easily so you need to handle that trust very carefully and respect it for what it is. It’s a gift when people trust you.

A : Would you introduce someone you’ve only just met to somebody who is a very important client of yours?

V: If I’ve got a very strong sense about the person, but again I’d make it very clear that I’ve only just met them, and I can’t vouch for them other than I’ve got a sense that they were nice, or the right sort of person, so yes, I certainly do qualify it in your terms.

A: Do you find yourself from holding back from introductions that you could make until you feel the trust is at the right level?

V: Yes definitely. I think to some extent it depends on the nature of the contacts. For example, the more work that I do in senior government levels and with people connected with the UN, a lot of people want to know the people who I know. I don’t believe it’s my place to just suddenly open the doors and pour all these people to them, so it’s also being clear about what’s the nature of the relationship between me and these other people and what are their expectations in terms of protecting that relationship, too.

It’s a difficult one, because on the one hand, you certainly want to help people and help their business to grow and networks continue to increase. I love connecting people but there is an element of: "I’d really love to understand more about you as a person and what you are trying to achieve; what’s your goal?"

And what are you expecting out of this connection as well? I’ve seen it go terribly wrong in many situations.

A: You talked about referred trust; you talked about situational trust; can you explain the other types of trust in your model?

V: In the book I talk about blind trust. With blind trust we jump in, we don’t think about what we’re expecting, about what we need, and we don’t articulate that. And so what happens in a blind trust situation is we are often left quite disappointed and we often blame the other person. But we had a role to play in that by obviously not being clear about what we expected out of this relationship, this interaction and what we need. You should also ask, "Can this person actually promise to deliver on those?" Are you trusting the right person for the outcome you are looking for?

I talk about skeptical trust, which is the opposite. We’re very, very clear about our expectations and we want to get right down to the nitty gritty detail before we step into the trust relationship. Very, very clear about our expectations, very clear about our needs, We’ll only trust somebody who will 100% promise to meet those.

I talk about middle ground. There’s a balance between those two. Both of them can work very well in some situations, but both of them can be very detrimental, so there’s a middle ground. We have to articulate and be clear about our expectations and needs and be sure that the person we’re dealing with can make promises to deliver that.

We can’t go down to the nth degree and people can’t always promise every little detail and so there is a point where we have to step into the relationship. By understanding the model of trust, we can also continue to communicate effectively as well.

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Sunday, May 02, 2010

A NOTE FROM THE CHAIRMAN: Where's the Trust?

WHERE'S THE TRUST?

by Adam J. Kovitz

The Banking Industry.
The Insurance Industry.
The Telecommunications Industry.
The Oil Industry.
The Pharmaceutical Industry.
Electric Utilities.
Government.

Do any of these entities inspire trust in you?

From a networking standpoint, we've been brought up to believe that people do business with those they like and trust. This statement also implies that there is a choice.

But what if there isn't a choice?

Anyone who has seen their small community bank get gobbled up by a larger one, or who pays a cable or electric bill understands that these industries are fast becoming oligopolies if not already monopolies.

Surely the person who came up with the slogan "Freedom isn't Free" must have felt the pressure of getting the best priced deal from their mobile phone service for their family by agreeing to a 2-year contract packed with extra fees, including one for terminating the contract early.

Long story short...less choice = less need for trust as consumers are forced into doing whatever is deemed "legal" even if it's at their own expense. You will pay the increased fees for service if you want to have gas for your car, electricity, heat, cable, telephone service, etc.

From the standpoint of an emerging enterprise, this should be both alarming and unacceptable. Healthy economies thrive on consumers with discretionary spending, entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, and emerging enterprises with strong financial backing.

As one of the principals of my own emerging enterprise I am seeking to promote choice and trust, for it is with these that we can have innovation, more freedom, accountability, sustainability, ethics and better alternatives to totalitarian business practices made legal by corruption.

Let's fight the status quo through peaceful means (cooperation and trust) before we run out of choices. I urge all entrepreneurs and emerging enterprises from all over the globe to join our Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community (GICBC) to become part of the solution.

All my best,

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

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: It's a Question of Trust - A Conversation with Vanessa Hall, Part 1

Connecting Is Not Enough with Andy Lopata

“Building and retaining trust is the cornerstone of every business and personal relationship.”

The quote above sits inside the jacket of Vanessa Hall’s book, The Truth about Trust in Business, and highlights the importance of trust in networking. With networking being founded on relationships, one could argue that trust is the "cornerstone" of networking, and I don’t think you would find many people who would argue.

Certainly not Vanessa Hall. Vanessa is the Australian-based Founder and Director of Entente Pty Ltd and an award-winning speaker and author who advises everyone from individuals to major global organizations about the importance of trust.

On the 3rd of May, Vanessa is launching the International Day of Trust with the aim of "getting trust into the hearts and minds of people around the World." I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions about the importance of trust and the different ways in which we trust others.

A: Tell me a little bit about your business. It’s clear that trust is at the core of all that you do.

V: It’s everything that we do. We’ve only been around for four years, so still babies in the trust world, but in the beginning we made quite a big impact. I work with businesses but also with personal relationships and more broadly in communities. It’s now expanding into international relations, so we’re working at a very senior government level and with the UN.

Probably the key difference with what I do versus everyone else is how I define what trust is. The model that I use actually describes in a visual and a structural way how trust is built and how it breaks down. This description sheds a lot of light for people in relationships, whether those relationships are business or personal, in terms of what might have gone wrong in the past, how to get better at communicating and how t actively build trust on a daily basis.

A: Can you give me an outline of the model of trust that you use and the different types of trust?

V: The first thing I noticed when I was doing a lot of research on and asking a lot of people about trust was that it’s a word that we use all the time. Everybody in business that we speak to will say, “Yes, trust is critical to my business. I need trust with my customers, need trust with my staff.” Yet when I asked people, “What is trust? How would you define it?” I got so many different responses, it wasn’t funny.

I found that when we talk about trust we’re often talking about different things. When I asked people who said that trust was critical in their business, “What do you do? How do you build trust?” less than 5% of the hundreds of people that I spoke to in the early days said that they actually did anything.

The reason they said they didn’t do anything was because they didn’t know how. There’s no practical guidance or model really for how to go about building trust, so that’s where the conflict started for me. I looked at where there is trust and where there is no trust. I looked at when trust breaks down, and when there is trust and, what does that feel like for people. I worked backwards to come to a definition of trust.

So the way I define trust is that it’s our ability to rely on a person, a group of people, an organization, or on products and services to deliver a specific outcome. There are actually thousands of points of trust in our day, every single day. And we’re often unaware of those. Everything from the alarm going off in the morning to wake us up, the shower being hot enough, the toothpaste tasting the way you want it to taste.

We generally just trust that all those things are going to work for us and play the role and deliver the outcome we expect from them. We become aware of it when that outcome is not delivered.

Then I looked at what it is that we actually want. What happens that makes us feel good and what happens that makes us feel bad? And I came down to these three core things that I talk about.

The first is understanding that we have expectations. Those expectations come from previous experiences, if we’ve had a previous experience with that person, that organization, that product or that service. It comes from things that we read or things that we see. Marketing material, for example, creates expectations of what our experiences are going to be like.

It comes from things that other people tell us. Referrals actually create expectations about our experience. And they come from what I call “similar experiences.” I’ve had an experience with one bank, therefore I think all banks are going to be the same. I’m going to have the same experience in all of them, so it’s going to be generalized.

So we all have these expectations, but we often don’t articulate them. We expect people to meet them, though, and we get disappointed when our expectations are not met.

The second thing is our needs. I draw on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. From a trust point of view we buy products and services and we engage in relationships with people to meet those needs. I’ve found that there is generally a driving core need for people. That need drives them in all the different kinds of relationships and interactions they have. For example, somebody who is esteem-driven will buy a car because it makes them feel good about themselves, they’ll buy the clothes they buy for the same reason. They’ll engage in relationships, take a job, do all sorts of things that feed that need for esteem.

Likewise all the relationships for somebody who is insecurity-driven will be centered around feeding that core need.

We have expectations and needs. Promises are made to us by the other person, the other organization, or by products and services. The promises could be implicit or explicit, either very clearly stated, or if we had a conversation about them, they were implied; they weren’t really stated anywhere and weren’t written down. We can’t recall a conversation but the promise was implied in a word that was used, or the body language, for instance. Or just by the size of the organization, they can all provide implicit promises.

For trust to occur, there’s a combination of these expectations, needs and promises which I draw like a wall, with two pillars of needs and expectations and promises along the top.

I would expect a structural engineer to understand how the wall would break down, how quickly it would break down in certain circumstances.

There are some expectations and needs that are more important to us than others. There are some points on the wall that are more sensitive. If you took certain bricks out, the wall would collapse more quickly. We know that to be true. There are some expectations and needs that if they’re not met by that person or organization or that product, we might be a little disappointed but we still stay. We continue to engage. There are others that, if they’re not me,t we’re gone. As a customer, we’re gone, and we just never buy from then again.

We found that the explicit promises sit in one part of the wall and when they’re not met, there are generally cracks in the wall. We tend to complain about an explicit promise which hasn’t been met because we can. Whereas we tend not to say anything about an implicit promise because we’ve got nothing to point to, no conversation to recall. So we let it simmer away and eventually the wall collapses.

So the base of the model is about these, what I call ENP’s. Trust actually sits on top of this wall, so it ends up looking like Humpty. I talk about all the king's horses and all the king's men can’t put that trust back together if you allow it to get to the point where it completely breaks.

Sometimes there are bricks that drop out. We’re feel very unsettled and disappointed, but if it gets to the point where enough of those important bricks fall out or enough of those implicit promises are not met, the whole thing will collapse and it will break. 98% of the time people say they would never go back there again.

The whole purpose and process of building trust is understanding the expectations and needs and being clear about those, knowing which ones are the most important to people and being very, very clear about what promises we’re making and delivering on those promises. It's one thing to make them; it’s another thing to deliver them.

We also need to understand what are our expectations and needs in this engagement and what are the promises being made to us. There are two sides, two walls within that relationship. It’s the basis of the trust model. The book, The Truth about Trust in Business, actually has diagrams all the way through showing the wall in different stages, in different situations, and how it might play out and how it might break down.

*********************************************************************************

In Part Two of my interview with Vanessa Hall next month, we talk about the different types of trust and how to apply them, the role of trust in passing referrals and some of the pitfalls.

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Are you struggling to put an effective networking or referral strategy into place? Do you want to know more about how to ensure you get the maximum possible return from your networking?

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Thursday, February 25, 2010

BALANCING HEALTHCARE, PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICS: MIA (Missing in Action) - Leadership in Washington

Balancing Healthcare, Public Policy and Politics with Linda De Seife

Here are some headlines that I read over the last few weeks that have inspired this month’s column:

“Snow Adds to the Political Drift”
“Why Washington Is Frozen”
“America’s Candor Gap”
“A Year Later, Where did the Hopes for Obama Go?”
“No Deficit of Cynicism”
“Stimulus Created Jobs, But No Real Optimism”
“Debt Ills, Rate Plan Knock U.S. Stocks”
“Fudging Jobless Statistics”
“Reid Puts His Bill Before Bipartisanship”
“White House May Abandon Civilian 9/11 Trial”
“Economic Data Stirs Fears”
“America’s Greek Tragedy – Greece’s Crisis Holds Warning for Us”

Now this is quite a list, and I could go on, but you probably get the idea. Is it any wonder that Americans are angry? Is it any wonder that, although technically the economy is in recovery, Americans don’t feel it, and so are not spending on houses, cars, or anything else other than the necessities? Is it any wonder that fear and uncertainty are paralyzing our country and holding back the recovery?

One day the headlines say things are getting better; the next day they’re not. One day we’re trying terrorists in civilian trials in New York City, and the next we’re not sure. One day we need a new agency to study global warming; the next day Florida is freezing, and Washington is literally buried in snow. (Although figuratively it’s been feeding us a snow job for years; that’s the problem!)

America is not working, in more ways than one.

Then we have a State of the Union address that is nothing more than a laundry list of legislative initiatives and a scolding of the Congress, Republicans, the previous Administration, and even of the American people by a President who is above it all, blames everyone else, and takes no responsibility for his actions, or inactions, over the last year.

Where is the clear direction, strategy and transparency that was promised? All we’ve gotten for the past year is drift -- from one issue to the next and back again. Tactics, tactics, tactics! Talk, talk, talk!

Now the Democrats are trying to say, and the media has picked up on it, that America is ungovernable. This is nonsense. What America lacks is leadership -- people who know what it takes to make the system work. We have an inexperienced President who, to use a business analogy, instead of being the CEO, is behaving like a functional vice president or department head.

The concept of leadership is very complex. There are many definitions, but there are some common traits of leadership. Some of these are: defining a vision and translating it into reality; trustworthiness; taking responsibility for your actions; inspiring confidence. The management guru, Peter Drucker, has said that “effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”

One of President Obama’s problems is that during the campaign he sounded like a leader, but, now after the campaign is over, he has not delivered. He seemed to have the attributes, but there have been no results.

The famous psychologist Carl Jung declared, “The true leader is always led.” Bill Clinton realized this after the 1994 elections and worked with the new Republican majority to reform the welfare system and end the era of big government. Obama, to the contrary, refuses to get the message. So it is likely, that he will get more messages in November. We’ll see if he gets it this time.

And the Congress is no better. The long time Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, who was legendary for arm-twisting and jaw-boning believed, “You cannot be a leader and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow too.” Today’s so-called Congressional leaders find it easier to buy votes than to truly negotiate the issues by listening to their members and their constituents.

We all know that another key to leadership is trust, but as I look at Washington, where is the trust? Democrats don’t trust Republicans, and Republicans don’t trust Democrats. The people don’t trust the government, and the government doesn’t trust the people.

The President’s words say one thing, and he does another. Then he called a health care summit, but even before the event, he began posturing to paint the Republicans as obstructionists if they don’t just go along. During the event, he again became the lecturing professor. So, Republicans are right to be suspicious of his motives. Have we forgotten the concept of the loyal opposition? Their role is not to just go along; their role is to oppose that which they do not believe in.

Where are the adults in our country today? It’s not the President, much as he tries to play that role by chastising others. It’s certainly not the Congress. The adults, who are trying to lead their leaders and who understand the challenges we face, are the American people. But we can’t do it alone, especially when paralyzed by the indecision and lack of strategy and vision in Washington. We need to feel confident that our country has direction that we can support. Those who voted for Obama thought that’s what they would get, but they were mistaken.

What we have is paralysis, driven by a lack of strategic direction, confidence and optimism, which could tip us back into recession, or, at the very least, is delaying a strong and sustained recovery.

We need leaders, like Ronald Reagan, who had a vision for America and confidence in the people to make that vision a reality. We need leaders with courage, who fulfill their vision based on their passion, not their position. We need leaders who raise people’s aspirations and energize them to achieve great things.

America is not ungovernable, and government is not broken. America lacks leaders who know how to govern, who respect their constituents, and who can build consensus and work through issues for the good of the whole, the way the Founders intended.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

Quote of the Month

“All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.”
-- Moliere

For more information, please visit Linda's TNNW Bio

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Sunday, February 21, 2010

UPDATE Bulletin - New Developments - The National Networker Companies - 02.21.2010

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Update Bulletin - New Developments - The National Networker Companies - 02.21.2010

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QUESTION #3: What's The Benefit To ME in Joining TNNWC's GICBC, and in becoming a Member Of TNNWC?

It's simple. Become a Member and 1) receive all of our free publications, breaking news, RSS feeds, Email updates, intelligence, practical advice and access to our suite of services for professional and business growth; become a Member and 2) receive pre-qualified personalized introductions to other community Members (worldwide) who will collaborate with you, mentor you, advise you, co-venture with you, promote you, and become your suppliers, clients or representatives to increase your quality and quantity of your business and the trajectory of your rise to success -- we are proactive and interactive; become a Member, and TNNWC will find ways and means of promoting you -- we are a community of creative, motivated and enterprising individuals...we are like an extended family and we take care of each other as part and parcel of taking care of ourselves; Become a Member and 3) ultimately become a stakeholder in our GICBC for the development of equity, income, security and so many other benefits which you cannot count on large corporations, governmental agencies or other faceless strangers to survive.

Our rapidly growing GICBC will be a sovereign self-sustaining entity in cyberspace... a Member-owned diplomatic meritocracy, a capitalistic system fed with shared success, but tempered with compassion and accountability, an incubator for achievement and productivity... a rescue vessel in a time when too many people are drowning in a sea of desperation, disillusionment, distrust, insecurity, hopelessness and profound emotional depression. We extend our hand to you.

QUESTION #4: What Type of Services Do you Provide?

We provide superb comprehensive customized services which include, but are not limited to, these: News Releases; Public Relations; Publicity; Financing (from angel investors to venture capital to asset-based financing to purchase-order financing, to international trade financing and receivables insurance, to major project and contract financing; International Connections Services; Advertising Services; Blogging and Blogosphere Domination Services; and a host of others...and we're prepared to do plenty of hand-holding and follow-through. Networking is only the beginning...we are about synergistic relationships.

QUESTION #5: Could you tell me more about the GICBC concept?

In being consistent with the progressive theme of the most recent two Update Bulletins and using them as a foundation upon which to build this week's Bulletin, an expanded outline of the ways in which we have already changed, as well as our plans for additional changes to be implemented during 2010 follows, with a focus on the GICBC Project. Note: This will be of great interest to every existing member, and to those of readers who are not yet members (you folks can fix that right now by clicking on http://bit.ly/JoinTNNW -- membership is free, and it gives you instant access to our TNNW Weekly Newsletter, the Blue Tuesday Report, our suite of unparalleled Business Development Services and our various interactive Forums):

Our Vision has changed - It is our intention to become the first Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community (GICBC) in history. We believe that TNNW's GICBC will serve as an exemplary type of social and business structure where capitalism can be used as a positive inducement for participation, innovation and peaceful, productive teamwork which transcends any unspoken caste system, any monetary or political barriers, and any geographical considerations.

Can a GICBC become a large conglomerate? Absolutely. Growth is unlimited.

Can a GICBC create, own or control its own credit unions, capital funds and insurance companies for the benefit of its members? Absolutely. We can be a virtual self-contained world. The greater our membership size, the better our negotiating position, resources and lobbying strength.

Can a GICBC act as a purchasing agent in order to obtain better pricing on products and services? Absolutely. The collective power of the GICBC can be used to obtain favorable pricing on everything -- from groceries, to automobiles, to office supplies, to education, to health insurance, to theater tickets, to discounted rates on loans -- and these benefits can be passed along to our members.

Can a GICBC be incorporated, or become an LLC? Absolutely. There is no legal or financial liability to any stakeholder for the actions of the company.

Can a GICBC buy interests in other companies and assets? Absolutely. We can invest in anything that we choose. Stakeholders propose these opportunities and vote on them at stakeholders' meetings, which can be held electronically (via computer and telephone).

A GICBC is similar in structure to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, where 1) members work together and share in an ongoing collaborative effort to build the company [by consistently increasing and diversifying the volume and sources of the company's revenues], and 2) members are awarded ownership interests in the company as well as 3) shares of the company's profit...i.e., a quarterly cash distributions for each member in direct proportion with his or her percentage ownership.

Each member is awarded ownership (and all the benefits associated with ownership) based upon the value of his or her contribution. A GICBC is a true meritocracy, where productivity, innovation and the willingness to share are rewarded. Some have called this "Capitalism Without Conflict". Keep googling GICBC. Keep apprising us of your thoughts and willingness to become a vested member and stakeholder. You can give us your ideas or pose your questions to us at http://bit.ly/contactTNNW .

Our mission has changed - The National Networker Companies, as a group, is a provider of news, intelligence, unique content and business development services to the professional, corporate and entrepreneurial sectors.

Our orientation has changed - Networking is only the beginning - TNNWC is not just about "networking" (which has become a vast term with multiple meanings to many people; where every person believes that he or she is an "***EXPERT***") -- we are all about increasing revenues and productivity by creating viable, real connections; building partnerships (domestically and globally); providing interactive forums; and furnishing services to increase your roster of clients, your buzz, your branding, your market presence (in existing and new, emerging and potential markets) and your sales by every means possible. We live to inform, assist, interact with and promote every member's business, practice or cause.

Our structure has changed - We are an information producer, cross-media broadcaster and a promotion mega-machine. We make things happen for our members, and for our clients. We are building our management team now -- we are proactively pursuing and recruiting talented, energetic and intelligent individuals and matching them with the important official functions for which they are best suited...those for which they can offer our GICBC their optimal utilization.

Growth, refinement and improvement in other areas - Keep watching. What do you have to offer us? What are your greatest personal and professional talents?

Help us build the world's biggest subscriber/ membership list -- Forward this article (or this email) to a friend, colleague or business associate.

As always, thank you. You've let us become a part of your life. Through our GICBC (details unfolding rapidly), you will be able to become a stakeholder in The National Networker Companies. Our Growth Will Guarantee Yours.

With All of Our Best,

Adam J. Kovitz and Douglas Castle

*Follow TNNW on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TNNW_BUZZWORKS

*Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved.

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The National Networker Companies