Spotlight on Three Top Hawai'i NetWorkers

I confess I still have much to learn about networking, connecting with people, and building relationships.  I work hard at remembering names, keeping track of interests, and investing time in key relationships.  Still, left to my own devices, I’d no doubt fall flat on my face.  Fortunately, I have several excellent role models right here in Honolulu who have shared some of their networking secrets with me.

Janine Wedemeyer is an Event Specialist and owner of Envision Event Planning and Management (jmwedemeyer@msn.com).  I met Janine at a monthly event she puts on at the Hawai’i Women’s Business Center (HWBC) in downtown Honolulu entitled “For Women, By Women.”   Frankly, I expected a conservative, quiet educational seminar with polite small talk.  Wrong!   From the minute I walked in the door I was impressed with the warmth, energy, and hospitality that I now know is Janine’s trademark.  I didn’t know a soul, but within five minutes Janine had all twenty-five of us talking and laughing as if we were old friends.  How she can simultaneously greet guests at the door, serve food, introduce us all, tell jokes, and make each and every person feel special is beyond me.  No wonder Janine gets 75% of her business from networking and referrals.  She’s a natural!

 “My personality IS my business,” Janine says.  I agree.  She is exactly what one would want in a party or event planner:  FUN, yet very organized, with flair and attention to detail.

However, after observing Janine work at several events, I’ve concluded that the real secret of her networking success is that she genuinely cares about building win-win relationships.  She is perpetually introducing people to each other who have common interests or who may be helpful to each other in business.  I asked one business person what the key to success was at the HWBC Gateway Marketplace (a monthly mini-trade show) and was told, “Get a table next to Janine!  She’ll send tons of customers your way.”  Sounds like good advice to me.

Another consummate networker here in Honolulu is Naomi Stafford of Midori Designs (www.midori-designsonline.com), a graphics and website designer who also does English/Japanese translation.  Naomi gets 100% of her business from networking and referrals.

 “Networking brings in all my business and so I have never once had to advertise my services,” says Naomi.  “Because Hawai’i is a close-knit community, all you have to do is go out and meet people to get referrals.  Referrals make me feel safe with new clients because you know that they are not going to be random people.  And, there is some responsibility on the part of the person who made the referral.

“In Hawai’i, if you do well, everybody knows of you; and, in the same way, if you do badly, everybody knows of you.  I have been with the Chamber of Commerce for one year and BNI for half a year.  They both have brought in work for me and I’ve enjoyed meeting new people through networking.”

Naomi’s network of referral sources ensures that she spends her time dealing with highly qualified prospects who are ready to proceed.  This shortens her sales cycle considerably, giving her more time to concentrate on creating beautiful, quality work, which is a key factor in her success.

One of Naomi’s satisfied clients is a nonprofit organization called Common Grace (www.commongrace.org), whose Executive Director, Jay Jarman, is a master networker.  When I asked Jay how he uses networking in his business, he replied, “In a sense, networking IS our business.  Everything we do is about promoting and encouraging relationships. 

Common Grace facilitates partnerships between local churches and nearby public schools.  The churches send trained volunteers into the public schools to spend one hour a week mentoring and giving focused attention to lonely and needy children.  The motto of Common Grace is “Matching the kindness of a local church with the needs of a kid in a public school.” 

“When we say ‘church’ and ‘school’, we’re not talking about institutions,” says Jay.  “But, rather living organisms:  the people in the church (the congregation) and the people in the schools (the teachers and administrators).  We encourage the relationships between these two groups, and, we especially encourage the relationships between the volunteers and the children, and through the children we hope to connect with and support the family.”

According to Jay, “The most fun thing is relationships with other people.  I call it ‘net-joy’, not ‘net-work’.  Ours is extremely personal networking and the beautiful thing is the only people who join our ‘network’ are people who really see the need to help these children---people who really care.”

With thinking like that, small wonder Common Grace has grown from one church/school partnership four years ago to twenty-five partnerships across the island of Oahu this school year.           

UPCOMING NETWORKING EVENTS IN HONOLULU:

If you are in Hawai’i, you may enjoy networking with island business people at these events:

Weekly BNI (Business Network International) meetings. For a list of local chapters, go to www.bnihawaii.com and click on Chapter Locations.
 
• Hawai’i Women’s Business Center (HWBC) events. Gateway Marketplace, the first Friday of every month, from 5 pm to 9 pm in downtown Honolulu. Full details and a list of programs are at www.hwbc.org.
   
• For Women, By Women monthly events. The next meeting will be August 9, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. at the Hawai’i Women’s Business Center in downtown Honolulu. The topic will be “Women’s Health Challenges” and will feature me, Sandy McKee, as the guest speaker, plus lots of networking time. For more information, contact founder Janine Wedemeyer at jmwedemeyer@msn.com, or visit her calendar at http://calendar.yahoo.com/jmwedemeyer.

ALOHA FROM HAWAI’I,

SANDY McKEE

Please contact Sandy at SandyM@TheNationalNetworker.com.

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