This morning I woke up to my wife saying, “Oh shoot it is 7am!” The alarm which plays a radio channel when it goes off was playing some faint static. I whipped on my clothes and quckly shaved and hopped into the car. I was supposed to be there at 7:10am and Champs was at least 25 minutes from my home.

I got there in time to help out and there was already a line out the front doors of Champs Restaurant. I slipped through the line to where Melody McCord was making name tags and made one for myself then proceed to try to make people feel welcome. I’m on the Action Board for this hub of the Rainmakers in OHIO along with about 15 of the first members of Rainmakers in Ohio.

Here is a picture of business people pouring in the front doors:

It’s still a little bit dark outside as the morning was overcast and there were some sprinkles of rain.

People kept pouring in until the entire main dining area of Champs was filled with business people networking with each other.  David Wright is the Chairman of this hub of Rainmakers so he asked everyone to have a seat to explain a bit more about what Rainmakers was all about. He did a great job of giving an introduction to the S-H-A-R-E acronym. I’ll fill you in on that on another post. Then David introduced Nikki Lewallen.

Nikki Lewallen from Rainmakers explained how sometimes that at networking events you feel like you are at an 8th grade dance and you just don’t know who to talk to or where to start. One of the concepts of Rainmakers is that in order to start giving people referrals you have to know them. So every Rainmakers meeting has some kind of icebreaker  after the first half hour of open networking. This helps people make better mental connections as well. If you know something more than just business about another person, that person will be easier for you to remember. You give referrals to people you KNOW, it’s that simple. Everyone had been given a playing card when they came in. In the next 10 minutes find all the people with like cards… all the kings in one place, all the 2s over here and this will be loud and wild and that’s okay. Once you are in your groups make of list of the things you have in common.

It was great to think of the things that we might have in common. Does everyone in this group have children? Do we all have at least two kids? YES, how about pets, do we all have a pet? NO someone in the group didn’t have a single pet, and so on. At the end of the ten minutes Nikki asked the goups to share their most unique commonalities. It was great fun. Here are a couple pictures of the action. You can see that people were really having a good time and networking could be more than just handing out your business cards to a bunch of people you don’t know.

When Nikki had finished the ice breaker and several very unique commonalities were mentioned from several of the groups, everyone was asked to have a seat again and Tony Scelzo who is one of the founding members of Rainmkers in Indianapolis Indiana explained a bit more about Rainmakers and then it was back to open networking. People gradually filtered out and back to work. Some stayed for lunch at Champs.

It was clear that this was a different experience for many people. Later in the day, I emailed one person that I had invited. His response was that the membership form was in the mail with a check and that the owner of his company would be at the next meeting. I saw people pulling one another to meet people that might be good strategic partners for them and many significant contacts were made. It was a great meeting for me as well as I have several people that I need to follow up with.

If you want to check out Rainmakers in Ohio you are welcome to go to http://rainohio.com where you can put up a profile page and start making connections.

The Centerville AM Hub will meet each month at Champs on the 4th Wednesday of the month from 7:30-9am. The next hub will launch on August the 18th at Cadillac Jacks Restaurant and Sports Bar on Springboro Pike also from 7:30-9am. It is called the South Dayton AM. Rainmakers. At this point there are 9 hubs and then a Main Event in planning stages which will be announced in coming months. You are welcome to email me if you would like to keep informed of each new hub as it comes online. As a Rainmakers member, you can attend any or all of the hub networking events. In Indianapolis, that would be a difficult feat as there are now 43 events each month throughout the city and surrounding towns.

I’ve been attending the Rainmakers meetings on Wednesday mornings at 9am at the Penera Bread on Brown Street near the University of Dayton Campus. We have also encouraged people to go to www.gorainohio.ning.com and put up a profile page, but several folks did not have profile portraits to use and a couple needed upgrades. I suggested that a better profile portrait would reflect more professionally when people saw it.

It amazes me what people are willing to put up as profile images on networking web sites. Out of focus, poorly lit, outdated old images, or new ones that your cannot see for one reason or another. In any case, I decided that since I am a photographer  (part time), I would offer to upgrade or provide initial images for anyone on gorainohio who wanted one. At last week’s meeting I brought my camera and here are some of the portraits that I created.

I delivered all these via email except one which I need an email address for. Everyone has been delighted with images. Each represented an improvement or the replacement of an empty box on the profile page. Each, I think, presents the person in a professional light.