I had such a great time yesterday at the local meetup for Music City Marketers. We spent a good 7 or 8 hours together, sharing resources and ideas and then grabbed dinner together afterwards as well.
Its a fairly small group, usually ranging from 10-30 people. There were about a dozen of us that met up yesterday so it was small enough to really pack in a lot of networking.
The lady on the far left in the photo above is Sonya Nave, and it was her first time joining us. She does graphics & copywriting, so that was a great connection. The guy on the far right is Zack aka techshaman and is very skilled at blog design & cover graphics - another great connection made.
Interesting to note is that everyone in the photo above is an Elite Member at my primary site, except Sonya of course since she was new to the group. But particularly interesting to me was to hear how many of the Elite Members are working together on the side now.
Several have partnered up on projects, they have formed accountability groups, etc. All of it was news to me, but I was really pleased to hear it. The SSWT community makes up some of the best people on the 'net... I'm biased of course, but it truly has grown and taken on a life of its own over the years.
The man standing behind me in the photo above is Kirk Ward, and yes - he really is that tall (8 ft or so I think). I would guess that it takes that kind of height to house all of the personality that man has!
To my left (right of me in the photo) is Quinn Moore then Gary Leggett, and behind them is David Dutton and then Russell Portwood. Russell organizes the Knoxville TN meetups, the next one being November 15th.
I'll close by sharing a few photos...
Kirk and his infamous note-taking system... 😯
The seating arrangement was intentional (I'm deaf on the right side) 🙂
Make it a point to join us for a future meetup, or find local groups in your area. You'll be glad you did! And be sure to join the SSWT Community online if you're not already involved. Between the interactive newsletter, weekly webinars, discussion forum & elite group... there's a lot of cool stuff going on 😉
Best,
About Lynn Terry
Sounds like you've got a great group there Lynn! I love the connections that can be made offline and on. At a meet-up I recently participated in for Mom Mastermind members I ended up striking up two projects with folks I met during that lunch.
One ended up being a branding expert that I'm now using on projects for a major client.
Definitely a good idea to keep face-to-face meetings as part of business networking mix.
Looks like ya'll had a blast. Thanks for sharing.
I love meeting up with my online business friends too. It always motivates me.
What you daf on the right side? That where I was sitting. What you mean intentional?
Offline connections work really great. My business depended solely on offline connections for 5 years.
I personally feel that it takes less effort & time to build credibility during offline sessions, leading to stronger connections and networking.
Oh, whew.
Thanks and all that. I was getting paranoid. Thinking maybe people had told you about me.
LOL Kirk - teasing you of course. I think you sat down after me even 😉
Envious! I need to rearrange my schedule to participate more in the elite brainstorming hours. All the networking groups in Atlanta are huge, so you just don't get the same value. Great resource for all of you though.
I'd love attending such meetings. It's a shame I'm too far away - Romania (Bucharest), but I'll try to attend some ASAP... lol
Great meetup guys! Thanks again to Stacie and Lynn and everybody for making it such a good meeting.
Hey, if you think Kirk's note taking system is a "tall stack" you should see his to-do list! Everything about him is tall.
Can't wait to see ya'll in November at the Knoxville meeting. Notification list is at http://www.zwebber.com/meet-up.html
See ya soon!
Russell
(Hey Codrut - my daughter is in Romania right now! Galati)
I have to say Lynn...
It's been very cool to get to know the people in the SSWT group. Everyone is so helpful and nice. It's a big change compared to the Industry I'm in... It's a very nice change.
So thank you Lynn and everyone for doing what you do! 🙂
I have to say that I think this was probably one of the best meet ups we have had! The only problem I had with it was it seemed way to short, even after the 3 and half hour dinner 🙂 (Do you realize we had a longer dinner than meeting :P)
I think that my offline connections have been some of the best I have. I have really great 'friends' now not just business associates.
I can't wait until the Knoxville meet up and am already looking at scheduling the next Music City Marketers!
Just wanted to say I had a blast and was completely inspired to move forward and dig deeper with my business ideas.
There is NOTHING like getting together in person. No matter how much tweeting or Skyping you do, it's just not the same.
Thank you Stacie, for putting it together and thank you Lynn for bringing so many great ideas to the table.
It was great to see you all and I'm really looking forward to the next one.
Cheers!
Stacie, Lynn, Zack, Kirk, Sonya, The lady that left?, Quinn, Gary, Russell, & David,
Thanks for letting a Yankee join for a few hours. I need to start planning on attending the after party as well.
Nothing like a great face to face meet-up to foster great relationships!
I want to express my appreciation to Stacie Bennett for putting in the effort to coordinate yet another fantastic event.
The greatest thing I've learned lately is that no one can, or should, do everything all by themselves, and that developing personal connections with others just benefits each one of us.
To Lynn, always a pleasure to connect with you and to all the others I've come to know through these meetings, I want you to know you add value to my life.
Till next time,
Quinn
Jay! I did miss you at the dinner - its always easier to have individual conversations during those "after hours". Hopefully next time 🙂 It was really great to see you again and hear how much progress you've made on your venture -Wow!!
Quinn- well said, and what a great way to put it. I can definitely agree with that.
I'll see several of you in Knoxville on Nov 15th at Russell's meetup. Looking forward to it! 😉