I Didn’t Know Anyone So Here’s What I Did…

Way back in 2005 when while Cathy was taking me to the airport, John and Libby excitedly exclaimed, “We’re taking Daddy to his office!” Cathy and I decided it might be best for me to stay home more than I was. For a short time I took a position with a client as their internal coach and trainer. I really liked the position and the people but the job duties soon became more and more demanding. Since the location was an hour drive one way, it didn’t fit the stay closer to home model that Cathy and I wanted.

In 2007, I wanted to get more “around here” clients but I didn’t know anyone locally. Here’s what I did and here’s the lesson for you. I felt like I needed to have some credibility and authority but how when no one knew me in and around Brownsburg and west Indy? I created a little program with Tommy Richardson, called Chamber University. Unfortunately, I didn’t grab the URL for it at the time and now it’s almost impossible to acquire it but that’s another story.

With Chamber University, We sent out over 100 letters all about it to all of the Chambers of Commerce in Indiana. I began to follow-up by phone and with little to no luck. Fortunately for me, I stopped by the Brownsburg Chamber and met someone who would become a champion of me and Chamber Univeristy.

My champion was Cathy Myers and she introduced me to the then Executive Director of the Chamber, Walt Duncan. Walt took a liking to me and as long as it didn’t require effort on the chamber’s part supported the program.

Tommy and I began providing real life, applicable training to Brownsburg Chamber members. For that first year we had two consistent attendees, Mark and Larry Cranfill. That was the perfect scenario… Mark and Larry kept encouraging us to continue on with the training. Larry couldn’t believe that we could and did provide such high quality, needed for small business trainings at an affordable price.

A couple of years later and Greg Vanlaere (Edward Jones) Dorothy and then Marcia from the Danville Chamber became champions. The program grew. Today, Chamber University or as it’s now known MyChamberU.com is widely known in Hendricks County. Check it out sometime! and Never let “not knowing anyone” be an excuse to stop you from creating something great!

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Networking

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*