What's Your Plan?

"You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens." Ethel Barrymore

" What are you doing in order be the leader in your industry? What is your plan? How is it working out? What are you using to educate yourself?"

These were questions recently posted on a RYZE network to which I belong... and here are my responses:

To be a leader in my industry I have found that being a resource to others has been a huge advantage over the competition. I love meeting new people and what I am really good at is making business connections. Being a business owner in South Florida for 30 years means that I have met a lot of people, many of whom I often refer others to or refer to myself when the need arises.

My plan is to continue doing what I am doing and to find other ways to be a resource. I often attend networking events that the competition does not.

Here's what I mean: In addition to being founder of several women's organizations including the Women's eCommerce Association and Inventing Women, I have owned a retail flower shop for 27 years. In that time I have attended and joined dozens of organizations that one would think have nothing to do with flowers. For instance, many years ago a friend invited me to attend a meeting of the American Society for Training and Development as her guest. She told me how wonderful and visionary the members were and that I would enjoy it. I don't even remember the program that day, however I do remember the people. They were just as she said, and I joined on the spot! 3 1/2 years later I became president. This has happened over and over since then.

Doing this has given me the opportunity to network with people whose paths I might never cross, it has helped me grow my business and it also helped me discover things about myself I didn't know existed such as how much I love "training and teaching."

I am a firm believer that Education is the key to success and it does not have to be a formal education, it simply needs to be the willingness to learn. I look for opportunities each and every day to learn, from others, from books and from my surroundings. Attending organizations events that I might not have a direct connection to often turns into an enlightening experience. And when you do that you also have a greater understanding of how others live, work and play.





Happy Monday!





Heidi