social networking Archives - Page 22 of 22 by Mark Murnahan

10 Really Good Reasons to Blog

You and I know good reasons to blog. Hundreds of millions of bloggers know good reasons to blog. It still amazes me when I find people who really do not understand all of the very important reasons why individuals and companies write blogs and comment on blogs, often. Maybe you don’t write a blog, and you just enjoy reading them and adding your comments, or maybe you are a full time super-blogger. In either case, it never hurts to review some of the basics. Here is a list of ten really good reasons to blog. I invite you to add to this list in my blog’s comments … as it should be.

Reason to Blog Number One:

Blogs Give More Than They Take

Blogs provide value to readers, and if they don’t, they will not have readers. Blogs normally have valuable information to offer, and differ greatly from typical static Websites that are more focused on one-way communication and sales copy. They open conversations and welcome people to answer questions, ask questions, and become more familiar with you, your ideas, your brand, and your product. Blogs are commonly produced in the spirit of creating good information that people can use and appreciate. This often creates a valuable shift in thinking for both the blog author and the reader.

Reason to Blog Number Two:

Static Pages Are Like Old Newspapers!

A static Website is like a newspaper, while a blog is a subscription. What do you do with a newspaper after you read it? You don’t toss the subscription out, but you will toss out the pages you’ve already read.

The contents of a static Website are far less likely to be discussed and even less likely to be re-blogged and linked to by others. A static Website is far less likely to make sense or be found at Blog Catalog, Technorati, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx, and etcetera.

Promoting a boring old static Website is like an advertisement, whereas a blog is like a conversation that is enhanced by others’ input. Do you want to converse about your interests or hang a sign and hope for the best?

Reason to Blog Number Three:

Google Wants to Find You!

Google and other search engines want to find you. It is their job to know everything there is to know about every industry, every person, every question, and every answer. Having information about every possible topic is a basis for their industry. Blogs make it far easier for them to find this information. If you think this is a myth, just ask yourself why the stuff running through your head is not streaming to Google in near-real-time. Mine is. From the time I publish this article to the time it is indexed in Google, I will likely not even make it to the coffee pot. The last blog post I wrote was there, and listed on the first page of Google for “How to Sell SEO” in under six minutes. That is not always the way it goes, but then, it is for people who put forth the effort to do so. Now, highly competitive SEO is a pretty “bouncy” thing in Google, but I can assure you it will do well, just as many articles I wrote 8-10 years ago have. For example, just do a search for “h1 tags” on Google and I can assure you I am in the top two results with an article at YourNew.com that I wrote well over five years ago. Once you create good content that sticks, it is worth the time it took to create it. There are thousands of people reading things that I wrote a decade ago, and each article adds to that collection. That is the power of a blog. Now, if you are thinking about blogging, think of it like this: If you want a shade tree in your yard, when is the best time to plant it?

*Note: This blog post was indexed on Google in under 15 minutes!*

Reason to Blog Number Four:

Time Builds Trust

A wildly popular blog post may be just the gas you need to fuel your business, but that is being shortsighted. I have created things that gave me a huge return on investment, and quickly, but don’t count on that. When you think of reasons to blog, branding should be enough to push you over the tipping point. Just consider these lines, and tell me if you recognize them:

You deserve a break today!
Have a _______ and a smile.
Don’t squeeze the _______!
When _______ talks, people listen.

If you have not been under a rock for the past thirty years, you know at least a couple of these. It is because they are branded. It took these brands hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions of dollars to build their name. A good lesson to take from these successes is in consistently being visible.

You will probably not build a name like these with a blog alone, but it is your next best alternative to the decades of work and billions of dollars noted above.

Reason to Blog Number Five:

Your Competition Has Been Blogging for Years

An important reason to blog is that if you are not doing it, you are missing out. You may not think you are missing huge business from it, but over time, it can and will affect your market share.

I look at it from a standpoint of longevity, as anybody in business should. It is easy to think that the impact it has today is small, but that is often not the case. I explained the search engine optimization benefits of blogging, and the branding benefits of blogging. You surely cannot imagine that your competition is doing it just to throw time and money away, right?

Reason to Blog Number Six:

Blogging is Fun!

Blogging can be great fun. I would not expect most people to have as much fun blogging as I do, but something is better than nothing. I know it may seem like it is time consuming or hard to know what to say, but I see it like any exercise, and it is easier all the time. I do not spend my days struggling with what to write on my blogs. In fact, I find it quite manageable. That is coming from a guy with a blog for everything from my race team to my catch all blog where I put the goofy stuff that just doesn’t fit anywhere else. I have my video blogs (Qik | YouTube), blogs about each of my books, and blogs about blogs. I have so many to choose from, my biggest challenge is which one I want to create something for today.

Reason to Blog Number Seven:

Blogs Can Teach you A Lot

We each have interests. Whatever interests you, I can assure you there is a blog for that, and an audience for a blog about it. Reading the thoughts of others can be fascinating, and being able to reach into their world with your comments and questions is enlightening. When you don’t find just what you were looking for, it is a good sign that you should be blogging. Whether it is for business or a hobby, blogging about your interests and hearing what others have to say can be very helpful.

If you think that there is not an audience for it, think again. Everything is exciting for somebody, and you may be shocked how many people you will find who think a whole lot like you.

Reason to Blog Number Eight:

Syndicate This!

Syndication is bliss, and RSS is important. Perhaps you are not entirely familiar with RSS feeds, but you have surely heard of them, and received information by way of them, even if you didn’t know it.

I know there are a lot of people who may think that to “subscribe” to a blog sounds kind of tricky. “What? You mean I need a feed reader? Isn’t that what blind people use or something?”

There are many ways that RSS allows people to see a blog, even outside of directly subscribing to the RSS feed. For example, this post will land on my Amazon.com Author Page, GoodReads.com Author Profile, Blog Catalog, Technorati, a long list of others that will receive the “ping”, and a big portion of the huge list of social profiles on the left side of my blog. It is like magic! My RSS feed syndicates this information all over the place.

Just how confused are some people about the importance of RSS feeds as they relate to blogging? Here you go … I have a story for you.

Earlier this evening I was informed by a client that although there is a massively visible prompt to subscribe to her RSS feed or email publication, her clients “will never (REPEAT) never know or understand how to do this.” She was really becoming stressed that people were asking her how to subscribe to her blog’s RSS feed, because they had never used a feed reader before. She still has her email publication, and RSS is just another option now. Mind you, her primary market is an educated and affluent group who can master this, and with both RSS and email, I think she has it covered.

Of course, I had an answer. In fact I had a few answers. Please note that I am not a pansy with my clients, and I will tell them what they need to hear, and not just what they want to hear. I am not a salesman. I am here to help clients do more business and reach more people. Whether they love me or hate me is less concern than whether I reach their objectives, which subsequently makes them love me. My responses included the following statements:

“It seems that your focus is on reaching the ones you are already reaching, but little on the millions of people who subscribe to blogs that you are not reaching.

“… you may come to find that it is a fantastic way to both communicate with ongoing clients, and find those bizarre and gawky millions of people who understand how to subscribe to blogs.”

“One view is not a world view. With over 350,000,000 Facebook users and unknown hundreds of millions of blogs, the picture you paint is one that shows me even more reason you are now blogging. I will not ask you to trust me in your refrigerator, but with regard to this Internet, I require it. What you see is a tiny piece of a much larger picture … Much larger than you have a way of seeing.”

Now what I must point out is that my client had grave concern that her clients were contacting her to figure out how to subscribe to her RSS feed. She also has an email subscription, and now that she has a blog, people are begging for it. Now please, people, tell me how this statement from my client sounds: “So far I have 8 people asking me how to subscribe to the blog. I hope this doesn’t continue at such a high pace. I’ll try to have faith.”

Here is my answer, and I hope you can see it the same way:

“I hope it continues at a much higher pace. Why would you not want people begging to interact with you? You really are looking at things from a (industry) head instead of a business head. Change your perspective and look at how cool it is to have so much more attention to what you are doing. You didn’t even have a blog a few weeks ago, and now you are stressed that people are rushing to find out about it? I think what you have totally failed to see is how tragic it is you didn’t do this years ago.”

I tried to console her with the fact that RSS is only one more way people can choose to interact with her and further syndicate her content. It does not mean email is now obsolete.

Reason to Blog Number Nine:

The Author’s Point of View is Never the Only One

Blogging is not all about creating a blog of your own. When I say “reasons to blog” I also mean participating in blogs. The author’s point of view is never the only one. Reading comments and responding to the author and other readers can provide benefit in multiple ways. It can give you varying perspectives. It can introduce you to others with similar interests, and if you write something with a little thought behind it, you may be shocked what comes from it.

Nearly every blog has a place to put your Web address. Whether it goes to your own blog, company Website, Twitter, Facebook, or other address is up to you. I have met some great people who followed a link from a comment I left on a blog and wanted to know more about me. I also do this all the time. I recently found a blog that I enjoy because the blog author replied to my comment on another blog. I followed the link back to her blog and found that she writes about things similar to my recent book, “Living in the Storm”. I like her blog, and I will be back to read it again … and participate.

Sure, I told you that I have a blog for about everything, and that I have a lot of fun blogging. Perhaps most importantly, I participate in other peoples’ blogs. A lot of the fun I have with blogs is in adding my creative commentary on other people’s articles and joining in the communication.

Reason to Blog Number Ten:

It is Your Turn!

What do you have to say about it? This is not rocket surgery. I want to hear your reasons for blogging, and I want your comments on why you comment on blogs. Indulge me! 🙂

How Connected Are You With Your Social Networks?

I get a surprise every day with just how connected people are. Perhaps it should be no surprise at all. Networking with people is a big part of my job and my lifestyle, both online and offline, but it still amazes me on a regular basis. More amazing yet is that there are still ways to improve upon that connectivity. Here are just a few of my thoughts on the matter, and I welcome yours.

Being Interested Makes You Interesting

Consider how many times you have received a message from somebody on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, or elsewhere and found yourself reading over their latest news to be sure you are up to speed on their life. An amazing thing about social networking and life in general is that people who are interested immediately become more interesting. You can bet that if you add your comments on my blog, I am interested, and you have made another step to strengthening your network. Not only with me, but also with others who connect here. It is a perfect case of becoming more interesting by being interested.

I got to thinking about this as I added the meebo chat on my blog earlier today (over on the left side). It allows for people to start a direct chat with me. I did this because I am interested in what readers have to say, and I want to give them another option to reach me. Try it now by typing a message to me. I may just answer. It is pretty cool, and another way to be even more connected.

I think nearly every blog author wants to start a dialog, but some people are too shy to give their opinion in public, too lazy, or just don’t understand the benefits of blog commenting (like the conversation, or those extra incoming links to their Website). Whatever the reasons, a direct chat is another great connection tool.

OK, so now that you are more interesting, let’s look at how connected you are. Once you realize how connected you already are, it is easier to find ways to make it even better … and why!

Realize How Connected You Are

I keep finding that people know a lot about me. Some will call it “transparency”, and I am all about that. I try to be sure that people know who I am … just me, without any false hype. People like people, so I don’t try to be any more than that. Being genuine seems to be a huge benefit if you are trying to connect with people. Even if you do not think you are very interesting, you are plenty interesting to some people, just the way you are.

Now that you are interesting, look around and see how much people recognize you. They may be noticing you more than you think! Those people who find you interesting are the roots of your network. I will give you examples:

Just a couple days ago I was talking with my brother and he asked me about things I didn’t expect him to even know. He asked if my wife was upset that I uploaded a video of her karaoke performance. David is not all that technology oriented, and does not spend a lot of time on Facebook. However, he does have a Facebook account, along with about 350,000,000 other people. Even if he does not check his Facebook, his wife, kids, or somebody else who knows me may ask him about something relevant to my current life or even tell him something that I had mentioned in my social networks. I also hear similar things from people all around me who seem to know a lot about my daily life, and I know theirs. We are connected!

Another instance was when a long time friend contacted me earlier today to ask about book publishing. Since I wrote three books in 2009, I guess I seemed like a good guy to ask. We chatted for a while and I found that he also needed a printer, a picture framer, and some tips for his photography business. So I referred him to three different friends whom I know well and trust in their fields. By recognizing the connections around me, I was able to help four friends … the one I was visiting with and the three I recommended.

As the conversation went on, he commented that I seem to know people in nearly any given line of work. I explained that I consider it my job to know everybody. It can do a lot of amazing things, both for personal and business purposes. Here is a piece I wrote about a year ago on building referral business.

I think networking should be a big part of everybody’s job. If your paying job is to change light bulbs on water towers, it may be good to know the guys who paint the towers in case the light bulbs ever stop burning out and you need more work. The tower painters may have work for you someday, or you may get busy and need more light bulb changers. The point is that it is always good to know where to find reliable people, and it is best to know them before you need them or they need you.

Here is the catch! How do you weigh the importance of quality vs. quantity?

Quality Over Quantity in Networking

Being connected with a lot of people is a great thing. Being closely connected is an even better thing. The importance of quality should be obvious, but it can also be easy to overlook or underestimate. Quantity is fine, but not without quality.

I got busy in 2009. In fact, I got real busy. I welcomed the birth of a son, wrote three books, and managed four new blogs, on top of an already busy job as CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. What I found was that as I became tied up in so many projects, some of my network became even tighter, while some of my network got kind of loose. Without a focus on quality in my network, it could have been a disaster.

A quality network remains solid, even when you are not looking. Like any relationship, some of your network will require more attention than others. Give them all attention, but the ones who reach out to you in return deserve a special focus. Good networkers know this, and will seldom let you down.

What do you think? How can you improve your network connectivity today? I cannot read your mind, but I can read your comments!

Social Media Altruism: It is better than you think!

If you ever thought there was somebody truly, and I mean 100 percent, genuine altruistic, you were wrong. There, I said it … I called you wrong, and I will not say that I am sorry, but I will explain.

Let’s take a close look at this: Even the greatest of givers have something to gain. You can call it altruism, but there will always be something received in return. You may cite Mother Theresa, Gandhi, or your dear grandmother. Yes, they are kind and they often do things that seem very self-sacrificing. Whether they know it on a conscious level or not, people do nice things for others because it feels good. For some people it is simply a reflex, and for others it may take a little more work. You may call it unselfish, but if it did not feel good to them, if it did not feel right, they would not do the things they do.

The Cynical Approach

I encounter cynics every day … we all do. We let them in, and we let them steal our energy. You cannot help it, regardless how hard you try. When you receive negativity, it becomes a part of you.

In contrast to the kindness described above, many people take an opposite approach … in fact, most people take an opposite approach. Again, often subconscious, but very real all the same. How many times have you heard a parent, a friend, or even a spouse say, “I am just telling you this for your own good” or “I just don’t want to see you let down.” I have heard that from people who indeed care about me, but I always realized that there is also a darker side. It may seem like a huge kindness to protect you from your own bad judgment, but how many times have people failed as a result of that one tipping point of doubt. This is even more true if you hear it from somebody you trust … somebody that you know cares about you.

Is it selfish? Too often the answer is “Yes”, very selfish and bred from jealousy. After all, if you do something that they can not even imagine doing, how might it feel to them? Similar to the often unconsciously selfish acts of kindness, there are many unconscious acts of unkindness. You can like it or not, but that is the way it is. Most of us have probably heard this, but have you really thought about it? Have you thought about whether you do this? Have you thought about others’ hopes, dreams, goals? Have you tried to help?

Try Some Altruism

I hope that you will think about this, and try to encourage a friend, or even a complete stranger. I am going to do that now. If you do not know somebody whom you wish to encourage, send a message to one of these people to encourage them.

Amy Walker: This is a friend who recently lost her job. At first, it was a real shock. It is still hard for her to believe. However, she found a renewed interest in painting. She is a great painter, and a very kind person. If she has the right encouragement, I believe that she can create a new income selling her artwork. Click here to send Amy some encouragement. You may also want to ask her to see some of her paintings!

Michael Colemire: I have known Michael as a t-shirt screen printing provider, but he recently shocked me. This guy has an amazing talent at carving. During my regular Friday Webcast, we started talking about hidden talents around us, and he showed us his hobby. He was met with a unanimous belief from the audience that he should take his hobby to market. His woodcarvings are really spectacular. Click here to send a nice message to Michael. You may also want to ask him to see some of his carvings!

Eugene Aronsky: If you know a student returning to college soon, you should meet this guy! I met Eugene on Twitter and I have found him to be a great inspiration and a wealth of knowledge about books. He founded a company called We Compare Books, and his goal is to help college students to afford textbooks. He built the company out of a passion he gained as he was a student seeking affordable buys on textbooks. His Website compares prices for textbooks and offers a great comparison shopping resource. Click here to meet Eugene.

Richard Reed: I know this man as “Ritchie” from back in elementary school. He moved away when we were kids, but social media brought us back together and we recently spent nine hours at my home talking about then, now, and the future. I really respect and like my old friend “Richie”. Aside from his day job, he has created a captivating collection of high-definition videos from places he has visited. I want to encourage him to continue his passion and promote them for sale to film makers. See what I am talking about and if you agree, send my old friend Richie a compliment.

What Will You do?

So there you have it. This is what I believe. I hope you will take some time, right now, to think about how even a small act of kindness can change people’s lives. Especially yours! When you are kind to others, it can build a reflex. It can become natural to spread a kind word. When that happens, the good feelings you have about yourself can be shocking!

Please Share Your Comments!

I want to hear your thoughts. Please take a moment to comment here on the blog!

The Social Media Marketing Dilemma

There is a lot of buzz about social media marketing these days. We have all heard it, and no industry is immune. All of the facts and figures point to the inevitability that your business will be affected by this turn in the marketing tide. This all got me to thinking about the dilemma that social media poses to each and every business entity.

The dilemma is in weighing the cost of participating versus the risk associated with not embracing social media marketing. So how can you mitigate your risk? Spend a moment with me to understand why you should not overlook social media for another minute.

Social Media Marketing: Now or Later?

The part that may be the hardest for many companies is that this shift in the marketing tide has occurred during an already frightening time for business people. Companies who used to advertise in newspapers have found that they are largely ineffective. This has further added to the already obvious demise of print media. Similarly, television is losing the marketing battle at an astonishing rate. Your local affiliate stations used to receive a piece of the national advertisers spending, and that was cut by the major networks. This is all happening because the Internet has fully eclipsed all other media in both total adspend and consumer reach.

I can give you a long list of the things which have added to the social media boom, but I do not think I will need to explain this. You know it is here, and you are quite possibly feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. It is a huge transition. It is kind of a big shuffle where everybody is just trying to find their way and hope when it all settles that they will have made the right choices and that they adapted to the new rules of marketing soon enough to be effective. This really is a dilemma of when to make a quantifiable effort: will it be now, or will it be later? When should you adopt the new rules of engagement? Are you too late? It is too soon? The questions are so plentiful and pressing that I have watched it paralyze many would-be good business decision makers.

Social Media Dilemma: Risk vs. Risk

Perhaps you are just warming up to the idea that this “new” media is where things are going. The fear of jumping in is really pretty normal. After all, it is hard to believe in something after you have watched all the things you always knew about business and economy suddenly change. Most of us were always told that our home would always be a great investment. That seems to be a bit shaky now, although it will certainly return. We thought companies like General Motors, AIG, and others were unshakeable and that the whole world economy could not all just collapse. Things have changed, and amidst all of that change around you, the thought of spending what seems like a fortune in order to effectively participate in a marketing method with a whole new set of measurement metrics probably feels a bit uncomfortable at best.

So what will make all of this feel better and help it all make sense? The answer is this: If your competition does it sooner and better than you, the cost of lost opportunity will be greater than any other potential risk.

Social media marketing is truly not as new as you may see it on the surface. In many ways, it is the way it used to be done in every company, for as long as business has been done. The tools have changed a lot, but the communication basics are that if you develop a warm market, your business will always perform far better. Your sales process will be much smoother. Your brand image will be enhanced by the added customer satisfaction. The list of benefits to the added communication of social media marketing over advertising as usual should not be so hard to understand. All the same, as a social media and Internet marketing professional since the mid-1990s, I still often feel like I am trying to explain the color blue to a person devoid of sight.

A Picture of Social Media Marketing

I want to provide you with a mental picture of social media marketing. Work with me, please. Let’s say that you are about to walk out the door to drive to your local Wal Mart for a couple items. You are going to pick up a garden hose, some razor blades, a new alarm clock, and a few other items. As you head for the door with your car keys in hand, the doorbell rings. You get to the door and there is a salesperson standing there to greet you. They are with a company you have heard of, but you have never met this person. He says that he has all of those things you planned to pick up at Wal Mart. He has the garden hose, the razor blades, and even the alarm clock, and he happens to have them right there. He even has the brands you would buy. How does this feel to you? Are you a bit uneasy about it? Many people have answered this question for me, and it seems that the vast majority would still get in the car, drive to Wal Mart, sort through the aisles, wait in line, and return home. The trust factor compels them, and the guy at the door just did not have the trust yet, regardless how hard he tried.

I have a new picture for you. The person standing at the door is somebody you have had some brief communication with, and you realize you have some mutual friends. It warms up with a bit of friendly conversation, and what do you know. You belong to the same social group. It all starts to look different now, does it not?

The differences in these scenarios are very similar psychologically to an advertisement compared to a social media approach. In addition, with a social media approach, it is altogether likely that the phone rang before you even grabbed your car keys and a friend was on the other end to let you know they were sending the hose, razor, and alarm clock guy over. It has a completely different feel, and it is the reason that advertising has always been an uphill battle compared to proper relationship marketing.

Social Media Fears: The Biggest Dilemma of All

Now that I have walked you through an analogy of digital social media compared to yesterday media, let us look at the worst social media dilemma of all. This time, you are in the selling position, and you are the guy at the door. Answer yourself this question: do you want to be that guy at the door trying to peddle your goods, or would you rather be the hose, razor, and alarm clock guy who took the care to build relationships and will be walking up to the door already announced.

If you fear what happens if you embrace social media marketing today and that it may not work for you, the greater question should be in which hose, razor, and alarm clock salesperson you want to be. If you leave it up to your competition, your cost will be much greater indeed, because the deepest cost is that of missed opportunities.

Relationships and Internet Marketing

Relationships come in many types. The relationship we are sharing as author and reader may seem to be very casual and even a bit superficial. I want to explain how and why it matters.

Since statistical data tells me that it would be nearly impossible in my lifetime to even shake hands with all of my readers, I always find it important to try and reach out in my, can I say, “authorly” way. We will probably never do business together, and for now I am just another guy on the Internet. Of course, I welcome your business, so don’t get me wrong. I just want you to know that I am not selling you anything more than some thoughts right now. So just relax and hear me out about relationships and the Internet, and how it all ties together to make you more successful and happy.

I have noticed for some time that each time my wife is pregnant I see a dramatic increase in new business. It has puzzled me for years exactly why this happens. I have always had my ideas on this. Of course, there is a lot that probably comes down to instinct. Doing all the right things just somehow sinks in and I find myself making better judgments, thinking more clearly, and most importantly developing better relationships. I know that having a new baby may be a little too extreme for increasing your business, but there are substitutes to help you emphasize building better relationships.

I find the relationships I build on the Internet to be absolutely crucial to my success. Just consider our new relationship as an example, you and me. Perhaps if I give you valuable information that helps you, and if I help you to feel good about me and my knowledge, you may become a regular reader. Eventually, if you grow comfortable with our relationship, you may call on me for advice or to hire my services. Notice how this is a process. By the time you call me, you will have many opportunities to know me on your terms. You can read hundreds of articles that I have authored, learn of my background, and know just who you are dealing with. It all comes back to the same reasons why social networking Websites have had such amazing success. People are there to actually interact with other people, and not just some corporate giant or sketchy small business. They are building relationships, right here on the Internet.

I hope that I do not insult you if I group you with “most people”, but in many respects, we are all “most people”. What I know about most people is that they want to feel good about the people in their lives. We can say that this does not apply to “those people on the Internet”, but let’s face it … it matters. In case you have not heard, Facebook has over 120,000,000 users in under five years of business. It has been built on relationships. Social networking sites are some of the most successful Internet businesses ever created, and that should teach us all some lessons. “Those Internet people” are you and me. The Internet is where I communicate with many friends, and it is even where I met my wife about eight years and two-going-on-three three kids ago, so you cannot convince me that what I am telling you is false.

People want to know real people. To set a picture for you, it is 6:00am and I am sitting in my kitchen where I just happened to plop down my laptop to make this entry. I have been working since early yesterday morning, and I have a meeting with a new client in just a few hours. As I thought about my morning meeting, it really hit me why this meeting feels different than so many others, and it inspired me to write you this blog entry.

In a short time, I will meet with somebody with whom I have already laid the groundwork of a personal relationship. He is a fellow member of a business networking group where we have both been members for some time. I see him every Thursday morning, and we have a mutual friendship and respect. You may be thinking that it would be great if every meeting could be so relaxed as this. The good news is that they can. It all starts with a relationship, because behind every business person is the person. Be certain that you express this in your business.