Business groups like the Chamber of Commerce provide many excellent marketing opportunities

Business groups like the Chamber of Commerce provide many excellent marketing opportunities. The members of these types of business groups are all business owners and many of them will fit into your sweet-spot profile. What better way to get to know the decision makers in these businesses?

Maximize Your Exposure in Business Groups

Don't simply join a business group and remain a passive bystander. To get the most out of your business group experience you need to get involved. Here are some tips:

When you join one of these business groups immediately make yourself known to the Executive Director, the office staff and the officers, as well as the people on the board.

Volunteer for a committee. This is an excellent way to meet and really get to know some of the local small business owners.

Speak at the meetings and events.

Exhibit and take out a little table at the next expo or event held by the business group. These are usually inexpensive and are a low risk proposition.

Send a direct mail to the business group members on the master list introducing them to your company and your services.

Invite the whole business group membership to seminars or events you are holding.

Attend and network at the business group meetings regularly; 8 or 10 a year is a good number.

There are no sure things but the active members of a business group, the board, and the committee chairs tend to be loyal to the inner circle of their fellow business group supporters. It’s almost like a fraternity or sorority.

The Bottom Line on Business Groups

The key to getting the most out of a business group is to be an active member. Keep your name in front of the membership. Remember to do your follow up. You want the business group members to know your name and think of you first when they have a computer issue. If you are patient and persistent your business group membership will pay off.

Born Again: Spiritual Awakening And Near-Death Experiences

Near-death survivors tell us stories of out of body experiences and spiritual awakening. How could it be possible for near-death experiences to result into religious experiences that would totally transform a person? Is it really possible to attain enlightenment through this experience?

Most people would perceive that spiritual awakening is associated with religious personas, like saints, yogis, and lamas. Therefore, ordinary people experiencing spiritual awakening can be both fascinating and frightening for some. There are some who intentionally journey towards enlightenment through meditation, yoga and other traditions and rituals. But there are others who experience spiritual awakening on their death-bed.

In an essay written by Dr. David San Filippo titled Religious Interpretations of NDEs, he stated that a “near-death experience (NDE) is a conscious experience in which the individual experiences a sense of being detached from the physical world during the process of physiological dying.”

Medically, near-death experiences as described by Dr. Filippo, is when the patient cannot breathe making the muscles in the heart to fail and powerful substances are released. Also, NDE survivors say that they would have an out-of-the-body experience, where the spirit or the soul detaches itself from the body. During these detachment, survivors can experience seeing darkness or the light, meeting spiritual and divine people, and somehow judging their lives.

In a survey performed in 1991, there were 13 million Americans or 5 percent of the population who report that they have experienced an NDE. Near-death experiences and spiritual awakening after them can actually transcend any culture and religion. Regardless, if the patient believes in the divine or Supreme Being, near-death experience could happen.

What happens during a near-death experience?

The survivor first feels a sense of being dead and peace. The soul or the spirit separates from the body and meets with different entities which have already passed away like family, friends, even angels and religious persona. The spirit seems to be rising into the air and encounter a Light which is often associated with the Supreme Being, whether it is God or Allah.

The survivor then senses what happened to their life and judges it. Commonly, the survivors feel reluctant on going back to the world of living. Survivors cannot sense any time or anything that would restrict them from going wherever they want.

There are significant psychological effects of these near-death experiences to the survivors. According to Dr. P.M.H. Atwater (People are dramatically Changed by NDEs), here are some the psychological effects which can also be somewhat referred to enlightenment or spiritual awakening:

• Unconditional love- NDE survivors turn themselves into fully loving and generous people who would wonder and express themselves to each person they see.

• Timelessness – survivors begin to follow the “flow” and tend to ignore schedules and time frames. They would shift their focus and give more importance on the present.

• Psychic – some survivors would wake up or return to the world of the living with heightened senses or extrasensory perception.

• The soul- survivors would show more interest on reincarnation and would later on accept this concept regardless of their previous belief. Since they have experienced the soul or the spirit separating from the body, they understand that the body is nothing but a coffer for the soul.

• Communication- NDE survivors display the use of new language or new vocabularies which is totally different with what they are used to speaking before.

These effects of NDE can be treated as spiritual awakening since the person transforms into a new person.

What to do when we find ourselves in a loud environment as people try to talk louder to be heard over people trying to talk louder to be heard.

Have you ever had someone get right up in your face when they are talking to you? So close in fact that a letter "S' results in an unwanted shower? Often when we are out networking, we find ourselves in a loud environment as people try to talk louder to be heard over people trying to talk louder to be heard. This results in a roar that makes regular conversation difficult.

The temptation in this atmosphere is to get very close to another person so they can hear you and you them. This can result in being too close to another person sometimes making them very uncomfortable. This discomfort is heightened when we have been consuming alcohol and the person we are talking to have not.

Each of us has our own comfort zone boundary. This is a space around us that when another person enters we begin to feel uncomfortable. A good way to relate to this is to remember if you have ever had an argument where someone got right up in your face and possibly even pointed their finger very near to it. Remember how that made you feel? In most cases it makes a person feel more angry.

In a networking environment it is important to maintain a distance from a person that you are talking to. This distance should be almost an arms length. Most peoples comfort boundary is about the length of their arm. If you find yourself getting very close to someone in conversation, imagine if you raised your arm and that is the distance that you should be from the other person. If they move closer to you in the course of conversation, it is acceptable to them to be closer. If it is acceptable to you then continue with the conversation at that distance.

You can sometimes tell if you are standing too close to someone if they seem to be moving back while you are talking to them. If they appear to be getting further away from you, do not move to be closer to them. They will stop when they reach the distance that they are comfortable with. If they turn and walk away of course it is time to find someone else to talk to.

To be most effective in your attempts to build relationships with others, it is most important to keep these things in mind. Remember that it makes no difference what you say to a person if they are not engaged in the conversation. Good observance of boundaries can give you the edge you need to make networking work.