TAKE ADVANTAGE……

I attended a Meet The Press event this morning. This was hosted by The Gazette and benefitted Leadership Pikes Peak (of which I am a proud alumnus). Weird part is why weren’t more people, business people, there to take advantage of such a great opportunity?

There were four great business & media leaders on the panel:

Cindy Aubrey, KOAA News Director

Allen Greenberg, Editor, Colorado Springs Business Journal

Liz Merrill, KKTV 11 News Director

Jeff Thomas, Editor & VP, The Gazette

What a panel, huh? Being in sales, and a business owner, why wouldn’t I want to get in front of these people? Why wouldn’t I want to learn how the news works? Why wouldn’t I want to learn how to figure out the difference between good news and bad? I DID WANT TO!

Why didn’t others?

Dee Vazquez (Pikes Peak Library District), a friend and fellow LPP Class of 2008 Alumni, and I were the only ones there from our class. However, not unusual, since that seems to be the case a lot of the time. There were 45-46 other up-and-coming leaders that graduated with us, but weren’t there today. Some other participants were other class alumni and some current class, but not sure where the rest of the 60 or so people came from. Either way, I look at this as a way of continuing our LPP education and my professional growth.

A great man once told me, to establish your expertise in your field, make sure people know. Get your name, your card, anything in front of those that, when needed, will call you for a quote. For an opinion. For information. Who does that? The media. (By the way, thanks to Tom Grinewich with the CSBJ for that advice)

Regardless of what the actual panel discussion was about, I was there. I learned a lot from very talented people. I got my card in to each one of their hands afterwards and discussed not only what Sales Department does, but how the information they just shared helped me. And, it did. Most importantly, when they need an expert in the Sales field…who might they call?

NO. Not Ghost Busters. ME. YOU. THE EXPERTS.

Take every advantage you can!