Funding The Future Today

Networking VS Elitism…

You are probably not an elitist.  But you may have innocently been supporting a profit-making elitist concept without even knowing it.

The pitch goes something like this:  ”pay me $20,000  to $200,000 and I will let you join my club where you will meet only the most important movers and shakers around.”

When invited to attend one such event I was told over and over how very important the other people in the room were.  There was only one problem…I had never heard of any of those folks.

Come to find out they probably had been told that I would be at the meeting and that I was “really important.”   Needless to say someone was selling elitism but I was not buying.

The identifying mark of truly great leaders and statesmen over the years is that they meet people on level ground.  I think Senator Kerry lost his bid for the Presidential nomination because he was perceived as an elitist.

John McCain, who went to school with Kerry and moves in the same circles, did not get labeled an elitist.  Neither of them won the office.  Possibly they are both elitists.  I don’t know.

What I do know is that I make conscious decisions to avoid elitist circles.  My clients are not elitists, my prospects are not elitists, my friends are not elitists.  So, I see no practical advantage in being elitist.

But every so often someone tries to convince me that I should move in elite circles.  Why?

I believe that elitism as a business model may work if you are selling 30 million dollar houses in River Oaks.  For the rest of us, the Internet, email, Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter and all the rest have taken us into the business model of egalitarianism.

So, put on your best marketing face but make it your real face.   Tell people the truth and treat folks with respect.  Don’t “think more highly of yourself than you ought.”

Meet prospects on level ground and avoid groups that leverage off your “importance” to sell memberships or anything else.  Sure you will have to meet some folks who cannot use your goods or services.

But, you will never know who they know who knows someone who does need what you have to offer.  And that referral will be more than a warm lead, it will be a real deal.

Brenda Standlee