Two Ways to Get Naked

As small business owners keeping the pipeline full is an ongoing priority. It’s taken my business partner and me years to navigate thehow to’s of working with large companies and government departments. Our firm has obtained certification with programs like the Women Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), Encouraging Diversity Growth & Equity (EDGE), and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE).

These programs give us certain business and marketing advantages. Each of the accreditations involved a long process for approval and while they haven’t yet opened a lot of doors for us, they do give us alicense to hunt. In our experience, having these acronyms behind our name doesn’t cause new prospects to seek us out, but it does provide a bonus to those with whom we do business.

The most effective strategy in helping us get new business has been havingchampions, or people other than the decision maker who know, like and trust us. Champions are wonderful at opening doors and turning cold leads into warm ones.

You can meet champions all sorts of ways, such as at networking events, at association meetings or though existing relationships with current clients or long-time vendors. If someone is happy with your work or thinks well of you, it’s easy for them to recommend you to those they meet seeking your product or service. It doesn’t matter exactly what their job is, if they like you they will pass your name along.

As colleagues you work with change jobs and companies, stay in touch. Often these folks become important sources of new clients. If you’re cold-calling, get in the good graces of gatekeepers. The idea is this: have someone else do the selling. Messages delivered through third parties are always more credible and believable. If you’ve never thought about who the champions for your business are, sit down and make a list. Find and nurture your champions and your business will truly thrive.

This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author bio are included.
2010 Catherine Lang-Cline, Portfolio Creative, LLC.

Catherine Lang-Cline is co-founder and owner of Portfolio Creative, a workforce innovation firm that was named the 326th fastest growing company in the U.S. by Inc. magazine in 2009. Portfolio Creative helps companies streamline and innovate their creative work to save time, energy and money. www.portfolioiscreative.com

Two Ways to Get Naked20939Two Ways to Get NakedIntimacy in our committed relationship. It can be so elusive. Sure, you get snippets of it here and thereenough to make you long for the real deal. You get glimpses of what achieving the Nirvana of connections is all about, You want it. You crave it. You even know what it takes to get it. Too often, however, the desire for intimacy is overcome by fear, the fear of being naked and exposed in front of someone who has the power to hurt you when you are most vulnerable.

You can experience physically intimacy with your duds ona hug, a kiss, holding handsbut the ultimate intimacy is sans clothing, skin-on-skin, lights on. To be naked in front of another person is to be exposed and vulnerable. Even the most secure of us will think twice about shedding jeans and tee-shirt if the last time you did, your sweetheart said,You oughta do something about that gut. Being clothed makes us feel protected and allows us to hide what at least we perceive to be our flaws. This is even more so when it comes to emotional intimacy.

You canto a pointbe emotionally intimate with mentalclothing to protect those bits and pieces of your life that are painful, embarrassing, or shameful. When you are willing to go only so far, however, you cheat yourself of a truly intimate connection. It’s human nature to hide those things we fear will affect how others (especially our sweetheart) feel about us. To experience that deep connection we all crave, however, you have to strip down to emotional vulnerability. Let me give you an example:

Julie and Darren had been dating for several months and one night were lingering over a bottle of wine, sitting on the floor of Julie’s living room, fingers intertwined. Soft jazz was playing in the background and they were talking, still getting to know each other. Darren could be described as a man’s man. Julie referred to him as her Marlboro Man, just the kind of guy she liked. He was active in sports and Julie speculated that he was the guy who always ended up as the team captain. When she made that comment, Darren went quiet for a moment, and looked at Julie as if he were engaged in an internal debate. She raised her eyebrows as if to say,What? Darren kissed her fingertips and then began telling the story of how, when he was in the Army going through basic training, he was chosen as the platoon leader. A couple of guys in the platoon took a disliking to Darren and one night filled his shoes with human excrement, discovered by Darren only when he went to put his shoes on. Threats against Darren resulted in his being segregated and protected from the rest of the platoon until the situation was resolved.So much, he concluded,for being the Marlboro Man, and then said,I’ve never told anyone about that before.

In telling this story, Darren let Julie know that there was much more to him than the Marlboro Man exterior that she found so attractive. He took a big emotional risk but, oh boy, did it pay off. Julie was so touched that Darren had entrusted her with this story, she fell more madly in love with him, vowed to always be worthy of his trust, and knew that Darren was worthy of her trust as well. It was a moment, for both of them, of the kind of intimacy that is the hallmark of a truly great love.
Trust to the tenth power is what makes both physical and emotional intimacy possible. To give it and to get it, get naked.

Shela Dean is a Relationship Coach, Speaker & Amazon Bestselling Author of Frequent Foreplay Miles, Your Ticket to Total Intimacy, available through Amazon and Shela’s website.