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The Power of Community

May 24, 2003

Author: Gary Shawkey  
 
Article: 
We are all members of communities. We all naturally 
associate with LIKE MINDED individuals. We know people near 
our homes and many people online as well. For now, let's 
focus on your PERSONAL community, the people you know and 
who know you. 
 
What we need is to LEVERAGE the POWER of our community. The 
three steps outlined below will help you to begin. If you 
REALLY do it, you will begin to benefit from the tremendous 
power that is already in your hands. This is not a quick 
fix program but you will benefit from it for a lifetime. 
 
First, get a pad and pen or an open word processing page. 
Think for a moment about the people in your world, both 
online and offline. Who do you speak with, meet with, 
exchange email with? What do you get from them? What do you 
give to them? How did you come together? Write down EVERY 
NAME and leave space to make notes next to their name. Once 
the list is made, get ready to take the POWER STEP. 
 
Mark out the people you do business with now and next to 
every name remaining note down four things. First, what do 
they do for a living? Second, are you like minded with 
them? Third, how can they use what you do? Fourth, on a 
scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being lowest and 5 being highest, 
how close are you to them? Next, look at each name on the 
list and think through how you can expand your relationship 
with them to include doing business with them. TIP: 
Thinking about what THEY do helps you see them as a 
complete person, not just a prospect. This will actually 
help you BETTER UNDERSTAND exactly how to approach them. 
 
Next, take the top 10 names on the list and in the next 
five days take a concrete step that moves you toward doing 
business with them. Maybe they need more information about 
what you do. After you have finished with the top 10 move 
on to the next 10 until you reach the end of the list. 
During this process be sure and look carefully for LIKE 
MINDED people. Once you have completed this process a time 
or two you will notice that the size of your community has 
grown. Expect it to grow more the more effort you put in. 
 
THE BOTTOM LINE OF COMMUNITY 
 
How can a community of like minded individuals help you? If 
you get nothing more from this experiment than developing a 
group of contacts that can help you evaluate opportunities 
and give you HONEST feedback you will be way ahead of the 
game. If, however you persevere and find that community of 
like minded people, you will reap the rewards for years to 
come. 
 
About the author: 
Gary Shawkey has tapped the power of LIKE MINDED 
individuals to not only skyrocket his success but gain 
peace of mind in the process. Visit him today at: 
http://www.bizoppalliance.com/index.cgi?id=1

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