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Making The Business Connection
An Interview with John Luna

slide 3

How would you recommend for a new program that has never done this before to get started?

- Look at your own networking sources:

o Family members
o Someone from another company
o Churches
o Social circles
o Business circles (e.g. Chamber of Commerce)

- Look locally and break it down.

- Build on the network of trust; then it spreads.

Transcript

Interviewer: What would be interesting to hear if you could think back to when you first got started before you had that networking in place and you are thinking about a new program in a community that's never done this before, how would you recommend that program to get started? Because I bet that is what people are thinking about right now.

John Luna: I think sometimes we overlook our own networking sources. It could be a family member, somebody who works for another company. It could be somebody in our church circles, somebody in our social circles, or somebody in our business circles. Whether it is the Chamber of Commerce or any other local [business]. We start with a small circle, and you know those folks around you. So you have to believe in yourself and you ask people, "Who do you know that can assist us in placing folks?"

It is one of those [activities] where you cannot look at it way out on a big screen. You have got to look at it very locally, and break it down. Almost from a house to a block and then spin it in a circle. Then you are enlarging as you go. Also, it is very important to ask the individual that you are serving and ask the family members. Somebody who knows somebody, who knows somebody; it broadens out the circle. You are building on the network of trust. Then it spreads like that. You do one good one at a time.

Interviewer: That is excellent advice John. We should suggest to people, who are listening to think about even how they got their first jobs. It is typically that somebody knew somebody, who knew somebody else.

John Luna: Right. That is a key point. It is that somebody helped us when we first started in our work life. Whether it was our parents, our brother, someone that we knew on our first job that is how we got our job. That is key. Never forget that, because it is basically what we are doing.



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