Went to my first meet up!

[John Spina jr]

Hey all BP members. This morning I attended my first meet up group and it was awesome. 

It was hosted at a local diner and included about 38 of its members who were from many different backgrounds of experience.(Real Estate Attorney, Agents, Contractors, Advertisement, and Consumer Affairs and many others.) I was able to promote myself, I handed about at least 10 business cards, some people just came up to me and asked for one, while others I offered to give to in conversation. I learned a lot about my community and where others that are more successful than me are headed. I also learned that this group really cares about each others businesses succeeding. Everyone in the meeting has received or has ben given many recommendations to someone else in the group. I found that really great, its the small business and large business owners all helping one another in the community. I was very happy to be there and I am looking forward to attending more in the future.

 Let me just explain the nerves that went through me right before I walked in. I was nervous being 28 years old with a brand new business trying to promote and myself as the only employee (for now), I was afraid of looking inexperienced, unintelligent, in front of all those people. Not to mention I was 15 mins late. This meant I had to walk in right in the middle of a discussion which was going to focus everyone attention on me. Going over all of this in my head, standing outside the diner, I started walking back to my car in defeat. But then I stopped and realized that I heard many people say about FEAR. It stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Ive hear Brandon Turner say it many times on the podcasts. 

So after reflecting, I walked right into the diner took the initial hit of interruption tried to be as polite as possible, quietly found my seat and just started listening to the discussion. A few moments later I was singled out and was asked to introduce myself and state what my reason was for attending. Clearing my throat I stood up, introduced myself and spoke slightly about my experience and ended saying that I was interested in networking with others in my community. After that the meeting proceeded for about an hour. It was after the meeting I spoke and met with an architect, a residential and commercial flipper and an owner of a brokerage firm. I handed out cards and received a lot of great insight from people who respected me for coming in and showing vulnerability. 

Hopefully I established some good connections and even better relationships. The reason for me writing this is to show people not to be scared and not to hold themselves back from fear. Don't let fear win. Put yourself out there and share. That is how people have done better than me, where I inspire to be. 

Good luck to everyone!