Persistence Pays Off

In this weeks saga of the ongoing triligy of the Ray Chronicles we will take a look at how persistence, in the face of adversity, always pays off. In this case the story is about the "Lovely Mrs Ray".
Linda has been the most loyal employee of a yet to be named design firm in the Las Vegas valley. She has studied and shlept around after a very talented designer for many years. Never has she gotten the true credit that she had deserved for her contributions in their company.

Project after project has allowed her to hone her skills not only as a designer but as a true leader in the field. When the specter of her leaving the design team came up, many of the employees told her that her talents would really be missed if she were to leave the company. Truth be told, Linda's talents have not yet really matured because of the overshadowing talents of her partner. He really is talented.

Well, fast forward. Linda decided that it was time to start her own company. We submitted all the right paperwork and vioula la we are now Linda Ray Design. No sooner had we hung out the proverbial shingle than we landed a small but greatful client. On the same day as we were speaking with the first client, we were informed about another. And within a few days we were offered the possibility of working with an investment firm, who promise they will keep us up to our eyeballs in work!!!

This is almost too good to be true. As we were driving home from our meeting with the investors I turned to Linda and said, "God is really rewarding us for our faithfulness". She said, "Boy I wish I hadn't complained so much during the whole time."

The great thing about God is that He understands that we are all human. We are whiners and complainers and frail and all that stuff but there are those that are sincerely just voicing their hurt and frustration. That is my Linda. She is the greatest and that is why I love her.

Here's to Linda Ray Design. May God look down on this business and use it to glorify Himself.

Motivation Means Everything

It's been a wonderful past few weeks. I've seen much growth not only in my business but also in myself. We've added to our numbers by shear fortitude and admittedly a bit of luck. The most striking thing that I have to point to is the learning experience that I was priveledged to witness. Let me elaborate.
As many of you know about 10 months ago we started a networking group. It's called the Diversity Networking Group. The whole idea behind starting such a thing was that Linda, my wife and I couldn't find a networking group that we both could be a part of. Many of you have heard this story before but I will get to the main point shortly. Well, after many months of working with a handful of business owners, neither Linda nor I (at the time I was an insurance agent) was able to get one referral from our group. Everyone else was making money off of the referrals that they got from the group and also us. Linda and I, though we were the heads of the group didn't share in the growth monetarily.
Turn the corner...I decided that we would put on an Expo and highlight our businesses in the process. It was like pulling teeth but I was able to get 90% of my group to opt-in to the Expo. Big deal. This is where I started to see a crazy thing.
I went to visit other networking groups to gain some insight into how to correctly market and structure an Expo, networking group and stuff like that. What I saw was jawdropping. One group in particular had taken the concept of MLM to the extreme. They literally had clothed their MLM in a networking group. Everything was built around their product. All of the other business people that they embraced became lemmings for their MLM. It was incredible. The degree of self-promotion was sickening.
Now I'm not here to say that all that this particular group did was wrong. They were able to mentor and encourage the people that they touched but in the end let's just call a spade a spade, it was all self-promotion. As a matter of fact everything, down to the very colors that they used in their marketing oosssed of this particular company.
This was something that I didn't want to be said of me and my networking influence. I went out of the way NOT to self-promote because that wasn't something that I was raised to do. Maybe that is something I am doing wrong. Maybe I would be richer today if I stuck my smiling puss on everything that I was involved in but deep inside of me I just refuse to do that. I've made a pledge to my folks that I was all about them and that's where I draw the line.
So in the end I've grown alot through the last few months. We've lauched a new business that already, potentially has some humungous clients wanting to use our services. We've expanded our existing business by double since February and the Expo we are hosting is gaining some traction in the marketplace.
Now if I just could do something about SELF-PROMOTION...


Sherman Ray is founder and President of Diversity Networking Group. He is also a Leadership Mentor and Vice-President of Linda Ray Design, an Interior Design firm located in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition he is a Team Leader for Kaching Kaching, an online retail marketing company. To contact Sherman write to info@diversitynetworkingroup.com