It is impossible to know when the relationships you are nurturing today will come back to serve you tomorrow. In the meantime, sow the seeds of dependability, professionalism and being in the service of others.
I am standing behind a double pleated curtain, my heart thumping, my mind racing for I am about to step on stage in front of an audience of 2000 people as their conference Emcee. Don’t get me wrong, I have emceed on many occasions, but not for 6 months in a row! Oh wait, that’s a Sixteen Candles reference. I have emceed on many occasions and it is something I love, but I’ve never done it at this magnitude with so many lights, cameras, and action. I even had a “makeup” outcher upper.
I owe this incredible moment to a professional relationship that started back in 2003!
In 2003, upon moving from Vail to Denver after my “two year working vacation” I secured a concierge job at the historic Brown Palace Hotel. As a concierge you are looked upon as someone who has their finger on the pulse of the city, knows the best restaurants, the best clubs and has the best ideas of what guests can do to entertain themselves. I can’t say if I was all those things but I do know that I took my job seriously, always worked hard to deliver a valuable experience to our guests and made working with me easy for the leadership team.
Fast forward 15 years and I am a fledgling professional speaker attending a meetings industry event. Imagine a conference designed for event and meeting planners put on by event and meeting planners, super meta right!
It is during the awards ceremony that a name from my past falls upon my ears. It’s the name of my former Brown Palace manager Sidney Stoper being recognized for his contributions to the industry.
Come to find out, Sidney had moved on from hotel management to doing sales for a production AV company to eventually becoming the executive producer.
Sidney and I reconnected at the “meta” conference and followed each other’s careers until this year, when we had the opportunity to work together. You see Sidney knew the meeting planner for the 2000 person event was looking for an emcee who took the job seriously, always worked hard to deliver a valuable experience and was easy to work with.
All those years ago I had built relationship equity with Sidney. We had gotten to know, like, and trust each other through stories, shared experiences and strong work ethic.
It is impossible to know when the relationships you are nurturing today will come back to serve you tomorrow. In the meantime, sow the seeds of dependability, professionalism and being in the service of others.
At Articulated Intelligence we help you enrich skills that build relationship equity. Reach out, we can chat about the skills you'd like to develop.