It’s been a busy week. And it’s only Wednesday. I guess that’s what happens when you are open to opportunity and putting yourself out there.

I instinctively approach building a business the way I would build a campfire. First, I scavenge about and collect some small, dry twigs and leaves. Then, I find some slightly larger branches that are also very dry. Then, I find just a few medium-sized pieces, perhaps with some nice dry white birch bark still on them. I arrange all the collected material into a tepee and light it. When it starts to catch, I would add the small branches and listen to the crackle. At a certain point, the little fire is raging and you can throw the medium stuff on it. Then, you go looking for some larger logs.

While meeting with a client this week, I was closing a second project and introduced to what I hope will be a promising third – all within the span of a few hours. And there are still some scheduled meetings to come this week. My little fire is starting to grow.

Tonight, I cleared the decks and attended Edmonton’s premier networking event hosted by the Synergy Network. Maybe 600 people were jammed into a downtown hotel with the sole purpose being to meet and talk to each other. There were no boring speeches, no fundraising pitches, nada. Just pure unadulterated networking. Everywhere you turned, someone was saying hello or introducing you to someone else.

For a guy offering consulting services to practice professionals and small firms looking for effective social media strategies, this crowd had the fuel value of a stand of trees ravaged by pine beetles. Everyone was happy to talk about social media – probably because they are thinking about it daily and trying to figure out how to make it work for their business. Far cry from the days of selling insurance and trying to figure out how to tell people what I did so they didn’t run screaming in the opposite direction.

Social media is rapidly changing so many aspects of sales and retention, marketing and public relations – even basic interpersonal communications – that virtually everyone needs to be thinking about how to get a handle on it. Unless they are retiring in 5 years.

One of the oft-repeated recommendations of the social media gurus is to get out more. Social media types tend to spend too much time in front of their computers or iPhones and not interacting – not socializing – enough with real people in real places. And then there are others – hopefully they will become my clients – who need assistance learning how to make time so they can spend it in front of their computers and iPhones more.

There is a happy medium for everyone and I will help you find yours.