Bridge to Brisbane

Stephen and Stewart, happy after completing the race!

Several of our members participated in this year's Bridge to Brisbane race. Our team was led by our director Stephen Page and assistant director Stewart Jones.

Our T shirts were provided courtesy of national director Catherine Lonergan, who called on the skills of a Leads Club member at another chapter to design the shirts.

"It was another wonderful race. Even if not racing, the spectacle of the day was more than worth the early start," said Stephen.

"I thought it would be much more arduous than it was. I had a great time," said Stewart.

National Director in town

Leads Club Australia national director Catherine Lonergan was in town on Saturday, and our director, Stephen Page, was lucky enough to catch up.

Catherine was in Brisbane for the first Australia and New Zealand Dubli conference. DubLi is a web platform originating in Dubai. It is a world wide online trading firm. It is composed of two very unique and individual business models; DubLi.com - a reverse auction portal for high level branded merchandise and DubLi Network - the business opportunity where anyone can establish their own business in a competitive market; with little if no risk.

Visit to Whittier Leads Club

Our director, Stephen Page of Harrington Family Lawyers recently spoke at Whittier Chapter of Leads Club in Los Angeles.

Richard Montano, Stephen Page, Lisa Bentson, Mark Villalobos

Those attending Whittier Chapter included fellow guest speaker Lisa Bentson, director Mark Villalobos, and assistant director Richard Montano.

Stephen spoke about our chapter, and how he became involved in Leads Club.

Whittier Chapter is a thriving chapter at Whittier, which is southeast of Los Angeles, but about 30 minutes north of Anaheim. The chapter was founded 15 years ago. Members were keen to give each other leads, and the number of leads (and their value) were monitored so that the success or otherwise of the chapter and each member in it was able to be measured. It was clear that networking within the club had been so successful that in addition to the business each member gave to the others that friendships had evolved.

Members spoke positively about a recent mixer involving the local chamber of commerce.

Lisa Bentson is the president of Ali Lassen's Leads Club and is the daughter of the founder, Ali Lassen. Lisa was the other guest speaker on the morning, and quickly engaged with chapter members.

Lisa and all the members of the Whittier chapter were friendly and inviting. Stephen was made to feel very welcome. Well done!

Upcoming mixer

Although Brisbane Central Leads Club is a business club, designed to grow each member's business, we also like to meet socially once a month. We call this a mixer. The purposes of this are:

• for the members to see each other member's business
• see how they do business
• increase trust and camaraderie among members, and
• therefore generate more leads within the club.

This month the mixer is being held at Rob Caughey's Action Coach at Morningside at 6pm on 29 June. All are welcome.

Top 5 ways of growing a business using a blog

There are five top ways of growing a business by using a blog, according to one of our members. Stephen Page of Harrington Family Lawyers and author of the Australian Divorce Blog and the Australian Gay and Lesbian Law Blog said those ways were:


1. Create a blog that has a name related to your field of expertise.

For example, if you know about widgets, you might call your blog Simply Widgets.

2. Post items on the blog regularly.

There need to be regular blogposts. Don't let the blog go stale- no one will look at it.

3. Show your expertise in your field by the content of your blogs.

Stephen authors two different blogs: one focussed on divorce and family law, and the other on a different market- those of LGBTI people. The contents of one do not necessarily refelct the contents of the other, given their separate market positions. What is written must reflect your expertise and reputation. Write something knowledgable and you will appear knowledgable. Write something trashy, and you will probably attract clients you don't want.
 

4. Google remembers


Your reputation may be lost very easily from a blogpost. Assume that everything that you write will be viewed forever: all your typos, grammatical mistakes, or worse, any unprofessional content. Google and other search engines will scoop it up and serve it to any prospective customer or employer.

5. Link your blog to your other online presence

A blog is not the be all and end all of an online presence. Work out what works for you. When you do, makes them all work together. Stephen uses Linkedin and Twitter, in combination with the blogs to put out a more powerful message.