Month: September 2013

Hello! I wanted to say a special welcome that was longer than 140 characters, and let you know what to expect for your follow… I am on Twitter with a purpose. You won’t see pictures of my lunch, or me with celebrities or my kids making cute faces (much). You WILL find content on:

• Fundraising, philanthropy and charitable giving
• Business, management, strategy and leadership
• Networking, career and personal development
• Learning to use Social Media for Social Business
• Local content on Toronto , Canada

You’ll find other social feeds and my mission statement HERE This is not a social profile. It’s 95% business ( 5% Other ) I am obsessed with the future of “Social Business” and “Social Profit” and I’m excited to find more business and fundraising professionals who are too.  I help tweeps with career development, job searches in the end – I exist to help passionate professionals succeed. So please, engage and share your wisdom and stay in touch. Thank you for investing your time on twitter with me! Enjoy this quick video on ‘social business’  Paul Nazareth

I have read almost 150 books on networking, passed 10,000 of public speaking time, volunteered for thousands of hours for charities washing floors, cooking food and being on boards, I’ve raised millions of dollars to help, change and save the world and I’ve coached a few hundred people to personal success. I’m often asked why I don’t write a book. This book is the answer why I don’t need to. When I first read this book, it was so in tune to my beliefs on networking, business, fundraising, community development that I got through it in less than a couple hours and scared a couple people in a coffee shop shouting “that’s it!!” a few times. I’ve been waiting for a book like this for years. ROI – Wow I hate this tiny little sharp, overused, passive-aggressive phrase. But it’s what everyone knows is behind our goals and ideas. Nikki has put together a book that addresses the networking and business solution for my personal trifecta of social good: 1. Associations: Boards of Trade, professional associations, community based member groups. They are the backbone of our for-profit and social-profit world but in 2013, honestly, most of them are struggling to get members and stay relevant. Nikki has dedicated one third of the book to them, and her solutions are practical but current. I gave copies of this book to my favourite associations with the note “this will save you”. 2. Charities: Nikki is a proud member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and is an exhibitor/sponsor of several chapters. She has worked with them through her business sigma promotions and I must say has a keen understanding of the philanthropic ecosystem. I’m asked so often about how charities can leverage networks, personal and institutional for revenue – one third of this book is for you. 3. Entrepreneurs: I personally feel that business and charities are a bad match. Corporations have influenced good grassroots organizations to become as sluggish, ineffective, bureaucratic and meeting-over-moving-focused. Charities and entrepreneurs were made for each other!! This third of the book, about the pure steps to making profit using today’s social-media technology and networking techniques is a powerful read for all three readers. This book is not going to be a New York Times best seller. Nikki’s business is not publically traded, she doesn’t have a limo or private jet. But y’know, so many of those authors are more focused on selling the book then on your success, so many of those big businesses are dead weight in our economy and Nikki is a successful business owner who has thrived while giving back. She and my network agree on the definition of success, that triple bottom line between profit, community and the earth. I couldn’t recommend reading a book, or meeting a person more. As the end of 2013 approaches, will you hit your goals? Nikki can help. Thanks for spending your time with me today!              Paul Nazareth

Click here or picture for today’s Paulcast. 6min Thanks for investing your time with me today! Stuff I mentioned:

• What is netwalking?
• Nilofer Merchant: Sitting is the new smoking
• My first group netwalk
• Why Starbucks rules for networking
• Why Moleskine note books rule for networking
• Following up after networking
• Mitch Joel’s book : Ctrl + Alt + Del
• Two great netwalking articles: 1 & 2

Let’s make our meetings move! Thanks for listening,     Paul Nazareth

On vacation this summer ( see ‘my break from business books’ ) I wanted to read something different, but that still taught me something of value in my career – note I didn’t say work – something that would help me evolve into who I want to be. So many of my mentors, my personal board, encourage me to read biographies. But with the exception of two great biographies, Nelson Mandela and Frank Sinatra – no business leader bio’s ever felt like “must reads”. Until the recent death of Steve Jobs. Here was a guy who had changed the world, certainly my world. Someone fascinating who I didn’t really know that much about except that he loved “walking meetings”.  And I’ve been obsessed ( mostly thanks to Seth Godin ) about what does a business professional look and feel like, expressed as an “artist”? The book does not disappoint. It’s almost 600 pages but it moves quickly through every aspect of his life, challenges, strengths, gifts and weaknesses. I learned so much about things I care about – business, life, loss and what it takes to make great things, and make things great. It was at the same time that I visited a place I usually go to think. The Art Gallery of Ontario. There’s a room, that I have walked by a number of times that struck me on this visit. A fascinating immersive room dedicated to world renowned artist David Milne. In it I got to delve into the mind, the life of an artist in hundreds of different ways. It was a powerful perspective-shifting experience that helped me understand how I could adapt this thinking to the life I’m trying to build. My deepest thanks to those who donated to and created this amazing space. My last read on this vacation from traditional business books was a treat, something I’ve been dying to read for a while now. Andrew Zuckerman’s “Wisdom” advice from artists, musicians, scientists, thinkers from around the world. I sat in this place, and just devoured the thing I seek most in this world –—the life-learned wisdom of people who have made the world a better place. A vacation from books, with books.        So pick up Steve’s bio before Ashton Kutcher and Hollywood messes up his memory. Learn what was behind every one of these funny and thoughtful moments and this now legendary Standford speech…. In the mean time, visit the AGO and I leave you with…some Wisdom. Paul 

I used to be a long weekender. But time has marched on, being a Dad x 2 now and having a job that engages every part of my brain, pushed me to take a break this past summer. But I realized… I kind of forgot how! Now it’s no secret I’m a business book addict ( if you haven’t seen my blog on the topic here it is ) and many of my peers know me as the “social business” guy. But with endless events/evenings like this even I know, it was time to disconnect. So I took the digital vacation but it was really hard to have this time and not use it to read. Now, I was a staple at the nightclubs in University, but libation + gyration no longer provides me with euphoria or peace. It was then a mentor gave me permission to read fiction again. A random tweet had reminded me that my favourite artist Douglas Coupland had put out a book ( about the disappearance of bees and our over-connected culture ) and had published an awesome lecture-story he told about the end of the world on radio across the country.   Recently great article hit the pages of Canada’s national magazine Maclean’s asking “Do Books Have the Power to Heal?” Darn right they do. My brain had been circling the drain for weeks, frustrations, negative thoughts, challenges were gumming it up. I gleefully read several thousand pages in 4 days ( if you haven’t read Steve Jobs’ biography, it’s worth it! ). One night, I sat outside, under a veranda in a thunderstorm engrossed in a book…I looked up and realized. Wow. I’m clear. I came out the other end of my vacation mentally refreshed, happy, rejuvenated and excited at the brain-reset and the creativity it jumpstarted! This is your brain on fiction indeed. As Lisa below tells the TED folks, books have power in life. It’s a nice reminder that the office and cubicle crowd have much to gain from it too. So – tell me dear reader. Who is your favourite fiction author? CanLit celebrity Margaret Atwood just put out the final book in her latest trilogy – Thanksgiving approaches… Thanks for reading, please, share in the comments below! Paul