Rainmakers understand value of networking

By Bill Brooks

There’s a big rock sitting next to my printer. An oversized paperweight which bears the magic-marker signatures of people I barely know – Lindsay, Dee, Eric, Serina. And the magic-marker words “Be More, Serve More.”

I have this souvenir because I “was rocked” at a meeting of Rainmakers conducted a few weeks ago at the Athenaeum. I was invited by someone I do know, Barbara Milton of Flanner & Buchanan. I “was rocked” by someone else I know, Troy Hanna of ComedySportz.

Getting “rocked” was intended to make an impression, accompanied as it was by Troy’s introduction of me to the gathered throng – a sizable crowd of people from all parts of the city who, thanks to Troy, now know all about Urban Times.

These folks came to the Athenaeum for a Rainmakers luncheon meeting, just one of the 42 events each month intended to boost networking opportunities.

Urban Times editor, Bill Brooks after being "rocked"

Because that’s what Rainmakers is – a business networking organization. When first I heard of Rainmakers, I thought of Rotary Club, a service organization to which I once belonged, in another city. Rotary was formed over a century ago to bring business leaders together for purposes of community service; Rotary’s networking opportunities are obvious and acknowledged, but the group’s distinct purpose is service.

Rainmakers, as a networking tool, is Rotary on steroids. Business cards are aggressively exchanged. People float about, interacting. not totally unlike a singles mixer. Amid such interaction, I met Dave the print company owner, Phyllis the reverse mortgage specialist, John the lawyer, Janet the business consultant, Dee the contractor, Jan the owner of an oil-and-lube firm, Anita the insurance agent, Kathy the sign-maker, and Lindsey “the writer and caffeine addict.” Printer; hmm. Writer; hmm.

After lunch, a Rainmakers official guided each table in a networking exercise, gauged to tell us what we all had in common. One commonality not mentioned, but which I noticed: Most of us were self-employed, while few were members of large organizations. What we have in common is our knowledge that business doesn’t always fall in your lap. Networking is key.

Barb Milton said she got involved with Rainmakers because she enjoys “the energetic network of individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit.” Rainmakers, she said, “understand the relationships of how a community grows, how a business grows.”

As director of sales at ComedySportz, Troy Hanna understands the need for cost-effective marketing. “In a world where there is no room in the budget for high-dollar advertising, word of mouth is key,” Troy said. “Rainmakers is word-of-mouth marketing on a whole other level. I use Rainmakers to help grow the business at ComedySportz by creating familiarity at the events and getting people to come see the hilarity that is ComedySportz (although, Troy notes, as sales director “I’m not one of the funny ones”).

Rainmakers literature indicates that the group works to “provide a platform for Indiana business professionals to be more and serve more.” Rainmakers organizers say they “view networking as a chance to find a relationship that will bring you an annuity stream of business rather than a one-time sale. We look for long-term strategic relationships.”

The organization – which draws an average of 60 people to each of its 42 events a month – has several stated core values, including “welcome everyone; create strategic relationships; hold members to a higher standard; inspire members to achieve profound goals; and find and recruit the next generation of Rainmakers.”

The idea, Rainmakers literature said, is to “make networking fun and productive,” with an emphasis on the “and.”

Barb Milton is involved with Rainmakers because she likes the focus on productivity, noting the organization takes steps to let its members understand how to network. She also likes the idea that Rainmakers keeps it local. “They understand that different communities have different needs.

Barb also likes the monthly “main event,” which she said “is like a family reunion. You get to see how large we’ve grown – but it also brings you back to ground zero.”

I think back to a time about 15 years ago, when I stepped out of newspaper employ for the first time in my adult life. As I pondered the perils of self-employment, I didn’t fully appreciate the relationships I had built up across the state through 2½ decades of state and regional newspaper meetings and conferences. I had been networking, and before I knew it my consulting enterprise was flourishing.

I have networking – and the power of reputation – to thank for that. For many others, Rainmakers could take them down the same road. At the very least, you meet some interesting people.

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My top-ranked pet peeve continues to be people who think they can drive while engrossed in a cell phone conversation, while I duck and dodge my way to safety. But a close second, these days, are reckless bicyclists.

I myself am a pedaler, riding mostly on errands around Downtown. That’s where I routinely see bicyclists riding the wrong way on one-way streets and generally doing other stupidities. But the most troublesome act is the running of red lights – a crime which happens with disturbing regularity.

If bicyclists want to be taken seriously – and the city is doing exactly that, continually making our streets friendlier to bicycles – they absolutely must take the rules of the road seriously. We need a major public relations campaign to tell bicyclists of their responsibilities. Stop riding against traffic – and stop running red lights!

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When the nominations for Biggest Waste of City Money come in, the city’s street-sweeping activities should be up for the award. As my example, I cite the 600 block of East Street, where every so often city workers come through to post “No Parking Tuesday” or “No Parking Wednesday” signs. The owners of the vehicles parked in that block – primarily residents of the two apartment buildings flanking the street – ignore those signs for two reasons: They perceive few options for where to move their cars, and they know there’s no penalty for not complying. And so they do not.

Subsequently, in the middle of the night, the street sweepers buzz down East Street, sticking to the driving lanes because of all of the parked cars. The curbs stay dirty, and the city gets poorer. If it weren’t so expensive, it would be very, very funny.