Social Capital Mentor

Social Capital and Inauthenticity

One of our readers recently brought up an issue that I think deserves its own post. It’s the cause of much misunderstanding regarding the development of Social Capital and why many people have shied away from actively working to increase their portion of it. It’s not an easy issue to talk about so I ask [...]

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What Makes Us Different

We’re not academics. While we enjoy intellectual debate, we’re not doing this to make a point. Mark, Craig and I want to help people through Social Capital. All of us had to learn to negotiate the business world the hard way and want to save others from the same pain. Success for us isn’t measured [...]

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Avoiding the Chopping Block: Internal Networking

When people talk about networking, they are usually referring to something external. If they’re a hard skills-type of person like an engineer or scientist, they tend to think of networking as an activity for “salespeople” and other less-evolved beings. This is absolutely the wrong attitude, especially for the current time. In our current times of regular [...]

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Is the Power Lunch Dead?

Michelle Goodman, of ABC, wrote an article The Death of the Power Lunch that suggests that people are foregoing the power lunch in place for other less costly activities. We love articles like Michelle’s. They help you think about why you’re doing what you’re doing. What are your goals for this lunch? Are you doing lunch [...]

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What is Social Capital?

Social Capital is the quality by which a person’s perceived savvy, acumen and grace provide access and opportunity in the world. Ultimately, it is the solvency of the Self. David Bransten Director, Documentarian Like the other, more commonly understood forms of capital (financial and intellectual), Social Capital can be accrued or banked. Like all sciences, it can be [...]

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How to Network - A Networking Event Process

Maybe you already know how to network You’re right at home at a networking event. You recognize the importance of a strong social network. You’re the King of the Elevator Pitch and you can small talk over cocktails and appetizers like you were born idle rich. But beyond a very impressive stack of business cards, what do [...]

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Is it Popularity or Social Capital?

Craig forwarded me an interesting posting in the Wall Street Journal concerning the importance of office popularity. You might think you left the world of cliques and in-crowds behind when you left high school. You’d be wrong. The benefits of being popular extend all the way into the adult workplace, based on research in the latest issue [...]

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Develop Your Social Capital; Turn Contacts into Relationships

Tony Adam just wrote a great post about the quality of your business relationships on his awesome blog. I’ve been thinking all day about his words and I can’t emphasize how much I agree. I think we have the same goal here: to help people realize the power of Social Capital. It’s definitely not about [...]

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Social Capital Seminar in San Francisco Feb 24

We’ve just been asked to run a short seminar at Sasha Vasilyuk’s Meetup group next week. We’re going to cover Social Capital and how it relates to some timely issues: surviving the recession, presenting yourself well, closing more deals and conducting a successful business lunch or power lunch. Should be fun and informative. If you’re [...]

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Avoid the Chopping Block: How to Keep Your Job in a Recession

The statistics are grim. According the the Department of Labor, the month of January alone saw the unemployment rate rise from 7.2% to 7.6%. In terms of lives, that’s around 598,000 directly affected. It’s anybody’s guess how many are indirectly victimized by the recession. Over the last 12 months, the number of unemployed people has [...]

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