Welcome to the first post of someone on the inside of the world's largest networking organization!

Welcome to my blog everyone! Before we get going, I just thought I'd give you some of the basics. I'm a professional twenty something in the great state of sunny California who loves her sales job. I can sell ice to Eskimos, a comb to Mr. Clean, and a razer to a Rabbi. In the very very beginning of my career, my very first boss told me that I should try to join a BNI group and that people get a ton of business from there. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, so I Googled it. www.bni.com

I still wasn't really sure, so I emailed one of the directors for more information. It turned out that there was a welcome breakfast within days of my email. So, I went. I met a lot of people that day and decided to join. It was at this breakfast that I learned what BNI was all about. It's a wonderful networking organization designed to get a group of professionals in a room for the sole purpose of passing referrals to each other, esentially expanding everyone's sales teams. The thing I really liked is that there is only one person per profession in each group. No competition.

So, I signed up. A new group was forming and it was at lunch and not at 7am (I am sooo not a morning person!), so I gravitated over there. Finally, a couple of weeks passed and we had our first quasi-meeting. I began to question what my role would be in the group. I was clearly the youngest member and I was very concerned about not being taken seriously. But, weeks turned into months and finally we were an official chapter. I was getting referrals and closing deals and all was well.

And then I decided to sign up for committees. I was on our membership committee for a year or so. I was forced to learn the ropes of not only my role, but also that of the Vice President. And making a very long story short, here we are. Now, I am the VP.

The reason for this blog? Well, first of all, I can't remember a thing, so I try to document my life so one day I can go back and remember how I ended up whereever I end up. But, more importantly, I'm hoping that you find this blog interesting, entertaining and informative. I'll try to make it fun which shouldn't be hard considering the cast of characters I deal with officially on a weekly basis, but ends up being more like a daily occurrance.

Hopefully this post was not too dry. I'll try to moisten it up for the future. :-)