Dreams do come true with a combination of persistence; chutzpah, luck and networking all rolled together as one.
This wonderful journey of networking started when I joined VCPWN in February of 1997. Soon after joining, someone suggested that I contact Milt Wright & Associates, Inc. in Chatsworth. They do organizational design, training and development along the lines on disability awareness that is my focus.
I figured that the best way to get to know someone at Milt Wright was to order a book from their catalog: The Job Placement ADA (Americans with Disabilities) Connection. After reading through part of the book, I planned on calling to get to know one of the workers. Milt Wright was doing their own marketing and Lynda Jean Groh, from Milt Wright called me. After talking on the phone every week for about two months, I talked Lynda Jean into meeting me for lunch in Thousand Oaks at Roxy’s(my treat).
Through the development of a genuine and close friendship, Lynda Jean has also given me advice on ways of better marketing myself to the public. Image through brochures, folders and business cards is vital.
Through surfing the web, I am always amazed what a vast resource library it is! I found out through looking at Milt Wright & Associates, Inc. website at www.miltwright.com in May of 2001 that a conference was taking place in Oxnard in the early summer of 2001 about ways “Employees could Shine”. I was able to come to the first morning presentation. Then at lunch, I met Dianne Owens, the Vice President of Curtis & Associates. Curtis & Associates cosponsored the event. They do employment communication consulting. With Diane, I talked about my disability awareness game.
Diane Owens and I kept in touch over the summer. She talked about me, my game and my website to Bryan Kuntz, who is the Assistant Director-Product Department for Curtis & Associates, Inc. in Nebraska. I was able to look at Curtis & Associates, Inc., website at www.selfsufficiency.com.
In September 2001, Diane Owens invited me to a breakfast and talk put on by Curtis & Associate, Inc. in Oxnard. After the Keynote talk, I was able to talk with Bryan Kuntz. I gave him a copy of the Call Me Capable© game rules and all the game questions. When I called Bryan in mid October, he said that he was forwarding my game material to Dr. Franklin Rubenstein in Connecticut of Franklin Learning Systems at www.franklinlearning.com.
Then on November 1, I talked to Franklin and he said that he was very interested on working with me on the further production and eventual publication by the end of 2002 of the Call Me Capable Game ©.
Thus, what a difference a network makes! Continue to network. It does pay off! Dreams do come true.
April 2002 VCPWN Focal Points