Event Review: The Gourmet Gala

What a great event last night at the Midland Center! Community and Senior Services, once again, put forth a great culinary fest!

From the moment you walked in the door and were greeted by a friendly Henrietta Miller to your “second helping” of welcomes from Kelly Ives, Executive Director of Community and Senior Services, the event drew you in and made you feel welcome.

According to Jamie Owens, Community and Senior Services (and known to a few of us as the “singing Viking” and lovingly to the HEB Feast of Sharing team as “the bread lady”), the event was sold out before they even opened their doors. That’s always good news for any event! Sadly, some vendors pulled out at the last (like that morning!) which makes it nearly impossible to fill their spots and is really like “taking money from the non-profit’s bucket”. No pointing fingers in this post and those who were looking for “the regular that won awards” know who we’re referring to!

The vendors that were there were “engaging”, “excited”, “enthusiastic” and absolutely the friendliest! They included: Gerardo’s Bistro, Gerardo’s Casita, Chili’s, Red Lobster, Carino’s Italian Grill, H-E-B, Susie’s South Forty, Starbucks, Charla’s Mexican Food Restaurant, Wall Street Bar & Grill, Olive Garden, Clear Springs Cafe and Hooters. Make sure and say “thank you” to these vendors because they were absolutely delighted at the crowd and were “delightful” participants!

What amazed me the most is how many “owners of the establishments” were there. It was an important event enough for them to be there. The band was excellent and engaged the crowd. The set up of tables was definitely focused on making great connections, facilitated “hugging moments” with old friends, encouraged visiting and was excellent for seeing others and being seen.

Of course, the fave corner was the H-E-B, Gerardo’s Casita, Carino’s Italian Grill area! And that was only evidenced by the huge line for all the tasty items! Not to worry- the line went amazingly fast and was just long enough to establish new friends and connect with old ones.

As you put events forth, especially in preparation for the Midland Chamber Business Expo happening on May 2nd, keep these winning practices in mind….

1. The owners and/or stakeholders were at each booth.

It wasn’t someone who would just stand there being a “warm body” behind the table. They deliberately put their best foot forward. Greeting and welcoming everyone, as if it were their own “store front”, they made every customer (and potential customer) feel welcome.

2. They engaged in conversation.

Each person in line was treated like - A PERSON! Not a number, not just another plate, a person. Imagine that! Imagine if you treated each person that comes to your booth or your establishment as a person. There were true conversations - with questions about food items and ingredients to how it was prepared and what to ask for when they came to their establishment. Each vendor welcomed conversation as opposed to having that attitude of “can’t you see how busy I am?” Kudos to ALL the establishments!

3. Community and Senior Service staff and volunteers HOSTED the event.

They did not run around like “chickens with their heads cut off” or behave as they were “too busy” with logistics that they couldn’t stop. They KNEW WHO their customers were. And, they spent TIME with them. Just like you would if someone came over to your home, they visited, made them feel “welcome”, dished out the hugs and gave their attention. Really, when someone comes over to visit you at your home are they really going there to see you run back and forth to the oven, to do the dishes, to put in a load of laundry, to vacuum, and to replace a light bulb - all so the atmosphere will look “right” for them? NO, they came to see you! The great thing is that the CSS (Community and Senior Services team) did all the stuff they could plan and control BEFORE HAND and were prepared to HOST their visitors.

Congratulations!! Excellent Event! A landslide of “buzz points” to you because you generated LOTS of buzz for future events and your projects!

Take charge -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections. Leadership Branding & Coaching.

Ask Maria Elena! Leadership

“What leadership study or program do you recommend?” - Dolores

Dolores, I highly recommend John Maxwell’s leadership books! “Hands down” he provides the best foundational leadership skills study.  There are many others whose programs I favor when it comes to team building, creating collaborative teams, negotiating and leadership branding.  The basics are always important to build the solid foundation to develop the rest.  “Walk before you run” is important especially with leadership development.

Click here to connect with all of his wonderful books.

And, here’s a great starting point -

21 Laws of Leaderships - John Maxwell

1     The Law of The Lid - Leadership Ability Determines A Person’s Level of Effectiveness

2     The Law of Influence  - The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence - Nothing More Or Nothing Less

3     The Law of Process - Leadership Develops Daily, Not In a Day

4     The Law of Navigation - Anyone Can Steer The Ship, But It Takes A Leader To Chart The Course

5     The Law of E.F. Hutton - When The Real Leader Speaks -People Listen

6     The Law of Solid Ground - Trust Is The Foundation of Leadership

7     The Law of Respect -  People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves

8     The Law of Intuition -  Leaders Evaluate Everything With a Leadership Bias

9     The Law of Magnetism  -  Who You Are Is Who You Attract

10    The Law of Connection - Leaders Touch The Heart Before They Ask For a Hand

11    The Law of The Inner Circle  - A Leaders Potential Is Determined By Those Closest To Him

12    The Law of Empowerment - Only Secure Leaders Give Power To Others

13    The Law of Reproduction -  It Takes A Leader To Raise Up a Leader

14    The Law of Buy-In  - People Buy Into The Leader, Then The Vision

15    The Law of Victory -  Leaders Find a Way For The Team To Win

16    The Law of The Big Mo -  Momentum Is a Leader’s Best Friend

17    The Law of Priorities - Leaders Understand That Activity Is Not Necessarily Accomplishment

18    The Law of Sacrifice - A Leader Must Give Up To Go Up

19    The Law of Timing -  When To Lead Is As Important As What To Do And Where To Go

20    The Law of Explosive Growth - To Add Growth, Lead Followers - To Multiply. Lead Leaders

21    The Law of Legacy  -  A Leader’s Lasting Value Is Measured By Succession

Take charge -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching  & Connections.  Leadership Branding & Coaching. 

TheBuzz101: Standing Still

If you’ve ever picked up or dropped of kids at school, this next buzz tip will make all the sense in the world to you….

I dropped of my son at school this morning and even though all the signage around the lane says “pick up and drop off lane - no parking”, there were still a line of people who PARKED in the lane.

As all the thoughts of, “does anyone know how to read anymore” went whirling through my head, I was brought back to a wonderful quote, “If you stand still in the road, eventually you will get run over.”

How about you?  In your career management or your business plans?  Are you moving, forward, backwards, side to side or what?  Are you standing still, indecisive or unaware in the road?

Just like this morning, in front of my son’s school, these drivers were “unaware” of my frustration or even existence.  In fact, they didn’t even notice that I was trying to maneuver around them.  Now, if I was feeling rather “prickly” today , I could of honked, flashed my lights or started into some physical gestures.  The fact of the matter is that they were sincerely UNAWARE.

For YOU, in order for you to motion into action, you first need to be AWARE that there’s even a need for motion.

As a coach, I coach you into implementation.  So, here we go -

1.  Make yourself AWARE.  Look around, ask around, ask three of your closest contacts, “what are you not aware of”.

2.  Make the decision - is this something important to you that you want to change?

3.  Plot out some ACTION steps that will move you towards what you want or need.

4.  Put a DEADLINE on it.  It will keep you focused and out of standing in the middle of the road.

Get moving!

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections.  Visibility Branding & Leadership Coaching. 

Buzz2Bucks: Trust Is Key

I have had a great opportunity to work with a Multicultural Connections Council that is just “starting up”. It’s a grand adventure to connect with others of different cultures and to learn about their culture and traditions. They are working together on a mission to create an International Cultural Affair much like the huge event that has been happening for 33 years in Dayton, Ohio.

Representatives from the Filipino-Society, the African-American Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, the Native American Society and the Celtic Society, work together to seek out other cultural groups to sit at the table and connect. In developing this organization, they have already determined that the first way they can educate the community at large about their cultures is to create awareness and they are doing it by making VISIBLE their culture, traditions and cuisine.

To read more, click here. 

Take charge….

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections.  Visibility Branding & Leadership Coaching 

Mastermind Moment: Moving Forward

“Sometimes when you’re moving forward you leave the best of you behind.” - Martha-ism

Many times we look at what comes easy to us or is “natural” and we think - no big deal!  Someone long ago sold us on the concept that, “anything worth having is worth working hard for”; or “life’s not easy”; or “you have to work hard to get ahead”.   So, when it comes EASY or NATURALLY we think “not much pain so not much gain.”

That is SO far from the truth!  Build on your strengths!  Build and use those things that are uniquely YOU.  That someone else could work “hard to do” and for you comes ever so naturally.  In his book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, Marcus Buckingham, talks about really becoming and expert at your strength areas and leaving the OTHER STUFF behind.  His thoughts are that is we spend too much time developing our weaknesses that we’ll become a well-rounded mediocre person.

Today, I coached with a group in which one of the members is trying to stretch her comfort zone.  However, in the “stretching” she is losing some of the attributes that are truly her unique promise of value.  And as the rest of us were getting our minds around that, Ms. Martha said it best when she said “sometimes when you’re moving forward you leave the best of you behind”.  Brilliant!  Absolutely brilliant!

Are YOU keeping your best?

Connect to the champion in you….

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections.    Visibility Branding &  Leadership Coaching. 

Ask Maria Elena! What is C-Level?

“I hear the term a lot lately. What does C-Level or C-Ring mean? - Laura

Laura, C-Level or C-Ring refers to the people who are responsible for all aspects of leading a company. Here are the common titles and descriptions of the “C”:

Chairperson: Usually refers to the person who chairs the Board of Directors. In a small company, it will usually be the owner. At larger companies and organizations, it’s an outside person who is a member of the Board of Directors.

CEO - Chief Executive Officer: Responsible for all aspects of the company, including profitability, viability and future positioning. May or may not be the President, also.

President: Responsible for running the company providing leadership and managing the executive team.

COO - Chief Operations Officer: Responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the company and reports to the President and/or CEO.

CIO - Chief Information Officer: Person in charge of the information flow, usefulness and accuracy throughout the company. Usually head of the computer/system department.

CFO - Chief Financial Officer: In charge of financial statements, cash flow, accounting, finance, treasury, auditing, procedures and controls. Formerly known as the company controller.

Executive - Any of the above, may also include Vice President. This is someone with a great deal of responsibility and authority who is responsible for immediate mid and long term results.

Vice Presidents: Those in charge of areas, product lines or functions. For example, VP-Sales, VP-Operations, VP-Purchasing, VP-Legal, VP-Human Resources, VP - People.

C-Level or C-Ring people are required to make companies run well and be profitable. They are trained to manage people, projects and money. While every person has their unique style, as a group, they have some common traits such as linear thinking; object oriented; get their identity through their work; enjoy the status of being C-Level; excellent problem solvers; need people and resources around them; convincing and persuasive.

One of my primary “target markets” are C-Level executives. In fact, I speak, mastermind and coach with them quite often. If I can ever be of help to you, in coaching you to “speak to C’s”, let me know!

With pleasure-

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections. Visibility Branding & Leadership Coaching

TheBuzz101: Holster Your Gun

An important aspect of connecting with others is how you treat them. Some people are viewed as “powerful” or are perceived as having power. Power equals influence AND you are only powerful if you are masterful at connecting with others, inspiring and influencing.

What is power? The ability to get what you want and influence others.

There are some who believe that Power = Control and they do not. Power and control are two totally different animals.

Someone who is powerful is genuinely interested in moving, touching and inspiring others to action.

Someone who is controlling seeks to restrict, restrain and regulate.

Be very cautious when exposed to someone who likes to impose RESTRICTIONS, RESTRAIN you or REGULATE your behavior.

Flip the scenario - now are YOU anything like that? If you are, if you think it’s more efficient to lay down the policies and say “these are the policies - deal with them” or worse yet “get over it!” or if in all your actions, you fail to take the time to gain buy in, build value and gain agreement - then “holster your gun”. Control FORCES someone — and eventually the person being controlled wipes their hands together and says “enough is enough”.

Are people who once acted like they “enjoyed seeing you” suddenly entering the “witness protection program” and are now not available?? It’s time for you to holster your gun, because you body count is growing and YOU are the smoking gun.

If I can help you attain the skills of powerful influence, let me know….

Coach Maria Elena

AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections: Visibility Branding & Leadership Coaching

Buzz2Bucks: Training And Coaching

Investing in TRAINING without COACHING is like buying a car without buying the gas. Where’s the sense in that?

Sadly, often training is invested in “monetarily” and not with the commitment necessary for change. Countless organizations invest in training seminars and workshops, only to have those who attended or participated wondering “how they’re going to use what they learned?” What’s even worse, is that organizations will bring in training providers into their place of business and expect a miracle. If things went well, many attendees “feel good” and yet nothing really changes.

Coaching is NOT rah!rah! or tough love - it is about accountability and helping you be the best version of “you” ever.

Training is identified as important for one of three reasons:
1. As part of regular employee development
2. To expose a group of employees to the same material (everyone reading off the “same page”).
3. To correct a performance gap.

Training is not magic. By itself, it will not change behaviors. Coaching closes performance gaps and is action oriented. Instead of employees having to figure out, “how to connect the dots” of information to implementation, a coach will coach them through how to apply that to their daily job.

That is why any “real coach” will have a plan of coaching actions that stem further than here’s the “one shot workshop” or here’s a “half day or two day - whatever”. It’s a strategy taking them through the coaching process to effective change.

Here are some questions to ask someone you’re considering as a training provider:

1. What results have your clients had from your programs?
2. How are your programs different from ones offered by the “seminar” providers?
3. What kind of materials do you provide?
4. What kind of coaching experience do you have?
5. What is your comprehensive coaching program?
6. How interactive is your program?
7. What tools do you provide?
8. What web-based or interactive follow up program do you provide?
9. What are the typical obstacles participants face?
10. How do you overcome those obstacles?
11. How much time will it take to overcome those obstacles?
12. Do you have a digital portfolio?

If the answer is “I can do that!” or “I can create that!” - Run away. Run far, far away.

Let me know if I can be a resource to you as you choose effective training and results oriented coaching!

Focusing on being helpful to you,

.::Coach Maria Elena::.

Maria Elena Duron

a/k/a The Champion of Connections©

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections

Visibility Branding & Leadership Coaching

Mastermind Moment: Go Slow To Go Fast

“Slow down and connect one person at a time” -Caren-ism

As we start this Monday morning after our community’s spring break, please keep in mind the difference between being EFFICIENT versus EFFECTIVE.

Efficient works well with THINGS.  For example, getting through your to do list; filing your papers; organizing your items; crunching those numbers.

However, treat people like THINGS and you’ll lose them!  Imagine - how much do you “enjoy” being a “number”; being just another check; being just another order of fries, etc?

Effectiveness works with PEOPLE.  Slow down to connect with them, one by one by one, and you’ll move fast quickly with their assessment of your character and competence and within their connected sphere of influence.

Deep breath, now go slow and win!

With pleasure,

Coach Maria Elena AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching and Connections:  Branding & Leadership Coaching 

Mastermind Moment: Through or Thrive

“You are meant to thrive in life; not merely go through it.” - Maria-ism

Yes, that’s my saying, however, it is really a conglomerate taken from several conversations around the CEO Mastermind Table (the Circle of T.E.N.).

So, for this week TAKE FIVE to assess, ask really good questions, to reconnect with yourself and those that matter most to you and to take in a DEEP BREATH as we finish the first quarter of “007″.

I’m taking five!  See you next week….

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching and Connections - Branding & Leadership Coaching