OS 66: Interview with Sandy Papavero

Sandy Papavero works with excited entrepreneurs who have a passion for their business but might not have the experience to manage the financial part of their business. Unfortunately most entrepreneurs I meet aren’t even aware that they are driving themselves into debt, or at least leaving themselves open for massive financial stresses in the future, simply because they didn’t understand the business of their business. The Interview Transcript Ep 61, Interview with Kelli Holmes Hugh Ballou: Hey there. This session of “Orchestrating Success: Converting Your Passion to Profit” is an interview with my longtime friend, Kelli Holmes, a longtime friend who I haven’t seen in a number of years. We just connected on email and said, “Let’s tell people what we need to know about getting outside of our office to connect with those people who are so important to our business but we don’t know.” We call it networking. Kelli, welcome to my podcast. Kelli Holmes: Thanks, Hugh. Wow. Fantastic to be here. Great to see you. Don’t we love technology? We can see each other with being thousands of miles apart. It’s great. Hugh: I’m in Virginia, and you’re where in California? Kelli: Just outside of LA in a sleepy town called La Verne. Hugh: Oh yeah. We in the South think California is another country. Kelli: Sometimes in California we think California is another country. Hugh: Kelli, tell us your company name. It’s a really cool name. Kelli: TEAM Referral Network. TEAM stands for the motto “Together, Everyone Achieves More.” Hugh: I love it. What does this company do? Kelli: We primarily help small business owners, entrepreneurs, and independent contractors—those in some way, shape, or form responsible for generating their own success—by teaching them how to network effectively and build valuable business relationships that can build and grow their business. It’s really through the power of relationships and referrals. We are known for networking groups and events. Our marketing path is through the word of mouth and networking opportunities. Hugh: Awesome. There is a crossover here. I teach that leadership is basically building relationships. I talk about the pathway to revenue is built on relationships. Kelli: Absolutely. Hugh: Communication is based on relationships. There is a hand and glove with my methodology and what you actually do in real life. How did Kelli get interested in building this networking business? You have been doing this 19 years? Kelli: No, 15 years. We just celebrated our 15th anniversary last week at our signature event. It’s an annual event, but last week’s event we turned into a 15th anniversary celebration. I have a very typical entrepreneurial story. 15 years ago, knowing that I loved this type of business and working with entrepreneurs and there is a lot of networking groups and choices out there, how do we build a better mousetrap so to speak? We decided to start TEAM Referral Network based not only on the premise of better networking and relationship building and referrals to grow your business, but also how to insert better technology. 15 years ago, there was a different picture in terms of the technology landscape, and we were able to be pretty cutting edge with what we brought to the table and to put heart into it by working with nonprofits. We have opened hundreds and hundreds of chapters of TEAM Referral Network, and our goal is to plug in a nonprofit to each of those chapters, donate the membership to them, teach them to network, and connect them with a great group of businesspeople in our community to further their organization. It was adding the community outreach plus technology on a traditional theme of networking events and groups that started TEAM Referral Network. Hugh: I love it. What is your secret power that brings energy to networking? Kelli: My personal philosophy is a lot of people confuse networking with relationship marketing.