"There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish something." - Thomas Edison A couple of weeks ago when leaving the Highland Park Village Starbucks (the absolute best place for who's who Dallas people watching) with one such who's who, we bumped into another who's who on her way in for a cup of coffee before her oh so terribly busy day. I had not met this woman before, but had heard her name. She had of course left her business cards in her Lexus so I did something I never do, gave her one of mine without asking for some way to contact her. Over the past couple of weeks I managed to track down an email address for her and sent her three email with no response. Each email was very professional and in perfect form. Today, being a feisty mood, I said to heck with it and wrote an email without some sarcasm and inside joke humor that dropped all pretenses of etiquette and then filed her contact info in the trash. Three minutes later I had a response from her and a meeting set for coffee. Just goes to show, outside the box is way more fun and productive sometimes.

As of last Friday I am officially a Rotarian. I joined the Rotary Club of the Park Cities here in Dallas and it just so happened that I was introduced as a new member and gave my new member speech the same day. I think that I may be at least 35 years younger than the average age of the club. But there is really nothing that I enjoy as much as gleaning wisdom from those that have it. During my new member speech I got the chance to talk about something that I am quite passionate and very well versed in.... Me. I worked in almost all of my "bits" and have received a very favorable response to my 5 minutes.This morning, as part of my new member process, I attended the executive board meeting for the club. As a guest I was introduced but was there to observe more than to share my opinions. I have to tell you that I have never bit my tongue quite as much as I did this morning. The subject of the meeting was networking and how to foster continual growth of the club through mutually beneficial introductions. That is what I do! Even though I was one of 3 people in the meeting without gray hair, I feel like that is something that I have had more experience than most in and it is something that I thoroughly enjoy. But I bit my tongue never the less and in hushed tones after the meeting offered my assistance to the two committee chairs that were sponsoring the motion. There is no better way to attract people to yourself and to your organization than to put money in their back pocket because they came. Networking and building synergies amongst like minded people is the quickest and most effective way to make your world smaller and your network larger.

This Tuesday I had the pleasure of hosting a dinner party to introduce Steve Kent, the co-founder of One Key, to the city of Dallas. Steve is the COO and head of One Key's New York City office. He founded One Key with his business partner out of Boston, Jay Sapovits.The dinner was incredible and the setting perfect. We were treated to an amazing meal and even better wine selection picked out by George Calderon at the Dallas Fish Market. Mike Hoque, the owner, sent an order of Chef Randy Morgan's off the menu oysters and spoke with the group just prior to the 4 course meal beginning. Chris and Rachel Trowbridge were kind enough to introduce Carole Hoffman and Darrell Tanelian to the group. These two couples have known each other for quite some time and now are neighbors in West Highland Park. Chad Cook, of MHT Partners, was joined by his lovely girlfriend Nicole Kapioltas, they both arrived straight from the airport and we were so glad they made it. Heather Wiese-Alexander, owner of Nest in Synder Plaza was joined by her associate Lauren Bryan-Knight who heads up their couture stationary line, Bell'Invito. One Key's innovative product the Travel Card was quite the hot topic of conversation around the table with each of the guest offering their opinion on where they would love to travel to if they were to board a plane today. With so many destinations to choose from with One Key, it wasn't any easy question to answer.