In Go-Givers Sell More, we tell the story of Heather Battaglia and ExecNet (now Exec Link) as an example of the Law of Value, and of the ability Go-Givers have to create their own economy of abundance during difficult times.
Heather’s story was the flagship example in Chapter 6, titled “Your Economy,” the concluding chapter of Part 1, which starts off with a quote from Pindar:
“In fact, Joe, you’d be surprised at how much you have to do with what happens to you.”
Heather recently sent us an update — and her story is getting only better with the passage of time! Here it is, complete with her update:
In the fall of 2008, Heather Battaglia was a director and vice president at CitiMortgage, in charge of a very successful and profitable division that she saw as recession-proof. Just before the end of the year, as the economy tanked, she was laid off.
“I thought I would have no trouble finding a new job. I had strong academic credentials and an impressive résumé of corporate experience. But as I began going through my connections, cold calling and doing whatever else I could think of to find my new position, no job materialized. A month went by, then two, then three.
“I had never been unemployed before; recruiters were always finding me. Now nothing was working.
“Eventually I got together with seven other laid-off executives who all belonged to a networking group and created an event for executives who were looking for work.
“A couple of people in the group had your book, and they said, ‘Whatever we do for our event, we need to make sure we are helping others and giving first.” Here we were, all out of work — and our conversation revolved around how we could help others find jobs!’
“The newly formed ExecNet of St. Louis adopted a mission statement and a vetting process for new members that included the question, Are you committed to helping other executives first?
“By the spring of 2009, we had over 150 members in our group — and we were all focused on helping each other first. Many of our group had landed new jobs, others were in final stages of interviews, and others were just getting started. Our group was only three months old and already moving mountains!”
Heather and her colleagues were in dire straights — but instead of giving in to recessionary anxiety, they took control of their own state of mind. In focusing their efforts on providing value to others, they created their own booming economy — and it paid off handsomely.
A few weeks after the book appeared Heather gave us this update:
“We are changing our name to ExecLink, and now have standing-room-only monthly meetings with 500 members, and a regular 130+ executives attend the meeting. Can you believe it has only been a year?!
“And here’s the best news: all the original seven founders have landed new jobs and continue to participate in the events.”
The whole story appears as our latest entry in The Go-Giver Scrapbook.
Which reminds us: when are you going to send us your story?
Wow! What a great true story. I would like to create a group as well (a go-giver group) 🙂