LIMA — The Beatles weren’t always The Beatles. At one point, they were just four guys with lousy instruments playing eight hours a day. Today, decades after they broke up the band, Jane Hight McMurry can be on a plane asking grade schoolers about the Fab 4.
“I said, ‘Do you know their names?’” McMurry said Wednesday. “‘John, Paul, George and Ringo,’ they said in unison.”
McMurry, an author and speaker on effective business communication and business leadership, uses the band to make her point because it’s a universally-understood example of branding. She spoke to the crowd at Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce’s Grow & Reinvent networking event.
“The Beatles came from nothing. They had lots of competition. Their music was not that good. They had crummy instruments. But they had purpose; they knew where they were headed,” McMurry said. “It wasn’t until Brian Epstein got a hold of them and shaped them and crafted a message that they began to become known. They were not an overnight success. My message today is that no matter where you’re from, you can do it.”
The annual Grow & Reinvent at Veterans Memorial Civic Center is important because it’s a deep dive in networking, said Adah Ellerbrock, programs director with the chamber. It’s the chamber’s largest networking event of the year.
“This is where they can build that deeper relationship, ask more questions,” Ellerbrock said. “This is really a way for them to network business to business, with each other on a different level. They’re going to spend a lot of time together.”
Abe Frieson, a personal trainer with 24/7 Fitness Solutions, staffed his company’s booth at the event. The company was using the day to get out the word about its workplace wellness program.
“Most people know we’re a weight loss and fitness center, but they don’t know we can come on site and implement a wellness program,” Frieson said.
McMurry said business people of all kinds must learn to assert themselves.
“No matter if you have a product, a service, an idea, if you can’t sell yourself to someone else, you’ll never get what you want, need and deserve,” she said.
