Your Iconic Image : What Do You Want to be Known For?
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ED Dudley\\xa0
We Are Connect-ED
ED is a collaborative connector, servant leader, community builder, social entrepreneur and public speaker.\\xa0With over 20 years in financial services arena in various positions such a Senior Vice President, he left the corporate world and founded We Are Connect-ED, a business consulting and professional networking firm with a mission to be a bridge to form strategic alliances, partnerships and collaboration for all humanity.\\xa0
ED\\u202fis very active in the community and serves on several nonprofit boards such as Board Vice President of\\u202fSwingPals, Intermin Board Chair for\\u202fUnited Against Slavery, Co-Founder/Steering Committee member of\\u202f100 Men Who Give A Damn, Director of Diversity & Inclusion for the Financial Planners Association of the Triangle and Co-founder of Shining Light In Darkness
www.weareconnect-ed.com
https://www.facebook.com/weareconnected1
https://www.instagram.com/weareconnect_ed/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareconnect-ed
I spent so many years in financial services and I loved it\\u2026had a good career\\u2026.but I was so busy chasing the dollar and chasing the title\\u2026.but when I formed Connect-ED, I found my passion.
I live my life by a very simple phrase\\u2026Give and it shall be given unto you.\\xa0So my part of giving is \\u2018let me know how I can serve you or your network.\\u2019
It\\u2019s all about uplifting people.
It\\u2019s not about the money for me.\\xa0Money will eventually come.\\xa0Money comes and money goes.\\xa0But\\u2026getting a message that says \\u2018Ed, that was an amazing connection.\\u2019
I\\u2019m all about connecting people to other people, opportunities or resources.\\xa0Or what I call PROs.\\xa0And\\u2026if I can do that, I feel great.
I was part of a networking group\\u2026Nate Brown, Networking with Nate\\u2026I want to go somewhere and make it a little more diverse\\u2026.I completely shifted from the way I was going to do it to the way you see it now.
My spark\\u2026was\\u2026David Baum\\u2026.a light went off in me\\u2026I\\u2019ve been doing this all my life but I haven\\u2019t been intentional with it.\\xa0Now I\\u2019m intentional when I connect someone together.
It\\u2019s always the fear of the unknown.\\xa0We don\\u2019t know what\\u2019s around the corner.
That\\u2019s the problem.\\xa0I got real comfortable.\\xa0
We are all about helping people build strategic alliances.\\xa0And I don\\u2019t care if that\\u2019s in your professional life or you personal life.
It started off as connecting business leaders and entrepreneurs together in a safe space.\\xa0It was about bringing the quality people together\\u2026but slowly\\u2026there was a shift in my mindset\\u2026what I noticed was\\u2026people need to be connected to each other.\\xa0So we opened it up\\u2026
We do it across several cities in several states\\u2026.and I\\u2019m hoping we will be on another continent by the end of the year.
I was having one of those rough days\\u2026this entrepreneur called me\\u2026I just gotta thank you because you introduced me to this resource that I never knew about and this is going to change the way I do business\\u2026what I thought was something small, was huge to her.\\xa0And that just gave me so much joy.
I get pure joy being able to serve someone else.
I believe the universe will give you what you need when you need it.
I know some people that are very strategic and everything has to be A,B,C & D.\\xa0Me?\\xa0I just jumped in and figured it out. And I\\u2019m still figuring it out.
If you have an idea or something that you want to do?\\xa0Just jump in it.
There\\u2019s so many free resources for anything you want to do\\u2026.you can go to YouTube, you can Google it, and you can create a business, a side hustle, a hobby, whatever you want to do it\\u2019s at your fingertips.
Don\\u2019t worry about trying to plan so much that you miss the boat.\\xa0I know people that have been planning for years and never done anything.
FEAR: false evidence appearing real.\\xa0
We\\u2019ve had some of the best meetings with only a handful of people because we were able to dive deep.
I don\\u2019t let fear stop me from doing anything anymore and I try and tell people, don\\u2019t let it stop you\\u2026.fear will paralyze a lot of people and then you\\u2019ll look a year, three years, five years, ten years have passed and you\\u2019ve been stuck in the same place because you were scared.
I divide my network into 3 categories\\u2026my ABC\\u2019s
My A\\u2019s are my Advocates\\u2026
Next are my Builders\\u2026
My Consumers\\u2026
I\\u2019ve disconnected from a lot of people simply because they were what I consider \\u2018users\\u2019.\\xa0You don\\u2019t have to do something for me?\\xa0I\\u2019m ok with that\\u2026.but if I see that you\\u2019re not trying to do something for someone else or all you\\u2019re trying to do is about self-gain\\u2026
People will actually put themselves in that group\\u2026so I in turn try to be advocates for certain people.
In financial services, it\\u2019s all about the numbers.\\xa0The bottom line and the revenue.\\xa0And I got tired..what about people?\\xa0Not from a monetary standpoint, but in life as a whole?
I\\u2019m not a numbers guy any more.\\xa0I wake up in the morning\\u2026.who can I serve today?
I\\u2019m on a mission this year to serve 1,000 people\\u2026it might be just an introduction, it might be buying somebody a cup of coffee\\u2026
At the end of the day, we all have to put a roof over our head and food in our stomach.\\xa0So a lot of times we do what we can get paid well for as opposed to what we\\u2019re passionate about.\\xa0And that\\u2019s where the struggle happens.
I still struggle with the virtual\\u2026I\\u2019m looking forward to the day that we can actually sit\\u2026shake a hand.
We have Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, New Orleans, Dallas, Bethesda, I\\u2019m working on Arizona, Africa and Pittsburg.
Mostly everyone that is hosting these cities are small business owners, but they have to lead with a servant side. \\xa0
DEI Done Differently\\u2026I partnered with an organization called Love is a Parable\\u2026that focuses on love, random acts of kindness\\u2026let\\u2019s talk about it from a lens of where we are today.\\xa0What can we do to more effectively bring people together\\u2026
Bringing people together.\\xa0It\\u2019s as simple as that. \\xa0
Our tag line is : building meaningful and lasting relationships one person at a time.
First, determine what that is.\\xa0Determine what you want to do\\u2026figure out how to do it\\u2026start it.
Michael Jordan \\u201cSome people dream about it. Some people think about it.\\xa0But some people just do it.\\u201d\\xa0Sometimes ya just gotta do it.
I don\\u2019t want to be the biggest group.\\xa0I want to be the most impactful group.
Stay true to yourself.
My wife and I want to build a house in Africa.
A shield and a sword.\\xa0You can call me centurion Ed if you like.
www.marlanasemenza.com
Audio: Ariza Music Productions
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