Why do you have a profile here?
Mark Norman
Lifetime Wine Lover, mostly retired wine professional. Future Centenarian living a focused life! Experimenting in nutritional farming for the purpose of living a healthy lifestyle, fulfilling a vision and a passion!
According to the latest count there are about 720 million members on LinkedIn. It is a business network yet after a dozen years with a profile I have run into many individuals with many different reasons for being here.
For those of us who are active, most end up with a significant number of connections. I am blessed to share over twenty-six thousand connections. Since what professionals do change over time, it is impossible to keep up with each of my connections by reading their latest profile. I believe that periodically we should reach out to the community at large, introduce ourselves and state why we are here.
Are you looking do find new business? (What kind of business?)
Do you seek help growing your business?
Are you just trying to keep up with your industry and discover new information?
Are you here trying to make new contacts within your industry?
All the above?
I have found over a lifetime of business that it is usually the information that you don’t have that hurts the decision-making process. The best way to prevent that is to communicate. Personally, I seek contacts in Wine & Spirits, Farming (specially vineyards), Food & Beverage, Food Production, Hospitality, Restaurants, and Leisure, Travel & Tourism. I belong to over 50 groups, 30 groups (primarily with a wine focus) I have started and grown (total membership exceeds 50,000). Over the last several years I am even trying to learn new languages (especially Italian).
My business partner and I are developing a new approach to promote, market, and sale artisanal food and beverage products around the world, but with a focus on the US markets. The US 3-tier system does not work for small producers to enter this market let alone gain market share. Part of our vision is to organize small US importers and wine stores like wine associations.
Those who love good wine usually also love good food and travel! I see these three elements as being crucial for success. Right now our focus is to build a solid network of professionals who can work with us as we develop our strategy.
If you don't exchange information you will never learn anything new!