In 1996 Jerry Maguire, an aspiring sports agent, repeated a four word request to his first and only client: “Help me help you!” And you know where that got him. The feedback gave him the direction he needed to become the one of the greatest sports agents of all time!

Tom Cruise played the role of Jerry Maguire in the movie of the same name, and here’s a clip where he uses the phrase.

Fast forward 20 years – as our friend Ivan Meisner, likes to say, “Take off the bib and put on the apron!” He believes this is the first rule of networking. Today, he is the founder of the world’s largest business networking franchise, IBN.

Networking, whether it’s online or in person, is crowdsourcing at its finest. But having the right mindset to not just borrow from but also contribute to the collective intelligence makes it the most powerful.

The Road to Participation

We’ve been using the crowdsourced navigation system “Waze” for years. It not only gets you to your destination, but it engages the other drivers to report driving conditions, hazards, and even police you can expect along the way. It’s free! And we have been basically wearing the “bib,” just taking the information the other drivers provide, without ever putting on the “apron” and participating by contributing the information we see to help the other drivers behind us. That is until recently.

Evidently, one of the drivers ahead of us alerted the drivers behind her that there was a serious road hazard. She saw the hazard and participated with the app by entering it. It must have just happened because it popped up on our screen just seconds before we were on top of it. The last minute warning came soon enough for us to slow down and avoid it. Otherwise, with cars on either side at 65 miles per hour, we would have hit it. We looked at each other in relief and said, “Wow!” That was fortunate.

To read the complete article, please visit Crowd Sourcing Week

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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