CNO 2.0 Venue and Details

The venue for tonight’s CNO 2.0 meeting was “Ollie’s Place”. Thank you to Mike Schwartz, the owner, and the rest of the team at Ollie’s.

http://www.olliesplacedayton.com/

Jean Pummill, CNO club secretary, introduced today’s guests and gave information about our club to our guests. Many of today’s guests were members of the H7Network.com networking Group.

There were 52 people at the meeting (29 members and 23 guests). Notable attendee was Sue Armstrong, the OI Ohio District Governor-Elect and a member of the Kettering Noon Optimists.

Mike Schwartz, Ollie’s Place

The first speaker this evening as well as our host was Mike Swartz, the owner of Ollie’s Place, a business he started in 2013. He started his career as an electrical journeyman, however, he decided to buy a carry out store and turn it into a specialty beer store. He had an extra challenge on this quest because during it he was diagnosed with Lymphoma in 1983. Mike was in chemotherapy when Belmont Party Supply store opened in 1984. The doctors designated him disabled for life in 1984. He didn’t accept that diagnosis and is still working today.

Mike also owns Schwartz Beer with beer and wine making supplies and kits next door to Belmont Party Supply. The stores are located on South Smithville Rd, south of Watervliet Ave.

Not long after opening he started bringing in craft beer. His store was ranked 24^th in the U.S. and 38^th in the world! He started losing his place in the rankings. He figured out that other establishments ranked higher because they served food. He and his team decided they also wanted to go to the next level and that is why Ollie’s Place was created.

Ollie’s Place has thousands of choices of beer and whiskey. The name Ollie’s is in honor of his beloved grandfather.

Ollie’s Place slogan and goal is to provide “Great food, great beer and great cheer!”

Clayton Hicks, H7 Network

The second speaker this evening is the founder and CEO of the H7 Global Network.

Clayton started the business at the age of 29 in 2008 with $200 while he was a single father. The networking business started in Franklin, Ohio where he graduated from high school in 1996. The H7 Network has now spread to a total of 12 different states.

He told us he doesn’t do any standard marketing of his business, he uses personal relationships.

What is H7? H7 is a system for finding people that you want to work with and learning business building techniques. H7 facilitates an individual’s business growth. The structure of a meeting can be described as a group that is like an enlarged one-on-one meeting. A key to successful networking is more about giving than taking at meetings.

Some Quick Facts he mentioned during his presentation.

He has had more than 3000 one-on-one meetings beyond group meetings.
He has 104 team leads that report to him.
He couldn’t have built H7 to where it is without his wife and COO Angel Hicks.
You need to build a good reputation to build good relationships.
His goal is to have a long lasting positive impact on every person he meets.
One of his first locations to hold a meeting was in downtown Centerville at Panera Bread.

Clayton said he is more, Ready, Fire, Aim, instead of Ready, Aim, Fire. Google has several articles about entrepreneurs that work using this concept.