Past, present and future Caerusnetters will be enjoying a fun day of golf and networking on Friday, September 23rd at Mystic Creek Golf Club in Milford, MI. Click here to register individually or as a team – and/or to be a sponsor and join in the fun!
ReferralTopia 2022, the premier professional development and live networking event, organized by Caerusnet, will be happening this year on May 19th from 9AM-12PM on Zoom. Later that same day the ReferralTopia 2022 afterglow & Caerusnet member party will be in-person at Ginopolis SmokeHouse in Brighton from 4pm-7pm.
Do you like to take your headphones with you when you go for nice walk or workout at the gym? How about that windshield time in the car? Podcasts are super popular these days as people can discover amazing content that you simply just won’t find in the legacy media. For the past many years, I’ve discovered some great podcasts from Caerusnet members.
These podcasts are with the people I care about and the benefits of learning from people you know, like and trust is immeasurable. Personally, I’d like to mention just a few podcasts that I’m a big fan of. They are the “So, you’re in sales?” podcast by Caerusnet member, Roger Burnett. His podcasts are very structured and fit well within a 30 min walk or drive most of the time. Also, I’m a big fan of Brighton Wednesday 10AM Caerusnet member Jason Tracey from Roar Consulting. Jason’s podcasts on “Coffee & Grit” are very free flow, like a Joe Rogan Experience and you never know where they’re going to go. Jason is great and helping people share their vulnerabilities. And also, Caerusnetters, Anglea and Don Putkela, and their real estate podcast, “Welcome to Livingston” is super great!
In 2022, I’m proud to also introduce The Caerusnet Podcast. I hope you will consider adding this to your Spotify favorites! What could be better than learning how to grow by referral than by learning from our Caerusnet peers? The first five episodes of are ready right now for your listening enjoyment! The episodes feature some cool, unique Caerusnet members. Also, learning from top performers and learning from the 2021 Caerusnet Team MVPs (20+ of them join us in one podcast) who authentically share their Caerusnet experience and tips for success with the entire network.
What’s your favorite local podcast? Want to be on the podcast yourself? Have a great success story to share? Please share your responses with me by clicking here!
Stay connected,
Caerusnet Founder & Facilitator
Caerusnet founder and facilitator, Steven Zyskowski interviews Caerusnet Brighton Tuesday 8AM team member, Penny Wilson, owner of A Path 2 Transformation. Caerusnet treasures the diversity of businesses that are making a difference on our facilitated referral teams in Michigan. Be sure to give this a watch:
Click here to connect with Penny
https://apath2transformation.com/
Enjoy these bonus pictures of Penny’s property and her special horses:
Katie Blacker from Michigan SEO Group has been an active and welcoming Caerusnet member on the Ann Arbor Tuesday 11AM team since first joining in June, 2018. In addition to writing digital content for her company’s clients, she also helps Michigan SEO Group with local relationship marketing. She’s athletic and competitive and is involved coaching a high school volleyball team. She very rarely ever misses a Caerusnet meeting and is active in helping grow her Caerusnet team. She stood out last year as the team’s 2021 MVP. We recently had a chance to connect with Katie about her success.
How long have you been in your profession and what is the best thing about your business/career?
For seven years now, I’ve loved every minute of helping small and medium sized businesses grow. Especially working with family-owned businesses and learning why they’re the best at what they do – 
it’s incredibly rewarding.
How are you different? Michigan SEO Group really strives to help businesses with presence, care, and compassion. We not only work for our clients, we form personal relationships with them and we never treat them like a number on a spreadsheet.
What is it about the Caerusnet model that you like most?
I love that Caerusnet cultivates relationships. In the years I’ve been at Caerusnet, I’ve made great friends, not just partners in referrals.
Share a success story about why giving referrals/bringing visitors are beneficial to you.
Giving referrals and bringing visitors to Caerusnet fits right in with our vision at Michigan SEO Group – helping businesses grow and thrive. When I can bring someone to our team or pass a referral, I know I’m helping that business succeed.
Any tips on learning how to find situations where you can create a referral or invite a visitor?
Active listening is so important. Many organic conversations don’t include the buzz words we look for to pass a referral, but maybe the person is saying it in a different way. If they’re talking about struggling to get the word out about what they do or if they’re having a hard time generating interest, the answer could be visiting a Caerusnet group.
What is your approach to positioning yourself as a resource in the community?
At Michigan SEO Group, we know that there are so many facets to being successful at marketing and SEO. It is generally very overwhelming for most business owners to take on themselves. Our goal is to be a resource for businesses in the community gain knowledge from, even if they don’t ultimately end up working with us. We believe in being abundant and sharing what we know is the recipe to help others succeed.
Tips on how to be successful in Caerusnet?
Have a positive mindset, be a good listener, and practice great attendance! Even if you don’t pass a referral at every meeting, being in the meetings regularly shows the other members you’re dedicated to the team.
Click here if you’d like to connect with Katie.
Additional resources:
Website: https://www.michiganseogroup.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourSEOteam/
In this episode of Staying Connected, Caerusnet founder, Steven Zyskowski interviews Livonia team Facilitator, Kevin McGuire. Kevin shares why he facilitates and what he enjoys most about facilitating a Caerusnet referral team. We wish 2020’s best new Caerusnet Facilitator the absolute best as he continues to grow team Livonia and add more teams to his footprint over the years! Want to connect with Kevin McGuire? You can book time with him here: https://myreferralteam.com/
Wendy Griest absolutely loves kids, community, and connection. As a person with high empathy, Wendy thrives on building positive relationships with others and loves nothing more than creating long lasting, beneficial relationships. As a Caerusnet networking veteran and a person with marketing vision, Wendy saw an opportunity to bring joy into her community with her new business, Party in The House. We had a chance to connect with Wendy and learn more about her new business and how it all got started. If you have been ever been searching for a unique way to throw a party or truly impress your significant other with a creative picnic for two, Wendy would love to help make your memory forever lasting!
How long have you been in your profession and why did you start this business?
I have planned parties for family and friends for over 20 years and now I do it professionally. Party in the house began as an idea based on universal need for human interaction and familiar fun during an unprecedented time. Covid has rocked the world literally in our country 
seemed more divided than ever. Our communities were hurting. Parents were and are still hurting because their kids are confused and unable to see extended family and friends, or even go to school at some points. Daily routines have been significantly disrupted. Weddings, birthday parties and even simple date nights were limited and restricted. Some small businesses closed or came close to closing and I just knew that I could make a difference in those areas.
What is the best thing about your business/career?
We have been blown away by the response from our clients, their friends, and our community. We have had moms cry out with joy. Watching their little kids and seeing their expressions when they see their party for the first time brings us so much happiness. These parties have been great for kids to get back some sort of normalcy this year a party like ours is a way to remind your kids that they can still have fun with their friends and family but safely.
How are you different and/or what is your niche?
We have themes to suit adults and kids of all ages. Our most popular packages are kids slumber parties, adult slumber parties, charming indoor and outdoor picnics, moms or lady’s night out, date night in, and ‘mommy and me’ parties. We have many more themes broken up by age group on our website at www.partyinthehousemi.com and we do allow custom themes, for an up charge, if what we offer doesn’t suit your needs perfectly. We also have a lot of add-on entertainment from games, arts and crafts, character visits, karaoke machines, popcorn and cotton candy makers to cooking classes, psychic readings, cocktail making classes, Dj photo booths, mini photo shoot, private chefs and more.
What is your approach to positioning yourself as a resource in the community?
Giving back is everything to us. Our “Parties for a Purpose” program allows us to accept nominations for someone in your life who is going through immense hardship, illness, loss of a loved one or any life altering tragedy. We pick one winner each month for a free party with all the bells and whistles as our way of spreading hope, cheer, and joy. We aim to be a source of joy and happiness for everyone as we have all struggled through a truly crazy year. This program allows us to help those in need in a way that will brighten their spirits and it fits our one true mission which is to create and spread joy and smiles.
Share a success story about why giving referrals/bringing visitors are beneficial to you? Just today in my Caerusnet team a visitor was attending who is a DJ. It just so happens we are looking for a DJ vendor. You never know how the person you are bringing could connect and benefit those in your group. So, what do you have to lose by inviting them? Nothing!
Can you share how your Caerusnet members have positively influenced you or your business beside passing referrals?
I have been a Caerusnet Members for many years now. It is so inspiring to hear other Members sharing their successes and challenges. We are very real with each other. Caerusnet has given me so much in both my professional and my personal life. I’m an entrepreneur and I can’t see my life without Caerusnet in it. It has blessed me in so many ways.
What do you like best about being on a Caerusnet online team?
I have been a Member for many years and was accustomed to meeting in-person. However, the online platform is so convenient for my busy lifestyle it is hard to not see the benefits of doing it this way
Your thoughts on passing referrals and inviting guests to the meetings?
Referrals are so important, whether big or small. There are so many ways to collaborate to benefit the people on your team for referrals. When you have a guest attending, you may think they will connect with certain members and be surprised at how many additional members are affected by their visit! Someone who recently visited one of my teams was not somebody I could connect with directly however they had so many people in their circle that they connected me with that I was able to add much needed vendors
Want to pass Wendy a referral for Party In The House? Click here!
Health coach and yoga instructor, Emily Vanderhovel, joined the Caerusnet Brighton Tuesday 8AM team in September, 2020 – six months into the pandemic. She was invited to visit the team by Dr. Aaron Banister from Two Roads Wellness (the chiropractor on the team and multi team MVP). He recognized that Emily was getting ready to market her business locally and that he held the key to inviting her into his referral universe at Caerusnet. This was especially valuable during a time when making new connections was difficult. We had a chance to speak with Emily to get a sense of what she’s experienced in her first nine months of Membership with Caerusnet.
I originally started going to yoga to help heal a shoulder injury and ended up finding so many physical AND mental benefits from it. I was hooked and decided this was something I was very passionate about and wanted to share with the world!
Watching people heal in different ways! Some physically, some mentally. It is so inspiring watching people who are new to yoga or who think their bodies aren’t “meant” for yoga see just how awesome and capable their bodies are!
I love teaching in a way that is very gentle and fun for every age and level! I am trained specifically in accessible yoga, chair yoga, and dementia yoga on top of my RYT-200. I love working one on one with people to find custom movement that feels good in their body.
The more we get to know each other, you find just how much you may have in common with someone in a completely different field than you. You find how, together, we are stronger and connected. Between Member Minutes and Trust Builders, you can really get to know people on a more personal level and build a strong rapport with one another.
Always show up and even more importantly, show up as your authentic self to attract your ideal clients! People can easily read through inauthenticity. Be you and be proud of what you do!
I had a trust builder with another Member who has been doing this much longer than me and was able to mentor me on ways to help build my business and gain confidence in myself as well!
Want to connect with Emily? Here’s her website: https://evotoevolve.com/
Approximately 200 local Michigan small business professionals registered to attend ReferralTopia on Earth Day, April 22, 2021. The event ran from 9AM-3PM on Zoom and was followed up by an in person mixer at Ginopolis Smokehouse in Brighton, attended by approximately 50 networkers. ReferralTopia attendance was attended by approximately 50% Caerusnet Members (past, present and future). The other 50% found out about ReferralTopia due to social sharing. They worked together to plant the seeds of new referral relationships.
The line-up of live speakers at ReferralTopia was second to none. Steven Zyskowski, founder of Caerusnet and creator of ReferralTopia, kicked the day off with an inspiring presentation and gave instructions on how to based tackle the full day of networking. Doug Moffat, owner of The Moffat Group (leadership coaching and defensive insurance specialist, Caerusnet Facilitator in Brighton, Ann Arbor & Detroit), kicked the day off with an amazing presentation about Humble Inquiry. Later in the early afternoon, best selling author and entrepreneur, Lisa Mininni, presented on Human Wiring. The final presenter was best selling author, TedX speaker and Forbes contributing columnist, Stan Phelps. Stan is well known for his best selling Goldfish series of books and his presentation was about “Lagniappe” – doing the extra, little things that add up to a differentiated experience. To watch the replays of these presentations, click here: https://caerusnet.com/referraltopia-2021-live-presenters-replay/
In addition to live presenters, the business expo featured 17 expo exhibitors! A diverse group made for great networking. The exhibitors were: Karl Carter, Thunder Bay business consultants; Eloisa Underwood, Perk Pros text message marketing; Brian M Truskowski, transitional life coach; Tom Hamp, Open Book Selling; Clark Keller, Data Driven Marketing; Hassan Hodges, Hassan Hodges Photography; Daedra & Brian Surowiec, Strawesome; James Linenger, Financial Architects; Kristy Scholl, Flagstar Bank; Valerie Kearns, Paychex; Amber Keyes, Keyes To The Kingdom; Charlotte Kaye, Charlotte Kaye decluttering coach; Barbara Zinser, Charles Reinhart Realtors; Mike Ooink, Ap
plied Imaging; Jessica Starks, Transworld business brokers; Kevin McGuire, representing Caerusnet referral teams & Roger Burnett, Social Good Promotions.
After the full day of online networking concluded approximately 50 professionals went to Ginopolis Smokehouse in Brighton to attend the afterglow. All attendees walked away with free 20 oz Caerusnet / ReferralTopia torpedo glasses, compliments of Caerusnet and Social Good Promotions. In addition, Strawesome made awesome Caerusnet glass straws to give away as a keepsake, well.
ReferralTopia took a lot of planning to pull off. There was no format to follow, so, as usual, Caerusnet blazed a new trail. This event would not have been possible without the commitment made by the ReferralTopia planning team: Julie Palmer, JemEvents; Roger Burnett, Social Good Promotions, and Minesh Baxi. Thank you to all who attended and promoted #ReferalTopia2021. We can’t wait to do it again next year! Save the date for ReferralTopia2022: Thursday, April 21 (Earth Day Eve)!
Caerusnet founder, Steven Zyskowski was recently interview by Kris Hingst of Krommatic Marketing in Brighton on the “J K Podcast” to discuss how Caerusnet was named and the concept of farming vs hunting. Both of these short videos are worth watching!