About a year ago, i decided to hit LinkedIn pretty hard and build some quality connections. As my network started to grow, i thought it was time to start a community of like-minded individuals...so i formed a LinkedIn group called: Triathlete Business Network. My intent was to build a forum where triathletes could join and discuss anything related to the business world; triathlon or otherwise. The only stipulation was that you had to be connected to tri in some way. I sent out 20 invites and 9 months later, our group has grown to 547 members!!
The demographics of our group are very interesting...on the age-group side, we have many business owners and c-level execs. On the pro side, we have current and former world-champions at every distance. And on the triathlon-specific business side, we have founders and partners of just about every major multi-sport company. If you can think of a major player in the world of triathlon, they are probably represented in our group.
I honestly did not think it would grow to the levels it has become. I thought we'd have a major representation of coaches and age-groupers...well i'm completely wrong!! We have coaches looking to instruct, nutritionists looking to give out advice, pro's giving open water tips...we are now starting to see a lot of entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of developing new products for our industry. The discussions are amazing and center around everything related to triathlon.
What amazes me the most is how easy it is to talk with anyone in our community. Do you think Tiger Woods or Alex Rodriguez or Payton Manning are joining LinkedIn groups?? Is David Stern and Roger Goodell responding to questions about the state of their sports through an open forum?? HELL NO!!! Yet, we have their equivalents in our group looking to help out anybody with a tie to triathlon...simply amazing.
If you have a moment, hop on over to our group...you'd be intrigued at what you see: Triathlete Business Network on LinkedIn
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