Director of Business Development, United Way of Central Maryland

>> So, good morning. My name is Sonny Tannan. About May 1st, I just joined the United Way of Central Maryland. So, I'm the new director of business development. So for me, it's, you know, leveraging the expertise of our workforce -- right -- to make sure that taking the historical, the experiential and translating that to something that's meaningful for the companies, and the people, and the business folks, and, you know, the volunteers that are in our community. So for me, it's developing that network or, you know, really cultivating those relationships and finding out where we can be a good fit. Every conversation's going to be a little bit different. But I think there's probably two or three things that should be in every piece of the conversation. There should clearly be a personal connection; right? There should be an introduction. There should be something where, you know, you're genuinely interested in something that this person or this group has done. That's number one. I think there's the meat of the conversation where you want to make sure that you've come into this meeting with the clearly laid out agenda where they know what you're gonna talk about or they've got some things they want to talk about. And we have something that we want to talk about. And then, of course, there's the finale; right? So, there's action items. I think you have to walk away with tier point the specific "ask" or maybe there's something very clearly lined out of, "Well, here's what the next meeting's going to entail and who's maybe who we need to include in that type of follow-up." I think in terms of engagement, I go back to, you know, kind of the different workforce or the generation -- you know, Millennials, GenX, GenY. It's: how do we engage them where it's authentic, where it's something that's meaningful and there's still social impact there? So, I think it's being able to communicate in a way that's meaningful for them and understanding -- of giving them a forum to have that conversation with us. And what they'd like to see us do in the community as well. If it's typically like a coffee or a lunch with somebody in the morning that's at least one or two one-to-one conversations, I'd say there's at least two or three other meetings with organizations or at least a group of people. And it can be a variety of places. It can be at their place of business. It can be at our place of business. It can be out in the community. So a typical day, at least three to four solid and quality meetings. And then a networking event could be anything from a luncheon. It could be something after hours. It can be something at a local startup scene. It could be a luncheon where maybe we have, you know, a key speaker from the NSA or maybe the president of Johns Hopkins. So, it's a variety of people. So that's what's interesting to me is keeping the schedule full and pact. And at the end of the day; I come home and try to wrap up the day, spend some time with my two-year-old and my wife, and, you know, we get set for the next day then.