The Leading Entrepreneurs Organistion (The LEO) is taking its Networking for Fun and Profit seminars Australia wide from to March 5, 2009. The LEO founder and CEO, Leo Petrik will be hosting eight seminars in Australian capital and regional centres, starting with Brisbane and taking in Sunshine Coast, Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra, Newcastle, Port Macquarie and ending in Coffs Harbour. Mr Petrik formed The LEO in April 2006 as an events management and seminar company. “It evolved because business networking had not been effectively taught, structured, tracked and supported until now,” said Mr Petrik. “We have identified six primary psychological road blocks, and their associated solutions, to effective networking that will change the business networking landscape.

“No other organisation uses our information, so that all existing networking information constantly revolves around the same processes, which have proven to be ineffective, because they are simply being packaged in a different way.”

Mr Petrik has been a business networking professional for over 30 years in Australia, dealing with sales, marketing and people’s communication issues for most of that time.

Based at Robina, he is well known in business circles as the BNI (Business Network International) Gold Coast region executive director. He started his networking career getting involved in Business SWAP in the 1970s and many chamber of commerce groups. Apart from The LEO and BNI, he runs two other businesses.

“In resolving a personal issue, I discovered the key elements that were holding me back and after doing some research discovered they were holding everyone back,” Mr Petrik said. He has run several other successful seminars in South East Queensland yet this is the first time the seminars are going Australia wide.

“Our national expansion will see us reaching a wider audience and is a pre-curser to expanding internationally next year to New Zealand and the US,” said Mr Petrik.

“The key message we’re getting across to people is to ‘Get Real - Be Real’. People need to realise that just learning processes won’t guarantee success.

“To move us forward to success, training is necessary to learn to identify and move through old habits.”

He said the biggest problem with networking was most people did not know about the process and had not dealt with the six road blocks that stopped people from achieving success in life.

“These road blocks are also key to why people don’t network anywhere near as well as they could,” said Mr Petrik. “The impact is lost business and key connections and this creates a loss at all levels of people’s lives, not just business.”

The LEO expands that training to include why people have difficulty meeting and talking with strangers – ‘stranger danger’ – overcoming their fears and looking at processes that will enhance their ability to network and communicate far more effectively.

“We teach people how to identify stranger danger, why it impacts on their lives and how to overcome it.”

Mr Petrik said he believed his processes would enhance the whole industry.

“Many organisations have captured a component or two of effective business networking, but have not put all the critical elements together in a program that will give consistent and measurable results to the end consumer. The LEO has developed a series of seminars and workshops to deliver to the marketplace efficient and effective training and an operational program that is fully sustainable.

“The implementation of the solutions to the ‘road blocks’ are necessary to the success of effective networking, as well as personal and business communication. These cover issues such as personal confidence, effective presentation skills, public speaking and personal organisation.”

He said the long term aim of the organisation was to focus on sustainable personal empowerment as a mainstream conduit to business networking, business development and personal success.

The Networking for Fun and Profit nationwide tour begins in Brisbane at Royal on the Park, corner of Alice and Albert Streets, on November 25.

It is at  The Event Centre, Caloundra on November 26, both from 12.30-5.30pm.

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