Since I don't usually receive invitations to events that will be attended by sports celebrities, I wrote Karla back and requested her business details and clarification of what she expected of me. Her verbatim response was:

"There is mingling and getting to know each other for about 20 minutes and then I begin with a short introduction and give everyone about five minutes to briefly inform other business owners of their businesses. Around 8 a.m., I'll call [sports celebrity] and conference him in where he'll talk about important business techniques. After the call, usually more folks show up where I'll give them the opportunity to speak. This is where everyone answers questions because five minutes is just enough time to spark the interest and you can elaborate more on your business."

The note concluded with a notation of her business as a multi-level marketing program where the celebrity was a professional sports figure who played his last game in 1971 and who now had a profitable business relationship with the MLM program. Armed with Karla's clarification, I could see that the celebrity would not be there in person, I was not really invited to "speak," but to share a little bit about my business and I was going to be attending an event designed to help Karla identify new people to invite into her MLM program. Aha! The old bait and switch! Finding out these details got me to thinking about how many small businesses try to look bigger or more sophisticated than they are because they think doing so will make them more attractive or earn them more business. I disagree.

Have you ever called a small business and gotten a voice mail message with 4 or 5 options -- push "1" for our sales department, "2" for our customer service department, etc., yet you knew that it really is a one person operation? I have, and I can only imagine that if such companies grow to the point where they might really need sophisticated telephone options, they will be searching high and low for a way to provide more personalized customer service.

If you have a quality product or service and you are confident about what you offer, you can be who you really are without all the bells and whistles and do just fine. In our personal lives, being for real is always better than putting up a front or pretending to be someone you are not. It's the same in business. Whether it's trying to display a personal connection to a celebrity or trying to make your business sound "official" by using lots of voice mail options, anything that minimizes who and what you really are can be confusing at best and offensive and annoying at worse.

Be for real! Who you are is always more attractive than who you think you have to be!