Map Your Own Path To Business Networking Stardom Following Maria's Example

Maria Wirth is the Alliance Ambassador for Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley -- and her events are so wonderful, they're becoming legendary. And many of the small business owners who attend them post all over social media praising Maria. 

Earlier this year, after all of the 309,000+ votes were counted in our Local Business Person Of The Year Contest, Maria not only won for her town, Allentown, she ranked No. 16 across North America -- among 5,000+ other winners. 

Beyond those achievements, Maria was ranked among the Top 10 "Women of Alignable" for her stellar showing in this year's contest. (She landed in the No. 8 spot for that very distinguished list). 

And she has been elected as Allentown's Local Business Person Of The Year every year we've hosted this contest (starting in 2018-2019). In addition, she was the local champion in our 2021 Main Street Mentors Contest, as well. 

Maria shows that she's an awesome, supportive networker every day of the week, but following the 2024 contest, she came up with a fabulous idea we might just replicate on a larger scale as part of our 2025 campaign. (Shhh, we're in the planning stages now, but that's just how special this idea was!). 

Maria hosted and coordinated a "Business Oscars Party" for as many winners as she could find from surrounding towns in Pennsylvania. She even created buttons for the Local Business People from various towns to wear at the party.  

Here is a celebratory social media post from one of the thrilled event participants that gives you just a glance at the awesome, post-contest networking opportunity Maria orchestrated.

Maria has dozens of other events she has created, helping many people to understand the value of networking and how it can be exponentially more rewarding on Alignable. 

Take a look at the promotions below for two events coming up in her area soon. How fun are these? I just love these promos. They make me want to drive down to Lehigh Valley just to attend them. (Unfortunately for me, that would be a 300-mile trek, but if you're closer to these locations, please register for them and say "Hi" to Maria). 

Before I get too carried away celebrating Maria's events, I did want to share her latest testimonial with you, which sums up her experience on our platform so far. 

You'll see she touches on several golden nuggets of inspiration for all of our members.

Alignable is the single best networking platform on the planet! The people I’ve met are amazing and our business has grown tremendously because of it.

My partner and I own a barter company based in eastern PA. 

We represent all types and sizes of businesses, and this year, 54% of our new members are people I’ve met on Alignable!

As soon as I joined, I saw the value and started inviting all my existing contacts. 

Without paying a dime, our network quickly grew to over 800 connections.  

Looking at all the features of Premium and the opportunity to connect to more people, we upgraded in 2020. 

Alignable helped us get through that tough year and beyond. 

By far, Alignable has given us the best ROI we’ve gotten on any marketing expense.

Speaking of results, we’ve had up to 225,000 impressions and over 9,000 clicks on our profile in a 90-day period! I think that speaks volumes. 

Imagine what that would cost elsewhere. There are so many great tools and features. For one, I cannot say enough about the recommendations feature! 

It is so easy to give and receive them as opposed to other platforms and they are so important in today’s world.  Our business now has over 500 recommendations and I’ve never had to ask for one.

We rely on Alignable to grow our company, but I am also thankful to have made friends with incredible human beings and brilliant entrepreneurs that I’ve met here. 

I can’t imagine being without it!

And Maria, for the record, we can't imagine being without you! 

Thanks so much for that tremendous testimonial and everything you do to help small business owners in the Lehigh Valley and across North America. 

You are definitely one of Alignable's National Treasures.

Everyone else -- if you want to hear more of Maria's story and ask her questions about her success secrets, please reach out to her here. We're sure she'd love to help you with the next steps of your networking journey. 

And if you want to stay in the loop on our 2025 contest plans, learn some great media relations tips, and connect with other terrific Alignable Networkers like Maria, please join us for our Power Networking Hour on Wednesday, July 3rd, at 1 p.m. ET.  Click here or on the promo below to register. 

And if you want to become an Alliance Ambassador like Maria, apply here. Many ambassadors say joining that program is very rewarding. 

Thanks again for reading -- and please post some shout-outs to Maria in the comment section below.  She deserves countless kudos for all of her efforts supporting other small business owners.