November 2008
Art of NetworkingIgnore the Doomsday Headlines
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Here is a sampling:
Thanks for your article! It expresses exactly what I've been thinking for the last few weeks. Fear can paralyze you quicker than any drug. So until the whole system shuts down (which I doubt will happen) we're going to keep plugging away and networking!
Roy Stout, Owner/Production Manager, Stout Printing
Your article was well written and right on target. Thought and focus precede our results, whether we like or not. We might as well make sure we're focusing on the things we want!
Edward Aldama, Life Coach and Author of The Success Habit Secret
I'm so grateful that you continue to send out your "positive mind over matter" messages! I'm keeping myself busy and loving my business by focusing on "what I want." I give my fears the least time possible.
Anita Foster, Rainbow Touch Clinical Massage
Your article is one that every single business person or student must read and strictly follow—especially the part about action. People need to be positive. If we can seriously DO our duties, the difficult times will be blessings in disguise. I look upon this as examination time. If you do well during these exams you go the next level in business.
This reminds me of the famous Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."
Vivek Joshi, BNI Dynamic Chapter, Mumbai, India
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I am an international business lawyer based in Stockholm, Sweden. During 2005-2008 I was a member of the BNI Chapter Haga Chamotte where I also was team leader for two mandate periods.
However, my own true success story with BNI has little to do with law. Thanks to my BNI chapter, I got a flying start with my career as an author. I wrote the crime novel Spåren på bryggan (Pier's End), published in 2007.
My whole chapter bought my book as well as recommended it to friends, colleagues, and beyond. They connected me to commercial radio stations, newspaper reporters, and book sellers.
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I am very pleased to be part of the BNI community—and I have no reason to believe that my BNI—supported success will stop here.
In true BNI spirit I am naturally also looking for any contacts to help me get the book published in the U.S: Any means of pushing that decision in the right direction will be much appreciated. I can be reached at lars@rambe.com, or you may read more on my agent's website here.
Lars Rambe, Managing Partner, Advokatbyrån Rambe & Co, www.rambe.com
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In 2004, when life coach Pam Wright first heard about BNI, she was too ill with the pain and fatigue condition Fibromyalgia to join a chapter. But earlier this year, following the publication of her first book, The Fibromyalgia Coach, Pam felt fit enough to take on the commitment and is now a member at Faversham.
She states, "Our chapter meeting is a weekly energy boost for me. Being a people person and team player, it's great for me to work with others—especially this great bunch of people. My life balance and health coaching business is now developing in more ways than I ever believed it could! Thanks BNI."
Pam Wright, Faversham BNI Chapter, Kent, UK
BNI Helps in Time of Trial
On September 3, 2008, my former employer, GMAC Mortgage, closed all retail operations throughout the nation and laid off thousands of employees, including me.
By the evening of September 3, I had several calls from current BNI members and ambassadors with employment referrals and actual job offers. More than seven BNI members displayed the Givers Gain attitude. Their support assured me that I was in the company of good friends. I am grateful for all the warm outpouring and well wishes.
Mark Randolph, Certified Mortgage Planner
Submitted by J. R. Chick Gallagher, Executive Director - BNI Delaware Valley Regions
Business Built on BNI
I have built my PRIMERICA Financial Services business over the last 13 years on referral. BNI gave me the additional edge to get better at what I was already doing. Over the last four years my relationships built through BNI have put over $100,000 in my pocket and has enabled me to put over $100,000 in members' pockets. Now that I am an assistant director, I expect that number to double in the next four years. Thanks BNI!
Chris Wallace, Midcoast Business Exchange Chapter, Yarmouth, Maine
Valued Chapter Changes Lives
I have seen BNI change lives. It has given members unparalleled opportunities. Dreams of entrepreneurial success have come true. Failing businesses have been saved. Members have gained confidence. Attitudes have become focused and positive through weekly support of members. Members celebrate what is right with the economy, and right with the world, instead of wallowing in the bad.
Our chapter motto is that you have to treat the group as if it is one of your "A" list clients. We expect members to treat each other like the one customer we cannot afford to lose. With this attitude, then you will get in front of my "A" list people. And we have all bought into that. Thank you, BNI.
Dino Tudisca, Rose City Chapter, Norwich, Connecticut, www.rosecitybnict.com
Focus on the Give
I am a BNI Minnesota member and an assistant director. I gave the 10-minute presentation at a recent Visitors Day, with about 70 folks in attendance. As part of my presentation I always discuss training. I use the phrase that we at BNI "focus on the give," because we know that the receiving will take care of itself.
As a Send Out Cards representative, "focus on the give" comes easily. The Send Out Cards "Send Out to Give" motto and the BNI "Givers Gain" philosophies are wonderfully aligned this way. My heart is truly engaged when I share "focus on the give" during my Visitors Day presentation.
This week one of my audience members happened to be the Catholic priest from a large parish nearby. He commented that "focus on the give" was a great reminder for him—he even decided to gear his weekly homily on the topic. In an email, Father Jarvis said:
"I was very impressed with your organization's motto, Givers Gain. This past Sunday's scriptural readings in Catholic Christian churches were about the cross, which in Catholic Christian tradition is the perfect sign for true love, true caring, true giving. When we give without thought of getting, we paradoxically get far more out of the giving than those receiving. You get in the giving. And, quite often, you get as a result of giving in a kind of mutual giving. But the greatest getting is indeed in the giving."
Steve Wein, Assistant Director, BNI Minnesota
How Do You Place a Value on BNI?
BNI teaches:
1. Sharing: In BNI it isn't me vs. you; there is room for us all.
2. Team work: It's hard to play ball alone; together is so much better.
3. Togetherness: Chapter meetings, One-2-Ones, dance cards.
4. Proactiveness: Gathering weekly with likeminded professionals.
5. Commitment: Personal relationships with BNI team members.
6. Openness: To know and be known by fellow BNI members.
7. Building: Yourself, your marketing team, your destiny.
How much value is there in that?
Matthew Brady, BNI Achievers Chapter, Thailand
A BNI Poem
Some members keep a group strong,
While others join just to belong.
Some dig right in and serve with pride.
Some go along just for the ride.
Some volunteer to do their share.
While some lie back and just don't care.
Some greet new members with a smile,
And make their coming so worthwhile.
While some go on their merry way,
No greeting or kind word to say.
Some help the group to grow and grow.
When asked to help they don't say no!
Some drag; some pull; some don't; some do.
Consider: which one of these are you?
Author Unknown
Submitted by Marilise du Preez, Executive Director - BNI South Africa, Johannesburg
Have you listened to BNI's weekly internet recording, also known as the BNI Podcast?