The Wow Factor

When I ask my husband to go to the garage to get something, I know there is a 50/50 chance he’ll be back in immediately with that item. He doesn’t do it on purpose but he is easily distracted. In fact, if he had grown up more recently, I’m pretty sure he would have been diagnosed with ADD. He behaves very much like that children’s story, “If you give a moose a muffin.”

After I’ve given him a few minutes to bring back what I requested, I often venture in to see what has happened. He is always surprised by how much time has passed and tells me he meant to get the item, but then saw that the trash was full, so he took that out and then, when he was outside, he noticed that the nozzle was still on the hose, so he removed that and had to drain the water in the hose, and so on and so on.

I bring this up not to humiliate my husband but because I think a lot of us have ADD when it comes to developing our businesses. We have good intentions and start down the right road, but it’s all too easy to let the urgent overtake the priority.

One of the ways you have started down the right road is to join this chapter of BNI. You probably first did it triumphantly, excited to see how BNI might help you grow your business. But then, the craziness of life and entrepreneurialship happened and you were off on a rabbit trail, forgetting to schedule 1-2-1’s, failing to plan your 45-seconds or even considering inviting other business owners to visit.

So, here are some ideas for helping you stay on track with BNI, for the good of your business:

1. Have yourself committed. Decide to commit and give it a real shot. 100% effort. Try to schedule at least one 1-2-1 a week. Do it immediately after the meeting is over, so you won’t forget.
2. Get organized. Set goals. Select a day of the week when you will read all of the BNI-related emails that you saw come across your cellphone while you were out on a job or otherwise distracted. While you’re at it, send your Dance Card to the member you are going to meet for your one-to-one. Follow up referrals and plan the content of your 45-second talk.
3. Be goal-oriented. Set goals and then create “To Do” lists based on those goals. I love making lists, and sometimes write things down so I can immediately cross them off and feel like I’ve gotten something accomplished. But don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by your goals. They should be tools for good, not evil.
4. Enjoy the journey. Don’t forget to have fun along the way. You need to be here anyway, so why not make it something to look forward to? Develop friendships. Reach out to each other not as associates but as trusted allies.

“If we are paying attention to our lives, we’ll recognize the defining moments. The challenge for so many of us is that we are so deep into daily distractions and ‘being busy’ that we miss out on those moments and opportunities that — if jumped on — would get our careers and personal lives to a whole new level of wow.” ~Robin Sharma

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Do You Have Time to Focus on Networking?

Did you know that there are 1440 minutes in a day?

• Of those, if you’re lucky, you sleep 480 minutes
• You work 480 minutes (or, if you’re self employed, probably closer to 720 minutes) and you spend the rest in leisurely pursuits.

But, no matter how you choose to spend your time, let’s face it. Life is short. And you never hear anyone on their death bed saying that they wish they had spent more time working. In fact, a Palliative care nurse in Australia named Bronnie Ware wrote a book about the time she spent with people at the end of their lives and she says that the top 5 regrets of the dying are:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I had let myself be happier.

Most of this isn’t news to us. We all know that the most important thing in life isn’t how much money is in our bank accounts. But, let’s face it. Most of us need to work. In fact, lottery winners usually quit their jobs immediately after winning. So how do we come to a work/life balance? How do we spend our time wisely?

Networking! Investing in relationships is the best way to grow your business while also investing in what really matters. This week, I challenge you to spend some of your time, some of those precious minutes, investing in the lives of others.

This is what Ivan Misner has to say about time:

The secret to getting more business through networking is to spend more time doing it. OK, well, it’s a little more complicated than that because you have to spend time doing the right things. However, based on the recently completed Referral Institute study on business networking, we finally have a definitive answer about how the amount of time spent networking impacts the amount of business that is generated.

The most dramatic statistic I have found shows that people who said “networking played a role” in their success spent an average of 6.5 hours a week participating in networking activities. On the other hand, the majority of people who claimed that “networking did NOT play a role in their success spent only 2 hours a week developing their network.

What does this mean? It means there is a direct correlation between the amount of time you devote to the networking process and the degree of success that you realize from it.

So the upshot of all of this is that the best way to do what matters as well as what you need to do is by spending more time with people.

Walls

In business, we hit a lot of walls. And these walls, whatever they may be, have the potential to stop us in our tracks or make us stronger.

What is your wall?

• Problem Employee
• Limited cash flow?
• A goal you just can’t seem to achieve?
• (Or, if you’re like most business owners) all of the above?

Here is what Michael Jordan has to say about walls:

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them. Everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Go through it or work around it.”

Since you might have some extra time this holiday weekend, I challenge you to consider the walls you are currently facing in your home and business: Do a SWOT Analysis

S–Strengths

W–Weaknesses

O–Opportunities

T–Threats

Once you’ve assessed your SWOT status, take some time to strategize about what you are going to do to change the paradigm. And, whatever you do, STOP COMPLAINING!

Einstein’s definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result.

If you have problem employees, let them  go.

Stretched too thin? Get some help.

Need more business? Invest more in business development.

And, finally, apply this adage from Coco Chanel: “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR MARCH 3 2016

Nancy’s Relay for Life team is having a clothing/textile drive.  Clothes shoes, etc. in any condition.  Please see the notice on your tables.  From now until April 15^th.  You can bring to BNI or she will make arrangements to pick up.

Jerry is asking everyone to vote Glendora Floor Store for the SGVT Reader’s Choice Awards. He says it has been a great marketing method for his store for a couple of years now. Here is a link to click to make voting convenient. 

http://www.la-dev.com/ReadersChoice/SGVT/2016/index.php?action=displayLogin

BNI Regional Spring Conference

Welcome new member, Laurence Beers

Laurence Beers and Yvette Hwang

The most recent member to join the Route 66 BNI is Laurence Beers, branch manager/residential lending at Banc Home Loans in Glendora. Welcome, Laurence! 

Message from Murtaza

Make the most of your BNI Route 66 membership.

Hello BNI,

Thank you all that made today’s meeting. I hope you either learned something, got excited or your brain started to “think”, and are excited to push our group to a new level. I didn’t get to go over all ideas, as time went by fast, but I think we have enough to work on for the next 3 months. Here is your “homework assignment” for:

January

1. Kathy and I need your logo for our BNI social media accounts.
2. Rolando and I need them for the name tags which will be put on all tables. If you don’t send one, your tag will be printed w/out one.
3. Power Teams: Who would be in your power team, sphere of influence or profession that you can partner with, who can help you grow your business. As your commercial, next week, you will tell us just 1 and why?
4. Update your BIO Sheet/Dance Card. If you do not have one, one is attached.

January to April, our next meeting.

1. Visit 2 other chapters as a visitor or substitute.
2. Do a 1 to 1 with at least 1 member of your power team. Try to make it a group if possible.
3. Write and email your 60 second commercial to Murtaza.
4. Do just 1 thing differently from now until the end of February. Sharing your experience with that “1” thing is optional at the end of next meeting. It can be ANYTHING, waking up 10 minutes earlier, opening the car door for your special one, calling your mom to say “I love you”, taking a different route to work, eating breakfast or even drinking water. Just pick 1 thing and start today!

GOALS

1. Have 36 members by April!!!
2. Have 40 members by October
3. Have everyone on BNI Connect entering AND printing referrals, closed business, etc….
4. NO EMPTY SEATS,, Kimmie and Edward are 2 of 18 people that can sit in for you if you cannot make it. There are no excuses. If you have a sub, tell them the meeting starts at 6:45 not 7:15.

FOR THE LEADERSHIP TEAM

Please tell me what we can do better? What can we add to the meeting, focus more on, add to next weeks meeting, etc…. we want to know.

Please see the email I sent with an attached Goal Sheet to keep you on track!! Please PRINT  and use this to help you with your goals. The first 10 people to send me the 7 day goal back, will be entered in a drawing!! You don’t have to leave your seat to do the 7 day goals. Email or fax it back at the number below.

Thank you and make it a great day!

~Murtaza Jaafri

V.P. Business Development

Welcome Jim Pasala

Yachen Sun, Dr. Gina Travis, and Jim Pasala, at Jim’s induction ceremony.

Welcome to our new member, Jim Pasala, of New York Life!

Jim is taking over the chair formally held by Yachen Sun, Vice President of the Route 66 chapter of BNI, who has moved into the financial planning chair. Both Jim and Yachen work for New York Life, and will continue to service existing client accounts as a team.