garage to global

Garage to Global ® – Another Four Lessonsstring(48) "Garage to Global ® – Another Four Lessons"

I literally built my business from operating out of my garage to a global enterprise with over 9400 BNI chapters in more than 70 countries all around the world. Overall, I have twelve lessons for you that I’ve learned from taking my business literally garage to global. I’ve covered eight so far in previous blogs.

Here are the final four lessons on how I took BNI literally from my garage to global organization

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

I think culture is the secret sauce to a successful organization. Your organizational culture is critical to your success. If you are part of a company that has a horrible culture and an amazing strategy, you’re not going to do well. However, if you are part of a company with an amazing culture and a really good strategy, you are going to be the industry leader.

Know your mission.

Get really clear about what your mission is. The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive and professional referral program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships and referrals

Work in your flame, not in your wax.

Do the things you’re passionate about, and hire people to the stuff you hate doing. When you’re in your flame you’re doing things you love to do. When you’re working in your wax it’s taking all your energy away. There are times we may have to work in your wax. However, as soon as possible, you will want to hire somebody who your wax is their flame and they’re excited to do that.

Share a vision that everyone is striving towards.

BNI has dominated its industry in almost every market for decades because of a shared vision and a shared implementation of that vision. Vision is where you want to go and your mission is how you want to get there. BNI’s vision is “Changing the Way the World Does Business”.

So, these are the final four of my twelve lessons on how I took BNI literally from my garage to global organization. If you missed them, here are the links to the first blog and the second blog in this series.

2020 Vision

Having Clear 2020 Vision Goalsstring(30) "Having Clear 2020 Vision Goals"

It’s almost the New Year! Since it will be 2020, I thought it would be perfect to talk about 2020 vision. Please watch this video.

There is an old phrase that hindsight has 2020 vision. While that may be true, but I also believe that foresight can have 2020 vision. The challenge is, you actually have to think about your future. Really spend time and think about it, even if it’s just a few hours. Give some thought to your future. When I talk about setting goals, I find that people are a little like Bobblehead Ivan here. Yea, yea, yea, I need to set goals. Yea, you need to set goals. Goals are just a vision of where you want to go.

Goal Setting

Every year for the last 40+ years (yes, even before I started BNI), I have taken time during this period of the year to reflect. I start by looking at the past year and see how it played out according to my plan. Where it worked, I celebrated. Where it didn’t work, I analyzed why. More importantly, I contemplated how I could make it work.

Then, I did my real vision making. I thought about what I wanted to achieve during the next year and then three to five years out. Finally, I gave consideration to where I would be 10 years out. I started this process when I was in my early 20’s. In fact, I actually created a 40-year plan for myself back then. You can see that plan on the blog post listed below:

https://ivanmisner.com/life-lessons/

Truly, anything past five years is an educated guess. I get that. But it’s also something else. It’s a game plan. It’s a vision for where you want to go. Your one year plan should be really specific. Your 3-5 year plan should be strategic. And anything longer is highly strategic (which you’ll see if you read my 40-year plan). You can’t hit a target you don’t aim at. Create a target. That’s the vision. Take aim, that’s the action.

Here are three things I want you to do over the next couple of days to create your 2020 vision.

  1. Dream big. Create your 2020 vision.
  2. Have a Plan. How will you achieve your 2020 vision?
  3. Take action. Actually do the things you create in your plan.

Do those three things this year and then do me a favor. Mark your calendar for the end of 2020 and post a message about how this changed your life. I’m going to be looking for it.

If anyone wants to comment now about your 2020 vision, I’d love to see it. I’m Ivan Misner and this is 2020.

vision

Vision with Tiffanie Kellog and Deb Cheslowstring(43) "Vision with Tiffanie Kellog and Deb Cheslow"

Creating a vision that is unrealogical. What is your vision?

Is your vision UNREALOGICAL???

You probably are not even sure what that means! This month, Tiffanie is joined again by one of her coaches, Deb Cheslow, of Cheslow Achievement Group, to explore a conversation around vision… and hopefully, yours is UNREALOGICAL!

At Cheslow Achievement Group, our vision is to continually develop mind, body, and spirit, living a life of prosperity and joy, so that we may change lives for the better and empower others through teaching, coaching, and training, to seek out their own purpose, live their lives to the fullest and realize their dreams.

Click here to watch the video to learn more

Seeking Engagement: A Critical Step for Networking Groupsstring(57) "Seeking Engagement: A Critical Step for Networking Groups"

Engagement involves a promise and an action.  In order to achieve success in your group of networking relationships, you and your relationships must promise to support one another and then take the actions necessary to fulfill that promise.

There are many ways that you can become engaged.  Have you taken the time to regularly meet with the people in your network?  Have you taken the time to educate them regularly on the key features of your business so that your products or services will be top of mind in the event they meet someone with a need for what you supply?  Have you taken the time to become educated on the key features of your networking relationships’ businesses so that you can do the same?

The higher the number of people in your network who are engaged in these activities, the more likely it is that the entire group will be generating more referrals.  The reason for this is a shared vision of success and a shared implementation of that vision.

Another way to be actively engaged and educated about each others’ businesses is to do regular and consistent meetings.  Over and over, I see that business owners who have regular one-to-one meetings with their business networking relationships tend to both give AND get more referrals.

Lastly, are you focusing on your “elevator pitch”?  The best way to ensure your referral sources are going to remember what you do is to focus on communicating your business to them by breaking it down into laser-specific elements.  Sharp-shoot your pitch, don’t shotgun it.  In each of your regular one-to-one meetings, talk about one key element, product, or benefit of what you do.

According to Psychology Today, research has found that people who are “actively engaged” in a business environment are “43% more productive” than those who are not.  Furthermore, they state that engagement includes “regular dialogue, quality of working relationships, perceptions of ethos and values of the organization, and recognition.”  There’s research behind my recommending reciprocal engagement between you and your referral partners.  In fact, it’s critical to your success–and theirs.

This week, think about new ways in which you can support your networking partners in order to promote engagement within your networking group.  I’d love to hear what ideas you come up with so please leave your thoughts in the comment forum below. Thanks!

 

 

Is Your Path to Success Ignited by an Emotionally Charged Connection?string(69) "Is Your Path to Success Ignited by an Emotionally Charged Connection?"

In this video, I talk with my good friend and partner in the Referral Institute, Eddie Esposito, about a very interesting concept he helped develop which I’ve never before mentioned on this blog site–Emotionally Charged Connection.

Many people are not conscious of their Emotionally Charged Connection, yet it’s the reason we get up in the morning and do the things we do every day.  It’s driven by the heart, not the check book or the head–there’s a big difference.  Once you become conscious of this Connection, you are able to understand and more effectively apply five important elements of success which we talk about in the video: Vision, Mission, Goals, Strategy, and Action.

After watching the video, if you’d like to learn more about ways to develop your emotionally charged connection with your prospective clients, go to www.ReferralInstitute.com and locate a franchise in your local area or call the Referral Institute main line and they will be happy to direct you to where you can get more information.

Marcia Wieder: Bringing Your Dream & Your Vision for Your Business to Fruitionstring(83) "Marcia Wieder: Bringing Your Dream & Your Vision for Your Business to Fruition"

In this video, I talk to Marcia Wieder, CEO and Founder of Dream University, about the entrepreneurial mindset of having a vision and a dream for a business and how to successfully realize that vision and that dream.  I met Marcia through the Transformational Leadership Council which we are both members of and, let me tell you, Marcia is truly the best of the best of when it comes to understanding this facet of business.

Marcia explains that in business, dreaming is serious business; it’s the driving force for transformation and without vision, many companies fail. Watch the video for key pointers on how to help your business dream/vision come to fruition and to find out how to get three FREE Dream University e-books on the subject.  Be sure to visit www.DreamUniversity.com for more information.