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BNI Star Lund

November 12, 2010 /

I have heard of BNI (Business Network International), “the World’s Largest Business Networking, Referrals and Word of Mouth Marketing Organization”, before but today I attended my first meeting.

BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world. We offer members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals.

I was invited as guest and it was really interesting to take part. It was a highly structured meeting. Each team member got one minute for an introduction and a search (such as a person they want to get in touch with). The guests also get their one minute each after all team members have done their minutes. Then there was a ten minutes presentation by one of the team members followed by everyone reporting what they had done during the week that was BNI-related. The meeting was held over breakfast and took 1.5 hour, very effective use of time.

Always Be Closing

November 10, 2010 /

Today I attended a sales seminar called “Always Be Closing” with Steve Schiffman.

Stephan Schiffman has been a leader in motivational and sales training since 1979. He is a Certified Management Consultant, and has trained and consulted to a wide range of corporations including IBM, AT&T, Motorola, Sprint, CIGNA, and a host of other organizations throughout the world. He has trained over 500,000 professionals in over 9,000 companies.

Millions more have read his best selling books internationally. Schiffman’s accomplishments include the development of highly pragmatic sales training and management programs that adapt effectively into a broad range of sales environments and industries. All of his training is based upon actual sales experiences and are proven successful. He has been rated as the number one sales expert in prospecting by Personal Selling Power magazine.

I really liked Steve’s presentation style, involving the audience through questions so that what he said related to us. It was an afternoon well spent. I’m not primarily a sales person but when you’re running your own company you have to sell too.

Brené Brown – The Price of Invulnerability

November 7, 2010 /

My previous post, Brené Brown on Connection, made me look around for more videos at You Tube and I found Brené Brown – The Price of Invulnerability. That’s another great presentation by Brené Brown.

TEDxKC talk synopsis: In our anxious world, we often protect ourselves by closing off parts of our lives that leave us feeling most vulnerable. Yet invulnerability has a price. When we knowingly or unknowingly numb ourselves to what we sense threatens us, we sacrifice an essential tool for navigating uncertain times — joy. This talk will explore how and why fear and collective scarcity has profoundly dangerous consequences on how we live, love, parent, work and engage in relationships — and how simple acts can restore our sense of purpose and meaning.

The video

Brené Brown on Connection

November 7, 2010 /

Sarah Robinson has a post about More On Living a Connected Life at Escaping Mediocrity. It’s a terrific video with Brene Brown from TEDx Houston. I had problems viewing the video at Sarah’s site so I located the video on You Tube, TEDxHouston – Brené Brown. The video is 20 minutes long (or short rather, I wish Brené had talked longer). Sarah writes:

This 20 minute video from Dr. Brene Brown is a MUST WATCH. Unless you have no interest in living a connected life.

I watched it once. Then watched it again with pen and paper. Trust me, you are going to want to make notes. And please don’t “save this for later”. Later never comes.

The book

Brené Brown has published “The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are” and I have ordered it. That’s how interesting I found her presentation.
Amazon: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
The Book Depository: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to be and Embrace Who You are

Creating a connected life

Sarah writes about the 12 elements of a connected life and it’s a great list.

TEDxHouston – Brené Brown

Reinventing My Business

November 5, 2010 /

James at Men with Pens posted How to Rip Off Your Band-Aid and Reinvent Your Business. I read it, thought it made a lot of sense – to others – and left. The post starts like this:

When you have a business – any kind of business – there are two ways to grow:

* You can tinker away and make changes to accommodate growth in little bits as you go along
* You can shut the whole thing down and start over

Most people do the first. It’s easier to pick away at what you have and make little tweaks and improvements here and there, fixing up your business as you go along. You add a new service.

Something has pulled me back to that post several times today. I’ve been doing the first, some tweaking and adding a service or two. But to be honest I’m not really satisfied with what I have created, it feels like a patchwork. Nice in a way but it could be better.

No one has forever.

I think this is what bothers me – No one has forever. Nothing new about that but in this context it’s a major poke.

So if there’s somewhere you’d like to be with your business, quit picking at the band-aid. Take a few days off and think about what you’d like to do with your business and where you want to be. Plan. Prepare. Decide on your products, your services, your target market, your web image, and your goals.

Then just do it. Stop your world. Rip the band-aid off and put your business on hold for a week, a month, or maybe even two months. Do all the work you have to do to heal up what’s broken, fix what needs fixing and get your whole business set and ready for the next level.

There is somewhere I’d like to be with my business. I guess it’s time to stop procrastinating on this and do the work needed to create the business I really would love to have. See you in the new year with a new and better business…

Are You Using The Wrong Business Model?

In the weekly wrap from Copyblogger was a link to Are You Using The Wrong Business Model? at The Launch Coach. It’s a great post that starts like this:

Your business can be one of two things: A ramp, or a treadmill.

A ramp leads to a bigger and bigger business. A treadmill leads to more of the same, and a plateau of sales. (Or, if you have a fancy treadmill, a gentle incline that doesn’t get you that much farther.)

A ramp gets you to the next level. A treadmill doesn’t.

My current business model falls in the treadmill bracket. I’ll do my best to make my new business model as a ramp.

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