Modesto Nooners of BNI

People are often way to general when talking to others about what they do for a living. In BNI we are training people to refer to us. It is hard to do this when we explain ourselves as a full service provider or some other generic response. Today we will be talking about how to be more specific when we talk about our offerings. If you are saying that you are a full service provider each time you talk to people about what you do, you are not telling them anything that they can apply to the problems they hear about from others.

Example (Modesto based print shop): Hi, I am Joe from Joe’s Print shop. We are a full service print shop offering the highest quality prints to our clients. We use safe inks and offer a warranty against fading. If you know of anyone who needs printing, we would love to provide them with excellent service.

Now that sounds like a good infomercial. We now know that Joe owns a print shop and that they provide quality service to their customers but what is a full service print shop? What does that mean to the average person who needs business cards printed, or maybe their new catalog?

In BNI we get to meet with the same people 50 times a year. Telling them the that you are a full service print shop over and over does not train them to listen to the needs of the people with in their sphere of influence. The only people that could figure it out would be the people who know what a full service print shop is.

Take each opportunity that you meet with your BNI chapter to instruct them on something different. One week you may talk about business cards, then the next week catalog printing. You could do an infomercial on printing Christmas cards if Christmas is coming up.

Think outside of the normal here. Be different. The beautiful thing about it is that in BNI we meet 50 times. You can try different things and instruct from different directions.

What are your thoughts on instructing your word of mouth marketers on your offerings?

We are pleased to announce BNI in the Park. We will not be meeting during our normal lunch hour. Instead we will descend upon Downey Park with food, family and networking friends.

Click the invitation image to RSVP and read the instructions below.

Place:
Downey Park on the corner of Coffee Rd and Brighton in Modesto.

Time:
4pm-8pm or whenever you can make it. There is no official time you need to be there, come when you can and enjoy food. We will plan on eating dinner at 6pm.

What to bring:
The chapter will provide the meat for BBQ, soda, water, plates, utensils and napkins. All we ask is that you bring a side dish. If your last name starts with the following letter, bring an item from that category. If you would like to drink anything beyond the scope of the before mentioned, feel free to bring that (I have Paul working on a 15 page waiver you will have to sign -kidding!-)

A-F: Bring a desert item (ie. Pie, Cheesecake…).
G-R: Bring a side dish (ie. Mashed Potatoes, Beans, Salad…).
S-Z: Bring a snack item (ie. Chips, Salsa, Dip…)

Get creative with this, have fun, make it your own!

As we get closer to the date you can view this RSVP list and see how many people are coming to get a better idea of how much food to bring.

Activities:
Curt Zimmerman with The Cleaning Authority Modesto has provided us with a Bounce House and a Balloon Artist who will be on site making Balloon objects for the kids.

Who can come:
Anybody. Bring your family, friends, coworkers or a guest that could possibly be a good fit for our BNI chapter. Tell them it’s a BBQ gathering of professionals that love to give each other referrals and share life!

If you are reading this and would like to visit our chapter as a guest, please contact us using the Get Invited or Network With Us link in the menu.

Any other thoughts or ideas, please email click contact in the menu above.

The Modesto Nooners like to change it up from time to time. Today we decided to get to know more about each other by trying to find things that everybody at each table had in common. It was actually harder then it sounds but ended up being a lot of fun.

Included below are the instructions for this simple exercise. It takes little or no time to plan and was a hit today at BNI.

1. Divide the members up by there tables or rows. Keep your group sizes under 10 people per group. You can also choose mix up the groups because people tend to sit next to people they know best however, as long as the group has a random assortment of members it will still be fun and challenging.
2. Explain to the groups that their assignment is to find ten things they have in common with every other person in the group, that have nothing to do with work. (I tell people no body parts, we all have legs; we all have arms, and no clothing – we all wear shoes, we all wear pants. This helps the group explore shared interests more broadly.
3. Tell the groups that one person must take notes and be ready to read their list to the whole group upon completion of the assignment.
4. Ask each group to share their whole list with the entire chapter. Because people are your best source for laughter and fun, the reading of the lists always generates a lot of laughter and discussion. You can also catch the drift of the conversation in the small groups based on the transitions made from item to item.

This team building exercise takes 10 – 15 minutes, depending on the number of groups. To keep the exercise on time, I suggest giving a 2 minute warning before the time is up.

The leadership team decided it would be a great idea to put together a business card that we could put in the hands of the members to give to people inviting them to visit our chapter. I am sure most of you have the same issue as I do when it comes to talking to someone about BNI, it is never planned and always ends up sounding awkward. Linda Mangum presented me with a business card from another chapter so which led to this idea and the business card below. I wanted our card to be something that if found sitting on a table would beg a passerby to pick it up and take a look. I think this card does just that. The new business cards will be available next week in our BNI Business Card Binder. The Modesto Nooners first business card. Designed and printed by Jerad Hill Studios.

Click image to zoom.

This weeks Education moment comes from the “HR That Works” newsletter editors column.

Get the article, Click here

Legacy is the greatest currency.

The first quarter of 2009 has came to a close (1/09-3/09). As you can see from our chapter totals over in the sidebar we are doing well for 2009. I would like to take this time to recognize those who are rocking the house in our chapter. We have several ties so I will list those in alphabetical order.

Attendance:
1. Saul Carter (Perfect Attendance)
2. Jerad Hill (Perfect Attendance)
3. Brenda Olson (Perfect Attendance)
4. Katie Floyd (Perfect Attendance – 1 Sub)
5. Maria Vieira-Lee (Perfect Attendance – 3 Subs)
Having a substitute if you are going to miss helps keep your attendance clear

Referrals Given:
1. Stephanie Burnside (38)
2. Brenda Olson (38)
3. Daniel Versola (17)
4. Maria Vieira-Lee (12)
5. Jerad Hill (12)

Referrals Received:
1. Anita Stoll (19)
2. Lori Crivelli (18)
3. Curt Zimmerman (18)
4. Katie Floyd (14)
5. Brenda Olson (14)
6. Ralph Stewart (14)
Some close ties going on!

Dance Cards:
1. Jerad Hill (7)
2. Carl Stange (4)
3. Curt Zimmerman (4)
4. Linda Mangum (2)
5. Brenda Olson (2)
6. Paul Scheele (2)
Dance Cards happen when members meet one on one outside of regular BNI meetings

Value of Referrals Given:
1. Jerad Hill ($15,765)
2. Brenda Olson ($13,235)
3. Katie Floyd ($9,970)
4. James Fultz ($6,555)
5. Curt Zimmerman ($3,489)
These members have given referrals resulting in these totals collectively.

I am proud to be a part of such a thriving networking chapter. Congratulations everybody, this is proof that BNI works and that our chapter provides value to it’s members.

Hats off to everybody who helped make our visitor day so successful. We had 22 visitors join us on Thursday the 12th. The room was packed and the energy was incredible.

We would like to thank the visitors that came who were invited by our members:

Jerad Hill’s Visitors:
Jeff Chapman – Vision Multimedia
Ashley Dunne – Massage Therapist
Cory Warner – Warner Studios
Cortney Forsmann – Graphic Designer
Jim Stewart – Healthy Marriage Coalition
Aaron Stout – TechSafari
Sarah Fields – Effective Solutions

Brenda Olson’s Visitors:
Bettina Modaresi – Modesto Alarm
Ted Lew – Principal Financial

Kimberly Boothe’s Visitor:
Becca Boothe – The Heavenly Spa

Curt Zimmerman’s Visitors:
Dan Williams – WCI Construction Inc.

Paul Sheele’s Visitor:
Juliana Wanger – Modesto Flowers and Gifts

James Fultz’s Visitors:
Pablo Ocegueda – Blinds By Design
Jim Brannon – Brannon Electric
Alan Patrick – General Building Contractor

Anita Stoll’s Visitors:
Shayna Osborne – Osborne & Nelson
Michael Moradian – Peace of Mind Home Inspections

Saul Carter’s Visitor:
Nikki Hoffman – Springhill Suites
Knowledge Hardy – Hardy Appetitez

Katie Floyd’s Visitors:
Violet Whitworth – Neverboring
Harold Avila – Neverboring

We enjoyed meeting so many new people. The day was a success, everybody went home with a pocket full of new contacts.

Visitors day is only 2 days away. Have you invited your best contacts and clients yet? Make sure you RSVP for yourself and your visitors online, the web address for the invite is below.

We are expecting between 30-40 people so far so make sure you have enough business cards on you.

If you are a visitor who plans to attend our meeting on Thursday, March 12th please RSVP also so we have a clear count for lunch!

Click here to RSVP for the BNI Modesto Nooners Visitors Day

Spring is almost here so why not kick off a Membership Drive for the Modesto Nooners! Watch the video to learn more about the Membership Drive and what the winner will receive.

The Rules are as follows: The winner is the Modesto Nooners Chapter Member who has brought the most visitors who convert to members of our chapter. This means that bringing visitors will not help you win, bringing visitors who become members of our chapter will help you win!

Good luck!