What Do I Wear?

by Carrie Dorhout 

‘Common sense is genius dressed in it’s working clothes’

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do I wear to a BNI Meeting?

The question comes up from time to time from visitors, guests, substitutes, and even members. Our quick and simple answer is to dress according to your profession. For example, if you are a business professional, business attire is standard. If you represent a trade profession in your chapter, something more casual may be appropriate. We don't expect a painter to show up in a three-piece suit, or a lawyer to show up in cut off jeans and flip flops. Credibility is inevitably gained when the clothes match the profession. 

However, business casual is a standard for many, and the word “casual” can be a pretty vague term, so let’s explore that a little more. 

Scales and the Power of One Report

by Nellie Nutting

I hate scales.  Sometime in my 40s I realized that they were not my friend.  It didn’t seem to matter if I waited until after exercise or before getting dressed, they didn’t read fairly.  It wasn’t until I started using them as a tool to measure the effectiveness of my activities that I viewed them in a more favorable light.  Now I know that if I will track my daily water intake, exercise activity, food (kind and amount), sleep, and body measurements I can predict whether that scale will go up or down on any given day. 

Our Power of One report is similar for many members.  You may LOVE it or HATE it depending on if you are tracking the activity that is requested as a member of BNI.  It is not an arbitrary score.  It tracks and totals activity from 5 areas: attendance, referrals, visitors, one-to-ones, and CEUs.  For a perfect score of 100 (20 in each area), you would need to average 1 meeting, 1 referral, 1 one-to-one, and 1 CEU per week and 1 visitor a month. Your score is based on your 6-month cumulative average. 

Virtual Visibility and VCP

By Ray Huse

In BNI, we frequently talk about the VCP Process where Visibility builds Credibility, which leads to Profitability. It’s included in Member Success Program. We’ve covered it in BNI Heartland blogs, and podcasts many times. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, has also blogged and done podcasts about it. Lookup any of those links for more on the VCP Process if you’re not already familiar with it.

Recent events have made it harder to gain visibility through some channels. Without networking events, trade shows, or even the ability to open front doors, how do we get the Visibility we need to progress to the next level?

BNI Online: It's A Thing, and It's Our Thing

by Jodi Freeman

Social Distancing. Corona. COVID19. Face covering in public. Work from home.  BNI Online. ZOOM!

All things many of us had never considered, or had even heard of before March 15^th. Some had different meanings. Corona? Beer, best served extra cold with LOTS of lime. Face covering? Only for doctors and nurses during surgery. Work from home? Meh, good for some people… not feasible for most, right? Zoom? What, are we all buying Mazdas now? (Is ZoomZoom even their catchphrase still?)  We’ll get to BNI Online in just a minute…

Our world certainly took a big turn in the middle of March.  A health concern that most of us probably thought wouldn’t arrive here in the United States suddenly became a BIG deal, impacting individuals and businesses in unprecedented ways.  Every business had to decide what “essential” meant in their world, whether their services were essential, who was an essential worker, who could work from home – and what their business might look like in this new way of working.