October 2009 Newsletter from Business Power Network

The times they are changing, and in the current business climate, it is more important than ever to watch out for limiting beliefs. You might think, "Wait a minute, I don't do that!", but as John Suarez writes in The Power Of Limiting Beliefs (which can be found in the BNI document library), there are many not-so-obvious limiting beliefs that can not only get in the way of your personal productivity, but chapter productivity as well. It isn't until we challenge and shatter these beliefs that progress can happen.

Here are a couple of common limiting beliefs BNI members cling to, and a reason or two why they might want to reconsider if they want their chapter AND their business to grow.

We don't want to have more than ____ members in our chapter.

You have two ways to make more money in BNI: 1) pass more referrals among the members in the room, or 2) get more members in the room. The first option means you prefer squeezing the same oranges week after week after week and hoping you squeeze hard enough to get enough juice to satisfy your thirst. The first option is based on scarcity. Struggling chapters breed a scarcity mentality (and vice versa), and put unnecessary limits on what they can achieve and how much money they can make.

The second option means you prefer bringing visitors and/or potential new members to the meeting every week. The second option is based on abundance. Strong chapters breed an abundance mentality (and vice versa). If you wouldn't put limits on how much money you could make, and you wouldn't allow anyone else to put limits on how much money you could make, why would you put limits on how many members you had? It makes no sense. Members are where the money is, and the RIGHT members gravitate toward that mentality.

I don't want to invite just anybody to my chapter. We have high standards and great chemistry. I don't want to risk that.

There is a difference between inviting and recruiting. Inviting is what members do to entice people to visit your chapter, and it describes one behavior that differentiates a great member from a good one. Recruiting is what membership committees do with visitors to add new members. To recruit effectively, members need to invite people they know to meet (and possibly do business with) the other chapter members. A company that has several applicants for the same job is likely to make a better hiring decision than the company that has just one candidate to pick from. So the key -- if you are REALLY concerned about the integrity of the group -- is to make sure the chapter has more than one candidate to pick from in any given profession. This limiting belief is really an excuse for either not knowing how, or who, or why to invite visitors, and it profoundly limits a chapter's ability to grow.

There are some GREAT resources in the BNI document library on how to get started inviting people to BNI... and it starts with looking through your contact lists, both at work and at home. Look through your cell phone -- who in Business Power Network would benefit from meeting one of your Top Five? Ooooh, and don't forget the desk drawer, you know, the one filled with the business cards that you don't carry in your BNI file. Look through your appointment book, your personal address book. Your friends, your family, and your business associates might bring something vital to the chapter!

Melissa Miller-Young

Wordmiller.com