After building trust and passing a few referrals to each other, we became each other’s customers.  At the time, BNI Member Amber Payne worked for a national magazine where their tagline was – “Mint Magazine…..Saving Families Money and Helping Businesses Grow.” I purchased monthly advertisements and she hired my cleaning company for her home, business office and vacation rentals. This rooted our referral partnership deeper.

This certainty about our business relationship has created a bond that far exceeds the 90-minute meeting agenda. Amber shared, “Barbara is not only a friend but a sister that I could not imagine my life without.” Through many life changes, each of us has found solace in our alliance. Our years together has seen trials and victories.  In fact, I was there when she experienced the ultimate joy of accepting her marriage proposal from the man of her dreams…and guess what….he was a member in BNI.

Fast forward to today. Amber is now Vice President of Marketing for Rytech INC, which is a water restoration and mold specialist company. I now work for Griffin Service, an HVAC company as their Marketing and Community Liaison. These industries align so well naturally, yet our alliance continues to advance us through many new doors of opportunities.

One thing that drives us through these “doors of opportunity” is our passion to connect and recruit for others. This has led us to a number of speaking engagements, a home service radio show, called “WSOS, St. Augustine – The Ambie and Barbie Home Show”, and training videos. Even further, and so close to my heart, Amber has helped me personally fundraise over $12, 000 for Act 4 The Nations, an organization I am involved with that helps support women and children both locally and around the world.

Some would say me joining my local BNI Chapter and meeting Amber was a coincidence. But I know it is something far greater than that.  It has afforded me a world of blessings and endless possibilities…needless to say, BNI has changed my life (in the most profound, positive way)!

An international magazine interviewed me recently on this topic. The reporter asked me, “What should business people think about taking with them on business trips that they might not normally think about?” This list would benefit anyone, so I’m sharing it here.

First, a few somewhat obvious things that can certainly come in handy:

1. Plenty of business cards. It is never a good idea to run out of business cards while traveling. Tuck extras in your suit pockets, wallet/purse, briefcase, and luggage.

2. A name badge. If you do any networking while traveling on business, have your own professional name badge. Don’t rely on the hosting organization to do your name badge.

3. Extra pens. Make sure you have a pen with you. I always find that I need to write some reminders down while I’m talking to people. It’s troublesome to track down a pen while you are busy networking.

Somewhat less obvious things:

1. The contact information (or business cards) of all your referral partners. I sometimes find that having that information at my fingertips allows me to give referrals to people while I’m out networking.

2. Hand sanitizer. I know this may sound a little bit like “Mr. Monk,” the germaphobe title character of a television series. However, since I’ve started using hand sanitizer after shaking many, many hands, I’ve gotten far less colds than I used to get. Just be tactful about the way you use it. Don’t desperately and obviously spray your hands every time you shake someone’s hand.

3. Breath mints. As obvious as it may sound, I can assure you from experience that many people have no idea they need them.

4. A memory stick. Many times I have either needed to get a copy of something or give a copy of a file to someone. Having a memory stick handy has been very helpful on several occasions.

5. Tools for your business. For me, that includes many copies of my bio for introductions whenever I speak. Despite that my team sends the bio in advance, there are many times when I arrive and they don’t have it handy. Another tool for me is a PowerPoint remote clicker. This is important because I don’t want to rely on someone else to move the slides forward as a I present. Also, you know that memory stick I mentioned earlier? I have copies of my talks on there just in case it’s needed.

When I asked some colleagues and other business travelers what they would add to the list, they added some that I hadn’t thought of:

1. A phone charger. I agree heartily, especially seeing how much these items cost in an airport, or in another country. And you certainly won’t want to forget your laptop power cord – besides being expensive it’s often impossible to be able to get the right one easily, if at all.

2. Power adapter/converter. Though it’s usually easy to pick up a “universal” adapter at airports or stores in heavily populated areas, in this electronic age you would hate to need one and not be able to find one, so it’s best to have one (or two) packed and ready when you need it!

3. The right clothes. Most of you have experienced differences in temperature or weather from one town to another, so you can imagine how different the conditions could be across the country or around the world. It’s never been easier to plan what clothes to bring, thanks to online weather forecasts for every region of the earth. Of course, there are no guarantees where weather is concerned.

4. A good book. Hear, hear! Those airport layovers, delays and long flights can seem even longer without something interesting to read.

There are certainly more items to include, but the above can certainly make or break an important business trip. So you definitely do not want to forget them.

What do you take along that is not on this list?

• Lead by example: Even when no one is watching – act like everyone is watching.

• Communicate early and often: Your employees are your most important stakeholders. Be as transparent and clear as possible. Share your vision and lessons you’ve learned. Celebrate successes. And remember, communication is a two-way process. Seek feedback and encourage conversation whenever you can.

• Choose your team carefully: Invest in people who have varying skill sets. Recognize and utilize each of their strengths. The team of people you surround yourself with will be the ones who determine your success.

• Encourage productivity: Start meetings on time. State your goals, and stick to an agenda, when possible. Encourage everyone to contribute – not only the ‘loud’ voices in the room. Trust your team to be productive, and work hard, throughout the day.

• Have fun: While business is certainly serious, the best leaders know how to build excitement and have fun with their teams. Creating a positive and fun culture is important!

While there are several leadership styles, one of the most important qualities of a good leader is to lead by example. Work hard. Make smart choices. Hold yourself accountable. Be humble, and approachable. Show compassion. These are traits that employees and peers will admire.

Together, as one group of passionate business leaders, we’re creating a vision for BNI that is exciting – a vision where BNI has a far larger impact on each Member, each Director, and the world overall than ever before.  To reach that vision, and to accept the exciting challenge you’ve outlined for us, we’ve decided to again grow the Global Support Team.

Starting July 1st, we’ll be adding more teammates to our offices around the world to support you.  These additions will bolster our ability to tell your story – and to tell BNI’s story – at a new level.  These additions will also bolster our ability to recruit, on-board, support and recognize Leadership Teams and Director Consultants worldwide; we’re so thankful for the awesome work they do to help BNI Members in over 70 countries.  Finally, our new additions will add to our operational capacity.  That will enable us to deploy more tools, technology, and programs than ever before – and to do so in a way that’s most helpful to Members and Directors worldwide.

As Michael Mayer – Co-National Director of Germany & Austria says – we best support BNI by thinking about our work in three distinct areas:  Passion, People, and Process – and in that order of importance.  The Passion, meaning the love of what we do, our deep caring for each other, our belief in Givers Gain^®, matters most.  With that, everything is possible.  And so we’ve taken the further step of organizing ourselves into those three important functions.  This provides added clarity and focus to all that we do.

We’ll be recruiting around the world, and we love to hire talented professionals from within BNI.  Explore a few of our initial job postings here. Please let us know if you know of an exceptional professional who wants to change the world.  Stay tuned to future editions of SuccessNet for more postings to come.

As always, I thank you for your commitment to supporting each other, and to the Core Values that make BNI the incredible organization it is today.  It is an honor to work closely with you to make this world a more open, collaborative, and caring place.