The Sponsoring Mindset

By Dawn Lyons, BNI Executive Director San Francisco Bay Area

The number one question we receive is “how do we grow our chapter?” Well, the answer is simple, sponsor new members into the chapter. That’s it! That is the ONLY way to grow your chapter.  Your chapter WILL grow when your members sponsor more members into the chapter. See, there is a huge difference in inviting visitors and sponsoring new members and personally, I wish we would all focus even more on sponsoring!

Setting our intentions on sponsoring new members versus just inviting guests is key to attaining the proper sponsoring mindset. I could invite 100 guests and never sponsor a new member and therefore never grow the chapter. Sure, there are definite benefits to having 100 guests come through the chapter, no doubt on that at all. But then, we are all sitting around wondering why the chapter hasn’t grown in size! It becomes a vicious cycle.  What if the focus was on the final outcome of sponsoring a new member? What if… we all Sponsored 1 in 2021?

Our brains are pretty amazing and if we set the intention of “Sponsoring 1 in 2021” the brain will find solutions to do that. Our actions will happen naturally because the brain is seeking to complete the intention of “Sponsoring 1 in 2021”! We will invite people and maybe we invite more appropriate people by inviting viable candidates that CAN apply for membership – not just inviting a member from another chapter to be our visitor so we get credit.

So, how do you get a “Sponsoring Mindset?” You simply decide that you want to. Decide to “Sponsor 1 in 2021” and keep that mantra going until you do. I promise your actions will be heightened, your determination will be stronger, and you will grow your chapter! You probably have a couple of members who already have a sponsoring mindset, they may sponsor 2-4 people a year or more. What if more members had this mindset? My husband, Mike Macedonio, interviewed our top 1% of members in sponsoring to understand their mindset and why they are all so good at it! Feel free to go to www.bni-educationalvideos.com and watch several of the videos to see the different strategies used by our top 1% in sponsoring. Sponsoring is a mindset. Set your intention to just “Sponsor 1 in 2021”! Utilize this logo to keep it top of mind, even consider putting it in your slide deck for recognition! Place a red star next to the logo as your members “Sponsor 1 in 2021” and see who can get the most stars, run a sponsoring contest, pull your chapter lifetime sponsor report and give recognition – there is so much that can be done to begin to focus on sponsoring! Will you decide to “Sponsor 1 in 2021” for the health and the wealth of your chapter? I hope so, and an early congratulations for those of you who “Sponsor 1 in 2021!”