On this week’s episode of The Engaging Marketeer, I’m having a bit of a crisis of conscience. Maybe it’s something you can help me with. You could put your thoughts into the comments on the YouTube video, send me an email, leave me a message, or leave a review—anything to let me know what you think I should do in this situation.
Now, I’ve mentioned this a few times on the podcast, but I’m in a networking group called BNI. If you’re not familiar with BNI, that’s fine. The concept is simple—it’s a networking group where you pass referrals. Let’s just go with that.
I’m doing all right in it—actually, I’m doing okay. I set myself a target for 2024 to earn over £100,000 in revenue through BNI, through referrals I’ve received. We’ve just done our December statistics, so we’ve got one month still to go. That includes everything from November and early December, and we’ve hit £150,000 this year through BNI. With one more month of results to go, which will come in at the start of January, we’re probably going to end up around £165,000. That’s £65,000 over my target, so I’d say we’re doing all right.
In terms of what I contribute, I’m doing well, too. Some of you know, if you listen to this regularly, that I’ve just come back from Hawaii. I traveled for almost two days to attend the Global BNI Conference in Hawaii. That trip was funded by BNI because of my activity—they paid for the hotel and the conference ticket. I had to cover the flight myself, but I was awarded a special badge on stage, the “Road to Hawaii” badge. Now, if you’re not into this sort of thing, it might not mean much, but it’s quite exclusive. Only two people in the UK earned that badge—me and one other person.
So yeah, from a BNI point of view, I’ve done pretty well.
I was just looking at my stats for the year because we’re about to have our end-of-year celebration in my chapter. I’m putting together a “Networking Leaders” graphic for the whole year. As of today—this podcast will go out about a week after I record it—I’ve had 53 visitors to my BNI chapter this year. That’s more than one visitor a week, which is significantly more than anyone else in the group. I’ve also passed the most referrals in the group by quite a margin.
In terms of “thank you for the business” acknowledgments—this is where referrals I’ve passed have turned into revenue, and people have thanked me for it—I’m currently second in the group. The person in first place has over £200,000 worth of thank-you-for-the-business this year, so there’s no catching her. She’s a machine when it comes to passing referrals.
So overall, I’m doing pretty well.
But here’s the problem – the part I’m unsure about
I want to raise my profile even more within BNI. At the global conference in Hawaii, people were coming up to me and saying they recognized me from the videos I’ve put out about BNI. Someone from India approached me and said he uses my videos in his training. A lady from Romania stopped me as I walked out of a room to say how helpful she found the training videos. Even a member from Mexico came up to me, whispered something to another member, and then turned around and said, “Are you the guy from the BNI training videos?” That was really cool.
I applied to speak at the Global Conference, but I didn’t make the final cut. Apparently, I got down to the last round of the selection process, but in the end, they didn’t choose me. Only 12 people spoke at the conference, including Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, so competition was stiff.
Next year, in 2025, there’s going to be a UK BNI Conference—probably around June, maybe in Birmingham—and I want to speak there. I want to present an education slot, ideally on inviting visitors, because that’s what I’m really good at—growing chapters.
But there’s a problem
I’ve heard—and I can’t say where I heard this—that I’ve ruffled some feathers within the BNI hierarchy. Apparently, I’ve done things they don’t approve of. I’m not the sort of person they want speaking at a UK conference. From what I understand, it’s because I’m direct and outspoken—maybe a bit “in your face.” It’s not the image they want to portray, apparently.
I’m not sure exactly what I’ve done to give that impression, but it leaves me with two options.
First, I could rein it in. I could tone things down, be less direct, and not be the person everyone sees when they search for BNI education and training. That’s one option.
But let’s be honest—that’s not me
The second option is to double down. I could be even more direct, more vocal, and produce even more content so that I become unavoidable. So that there’s no choice but to let me speak because I’m already the person everyone knows and follows. That’s the direction I’m leaning toward.
But I’d like to hear your opinion. What do you think I should do? Should I tone it down, follow the rules, and try to align with their expectations? Or should I ramp it up and make myself impossible to ignore?
Let me know what you think. Leave a comment, send me a message, or visit my website, BNIEducationSlots.com. Check out the content I’ve put there, leave feedback, and tell me if I’m going too far, doing just enough, or not going far enough.
You’re my audience, my people, and I want to know what you think.
Thank you for listening to The Engaging Marketeer. I’ll catch you on the next podcast.
About your host:
Darren has worked within digital marketing since the last century, and was the first in-house web designer for video games retailer GAME in the UK, known as Electronics Boutique in the States. After co-founding his own agency, Engage Web, in 2009, Darren has worked with clients around the world, including Australia, Canada and the USA.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/engaging-marketeer/id1612454837
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenjamieson/
Engaging Marketeer: https://engagingmarketeer.com
Engage Web: https://www.engageweb.co.uk
