BNI 927: Only Two Times?

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2:20Welcome back to B&I in the power of one. Thank you for joining me again today. Back with show submissions, questions, topics submitted at bnipowerone.com. For everybody who continues to do that, appreciate you. They're coming in fast and furious, which is awesome. We will be getting to all of them today. As always, with a lot of them, and anytime, it's asked to be kept anonymous, so that is perfectly fine. It says, I own a father and son business where B&I members and separate chapters. When I go on vacation, I have my son substitute for me and vice versa. To me, this is the best option for my business. I can have someone read my presentation from a card or their phone or I can have my son do it and it will be just like if I was there. Is this allowed? I've been told that my son can only substitute two times ever.

3:21I know a substitute that can join the chapters better, but for my investment, I feel our way is perfectly acceptable. Please let me know your thoughts. Okay. So, seems like a pretty simple question, but it's heavily loaded and there's a lot of different pieces to it. So let's just start. Where do I want to start? Let's start with why we have a substitute policy first and foremost. When I go around and I ask members and stuff, you know, hey, why does B&I have a substitute policy? The answer is so that we don't get an absence or so I can have my weekly presentation read when I'm not there. So I can still train my members even though I can't be there. Almost 100% of the time. And while that's true that those things are happening, it's not the reason why we have a substitute program. The reason a substitute program exists is how do you bring value to your fellow members

4:27when you're not there? That's the whole point of the substitute program. The incentive to do that is that it doesn't count as an absence, but it's not designed so you don't get an absence. It's designed so that you are still providing value. What is valuable to your fellow members, somebody who could either do business with the other members or potentially join the chapter? Okay. What can another B&I member not do? Well, they can't join the chapter because we have the policy. You can only be on. And for the high majority, if not all, depending on chapter sizes, they can't really do business with the fellow members. Add in that this person is your son or he let just for anybody else, somebody directly from your, your, an employee of yours, that becomes even less likely, right?

5:28Because you're already doing all the business with the members in the chapter, et cetera. So can under that definition is a fellow employee who's a B&I member related to you or not, a valuable substitute? Not really. Not really, right? So the idea is, again, especially if in this example, you use it when I go on vacation. Those aren't usually last minute things. So you know, if there was a last minute, hey, two days before my meeting, something came up. I got to send my employee. Okay. Those things happen. Vacations don't tend to be like that. Vacations tend to be longer planned. So if you take a little bit of time to get somebody else who, yeah, from your perspective is only reading your presentation from a card or their phone. But again, that's not why the substitute program exists. Right. At least they still get to do that. But it's about introducing other members to somebody they wouldn't, wouldn't otherwise

6:29maybe meet. Again, which is why the worst thing you can do is just go what B&I member and another chapter could sub for me in general. Or I keep using everybody keeps using the same substitute. That's also a problem. So I would start there because I do think the direction of the questions a little bit self-centered, not saying yourself centered individual, but it's what am I? You're looking at it from the wrong angle to start, right? So just some of the words like for my investment, this is what I'm going to do. How I feel is fine. Well, again, you're a part of a team. You're a part of a chapter. And it's about bringing value to those fellow members. It's got literally nothing really to do for you or about you. And when you take the easier route, it actually, I mean, it's, it's not helpful for the other members, right? So that's the givers game mentality of the philosophy of it is, what can I give even though I can't physically be there?

7:31Now to be an eye policies and stuff like that, a person, a person can substitute. There's no like limit on and policy writings and guidelines. So there's no limit to how many times somebody can substitute. However, there's a limit of two times. To how many times somebody can visit, which in according to those meaning, talk about their own business. So if you were to use the same person over and over, they can, they can sub for somebody, but after two times they can't talk about their own business, which tends to put an end to them substituting because of people substituting, especially those who are the professional substitutes, the ones, you know, are able to be there every week, but can't commit to every week. We've done podcasts on who takes advantage of your chapter. They're the worst. When you tell them they can't talk about their own business, that tends to put an end to it.

8:31So there is a visitor policy or only allowed to visit two times and talk about your own business. It's not written about substitutes in that way. And in this case, that might not be of concern because their business is your business so they can't talk twice anyways. So not as a big deal to you. However, so to, I guess just a tighten up that bowl a little bit, there is no policy that says you're sub camp. I mean, that your son can't sub for you more than twice. However, a chapter and the organization as a whole in general can tell somebody they're no longer welcome to be out of chapter meeting for any reason whatsoever minus the protected reasons, right? So religion, race, that kind of stuff. But it's these are not public meetings.

9:33Your B and I chapter is not a public meeting open to anybody who wants to walk in. The chapter and again, the organization has every right to tell somebody they're not welcome. And the chapter has every right to put a guideline in and a policy at the chapter level say we don't want anybody to sub personally as an individual to act as a sub more than two times. They can do that. So and I almost applaud them for doing if that's what they're doing because what they're trying to combat is the issues I mentioned earlier, which is the professional sub everybody uses the same person because it's easy. We all just take the easy way out to not get an absence, but what we're really doing is killing the value of every meeting. And so this was probably put in place and should have been a put in place to really strengthen the purpose of the substitute program. I don't know what chapter this is.

10:33But this is my 30,000 foot if you take on it. And to ensure that the members are approaching it the way it was originally designed that they have the intent of the policy in place, which again is providing value to the chapter and your fellow members when you're not there. So is there a policy that says he can't sub more than two times? No, there's a policy that says he can't talk about his own business more than two times, but that doesn't matter because he's not anyways because he's in your business. But the chapter can set one and it sounds like they have. So I would tell you that your investment is in the relationships and the people in the room. And to invest a little bit of time and effort when you know you're not going to be there, when you've got to be on vacation and stuff, to have somebody else change it up, bring

11:36some value to that meeting when you're not there. Again, it could be somebody who can join, it could be somebody who just, it's a way to meet the other members who knows where the business is going to come from. And for all of us that's how we should be looking at it. And I'll reiterate, the worst substitute is a fellow B and I member. That's just an easy cop out way. They can't do either the two things. Wouldn't do it. The other one is your past B and I member, right? The one again who left because they couldn't commit every week, but hey, if you need a sub, I can sub for you at any time, which means you can commit every week. They're just basically telling you like, I don't want to commit to the same level. You guys are committed to, but I'll definitely take advantage of the opportunity if you give it to me. It's a great question. And like I said, it's a little bit loaded. There's a little bit more to it than just might meet the eye, but may not love it, but I'm kind of on the side of the chapter on that one. And we'd encourage you to speak to your leadership team and everything else and see if there's a way to work between the two.

12:37All right. Thanks as always. And again, if you have any questions, topics, etc. go to bnipowerofone.com, leave them there. If you're enjoying it, leave a review. If you're finding a helpful share it. That's what I, that's the, that's the way to get back. Have a great day. 5,000 orders a month was manageable. 5,000 was madness.

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