The Perfect 100

Hello and welcome back to the Perfect 100.

I am Tammy Zurak, the host and I am a chapter member as well.

I'm in the East Memphis chapter and excited today to talk to Bridget Klein who is a
photographer.

She is in my photographer network for the last 12 years where I was a professional
portrait photographer and we were in a very large worldwide photography group.

So welcome Bridget.

How are you today?

Good.

How are you?

I am doing fabulous, thank you.

So let's set the stage, let's get people understanding a little bit about you.

So how long have you been in BNI?

What chapter are you in and what seat do you currently hold?

I have been in BNI, this is my third year, going on my third year.

I was back in 95, probably about six months because we moved, I just didn't go back in.

I didn't have a need for BNI.

But I'm in the Table Rock Business Alliance chapter in Central Point, Oregon.

And I hold the photography seat.

Okay, so tell us a little bit about what you specialize in in photography.

I specialize in fine art portraits.

I love just shooting women over the age of 40.

ah And headshots and branding are just like my jam.

I love just meeting business people and helping them out build their business.

Awesome.

And I guess I'm going to have you when you tell you when you give us your 45 seconds,
we're going to hear lots more.

Maybe we won't, but we'll see what your 45 seconds holds and maybe that'll give us a
little bit more education.

So I'm to go ahead and hold up the timer.

So when I hit start, go ahead.

And when I, when you see it run down, stop.

You're ready?

Here we go.

Hi, Bridget Klein, Bridget Klein Photography.

And I love photographing women over the age of 40.

I like helping them feel confident, be seen, and be proud of their authentic self.

I have this one lady who just really, she wanted to get her pictures done, but she didn't.

She's hated every single picture of her.

And for two years, I patiently waited to photograph her, because I could see her beauty
inside and out, you know?

She wanted to lose weight, of course she didn't.

And then one day we're at an event and I gently twisted her arms so that she would get her
head shot done and she did.

And she fell in love with the images instantly.

She was so happy that she had done it, even after all that weight.

So I'm looking to be introduced to women over the age of 40.

I'm Bridget Klein, Bridget Klein Photography.

Awesome.

Thank you.

help us because I am so you're from outside my area.

I've interviewed a lot of the guests previous to you who are in my area.

So I know them or their chapters, you know, a little bit more than I don't know yours.

I have never been to Oregon.

So tell me a little bit about the culture.

OK, tell me a little bit about the culture of your chapter.

Our chapter is the fastest growing chapter in southern Oregon.

We're in southern Oregon.

We're currently at 25 members.

We love, love, love one another.

It's a big family.

We support one another.

It's a lot of fun.

When people come, they're like, I want to join.

If they don't have the money, they'll wait until they save up and they join.

it's what attracted me was just the

energy and the vibe of the group.

I visited two others before I joined and this was it for me.

Yeah, it's funny you say that.

just was on, Ivan Meisner just had a webinar on, I wrote down the title, I'll have to
look.

It was called Coaching Chapters to Greatness.

And the reason I asked that culture question is that was, you we discussed kind of the,
well, he gave a list of podcasts that people can go and listen to that he recommended for

all of those things, which.

You can reach out to me if you didn't watch it, but I'm sure they're gonna send it out if
you wanna go back and rewatch it.

But culture was one of the things that came up and me being in a group here, um and I've
been in a bunch of different ones and I've coached different ones.

And I think that what you just said is, it can be one of the biggest things, right?

Is when you go and visit different chapters, even though they might have the same makeup
of,

seats, so to speak, filled.

They all have what we call the firm, finance, insurance, real estate, mortgage, uh and
then all of the spin-offs from there, the lots of trades and so on and so forth.

But the people are what make it unique.

And not even just the people, but the culture or the vibe that the room has from those
people is what is enticing.

You're going to find

that each group is unique based on who's in the room, right?

Yeah.

one comes and one goes and it can totally change the dynamic of it.

But our group has been able to hold that cohesiveness together um for the last two years
that I've been in.

So that's what has really helped us sky rock.

Okay, awesome.

So the power of one is what BNI uses to track members ROI inconsistency.

So let's have a look at the power of one.

Does your chapter talk about the power of one?

I know in my chapter we talk about it often.

What does that look like for your group?

We don't talk about it often enough, but we are definitely trying to get it in once a
month.

So, you we want people to know where they're at.

I'm the mentor coordinator right now, and so I am helping, you know, the new members
understand and trying to find out what the old members need so that they can bring up

their score.

For a while, were one of the top

chapters in our region that had over 50 % in the green.

So we're continuing to work on that to make sure that we stay at least 50 % in the green.

Okay, so your numbers I'll read from, because some of the people are watching us on
YouTube, but others are just listening on whatever podcast medium they want to listen to

it on.

uh from left to right, your total score is 45, which is in the red.

uh Your attendance is 20 in the green, which is 20 is the max in each of the categories.

uh Your referrals per week are five in the gray.

Visitors are zero in the gray.

One to ones are 20 in the green and CEUs per week are zero in the gray.

So talk to me about if you found anything challenging or what is the most challenging
thing that we track in on the power of one for you.

That's a funny question because I'm a lifelong learner and I love learning but the CEUs
get me and they're so easy to do so um I try I'm trying different ways to figure out how I

can get that in.

Everybody says well my commute's 35 minutes just listen to them then but I'm such a music
person that's the time I jam.

Okay.

I naturally turn on the radio.

I don't listen to him during that time.

So I need to figure out how, because that's an easy way just to bring that score up.

oh Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Well, and it's funny because we're gonna end up saying this in every episode, we're gonna
get to your strengths later, but that, you know, one of the things that you have in your

strengths directly, well, they all tend to, you know, every strength that when we get to
that, all the strengths, everybody can be successful with whatever the strengths they

have.

So it doesn't matter, but some people have tendencies that lend themselves well to certain
categories that we register on the Power of One.

So, and yours, you have one of those that makes sense.

So um let's come back to that.

I'm gonna just write that down so I don't forget to come back to it and let's see if we
can apply that.

um How about consistency for you?

What has been, have you had any challenges?

What's the thing you consistently struggle with, whether it's in the chapter itself or
even in your business?

oh whether it's time, energy, clarity, anything else that you've noticed in your business
or in the chapter, that's been a consistency challenge for you.

Referrals, when I got into BNI, my chapter, they're broken up into the six spheres and my
sphere was empty until I came in.

And so for a year and a half, I didn't have referral partners.

Even though the chapter members tried to refer me and they tried to give me business, it
wasn't the same as having that referral partner.

It took a while to learn how to give a good referral.

because there's a difference between a lead and a referral.

And to know the difference is the hard part, and to get it really good and get it right.

ah But it's that lifelong learning curve.

I just had to learn it, but that has been the hardest part for me.

That's so interesting.

um We do the same thing in my chapter.

sit by power teams, essentially.

If you're familiar, you may or may not have seen the eight and six where it kind of breaks
up into, know, we all sit together with the people like us that would be our referral

partners.

we have our smallest team is the health and wellness, which is pretty typical in most
chapters.

You know, there's generally one or if you're lucky two, we're actually up to three.

eh But that's with intentionality, right?

Is we have, one of the reasons that we decided to sit that way is so we could see, you
know, it's a visual cue for everyone else in the chapter to go, why is Bridget sitting by

herself?

You know, there's no one to support her directly.

And that's a big thing, right?

Is when you can look across a room and say, there's, you know, I'm on a B2B team
basically, cause I'm coaching in business.

And I work with.

teams and corporate and all that.

And so all the people around me, probably have our business teams, the supporting business
functions is probably, I don't know, 15 people um in our chapter.

And we bring in more people like us because that's who we do business with, but you're the
only one.

So we have to stop and say sometimes, hey, we've got this person that's not getting what
they need.

Now conversely, let's look at your, well, before we get to conversely, let's look at your
Palms report.

the Palms across the board, so this is looking like 23 weeks of total meetings.

you've um had, looks like you've only had one absence.

uh Referrals given inside.

uh

Yes, yes, because that's what threw me into the red and then trying to get up out of that,
you know?

Yeah.

yes.

And the easiest thing, and I don't think people recognize this, is your VP can switch that
for you.

So if you recognize, but you have to be watching that that happened and you obviously
noticed that.

for those that haven't, your vice president can go back in and look at those reports if
there's something wrong.

And I believe they can make a change if it's wrong.

but even just sort of keeping on top of it week to week.

that's I know I never I don't look at.

this report, saying you can look at it.

I don't look at it every week either, but I do.

know, the podcast is called the perfect 100 and I am vigilant about being in the 100, you
know, every month.

So I do recognize when I keep track of, you know, I literally will comb the app just as a,
you know, tip if somebody's interested in trying to stay, you know, getting to 100 or stay

in the green or whatever it is you're trying to accomplish.

You can open up the app.

which I'm going to attempt to do here.

And then it will take you to the screen that has this week's slips.

And you can look at, if you hit the little eyeball.

you can kind of see what you did.

But I also look at it monthly kind of across the what have I given in this month?

So if I want to understand, do I have enough?

I can kind of track it and I will count how many things you have to do for each of those,
As you need one CEU per week, you need uh one one-to-one per week, you need one visitor

per month, you need one referral per week.

And that's how I track it.

So I will like this, just ended the month.

This is July 1st for those listening that later it could be any day.

ah But we just ended June.

So I, two days or three days ago, I looked to make sure I'd hit all the things.

So if I don't have enough CEUs, I go and listen to like, I did the webinar this morning.

So that's, but I'm actually proactive.

I started at the front end of the month because I want to make sure I hit the points.

early so I can kind of skate.

Once I've hit them all, you know, I'm doing my one-to-ones, I'm getting them, and then
it's just gravy on top of that.

And if you build enough gravy, then when you have to leave town for a week or you have
whatever going on in your business that I know that we all get busy.

You know, I've got a big training session coming up that's going to keep me very busy.

So I probably won't be able to do a lot of one-to-ones, but I can front load so that, you
know, and I come from sales.

You have a very long sales background.

So

I've always operated that way is if I can knock out my monthly objectives at the front end
of the month, then it feels better at the end of the month if I've hit them early.

But if I haven't, then I still, you know, kind of work through those things early enough
that I'm not caught at the end trying to scramble to get it.

um I digress.

So referral.

So let's say.

That's great.

know, um great tips here to take back to my chapter so that we can just grow even more.

Yeah, I don't know that most people, know, because it's important to me and I have not
always been, I have hardly ever been prior to running this.

I have had 100 before, but it was challenging.

I make with intention that my goal because I want to show that it can be done
consistently.

And we have in my region, I actually got to peek through your region, because I know your
area director and she sent me the reports for your whole region.

And I peeked through the different chapters and you have a whole bunch of people in your
region that have a perfect 100.

So I was like, hmm, that's interesting.

uh My region only has on any given month, because we get recognized by the area director
on the region round table call that we have every month.

uh

on an average basis out of the 500 or so that are in my general, we have two different,
well actually technically I have three different markets here, but the two that get

recognized in my local area, we maybe have three, if we're lucky, people that have 100.

And that to me isn't, I'm not just striving to get 100, because I run the Perfect 100
podcast, I'm striving to get 100 because I'm trying to maximize my business, right?

I'm trying to make sure,

I'm doing all the things necessary to set myself up for success.

um So we'll come back to that.

All right, so let's go back to the numbers here.

So referrals given inside, you have, I might need to make my screen a little bit bigger so
I can see it.

There we go.

um You have six referrals given inside, five referrals given outside.

Referrals received inside, you have six.

Referrals received outside, you have two.

um

visitors you have one and again we were talking about 23 weeks total and then you have 73
one-to-ones which is amazing.

um Thank you for close business given is $350 and three CEUs.

So let's talk about because you said that the consistency of when you said the consistency
of referrals is that I am assuming you meant given is that the case?

Yes, how, you know, learning how to give that good referral uh so that it brings people
business and then getting good referrals that bring you business.

uh Sometimes if the members are just looking at, I just got to give a referral and it's
not a good referral and it doesn't lead to business, you know, and it may lead to business

down the road.

We don't know.

But, you know, just knowing that this is where we're headed.

How am I a good referral partner?

So that's one of the things that I'm striving for this year is to make sure, and
especially since I'm mentor coordinator in our chapter, because I want to help the new

members know how to do this.

And so, yeah, definitely.

Yeah, and the culture in your chapter starts, I feel like, in many cases with the mentor
coordinator, right, is because we bring new people in and they absorb whatever's happening

in the room.

But as mentor coordinator, you can shift things if you wish to make them better.

And I asked Ivan Meiser, we had a chance to ask questions at the end of his webinar.

And that was actually the question I asked is something along the lines of how do you
intentionally shape a culture in a chapter, especially when the culture maybe has a

reputation for not being great.

Because some chapters have a reputation and that's not necessarily, some of those
reputations are great, some of them not so much.

You know, I found that because I am a chapter success coach, I found that interesting.

I wanted to kind of hear it.

He his answer to my question was um you have to do addition by subtraction.

um But for me, and if you know what addition by subtraction means, it's you know, we have
to start with.

But he he also had answered that question in a different from someone else in a different
way earlier.

His addition by subtraction.

And he actually gave a podcast number.

Let me see if I can find it.

that spoke to that.

um

I'm not sure I can find it, but you can probably Google it.

ah The essence is if we want to try to help people, and that's where I come from with this
podcast, is even if your score's not 100, that's okay.

You're only getting out of it what you're putting into it, though.

And so my question for you is,

Do you think, have you looked at referrals differently?

I'm sure you get referrals because you and I did similar things when I was a portrait
photographer.

I got tons of referrals from clients because they liked the way their images looked,
right?

So that's, they're automatically, they post their images and somebody will ask who did
that for you because they want that too, right?

They want to feel, they know the person and they ask about the experience.

So being in BNI, how has that shifted how you think about referrals?

Uh, it is shifted.

You know, I just, I meet with people with intention, but more to include them than uh
getting business out of them.

I want to uh make sure everybody has what they need.

And then I know that it's going to come back to me.

And so

The referrals, the more I do my networking, my one-to-ones, the more it's gonna come back
to me.

So I just keep at it, just keep going.

the first year was hardly anything.

This last year was good and I'm looking forward to this year being good also.

So just keep going.

Right, yeah and that's pretty common too.

Yeah, that's pretty common.

Your first year, depending on the business, some are easier than others, but it takes, if
you've got 20 some people in your chapter, that's going to take you half the year to get

to do a good one-to-one with people.

And it doesn't surprise me what you said, I, on what your, we'll get to them in a minute,
but based on what your uh strengths are.

I'm not surprised at what you said.

Making sure everybody feels included and all the things that hint, hint comes up to
something that is the strength of yours.

um So for me, the lesson that I learned, I think with one-to-ones in, well, how you find
more referrals and how you receive more referrals for me was making sure that my

one-to-one sheet, Gains Profile.

um There's a, and I don't know that everybody's done the MSP 2.0, but the very first
module of MSP 2.0 has a downloadable book, and that book is gold um to maximize your, and

I have Maximizer, uh and maybe you do too.

um That booklet is a guide to how you build your business.

inside of BNI and I think that your inclusion, so to speak, uh makes good points to how
you build.

Clearly, you're doing the one-to-ones, you had 73.

So to me, if I look at that as a business coach and or a BNI chapter six, which I am both
of, I would say, what is the net result of the time spent because that's ROI, right?

you're putting in time and one hand is for giving, the other is for receiving.

Bridget and I come from a community where the education leader, that's one of her things,
but that applies to everywhere.

is the amount of time you spend marketing or the amount of money that you spend marketing,
there should be an equivalent return.

So if you're giving time, you need something to come back to you.

And it doesn't always have to be money.

but it does have to be beneficial to you in some way.

And that's different for different businesses, different people.

So if I was investing that, let's call that 73 hours, you know, in a one-to-one, if we do
a good one-to-one, it should take an hour.

Then of that 73 hours in the 20 some weeks, that is what's a good expectation.

I would say maybe a little bit more.

if you're the mentor coordinator, that we can start to teach people

how to structure and that isn't everybody's strong suit.

Structure, but you have maximizer.

I'm just going to let the pat out of the bag.

One of your strengths is maximizer and maximizer takes good things and makes them great.

And so if we want to take something good, which is time spent with other people and make
it great by getting more out of it, then we can build that structure in which BNIR has

already created.

Yes.

a good thing with intentionality.

So because we've been speaking about your strengths so much, let's roll over to that.

All right, so I'm gonna go through and tell you what Bridget's top five are.

So her number one is adaptability.

And this is a new one for oh the, we haven't had anybody that's had adaptability with all
of your other strengths.

We've had some people, but even if we've had them, they're unique to you, especially in
the top five, because the top five work together in different ways.

So even if we had the last week's podcast guest, he and I had almost the same ones, but in
different orders and he had an infusion of a couple of different ones and that impacts how

they all work.

So that's why when you get this, it's like a DNA strand or a fingerprint, it's yours.

So, but the general things, and when you read your report, it's less general, it's more
you, but the general, I'll just read these for the people listening.

So adaptability, you prefer to go with the flow.

You tend to be a now person.

who takes things as they come and who discovers the future one day at a time.

Includers, number two, you accept others.

You show awareness of those who feel left out and make an effort to include them.

Number three is maximizer.

You focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence.

You seek to transform something strong into something superb.

Number four is connectedness.

You have faith in the links among all things.

You believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has meaning.

And number five is learner.

You have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve the process of learning
rather than the outcome excites you.

All right, so.

I know you took this a while back.

This wasn't, uh many of the guests have just taken it within the last week or two.

And so it's a surprise to them.

You've actually taken this twice in your past and somewhat more recently, but this one's a
little farther back.

the one you took more recently, you had a different report.

So I didn't show that one here because it wasn't the Gallup report, but many of the things
were the same.

They were just kind of rearranged.

And that's pretty typical.

your top 10 really, if you take this more than once, are gonna probably shift around,
especially if there are many years between them.

uh But typically still fall into that same set of things in your top 10.

So thinking about just me talking about those things, I saw your head shaking up and down
a few times.

What did you resonate most with?

What was totally you when I read it?

So the learner, I'm a lifelong learner.

uh It did jump out of my top five the second time I took it.

And I think when I took it the first time, I was at the beginning of my photography career
and I was learning the business side of it.

I was learning the lighting.

I was learning everything there is to learn.

So it's still in the top 10, just not in the top five.

Maximizer, I never paid attention to it.

until I took it the second time and it jumped to number one.

And it's like, you know, I really resonate it with that because I love being able to help
people make things better.

And the connectiveness, ah my dad was in the Air Force, we traveled all the time.

ah So I was constantly having to make friends.

And so I think that's the inclusiveness, including people all the time, to make sure that
nobody's left out.

so having three relationships in my top five really was surprising, but I see why I have
them.

And so yeah, I like the way it is.

Okay, yeah.

Well, and that's you.

That's why you like it.

What's interesting, my dad also, my dad comes, was in the Air Force, so we have an Air
Force family.

But my connectedness, just to kind of give you some uh perspective, I guess, my
connectedness is 26.

So I think that's more you.

Yes, than anything else.

But I do, I, yeah, but they play in different ways.

So you're, where you see it as

part of how you grew up and I grew up the same.

moved around a lot.

So I had to get dumped into a new place and had to make new friends all the time.

so that it's almost, it's almost an adaptability kind of situation, but my adaptability
isn't high either.

ah So it is more so that I want to maximize for myself, right?

As I want to have friends, I want to do business.

You know, I moved here.

where I lived near Memphis and started a business.

I was, prior to that, I was corporate.

I was on the road all the time.

So I didn't have any connections, zero.

So my BNI story starts with, I'm gonna start a business and I don't know anyone.

And typically we don't like to bring people into chapters that are new and don't have
connections.

But I was convincing enough, I have high influence, that I gave a plan.

I gave the planner how was I going to make an impact because it was important to me that
my business thrive and they believed it and it worked, right?

But I worked through BNI, right?

I built my business, I maximized my own opportunities through BNI and 10 years later, now
I'm my second business.

So, you know, clearly it can work if you work it, but it's understanding the how.

So when you...

I love that because when I joined BNI, I didn't have clients at all.

I had just started networking in January and then I started BNI in April.

And to see how far I've come, I love it.

Yeah.

yeah.

And it's always interesting to me because I look at, am, my top strengths, mean, my number
one is strategic.

So for me, I can see the forest through the trees and then I map out a plan.

uh Your number one strength on this one is adaptability.

Adaptability lives in the moment.

um They don't like necessarily, do you like a plan?

You don't like a plan, do you like a plan?

know, every now and then I need a plan, I feel, and I try to use a plan.

It just doesn't always work, because then I squirrel here or squirrel there, and out goes
the plan.

So I'm just like, whatever, it'll happen.

you thrive in the moment, right?

So the upside of adaptability is you respond to chaos quickly.

When there's an emergency and there's lots of things going on at once, we want Bridget in
the mix because she's gonna have a calm, cool, collected head and look at all the things

and go, let's go over here and take care of that because that's the thing.

And you're going to be probably the person who, given a set of things, you've got your
plan for the day,

maybe, you have an intention for the day and then somebody says, let's go and do this
other thing.

You're like, cool, let's do it.

And for me, that's not, that isn't how I operate, right?

But that's the beauty of having different sets of strengths is you might need to identify
someone else.

do you work, are you a solopreneur?

Do you work alone in your business?

I'm a solopreneur, but I do love the CliftonStrengths because if I need somebody to help
me with something, if I know their strengths and my weaknesses, I can have them help me

with my weakness.

And that's just the beauty of the whole CliftonStrengths, is just figuring out who you can
work with and who you need.

ah Because we can't do it all as much as we try as a souvenir, you know, we do try to do
it all.

we don't, the Clifton strikes, don't call it weaknesses because they're not really, and
you have had your full 34 reports, so we tend to look at that bottom set and say, that's

our weakness.

We're not good at it.

And that isn't necessarily our weakness.

It's just not where we play all day, right?

Is if we focus on what we're great at, it gets much better.

um And if we focus on what we're not so great at, it is only a marginal improvement.

So to your point, having

others in your network, which is what I do with BNI.

look at, you know, and I've shown on previous podcasts that the group, actually have about
a third of my chapter have taken the assessment through me.

And I, so I have all their information and we have a beautifully even uh set of things
across the four domains.

And we have very few of the strengths that are not represented.

And I haven't, I've only tested, assessed a third of the chapter.

So they're probably there.

ah But we try to, you I personally look at my group in BNI as, know, they're a microcosm,
they're a business.

You know, the chapter is a business.

So if you're not functioning, and that's why I strive for that 100, is I'm trying to
maximize my own opportunity within that structure because I can only control me.

I can't control everyone else and what they're up to.

But the chapter as a whole, we have a structure, right?

We have the membership committee.

We have seven month reviews.

We have mentor coordinators.

We have all of the processes that not everybody loves, but it also helps everybody to be
more successful.

And if you're alone on your team, you're not going to be as successful.

So if we can look around the room and go, hey guys, you know, somebody.

you might need to call attention to it, but it's pretty obvious when you're sitting by
yourself that you need more support.

And so we can actively look and say, we need to support the people that don't have

as much because maybe we're fed, so to speak, we're getting what we need, but somebody
else isn't.

And that leads to them leaving um or not putting in the effort.

Cause we've seen that too, where somebody will be coming gangbusters and do all the things
we recommend.

And then they're not getting anything, not getting anything, not getting anything.

and they drop off, especially in the first year, there's a lot of turnover, the, I don't
know what the US or the country or the global average is, but I know on average I've seen

turnover rates in most parts of the US are 50 % in that first year.

To me that is, and we have very high retention in my chapter, but we put an effort to do
it and it can still be better.

You know, if it breaks down in any one area.

then if we're not training the new people, if we're not supporting people in their
journey, then, or we're not setting the right expectations before they even come in, um

which is a big one.

They think they're gonna get a ton and they don't get enough.

And what is enough?

We don't even know.

So can't help you get to what you don't define.

And I find when I meet with new people, they don't understand even, like they don't know
what they're trying to accomplish.

So how can we help you get there?

It's the same as business.

If I'm your business coach and

You don't have a goal, you know, I can't really help.

I mean, we can make things better, but what is the measurement that you're going to say?

Yep, Tammy helped me do a great job because, you know, if there's no goal, then that's
going to be harder to define.

so.

Go ahead.

as mentor coordinator why I took on the position is because I wanted those new members to
have as much information as possible when they start out so that they can succeed.

ah You know, we want everybody to succeed.

All right.

So I want to have you think about your strengths and how you can apply them to you said
earlier that referrals consistency of referrals was maybe a challenge.

So can you look at your strengths and turn them on yourself?

Are there anything if you are a conversation that you can now say, oh, you know, that and
that made me think of something as did anything come up for you that way?

I definitely um have learned a lot today, little tidbits here and there, and I definitely
want to take those strengths and basically maximize them the best I can.

Since that is my strength.

Just take and learn from them and just really research them and see how I can take them
and apply them, especially to the referrals.

Yeah, think, well, and you've got, yeah, you've got, uh because you have learner, that's a
big piece, right, is you enjoy continuous improvement.

So finding out more information.

If you don't like listening to podcasts in your car, then do you like to read?

I do.

I like to read.

Okay.

So, and I like to, I don't love, I have a tension span issues with the, am, because of my
strengths, I tend to have a whole bunch of things going on at the same time.

And I, you know, I tend to kind of divert to each thing.

So I have a hard time reading a book because I can't sit still long enough to get past a
couple of pages and not be interrupted by something I need to direct attention to.

So.

Yeah.

For me, I listen to Audible and that's what, but I like listening to Audible when I'm
getting ready in the morning or when I'm making dinner or when I'm driving in my car.

But if you like reading books, then, you know, Ivan listed off a whole bunch of books.

He's got a whole library.

ah He mentioned, let's see, he's got a new one coming out, The Infinite Legacy.

ah And then he's got Masters of Success, Six Things a Thousand Times.

all came up in the webinar I mentioned listening to this morning, but he's got a whole
library.

And the reason I brought up Audible is the other, I don't know, two weeks ago, there were
a whole bunch of books that were free and they were kind of like a sale situation.

And I posted it, we used GroupMe in my chapter.

I posted like, hey, today's the day.

And I downloaded a whole bunch of them so I could go and listen to them.

But reading a book can be, he's got tons of books or it doesn't have to be.

You know, it's useful for BNI to have, you know, Ivan's books, but there are others also,
obviously, that you can read that maybe would get you that taking that good and making it

great.

And then having conversations for me, uh because you like to include everybody, let's make
that known is I like to include everybody and here's why and how you can do that for me is

I'm assuming you enjoy being included as well.

Would that be a fair statement?

Yeah.

Everybody likes to be included.

Yes.

course, everybody, that's pretty general, right?

Most people want to be included.

um Although I'll say not necessarily, depending on, certain people are like, leave me
alone and let me go do my thing.

um But the included in you can teach that to others while you're talking to them in those
one-to-ones is you can talk about, it's important for me to...

um

Make sure everybody's included and not left out how you can help that Support me in that
way is I need if you do the one-to-one sheet it talks about who's in your contact sphere

or in your case who isn't ah You know, so if you don't have people in your context sphere,
you could be talking about these are the people I need to grow my business So we need to

actively look for those and be speaking those out into existence so to speak and I bet you

If you've got 20 some people in your job, or somebody knows some of those people that they
could invite.

uh And conversely, you can return that favor to them by asking those same questions,
right?

It's who can I find for you?

Because you're running across different people in your day, everybody has different
business connections and so forth.

So maybe we can support it that way.

All right, so I want you to imagine talking to somebody who's never done the strengths
assessment.

What would you say to them to help them understand why it's worth knowing what your
strengths are?

For me, knowing what my strengths are just helps me, I keep using the word maximizer now,
but it helps me to just really hone in on them and be more efficient at them.

But not only that, like I said earlier, I can take, and if I can find out what your
strengths are, I can use your strengths ah to help you grow, help me grow, my strengths

can help you grow.

So we can balance each other out and use them a way that we both can benefit from them.

They're really nice.

It's just really nice to know what they are and to see them in action.

Once you know what they are, you see them in action.

And it's good to see them in action.

You start picking up on that.

So yeah.

and I'll play to both of our maximizer strengths is it's good to know what they are.

It's great to know how to use them.

And that's what I do as a coach, right?

And that's why I love being a coach is I help people take what is theirs and make it,
know, put it on steroids because knowing it is one thing, using it is another.

So I love that answer.

Thank you.

ah What is something small but meaningful that you've done in your business that help
people remember you?

you know, small but meaningful.

My business cards.

I have put an image, there are 50 different images on the back of my business cards.

it is mood.com.

But when you take and you receive this, everybody sits there like this.

And they can't put it down because it's the soft touch.

And so this has gotten me a lot of traffic.

One of the gentlemen said, I had your card sitting on my desk and somebody come running
across the room to look at it.

And I'm like, yay, it's working.

So it's just so small.

And everybody says, well, why are we still doing business cards?

For me, that's why.

Yeah, it works.

Yes.

And I wholeheartedly agree with all on all fronts.

Having done what you do as a photographer, portrait photography, specializing in branding,
but I also teach branding and for all those things.

And I help my husband.

It's funny because I helped my husband.

He started his business and it launched in September of last year and I helped him.

I created his cards for him.

I built them.

I would add the level of you have images on the back because that's what you do is it's a
visual representation of different

you images are showing all of your work, uh but having your own image on on it as well
because so many people, I don't have a stack sitting here, but so many people don't have

their picture on their card.

And yes, I saw that.

Yes.

Yes.

And that's what I teach.

That's what I teach.

I like you, I love to mentor people and I want them to have, know, get that image on
there.

If I don't take it, find somebody to take it, but get it on that business card.

Yes, I have gone to networking events and I'm pretty widespread at doing different.

I do chambers and I do all the things.

There's a whole bunch of different places I network and I can't tell you how many times
somebody's come up to me and said, you're, you know, they knew what I, who I was and what

I did because they have my image and they tell me the same thing you just said, which is I
still have your card sitting on my desk.

And because it's also a nice, you know, where women are tactile for everybody listening.

Women like to touch things, feel things.

And when you don't have a card to give, a phone is not tactile.

mean, you're not, but I do use that and I'm finding that, and it's another tip I'll add in
there.

don't, where's my phone?

You can, I don't know if everybody knows, you can just hold, if you have an iPhone, you
can, if it's set up correctly, you can hold it over the other person's iPhone and it will

automatically connect with their contact information.

uh What I then do once it's, it will put mine into theirs and theirs into mine, I then
take a screenshot because I literally went, the other night I was at an event where there,

I don't know, there were 15 people, let's say.

um And so if I do that to three different people, they disappear into my contacts and I
don't remember what their name was.

So I will screenshot it so that it's at least in my pictures.

So then I can go back and go, okay, I met this one, this one, this one.

And I will remember who they are.

But that card makes a bigger difference, right?

Is if I have that piece of paper in also, and then it feels nice and it makes an
impression.

And my husband, it was really surprised at how many times he hands out his card and people
are like, ooh, I like that, you know?

It's funny.

even though it's old school at this point, it's a representation of your brand.

So it's an important thing.

So I love that you shared that.

All right, so we'll ask the final question I like to ask everybody, which is what's
something you're excited about?

What's new in your business, your growth?

How are you showing up differently?

Give me something.

I am excited because I just opened my studio in March and so we had an open house two
weeks ago and so that went well.

So word is getting out about the studio now but up and coming beyond this podcast I want
to get more speaking engagements so I have a speaking engagement next month um and I just

want to get out there about branding you know confidence so ah

finding your confidence and the thought that came to my mind as we were talking,
confidence is putting your image on your business card.

How many people don't because they're not confident about it?

So that's going into my talk.

So thank you for that little tidbit that just popped into my mind because of our
conversation.

a, that's awesome.

I love that.

have a, also have a speaking engagement coming up where it's talking about building your
personal brand.

It's in a corporate setting, but how do they, you know, build their brand internally?

And you mentioned confidence.

And I feel like that is it's in, it's a women's group.

So working in a corporate environment that is in a man's men's

Yes, yes.

industries and engineering.

So it is harder for women engineers to build their brand seemingly, you but I came from
automotive, so it's a very similar kind of situation.

So yes, confidence is a big thing, we, having people show up, whether they're in their
business, going to a networking event, owning your confidence is the starting point of all

the things.

I was listening to a podcast with, uh I can't think of his real name, Mr.

Wonderful uh from Shark Tank.

I can't think of what his real name is.

But he was saying that that was the big thing was people show up, how he knows people are
gonna be successful is how they show up before they ever speak.

They put the camera on them and they have to stand there for two minutes, three minutes
before they actually start rolling.

And he can tell who's gonna be successful and who isn't simply by that moment where
they're standing in their own power or not.

em Because they've prepared and prepared, but in that moment they're in their head.

And so how you show up in that moment before you get there and that, you know, whether
you're in your car or you're outside the BNI chapter and, you know, trying to come in is,

it's everything is, you know, and that's what people, one of the feedbacks I hear often
about myself and it always used to make me, make me, I don't know what the right word is.

used to, people used to say they were afraid to talk to me because I had an air.

And I like,

you were confident.

Because I was trying to ask what it is.

It's not that I had an error like, I'm like, whatever.

It was the confidence that I project.

Right.

And it's like to me, but the flip side of that they would add once they knew me is I'm so
glad I talked to you because once I spoke to you, I realized I shouldn't have had that

perception because I'm not that person.

But that was based on how I carry myself.

walking into a space, we all do this and that's what branding is, right?

Is in that first, whether they pop on your website for two minutes or if you're lucky, you
get two minutes or you walk into a room of any sort, BNI or otherwise, your persona enters

before you do.

You before people speak to you, they've already made an assessment.

That's why branding images are important.

That's why speaking about what you do in your chapter,

is important, your commercial is important, how you show up in general, how you do all the
things that you get measured by is important.

It's all important because it's your brand.

So, you know, to maximize your brand, do all the things.

And on that note, yeah.

So I recently incorporated this.

was listening to the diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett and I found it so fascinating
that I wanted to do the same thing here.

And so the last guest asked a question for me to ask of you and the question was,

have you used your strength in a way that had an effect that you wished?

Oh, what a great question.

How I use my strength?

Yes, I, other than BNI, I have three other networking groups.

And when I do my one-to-one, so not only do I have the 73 for BNI, but I have a ton of
others for all my other networking groups.

And I love taking the women who are new to the group under my wing.

I'm usually their first one-to-one, second or third.

I make sure I get in there right away.

And then I just include them.

I build their confidence.

I want to see them succeed.

so that inclusiveness just really, I've watched women just, their confidence explode um as
I've been able to help them be included in the group and just showed them the ropes, just

teach them whatever I know.

just pass on little tidbits to them like you've done today.

And so I love that inclusiveness and including everybody.

Awesome.

Love that.

All right, and on that note, we'll leave it.

I wanna remind everybody to please subscribe.

If you're on YouTube, I am trying to bill to a thousand.

followers if you will, subscribers.

So I would love your help even if you're uh on a different platform.

Go to YouTube please and subscribe.

And if you found something interesting in this episode or other episodes, make a comment
below so that more BNI members will get to see it or business owners because we're just

trying to help everybody with grow their business.

So thank you so much for being here today Bridget and we'll see you next time on The
Perfect 100.