The Perfect 100

Hello and welcome to BNI the Perfect 100 podcast.

My special guest today is Ms.

Laura Cantrell.

I'm very excited to have her on.

So we're gonna jump right in.

Laura, how are you today?

I'm good.

to us from the convenience of your car today, I see a busy lady out on the road making
things happen.

All right, so we'll start.

The first question is, how long have you been in BNI?

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

I have been in just at two years now.

I'm currently in the BNI East Memphis chapter and I hold our nonprofit seat.

nonprofit.

All right, so I always have everybody start off with giving me your best and to tell
everybody that several of my last guests have been in my chapter and so is Laura.

So I have a little insight more so than the rest I might have if you're not in my chapter.

But we don't do a minute, but you're gonna get a full minute on the clock.

So I want you to give me your best 60 seconds and go ahead when you are ready.

All right, well, my name is Laura Cantrell.

I work with the Baptist Centers for Good Grief.

I work on securing funding for this 100 % free resource that we have in the community.

um

Raise your hand if you've ever been touched by grief.

It's everybody.

It's the most universal experience, unfortunately, not one that you ever want to
experience, but unfortunately, you will experience it.

So that's where we come in with the Baptist Centers for Good Grief.

We provide free grief counseling for children, teens, and adults throughout the Mid-South.

So my job is not the counseling itself, but securing the funding to be able to provide
this resource to the community in perpetuity.

So we have events throughout the year.

Of course, I love anybody that wants to partner with us on events, whether it be
volunteering or sponsoring, or we'd love to just have you out to the center for a tour so

you can see what it's all about.

I'm Laura Cantrell with the Baptist Centers for Good Grief.

Awesome, and you had 10 seconds to spare it, you're used to being brief in our chapter,
right?

All right, so because some of the people listening to this might not be in our area, and I
don't know the answer to this question, do you guys work, do you, I assume you would be

happy to accept donations, you know, or funding from outside the area, but give me more
for if someone's outside the area, what does that mean?

Absolutely.

So our website, is baptisgriefcenters.org, we've got resources that anybody can access,
anybody all around the world.

Our podcast can certainly be accessed anywhere around the world.

It's, Grief is real big and better shared.

So there are still resources there, but as for the individual counseling and group
counseling, we have to counsel patients that are in our licensure states.

So that is Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

So we do still cover four states and it's a pretty wide, a wide area there that we still
cover.

em But we always have a waiting list, unfortunately, and we're in Memphis, so we see a lot
of traumatic loss in the city.

And so we generally get notified any time a traumatic event happens in the community and
we respond.

Okay, awesome.

Thanks for sharing that.

So one of the goals on this podcast is because it's called the Perfect 100 is to get to,
you know, do the activities that consistently get you to 100.

It's not, I've said before on this, if people are listening again, it's not about the
number, but it is about the activities that get you hopefully the outcome that you're

looking for, right?

Is why we're all in, you're securing funding.

Others of us are trying to get more business for what we do.

You went up in the rankings because I have access to the all the reports We the new report
just came out yesterday and you went up by 10 points.

Congratulations So Laura has a score of 80 so she is securely in the green and

She is green.

She's got 20 points in attendance.

She's got 20 points in referrals.

She's got 20 points in one-to-ones.

She's got 20 points in CEUs.

There's just one little area that is not 20 points that is visitors.

So what do you find easiest to do out of all the things that get covered there?

The CEUs are pretty easy.

Obviously, I'm in my car.

I'm in my car all the time at my job.

I'm back and forth between a lot of places.

So got a lot of windshield time.

So it's super easy for me to turn on things like a podcast and listen to them.

But I also find it super easy to pass referrals.

I've got this massive Rolodex in here.

And if it's not here, then it's on my little database in my phone.

Being a community organization, we have a lot of community support.

So I kind of know.

um a lot of different businesses in the area and who makes each kind of decision.

And so I've got a pretty good Rolodex that I can pull from and help connect people.

So referrals and CEUs, those are easiest for me.

Yeah, awesome.

what area, it seems like there's just one area that you're not at 20.

That's true.

Yes.

Visitors, that is tough.

I think I just struggle with it because I forget.

I forget.

I'm all over the place all the time and so it's hard for me to, I guess, kind of feel
accountable for someone else's actions.

That's what it is.

Yeah, well, you're not alone in that, Across the board, every power of one I've ever
looked at in every chapter of visitors is the hardest thing for most people.

em Even if you're inviting, getting people to show up is generally the harder part of that
process is we have those conversations.

um it's not anything, like I said, you're squarely in the green at 80.

um

that's not something I'm gonna be concerned about for you, because you do so many other
good things.

So let's look at the Palms Report, there it is.

And I am gonna look at the one in front of me, because the one on the screen is very small
for me, because I have older eyes.

But I wanted to kind of highlight a few things on Laura's report.

So this is six months plus a couple of weeks.

When you pull your personal Palms Report in Connect,

it gives you, it defaults to six months, which is, I like to show that because it's the
same as the power of one, which is the average over six months.

So let's look at your report.

So you've been either present or had a sub for all of the weeks.

Referrals given inside is 11, referrals given outside is 60, which is amazing.

And I wanna talk about that.

I'm gonna come back to that in a minute.

Referrals received inside is 16 referrals received outside is 14 visitors is zero one to
ones 29 and The most incredible thing I have seen on this report is that your thank you

for closed business And for those of you that are in BNI there may be people watching this
that are listening to it that are outside of BNI But thank you for closed business is the

money that Laura is passing on this report.

What is she giving to others is?

$248,000 for an average of 41,000 a little over $41,000 a month

So talk to me about what that how are you doing that because other people in Other
chapters or in the chapter you're in, know, that's a high average So, you know everybody

wants to be your best friend Whether they know it or not because they don't maybe they
haven't seen this report but

em Tell us how you're getting those kinds of results.

um It's all about timing, um both for me and for who I'm connecting you with.

And so sometimes the timing is just right.

I like to know where people fit in at their organization.

And I like to make friends with people that make decisions.

And so working for a healthcare system, I specifically fundraise for a few different
entities.

And a couple of them are the women's and the children's hospitals.

I love that team.

They're so easy to work with.

And so whenever I hear of a job that they need to get done trades wise, trades are pretty
easy for me to help out because we're a hospital system and we've got, oh my gosh, I think

now 28 hospitals with a couple of acquisitions over the last couple of weeks.

But we're a huge system.

And so that's nothing but potential for trades, honestly.

And the easiest starting point for me is at the Women's and Children's Hospital.

I made a really good connection in my last chapter actually, which now he's in our
chapter.

he, yeah, that's the best part about BNI is that I can count on the people that are in it,
because we've vetted them and you get to know them and their families and you become

friends.

And so I feel super confident connecting the people that are in BNI with the decision
makers within this healthcare system.

So trades wise, super easy for me to make those connections because we're always having to
do repairs.

I'm hearing you, because of the, what's the right words?

You're in a perfect storm sort of of opportunities because you have the ability to kind of
see across the organization, which is large, things that are coming up.

And then you strategically place yourself into opportunities that you can become a
resource for others.

And it sounded like you also strategically make friends with people who make decisions
because you recognize that that's where the money is coming from all things.

Money flows through all of those people.

Did I hear that right?

You heard it correctly.

Okay, and we're going to talk about strategy in a minute because when we get to your
strengths, that's going to come up, right?

But I wanted to also bring up because you're a nonprofit, you hold a nonprofit seat,
things are a little bit different than they might be for a business owner or someone

representing a business.

How does that relationship work for you?

Do you...

Nonprofits, think, in a lot of chapters struggle, and maybe they don't have that same type
of connection that you have across a bigger organization.

So do you have any maybe advice, I guess, because you're having such great success?

And you're giving, and I want to talk to you about what you're receiving here in a minute,
but let's go back to the advice question first.

Giver gain, it's true.

I didn't wait for someone to start passing me, know, sponsorships or donations or
anything, because that comes.

What I fundraise for is a very sensitive topic.

It's grief.

Nobody wants to talk about that, but everybody's experienced it.

And so the closer that you get with these people and you, you know, I'm giving as much as
I...

I can for these business owners because I also I can see their work ethic and I can
appreciate it.

So I'll pick up on someone's work ethic and kind of reward them not for doing anything for
me just because they're good at what they do.

And then it just it comes back.

It comes back to me and you know people all have their grief stories and so whether they
want to talk about or not it might take them some time to be able to talk to me about it.

But

But they, everybody has one, so.

Right.

So how that givers gain was definitely something that I noted on my, as I was looking at
your reports, you have fully embraced the givers gain.

em And you said another thing, which I'm going to bring up when we get to the strengths
conversation that just came out of what you were talking about, which will come up in a

minute.

how about the receiving end?

Have you gotten what you, you know, every

Obviously we all want more that's for whatever seat we hold, we're all in there to make
ourselves a success or who we're representing a success.

Have you gotten what you feel comfortable with, I guess, in terms of what you've given?

uh And it's uh never gonna be an equal opportunity kind of thing, it's not what we're here
for, but have you received what you hope for?

It's a long game for sure.

I you and I have talked about that before.

It's not immediate gratification in BNI.

um And that's not why you should get into it.

But it is a long game.

the better that you get connected with the people in your group, even the people outside
of your group, but the better connections that you form, the more you will get.

I have gotten several sponsorships, which is awesome because it's

It's good community support.

We've got a ton of businesses even within our chapter and even chapters in the area that
have supported events of mine.

Is it a huge amount of money?

No, it's not $250,000, but it is, it's very hard to give money to, all you get is a tax
write off.

That's a hard thing to do.

So yeah, it's definitely, I don't look at it like it should be tip for chat or anything,
but yeah.

I feel really good about it and we're uh actually launching this big campaign and so even
people within our group, have it in their minds to connect me with people that could make

major gifts and things.

So it's coming back around.

Yeah, and that's, I appreciate that you brought up that point, it's the long game, is our
chapter is just a little over a year old, so we're all still building those relationships,

and if your expectation is to get right in and get a lot, depends on what you do,
sometimes people do get a lot, but generally speaking, it takes a while em to find that

perfect.

uh scenario to get those right clients to you or those right donors in your case.

I think that because I know more about you than the average you know I because we're in
the same chapter I've known you for some time.

uh I want to talk to you well when we get to the strengths I want to talk to you about how
you help us help you more using your strengths so we'll get to there in just one second.

What

I'm gonna think about how I wanna ask this question.

How can others replicate what you're doing?

Because you give so much, is there, I don't know if you can think about how that would
translate, it doesn't have to just be to nonprofits, but because you're kind of what we

all love to have in our chapter, the person who's connecting everybody, I mean to give 60
referrals, referrals given outside 60 and 11 given inside.

in six months, that's a higher amount than most people give in maybe a year.

you know, what is the, if you could give advice to somebody, what would be a way to
replicate that process, that even if they're not in bigger system?

That's tough without knowing someone's personality.

Because I think it is, it's totally my personality to just plug in where I can be useful.

I feel like I try to go a hundred miles an hour all the time and figure out who the right
people are and just push, push, push for it.

So um it's just, you got to want it and you got to see the benefits.

It might be a long game, but there will be benefits that I can promise you.

Yes, well, when and I share, when Laura did her CliftonStrengths assessment, she and I
share most of the same.

Her top five are all in my top 11.

So we have a lot of the same kinds of qualities, which makes it, when you find somebody
that shares your strengths, it's fun because they get you.

They understand, like you kind of, you don't always go about things exactly the same way
because the blend of strengths tend to shift.

how things happen and let's roll over to the strengths Leslie.

looking at Laura's uh top five, I will read them for you because not everybody can see,
not everybody's watching this.

oh Laura's top strength is activator.

And if you wanna zoom in on that one for me Leslie, you make things happen by turning
thoughts into action.

You wanna get things done now versus simply talk about them.

uh Ideation is your number two.

You're fascinated by ideas.

You're able to get fine connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Strategic.

You create alternative ways to proceed.

Faced with any given scenario, you can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Achiever.

uh You work hard and possess a great deal of stamina.

You take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.

last but not least, command you have presence.

You can take control of a situation and make decisions.

So when you got your report back, what did you think?

thought a lot of people look at that and they think man she is impatient she doesn't know
how to relax.

I get that I get that a lot but but I don't know I look at it I am very much a doer and
there is some impatience in there.

I can't just sit there and talk about it I gotta I gotta go do it.

Yes.

Yeah, you, um so you said earlier, I was going to come to this.

You said if they're working hard, you want to reward them.

em And something along those lines.

And I feel that same way.

Yes.

not dealing with slackers.

I'm gonna go find if I feel like you're you're going after it I'm gonna try to help you go
after it even even stronger I'm gonna help clear those that's why I'm a coach right is I

want to I want to move the blocks out of the way and get you down that lane faster and So
I thought that that was interesting because that's a an achiever, you know That's a lot of

the things the blend of things that you have um That that comes right up so

What did you most of the five, what resonated the most for you?

Hmm.

Probably, probably the activator, but also the achiever because the activator, like I
said, I can't just sit there and talk about them.

I'll think about it swiftly and then we're on, we're doing it.

Um, the achiever.

Yes.

Um, I do get satisfaction in being busy and productive.

And I think that that's when I am at my best too, is when I am like a chicken with my head
cut off.

I kind of thrive in it.

which is probably not great, but I do kind of thrive in it.

Yes, well you figure it out right because you have strategic which is you see you know you
can kind of see the force through the trees you have high ideation which is you come up

with lots of ideas and then activator you're you know cut cut to the let me just release
the hounds let me go and get it done

and you're gonna get it done because you have command, have the ability to make things
happen, and your achievement drives you.

Do you feel like when you were, even when you were younger, like even from, do you
recognize even from when you were like a kid that that was something that was important to

you?

For sure, and sometimes it was a positive and sometimes it would be spun as a negative,
like impatience.

But yeah, for sure.

I grew up with a mom with an amazing work ethic and a dad who put a lot of weight onto
achieving things.

so yeah, that's how I grew up.

Yep.

Yes.

Well, it's interesting.

You have the combination of achiever and command is rare.

uh So the theme combinations, generally some things always go together like uh ideation

and strategic is pretty common.

uh Even command and strategic are pretty common.

but your achiever, only 3.7 % of the population that has taken the assessment has those
two things together in the top five.

So you have a unique blend of things.

I like to call those a brand.

Your brand is you can get things done and just give you the, essentially give you the
direction that you need.

They don't need direction.

Give you the task that you want accomplished and you will go and do the thing.

You don't need a lot of direction.

You just go, let me figure it out.

I've got 10 ideas for you.

I'm going to sort through them quickly and make it happen.

So take those things, apply to BNI.

So I want to go back to the couple of things we talked about in BNI before is receiving.

and because that's why we're all there, eventually we want to get more.

And maybe visitors even.

How could you apply all those things that you're really strong at to anyone of, know, to
BNI in general, to the chapter, to your, you know, what you're getting or receiving,

giving, whatever.

Is there anything that popped up for you?

I talk about this all the time, that in people's 45, 60 seconds, whatever, at the
beginning, if you don't have a specific ask, that's pretty difficult for me.

em Because I like a point A and a clear point B.

And so if you tell me I want to know commercial real estate agents, ay, yay, yay.

I mean, I know a lot of the names, but I need you to list off like three.

because that's an easier for me to digest.

Here's my point, A, you don't know that person, you want to know that person, that's easy.

But if you do this blanket, I wanna know commercial real estate agents, that's really hard
for me.

So I talk about that one a lot with people is being specific.

I'm on our our culture group.

So um we we got into groups and talked about fun things that we could do as a chapter and
yeah full of ideas for that and and I like that kind of stuff.

um But yeah I am a numbers person too so I like being in the green.

Yes,

yes, and that achievement thing, you want to do all the things so we can help you feed
those things by just calling attention to the fact that that is important, right?

So.

thinking how we could help you because I want to I feel like this weekend again because I
have sort of insight uh inside insight to make that a weird combination of words to help

you get more I almost want to turn that back to you to give us uh more opportunities to
support you so I would love for you to take the strategy of

how we as a chapter could support you in ways that open those doors that you need opened
and give us some ideas because you're high in ideation as well to how, because it's really

easy, I think, and I would guess that this is probably true for most nonprofits is what
you're doing is supporting others and that is what people hear, right?

They're hearing, I'm thinking of, I know someone in another chapter that's Red Cross.

um

ah I know somebody that's, well, there's several nonprofits that support kids or, you
know, that do work to better the, it's all community, you know, to lift people up and that

kind of thing.

It's easier, I think, for people to hear, that's great and I want to support that.

But what you all need is funding and that's a different conversation, right?

So how could you apply what you're already great at to,

that message of this is where I need to go.

uh These are the doors I need to open because you already have, think, such a wide network
that people probably feel like you already know all the people, but you're still not

getting to the right ones all the time and that's why you're in BNI, right?

So maybe apply, if you can, those things to help us and maybe you I need to get together
and do a brainstorming session on.

how we can get you into those right scenarios.

And I feel like that's for every nonprofit is what are those right people, who are those
right businesses?

Because those connections are the things that we wanna give back to you because you give
so much in all the ways.

We as a chapter, because we have so many great people that support the growth.

We're a new chapter-ish, a year old-ish that uh is grown by seven, eight, nine people in
the last, gosh, six months.

uh We're all in support of, we have a lot of strong players.

And we have, because I'm a...

Strengths Coach, everyone that's done the strengths in my chapter, can actually have a
grid of people, I had it sitting out, but I have a grid of everybody's strengths and we

have a very wonderful blend of all the things.

So we kind of break people up into what they're good at, just naturally they're
self-selecting.

gave people, choose one of these four things that you would love to work on.

and it automatically appealed to certain, everybody's like that one.

And you chose culture to build the culture of the chapter.

Why did that resonate for you?

to actually get to know the people that I'm with every week.

And so I think that the culture group was kind of a good way to do that because it goes
outside of our norm of our 60 seconds in our 10 minute.

It goes outside of that to do things like birthdays or celebrate special shout outs for
somebody working really hard or, you even planning kind of social gatherings together or

like a game kind of day where that's

That to me is almost like a micro one-on-one because you find out things about people that
you had no idea.

Even just starting the birthdays, I mentioned astrological science because it's silly and
it's fun.

And I said, you know, we have six Libras in here.

And what did all of you Libras do?

You all said, who are the other Libras?

Right, yes, where's our tribe?

Yes.

And now y'all have that in common and you now have another connection to someone else
that's a Libra.

I like things like that.

So we all have much more in common than we think that we do.

So I like to just find those things that make us individual people too, because people
want to do business with people that they know and that they like and that they feel a

connection with.

So I think I might force them into it.

and they won't know it, but.

uh Well, I think it's amazing because you're right.

I would agree with you wholeheartedly that if you only just come to a chapter meeting,
you're kind of leaving 50 % of things off the table, so to speak, because who you are as a

human is a big part of who you are as a business owner or nonprofit, whatever the seat you
hold is.

So making those connections, building the culture of the team, so to speak, you this is
your support system.

And it really feels like, I was saying this to somebody the other day, it feels very, I
don't know what the right words are.

It feels very amazing, I guess is the best word.

You know, we've built a group of people that all care and the ones that,

And care comes in different ways, right?

It shows, because this is the perfect 100, it shows that's how you care.

We do measure things in BNI because it matters, right?

If you're not putting in that effort, and this kind of goes back to our strengths, is if
you're not putting in the effort in BNI, we don't want you.

I mean, and that sounds rough, but it's not that we don't want you, but we want a team
that is strong.

oh

A lot of chapters don't have that and it makes a big difference when you have to be, you
have to hold people accountable and we have that, that's one of the core values, right, is

accountability.

But that's the one that most chapters have a harder time with is that accountability.

So if we don't hold people accountable, it's not that they're a bad person, it's just that
this isn't the thing for them, right?

m

if I might interject on that note, I was actually talking to somebody in our chapter about
the Power of One Report the other day because I look through it.

Every time we receive it, I look through it.

And so I mentioned another chapter and some members in another chapter being in the green.

And she said, you look through that thing.

And I said, every time I look through that thing, because I want to know who else in my
community is working hard too.

I do look at it.

Same.

And again, because we care.

Because it matters if, you know, and again, that's because of our what we value in how we
work and how we do things in general is to see who's who's putting forth the effort that I

can bring into my fold, right?

Because I want to be with the winners.

I want the people that.

Because you can expand, you make a great point, is you can expand your network, and this
goes for anybody.

You can find these people in the chamber.

You can find these people in whatever other groups you belong to.

The Rotary, I know you're in Rotary.

You can find people in any group, maybe they don't recognize BNI yet, but that's just
because nobody's told them about it.

But in any group of people, there are people that are, it's that 80-20 thing, right?

20 % of the people are doing all the work.

But I want those people, yeah, I want all those people on my team because, that's why I
feel good about when you can, the success of everyone is, or the success of anyone is the

success of everyone.

So if we can look at, and that kind of goes both ways, is if you're looking at the power
of one and somebody's closer to the bottom, it's not because they're bad person.

It just means they don't understand.

And I mean, they could be the wrong person for BNI, but oftentimes it's just they don't
have the right, they haven't been given the right set of skills.

Maybe they don't know in their business, maybe they're a solopreneur, they never came from
a structured environment.

They don't understand how to operate it.

It's a framework.

It's just like any other sales or business operation.

It's just a framework that's been proven over time to work.

So if we work it, it works.

Alright, so I've gotten going off the, get me on my soapbox, alright, because this is the
perfect 100.

So anyway, um so what advice might you give to a new BNI member or a struggling BNI member
or maybe somebody who's not even in BNI yet and is listening to this and thinks this might

be an opportunity for them?

What advice would you give them?

You never know who you're gonna meet.

You never know who's in that room and who that person knows.

A lot of people have a really large reledex and they may not even realize it.

But that's why the one-to-ones are important because I know whenever I had a one-to-one
with you, I think I mentioned it like twice in our chapter meeting, I was like, Tammy

thinks outside of the box.

You have to think outside of the box.

oh

And you do because you may limit yourself as a business owner into this one niche when you
could go beyond that.

And sometimes it takes meeting with somebody else to tell you that you can do that.

em So it's really great for honestly empowering business owners.

I think it's a really great empowerment tool.

Obviously you get to know people, you make money from it.

em But if you...

I don't know how people do it without something like this.

as owning your own business, that's a hard thing to do.

I'm glad I don't own my own business.

But yeah, you have to, you have to get to know people.

And especially if you're not from the area, Memphis is the big small town.

And so eh you find those right people that run in those circles that you need to be in and
BNI is a great way to do that.

And it comes back around.

It is a long game though.

Don't come in and expect

to make a ton of money in the first month.

Hey, that's great if you do, just don't expect it.

It'll come back, but take a minute.

I appreciate that.

All right, so last question.

What from our conversation today was most useful for you?

I think that looking at those top five as a strength and not a weakness, because I know
that I talked about them like they were weaknesses a few times, which I have to catch

myself.

I know, I know I do.

It's all about what society has driven into your mind about these things, um that you're
not supposed to be that way, but also do be that way.

Yes.

more palatable version of it.

So yeah, that was the biggest takeaway is to look at it like a strength and it's okay to
be that way.

And obviously it benefits people.

So em yeah, I know I need to work on that.

Yeah, I love that.

Yeah, it is very common for people to look at and I the same and you and I share a lot of
them the same strength.

So I get it.

But no matter what your strength is, oftentimes people look at the negative side.

There are what's the word I'm looking for blind spots uh in what our strengths are.

But when you and that's kind of as a CliftonStrengths coach, I'm helping people see

how to use their superpowers for good, right?

Because there are anti-superheroes that use their powers for bad and that isn't what we're
actively doing as humans.

We just are the way we are, but when you can apply those strengths to what you do in the
positive and sometimes it's just sharing with others, I am this way and that is why I do

these things.

It helps them.

It's not, I tend to be...

well, you know me, but for those that are listening, you're getting to know me.

I tend to be pretty, you know, I will just tell you when, and I know you're this person,
you just say what's on your mind, uh you know, and like it or not, that's the way it is.

But if people know that your heart is in the right place, you know, you're trying to help
others.

Sometimes they just don't recognize that is a good thing, right?

They don't, but sometimes it's in how we...

communicate.

So you know as a coach that's what I hope to hope hope to help people to do is is you know
sort of put the bumpers out you know around those things that were great at and give them

direction in the right way.

So that's I appreciate that you brought that up that that was your thing.

All right so we're gonna wrap it up here.

Thanks everyone for listening and remember

in business and in BNI, your strengths are your edge.

So use them intentionally and make the most of your membership.

Thanks, Laura.

Thank you.