← Stay Paid Podcast
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Foreign.
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Welcome to Stay Paid, your number one sales and marketing podcast on a mission to help you close more deals, keep more clients, and build the life of freedom you're working towards. That can only happen if you're willing to take action today. My name is Josh Dyke, Chief Marketing Officer at Reminder Media, joined as always by Luke Acre, President of Reminder Media. And our guest today is Mary Kennedy Thompson. Mary is the CEO of BNI Business Network International and has over 30 years of experience in franchising and leading organizations of all sizes. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Neighborly, where she held multiple leadership roles including president of their largest brand, Mr. Rooter. A certified franchise executive and US Marine Corps veteran, Mary has received numerous industry accolades highlighting her commitment to business owners and franchise success. Mary, welcome to Stay Paid. Thanks for being here.
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A
Thanks for the invitation, Josh, and the kind introduction.
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B
Thank you for your service.
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A
Thank you. That was my honor.
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C
Yeah. Love having you on. We're in for a real treat today. Everybody listening to this because it's very rare that we get somebody with your experience and then also just your insight because you guys. How many chapters does BNI have globally across the world?
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A
Barry, as of today, we have right at about 11,700 chapters in 76 countries.
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C
Unbelievable. And if people are not familiar with being I, you're going to learn about it today. I'm a huge advocate of B and I. A little bit of background for people is, you know, Reminder Media. Everybody knows our main client base tends to be real estate, insurance, financial advising. And so many of our clients are within BNI chapters. And we always, you know, teach our clients. So if you're a client listening to this, we always teach you, hey, advertise your other BNI members on your magazine that you're sending or in your email newsletter that you're doing. You know, share, cross, pollinate, I call it. And so when I had the chance and said, oh, man, we can connect with bni, I was like, oh, this is amazing. Because they really have the pulse on the ground of Main Street America and they are serving the small business community in ways that others don't. I would love for you, Mary, to tell a little bit about your story and then a little of the BNI story so people can understand what BNI is and how it can help them grow their business.
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A
Well, thanks for that. You know, you. You touched on the fact I started off my career in the United States Marine Corps as a logistician or a logistics officer traveling the world over, living in North Carolina. It only seems Fitting that now I'm in North Carolina, traveling the world over, all over again. And my family, I didn't grow up in a family that did anything entrepreneurial. My family always had a heart for service. I have sisters who served in the military. My father served. My husband. Wow. Myself and never thought anything other than I would serve. And um. But when you're, when you're raising children and you're both Marines, that's a pretty hard thing to do. And so my husband and I made a very conscious decision that we wanted to settle down. And I, I did sales for a few years. I always have appreciated. I think sales is probably the most honorable profession out there because if you're doing it right and when you're doing it right, it's meeting a need and meeting a want. And it's well said what that need and want is and then taking care of that. And so I, I've always leaned towards. My job is to help find what people need and want. At bni, our, our core value is givers gain is give first because it unlocks everything else. And when you give first, you understand then you can figure out how you can best help them. And so one day my husband came home from a chamber of commerce meeting and had a little brochure from a company back then called Cookies by Design. It was a little gifting cookie company and I was, I wanted to. Was at the place that I, I loved sales, but I wanted to lead a team. I missed that from my Marine Corps days. And it had three magic words at the end of the catalog. It says for franchising information. And this was so long ago, there was no Internet. So I picked up the phone and called them and they sent me a packet. And I was blessed because I laid out everything on the table. My husband came home from work, I said this is what I want to do. And most people would have been like, how on earth are we ever going to do that? What are you thinking? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? But he said, when? When do you want to do it? And I really wanted to control my own destiny. And franchising, in my opinion is the greatest democratization of wealth creation that exists. And that's why I'm part of it. And so we became multi unit franchisees. And so I started enfranchising as a franchisee first. I'm a big believer that you should live what you're leading and teaching and, and doing. And so when after we opened our locations and they did really well, we decided a number of years later A decade later that it was time to sell them. The franchisor asked me to come work for them and build and teach people what I had been doing. And I never look back. And so I've done a series of franchise executive roles from president to CEO. I, when I move, moved into cookies by design on the corporate side, on the comp, you know, the headquarters. I built the field program, I built the supplier program, I built the marketing program until I was leading that company. And I. There was a company back then called DWAR Group, now called Neighborly. Neighborly is the world's largest home services company. Back then, the COO said, We have this brand called Mr. Ruda Plumbing, and we've been looking for a leader, and we think it's you. And I said, I can't even spell plumbing. I know anything about it. And he told me something that sticks with me a lot, because when you think about Main street and who we are, he said, yes, but you know business. You know how to lead people. You know, franchising, and if you can grow this kind of business, you can grow that kind of business. And. And it. It. He's right. Growing a business is growing a business, and leading people is leading people. And it's really no different whether you're leading a platoon of Marines or up a hill or you're leading a team who's on a mission to help change the way the world does business. And so I came in and led that brand for nine years, and it was on a platform company called Neighborly. And then they promoted me to be the chief operating Officer, where all 30 of the brands rolled up underneath me. And when he and I stepped into. He was COO, we stepped into CEO COO role. We were doing about 425 million in revenue. On the day I left, we were doing 4.3 billion. We did that. It was a. It was a. I love growing companies and growing people. It's where my heart is. And so then, BNI, I was a member of BNI in 1994 when I was a franchisee. My insurance agent, her name was Nancy, she invited me to join. And I was, you know, fairly new, still out of the Marine Corps. No one in my family had ever had a business, run a business franchising, taught me how to do that. But then I got in this BNI Group, and I had this group of leaders who taught me how to be a better business owner, a better business leader. And my. One of my first referrals was from this little company who just moved into Their first new building called Dell Computers. And I met the VP of marketing. And they were. She said, you know, when we, when we launch our products, we'd like to do a gift and your. Your cookies would be a great gift. And I was like, sure, I'd be happy to. And it. That was a good part of my business for the years that I was. I had those businesses.
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C
That is.
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So when me and I approached and said, we're looking for a CEO, I said, I know. B. And I. And I had a friend, I thought I was going to retire, frankly, had a friend say to me, it's time for you to move from success to significance, you know, and as leaders, even, you know, if you're. If you're selling something to people instead of thinking about what kind of success can you create for yourself? If you think in our mind of the giver's gain, what kind of significance can you make and do in the world you're in? It changes the whole way you look at everything. So I'm just wrapping up two years here. We've had two years of great growth. And it's such a, you know, it's a values, you know, it's a values company. It's a high culture. I've had the privilege of being part of four high culture organizations. The family. I grew up in the Marine Corps Neighborly now bni. And I really don't want to be anywhere else. I want to be someplace where people have a clear vision and want to make a difference.
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C
I love that. What do you think? Just on that vein makes a great culture. Like, how do you foster that with inside an organization?
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A
First you have to be very clear. So you have to know what your culture is. And if the CEO knows and nobody else knows, you don't have a culture. And so, you know, I remember my father, he'd say, you're a Kennedy. This is how Kennedys do. This is what I expect. I expect you to be honest, I expect you to be true. I expect you to show up when you say you're going to show up. And I was very. I knew what those, that those rules and culture were Marine Corps said, you know, I expect you to make sound and timely decisions. I expect you. And so I was very clear on that. Neighborly says, you know, says, we expect you to have respect in how you deal with people, to make, you know, to make sure that you only make agreements you're willing, able, intend to keep and those things. And B. And I says, we expect that you lead with givers Gain that you're a lifelong learner, that you build relationships. And so one. First and foremost, you've got to be very clear about what that is. And I could go out to any member we have. I could go, I could walk out my office door right now and ask somebody, can you. Can you name our values? They can do it. And do you know our vision, which is to change the way the world does business. Second thing is you have to reward people for living those values. So you have to notice them and see them and reward them and live them. And I remember long time ago when neighborly was first putting their values in place, it was a long time, it was like 25 years ago. The leader said, here are the values that we're going to live by. And if you catch us making a mistake, you can beep us. I can. I'd love to tell you, I never was beeped, but I was beat. Values with speaking calmly and respectfully without profanity or sarcasm. And I got beeped a few times. But by. So if you don't allow yourself to be held accountable to those values as a leader, you don't have culture. And then the last, the last is that people are very clear that what they're doing is bigger than what they're selling. So you know, you know, we're selling a BNI membership. Come in, join a chapter. It's going to help you grow your business. But what we're doing is changing the way the world does business. Because you know what? It's not the politicians are going to bring the world together. It's the.
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C
Amen to that.
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A
Yeah, it's Main Street. It's people who want to do business across the street, across the state, across the country, across the globe. And so that is. So be very clear about that. But leaders who say we have a culture, but then they break those rules all the time, they don't.
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Can you kind of give the audience an idea of like, how, how BNI works, what the benefits are? And then I would love to hear kind of, what's your vision for the future of bni?
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A
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I'd love to share that. So a BNI chapter has about 31 members, and in the chapter there's no two industries or businesses that are the same. So there's one realtor, there's one financial person, there's one plumber, one electrician, and. And they meet every single week. And we don't. What we say is we don't sell to our members, we sell through our members. So what our members do is. And the reason that what we do is so. So impactful and profound is we have a lot of. Networking is really a discipline and a science. It's not an art. It's a discipline and a science. We meet every single week. So, like, I'm a. I'm a member of a chapter. If I ran a hamburger company, I would eat a hamburger every single day. Thank goodness I don't, because it would not be good for me. But I'm a member because I want to go through what my customer is. When I was. When I led Mr. Rooter, I. I became a licensed plumber because I want to understand what my plumbers are going through. So I. I can.
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B
Awesome.
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A
I can make you a great cookie, and I can fix your toilet. I just want those at the same time. And so. So one person from. From each industry. And every week you go. You have a. It's very tight, concise, where you say, this is who I am. This is my ideal referral. This is what I'm looking for. And that discipline. I know everyone in my chapter. I. I know who does what in my chapter. I have Dena Sca Ferry, and she is our. She is our wellness. She's a massage therapist. I've referred, like five people to her because I know how great she is. And I'm like, oh, you got a neck. A crick in your neck. I know the exact person for you. And so then I go into our app and I put in their information, and I tell Deanna, I said, you know this person? I know they're looking. Here's their issue, here's their information. And so what we do is we sell through each other. We're kind of like each other's sales force. And we get. Because of the discipline of every single week meeting, we know what we do. We've had experience with each other. People do business, people they know and trust and like. So it creates that. And I kind of think of us as the answer or the antidote to what's happening in the world. You know, I. I use AI Every day. I love AI. I use digital. I'm a digital person. But with all of that comes a loneliness and a not understanding what's real. But when I'm in that meeting, I know what is real. I'm very, very clear about what is real. And I'm. And when I tell my friend this person is really good, she believes me because she knows me, and she knows that I'm not going to refer somebody that I. Because that's my friend that I, that I think is not going to do a great job for her. And so that's how we work. And, and some people refer mostly, I'd say the majority refer right within their chapter. But because we're global, I can go onto my app. I can look. I actually went to Austria late last year with my family and we were looking for a driver to take us somewhere. I just went on my app and looked for a driver. I knew it was a good driver because they're a BNI member.
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C
Wow, that's.
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A
And so I was able to do that as well. And then Josh, you asked me about what's my vision? You know, we're very clear about changing the way the world does business. What we're doing right now is one, being very clear about one of our values is traditions and innovation. And they go together. Being very clear about the traditions that are our core competencies. Like the meeting that we double down, you know, the whole back to the basics, doing the things that drives referrals for our members. And so in the last 12 months, trailing 12 months on member to member generated business, we've generated $27 billion member generated business. There are 100 countries in the world whose GDP are less than that that
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C
you have tracked through your app.
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A
Yes.
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C
So get out of here. So there's probably almost a third or half of that even more probably not tracked.
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A
It is understated. We have about 90 actively using our app, but it's. So it's understated by at least 10%.
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C
That's probably easy.
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A
Yeah. So 27 billion, that's not anything to sneeze at. So we, so the vision is make sure that the things that really make a difference, that we're very disciplined on it. And then on the innovation side, bring in tools that help do that. And one of the tools we're using AI pretty extensively. So if Josh, if you and I, if you join my chapter and the data says I am the most likely to give you a referral, AI looks at all the macro data and says, Josh, Mary Thompson, you'll say you're a realtor. Mary Thompson's a plumber. According to the data, she's most likely to refer business to you in your chapter. You need to do a one to one with her because one to ones are a 30 minute meeting where we get to know each other. And I like, I didn't know you did that. Well, I do this well. I didn't know I can do business this way. And so, so what it does is would you like to meet with her? Here's some three times she can meet. Click this button. So we're using tools that can connect people faster without getting in the way as an example. And that's part of the traditions and innovations what we're seeing.
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C
Yeah, I love that. What I love so much about being I too is that it's all local businesses that are non competitive to each other. So it's like you are going into an environment that not only is it's natural to share business, but then you, you don't have this fear of sharing your struggles, your problems, issues that you're having with people because you know you don't or even like strategic opportunities because you don't feel you're going to get ripped off. And you get that shared, you know, experiences where people can share how they've grown their business, what they're seeing as working from a marketing, sales or. Exactly.
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A
I was in Germany, I was in Frankfurt. And I've learned that when a member comes up to me and says, I have a story to tell you, I should listen. And he said, I, I joined, I started my business four months before COVID and I joined my, I joined my chapter two months before COVID and two months in I was pretty sure I was going to lose my business. And I told my chapter, I'm, this is my last meeting. I think I'm shut my business down. And the chapter got together and said, nope, we're not going to allow that. We're going to sit down and talk to you and figure out what's getting in the way. We're all going to figure out if we, how we can get some referrals to you. And he says, I'm only standing here today because my chapter wrapped themselves around me and made sure that I stayed, I stayed open and stayed. And so I think that's amazing. Bni it's tr. It's transactional because you get these referrals for every dollar that one of our members spends and dues. They get about $70 in closed business. I don't know another marketing that's as good as that. Now you pay for it with time because you got that hour and a half every week. So you know, if you're not willing to put in the time, you're not going to get it. And then it's also transformational because you have these. For me, when I was a member, it was very transformational for me because I did not know how to be a business leader. No one in my family had ever been a business leader. It really helped me understand how to run my business better. So it's both.
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C
I love it. You have such a wide array of experience in terms of small business and looking at different small businesses. What do you see makes a really great entrepreneur? You know, in what things you've seen across the board of entrepreneurs you've worked with, what are the skill sets that you see in them?
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A
There's a good book called the ideal team Player that sums it up in three words. They are humble, hungry, and smart. So they. They're not doing it out of ego. There is a humbleness to them. And, you know, humbleness doesn't mean, you know, that you go, oh, shocks. And you know, Hunter, humbleness means that you understand how other people make a difference in the world and how that looks. Hungry means they're never okay with the status quo. They're always looking. When I talk to somebody who might be faltering as a small business leader, a lot of times it's the hungry. They're like, I've gotten comfortable. It's good. I'm making enough money. I'm like, yes. But while you're comfortable and you think you're making enough money, someone else is growing over here in your place. And someday they may grow to the size that they can do something to you about it. And then smart is not just book smart. Smart is people smart that you understand how to build teams, you understand how to build people, how to grow them, because, you know, our job is to grow leaders all around us. And so entrepreneurs who can be those three things, they build lasting. They build organizations that are lasting. You know, if you think about. If you have an entrepreneur who's hungry and smart but not humble, they build it all around themselves. Like the cult of the CEO. Cult. You know, the cult, I think it's called the cult of the CEO, where it's all about me. And then when they go away, there's nothing there. If you have somebody who's humble and smart but not hungry, their business starts to peter off. If you have an entrepreneur who's humble and hungry but not smart, they can't bring the right people onto the team. So that's what I see.
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C
That's like a master class there in entrepreneurship. So good. I also selfishly want to pick your brain. You've been so successful and leading teams and growing businesses. Like, when you try to reflect, and it's almost like if you think about, like, mentoring somebody, you try to reflect on, what was it that made Mary so good. Like you're top performing franchise and you sell it, then you get recruited by corporate, then you grow that business, you go up to running that business and they recruit you into, you know, plumbing, Mr. Reuters business. You don't know. And you successfully help grow that and neighborly to billions. And now being I, you're growing, what do you look back, I'll have you brag a little bit about yourself. What is the things that you have that you go, yep, that that set me apart from my peers that I was competing with or, or things that were happening at the time. What do you see in yourself?
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A
Well, I will start with this. I've never been the smartest person in any room I've ever been in this room here included.
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C
I, I, oh good, we fold her.
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A
Yeah, I know it. It's not about being the smartest. I'm going to lean back because I'm going to read something to you above my desk. I have a sign that says grit made up of hustle, passion and perseverance. And I'm a big believer in grit. And there's a grit study that was done, I think Harvard Business School did it on grittiness. And the entrepreneurs have done the best. They're not the smartest, richest, with the most resources. They are the grittiest. And I actually have made more mistakes than I've gotten things right. And when you ask that question, I started thinking about when I started at Cookies by Design. I'm a terrible cook, just for the record, but I had to learn how to make cookies and decorate them and, and do all that. And I remember standing around this big 80, 80 quart mixer. We were making frosting and when you make frosting, you make it with powdered sugar. And I had not followed, I had not when I'd gone to training, I had not paid attention and I had my new baker there and I said, okay, put these two 50 pound bags of powdered sugar in the bowl and we're going to turn the bowl on. Well, that's not the way you're supposed to do it. You have to get them wet a little bit before you turn the bowl on or else the plume of powdered sugar that goes everywhere. And so we turned the mixer on, this plume of powdered sugar and my new baker looked at me and she said, I thought you knew what you were doing. I was like, no, I don't, apparently. And so I think for me it wasn't about always doing it right. You know, one of our values at BNI is Being a lifelong learner is knowing that I often don't have it right. And I need to be a lifelong learner and learn and, and learn from others. And I learn from others. I. I have a. Someone on my team here who's, you know, he's in his 30s, and I was. I was just struggling with something. I was like, I can't figure out how to get this information faster. And he's like, I can build something for you in AI in 10 minutes. I'm like, you can? I didn't even know you could do that. Can you show me how to do that? And I could have done that while I'm the CEO and I know how to run this business. Or I could say, rob, you're brilliant over here. I need to learn from you. And so it really wasn't that I did things brilliantly. It was that I was gritty and I learned from others.
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C
Yeah, it's like a tension that I've always found, which I'm curious your take on. This is like the humbleness to be able to listen to others and know you don't have it all together, but the confidence to be able to make a decision. And I don't know if you've ever felt that natural tension. It's like, I feel it all the time. It's like you want to listen because you don't know, but you also go, if I listen to too many voices, then I get unconfident and I don't know what decision to make. I get paralysis by analysis. How have you dealt with that tension?
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A
Well, the Marine Corps teaches One of the 11 Marine Corps principles is make sound and timely decisions. And part of what you know, I tell people here all the time I'd rather execute on a 60% idea that we execute 100% on than have 100% idea that we just can't get off the launching pad on. And so when I work hard not to be the first person to speak, not always successful. I work very hard at being a good listener. It's taken me years to get there. And when I make a decision, then it's a more informed decision. And sometimes I have to change my mind. I have to stand back. You know, we said we're going to do this, but now we know better, and I know better, and we need to do this. Where I stand very firm is on what I call my non negotiables, which are integrity. I tell people you can make mistakes all day long as long as you're not making the same mistake. Over and over again. Because if you're making the same mistake, you're not learning. But if you make a mistake of integrity, I can't come back from that. So is it, you know, and I heard this phrase said a dozen times or more, you know, managers do the right things, do things right, leaders do the right things. So it's like, where I stand tall or strong is, is this the right thing to do? Does it serve our customer best? Does it serve our franchisees best? Does it serve our organization best in that respect? And number one. And then number two is, are we doing, you know, what you talked about? Paralysis or analysis? Have we talked about this so much that we can't get it off the ground? And so at some point, I'll be like, you know What? We're at 65%. That's enough for us to move. Let's move. So normally when I make a decision, it's a decision on to act and to move toward that, because my job is to inspire and motivate people toward action so we can get things done.
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C
Yeah, super well said on that vein. Because you have to work with franchises and you don't really control them, maybe control certain aspects based upon the agreement and stuff like that, but you don't. You're really dealing with an entrepreneur. Right. They. They got into business.
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A
Oh, yes.
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C
You know, for themselves. And I. I see this in the real estate world a lot because we have a lot of real estate clients. It's like they have 1099 real estate agents at their brokerage. Right. And they don't really control the agent's time or like, my brother owns a real estate team. And one of the struggles. We have agents on the team, you know, nine agents, and it's like they're really their own boss. How do you motivate people where they're not? You obviously don't control their time in the sense of, like, you're not. You can't force them to do things, I guess is the words I'm looking for. But you want to try to inspire and encourage them to do the right things. Have you found any tricks of, like, working with people who want to be their own boss, but guiding them in the way they should go?
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A
Well, first of all, you said something. I have to work with franchisees. I would say to you, I choose to work with franchisees and I get to work with franchisees. I am in franchising because in my opinion, it's the purest form of leadership that exists out there. And it's not you can't say, do it because I told you so. You have to push, pull, sell, explain, bring them back in, show them how tomorrow can be bigger than today and how they fit into that picture and get very clear on that. So I love doing that. It is part of selling. It is part of selling an idea. It's part of helping people see how tomorrow can be bigger and where they. And getting them enrolled and engaged in that. So I find it thrilling to do that. And you said, you know, you can't tell them what to do. I can't tell them what to do. But, man, can I influence and inspire. And that is what my job is to do, is a leader's job is to influence. And I think of everyone who works on my team as a paid volunteer because they can leave whenever they want. They're a paid volunteer. If. If I were at my home office, you'd see behind me these letters that spell out the word inspire. My favorite word ever. Because the Latin root of the word inspire means to breathe life into. That's what we're supposed to do as leaders. Breathe life into others, breathe life into one another. And so what I. How I see it is, you know, in franchising, we say, you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself. I want entrepreneurs. I want people. They grow businesses faster. They. They're. They're the ones that are up at midnight going, gosh, how am I going to make this work? Because it is their business. And I didn't become a franchisee because I wanted someone to tell me what to do. I became a franchisee because I was looking for a system to fall in on and learn from. And I made it, like the whole powdered sugar thing. I made a lot of mistakes, but I had this system. I could go back and go, okay, what does the recipe say? Maybe I need to go follow the recipe, you know, to see how to do it. And so my responsibility and privilege is to show them the system and put that in front of them and inspire them to act on the system. And so does everyone do it exactly right? No. But, you know, some of the best ideas come from the field. You know, if you look at McDonald's, the salad things that happened in McDonald's, that grew them came from people in the field.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And the way I like to explain it is if you're looking at a football game, there's usually two. There's a couple of coaches. There's a coach on the field, and this coach in the skybox. I'm in the skybox and the franchisee is on the field. They're seeing a different game than I'm seeing. We're both right. So I need to respect their view and what they're seeing and I need to listen to them because they're going to teach me things. They need to respect my view and what I'm seeing because that's going to help improve the game as well.
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C
Love that. So good. So knowing what you know now, what advice would you go back and tell younger Mary?
- [28:53]
A
Listen, listen. A couple things that I would pay attention to is that I don't have to have all the answers. I have to know where to go for the answers and that I don't have to be the one that fixes everything. My, my job is not to be the answer person. My job is to grow leaders all around me. That's the most important thing I can do in this organization, is grow leaders. And you can't grow leaders if you're the one always fixing everything. So you have to allow people to fail forward. When I stepped into the chief operating officer role of neighborly, I had been president for nine years and I knew how hard that job was and I thought it was my responsibility to make their job easier. And I, for about two years, I came close to ruining all those presidents because when you're leading leaders, you can't make things easy and soft. You have to help them get stronger. You can't go, here's a lighter weight, just take the five pound weight. You have to get them to have the 50 pound weight and get their muscles stronger. And so I, I had a couple of leaders I ruined and I still, it still bothers me to this day because instead of making them stronger, I made them weaker. And so I wish I knew that. And then the last thing I tell people is in your organization as a leader, your job is to. And a good friend of mine told me this is to change people or change people and know when you know, the optimists always think they can change everybody. Sometimes you can't change someone fast enough. As your organization is growing, you have to understand how do you change people and grow them and sometimes when do you change people because the organization needs that. And I wish I knew that. I had known that earlier.
- [30:31]
C
So good.
- [30:32]
B
Mary, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your journey with us and all of the that advice. Before we close out, how can people learn more about bni?
- [30:40]
A
Well, thanks first of all. Thank you gentlemen for having me. I love the conversation. I appreciate the great Questions, you can go to bni.com and if you want to go visit a chapter, it costs nothing to visit a chapter. All you do is put in your zip code or your postal code, wherever you are in the world and it'll tell you where your next nearest chapter is. And you can, you can attend that chapter and see for yourself. I tell people, don't believe me, go see it for yourself. And then, you know, I'm Mary Kennedy Thompson on LinkedIn. I do post things about leadership and networking if you ever want to. Anybody would like to follow along and you know, because just remember leadership is an art and networking is a science and they're both really important. So thank you so much for asking me to join you today.
- [31:23]
B
Love it. Thank you. Thank you all so much for listening. You can dive deeper into this episode. Get any links that we mentioned there as well as any resources@staypaid podcast.com you can get all of the show notes there as well. If you like this episode and want to show your support, go to YouTube.com reminder media, make sure you're subscribed to the channel and give this episode a thumbs up. The best way to support the show is to refer it. You know, share this episode with somebody that you know. If you want to get a hold of me or Luke, you can email us podcastmindermedia.com and follow us on social media. We are at Stay Paid podcast for this episode of Stay Paid. I'm Josh.
- [31:56]
C
Guys, I'm Luke Acre. Mary, I feel like you should offer a mentorship program. I would sign up. Yeah, I will sign up for phenomenal advice. Have you written any books yet? No, I didn't think so. I tried to. I was researching you and I said I haven't seen. I was like so anyways B and
- [32:13]
A
I a lot of people being I write books. I started on a book that is is shelved right now called the Art of Joyful Leadership. My premise is that joyful leaders grow organizations faster than not Joyful leaders. One of my favorite quotes is joy is happiness that transcends circumstance. You don't need to have a. You don't have to have happy good times to find joy in moments. And leaders should bring joy into what they do. And I was, when I was in Waco, I was working with a professor in Baylor about doing a study on that because I'm convinced that joyful leaders actually create better and more results. But then life got busy and I
- [32:50]
C
love that concept especially because the concept of the energy leading with energy and stuff like that has been like people talk about all the time. But I love the angle of the joy because a lot of times energy doesn't necessarily mean joy. And I love. And we need a lot more of that in leadership in the world because as a leader, myself and Josh, you can probably attest to this. It's really hard not to get cynical and jade it because, you know, because it's hard when you're leading people. You get jaded along the way because you, you know, betrayal happens, things happen and you know, all of a sudden you, you, you get scars and you don't want those wounds to be opened up again. And before you know it, you're not leading through joy. So anyways, all that to say, I would buy that book one day, I'm
- [33:32]
A
going to do it. I just, I've been so busy with life and, and, you know, still fairly new in this role and learning, you know, how to be a CEO. Who knew I would enjoy being a CEO as much as I have enjoyed it?
- [33:42]
C
Well, I can tell why you are crushing it. Just absolutely amazing. It really has been an honor being able to get to know you and hear your story and advice. Just so many good pieces of advice that I took away from it. I would encourage everybody listening to this, right? We always try to close out with an action item. And I want to encourage you as an action item, go check out bni because I really believe in BNI and what they do because I've seen it help so many. We have thousands of small business clients all over the nation and I've seen it help so many of our clients because of the networking effect. And you guys know me, I'm a huge believer that relationships are the key to business. And this is a way to be able to foster incredible relationships with other business owners. So please go check out BNI and, and just go visit a chapter because I think it could change your business. But an action item I want to give you apart from that is, you know, this whole idea of giving. And how are you giving? Not only, like I often like to say to people, if you want a lot of referrals or referrals, are you a great referrer of business? Because are you actually giving? Because I promise you, the people that get referrals all the time, they are the great referrers, they are the connectors. They are just connecting people left and right. So I want to challenge you today as your action item to sit down and go, okay, how can I give to either some people in my database right now maybe past clients, current clients, or some other local businesses today that are in my community. What can I give? Can you promote them on social and post about them? Can you send an email out to your email audience and actually promote a local business? Can you just connect and go give a cup of coffee to another business owner and just invest in their life? Remember, the difference between top producers and mediocre producers in every business is top producers take action. Take action on that today.
- [35:43]
A
Sam.