We have just learned of a truly amazing referral story, showing the power of referrals globally:
BNI member and assistant director Paul Cameron was on a charity cycle ride from Angkor to Saigon recently.
On his first day of the trip he was taking in the sights at Angkor Wat Cambodia – one of the wonders of the world and he had wandered off-track into a Buddhist Temple where he was not supposed to be…
…taking a moments silence and reverence to soak up the atmosphere his phone goes off with a number he didn’t recognise. At the verge of ignoring the call, he took it to hear that it is Elton John looking for a first birthday present for his son [with David Furnish] Zachary who was born Christmas Day 2010 – he wanted a very special first birthday and Christmas present and wanted a treehouse from Treehouse Life to be delivered and finished ready for the special day.
Of course his answer was “yes”, he just needed to work through the design and contract. By the following Saturday, some wi-fi along the way in Cambodia, photos of the garden and designs by Treehouse Life, he received the confirmation call while laying in his hammock in the jungle at Vinh Long in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam – now in a position to ask why Elton John had come to Treehouse Life, he confirmed that it had been a direct referral from Gary Barlow for whom he had completed a treehouse project over a year ago – referrals work and this one came with X Factor!
And that’s not all…
Returning home early having changed his flight to avoid the strikes at Heathrow, he was able to attend Surbiton Chapter rather than use the substitute that he had arranged.
In the last two weeks before leaving for Cambodia he had been inspired by attending the Phil Berg workshop to deliver a special 60 seconds about the power of ‘6 degrees of separation’.
Phil Berg had talked about this and referred to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made, on average, to connect any two people in six steps or fewer.
Phil berg was talking about how this underpins the purpose of our 60 seconds in BNI and that we should simply ask for our “dream referral” and by 6 degrees of separation we would always get the connection – Phil Berg’s point was that in our 60 seconds we needed to give the words and benefit to enable and make happen the connection of two people in six steps or fewer. This was his inspiration point and whilst Phil was talking he wrote his next 60 seconds, here was what he wrote and the 60 seconds he delivered in the two weeks before leaving for Cambodia/Vietnam…
“I went to the Phil berg workshop
I learnt about 6 degrees of separation
I would like to be introduced to Richard Branson
I know that if I met him I could inspire him to see the benefits of Treehouse Life to want to give these benefits to his children/grandchildren
He would want to add a Treehouse Life treehouse to his hotels
He would want to have one for his employees to conference and be inspired
He would want to put a photo of one of our treehouses on the front of his Virgin branded in-flight magazines
He would engage with all our values of family and nature
He will like Treehouse Life so much that he would want to buy my company
We have 2 levels of separation in this room, from me to you and from you to all your contacts.
For Treehouse Life to have the 3rd degree of separation I need to give you a benefit for you to WANT to recommend my company
Just think IF you connect me to degrees 3, 4 and 5 which connects me to Richard Branson – think about how much business I could give to YOUR Company if Richard Branson buys my business”
Yesterday, when Paul returned from Vietnam early and attended the Surbiton Chapter personally guess what happened?
He had a referral introducing him to Richard Branson, his personal mobile phone number – asking for a “dream referral” works, Phil Berg’s BNI take on 6 degrees of separation works and he is certainly a very happy BNI member this morning!
You can find out more about Paul, and his treehouses, at:
www.facebook.com/treehouselife (Website www.treehouselife.co.uk)
I applied to join BNI at my very first meeting in November 2007 thinking “why on earth didn’t I know about this earlier” By Christmas, with not a single decent referral and not a penny Invoiced my mind was now on “what have I done”
“In June 2009, a BNI colleague at Caterham BNI, Alan Hiscox, referred Ian Marlow of HFM Tax Assist from Catford to me. We performed a collection of debt exercise for him and remained in contact.
BNI® South East 