Friday, August 26, 2016

BBG SIngapore - with Allen Pathmarajah

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DATE AND TIME

BBG Singapore launch with Mr Allen Pathmarajah from Ivan Kaye on Vimeo.

An evening of Inspiration with Allen Pathmarajah and Chuan Tan


Inspirational Evening with Chuan Tan , Allen Pathmarajah and Advisors Alliance Group!

What can be achieved by a company inspired by the value of service and a "spirit of generosity" and learning

Advisors Alliance Group and BBG from Ivan Kaye on Vimeo.

Allen Pathmarajah exciting, energising and enthusing life insurance agents from Ivan Kaye on Vimeo.


Wednesday, August 24, 2016

How's your personal relationship health?

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Good day, Friend!  Here's your Cornerman's Daily

An important, but less obvious, ingredient necessary to make a great legacy includes personal relationship health. Personal relationships are life’s stabilizer. Without them people bounce around in life disconnected from their greatest asset, other people. Who can you reach out to today to reconnect with that will enrich your life and theirs? Make that connection today.


Onward and Upward!

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Creating Warm Leads


WRITTEN BY   - CEO of www.bbg.business

    Creating Warm Leads

The Referron app makes it easy for BBG members to pass referrals to one-another with just 3 taps.
However, passing quick referrals of this type is not what BBG is all about. As a group we You should strive to always turn referrals into warm leads.
The Law of Reciprocity suggests this is in everyone's best interests. Our 'Culture of Generosity' demands it.
So what does a 'Generous Referral' look like?
In my view a "Generous Referral' consists of three parts:
  1. A conversation between you and the Service Seeker to warm up the lead
  2. A conversation between you and the Service Provider to help tailor the pitch
  3. The referral itself. Short. Sharp. And to the point.

Warming Up The Lead

The objective of your conversation with the Service Seeker is to introduce the Service Provider and warm-up the lead.
Every situation is different, but this conversation is likely to go along the following lines ...
Hi <Sam> ... the other day you mentioned you were having problems with <business issue>.
I was thinking about that over night, I realised that I know someone who might be able to help you with that issue.
They recently solved a similar problem for <site case study> and produced some phenomenal results.
I think it would be well worth your while to have a chat to <Sally> and suspect you two will get on like a house on fire.
Would you like me to ask her to give you a call?

Tailoring the Pitch

The objective of your second conversation is to help your BBG Colleague (The Service Provider) to tailor their pitch.
Once again the situation will determine the conversation, but at the very least it should include:
  • Some insights on the business issue faced by the service seeker
  • A run-down on how you have introduced the Service Provider and waht case studies you mentioned in this introduction
  • Some personal insights into the Service Seeker and what they are looking for and respond best to
  • Some tips on any common interests that might help the Service Provider establish common ground and empathy with the Service Seeker

The Referral

Once these two conversations have occurred, it is time to pass the referral to the Service Provider using Referron.
The referral itself should be short, sharp and to the point. And should reference the issue that you are asking the Service Provider to contact the Service Seeker to discuss.

The Outcome

This process takes a little thought and time. But will SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE the likely hood that your referral will turn into a sale.
And this is in your interest!
Why?
Because if every referral you make is a generous referral. And a high proportion of your referrals turn into new business for your colleagues, the law of reciprocity dictates that the next referral they send you will be of a similar quality.
But don't take my word for it. Give it a go ... Pay it forward and see what comes back!

Friday, August 19, 2016

The Seventh Sense will help you develop a feel for the Networked Age





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As Joshua Cooper Ramo suggests in his important new book, The Seventh Sense, massively scaled, always-on connection changes the nature of objects and institutions. A heart-rate monitor that shares information with a million other heart-rate monitors functions differently than one that operates in standalone fashion. 
The same is true for automobiles, spare bedrooms, and the individuals who make up a TV audience or a country. The Networked Age doesn't just amplify or accelerate existing instances of knowledge transfer, economic exchange, and political action. It enables entirely new possibilities and behaviours. 
Still, the extent to which networks are reshaping our lives and most important institutions remains surprisingly underappreciated. 

The Seventh Sense is Ramo's deeply considered attempt to address what's at stake in these early days of the Networked Age, and to envision what paths we might pursue as we move forward.

A former Time magazine senior editor who now serves as co-CEO and vice chairman of Kissinger Associates, he understands that it's not just code or hardware that defines our age. Instead, it's networks, the always-shifting set of relationships that the code and hardware enable, the near-omniscience that arises out of perpetual and pervasive feedback loops. Knowledge is power, the old saying goes, and today, thanks to networks, knowledge accrues and disperses and recombines at speeds and in ways that can be liberating and unsettling.

Or as Ramo puts it with poetic succinctness: "Constant connectivity taps like a hammer on the glass of our most comfortable institutions."
With his background in statecraft, Ramo is far more circumspect about "disruption" or the consequences of "changing the world" than the average Silicon Valley growth hacker. He recognizes that ISIS is as much a product of the Networked Age as Uber or Instagram. 

But ultimately Ramo positions that tapping hammer of constant connectivity as a constructive force, one that can make our most vital institutions more productive, more responsive, more resilient. In his estimation, we're at a turning point as significant as that of the Age of Enlightenment, when the Scientific Revolution ushered us out of the Dark Ages and into a new era increasing trade and prosperity, longer lifespans, and greater individual autonomy.

So how do we steer toward the best possible outcomes in our own moment of major and often chaotic transformation?

The first step is to develop what Ramo dubs the seventh sense – an "ability to look at any object and see the way in which it is changed by connection."

In the Networked Age, thousands of spare bedrooms becomes the building blocks of a new hospitality marketplace. Drivers seeking route-finding information become sensors who collectively reveal local traffic conditions. 

And as I've written in the past, when exploring the idea of network literacy, individual and organizational identity changes too. Networks make identity multivariate, distributed, and in part, defined by outside forces. In the Networked Age, you're never just "you" anymore. You're who you know and what they know about you; who they know; in what contexts they know you.

The power of connected systems, Ramo notes, derives from "the number, the type, and the speed of the relationships they establish and then use." 

That's true of the individuals and organizations enmeshed within networks as well as the overall networks themselves. Today, individuals and organizations who possess the greatest network literacy will always be the first to learn about and adapt to changing conditions, new threats, and new opportunities. Without a well-developed seventh sense, you falter. With it, you possess the adaptability and resilience that individuals, companies, and even countries need now to prosper in a complex, fast-changing world.

Ramo isn't just interested in diagnosing how network power works. The ultimate goal of The Seventh Sense is to plot a path forward, to suggest how we can best utilize all the new connected systems where so much of our lives play out now – especially as these systems become even more essential to trade, finance, education, health, and overall economic and national security. Ramo views the challenge through the lens of a statesman: His counsel arises from a desire to ensure that this next generation of networks are informed by "American values of democratic choice, freedom of thought, and privacy."

Ramo's vision rests on a strategic approach toward network development that he calls "Hard Gatekeeping." America's networks, he suggests, must be developed and controlled with more emphasis on security. And while Ramo strategizes at a high level, it's clear he means the United States government should take a more proactive role in developing and controlling what he calls "gatelands," the networks where we will conduct much of our lives.

"Completely open technology standards can be hijacked too easily," he writes. Thus, he envisions a world in which America no longer permits "any nation to plug into the country's markets or technologies or educations systems." 

Presumably, stronger forms of identity will be one feature of this new system. Another that Ramo suggests is a national "BitDollar" – i.e. a digital currency backed by the U.S. 

Greater transparency and trust would potentially make these new gatelands more desirable venues for trade and finance, and thus they'd also function as powerful tools of diplomacy. Other countries that wanted to plug into America's systems would have to play by America's rules. Ramo offers an example: If a nation wanted access to America's trading platforms or cybersecurity databases, it would have to forgo any nuclear research.

Other countries, Ramo notes, would have gatelands of their own. And he emphasizes that America should not "force anyone else into its gated systems." Another possibility, of course, is that networks characterized by an even greater degree of openness than today's will emerge as a hedge against the reduced opportunities for anonymity, pseudonymity, and unregulated behavior in the gatelands that Ramo envisions.

But if Ramo presents tomorrow's gatelands as an opt-in phenomenon that users choose voluntarily because they offers more security and better overall experiences, he also recognizes that any gatelands that achieve critical mass will exert an increasingly significant cost on anyone who opts out. That is precisely what gives them their leverage, both internationally and domestically. "Many future gatelands will express their power as much by cutting nations or people out as by counting them in," he concludes. "Imagine if you were not allowed to transact in the new Bitdollars."

The Internet and the networks it has enabled grew as fast as they did, and are as popular as they are, because they've largely been characterized by both permissionless innovation and permissionless use. 

Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and other members of the PayPal team, including myself, didn't need to obtain any web-specific licenses when we starting offering online money transfer services in 1999. Satoshi Nakamato launched a new currency into the world without any government's prior approval. And while the regulatory status of trailblazing startups like Uber and Airbnb continues to evolve, they were able to introduce services that created massive value for both consumers and individuals seeking new sources of income, without having to obtain prior approval from any network gatekeepers.

But while it's hard to imagine that the web would have grown as fast as it did in the 1990s as a result of its fundamentally open nature, it's also true that many of today's most popular networks and platforms require user registration and other even more exacting forms of identification. So at this point it may be that users and entrepreneurs would flock to the more secure and transparent networks that would exist in the gatelands that Ramo envisions.

Ultimately, what The Seventh Sense makes so clear is that in 2016, 25 years after the birth of the World Wide Web, we're still in the formative stages of the Networked Age. And what makes the book so useful is the way that Ramo homes in on the crucial question of our age: How do we want the networks and platforms that grow more and more essential to our lives to evolve? 

Ramo describes the power of networks with a statesman's feel for history and sense of the moment, and that's precisely what we need right now. Networks are reshaping the world, and the questions and debates about who gets to control them and how we should design them for maximum benefit to all are only just beginning. To participate most productively in this moment, you need the Seventh Sense – both the book itself and the understanding and facility for the Networked Age it will help you develop.




Thursday, August 18, 2016

Mentoring Definitions

collected by Andrew Gibbons

  1. "Mentoring is a long term relationship that meets a development need, helps develop full potential, and benefits all partners, mentor, mentee and the organisation". - Suzanne Faure

  2. "Mentoring is a protected relationship in which learning and experimentation can occur, potential skills can be developed, and in which results can be measured in terms of competencies gained". - Audrey Collin

  3. Mentoring is "A mutual relationship with an intentional agenda designed to convey specific content along with life wisdom from one individual to another. Mentoring does not happen by accident, nor do its benefits come quickly. It is relationally based, but it is more than a good friendship…mentoring is not two people who just spend time together sharing". - Thomas Addington and Stephen Graves

  4. "Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship between a caring individual who shares knowledge, experience and wisdom with another individual who is ready and willing to benefit from this exchange, to enrich their professional journey". - Suzanne Faure

  5. "Mentoring is an important adult relationship since it creates a legitimate and special space where people can take chances by trying to be authentic about, and find meaning within their real-life professional experience". - D Doyon

  6. "The purpose of mentoring is always to help the mentee to change something - to improve their performance, to develop their leadership qualities, to develop their partnership skills, to realise their vision, or whatever. This movement from where they are, ('here'), to where they want to be ('there'). - Mike Turner

  7. "Mentoring involves primarily listening with empathy, sharing experience (usually mutually), professional friendship, developing insight through reflection, being a sounding board, encouraging" - David Clutterbuck

  8. "Mentoring is an intense work relationship between senior and junior organisational members. The mentor has experience and power in the organisation, and personally advises, counsels, coaches and promotes the career development of the protégé" - Anne Stockdale

  9. …and thoughts on what it takes to be a mentor
  10. A mentor is…"an accomplished and experienced performer who takes a special, personal interest in helping to guide and develop a junior or more inexperienced person". - Stephen Gibb

  11. "A mentor should have the qualities of experience, perspective and distance, challenging the mentee and using candour to force re-examination and reprioritisation without being a crutch". - Christopher Conway

  12. "A mentor facilitates personal and professional growth in an individual by sharing the knowledge and insights that have been learned through the years. The desire to want to share these 'life experiences' is characteristic of a successful mentor". - Arizona National Guard

  13. "Mentors in the workplace are simply people who help other people succeed". - Neave Hospital Southern Minnesota

  14. "A mentor is a more experienced individual willing to share knowledge with someone less experienced in a relationship of mutual trust" - David Clutterbuck

  15. A mentor is…"A trusted counsellor or guide. Normally a senior person to the associate. A mentor is a counsellor, coach, motivator, and role model. A mentor is a person who has a sincere desire to enhance the success of others. A person who volunteers time to help the associate". - Air National Guard USA

  16. "A mentor is someone who can patiently assist with someone's growth and development in a given area. This assistance can come in the form of guidance, teaching, imparting of wisdom and experience". - Chicago Computer Society

  17. "A great mentor has a knack for making us think we are better than we think we are. They force us to have a good opinion of ourselves, let us know they believe in us. They make us get more out of ourselves, and once we learn how good we really are, we never settle for anything less than our very best". - The Prometheus Foundation

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Are you a Likeable Person? Top Qualities of Likeable People, Part 1

We all want to be liked. It’s part of being human and actually has evolutionary roots in being an accepted part of a community. It’s also a very important part of being successful in referral marketing.

Why is it that some people just seem so instantly likeable? People are attracted to them wherever they go, and they have that special quality that just makes you want to be around them more? What is it?
As it turns out, it comes down to consistently demonstrating such qualities that radiate a sense of self-worth that comes from within and simply being other-oriented. Practice these qualities daily, and you’ll be more likeable than ever before.
Treat every person with respect Whether interacting with your biggest client or the receptionist at the front desk, likeable people are unfailingly polite and respectful – to everyone. They understand that no matter how nice they are to the person they’re having lunch with, it’s all out the window if that person sees them being rude toward someone else. Likeable people genuinely treat everyone with respect because they believe they’re no better than anyone else.
Have integrity People with high integrity are likeable because they follow their own moral compass. Integrity is a simple concept but a difficult thing to practice. To demonstrate integrity every day, likeable people follow through, they avoid talking bad about other people, and they do the right thing, even when it hurts or it’s hard.
Smile People naturally (and unconsciously) mirror the body language of the person they’re talking to. If you want to be likeable, smile at them during conversations and they will unconsciously return the favor and feel good as a result.
Be passionate Likeable people are never bored, because they see life as an amazing adventure and approach it with a joy that is contagious and other people want to be a part of. They genuinely love life and relish in all its pleasures, great and small. 
It’s not a science, and being likeable isn’t necessarily a gift either, it’s just living and breathing these fundamental qualities that make us good human beings. Likeable people think about other people more than they think about themselves, and they make other people feel liked, respected, understood, and seen. Just remember: the more you focus on others, the more likeable you’ll be.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

9 tips to build your profile with or without the media



Whether you are the CEO of a company or a small business owner, if the right people don’t know about you -- and hear from you regularly -- you are missing out on opportunities to build your brand and business.

Building your profile is more than just appearing in the media.
These days you have many more options and no longer have to rely on the media outlets to ‘choose’ your story.

Stage one: Build your profile with what you have 

 1.    Social Media. Have all your relevant accounts up to date and reflecting your brand. This includes Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. Social media is a great way to stay connected with the masses without leaving your office in some cases.
2.    Email. Do you have an email list, sharing what you know to your following, prospects and clients? This will also bring people to your website/blog which should be displaying examples of your knowledge and savvy advice --plus a list of your services.
3.    LinkedIn publishing tool. This is brilliant. You can publish content via LinkedIn (it doesn’t even have to be original content) and it will reach a targeted audience of people that follow you or are connected with you.
4.    Networking. This is actually a way of profile building that not many people realize, or give proper weight to. You are meeting people one by one, which means it has the power to be a deeper and stronger connection than following someone on social media only.
5.    Speaking. This is a great way to have 50 – 5,000 people find out who you are and what you know in one go. It saves having to work the room one by one and can be a very powerful profile building technique.

Stage two: Build your profile using media outlets

1.    Industry publications. Are you aware of the publications (online and offline) that your association or industry is producing? They are always looking for good stories and content. Note: you don’t just send media releases these days -- they need to have something worthwhile featuring. Pitch an idea to them instead.

2.    SME outlets. Places such as Inc.com and SmartCompany.com.au are always looking for original and interesting pieces and stories. Have a look at what is being published there first before approaching them.

3.    Traditional media. Radio, TV and the top newspapers are all very willing to hear what you have to say. Be polite and build relationships with the journalists and editors. If they call you, make sure you respond ASAP. A journalist kept waiting for a response is a journalist unlikely to contact you again.

4.    Community media. Your local community radio station and newspaper is always a great way to build a profile, especially if you are a small business owner and rely on the local community for business.
This article was originally published on Amanda Rose

You never know who you gonna meet

My CEO once asked me why do I require my teams to be in business attire even on transcontinental flights? I said simply, because we represent the company. And you never know who you will be seated next too. I struck three profitable business deals in one year, just from interactions that started on a plane with a comment like "Well you don't see people dress like this anymore on flights. Were are you headed?"  There is only one real choice in life. Be ordinary, or be extraordinary. I choose the later. 

You Can ‘Go Viral’ on a Local Level

It doesn’t take millions of views to make your videos a sensation. Consider how to lend them the greatest reach in your own community.

man playing video

There’s no hard definition of what makes an online video “viral,” but it’s generally accepted that it must gain at least 5 million views within the first week or two after it’s posted. When’s the last time your videos got that much attention?

By that benchmark, most real estate professionals who produce video as part of their marketing won’t ever reach viral status. After all, you’re producing content for your local community — not for the whole world. So is there such a thing as going viral on a local level? Marketing experts and practitioners who have gained clients and raised their profiles through their videos say such a concept exists. But the number of views your videos garner isn’t the only measure of whether they are successfully circulating online, they say. If your videos spark a conversation among your intended audience — both online and offline — then they’re fulfilling their purpose.

“If you can reach the local community and get enough people to share [your video], then I would consider it a viral video,” says Laura Ure, owner of Boca Raton, Fla.–based real estate marketing firm Keenability. She adds that “enough,” in terms of local exposure, depending on where you live, could mean around 10,000 views.

Look Beyond Views

But more than that, look at whether your video achieves the goals you set for it, explains Vinny La Barbera, founder of California marketing agency imFORZA and contributor to RealEstateMarketingBlog.org. “If you were trying to put your name out there [with a video], did you increase the awareness of your brand?” he says. Your goal could be to use video to gain new clients, make connections with other practitioners outside of your market area to acquire more referrals, or spread awareness of your brand to more home buyers and sellers.

So even if you’ve gotten only 1,000 views for a video but it achieved the goal you wanted it to, you can consider it a success. “If you get everyone in your neighborhood to watch it, you’ve knocked it out of the park,” says David Spark, founder of marketing firm Spark Media Solutions. He offers a checklist for getting more exposure for your videos:

  • Have content your community needs and cares about. Ask yourself what topics or questions are most relevant to the people you’re serving right now, and then answer them or interview others in the community who can provide answers.
  • Become friends with your local influencers. This could be the owner of a popular store or the person who runs your town’s Facebook group. Profile them in your videos, and pick their brains as to what they love about the community. Then ask them to share your videos.
  • Promote your videos to all your local media outlets. Most locales have a Facebook user group or Nextdoor group. Get on them, post your videos to these groups, and be a regular commenter. Also, post to your local Patch.com website.
  • Feature your neighbors and other locals in your videos. The more people in your videos, the more they’ll want to show it to their friends. Go after people who have large local networks, ideally local business owners or people who have a large social following. They’ll eagerly promote your videos.
  • Follow up. For everyone you met and interviewed, follow up with them when your video is published online. Even if they didn’t make it into the final video edit, thank them for their time and invite them to view the video and give feedback.

Measuring Your Video’s Success

Some real estate videos do spread far beyond a local market. Megan Hill Mitchum, CRS, GREEN, a sales associate with Century 21 Signature in Urbandale, Iowa, has racked up more than 258,000 views and counting for a parody video she shot in January of singer Adele’s smash hit “Hello.” The mock music video — which features Mitchum’s own singing voice — gives the song a real estate slant with lyrics like, “Before I can take down my sign / We’ve gotta get through closing time.”

But for others, video success has come with far fewer views. Alex Wang, e-PRO, an associate broker at Sereno Group in Palo Alto, Calif., tried something different, investing roughly $10,000 to create an animated videoconveying who he is as an agent. Since he uploaded the video to YouTube in March, it’s only gotten a little more than 300 views. But that’s not the point, Wang says.

“The video has helped me brand myself,” Wang says. “When [prospects] are interviewing agents, they go to my website, see my video, and are already sold that they want to work with me.”

Wang sees the video as part of his overall long-term marketing strategy. In addition to posting it on YouTube, he puts it on his social media pages, embeds it on his website, and links to it in his email signature.

The entertainment factor is important to attracting viewers to your videos, no matter how big or small an audience you’re aiming for, and getting prospects to remember you when they’re ready to buy or sell, notes Raj Qsar, broker-owner of The Boutique Real Estate Group in Corona Del Mar, Calif. Qsar’s company has about 140 videos on its YouTube channel. The “Our Story“ video, posted back in March 2014, has more than 31,000 views. “Video can help you bring emotion to your story and helps tell your story to the world,” he says.

It’s not just on YouTube or social media where your videos can reach an audience. They can be successful in an offline setting as well. Lee Taylor of Keller Williams Realty in Decatur, Ga., and Lisa Molinari, ABR, of Weichert, REALTORS®, in Morristown, N.J., both created videos for REALTOR® Magazine’s Street Cred section, which shows how real estate professionals are intimately connected to their neighborhoods. Taylor, who has been producing videos since 2007, showed raw footage of his Street Cred video — which features him rapping about his love for his community— at an open house in 2014 when a visitor decided to hire him after watching it, he recounts.

Likewise, Molinari showed her video — which won a Street Cred contest — at an open house and signed a new client the same day. Though Taylor and Molinari’s videos have only garnered about 2,100 and 1,200 views, respectively, since 2014, both say they’ve accomplished great things for their businesses. “I could definitely track listings and sales to that video,” Molinari says. “It’s paid for itself tenfold.”

She boosted her video’s visibility not only by posting on social media but also by having it featured on the website of The Morristown Partnership, a coalition of business owners in Morristown. Her company also used it as an example in one of its marketing training programs, gaining Molinari more connections with Weichert agents in other markets, she says.

So take heart: You don’t millions of views to make it worth all the time and effort it takes to create video. Have one goal in mind for how you want your video to impact your local community, and focus on hitting that goal however you can. For your business, who watches your video is more meaningful than how many are watching it.