Masterminds of Biz event draws 800; BNI membership rising

The 6-year-old Springfield-based business networking group Masterminds of Biz – also known by members as the MOB – had 35 of its regional chapters strutting their gangster-era flair at the Springfield Expo Center on May 19.

Some 800 people, mostly members, attended the annual Networking Extravaganza, and many members donned flapper dresses and zoot suits to reflect a 1920-30s-gangster theme. The MOB chapter names were as colorful as the characters standing in front of their booths: Biz Bandits, The Rat Pack, the Mansion Mobster Chapter and the Moberators, for example.   

The MOB was formed in 2009 by Curt Gaddis, an independent associate and group benefits specialist with 24 years of experience at Pre-paid Legal Services Inc. He created it as an alternative to the similarly focused membership-based business-networking group BNI.

Upland, Calif.-based BNI charges hundreds of dollars a year for memberships – too much, Gaddis felt – so he developed a local alternative for referral marketing.

“At the time, the economy had just been horrible. What was out there was outrageous in price, and I didn’t think it was as effective as what we could do,” Gaddis said. “Our plan was to start six, seven or eight chapters; that was it. In spite of the owners, it did very well.”

A year in, the company had 16 local chapters and roughly 300 members. Now, Masterminds of Biz has 41 chapters stretching from the Springfield area to Little Rock, Ark., Wichita, Kan., and Denver, Colo., with over 800 members, Gaddis said.  “We found a need and a niche in the marketplace,” he said.

Annual membership dues cost $100, and chapters don’t duplicate job types, Gaddis said, so there is industry diversity in each chapter. He said insurance and real estate agents are the most common occupations, and they often have to wait for new chapters to form. “We usually have a MOB meeting going on in Springfield every day of the week, and usually two or three,” he said, adding there are over 20 chapters in the Queen City alone.

Referral specialists
The goal, Gaddis said, is to have members become a go-to resource for their clients. He said each member typically knows about 250 people, so the real benefit of membership isn’t found in trying to sell to other members, but to be top of mind when a fellow member knows someone who needs a service. “I realized that one day on accident. A person called me and said, ‘Hey Curt, our church is going to paint its gazebo. Who do you know?’ I thought, ‘Why was I called for that?’ Then, I realized that was a compliment that they thought of me even when it came to that,” he said.

At meetings, members teach each other about their industries, talking about trends, the types of services, people they lean on and potential clients.

Gaddis said the dues break even with expenses and he hasn’t seen a need to move annual fees up yet. He said most chapters have between 15 and 20 members, but the one he leads has around 50.

“It’s like having your own marketing team. If you had to pay them a salary, it would become an expensive game to play. But if you’re in a MOB chapter, you basically have all those people working for you for $100 a year. That’s the salary – but remember, you’re working for them, too,” he said.

Josh Brown, owner of Springfield-based solar installer Brighter Side Energy LLC, says he’s culled three prospects this year from fellow Hitman chapter members, but his Nixa-based insurance and title business, GreatWay Services Co. LLC, has benefitted much more. GreatWay, which Brown co-owns with fellow MOB member Keith Prosch, received over 30 referrals in 2015.

“I’ve gotten my membership value for the next 10 years,” Brown said.

Samantha Rushing, a personal stylist with Innovations Salon on South Glenstone Avenue, said she has picked up six new clients in the five weeks she’s been a member of the Wiseguys group in Springfield.

“It has really worked out,” she said.

Global proportions
Since MOB started in 2009, local BNI membership has recorded its own growth.

Robert Mitchell, an area director for BNI and marketing director for water-and-fire restoration company Kwik Dry Systems, said area membership is up 25 percent in that time to 360 businesspeople. “I’ve opened four chapters in the past two years,” Mitchell said. “I don’t know if we would have had more but for the other group.”

BNI – which stands for Business Networking International – operates 12 chapters in the Springfield, Nixa, Ozark and Republic area, representing the 360 members. Another 12 chapters are evenly split up in Branson, Lake of the Ozarks and Joplin, each with at least 20 members, Mitchell said.

Across the St. Louis and Springfield region, there are 110 chapters with about 4,000 members. Worldwide, there are 7,100 chapters and roughly 178,000 members.

Mitchell said it’s those national and global connections, as well as training opportunities and referrals, that make the $560 annual membership fee worthwhile.

“We’ve got people from New York and California sending us referrals,” he said.

BNI tracks the value of its referrals, and Mitchell said 12 chapters generated over $88 million worth of business for Springfield-area members in 2014.

“Our one fixation is to pass referrals,” he said. “Our goal is to be engaged with the customer to the point that when I found out what they need, I can say, ‘I’ve got a person who can handle that.’”

BNI has a code of ethics and an attendance policy for active members. Generally, they’re required to produce four referrals per month, Mitchell said, and attend 86 percent of the meetings.

The MOB group currently has two chapters in Denver, and Gaddis expects to add five more to top 1,000 members by the end of the year. “The law of reaping and sowing is very real. It’s a law like gravity,” he said. “I may give you five referrals, but it will come back to me somehow. It may not come from you, but it will come.”[[In-content Ad]]