Episode 610: Amplifying Results Using a Lens

Synopsis

Rick Sapio, one of the co-authors of Who's in Your Room?, joins Dr. Misner on the podcast this week to talk about making business decisions.

Rick uses a decision-making lens to help him get the desired results. Yes/no decisions come faster when you use a lens. To use the lens effectively, you have to be conscious about your decisions.

Rick's operating values, the lens he uses to make his decisions, are simplicity, probability, and leverage.

Simplicity means not making things more complicated than they have to be. Buy a house 5 miles from your office instead of building one 30 miles from your office.

Probability means taking the actions that increase the probability of achieving your goals. If your stated objective is to sell your business in 5 years, you don't hire your out-of-work brother-in-law who doesn't have experience. You hire the best process person for your office manager that you could possibly find.

Leverage is getting more done with the same investment of time and/or money by using calendaring and technology. Successful BNI chapters do things the same way, week after week, month after month, year after year.

The final concept that drives Rick is eternalism. Consider every decision as if you were going to live with it for 100 years.

Learn more about how to operationalize simplicity, probability and leverage at Rick's Business Finishing School.

Complete Transcript of Episode 610

Priscilla:

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast which is brought to you by The Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Misner and many other networking experts. I’m Priscilla Rice and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:

Hi Priscilla, I am on my way back from France. I just spent a few days with my bride of 30 years on the beaches of Normandy in France. it’s good to be coming back.

Priscilla:

Congratulations on 30 years.

Ivan:

Thank you. It both seems long in some ways and short in others. It’s amazing.

I am really excited because I have a good friend on this week’s podcast. His name is Rick Sapio. You might recognize that name because Rick is a co-author of the book Who’s in Your Room, which I have talked about a fair amount on my podcast and a lot on my blog. Rick is a lifelong entrepreneur. He started his business of a bicycle repair show when he was 13 years old. Since then,  he has started almost two dozen companies. He is the seventh of nine children and  he was raised by a mother that had some serious health issues. We talked a little bit about her in Who’s in Your Room? He is the cofounder and six time chairman of the Gathering of Titans Program which is a annual CEO events that aid held up at MIT in Boston. Rick is a good friend and a co-author of Who’s in Your Room? I am really excited to have him on the podcast today. Rick, welcome.

Rick:

Thank you Ivan. I am excited to be here.

Ivan:

It’s great to have you here and we are going to talk about business decision making using a lens that will add leverage your business. I would love for you to talk about it and then as you are talking about it I will just chime in and give some color commentary.

Rick:

Perfect. So when you think about Who’s in Your Room, it’s using values to make decisions on who you want to enter into the room of your life. This is taking a little bit further that ‘I have used in my 55 years on the planet a decision making lens that helps me get the desired result. So one of the benefits of using the lens is the yes/no decisions come faster. We are all looking for an edge. That is why we titled it amplifying results. 

So the three words we use as operating values in our businesses and actually in my family life too is simplicity,