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Can a seasoned team – who has been around the block many times – get a face lift that isn’t painful and that lasts? The short answer is yes, and BNI Conejo Valley in California is a great example of the Fast Track payoff!

Carol Powell, the new VP of the chapter won the Fast Track BNI Networking Secrets chapter program at the international conference last November and as Carol says, "What a difference ten months makes.”

Carol, a 10-year BNI member and a 4-year Conejo Valley member, says last year things began to change. “We went from 26 members to 18 and it was scary. Our long-term members weren’t feeling the same and new members weren’t jumping into it. It’s like they were waiting for something to happen. Givers Gain was not front and center.”

Today is a different story – a different chapter – new energy and Givers Gain is thriving.

“Today we are at 30 members,” says Carol, “and it’s all because of Fast Track. That’s a 60 percent growth in less than a year.  As soon as we started listening to the BNI Networking Secrets CDs, I began getting emails right away from the seasoned members who said this is the best thing that has happened to us in a long time. The program took off. New members grabbed on, and we’ve never looked back.”

Brian Bortel, the chapter’s new president, was the EC during the program and he says, "It gives us the vocabulary we needed. I want to know how to listen for the buzz words that help make everyone in our chapter successful. Fast Track does that. And facilitating the18-week curriculum is almost effortless."

“The EC moment is totally different now.” says Carol. “Before some people were interested and some weren’t. With Fast Track all of us are listening and taking notes. When Brian asks us a question, like, “How many of you did your 1 to 1s this week?” we will raise our hands. Or those that didn’t listen and think, “Wow, I missed that!”  We are all very honest with each other. We are a team and everyone participates.

“You could have labeled us desperate networkers before Fast Track. If we got a new member, we didn’t care what they did as long as it wasn’t the same as our members. We didn’t look at them as individuals. We just said thank goodness we have a new member because we didn’t want to get below 18. Now, we really think about who we want as members and when visitors come they always talk about our energy and that we are so different from other chapters they have been to. The consistent comment we hear over and over from visitors is, “WOW – you guys really have it together.”

What’s next for Conejo Valley? They are starting Fast Track for the 2^nd time! “Our goal is to get to 40, and what better way to do that with all our new members and great energy than to keep doing the wind sprints we know work?”

You can hear more from Carol and Brian who were the special guests on the Fast Track Friday call in early summer.

For more information on the Fast Track Program, go to www.delfuego.com/bni.




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