Episode 198: “You Do the Math”

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Synopsis

Certified Financial Planner Dan Romero joins Dr. Misner today. Dan is part of the BNI Diamond Club in Santa Ana and has been a BNI member since 2002.

This episode is called “You do the math” because Dan estimates that he could cover 650 years of BNI dues in what he gets out of one year’s membership in BNI. His business has so far gathered $25,963,639 in assets from referrals or referrals that come from referrals.

So why are Dan and his chapter so successful?

1. Givers gain. Taking time to get to know the other members, make introductions, and give referrals. This generates trust and puts you top of mind.
2. Sponsoring people into the group. This guarantees a quality group and grows the chapter faster. Larger chapters generate more business.
3. Serving on the leadership team. This creates visibility and also demonstrates reliability and trustworthiness, encouraging people to give you referrals.

Disclaimer

Daniel Romero (California Insurance Lic #: 0C54180) is a Registered Representative with and Securities & fee based asset management are offered through LPL Financial a Registered Investment Advisor and Member FINRA /SIPC. For a list of states in which I am registered to do business, please visit RomeroWM.com. No information provided on this site is intended to constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy shares of any security, nor shall any security be offered or sold to any person, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under securities laws of such jurisdiction.

Third-party posts found on this site do not reflect the views of LPL Financial or Romero & Levin Wealth Management, Inc. and have not been reviewed by the LPL Financial as to accuracy or completeness.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 198 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, CA. I am joined today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you doing today? And I hear you have a guest for us.

Ivan:
I do. I am doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much. I do have a guest on the podcast today. I don’t have a lot of guests that I bring in, but when I talk to somebody that I think has a story that will be interesting or compelling to members, I love to bring them on board.

I have with us Dan Romero. Dan is a certified financial planner. He is the president of his own independent firm, Romero and Levine Wealth Management. He has been in business since 1998, and he has been a member of BNI, currently in the Diamond Club chapter that meets in Santa Ana, since 2002.

So, Dan, I have two things to say. One, thank you for being on my podcast.

Dan:
No problem.

Ivan:
Two, the name of the podcast today is “You Do the Math.” I love that title. Tell everybody why we came up with that title.

Dan:
That’s a good question there. It all sums up- I was introduced to BNI in 2002. I attended UCLA. I reached out to a fraternity brother who I knew was in law. I was looking to meet an estate planning attorney. Anyway, he introduced me to somebody down here, and that person introduced me to BNI. Long story short, I joined. I ended up starting the group that I am in now, the Diamond Club.

The story behind that is interesting. We used to meet at Angels Stadium at the Diamond Club behind home plate. How I got that going was I attended one of the leadership meetings with one of the members. I don’t remember the gentleman’s name, but he had just gotten back from Boston and he mentioned that he visited a chapter that meets at Fenway Park. He said, “Hey it might be a good idea if someone gets it going in Anaheim Stadium.”

Ivan:
I’ve been to that location. It’s an amazing location at Fenway. Yeah.

Dan:
I can imagine. I actually reached out to a representative of the Red Sox. It turned out we went to the same high school separated by about ten years. He gave me all the insights of who I should contact at the stadium. Long story short is we got it set up and we met there for about a year and a half. The guy who got us in ended up leaving, and they were going through change. So we ended up bouncing around, and now we are pretty established. Now we meet at Santa Ana Elks Lodge.

How we got the title of “You Do the Math”, don’t quote me on this but-

Ivan:
You know, this is being recorded.

Dan:
A real rough estimate, give or take- I would conservatively say that for my annual BNI dues, I could probably cover 650-700 years of annual dues just from what I generate in current income right now.

Ivan:
That is just amazing. Now, dues do vary a little bit around the world. For what it cost you for membership dues, so far since you have been a member of this organization, that will pay for the next 650-700 years of participation in BNI. Is that what you are saying?

Dan:
Yeah. Now I just have to figure out how to make that work.

Ivan:
I hope you are a member that long. That would be amazing.

Dan:
Yeah. Exactly. We keep active statistics here at my office of what we have gathered. To date, to the penny, we have managed $25,963,639 from referrals, introductions in BNI, or referrals from those referrals.

Ivan:
Referrals from referrals. That is an important point that I want to stop on for just a second. A lot of times we count the referrals that we give but we don’t count the referrals that come from the referrals that we get in BNI. I am pleased that you are tracking that because that is absolutely part of what comes from your participation in BNI.

Dan:
Absolutely. How I look at it is, had I never joined BNI, would I have ever gotten that introduction? So if I get a referral from clients and that client refers me- not only that but we have had visitors that visit our chapter. Maybe they didn’t join, but they ended up doing business with me. If would never have joined BNI, I never would have gotten that busienss. So big proponent.

Ivan:
When we spoke originally, there were a few reasons that you gave me why you felt you were successful. So let me throw those out and let you comment on them. The first was following BNI’s philosophy of givers gain. You thought that was important. Do you want to talk about that for a second?

Dan:
Yeah. When I had first gotten in the group, I was in a position of high traffic. Someone is not just going to toss me half a million bucks to invest that when they’ve met me one day. It’s not like buying flowers. People really need to trust you.

It took me about a year to really get my first target market referral because people had to gain that trust. But what I was doing was instead of concerning myself with the number of referrals and business I was getting, I considered myself successful from the beginning and today with regards to what I am giving back. I really took the time to get to know what the other members did and do what I can to generate introductions. I need to make sure that the people I am giving these introductions to are good at what they do. That is obviously important to me as well. I just can’t refer out if someone is not good.

But once people made that criteria- which is a little easier for me because I was in the advantageous position of starting my own group, so I kind of cherry-picked a lot of the professionals, especially those that are close to me that I know are good. So my philosophy was get introductions, give referrals. I have been involved in the leadership team. I have been president of my club.

Ivan:
Let’s go back to that. One of the other things that you mentioned to me is that you gave a lot of referrals. You were one of the top referral givers in the group. I talk about that a lot. In a podcast we had, a guest on this podcast some time ago, Alan Buchanan, had given a lot of referrals and had one of his best years ever.

Let’s talk about that for a second. Why do you think giving referrals gets business for you?

Dan:
Anytime we get a new member in, I let somebody know. Let’s say you joined the group. Somebody comes up to you and two months later, they have given you five referrals. You have closed those. The only thing I am going to be thinking of is I have to find a way to get this person an introduction. You are on the top of their mind if you are helping feed their family. That’s what you are doing.

Going back to me, that is just the philosophy that works. I look for many different ways that work to create those opportunities, and it works. Again, I consider success when I give somebody a referral as opposed to me going and meeting and getting one. I am looking to create introductions. And then at the end of the day, whether they all it karma, givers gain, or whatever, it comes back full circle as far as I am concerned.

Ivan:
One of the other things that you have mentioned is that you have sponsored at least 20 other people into your group. How has that helped you to sponsor people? What is the benefit? What’s in it for me if I am another member?

Dan:
By sponsoring people, you know if they are good or not. I’m not just bringing anybody in. If I sponsor somebody in, I have a personal experience. That is good, and that is that much less time that I have to spend getting to know that member, if they are good or not. But beyond that, in terms of sponsoring, that grows a chapter. I’ve seen the stats again and again and again through you, Bill Mills, Jenny Mehring, people involved at the local level of our So Cal BNI, that the larger your chapter is, the more business. When we started off, we had about 26 members, we fell all the way down to 11, came all the way back up to 30+. It’s significantly more business.

Ivan:
The more people you have, the more referrals that are going to be generated. That’s a statistic that has held up since the beginning. Gernerally, chapters of about 15 members will pass about 50 referrals a month. Chapters of 30 members will pass 150 referrals a month. That is very common. So the size of the group is key, but the thing is don’t just bring in warm bodies. You brought in many people that you knew. Knowing somebody is, I think, important.

We are almost out of time, but there is one more thing that I want to talk about. That is that you have served in some form of leadership for many years in your group, including chapter president, which in some countries is called chapter director. Why is that important for a member- to be on the leadership team?

Dan:
Increased visibility for one. If I am in front of people it gives me an opportunity for people to see me. You may not utilize me as a financial adivsor, but if I take a small role, whether it is educational coordinator, president, growth and retention, when I do what I say I am going to do and I do it right, I am reinforcing that brand that I want communicated. They’ll say, “Hey, I had Dan do something. He does it. He does it right.”

That is just one more way to cement the brand and reputation that I’d like to have. So when that opportunity comes and you have that 3 million dollar 401K plan that you want to introduce me to, you’ll have the full faith and confidence that I will be able to deliver because your only experience with me is that any responsibility I have taken I have done right.

So I just put myself in the position to continually build my brand, be on the forefront, be in a leadership capacity one way or another. It also helps the group, too, because we need people who are going to do what they say they are going to do. It’s very, very helpful for me.

Ivan:
You bring up a very good point on this one. It’s a subtle but significant point. You say that when you do what say you are going to do, when you follow up, when you act professionally, when you perform in a chapter’s leadership team role or some kind of leadership role, people see that. They observe that. It increases your credibility. It increases the opportunities for you to get referrals because it produces more credibility. A lot of times people forget how important it is to take on leadership roles so that they can really stand out in the chapter.

Well, Dan, we are almost out of time. Give us your- this is BNI, so we at least have to let you get a plug in here. Give us your website for your business.

Dan:
Okay. My website is www.DanRomero.com. We, just very quickly, specialize in just two folks. That is high net worth individuals with a half a million or more in net assets. Then our niche specifically is with company corporate retirement plans that are 10 million in size. We work as a consultant to the owner of the company to make sure that they are in compliance with all the fiduciary regulations. Most business owners aren’t aware that they have a personal liability even if they have a corporate statute or set up with regards to how the retirement plan is set up. We assist at that level.

Ivan:
Dan, I want to thank you for being on our podcast today. There was a lot of great material, and I hope that it will be of value to our members. I thank you very much for being here, and I hope our paths cross again.

Dan:
Absolutely. Glad to help.

Priscilla:
You’re welcome. Thank you Ivan. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you will join us again next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.