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As part of the Monthly Leadership Series from the New Way MBA education curriculum, Michigan-area business leader Joe Darkangelo shares one of three true game-changers in making your company culture truly unique in your marketplace and greatly enhancing the effectiveness of your God-given calling: Edification.
I want to say: congratulations on being on the New Way MBA training series. It is a vital par of building your Bonvera opportunity, for sure. So let’s dive right in.
The reason I want to talk about edification is because I really believe it’s a very, very important part of building our communities of people. Think about this: any time that we’ve ever seen a good movie, any time that we’ve ever got a new phone. Like, I’m a big Android guy, right? And so any time I’ve got the newest and greatest phone, I’m telling everyone I know about it. So much so, that people with iPhones are, you know, coming back at me with “the new iPhone’s the best!” You know, my daughter and my wife have iPhones, and my son and I, we have the Android, so we all kinda go back and forth as many people do.
But have you ever noticed that you believe in something, you edify that whole thing, where you talk about a movie, you talk about a great restaurant you ate at, you edify that, right? We speak the truth about it. And that’s what we want to talk about- how to do that with the people you’re working with to help build your community. But always speak the truth. So, edification, by definition, is the instruction or improvement of a person- morally or intellectually.
Really, I always tell people that it’s speaking the truth. Talk good about somebody, build them up, uplift them, enlighten them, brag on them. It’s very important, a lot of times, I’ve seen many talks where the speaker will come out, and the person introducing them will say something like “Heeere’s Joe!” or, you know, it not that exciting, and the crowd doesn’t get very captivated, when the speaker starts speaking.
So, whether it’s speaking, whether it’s doing a meeting with someone, whether you’re talking about the company, or whatever it is, edification is very, very important.
People will lighten up. ‘You’ve ever noticed when you talk good about somebody, that they just lighten up? We really have some pros at this within Bonvera, the leadership of Bonvera is actually, very excellent at it. And sometimes they’re so good at it, that when they’re talking about you, you’re kind of embarrassed! But it’s that good, right? That’s why they have large, businesses and in the senior leadership of Bonvera.
So, as we go through this, I’ll talk about how to implement this, like I said, in one-on-one’s, Zoom calls, intro meetings, RTE’s, NTE’s, things of that sort. So, I figure it’s a pretty important thing. Especially, the Bible talks about it, seventeen times about edification in the Bible, right? So it seems like it’s a lot in that book, to be talking about edification. The apostle Paul was the best edifier; he talks about edification the most. And so what we want to do, really, is help you understand where we think it’s sop important for you, and so let’s continue on here.
So, like I said, Bonvera leadership is the best, you’ve noticed, people are edifying each other all the time, people are edifying teams, and I want to challenge you with: is really - try doing it yourself. Try to start talking, I mean, a lot of us, like, talk good about our families and our spouses. (I mean, I hope my spouse Laura talks good about me! :)) Think about that- we’re truly doing that anyway. So let’s talk a little bit about that.
So let me give you some “for instance’s,” here. We talk about already how we’re speaking the truth. Never say anything that’s not true. It doesn’t do anybody any good, right? Always speak the truth. So first of all, say, I’m working with Jim Martin, or I’m working with Tim Jarvinen, or Cody Newton, or Bill Newton, or whoever we’re working with- think about this: whomever I’m talking about, I’m always edifying them, the good things I know about all of them, So, whomever you’re working with, you’re going to want to do the same thing. because what it does, just like that movie, it makes them want to meet that person, right? And it also gives that person credibility. So, we want to teach this down through our team.
So, let’s start off with the Zoom meetings. There’s a lot of a lot of that going on with the pandemic, and I’m pretty sure that Zoom meetings will continue on. Even tough we were doing them before the pandemic happened, people are using them more and more now. What’s happening is we’re showing this opportunity one-on-one, Bonvera presentations, So, if you’re being asked to introduce somebody, you’re going to want to find out some information about that person first about them. Some good, truthful information. Get with whomever you’re working with, some information. There’s also a lot of leadership information bios on the bonvera.rocks blog, right there on our website. So on Zoom’s you want to edify really well, because t5hat person doing that meeting for you, nobody knows who that person is. Gang, all they’re going to see is the picture of the person on that Zoom screen. That’s all they’re going top see. So you really want to uplift, talk good, and tell the truth about whoever that speaker is. So when you do that, might do that for maybe one minute, a little over a minute, at the very most, because if you do it more than that, it drags on an on and on. An so, give some good information, and then the speaker has his credibility as soon as he gets out of the gate and starts talking, because the truth has been spoken bout him. So Zoom is one of the ways we do it.
Intro meetings, live intros: I love getting the newest people up and introducing them to the different speakers, because it gets them comfortable with getting up there, right? But remember, a lot of times, people will come up to you and say “hey tell me something about yourself,” but sometimes, that’s uncomfortable as a speaker. The best thing to do is to really get with someone else, get with their spouse or someone who knows them to get some facts. Again, the Bonvera blog has a lot of information about many leaders. But, make it exciting! One thing about any kind of introduction (because we are talking about introductions in edification, all of this will tie in together), basically, you don’t want to give their name until the end. So, if you’re introducing anybody, you don’t want to say, “Joe did this, and Joe did that.” You don’t want to do that What you want to do is give all the accolades and everything, then at the end, say “please help me welcome Joe to the front.” That’s kind of how that should work. So that’s going to happen at intro meetings, too- totally edifying the speakers.
At the NTE, you might be asked to do the same. You may notice at the NTE’s usually the introductions there are very edifying to the speakers we have- a lot of guest speakers who come in- it’s very, very important to get the right edification out, because many times, people wont know too much about the speaker, so we’re going to want to get some information, edify- this way, we know that the speaker will be talking about, he becomes more exciting. The same thing with RTE’s. So as you can see, whatever it is, you want to make sure edification is key to building your communities of people.
One-on-ones is something. As people are meeting in certain states, one-on-one now, if you’re bringing somebody with you to help share this opportunity, make sure the person you’re meeting with knows you’re bringing somebody with you. Don’t ever just have somebody pop in. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s Willie Nelson, you, Cher, etc., if they don’t know who the person is anyway, it doesn’t make any difference. You could take your sixteen-year-old son, if that’s’ what you want to do. But what I’m talking about is, if you’re going to bring somebody with you to help share this opportunity, edification is so, so important. Edify that person, so that your friend wants to meet that person. So, if you bring me to a plan, and I’m the one working with you (a lot of our teams do this really, really well!), they’ll edify-edify-edify when they get there on a one-on-one, fast-start meeting, or whatever it is, I’ll be able to edify those people back. There’s something cool about a community of people talking good about each other, isn’t there? That’s really, really important, because once people start edifying, if people are throwing that back, again, we’re uplifting people, enlightening people, making people feel good. When you are introducing folks, you want to have their achievements, the appropriate facts about them, but do it with a purpose. Don’t make it scripted, talk from the heart. I always tell people- there’s not a certain set of words to say or do, but you have to have some music to it- there’s got to be some attitude with it, so to speak, right?
So this brings me to say this: we talk a lot about edification when it comes to speaking, recordings maybe, NTE’s RTE’s one-on-ones, etc., but I’d like to address edification in your every-day communication with people. As you’re talking to people inside or outside of the business, one of the most important things to do is talk really good, edify, about all other people that you’re working with. It doesn’t have to be done as you’re presenting this opportunity, But even with people in business with you already, talk good about others. There’s nothing wrong with that. You’re helping people build each each other up. We respect each other, right? We want to respect others, and we want to build others up. Don’t ever talk bad, don’t ever talk negative about anybody, because as soon as you do that, they’re going to think you’re doing he same thing about them. We always want to speak the truth positive, but we want to get really, really good about edification. So as go over all of this, think about this in everyday life, everything we do. Whether it’s meetings ;ole where we’re all going soon to the NTE here; as we’re doing that, we’re going to be around a whole lot of great people. You’re going to be talking about your teams, edifying. And the more your team sees you doing that, the more they will be doping that. The leader leads, right? So it’s not just, you’re doing all the edification, and they’re not doing anything. It “always starts at the top,” so to speak. So if it’s your team, and you’re edifying, then all we have to do is do it so much that your team starts doing the same thing. Just be the example that others follow. That’s what leadership is all about, right? I just think that this topic of edification is so important, to help lift people up. Nowadays, people aren’t used to being talked good about all the time. Usually, it’s the negative that attracts the news, the gossip out there. We don’t want to do that. And the Bonvera organization, we don’t do that, won’t do that. We want positive, enlighting people. We want the truth being spoken about people. We want to talk good about people. Because we want to help people succeed. And I really believe edification is so important.
So I challenge you: think about, as you’re going thruought your day, the more edification you do, just like we talk about good restaurants, cell phones, whatever it is, think about doping the same thing with the people you’re in business with; think about doing that with the people you’re in love with; think about doing the same thing with your family, your friends; and close everyone becomes. Edification is not hard at all, but we have to practice it. My challenge to you today in this short, little audio I want to put out there about edification- are you doing it? Are you doing tit every day? Are you uplifting people? Are you making people feel good? Are you speaking truth about somebody, to leverage an opportunity like Bonvera that will truly help people change their lives, like it has so many of us? I challenge you- get out there, edify, start talking good about people, start uplifting people, let’s make a difference in this world.
God bless. #HAGDOW#
