Hi, I’m Vedaprakash Badimi from the category of Shutters and Awnings from the Sparkles Chapter. We are into this business for 3 decades in United Andhra Pradesh. When I joined BNI, I came to know that it was a place to network and pass referrals, but what was overwhelming was the camaraderie that exists between members.
I want to share a few of my experiences at BNI. Before joining BNI, I was an introvert. I was poor at presentation skills and was afraid to speak to strangers. After joining BNI, I started attending training, which improved my presentation skills, communication skills, and many other aspects. After 3 months, I took the role of an Application Review Coordinator. I was scared and asked myself, “Can I do justice to the role”? My fellow members supported me, and I could do justice to the role. Then I took up many other positions like Feature Presentation Coordinator, Secretary-Treasurer, and President.
The application Review Coordinator role taught me how to review a person in a simple conversation without troubling him with unnecessary questions. And the Feature Presentation Coordinator role taught me how to showcase our product within 8 minutes without missing our LCDs.
The Secretary-Treasurer role taught me how to manage finances, plan for the future, and negotiate prices. I was not a good listener, but after becoming the President, I started listening to the members in the chapter and in my personal life. Here at BNI, I started networking with people of different categories, and here I am learning how to generate business from them and for them.
When I attended the BNI LTRT meeting for the first time, the hall had almost 300+ members, including all Head Tables and Regional Members of the BNI Hyderabad Region. Suddenly I was asked to share my experience in BNI. When I stood looking at everyone, I was nervous as I had never spoken in front of such a huge crowd before. I was confused about what to speak, but slowly I spoke. After completing the conversation, I saw members clapping. At that moment, I felt very confident. Now I can confidently address a crowd.
All credit goes to my fellow members, MS. Sanjana Shah- ED BNI Hyderabad, Mr. Satish Kumar AARD BNI Hyderabad, Mr. Vinay Sevella- Support Ambassador, and Ms. Jaagruti- Director Consultant.
