Jim & Dolores Martin - Part 1 - Entrepreneurs and Sales Leaders
“Every reason not to do something is the reason to do it. We have the right opportunity at the right time with the right people, and we want to help people succeed. This quarantine time is just time for real community. Facebook isn’t the same as a phone call. Stay connected to people. Everybody matters.” - Jim & Dolores Martin
From sunny Florida, Jim and Dolores Martin are top industry leaders in the relationship business. With 18 + years of experience in the industry, they partnered up with a team of men and women to found Bonvera, a business built on entrepreneurship and community. In another life, Jim was a master plumber who owned his own business for many years, but his life was spent working about 70 - 90 hours a week running his business. Dolores was in the banking and insurance industry as well as running an in-home daycare business. After they got past their own excuses, the rest was history. Today as co-founders of Bonvera, they are building teams of authentic community leaders who serve and support one another.
In part one of this episode, Bob joins Jim and Dolores to talk about their story. They recap joining this industry right around 9/11, a time very similar to COVID-19, and why they got started. They also discuss why they founded Bonvera and the gap Bonvera filled in the industry space. With their experience and results, Bob and Jim and Dolores urge listeners to see the unique opportunity this global pandemic presents to support, care for, and communicate with your community.
Notes and Quotes:
-I wasn’t looking for something more to do, but I wanted the results that others had. Now, I see that if I wanted different results, I’d have to do something different to get them.
-I wasn’t looking, but I should have been looking. The reason I should have been looking was because someone in my industry as a plumber that had more experience than me was in the exact same predicament as I was in. I kept doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
-Every reason not to do something is the reason to do it. I don’t have money, that’s the reason to do it. I don’t have time, that’s why you should do it. Every excuse is the reason to do something. We have the right opportunity at the right time with the right people, and we want to help people succeed.
-What it boiled down to was that we didn’t want special deals. It didn’t matter if you just got started or you had been in the industry for years, we wanted everyone to have the same opportunity. We saw that in Bonvera we could be leading the change.
-Being able to look face to face with people and let them know you care is huge in our industry.
-In this industry, people want to know you care. They know that by looking in your eyes. Now that we have this, it’s still important for people to hear your voice. People need fun and community, and that’s what I love about this business. This is a selfless business. The more you serve others, the more you will win as well. Serving people by being relatable, real, transparent and that you’re in it together.
-You mention how rapidly our business is changing. We are not going to go back to what was prior to COVID-19, and our industry is going to thrive if you do it in the right way and still do it with community.
-You can live 7 days without food, 3 days without water, but 10 minutes without hope.
Links in this episode include:
Gig economy, a blog article we’ve written on why the regular 9 to 5 job is declining and the gig or “freelancer” economy is on the rise
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Why Bonvera got started, a blog article about Bonvera’s history and why it met gaps in the industry
Bonvera At Home, a product line of household and personal hygiene products
To learn more about Bob’s two books, find them on Amazon here: The Leap and Love Your Work.
Follow Bob Dickie on Twitter @RobertDickie