Last Minute Gift Ideas...

Got someone in your life who needs a little recruitment inspiration?

Do you have a new year's resolution to read for just a few minutes a day?

Are you one of the far too few people in the world that understands that you can gain a lifetime of wisdom by reading a few pages a day?

Check out these books if you want to drive your recruitment results to a whole new level.

Becoming a recruiter with the necessary wisdom to get results takes a commitment to seeking out knowledge from beyond your normal circles, and considering how it applies to your needs. It is equally important to TEACH and USE these learned principles and techniques. The wisdom gained immediately begins to transform you and your chapter.

We have become successful business owners, consultants and authors due mostly to the fact that we read the words of people smarter than us as often as possible.

Recommended Books to Spark Recruitment Results:

Good Guys: The Eight Steps to Limitless Possibility for Fraternity Recruitment

Matt Mattson & Josh Orendi

How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie

7 Habits of Highly Successful People
Stephen Covey

The Magic of Thinking Big
David Schwartz

Remember Every Name, Every Time
Benjamin Levy

The Fine Art of Small Talk
Debra Fine

The Art of Possibility
Zander & Zander

Good to Great
Jim Collins

The Four Agreements
Don Miguel Ruiz

The Sky is Not the Limit. You Are.
Bob Davies, M.S.

You Can Make It Happen
Stedman Graham

Secrets of Closing the Sale
Zig Ziglar

The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
Maxwell & Ziglar

Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill

Purple Cow
Seth Godin

If you don't want to be "just another frat..."

[Note: This is as true for women's groups as it is for men's -- that goes for almost everything on this blog!]

There's a line in one of my fraternity's old songs that claims that Alpha Sigma Phi is "Better Than The Rest!" No doubt your fraternity or sorority has a similar line in one of its songs, chants or cheers. As an organization, we cling onto that line and we truly try to believe it. I think most of my brothers around the country would claim that their chapter is truly "better than the rest" of the organizations on their campus.

Of course, from having spoken to members of nearly every inter/national fraternity and sorority, I know that almost ALL members will claim that their chapter has the tightest bonds of brother/sisterhood, and they're the coolest people on campus, but that's beside the point.

Whenever I'm consulting with one of my undergraduate brothers, I'll ask them how much it matters to them that they're better than the rest. They'll usually respond that it is important, and that they truly believe that statement. Then, I'll go on to ask them what they think their chapter's founding brothers wanted more than anything when they founded the chapter. You know what the answer always is?

"We started our chapter to be DIFFERENT and BETTER than all the other chapters on this campus. We started because our founders weren't satisfied with all the frats here, and we knew we could be different and better than all of them."

Does that sound familiar to you? Is that why your chapter was founded? For that matter, is that why your inter/national organization was founded? (That's why my fraternity was founded 161 years ago at Yale University, and I'll bet yours has a similar story).

If you were founded to be different and better... In fact, if you still believe that your chapter can and should be different and better than the rest of the chapters on your campus... I have one question for you.

Why do you recruit just like the other chapters on your campus?

If you want to be different, you've got to be different. If you want to be better, you can't just modify an already lackluster modus operandi and expect dramatically different and better results. You have to DO THINGS dramatically different and better. This is especially true for recruitment -- the one task that leads to almost all of the results your chapter achieves.

Evaluate your recruitment practices. Look for anything that looks similar to what the other chapters on your campus are doing. Once you've identified those things, promise never to do them again. You already know that they don't work that well. You already know the results you'll continue to get if you keep doing them. Literally stop doing the same stuff the other chapters on your campus are doing.

If you want to be different, be different. If you want to be better, don't do what they do -- be remarkable.

I learned this lesson from working with new interest groups and colonies when I was Director of Expansion for my national office. I'd watch a small group of guys who were determined to be different and better quickly meld into mediocrity by assuming that they had to do things (especially recruitment) similarly to the way other chapters were. It is our nature to just mimic what we see around us, but if we want to be GREAT, we have to give up being GOOD.

Be different. Be better. Be great.

The Greatest Gift

If you've ever been around Josh Orendi during a Phired Up program, you've no doubt heard him say something along the lines of, "Love your organization enough to give it away." He's constantly spouting off that line, and for good reason.

We hear stories all the time of men and women who say their fraternity/sorority literally changed their lives... in some cases, saved their lives. At least half of the Greeks we talk to tell us that they love their organization -- that it means the world to them. So, we like to ask, "What gifts of appreciation have you given to your organization." Immediately the responses will flow in about time, passion, energy, heart and soul, hard work, and creativity. These gifts are a wonderful way to "repay" your organization for what it has given you, but there is something that would make an even better gift.

"If you truly love me, you'll let me go," you might hear a Hollywood damsel overdramatically state in some sappy chick flick. It's a stretch I know, but imagine your organization saying that to you. That's what it really wants, ya know. To be given away. If you truly love your organization, give it the gift it deserves... give it away to others.

Fraternity/sorority professionals (like us) talk all the time about the values in our organizations' rituals. We talk about "living your ritual," and that's what will make the organization strong. I agree with that, but I think we sometimes forget that somewhere in our ritualistic materials (even if it isn't written in secret esoteric language on your badge or pledge pin), our rituals tell us to not only live our PURPOSE, but also to GROW the organization.

Think about that for a second...

Even the best of our chapters around the country -- those that teach their members to live their values -- don't bother teaching them the most important thing about being a member: how to recruit other members. The ONE thing that keeps your organization alive, and the ONE thing that your founders truly ask of you is to recruit and recruit well.

Love your organization enough to give it away. If you're not recruiting really well, and working hard to improve your ability to do so, you're not living up to the commitment you've made to your founders, and you're keeping the ultimate gift from the organization that has given you so much.

Just do regular stuff...

I find myself giving that advice a lot when working with fraternity and sorority members. When it comes to recruitment, 99 times out of 100 we overcomplicate the matter.

When we want to meet people, we feel like we have to roast a pig or put on a skit. When we want to get to know someone, we feel like we have to go play paintball or follow intricately detailed policies and procedures.

"Just do regular stuff! Do normal things that normal people would do." That is typically my number one piece of advice when it comes to the BEST way to get better results from your recruitment efforts.

What it really comes down to is, NON-GREEKS ARE AFRAID OF FRATERNITY/SORORITY RUSH EVENTS. No kidding. They're terrified. They have no idea what a "rush event" is (does that term really even make sense to you?), and if they do know what a rush event is, why would they want to come see a group of strangers in a strange place doing abnormal activities? Especially considering the fact that all they've heard about fraternities and sororities is the bad stuff.

Simple pieces of advice:
1. Non-Greeks are afraid of rush events
2. So please don't depend on rush events to fill your membership
3. Because the people you want aren't showing up at your events
4. Instead... do normal, everyday things... be normal (strange advice, I know).

Normal things to develop relationships with prospective members:
Go to lunch, grab some coffee, study together, go work out together, go to the bar together, order pizza, watch the game, have girl talk, play IM sports, hang out after class, work on a volunteer project together, play video games, go shopping, go to a movie.

Don't scare them away... Have fun.

Tiny Programming Budget? 10 Ways to Improve Recruitment ANYWAY!

Are you a campus professional who struggles to provide high quality programming because your budget is limited?

One thing that Phired Up has always been proud of is our ability to work with our customers' budgets. But sometimes we know it is just impossible to bring in training or consultation because you have essentially a $0 budget. We get that, and honestly, we still want to help.

With a little creativity and awareness of resources, even a ridiculously low budget can have a big budget impact.

Here are are 10 tips:

1. Finally something on facebook you can promote. Connect students with the group: Recruitment Ideas & Success Stories. There are great tips and a network forming to innovate and revolutionize recruitment one 'poke' at a time.

2. Leverage the expertise of chapter alumni advisors and university professionals -- especially those in admissions, sales, marketing, etc. Ask them to do presentations or programs, or better yet... ask them to serve as coaches and mentors to your recruitment leaders.

3. Give National HQ Consultants the Stage. A consultant can offer qualified training with a relatable face. Partner with them to offer Greek-wide programming.

4. Let them read it. The book Good Guys is available for as little as $12 in electronic format and bulk order discounts apply for paperback versions. Give every chapter a copy. Start small discussion groups. Coach your leaders based on the concepts in the book.

5. Go to Nationalz! Nearly every national fraternity and sorority offers a low/no cost recruitment track at regional and national conferences. Send your students. Get them thinking about it early so they can plan ahead.

6. Cross-train. Get your men involved in sorority recruitment. They'll walk away with a whole new appreciation for organizing formal recruitment. And vice-versa... challenge your women to consider what they can adapt from the men's methods.

7. The regional conferences keep getting better. Invest in sending your rock stars and rising new members to regional conferences such as NGLA, MGCA, SEIFC, WRGLC, etc.

8. Resources from NIC/NPC/NPHC/NALFO, etc. National governing organizations offer low/no cost resources for recruitment growth. Call your area representative or the national office for details.

9. Broaden your budget. Did you know recruitment/organizational growth programs such as Phired Up's Dynamic Recruitment Workshop can be offered to ALL STUDENT GROUPS? This allows you to pull from non-Greek budgets such as student activities.

10. Partner with local schools. If you have your eye on a program/speaker, you can often request a significant discount by doing a little leg work. Give the company multiple dates at area schools or bring students from multiple schools together to cut costs.

Motivation Fuel

A great business leader spoke before an arena full of colleagues. He was asked, “What is your #1 responsibility?” He answered, “To fuel the dreams of the people in my organization.” A confused hush fell over the crowd. Surely an organizational leader must focus first on management responsibilities. They asked, “What about sales, training, marketing, board develoent, mission statements….” He abruptly stopped the conversation and said, “If a man’s dream is big enough, the facts don’t count!” In other words, a man who knows why he is doing a task doesn’t need to be managed. He will find a way to achieve his goals.

Lead your chapter by becoming the dream-builder for your organization. Effective leaders leverage the motivating desires of their members and chapter. Below is a meaningful exercise you can do formally or informally with the brothers of your chapter to better understand their individual and collective desires.


Dream Building: Have – Do – Become

Fold a piece of paper into three equal parts. Write the words Have, Do, and Become separately at the top of each column. Now, think about the chapter at its best. Get a mental picture of the chapter as you want it to be – when it’s at its maximum size with only the highest quality members who are deeply involved. Take 90 seconds and, without stopping, write down all the things you can imagine the chapter “having.” These should be possessions… things you could touch… wonderful things that exist beyond your present reality.

At the end of 90 seconds stop and move to the next column. Repeat the same exercise thinking specifically about what you and your chapter members could “do” in a perfect scenario. What actions, adventures, good deeds, fun times, or activities would you do if there were no boundaries on the possibilities?

Finally, move to the last column for 90 seconds. Consider what members of your chapter will “become” as a result of joining your organization when the chapter is at its best. Describe their character, personality, or any intangible quality of the man/woman.

Dream building should be one of your first steps when it comes to recruitment... not goal setting, that comes much later. First, build a dream that truly motivates you and fellow members to do the hard work it will take to make your chapter remarkable.