An Interview with Provisors
founder Davis R. Blaine
I was at the early stage of starting ProVisors in 1988. In October of 1987, I had started The Mentor Group and then realized I knew no referral sources in Southern California. The term “necessity is the mother of invention” came to mind. I had to scramble to meet as many professional advisers as possible to build my business.
Why was I in that position? I had been the CEO of a national valuation firm and was traveling all the time to our outlying offices. Very little time was spent in L.A. Thus, I had few contacts. I attended a LAVA event and liked the gathering of professionals and how they met one another. I did not like the breakfast table format, where you meet only one person on either your right or left so I was determined to put professionals into a boardroom setting and have them talk to each other. And, that format with refinements was the basis of the formerly-named PNG, now ProVisors.
In 1990, I met Gordon Gregory, who really liked the concept of networking with a sense of purpose and style. In other words, from the start we insisted that no one would “sell” to others. We were all about ways to interact and just build solid relationships. Since I was leading 11 groups at the time, I gave five to Gordon to run. We worked hard to reinforce the concept of networking as a way to build business and a community, and how to share and give to others before expecting any business. The early 90's were a challenge to get non-networking types to accept our new premise of kinder, gentler connections, and not the pushy type of networking that too common at that time. When we decided to let our members become group leaders and really take ownership, the organization began to grow. Now at nearly 1,100 members, we are embarking on another growth plan to take our model to other cities in the US.
Provisors
ProVisors provides an opportunity for professionals to serve their clients with the highest standards of integrity, performance and accountability. It was founded in 1988 as Professionals Network Group, Inc. by Davis R. Blaine as a community of professionals from all advisory backgrounds dedicated to the belief that success comes from a commitment to high ethical standards, devotion to clients and sharing knowledge with fellow professionals. Now, 20 years later, the ProVisors (formally PNG) community exceeds 1,100 professionals from Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco.
The purpose of the community is to allow for personalized networking between business professionals to further their relationships with one another and share information that will better their business dealings and their clients’ needs.
A community like this is not only beneficial to the professional but also to clients of the community members. Because ProVisors members seek advice from and network with other professionals, clients can feel confident that their adviser is giving them the best help possible. ProVisors members collaborate with each others' clients in order to create multidisciplinary solutions that are not readily available elsewhere. This unique system includes members from a vast range of fields including law, accounting, finance, insurance and consulting. The emphasis within the group is not to sell one another but to provide a conduit where professionals can get to know one another well enough to refer business outside of their own area of specialty and inevitably help with their own client relationship.
Orange County and San Francisco
There are more than 40 groups in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco, with each group consisting of 25-40 members that meet monthly. Blaine met a challenge in the early 90's to try to get non-networking types to accept his form of gentler, kinder networking in a time when pushy networking was the norm. In 1990, with the help of Gordon Gregory, Blaine was able to create more groups and allow members to take control; the organization began to grow into what it is now. With the success they have seen, ProVisors is embarking on a new growth plan that will take the organization to more cities in the US.
For questions or membership information visit provisors.com or call 818.382.6496
