Three ways (Not) to Recruit for an MBA Student Club

Miro and I just embarked on a mini project to recruit some talent for SloanTV.  It remains to be seen what the products of our labor will be, but our initial reaction was that we failed as recruiters (at least on our first try).

Here's what we learned:

1. Bring the passion.  We thought that our new potential club members were going to show up jazzed about SloanTV.  They thought we were going to inspire them to become passionate about SloanTV.  As a result, no one showed up with any passion.  They were right, we were wrong.
2. Sell the dream.  When you're making a pitch, you either sell traction or vision.  Since our traction is burgeoning at this point we really should have been selling vision.  We should have been pitching our vision of reaching every MBA student in America.
3. Flaunt it if you've got it.  The potential new comers were very concerned about administration endorsement.  We should have focused on the great traction that we already have: several hundred views, eCenter camera equipment, and a show that is lightyears better than it was just three weeks ago.