The Official BNI Podcast

Tony Alessandra, CEO of Assessments 24x7 and co-author of Room Full of Referrals, joins Dr. Misner this week to talk about the value of online assessments.

Synopsis Roger Gamble from BNI Seward County in Nebraska joins Dr. Misner to talk about creating power teams that fit your region. Seward County is very rural and the chapter had many members whose businesses related to farming, so the chapter created...

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 130. Synopsis This week Dr. Misner wants to expose three common delusions about referrals and referral sources. You should always get a referral when you’re in front of the referral source. To maximize your chances of getting good referrals, it’s best to move from one networking group to another networking group at regular intervals. Your best source of referrals is your customer. Dr. Misner recommends creating a curriculum for your referral sources, breaking what you do down into 30-second or 60-second highly-focused sound bites that others in your BNI chapter or any other networking group can use to refer you to others. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 130 - Priscilla: Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast which is brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you? Ivan: Doing great, Priscilla, and I’ve got an interesting topic today, Three Common Delusions About Referral Sources. Priscilla: Great! Well, tell us all about it. Ivan: Here’s number 1, Delusion Number 1. You should always get a referral when you’re in front of the referral source. That’s one that you know seems counterintuitive. Many of these delusions kind of do. But the truth is, if your referral strategy requires you to be present in order to get a referral, you’re putting severe limits on your potential business. Referrals happen when you’re in front of the referral source only if your system is dependent on you asking for the referral and getting it at the same time. So what that means to BNI members is that it’s very important to remember that you are trying to train that referral team, not close a sale or not just get a referral as you’re standing in front of them, but teaching them how to go out and listen for referrals so that they can bring them back to you. You don’t need to be in front of your referral source every time you get a referral; it’s a delusion. Priscilla: Okay. Ivan: Delusion Number 2. To maximize your chances of getting good referrals, it’s best to move from one networking group to another networking group on regular intervals. This is what I call “scorched earth networking,” and it’s about as friendly as it sounds. And I think in BNI, a lot of people, they get that, they understand that it’s about the relationship building. But there’s still sometimes new people into BNI are coming in thinking, “Well, I’ll be in for six months or a year and get all of the business I can, and then I’ll try something else out; or I’ll do this or I’ll do that.” I see it in Chambers, where somebody will join a local Chamber and they’re in for a little while, and they work it for a year and they kind of move on to the next Chamber. I think I may have used this analogy a couple years ago on one of the podcasts, but it’s like planting a citrus tree, and you wait for a year, of course, you care for it and take really good care and fertilize it and water it. At the end of a year, how much fruit are you going to get out of the tree you plant, Priscilla? Priscilla: Not much. I have one, and it’s . . . Ivan: Yeah, and so it’s like you plant it, you care for it for year, you don’t get a whole lot, and you go, “Well, you know what? It’s not working so well here, so I’m going to rip it up from the roots, and I’m going to plant it over there instead, because if it didn’t grow well here or give me much fruit here, it’s bound to grow more fruit over there.” And then you replant it someplace else, and you let it sit there for a year, you take good care of it, but how much fruit are you going to get that second year? Priscilla: Right. None.

All BNI chapters go through cycles. The key is to recognize when you're going through a down cycle and learn how to re-energize your chapter.

Synopsis Dr. Misner has a new title: Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, and today he's providing a 60,000-foot view of the future of BNI. Yes, "Chief Visionary Officer" is a real title. It's an office established to work beside other senior executives. As Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Misner will be focusing on brand-building activities. Be very clear: this is not an exit strategy. This is an engagement strategy. It gives Dr. Misner an opportunity to work in his flame. Look at the chart below. BNI has grown consistently since it's foundation. How many organizations can say that? That growth has resulted even though Dr. Misner has been able to put only part of his time into growing BNI. With the opportunity to devote all of his time to that goal, he expects to achieve great things. The main focus will be on content marketing--something in which BNI already excels. Dr. Misner has produced more than 400 podcasts, 800 blog posts, 150 articles, and 20 books. Look for videos that tell the BNI story throughout the coming year. The 21st book, Avoiding the Networking Disconnect, comes out this year. And there will be an increasing focus on inbound marketing. What else is new? Involving BNI alumni, who are a great source of support for BNI. BNI is also engaging more in cause marketing, which is about demonstrating your social consciousness. 70% of Millennials want to be involved with an organization that supports social causes around the world. One strategy for this is Business Voices; there will be more to come. Finally, Dr. Misner plans to work on the member experience, which is best done by focusing on BNI's core values. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of Episode 408 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and, with a new title, the Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am at BNI headquarters in Los Angeles today. Thank you for introducing me with the new title. That was just introduced a few weeks ago online on the social media site. I am now, in fact, the founder and chief visionary officer for the company. For those of you who listen to our podcast regularly, go back and take a look at episode 388. Graham Weihmiller is the new CEO of BNI. I introduced Graham in that podcast. There is a number of things that we are doing with BNI that I think are really exciting. I wanted to do something different. Normally I talk about topics that are really relevant at a chapter level, but I am kind of going at the 60,000 foot level with this podcast. I am talking about BNI from a global organizational perspective. I just want to let members know what is taking place so they hear it directly from me. I did mention this in a video that I put out a few weeks ago in our social media. BNI is moving its headquarters from the west coast in southern California, the Los Angeles area, to the east coast of the United States in Charlotte. We are going to keep an LA area office, a regional office, but we are also opening new offices around the world. We truly are on an expansion mode for the organization and I am moving into the role of Chief Visionary Officer. Priscilla, you asked me one of those things, "Is that a real title? Do people have that?" I have to tell you. That is the first question I had when Graham Weihmiller, the new CEO, suggested that title for me because I had not heard it before. I looked it up. So look it up on Google, everyone. It is, in fact, a real title. It is a function of a company designed to work alongside the other senior executive roles. The title is used to define a high-ranking position alongside the CEO.

Chick Gallagher, executive director of BNI Delaware Valley Regions, joins the podcast today to address questions people ask about why they should join BNI.

There's no such thing as work-life balance--but you can create work-life harmony by following these seven steps.

Dr. Misner accepts no excuses for not following up with new contacts you meet at big networking events. To make it easier, he’s providing two templates, one for the “B” list and one for the “A” list.

Whenever we have conversations with people, they provide us openings to make referrals. Listen for "I can't," "I want," "I need," and "I don't know."

Synopsis Greg Morrison from the BNI Live Oak Network chapter in Austin, TX joins Dr. Misner to share the concept of "BNI in the Land of Oz"--the similarities between joining BNI and Dorothy's trip to Oz. "We're not in Kansas anymore." BNI is a new way, even a magical way, of doing things. "Follow the Yellow Brick Road." Our fellow members show us the path we need to follow to grow our businesses. On the way we find companions, as well as heart, brains, and courage. The Wicked Witch of the West pursues us in the form of our doubts. Glinda the Good Witch appears in the form of your BNI Director when you need extra help. There is no all-powerful wizard. At first it seems superhuman powers are required to do all that's asked of us in BNI, but we have everything we need within us. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of Episode 403 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, coming to you from from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you today? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla, and I have a guest on tonight. His name is Greg Morrison. Greg has been in the field of law. He is an attorney and has been an attorney for 24 years. He is practicing family law in Texas. He has been a BNI member for eight years and is no the Co-Executive Director in the South Central Texas Region. His name is Greg Morrison, and Greg says that BNI has helped to grow his business a great deal. I just had to have Greg on because he has the concept that I think is fantastic for BNI members. It is called BNI in the Land of Oz. Greg, welcome to the BNI Podcast. Greg: Thank you so much Dr. Misner. It is great to be here with you. Ivan: I appreciate it. Greg, please call me Ivan. I love this topic, BNI in the Land of Oz. You have three points that you want to talk about. I think BNI members all around the world will love this because who hasn't seen the Wizard of Oz? Everybody has seen the Wizard of Ox, practically. Your first concept is “we are not in Kansas anymore.” Talk about that for us, Greg. Greg: Exactly. Isn't that one of the best first lines that Dorothy delivers when she gets to the land of Oz, looks at what is going on and realizes this isn't like Kansas. This isn't like the place she grew up. So often, when people join BNI, pretty early on, they realize this is a different world. This is a different way of doing things- a magical way of doing things and a great way to grow your business. Ivan: Yeah. It really is, and you know, this whole idea of “changing the way the world does business”- I think fits with that really well. People join the organization- the whole concept of givers gain. I mean, you know, we don't teach that in business school. I am here to tell you. We don't teach that in colleges and universities, the ideal of helping other businesses so that you help yourself. I love that idea. Your second point, Greg, is that there are a lot of parallels between BNI and the journey Dorothy took. You have a lot of points related to those parallels. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? Greg: Sure. I would love to. In the land of Oz, Dorothy learns early on that there is a yellow brick road. If she follows that, it will lead her to where she can actually get her wishes granted and all of the things that she wants in life. The people who pointed that out to her in the land of Oz were the munchkins. Just like that in BNI, early on, when we first join, it is our fellow members, like those munchkins, who show us this yellow brick road, this path, this system that BNI has developed to help people grow their businesses through referral marketing. As we go along that journey, we are fortunate because,

More than half the people at a 500-person networking event raised their hands when asked if they had come hoping to sell something, but not one had come hoping to buy something. This is the Networking Disconnect.

Dr. Misner shares his experience with telling your stakeholders when things go wrong in your business (or for you personally). His conclusion: transparency doesn't hurt your bottom line as long as you have a good communication plan.

In honor of the 400th episode of The Official BNI Podcast, Dr. Misner chose to discuss BNI's 5 core values and 2 additions: Accountability & Recognition.

Mike Muhney from VIPorbit joins Dr. Misner to share the 3 Ps of a powerful network--and a few bonus Ps, as well.

Tim Houston, Area Director for BNI NYC Outer Boroughs, joins Dr. Misner today to talk about his best-selling book, The World’s Worst Networker. (Rebroadcast of Episode 201)