The Official BNI Podcast

Synopsis Being able to talk to anyone doesn't mean you're good at networking. Sometimes extroverts need to learn to shut up and listen. Most people are not born networkers. You can belong to a networking organization, but if you're not an active pa...

Synopsis Special guest Mike Roberts, Executive Director of BNI New Hampshire,  joins Dr. Misner today to talk about the difference between Power Teams and Contact Spheres. Dr. Misner first coined the term "Contact Sphere" in 1994. BNI members have wanted to take that idea further, which led to the creation of Power Teams. A Contact Sphere is a group of symbiotic professions who have a good opportunity to provide referrals to each other. A Power Team is a group of individuals who have actively committed to generate business for each other. The fourth edition of The World's Best-Known Marketing Secret addresses this difference on page 155. The Power Team is contained within the Contact Sphere.  Only BNI members for whom you can regularly generate business (and vice versa) should be on your Power Team. Recommendations for a Successful Power Team Meet with your Power Team weekly, or at minimum every other week. Have a chairperson for the meeting. Have each member describe a good referral. Brainstorm ways to get others in the Power Team involved in each project. An effective Power Team generates more referrals for the rest of the chapter as well as for its own members. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 272 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you? I hear you have a guest today. Ivan: I certainly do. We are going to be talking about power teams and contact spheres. Particularly, we want to talk about the difference between the two and what they are and why they are so important to BNI. My guest is an Executive Director of BNI who has over the years also become a personal friend, Mike Roberts. Mike is retired from the Salem, New Hampshire Fire Department. He was Deputy Firechief. In 1998, he became involved as a BNI member when he was operating a business, a finance company, later. Since that time, he has become the Executive Director for the New Hampshire region. In May 2001, Mike along with his wife, Debbie, who is also an Executive Director, now expanded to Maine and western Massachusetts, the adjacent area of Orlando and Jacksonville, FL, which probably aren't that adjacent, but I think a lot of people from the East Coast go back and forth during the cold time of the year. Mike oversees about 130 chapters. He has over 2800 members. He sits on the Founders Circle of BNI. He is a National Training Director and currently serves as the Training Manager for the BNIConnect project. Mike is very engaged in BNI. We are very lucky to have you, Mike, as an Executive Director and Trainer in the organization. Welcome to the podcast. Mike: Thank you very much. Ivan: We are going to talk about something very interesting today, at least for me. That's contact spheres and power teams. I came up with the phrase “contact sphere” back in 1994 in the first edition of World's Best Known Marketing Secret. So what do you see as the difference between a power team and a contact sphere? Mike: Over the years, people have taken contact spheres and wanted to do something more than a contact shpere was really designed to do. So they came up, probably 18 years ago, with the term “power teams”. The difference between contact spheres and power teams over the years has been kind of gray and shadowed and confusing to some people. Some regions and some chapters actually treat them as the same and they are not. They are totally different. A contact sphere is a non-symbiotic group of people or professions that could easily provide referrals for each other. Ivan: I think you have symbiotic professions that can work together.

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 120. Synopsis Dr. Misner had an experience at a restaurant in Japan that inspired today’s podcast. The waitress and all the patrons greeted every new arrival with “Welcome to the restaurant.” Shouldn’t a networking group be just as welcoming? If BNI chapters make visitors feel welcome, visitors will return. Sometimes a BNI group’s members can get so connected that they forget to talk to visitors. If you see that happen, share this podcast with your group. How does your group make visitors feel welcome? Share your tips here. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 120 - Priscilla: Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast 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: I am doing great Priscilla. I am at BNI headquarters this week. We have directors training with dozens of BNI directors from around the country, around the United States, and a few internationally, that are going through three full days of training, so that is what I will be doing for the next couple of days. Priscilla: Wow, that sounds good. What are you going to share with us? Ivan: I have a fun topic today; it is about making visitors feel welcome in BNI. This topic came about by an event in Japan. I was speaking throughout Japan last month to BNI networking groups and to the public. I was there with my eighteen-year-old daughter; she just turned eighteen. She wanted to do a language program, so I went there for BNI, and I took her with me. We did some BNI meetings together with her speaking in Japanese, which is great. Before leaving the country, I took my daughter to a little restaurant called Gonpachi. I understand that is it a chain, it is not a one of a kind, but there are many of them. It was pretty near the hotel that we were staying at. It was a nice little place in Tokyo, had great food and good service. What really got my attention was the reception we received when we entered the dining room. As we entered the room, one of the waitressed yelled, and I know I am going to mess up the word, my Japanese is horrible, but it was something to the effect of “irasshaimasei.” She just yelled that out and all the patrons joined her in yelling it, “Irasshaimasei.” I turned to my daughter and said, “What in the world are they yelling at us?” She said, “They are more or less saying, ‘Welcome to the restaurant.’” I thought, “Wow, that is really impressive, what a nice touch!” I sat back and watched as the patrons flowed into the restaurant, and with each group of people the waitress, and even the patrons got into it, and they would yell out “Welcome to the restaurant” in Japanese. As people slowly started to trickle out of the restaurant, they started yelling, “Thank you very much” in Japanese as they left. “Thank you very much.” I even jumped in. I could barely say the words, but I jumped in. I thought it was fun. Isn’t that what a good networking group should be like? When visitors come to BNI and the members say through their actions and words, “Welcome to our networking group; thanks for visiting us,” when they say that with enthusiasm and just genuine interest, you have to come back to the group again. I think this is truly an important secret to a good network, make visitors feel welcome. When people feel welcome, they want to come back. So if you started yelling “Welcome to our group” at the end of the room, you might not actually get the response I am thinking about here, but I think you get the idea. If BNI chapters, through their actions and through their words,

Synopsis We've all seen people at networking meetings who promise that their products or services will deliver something that they themselves obviously don't have. If you are promoting yourself as a wellness coach but you're frequently sick and you're...

Synopsis Brian Silverio from BNI Miami Beach joins Dr. Misner to share his humorous signs that you might be a BNI member. You might be a BNI member if... You understand that a Dance Card doesn't involve any dancing. You wake up before the paper gets to your home. You ever woke up in the night in a cold sweat because you didn't have a referral for someone. You've eaten more lunches with your region's executive director than your own spouse. You stop talking mid-sentence when you hear a bell ring. Your mom tells you she needs your help and you start thinking of ways to make a referral out of it. You limit what your children can say at the dinner table to one of three things. On December 24th, you tell your children the story of Ivan Misner and how he created BNI. You think the term "Traffic Lights" applies to something besides the highway code. You hear the phrase "Visitors' Day" and you don't think about going to see your uncle in prison. You hear the name BNI Trusted Source, BNI Creators, BNI Revival, or BNI Pioneers, and you don't think of a cult. You've rescheduled a doctor's appointment because of a BNI meeting. You've dropped your kids off at school early so you could get to your chapter meeting on time. You're part of an organization with over 6200 chapters, 145,000+ members in almost 50 different countries, passing over 6.9 million referrals, resulting in $3.1 billion in business--you're definitely in BNI. If you liked this podcast, check out Episode 21, which contained Amy Kirkpatrick's "You Might Be a BNI Member If" list. Brought to you by Networking  Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 269 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you doing? Ivan: I am doing great and I have a guest today. Brian Silverio is my guest today. Brian is a BNI member. He's an attorney and has been an attorney for over 13 years. He is practicing law in southern Florida and has offices in Miami and Naples. He is a graduate of the University of Miami and NOVA Southeastern University. He specializes in the area of family law and commercial litigation. He has been a BNI member for 10 years. He has served as President and in various roles in the membership committee throughout that time. He is currently an Ambassador in the Miami Dade region, and he has also served as the MC for a member chapter event for the last three years, which is the reason that I have him on this podcast. I head so many great things about your MC'ing, Brian. I really heard amazing things. I am a horrible MC, by the way. I feel that I am a reasonably good speaker, but when I was in college, my professor came up to me after I did an MC stint. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Son, stick to speaking. You are not an MC.” I have taken that advice over the years. It's really difficult to do, but you nailed it from what I understand. You nailed it because in between- and this is what we are going to share today- you did this whole series on “You Might Be in BNI If...” and you had some funny stuff. So today's podcast is going to be funny, everyone. I think you will enjoy this. Brian, tell us a little bit about this and then I think you have 12 or 15 different things that you are going to share with everybody. Brian: Yes, thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. It was a great experience MC'ing the Membership Appreciation chapter events. It's a once a year thing where we can come out and kind of celebrate the chapters. It was a good time, and to add a little levity to the event always makes the time go by faster,

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 50. Synopsis How do you avoid people whose only interest in networking is “What's in it for me?” Look for the signs of people who believe in giving as part of networking: They ask how they can help you—and really mean it—before they ask you for anything. They show that they're willing to work on creating a professional relationship over time. Those who make the time to go beyond normal business interactions. They try to bring business and contacts to you before asking for your contacts. They give of their time and knowledge to help their referral sources succeed. Immerse yourself in the process of relationship building: Join multiple networking groups, so you can have both breadth and depth Meet with people frequently and regularly. Meet with people outside of networking functions. Remember: it's not what you know, or who you know, but how well you know them. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 050 - Priscilla Rice: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast which is brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio, which is a beautiful studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you? Ivan Misner: I am doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much. Priscilla: Tell us a little bit about this topic, “what’s in it for me?” I've: “What's in it for me?” It's a great lead in to the topic. It's based on the fact that I recently received an e-mail from someone who read an article that I wrote about collaboration and working together. In his e-mail, he said, “The type of networking that you talk about describes the way that things should work but in the real world, people seem to have an attitude of ‘what's in it for me?’ How do I prevent this and prevent wasting my time and efforts on people only to find out they have this kind of attitude?” Well, the short answer to his question is stop hanging out with the wrong kind of people and start actively seeking the right kind of people. Trust me, I've been there and I've done it. You can really get stuck with the wrong people. In order to move beyond it to build the kind of network that you want, you have to understand that it is a journey not a destination. It's something that you're going to be constantly working on. I have two suggestions to help find the networking partners little easier. Here is the first suggestion and it has about six sub points to it. The first one is look for some of the signs relating to people who fit the profile of good networkers. If you want to stay away from the people who are just thinking “What's in it for me?”, look for the signs of people who believe in giving as part of their networking, even though they may not know the philosophy of BNI and the givers gain philosophy, they may practice that same kind of idea in their business and in their life. Here are some things to look for. Look for people who ask how they can help you or what they can offer you and really mean it before they ask you for anything. Very often, you meet people and the very first thing that they want you to do is they want you to buy something or they want you to refer them to someone. Well, that is not a good sign usually. It's not necessarily a sign you definitely don't want to do business with them, but it is a flag of the “what's in it for me?” mentality. If they open up a conversation with “How can I help you?” or “What can I do to help you?” That is a good sign. None of these are necessarily deal killers from the beginning but they are all series of flags. In the United States, we have American football and every time someone does something wrong,

Synopsis Dr. Misner encounters five basic personality types in BNI. The Hermit: No network, no positive message, not good with prospects or sales. Technology- and systems- rather than people-oriented. They can learn to succeed in BNI. The Hunter: Looking to close sales rather than build relationships. Steer away from them in BNI. The Apprentice: They don’t know how to network, but they’re on their way to success. BNI can be very helpful to them. The Schmoozer: They think networking is about passing business cards. They’re only about visibility. They can be trained. The Master: Has a positive message and delivers it effectively, and is just as good at listening as speaking. Master networkers know how to connect people. It’s an acquired skill and BNI aims to help you acquire it. If you’re not a master networker, you need to be an apprentice. Set out to learn. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 267 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am doing great and this week, I am at a Referral Institute retreat with my partners at Executive Circle franchisees and working on new contacts for BNI for networking and certainly what we do- and Referral Institute is helping BNI in many ways. Priscilla: What do you have today that you are planning to share with us? Ivan: Today I wanted to talk about the five networking personalities. There are five kinds of personalities that I often see and would like to talk about those. If you are listening to this podcast and can think of other types of personalities, I would love for you to add to my list. Here are the five and then I will talk about each of them individually. First, is the hermit networker. Second is the hunter. Third is an apprentice. Fourth is a schmoozer, and fifth is a master networker. Let's start with the hermit personality as a networker. A hermit is basically no network, no positive message. They are not good with prospects or sales. They tend to be personality types that are not very people oriented. They tend to be very technique- technology systems oriented. They are oftentimes not entrepreneurs but you will find some business people who are sort of this hermit personality, particularly certain professions that work with things more than people. I don't want to generalize too much, but accountants are more likely to be very goal oriented as opposed to people oriented as opposed to a car salesman who is all about people. There are different types and just because you are from a particular profession, doesn't mean you are one, but they are people who just don't like to network. They have no interest in networking, or they are just extremely uncomfortable by it. We see those in BNI. Those are the people who are afraid to stand up and talk, but as they do it more and more, they become more comfortable. They break out of their shell. Priscilla: We had a person like that in our group. He was an electrician. He was very, very shy. Ivan: Has be broken out of his shell? Priscilla: Not entirely, but if you talk to him one on one, he is very, very talkative. Ivan: Oftentimes, the more somebody is in, the more they break out of it. Why is that? The more somebody is in, the more comfortable they feel with the people they have developed a relationship with. They break out of that. Next is a hunter. We talk a lot about those in BNI. These are people who are looking to close sales. They are not about building relationships. We really want to steer away from hunters. They are looking to bag the big one.

Synopsis This week Dr. Misner shares tips for giving good referrals from Whistler, Canada: Listen to other people’s needs. When you hear a need that matches someone you know, bring out your BNI business card file. Keep the testimonials you’ve heard in mind. Ask them if it’s okay for your BNI colleague to call them.  If the prospect isn’t interested in receiving a call, that person may not be a good referral. Members of some professions are not allowed to phone potential clients, but you may be able to make an introductory call yourself. Know about the profession. Be entirely honest about what you know about both people. If your fellow BNI member charges high rates, say so. If you don’t know much about the prospect, say that, too. If the referral is hot, pass it right away. Don’t wait for the BNI meeting. Your colleague could miss an opportunity. Don’t give marginal referrals. Bad referrals hurt your reputation in the chapter. High-quality referrals are more likely to turn into sales. What are your tips for giving good referrals? Leave your suggestions in the comments. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 266 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: This week, I am in Whistler, Canada for the TLC meeting, the Transformational Leadership Council. I always get great ideas that I bring back to BNI at these. I am looking forward to sharing some of these maybe in a future podcast. Priscilla: Great. So what are you going to share with us today? Ivan: Today I am going to talk about the five pointers for giving good referrals. I think this is something that all BNI members should really understand. The five pointers for giving good referrals. So if you learn the art of giving good referrals, it's a way of really generating more business for yourself. If you give referrals, people appreciate that and they want to make sure to keep you in mind to pass referrals back to you. So here are the five pointers that I recommend. This isn't meant to be all inclusive. It isn't everything, but it's five really important things to consider when you are talking to somebody and you have a referral opportunity. First, listen to other people's needs. A good networker has two ears and one mouth and uses them both proportionately. When you are talking to people, ask questions. Learn about them. Learn what some of their needs are. Learn about their challenges. If you hear something that someone says that is an opportunity to give a referral, tell them that you know somebody who can provide that product or service. It's one of the reasons that you want to carry a business card file with all of the members' cards in it. “As a matter of fact, I happen to have that person's business card right here with me. Here is their card.” Ask for their card in return and say, “Is it okay if I give that person your card?” and get a card back for them. Priscilla: Now, what if you had a testimonial from that person. Would you use it right then? Ivan: Yeah, you want to use it right there. Theoretically, you have either used the member or you have heard of other BNI members who have used the member. It's the reasons why we do testimonials in BNI meetings. So even if you haven't used somebody, you can give a testimonial. You can say, “You know, I know five people who have used this person. They all had great things to say. Here is what they have said about the person.” Then give that testimonial. So when you hear somebody else's need and you hand that business card to them,

Synopsis Brad Sugars of ActionCOACH joins Dr. Misner today to talk about three things: The 5 factors that exist in every business to increase and multiply profits. How just a 10% increase in each of those factors can mean a much larger increase in the bottom line. Easy ways to start boosting profits. The 5 Factors Leads Conversion Rate Number of Transaction Average Dollar Sale Margins Increasing Your Bottom Line Divide to multiply: if you want to improve each of your 5 factors by 10% over the year, that's a 50% increase in your bottom line. See Brad’s Facebook Page for the whole formula. The Easiest Way to Boost Profits Immediately Start measuring your results, particularly conversion rate. This is known as the Hawthorne Effect. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 265 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am doing great this week. I have a meeting up in Big Bear with my Executive Management Team of BNI. Those are the top managers in the organization. And the Executive Council, which is the top 7 countries for BNI, the National Directors. We get together at least a couple times a year and take a look at where the organization is headed, how we are going to get there and lots of times, we manage to get out on the lake a little in between. Priscilla: That sounds like fun. Okay, who do you have with us today? Ivan: I am really pleased to say that I have on the line with us a good friend of BNI, Brad Sugars. I consider Brad a personal friend as well. He is the Founder and Chairman of ActionCOACH. Brad was actually born in Brisbane. I actually came back last month from a tour in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. That was all over Australia. Wonderful country that you are from, Brad. I really like Australia. Brad is well-known as an international business speaker, author and entrepreneur. He comes from three humble beginnings. He is a self-made multimillionaire. He is, as I said, the Founder of Action COACH. Along with his family, he said one of the biggest influences on his life is Jim Roane. He often tells audiences how as a teenager, he scrimped and saved money in order to afford tickets to go to a Roane seminar while his friends were out spending money on games and movies. I can relate to that. One of the things that Brad recalls is when Jim Roane told the audience to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. I think that is great advice for BNI members to hear. Today, ActionCOACH operates in 39 countries. They have 1,000 offices around the world. BNI has a strategic alliance with Action COACH. We appreciate that relationship. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of ActionCOACH coaches in BNI. Brad, welcome to BNIpodcast.com. Brad: Thank you, buddy. It is great to be here. It's great that you have been to Australia recently. You know, it's a wonderful thing to be with all the BNI members today. Ivan: You are going to talk about three things that I think will resonate with BNI members: factors to increase and multiply profits- how just a 10% increase in each of those factors can mean a much larger increase in the bottom line, and some easy ways to start boosting profits. Those are the talking points t that you have for today. I think all three of them are great for BNI members. So let's start with the five factors that exist in every business that can increase and multiply profit. Brad: I hope everyone has a pen and paper handy because we have a lot to cover in a very short space of time. If you look at the five factors,

Synopsis A post on the BNI Facebook page asking members who had influenced them generated a lot of responses, so Dr. Misner decided to share some of  the people who had influenced him personally and professionally here on this podcast. Michael Ge...

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 112, originally published on July 8th, 2009, while Dr. Misner was in Tokyo. Synopsis Today’s networking lesson comes from dry farming techniques practiced in Napa Valley vineyards. The roots have to grow very deep to reach underground water no matter the climate, just as referral marketers have to develop “deep-water relationships” in order to generate referrals no matter the economic climate. Another story that illustrates the power of referrals is that of giant redwood trees. You might expect redwood trees to have a deep root system, but they don’t. The technique they use to remain upright is intertwining their roots with those of their neighbors. Likewise, the members of a BNI chapter can support one another in difficult economic times. This episode is based on a BNI SuccessNet article by Dr Misner. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 112 - Priscilla: Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast 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 and where are you? Ivan: I’m doing great, Priscilla. This week I’m in Tokyo, Japan, for BNI. I’m visiting our BNI chapters here in Tokyo for the very first time, and I’m really excited because I’m here with my daughter, Cassie. And Cassie, about seven or eight years ago, came to the dinner table at our home and started speaking a couple of Japanese words here and there. And my wife and I were so impressed that we got her on Rosetta Stone on the Internet, and she came down every night and started speaking more and more Japanese. And finally we said, “We’ve got to hire a tutor for this kid.” And I promised her at least eight years ago, she was probably about ten years old, that if she learned Japanese well enough to have a basic conversation that when we open in Japan – at that time we were not in Japan, but I knew we would be eventually. I told here that when we open in Japan and I went there on my first business visit that if she learned Japanese well enough, I would take her with me to Japan. Priscilla: Wow! Fantastic! Ivan: I’m really pleased to say that she has done a wonderful job and now speaks Japanese well to hold a basic conversation with somebody, and I’m so pleased and honored to have her with me, accompanying me here in Japan to meet BNI members for the first time. Priscilla: She can be your translator. Ivan: She is, absolutely, and she’s doing a great job. I’m very impressed, and I’m sure in a future podcast, I’ll talk about my visit here to Tokyo this week. Priscilla: Okay, great. Well, what are you going to share with us? Ivan: Well, this week I want to talk about Networking Lessons from Nature. My wife and I recently visited one of our favorite Napa Valley wineries a couple of months ago, Chateau Montelena, which, by the way, a recent movie came out last year called Bottle Shock, was all about Chateau Montelena. Any my wife and I decided to take a tour of the agricultural side of the operation, and the vintner shared with us the technique the winery uses to ensure the quality of the juice from the grapes. Year after year after year, regardless of the climate, it’s a technique known as “dry farming.” He explained the benefits of dry farming, and I saw a business metaphor emerging for how referral marketing works for those businesses that understand business by referral. When vineyards are dry farmed, they’re not irrigated. Dry season or rainy season, they’re not irrigated. As a result, the roots of the vine must really grow deep to get to the year-round underground supply of water, no matter the climate.

Synopsis In response to a request  from Entrepreneur.com. Dr. Misner consulted with some BNI colleagues for tips on doing business and networking in Asia. BNI Taiwan National Director Jihong Hall explains that “face” is everything to the Chinese, so it is important not to make jokes at your own or others' expense. Anything that causes embarrassment or lack of dignity will lose you their business. Ho Quang Minh, National Director of BNI Vietnam,  recommends discussing business over a meal, but warns against getting right to the point. Keep the conversation social at first. According to , National Director of BNI Malaysia and Thailand, you should not expect to shake hands in Thailand, but rather place your palms together in front of your face, close your mouth, and bow slightly. People do shake hands in Malaysia, but afterwards they place their right hands on their hearts. Asato Ohno, National Director of BNI Japan, says that “nominication,” or drinking together and talking, is necessary to cement business relationships in Japan, and also mentions the Japanese business card ceremony, or meishi. Read Dr. Misner’s article on Entrepreneur.com. Networking in Thailand and Malaysia article. Share your own experiences of doing business in Asia in the comments below. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 262 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you today? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla. I think I have an interesting topic for members today. As many people know, I am a columnist for Entrepreneur.com. They came to me a few months ago and said they would like me to write an article about doing business in Asia, to give some tips on networking and doing business in Asia. I thought what better resource than using my contacts, my network, to give me advice that I could write about in my column at Entrepreneur. So today's podcast is some of the things that I learned in putting together that article. First, it's really important to understand that cultural differences are really becoming more and more important. We live in an interconnected global economy, so understanding those cultural differences is what is so important. That is really true in the emerging markets that you see in Asia. I had some experts in several Asian countries that I went to. They were all National Directors for BNI, so these are people right there in those countries who gave me feedback on what it's like to do business in Asia, particularly from the perspective of Western cultures coming in to do business in the Asian community. If you are from one of the Western countries and are listening, take this advice and use it. If you are from one of the Asian countries, let me hear back about what we left out that could be added to this list. It's a little bit for everybody. The first person I spoke to was Jihong Hall. Jihong is from China and she is the National Director and she said that face is everything in China. It's very important. She has been a Director for many years. She started as BNI member. When she talks about face, it's really in relation to dignity, prestige, honor, respect and status. She said that westerners often make jokes at their own expense or someone else's expense. But she says she strongly recommends against that kind of joking with the Chinese until you know them really, really, really well because if you cause them to lose face, you are going to lose their business. You certainly don't want yourself to lose face with them either. She also has some additional recommendations in working with Chinese business people.

Synopsis Cindy Mount Managing Director of BNI Ont. GTA Plus joins Dr. Misner to remind listeners of the importance attendance plays in the VCP process. If you don’t show up at meetings, you don’t have visibility with your fellow BNI members. If your attendance is poor, you can’t build trust with them. You seem unreliable and lose credibility. As for profitability, you can sell or educate an empty room. Your BNI chapter is your sales team. You want them to show up for you; they need you to show up for them. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 261 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. This week, I am in Fort Meyers, FL. I am speaking to an event put on by the Referral Institute, where we have many BNI members attending. We are doing a presentation on the gender book this week. It's great to go around and visit the BNI members. It's really the fun part of my job doing what I am doing this week. Priscilla: That's great. Who do you have as a guest today? Ivan: I have a guest, yes, and the topic for today as you said, is the art of being there but the subtitle is why attendance is so important to BNI. I have as a guest today Cindy Mount. Cindy started her business back in 1995. She discovered BNI in 1998. It helped her out so much that she decided she wanted to go on a mission of educating others about the benefit of BNI. She is now so connected to the organization that she is a director in the greater Toronto area as well as the Director for BNI Ontario Central East. She was nominated for Toronto Women of Influence 2011 and has really been recognized as a member of Stanford sufu. Cindy also has 18 year old twins. Now, they are auditioning, Cindy, for TV commercials. Is that right? Cindy: That's me. Ivan: You're auditioning for TV commercials. That's nice. We love having you as part of the BNI family and we appreciate having you on this podcast. Today you want to talk about the art of being there. It's about attendance, and there are 3 topics that you want to discuss: visibility, credibility and you can't sell or educate to an empty room. So let's start with the first one. Visibility. Cindy: I can get very passionate about attendance within chapters because I believe, like Woody Allen said, that 90% of success is showing up. Visibility within your chapter is the first element or first component of VCP. Visibility, credibility, profitability. If you are not at the meeting you are not visible. It's just simple as that. If you are not visible, you are not reminding your chapter that you are available, that you are reliable and most important, think of all the opportunity that you are missing with your visitors and guests that day. If you are not there and the seat is empty, they don't even know you exist. As an example, we had a member of a chapter who was floating in and out. He eventually left and the seat was open but he was floating in and out of the chapter to the degree that members didn't even realize that he was an actual member. They were giving referrals to someone in a different chapter in his own seat. Why? Because his attendance was so poor. If you are not visible, you are not going to get the business. It is just as simple as that. Ivan: By the way, I agree completely. I like to tell members how many of you have ever gotten a haircut over the phone? It's one of those things where you have to be present for. I think referral marketing and building relationships is the same. The second one is was credibility. Talk about that. Cindy: In terms of credibility,

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 148. Note that the Ask Ivan Misner site is no longer live. Synopsis Dr. Misner posted his story about premature solicitation on some of his favorite social networks. Most people expressed their horror and sympathy, but one person actually wrote, "I don’t happen to believe that you need a relationship with the person you are asking first. What you must have is a compelling story or product or service that would genuinely benefit the referral. The fact that you had not cultivated a relationship with the person has become irrelevant, because more importantly, you’d been in a position to help your contact benefit from the introduction. If it’s of genuine benefit to the person being referred, I don’t see the problem. It’s about the benefit of what’s being referred rather than the relationship with the person that’s asking for the referral. Who am I to deny my contacts something good?” Everybody thinks they have a good product. How do you know whether you’re denying your contacts something good if you don’t know anything about this person or their product? Some people don’t get it even when you explain it to them. Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 148 - Priscilla: Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, which is a new Web site where you can ask Ivan any question you have ever had about networking. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: This week I’m in Austin, Texas. I’m doing some recording for a follow-up CDs to the BNI Networking Secrets. We’ve talked about Networking Secrets on these podcasts, and the del Fuego ladies, Sarah and Flynn, have come up with some great ideas for a follow-up CD. Everyone’s going to be seeing those soon. We’ll be recording them, and we’ll bring it up here on the podcast as soon as they’re ready. And that’s what I’m doing in Austin this week. Priscilla: That sounds great. I loved the last ones they did. Ivan: Thank you. Priscilla: So what’s your topic? What are you going to talk to us about? Ivan: Well, remember last week’s topic? I spoke about premature solicitation. Priscilla: Uh-huh. Ivan: It was about a situation where someone whom I never met, didn’t know asked me to introduce him and his product to a really important connection of mine. Well, I wrote that as a blog on NetworkingNowBlog.com, which is my blog. For those of you listening, if you haven’t gone to it, take a look at it, NetworkingNowBlog.com. And I shared what I posted up on the blog and a few other different venues, I shared what I talked about in the podcast last week and a few other different venues, including one of my favorite online social networks. And a great dialogue ensued when I posted this on one of the social networks, with most people sharing their horror stories and frustrations about people who pounce on them; you know, they just jump on them at networking meetings asking for business even though they’ve never met the person before. Well, every time I start to think that’s it’s an almost universal feeling of distaste for that approach to networking. I am brought back to reality by the minority of people who still think that this is actually a good networking technique, pouncing on somebody asking for business before you know them. To my astonishment, someone on the forum actually wrote – now, I am going to quote you their actual words. They’re totally serious with what I’m about to say. This is excerpted from a very long message on the forum. They said, and I quote, “I don’t happen to believe that you need a relationship with the person you are asking first.

Synopsis Sometimes we make networking harder than it really is, and then we’re not as successful. To become a great networker, it helps to learn from other people’s successes and mistakes. After an encounter with a Portuguese Man o’ War jellyfish, Dr. Misner was advised to apply vinegar and meat tenderizer to the spots. This solution seemed both too simple and too improbable, but everyone else he asked offered the same solution. By the time he was willing to apply it, he was having heart symptoms. When the EMTs came, what did they do? Applied meat tenderizer and vinegar. So how does this apply to networking? If you assume you know better than the people who have the experience, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes, and some of them will be painful. Don’t dismiss ideas just because they seem too simple. Learn from the people who have the experience. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 259 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. Doing great. I am still in Australia visiting BNI chapters. I love to visit BNI chapters and meet members. That's where I am last week and this week. Priscilla: Great. What do you have to share with us? Ivan: I have a different podcast. Normally, my podcasts are very specific with how-tos and maybe interviews with somebody about how to do something. But today, I have a story. The story really applies to why make all the mistakes? To become a great networker, you learn from other people's mistakes and successes. There really are tried and true networking techniques that are so simple that seem like they would just be ineffective. Many times, we try to evaluate them and improve upon them, complicate them- that's often called feature creep, where we add stuff to an idea that is already pretty good working. So there was an experience I had on this once while on vacation really kind of reminds me of how we try to make some things harder than they really are and we aren't as successful as we want to be in the process. I'll tell you the story and I'll give you the moral to the story as I wrap up. Quite a few years ago I was in Hawaii and was enjoying the ocean. Unbeknownst to me, the water was actually pretty thick with Portuguese man o war, which are highly poisonous. I felt this stinging sensation across my chest. I wiped my chest with my right wrist- that's important- my right wrist and arm. I lifted my arm up out of the water and I look at these tentacles that were dripping off of my arm. I followed them with my eyes and about 8 feet away from my body was this Portuguese man o war jellyfish that was huge. I was kind of alarmed. I shooed the tentacles off my wrist and I swam to shore as quickly as I could. I ran up to the first hotel employee that I could. It was some cabana boy who was serving drinks to people by the pool. I said, “Hey, I think I have been hit in the chest by a Portuguese man o war. What should I do?” He said, “Well, are you feeling any pressure in your chest?” I said, “No, no.” He saind, “Okay, here is what you need to do. Go to the market that is just off the lobby. Ask for some vinegar and meat tenderizer. You are going to want to spray the vinegar on your chest and then shake the meat tenderizer onto the same spot and rub it all around. And you'll be just fine.” I thought that was really bizarre advice. He was way too calm. I had just been hit by a Portuguese man o  war. He was way too calm and it seemed way too easy of a solution- and kind of goofy to be honest with you.