The Official BNI Podcast

Synopsis This week’s Ask Ivan question comes from Sue in British Columbia. What is a typical daily routine for a highly successful business person? The specific routine is different for everyone, but the thing that’s the same is that all successful people have a routine and follow it. The original source on this topic is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Here is Dr. Misner’s own routine (when he’s not traveling). * Get up around 7 AM. * Exercise for 30 minutes. * Meditate in the steam shower. * Eat breakfast. * Arrive at office at 9 AM and check email. * Focus the major portion of the day on writing. * Eat lunch * Block off time for interviews (including this podcast) and videos. * End the workday at 6 PM. * Sit on the balcony with my wife and drink a glass of wine. * Eat dinner. * Watch TV on the DVR. * If necessary, return to the home office at 8 PM. * Head to bed between 10 and 11. * Read for about 30 minutes before going to sleep. Do you have a question for Dr. Misner? Just fill out the Ask Ivan form at the bottom of this page. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 515 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: Hey, you know I’m in Austin again this week. I’m hunkered down with my coauthor, Brian Heller this week, wrapping up the details of the second edition of Networking Like A Pro which should be out early next year. Priscilla: Oh that’s a great book. I love that book. Ivan: Thanks! We’ve added a lot to it, it’s really exciting! Priscilla: Oh good! Ivan: We’re very pleased. So, today’s another ‘Ask Ivan’ question. I thought this was a really good question. It comes from Sue, in British Colombia. Sue asks, “what is it typical daily routine for a highly successful business person?” I think it’s a great question, and I really gave some thought into this question. Here’s the thing, it’s different for everyone. What is the same for everyone, is that they have routine and they follow it. A routine and they follow it- that’s the thing that is the same for everyone. So, I’m going to talk about my routine. Priscilla: Good! Ivan: Before I do that, let me give you one reading assignment that I think is a good context to start from and that is the most obvious book on this topic, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. I never had the chance to meet Stephen, but I did meet his son and I know his son well, Stephen M.R. Covey. I recommend Stephen Mr Covey’s book as well, “The Speed of Trust.” But “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” is a great place to start, Sue. Or anyone that wants to get a sense of a habit of an effective person. Sue, to answer your question directly, it definitely is different for everyone. But you got to have a routine and you got to follow it. So, let me tell you what my routine is. I don’t know if this is going to be a interest to people or not, but I’m often asked,

Synopsis Today’s Ask Ivan question comes from Raymond in South Africa. It seems that every time we get to just over 20 members, a few leave, and we have to rebuild, only to repeat the process later. I’m not sure if we have a programmed-in set point at 20, but I’m sure it could be a set point at 30. What can we do to break this cycle? The 100-member strong chapters in BNI India sound scary, but what can we learn from international experience? The largest chapter today is in Hong Kong, with 123 members, but you don’t have to be a hundred-member chapter to be an awesome chapter. If you want to create a different set point, do these four things. * Quality. Attitude is critical, but aptitude also matters. Make sure the members you accept are committed. * Growth. The number of referrals increases exponentially as your chapter grows. * Engagement. When you have new prospective members, tell them that attending member success training is a requirement. * Storytelling. You have to tell people your story in BNI and how it has worked for you. Most people get more referrals the longer they are part of a chapter. For more guidance on this topic, listen to Episode 469. Bonus Question Pep from Cambodia asks On the BNI CDs and SuccessNet, how do you get CEUs? When you read articles or listen to CDs, how do you get CEUs, and how many do you get? And how do you get Ivan’s books? It’s one CEU for reading SuccessNet or listening to the CD. You get 1 CEU for listening to for or 5 podcasts. (Earning a CEU takes 1 hour.) In most countries, you can get Ivan’s books on Amazon. If not, your local BNI director should have them, or you can get them on BNI.com. Do you have a question for Dr. Misner? Just fill out the Ask Ivan form at the bottom of this page. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 514 – Priscilla: This is part of the Ask Ivan series. If you have a question for Ivan, we have recreated a new link on the podcast web page. Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you ? Ivan: Hey. It is just after the Fourth of July holiday here in the United States, so I am home in Austin. Priscilla: That’s great. So what do you have to share with us today? Ivan: I have a question today from Raymond in South Africa. A lot of the questions that I am getting right now are very international. It’s great. He wants to know about breaking through the twenty-something barrier. That’s his topic as he described it. He said, “It seems that every time we get to just over 20 members, a few leave and we have to rebuild, only repeat the process later. I am not sure if we have a programmed in set point at 20 but I am sure there could be a set point at 30 or more. Is this common? What can we do to break this cycle? Although the 100-member strong chapters in BNI India sound scary, what can we learn from international experience?” Yeah, the 100-member chapters are amazing to me. I just found out today the largest chapter is in Hong Kong with 123 members. Priscilla: Oh my gosh. Do they have like 10 second infomercials or something? Ivan:

Synopsis This week’s Ask Ivan question comes from Kalyan in India: I’m the mentor coordinator for my chapter. I want to see a culture in my chapter where members watch each others’ backs for performance, where members push each other regularly, so each member feels cared for and wanted. I want a culture that transcends BNI policies and brings together togetherness and ownership. How do I do that? Creating a great chapter culture is a journey, not a destination. It won’t happen overnight. To create a truly great BNI chapter, your members need to embrace all of BNI’s Core Values: * Givers Gain * Building Relationships * Lifelong Learning * Traditions + Innovation * Positive Attitude * Accountability * Recognition Watch this series of short videos on BNI’s Core Values for more insight on how to create a great chapter culture Do you have a question for Dr. Misner? Fill out the Ask Ivan form at the bottom of this page. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 513 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla and I am pretty near Austin speaking at an event that is being run by Alex Mandosa. Alex is a good friend of mine and of BNI and I am speaking at his event. I am doing an Ask Ivan question, and as you mentioned in the introduction, we now have a contact section here on their podcast. If you have a question, send it in. I will be happy to answer as many as I can. I can’t answer everybody’s question, but I will answer as many as possible. Today’s question, and I am got probably going to get his name wrong here. Kalyan isn’t I believe how it is pronounced. He is from India. He says, “Hello, sir. I am a big fan of yours.” Thank you so much. I appreciate that. “I am the mentor coordinator of my chapter and my question is I want to see a culture in my chapter where members watch each other’s backs for performance, where members push each other regularly, where each member feels cared for and wanted. I want such a culture that transcends BNI policies and brings togetherness and ownership. How do I do that?” That’s a great question. I really appreciate that. So here is the answer. First of all creating culture in an organization that in international like BNI, all the way down to the chapter, creating culture in a chapter is a journey not a destination. You can’t get there overnight so be patient and here are the things that you want to do. First, I am going to have a link in this podcast to all the videos about core values, we have seven core values and I have an introduction video so there are eight different videos and they are short, they are all roughly five minutes. Each one of them will talk about the things that I am going to talk to you about right now. Remember that culture takes time. So if you want to have an awesome chapter, work towards living the core values of BNI. Of course we all know, I believe virtually every member knows the principle core value of BNI and that is the philosophy of givers gain. It is the idea that if I am here to help you, you will help me.

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 234. Synopsis A survey of 12,000 businesspeople that Dr. Misner conducted for his upcoming book, Business Networking and Sex (Not What You Think), showed that people who focused first on relationship and then on business scored much higher in success than those who focused first on business and then on the relationship. Also according to this survey, men are much more transactional than women are, which is why women are usually more successful at networking. This is part of why Dr. Misner created the GAINS Exchange: because he’s not good at being relational. And the reason Dr. Misner starts each episode by saying where he is that week is to show members that he takes meeting BNI members in different chapters seriously. Networking expert Susan RoAne reads the sports page every day in order to be able to start conversations with men—even though she hates sports. How many men read Cosmopolitan or Home and Garden in order to be able to talk to women? But if you make an effort to be more relational, it will pay off in your networking. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 234 – 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: Thanks, Priscilla. I am doing great and I am going to tell you where I am at the end of my podcast today because I want to talk a little bit about why I say where I am and why I think it’s important. I am going to connect that, believe it or not, to this topic. Transactional vs. relational. I recently got a message on this podcast from Michael. I won’t give his last name. You are going to love this one, Priscilla. This is an interesting one. He says, “You people are real blowhards. I don’t need to hear you people bloviate about your navel.” By the way, very good vocabulary, Michael. I am very impressed with your vocabulary. “ I don’t need to hear you bloviate. I know you think you’re important. I don’t give a care where you are, what you are doing or anything else about your life. All I need to know is the information, not how important you find yourself.” How do you feel about that, Priscilla? Priscilla: Oh wow. Ivan: If it’s any consolation, he is talking mostly about me. Priscilla: No, I think he is talking about us and our little banter back and forth. Ivan: That’s possibly true. First, I want to talk about why and then I want to come back to another email I got, interestingly enough, on the same day. That will take us to our topic of transactional versus relational. So why do I say where I am in the world? Let me tell you why. It’s done on purpose. I, for a long time, would have members send me emails and they would be really upset and talking about where are you and how come I haven’t met you? Where are you? Are you in your ivory tower in BNI? Are you on the beach drinking margaritas? No! I travel a lot. I think it’s really important to meet directors and meet members. It’s part of the job I love. I love traveling around and telling people how they can increase their business. So the reason I start off every podcast with where I am is to give people a sense of just how much I travel to regions and care about and want to connect with members around the world. Listen,

Synopsis Today’s Ask Ivan question comes from Christina, who works for a nonprofit organization in the United States. I was advised to reach out to you to get guidance on how to be more effective as a public charity in BNI. At first, I didn’t know where I fit because I don’t have a tangible product or service that would directly benefit others in the chapter. Could you please provide some guidance on how I can be more effective in using BNI to support our mission? Nonprofits can be very effective and very successful in BNI. Here are ten benefits of BNI membership for nonprofits. * Referrals to other companies doing charitable work to create strategic alliances. * Referrals to the charity’s thrift shop or other product or service (if there is one). * Invitations to special events. * Volunteers for special projects. * Referrals for possible board members. * Referrals for speaking engagements. * Don’t just look for donations. * Referrals for good employees. * Fine-tune your message. * Introductions to local leaders. Read Dr. Misner’s article about difficult-to-refer businesses on Entrepreneur.com. Add your own suggestions for how nonprofits can use BNI in the comments below. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 511 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you today? Ivan: I am in the New England area on business. I have a very interesting topic today. It is part of the Ask Ivan series. It is a question that was asked to me recently by Christina. Christina is with a nonprofit organization in the United States. Here is her question for me, “I have been with BNI for almost two years now and I was advised to reach out to you by multiple members to get guidance on how to be more effective as a public charity in BNI. At first, I din’t know where I fit because I didn’t have a tangible product or service that would directly benefit the others in the chapter. Could you please provide some guidance on how I can be more effective in using BNI as part of our mission?” Christina does work with community outreach, community services, family services. You know, the title of this is, “Do Nonprofits Work in BNI?” so the short answer to the title is absolutely, positively. Nonprofits can be very effective and very successful in BNI, but that doesn’t answer Christina’s question. Let me give you some suggestions, Christina, and for everyone out there who is in a nonprofit organization, take notes. Listen to this and if you have ideas that I don’t come up with, please post them here on my podcast of some things that have worked for you. So I gave it some thought. I knew that nonprofits could work extremely well in BNI. I game some thought to it, but I asked our resident expert and my personal resident expert on charitable work and foundations is my wife. But what is really interesting and what a lot of people don’t know is Elizabeth joined BNI in 1986, so she has been in BNI for a long, long time. She had many roles within the company as the Director of Marketing- she was the regional director of the largest region for BNI at one time,

Synopsis Education is a leaky bucket. You start out with a full bucket of information, but when you train someone else, some of that information leaks out. When they train someone, more information leaks out. By the time you’ve gone through two or three generations, you only have half a bucket. When the bucket is half-empty, people put their own information in–and it might not be good information. You need to plug the leaks. The best solution is to write everything down and develop a train-the-trainer program. Making training part of a replicable system is the best way to fill leaks. Never accept anyone onto your chapter’s leadership team who isn’t willing to go to the training. BNI has spent a lot of time making sure that the leadership team gets a good orientation. Without this training, members won’t understand why all the parts of the BNI system are important. If you keep this in mind as you train employees, your business is much more likely to be scalable. If you think there might be some leaks in your chapter, listening to this podcast is one way to help fill them. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 510 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you today? Ivan: I am doing great today, Priscilla, and I have an interesting topic for me. It is a concept that I have really discovered and developed many years ago. It is called the leaky bucket syndrome. It is about education and teaching lifelong learning. All of these things, teaching end education- it’s a leaky bucket process. You start with a whole bucket of information that you develop or acquire and then when you train someone else in how to do something, a little bit of that information leaked out. When they train someone else, when that information is taught to someone else, some of that information leaks out. The people being taught only get a limited version of the information based on their understanding and their ability to articulate the material so that by the time you are in the third or fourth generation of people passing along information, you only have about half a bucket of information remaining. You have lost half the information, and there is a sense that something is missing. When that happens, what do people do? Well, they start putting in their own stuff. They start adding stuff because so early something is missing. The problem is it might not be good content. Very rarely does the material improve over time with this process. Now, I learned this the hard way in BNI because when I started BNI, there really was no train the trainer – there was no training program per se other than I trained the first generation of leadership team people how to run a meeting. I just explained then, “Take good notes and then you train the next generation and then that generation will train the next generation. ” I think I talked about this with you on a podcast some time ago. I remember going to a BNI meeting. I watched the whole meeting and I would have had no idea it was a BNI meeting. I mean, they just changed so much stuff. I looked at it and the only reason I knew it was BNI was they were all wearing BNI badges and they kept calling me the Founder. Really, it was like is this BNI? What is this? That’s when I realized that I can’t do that. The leaky bucket is a crazy thing.

Synopsis Today’s Ask Ivan question comes from Serena in the USA. My chapter does not do visitor orientations at all. We haven’t done it since we chartered several years ago. Our members chose not to take visitors out of the room before the announcements, feeling that it would bring down the energy level, and we used to have 4 to 5 visitors a week. Now the VP and membership committee talk to the visitors at the end of the meeting and ask whether they would like help filling it in. Visitor orientation was started by a BNI chapter; Dr. Misner discovered it when he visited this chapter in the 1980s. The chapter president gave Dr. Misner the job description for the visitor host, and the description of the visitor host in the BNI handbook today is based on that description. You won’t get the same performance out of a BNI chapter if you don’t follow the tried and true agenda set out for you. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Visitor orientations have been proven to work since the mid-1980s. They’re important because visitors don’t know what BNI is about or how it works. If you find your chapter is neglecting an important part of the BNI agenda ask your director for a referral to a chapter that’s doing that thing really well. Visit their chapter and see how they do it. Ask your director for help implementing it. There are systems and processes for everything that BNI asks chapters to do. Don’t forget to listen to Episode 503, Making People Feel Welcome in BNI. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 509 – Priscilla: Episode 509. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel, which is part of the Ask Ivan series. If you would like to ask Ivan a question, go to AskIvan@bni.com. Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you today? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla, thank you very much. I have kind of an interesting topic. I have a question that I had to go put my blood pressure cuff on after I read the question. You know, did a little meditation and thought it through. I have, I think, a better Asher than I would have had when I first read the question. The question comes from Serena in the United States. This is what she asked. She says, “My chapter does not do visitor orientations at all.” This is where the blood pressure cuff came in. “We haven’t done it at all since we chartered several years ago. Members chose not to take visitors out of the room before announcements, feeling that it would bring down the energy level. We used to have 4-5 visitors a week,” which I think is interesting wording, used to have. “Now the VP and Visitor Host go and talk to visitors at the end of the meeting to ask whether they would like an application and like any help filling that in.” I do know for a fact that she was interested in doing visitor orientation, but she just wanted my feedback on this. So I don;t want to throw Serena totally under the bus. She asked me about this. So what I thought I would do today is tell a little story about how visitor hosts and visitor orientation started. It was actually in the mid-1980’s, several years after I started BNI. I might have the exact date in the book Givers Gain, but it would be in the mid-80’s.

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 111. Synopsis This is a follow-up to last week’s episode about asking for testimonials. There are three keys to using written testimonials successfully. * Ask for written testimonials at every opportunity—but not too soon! * Guide the content of your testimonials. The easier you make it for your client, the more likely you are to get what you need. * Update your testimonials. Review your file or binder (or website) every two to three years at least. Discard anything from a company that’s no longer in business. Feel free to ask ongoing clients to update their testimonials if it’s appropriate. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 508 – 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 Berkeley, 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’m doing great, Priscilla. Thank you. Priscilla: Great. So what are you going to share with us today? Ivan: Well, today I’m going to talk about three keys to using testimonials, which is follow-up to last week’s podcast on Asking for Written Testimonials. And the question really is: How to you use those testimonials when you have them? So that’s what I want to talk about today. We know what a powerful tool testimonials can be when it comes to building credibility and generating new business. I talk about that in last week’s podcast, but it’s also very important to know how to successfully use testimonials and how to ask for them. And there are three keys to successfully using written testimonials that I would like to talk about today. One is that you ask for testimonials at every opportunity. Whenever you have the chance, I think it’s really important to ask for those testimonials. Second is to guide the content of your testimonials. Don’t necessarily write them, but guide the content, help to coach and guide the direction that the testimonials go. And three is to update your testimonials. So at what point in the sales cycle should you ask clients or your fellow members of BNI or other contacts for testimonials? This is kind of a tricky question, but in general, ask for no testimonial before it’s time. You want to make sure that you are at credibility with somebody before you’re asking for an endorsement or a testimonial. Now, this is probably before or after the completion of a sale or a project, but depending on the type of client that you have, your product, or service, it’s after you’ve established a good relationship that you’re going to want to ask for that endorsement or for that testimonial. So let’s say, for argument’s sake, that that’s one month before a finishing major with some client or after the completion of the project. You want to call your client to ask how things are going before it’s over. If the client tells you that they’re really happy with the results and that their business is better because of the products or services, that’s the point that your testimonial detector should be pinging loudly; it’s the right time to make your pitch; it’s the right time to start to talk to the client about the endorsement. It would be good to say to them, “It would be a great thing for other people to know about what I do. Would you be willing, when I’m completed with the project, to do an endorsement or testimonial on your company letterhead by the end of the project?” If they’re happy,

Synopsis One of the reasons for Dr. Misner’s success is his persistence. Like a dog with a bone, he never gives up. While you do need to let things go sometimes, determination gets you a long way in business. The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret went through 44 rejections before Dr. Misner found a publisher. It’s now been through four editions and sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide. Excellence is not a single act. It’s a habit. If you want to be successful, think things through and then act on that like a dog with a bone. Often times, the more successful you are, the more failures you’ve had. If you believe in your objective, keep going. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 507 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: I am in Charlotte, North Carolina this week for the the U.S. Conference. That is where BNI Headquarters has moved to. Although I live in Austin, our global headquarters has moved to Charlotte. That is where we are doing our conference. I am meeting lots of members and Directors from all over the U.S. Priscilla: That sounds a really good and interesting. Ivan: Yeah. The conferences are always fun. They are really good. Priscilla: So are you a dog with a bone? Ivan: I am absolutely a dog with a bone. This is part of kind of what I call the “Ivanisms Series.” I have been doing videos, a couple that I call Ivanisms. This is one of them. I am thinking about doing a book with all of these phrases and why they have worked for me. So I am absolutely a dog with a bone. The lesson here is I never give up. Be like a dog with a bone. I have built a global company that operates in more than 70 countries. One of the reasons for my success is my persistence, tenacity and doggedness in dealing with challenges. Priscilla, I can tell you I may not be the smartest man in a room or I may not be the most talented man in a room, but I am almost always the most determined man in a room. As part of a commencement speech, Winston Churchill is believed to have once said, “Never, never, never ever give up.” I love this quote. Now, to be honest, though, the left side of my brain says when it comes to business, that is just not logical and people need to know when the time has come to give up. Fortunately, my right brain generally wins the battle on this issue. You see, I may not, as I say, be the smartest guy in a room, but that determinedness, that doggedness has served me well in business. So as long as you can kind of get a sense of when it is time to let something go. There are things that I have let go, but when I feel certain, when I have great information and feel confident in my vision and my goals, then I am a dog with a bone in my focus in not giving up. So here is an example: In 1992, I completed the manuscript for The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret. 1992. The book came out in 1994. Over an 18 month period, I sent my manuscript out to 45 publishers all over North America. Out of the 45 publishers, I received 44 rejections to my submission. Priscilla: Oh no. Ivan: I swear. I know this number for a fact because this summer w...

Synopsis Tiffanie Kellog joins Dr. Misner on the podcast today to talk about a different kind of referral: referrals to referral sources in your contact sphere. People in your contact sphere serve the same clients you do, but are not competitors. These are the people most likely to be able to pass you quality referrals. A referral to a contact sphere relationship can be more valuable than a referral to a single prospect over time. Once you go through the VCP process with this new person, s/he will introduce you to many qualified prospects. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 506 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, featuring Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: I am in Austria. Vienna, Austria this week at a BNI German-speaking conference. I have been here in Germany and Austria many times. They have some amazing members and Directors here, so I am really excited to be back. Priscilla: That sounds great. Ivan: So, today Priscilla, we have a guest someone who, I think we can say it’s official. She has been a guest on the BNI podcast more than any guest ever. That is Tiffanie Kellog. Tiffanie is a trainer with Ascentive in Tampla, Florida. She is a speaker and an author. She has done two books: The Four and a Half Networking Mistakes. I absolutely love that title. And Tiffanie has been on my podcast talking about that book, so if you are intrigued by that title, type “four and a half” in the BNI Podcast search engine and you can see my interview. She is also the author of a book called Knock the Socks Off Your Audience. That is s title that is really meaningful because Tiffanie has more crazy colored socks than anybody I know. That is sort of your thing, isn’t it, Tiffanie? Colored socks and – ? Tiffanie: Yeah. The crazier and more colorful the better. Ivan: So I don’t know if we talked about this last time. I think we did off-air. I don’t know what got into me but I had seen all these socks that she always has and I took a photograph of my sock drawer, which you have to understand is like all black socks with just one white sock. I sent it to Tiffanie and then after I sent it, I thought, this is actually kind of creepy of me to be sending her a picture of my black socks. But Tiffanie, thank you, you didn’t take it wrong. Tiffanie: No, I love pictures of socks. Anytime people see socks, sending me photos is totally fine. Ivan: Well good. Listen, it is great having you on again and we are going to talk about a topic that I don’t think we have ever talked about. I don’t think I have ever talked about it on any of my- we have never talked about it on the podcast and I have never talked about it in my presentation. That is really an interesting perspective on referrals. First question: are there other things you can have as a referral other than a referral to a specific prospect? I know the answer is yes. Explain it. Tiffanie: Yeah, so we are so used to in BNI “Here is the client I am looking for. Here is the prospect that I am looking for.” I think that is powerful, though we are missing an opportunity because for most people, we have gaps in our network for professionals that if we can meet more of a certain profession,...

Synopsis Nate Dominguez from BNI Arizona joins Dr. Misner to share 5 things you need to hold a great Visitors Day in your BNI chapter. * Prepare (or at least pretend like you did). If you’re not able to prepare as well as you’d like, don’t apologize or express disappointment. The visitors won’t know what you meant to do and didn’t. * Everybody has to do a little heavy lifting. The most successful Visitors Days are the ones where everyone in the chapter contributes. TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More. * Arrive early and stay late. The times before and after the meeting are great opportunities to make connections with the visitors. Stick around and answer questions. * Make 3-5 connections. It’s okay if you don’t meet every visitor, as long as you make good connections with a few. Dig deep and develop the relationship. Visitors can bring you business even when they don’t join your chapter. * Have fun. BNI members are good at having fun at their regular meetings. Make sure that you also have fun on Visitors Days. It helps to show them what BNI is really like. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 505 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, featuring Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you? Ivan: I am doing fantastic, Priscilla. I am actually in Austin. I am at him this week. I do have a guest. My guest is Nate Dominguez. Nate is in Phoenix, Arizona. Nate has been an Executive Director for a pretty long time now and has been involved in BNI since, well, since he was very, very young. He is the son of Norm Dominguez who was the first Executive Director in Phoenix, Arizona and the first CEO after me for BNI. Nate has been, what Nate? 10, 15 years in BNI? Nate: Next month marks 13. Ivan: 13. See, I was pretty close. I danced around it. 13 as a Director. Nate: As an Executive Director. Ivan: As an Executive Director. And how long were you involved in BNI prior to that? Nate: I first became an Area Director back when that was a popular position back in 1998 at the ripe old age of 18, but truth be told, I only lasted a year before going away to college. Ivan: Okay. You got your degree. Where did you go? Nate: I went to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. The pine trees we do have here in Arizona just a few hours north of Phoenix. I got my degree in Business Marekting. I would have chosen Business Networking had they had such a thing. I thought Business Marketing was close enough and a minor in Communication. Ivan: That’s awesome. And as I recall, you never thought that you would go into the family business, per se, but we are really glad you did, Nate. Nate runs a fantastic region of BNI and we are going to be talking about Visitor’s Day today. I think it is a really important topic and Nate has done a lot of Visitors Days and has a very successful region. There are five really important things that we are going to be talking about today, so if you are listening to this podcast,

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 46. Synopsis In this episode, Dr. Misner talks about strategic alliances and the need to gradually enhance relationships. Each member of a BNI group will contribute to your success. No one person in your chapter is likely to turn your business around, but together, over a long time, they can make a difference. * Don’t give up if there’s no immediate payoff. * Successful networking is a series of small actions. * By working with multiple people over a long period of time, you build your business. Sponsored by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 046 – Priscilla Rice: Hello everybody 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 and I’m coming from Live Oak Recording Studio which is in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. How are you, Ivan? Ivan Misner: I’m doing great, Priscilla, and I am talking to you from BNI headquarters in southern California. Priscilla: That’s nice. Is it raining there today? Ivan: It is but it’s usually beautiful and sunny here. Priscilla: Well, tell us what you are going to talk about today, Ivan. Ivan: I am going to talk about strategic alliances and how a series of small actions over time can really yield big results. I was recently speaking to a friend of mine who’s a partner in an international consulting and training company. In a conversation we discovered we had a mutual acquaintance who’s a best-selling author and fairly well known speaker, this mutual acquaintance of ours. In our discussion, we found out that he had contacted each of us individually to see if there were any possibilities of some sort of strategic alliance with our companies. We were both open to that possibility, but we really couldn’t see any immediate or dramatic ways that our companies could link up with this guy at that particular moment for any specific projects. We were both kind of amused in talking to each other. We discovered and figured out that there was no big deal that we could do right then and there, and we were pretty much dropped from his radar. There was no response to e-mails or any other attempts to connect from him after that. They were subtle things. We would send an e-mail and it would take months practically to get any kind of response. We got the sense that he was looking for one big alliance that would help his company just soar to the next level. That realization started a conversation with him and I, this consultant, that night about the difference in the relationship between the two of us and this third-party who wanted to have a connection with us. Ironically, we had the same type of phone call. This consultant and I had the same kind of phone call 18 months earlier. We came to the same conclusion that there was nothing on a grand scale that we could do together at that moment. But the difference was the rest of the story. He and I agreed to stay in touch and we did. We connected several times over the year. We met in person on several occasions. During that time, we found some really simple ways that we can help each other. We gradually enhanced the relationship. This is a sharp contrast to the third party that we had talked to individually. When this person didn’t see any big payoff, we became kind of persona nongrata to him. The other reason is that the two of us found ways to help each other gradually,

Synopsis This week’s Ask Ivan question came in from a BNI member in India. One thing that hasn’t been translated throughout the system is that people still aren’t as welcoming as they could or should be in a chapter. I’m personally an extrovert, so I work my way around it, but I see many new members find it difficult when they go to a chapter. One reason people might not feel welcome is that the members of a chapter have such tight relationships that they seem cliquish. They stand in closed rather than open groups, making it hard to go up and talk to them. If you are a new member and you don’t feel like people are reaching out, ask someone in the chapter to re-introduce you around.  Making visitors and new members feel welcome makes a big difference to their experience of BNI. A person who doesn’t feel welcome won’t join. Don’t leave it up to the visitor host. Introduce yourself to new members, and introduce the new member to other people in the chapter. Priscilla invites you to visit her chapter, BNI Connect2Success in Berkeley, California. She promises you’ll feel welcome. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 503 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, featuring Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: BNI Connect.Fantastic visit. Thank you to- I was in both South Korea and India over the last few weeks and my thanks go to amazing places for BNI. Priscilla: That’s great. Ivan: Todays’ topic is part of the Ask Ivan series, and I thought it would be perfect timing to share on of the questions that came in to AskIvan@bni.com. It came from somebody in India. Arush from Bangalore, India said, “I am a new member. I have a lot to thank BNI for.” He went on to describe how he has traveled to certain countries including Singapore and made some great connections there. He met these people through BNI. Here is his question. He says that one thing that hasn’t translated throughout the system is that people still aren’t as welcoming as they could or should be in a chapter. He says, “I am personally an extrovert, so I kind of work my way around it, but I see many other new members that find it difficult when they go to a chapter.” Arush, I appreciate your question and I agree with it. I think it’s important to have a discussion about this topic. I am glad that you brought it up. You know, I mentioned last week that I was going to touch upon this in this week’s podcast and that is one of the reasons why I started BNI. In 1985 in Juanary, so it was really in 84 and 84 I was going around to a lot of different networking groups. I was a member of different types of networking organizations. I went to some that were really mercenary. They were just mercenary. It was very transactional. It was all about the business. There was no relationship. It was as I mentioned in the last couple of podcasts and the last one, the five least important steps in being a great networking. They were very direct, very sales oriented, very promotional. For me, it didn’t sit well and it was certainly not what I was looking for in a networking organization. It was too transactional.

Synopsis Last week Dr. Misner talked about the top seven characteristics of a great networker. This week he’s sharing the five least important skills for networking according to that same survey of 3400 business people. Knowing what not to do can be as important as knowing what to do. Many people think you need to be an extrovert to be a good networker, but that’s not what the survey says. Here are five least important skills for networking. You don’t need to be * Fearless * A salesperson * A self-promoter * Direct * Social media savvy That’s right: social media skills are not an indicator of great networking ability. The under-30 crowd ranked social media savvy second-to-last instead of last. It’s also clear from these results that great networkers and great salespeople have different skill sets. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 502 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, featuring Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: Hey, so this week, I am in India. I spent some time in Bangalore, India, where the BNI Foundation and the Misner Family Foundation have supported the Bluebells School, which is a school in Bangalore. An amazing, amazing school. They do incredible things. We have actually even helped them build an entire floor on their school, on their building to help them serve more children. Priscilla: That’s so great. Ivan: That’s in Bangalore. This week, I am in Mumbai. This is my second visit to India and the incredible chapters here. There are a number of chapters, over 100, if you can believe that. It is just amazing. So I am excited to be back in India. I look forward to coming back again. We have many, many listeners to the BNI Podcast here. This week, we are going to be talking about the five least important skills to be a great networker. In last weeks’s podcast, I talked about the seven ways to better networking. That and this are based on a survey I conducted of almost 3400 people around the world. In the survey, I asked participants -this was open to the general public, by the way, not just BNI members. I asked participants from all over the world what they thought the top characteristics of being a great networker were. So if you didn’t listen to last week’s podcast, go there and take a peek at it and listen to it. You’ll get the top seven skills. This is out of about 20. This week, I want to talk about the least important skill because I think knowing what not to do is as important as what to do in developing a certain skill set. So in this podcast, I am going to walk you through the five least important skills to be great at networking. Over the last 30 years, I have found that most people assume that being an extrovert is an advantage in networking. But let’s take a good look at the bottom five characteristics. Four out of the five least important skills to be a great networker had something to do with being outspoken or bold – characteristics more aligned with being an extrovert than an introvert. Really, this surprises me a little bit, that four out of five would be there. The top seven characteristics also focused on relationship building themes,

Synopsis What does the average person think it takes to be a better networker? Dr. Misner recently surveyed 3400 business people about the top behaviors they’d like to see in a great networker. Here are the top 7 results, in reverse order. Characteristics of a great networker * Approachable * Trustworthy * Follows Up * Sincere / authentic * Helps others / collaborative * Positive attitude * Good Listener All of this ties in with the idea that networking is more like farming than like hunting. Networking skills are really important. Working to improve them is even more important. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Epidsode 501 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. You know, for this being the 501st podcast, it’s kind of cool that I am actually in a different country this year. I am in Seoul, South Korea. This is my first visit to South Korea. I am really, really excited to be here and meet all of the many, many members we have throughout the country. So happy 501st podcast from Seoul, South Korea. Priscilla: Thank you very much. We are moving towards the 1000th podcast. Ivan: A few years to go, but yes, that is what I certainly hope we can achieve. So today’s topic is seven ways to better networking. You know, a lot of people offer advice on what it takes to be good at networking, myself amongst them. I mean, certainly, that is what I do, help people and teach them how to network more effectively. One thing that I think has been left out of the equation is what does the average person think about what it takes to be a better networker? You know networking involves interacting with others. So what do those others think that it takes to be great at the skill? I think this is important that we all be cognizant of other people’s expectations and adjust our behavior accordingly if we want to make the kind of impression that will work to build a powerful personal network. Recently, I took the opportunity to gather almost 3400 survey responses from business people all around the world. I gave them roughly 20 different characteristics on networking. I asked them to pick the top behaviors that they would like to see Ina great networker. From those responses, I identified the top seven characteristics of what people believe makes a great networker. Here are those top seven characteristics, from number seven first. I will go backwards to the number one characteristic. Priscilla: Okay. Ivan: Number seven from almost 20 different characteristics was being approachable. Being approachable. One respondent said that people will forget what you said and what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel. Effective networking starts with approachability. Everything else that I am about to describe follows from this and from that person’s perspective, everything else that they identify as being important follows from being approachable. Number six skill based on the survey of 3400 people was being trustworthy. One respondent said it best when she said, “It doesn’t matter how successful the person is. If I don’t trust them, I don’t work with them.” When you refer someone,