The Official BNI Podcast

Synopsis This week The Official BNI Podcast celebrates 500 episodes and almost 10 years of podcasting. The podcast allows Dr. Misner to talk directly to BNI members and enables BNI members to talk directly with Dr. Misner through the comments This week’s Ask Ivan question comes from Alberto, a BNI member in Italy. There are people I’ve provided with good referrals, and they got good business from those referrals. I’ve never received referrals back from them. I’m going to ask them for more of a commitment on giving me referrals. Do I have to provide them with additional referrals, or not? If you’re giving someone a lot of referrals and you’re not getting any in return, sit down with the person and walk through all the business you’ve given them in a way that shows you care about their success. Ask them how each and every referral worked out. Make sure that the referrals you gave were as good as you think they were. If the referrals didn’t turn out as well as you thought they did, ask how you can improve in giving them quality referrals. (It’s a good question to ask even if the referrals did work out well.) If (and only if) the referrals benefited the person, tell them how glad you are that you were able to help them, because that’s what BNI is about: supporting one another and giving each other referrals. Then remind them that sending business your way would be really helpful to you. Ask them if they have a few minutes now to talk about how they can reciprocate. If there’s someone who just refuses to give you business, you might not want to refer them. But that’s rarely the case, and effective networking is relational, not transactional. When you give referrals, they will come back to you–but not always from the person you gave the referral to. Share your own experiences with reciprocal referrals in the comments. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 500 – 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, and could this possibly be our 500th podcast? Ivan: This is out 500th podcast, Priscilla. You have been with me almost since the very beginning. I think you came onboard on podcast number 32. Is that right? Priscilla: That’s true, Ivan. Ivan: So almost 500 podcasts since this started. Thank you so much for everything that you have done over all of these years. I think you have produced a great podcast. Every Wednesday for 10 years. We started in April of 2007, so it is almost exactly 10 years that I have been doing this podcast. You came onboard with me on that very first year, so thank you, Priscilla. Priscilla: You are welcome and thank you, Ivan, because you are a very consistent person, and it builds for all of us and creates information that helps us grow. It wouldn’t happen unless you were so consistent. Ivan: Thank you. I appreciate that. We are completely off script here but it’s funny you say that because I often tell people that everybody has some strengths that really help them in business. I tell people I may not be the smartest guy in the room. I may not be the most successful guy in the room, but I am almost always the most persistent guy in the room. I am just like a dog with a bone. I hang on to a good idea and work it, work it and work it. I think the BNIpodcast.

This entry is part of 15 in the series Ask IvanSynopsis This week The Official BNI Podcast celebrates 500 episodes and almost 10 years of podcasting. The podcast allows Dr. Misner to talk directly to BNI members and enables BNI members to talk directly with Dr. Misner through the comments This week’s Ask Ivan question comes from Alberto, a BNI member in Italy. There are people I’ve provided with good referrals, and they got good business from those referrals. I’ve never received referrals back from them. I’m going to ask them for more of a commitment on giving me referrals. Do I have to provide them with additional referrals, or not? If you’re giving someone a lot of referrals and you’re not getting any in return, sit down with the person and walk through all the business you’ve given them in a way that shows you care about their success. Ask them how each and every referral worked out. Make sure that the referrals you gave were as good as you think they were. If the referrals didn’t turn out as well as you thought they did, ask how you can improve in giving them quality referrals. (It’s a good question to ask even if the referrals did work out well.) If (and only if) the referrals benefited the person, tell them how glad you are that you were able to help them, because that’s what BNI is about: supporting one another and giving each other referrals. Then remind them that sending business your way would be really helpful to you. Ask them if they have a few minutes now to talk about how they can reciprocate. If there’s someone who just refuses to give you business, you might not want to refer them. But that’s rarely the case, and effective networking is relational, not transactional. When you give referrals, they will come back to you–but not always from the person you gave the referral to. Share your own experiences with reciprocal referrals in the comments. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 500 – 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, and could this possibly be our 500th podcast? Ivan: This is out 500th podcast, Priscilla. You have been with me almost since the very beginning. I think you came onboard on podcast number 32. Is that right? Priscilla: That’s true, Ivan. Ivan: So almost 500 podcasts since this started. Thank you so much for everything that you have done over all of these years. I think you have produced a great podcast. Every Wednesday for 10 years. We started in April of 2007, so it is almost exactly 10 years that I have been doing this podcast. You came onboard with me on that very first year, so thank you, Priscilla. Priscilla: You are welcome and thank you, Ivan, because you are a very consistent person, and it builds for all of us and creates information that helps us grow. It wouldn’t happen unless you were so consistent. Ivan: Thank you. I appreciate that. We are completely off script here but it’s funny you say that because I often tell people that everybody has some strengths that really help them in business. I tell people I may not be the smartest guy in the room. I may not be the most successful guy in the room, but I am almost always the most persistent guy in the r...

This is a rebroadcast of episode 374. Synopsis This week Dr. Misner shares one of the biggest weeks ever in BNI, from the BNI Professionals of Bellaire chapter in the BNI Houston West region. This chapter passed $1,132,087 in closed business in one week! Director Consultant Louis Sokol explains that this was accomplished through strong but small power teams in constant communication. Four members of their group are commercial trade members and $1 million of the business listed above was commercial business, but this was not just one big sale. What increases referral power is increasing interaction between members. If you belong to BNI Professionals of Bellaire, we’d love to have you share your experience of generating so much closed business in a week. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 374 – 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 actually in Austin, Texas this week, talking to you from my place in Austin. I have an amazing story, just an amazing story that was shared with me by Louis Sokol, a Director Consultant in the BNI Houston West region. It is about a chapter that passed 1.1 million dollars in business, in closed business in one single week. Priscilla: Wow. That is impressive. Ivan: It is the BNI professionals of Bellaire Chapter of BNI Houston. A big shout out to them. I don’t know. Maybe we have had something bigger than this, but if we have, I don’t know about it. It was one of the biggest weeks I have ever seen for a chapter. I am really truly impressed with them. I thought I would share with you what Louis shared in terms of how they did that because I think it’s a great story. By the way, he starts off- he published this press release BNI news brief at BNI.com. His comments start with the exact number as verified by the chapter vice president was $1,132,087 in thank you for closed business in a single week again by the BNI professionals of the Bellaire Chapter, which is a chapter that is about six years old in the Houston area. He talks about the fact that they did this with small strong power teams. I think this is so important to understand, that chapters with really strong power teams really have an opportunity to generate a lot of business. Maybe not a million in one week, but they really can focus their efforts. He shared that the chapter was reasonably small a couple years ago and they understood that they had a lot of opportunity for growth and they started the growth process in their chapter with a real simple exercise. Each of them looked around and were asked what one or two people were missing from this group who would make [them] incredibly successful if they knew they could refer [them]? So you ask yourself, “Who is missing who could refer me that would make me more successful?” That is where they began in this process. The bottom line is that they answered that question and then found those people when the new leadership team took over in 2013, they put a similar question out again: Who do you need to add to the chapter to get the most value out of it? Then they encouraged each person to have a minimum of...

This is a rebroadcast of episode 374. Synopsis This week Dr. Misner shares one of the biggest weeks ever in BNI, from the BNI Professionals of Bellaire chapter in the BNI Houston West region. This chapter passed $1,132,087 in closed business in one week! Director Consultant Louis Sokol explains that this was accomplished through strong but small power teams in constant communication. Four members of their group are commercial trade members and $1 million of the business listed above was commercial business, but this was not just one big sale. What increases referral power is increasing interaction between members. If you belong to BNI Professionals of Bellaire, we’d love to have you share your experience of generating so much closed business in a week. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 374 – 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 actually in Austin, Texas this week, talking to you from my place in Austin. I have an amazing story, just an amazing story that was shared with me by Louis Sokol, a Director Consultant in the BNI Houston West region. It is about a chapter that passed 1.1 million dollars in business, in closed business in one single week. Priscilla: Wow. That is impressive. Ivan: It is the BNI professionals of Bellaire Chapter of BNI Houston. A big shout out to them. I don’t know. Maybe we have had something bigger than this, but if we have, I don’t know about it. It was one of the biggest weeks I have ever seen for a chapter. I am really truly impressed with them. I thought I would share with you what Louis shared in terms of how they did that because I think it’s a great story. By the way, he starts off- he published this press release BNI news brief at BNI.com. His comments start with the exact number as verified by the chapter vice president was $1,132,087 in thank you for closed business in a single week again by the BNI professionals of the Bellaire Chapter, which is a chapter that is about six years old in the Houston area. He talks about the fact that they did this with small strong power teams. I think this is so important to understand, that chapters with really strong power teams really have an opportunity to generate a lot of business. Maybe not a million in one week, but they really can focus their efforts. He shared that the chapter was reasonably small a couple years ago and they understood that they had a lot of opportunity for growth and they started the growth process in their chapter with a real simple exercise. Each of them looked around and were asked what one or two people were missing from this group who would make [them] incredibly successful if they knew they could refer [them]? So you ask yourself, “Who is missing who could refer me that would make me more successful?” That is where they began in this process. The bottom line is that they answered that question and then found those people when the new leadership team took over in 2013, they put a similar question out again: Who do you need to add to the chapter to get the most value out of it? Then they encouraged each person to have a minimum of...

Synopsis Memory hooks don’t work the way people think they do. They were never meant to be used with people who already know what you do. That means they’re great for visitors days or meeting new people, but not a good part of your weekly 60-second presentation for your BNI chapter. If you’re not supposed to be using memory hooks every week, what should you do in your 60-second introduction? Develop a curriculum for each week’s meeting weeks or months in advance. Take a week-by-week approach to what you’re going to teach your fellow BNI members in your weekly presentation. It’s more important to educate people about how to refer you than to get them to remember your memory hook. Listen to Episode 182 for an example of a 60-second presentation that’s memorable for its educational value. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 498 – 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? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla. I know you have a question to ask me, but before we jump into that, I just wanted to point out to everyone that we do have a new sponsor on the podcast. That is the Networking for Success channel. I mentioned it on a pervious podcast. If you have a chance, click on the link that is here on the podcast and in a banner ad. There are some fantastic videos up there on YouTube. This is a channel that is sponsored by Entrepreneur.com. It is a lot of my content, a lot of other people’s content. You will find a lot of content there, all for free, that will help you be better as a member in BNI. So, Priscilla, you have a question. Priscilla: I do. So, Ivan, do memory hooks really work? Ivan: So here is the short answer: No. Not in the way that they are being used in BNI for the most part. Yes, there are some times when a memory hook can work effectively but generally speaking, sadly they don’t work like people think they will. It has been over three decades since I founded BNI and people are still asking how to do a great weekly presentation. One of the first things that I say to people that actually surprises them is I say that I wish people would stop focusing on memory hooks. I know that they are a staple of many, many chapters, but in my opinion, we spend way too much time making sure that members end with a memory hook every time that they give their weekly presentation. When I first wrote about memory hooks in 1987 – so I first wrote about them 30 years ago and then in the end of my book, The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret, it was never meant to be used – now this is really important – it was never meant to be used with people who already know what business you are in or people who know you. Memory hooks were created for people who do not know each other so that when you introduce your business to a group of people, a memory hook makes sure that those people remember who you are and what you do. That being said, memory hooks are good for use on a visitor’s day. When you have a lot of people in a room who don’t know who you are and what you do, a memory hook can be very effective,

Synopsis Memory hooks don’t work the way people think they do. They were never meant to be used with people who already know what you do. That means they’re great for visitors days or meeting new people, but not a good part of your weekly 60-second presentation for your BNI chapter. If you’re not supposed to be using memory hooks every week, what should you do in your 60-second introduction? Develop a curriculum for each week’s meeting weeks or months in advance. Take a week-by-week approach to what you’re going to teach your fellow BNI members in your weekly presentation. It’s more important to educate people about how to refer you than to get them to remember your memory hook. Listen to Episode 182 for an example of a 60-second presentation that’s memorable for its educational value. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 498 – 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? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla. I know you have a question to ask me, but before we jump into that, I just wanted to point out to everyone that we do have a new sponsor on the podcast. That is the Networking for Success channel. I mentioned it on a pervious podcast. If you have a chance, click on the link that is here on the podcast and in a banner ad. There are some fantastic videos up there on YouTube. This is a channel that is sponsored by Entrepreneur.com. It is a lot of my content, a lot of other people’s content. You will find a lot of content there, all for free, that will help you be better as a member in BNI. So, Priscilla, you have a question. Priscilla: I do. So, Ivan, do memory hooks really work? Ivan: So here is the short answer: No. Not in the way that they are being used in BNI for the most part. Yes, there are some times when a memory hook can work effectively but generally speaking, sadly they don’t work like people think they will. It has been over three decades since I founded BNI and people are still asking how to do a great weekly presentation. One of the first things that I say to people that actually surprises them is I say that I wish people would stop focusing on memory hooks. I know that they are a staple of many, many chapters, but in my opinion, we spend way too much time making sure that members end with a memory hook every time that they give their weekly presentation. When I first wrote about memory hooks in 1987 – so I first wrote about them 30 years ago and then in the end of my book, The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret, it was never meant to be used – now this is really important – it was never meant to be used with people who already know what business you are in or people who know you. Memory hooks were created for people who do not know each other so that when you introduce your business to a group of people, a memory hook makes sure that those people remember who you are and what you do. That being said, memory hooks are good for use on a visitor’s day. When you have a lot of people in a room who don’t know who you are and what you do, a memory hook can be very effective,

Synopsis Dr. Misner recently attended a workshop by Alex Mandossian, who gave a workshop at the Transformational Leadership Council conference called “Discover Your Verb.” In this talk, Alex said that the one thing that distinguishes a great leader is movement. Verbs increase your persuasion power. You’ll get more business if you use more verbs and fewer adverbs and adjectives. If you look at great thought leaders throughout history, they all have a characteristic verb. * Rene Descartes: Think * Maria Montessori: Teach * Walt Disney: Dream * Ivan Misner: Inspire What’s your verb? What action characterizes you, not just in your business but in all aspects of your life? Leave your verb, and your reason for choosing it, in the comments. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 497 – 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 today? Ivan: Hey. I am actually in Austin all month this month. It’s a miracle. I am in one place for a few weeks. Priscilla: That’s great. Can you explain this topic, Ivan? Ivan: Yes. It’s an unusual topic. What does knowing your verb have to do with getting more business? A month ago, I spent five days at my semi annual TLC – Transformational Leadership Council – event. It was in Mexico. I always come away with a lot from these conferences. I come away with some great nuggets of information. TLC was started by Jack Canfield, who has become a really good friend. He is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. At this conference, one of the presentations that gave me a lot of good nuggets was from another good friend of mine who is a member, Alex Mandossian. In his talk, he did a talk called, “Discover Your Verb”. I thought it sounded little weird but his content is always so great. So I had to be there, and I am really glad I was. It was, in fact, quite amazing. He said, “The biggest lesson that I have learned over the years is the one thing that makes a great business person and a leader is movement, taking action. Albert Einstein once said that nothing happens until something moves. This is true in leadership and it is true in business because without movement change is not possible.” Alex told the story of the legendary ad man, Leo Burnett from Chicago. He said that Burnett once put his staff to the task of analyzing 62 ads that failed to moved merchandise. He wanted to know why they failed so he asked for ideas on why they failed. In looking at them, the thought the they had too many adjectives like “extremely” or “very” because adjectives don’t move people. Instead, they if anything can spark skepticism in people’s minds. It turns out that in fact, those ads- of the 12,758 words in the ads that they looked at – the 62 ads – 24.1% of them were adjectives. As many as 24.1% of the 12,000 words were adjectives like “extremely” and “very”. Alex said that in comparison, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address contains only 13% adjectives in the total word ration. Churchill’s “Blood, Sweat and Tears” speech had only 12% adjectives to word speech. So if adjectives are the problem, he suggested or asked what is the solution?

Synopsis Dr. Misner recently attended a workshop by Alex Mandossian, who gave a workshop at the Transformational Leadership Council conference called “Discover Your Verb.” In this talk, Alex said that the one thing that distinguishes a great leader is movement. Verbs increase your persuasion power. You’ll get more business if you use more verbs and fewer adverbs and adjectives. If you look at great thought leaders throughout history, they all have a characteristic verb. * Rene Descartes: Think * Maria Montessori: Teach * Walt Disney: Dream * Ivan Misner: Inspire What’s your verb? What action characterizes you, not just in your business but in all aspects of your life? Leave your verb, and your reason for choosing it, in the comments. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 497 – 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 today? Ivan: Hey. I am actually in Austin all month this month. It’s a miracle. I am in one place for a few weeks. Priscilla: That’s great. Can you explain this topic, Ivan? Ivan: Yes. It’s an unusual topic. What does knowing your verb have to do with getting more business? A month ago, I spent five days at my semi annual TLC – Transformational Leadership Council – event. It was in Mexico. I always come away with a lot from these conferences. I come away with some great nuggets of information. TLC was started by Jack Canfield, who has become a really good friend. He is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. At this conference, one of the presentations that gave me a lot of good nuggets was from another good friend of mine who is a member, Alex Mandossian. In his talk, he did a talk called, “Discover Your Verb”. I thought it sounded little weird but his content is always so great. So I had to be there, and I am really glad I was. It was, in fact, quite amazing. He said, “The biggest lesson that I have learned over the years is the one thing that makes a great business person and a leader is movement, taking action. Albert Einstein once said that nothing happens until something moves. This is true in leadership and it is true in business because without movement change is not possible.” Alex told the story of the legendary ad man, Leo Burnett from Chicago. He said that Burnett once put his staff to the task of analyzing 62 ads that failed to moved merchandise. He wanted to know why they failed so he asked for ideas on why they failed. In looking at them, the thought the they had too many adjectives like “extremely” or “very” because adjectives don’t move people. Instead, they if anything can spark skepticism in people’s minds. It turns out that in fact, those ads- of the 12,758 words in the ads that they looked at – the 62 ads – 24.1% of them were adjectives. As many as 24.1% of the 12,000 words were adjectives like “extremely” and “very”. Alex said that in comparison, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address contains only 13% adjectives in the total word ration. Churchill’s “Blood, Sweat and Tears” speech had only 12% adjectives to word speech. So if adjectives are the problem, he suggested or asked what is the solution?

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 371. Synopsis Jacob Jun of Candor Studios, a member of BNI Valley Networking in Salinas, joins Dr. Misner today to share “Five things I learned from BNI.” * How to package what I sell and present it. (He created 50 different 60-second presentations.) The more you give in your 60 seconds, the more you will gain in terms of referrals. * How to educate others. Every meeting is a chance to educate your fellow members on how to give you referrals. * Customer service.  With other customers, he wasn’t always accountable, but with the people in his BNI group, he’s accountable every week, so he has to provide great customer service. * I have experts to lean on. As a BNI member, you can develop a working knowledge of your fellow members’ businesses and ask their advice. * I am not alone. Jacob started his business in a recession, and from his first day in BNI he was welcomed and the members have supported each other. Sponsored by The Global Networking Show. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 371 – Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by the GlobalNetworkingShow.com, which is hosted by Andy Lopata and Dr. Ivan Misner.. 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. I am actually at headquarters this week. I figure I have been traveling so much that I better poke my head in now and then. Priscilla: Good idea. Ivan: I have a guest today. His name is Jacob Jun. Jacob is a photographer. He is a BNI member. Jacob was recommended by his local Executive Director, Randy Borden, to talk about this topic. I love the concept. Jacob is a photographer and has a photography studio called Candor Studios and he specializes in portraits, weddings, family, business and promotional photography. He has been a member for just under five years and had this material that his Director shared with me. We will be sharing it with you today. Jacob, welcome to the podcast. Jacob: Hi. Thanks everybody. I am glad to be here. Ivan: It’s great to have you. I love having BNI members on the podcast. It makes it real. It makes it very connected to the membership when we have members who have a great concept. There are five things that you shared with Randy that he shared with me that you learned from BNI. I would love to talk about these things. If you are listening to this podcast, if there is something else that you have learned in addition to these five things, throw it on the podcast comments because I would love to see them. I read all of the podcast comments that are posted. Jacob’s first one is “how to package what I sell and present it”. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? Jacob: Sure. I am the current Education Coordinator for the BNI Valley that is here in Salinas. When I first joined BNI, I wasn’t the greatest speaker. I wasn’t an extrovert as a lot of people would like to be. So I had to learn very quickly how to give a 60 seconds and how to basically come up with something new every week. So that is one of the things that I learned that I am grateful for, standing in front of large groups and being able to quickly and concisely explain my business, to be able to tell people what I do without rambling and going off on tangents. Ivan:

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 371. Synopsis Jacob Jun of Candor Studios, a member of BNI Valley Networking in Salinas, joins Dr. Misner today to share “Five things I learned from BNI.” * How to package what I sell and present it. (He created 50 different 60-second presentations.) The more you give in your 60 seconds, the more you will gain in terms of referrals. * How to educate others. Every meeting is a chance to educate your fellow members on how to give you referrals. * Customer service.  With other customers, he wasn’t always accountable, but with the people in his BNI group, he’s accountable every week, so he has to provide great customer service. * I have experts to lean on. As a BNI member, you can develop a working knowledge of your fellow members’ businesses and ask their advice. * I am not alone. Jacob started his business in a recession, and from his first day in BNI he was welcomed and the members have supported each other. Sponsored by The Global Networking Show. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 371 – Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by the GlobalNetworkingShow.com, which is hosted by Andy Lopata and Dr. Ivan Misner.. 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. I am actually at headquarters this week. I figure I have been traveling so much that I better poke my head in now and then. Priscilla: Good idea. Ivan: I have a guest today. His name is Jacob Jun. Jacob is a photographer. He is a BNI member. Jacob was recommended by his local Executive Director, Randy Borden, to talk about this topic. I love the concept. Jacob is a photographer and has a photography studio called Candor Studios and he specializes in portraits, weddings, family, business and promotional photography. He has been a member for just under five years and had this material that his Director shared with me. We will be sharing it with you today. Jacob, welcome to the podcast. Jacob: Hi. Thanks everybody. I am glad to be here. Ivan: It’s great to have you. I love having BNI members on the podcast. It makes it real. It makes it very connected to the membership when we have members who have a great concept. There are five things that you shared with Randy that he shared with me that you learned from BNI. I would love to talk about these things. If you are listening to this podcast, if there is something else that you have learned in addition to these five things, throw it on the podcast comments because I would love to see them. I read all of the podcast comments that are posted. Jacob’s first one is “how to package what I sell and present it”. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? Jacob: Sure. I am the current Education Coordinator for the BNI Valley that is here in Salinas. When I first joined BNI, I wasn’t the greatest speaker. I wasn’t an extrovert as a lot of people would like to be. So I had to learn very quickly how to give a 60 seconds and how to basically come up with something new every week. So that is one of the things that I learned that I am grateful for, standing in front of large groups and being able to quickly and concisely explain my business, to be able to tell people what I do without rambling and going off on tangents. Ivan:

Synopsis People have been asking Dr. Misner what his position, or BNI’s position on current political events. What Dr. Misner has discovered over time is that talking politics or religion in BNI is not a good idea. Our mission in BNI is to help people increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional referral marketing program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals. Dr. Misner has always been active both politically and spiritually–but neither of these is pertinent to BNI. Political and religious issues can be extremely divisive. There are many great venues for expressing political and religious beliefs. BNI is not one of them. BNI is an international organization with chapters all around the world and members who belong to every religion. It can only succeed if it focuses on its mission. That isn’t to say that BNI members shouldn’t have strong political or religious views. We just need to keep them out of BNI meetings. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 495 – 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 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 Houston, Texas today. On my way to Houston. I am speaking at a coaching conference this week. I am excited to be there. I do presentations all over the world. If you are part of a big company and looking to being in an outside speaker, let us know. I am always happy to go speak at these events. Priscilla: That would be a good referral for you. Ivan: Yeah. That’s a great referral for me. It needs to be an organization that has a budget. With as much travel as I do, I don’t do free presentations anymore. But if they have a budget, reach out. I will put them in touch with somebody. So that is where I am this week. I am in Houston speaking in an organization that is very active in BNI. So today is an interesting topic. Politics, religion and BNI. Priscilla: Yeah. Ivan: You know, I decided to do this topic right now because of all the things that are going on in the world. More than ever, I am getting asked about my position or BNI’s position on people elected to office or things that are going on the world like the European Union and what is going on with the UK. So I am asked what our opinion is. I think it is really important to say that talking politics and religion in BNI is not a good idea. The topic has been for many years brought up to me occasionally but it has been brought up a lot lately. So I thought it would be time to to a podcast on it. Before I did my graduate work, not a lot of people know this. I did my graduate work in organizational behavior. I received a bachelor’s degree in political science. As a political science graduate, I was really interested in politics. And I still am. But I don’t discuss it in BNI. Why? Because it gets our eyes off the ball. IT takes us away from BNI’s mission. Our mission in BNI is to help people increase their business with structured, positive and professional referral marketing program. This is our mission statement. Positive an professional referral marketing program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality professionals. That is our mission. One of the reasons BNI is the world’s largest,

Synopsis People have been asking Dr. Misner what his position, or BNI’s position on current political events. What Dr. Misner has discovered over time is that talking politics or religion in BNI is not a good idea. Our mission in BNI is to help people increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional referral marketing program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals. Dr. Misner has always been active both politically and spiritually–but neither of these is pertinent to BNI. Political and religious issues can be extremely divisive. There are many great venues for expressing political and religious beliefs. BNI is not one of them. BNI is an international organization with chapters all around the world and members who belong to every religion. It can only succeed if it focuses on its mission. That isn’t to say that BNI members shouldn’t have strong political or religious views. We just need to keep them out of BNI meetings. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 495 – 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 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 Houston, Texas today. On my way to Houston. I am speaking at a coaching conference this week. I am excited to be there. I do presentations all over the world. If you are part of a big company and looking to being in an outside speaker, let us know. I am always happy to go speak at these events. Priscilla: That would be a good referral for you. Ivan: Yeah. That’s a great referral for me. It needs to be an organization that has a budget. With as much travel as I do, I don’t do free presentations anymore. But if they have a budget, reach out. I will put them in touch with somebody. So that is where I am this week. I am in Houston speaking in an organization that is very active in BNI. So today is an interesting topic. Politics, religion and BNI. Priscilla: Yeah. Ivan: You know, I decided to do this topic right now because of all the things that are going on in the world. More than ever, I am getting asked about my position or BNI’s position on people elected to office or things that are going on the world like the European Union and what is going on with the UK. So I am asked what our opinion is. I think it is really important to say that talking politics and religion in BNI is not a good idea. The topic has been for many years brought up to me occasionally but it has been brought up a lot lately. So I thought it would be time to to a podcast on it. Before I did my graduate work, not a lot of people know this. I did my graduate work in organizational behavior. I received a bachelor’s degree in political science. As a political science graduate, I was really interested in politics. And I still am. But I don’t discuss it in BNI. Why? Because it gets our eyes off the ball. IT takes us away from BNI’s mission. Our mission in BNI is to help people increase their business with structured, positive and professional referral marketing program. This is our mission statement. Positive an professional referral marketing program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality professionals. That is our mission. One of the reasons BNI is the world’s largest,

Synopsis Today 13-year BNI member Shawn Yesner joins Dr. Misner to talk about Leadership Team training and why every member of your chapter should attend. Shawn recommends that anyone going to training do so with three goals in mind. * Learn the position you’re going to serve in and learn the position you want to be in next. * Connect with members of other chapters across the region. Find referral partners, substitutes, members of your contact sphere. * Apply what you learn at the training to make your business more successful. Having more people attend leadership team training helps the BNI chapter as a whole by ensuring that all the members are using the same playbook. Not only that, but members who attend leadership training dramatically increase referrals passed and thank-you-for-close-of-business. Holding a leadership position boosts your own business. Visitor hosts learns sales skills. Education coordinators learn how to create a continuing education plan to get to the top of their industry. Shawn’s Leadership Training Presentation Listen to the Yesner Law Podcast to hear more from Shawn. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 494 – 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 today? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla, thank you very much. I have a guest here on today’s show, Shawn Yesner. Shawn is an attorney. He has been an attorney for 13 years and he has been a member of BNI for 13 years. He has served in every single position on the Leadership Team and what totally and completely blew me away in the pre-interview discussion with him is he said he loved being VP. He loved being VP! So I definitely want to talk about that. Shawn’s goal is that 100% of the members in his chapter attend the Leadership Team training. So Shawn, welcome to the BNI Podcast. It’s great to have it on. I appreciate it. Shawn: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity and I have been a loyal listener of the podcast all the way back to episode number one. So I am really excited about being on the podcast. Thank you. Ivan: Episode number one. I am truly impressed with someone who listened to every single podcast. Those of you listening today, you know you can get it at BNIpodcast.com. It is also available on iTunes. Shawn, I know you have a show as well on iTunes. We will make sure to share it at the end. So people can pick it up on iTunes and on BNIpodcast.com. Shawn, you have listened to every episode and your goal is to have 100% of your members going to Leadership Team training. I have talked about Leadership Team training. Why in the world do you think everyone in a chapter- I love the idea but explain to the listeners, explain to BNI members why you think everyone should go to Leadership Team training. Shawn: I think it is the whole concept of we are all rowing the boat in the same direction. We are all doing the same things. We are all speaking the same language. When I talk to members about why they should go to training, I try to tell them to go with three goals in mind. First,

Synopsis Today 13-year BNI member Shawn Yesner joins Dr. Misner to talk about Leadership Team training and why every member of your chapter should attend. Shawn recommends that anyone going to training do so with three goals in mind. * Learn the position you’re going to serve in and learn the position you want to be in next. * Connect with members of other chapters across the region. Find referral partners, substitutes, members of your contact sphere. * Apply what you learn at the training to make your business more successful. Having more people attend leadership team training helps the BNI chapter as a whole by ensuring that all the members are using the same playbook. Not only that, but members who attend leadership training dramatically increase referrals passed and thank-you-for-close-of-business. Holding a leadership position boosts your own business. Visitor hosts learns sales skills. Education coordinators learn how to create a continuing education plan to get to the top of their industry. Shawn’s Leadership Training Presentation Listen to the Yesner Law Podcast to hear more from Shawn. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 494 – 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 today? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla, thank you very much. I have a guest here on today’s show, Shawn Yesner. Shawn is an attorney. He has been an attorney for 13 years and he has been a member of BNI for 13 years. He has served in every single position on the Leadership Team and what totally and completely blew me away in the pre-interview discussion with him is he said he loved being VP. He loved being VP! So I definitely want to talk about that. Shawn’s goal is that 100% of the members in his chapter attend the Leadership Team training. So Shawn, welcome to the BNI Podcast. It’s great to have it on. I appreciate it. Shawn: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity and I have been a loyal listener of the podcast all the way back to episode number one. So I am really excited about being on the podcast. Thank you. Ivan: Episode number one. I am truly impressed with someone who listened to every single podcast. Those of you listening today, you know you can get it at BNIpodcast.com. It is also available on iTunes. Shawn, I know you have a show as well on iTunes. We will make sure to share it at the end. So people can pick it up on iTunes and on BNIpodcast.com. Shawn, you have listened to every episode and your goal is to have 100% of your members going to Leadership Team training. I have talked about Leadership Team training. Why in the world do you think everyone in a chapter- I love the idea but explain to the listeners, explain to BNI members why you think everyone should go to Leadership Team training. Shawn: I think it is the whole concept of we are all rowing the boat in the same direction. We are all doing the same things. We are all speaking the same language. When I talk to members about why they should go to training, I try to tell them to go with three goals in mind. First,

Synopsis It’s International Networking Week! In honor of the event, Dr. Misner is sharing 5 ways to be a better networker. Dr. Misner surveyed 3400 businesspeople around the world and asked them what makes a great networker. Here’s what they said you need to do to. * Be a good listener. * Develop a positive attitude. * Collaborate to serve others. * Be sincere and authentic. * Follow up. Each of these characteristic ties into the idea that networking is about farming, not hunting. Only when you build meaningful business relationships will you be a great networker. You’ll be hearing more about this survey in future episodes. Meanwhile, share your ideas for top characteristics of great networkers in the comments. Brought to you by the Networking for Success YouTube Channel. Complete Transcript of Episode 493 – Priscilla: Hello everyone 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: Hello Priscilla. I am at home in Austin, Texas this week. I try not to travel during International Networking Week. This is, everybody hopefully knows, International Networking Week. I try not to travel because I do a lot of live Skype presentations during the week. If you didn’t know that this is International Networking Week, please go to InternationalNetworkingWeek.com and find out about it. International Networking Week was created by BNI. I, along with a number of Directors 10 years ago, started International Networking Week. It is now done globally. I thought it would be really good today, since it is International Networking Week, to talk about five ways to be a better networker. Many people including me offer advice on what it takes to be better at networking, but one thing that is often left out of the equation is that networking often involves interacting with others. So it is really worth asking what the average person believes it takes to become great at networking. If we want to make the kind of impression that works to build a powerful personal network, we have to be cognizant of what other people’s expectations are and then adjust out behavior accordingly. So I recently gathered over 3400 survey responses from business people all around the world. I listed roughly 20 different characteristics and asked respondents to pick behaviors that they most like to see in a great networker. So for this sample in my podcast today, I am going to identify the top five characteristics. I will give them to you in order of the survey answers that the survey respondents gave me. So the number one characteristic that people felt was important in being a good networker -I did a survey of 3400 people all over the world. By the way, it wasn’t just BNI members. It was open to the public. The number one way was being a good listener, the number one characteristic. Being a good listener. I think our success in networking really depends on how well we can listen to others. The faster you and your networking partner learn what you need to know about each other, the faster you will be able to establish a valuable relationship. You have heard me say a number of times on this podcast that a good networker has two ears and one mouth and should use them both proportionately.