The Official BNI Podcast

Synopsis BNI Connect is a great way for members to connect world-wide, but the down side of BNI Connect is that it allows you to make connections and ask for business with other BNI members without a relationship. This amounts to spam--unsolicited commercial email. But it's an easy mistake to make. A member wrote to Dr. Misner and said the following: "I used your website to reach out to other chapters, only to be told that I should be reported for doing so: 'You shouldn't be sending mass emails like this, it's unsolicited, it's considered spam.' Am I missing something here? I've been a model member since I joined a year ago. Is the attitude members should take?" Nobody likes spam, but BNI members become apoplectic when they get it from other BNI members. BNI's Board of Advisors has just created a  BNI Connect Code of Conduct. The very first item is Do not spam people. Do not solicit members outside your group for business unless you have their permission. So how do you build a relationship with someone in another chapter? Engage in the groups. Join an active group and start talking to people. Visit the other chapter. Develop relationships. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 288 - 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? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla. Happy New Year to everyone around the world. This is our first podcast of the new year, and we are looking forward to another year of podcasts. Thank you, everyone, who comes to these podcasts regularly. Today's topic is an important one. BNI spam. What it's about is connecting with BNI members globally without a relationship, which is basically spam. Now that we have BNI Connect starting to rock the world, our own system, it's really easy to basically spam people and make connections and ask for business without a relationship. I have talked many times about the VCP process here on my podcast and on my blog, businessnetworking.com. Do a search on VCP and find where I talk about VCP- building visibility, establishing credibility, and then profitability. Then you start asking for business. Doing it too early really creates problems. Now, I am bringing this up because I got an interesting email from a BNI member. I am going to read it to you. It said, “I'm confused. I joined BNI to be able to grow my business through quality referrals.” Now that's interesting, quality referrals. Okay, I am going to come back to that. “I used your BNI website,” I am assuming he is talking about BNI Connect, “to reach out to other chapters only to be told that we should be reported for doing so.” Here is one of the responses: “You shouldn't be sending mass emails like this. It is unsolicited. It is considered spam. You are lucky no one cared enough to report you.” A little harsh, but I am not surprised. I'll tell you why. He then says, “Am I missing something here? I have been a model member since I joined here a year ago.” He then says there aren't any words for how many referrals he has brought in, he has been on the leadership team. Is this the attitude members should take? That's basically his position. Here is my answer to this: Don't be surprised. It is completely predictable. Absolutely predictable. You want to let the world know about what you do. I get it. But doing it like this will predictably within the BNI context, and heck, even outside the BNI context- how many times have you gotten spam from someone and said, “Really? Who is this person and why are they trying to sell me something?” If you do it in BNI,

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 206. Synopsis It would probably surprise you to know about some of the influential people that some of your fellow BNI members know. Don’t assume that just because someone works in an unrelated industry, that person...

Synopsis Today's topic was suggested by a BNI member who couldn't find the topic covered in the podcast. He said "A member came to me with a referral, and said that if I did business with the referral, they would like a commission." He was shocked; he had never heard of such a thing before. He asked what BNI's policy about this was. There's no formal BNI policy about referral fees, but here is Dr. Misner's own very strong opinion about it. "Givers Gain" does not mean "Give me some money and I'll give you a referral." It means that I'll give members referrals and in return they'll support me by giving me referrals. It's based on social capital theory, on the law of reciprocity. It's not a transactional law, it's a transformational law. BNI is about relationships. Asking for finder's fees in BNI is a really bad idea. And offering them rarely works, though there's nothing wrong with a thank-you gift. (For more on that, read Dr. Misner's article about finder's fees on Entrepreneur. com.) Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 286 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you doing? Ivan: Doing great, Priscilla, and I have another interesting topic, I think today. I have a BNI member who wrote to me and said he a big fan of the podcast. He's been a member for 14 years. Thank you so much. He has been on the leadership team. He had a specific question that I think was so important. He asked that I cover it in a podcast. Really great idea. I invite people that if you have a topic that you can't find on the podcast- you can do a search. If you can't find that topic, then please drop me a note or post something on the podcast and say you would like to see this one done. That's exactly what one member did. It's one that I think is really important. He said, “A member came to me with a referral and asked if I did business with this referral, they would like a commission. I was shocked. I was silent. I would never ask someone for this. It had never been brought up before.” He had never seen this before. He didn't close the business with the referral, so he didn't end having to have what he felt was an uncomfortable conversation. He didn't bring it to the membership committee. He asked me what are the rules, policies and procedures for BNI because it has never been referenced before. I would like to give you my response to that, Priscilla. There is no policy on it. The Board of Advisers has ever chosen to do a policy. I am happy to run this by them. As you may recall from another podcast, the Board of Advisers are members from BNI who help create policies. So let me give you my very strong opinion on the topic, an opinion that I have written about in books. I first wrote about it in the World's Best Marketing Secret in 1994 and I recommend it for any networking group, particularly BNI. I wrote an article about it a decade ago for Entrepreneur.com. There is a link to it in the podcast if you want to read it. This article is not BNI-centric, but it will give you information on how I feel about finders fees. Here is how I feel about finders fees: the whole philosophy of givers gain does not mean give me some money and I will give you a referral. It doesn't mean that at all. It means that I will give members referrals and they will support me in return by giving me referrals. It is actually based on social capital theory, the law of reciprocity. The dies that if I help you, you'll help me. We'll all do better as a result of it. It's not a transactional law. It's a transformational law, which means if I said, “Hey Priscilla.

Synopsis A BNI member in the Netherlands asked Dr. Misner for a history of BNI's Code of Ethics. There are 6 points to the Code of Ethics, which is meant to be a set of principles to address conflicts or complaints. I will provide the quality of services at the prices I have quoted. I will be truthful with the members and their referrals. I will build goodwill and trust among members and their referrals. I will take responsibility for following up on referrals I receive. I will display a positive and supportive attitude. I will live up to the ethical standards of my profession. This Code of Ethics was created by the board of advisors--members from all the BNI chapters at the time. The first attempt at a list was three pages long, so they started over to make it simpler. You can find the Code of Ethics in the Member Policies Brochure, which is part of the New Member Packet. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 285 - 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? Ivan: Doing great, Priscilla, thank you very much. We have an interesting topic today and that is BNI's Code of Ethics. I have talked briefly about BNI's Code of Ethics in podcasts but never really hit them point by point. The reason I am bringing it up today is that I received an email from someone in the Netherlands, one of our BNI members. He likes to talk about the Code of Ethics in BNI and he ays, "I find that members have very different interpretations of the meaning of the code." He asked his BNI Director if he had any information, and he didn't have any. So I was hoping that I might be able to go over the code and most importantly, how it came about, how we developed this code of ethics. Let me review what the code of ethics is,  because I think every member needs to know what they are. I think every member needs to know about BNI's code of ethics. When you are evaluating members' participation and when you are taking a look at new members, you want to think about this code of ethics in various situations. It is not meant to be a list of blow by blow specifics but really, principles to address conflicts or complaints. I will explain why we took that direction as we get through this. There are six points to the code of ethics. They involve: 1.Quality 2. Honesty 3. Building trust and goodwill 4. Responsibility 5. Attitude 6. Standards of your profession. These are the six points in the code of ethics. The first one is I will provide the quality of services at the price that I have quoted. That is really important because you can't make promises and then not fulfill them. You have to provide the quality of services at the price that you put out there. The second one is I will be truthful with members and their referrals. Always tell the truth about what you are going to do and how you are going to deliver it. Number three is an important one. They are all important, but it is particularly important in terms of relationship and network. It is I will build goodwill and trust among members and their referrals. I'll tell you who put this together. It was really put together by the Board of Advisers- I'll explain that more- with the idea that oftentimes, when people get together, they talk about each other, not to each other. That is a recipe for building ill will within a chapter. So one of the best ways to build goodwill is if you have issues,  talk to the person whom you have an issue with before you talk about them. Now, you can always talk to the Membership Committee, but first, talk to the individual.

Synopsis Jeremy Walsh, director of support for BNI Connect, returns to the Official BNI Podcast. If what Jeremy talks about is not available in your area, contact your executive director. If you don't yet have a BNI Connect username and password, go to support.bniconnect.com and submit a ticket. New Landing Page shows you all your stats the minute you log in. Easier Navigation. Every function is one click away. Customizable Links and Shortcuts. The reports & tools you need, ready for the chapter webmaster. Entering Referral Slips Online. Send the referral by e-mail. (You can print slips or fill them out in the meeting but mark them so the vice-president doesn't double-enter them.) Thank You for Closed Business Received. Only you can see this. Only the online submissions are tabulated. Join BNI Connect on Facebook and YouTube. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 284 - 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? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much. I have a guest today, Jeremy Walsh. Jeremy has been on a couple of podcasts already. We have brought him back. Jeremy is the Director of Support and Training Documentation for BNI Connect, BNI's online program. Together with the BNI Connect team, they help get people connected worldwide through our new and exclusive online social media platform. And a member- not only the Director of Support and Training- he has been a member of the BNI field chapter in Rhode Island for more than 10 years and of course, is a Director there too as well. He is the owner of Right Click computer support and networking company. He drags you clicking (not kicking but clicking- and screaming into the 21st century. Jeremy, you are the only technology support person that I have ever worked with that everyone who talks to you loves you. You even have your own fan club and I am not kidding. I don't know if you know this, Jeremy, but at a recent conference, I had a photograph given to me of you and was asked if I would like one. Anyone with one is officially part of the Jeremy Walsh fan cub. I am not a member of the Jeremy Walsh fan club. Listen, it's great to have you on again. We are going to talk about some of the BNI connect functionality again, in particular, passing referrals online utilizing BNI Connect. So you have 10 points, a lot to cover. If you are a member, you really want to pay attention to this. We are going to cover a lot of things. If what we talk about is not available in your area, I want you to contact your National Director or Executive Director and ask, “Why don't we have this in our area yet? I'd like it.” We want all regions to have this. In about one year, we are going to flip the switch and it will be everywhere. But some Directors are a little uncomfortable. It's change and it's different, so we are letting everyone go into it slowly. There are about 12 countries on it now and we will have everyone on it next year. If you like what you are hearing and it is not in your area, contact your Executive Director but make sure that it is not there first before you contact them. Jeremy, you are going to start with the new landing page. Jeremy: Absolutely. The first time that you log into BNI Connect, what you are going to see is this great new landing page, and the great part about it is that all of your stats are right there in front of you. Whereas we always had to go back through and pull the PALMS report, or look at the PALMS report or wait till our vice president passed us the PALMS report, all the information is right there in front of you.

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 74, which originally appeared on October 1st, 2008. Synopsis Dr. Misner and BNI member Julien Sharp about how BNI can make a cross-country move easier. There are many ways BNI can help. Your local BNI chapter can help you prepare for the move through referrals to realtors, moving companies, etc. Joining a BNI chapter in your new new location gives you instant connections there—it’s like having family there. You have a reliable source for referrals to professionals whose help you need, from tech support to plumbing. So if you’re planning to move, make sure you find a BNI chapter in the city you’re moving to and ask the director how BNI can help. BNI can help your friends, family, and colleagues, too. Julien has also created inter-chapter BNI groups for people in her own profession, to encourage “co-opetition” and create teams who can do larger jobs. She also “subs” regularly for members at other BNI groups. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 074 - Priscilla Rice: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloables. 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? Ivan Misner: I am doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much. I have a guest with me today, a good friend and member of BNI, Julien Sharp. I have known Julien now for almost five years. Julien was an editor for one of my books, Masters of Sales. She did a tremendous job. She did such a great job that she got another referral for me. She is the editor for the BNI Director’s Manual. She has done the leadership team manuals that go in them. She has been a member of BNI for a number of years. She can tell you how long. She got another referral. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about that, Julien. I referred you to Entrepreneur Press, and that turned into a reasonably considerable deal, didn’t it? Julien Sharp: I would say that “reasonably” is the understatement of the year. Hi. It is nice to be on here. Yes, in January, I got an email from Entrepreneur Press that said Ivan Misner recommended you to write a book. We have the title all ready and no author. It was How to Design and Launch an Online Networking Business. That happens to be where I am taking my whole communications consulting company. I said sure. It has since then been completed, as far as the initial writing. It is in production now and it is set for a spring ’09 release date. Ivan: Congratulations on that. Everyone listening to the podcast can keep their eyes open for that. Julien is a great writer. I am looking forward to seeing your book. You are going to be talking about a couple of things, one of which is moving cross country. You did a little move from Miami Beach to New York in 2006, didn’t you? Julien: I certainly did. As a matter of fact, my spouse was transferred up here for a job. We weren’t sure how long we were going to be up here. Being a writer, it is very easy to do from anywhere. When we were up here for some time, we thought we might go into Toronto. I was able to, while I was just new to New York, work all of my referrals that I had built through my relationships from Miami. Over a year and one-third generation referrals kept me floating, just working nonstop for over a year. Then when I realized we were going to be living in New York full time, I immediately joined a BNI up here which was in January of this year. I have completely built an entirely new and growing communications firm here in New York based completely off of relationships in BNI, both here and in Miami. Ivan: You bring up a really good point. I see a lot of people. We live in a very mobile society.

Synopsis Mixers are a great way to network, and in particular a great way to bring people to your office. So in addition to attending mixers held by organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, BNI members should consider holding their own. Here are Dr. Misner's tips for facilitating a great mixer. If at all possible, hold the event at your own office. If your office is small, hold the event in the parking lot under a marquee in nice weather. Plan the mixer at least 8 weeks in advance. Invite as many people as possible. It's good to have a few door prizes, but distributing more than 4 or 5 takes up too much time. Provide a place for members to display information on their products and services. Let people know in advance that this space will be available. Designate several visitor hosts to greet people as they arrive and provide them with name tags. Set out a few chairs, but don't encourage people to sit down auditorium-style and ignore each other. Conduct a short networking exercise, such as having each guest meet three people they haven't met before. Don't make it too complex. Keep things fun. Try designating areas for people in different business areas to hang out, or draw cards to find the person with the matching token. Match the exercise to the audience. Always remember that your primary purpose is to facilitate networking. If you talk at all, keep it to 2-3 minutes. No big speeches. Spend no more than 5-10 minutes at the end doing introductions and giving door prizes. Be firm about the "Must Be Present to Win" rule. Do you have additional tips to offer or experiences to share about hosting mixers? Post them here in the comments. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 282 - 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 today? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. This week I am at BNI headquarters and we are training National Directors from around the world who are getting into the BNI program. We just finished the international conference last week. This week we are training mostly new National Directors on how to run the program all week. Priscilla: Great Ivan: This week I have a topic that is a bit different from topics I have done. That is eight tips for throwing a successful mixer. Why talk about this? Mixers, I believe, are a great way to network. I think there is a place for mixers with BNI members, not only going to chambers and that kind of thing but doing your own mixer and inviting all your BNI members and, of course, your clients and other business associates. Really, literally, the first year of BNI, I started recommending to members that they occasionally do a mixer. You really want to bring people to your office. You want them to see what you do. I saw that firsthand with a member who set up a new office. He was a little bit out of the way and he wanted people to see what he had going and what his operation was like. So he did a mixer. He did a brilliant job and all of a sudden, his business became real to many people. Obviously it was real, but by being there, they could see what it was that he did. They could see his operation. It was pretty impressive. And he started getting referrals. I think it's a great way to help get to credibility with your members quicker. Establishing a referral based business really requires that people come to your cave occasionally. You know, I say that most business people are cave dwellers. They go from their cave with a big screen tv to their little cave, their car, to their cave with computers and then back. They can't figure out why people aren't referring them.

Synopsis A listener named David commented on an earlier episode to say, "Sometimes we feel obligated to engage with a bad referral from another BNI member even if the person isn't a good fit. How do you deal with this situation?" First, if you're giving a referral, remember that you're giving away a piece of your reputation. Giving a bad referral hurts your reputation. But if you do get a bad referral, ask yourself, What are you doing to educate people about who is a good referral for you? Be laser-specific. Memory hooks are not actually useful here. If you still get a bad referral, talk to the member who gave you the bad referral. What do you talk about? Ask whether they've called the person. If not, hand the referral slip back, and ask them to call the person. If you have a bad experience with the referral, bring it first to the other member, then the membership committee. Have you encountered a bad referral where the problem couldn't be resolved by following this advice? Let us know in the comments. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 281 - 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 today? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am doing great. This week, I am at the BNI International Conference in Long Beach. This week, we have over 600 BNI Directors from all over the world. It is like going to a United Nations meeting. Priscilla: I know. I have been to it and it's really fun. It was very impressive. So, how are you going to help us out today? What is your topic? Ivan: Today, I want to talk about what you do when you get a bad referral? It comes from a BNI member named David, who under podcast 266 on pointers for giving good referrals, who said he'd really like to see a podcast that deals with being set up with a bad referral. He said that sometimes we feel obligated to engage with a bad referral even if it is not a good fit. So could you talk about what you do when you get a bad referral? That is what I am going to do today. First of all, for the person giving the referral, when you give a referral, you give a little bit of your reputation away, so when you are giving referrals, make sure to give good referrals because if you give a bad referral it hurts your reputation. If you give a good referral, it of course, helps your reputation. So let's start with the people giving referrals. You have to be cognizant of giving good referrals. Now that doesn't answer David's question. His question is what do you do if you get a bad referral. Let's talk about that. If you are the person getting a bad referral, first you have to think about what are you doing to educate people? I know this doesn't really answer David's question yet, but I am going to get there. You must clearly educate people about what a good referral is. No, really. You have to be certain that you are doing a good job explaining what is and isn't a good referral. It's really funny because every time I talk to people they say, “I get that. I understand it.” Nonsense. I have been to many meetings. People are doing a horrible job oftentimes in describing what it is that they do specifically and then they are surprised that people don't know how to give them a good referral. So you have to ask yourself if you are really doing as good of a job as you possibly can in explaining well how to give a good referral. Are you being laser specific? By the way, stop doing memory hooks. It is almost a complete waste of time in getting referrals. I know they are fun. I know I wrote a book about them. I wish I had never done that.

Synopsis Dr. Misner's guest Michael Drew has helped create 74 bestsellers through his company Promote a Book, Inc., including some of Dr. Misner's own. The topic of today's podcast is his latest book, Pendulum: How Past Generations Shape Our Presen...

This week's episode is a rebroadcast of Episode 37. Synopsis This week’s podcast was inspired by Jack Canfield’s presentation at the BNI International Conference in November 2007. If we really are the average of the 5 people we hang out with most, here are some things we should consider: If we hang out with professional, successful people, it forces us to be more successful. BNI’s Membership Committees need to ask whether a potential new member raises the bar for the chapter. Network up: seek out networking relationships that pull you out of your comfort zone. Open doors to people who have a positive attitude toward success. Some of your associates may rate a “D” for “delete” if they bring you down. Helpful links: Buffini & Company: Working by Referral Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 037 - 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 coming from Live Oak Recording Studio. I'm joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you? Ivan Misner: Doing great, Priscilla. Thank you. Priscilla: What do you have to share with us today? Ivan: I have a simple idea that I just wanted to talk about in this week's podcast. At the BNI International Conference in late November, we had a good friend of mine who was a speaker. I mentioned an organization of his in last week's podcast, the Transformational Leadership Council. It was developed by Jack Canfield. Jack has become a good friend and certainly a big supporter of BNI over the last few years. Jack created the Transformational Leadership Council and we had him as a speaker at our BNI conference in November. He is an incredible speaker. He did a great job. It was a great event, and we had almost 800 directors from about 40 countries all around the world. Jack spoke about a number of things but one of the things that he talked about - I'm assuming most of the listeners know that Jack is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul series. That series has sold more than 120 million books worldwide. He's a very successful man. Priscilla:  There are a lot of books in that series. Ivan: Yes, there are. It started with the first one of Chicken Soup for the Soul and then A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul. I have a very close friend, Lisa Nichols who did a version of Chicken Soup for the African American Soul. Now there are many, many dozens of variations of the book that have come out. They have all done very well- 120 million copies. I think my best book has sold about 110,000 copies. You have to give somebody a lot of kudos if they are able to do something like that. He had one idea at this conference that he shared that really resonated with me. He talked about a lot of things, but one thing really certainly had me thinking about how this applies in BNI. He shared a lot of great stories. He had a lot of great statements. One of the statements is that we are the average of the five people that we hang out with most. He said if we are hanging out with people who are challenging to us intellectually, who are very professional, who are successful calm that it draws us and it helps force us to be more successful at what we do. If we hang out with people who are lazy, not highly motivated, not very successful or not very driven- we tend to be the average of the five people that we hang out with the most. I really started thinking about that message about how that applies in the BNI group. Can you see its relevance in a BNI group? Priscilla: Yes. I think the better that you make your group- the membership committee that is their job. They have to screen people and the more enthusiastic, driven and community- oriented people that they bring into the chapter,

Synopsis Dr. Misner's favorite technique for inviting visitors to BNI is what he calls "We're Interviewing." Suppose your chapter needs a printer. When you meet a printer, explain that you're in a referral group and say "We're interviewing printers now to find the best printer in the area to give all of our business to. I think you might make a good candidate." Replace "printers" with members of any profession your chapter needs. This shows people the value of BNI membership and helps the chapter to be selective about new members. Of course, this means you have to interview the visitor after the chapter meeting. Only submit an application if you think the person is a good fit. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 278 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you today? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla, and today I have a topic that somebody asked me about. It's inviting visitors, a technique that I call the “we're interviewing” technique. They said have you talked about this on a podcast and I said, yeah, I thought so. I did a search and I saw a mention of it in one of my podcasts, but I never really went into any detail. It's such an important topic that I can't believe that I haven't talked about this thoroughly on one of the podcasts in the past. People ask me how do you invite people? What is the best technique? What I think the best technique is, the one I really like, is “we are interviewing.” So take a profession, whatever it is- a printer. Let's say your chapter decides they need a printer. What you want to do is, when you meet a printer, to say to them, “We're interviewing printers right now.” Start it with, “I am in a referral group. We get together on a regular basis. We are all about passing referrals to each other. We are interviewing printers right now to find the best printer in the community that we can give all of our referrals to. I think you might make a great candidate.” So let's review this again. I want people to use this. You can use the transcript. I want you to use the transcript. “I'm in a referral group.” You don't have to go into much detail. “I am in a referral group. I have been a member for [however long]. We get together on a regular basis and we're all about passing business to each other. We're interviewing [fill in the blank for whatever profession]. We're interviewing printers right now to find the best printer in the area to give all of our business to. I think you might make a good candidate.” That's a really powerful way to invite people. One of the reasons is whenever- sometimes when people invite others- one of the great things about BNI is people love BNI. They love BNI, and so they maybe come on just a little bit too strong,. “Oh, you have got to join this organization. It's the best organization around. They get a lot of business.” People who don't know you are like, “Who are you? And why are you trying to sell me on this? Read the palm.” Right? They get put off. One of the things that I found is that if you can, in an appropriate way, be more exclusive about who you bring in, you are actually going to get more interest from people. It's a little bit counter intuitive but it's absolutely accurate. When people realize- you understand, Priscilla, entrepreneurs hate not being picked. Okay? What is the implied statement here? We are interviewing and you might make a good candidate. The implied statement is we might not pick you. Entrepreneurs hate not being picked. They want to be picked. So, you know,

Synopsis This week Dr. Misner brings Jeremy Walsh of BNI Connect Global Support back to share 5 power tips to boost your ROI with BNI Connect.  Update your profile. Make sure all the information is complete and correct. This makes it easier for people to pass referrals to you. Print the Meeting Notes Report and take notes at your meetings about the kinds of referrals your fellow members are looking for. Fill out your GAINS Exchange online. You can also pull up the GAINS Exchange report on other members before meeting them for one-to-ones. Invite visitors to your chapter. Just fill in the name and e-mail address of the person and BNI Connect will send them an official invitation with all the information they need about the chapter. Find out your personal ROI. Check your PALMS (Present, Absent, Late, Medical, Substitute) reports and all your referrals back to the beginning of your membership. If you don't have your BNI Connect username and password, go to your local director to get them. To learn more about BNI Connect, visit support.bniconnect.com. Listen to Episode 275, Expanding Your Global Footprint. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 277 - 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: I am doing great, Priscilla, and I like to tell members where I am at because I don't want people to think that I am sitting in my ivory tower somewhere not doing anything. I want to let them know that I go out and visit regions all the time. This week, I am on my way to Las Vegas for the US Membership Extravaganza. Winners from the Extravaganza get to meet with me in Vegas and I'll do a presentation. It's really the fun part of my job. I get to meet as many members as possible. If you are one of the members who won. Priscilla: Great. Ivan: I have back from popular demand Jeremy Walsh, who is the Director of Support and Training for BNI Connect. He and his BNI Connect team help people get connected worldwide through BNI's exclusive online social media platform. As you may recall, he was on the podcast just a couple of weeks ago. He has been a member of BNI in Rhode Island for more than 10 years. He has been a Director in the region and he's the owner of Right Click, which is a computer support and networking company. Jeremy is outstanding in that field. Jeremy, it is great to have you back on the show. Jeremy: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here again. Ivan: Today we are going to talk about five power tips to boost your ROI with BNI Connect. If you don't know that ROI stands for, it stands for return on investment. You may recall that just last week, I did a blog on why BNI, which is all about a survery that was done talking about what is your return on investment in BNI? I think this is a great topic today, Jeremy, talking about your return on investment using BNI Connect. You have five tips. Share with us what those 5 tips are. Jeremy: Sure. In our previous podcast, we talked a lot about VCP. One of the first things that you should do as soon as you get on BNI Connect is update your profile. That is power tip number one. Get in there and update all the information about yourself so that when people find you, you actually have a public face to put out there. A very quick story about that. I had a referral walk into my office a couple of months back. Literally, I was sitting here typing on my computer. He said, “Listen. I need a referral to a bookkeeper.” I said that is awesome. I have somebody in our chapter. I went to our website, pulled up this person's profile and it was empty.

Synopsis Today's episode is based on an article Dr. Misner wrote for SuccessNet a few months ago. BNI Merseyside in the UK hired an independent firm (Murray Consulting) to conduct a survey on the value of BNI membership. Here are the results of th...

Synopsis Jeremy Walsh of  Rhode Island/SE Mass BNI, who runs BNI Connect Global Support, joins Dr. Misner today to talk about how BNI Connect fits into the VCP process. By actively participating in BNI Connect, BNI's own social network, local businesses can create global networks. Visibility You can connect to other chapters in your region, nationally, and internationally, just by logging into BNI Connect. Credibility Being a BNI member gives you credibility with other BNI members in the BNI Connect network. You can also leave testimonials for other members. Profitability BNI Connect receives testimonials on a daily basis from BNI members who have been able to pass business to each other around the world. Search BNI Connect before you search Google when looking for overseas service providers. If you haven't joined BNI Connect yet, get your username and password from your executive director and log in at www.bniconnectglobal.com. If your region is not yet on BNI Connect, talk to your executive director to find out when your group will be added. Need help? Go to support.bniconnect.com and sign up for a webinar to learn more about how to use this tool. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 275 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am doing great, and this week I am in Hong Kong visiting BNI chapters there. I love Hong Kong and had a lot of fun last time I was here. There are some amazing BNI members here in Hong Kong. Priscilla: That's exotic. Ivan: It is, actually. With me today, I have a guest, Jeremy Walsh. Jeremy is the Director of Support, Training and Documentation for BNI Connect Global. Together with his BNI Connect team, they help people get connected through BNI's exclusive online social media platform. Jeremy has been a member of the BNI Wakefield chapter in Rhode Island for over ten years and also serves as a Director in the region. He's also the owner of Right Click, which is a computer support networking company. He and his company dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I love that, Jeremy. Jeremy, welcome to the podcast. Jeremy: Thanks very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Ivan: I have to say on a personal note, you are doing the training and BNI Connect had a rough introduction, and there were a lot of bugs that had to be worked out. I have to say for however frustrated people were with BNI Connect, they love working with you and your team. I remember a Director saying, “BNI Connect is driving me crazy, but I really like Jeremy. He's so wonderful to walk through and teach us how to do this.” So thank you for all of your efforts with BNI connect. I am a real believer. I believe it is a great way to really exemplify the concept of local business, global network. You listening to this podcast can be a local business, but by actively participating in BNI Connect can create a global network. That's what you are going to talk about today, Jeremy. You have, I think, an interesting concept. You want to take the concept of VCP process and talk about how BNI Connect fits the VCP process, which is visibility, credibility, and profitability. So let's start with visibility. Jeremy, where does BNI Connect fit in with visibility? Jeremy: The great thing about BNI Connect and your visibility is that it really helps you on all levels with your visibility in BNI because from a chapter level, you can connect to other chapters just by using BNI Connect. From a region that you have easy access to- getting in touch with people in your state,

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 105. Synopsis Until recently, Dr. Misner assumed that if he made an appointment with someone, he was going to be there, but there seems to be an emerging trend requiring people to confirm the appointment closer to the...