The Official BNI Podcast

Synopsis Mike Macedonio joins Dr. Misner this week to talk about “Networking Up.” We tend to network with people like ourselves or people who are less successful than we are. This is where we feel comfortable, but if everyone brings people at the same level into the network, over time the network will weaken. Instead, we should look for opportunities to “network up” and connect with people who are more successful than we are. Networking Up Doesn’t Mean Excluding Your Current Network When you make connections to successful people, look for opportunities to invite members of your current network to meet them, or to invite these new connections to your other networks. Where to Network Up It’s not just the yacht club and the country club. Successful people are often charitable people, so service organizations like Rotary and charity fundraisers are great opportunities to meet them. Professional associations can also introduce you to people who have progressed further than you have in your profession. How to Network Up Networking up is not about sucking up. Networking is always about helping others as a way of growing your business. No matter how much more successful the other person is, there will be something they need help with. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 530- Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you today? Ivan:I am doing great, Priscilla, and it was really great to see you recently. I saw you at the [chapter] recently. I was in the general Bay Area on another and I reached out to the chapter and was able to drop in. What a great group and it was fantastic having you there. I really enjoyed it. I get to see you so seldom. That was wonderful. It was great to connect with you. I have a guest today. A really good friend of mine. The idea for this podcast, in our article, actually came from him. Mike Macadonio. Mike started with BNI 20 years ago. 20 Years! This is his 20 anniversary with BNI. He started in the region on the east coast and is now in the Bay Area. Priscilla, you know Mike well. Priscilla: I do. Ivan: In addition, Mike is the Co-Founder, with me, of Asentive, a coaching and consulting company and he is also the co-author for two of my books. Both best selling books “Truth or Delusion” and “World’s Best Known Marketing Secret” the fourth edition. Mike, it’s really a pleasure to have you on my podcast. Mike: It’s great to be on, Ivan. Many greetings from all the folks here at Asentive, in Milan with many of your fans. I keep talking about your visit here two years ago. So, I pass on all of your best wishes. Ivan: I had a blast there. The members from BNI are awesome. The trainers and clients from Asentive are amazing. Please tell them I said hi. We are talking today about networking up and [its] three points. I want to get to those three points but we want to talk about the scary part of networking up and then we will talk about some key points where to network up and how to network up. Mike: The scary part that I see is, naturally we tend to network with people like ourself, with the same level of success. Success is many different things. We tend to network with people like ourselves ...

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 307. Synopsis Dr. Misner has used the expression “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast” a number of times, but he’s never gone into detail about how. Today’s podcast focuses on the importance of culture in business success. Here are some important factors in a healthy organizational culture: * Tradition * Mission * Engagement * Recognition * Education A great strategy keeps people in the game, but a great culture helps an organization win. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 307 – 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, which is 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 this week, Priscilla. Thank you very much. Priscilla: What are you going to share with us? Ivan: You know, I have talked a lot in a number of podcasts that culture eats strategy for breakfast and used tuhat expression a number of times. I have never really gotten into the detail of talking about how. How does culture eat strategy for breakfast. So that is what today’s podcast is going to be about. I think this is particularly important. Not only for BNI businesses and where they live or their BNI chapter is. I think a lot of business schools talk about strategy and it tends to be their primary focus. Culture is really a lot less understood. Culture involves a variety of contributing factors including a blend of attitudes, beliefs, missions, philosophy- any momentum to help create and sustain a successful brand or organization. Culture really affects how people within an organization interact. This is true not only for the macro approach of an organization but for the micro approach- the individual chapter of BNI as well as BNI as a worldwide organization. I think culture is key for an organization’s longterm success. It’s the most important thing in an organization. It applies at all levels, from the top all the way down. There are a number of factors that I believe go into building a healthy organizational culture. That is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about what those are. It starts with tradition. Tradition is what made the company what it is. They tell the world who they are as an organization by the tradition that they celebrate. One way for an organization to maintain the organizational culture and egos is to introduce and celebrate a variety of traditions. I think Disney, in particular, has been a master of this concept by training all new employees on the traditions of the organization. A strong tradition applied to an organization is one of the best ways to maintain a healthy organizational culture. That is why when I train every Director and Director Consultant in BNI, we spend several hours just on BNI’s traditions. It is part of the core training that we do as an organization. If you take a look at the book, Givers Gain, one of the chapters of the book, Chapter 10, the BNI story, is about BNI’s traditions. It is really inculcated into the organization. It’s one of the things that nobody talks about in business school. The second is mission. A burning mission can really give laser focus to an organization. The mission statement needs to be short and memorable. It needs to be sort of a rallying cry for people throughout the organization.

Synopsis We have two similar Ask Ivan questions today. Diana asks “What’s the best way to grow and optimize my network, and how many networks are too many?” Justyna asks “How much time does it take to create strong visibility and credibility in the BNI organization, and how do you go about doing that?” How Many Networks? Dr. Misner advises belonging to one of each of these four kinds of networks, rather than multiples of any one of them. Go deep and build relationships in each of them. * Casual contact networks (like chambers of commerce) * Strong contact networks (like BNI) * Community organizations (service clubs like Rotary or Kiwanis) * Knowledge networks (professional organizations) How Long Does It Take? It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, it takes a certain amount of time before people have confidence in your business. To be above average, you want to spend about 8 hours a week on networking. Expect it to take at least 6 months to establish confidence–and also expect the number of referrals you get to increase every year if you invest time in networking and 1-2-1s. You can find more about both these topics in Dr. Misner’s books Networking Like a Pro and World’s Best-Known Marketing Secret. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 528 – Priscilla: This is part of the Ask Ivan series. If you have a question for Ivan, we have created a new link on the podcast web page. Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you ? Ivan: I am on my way to Miami for a couple of things. We have a couple of regions that have done a membership drive. They have a BNI event on a cruise, so I am headed to a cruise out of Miami and then I am going to stick around for a day and do a BNI event out of Miami. Priscilla: That all sounds really fun. Ivan: Yeah. It is a great way to meet members. Love it. It is a fun part of my job. Priscilla: What is this topic that you have brought up here? Ivan: This is an Ask Ivan podcast and we have two questions that are really somewhat similar and I thought I would talk about them. The first question is from Diana. Diana asks, “What is the best way to grow and optimize my network, and how many networks are too many networks?” Great question, Dianna. Justyna – I hope I am pronouncing that right – asks, “How much time does it take on average to create strong visibility and credibility in the BNI organization, and how do I go about doing that?” So I have kind of narrowed that to how many groups and how much time? [These] are basically the questions that I am going to address. First of all, let’s deal with Dianna’s topics. How many networks are too many networks. I recommend you go to a couple of different books, one of these two. Either Networking Like a Pro or The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret. You will see in both if them that I talk about the different streams of a netwtork. There are four of five streams. Let me mention four of them today: casual contact networks,

Synopsis Dr. Misner is very active on social media and thinks it’s great for brand-building. But for most businesses, social media does not replace all other forms of marketing. Unless you’re in an Internet-related business, social media doesn’t generate referrals in the way that face-to-face networking does. The 2011 Freelance Industry Report survey found that networking-related activities generated 69.5% of freelancers’ business. Social media generated only 2.8% of business. Yet social media ranked #1 in terms of activities that freelancers planned to focus on in the following year. Despite that professed intention, the 2012 Freelance Industry Report survey showed that social media still only accounted for 2.8% of freelancers’ business, with networking generating 74.3%. But social media was still the #1 activity that freelancers planned to engage in the following year. Put your effort into the place that your business is coming from. If that’s social media, invest in social media. But if it’s face-to-face networking, invest in that. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 527 – 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, and I have a fun topic today, or an interesting topic. Will social media replace face-to-face networking? I need to start off by saying I love social media. I am really active on social media, particularly Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I have found that social media is fantastic [for] brand building. I also believe that social media will not replace all marketing efforts for most entrepreneurs and salespersons. In fact, here is the controversial part. In fact, for many businesses, it just does not generate the majority of their business. I know that there are people out there right now who are officially apoplectic, my social media coordinator in particular. Brian, I love you man. This isn’t about what you do. I want everyone to take a deep breath. Know that I love you, involved in social media- and that I love social media. It is a fantastic tool. It’s a fantastic tool for me to retain my audience and keep everyone engaged. It is a fantastic brand builder. I have also seen the marketing data. Social media, I believe, is great for brand building but it doesn’t necessarily generate referrals unless you are in the Internet business of some kind. So unless you are in the Internet business of some kind, then it doesn’t replace social media. If you don’t believe me, let’s look at the data. Here is a great example of a couple of reports. One sent me back from 2011 and one from a couple years after that. In 2011, the Freelance Industry Report did a really thorough survey of the industry. One of the many questions they asked was, “What has been your most effective method of finding and landing clients?” Four out of the five answers were all networking related. Word of mouth, referrals, personal professional network, local networking activities – these added up to 69.5% of all business development from the respondent. Almost 70% of all the business they got came from networking or word of mouth refe...

Synopsis If you’re going to succeed at networking, you need to play well with others. Just as you couldn’t always choose who came to the playground when you were a child, you don’t always get a say in who your fellow BNI members are. You don’t have to like everybody in BNI. Almost every chapter contains a “jerk,” but that’s not a reason to leave. Don’t let other people control your success. Tolerance is a highly-used word and an under-used practice. Here are 5 things to consider when you’re talking to someone you think is a jerk. (We’ll call him or her “J” for short.) * Listen without arguing. * Ask questions that will give you more insight. * Show interest in their point of view. You don’t have to agree in order to show interest. * If you can, get them to focus on solutions. Problems are easy. It takes real smarts to identify realistic solutions. * Clear, open, and honest communication is the best way to deal with “J.” Here are 6 things to be aware of when there’s a “J” in your group: * Make yourself invaluable to the group by focusing on solutions. * Stay clear of chapter drama and rise above the situation. * Don’t complain; be positive. * Stay aware of your emotions. * Use your support team. * Be a leader, not a leaver. Dysfunctional people are really challenging. Dr. Misner recommends reading The Triangle of Truth: The Surprisingly Simple Secret to Resolving Conflicts Large and Small by Lisa Earle McLeod. Lisa explains the secret to dealing with crazy people without letting them make you crazy. Don’t just walk away because somebody else is a “J”. This is your group and your success. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 526 – 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 fantastic, Priscilla, and I have a topic today that will take every bit of my time, so I am just going to jump right in if that is okay. I was talking to a really good Executive Director recently and he said he had a member who left because – and these were her exact words, Priscilla – “because there is a member in our chapter that is a jerk.” That is why she left the chapter. So that is what I want to talk about today. Here is the primary message. Don’t let other people control your success. Networking is a marathon. It is not a sprint. It’s a long game. I don’t know if you remember, Priscilla, in elementary school in North America- I have a lot of listeners from around the world. I would love to hear if other countries had the same kind of thing in their elementary school. In elementary school in North America, we would get a thing in our report card where they would grade you on your ability to play well with others. Do you remember that? Priscilla: Yes, definitely. Ivan: I didn’t always get a good grade on that, by the way. It took a lot of work. So your ability to play well with others applies even in adulthood. You can’t always choose who comes to the playground and you don’t always get a say in who your fellow BNI members are.

Synopsis Desperation is not referrable. When people demonstrate these kinds of behaviors, it’s a telltale sign of desperation. Watch out for these four types of desperate networkers. * Card Dealer. This person darts around the room passing out cards, instead of spending time getting to know people. They think networking is a numbers game. * Space Violator. This person thinks that the closer he gets to you, the more you’ll be interested in what he’s saying. It has the opposite effect. In North America, stand at roughly arm’s length when talking to people. * Premature Solicitation.This person dives right into selling without trying to get to know you. These people are the reason many people don’t like to go to networking events. * The New Best Friend. These people engage in follow-up that verges on stalking: they call, they email, they send you private messages, all with the intent to sell you something. Have you identified other desperate networkers? Share them in the comments. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube.   Complete transcript of episode 525 – 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 fantastic, Priscilla, and today we are going to talk about desperate networkers. Four desperate networkers. Sounds kind of fun, don’t you think? Priscilla: It does. It is almost like a cowboy episode or something. Ivan: So, desperation is not referrable. It’s hard to refer people who come across as desperate. Over the years, I have seen people that behaved a certain way so I just kind of created categories for them. I have been writing about it, and I thought that it would make a great podcast. When people demonstrate these kinds of behaviors as part of their networking efforts it is kind of a telltale sign of desperation or possible desperation. So here are four types of behaviors that I think desperate networkers exhibit. One, card dealer. This is probably the most common form of desperation that I have seen over the years. The card dealer is a person who darts around the room and passes out cards like they are at a poker table. They don’t spend any time really getting to know anyone unless they think they can get something from them. To the card dealer, networking is mostly a numbers game; the more people they can pass their cards to, the better they are going to do. Or at least they think the better that they are going to do. Card dealers tend to have a network that is a mile wide and an inch deep because they don’t spend time building relationships. It never works. It never, ever works in the long run and they just look inexperienced, frazzled, and yes, in fact, desperate. That’s the first one. Do you like the first one? Card dealer? Priscilla: I do. I like the first one. Ivan: Have you seen them before? Priscilla: Oh yeah Ivan: I see them all the time, it’s really funny. Second, the space violator. So the space violator is the guy who thinks the closer he gets while he is talking to you, the more Interested you will be in what he is saying. Yeah, no. Not true. In fact, it has the opposite effect, especially if his breath has the aroma of a smelly camel, right? And how many times?

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 289, where you can find many comments from BNI members. Synopsis This week John Meyer, U.S. National Director of Field Affairs for BNI and Executive Director of BNI Ohio, joins Dr. Misner on the podcast to talk about the Thank You for Closed Business (TYCB) system, which measures the business passed between BNI members. Why do we report closed business on TYCB slips? * We want to thank the people who give us referrals that turn into business and provide recognition. * We want to make sure that members pass qualified referrals. * We want to maintain accountability within the chapter.  What is reported on TYCB slips? This varies by type of business, but in general it’s the gross income to the BNI member as the result of the referral. For more details, click here to download the “Thank You for Closed Business” Explanation PDF. How is TYCB reported? You can either fill out a green TYCB slip at a meeting or online through BNI Connect, where you can also track your own closed business. If you are not on BNI Connect, or if the Member Module has not been enabled in your region, talk to your Executive Director. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 289 – 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 special guest with us here today, John Meyer. John is the US National Director for BNI. He is also the Executive Director for BNI Ohio, where he has under his management 150 chapters of BNI throughout Ohio with roughly 35 members. John is a contributing author to the NY Times bestselling Masters of Networking. He is an avid golfer and loves to travel. He is married to his lovely wife, whom I have met many times, Victoria. He has three stepchildren. John is on the Board of Directors for Davis College in Toledo, and he is also a member of the Business Industry Advisory Council in Ohio and has been involved with BNI now for almost 20 years. I get so excited when I see Directors and members who have been on that length of time. John, this is the first podcast that you are on. It’s a real pleasure to have you on. Thank you for all you do for BNI. You’ve made a big difference in the organization. John: Thanks Ivan. It’s good to be here. I am looking forward to this. Ivan: We have an interesting topic today. The topic is “thank you for closed business.” Some chapters may see it occasionally as TYFCB. That stands for thank you for closed business. For those groups, and there are some, who haven’t started using this process, can you start, John, by just telling everyone briefly what is the thank you for closed business system? John: I will. I would love to educate some people on this. This is a very near and dear topic to me. Thank you for closed business is simply a mechanism that we use in BNI to track closed business between members. We have a slips program that we can talk about, but ultimately, this is the way that we track how successful our members are in passing referrals. Ivan: Measuring is important.

Synopsis Mickey Griffith joins Dr. Misner today to share his tips for making connections when you’re new to an area and don’t have an established network. He just moved to Sacramento after 20 years in Sonoma County and has used all these tools himself. * Trust in the system. Join a BNI chapter in your new region and follow the program. * Network. In addition to BNI, join at least one other network, such as a chamber of commerce or rotary club. Make sure they are groups that you’ll be able to contribute to. * Aim high. Ask for a one-to-one with your regional director and other people in the “upper echelons” of business. These approaches aren’t just for people who’ve just moved into a new area or a new field: they work for everyone. Do you have something you’d like to add to Mickey’s list? Leave your suggestions in the comments on this podcast. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 523 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: I am doing great. I am in Galveston this week taking a few days off. I have a guest on today’s podcast, Mickey Griffith, Mickey has been in marketing for 20 years, so not new in marketing. He has some ideas that I think will help BNI members. He has been a BNI member for nine years, an associate of BNI almost nine years.He has had almost every leadership team role including President and Director Consultant. He is presently with Ascentive. He has been with Ascentive as a coach and consultant for six years and has been in the top three in the US for franchises of Ascentive for a number of years. Mickey, close to BNI Podcast. Mickey: Thank you very much. Ivan: Yeah, thanks. It is good to have you here. So when you are new to an area and I bet that some of these techniques that you are going good to share are good for people who aren’t new to an area. But let’s say that you are new to an area or are new to a particular network. What should you do? What is y our advice? Mickey: Well, this came about because I am actually really brand new to an area right now. My wife and I actually picked up and moved after 20 plus years in Sonoma county and moved to Sacramento. And I find myself suddenly being without a network, so to speak. Sacramento is pretty close to Sonoma county so I still have some people with some basic connections here but there have been a few things that have been super helpful or things that I am staying focused on that will bring me up to speed quicker than average. The first one is I would say to trust in the system. What I mean by that is you can go out and try to reinvent the wheel, create a new network and those kind of things, but I went direct to BNI because I know BNI works. I did a lot of homework first by way of the Internet by way of BNI Connect and BNI.com and I checked out the region here which is a fantastic region. And I looked through a lot of the BNI chapter rosters and made sure to do my homework. Then so I wasn’t wasting their time or my time, I made sure that my category was open. Then primarily, when I looked at the chapter that I am at, I made sure that my contact sphere was well-attended and that was a big deal for me.

Synopsis Special Note: This podcast was recorded prior to Hurricane Harvey hitting the Texas coast near Galveston.  David Clegg joins Dr. Misner this week to talk about the value of visitors in BNI. Visitors pass referrals to BNI members, whether or not they join. The average Thank You for Closed Business for a visitor in BNI is $1000. If everyone in every BNI chapter brought one visitor per month, the average chapter would experience a bump in TCYB of $330,480. (Numbers come from BNI Connect.) The average member would experience an average of $12,000 in additional thank-you-for-closed-business from visitors. If you follow the Power of One, as discussed in Episode 517, you’ll increase your bottom line considerably. One of the easiest ways to invite visitors is to use the acronym GRIP: Do you want to GROW your business? Would REFERRALS help? Are you INTERESTED in …? Here’s the PLACE we meet. If you invite visitors on a regular basis, your chapter will grow and thrive, and so will your own business. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 522 – Priscilla: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the official BNI podcast. Brought to you by The Networking Success channel on YouTube. Which features Dr. Ivan Misner and other key experts. I’m Priscilla Rice and I’m coming to you from Liveoak Recording Studio in Berkeley California. I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chief visionary officer oh BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan! How are you and where are you? Ivan: I am in Galveston. I’ve got a little vacation getaway condo in Galveston. So I am working this week and will be taking vacation next week, but I will still have a podcast next week. Today, I have a guest. It’s a very interesting story. My guest today is David Clegg. David had]s been with BNI for seven years, and he manages 6 chapters for BNI- He and I launched a chapter this year. David is going to talk about the value of a visitor and the power of one really impacts the amount of business being generated in a chapter. But, before you jump into that, David, welcome to my podcast! David: Thank you! Ivan: You have a great story as to what you do. Do you want to share that with everyone? I love the way you put it. David: Well, thank you. I tell people all the time that I work for my 18 year old daughter. My daughter when she was nine years old- of course she just graduated from high school this year, but when she was nine she asked me for spending money, and I told her no. I said I’ll never give you spending money, but I will teach you how to earn it! So we went around the neighborhood looking for dogs to walk, knocked on every door, and someone is going to pay you to walk their dog –  which she was surprised by. So she started walking dogs through the neighborhood, then we started watching dogs in the house, and about eight years after that, we now have- well what’s  been 10 year fully, we have a 12,000 square foot facility and we do doggy day care, boarding, grooming, training, and pet photography. It is called, appropriately, Alley’s Walkabout. That’s the name of my daughter, and she has 27 employees. Ivan: That’s an amazing story, David! Thanks for sharing, I really appreciate it. David: I’m real proud of her. Ivan: Yeah, I bet you are! And for good reason, my friend! So, talks to me a little about the power of one and the importance of visitors. David: Well the value of visitors, I believe, cannot be overstated.

Synopsis Dr. Misner first discussed The Misner Plan in Episode 336, after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. At that time, he published a quick-and-dirty Kindle book called The Misner Plan. Now, he and his wife have collaborated with a professional chef and a medical doctor to create a new book called Healing Begins in the Kitchen. So why talk about a health book on a networking podcast? Because you can’t go to meetings, you can’t get referrals, and you can’t do any business if you’re sick. If you want to be successful in business, you have to be successful in health. Here are five changes that Dr. Misner made at work to boost his health and that of his team. You can too. * Install a hot and cold water filtration system instead of drinking bottled water, to avoid BPAs from plastic. * Get as many people in the office as you can engaged in a health plan of some sort. * Always provide healthy alternatives at staff lunches and celebrations. * Start a walking club at the office, or even a contest to see who can walk furthest in 60 days. Encourage people to bike to work. * Do creative things to keep morale high and reduce stress. By making these changes to his diet and exercise, Dr. Misner lost 40 pounds in 3 months. You can see before and after pictures on the Misner Plan Facebook Page. Proceeds from the book are being donated to health research. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 521 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi, Priscilla. I am home in Austin this week, sitting up in my library looking over at Lake Austin.   Priscilla: How nice. Ivan: Today we are talking about the Misner Plan revisited. if anyone does a search on the podcast, you will see that episode 336 we did the Misner Plan. That was based on my diagnosis back in 2012 actually with prostate cancer. I just changed my diet and went into complete remission, never had to do surgery or radiation or chemotherapy. Everybody kept asking, “What did you do?” I did a down and dirty kindle book. It was published in 2013. It’s called the Misner Plan. But we spent a few years, Priscilla, because people have asked for more information. By the way, I am still in remission. It. Has been five and a half years. Priscilla: Fantastic. Ivan: I think so too. Still in remission, haven’t had to do radiation, chemotherapy or surgery. Most of the change that I made were simple things like what I ate daily and exercise. When people really asked for me to expand on that and to have a recipe book, if you would have ever told me that I was going to write a recipe book, I would have said you’re insane because as a rule, I burn water. So my wife is an amazing chef and we partnered up with a professional chef and a medical doctor. And we just finished a book called Healing Begins in the Kitchen.

This episode is a rebroadcast of Episode 249. Synopsis Tim Paulin from BNI Louisiana Mississipi joins Dr. Misner this week to discuss the four pillars of a successful BNI group: * Many (4-7) visitors or guests at each meeting. Not all of them have to qualify to join: bring people who can do business with members. * A well-run professional meeting. Pay special attention to the hidden elements. (See Episode 9 and Episode 16 for more about these.) * Follow-up post meeting. The leadership team needs to follow up with visitors and guests, and members need to follow up about the business they’ve passed. * Accountability for the chapter members. One of the most important parts of accountability is attendance, and it’s up to the membership committee to maintain this. If you can do these four things well, you’ll have a successful chapter. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 249 – 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’m doing great. I got to do a webcam with your chapter recently. I really appreciate the opportunity to do that. Priscilla: That was really fun. They loved it. So thank you. Ivan: I do that with a lot of- usually regional- events, but Priscilla- She’s my lady. I have to do that for her chapter itself. I do it for a lot of regional and sometimes chapter visitors days. Talk to your local director if you would like me to do some kind of webcam like I did with Priscilla’s chapter. Priscilla: Oh yeah. I highly recommend it. So who is with us today, Ivan? Ivan: A good friend of mine. Just to answer the second part of your question, I am in San Diego this week. As the listeners know, I like to let members know that I am out visiting regions and trying to meet as many members as possible. If I come to your area, please come visit and say hello because I love to meet BNI members. I have with me today Tim Paulin. Tim is the Executive Director for BNI in LA and MS. He and his team manage over 50 BNI groups. He is the US National Training Director and has been doing that for about 7 years. Tim went to the University of New Orleans focusing on business administration. He is a native of New Orleans. He currently resides there with his lovely wife Elizabeth, whom I know. My wife is Elizabeth as well, so don’t confuse the two. But he and his wife have twin boys, God bless you. Tim is a great trainer and a good friend. His topic today is the four pillars of the successful BNI group. Welcome to the podcast, Tim. Tim: Thank you. Ivan I appreciate it. You know, Ivan, when we first announced that we were having twins, you looked at me and said, “Sleep now because you won’t once they are born.”Man, you were right. I haven’t slept in 8 years. Ivan: I know, it’s really bad. Then when they become teenagers, believe it or not, it’s even worse. Tim: I’ll have to wait for that. We are going to talk today about the four pillars of the successful BNI group. Ivan: Let me just throw the four out there and then you ...

Synopsis A few years ago, Dr. Misner had a fundamental disagreement with a networking expert in Europe. This person believed that networking is a numbers game: that the quantity of people in your network matters more than the quality of people in your network. Quantity is important, but networking is not so much a numbers game as a people puzzle, one that works by making connections between other people. You need to have a wide set of contacts, but your connections need to go deep. It’s not just who you know, but how well you know them. If you know your connections well enough to be able to call and ask for a favor–and get it–that is a powerful network. Quantity is good, but quality truly is king. BNI works by building deep connections within a comparatively small group of people: the members of that chapter. Share your experiences with quality connections in the comments. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 519 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: I am at my home in Austin, Texas. I am in my library overlooking Lake Austin. It is a beautiful day. Priscilla: That sounds great. Ivan: So today I am going to talk about quantity versus quality. I have a story, I think that the listeners might be interested in. A few years ago, I had a really good conversation with a good friend who was really considered a networking expert in Europe. He did a lot of work with online networking or social networks. During this conversation, we got into a fundamental disagreement on the subject of networking. He believed that networking was first and foremost a numbers game. He said the more people that you are connected to, the better your network. Now, at first, I went along with him. I agreed with him that the number of people in your network was in fact very important. I then said, though, that the only thing more important than the quantity of the people was the quality of the people in your network. Suddenly, our paths diverged. He said that the quality of the people in your network doesn’t make a difference and that it was a numbers game. To this day, I steadfastly disagree with him. Networking isn’t a numbers game. It is more like a people puzzle. It is more about building relationships with the close people in your network. That means is is about finding ways to interconnect relationships you have to build a powerful personal network. Now, in order to do that, you actually have to have a fair number of relationships, so quantity is important. Don’t listen to this and say, “Yeah, Ivan says quantity isn’t important.” Quantity is important but you have to go deep with many of those relationship and that is why I created an organization, BNI, where you could really go deep and build quality relationships within that sea of contacts that you have. So if your network is a mile wide and an inch deep, you will never be successful. Instead, your network needs to be wide and, in places, deep. That means you need to have a wide set of contacts, but some of those need to be connections that really go deep so that the quality of your network is just as important, if not more important, than the quantity of your network. Again, this doesn’t mean that quantity isn’t important. It is important.

Synopsis Would you like to substantially increase the number of referrals that your BNI chapter generates? If so, listen. Years ago, a chapter president wanted to prove to Dr. Misner that attendance had no effect on the number of referrals passed. After 6 months, absenteeism dropped by 71%. Referrals went up 62% and membership went up 50%. A second chapter tried the same experiment. After 9 months, absences decreased by 53%, referrals went up 164%, and membership grew by 90%. If your chapter is lax on attendance, it’s going to affect your pocketbook. Listen to Episode 490 for more data that supports the role attendance plays in membership growth and referrals passed. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 518 – Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you this week? Ivan: I just got back from a visit to the Tucson BNI region. I love that region, I’ve been there several times. It was great to be back! Priscilla: Good! What is this podcast about? Ivan: So the title of the podcast is, “Want more referrals? Show up!” So here is a question to everyone in BNI listening to this podcast or reading the transcript; Would you like to have a substantially increase in the number of referrals that your BNI chapter generate? If you answered yes, listen up, here’s how. Years ago, many years ago, I had a chapter president call me with a proposition. He said his chapter felt that the attendance policy was a hassle and they didn’t believe it made any difference in referrals. As a matter of fact, he said he felt it was actually a drawback to membership. So, I told him I didn’t create the policy, it was created by a board or advisers which is made up exclusively of BNI members. He said his group- and I’m not making this up, wanted to test something out. They wanted to show me and the board, that the attendance had no impact on referrals and it had no impact of membership. None. Priscilla, I know you’re chuckling, but at that point I was not because we did not have hard data back then. I’m like “okay, fine.” This attendance thing is driving me nuts. Anyway, so he asked me if I would publish the findings in our newsletter, and ask the board to reconsider this policy if they could document that it made no difference. I happily agreed to both. So, they used the prior quarter as their baseline and they began focusing on improving attendance starting with the next month. It is important to note that this during this time they did nothing else other than improve attendance. They really didn’t focus on anything else other than improving attendance. Now, I’m going to include a couple of graphics in this podcast and it will show some of the data that I’m talking about here, so that you can visually see the graphics. So, they used the prior quarter. Then for six months, they looked at it on a quarter-by-quarter basis, they did it for six months. So, what were their results? Well, they decreased their absences, they had a 0.7 absences per member month. So roughly every member missed a meeting every other month, roughly. And in their first quarter, they dropped their absenteeism by 52% – so a big drop in absenteeism.

Synopsis Graphic communicator Colin Horner joins Dr. Misner on the BNI Podcast today to talk about the Power of 1 drives chapter performance in BNI: * One chapter education unit per week * One chapter meeting per week * One 1-2-1 per week * One referral per week * One visitor per member per month All of these things are measurable. You achieve what you measure. Watch this case study of a chapter in Johannesburg to see The Power of 1 in action. You can find more of Colin’s videos on his YouTube channel. Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Complete Transcript of Episode 517 Priscilla: Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you ? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am at a Transformational Leadership Council meeting in Arizona this week. The Transformational Leadership Council is an organization put together by Jack Canfield, and I always get great content that I can use in BNI at these meetings. I am here for several days. It’s exciting. Priscilla: That sounds great. So who do you have on the line today? I know you have a guest. Ivan: Yeah, we have a guest. My guest today is Collin Horner. Collin is an almost 10 year member of BNI in Johannasburg, South Africa. I have been to Jo-burg, I think, twice. I love South Africa, and Collin has been a member for 10 years. He has a graphic recording and graphic facilitation [business]. He helps people sell their products and services through visual messages. He calls himself a graphic communicator. He helps people communicate their stories with pictures. The reason I invited him to be on the podcast today is that he has been giving and giving and giving to me and to BNI with these incredible graphics that he is doing about BNI and the processes that we use, like the GAINS Exchange and VCP. He always has these amazing graphics. I finally said, you know what? I need to give back a little to Collin here. Let’s bring him on the podcast so that we can give exposure to what he is doing [for] many people, particularly as it related to BNI. And for the educational content, we are using the power of one in today’s podcast. We will have a graphic here so if you are listening to this on your computer, you can see the graphic. If you are listening to this in your car or on a mobile device, take a look at the website so you can see the graphic. Collin, welcome to BNI Podcast, and talk to us a little bit about the power of one and how you visualize that. Collin: Thank you, Ivan, and it is great to join you on this podcast. Just as you say, I have been a member of BNI for 10 years and a very active member- in fact, a Director Consultant for the last three years. My passion is lifelong learning or education. I found a way of communicating educational content related to the BNI model through simple hand drawn pictures. To use one of your Ivan-isms, “Facts tell and stories sell.” So I sell educational content through simple pictures. Ivan: And we are going to be talking about the power of one today, which is a concept that has been around a while, but you have put it together visually incredibly well. So you want to go through all of the different ones that are part...

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 242. Synopsis This week Bob Burg, author of It’s Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business, joins Dr. Misner in honor of International Networking Week. Bob reminds us that people only do business with those they know, like, and trust. While they might do business with you for a while if they don’t like you, as soon as they find a competitor they like better, they’ll switch. Trust puts you ahead nine steps in a ten-step process. People need to trust both your character and your competence. Competence is in greater supply than character, so your character has great economic value. It’s also important to understand the difference between price and value. Value is what brings worth to a product or service—the reason people are glad to exchange their money for it. We need to give our clients more in value than they pay in money. So if it’s not about you, who is it about? It’s about those whose lives you choose to benefit. You can download the introductory chapter to this book and 3 others at www.burg.com. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 242 – 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 at BNI HQ this week because it is International Networking Week. It was started by BNI. It was an initiative of BNI’s. We started it a few years ago. If you are listening to this podcast, go to InternationalNetworkingWeek.com. You can find out more about it. We have as a guest on the podcast this week- I can’t think of a better guest to have than Bob Burg. Bob shares information on topics that are vital to success for today’s business person. He regularly addresses audiences of anywhere from 50 to tens of thousands of people. He was for many years known for his book, Endless Referrals. But over the past few years, his business parable, The Go Giver, authored by John David Man, has really captured the attention of readers. Of course, any book called the Go Giver has to resonate with BNI members and our philosophy of Givers Gain. Bob has another book, It’s Not About You. Hopefully, we’ll have some time to chat about that. He has been on a number of best sellers’ lists including the Wall Street Journal. He and John David released their newest book, which is a parable focusing on influence and it called It’s Not About You. Bob is an advocate and supporter of the free enterprise system and has been a real friend to BNI. He is one of a few people who have written books on networking that I highly recommend. You have to go out and buy one or all of his books on business networking. I promise you it integrates very well into what we do in BNI. Bob, welcome to the BNI podcast. Bob: Hey Ivan, it’s so great to be with you. Thank you for having me. Ivan: If anyone wonders, wow, Bob has a great voice, that’s because you used to do television, didn’t you, Bob? Bob: Yes. Enough people said that I had a great face for radio that I had to get out of television. Ivan: That’s not true. That’s not true at all. But very funny. So, Bob, every book you write,