Summary: Synopsis Dr. Misner has a new title: Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, and today he's providing a 60,000-foot view of the future of BNI. Yes, "Chief Visionary Officer" is a real title. It's an office established to work beside other senior executives. As Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Misner will be focusing on brand-building activities. Be very clear: this is not an exit strategy. This is an engagement strategy. It gives Dr. Misner an opportunity to work in his flame. Look at the chart below. BNI has grown consistently since it's foundation. How many organizations can say that? That growth has resulted even though Dr. Misner has been able to put only part of his time into growing BNI. With the opportunity to devote all of his time to that goal, he expects to achieve great things. The main focus will be on content marketing--something in which BNI already excels. Dr. Misner has produced more than 400 podcasts, 800 blog posts, 150 articles, and 20 books. Look for videos that tell the BNI story throughout the coming year. The 21st book, Avoiding the Networking Disconnect, comes out this year. And there will be an increasing focus on inbound marketing. What else is new? Involving BNI alumni, who are a great source of support for BNI. BNI is also engaging more in cause marketing, which is about demonstrating your social consciousness. 70% of Millennials want to be involved with an organization that supports social causes around the world. One strategy for this is Business Voices; there will be more to come. Finally, Dr. Misner plans to work on the member experience, which is best done by focusing on BNI's core values. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of Episode 408 - Priscilla: Hello everyone 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 to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and, with a new title, the Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am at BNI headquarters in Los Angeles today. Thank you for introducing me with the new title. That was just introduced a few weeks ago online on the social media site. I am now, in fact, the founder and chief visionary officer for the company. For those of you who listen to our podcast regularly, go back and take a look at episode 388. Graham Weihmiller is the new CEO of BNI. I introduced Graham in that podcast. There is a number of things that we are doing with BNI that I think are really exciting. I wanted to do something different. Normally I talk about topics that are really relevant at a chapter level, but I am kind of going at the 60,000 foot level with this podcast. I am talking about BNI from a global organizational perspective. I just want to let members know what is taking place so they hear it directly from me. I did mention this in a video that I put out a few weeks ago in our social media. BNI is moving its headquarters from the west coast in southern California, the Los Angeles area, to the east coast of the United States in Charlotte. We are going to keep an LA area office, a regional office, but we are also opening new offices around the world. We truly are on an expansion mode for the organization and I am moving into the role of Chief Visionary Officer. Priscilla, you asked me one of those things, "Is that a real title? Do people have that?" I have to tell you. That is the first question I had when Graham Weihmiller, the new CEO, suggested that title for me because I had not heard it before. I looked it up. So look it up on Google, everyone. It is, in fact, a real title. It is a function of a company designed to work alongside the other senior executive roles. The title is used to define a high-ranking position alongside the CEO.
