Synopsis -
In This Episode, Dr. Misner Explains The Butterfly Effect and How It Works In The World of Networking

Ivan Has Just Returned From Five Days On Necker Island With Sir Richard Branson

Ivan Has Started A New Blog at Networking.Entrepreneur.com

The Butterfly Effect of Networking Is How An Unsolicited Phone Call Six Years Ago Lead to Ivan Being Invited to Necker Island Last Week

To Maximize The Effectiveness Of Networking You Must Make The Most of Each Relationship You Build Along The Way

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 025 -

Frank Felker:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the official BNI podcast brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for the networking downloadables. I’m Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone today by doctor Ivan Misner, calling in from BNI headquarters in southern California, but I understand that you just recently returned from Necker Island in the Caribbean.

Ivan Misner:
I certainly did. It was quite an experience. I was there for about five days.

Frank:
Isn’t that Sir Branson’s island?

Ivan:
It certainly is. Sir Richard Branson bought the island quite a few years ago and developed it into a hotel. It is actually his home about six months out of the year.

Frank:
Was he there while you were there?

Ivan:
He was there all five days and it was really an amazing experience. It was part of a business seminar that I was invited to with Sir Richard and a number of other really successful business professionals from all over the world. It was really quite exciting to meet him and spend time meeting and networking with these other business professionals.

Frank:
He is an amazing individual. It must have been a great experience for you to be able to spend time with him.

Ivan:
It was a great experience in that led me to write a Blog article or submission on a new blog that I wanted to talk about with the listeners of the podcast. It’s another great way for BNI members to hear directly from me on various issues and points and to post comments about different things. I just started writing a blog for Entrepreneur.com and the blog can be found by going to networking.entrepreneur.com. No WWW in front of it. It is just networking.entrepreneur.com.

Look for the blog that I did just recently called The Butterfly Effect of Networking. I bring that up because I want people to go to the Blog first of all. But it’s really all about my visit to Necker Island.

Frank:
What is the butterfly effect of networking?

Ivan:
You know, my journey to the island to Necker Island is a great example of the butterfly effect of networking. The butterfly effect is a theory that a small action in one place may have a ripple effect that creates a dramatic action in another place. It’s actually based on chaos theory and that the wings of a butterfly flapping can impact something that impacts something that impacts something that impacts something else far away.

This is a great story on this blog entry that I did from Necker Island about butterfly effect and it is almost like a pebble in a pond. Your networking efforts create ripples and they impact other things.

Frank:
How does it impact BNI members with referrals and networking?

Ivan:
I think it’s perfect for networking. For networking, it’s all about how seemingly minor connections or conversations with one person may after many ripples across the network end in a dramatic connection later in the process. I truly lived that out last week in Necker Island.

It all started actually several years ago when I received a phone call from a woman I didn’t know. She was a BNI member who has since become a good friend. Her name is Kim George. Kim asked me if I would be willing to help with the creation of an online networking and social capital community for a coaching organization.

It really took some work to put that together and I was a little hesitant to say yes, but it fir the vision of where I wanted to go in terms of my time. So I did it because it fit the values and direction of the company.

That is where the ripple began almost two and a half for three years ago. That relationship turned into a strategic alliance with a coaching organization which then turned into a speaking engagement for them, which then allowed me to make Jack Canfield at that speaking engagement. Jack, of course, is coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

That led to an invitation from Jack because I had an opportunity to talk to him at length to participate in an international organization that he created called the Transformational Leadership Council, which I have been involved in now for several years. That led me to meeting a woman by the name of Nancy Salzman was the owner of Nexium Training and getting to know Nancy lead to an invitation for my wife and I to spend five days on the breathtakingly beautiful Necker Island where we met with financial wizards, business and movie producers and people like Sir Richard. That is a great example of the butterfly effect.

Frank:
That is exactly what I was about to say. What a great example of the butterfly effect.

Ivan:
If you would’ve said to me Ivan, that call that you just hung up with from Kim George will lead you to get to know Jack Canfield really well and spend a lot of time in the Transformational Leadership Council, which will then lead you to spending a week with Sir Richard Branson, I would’ve said you were crazy. How is that going to happen?

The ripples that take place in the networking process that may not be clear when the pebble drops into the water, but the ripple begins when you first make that initial contact with someone. What is certain is that there is a ripple. If you follow that ripple and you make the most – here is the key. Make the most out of the contacts that you meet during each stage of the journey to lead you to making connections and relationships that may very well surprise you when you look back to see where you for started.

Frank:
We can only imagine what the ripples may be with your relationship with Sir Richard Branson. People listening may not know but he is the guy behind Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Records and everything else.

Ivan:
And now Virgin Galactic. In two to three years, he’s going to start taking people up into outer space.

Frank:
He is an amazing guy. Did you happen to see him on the Colbert Show?

Ivan:
No, I didn’t.

Frank:
That was a very funny thing. He got angry at Colbert because Colbert put his feet up on the table in a varied as follow just respectful way. So Sir Richard took his cup of ice water and threw it all over Cole Bearer’s face. It was pretty funny.

Ivan:
I didn’t see that. I have to tell you I saw a very humble side of the billionaire. He’s very well connected with his employees. The most amazing thing is what they said about him when he wasn’t in the room. It was all very positive. It’s one thing to have good things said about you by your employees, but especially when you are not in the room. I just thought him to be very down to earth, very connected, very concerned about the environment and about people. He is absolutely a consummate networker and visionary.

Frank:
Did you have any feeling that you and he specifically were going to have any future plans together?

Ivan:
Yes. And you’ll hear it right now on the BNI podcast. We’re not exactly sure where this will go, but one evening on the beach he had this barbecue for all of the visitors to his island. He asked me more about BNI and I explained it to him.

Then he shared with me his concept of the Council of Elders. It is an organization that he helped form with people on this council – there are about twelve like Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. He wants to create a council nationally, regionally and locally and he asked for advice that I might have on how that could be done since I run the world’s largest business network. So I just submitted some ideas to him just last night as a matter of fact. Who knows? We might see BNI involved in some way with this global movement of his.

Frank:
That is terribly profound, Ivan. That is really awesome.

Ivan:
The ripple hasn’t stopped. The ripple may still go on. But as of this moment this is where the ripple is.

Frank:
The butterfly effect continues on. Well, we’re just about out of time for this week’s podcast. Any last words of wisdom or pearls of wisdom for the listeners?

Ivan:
I think two lessons learned out of this is as you have opportunities come your way, ask yourself does this fit my vision? And if it does, consider it seriously. Second, as you proceed down that road, make sure to make the most out of the contacts that you have to lead to the next contact. Don’t ask for things. Try to help people. By doing that, the ripple continues to go/ This may be a long running ripple for me and for BNI, and I am really pleased to be part of it.

Frank:
Well that’s it for this week. For Dr. Ivan Misner, I’m Frank Felker saying we’ll see you next time on the official BNI podcast.