Synopsis -
This Week, Dr. Ivan Misner Discusses:

His October 8th Blog At www.NetworkingEntrepreneur.com

A Meeting He Had With Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup For The Soul) Where They Talked About The Idea Of An “Act As If. . . ” Party That A BNI Group Was Interested In Conducting

The Blog On This Topic Can Be Found At This Entrepreneur URL: Act As If Party Blog

BNI Chapters Should Try This Idea At Their Meetings!

Listen To This Podcast For Information On How Your BNI Group Can Do An Act As If.. Party!

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 028 -

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 networking downloadables. I’m Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone today by Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Where are you calling in from today?

Ivan Misner:
I am at BNI headquarters this week, Frank. Next week, I will be in Dallas Texas, but I am actually in town this week.

Frank:
That’s great. There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed. I understand you have a very interesting topic to talk to us about today. Just go for it. I’m fascinated by it.

Ivan:
Today, I want to talk about the blog article that I did at my blog site with entrepreneur.com. For the listeners, if you would like to see the entire blog go to www.networkingentrepreneur.com. That’s one word. You can see my entire blog. This is an entry that I did that on October 8.

In the transcript of this podcast, we will try to link straight to this article for this blog entry if it’s possible. The blog entry is all about the concept that Jack Canfield came up with in Success Principles. I just spent, last week, a couple of days in Jack Canfield’s home in southern California.

I was participating in a strategic planning session for an organization that I belong to called the Transformational Leadership Council. It’s an organization he founded about four years ago. It’s for trainers and what you call spot leaders, people who are changing or transforming the world in some way. He invited me to be a member of this organization.

One of my executive directors for BNI knew that I was going to be there and she asked me to talk to Jack and to give him a great question that I thought would make a great topic for this podcast and for the blog. In Jack’s latest book, Success Principles, one of the things that he recommends is that people create an event where they act “as if…”

It’s called an act as if party. The idea is that you act as if you are the person that you have aspired to be five years from now. It’s a great concept. You do this act as if party and you come to the party dressed the way you think you would be dressing five years from now and talking about the things that you believe you’ll be talking about five years from now, having accomplished things that you think you will have accomplished five years from now.

I think it is really powerful, and I talk about this on the blog, but what I thought I would do on this podcast is suggest to all of the listeners that you actually do this at BNI as a meeting stimulant at one of the BNI chapter meetings.

I would give them a week or two to prepare. Throw it out there and ask everyone to act as if it’s five years from now. Come to the next meeting and in your 60-second presentation, talk about where your business is today, i.e., five years from now. I think it’s powerful as a meeting stimulant.

Frank:
That’s a great idea. Let’s hope the five years from now hemlines go back to where they were in the sixties.

Ivan:
There may be some people who don’t agree with that, Frank, but I will give no comment. Let’s see. One of the things that I asked Jack when I saw him last week was if he had any comments on how to do this. What is the best way to do it?

He said that it’s really important to come dressed as the person that you want to be five years from now. And in making this idea work best, come with props. The more props you have, the better. Here is something that I thought was great. He suggested that you video record it.

Frank:
That’s a great idea. You almost “time capsule” it then.

Ivan:
Exactly. He said it is really powerful to video record it and then a year or two from now, look at it and ask if you’re making progress towards achieving this. You are really creating a vision of where you want to go so that five years from now, you watch that and see just how closely you came to achieving it.

He felt that by making sure that you envision it, you can more effectively attach it to where you are headed with your business. Create a story around the person that you want to be. Be sure to record the vision during the event so that you can strive to achieve that story that you created.

Frank:
That’s a great concept. I would love to do that. It’s almost like a costume party.

Ivan:
It is almost like a costume party, and I think it’s a fun exercise. On the blog, I just recommend that people do it as a party which is in his book. But for this podcast, I really urge the listeners to take this transcript back to their chapter and talk to the chapter members- particularly the chapter president- about doing a special meeting stimulant that is an act as if meeting.

Do that at one of the next meetings. This is really important – if you do it, please come back to the podcast under the bulletin board section and post what you thought of the idea and how it worked out for you chapter. We would really like to see your response.

Frank:
I would really like to both attend one and speak to someone who has been to one because it just sounds like such a great concept. Sounds to be a lot of fun, too.

Ivan:
It’s a lot of fun, and I think it will help members to get a sense not only of where they want to go as an individual and professionally but where their fellow members want to go. That is really powerful, I think, in building relationships with fellow BNI members.

Frank:
I do too. I think that’s a grand idea. I can’t wait to hear some postings from some people have done something about it.

Ivan:
If you come up with some great ideas, I promise you that I will tell Jack personally. I see him several times a year, and I’ll make sure that he knows about your success with it.

Frank:
Well, we’re just about out of time for this week’s podcast. Do you have any last pearl of wisdom about an act as if party?

Ivan:
Again, the more you can come with props, dress the part, and really speak as though you are where you are at, that’s the best way to make the act as if party work. We would love to hear your feedback from those of you listening to this by you posting up here at www.BNIpodcast.com. Thanks a lot, Frank.

Frank:
That’s great, great stuff, Ivan. Thank you. For Dr. Ivan Misner, I’m Frank Felker saying we’ll see you next week on the official BNI podcast.