Dr. Misner recently received an e-mail from someone who wanted to get the benefit of BNI without actually attending the weekly meetings. This is like wanting to win an Olympic medal without having to go through exhaustive physical training. None of us can do less and get the same results.

In the early days of BNI, experiments showed that chapters that met twice a month passed 52% fewer referrals than chapters that met once a week.

There is no lite version that gives you all the benefits with less work. Only BNI members who dedicate themselves to following BNI’s proven structure will achieve the optimum results and the maximum referrals. If you want to be a master of networking, “Don’t go into the lite.”

Additional meetings outside the regular chapter meeting can be beneficial, but once a week seems to be optimum.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 162 -

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’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great today, Priscilla, and I have, I think, a fun topic that I want to talk about.

Priscilla:
Okay, great, tell us!

Ivan:
BNI Lite Just Isn’t Right. I recently received an e-mail from someone who visited a number of BNI groups over several years, and he sent this idea, and he was so passionate about it. This is what he said, I’m quoting from his letter exactly, he said, “I am interested in how I can provide my extensive list of contacts to a local chapter without having to actually attend the weekly meetings. I mean, we could attend a meeting once in a while, maybe once a month while I still want to adopt the BNI ethos and the principles of such a well structured program. How do I do that?”

And his request got me thinking, and this is what I thought, “I would really love to win the Tour de France, but I’m really not a fan of the endless exertion involved in riding a bike. I always thought it would be amazing to win an Olympic medal, but the workouts and the conditioning really – is that really necessary?” I thought about being a medical doctor, and I thought that would be really interesting to be a medical doctor, but then I’d have to deal with the whole mess of blood and internal organs and like. I’m not really into that.

And then there’s my dream, I would love to be a military general. I mean, how cool would that be to be a general, but do I really have to do boot camp? I mean, is that really necessary? And here’s my favorite. I would love to – the coveted achievement of all. I would love to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I think winning would be amazing! It would be my crowning accomplishment. The only problem is that I’d have to require to actually have really change the world in some incredibly dynamic way and save a lot of people. So surely, there’s something a bit less demanding that I could do to win that prize.

If only wishing made it so, but it doesn’t. The simple truth is none of us can do less and get the same results. It just doesn’t work. And I have gotten this question really many, many times over the years. This was a very well articulated letter and very serious gentleman. “I’d like to get all of the things that I can get out of BNI, all of the results. I just don’t want to put in all of that regular work. Or I can’t put in all that regular work.” Can’t or won’t, either way, he’s not willing to do it, or not able to do it, and yet, would like the same kinds of results.

Well, I’m afraid it just doesn’t work that way. I wish it did. And listen, if somebody can figure out how to get all kinds of incredible results without having the do the hard work necessary, please tell me, because from what I’ve learned, the secrets of success without hard work is still a secret. You know, it’s not out there. It involves hard work.

I think BNI is the largest, most successful networking organization in the world because of its ethos, its principles, and yes, its well-structured, weekly meetings. If we start taking apart fundamental portions of the program and expect the same results, we’re fooling ourselves. It’s a little like taking a wing off a plane and trying to fly. I’ve never told anyone that the BNI program is easy; it isn’t. It does, however, work if you’re willing to work the program consistently. And that means, of course, actually showing up every week and applying the ideas and concepts that we talk about. It may be tempting for people to gravitate toward some BNI-like model, but there is no diet version of BNI that gives you all the benefits with less work. There is no diet version, or BNI Lite, version that gives you all the benefits with less work. Only BNI members who dedicate themselves to actively following BNI’s proven structure are the ones who achieve the optimum results and the maximum referrals.

So for all of those people who want to be masters of networking, take heed to the phrase that I’ve heard spoken to patients on episodes of ER when things are looking very grim – yes, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my life as an MD will have to be lived vicariously through TV shows, “Don’t go into the lite,” is my message to you people. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist that one. But don’t go into the lite. BNI lite is not BNI, and it never will be.

Priscilla:
Um-hmm. Great one! Have you ever thought about doing BNI more than once a week? Do you think that’s too much?

Ivan:
I’ve never thought about doing BNI more than once a week. I haven’t. I have, however, done BNI less than once a week. When we first started BNI, we tested a number of different things, one of which was meeting twice a month. And we started looking at the results, and we discovered that chapters that met twice a month passed 52 percent less referrals than groups that met every week. And it became very clear that those regular meetings really forced people to think about each other more, and they tend to, then, bring in more referrals.

So there was an absolute direct correlation between showing up on a regular basis, following the program and getting referrals. And so, although we haven’t done anything more than once a week, and I don’t think it’s necessary to do something more than once a week, we have – although let me come back to that in just a moment. We have tried less than once a week, and it’s never had the same results, ever.

But now, doing things more than once a week, there are some chapters who have meetings, like maybe Power Team meetings, during the month, and so they might meet twice in a month or they may have social activities once or twice in a month. So from that perspective, yeah, additional meetings other than their normal BNI meeting are a one-to-one dance card with members. You know, those are additional meetings. So those kinds of meetings, yes, absolutely. But a regular BNI meeting, I think once is the optimum number.

Priscilla:
Um-hmm, I think you’re right.

Well, that’s great information. Thank you so much.

Ivan:
Thanks, Priscilla.

So just remember everyone, stay out of the lite; don’t go into the lite.

Priscilla:
Okay, great.

Ivan:
Thanks.

Priscilla:
All right. Well, I think that’s it for this week, and I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Today’s special guests are BNI Director Deanna Tucci-Schmitt from BNI Western PA and Brian Smith of Foulk’s Flooring America from the BNI Eagles chapter.

The carpet cleaner in Brian’s chapter suggested to a mutual customer that she visit Brian’s company to replace her carpet, but she expressed dissatisfaction with their previous work. Brian contacted the customer to find out what the problems were and fix them, and repair the relationship.

Without knowing about the problem, Brian would have lost this client’s business. His fellow BNI member did him a real service by coming to him with the client’s concerns. Clear, open, honest, direct communication can really help solve problems.

If you can address problems in your chapter the way Brian has here, you’ll have a stronger chapter.

Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 160 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, which is a Web site where you can ask Ivan any question you have about networking.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great, and this week I am in Scotland and throughout the United Kingdom doing an event in London. Last week I was in Ireland having a great opportunity to meet BNI members in Ireland and the United Kingdom. I always get a really great reception here, and we’re doing a little bit of vacation time and doing a number of BNI meetings where I have a chance to meet a lot of great BNI members, and so I’m really excited to be here.

Today I have on the call a couple of people who are with BNI; first, Deanna Tucci-Schmitt. Deanna has been a BNI director in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area, my home town where I was born. She’s been a director now for 13 years. She’s one of our strongest BNI directors, and it’s a real pleasure to have her on this call. And I’m going to turn it over to her in just a second.

We also have with us Brian Smith. Brian’s been a member of BNI now for two years. Brian runs a company called Foulk’s Flooring. And this is BNI, so you’ve got to do a little plug. His Web site is www.FlooringAmerica.com.

And I want to welcome both Brian and Deanna to this call. They have a great story. And Deanna is going to start us off by telling us a little bit about it.

Over to you, Deanna.

Deanna:
Well, thank you. Brian actually hails from the Meadville portion, up north of Western Pennsylvania region here, and Brian’s a great member and has a lot of great insight. And I was talking to him one day about BNI – actually Brian offered up this information, and we called it – I called it Spinach in Your Teeth because sometimes when you have spinach in your teeth, you wish someone would tell you, and Brian got that opportunity and just really – it’s just a great story.

Brian, why don’t you go ahead, set it up and tell the story.

Brian:
Well, thank you very much, Deanna.

I am holding the flooring chapter, as Ivan said – or the flooring position in our chapter. The other person in our chapter that this story pertains to is the carpet cleaner in our chapter who is part of my Contact Sphere as well as my Power Group in the chapter. We share a mutual customer. We actually didn’t know this before this story, but while the carpet cleaner was there cleaning up the business, he mentioned that the carpet was nearing the end of its life and that the customer should consider coming out and taking a look at my store and taking a look at what I had to offer to replace the bad areas in her business. She had mentioned that she had actually done work with our company in the past, and the last time that we did work with her, she was disappointed with the service and the installation. And there was some communication errors that took place while we were doing this job.

The fellow member, he made a choice in a one-to-one that we had had to tell me that even though she expressed concern, that he didn’t want his name brought up in it or anything else, but that it may jeopardize the rapport that he had with the customer, but he had told me what she had said, that the installation wasn’t what she’d expected and there was just some service issues that she was disappointed that our company had done for her.

So after the one-on-one with that client, I proceeded to call the customer as if I were making a follow-up call or just a call for satisfaction, that it had been a number of months since we’d done any work at her facility and just kind of played it as if I didn’t know anything ahead of time. But she did open up and she proceeded to tell me that the issues that she had with the installation as well as the communication errors, which most problems do come down to communication problems. So I was prepared before that call for her to tell me what I already knew, and through that I was able to restore our relationship and really mended the service on the last one and was able to go out and fix under warranty some of the problems that she had, which were somewhat out of our control, but she blamed us for.

And since that position on – I’ve been able to hold a relationship with this customer, and she actually built a new house and we were able to help her out with that as well as some different things with her business. It’s provided for a substantial income source over the past couple of years that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, that had I not known to make this satisfaction call, because it’s not typically the same time frame that I would do them, but because I had this inside information, that I was able to call her and mend this relationship.

And even though the carpet cleaner didn’t gain anything from telling me about this problem, the relationships that we had mended – or that we had gained through BNI through our Power Group, that he cared enough about my business to speak up and tell me what the issue was. And that way, I was able to mend it and I was able to create more business through an existing client. It’s really about the relationship.

Deanna:
That’s what I was thinking.

He knew enough about you to know that you were a professional, that he could come to you and tell you that, what was going on. Whereas, I think most people would run away and hide. They’d be scared to bring it up or they’d feel funny bringing it up. And I just think it speaks a lot about Jeff – that’s who it was, right, Jeff in your chapter?

Brian:
Yes.

Deanna:
And I think it speaks a lot about you, that you actually – A, he came to you and talked to you about it, and B, you didn’t get all defensive and just put down the customer and blah, blah, blah. But then you were able to restore that relationship with the customer.

I just think that that is something that people don’t think about in BNI that your members have your back; they tell you when you’ve got spinach in your teeth. So I just thought it was a great story, and it says a lot about you, Brian, that he felt comfortable coming to you.

And Ivan, I was just wondering, that’s something that comes out of BNI, out of the relationships in BNI that you don’t really think about when you come into it, and I was just curious if you had any other situations like that. I know that you’ve talked a lot about people telling you what they’ve received as a result of having better presentation skills, for example.

Ivan:
Well, true, but I think that there’s almost an even deeper issue here, and that is a clear, open, honest, direct communication really can help resolve problems. I’ve situations like Brian’s described here where somebody wasn’t willing to go to the other person and say, “Hey, you have a problem,” because they didn’t want to rock the boat, they didn’t know what to do, they just didn’t want to say anything, so they say nothing, and the problem festers. My has been, overwhelmingly, that when people actually sit down and talk, amazing things happen and you get to the problem and you resolve it.

And the other thing is – and Brian, listen, you dealt with that really well, because a lot of times – you said something, it was beyond your control, and I’ve seen people say, “Hey, it’s not my fault! Out of my control; it’s not my fault!” And they get very reactive.

A great technique that people can use when they run into, and they may be dealing with somebody who’s not as receptive as Brian was in this case, is to say to them, “You have a PR problem here,” because feelings are as good as reality. This is a great way to open up the same dialog with somebody, especially if you think they’re not going to be as receptive to taking the concern and issues as Brian was. I mean, you handled it really well. But sometimes people get defensive, and so when you say to them, “Hey, you’ve got a PR problem. This person feels like they weren’t taken care of well,” feelings are as good as reality. Most people will respond to that better, because, you know, “Oh, okay, a PR problem. I can recognize that. I recognize that I have a PR problem. It’s not really my fault. I didn’t do anything, but I recognize that I have a PR problem.”

And that’s a really good technique to use when you run into that as well.

Deanna:
I like that.

Ivan:
Well, Brian, well done. And I think you really bring up a lesson. You see, the kinds of conversations that I like to have on these podcasts are really meaningful conversations and dialogs that would resonate with members and that they can use with the chapter. And you’ve probably given one of the better examples of how to address something when there’s a challenge in your chapter. Because if you can address it like Brian has here, you can have a stronger chapter where you have clear, open, honest, direct communication and people addressing the issues in a professional and positive way.

So, kudos, Brian! Well done!

Deanna:
Thanks, Brian.

Brian:
Thank you.

Ivan:
Thanks, everybody. Thank you so much for both of you being on my podcast. Any last comment before I wrap it up?

Brian:
It’s all about relationships.

Ivan:
Yep, you’re absolutely right, it’s all about the relationships. And the more you can go into it understanding that you want to build that relationship and enhance it and make it better, then people being honest with each other and saying, “You’ve got spinach in your teeth,” is good for the relationship.

So Deanna, thanks for bringing the story to me. And Brian, well done. I appreciate the message.

Priscilla, back to you.

Priscilla:
Thanks so much.

Well, I think that’s it for this week. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

In this episode, Dr. Misner is joined by BNI director Asa Davis, who shares his experience using the Fast Track program with the BNI Leading Edge chapter in Michigan.

BNI Leading Edge was already a successful chapter, but still wanted to try Fast Track. In the first 3 months, their referral numbers went down by 15%, but close of business went up almost 100%.

These results demonstrate the value of the culture of learning in BNI. Fast Track is not a replacement for training, but a supplement. After Fast Track, many of the members of BNI Leading Edge went back through Member Success Training for a second time. Leading Edge is now the number one chapter in all of Michigan.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 157 -

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’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. Do you have somebody with you today?

Ivan:
I do, Priscilla. Thank you very much. I have on the line with us Asa Davis. Asa is an assistant director in BNI Michigan. BNI Michigan is one of the biggest regions for BNI. If BNI Michigan were a country for BNI, it would be something like the third largest country for the BNI organization. They have so many chapters, and their average number of members per chapter is very high.

Asa has been a member of BNI for six years and has been an assistant director for just under two years. And I think that’s a really good example of how directors almost always start as members, and so they have lots of experience with the organization. Asa certainly has that, and he represents a great region.

We’re here today to talk about instilling a culture of learning using the Fast Track program, which is a program I’ve recommended and have talked about, published by del Fuego. And he’s done a great job in instilling this with the chapter.

And so, Asa, welcome to the podcast.

Asa:
Well, thanks for having me, Ivan.

Ivan:
Let me start with my first question. Why Fast Track for the Leading Edge chapter, which is the chapter where you tried it out? Because I understand they were a pretty successful chapter to begin with, but you had them do this program. And maybe you could just mention what the Fast Track program is and then jump into my question.

Asa:
Yep. It’s the BNI Networking Secret CDs, the three CD set that you had recorded with Tom Fleming through del Fuego, and it just provides great learning opportunities for BNI members to listen to in their car, to put it on an iPod, some kind of portable listening device and really get a handle on the fundamentals of BNI. We had posed the question of having the whole chapter do the Fast Track after I went to the national conference last year in Wisconsin, and we posted it at a leadership team forum, so the leaders from all of the chapters were there, president, vice president, secretary, treasurer. And Leading Edge had a very strong leadership team and decided that that’s something that they wanted to do, to have all their members listen to it and see what kind of difference it would make, as a chapter.

Ivan:
Well, again, I think you just said something really key. They decided that they wanted to do it. One of the things I’ve learned is, when you’re talking about education and training, you can’t push a noodle, you can’t make people learn; they’ve got to really want to do it. And so here was a chapter that said, “Hey, that sounds interesting. We’d like to do this.” And so they ran with it, even though they were already a pretty good chapter. Is that a good assessment?

Asa:
Absolutely. Yeah, they were 26, 27 members at the time, very good chapter, passed about 40 referrals a week, and one of the selling points of the program was that they would increase the number of referrals that they passed. And I studied the chapter and followed to see they progress, and actually, their referrals went down.

Ivan:
The referrals went down?

Asa:
Yeah, the referrals went down.

Ivan:
In the beginning?

Asa:
In the beginning, yeah.

Ivan:
So explain that one. That’s surprising.

Asa:
Yeah, it was very interesting. The referral numbers went down about 15 percent, and that was over the first three months, and I was sort of feeling dejected. I was thinking I recommended this program to this chapter and then I actually looked at their closed business numbers, because I hadn’t looked at those before, and their –

Ivan:
Let’s talk about that for just one second, because not all chapters track closed business, but we do have the mechanisms for chapter to track closed business. And so this is a group that was not only tracking referrals, but they were tracking how much business was actually closed in the group as well. What happened to that number?

Asa:
Well, again, referrals went down about 15 percent, the closed business went up almost 100 percent.

Ivan:
You’re kidding me?!!

Asa:
No, it was huge. And the members, I went back and asked the members about it, and they said it’s really – really, people have made a commitment to passing better quality referrals, and that showed up right away in those closed business numbers.

Ivan:
So would you say, then, that they just slowed down in passing bad referrals and they improved their passing of really good referrals so that the actual number of referrals went down, but the referrals that turned into business went up dramatically?

Asa:
Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that helped is they said that the program gave them a playbook. And that term comes up a lot on the CD, having a playbook and a consistent language that all of them could use. And there’s one particular member who, on several occasions, was able to turn in a – well, it was really a cold lead or just a name into a true referral, and she was able to do that because of the common reference that people had in the CDs.

Ivan:
Yeah, you bring up another good point. One of the things that the CDs do is they help people operate with the same language, talking the same language and applying the same concepts, so that it’s kind of like if you don’t speak a language and you go to another country and people are talking, you just don’t know what’s going on. I know, I was just in Switzerland a few weeks ago. I only knew about half of what was being said, if that! And so it’s really a way of coming up with a dialog that everybody’s playing with and a language that everyone understands and is all working in the same direction.

So what do you think is the longer-term benefit for the chapter of this work?

Asa:
Well, Ivan, one thing I noticed you say consistently in your talks and on your CDs and in your writing is it’s important for chapters to really instill a culture of education and learning, and that’s one of the things that we’ve seen. Rather than this program being a replacement for our training, it’s really a great supplement. We have more of the members come back through the Members Success Program. They actually sent half of their members through Members Success Program over a two month period, and actually, all of those people had already been, they had already gone one time when they were members; they went again. We have more people going through our advanced training modules. We have people going through the Referral Institute. The chapter actually now does their referrals – and we’re still working on implementing, but a majority of the members now, when they stand up and have a referral, they actually say what level the referral is or the shade of the referral, level of referral from your most recent book, and so they can identify, “This is a Level 7; this is a Level 8; I have a meeting scheduled with somebody.” So not only do they pass better quality referrals, but they let everybody else know the quality of the referral as well.

Ivan:
Nice. Have you seen any other shifts in behavior with the group?

Asa:
They have more fun. They’re always fun chapter, but they have more fun together. They meet socially regularly. Their meetings not only are good business time, but it’s a fun time as well, so they’ve really found a great mix of the whole chapter being friends and still being good business partners. And they seem to have more of a culture of open, honest communication as well. That’s something that this program has fostered, because if something is not of the quality that they want, they seem to be more willing to go up and talk to people about it, help improve the quality of everyone’s referrals.

Ivan:
What you’re talking about is where I often say you have to really immerse and engage in that culture of learning. From what I’m hearing you say is that this is a group that fully immersed in it, improved their communication, decreased bad referrals, increased the quality referrals, and it led to great results. And I love stories like this. I think it’s just so powerful to show how, when you apply the concepts systematically, you get results.

Asa:
Yeah. And for a long time, the largest membership number they had was 31. This is a chapter that kicked off in April of ’03. The highest they ever got was 31 members. They recently broke through that and got up to 35. And then we have our Member Extravaganza, the visitors days, coming up in our region, and they’ve got a ton of momentum for that. So they’re excited about having some new quality members, and now they have a mentor program as well, which has helped – the Fast Track program has helped facilitate so they can help get the new members off the ground.

Ivan:
Well, let’s wrap up with one last question. Let’s go back to the long-term benefit. What do you think the long-term benefits would be for other groups that want to do something like what the Leading Edge chapter in Michigan did?

Asa:
Well, I’m somebody where I’ve got to see the results, and it’s one thing for me to walk into a chapter and say, “Yeah, it’s a good chapter” to a different chapter, but if I’ve got numbers to back it up, that helps me. We have, in the BNI Connect system, for chapters and for directors, and this may be more for the executive directors, a Traffic Light system to show where our chapters are in terms of chapter size, chapter growth, referrals passed per member, visitors, absentee rate, attendance rate, and then converting visitors to members. And prior to doing the Fast Track, they were a yellow light chapter. So there’s green light for really excelling chapters; the yellow light for sort of the middle of the road chapters; and red light, chapters that maybe need a little more help.

They were a yellow light; their score was 55, so they were right in the middle, pretty good chapter. Since doing the Fast Track, their average score went from a 55 to a 75, so on average, a green light chapter, a solid chapter. And actually for April and May, by those statistics, they were the number one chapter in all of Michigan.

Ivan:
Wow!

Asa:
175 chapters. So that, to me, said that there’s something going on here, there’s something that other chapters can benefit from, and it’s night and day difference, just looking at the numbers. Plus it’s just a great chapter to be at. The members like going there; I like visiting. Visitors are warmly received, so it’s good all around.

Ivan:
Well, just for the listeners, though, Traffic Light system that Asa is talking about isn’t implemented everywhere internationally, but you will be seeing it; it is part of the BNI Connect system. So as regions transition to BNI Connect, you’re going to see this Traffic Light system that he’s talking about, and it is a great way, and a quick way, [in] determining where you’re at in the whole system.

So, Asa, I think we’re out of time. I want to thank you very much for doing this today. Any closing comment that you had before I wrap up?

Asa:
I’ve just really enjoyed working with the chapter. It’s fun, as a director, to support a chapter who does immerse and engage in a culture of education and just encourage people, if they’re thinking about getting involved in the program, to listen to some of the other podcasts that have been done about it, definitely get in touch with Flynn and Sarah at del Fuego, who are fantastic, and they’ve got a good support team there to help people if they want to figure out how to get involved in the program.

Ivan:
Do you know the Web site for the Fast Track system?

Asa:
I know BNINetworkingSecrets.com.

Ivan:
So go to BNINetworkingSecrets.com. We put that link on this podcast.

Asa, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to do this with us today.

And I urge BNI members everywhere, go take a look at this. This is a tape series done by a third party, del Fuego, but what’s amazing about what they’re providing is coaching, actual coaching to go along with the CD. So it’s not just a CD, it’s a lot of support.

Asa, thank you so much. I appreciate your help.

And, Priscilla, I’ll turn it back over to you.

Priscilla:
Great! Thank you both.

I think that’s it for this week. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Note: you can search the podcast website for topics you’re interested in—that’s how Dr. Misner discovered that he hadn’t covered this topic before.

About 20 years ago, Dr. Misner met a commercial light bulb salesman who wanted to join BNI. He was a little concerned that a person in such a unique profession might not do well, but the prospective member had no doubts.

First, he wanted people he could refer his clients to, because that would strengthen his relationship with them.

Second, he knew he was the kind of networker who could get business anywhere.

He was right. During his first year in BNI, 40% of the sales he got came from referrals from his BNI chapter.

Success in BNI doesn’t depend on the profession, but on the person. If you’re willing to give and help and learn, you’ll succeed in BNI.

Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 152 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, which is a Web site where you can ask Ivan any question you have about networking.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. And today I’m going to talk about an interesting topic. It’s kind of a fun story about unique professions in BNI. The topic is do they work, Do Unique Professions Work in BNI?

You know, I’ve done so many podcasts, I tell stories all the time, I’m a real believer that stories really educate. And I’ve told this story for many, many years, and somebody asked me about it. I said, “Well, I think it’s up on a BNI podcast,” and we did a search, and it wasn’t there. So I wanted to talk about this today, and I also wanted to bring up the search function.

If you are listening to the podcasts, from time to time use the search function that is up here on BNI podcast; it’s on the right top side; it says “Search.” Type in your phrase and hit Enter, and all of the podcasts that have different topics will pop up.

This one I did a search on wasn’t there, so I want to tell you about it today, and it’s a question that I get asked from time to time to unique professions work, the odd professions work. How do you give referrals to people in these unusual professions? And I used to think that there were some professions that just didn’t work very effectively. What I’ve learned over the years, it has very little to do with the profession and almost everything to do with the person. And I learned that about almost 20 years ago when I did a kickoff of a chapter, and we only had just over 100 chapters, so it was more than 20 years ago.

And I did a kickoff in Nevada for a chapter, and there was a gentleman who came up, and his name was Nordy. Nordy came up to me and Nordy sold commercial light bulbs, commercial light bulbs. And he told me he was going to join, and I said, “Really? Nordy, you’re interested in joining. Well, that’s great!” But again, he sold commercial light bulbs, so it wasn’t even like a regular light bulb. These were light bulbs that were in factories and in buildings, special light bulbs, so you couldn’t give him a mercy referral, buy a few light bulbs for your house. You needed specialized equipment, and he didn’t even sell the equipment; he just sold the light bulbs. He didn’t sell the fixtures, just the light bulbs.

So I said to him, I said, “Well, Nordy, I’m really glad that you’re interested in joining, but I’ve got over 100 BNI groups, and I don’t have” – this was a long time ago, obviously – I said, “I don’t even have single commercial light bulb salesman, and I’m not sure that this will work for you.”

And he looked at me and he said, “So are you telling me I can’t join?”

I said, “No, Nordy. I’m not telling you you can’t join. I’m just saying buyer beware; I don’t want you to sign up thinking , hey, there are other people doing what I do that are members, and there aren’t. And I just wanted to let you know that.”

So he looked at me, he said, “So are you telling me I shouldn’t join?”

“I don’t want to tell you you shouldn’t join either, but I just want you to be aware that you’re in such a unique profession, I don’t know of anybody else in that profession. And I just don’t know how well you’ll do, and I want you to know that up front.”

And he looked at me and he said, “Well, yeah, I’d like to join, and there’s two reasons for it.” He said, “First of all”— and this is what I thought was brilliant with this guy and this is why he was such a good networker. He said, “First of all, I believe that by being in this organization, I’m going to build relationships with a lot of other people that I can refer to my clients. And if I can help refer to my clients, if I can assist my clients in some way, it helps to enhance my relationship with my clients, and they’re more likely to continue business with me because of the relationship that I have.” But he said, “That’s the first reason, but secondly, you don’t know me, I’ll get business. I really believe I’ll get referrals. I just really network well, and I think I’m going to do well with this, but I’d be willing to join just to build the relationships to help my clients.”

So I thought, well, good answer, sure, feel free if you want. And so he signed up.

Well, I didn’t see Nordy for the better part of a year. I was back in the state about a year later, and usually, the BNI director, when I go speak in an area, I was there to do a big event, and usually the BNI director introduces me. But Nordy went to the director and said, “Hey, do you mind if I introduce Ivan?”

She said, “Sure, you go ahead. You introduce him.”

So he stood up and he did my bio, and then he kind of got off track and he said, “I’d like to tell you something personal, a personal experience I had.” And that always scares me when they go in that direction. He said, “Before I tell you the personal experience, I have an announcement to make.” He said, “I just found out last week, even my chapter doesn’t know this, that for the first time, and I’ve been with my company for many years, so the first time I won the sales contest in my organization, and I ‘m getting an all expenses paid trip for my wife and I on a cruise to the Bahamas for one week. And 40 percent of all the sales that I made during this contest period came from referrals that I got out of my BNI chapter, and the man I’m about to introduce tried to talk me out of joining.”

Priscilla:
Oh, God.

Ivan:
That was the last time I ever tried to talk anyone out of joining because they were in a unique position or a unique profession. I really went to school on this guy. Nordy knew how to network, and it was the first time I really started thinking about the fact that it has a lot less to do with the profession than it does the person. And if you have somebody who believes in the philosophy of Givers Gain, if you have somebody who is willing to continually work on their skill set as a networker, and man, he did, he was always working on that skill set, and you’re there to help other people and at the same time teach people how to refer you, you’re going to do well. And even in an unusual profession like that, I think you can do well in BNI.

I see people who are printers who aren’t getting a lot of business after a year. How can you be a printer and not get a lot of business after a year?

Priscilla:
Yeah, right.

Ivan:
There are some professions that are just so obvious that are going to get business, and there are others that aren’t, but what I’ve learned is that that’s really secondary, the business they’re in is secondary to them as a business professional, their commitment and their willingness to give and help and learn that that is so much more important than the profession.

And so the short answer to unique professions work is, yes, if the unique profession is the right person.

Priscilla:
Um-hmm, that is good. I think that makes so much sense.

Ivan:
Have you had any experiences, Priscilla, in seeing someone, unique professions in your group?

Priscilla:
Absolutely. We had a cement tester come in, a company that tested cement. I mean, that seemed really difficult. When he jointed, I thought, oh, no, we’re never going to be able to help this guy.

Ivan:
And it’s amazing how you’re able to help if you’ve got the right person. I know there’s somebody up in your neck of the woods in Northern California that was a blacksmith

Priscilla:
Oh, and he makes beautiful, beautiful gates and gorgeous custom –

Ivan:
Do you know, is he in your group?

Priscilla:
No, but he’s visited my group several times.

Ivan:
Yeah, blacksmith, what an amazing – and when I heard blacksmith, it was like, how is he going to get any business? And then one of the things someone showed me was how he does this branding iron with your company logo.

Priscilla:
Oh, wow! And what do you brand with that?

Ivan:
Steaks! So I had people over to my house. When I have a barbeque, guess that I have? I bought one of these branding irons from him. So it’s got the BNI logo, and when people are over at my house, I fire that baby up and I brand a big steak with the BNI logo on it.

Priscilla:
That’s funny.

Ivan:
It’s just amazing to me how people can be creative. You get the right person, they’re creative, they have interesting ideas, and they give you ways to refer them that just make it really easy, and it doesn’t really matter how unique the profession is; it’s the commitment and the willingness of the person to help other members that can make a big difference.

That’s all I’ve got for today, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Well, that was a fun one. Thank you so much, Dr. Misner.

I’d just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

This topic came up on the Ask Ivan Misner website, where you can type in a question and connect to a live teleconference where Dr. Misner answers it.

Several people asked about Contact Spheres and Power Teams in BNI.

A Contact Sphere is a group of professionals who complement rather than compete with each other.

A Power Team is a subset of your Contact Sphere that actively works together to pass referrals to each other. An example of a Power Team might be a caterer, a florist, a photographer, and a travel agent, the so-called “Wedding Mafia.” Priscilla’s chapter has a health care Power Team.

Every BNI group wants to create strong Power Teams, because they generate more referrals than groups without them. But it’s possible to go too far with Power Teams and leave other members feeling excluded. If your Power Teams meet separately from the rest of the BNI group, suggest that they invite other members of the group to visit their team meetings.

Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 151 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, which is a Web site where you can ask Ivan any question you have about networking.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you today and what do you have to share with us?

Ivan:
I’m going great, Priscilla, and today I want to talk a little bit about Power Teams and Contact Spheres. As you mentioned, AskIvanMisner is new sponsor for the BNI podcast. It’s a Web site, AskIvanMisner.com is a Web site that’s done by a friend of mine, Alex Mandossian. And Alex is like the world’s leading expert on Ask Web sites, and this is his Web site, and I’m participating in it, obviously.

But one of the things that I wanted to do was give some samples of the kinds of things that we’re talking about. So from time to time, I’m going to do a podcast with a question that came from AskIvanMisner.com. So if you’d like to have some questions that I might use on the podcast and that I’m often using at AskIvanMisner, got to AskIvanMisner.com and type in your question. If you don’t have a question, it’s okay; you can say, “I don’t have a question today,” but then you’ll get the link to do the live telebridge, so you can actually go and listen to my answers on AskIvanMisner. I usually do about 10 or 12 different questions, and you’ll be able to get to hear them all. And if you want, you can go back and pick up some of the old recordings. It’s free, by the way. It doesn’t cost anything. If you want to pick up a previous recording, there’s a small fee to pick up the recorded telebridges, but you can go there live.

So what I want to do is I want to pull out a question or two from time to time and share them on my podcast so that you can get a sense of the kinds of questions that I’m getting. And the one I want to talk about this week is about Contact Spheres and Power Teams. I had several people, John, Robert, Karen, Claudelle, all ask about, “How do you maximize referrals stemming from Power Teams? And how do you use Power Team effectively?”

So I wanted to talk briefly about Contact Sphere and Power Teams, because they’re different, and we use both phrases.

Contact spheres I spoke about for the first time in a book, The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret. And a Contact Sphere is a group of business professionals that have a symbiotic relationship; they complement rather than compete with one another. A Power Team is a subset of that Contact Sphere. These are the people with whom you have a relationship with that are in your Contact Sphere that you’re actively engaging in a referral relationship. I would describe it as two concentric circles. The Contact Sphere is all of the people that you could potentially be in a symbiotic relationship with, and the Power Team is group of people that you actually have that symbiotic relationship with and are passing referrals to. So they are part of the overall Contact Sphere, potential professions that are synergistic with yours.

And I’ve talked about these in podcasts and in other venues. These are professions that just have that ability to refer one another, the financial planner, the banker, the attorney, people that have a similar type of client, and they’re servicing that client from a different perspective. My favorite one is the caterer, the florist, the photographer, the travel agent; I call that the wedding mafia. They’re referring each other like crazy, they’re working with each other a lot and referring one another to each other’s customers and clients. And so that wedding Contact Sphere or Power Team is a very, very important one.

Just so you understand the difference between a Contact Sphere and a Power Team, the Contact Sphere is all of the professions that theoretically can fit within your Power Team. The Power Team are those synergistic professions that you have a relationship with.

So in BNI, you want to try to create some really strong Power Teams, people that are in the symbiotic kind of a profession. One of the things I’ve kind of discovered over time is that BNI chapters that have at least three or four really active Power Teams tend to generate substantially more referrals that the average chapter. So if your chapter can focus on building some really strong Power Teams, you can substantially increase those referrals in the group, because oftentimes, one referral can be two or three referrals. If you have somebody that’s getting married, that can go to the caterer, the florist, the photographer. So one referral ends up going to three people. So the more Power Teams that you build in a chapter, the more successful it will be.

And I have one other suggestion, and then, Priscilla, if you want to chat about this or if you have any questions, I’d be glad to talk further. One thing that I’ve seen is it’s difficult for chapters to build those Power Teams, but when they do, they can really be powerful, very successful. But it’s possible to almost go too far. I’ve recently been seeing some chapters that have created such strong Power Teams that there’s almost a sense of exclusivity, where they’re being excluded.

For example, a lot of chapters may have a Power Team that meets aside from the BNI meeting; many of them I’ve seen have Power Team meetings once a month where the people in that Power Team are meeting and talking. So here’s something that I saw with a chapter that had that problem. They felt that their Power Teams had become so strong and so powerful that the people who weren’t in them felt left out. So here was something that I thought was just brilliant. What they started to do to come across as more inclusive with their fellow BNI members was that at each one of their Power Team meetings they invited someone who was not in the Power Team. They started with people in other Power Teams first, and then they went to people who weren’t in any Power Team. And they always invited at least one person who was not part of their Power Team to sit in on the discussion that the Power Team was having about, where they were, what potential clients they had, what clients they were about to pick up, whatever the topic of discussion. There was somebody that was not in the Power Team who was present.

And the beauty of that is twofold. First, there’s a sole sense of inclusion, and so they didn’t feel clique-ish. It’s possible for them to come across as clique-ish unless they’re cognizant of being inclusive. And the second thing was it gave people from other Power Teams great ideas of how to effectively use a Power Team, because they saw what others were doing.

And so this chapter went from starting to have the sense of Power Teams almost being clique-ish to Power Teams being a great tool for inclusiveness and for learning how to do this thing called networking more effectively.

So there’s a few ideas about Contact Spheres, Power Teams, both what they are, and most importantly, what to do when one gets really big, sharing that concept with other people in your group.

How does that sound, Priscilla?

Priscilla:
Sounds good. I was just thinking, we do, we have a Power Team in our chapter, and it’s the health provider Power Team. And there are quite a few of them, and I have been a little bit jealous that they have such a great connection. They have a physical therapist, an acupuncturist, what else is there, a chiropractor, a massage therapist, and I’m jealous. They have this great way of giving back and forth to each other, and it’s really nice, and I would love to have the same thing. But I haven’t actually felt bad about it, and I’ve just kind of noticed that they do have these extra meetings, and they seem to benefit from it.

Ivan:
Well, one of the ways to get started in having that for yourself is to work that Power Team and see if they’re willing to have some people visit their meetings so that you can replicate that. Because you get into a chapter with two, three, four really strong Power Teams and you’ve got a chapter that’s just passing a ton of business.

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
So I hope this podcast has done a few things. First, I invite people to AskIvanMisner.com. If you have a question, and for John, Robert, Karen, Claudelle, thank you so much for asking this question. I did cover it in an AskIvanMisner telebridge, but we do about 12, 10 or 12 different questions, and it takes about an hour.

So these podcasts are a little shorter. I’m only going to be able to cover one. But I will cover from time to time some of the things that are AskIvanMisner.com.

Hope I gave you some ideas on Contact Spheres and Power Teams and how to build them and what to do once you build them with that sense of inclusiveness.

So that’s it for today, Priscilla. Thank you so much.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Well, thank you, Dr. Misner.

I’d just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Today’s episode is inspired by a letter Dr. Misner got from the vice-president of a struggling BNI chapter who wanted to know how to keep the long-term goal of building the chapter in mind when facing personal attacks from members?

Dr. Misner’s response was to refer this VP back to an article he wrote in SuccessNet in 2006, called “Addition by Subtraction.” The chapter in that story was facing a problem with absenteeism.

In the article, Ivan and Beth Misner take turns explaining that the way to grow healthy rose bushes is to prune them back—and the way to grow a healthy BNI chapter is to get rid of the members who don’t show up or don’t participate. BNI thrives on accountability.

This episode is brought to you by our new sponsor, Ask Ivan Misner.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 143 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, which is a new Web site where you can ask any question you have about networking.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. This week I’m an BNI headquarters doing leadership team training – or I should say director training. We bring in directors from all over the world several times a year and do about three full days of training. And then after the training, we bring them over to my house for dinner, and that’s what we just did last night. It’s all about education, and that’s why we do these podcasts, trying to teach people how to do this effectively, and we make sure that our directors get really good training with a 700-800 page manual and go through the whole program.

Priscilla:
Wow! That’s impressive. So what are you going to share with us?

Ivan:
I’ve got a fun topic today, an interesting topic. Maybe “fun” is the wrong word; I like it, but it is really based on a letter I received from somebody. The topic is Addition by Subtraction. And I’m talking about this today because I received a letter – actually an e-mail from a BNI member who’s a vice president, and he talks about his frustration and the burnout relating to rebuilding his chapter. And he said they are, for the first time, following the rules and guidelines for BNI, and he really feels like he is hitting a wall.

He’s the VP, and the VP gets all the dirty work; he recognizes that in his e-mail. And he said he has a tough problem, how do you keep the long term goal in mind of building the chapter while there are so many attacks personally. He said, “I’ve been called a tyrant by a member of my chapter who was late nine times and had missed several meetings.” And he had a conversation with the guy, and he didn’t take it well and called the VP, the poor VP a tyrant.

So this really is for members everywhere but particularly for you, VP, who sent me this letter. I hope you listen to this podcast because I want to share some information that’s really based on an article I wrote a few years back called Addition by Subtraction. And if you’re listening to this podcast and you want to see the original article, go to BNISuccessNet.com, BNISuccessNet.com. Do a search on “Addition by Subtraction,” and you’ll get this article. We’ll also try to put a link to this article on the podcast so you can go directly to it.

But here’s basically how the article goes, and this is my answer to the VP, how do you handle people that get this upset because you’re doing the right thing, you’re trying to turn the chapter around. So to him, I would say, “Have faith.” The best way to build the chapter, you want to add to your chapter is to subtract from your chapter. And I say that because this article that I wrote, and it’s done as a “he said/she said” article. I write a little bit, and then my wife writes a little bit. And I talk about the fact that I was in a local chapter and I asked how things were going, and she said, “Great. We’re up to 35 members, but only 25 are coming every week.”

I was like, “Whoa, wait a minute. That’s not great. If 25% of your membership is missing, that’s not good at all.”

Then we had my wife talk a little bit, and she talks about gardening. Big transition, but she talks about gardening and how, if you really want – we’ve got like 75 rose bushes at my house. If you really want the rose bushes to grow, you have to prune them back. You have to cut the rose bushes back in order for them to bloom.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
And that’s what the whole article is about, is talking about the fact that if you want a chapter to grow, sometimes you have to prune the chapter, and people aren’t going to be happy about that. “Oh, my goodness! You actually have expectations of them? They actually have to show up on time? They can’t miss meetings?”

Look, this is a business organization. It’s okay to have rules and regulations that help raise the bar and the quality of participation. BNI is not for everybody; I get that; it’s okay. We want people who are committed, and the truth is this vice president is doing the right things by focusing on accountability. And Priscilla, we’ve talked about this in a lot of podcasts.

One of the strengths of BNI is that all the members, or many of the members, are friends. One of the weaknesses of BNI is that many of the members are friends.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
It is both a strength and a weakness. And the truth is, if your chapter is struggling and hasn’t been following the program, the best way to turn it around is to prune it back, to let everybody know that we’re going to start following the program again, get everybody on board. And those people who aren’t willing to do what everybody else is willing to do, it might not be the right group for them. And so he’s doing the right things by starting to focus on absences and tardies.

The one part of this article that I end that I think is really important is a study that I did many years ago with two chapters, and it started because this one chapter had 14 members. And they came to me and they said, “Attendance is nonsense.” It’s what they said to me, Priscilla. “Attendance is nonsense. Whether people show up or not is not going to make a difference in the amount of referrals, and we’re going to prove it to you.”

I said, “Okay.”

“We’re going to start following the attendance policy, and we’re going to track it and we’re going to show you that it doesn’t make a difference.”

I said, “Okay. That’s fair. If you show me it doesn’t make a difference, I’ll stop bothering you about attendance.”

Originally, this was published in 1994, and it was republished in this article.

So they had an average of 2.1 absences per member per quarter. That’s a lot of absences. Fourteen members and they were passing 188 referrals a quarter. Once they started focusing on absenteeism, they dropped absenteeism down by 52 percent, so it want to one absence per member per quarter. Their number of members went up 29 percent, and their number of referrals went up 43 percent to 269 referrals.

They did it in another quarter, absenteeism dropped to .6, .6 absences per member. The number of members jumped up to 21 percent, a 50 percent jump in membership, and referrals went up 62 percent to 305 referrals. A 71 percent drop in absenteeism, a 62 percent increase in referrals. That is a direct correlation.

Here’s the funny part of the story. The chapter came up to me when we originally published that back in 1994 in a printed version of SuccessNet, and they said, “We don’t believe these numbers.” Oh, by the way, the [original] chapter started following the attendance policy all the time. They said, “Never mind. It is correct.” And so they followed the program.

I had another chapter come to me and said, “We don’t believe these numbers.”

I said, “Why?”

He said, “These guys are in your pocket. They’ll just do whatever you say.”

“They’re an independent chapter. They did this on their own.”

He didn’t believe me. He said they wanted to do it, but they wanted to do it one month longer – or one quarter longer; they wanted to do it for three quarters instead of two quarters.

I said, “Sure, fine.”

And he said, “You have to publish our results, because I don’t believe it’ll make a difference over a nine month period.”

So I said, “I promise I’ll publish the results.”

He was right, it didn’t – he said, “I don’t believe that they’ll be the same.” And he was right; they weren’t the same. They had a 53 percent drop in absentees and a 164 percent increase in referrals.

Priscilla:
Wow!

Ivan:
A 90 percent increase in membership.

Priscilla:
Wow!

Ivan:
And all they did was follow the attendance policy. And that’s not all. They also focused on the visitor host and they did a few other things right, but they just focused on following the program.

So to every chapter out there that’s made the decision, the tough decision to follow the system, go read this article because it shows that there’s a direct correlation between attendance and referrals. 53 percent drop in absenteeism led to a 164 percent increase in referrals over a nine month period.

That, vice president who wrote me the e-mail, that’s the reason why you are doing the right thing by focusing on the fundamentals in your group. Keep it up. Don’t let it bother you that people are resistant to the change, because they will be. People don’t like change, but this is good change. And it will make a difference for your chapter.

And that’s my message for today, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
It’s a good message. I just have a question as to why he had to take all the heat and why it wasn’t just a leadership team decision.

Ivan:
That’s a good question, and the truth is, the VP is the one who usually does take the heat because they’re the spokesperson for the membership committee; they’re the chair of the membership committee. But I think it would be good if an entire chapter, if the leadership team can get behind the vice president, it makes it a little bit easier. The worst thing a leadership team can do, and he did not say that his group was doing this, but the worst thing they could do would be to say, “Hey, look, it’s not my responsibility; it’s the VP doing this,” to wash their hands of it.

What they really need to do is to say, “We support this. This is in the chapter’s best interest. Go read that article, Addition by Subtraction. You’ll see why it’s important to do this. And so if you get a leadership team who is supporting the VP, you’re going to have less of this. But there’s always going to be – the person who brings the bad tidings is the person that’s going to get most of the anxiety from the chapter.

So I understand. Just hang in there. You’re doing the right thing, and I promise you, if you continue to do it and you do it in a tactful way, don’t be a fascist about it, be polite, be professional, but be tough, tough love. And you will absolutely build your chapter.

I urge people listening to the podcast, go read that article, Addition by Subtraction. It was written by my wife and I a few years ago. We’ll include the link here.

Thanks, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
You’re so welcome. And, Ivan, I was wondering if you could tell the listeners a little bit about our new sponsor.

Ivan:
You know, we do have a new sponsor, AskIvanMisner.com. This is a Web site that was developed by Alex Mandossian. He is like the world’s expert on Ask Web sites, and Alex has put this site together, and we’re working with him on it. Just think about any question you have about business networking, go to that Web site, and type in your question. It’s free! When you type in your question, you’ll get a link that will tell you when to the phone call is. You may go and listen to the phone call live for free, no cost. If you want a recorded copy of the phone call, it’s $15 or less for the recorded copy of it, but free, listen to the telebridge for free live. And it’s once a month – at this point, it’s once a month. That may change over time.

But go to AskIvanMisner.com, throw a question at us. It can be either about BNI or about networking in general. This is not just a BNI Web site; it’s a networking Web site. Go check it out, see what you think.

Priscilla:
Great! Okay, then.

Well, listeners, I’d like to remind you that this podcast has been brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, new Web site where you can ask any question you have about networking. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Today’s special guest is infographics specialist Steven Lin, who created a series of visual tools called “BNI Visualized” to help new members understand the value of BNI. These are on BNI’s main website, but we’re also going to put the Flash animations and the PDF notes here on the podcast site.

BNI members at every level can use “BNI Visualized” to benefit themselves, their guests, their chapter, and BNI as a whole.

• New members see the benefit of BNI and invite more guests
• Guests will join BNI because they see the benefits
• BNI directors can educate the leadership team more easily and train members who want to start new chapters
• Expands knowledge of directors so they can make their chapters stronger

The “Why Join BNI?” animation includes 4 reasons to join BNI:

1. World’s largest networking organization
2. Lock out competition
3. Mandate is to give referrals
4. Best marketing tools for your business

There’s also a second Flash animation called “How BNI Works” that explains the concept of Givers Gain.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 142 -

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’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. I hear you have a guest today.

Ivan:
I do. I have a very talented young man. His name is Steven Lin. Steven does a lot of work with art. He does icon creation and visual story creation and brand management, infographic creation, all kinds of very creative things. I met Steven originally in Vancouver, Canada, at a presentation I did, and he did a couple of drawings of me that show up on BNI SuccessNet every now and then with me as a magician, me with the black belt, the martial arts. I’m sitting here looking at it right now.

Steven, you’re really very creative, and you did something for BNI recently that I really liked. It’s a BNI Visualized which can be found on our Web site, and we’re also going to try and put it up on this podcast. It’s a live file that you’ll be able to see some of the things we’re talking about, and it is, right now, up at BNI.com under Why Join BNI.

And with no further ado, let me introduce Steven Lin. Steven, you’re really a creative guy. Thanks for sharing all of this. Tell us about this BNI Visualized that you put together.

Steven:
Thank you, Ivan, for having me on the air today. So as a longtime member of BNI, I’ve been with BNI for four years, and I have worked as Secretary/Treasurer in my leadership in my chapter as well, so I saw the value of BNI. And as a creative director that specializes in process of visualization, I want to create something that going to benefit all the members in the BNI organization. So what BNI Visualized is a set of processed diagrams that explain how BNI works and why BNI is the best marketing tool for businesses. So the whole objective behind it is it’s a time saving tool and it allows new members to quickly understand the value of BNI.

So in my note that I put down, BNI could be benefit to people at different levels. So at the bottom, it’s intended for members who are looking for a better way to invite guests to be part of their local chapter.

Ivan:
If I may, Steven, you’re referring to the handwritten notes, the PDF file, correct?

Steven:
Yes, yes, I am.

Ivan:
So if you’re listening to this podcast, we’re going to put this PDF up there. You ought to have it up in front of you as we’re discussing it and Steven’s explaining how the live – it’s not an executable file; it’s a – what is it called?

Steven:
PDF.

Ivan:
Yeah, this is a PDF, but you have another file that we’re going to try to put up here that is actually –

Steven:
Flash animation.

Ivan:
Flash animation. So the PDF is sort of a description of what’s going on with the flash animation. Is that correct, Steven?

Steven:
Yes, it’s how this would actually benefit the members.

Ivan:
Great. So you should have the PDF up looking at it while Steven’s describing it, and then when we’re all done, run the flash animation so you can see how it works. If we can’t get it up on BNI Podcast, go to BNI.com and look under Why BNI and you’ll see the flash animation we’re talking about.

Sorry, Steven. Go ahead.

Steven:
No problem.

So the first step for members is we’re always looking for a better way to enhance our guest invitation process, so with BNI Visualization, it allows guests to convince that BNI is a great marketing tool for them and remove some of the skepticism about BNI.

So the next level up is the chapter leadership team. It allows the leadership team to educate the chapter members or potential members about the benefit of BNI. For new members, they see the benefit of BNI so they will invite more guests into their BNI chapter. For guests that attended, they will join BNI because now they see the benefit of how BNI could do for their business. And at the director’s level, it’s twofold. Number one, it allows them to educate the leadership team so they will educate the chapter members and grow the membership that way. And also, it’s a great recruiting tool, because there’s a lot of guests come and visit my chapter, and because there’s already a conflict of interest, so they would start their own chapter. So this will be a great tool for the director to train them, for someone who wants to start their own chapter.

The last level is at the BNI level. If we can incorporate more visualization into our training material and this will allow the director to expend their knowledge so they can help to build a stronger chapter.

So these are the four reasons I believe how people could potentially benefit from the BNI Visualizer.

Back to you, Ivan.

Ivan:
This is really great flash animation, and I’m looking at the flash animation as we’re talking. Do you want to talk a little bit about what it is. And again, if we don’t have it up at BNI Podcast, go to BNI.com and look at Why Join and you’ll see the actual flash animation that we’ve just talked about in a PDF that you’re looking at, or should have on BNI Podcast, the PDF describes how to use this flash animation. But do you want to talk a little bit about what they can expect when they see this flash animation. It has four separate reasons.

Steven:
Yes, there’s four separate reasons of joining BNI, and that’s what we try to teach people at the Secretary/Treasurer report at the end of the meeting is the four reasons of joining BNI.

Number one, BNI is the world’s largest organization.

Number two, you get to lock out your competition.

And Number three, our mandate to join BNI is to give referrals to our members.

And last reason is it’s the best marketing tool for my business and for a lot of my colleagues’ business.

As a matter of fact, in BNI.com, there’s a section called How BNI Works. There’s another set of animation that we have created that really explains the I HAVE portion of the meeting, and that goes through – it’s a five step process that explains how BNI really works. And that’s where people can really understand the whole concept behind BNI of Givers Gain.

Ivan:
We really like this flash animation, and again, if you go to Why Join BNI, you see the four reasons. When you click on it, you’ll get the information in writing, but also, that’s your voice I believe, Steven, basically describing what they’re reading, correct?

Steven:
Um-hmm, that’s right, that’s right.

Ivan:
So the four reasons are:

It’s a professional organization; it’s one of the world’s largest networking organizations.

The second reason, we only take one person per profession.

The third reason is that giving referrals is really the cornerstone of the program, and you create a virtual sales team in BNI.

And the fourth reason in the flash animation is that it provides you with increased exposure.

I love this material. Let’s say somebody wanted to put on their Web site, let’s say their chapter Web site, or maybe even their individual Web site, because a lot of members say on their Web site “Proud member of BNI,” what do you think? You would be good with them linking back to this flash animation, wouldn’t you?

Steven:
Yes, the best way is to contact me by SLIN@2QCreations.com. Send me a quick e-mail, and I will send you the flash animation file so you can incorporate that into your chapter’s Web site, or I can send you a PDF version of that so you can print it out as a poster that you can use during your BNI meeting.

Ivan:
That’s very gracious of you. Let’s make sure we get that e-mail right. It’s SLin, SLIN@2QCreations.com.

Steven:
Yes.

Ivan:
And your Web site is, obviously, 2QCreations.com, and I urge members, if you don’t have anyone who does what Steven does in your chapter, give Steven a call, go to his Web site, take a look at he does. It’s very creative. You’re very talented, Steven. People who have no artistic talent whatsoever are always blown away by people like you, who can just put together stuff in a visual way that’s very interesting and visually attractive.

Steven:
Thank you, thank you, Ivan.

Ivan:
Really well done.

Steven:
Thank you, thank you.

Ivan:
All right. So if somebody would like to put this up on their Web site, they can contact you. You can also link to it either on this podcast or at BNI.com.

Anything else you want to leave them with, Steven?

Steven:
The other thing is I can also provide – I know SendACard is very popular among the BNI world, so I have also incorporated into SendACard format so you can actually send it out to your colleague as well or someone you’d like to invite into your BNI chapter.

And last thing I want to add is the whole point of visualization is people are just bombarded with too much information, and most information is disregarded. So with visualization, the more you can do is really help them to cut through the clutter and create a better understanding, and that’s how we specialize.

Ivan:
And that’s what you do professionally?

Steven:
Yes, exactly.

Ivan:
So if somebody could use your services, they know how to reach you, and they certainly have seen the kind of work you do. Steven, I really appreciate what you’ve put together for BNI, and as you can see, we’re using it in multiple locations. And I want to just thank you very much for your offering to do this for the organization.

Steven:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity, Ivan.

Ivan:
Great! And again, Steven’s Web site is 2QCreations.com, and if you’d like to connect with him directly, either get that or you can talk to him about the services that he has, please feel free to do that. Steven is a member of BNI and has been for a number of years.

Thank you very much, Steven. It’s been great having you on the show.

Priscilla, back to you.

Priscilla:
Thank you, Ivan and Steven. That was very interesting.

So I’d like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.