The national directors of BNI in the UK and Ireland surveyed 4785 members and came up with some great information.

• 44% of BNI members had been in their business for more than 5 years. 70% had been in business for more than 2 years. (Most businesses fail within their first 3 years.)
• 25% of BNI members are one-person-businesses; 54% have 2-10 employees; 22% represent companies of up to 50 employees. 75% of our members have employees who work for their companies.
• 89.3% of the members felt that camaraderie was important to their participation in BNI, and 90.3% were satisfied or extremely satisfied in this area.
• Based on the survey, 15% received more than £25,000 (US $34,000) in business in the last 12 months, and of those 6% received £50,0000 or $69,000, and 80% received at least £2000 in business just from BNI.
• 86% of all BNI members were likely to renew their membership. In actual fact, about 20% don’t renew because of factors beyond their control, so the average renewal rate is about 60%.
• 70% of the people who do not renew made less than £2000 in referral business. This shouldn’t be a shock, but it’s powerful evidence that the amount of business you generate affects your attitude about BNI.

You can read more details in SuccessNet Online, including the graphs that go with the statistics.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 102 -

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 am 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. This week I’m at the U.S. BNI Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We’re expecting a great turnout of members, and we have a fantastic turnout of directors. This week I’m at the conference in Milwaukee.

Priscilla:
Well, that sounds good.

Ivan:
The topic this week is an unusual title, And the Survey Says. You made me say it twice because it was like, “What is the title?” Well, the reason for that is there is a game show that has been on for many, many years, and it plays around the world, Family Feud, and the host always says, “And the survey says.” And then you listen for what people have to say about the survey.

This is based on a survey that was done on BNI, and I thought that I would like to talk about this topic on this podcast because there’s some great content that came out of this survey. And I want to thank the national directors for the United Kingdom for having put this together as a wonderful survey. There was about 4,785 BNI members that were part of this survey in the U.K. and Ireland, and some really interesting results were discovered.

The first topic relates to the length of time members have been in business. From previous studies, which I quoted in my book, Truth or Delusion, Busting Networking Biggest Myths, we knew that BNI have a substantial number of mature and successful businesses in it. But this study further supports those findings. Based on one of the questions, they found that 44 percent of BNI members in the study had been in business for more than five years, 44 percent of BNI members had been in their business for more than five years. And a whopping combined total of 70 percent were in business for more than two years; 70 percent of BNI members, based on this study, were in for more than two years.

Most businesses fail within their first three years. That holds true worldwide, and yet, we see a large percentage of our members having been in business for more than two, and many more than five years, which is a real testament to the fact that we have matured, seasoned, successful business professionals in here. Only 15 percent of our membership has been in business for less than one year. That’s really critical. Only 15 percent of our membership, based on this study, have been in business less than one year.

So this really, truly puts to rest the myth that BNI is made up mostly of new businesses. These results dramatically show that BNI is made up of members who beat most of the national averages for length of time in business.

Second question that I wanted to talk about is the average size of the business that’s represented in BNI. This topic covered in the survey really was asking how many employees work for the company, and the results in this area closely track previous results from the St. Thomas University study that was conducted a number of years ago about BNI. The current survey showed that 25 percent of the membership was a one person operation and that 54 percent had between two and ten employees and that another 22 percent of BNI members represented companies of up to 50 employees with 6 percent being over 50 employees. So again, BNI is not made up of just “Mom and Pop” operations. 75 percent of our organization has employees who work for the company, and as much as almost 30 percent have more than 11 people and over 50 employees working for the company.

The next question that was in the survey, at least that I’m covering today – the survey was much more comprehensive, but I only have time for a handful of the questions – that was the importance of comradery. That shouldn’t be a particular surprise. Comradery, or friendship, based on the survey, 89.3 percent of the members felt that this factor was important to extremely important in their participation. I was really pleased to see that 90.3 percent were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the results in this area. Relationships are clearly an important factor in the organization, that’s not a surprise, and that part of it is absolutely working in the organization.

Now we get into probably some of the most important topics, and that’s the value of BNI members’ businesses. What’s the value of the business that’s generated in BNI. It’s probably the more important topic, and it’s very interesting. Based on the survey, 15 percent of the respondents received over 25,000 pounds sterling, remember this was done in the U.K. and Ireland, which is equal today to about $34,000 U.S., so about 15 percent made over $34,000 U.S. with 6 percent of that number receiving over 50,000 pounds sterling, or $69,000 U.S. in business for the last 12 months.

About 23 percent of the members generated between 10,000 and 25,000 pounds sterling, which is the equivalent of roughly $14,000 to $34,000 U.S. So it’s 23 percent got between roughly $14,000 and $34,000 U.S.

21 percent stated that they had received between 5,000 and 10,000 pounds sterling, or approximately $7,000 to $14,000 U.S. And another 21 percent generated over 2,000 to 5,000 pounds sterling, or roughly $3,000 to $7,000 U.S.

A total of 80 percent of all the members surveyed received more than 2,000 pounds sterling in business, or more than $3,000 U.S. in revenue. So for a few hundred dollars in membership, virtually everyone had received at least, at least $3,000 U.S. in business, and some, much, much more, some as much as $69,000 or more in business.

Now, this is really important when it’s cross tabulated against another factor that we’re going to look at in just a moment. Let’s talk about membership renewal trends. The question about renewal was one that was very interesting. Based on the survey results, 86 percent of all BNI members were likely to renew their membership; 86 percent said they were likely to renew their membership. However, what we know from previous studies conducted in the United States, as much as 20 percent of our members don’t renew membership for reasons that are beyond our control. For example, they’re promoted, they move, they’re ill, they change jobs.

So if you reduce the 86 percent of members who absolutely plan on renewing their membership by the 20 percent that don’t for reasons that are beyond their control and our control, that leaves roughly 66 percent renewal rate in an average BNI group. That’s an important number because even if 86 percent of your members are happy, which is a great number, you’re still going to have roughly 20 percent not renew because of variables beyond the control of their chapter. When you add to that, surprises, issues, or people who change their mind, it’s not uncommon to see about a 60 percent renewal rate in a chapter.

So consider this when planning chapter growth, that even if 86 percent of your members say they’re going renew, you know that at least 20 won’t because of factors that are beyond our control, illness, promotion, moving, those kinds of things.

All right. So here’s that last topic that I want to touch upon. It’s a real important one. And that’s the characteristics of people who do not renew. This is so important, and it’s the most important part of this podcast. If you take the 14 percent of the people who are not going to renew, likely not to renew, you discover that 70 percent of them made less than $3,000 in business. This means that if we can help – and this is the really important part of this podcast. If we can help struggling members in the referral process generate more referrals, it is likely that we can reduce the number of members who feel that it’s unlikely that they’re going to renew their membership.

This study that was conducted shows that people who are not planning on renewing rank towards the bottom in the amount of revenue earned during their participation. Now this shouldn’t be a shock to anybody, but it’s powerful evidence that the amount of business that people generate is going to determine whether they stay in the group. Chapters that begin working with low earning members six months before their renewal date might, in fact, make an impact relating to this segment of the membership. So if our leadership teams do nothing else with these findings when you’re listening to this podcast – talk to your chapter members and your leadership teams. If they do nothing else with these findings, focusing on the members who are not generating 2,000 in pounds sterling business or more is an important factor in increasing in the renewals of your chapter members.

For those of you listening to the podcast, this was an article that you can find in SuccessNetOnline. You can find this article in SuccessNetOnline. It was published in April on 2009, and the title is And the Survey Says, and you can see the graphs that go with the topics that I’ve been talking about here.

So that’s the content that I wanted to talk about today.

Priscilla, any thoughts on what I just described?

Priscilla:
I think it’s very interesting, and I’m hoping you will do a podcast on how to help those members that are not being able to earn the income that they would like to.

Ivan:
Well, that’s a great topic, and yeah, let me put together some material, and we’ll cover that in a future podcast. Because clearly, it’s a way that dramatically can impact those individuals. When 70 percent of the people who say they’re not going to renew are making less than $3,000 in referrals in a BNI chapter, then clearly, there’s a statistical significance there. And if we could just affect those people, we’re going to have, right off the top, 10 percent of our members renewing that weren’t renewing before. I think that’s a powerful thing to know.

Priscilla:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you, Dr. Misner. That was a very interesting topic, and I like that survey.

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.

Congratulations to Dr. Misner and BNI on producing 100 episodes of this podcast!

Imagine being dropped off in the middle of a foreign city with only a handful of cash and being told you have to start a successful business before you can go home. That’s the premise of the BBC series “The Last Millionaire.”

What does this have to do with BNI? A recent winner of this show, Lucy, looked up BNI while in Hong Kong and used a visit to the Hong Kong Attraction Chapter to help her make four times as much money as the other contestant.

The Hong Kong BNI members showed how BNI can really work. BNI isn’t just a great way to get business, it’s an even better way to do business.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 100 -

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 am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
Doing great, and I think this is a tremendous topic for the 100th episode, and I’m glad we could put it in on this episode.

Priscilla:
Congratulations, by the way.

Ivan:
Thank you. One hundred episodes. That’s a lot of podcasts.

Priscilla:
That is!

Ivan:
We’ve got a lot of content for BNI members, and I know many of them are appreciating it. I get emails all the time thanking me for these podcasts.

This is a great topic. It’s about a television show that played in the United Kingdom called The Last Millionaire, and it was brought to my attention by Sam Schwarz, who’s an executive director in the U.S. and co-national director in Israel, Romania, and he travels in Europe a lot, and he came and told me all about this.

Imagine being dropped off – this is how the show operates – imagine being dropped off in the middle of a metropolitan area of a foreign city with absolutely nothing but a few hundred dollars. Then you’re told you have to start a successful business that beats out your competition before you can go home. That’s the premise of the BBC television show called The Last Millionaire.

Twelve of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs competed this year on the series, and each of those contestants lead very plush lives, very successful lives. Some of them actually live in castles, and they all live in mansions, they drive luxury cars, they dine at the finest restaurants. And on the show, their lives of luxury are left behind because they compete in the world’s toughest markets to build a business from scratch. They’re stripped of all their home comforts. The live in hostels. They have to make money, more money than their rivals, and the last contestant is named The Last Millionaire, which, of course, nobody wants to be. So it’s sort of a flip side of The Apprentice where everyone wants to be The Apprentice, here, nobody wants to be The Last Millionaire. And if you keep losing, you keep living in the hostels and you don’t get to go home to your mansion.

Priscilla:
Oh, I see. It’s not like a victory to be the last one left.

Ivan:
No, not at all. You don’t want to be The Last Millionaire.

So, okay, where does BNI come into this mix? Let me explain. The show is down to the last two contenders, Natalie and Lucy. And they were taken from the United Kingdom and dropped off in the middle of Hong Kong, where they were given the equivalent of a few hundred dollars and were told to create a product and sell it in five days. They could recruit student helpers from a list that they’ve both been given, but otherwise, they had to do it all on their own. Natalie started calling the student contacts for help. Lucy, however, went to an Internet café and Googled business networking.

Now, I invite BNI members to go Google and type in business networking, and you’re going to see, as one of the top two names up there, you’re going to see BNI, not under the advertised sponsors’ names, but as a search engine name, we will always be in one of those top names. And you’ll see sometimes 50 million hits, and BNI will be one of those first ones.

Priscilla:
Wow.

Ivan:
So take three guesses. She did this search and BNI came up as one of the top names.

So what the show didn’t highlight is that Lucy’s company had been a BNI member, and she had a great experience with the organization. I had an opportunity to speak to her just a couple of days ago, and she loved the organization. Her company is now franchised, and she’s telling the franchisees to go join BNI. So Lucy was a little bit familiar with BNI. She was able to find it on the Internet in Hong Kong; she’s from the United Kingdom. There, she’s dropped off in Hong Kong. She does a search. She calls the president of one of the BNI chapters in Hong Kong and asks if she can visit their next meeting.

Now, you cut away to the BBC narrator who says, “Lucy has discovered a business networking meeting taking place in two days’ time. It’s a high flying group of Hong Kong executives and company owners.”

Then you cut away back to Lucy, and she’s there visiting the Hong Kong Attraction Chapter of BNI, Hong Kong Attraction Chapter. I’ve met many of the people that were in that episode. I saw them, and I thought, “Oh, my goodness! I just saw them a few months ago during my visit to Hong Kong!”

Well, the president is shown on the episode in front talking about how the meeting runs and, I love it, right behind him is this great big BNI banner, right there in the background. Nice. It was really great to see that kind of exposure for the organization.

And again, cue announcer: Lucy is in her element with Hong Kong’s top entrepreneurs,” and it cuts away to scenes of Lucy networking with BNI members and getting referrals for contacts that will end up designing, producing, and selling her product. And these were great contacts. Some of them were the top manufacturers in Hong Kong. She decided to do a shirt, and the referrals that she got from that chapter led her to the largest merchandising agent in Asia, a designer, and one of the top manufacturers in Hong Kong came from BNI members at the meeting that she went to.

Now, when the contest was over just a few days later, she earned 16 times her startup capital in five days.

Priscilla:
Wow!

Ivan:
She earned 16 times her startup capital and made more than four times the amount of money that Natalie made.

Priscilla:
Wow, that’s great.

Ivan:
Come on; admit it, Priscilla. You thinking the same thing I am? BNI rocks!

Priscilla:
Absolutely.

Ivan:
That was just so amazing to me. What a testament, first of all, to the Hong Kong members. I’ve met many of these members; absolutely class acts in business. These are the kind of members that you want to bring into a BNI chapter. They are definitely movers and shakers in the community.

And what a testament to the BNI program. I cannot think of a better episode to have on this podcast for our 100th episode than this story.

Priscilla:
I would love to see this episode. Is it possible to view it?

Ivan:
I would so much love to have people see it. I did have an opportunity to see it. It is great. It is very difficult. The BBC won’t release the episode. Maybe someday they will, but at this time, at the time of this recording, they won’t release the episode, and you can’t view it at their Web site. You can get some information about the episode from their Web site, but you can’t actually view it. And that’s unfortunate, but I’ll tell you, if it’s ever available, I promise you, we will make that available to BNI members because I think it’s a real powerful story.

But you know what? I’d like us to consider the bigger picture in this great story for BNI.

Priscilla:
Yeah, how are you going to do that?

Ivan:
Time when many businesses are struggling, it’s a testament to the BNI way of networking that someone can be dropped into a foreign city, with a little help from BNI members, as a past BNI member, her company was a BNI member, as a fellow BNI member can win an entrepreneurial contest to build a business in less than a week. I think it’s a great example of the brand we have built showing up in one of the number one spots on an Internet search and an even better example of the power of the BNI program based on the great contacts that Lucy received.

Today more than ever business people need BNI. When times are difficult, referrals are king. We, as business people, can not only survive, we can thrive during difficult economic times if we strive to build our business based on personal contacts, relationships, and support of our fellow members. I am proud of the BNI members in Hong Kong.

They showed how networking can truly work, and I think it’s a testament of their commitment, their skills, and to the effective application of the BNI program.

Priscilla:
Well, that’s really a fun story. I really enjoyed it, and I’m sure the other listeners will love that.

Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

Ivan:
Sure. I think if I could add one thing to the actual episode, in my mind, I can visualize one more scene where it fads away to Lucy winning, not being The Last Millionaire, because of her work with BNI. When I spoke to her, she said she loves BNI, and it absolutely was instrumental in her winning that episode and was very grateful to the organization. I could see a cutaway, fade-away to Lucy sitting on her veranda overlooking her beautiful pool as she sips her morning mimosa with her butler, once again, at her beckoned call, and I can just see her smiling slyly to herself and saying, “BNI is not only a great way to get business, it’s an even better way to do business.” And I think that’s a powerful message for our members all around the world.

Priscilla:
That’s great. Well, thank you, Ivan. That was a wonderful story and a fantastic podcast for your 100th, so congratulations to the whole organization.

Ivan:
Thank you very much, Priscilla, and thank you for your part in that. It’s been great working with you, and we look forward to continuing to do these podcasts with you over the years.

Priscilla:
Oh, good. Well, thanks so much, and I just want 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.

Dr. Misner is beginning to shift his conception of BNI from “Think Globally, Act Locally” to “Local Business, Global Network.” BNI is developing its own social network, and BNI members are traveling and meeting each other in distant locations. BNI has more than 100,000 members worldwide and chapters in 40 countries.

As you see conferences announced on BNI.com, make plans to attend as many as you can. You can get million-dollar referrals at conferences. A dentist from Malaysia connected BNI member Marcus Emery to MAS Cargo at the International Member Event in Kuala Lumpur. (Watch the video here.)

You never know who your fellow BNI members are going to meet. If you surround yourself with quality professionals, the sky is the the limit on the referrals you can get. Service-based businesses are particularly well suited to doing business internationally. The key is finding each other: reach out and participate in online networks, go visit BNI chapters when traveling, and go to conferences.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 060 -

Priscilla Rice:
Hello welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you today?

Ivan Misner:
I am doing great, Priscilla. I just got back from Malaysia and Hong Kong, visiting chapters of BNI. I am really excited about what I’m seeing being done worldwide.

Priscilla:
That’s great. Are you to share that with us today?

Ivan:
I am. I am. I want to start by talking about something that I used to say and how I’m beginning to change my position on something that I’ve said for many years. For a long time I have said BNI is a classic example of “thinking globally and acting locally”. But as time goes on and as technology improves and travel becomes easier, I’m really beginning to shift my thinking. I think the organization will begin to shift its operation over time from that concept to the concept of “local business, global network”.

We’re becoming a much smaller world in so many ways — Technology, certainly being one of them. Although I’m not prepared to talk about it here today on this podcast, I can’t say that BN I has a huge project in the works that will streamline a lot of our technology and bring us into the 21st century to enable our members to network and communicate in the not too distant future via technologies and in-house social networking to support the members. As time goes on, I’ll be talking more about that.

That aside — and when that does take place it will be incredible. But until then, I’m seeing a lot of our members communicating via venues which I’ll talk about little bit later. Through meeting and by going to visit each other as they are traveling around the world, by attending conferences like the one that I just attended in Kuala Lumpur recently. That’s what really gave me the idea of local business global network.

We are, to a large extent, mostly local businesses that are in BNI, but we truly have created a global network. We’re in almost 40 countries. We have over 100,000 members worldwide. We are truly a global network and more effectively we can use that matter. I attended two days for members, a third day for directors with conferences, conference session seminars and master classes. It was just amazing.

There were so many opportunities for business people to talk and exchange business, make new friends and immerse themselves in an intense learning experience. I would recommend to BNI members that as you see conferences that are being done around the world — and there are a lot of places and you can find out about BNI conferences.
BNI.com is one of the best locations. Go there to find out what is going on. Go there regularly go at least once a month to take a look at what events are going on. It’s right there on the front page, what events are going around the world. If you can, attend some of these in your country or around the world — because you will have an opportunity to hear speakers, sometimes myself and others.

At the Malaysian conference, we had Thomas and Penny Power of Ecademy. Anne Ray an entrepreneur of the year in the UK, Don and Nancy Morgan, the national directors of Canada. Niri Patel of the United Kingdom and India, Frank Derafway from New York. These are just some of the really engaging educational speakers that we had at this conference.

The more BNI members can attend things like that, the better. I believe that events like this help businesses connect with potential partners from all over the world. At this particular conference, we had 20 countries represented. We had 50 members from India and many members from the UK title in the United States and Australia. It’s really an amazing experience. I think there’s one experience in particular that I want to share with you.

It’s an amazing thing. In the transcript, I want to make sure that we have a video link, a URL, to the video that I’m about to talk about. It’s a very short video about three minutes long. One of the sponsors was a BNI person from the United Kingdom, Marcus Emory. Marcus is in the cargo transportation industry. He got a multi-or what is potentially a multimillion dollar referral at this conference. Literally a multimillion dollar referral.

Priscilla:
What kind of business does he have?

Ivan:
He does shipping. Shipping and cargo. Here’s the amazing thing about it. So many times I hear in BNI people say I want to network with the CEO or I want to network with the vice president. The more you know, these people are hiding from you. They are not going to join BNI. And they’re not in direct sales so they have no interest in being in BNI.

The key with BNI is that it’s not just the business of the other members are in it, it’s that the people that those members know. The people that those members meet that is critical. One of the best examples I’ve ever seen I saw as a result of this conference. A dentist from Malaysia, Dr. Fey from Malaysia gave Marcus Emory this referral. It came because she had a patient who was in a company that had a $1.5 billion shipping budget. That’s billion with a “B” by the way, and was looking to streamline their operations and to talk to other companies. The dentist said, “Jay, I have just the person for you.” She referred him to Marcus, and the next day, Marcus got a phone call to set up an appointment with this gentleman.

To me, it’s a classic example of what I’m talking about where it’s the quality of business professionals that you’re networking with. They meet people who are decision makers. They get to know people who are decision makers. And sometimes, they have them in the dental chair of their office and they are working on their mouth. You just never know who you are going to meet and who these other people in BNI will have in their office or whose home they are in or who is in their dental chair.

You can get some great referrals if you just surround yourself with quality business professionals. You can get referrals that, I have to be honest, are bigger than I ever imagined when I first started BNI. But today I believe the sky is the limit. Referrals can be huge from the contacts that you make. We truly do have local businesses that are operating on a global network. The more we can work together globally using technologies in the future and conferences and visitations to chapters around the world presently, the stronger we are going to be as an organization.

Priscilla:
Can I just ask one quick question? I think we’re almost out of time but maybe you can give suggestions of local businesses that could create global networking referrals if you have any ideas from being at the conference. What do you think? Which businesses would work best that way?

Ivan:
I think any business that doesn’t have to operate just locally. There are some businesses. Obviously, the dentist is it going to be doing business globally. But almost any business and more and more, we see businesses that are in the service industries that could do business anywhere in the world. Those are businesses that, in fact, should be networking and finding ways to build their business worldwide.

There are a couple of ways to do that. One is they should become active in BNI Yahoo group. It is a new if they should become active in that. Ecademy.com — BNI has its own community as part of Ecademy. We have our own community in LinkedIn. Sometime in the not too distant future, we will have our own internal intranet community which I’m really not prepared to talk a lot about.

For those businesses which do business, particularly service-based businesses, you can do this — we are nowhere near each other. You are in Northern California. I’m in Southern California. Somebody could be in Malaysia working with you. You don’t have to be next-door to get business. I think our relationship is the perfect example of how we can do business across the country, across the state or, I believe, across the world. The key is finding each other.

I’m in a position where it’s easy for me to find people because I’m traveling. But members, you have to put yourself in that position. The way to put yourself in that position is to participate in the Yahoo groups, the Ecademy groups, and the LinkedIn and to go visit.

When you are traveling, spent time and visit local BNI chapters. They will roll out the red carpet for you. Go to conferences and look for when the United States conference is, when the European conference is, when the Canadian conference, the Australian conference. Look for when these conferences are and go and meet members of other countries. It’s the best way to build your business internationally.

Priscilla:
That’s a great idea. I think we need to hear more about women’s conferences are within the chapter. It could have little announcements and suggests leadership teams or whatever to visit their conferences.

Ivan:
Yes, if members just go to BNI.com once a month, and look at all the news briefs that are up there, they will have a sense of all the conferences that are coming up. Or they can do an RSS feed. You may need to talk to your technical person in the chapter. That will have a feed right to your chapter website. You could just pull up your chapter website to find out what is new in BNI and what conferences are going on. We usually post many of the conferences that are going on around the world@BNI.com.

Priscilla:
Okay great. Do you have anything that you would like to tell the listeners before we saw this podcast up?

Ivan:
I think BNI is headed in the direction of local business global network. As time goes on, you’re going to hear us talking more and more about that because we need to if we are going to making more effective use of the global network that BNI is creating for local businesses.

Priscilla:
Thank you, Dr. Misner. That was very interesting. I think that’s it for this week. This podcast is the 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 will join us next week for another exciting episode of the Official BNI Podcast.

Marcus Emery of Emery Worldwide in the UK shares his referral success at the BNI Worldwide Members Event in May 2008.

In this episode, Dr. Misner calls in from Toronto to talk about Global Networking with Niri S. Patel from Yorkshire and Robert French from Korea.

So why would people want to network internationally?

1. To be really successful, you have to find a trend and work your way into it. The trend now is toward social networking and high-touch
2. The center of gravity of the global economy is shifting eastwards to China and India. Graduates of Oxford and Cambridge are being recruited to work at Indian multinationals.
3. The credit crunch opens the way to profitable East-West collaborations and means that the fast will win over the slow.

How can members develop resourceful international relationships quickly?

1. Use events worldwide, such as BNI Worldwide’s International Members Event in Kuala Lumpur in May 2008.
2. Ask your trusted network “Who do you know who…?”
3. Ask the people you see trading internationally how they do it.
4. Raise your profile with international contacts via Ecademy, LinkedIn and the BNI Yahoo! Group.

The world is moving fast. We have to move fast. Jump on it. Go to these international events.
Sponsored by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 053 -

Priscilla:
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the official BNI podcast brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the Web 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’m doing great. This week I am in Toronto, Canada, for their national conference, which is perfect, because the topic of our podcast today is about networking globally, and we’ve got some guests on the line with us who are definite experts on that. We’re going to try to touch upon three topics with them today:

Why it’s important to network internationally;
How members can develop international relationships as quickly as possible;
Raising your profile among international contacts.

We’ve got two gentlemen who know what they’re talking about. They’re both directors for BNI, Niri Patel and Robert French.

And, gentlemen, welcome to the BNI podcast.

Niri:
Thank you, Ivan. Thank you for having us on the show.

Robert:
Thank you, from Korea.

Ivan:
You’re in Korea, and you have an announcement, don’t you, Robert?

Robert:
Yeah, we’ve had a very successful launch of our first chapter in Korea, Ivan, where we’ve had about 80 people attend. And we’ve received 32 applications to join our first group, so we’re well up into the 30s on their first launch, so we’ve had a spectacular day.

Ivan:
Outstanding and congratulations. That’s our first chapter in Korea.

Niri, you’re calling from the United Kingdom, correct?

Niri:
Yes, I am. I’m here in the United Kingdom. Congratulations to you, Robert, on getting BNI established in Korea. And thank you, Dr. Misner, for getting me on the call.

Ivan:
My pleasure.

Let’s start with you, Niri. Why would people want to network internationally? We had these members in about 38 countries around the world. Why do they want to network internationally?

Niri:
Well, that’s a great question. Global networking is something, I guess, you do if you’ve got or aspire to have an international business. But there are, I think, in my opinion, two incredibly compelling reasons to consider broadening your networking horizons, that is, internationally.

The first reason stems from what a very successful businessman, an old friend of mine, told me. And he said, “Niri, if you want to be successful in business, you’ve got to find a trend and work your way into it.”

For example, there were fortunes made by those who got into plastics in the ‘60s and those who got into dot-com businesses in the mid to late ‘90s and obviously got out at the right time. I believe there are actually three major global trends happening right now as we speak, and they’re being validated by what the media is actually reporting.

The first of these global trends is the actual trend in business and social networking. If you look at the recent proliferation of increase in popularity in networking sites like My Space and the business networking forums like Linked In and Ecademy. That’s evidence of it, and they are, obviously, all excellent.

My personal take is that high tech and highly-timed pressurized world that people are now finding themselves in actually crave more of a high touch interaction, both in social terms and as well as in business.

So, that’s the first trend. The second trend is that the global economy center of gravity is definitely shifting eastward. There isn’t a day that goes by when we don’t hear about something happening in China and India, whereas, even ten years ago, these were things that would be so remote.

And in the UK, where I’m actually based, top graduates from the top universities, like Oxford and Cambridge, the equivalent of what you in the United States would call the Ivy League colleges, are now actually being recruited to work in India and multi-national companies, for example. In fact, on a recent business trip to India, I found out that some of the large Indian companies are actually outsourcing their call centers to eastern Europe and the UK because the high net worth Asians want to speak to people with a western English accent.

And the third global trend, Ivan, is actually affecting us here in the West more than in the East, and that is the dreaded credit crunch. Now, countries like India and China are obviously aware of the global crisis in the credit market, but on the recent trip, that I just mentioned, to India at the beginning of March this year, I saw no real evidence of anything that was going to dampen the enthusiasm and optimism that they have about the positive economic outlook there.

And, the multi-nationals in this world have a strategy and a presence for these markets, which allows them to tap into this shifting balance of economic power.

But, here’s the thing. The SMEs can also tap into this global trend by actually linking in to their trusted network. So, the little guy, for example, who does web sites in India or Malaysia or China, somewhere like that, wants to partner with a similar small business, say, for example, in the UK or US, and collaboration of this kind can actually develop into something very quick and very big over night.

I am a firm believer that if good people get together, than good things can happen. And according to Mukesh Ambani, who is now regarded by the Indian media as the richest man in the world, ahead even of Bill Gates, due to the weakening of the US dollar in recent times. He says that it will no longer be big winning over small, but it’s actually going to be fast winning over slow.

And that’s were I think that tapping into global networks, such as BNI, is going to allow people to actually access the opportunity to suddenly find themselves doing business internationally.

If I could give you one very quick example.

Ivan:
A real quick one, because we only have three minutes left.

Niri:
There is a lady who is a copywriter here in the UK, got a very local business, but now she is actually writing copy for an Indian bank because they want to attract high net worth individuals from the UK. So all of a sudden, because of the power of the Internet and the trusted network through BNI, she has now actually got a client internationally.

Ivan:
Yeah, I think more and more BNI members understand the need to do business internationally, and they want to do business internationally.

But, Robert, let me ask you: How can members develop a resourceful international business relationship fairly quickly?

Robert:
Yeah, well, the thing is we have to do it fast now, because the world is changing fast. So one of the ways it can be done is to use events worldwide, and the one that BNI is putting on is an event for international members in Kuala Lumpur in May on the 27th and 28th. Check out the Web site, BNI-worldwide.com –

Ivan:
That’s BNI-worldwide . . .

Robert:
Dot com.

Ivan:
Dot com.

Robert:
That’s correct.

Ivan:
We’ll have that in the transcript here.

Robert:
Exactly. That’s great.

And, you know, the thing is, you can ask trusted network, “Who do you know who . . . ?” That’s a very quick way to do it. There are other very, very resourceful things as well, many, many ways, but you can actually develop fast, resourceful things. Don’t forget the Chamber of Commerce. It’s very, very useful. Government trade departments can be extremely helpful. Another way is to ask people already doing it. If you see successful people trading internationally, don’t be afraid to ask them, “How do you do it?” because they’ll very often give you the right answers.

Another way is, obviously, raise your profile with international contacts. Ecademy and Linked In, which we already mentioned, are powerful ways to get yourself known around the world.

Ivan:
Can I add one more, Robert?

Robert:
Yeah.

Ivan:
The BNI Yahoo Group, for BNI members who want to network with other members, they should connect on the BNI Yahoo Group. We’ll have that link on here as well. And, of course, Ecademy. As you mentioned, we have a strategical alliance with Ecademy.

Robert:
Correct.

Ivan:
But all of these things are really important, and listeners to this podcast really, really should go to the Ecademy and BNI Yahoo, but the trick is the best way to really build a relationship is to get face to face. And so, here, you’ve got a global conference that you’re putting on in Malaysia, which I went to two years ago. You did it two years ago, and you may do it again every couple of years. What a tremendous event. I saw tons of business generated. I think the biggest referral I saw was a $1 million, Australian dollar, referral for somebody who did – it was a technology business, and that was one of the biggest referrals.

So, members who are listening to this podcast, I get members all the time that say, “How can we use the international network?” The way to use it, I believe, is to go to international events, go to the national conferences of the various countries. They almost all have Members Days days. Go to this BNI global event in Malaysia, because you’ve got more than one day for members, don’t you? One day or two days?

Robert:
We have two days with the [inaudible] at the end of it, so it’s a lot of fun.

Ivan:
And you’ll meet tons of members. Yep, that’s the key.

Well, we’re almost out of time. Any last thing you want to add before we wrap up this podcast?

Robert:
The world is moving fast; we have to move fast, jump on it.

Ivan:
I couldn’t agree more. My last observation is, if you’re a BNI members and you want to do business internationally, take a really hard look at participating in some of these national and internationally events, use BNI Yahoo Group, and use Ecademy as a way of communicating with other BNI members, but go to these events because there, where the rubber meets the road, is the place where you’re going to network with people and build the relationships and do business.

So, Robert, thank you very much. Niri, I appreciate it. Back to you, Priscilla.

Robert:
Thank you, Ivan.

Niri:
Thanks, Ivan.

Priscilla:
Hi, Dr. Misner. Well, before I close this particular episode, I just want to say congratulations on this being the first anniversary of your podcast.

Ivan:
Thank you.

Priscilla:
It’s number 53, right?

Ivan:
Yes, it is.

Priscilla:
That’s great. All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been so interesting. I’m sure the listeners are going to be really interested to hear everything about the international networking. I know I was.

Thank you so much. I just want the listeners to know that this podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we will see you next week on the Official BNI Podcast.

Every BNI member gets a free copy of Givers Gain at the New Members’ Orientation/Member Success Program.

Going through the history of BNI gives members a sense of organizational culture. In this episode, Dr. Misner talks about how BNI became an international organization.

• Canada was the first country outside the US to have BNI; Don and Nancy Morgan, the founders of BNI Canada, are still the national directors.
• Canadian BNI directors are responsible for the expansion of BNI to the United Kingdom and Australia.
• BNI has been translated into more than a dozen languages, starting with Canadian French.
• Because BNI is about members doing business locally, it adapts itself to cultural differences.
• It was also during this period that the BNI Foundation was created.
• You can find the Hidden Elements to Running a Successful BNI meeting at the end of this chapter.

Sponsored by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 045 -

Priscilla Rice:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by networkingnow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice and I am coming from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. How are you, Ivan?

Ivan Misner:
I am doing great, Priscilla. Thank you.

Priscilla:
What would you like to share with us today?

Ivan:
Today, I am going to talk about Chapter 7 of the book, Givers Gain. What I have been trying to do this year and last year at the end of last year is kind of go through chapter by chapter of the book, Givers Gain, which is all about the organization. It’s sort of the bio of BNI. The reason I think this is important for members is that it gives you a sense of the organizational culture. It tells you where we came from and how we got to where we are. The link to the past really is important to future, so I am going to be talking today about Chapter 7,  which is all about going international and how BNI became an international organization.

Priscilla:
Great.

Ivan:
This particular this chapter goes from 1995 to the year 2000. It really is the time when we put “International” in the “I” of BNI. We had always wanted the organization to go international but it took a little while for us to be able to do that. Today, after 23 years, we now are in 37 countries. We have chapters operating in 37 countries. We have over 5,000 chapters operating in 37 countries around the world. We have done 36 of those 37 countries in the last 13 years, from 1995 to 2008.

In the first 10 years, we were in one country. Finally in 1995, we opened up in our second country. That is Canada. Canada was the second country for BNI. I am going to share something on this podcast that is not in the book. I ran across a member. I was concerned, you know. We were opening up in a brand-new country. Is this really going to work in a new country? I didn’t know. I hadn’t done it before. I know it sounds silly now after being in 37 countries, but I didn’t know.

I was talking to a couple of members in Canada. I was asking them, “Do you think this will work here in Canada?” I am not making this up. This is not a joke, Priscilla.

One of the members, a woman, looks at me and says, “Oh honey, this will work great in Canada. Canadians are very much like Americans except with cheap healthcare and no guns.”

I had to laugh because I didn’t know if she was serious or if it was a joke, but whatever it was, it made me feel comfortable. I really appreciate that member saying because it made me think — you know what? People are people all around the world. This idea of building relationships will work in Canada as well as it will in other countries.

Canada our first country for us to open in. The founding National Directors for Canada are Don and Nancy Morgan. Don and Nancy are still the National Directors for us in Canada. They have really done a tremendous job of helping us open up in the first country outside the U.S., which really leapfrogged to other countries because one of our early Canadian directors, Steve Lawson, had a brother, Martin Lawson, in the London. Steve encouraged Martin and his wife, Julian, to consider starting BNI and United Kingdom. So we actually opened up BNI in the United Kingdom as a result of Steve Lawson in Canada.

We also ended up opening up in Australia because of some Canadian directors. Canada is really responsible for us opening up on two different sides of the world. For that we’re very appreciative. They were very instrumental in the growth of this organization.

Priscilla:
How many languages does BNI get translated into?

Ivan:
That’s a great question. It’s more than a dozen languages that we operate in. The first language was French-Canadian and now, of course, we are also in France and we have chapters in Sweden, Norway, Denmark — all separate languages — and Germany. We have chapters operating in Hebrew, in Chinese. There are probably a dozen or more languages.

I will never forget the first time I saw meeting room in a different language. The first time, it was in Sweden and Swedish is not like the French, where Americans kind of know a little bit of French. It’s not like Spanish. I grew up in Southern California, and you can’t grow up in southern California without knowing a little Spanish. Swedish is Swedish. You don’t understand a single word unless you know the language, right?

So I remember the first time I was listening to this entire meeting in Swedish and one of the members looks over at me and says, “You have no idea what he’s talking about, do you?”

I said, “Yeah. He is introducing the referral part of the meeting and he’s explaining how the referral works and if you don’t have a referral, you give a testimonial.”

He said, “Wow, you know Swedish.”

I said, “No, I wrote the agenda.”

That’s what it was like. You go to meetings and that’s the great thing about BNI. You can go to BNI meetings anywhere in the world and not know any of the language and still know exactly what is happening and what’s going on because the BNI meetings operate very much the same all over the world. I think one of the beautiful things about the organization is that it’s all based on trust and building relationships and that kind of transcends many of the cultural differences.

Priscilla:
But there must be some really interesting cultural differences between the different countries, I would imagine. Right?

Ivan:
There are, but to a large extent, we are really not talking about Brits doing business with Americans, Americans doing business with Aussies, Aussies doing business with Malaysians, or Malaysians doing business with South Africans. We are really talking about business people locally doing business with each other. And so what we have been BNI is a mechanism or a structure an overlay being applied on top of the cultural context.

So it’s Americans doing business with Americans locally. It’s Canadians doing business with Canadians and Brits doing business with Brits. BNI is a classic example of thinking globally and acting locally. It’s about building relationships locally. Now mind you, that can lead to international business, and it can lead to referrals to do business worldwide, but it is about building relationships locally.

Although yes, there are absolutely cultural differences all over the world. One of these days, I have to do a podcast on some of the funny things that have happened to me around the world doing business internationally. The truth is it’s really about local business people getting to know and trust each other and doing referrals that may lead to business worldwide. It’s about building local contacts.

Priscilla:
Okay. Well now that I have sidetracked you, do you have anything else that you would like to say before the podcast is over?

Ivan:
I know we talk about, in Chapter 7, a lot of the cultural differences. That is an interesting thing to take a look at , but we also talk about how the Board of Advisors expanded during this period of time. Many members who are listening to this podcast may not know this but every single policy that exists today in BNI was either written by the Board of Advisors or approved by the Board of Advisors.

The Board of Advisors is made up of you, members. The Board of Advisors is completely made up of members of the organization and its members who create every single policy that exists today or have approved every single policy that exists today.

It was really in the mid-90s that we made the organization international. It was up until that, really, a local Southern California board that is now an international board representing a couple dozen countries for the program. Every policy that exists exists because it was created by the Board of Advisors.

We also created for the first time in the mid-90s what I call the Founders Circle. It is made up of the top BNI directors around the world. We get together once or twice a year to meet and help keep the program going.

It was also in the really late 90s, since this chapter covers from 1995 to 2000, that we created the BNI Foundation, which was the topic of a previous podcast a few weeks ago. The BNI Foundation was created in 1998, and we have over the years given away hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars through the BNI Foundation. If any of the members want to get some information on it, listen to the podcast a couple weeks ago about the foundation and go to our website for the foundation at BNI.org. We really are making a difference in the world from a charitable support perspective as well as generating business.

That is most of the chapter. I could probably spend a whole hour talking about this chapter, I think. The last thing that is key for this chapter is the Hidden Elements. We talk about the Hidden Elements and where and what they came from and how they apply to you as a member. If there is one thing that you as a BNI member should understand, it is the Hidden Elements of running a successful BNI meeting. You can find that towards the end of Chapter 7 in Givers Gain because it’s the single most important thing, I think, in running successful BNI meetings. The Hidden Elements are things that may seem obvious at first but really you need a deeper understanding in order to apply them effectively and be successful.

Priscilla:
That sounds like a podcast in itself. And it has a great name. The Hidden Elements.

Ivan:
It’s a martial arts term, actually. That is where I got it from. I describe the whole thing in there. By the way, if any listeners don’t have a copy of Givers Gain, you probably have not gone to the MSP training, Member Success Program training or new member orientation. It’s called different things in different countries.

If you have not gone to that training, go to that because you should get a free copy of the book that I am talking about. Every member gets a free copy of Givers Gain when they go to the new member orientation or Member Success Program training. If you went a long time ago, go back again and you will get a free copy of this. You can follow along in these podcasts and hear me talk about the very things that you are reading about.

Priscilla:
Great, Dr. Misner. I think that’s about all we have time for. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Ivan:
My pleasure.

Priscilla:
I would like to tell everybody that this podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another episode of the Official BNI Podcast.

Synopsis

You can network anywhere, anytime—even at a funeral, but there are some things to remember:

• Honor the event: make sure your behavior is appropriate
• Network is about building social capital: finding ways to help others
• Example: telling a businessman at a church function about the California Community Foundation
• You have to have your wits about you and be there for the other person

This segment is based on a chapter in Dr. Misner’s book, Truth or Delusion.

Brought to you by Networking Now. Podcast produced by Live Oak Studio in conjunction with the Podcast Asylum.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 030 -

Priscilla Rice:
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 am Priscilla Rice coming from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California, and I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan.

Ivan Misner:
Hi Priscilla.

Priscilla:
How are you today?

Ivan:
I am doing outstanding. This week I am in San Diego for our BNI International Conference. We will have directors from all over the world for this conference, probably over 500 directors. Members are welcome. Members can always come to our conferences, so if you are listening to these podcasts, check on BNI.com.

Usually around May or June and November of every year, you can find out where our conferences are. We have a day for members. It’s an amazing event because it’s almost like going to a Uunited Nations meeting. You have flags from all of the countries and there will be over 40 countries represented.

Priscilla:
That is amazing.

Ivan:
It really is. We have all these accents and languages and flags everywhere. I really like talking about where I am, and one of the reasons that I do that on the podcast, is that I want BNI members to know that this truly is an international organization. That is why I’m always talking about where I am right now as I do this podcast. I travel a lot around the world because we are truly an international company. The I in international is truly representative of the international business.

Priscilla:
It’s exciting to think about that. Well this week, for this episode, the topic is you can network anywhere, anytime, on any occasion – even at a funeral. This is a chapter out of your book, Truth or Delusion. Is this a true statement or is it a delusion?

Ivan:
You know, it will surprise some people. BNI members tend to get this more than nonmembers, is it true that you can network anywhere anytime in any place even at a funeral? They will say goodness no, it is completely inappropriate. But the answer to the question is truth. You can. You can network anywhere anytime on any occasion, even at a funeral, but there are two caveats that are really, really important.

Priscilla:
What are they?

Ivan:
First is you must always honor the event. If you show up at a funeral and you’re passing out your business card, that’s probably not a good idea. It’s completely inappropriate. You can’t go to some things passing out your cards and marketing. It’s not the same as going to a chamber meeting.

And the second thing you have to understand is that my definition of what networking is and my co-authors, Mike Macedonio and Mike Garrison, agree that networking is about building your social capital. It’s about helping other people. If you really want to do business through referrals and networking, your first and primary focus in making a connection with somebody is finding ways to help them. So if your goal is to help them then the question is, is there really any place that is inappropriate to network? I don’t think so. I think you can network anywhere.

Let’s look at an example to put in perspective. Last year, I was at a church function and it was a beautiful sunny day in southern California. It was nice outside and we had a potluck. You may have seen one at a church function. We had a little pot luck and everybody got together afterwards.

Here at this lunch was a gentleman who I didn’t know. I wanted to get to know him. He was a very successful local businessman. I wanted to connect with him so I had someone introduce me. I started talking to him- and a good networker has two years and one mouth, and you should use both proportionately and pay attention.

I was asking him a series of questions. What I was looking for was something that he would say that would enable me to help him some way. So I asked him about his business and his target markets and how things were going. The minute that I got to a question that often leads me to that point of being able to help someone – I asked him what kind of challenges are you running into? He shared with me a great example of what I’m talking about.

He said, “You know, business is really good. My biggest challenge is I’m trying to create a foundation because we want to support charitable causes. We would like to create a foundation to have a legacy of our charitable giving. But it’s so expensive to do. I’m not quite there. My business isn’t there. We’re doing really well but not so well that we can create a foundation.”

I said I said, “Well, have you ever heard of a community foundation?”

He said, “No, what’s that?”

There are some all over the world. One of the biggest as right here in southern California is called the California Community Foundation. They create funds or accounts and you can have an account under the California Community Foundation for as little as $10,000.00. You can do owner-directed contributions where you are contributing to any charitable cause through them, and you don’t need your own foundation. Yet, you can have your own foundation name. So it looks and feels like its own foundation, a 501c3 or part of a 501c3 and it’s easy.

He said that had never heard of anything like that. Then he reaches into his pocket and hands me a card. He says, “Would you mind putting me in touch with someone there?”

I said absolutely. That’s what I’m talking about. I was looking for a way to help him not a way to do business with him. So of course first thing the next day, I called the development director for the foundation and I put the two of them together. Now here’s my question. If a day or two later I picked up the phone and called this guy, would he take my call?

Priscilla:
Absolutely would he take your call.

Ivan:
You bet he would. You bet he would. He would take anybody’s call, but I didn’t ask him for anything. I wasn’t trying to sell anything. I was looking for a way to help you and I found a way. That is what networking should really be about. The answer to that question to network anywhere, anytime, anyplace- even at a funeral- is absolute truth as long as you honor the event and understand the networking is really about, first and foremost, helping someone else. If you go into the process with that in mind, then it’s not only okay, it’s good to network anywhere.

Priscilla:
Right, because that’s an altruistic concept for networking which is all about givers game, which is what your organization is about.

Ivan:
It is. It’s based on the social capital law of reciprocity. If people help one another in business, you will all do better. BNI and the theory of the Givers Gain philosophy was that the sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts. We see it every week at BNI meetings. We have 20-50 people together on a weekly basis and they’re generating amongst each other much more business than they would do otherwise. They work together as a team helping each other.

Priscilla:
Absolutely. Well, it’s a beautiful concept and really when you think about it, if you are going to an event as sensitive as a funeral, you have to have your wits about you and you have to be there for the other person. That’s the important thing.

Ivan:
I agree completely. That is what good networking, relationship networking, is all about.

Priscilla:
Thank you, Dr. Ivan Misner. I think it’s really an important message that may encourage people to read your book, Truth or Delusion.

Ivan:
Truth or Delusion is available at most bookstores. It’s also available on our web site called truthordelusion.com. This is a great book. Just to wrap up, this is a great book for education coordinators. It’s great for every member of course, but if you’re an education coordinator, you have to pick up this book because I’ll tell you a secret that’s not in the book. It’s not in the book anywhere. We wrote this book with education coordinators in mine because we have 49 separate questions or statements. Guess how many weeks a year the average chapter meets?

Priscilla:
49?

Ivan:
Yes, the average chapter meets about 49 weeks of the year. It varies a little country to country but with holidays and what not, they take anywhere from three to four weeks off from the chapter a year. We wrote this totally with education coordinators in mind. If you’re an education coordinator, we hope this book will help you out.

Priscilla:
I will pass this along to the education coordinator of my chapter, and I’m sure she’ll be happy about that.

Okay, this is it for this week. This podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I want to thank Dr. Misner for this little bit of wisdom and thank all of you for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we will see you next week on the official BNI podcast.

The Large Turnout at The Annual BNI USA Conference

Core Groups and New Chapters

New BNI Territories vs. Existing Areas

Explaining The BNI Concept

Should I Join A New Core Group or An Existing Chapter?

Where Do I Find New Members?

How Do I Invite People To Meetings?

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 011 -

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 am Frank Felker in Washington DC, joined on the phone today by Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner, and BNI Director, Sam Schwartz, calling in from the BNI USA Conference which has just wrapped up in Bethesda, Maryland. How are you guys doing today?

Ivan Misner:
We’re doing great. Sam, we’ve had a lot of your members come up from Virginia, which is kind of scrabble or close to where the conference was, right?

Sam Schwartz:
Yes and they did pass the biggest body of water in the world, which is the Potomac River, to come to the conference.

Ivan:
That seems to be a common issue here and around the world. Whenever there is some kind of geography in the way, it’s separates the region a great deal. You had a good turnout. I appreciate it.

Sam:
It was a great conference and I think we also broke a record as far as the directors –

Ivan:
Yes. There were quite a few directors at the conference, but we continue to grow and things are going well within the organization- which is kind of something you wanted to talk about today in this podcast. You wanted to talk with me about core groups and new chapters kicking off. I’ll let you lead the direction here on the topics – I think this is material that is really valuable for any chapter or core group that is thinking about starting a BNI chapter in their city.

Sam:
Thank you. Often I get the question of, especially when we open in virgin territories in new countries, what are the benefits of starting a new BNI chapter? That is the first one.

But also, in an existing area where we already have the BNI chapter, a question of a member might come as why should I joined this pre core group when down the road there is another chapter that I can join that doesn’t have my category? So what is the benefit of joining starting a new BNI group?

Ivan:
Let’s start with the question of opening up in a new area. Now we have many, many chapters throughout the U.S. There aren’t too many areas where nobody has ever heard of BNI. But I certainly learned in the earlier days in opening up BNI, that there was a lack of concept recognition.

People didn’t understand what it was. I remember them asking is this a rotary? Is this like the chamber? Is this a multilevel marketing program? People just didn’t understand what it was.

I find that as we opened new chapters in new countries, we go back to that kind of experience that we had in the United States when people just didn’t understand the concept. It is a matter of really trying to describe the concept of people so that they understand what it is.

We’ve had the most success in opening of chapters with people who have either been a member in another country or have at least visited, so that they can explain to somebody what the process is. The real key is getting them to the first few meetings and getting the core group going with somebody who is experienced. Would you add anything to that?

Sam:
Yes. I think that also now with new technology and new media, the video presentations –it’s not so much being there physically but seeing what’s happening. I think there are a few videos that are a great help for people who have never been in the BNI meeting.

Ivan:
You bring up a great point and for the listeners of the podcast who are in a chapter already and a core group isn’t necessarily of interest to them, what you just brought up is of value to them because we do things like the podcast. But I do web cams in regions all around the world and not just kickoffs, although I have done a couple of web cam kickoffs.

Those have been interesting. I do it can sometimes. If the chapter is going to put on a big visitors day with a lot of people, if I’m available, I will do a short presentation live via web cam for a big visitor’s day and certainly for a big regional event. You’re right – technology has really enabled us to do some things today that we couldn’t do years ago.

Sam:
And if you remember, you actually helped us kick of the Romanian chapter. You did a video camera to the pre-core just before the launch. I know that because of your presentation by the web cam, at least a couple of guests signed up after they heard you talk. You answered some of their questions. You sponsored these two members in Romania.

Ivan:
Hey. It is good to know that I can still sponsor a member every now and then. The second part about joining – what was the second question?

Sam:
The second question was why should I joined a pre-core versus an existing chapter down the road that is more established and has a larger number than the new one?

Ivan:
That is a good question and I think it is a personal choice. But there are at least one or two really good reasons why you want to join the pre-core group or core group. One is that it gives you the opportunity to surround yourself with your power team and with people within your contact sphere – people whom you have a relationship with and want to improve the referral relationship even more.

So you join a core group or a pre-core so that you can bring in a handful of people that you are doing some business with and want to expand on that. You don’t have to step in and reestablish some relationships. I particularly see this happen in the financial services and real estate industry, where they have some relationships in place but they don’t want to have to refer to someone else so they start of pre- core group or a core group so that they can maintain those relationships and build a network like that.

Sam:
That’s great. Question answered. I also answer that sometimes BNI chapters are like ice cream. They’re all good, but they come in different flavors. You need to find the flavor that fits your personality.

Ivan:
Certainly, every chapter has its own personality. There is no doubt about that. When you have a group of people getting together in an environment like this, you have different personalities and they interact differently.

You have to find a chapter that resonates with you – a chapter that has people in it that you feel comfortable with. There is nothing wrong with going to a group that already exists. Or, if you want to help establish a group that has the ice cream flavor that you are looking for, then starting a core group certainly enables you to guide that process along.

Anything else in the core group process?

Sam:
Also there’s always the question of where do we find these new members?

Ivan:
You know, that is a really good question, and I don’t think I have talked about it in any of the podcasts. I remember the first two or three chapters of the BNI groups that I had setup. I was lamenting to some member that I had running out of contacts. I had opened two or three groups and I was working on the fourth one. I was out of contacts. Clearly, the members were bringing in people themselves, but I also wanted to help the chapters refer a couple of people.

She said to the, “Oh, come on. You haven’t used all of your contacts.”

I said, “I don’t have any contacts left.”

She said, “Think about it. You have some contacts. You don’t have any?”

“No, no. I don’t have any.” This was in 1985, a long time ago.

She said, “Okay, go to your Rolodex.” Do you remember those Sam?

Sam:
I still have one.

Ivan:
Well I don’t. She said, “Go to your Rolodex. Go through your Rolodex card by card and look to see if you have invited that person.”

I said, “I know who is in my Rolodex.”

She said, “Well, yes, but have you gone through it? Have you gone through your address book person by person?”

I said that no that I hadn’t done that. And here’s one that I have used for years now:

She said, “Go to your checkbook. Who are you writing checks to? Follow your money. Who are you giving money to? Those are people that you should be inviting in.”

I thought that those were fair comments. I went back and I was shocked at how many people I hadn’t thought of that were in my Rolodex, my address book and my checkbook who I had done business within the past and had just forgotten about them. All of a sudden, I had a whole lot of other people.

Whether you are in a core group or not, if you are listening to this podcast and have been a member for a while, try those techniques out. They’re really, really powerful. You’ll find people – maybe you don’t have a Rolodex, but if you open Outlook, ACT or whatever you have- if you’re like Sam, you still have a Rolodex.

Sam:
I keep it for prosperity. I remember you said that those were very close to you typically don’t refer to you because they see you in different ways but those are definitely people that we can go and ask them can you recommend a good (fill in the blank) of what you are looking for. I thought that was a great comment that you said in the training.

Ivan:
Yeah those close to you? Do you mean like family members?

Sam:
Yeah. Family members or your buddy from high school who remembers you as a drinking party buddy, not as a business person.

Ivan:
Oftentimes, we know them in a different context so we don’t communicate with them as business contacts. I think that is a mistake. You know, you may not be able to flip that relationship on its head overnight, but if you have a good relationship where there’s already some trust and credibility established, over time, you can usually reestablish it by letting them know what you are looking for.

You will find people who are friends and family members, at least those ones that you actually like – that you have this good relationship with –make a good source. Don’t forget those. They make great contacts.

Sam:
Great- so now that I have a name, what do I tell them?

Ivan:
I’ll tell you, the way that I invite people to BNI is quite different than what I think a lot of people do. They say, “I’m in this great organization; you have to come. I’m going to start this chapter that’s called BNI and you get a lot of business.”

They almost come on too strong. I think that is a mistake. The way I like to invite people into meetings is I say, “I’m in a new working group we have 20 or 30 people [however many there are a group]. We are interviewing,” that is the phrase, “bankers. I think you would make a good candidate. We would like to talk to you and see if there’s a good fit. We need a banker that we can give all of our referrals to.”

Sam:
One of the things I use – and you know that I started out as a member – I would say I would like you to meet my inner circle of business people.

Ivan:
Yes. That is agreat phrase. There are a lot of ways to do it. I have a guy in Canada who has tons of members. He brought in more members than any other members of his chapter. The way he did it was really unique. He told his secretary that every cold that she got, she should put through to him.

She put them through and he would take it and say, “I would be glad to meet with you. Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. at Coco’s restaurant at such and such location. I have a networking meeting that starts at 7:00. Come to the networking meeting. Then afterwards, if you’d like to talk, I will talk to you.”

It was great. He got more people who called in from cold calls to come to the meeting. I started thinking I need this- this is great. He had more people join than any other member of the chapter. There are a lot of creative ways to either help build a core group or an existing chapter.

Frank:
We’re out of time for this week’s podcast, gentlemen. Thank you very much. For Dr. Ivan Misner and BNI Director, Sam Schwartz, I am Frank Felker saying we will see you next week on the official BNI podcast.

Dr. Misner’s Travels to BNI Chapters Throughout Europe

National Director of BNI Portugal: Hélder Falcão

How BNI Portugal Got Started

Applause Is American – Or Is It?

BNI Strategic Alliance Partner www.Ecademy.com

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 004 -

Frank Felker:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the official BNI Podcast. I am Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone today by Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner, calling in from Portugal. How is your trip through Europe going?

Dr. Ivan Misner:
Any flight that lands safely is a good one. Things are going great. I have really enjoyed meeting members from all over Europe. I will be visiting five countries in two weeks and three countries I have never been to before.

Frank:
Which countries are those?

Ivan:
I had not been to Denmark. I went to Copenhagen, Demark. Then I went all over Sweden, which I had visited once before. I spent part of the afternoon in Oslo, Norway. I am calling right now from Lisbon, Portugal with a good friend and National Director here, whom I am going to introduce in just a moment.

Frank:
That’s right. I understand you have a special guest on the phone from Portugal, but before you get to that, this is not all pleasure. You are staying busy. You were telling me that you had an amazing number of presentations to make in a small number of days.

Ivan:
I wish I could say I was sightseeing, but not this time. I have 19 presentations that I am doing in ten days.

Frank:
They are keeping you busy. So who is our special guest on the line today?

Ivan:
Well, we have with us the National Director for Portugal, Hélder Falcão. Hélder has been operating in Portugal for a number of years. Hélder, why don’t you introduce yourself and give us some flavor of BNI Portugal with some Portuguese, would you?

Hélder:
Okay. (Speaks briefly in Portuguese) Which is basically very good afternoon, and it is a fantastic pleasure to be here on this podcast. BNI Portugal has been operating since October 2005, and we now have 16 chapters in multiple cities. There are four chapters in Lisbon, where we are at the moment, recording this podcast.

Ivan:
What I think is really incredible about this broadcast is this is the first time that we have done a podcast with another country. We are going to do another one next week. It really shows the international nature of the organization. It is one thing to hear us say we are in several dozen countries, but to have someone from another country speaking a little bit of the language and sharing their experiences is just awesome. For the members who are listening, I think this gives you the flavor of the true international nature of this organization.

Hélder:
Absolutely. Portugal, in western Europe, actually only met this concept two years ago. I believe that Portuguese entrepreneurs have accepted it very well. We are having business meetings very early in the day because usually in the country, it is not very common to see a meeting before nine or ten, or even eleven o’clock. This is something that BNI is bringing to the Portuguese culture that is actually educating them and making them more structured and professional in that sense. People don’t arrive late to the meetings. They get a good, positive attitude.

It is going really well. We are lucky enough to have a team of 25 regional directors that are now implementing BNI countrywide. I am really glad to see the progress of BNI, and I am very privileged to have the presence of the Founder and Chairman, Dr. Misner, in the country.

Ivan:
It really is exciting to be here and I will be doing my first presentation in just a few minutes. We have translated my “Truth or Delusion” material. We will be doing a simultaneous translation as we do the presentation.

Hélder, you came across BNI while you were in the United Kingdom, and you attended a couple of chapter meetings, did you not?

Hélder:
Yes. That is correct.

Ivan:
Tell us how you then took this to Portugal.

Hélder:
Basically, I was living there. I am a member of a networking platform. It is an international community called Ecademy which is a networking tool for entrepreneurs to connect with each other in over 188 countries, I believe. There are over 110,000 people who belong to these online communities. I obtained this one event in Liverpool, where I found one guy who was a member of Ecademy, and he had a really big badge when he first came to check in. I asked him, “What is that BNI thing?” I had never heard about it before.

He said, “BNI is an organization that I belong to.” To make the story short, basically, one very special person for me, Terry Hamill, had visited his chapter a few weeks before and said a good referral for me would be someone from Portugal because I bought a franchise and I need to expand it.. This gentleman here whom I had just met for a little while said, “I know someone who could be of interest to you. Is it okay if he gives you a call?”

We exchanged a referral – now I know what a referral is – and a month later, we had a business meeting at 6:30 a.m., on a very dark, cold and rainy day in Manchester. By 6:35, people were coming. When I saw all the agendas and people exchanging referrals, I wanted to do this in Portugal. From there, it took some time as I had to do the training, as does everyone else. Then we came to the country and basically two and a half years later, the concept is picking up very well.

Ivan:
One of the things that I find amazing with your story is that you have described the way that a good referral should take place in BNI. Terry put out there that he was looking to open up in Portugal. One of the members sees you, meets you and you’re from Portugal. He puts the two together, and that is the way that the program should work for every person looking for referrals. Hélder, the meetings in Portugal are for the most part the same as the meetings in the UK, the US and other countries. Is that not true?

Hélder:
Yes. We have the open networking part, where everyone introduces themselves with their visitor host, the leadership team, and the 60 seconds is a time we have a lot of energy at the meetings because after each presentation, they actually clap. We always feel good about it. It is actually quite an energetic meeting, and every person who goes to a BNI meeting for the first time gets absolutely blown away. There is a lot of fun inside of the meeting – it’s fantastic.

Ivan:
But if you went to a meeting in the United States and then went to a meeting in Portugal, it would be, except for the language, very much the same.

Hélder:
I believe so because this is an American concept. You guys have a lot of energy. You give awards and you recognize people. Clapping is also fantastic, you know.

Ivan:
I thought that was interesting because you said that some of your members said that this thing about clapping after everyone speaks is very American.

Hélder:
Very American, absolutely.

Ivan:
But we don’t do that in the American chapters, so now all the Americans who hear this are going to say that is very Portuguese.

We need to wrap up, but I did want to say one last thing. You mentioned Ecademy and I have to say thank you because you are the person who introduced me to Ecademy and BNI now has a strategic alliance with the organization, which we recommend our members participate in. That is Ecademy.com. Thank you very much for introducing me to the organization and we are proud to have a strategic alliance with them.

Well, Frank, I think we are pretty much out of time. Hélder, thank you so much. It is a real honor to be visiting your country this week, and I am looking forward to speaking to the members in just a little while.

Hélder:
Absolutely. I also want to thank you very, very much for being here. The members, within 20 minutes or so, are going to meet you. It is going to be a fantastic event. It has been a great few days. The press has a great interest. The major economic newspapers are going to be launching a few stories in the next few days, and it is going to be a fantastic event.

Ivan:
Thank you so much, Hélder. Frank, back to you.

Frank:
Gentlemen, thank you so much for calling in. For Dr. Ivan Misner and Hélder Falcão calling in from Portugal, I am Frank Felker saying we will see you next week on the official BNI Podcast.

Visiting Regional BNI Events In Scandinavia

Why He’s Working To Meet As Many Members As Possible

Unusual Professions Represented In European Chapters

How You Can Visit BNI Chapters Worldwide

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 003 -

Frank Felker:
Hello everybody and welcome back the the official BNI podcast. I am Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone by Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner, who is continuing his European tour. How’s your travel schedule treating you Ivan? Any jet lag?

Dr. Ivan Misner:
No, not much jet lag. They just don’t let me sleep, so jet lag is not an issue.

Frank:
Yeah, I guess with you going so quickly from presentation to presentation, sleep is probably not on your agenda.

Ivan:
No, not right now. I just had an opportunity to go all through Scandinavia last week. It was a tremendous visit. I went to a number of countries and many different cities I had not been to before. I had a chance to go to Copenhagen in Denmark, Malmo in Sweden, Vaxjo- for those of you whom I mispronounce the name of your city, I apologize in advance. Eskilstuna and Stockholm, Oslo, Norway and Goteburg. It was a whirlwind travel over Scandinavia.

Frank:
Are you traveling primarily by train, automobile, airplane?

Ivan:
It was like the movie. Planes, trains and automobiles. We literally took all three to get around the country. It was myself and Gunnar Selheden, who is the national director for Scandinavia and has done a tremendous job of opening up in the neighborhood of 80 chapters throughout the region.

Frank:
So you are going to regional events as opposed to individual chapter meetings just because obviously you can’t come out to every individual chapter meeting and still get in front of enough people. How many people are coming to these regional events to see you?

Ivan:
Throughout all of Scandinavia, we spoke personally to over 1000 people in four and a half days.

Frank:
You have been busy!

Ivan:
We have been busy. If I hit a different region, not a different chapter but a region, of BNI every other week all year long, it would take about 10 years to get to all of the regions in the organization. When I have an opportunity to visit a country or neighboring country, I try to catch as many as possible.

I think there is something special about the founder of an organization like this meeting people. This is a networking organization- a face-to-face networking organization, so making that contact with people directly is very important to me, It is something I like to do. For those people listening to this podcast, if I have an opportunity to visit your region, take a little time and come visit. Make sure and introduce yourself to me. Let me know you heard these podcasts. I definitely want to meet as many BNI members as possible.

Frank:
One thing I am curious about, Ivan, is the individual members of the BNI chapters in the countries that you have been visiting. At least in my experience with BNI here in Washington DC, we generally have a real estate agent, a mortgage person, an executive coach, a financial planner. There are certain industries that are always represented from one chapter to the next. What is the case with European chapters?

Ivan:
Interestingly enough, it is very much the same in terms of those professions. There are some professions that might not exist in a country. For example, a real estate agent doesn’t exist in all countries. In some countries, it is an attorney who actually does the transactions for real estate. So there are some professions that aren’t in all countries. But for the most part, all of the professions that you just named are in all the chapters that I go to all over the world.

However, some countries really do a great job of bringing in what many people, myself included, consider to be unusual professions- professions that I haven’t seen as much in the U.S. and through other nations. The Scandinavians have definitely done this very well. They have gotten businesses that are not real common to BNI in some countries that are very active there.

Frank:
Can you give me some examples?

Ivan:
I will give you a few. One that I met was a textile manufacturing company. They manufacture clothing. They don’t sell to members directly. A referral to a textile manufacturer is a referral to a distributor, somebody who would distribute the products to retailers. It is the very kind of profession that I say you don’t usually see in BNI, a wholesale distributor. Here was a manufacturer who sells to wholesale distributors. You don’t usually see that.

Here is one that just completely shocked me. I had never seen one like it. A machine shop. It was really funny because when I spoke to this woman and she told me she had a machine shop, when I was a management consultant, the very year I started BNI, my biggest client was a machine shop. I said, “ So is it CNC and Davenport equipment that is made?”

She said, “Oh my goodness! You know what a machine shop does!”

“Yeah I do and I can’t believe you are a member of BNI!” Referrals for her are people who are manufacturing metal products. They need to put together equipment or they need to sell it separately. She originally got into BNI as an accountant, representing her accounting business. Then she was hired as the managing director of this fairly large machine shop. She decided that she loved BNI so much that she wanted to continue to stay in it, so she represents the machine shop. It was very, very interesting.

Frank:
That is interesting in that she understood the power of BNI. It doesn’t necessarily come from direct referrals just from one member to another doing business with each other. You know, I know a guy who manufactures something out of metal who could use your service, or I know a guy who has a trade association that you could probably promote your business through. It is amazing to me as I learn the power and the various layers of the onion of benefits of BNI membership. The referrals often come from secondary and tertiary relationships and right out of the woodwork sometimes from places your would never anticipate.

Ivan:
That is very true. We are all standing in the middle of referrals. They are all around us. We just have to learn how to listen for them. As we learn to listen for them, there is no reason why we can’t refer a machine shop just as easily as some other business. It is really amazing to see what they have done in Sweden.

They have a World Wildlife Federation which is an active member of a chapter. They have a sports stadium. I have seen a few of these in the U.S., but not a lot. They do marketing and sales and promotion for big events and games, of course.

Here is an unusual one: a wine distributor. I have seen wine sales people where they sell direct, but this was a wine distributor that would sell only to wholesalers in Norway. It is illegal to sell direct for him, so he couldn’t sell his wines to a member, but a member could refer him to a restaurant, liquor store or distributor of some kind. He sells his wines through them and he says it has been great. He has gotten a lot of referrals and has done well.

Frank:
He sounds like a great guy to do a 1-on-1 with.

Ivan:
Preferably at his office, and at five o’clock he’ll crack open a bottle of wine. He didn’t say anything about being able to pour a little for people. I am guessing he may be able to do that.

Frank:
That is great. It sounds fascinating. How is your energy level?

Ivan:
It is incredible. Oftentimes, members only see the tip of the iceberg at their chapter. We have the opportunity to go out and visit chapters. It is very exciting. I urge BNI members all over the world. If you have a chance to drop in and visit another chapter, do it. First of all, they roll out the red carpet for members from around the world. Call them in advance. Let them know you are coming.

If you don’t know who to call, go to BNI.com or your national BNI website and look for the names of the directors in other countries. You can get that from BNI.com by going to “Find a Chapter”. Find a director in that country. Tell them you are from another country and that that you would like to visit one of their chapters. Ask for one of the best chapters in that area and visit it.

They will roll out the red carpet. You will have a blast. It may even be a different language, but do you know what is great? You will know exactly what is happening throughout the meeting even though it is in a different language. I urge members to go to these.

Frank:
That is fascinating. We are just about out of time. Is there any last pearl of wisdom that you would like to share with the listeners this week?

Ivan:
Different countries, different cultures, different races, different religions, different people, different places- we all speak the language of referrals. This program absolutely works worldwide because it is based on one key philosophy and this is givers gain. By giving people business, you will get business from people. That transcends our cultural differences. My tour throughout Europe absolutely proves that it is true, not only in the U.S., but worldwide.

Frank:
I am certainly enjoying your trip vicariously through these phone calls. I appreciate you taking the time to call in. I know you have to run to do one of your many presentations in just a few minutes.

Ivan:
Yes, I do. As a matter of fact, it started five minutes ago, so I need to run.

Frank:
Okay. For Dr. Ivan Misner, I am Frank Felker saying we will see you next week on the official BNI podcast.

His Visits To BNI Chapters in Scandanavia

“The Key To Networking”

The Universal Language of Referrals

Building Professional Networking Relationships Through Trust

How To Get Your Contacts To Give You Their Keys

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 002 -

Frank Felker:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the official BNI podcast. I’m Frank Felker in Washington, DC, joined on the phone by Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner, calling in from Sweden today. How are you doing out there, Ivan?

Dr. Ivan Misner:
I’m doing great, Frank. I am visiting BNI chapters all over Scandinavia this week. Sweden, Norway, Denmark. What a great group of members out here in Scandinavia. They really understand the process of networking. What’s really great is that you don’t have to understand the language at all. If you sit through a meeting, you know exactly what is going on even though you can’t understand a single word because we all speak the language of referrals.

Different countries, different cultures, different races, different religions – we all want to do business through word of mouth and through referrals. It’s really incredible to sit through a meeting in a completely different language and yet know exactly what is happening.

Frank:
That must be really gratifying for you, Ivan, to see that type of thing and to realize that you have somehow plugged into a universal language of networking here and that the organization that you created is being so embraced by people of all cultures.

Ivan:
It does feel great. It was very interesting in the beginning and a little confusing for me in the beginning to see this work in countries with such different cultures. I was often wondering, why does this work when there are so many different cultural differences?

I had an opportunity to talk to Brian Tracy, the well known businessman, consultant, speaker, and trainer. He is known throughout the world as one of the best trainers in sales and business. I had an opportunity to have lunch with him a couple of years ago and I found out that he does his training in Germany in German. He is bilingual or actually multilingual. He speaks German fluently.

I asked him, “Do you change the material when you do your presentation in German because of German cultural differences?” He said he doesn’t change a single word other than translation issues. I said, “Why is that? How is it that sales skills work so closely in the United States and also in Germany when the cultures are so different?”

I will never forget his answer because his answer really made it work for me as to why this program works in different countries. It was that entrepreneurs worldwide want to do things more efficiently or more effectively. If you can teach them to do something more efficiently or more effectively, they will embrace it.

I think that is a great example of why BNI works in countries like Scandinavia where you have entrepreneurs who want to do things more efficiently and effectively. It transcends the cultural differences.

Frank:
That makes a lot of sense. Absolutely. Well, I understand that you recently posted up an article on Entrepreneur.com about the key to networking. There was a message in there that you wanted to share with the podcast audience today.

Ivan:
Yes. There is an article up on Entrepreneur.com, and I would urge members of BNI to go to the BNI website at BNI.com. On the right hand side, you’ll usually see a banner ad that says Entrepreneur.com. Click on that and it will take you to the dozens and dozens of articles that I have written for Entrepreneur.

One of them, written in February of 2007, is a great article that I would like to talk about today. It’s about the key to networking, which is the title. The Key to Networking. When you tell entrepreneurs that relationships are the key to developing a personal and professional network, they often smile and kind of acknowledge the concept without fully appreciating its true meaning.

I would like to put the notion into perspective. Imagine that you are standing in a large room full of people. Let’s say that I was to ask everyone to pull out their key ring from their pocket, their briefcase or their purse. We can visualize everyone holding up their ring of keys and jingling their ring of keys. There is the key to their house, the key to their office, the key to their car. We can see people flipping them over one at a time and showing them.

If we were to ask somebody to hand over the key to their house to the perfect stranger next to them, they wouldn’t want to do that. Of course they wouldn’t want to hand over the key to their house or the key to their car to a perfect stranger.

Now, instead of a key to a car, a home or an office, imagine that you have a key that opens the door to important relationships with someone, some other person who you’d like to connect with. Let’s say you hold the key to open the door to the relationship but you don’t know the person who wants the key. You have this key that opens the door to relationship but you don’t know the person who wants that key.

Would you give it to that person? The answer would be the same. Of course not. Why? Because when you give a referral, you give a little bit of your reputation away. If it’s a good referral, it helps your reputation. If it is a bad referral, it hurts your reputation. Therefore, you’ll hand over the keys to someone you know and trust.

Whether you’re talking about handing over a key to your house or handing over a key to a relationship that opens the door for referrals to somebody, you have to know and trust them before you just hand over the key.

Frank:
That is awesome. What a strong metaphor that is.

Ivan:
You know, what I love about it is that the metaphor works really on two levels. First, you are not going to hand over the keys that you have to a relationship until you know me well. You are not going to give me that key until you know me well. But more importantly, and this is what I find really interesting- I don’t know what keys you actually have.

I don’t know the people that you really know until you trust me well enough to tell me about them. When we are at a BNI meeting and we’re getting to know each other over time and I am really specific about the kinds of people that I’m looking for, only then when you trust me, will you start pulling out the key ring and showing me that you have this contact or that contact.

That is the powerful thing about this metaphor. Not only are you not going to hand it over, but you’re not even going to tell me what keys you have until we get to know and trust each other.

Frank:
That is a great, great message and you are absolutely correct. I have seen that work in my own BNI chapter, where people who I knew were very strong members of the local business community. It wasn’t until over a period of time that they came to know me and trust me and as you put it, understand what keys that I was looking for, that they began to come forward. Originally, I wondered – that person seems kind of standoffish. They’re not bringing me any referrals. I wonder why not. You just made it all clear right there.

Ivan:
Members who are listing to this, take a look at your fellow BNI members, your referral partners. Does it surprise you to think that they have keys to referrals they are keeping in their pocket until they feel that they can trust you with them? It shouldn’t because any successful business person holds onto those relationships carefully.

The key then is to build those relationships. To do that within the BNI context, there are several things that you can do. I would love to talk about those more in other podcasts, but things like one-to-one dance cards, where you are meeting with the members in getting to know them. The use of the GAINS exchange – G.A.I.N.S., which is an acronym and I would love to talk about that a future podcast. Those kinds of tools are great ways to get to know your fellow BNI members so that they feel comfortable in handing over those keys.

Frank:
That is wonderful, wonderful stuff, Ivan. Well, we’re just about out of time for this week’s podcast. Any last pearl of wisdom that you would like to share with the listeners before we go?

Ivan:
I think that if there is one single thing that most entrepreneurs really just don’t get, it is this idea of really building a solid relationship. The next time you’re asking somebody for a connection to someone who is a really important client to them, think about whether they would hand over the keys to their house to you.

If there is no chance that they would do that, they may not be quite ready to hand over the keys to their best client either. As a benchmark, you want to kind of get a sense as to what kind of keys would they hand over to you? Those are the kind of keys that they are literally going to be handing over in the relationships of the referrals that they generate with you.

Frank:
Well, I don’t know about everybody else listening, but I have a feeling that if you’re anything like me, you got a lot out of this week’s message. Along with Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder and Chairman of BNI, I’m Frank Felker saying we’ll see you next week on the Official BNI Podcast.