This week’s topic is the Classification Cowboy, illustrated by BNI member Dan Fletcher. View and download the slideshow in the next post.

A Classification Cowboy is someone who tries to take more than one profession within a chapter. If you try to take more than one classification in a chapter, you’re blocking the connections and referrals that can be brought to the chapter.

The best way to handle this is to address the problem before the person joins the chapter, rather than after accepting a person with multiple businesses as a member. A chapter with multiple attorneys with different specialties is much stronger than a chapter with someone who doubles as attorney and paralegal.

You can download the slides in the next post to show to your chapter.

Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 164 -

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

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

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

Ivan:
Well, this week, I am at the South African BNI conference. As you know, last week I did a little safari, which was amazing; done it before; this was my second visit to South Africa. It’s such a beautiful country, and this week I am at the BNI conference for the organization in South Africa. Amazing group of people.

And again, whenever I visit your region, please come up and introduce yourself to me and let me know that you’re listening to these podcasts. I’d love to meet you.

Priscilla:
That sounds wonderful!

So what do you have to share with us?

Ivan:
I have a fun topic this week. It’s Classification Cowboy. Now, there is a PowerPoint presentation or JPEGs that will be up this presentation, so I recommend that if you’re at the Web site, open it up; if not, download the PowerPoint. And if you’re listening to this from a mobile device, print out the PowerPoint presentation so that you can see the slides that I’m talking about.

The first one is a great slide drawn of a Classification Cowboy. And I’ve got to tell you that this was all done by a gentleman by the name of Dan Fletcher, Dan Fletcher, F-L-E-T-C-H-E-R, Dan Fletcher. Dan is a BNI member, of course, in the United Kingdom, and his Web site is CartoonBox.co.uk, CartoonBox.co.uk.

Dan put this all together on his own, and so I really wanted to thank him publicly, because he had seen problems with this whole concept of the Classification Cowboy, and he wanted to draw something that would identify it and describe it.

Now, for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, a Classification Cowboy is somebody that tries to take more than one profession.

In the past, in the past, we’ve used the term “Classification Hog.” Don’t do that. As you might suspect, Priscilla, makes people mad when they’re called a Classification Hog. So it’s not a term that we’d recommend that you use, but we like this concept of Classification Cowboy, and the artist on this, Dan, has done a great job of drawing his description what it is. And in his second slide, he talks about while most people accept one person per profession, that’s the spirit and the rule of BNI, the Classification Cowboy doesn’t. The Classification Cowboy insists on two professions, sometimes more, and there’s a great picture of him, Priscilla, with a little bubble over his head saying, “I’m a sharp shooter,” and then another bubble that says, “I’m a rodeo rider” and trying to take more than one classification, that they block potential members from joining the chapters. They deny the chapter of the connections, and that’s what’s really important is that if you try to take two, three, four classifications in a chapter, you’re really blocking the number of connections that can be brought by individuals.

On the eighth slide, he’s got this great diagram of blocking all the referrals that could be brought to [the] chapter over the years if they allowed other people in those classifications. And the Classification Cowboy claims that it is his or her right, it’s their job to take as many classifications as possible, but the truth is, it’s, as Dan says, it’s just darn rustling. It’s taking from the BNI chapter, which is his slide number 10. And he says, “Watch out. If you see him, don’t let him get too big for his boots and don’t bring him into a BNI group.”

This is a great PowerPoint presentation. I would urge members to print this out, take it to their chapter. I would urge members, this is a great educational coordinator’s presentation. It’s only about a dozen slides long. You can do this very quickly in just a few minutes and show it to people. Of course, give Dan credit. His contact information is there on the last slide.

But it really addresses an issue that, I think, when chapters get it – and particularly membership committees, because it’s the membership committees that control the classification issue. And membership committees should have this thing in front of them when they’re looking at a classification that somebody is applying for. Because if somebody’s taking multiple classifications, it restricts the number of people that are going to be in the group. And if it restricts the number of people that are going to be in the group, I guarantee you it will restrict the amount of referrals that are passed.

But even more importantly, I have found that when people try to find ways to work together rather than to compete with each other, that a lot of business can be done. I have seen multiple chapters – I was shocked once when I went to a chapter that had five, Priscilla, five attorneys.

Priscilla:
We have four!

Ivan:
You have four attorneys in your chapter?! I think you and I have talked about this once. That was shocking to me when I first heard it.

But as I start to talk to these attorneys, they tell me they pass more business to each other than any one other person in the group. Has that been the experience in your chapter?

Priscilla:
Yeah, well, they have very distinct categories.

Ivan:
Yeah, and they’re working with each other.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
It’s amazing how that happens, and so if you can get people in there who say, “Hey, look, this is really my area of expertise”…

Mind you, I’m not suggesting that you break your profession up on those core elements. I wouldn’t even necessarily say that you have to have more than one attorney, but the truth is, if an attorney does wills and trusts and their expertise is not family law, then they’re really different.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
Family law is a lot different than wills and trusts. And if you’re focus is wills and trusts, bring in a family law attorney. That family law attorney will send wills and trusts to you, and you can send the family law to them. And you end up really becoming working together very closely.

But the ones that are really frustrating to me are the ones that are really clearly different professions. It’s many kudos to your chapter for having four attorneys. That’s wonderful, and that’s an outstanding example of what I’m talking about.

But there are professions where the professions really clearly are two different professions; they’re not the same thing. And people are trying to take both categories, and that’s where it’s critical that that be stopped. And membership committees be active in being responsible for insuring that people don’t take multiple classifications.

Priscilla:
Yeah, it’s a difficult topic, because people will get a little bit defensive around that issue.

Ivan:
They do; they do. And if your chapter can coach them and guide them, that helps. And when push comes to shove, see, you’ve got to do this before you accept them. Once you’ve accepted them, then you’ve got a problem.

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
Especially if you’ve accepted them under multiple classifications. Then you have to deal with it again when it comes up for renewal, and that becomes an angry situation that you want to try to avoid if you can.

So as much as possible, active membership committees who can address this issue before the person is made a member [are] much more likely to be successful. And there’s nothing wrong with the membership committee saying, “No, really, this is the classification. We’ll accept this one or this one. Which one is what you focus most on?” And it’s better for a chapter to say, “No, thank you” than to take somebody who has multiple – somebody who’s a Classification Cowboy. In the long run, that’s the better decision to make.

Priscilla:
Yep, I totally agree with you. [It] makes for a much stronger chapter.

Ivan:
Absolutely!

So everybody listening to this, print out the PowerPoint or the slides that we’ll have with this podcast. Feel free to share this in your chapter. And if you have a second, Dan Fletcher’s e-mail is on the last page. Drop Dan an e-mail, thank him for his efforts, because he contributed this all on his own. To me, this is a classic example of Givers Gain. He spent a lot of time doing this because he thought it was an important issue. I want to personally thank Dan, and if you take a look at this, drop Dan a e-mail and thank him as well.

Priscilla:
Okay, great!

Ivan:
Thanks, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Thank you, Dr. Misner.

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

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.

Dr. Misner has just returned from the Canadian conference, where he had the opportunity to network with people from all around Canada.

Referral marketing is not the safest form of advertising. There are unique risks which are not an issue in other forms of marketing. When you give a referral, you give away a little piece of your reputation. That means you have to have confidence that the person you refer is going to do a good job. Therefore it’s important to have strong relationships with people you refer business to.

The fact that BNI has a membership committee in place to keep an eye on the long-term relationships within a chapter helps reduce the risks. And because BNI meets weekly, you can check up on referrals. It’s important to bring up any problems and give your fellow members the opportunity to address them and make the client happy.

Dr. Misner recommends the book The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey, (the son of the Stephen Covey who wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People). Trust can save you millions of dollars in legal and accounting fees.

Be aware that building trust takes time—a good relationship can easily take a year to develop. And remember, referral marketing may not be the safest form, but it’s the most effective.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 057 -

Priscilla Rice:
Hello everyone.  Welcome to the Official BNI Pocast brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading sight on the net for networking downloadables.  I’m Priscilla Rice and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California.  I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.  Hello Ivan, how are you?

Ivan Misner:
Hi, I’m doing great.  I just had an opportunity to come back from the Canadian conference. It was a great event with lots of members.  I had the opportunity to network with people from all around Canada, particularly in the Ontario area.  It was very exciting.

Priscilla:
That sounds really nice.  What are you going to share with us today?

Ivan:
Today, I’m going to talk about referral marketing, and how it is, in fact, a risky business.

Priscilla:
How’s that?

Ivan:
During a recent live radio interview, the host of the program  asked me whether I consider referral marketing to be the safest form of advertising. Without the slightest hesitation, I said,”By all means, no.”

He was really shocked by that answer.  I went on to explain to him that I believe strongly in the tremendous benefits of word of mouth, and what word of mouth and referrals can bring.  However there are some unique risks associated with referral advertising or referral marketing that are not an issue with commercial or other forms of advertising.  When you give a referral, you give a little bit of your reputation away.  If the business you referred to someone does a good job, it helps your reputation.  But if they do a poor job, it hurts your reputation.

The payoffs of referral marketing are immenseaz when done correctly.  Referral marketing involves a really big risk, and that is,  giving away a piece of your reputation every time you give a referral to someone. So, if you tell a valued friend that a customer of yours is going to take good care of them, you have to have confidence that the associate of yours is in fact going to take good care of your referral.  That’s why it’s really important to build strong relationships. I think  BNI has done as well as it has as a networking organization, because it’s all about building relationships, and building that trust.

What do you do if your friend lets you down?  It comes back to haunt you.  Your customer begins to lose faith in you, and because of the loss of faith,  you might lose that customer down the road.  That’s why it’s so important to develop strong relationships with those whom you’re referring business to, and visa versa.  Once these strong connections are forged, you can rest easy knowing you can tell someone that a business associate or networking partner is going to take good care of them.  That is exactly what will happen.  If you use your BNI group as a way of building long term relationships, you can do that with confidence.  We have a membership committee in place that helps to take a look at those on going relationships, and if there is a problem with somebody not providing good service, the membership committee can step in.  It helps to make what could be a risky business, referral marketing, into a much safer process, because you’re basing it on long term relationships, and connections that are supported by a system to the membership committee in maintaining some level of quality control.

Priscilla:
Because we meet weekly, you can also check up on a referral.

Ivan:
Yes.  How is that going?  Is it working out well?  You can also say to the member, “Hey, I spoke to the person I referred to you and they’re really happy, or they’re concerned, or there was an issue, or there was a problem.”  That’s really important.  I want to know.  I may get a referral, and the person I’m doing business with isn’t happy.  Sometimes they don’t tell you, but they might tell the person that referred you.  I want them to tell me, “hey, so and so’s not completely satisfied with something.  You might want to touch base with them.”  That gives me an opportunity to solve the problem before it becomes too big.  That’s the real value of the trust that’s established.

Priscilla:
If somebody wants to learn more about this, do you have any books or anything they can research?

Ivan:
There’s a really, really good book that I’ve been recommending for a while now called, The Speed of Trust, written by Steven M.R. Covey. He’s the son of Steven Covey, who wrote, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  I’ve become pretty good friends with Steven M.R. Covey.  I really have enjoyed his book, The Speed of Trust.  I highly recommend it because it fits.  It talks about when you establish trust with people, it’s almost like it has financial value.  The trust has value.  It brings value to the table when you trust somebody.  It’s like having cash.  When there’s a lack of trust, it reduces the value of the relationship.  He talks about how trust absolutely has a financial impact in a company and how people don’t realize the financial impact of trust.  He has a great story in there about how Warren Buffet bought a company that was owned by Wal-Mart.  He bought the company on a hand shake.  It was worth tens of millions of dollars.  In his chairman’s report, he opens it up with things that are unheard of in a chairman’s report.  He said, “We bought the company from Wal-Mart,  and we did not do our due diligence.  Now, you never say,”We didn’t check up on them beforehand.  But that’s what he said, “We did not do our due diligence and we saved millions of dollars because we trusted that they would deliver exactly what they said they would deliver, and they did.  I had a long term relationship with these people.  They delivered exactly what they said they would do, and so we saved millions of dollars in legal and accounting fees.  We bought it on a handshake and we didn’t do all of the due diligence. But we had a long term relationship which in fact saved us millions, which increased the share holder value of our company.

This is a very powerful comment.  When you think about a hundred million dollar deal versus a thousand dollar project, it’s even more likely to happen on a smaller project.  If you can build that trust even on a smaller level, it still has value and happens often.  The more you can trust these people that you’re working with…I guess what I’m saying is, it doesn’t have to be a hundred million dollar deal to be applicable.  In fact, I would argue it’s easier to make it applicable in a smaller deal.  Does that make sense?

Priscilla:
Now, he doesn’t talk about how long it takes you to develop trust, right?

Ivan:
He does, yes.  And that’s one of the reasons why I like the book.  He says it takes time which really fits with BNI very well,  because we’ve always said it takes time.  You’re not going to build a relationship with somebody in a month,  two months, or three months.  Maybe in six months to a year, you’re really building a relationship with somebody.  His research and findings really track what BNI has found over the years.  I highly recommend his book, The Speed of Trust.  It just came out in soft cover and BNI members can get it all over the world through their local Amazon’s.

Priscilla:
Is there anything else you would like to add?

Ivan:
No, I think that’s it.  Just remember referral marketing is not the safest form of marketing.  But it is, I think, the most effective once you really take into consideration the value of trust.

Priscilla:
OK great.  We’ve run out of time, and that’s it for this week.  Thank you Dr. Misner.

Ivan:
Thank you.

Priscilla:
I want to remind our listeners that this pod cast has been brought to you by Networkingnow.com the leading site on the net for networking download ables.  Thanks so much for listening.  This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you will join us next week for another great episode of the Official BNI Podcast.

This week’s podcast was inspired by Jack Canfield’s presentation at the BNI International Conference in November 2007. If we really are the average of the 5 people we hang out with most, here are some things we should consider:

• If we hang out with professional, successful people, it forces us to be more successful.
• BNI’s Membership Committees need to ask whether a potential new member raises the bar for the chapter.
• Network up: seek out networking relationships that pull you out of your comfort zone.
• Open doors to people who have a positive attitude toward success.
• Some of your associates may rate a “D” for “delete” if they bring you down.

Helpful links: Buffini & Company: Working by Referral

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 037 -

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. I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you?

Ivan Misner:
Doing great, Priscilla. Thank you.

Priscilla:
What do you have to share with us today?

Ivan:
I have a simple idea that I just wanted to talk about in this week’s podcast. At the BNI International Conference in late November, we had a good friend of mine who was a speaker. I mentioned an organization of his in last week’s podcast, the Transformational Leadership Council. It was developed by Jack Canfield. Jack has become a good friend and certainly a big supporter of BNI over the last few years.

Jack created the Transformational Leadership Council and we had him as a speaker at our BNI conference in November. He is an incredible speaker. He did a great job. It was a great event, and we had almost 800 directors from about 40 countries all around the world. Jack spoke about a number of things but one of the things that he talked about – I’m assuming most of the listeners know that Jack is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul series. That series has sold more than 120 million books worldwide. He’s a very successful man.

Priscilla:
There are a lot of books in that series.

Ivan:
Yes, there are. It started with the first one of Chicken Coup for the Soul and then A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul. I have a very close friend, Lisa Nichols who did a version of Chicken Soup for the African American Soul. Now there are many, many dozens of variations of the book that have come out. They have all done very well- 120 million copies. I think my best book has sold about 110,000 copies. You have to give somebody a lot of kudos if they are able to do something like that.

He had one idea at this conference that he shared that really resonated with me. He talked about a lot of things, but one thing really certainly had me thinking about how this applies in BNI. He shared a lot of great stories. He had a lot of great statements. One of the statements is that we are the average of the five people that we hang out with most.

He said if we are hanging out with people who are challenging to us intellectually, who are very professional, who are successful calm that it draws us and it helps force us to be more successful at what we do. If we hang out with people who are lazy, not highly motivated, not very successful or not very driven- we tend to be the average of the five people that we hang out with the most. I really started thinking about that message about how that applies in the BNI group. Can you see its relevance in a BNI group?

Priscilla:
Yes. I think the better that you make your group- the membership committee that is their job. They have to screen people and the more enthusiastic, driven and community- oriented people that they bring into the chapter, a stronger that that chapter is.

Ivan:
That’s right. I think that membership committees are key. You have a good point and one that we haven’t talked a lot about in the podcast. What might make a great topic in the future is how to form a membership committee, what to look for and how valuable they are. They are absolutely critical.

I think that they should be asking this question whenever they are bringing a new member into the group: Does this person joining the chapter raise the bar or do they lower the bar in terms of the quality of member? If the answer is that it lowers it, it might not be a good fit. It might not be the right person to have in the group.

I really do believe that we are the average of who we hang out with. If we hang out with successful people then we’re much more likely to be drawn into success than if we hang out with people who are struggling.

Priscilla:
I read an article about something very similar to that which says that if you have as your friends people that are physically fit, active and have an active healthy lifestyle, you have a much greater chance of being that kind of person yourself, versus if you hang out with people that are couch potatoes, don’t eat well and are not concerned with their health. Chances are you’ll be that kind of person also just by association.

Ivan:
Right. Right. One of the comments that Jack had in the presentation was the importance of networking. I think you have to seek out and build networking relationships that will pull you out of your comfort zone and force you to grow and sharpen your skills.

Jim Rowe talks about this concept of becoming the average of five people also. He talks not only about who you’re hanging out with but what have these people got you becoming? Have they taken you in a positive direction? Spending time with them, has that taken you in a positive or negative direction? If spending time with them has taken you in a negative direction, then you need to be hanging out with different groups of people than those.

That’s why it’s so important to select people into your BNI group based on their attitude. The attitude of new members is so critical because it just sets the groundwork for the success of the chapter.

Priscilla:
That sounds great. I have one more thing to add. I went to a conference given by Brian Buffini, and he has you rate your database and grade them according to A,B,C and D. D stands for delete. That’s a little bit like that. If you are around people that bring you down or are not the kind of people that you want to be involved with, you have to find a way to eliminate them from your life.

Ivan:
Buffini is a great trainer. I highly recommend him. The Brian Buffini organization has supported BNI for many years, and they refer a lot of people to BNI. I highly recommend their training. When I walk into a BNI chapter I can always tell somebody who has been trained by Brian Buffini. They are always a higher caliber BNI member.

I appreciate you mentioning him. If anyone has a chance, they should go to his website. I believe it is buffini.com, but maybe when this podcast goes up, we can put the actual link. I appreciate you mentioning him. It is important that we walk the talk in supporting him because he has supported BNI a great deal.

Priscilla:
He mentioned BNI at the conference, actually. I think it’s Buffinicompany.com.

Ivan:
You may be right.

Priscilla:
That’s great. Do you have anything else on this topic?

Ivan:
I think my closing comments would be that networking is all about expanded association by expanding our association to include more of the right people and closing our doors to exclude or limit more of the wrong people. By right people, I mean more of the right attitude for success- motivated people who are positive- and steering away from negative people.

It doesn’t do any good to complain about how bad things are because half of the people that you tell don’t care and the other half are glad that you are worse off than they are. Hanging around with negative people brings people down. We truly are, I believe, the average of the five people that we hang out most with. I appreciate Jack bringing this up at the conference. It gave me a great opportunity to talk about it today on this podcast.

Priscilla:
Well, thank you, Dr. Ivan Misner. This podcast has been brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks 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.

Patti Has Built Over 100 Chapters With An Average Of 27 Members Each

Use The Practice of “Focused Inviting”

Only Invite People Who You Know Are The Best At What They Do

Ask Them To Do The Same In Turn

The Less You Say, The More People Will Participate

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 027 -

Frank Felker:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the official BNI podcast, brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I’m Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone today by Dr. Ivan Misner who’s calling in from the crescent city, New Orleans, Louisiana. What are you doing down that way, Ivan?

Ivan Misner:
We had our membership drive earlier this year and this is the U.S. membership drive weekend. We’re having a wonderful in New Orleans this weekend.

Frank:
It’s one of my favorite cities. I’ve always enjoyed going there. I understand you also have a guest on the line with us today.

Ivan:
I do. I have with us Patti Salvucci. I have known Patti for more than a decade. She is one of the best BNI directors in the world and that’s why I have invited her to be on this podcast. Patti has under her management 100 chapters of BNI. That’s amazing to me and as if that isn’t amazing enough, she has one of the largest average number of members per chapter regions in the world with approximately 27 members on average – that’s a statistical mean – 27 members per chapter, which is just phenomenal. Patti, it is great to have you on this podcast.

Patti Salvucci:
Thank you, Ivan. Great to be here.

Ivan:
Talk a little bit about how you got started. I think the podcast is a great opportunity for people to talk directly to members and give them some of the dos and don’ts of being successful in BNI.

We’re going to talk about how you built chapters. Clearly, you have been brilliant at building strong groups. That is really the topic for today. You have had a lot of success in BNI in this area so I thought that you might start off by talking about some of our original conversations when we opened up in Massachusetts. I worked with you by phone before we actually kicked off. I thought maybe we could start with that.

Patti:
Actually, it was back in 1985, and I think BNI only had about 300 chapters at that point. Ivan was my coach and one of the things that really struck for me was that Ivan said that you want to only invite people that you would recommend in a heartbeat. It would be somebody who returns phone calls and you would be proud to recommend.

I had a lot of friends and business but I thought you know what – there were only eight that I could think of that were really the best at what they did. I really wanted a lot of people there, so I started to think how was I going to get 100 people to attend a meeting?

I went to some people that were in the community that were very influential. One was the director of the civic organization and I call that person and said, “Joan, I need your help. Will you help me?”

She said she would be more than happy to. I said we were having a networking breakfast in town and I was looking for people who were the best at what they do. I think that was the key. It really made her think. I think one of the keys is focused inviting.

When I actually went to see Joan the following day, she had pulled out only the people that she thought were the best at what they did. Interestingly enough, when I called those people I didn’t have to know them. I called and said, “My name is Patti. You don’t know me but you are highly recommended by Joan.”

Ivan:
You say you didn’t have to know them, but she knew them and that was the key. It was the third party connection that made that approach work for you. Is that correct?

Patti:
Actually, the rapport had already started to be built in the conversation. I think saying less is more. I only said just a few sentences on the phone and I asked for permission to be able to send them an invitation to a networking breakfast were everybody in town was going to be there. We were only looking for the people who are the best at what they did and Jones said that they were the best.

Ivan:
Saying less is more. I think that’s so important because sometimes members just try to talk someone into joining and try to give them almost too much information. The truth is that the best way to get people to participate in BNI is to see a well run meeting.

I can bring up to really good points. One is that members have a tendency to invite anyone with a pulse and not go for the best. The second is that they try to explain everything without the person seeing it. Would you not agree with that?

Patti:
I absolutely agree with that. I think that they try to think about everything they possibly can in order to invite them and give them as much information as they need. At that point, the person doesn’t need to go to the meeting. I think you just want to put out the bread crumbs, so to speak. Just give them a little bit of information so that they always want more. That is something that certainly always worked for me.

Ivan:
Talk a little bit more about why you think less is more. Do you have any other observations on why that is better than trying to give all the information? For example, a lot of the members will not only give all the information that have, but they will hand over fliers and materials. For some reason members think that by handing a lot of materials, people are going to join. My experience is that nobody joins from a brochure. They join because they experience the meeting and they like the people there.

Patti:
I totally agree, Ivan. I think actually when I started, we didn’t have brochures. We had the book of The World’s Best Known Marketing Secrets. You absolutely need to come and see the professionals that are involved in this organization. I think if they are not willing to do that, they’re probably not a good BNI prospect. It’s important to tell them just a little bit. We’re looking for somebody who is the best at what they do, and we have twenty people who are looking to give business to a plumber. Are you interested? Would you be interested in attending.?

Ivan:
And those should be either people that you know or people who have been referred to you by somebody you really trust which is the way that you did it.

Patti:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I didn’t know the person after I had exhausted the referrals that Joan had given me. I thought who else in the community is influential? I thought of a director of a YMCA. I didn’t actually know this person, but I did know somebody who was in the rotary with this gentleman for fifteen years.

I called her and said, “Can I use your name when I call him?” And she said absolutely. I called him and I said, “You don’t know me but you are highly recommended by Jackie Brighton.”

He said, “I’ve known her for fifteen years. How can I help you?”

It was wonderful. I went through the same exact script that I had when I called the director of the civic organization. And he referred me to many people.

Ivan:
That goes along with the phrase that you use a lot in our conversations about this podcast. That is it’s not who you know but who you meet through who you know. Talk more about that.

Patti:
Well, I just think that sometimes members get stuck on thinking that they’ve already invited everybody that they know. That’s not true because there are so many other people that you truly have not met yet that are good connections for you by the contacts that you already have.

Even if you are looking for a great landscaper and you don’t know one, think of who you know in town who has the best lawn. Pick up the phone and call them. And just say who cuts your lawn? Call the person and say that they were highly recommended by so and so.

Ivan:
That’s kind of an example of thinking out of the box. Any other examples of that concept of thinking outside the box?

Patti:
One time, a chapter was having a really difficult time finding people because they said that their town was different. I thought well I don’t know anybody in your town. But I m more than happy to try something out.

We had an invitation letter that they were going to send out to invite some folks. I took that letter and stapled my business card to twenty invitations. It took one hour’s time and I walked into the businesses in that town and said “Hi, my name is Patti. You don’t know me and I am not here to sell you anything, but what I am here to do is invite you to a networking breakfast that we have here in town. Everybody’s going to be there and I just wanted to give you an invitation.” And I walked out.

I took one hour to do that with twenty invitations and actually three people showed out of that. One of the invitations went to a woman who owned a bridal shop and she called me the night before and said, “Can I bring somebody with me?”

I said absolutely. So she brought a woman who was an event planner. Altogether, we had four people out of those twenty invitations. The event planner joined and so did the bridal shop owner and one other person. So three out of four joined, and the event planner actually brought seven people into the chapter the very first month in membership.

Ivan:
Well. That’s incredible. Listen Patti, we’re just about out of time. Is there anything else you want to add? This is great material for members to hear.

Patti:
Thank you very much. I just think that there are always more people that you can invite. There is an endless list. Don’t get discouraged. Just think of the people that you haven’t invited or people that you haven’t met yet. So it’s not who you know but who you meet through who you know.

Ivan:
I think that’s powerful. This whole idea of “we are different in this area”- I’ve always found it very interesting. I find that most people who say we’re different – it’s really an excuse not to do something that people feel uncomfortable with. They really just don’t want to do what’s been said, or they don’t know how to do it. It’s really easy to say we’re different in this area, but my experience has been that the challenges in the chapters all around the world are consistently similar whether you’re talking about one part of the country or another or completely different countries.

What you just described I think will work in every country of BNI. Patti, I really appreciate you being in our podcast for the listeners here. For the listeners, I’m speaking with Patti Salvucci one of the top BNI directors in the world. She handles our BNI chapters in the Massachusetts and has about 100 chapters with about 27 members per chapter. She knows what she’s doing. Take these ideas and please share some of them at your next chapter meeting.

Patti, thank you very much. Frank, back to you.

Frank:
Thank you, Dr. Misner. For Patti Salvucci Ivan Misner, I’m Frank Felker saying we will see you next week on the official BNI podcast.

Information in Ivan’s book: Truth or Delusion?

Question: You Have To Be A Great “People Person” to be a great networker – Truth or Delusion? DELUSION!

A Good Networker Is A Great Listener – Extroverts Often Dominate Conversations

Introverts Are Better At Carrying-On A Conversation Than They Are At Initiating One

Must Learn Techniques For Introducing Yourself And Getting The Other Person Talking

Volunteer To Be A Chamber Ambassador Or A BNI Visitor Host

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 018 -

Frank Felker:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the official BNI podcast brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I’m Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone today by Chairman and Founder of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner, calling in from BNI headquarters in southern California. How is the weather, Ivan?

Ivan:
Everything is great here in southern California. It is a beautiful summer.

Frank:
Isn’t the rainy season like in January and February? I was out there one time in February for a big event that I was hosting and it did rain like heck.

Ivan:
Sometimes it does but it’s usually nice and sunny here. It certainly is now and it is hot.

Frank:
But there’s not much humidity, right? It isn’t the heat, it’s the humidty. So you want to talk to us today about why introverts can be great networkers. How does that work? I can’t quite get that.

Ivan:
You know, it’s really interesting and we talk about this in a couple places in BNI. Our stuff on it is in my book, Truth or Delusion. It’s also on entrepreneur.com in an article that I wrote called Why Introverts Can Be Great Networkers. It comes from some material that I wrote for Truth or Delusion where I ask the question is it truth or delusion that you have to be a real people person to be great with the networking? The answer is delusion. You don’t.

Mind you, you have to like people. You have to like working with people if you want to network, but you don’t have to be an extrovert. You don’t have to be really, really outgoing. It’s a common assumption that somebody who is an extrovert is the best type of networker. That’s not necessarily true. A good networker has two ears and one mouth and uses them both proportionately. So they listen to what people have to say.

Extroverts love talking about themselves. They are not really good about asking questions and finding out about other people. What we’ve learned is that oftentimes, introverts can, in fact, be better at networking because they are great at talking about you and asking questions about you. It’s really interesting because often, introverts eliminate themselves from the process because they think that they’re not good at networking because they can’t initialize a conversation. They’re not good at walking up to a stranger and starting a conversation.

That’s really unfortunate because I think, in many ways, they’re better at the second part of networking that the extrovert is. The extravert can just walk up to a stranger and start a conversation, but they’re not good about asking questions and finding out more about the other person. The introvert is not good at just walking up to a stranger in introducing themselves, but they’re much better at building the connection and the relationship.

I think it’s really important to understand that you have to have both parts of the process to be good at networking. You have to learn how to introduce yourself to people. There are ways introverts can do it, by the way. We can come back to that in a minute. You have to be good at introducing yourself, but then once you’ve done that, you really have to be good about pulling out of people information and learning about them so that you can network with them effectively of the over time.

Frank:
That’s interesting because most people prefer – their favorite topic of conversation is themselves, so if you just ask them an open question and let them go, you’ll find out a lot.

Ivan:
Especially with entrepreneurs. They love to talk about themselves. It’s easy and a lot of the entrepreneurs tend to be a little more on the extroverted side but not all of them. So if you are one of those who maybe isn’t an extrovert or maybe you are an extrovert but you’re just uncomfortable for some reason in the process or a setting that you’re not familiar with – what do you do?

One of the things that I recommend is to volunteer to be a role within whatever organization that you are in. That will get you out to introduce yourself to people. In the chamber of commerce, that would be the chamber ambassador. If you join a new chamber and you don’t know the people there and you want to get to know them, the best way to do it is to volunteer to be the investor so that when you go to chamber mixer, you are standing there and you meet people.

It’s so much easier to say,”Hi, my name is Ivan. I’m the chamber ambassador and I would like to welcome you to the chamber mixer this evening. Could you tell me a little bit about what you do? I’d love to put you in touch with some of the other people here.”

You act as a connector and it is much easier to play the role of host when you take on the role. Even if you’re an introvert, it’s easy to do because all you’re doing is saying, “ Hi. I am the ambassador and can I connect you with anyone here?” It’s a technique that introverts can use to make themselves feel a little more comfortable in the introduction, rather than walking up cold to a group of strangers and saying high my name is_________ and this is what I do.

Frank:
So they have to put themselves in a position to easily interact with people.

Ivan:
Yes. And this really stems from a book from Adele Scheele where she says if you’re going to be successful in networking, act like the host and not the guest. It’s a great story and it’s in her book, Skills for Success. I also talked about in The World’s Best Marketing Secret. The truth is that it’s easy to say to act like the host but it can be difficult to do. The best way to do it is to not act like to host but to be the host. You can be the host by volunteering to be the ambassador of the chamber or in BNI, what’s the role that is basically the same as the ambassador?

Frank:
The visitor host.

Ivan:
The visitor host – now that’s your job, to introduce yourself to every visitor of you who walks in. If you’re a little uncomfortable and an introvert, now you have a reason to do it and it’s a simple reason. Your goal is to introduce yourself to a visitor and walk around and introduce them. You’re a connector. That’s really the job of the visitor host. You stand there by the door and say, “Hi. My name is Frank. I am the visitor host for BNI. Welcome to the meeting today. I’ll be happy to answer the questions you have.”

What a great way to meet people and it makes it very smooth so that it’s not uncomfortable even for introverts to do.

Frank:
But I would be eating my breakfast during that time. You are going to interrupt my breakfast so that I can talk to them.

Ivan:
Yes, you’d have the first fifteen minutes of the open networking that you’d have to do before you could start eating your breakfast. Of course now, the extraverts, they’re pretty good about that. What they have a hard time doing is the second part of it and I’ve talked about the second part in some other material.

I am not going to spend a lot of time on it here but basically what you want to do is ask the who, what , when, where and why kinds of questions. Extroverts have to stop talking about themselves and start talking about the other person, and the best way to do that is to ask them questions and take information out so that you can learn more and help and support them.

There are two parts of the process. Extroverts are good at the first part, which is introducing themselves, and introverts are better at the second part of asking questions and getting to know each other. Both introverts and extroverts have something to learn. I have to tell you that I think it’s harder to learn how to ask questions and pull out information than it is to introduce yourself if you follow the methods that I talked about which is being a host. To tell you the truth, extraverts have more work to do than introverts because there are mechanisms that people can use to introduce themselves.

Frank:
That’s so funny. I never would have believed what you’re saying as far as why introverts can be great networkers until I heard what you just said. I think you’re absolutely right because the easiest way to network or get information out of somebody is just sit and listen to what they have to say. Obviously, extraverts tend to have a very hard time doing that. Well Dr. Misner, we’re just about at a time for this week’s podcast. Any last word or pearl of wisdom that you want to share with the listeners this week?

Ivan:
Networking is a skill that can be learned no matter what level of outgoing-ness. If you remain ill at ease in environments where you have to introduce yourself to people or are meet new people, take advantage training materials like this podcast. These podcasts really will help you become a better member. Listen to this material and take a look at the books and learn the skills of how to network more effectively.

One last thing Frank before I quit, I invite our listeners to comment up here at bnipodcast.com about things that they hear me and some of my guests talk about that resonate with them and has helped make them a better networker and how. This is the way other members will learn – if you members who are listening to this share what has worked for you. Post a message up BNI podcast.com. I invite you to do so.

Frank:
I agree. That’s great and I encourage everybody to do that. That’s it for this week’s episode of the BNI podcast. For Dr. Ivan Misner, I’m Frank Felker saying we will see you next week on the official BNI podcast.

Ivan Spoke Before 400+ BNIers in Minneapolis

Why BNI Wants Leadership Teams to Change on a Regular Basis

Avoiding Leadership Team Burnout

Leadership Means Creating More Leaders, Not More Followers

What Should Leadership Team Members Do After They Leave The Leadership Team?

Why Do I Have To Go To Training Again?

What Criteria Do You Use To Choose New Leadership Team Members From The Existing Membership?

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 of the net for networking downloadables. I’m Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone again today by Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. He’s calling in from BNI headquarters in sunny southern California. How are you today, Ivan?

Ivan Misner:
Doing great Frank, thank you very much.

Frank:
I understand we have a special guest on the line today?

Ivan:
We surely do. Nancy Giacomuzzi. Nancy is the Executive Director in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area, one of our strongest regions for BNI. If you had asked me 22 years ago when I started BNI if Minnesota would have been one of the biggest regions for BNI, I would’ve said not a chance. I’m really impressed with what you’ve done in this area. We have over 130 chapters in all of Minnesota with an average number of members per chapter of 28. Isn’t that right?

Nancy Giacomuzzi:
That is right. We’re really excited what is happening over here with BNI.

Ivan:
Well, you have done a great job. I have invited you to be part of this podcast today because you had a topic that you brought up in my visit last week to Minneapolis. You had over 450 people at the event last week.

Nancy:
We had a great event. I was so delighted that you were able to be part of that. It was very exciting to have all the members in participation. And a question did come up.

Ivan:
I think it went really well and a question came up that I thought would be a great topic for the podcast. Why don’t you throw the topic out there and we’ll take it from there.

Nancy:
Okay. We are starting to identify our chapter president for the next leadership team. Perhaps you could explain why BNI suggests that the leadership team change on a regular basis.

Ivan:
This is a really important one. It is really timely because the executive directors, assistant area directors, and regional directors should be looking at future potential leadership teams because even though it seems like the transition just took place, you need to start looking now and chapters should start looking for the next generation of leadership people early so that they can be in place and have time to go through the training.

There are a number of reasons why we recommend that they not be in position over and over again. I’ll give a couple of comments and throw it to you to see if you have anything to add. I think it’s really easy to burn people out. When we first started BNI, the leadership teams were one year. We just burned them out. Even for the people who said no way, I love this and I want to stay in. We would burn them out. They would really get very tired after something close to a year. And certainly anyone who early on went two years, by the end of their second term, it was just too much.

There’s an even more important reason that I have and am going to throw it to you. I think the more important reason is that you have to bring in other people to help support. You can’t be a one person show or a three person show. The more people that you bring on, the more leadership you’ll have. To me, true leadership is about creating more leaders, not more followers.

When you have a leadership team that is going to transition to another strong leadership team, they end their job perfectly by training additional people who can take over. Then they’re sort of the elder statesman, so to speak, in helping the new leadership team to run the chapter. So then you have a lot of leaders and not just three. Do you have anything to add to that?

Nancy:
I think you are right. What happens is that some of them do such a great job they just get so excited about being in that position. But we realize that the more people that we have to do those positions, the stronger everybody in the chapter is, so it works really well.

Ivan:
You know, I think you’re right. Sometimes they did a great job so they want to do it a second or third term, but that is absolutely a recipe for disaster in the chapter. We will burn them out. And we’re not creating more leaders by doing that.

Nancy:
They think they’ve done a great job and that their chapter will benefit by that having them continue to do that. You’re right – they do burn out. It is easier to just bring on more people so everybody participates.

Ivan:
Isn’t it better having six to nine people who overtime are supporting the chapter within the membership committee, as a past leadership team person or a visitor host as a past leadership team person – it just makes a stronger chapter.

Nancy:
That was one of the other questions that some of them have. Sometimes it’s hard for the leadership team members to become just a regular member, so any tips on what they should or shouldn’t do after having been on the leadership team?

Ivan:
That is a great question and I think they need to step over to the membership committee because that is such an important role within a chapter. A membership committee makes or breaks the chapter. I would love to see the president and the vice president step into the role of the membership committee when they step down because they have been through the training and can really support the chapter. I also think the visitor host position is a very important position for the organization. The past leadership team person is perfect for the visitor host position.

Nancy:
One of the other topics that always comes up in is that some people have been in the roles and out of the roles, and they’re looking at coming back in and supporting one of the different roles again. They say all I have already been on the leadership team in the past. Why do I have to go to training again?

Ivan:
The training question. Listen, you know I think training is one of the core competencies of BNI. It is one of the really important reasons why we are the world’s largest business networking organization. This year, 2007 when this is being recorded, we will have dedicated more than 126,000 persons hours to leadership team training. Right now, we have 4800 chapters times three leadership team people times roughly four and a half hours of training times twice each year. That is over 126,000 person hours.

When people join BNI, this is one of the reasons why the program was so successful. If you are a member of BNI listening to this podcast and you ever have a leadership to person who says yeah I want to be on the leadership team but I don’t go on to go through training, kick them out. Don’t let that be the pilot of your chapter without having gone through pilot training or retraining because they will ride your chapter right to the ground. I think that is the most important thing. They have to go through the training.

I think we’re almost out of time. Nancy, did you have any last thing?

Nancy:
I think the only other question is what criteria which you use to determine if a member would be good on the membership team? Any thoughts there?

Ivan:
That’s a good question. There are different personalities that fit the different roles well. You certainly want someone who is a detailed person to do the secretary and treasurer role. You want someone who can make tough decisions to be the vice president, and you want someone who can speak well extemporaneously to the president.

Someone in a chapter can fit any one of those three positions because they really take different skill sets. I like those three positions because you can take someone with any skill set to put them in to one of those three positions within the organization. I think it’s important to get more and more participation to take us back to the first question. The more people and the more leaders you have in a chapter, the stronger the chapters are going to be.

I think we have run out of time. Nancy, thank you so much for posing these questions because they’re really timely and everyone for needs to hear them.

Frank:
Well, that’s it for this week’s episode of the official BNI podcast. For Nancy Giacomuzzi and Dr. Ivan Meister, I am Frank Felker saying we’ll 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.

Synopsis -
In this episode Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization, explains why he has chosen to start a podcast and discusses:

Topics He’ll Be Covering

His New Role As Chairman

Podcast Feedback

Guest Appearances

How Long Each Podcast Will Be

Members Spreading The Word

How to Subscribe To The Podcast

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 001 -

Frank Felker:
Well, here we are with the first edition of the official BNI podcast. What exactly were you thinking of? What is the idea behind the official BNI podcast?

Dr. Ivan Misner:
I think a podcast like this gives me an opportunity to flatten the communication hierarchy, to bypass various layers in the organization and allow me to talk directly to BNI members and directors all over the world about how to make this program work most effectively for them.

Some of the things that I hope to do is first of all, create some materials that members will be able to respond to at the BNIpodcast.com web site and give some comments on. But more importantly, to do some podcasts that members can talk about at chapters – talk about the subject and share the information to help enhance the quality of the results that they’re getting on a chapter by chapter basis.

I think that some of the kinds of things that I would like to cover are new activities and projects – something new to the organization that members might want to know about. I hope to, over time, be sharing new meeting stimulants that we have. Now if you are a member and you don’t know what a meeting stimulant is, you need to write that down and next time you see your director, ask them what is a chapter meeting stimulant? I am not talking about good drugs. Some chapters may want them, I don’t know. But I am talking about exercises that help to make the chapter livelier, more interesting and a lot of fun, which is something very important.

I think years ago I really didn’t talk much about chapters having fun. It was all about the system and the structure. The longer-running BNI, the more important it is I have found that you have to have fun while you are learning and teaching and informing people about what you do. So meeting stimulants help do that.

Frank:
I couldn’t agree with you more. And I think it helps build the bond between the members when everybody is enjoying themselves.

Ivan:
Absolutely. So those things – a calendar of upcoming events, things that are going on throughout the world. I’ll tell you, lastly, and probably one of the most important is that I would like to cover topics that are really aimed at education coordinators, topics that education coordinators of a chapter can share with their members to help members to increase the amount of referrals that they are generating from chapter to chapter. Those are the kind of things that I hope to be covering in this podcast.

Frank:
I think it is a great idea, certainly podcasting is the perfect medium for you to connect directly with all of your tens of thousands of members around the world. Also, the two-way conversation potential of people being able to direct questions to you by e-mail, posting comments on the podcast website and to have them ask you exactly what is on their mind, relative to either getting the most out of their BNI membership or perhaps some question about different resources that you have available in your books and so forth. I really congratulate you for taking this step because you are a very busy guy. I mean, your travel schedule this month alone is taking you across the United States into Europe and back again. I know that it is pretty tough to get on your schedule and get you on the phone for these recordings.

Ivan:
It is, but I think this role is very important. Many members may or may not know that last year I promoted Norm Dominguez to CEO of the organization to give me the opportunity to act as a spokesperson for the company. So my role as Founder and Chairman is primarily to be the spokesperson, to have the opportunity to talk to members directly through as many vehicles as possible. That’s why I love this concept of the podcast so that I can talk directly to members and get feedback.

You are right – the two-way communication is important and the blogs that we will have and the bulletin board at the BNIpodcast.com are a way to get some feedback. We are going to be looking for there are what I call solution-focused feedback. It’s easy to sometimes take a look at what is not working. What I want to talk about in these podcasts and what I want to talk about on the blogs are the solutions to challenges that chapters may have because it is the solutions and the solutions focus that will carry the organization forward in a positive manner.

Frank:
So rather than just being upset or complaining about something, you are looking for people to come forward with solutions to whatever those problems are that are upsetting them.

Ivan:
Well possibly. Yes indefinitely. But I am also open to somebody saying, “Hey, I heard you talking about this on a podcast. We had a challenge with something similar. What is the solution to this challenge?” That is the kind of thing that I would really like to see discussed. You know, everyone can be a critic about issues but the truth is nobody has ever built a statue for a critic. The only people who get statues are people who are leaders and people who say they have a problem and they take a look at the solutions to those problems. They do their best to try to solve issues in a positive way. That is what I want these podcasts to be. I want them to be a vehicle for me to share with the membership world wide the things that members have done all around the world to make this program successful.

Frank:
That is great. That is another wonderful benefit for the members – being able to hear about best practices from other groups and other chapters around the world. That is one of the things that comes from membership in BNI, as I can speak to myself as a member – is learning how to do things better from people who have gone there before you.

Ivan:
You bring up a good point. Because I may from time to time bring in a guest, either a BNI director or maybe even a member to talk about some issue or something that they did in their chapter that was very successful. I will also be bringing in some guests, some friends of mine who I think have material or content that I think will help the BNI members in one way or another. So I may do interviews with guests, some of which may be well known to members of BNI and others may not be well known, but they will all be people who I think have something to add and help a BNI member in their membership and organization.

Frank:
Ivan, I wanted to ask you one thing. One of the benefits of podcast format is that it can be flexible in terms of the length. You are not locked into like a radio show clock format. Do you have any feel for how long these podcast are going to be each week?

Ivan:
I believe each one will be between five and ten minutes, probably closer to ten minutes than five. They will be short, bite sized podcasts, and one of the reasons why I think that is valuable is it is content that we can communicate to members and to education coordinators and directors so that they can take it in short bite size pieces and communicate it to the chapters.

At the chapter meetings, you don’t have 30 minutes every week for someone to share ideas on how to make the chapter work. We have a few minutes. I want to try to do these podcast in ways that can be integrated into chapter meetings and that the chapters can – it’s almost like everyone standing around the water cooler talking about something that they just saw on TV or heard on the radio. I would love for them to sit around the BNI meetings and talk about the latest podcast on a specific subject and be able to integrate it right into the meeting.

Frank:
That’s great. With that in mind, we’re probably just about out of time for this first podcast, the first official BNI podcast. Any last thoughts that you would like to leave the listeners with before we sign off?

Ivan:
Yes. I would love for all of the members who are listening to this podcast to go back to their chapters and encourage other BNI members to subscribe to the podcasts. They will be free. Come to the website, take a look at the content, and make sure to share this information. I have heard that word of mouth is pretty powerful so I would like to see our BNI members use a little word of mouth. A good referral for me would be for you to take this back, this information back, if you are listening to this podcast and share it with chapter members in your group or groups around you so that they can benefit from this as well.

Frank:
That is awesome. I love that. “A good referral from me.” And to that end, I want to make sure everybody understands how they scanned subscribe to the podcast. You can subscribe at the iTunes music store or right on the homepage at BNIpodcast.com. There is also a page there that explains to you how to subscribe and how to download the mp3 files, so don’t be put off by the technology if this is something new to you. It is really worth the effort to learn how to engage with this medium and to be able to hear from Dr. Misner every week.

Ivan:
You know what I would like to say – one last thing before we sign off – and that is remembers all around the world –remember in is netsit or neteat- it is network, and if you want to build your business through word of mouth, you have to learn the techniques to work the organization and get the most out of it.

Frank:
There you have it. Right from the man himself, Dr. Ivan Misner, the Founder and Chairman of BNI. This is Frank Felker saying we will see you next week on the official BNI podcast.