Dr. Misner wants to talk about the article he contributed to the recently published e-book The Way Out! Steer Clear of the Recession and Drive Toward Success and Prosperity. (If you download the e-book, please leave a comment here about what you’ve read and what you liked about it.)

Dr. Misner’s article is on page 49; it’s called “Networking Mixers: Break the Ice, Build Your Contacts, and Grow Your Business.” Next time you’re at a mixer, take a look at the way people stand.

If people are standing in closed groups, face to face, they’re not inviting you to join them. You can ignore them until they’re finished with their conversation.

But if people are standing at an angle to each other, with space between them, there’s an opening for someone to come into that group. Those are the people you can go up and talk to.

Also, look for the people who are wearing badges, especially if the badge mentions what business they’re in. That makes it easier to strike up a conversation.

Download the e-book and leave a comment here on the blog.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 109 -

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:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much.

Priscilla:
What do you have to share with us?

Ivan:
Well, I want to talk about a book that I just a contributing author to. It’s called The Way Out. It’s about how to steer clear of the recession. The subtitle is Your “GPS Guided Path to Success.” And I was a contributing author along with some other fairly well known business professionals, Bill Bartmann, Brian Tracy, Jim Cathcart, and myself along with about half a dozen other business professionals. And I did an article that I just wanted to talk a little bit about on this podcast. And for all the listeners on the podcast, we will be providing a link where you can download this e-book, and the price is great. Do you know what it is?

Priscilla:
Is it free?

Ivan:
It’s free, yeah! The price is free for this e-book. Actually, I shouldn’t have said free; there is one small for this. The price to download the book is I want you, if you download the book, to just leave a quote or a comment, any comment, about an article that you read in this e-book that you liked and what you liked about it. That’s the cost to download it. So it’s all on the honor system. That’s the cost to download it. Download the e-book for free here on this podcast, and read over some of the articles. Mine’s one of them. And I’d love for you to leave a comment. If you’re listening to this podcast, leave a comment under the Comment section here on the podcast about an article that you liked in this book.

It’s a book that just came out, and I did an article that was a little bit different. It’s a joint article. It’s a combination of a couple of pieces that I had written in the past. One is a piece that I talked about here on BNI Podcast about a year or so ago. It’s Episode 32 and Episode 33, and that’s the Ten Commandments of Networking a Mixer. I did those quite a few episodes ago, Episode 32 and Episode 33. And so, we’re talking about things like having the networking tools with you at all times, setting goals, acting like a host not a guest, giving a referral whenever possible, spent ten minutes or less with each person you meet. These are part of the Ten Commandments of Networking a Mixer.

That’s part of this article, but there’s another part that I’ve never really talked about in any of my podcasts, and that’s what I want to talk about for the next few minutes.

Priscilla:
What’s that?

Ivan:
When you download the book, I’m on page 49 of the e-book. I’m on page 49, and the title is Networking Mixers: Break the Ice, Build Your Contacts, and Grow Your Business. The first part of the book is something that I’ve not written about much, I haven’t talked about it at all, and that’s how to read a room when you walk in to network, how to look at it, and where do you start? Because many times when business people attend those ever popular networking mixers, they have a difficult time reading the crowd and knowing when and where to get started.

So what I did was I put together some material, and there’s actually some diagram, so if you download the book, you can have diagrams to look at while I’m talking here. And these diagrams allow you to assess the room to start the process. For example, imagine that you were on a balcony looking down on a large crowd of people. And you look at this crowd and it’s a mishmash of people and you really don’t even know where to start.

So with that in mind, what I want you to do is the next time you go to a mixer, take a look at how people stand, physically grouped together. You’ll find that people stand with their bodies clearly indicating whether or not they’re open to having someone approach them and join in or not. Literally, you want to look for open groups versus closes groups.

So take a look at the diagrams that are in this article, and you’ll see that there are some diagrams of people that are, what I would call, a closed group. Imagine two people standing face to face with one another, standing parallel with their shoulders squared off in a way that they’re looking face to face with each other. That would be a closed two. It’s kind of hard to walk up and start a conversation.

You’ve been at mixers, Priscilla, two people talking like that, it’s hard to walk up and start talking to them, right?

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
But imagine instead of a closed two, where people are standing face to face with each other, that one or the other is standing slightly askew; they’re standing a little bit open. That an open two. Almost like if you were looking down from a balcony, they would be, from the top down, it would be sort of like a V. So a third person could walk in and start speaking fairly easily. That’s an open two.

So when you look at a room, look for open groups. A closed three would be three people who are standing. Looking down, they’d be standing like a triangle, shoulder to shoulder. Right? And there’s no opening. An open three would be like a U, where there’s an open spot that people can come in.

So being able to read a crowd, any size crowd, and gauge when to come into a group of two or three or four or five, ten people is really an acquired skill, and it’s something that you can look at a room very quickly and get a sense as to what groups are open and what groups are closed.

Now, I described this once. I was in Switzerland for a big conference, and I had a chance to do an interview with a CNN reporter. And I was describing this to him. He was, “Yeah, kind of makes sense. I’m not quite sure I get it.” And then, it was really funny because later after the interview, and this is what he actually broadcast, he was in a balcony looking down on a room and the light bulb came on. And he stood there, and he goes , “Oh, my gosh. I see it! There’s an open two; there’s an open three; there’s an open group.”

So if I were down there mixing, I would be looking for groups like that where I could come in and make that first introduction. And that’s the start of the process.

And so my article merges the Ten Commandments with How to Visualize a Room for a Mixer. So you start with looking for the open twos, threes, and fours. And then you start to apply the Ten Commandments.

And this is the article that I wrote that is available here on BNI Podcast for free. Anyone can download it, read it. The only cost is I’d love for you leave a comment and tell me what you either liked about one of the articles that you read or my piece in particular; either is fine with me.

Priscilla:
I want to ask one question.

Ivan:
Sure.

Priscilla:
It seems to me that if you see some people and they’re talking, maybe they would be a closed two or whatever, but if you approach them and you speak to them that they may just then open up. Isn’t that true? Or would you not approach somebody who seems – you would not want to interrupt them, is what you’re thinking?

Ivan:
What I’m talking about is really literally a physically open group. If you have three people standing shoulder to shoulder in basically a triangle, it’s hard to break into that.

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
So what I’m talking about is physically three people standing together more in a U shape where there’s an open spot so that you can kind of saddle right in and start that conversation that you’re suggesting. But what happens is people go into a mixer and they’re overwhelmed because there’s hundreds of people and they don’t even know where to begin. So with this technique, I can immediately eliminate 50 percent of the room.

Priscilla:
I see.

Ivan:
Whereas you can focus on the other 50 percent of open groups where there’s a spot where you can walk into. Now the question is: What do you say? And that’s really the other half of the article, which I talked about in Episode 32 and 33 in an earlier podcast.

Does that make sense?

Priscilla:
Yeah. Okay, that makes sense.

Ivan:
Of course, when you strike up that conversation, one of the things that you want to look for are people who are wearing badges. If somebody is wearing a badge and they have their name on it, particularly their profession or their company, I can start a conversation with anybody on the planet if I just know what business they’re in. Because if I know what business you’re in, I can strike up a conversation about that business. “Oh, I know a number of people in the mortgage business. I think things are pretty tight right now. How are things going for you in your area?” You can start up a conversation like that fairly easily if you just know what business they’re in.

Let’s say it’s the name of the company and you have no idea what that company does, that’s how you open up the discussion. “I have not heard of that company before. Tell me a little bit about what you do.”

Priscilla:
That’s great. I always just make it over to the food, and then I have lots to talk about!

Ivan:
I try to get the food out of the way, then go meet people.

Priscilla:
That’s great, Dr. Misner. I think that might be as much time as we have for this podcast.

Ivan:
Great. I just want to remind people they can download the book here, and please leave a comment.

Priscilla:
Well, thank you very much.

I want to remind the listeners 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 hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Dr. Misner and John Assaraf from OneCoach address three questions:

1. What causes entrepreneurs to plateau at a certain income level? Internal mental programming based on our genetic and experiential conditioning. You need to develop a clear vision and impress it into your subconscious in order to break out of your rut. Read The Answer for more details.
2. What are three of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make?
   1. Allowing circumstances to control their goal-setting exercises.
   2. Not creating a blueprint for success.
   3. Thinking they can do it themselves.
3. Why is it so important not to participate in a recession? Remember that 90% of your competition is thinking in negative ways. Don’t miss this opportunity to position yourself as the leader.

Go back and listen to Episode 86 of this podcast for BNI’s own positioning efforts for 2009. Visit ReadtheAnswer.com for a special offer on John’s book.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 092 -

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:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. I’m really excited today. I’ve got a good friend of mine, John Assaraf, whom I met in the Transformational Leadership Council. I’ve talked about TLC a few times on the podcasts, and John is the founder of OneCoach, a great coaching organization. We have many of their coaches in BNI throughout North America. He’s also one of the teachers from the movie, The Secret, and he’s the author of Having It All and The Answer.

So John, it’s a real honor to have you be on the podcast with us today.

John:
Thanks, Ivan. Great to be on.

Ivan:
There were three questions that I wanted to run by you that I think would be of value for my BNI members and particularly education coordinators.

And the first one is: What causes entrepreneurs to plateau or to get stuck at a certain revenue or income level, and what can they do to grow again when they get there?

John:
That’s a great question. One of the things that I have found in the brain research that I’ve done is that we become conditioned either through genetics or through our experiences to think, perceive, and behave at certain levels of revenue or income. And we tend to stick at those levels no matter how much information we gather, no matter how many courses we go to, or no matter how many programs we might do at home.

What we must understand is that any of the results that we are getting in our outside world, or our physical world, is an absolute duplication of the internal mental programming. No differently than software on a computer can do certain things, well, software of the brain is due to the genetic and experiential resources that we have in our life. So we’re going to see a direct correlation between how we’ve been conditioned and what our results are.

So anytime we hit a plateau, that tells us not how much information we know or gather, but it tells us what our mental financial conditioning has been up to that point. And in order to break through that, we really have to change the software of the brain so that we perceive and behave differently so we achieve different results.

Ivan:
You know, I ran into something similar, I think it’s similar anyway, to what you’re describing. I was talking to a friend of mine about creating territories, and he had some experience – and this was in Scandinavia – with this company where they were hitting certain dollar revenues, the sales people, and what they did, which was a little counterintuitive, was they actually split their territories in half. And everybody was really upset, but interestingly enough, everybody ended up bringing the revenues right back up to the same level that they were at before –

John:
Correct.

Ivan:
Even though they had half the territory. So the company split their territories again in half. And guess what happened? Within a few months, they were bringing the revenues right back up to where they were before. And they did it a third time before they really started to see any kind of impact.

And the whole point that the company kind of figured out was, the people kind of developed this comfort level with income, and they just want to reach that and they tend not to go beyond it.

John:
Yeah, what actually happens is any time there’s a deviation in the income, high or low, our brain will actually release a neurochemical that will either cause us to pick up the pace or to sabotage the success we’re having so that equilibrium, or homeostasis, is the order of the day. And in order for us to break through that barrier, we have to actually make some neurological changes. No different than an athlete who wants to perform at the next level or a musician who wants to perform at the next level has got to practice different things, business owners must practice mentally different things in their business that will get them to the next level so that their brain doesn’t trip up any of the success that they have.

Ivan:
Well, can you give us a couple of examples of what they can do to grow again?

John:
Absolutely. Number one is to set an absolute, clear new vision of what it is that they want to achieve. And so let’s say you’re earning $100,000 or $250,000 or $1 million, what you want to do is set an absolute, clear vision for the brain to be able to pick up, number one, on that vision.

Number two, you want to impress that part into the subconscious or implicit part of the brain versus the part of the brain called the explicit memory system that actually chooses what it is that you want. And we impress those images into the brain, Ivan, through, A, visualization techniques; seeing ourself playing at that level over and over and over again so that we create the new neural networks in the implicit part of the brain, which is the automatic side of the brain. Number two, we can create affirmations of declarations that when we do with emotion, we actually accelerate the neuron connections of the brain as well.

Number three, we can actually put ourselves into meditative states through self-hypnosis and use auditory technologies, or brain-and-train technologies, that will embed these new affirmations, or declarations, into the nervous system, basically, of the brain.

Those are three simple things that anybody could do inexpensively to make sure that our brains are being rewired at the part that actually is responsible for 96 to 98 percent of our perceptions and behaviors. And over the course of 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, we’re actually reprogramming our brains at the level that’s going to cause all of our perceptions and behaviors to change over time.

Ivan:
For my BNI members that would want to go deeper in understanding what you just described, because you described it very well, but I get the sense that you really have to go deep to understand it and apply it, which one of your books would you recommend that they go to to go deeper with those ideas?

John:
Without question, pick up the book, The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom and Live an Extraordinary Life. It’s a New York Times bestselling book, and it really has all of the science behind what we’re talking about to be able to do a process that we create called the neural reconditioning process. And it’s simple, and it’s easy, and it’s brilliantly effective.

Ivan:
Well, let me ask you one other question. We’re running pretty close to being out of time, but I really want to ask this question. What are three of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make, and how can they solve them, in your opinion?

John:
Right. Number one, entrepreneurs must not allow their present circumstances to control their thinking or their goal setting exercises.

Ivan:
Like maybe a recession?

John:
Like maybe a recession. What I mean by that is, when we look at the results that we’re achieving right now, we’re looking at history. So we’re looking at history; we’re looking at your past thought patterns and your past behaviors.

What we want to understand is we could set any goal that we choose, and when we take that goal and we get emotionally attached and emotionally involved with it, we’re doing a couple things. Number one, we are creating the neurological chemistry that sends out that signal to this quantum field, this space in between everything. Well, we know that the universe is intelligent in response to it.

Number two, when we set a clear goal of what we want and we impress it into that subconscious part of the brain I’m talking about, we’re actually giving our brain an instruction to figure out how to achieve that. So number one, set big goals, and then figure out how to achieve them. Number two, most business owners don’t think in terms of: What strategies and tactics can I apply in order to achieve those goals and create the plan that is going to give them the road map, or the blueprint, to follow?

And number three, they’ve got to get out of the belief that they’ve got to do it themselves. I’ve got a saying that I’ve loved for 30 years, and it goes like this, “Hire people or barter or trade people who play at things you have to work at.” So discover what you play at, what your unique abilities are, and then get people on your team, either that you hire, you barter virtually, or in your local marketplace, that play at all the other things that need to be done in order to achieve your goal. And you will multiply your personal respect of this many, many times over.

Ivan:
Penny Power, who’s the founder of ecademy.com – I don’t know if you’re familiar with it; it’s a great online social business network – she uses an expression that I really like as well, “to be in your flame rather than your wax.” When you’re in your flame, you’re doing the things you’re really excited about, but when you’re in your wax, when you’re doing those things you’re not excited about or not good at, that you’re taking away all of your energy, you’re using yourself up. But when you’re in your flame, that’s exciting. It’s, I think, another way of saying a little bit about what you’re trying to say there.

John:
Absolutely.

Ivan:
One last thing. You were talking about, in the very beginning, something that we agree on, that the recession idea that if you buy into the recession in terms of your actions, if you let the recession determine your actions that it’s going to take you to a different direction. Do you want to just talk about that? I’ve talked about that on a podcast a number of times. I’d like to have somebody else throw in a couple of comments.

John:
Sure. Any time we’re reading the newspaper or magazines or watching TV and we buy in to what’s happening in the marketplace, we’re going to modify our thought patterns and behavior to match what we’re hearing, listening, and buying into. And that’s the absolute worst thing we can do, and I want people to maybe just shift their thinking for just a moment.

If you’re in business right now, let’s assume that 90 percent of your competition is thinking in ways that’s going to be negative in their production and their thought pattern. That means that you have an opportunity now to actually gain market shares; to gain mind awareness, or top of mind awareness; to actually position yourself, your product, or your service at the leader. Why? Because you can buy advertising cheaper; you can get your message out cheaper. You can market cheaper; you can do everything that you were doing before cheaper with fewer competitors in the marketplace.

So now is the absolute time for you to shift your thinking to: How can I utilize my revenues, my investments to gain more market share, to gain more clients, and to make more money? And when you give that instruction to your brain, every one of us is a genius. So we can figure out how to versus why we can. So the quality of our performance is going to be dictated by the quality of the questions we ask and the perceptions that we ask our brain to give us in the marketplace.

Ivan:
And it’s really more of a solutions focus than a problems focus. Would you agree?

John:
You got it.

Ivan:
Focusing on the solutions and how do we get to where we want to get as opposed to “Woe is me; look how bad things are.”

John:
Absolutely. And I can share with you that in our company, we have not just coaching but consulting and a whole bunch of different tools and resources. We’re innovating right now. We’re asking ourselves, “Great; what’s happening in the marketplace,” and we’re responding to what’s happening in the marketplace by innovating our offers, innovating our services, innovating our product lines to match what the marketplace wants and needs. And so we expect to do better this year in these recessionary times than what more people are doing, and that’s how to scale back.

Ivan:
Well, thank you very much, John. That was really some great material.

And for those of you listening, go back and listen to Episode 86 where I talked about Raising the Bar, because the end of that episode was talking about exactly what John just spoke about. We are raising the bar in a time when everybody else is lowering the bar; we’re investing in BNI in one of the biggest projects we’ve ever done in the history of the company. And now’s the time to do it if you want to gain market share.

John, you had some great content. I’d love to have you come back again sometime, if you can. You’ve written some really good books. I’d like to send my BNI members to a particular Web site, ReadTheAnswer.com, which is about your book, The Answer. And you have a special offer. Do you want to share that with everyone?

John:
Yeah, absolutely. For anybody who goes to ReadTheAnswer.com, we’ve got a couple of free chapters for them, and they can also sign up for our million dollar business giveaway. We’re giving away a million dollars – actually, more than a million dollars – in prizes and cash to entrepreneurs all over the world, that we’ve been giving away the prizes for the last several months, and it’s been incredible.

Ivan:
ReadTheAnswer.com. John, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I really appreciate it.

John:
Thank you. Always my pleasure.

Ivan:
Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Well, that was fascinating. Thank you, both. I just enjoyed that so much.

I think that’s it for this week. I just want to remind all of 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 will join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

This episode is a follow-up to one of Dr. Misner’s blog posts, and to Episode 48, which both got a lot of responses. There were lots of positive responses, but also a lot of respondents with the “yeahbut” syndrome. Dr. Misner has been through three recessions, and here is what his history tells him: People with a strong network will survive and even thrive during a downturn in the economy.

The first recession that BNI went through, membership initially slowed down, but after the first three or four months, people realized that they have to do something, and that’s when they got “networking religion” and started joining like crazy. The same thing has happened twice since then, and we’re seeing signs that it’s happening again.

But don’t wait too long to join a chapter—by the time 7 or 8 months have passed, all the places in your local chapter may be full.

Only the strong, the smart, and the networked survive a recession. Every chapter that refuses to participate in the recession will grow and flourish.

If you want to get serious about improving your networking skills, read Dr. Misner’s column in Entrepreneur Magazine. If you wait until the recession is over, your business will be over.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 056 -

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

Ivan Misner:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much.

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

Ivan:
I have a fun podcast, I think. This one is “I Absolutely Refuse to Participate in a Recession.” It’s a follow up to a blog article entitled, “I Refuse to Participate in a Recession, ” that I wrote recently. I also did a podcast episode 48 entitled,” Combating a Slow Economy.”

I did a follow up on that because I had so many responses, particularly on the blog and quite a few on the podcast as well. People on the blog responded, saying they really understood the power of saying, “I refuse to participate in a recession,” and looking for ways to make the recession actually work for them. I told a whole story about a real estate agent that went after all of the people that didn’t want to buy in the past when the real estate was high and now the real estate was low. That was how he was selling a lot. It’s a great podcast and a great blog. Go back and listen to it if you haven’t listened to it. It’s really interesting. I did this podcast and the blog , and there were some people who emailed me directly afterwards with a really, really bad case of the “yeah but syndrome.”

Priscilla:
What’s that?

Ivan:
You’ve never heard of that? It’s a scientific term. It goes like this. Yeah, but Ivan, things are different for me. Yeah, but Ivan, things are different in this area or different in this business or different in my situation or different in my alternate universe. I call it the “yeah but syndrome.” It’s when people hear something and they find all the reasons where it doesn’t apply to them. Yeah I understand, but…it doesn’t apply to me for this reason or that reason. Some times I feel like saying to these people, “Yes, yes, you are different. You are different than the people that I’m talking about because you are going to fail. They will not.” But then I remember I have to keep that as internal dialog. I probably shouldn’t say that. That would get me in trouble.

I’ve been through three recession periods in my business, and I don’t need a crystal ball. I have history. Here’s what my history tells me as it relates to BNI. People with a strong network will survive and even thrive during down turns in the economy. Clearly there’s been a down turn in the economy in the United States, and I’m being told by BNI members around the world that it appears to start happening in their country. When you tend to have a recession in the United States, it tends to have a ripple effect, and so it’s inevitable that it will often happen in their country. I’ve seen this repeated over and over again.

This is how it plays out at BNI in particular, this is how I know we’re moving into a slow economy. In my blog I cue music and fade away to a vision of the past. Just imagine you hear music and we’re fading away into the past and we go back to one of the past recessionary periods where I was running BNI. I remember the very first recession that BNI was going through. The first three or four months, membership slowed down. Not as many people were joining and I was hearing people say things like the economy’s bad, I can’t afford to join. Things are not good in this area or things are different in my alternate universe. These were all reasons why they didn’t want to join BNI. I was really nervous. I could see the economy slowing And I had seen many people saying, I’m not going to join right now.

Then about 4 months into the recession, something really funny happens. I was really amazed by this material the first time. People start to realize that they better do something. and they better do it quickly, because the recession’s here and their business is going to hell in a hand basket, right before their very eyes. At that point is where the magic happens. That’s where they get what I call networking religion, where they realize they better get out of their cave and really, really network to build their business, and they better do it quickly. It ’s really amazing that in BNI , even though we’ll see a period of things slowing down a little bit, during the beginning of a recession, all of a sudden things will take off like crazy because people realize, oh my goodness, business is tough. I better really hunker down and do things that are creative to build my business quickly and to beat my competition. My competition is out there increasing their advertising and they’re hitting the streets. I need to do things that will keep me in business. Then they start joining like crazy. I’ve seen this in every single recession.

The reason I bring this up on the BNI Podcast is that I’ve started having some directors and even some members say to me, “I have not seen a slow down, and I actually heard people say, we have a recession. I can’t afford to spend a few hundred dollars on membership cost. I tell them, “Relax. Take a deep breath. It’s all going to be OK. Your chapter will build.” Once we’re about three or four months into the bad economy is when people get their networking religion. They realize they better do something. This is the most cost effective form of marketing there can be. We’re going to see people start to come back and say “I need to do something and this a great way for me to build my business.”

Cue the music, fade back into today. Here we are today. It looks like we’re in the beginning of an economic down turn. Visitors who come to the organization have a choice to make. They can wait six months as some people have done in the past, and then all of a sudden they’re worried because business is really bad and they try to join a chapter, and guess what? So many people end up trying to join chapters that it’s actually sometimes difficult to get into chapters when the recession is really up and running because so many people have come in. One of the things I like to tell directors and members during times like this is only the strong, smart and networked survive a recession. I want to repeat that. Only the strong, the smart and the networked survive a recession. Visitors have time still to improve their existing personal network. If business people have been active in networking but really want to improve it, now is the time to get back to basics and reintroduce yourself to the fundamentals.

For members of BNI and for directors in the organization, don’t let the economy make you nervous about the strength of a chapter. A weak economy is the very kind that people need to get together and support each other and build their business through referrals. This is the time to build strong chapters. I absolutely refuse to participate in a recession and I guarantee you every chapter that believes in and practices that will do extremely well during this period.

Priscilla:
That’s great information. Thank you, Dr. Misner. Do you have any last minute additions to that?

Ivan:
I recommend, if you have a chance, go take a look at the blog I wrote on refusing to participate in a recession. Take a look at the column I write for entrepreneur.com. I have over eighty-three articles that I’ve written there, if you want to get really serious right now about improving your networking skills so that you can beat your competition. They’ll be going out of business and you’ll be thriving during this time. Go and immerse yourself into a culture of learning. Read this material and improve your skills. If you wait for the recession to be over, by that time your business will be over. Start now. Immerse yourself in learning how to network more effectively and you’ll get through this with flying colors.

Priscilla:
Okay. Thank you. I think that might be all we have time for this week. I want to remind our listeners 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 hope you’ll join us next week for another great episode of the Official BNI Podcast.

On average, the United States goes through some type of recession every five or six years. So stop worrying about whether we’re going to have a recession, because we will. (And so will every country in the world.)

That doesn’t have to stop you from having a great year, though. Recessions bring opportunities if you’re ready to take advantage of them by using the network you’ve established over time. BNI members have an advantage in a recession because they have a network in place.

You can’t control the economy, but you can control your response to the economy. Here are some tips to help you.

1. Diversify your networks. Participate in your local Chamber of Commerce and other business networks.
2. Be visible. Get out and meet people—and don’t let them bring you down.
3. Learn how to work the meetings you attend.
4. Be prepared with effective introductions and presentations.
5. Develop your contact spheres.
6. Establish a goal and reverse-engineer it.
7. Reward your top referrers.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 048 -

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 coming from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan – how are you?

Ivan Misner:
Hi Priscilla. I am doing great. I just got back from a long training for Master Trainers at the Referral Institute up at my lodge in Big Bear. I am ready to start tackling BNI issues again. I start with a good one this week on combating a slow economy.

Priscilla:
I think a lot of people might need this particular podcast.

Ivan:
You know, I am seeing it more and more. Literally, I was just at the gas station the yesterday and heard some salesperson for a pest control center talking about bad business was and how we are in the middle of a recession. The fact is that every economy goes through cycles and business slows down for people.

If you take a look at the statistics on this, on average, the U.S. goes through some type of recession almost every five or six years. If you look at the last 100 years, we have had about 18 or 19 recessions. That is just about every six years or so. If you are listening to this podcast and you are concerned about whether we are going to go into a recession or not, don’t be. We will. It’s going to happen. When that happens, the thing to do is really learn from the past.

For a lot of us who have been in business for any length of time, this is not our first recession- assuming we are even in that. But this is not the first time that the economy has slowed down for us. So the question we ask is what did we learn from the last downturn? You know, I wrote about this for the first time in 2002 in entrepreneur.com about how one of the first recessions that I went through in business was in the early ’90s.

Right in the middle of this really nasty recession I was at a business mixer in Connecticut where I was meeting a lot of business professionals. Everyone was feeling the crunch from this economy. Through the entire event, the favorite topic of discussion was how bad the economy was and how things were getting worse and worse. You just don’t want to ask someone how is business because you are afraid they will tell you. Of course, it doesn’t do any good to tell people that things are bad because half of the people you tell don’t care and the other half are glad that you are worse off than they are. I am listening to one person after another.

I was introduced to one of the many real estate agents that were in attendance. Given the decrease in property values in the U.S. at that time, it was really bad. I was leery of asking the standard question- how is business- because I didn’t want to hear another variation of how bad business is. But he shared with me on his own that he was having a great year. I was really surprised because they were definitely in a recession and the real estate market just bottomed out in Connecticut in the early ’90s.

I was very surprised to hear him say he was having a great year. I looked at him and said, “We are in Connecticut, aren’t we?” He laughed at me and said yes. I said, “And you are having a good year.”

He said, “I am having my best year ever.”

I was shocked and said, “Wait a minute. You are having your best year ever in Connecticut right now?”

He said, “That is right.”

I said, “Is this your first year in real estate?”

He laughed and said, “No. I have been in real estate for ten years.”

I asked him, “How could you possibly be doing so well in real estate in the middle of this recession when the real estate market has bottomed out?”

He reached into his pocket – this is a true story – and pulled out a big blue and white badge that said, “I absolutely refuse to participate in the recession.”

I laughed and said, “That is your secret? You refuse to participate to the recession so business is booming?”

He said, “It is a little bit more than that, but basically that is correct. While most of my competitors are crying the blues about how bad business is, I am out drumming up a ton of business, networking with my contacts and generating referrals by talking about the great opportunities that exist right now to purchase real estate. I have a lot of clients. I have been in business for a long time. They have been with me for ten to fifteen years and I sold properties to them. A lot of them have said to me in the past during the last recession – we had a recession and lot of them said they were not going to buy any more real estate. Real estate isn’t the same. As four and five years go by and real estate goes sky rocketing, he said, I had conversations where they would say, ‘I wish I would have bought real estate back then when you told me to buy it. Now it is out of control.’ I am going back into my database and I am calling those very same people. I am saying that hey, it is six years all over again. You have a second opportunity. You have a chance to make up for what you said was a bad choice six, seven, or eight years ago. I am selling more real estate right now because it is a buyer’s market and real estate will go up again. I am using my networking that I have established over time and I am going about it in a positive way.”

It is so, so important. BNI members have a huge advantage over their competition. They are building their business through networking, through referrals, through word of mouth and their competition is just going to have to rely on increased advertising, when you have a powerful network to draw upon. If the times are tough around you, look for opportunities to market and use your network as the vehicle to do that. You can do just like this guy and refuse to participate in any recession. Be creative about working with your network.

Priscilla:
I think that is great advice.

Ivan:
You can’t control the economy. You can’t control the competition. But you can control your response to the economy and referrals can keep your business alive and strong, even during an economic downturn.

Priscilla:
Do you have any specific points or suggestions that you could offer?

Ivan:
Actually, during that last recession, I watched thousands – and the last was was in the early 2000s. As I said, it is about every six or eight years. I watched thousands of business owners grow and prosper. They were successful because they consciously made the decision to refuse to participate in the recession. I am talking from California. This is important to know. Many of our listeners are from countries all around the world, and you may not be experiencing a recession at this moment. Be prepared you will. It happens everywhere.

Just because we are taking recession here in the U.S. doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is immune. I know the rest of the economy is doing really well in a number of countries. But there tends to be a ripple effect with recessions. When one or two major economies have a downturn, it affects others. This works, I think, for anyone anywhere. Even if you are not experiencing it right now, jot this down about this podcast. Wherever you are, you are going to come back to this at some point.

There are six things that I recommend. First is to diversify your business network. You need breadth and depth. If you network is a mile wide but only an inch deep, it is no good. You need to have networks that are broad and deep. BNI is the deep part of that. That is where you go deep and work with people, but participate in your local chamber and other business organizations as well. Be out there. Be visible. Establish credibility.

Number two, refuse to be a cave-dweller. Be visible. Get out there and meet people at business events, especially during a tough economy. Don’t let them bring you down. Make up a badge that says, “I refuse to participate in the recession.” Wear it proudly and find ways to be creative and market yourself. Learn how to work the network meeting that you attend. It is not called betfetterneddie. It is called network.

Third, learn networking systems and techniques that apply to the different organizations to which you belong.

Fourth, be prepared. Prepare effective introductions and presentations to give other business professionals at other networking meetings. Find ways to use whatever is going on in the economy as a way of marketing. Make it positive for your business, not negative.

Fifth is develop your contact spheres. Now more than ever, a group of business professionals who have a symbiotic or compatible business relationship with you are more important than ever.

Sixth is really establish a goal and reverse-engineer it. Know what you want to accomplish and make sure that your networking and referral partners understand that as well. Do GAINS exchanges with people. Out of the book, Business by Referral – goals, accomplishments, interests, networks and skills. It starts with goals to tell people what you are looking for and find out what their goals are so you can help achieve that.

Don’t let a bad economy be your excuse for failure. Instead, make it an opportunity to succeed. It is not what you know or who you know. It’s how well you know that really counts. In a tough economy, it is your social capital that has value.

Priscilla:
That is great. I think I could have one more.

Ivan:
Great. What is it?

Priscilla:
You need to reward your very best referrers, the people who are your best customers and constantly talk you up to other people and bring you work.

Ivan:
I agree with that. I talk about that very thing in the World’s Best Marketing Secret, then in Business by Referral, and in Truth or Delusion. All too often, we don’t recognize and reward the people who have supported us, our referral partners. It is important that you do that.

Some businesses — like in many countries, insurance agents and real estate professionals are not allowed to give anything much in terms of dollar value. But recognition is an incredibly powerful motivator to reward people. Chiropractors get this with the signs that they do saying, “We want to thank you for the following patients that you referred this past month.” Not all chiropractors do that but many do. I think it is a great technique and response.

Priscilla:
Okay. Well, is there anything else that you would like to add?

Ivan:
I think that covers just about everything. I think if I was to say anything else, it would be that your social capital has value. Make good use of it. You can thrive while others are struggling. If you are in a good economy right now, make note of this podcast because eventually, things may slow down. Statistically that is what happens. You can come back and listen to this.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Well, I think that is it for this week. Thank you, Dr. Misner, for all the great information. 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 look forward to having you join us again next week for another episode of the Official BNI Podcast.