Until recently, Dr. Misner assumed that if he made an appointment with someone, he was going to be there, but there seems to be an emerging trend requiring people to confirm the appointment closer to the actual day. People have been saying “When I didn’t hear from you, I assumed it was off.”

Dr. Misner wants to state for the record that if you make an appointment with him, it’s firm, unless you hear otherwise. And he believes that should go for any BNI member: if you make an appointment, people should be able to count on you to show up.

BNI members who treat the BNI meeting like an appointment with prospects and business associates are much more likely to be successful. You don’t want to miss an appointment with your best referral partners. The chapters that understand this are the strongest.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 105 -

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 the beautiful 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, and how are you?

Ivan:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. And I still want to know, did I miss the memo?

Priscilla:
I think you might have, but what does that mean to our listeners?

Ivan:
Well, there seems to be a new trend in keeping appointments that I was completely unaware of until recently. You see, I’ve always operated under the assumption that when I set an appointment with someone for a meeting, a breakfast, a lunch, or some kind of face-to-face engagement that it’s presumed that I’m going to be there unless I notify them otherwise.

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
However, it’s recently come to my attention that I’m apparently no longer safe in assuming that that’s the case. Just last week I received this frantic call from a friend of mine who had confirmed a lunch meeting with me a few weeks earlier. And he called because he seemed uncertain if we were still on for lunch. I thought it was really interesting because he was about 90 minutes away by car, and he hadn’t left yet, and the lunch was in 30 minutes. So I was a little frustrated by that.

More and more I’m experiencing scenarios that are really similar to this, and there seems to be this emerging trend now. I’m beginning to see that if you schedule an appointment and don’t hear from the other party again before the scheduled date and time, this means that the appointment has been magically and mysteriously cancelled by the appointment fairies. Now, I’m not alone in this either, because my wife, Beth, had the same experience last week with a group of ladies that she was planning a brunch for. One of the women said, “When I didn’t hear from you over the weekend, I presumed it was off.”

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
She was told that my one of the five ladies who didn’t show up.

I just want to know, when did this start happening? Did I miss the memo? Maybe it’s tied to the reminder call system that most of my doctors are using now where the front desk has the task of calling clients a day or two before their appointment to remind them that the doctor is expecting them at such-and-such time.

Now, my wife, Beth, told me that spas and beauty salons are now doing the same thing, but I really can’t vouch for that from personal experience. How about it, Priscilla, do they do that? Do the spas and beauty salons do that?

Priscilla:
Definitely. Especially the beauty salons; that’s what I can vouch for. Yeah, they do; they have to.

Ivan:
Well, if the doctors didn’t have the front desk call me to remind, or if the spas didn’t call you for you appointment and we went ahead and presumed that the appointment was cancelled because they didn’t call, I wonder if they would waive the no-show fee for not showing up. What do you think?

Priscilla:
No, I don’t think they would.

Ivan:
Probably not. So I’m just kind of stating for the record that if you set an appointment with me, it’s firm unless you hear otherwise, and I think that’s the way it should be for any business person. We’re all part of a networking organization, and we have to have a commitment to our fellow BNI members and to other business professionals that if we set up an appointment, we going to be there. Unfortunately, there seems to be some new trend coming on that when it comes to an appointment protocol and I’m just asking, “Can someone please send me the memo, because I must have missed the last one on this one.”

Priscilla:
You know, Ivan, I think it’s because we’re on such an overload, to be honest with you, that people are completely overscheduled and inundated with information, and it’s their way of handling things. That’s what I think, but it’s very rude, so I’m with you on that.

Ivan:
It is. And all joking aside, I am seeing it start to happen more and more, and I think it’s almost a self-sustaining kind of problem. Because it’s happened more and more, people are starting to call just to confirm that everything is still one, and so there’s this sense of, well, this person didn’t call, so it must not be on, which is just crazy to me.

And I think that this is really relevant in BNI, don’t you? Isn’t a BNI meeting a little bit like an appointment?

Priscilla:
It is like an appointment, and it’s one that you’ve made a commitment to for the whole year other than a few absences.

Ivan:
Yeah, I know that this is sort of a side issue from the main discussion, but I think it’s an important one. BNI members who treat the BNI meetings like an appointment with prospects and fellow business associates are much more likely to be successful in this program, because these are appointments. These are appointments with your best referral partners, and you don’t want to miss an appointment with your best referral partners. It’s very important. I think that the chapters who have this sense of accountability where the members understand that this is an appointment and you need to treat it like a good appointment should be treated, and you don’t want to just not show up and have a poor attendance at the – I think that those people tend to be stronger business professionals and more successful, and they certainly are going to build better relationships because of their regular participation in the local chapters.

Priscilla:
Yeah, I agree. So we all need to be there. I agree with you.

Ivan:
Well, I’m not going to send a memo, so this podcast is going to have to do the trick. So everybody, if you set an appointment, be there, and treat your BNI meetings like an appointment.

Thanks, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay, great, Dr. Misner. Thank you so much.

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

Time management is a skill that you can learn—and it’s the critical skill for a happy life.

All time management books distill into “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” Here are a few of the topics that Dr. Misner discusses with Brian Tracy in this episode:

• Discipline
• Return on Energy
• Networking as Time Management
• Leverage
• High Payoff vs. Urgency

Brian Tracy University helps you identify the skills you have to have to get to the top of your field—and then drills you in them. For a BNI member discount, go to briantracyu.com/bnimembers/.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 041 -

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

Ivan Misner:
I’m doing great, thank you. Brian?

Brian Tracy:
I am wonderful as always. Thank you.

Ivan:
Brian, today we are going to talk a little bit about time management and maybe talk a little about how it fits in with networking. Brian, I can’t imagine anyone who has as many projects as you do. You have got to have really good time management skills. Have you always had really good time management skills? If not, what helped you to evolve in that area?

Brian:
It�s interesting. Sales is the ultimate default profession. People don�t go into sales. They fall back into sales when nothing else seems to be working. They usually give it a shot. 80% of salespeople — the ones earning the least amount of money — are still giving it a shot. They go in and make a few calls. They go for lunch, and then they go home early and so on.

It’s only the serious people who get ahead. What people don’t realize is that selling is a skill that you can learn. It’s the same thing with time management. People read an article or listen to a program and say this is pretty good. They set a few priorities and then go back to doing what they were doing before.

What changed my life is when I realized that time management was a critical skill, and that it’s the core skill of a happy life and a successful life. What so critically determines your income, your home, your standard of living, and all of your dreams and hopes is how you manage your time. Time management is really life management. I’ve got a 25 year study of the subject. I have libraries full of books. I traveled all over the country and went to seminars. I went to every time management system that was out there and that I practiced and practiced and practiced and practiced.

Now I do a hundred talks a year. I have spoken in 46 countries. I write four books a year. I run three companies, and I lead a very balanced life. People say how can you produce so much? I just learned these time management principles and practiced them every day. A German philosopher once said that everything is hard before it easy.

Developing the disciplines of time management is hard because it’s counterintuitive. People have a natural tendency to take the path of least resistance and do what’s fun and easy rather than what is hard and necessary. But if you develop a habit of managing your time well, pretty soon that becomes automatic and easy — and your productivity, performance, and your income double.

Ivan:
That is really powerful. You were talking about sales people. Of course, this principle of time management applies to anyone, not just salespeople. We have a lot of people in BNI who don’t consider themselves to be salespeople. But the truth is if we own a business, we are all salespeople, aren’t we?

Brian:
Absolutely. One of the things that I came across many years ago said that there is one timeless principle that does not change in management. Quality circles may come and go, and e-groups and so on, but the one thing that never changes is the importance of strategic planning. In other words, it’s important to be thinking about the future, where you want to be and the steps that you’re going to have to take to get there.

I studied strategic planning, again with libraries of books and hundreds of hours, and I came across a concept called return on equity. The whole purpose of strategic planning is for the company to increase its return on the amount of money it has invested and worked in the business (ROE). What I found is that in personal life, it is the same. I call it personal strategic planning. Still, the most important thing that a person can do — we call it goal setting and a lot of other things.

In personal strategic planning, you want to increase your ROE, which is return on energy. In other words, you want to get as much life, living and results over your time as you possibly can. Time management enables you to get vastly more out of life. It brings us back to return on energy. How do you get the highest return?

We teach a concept called hourly rate. We say that all successful people, the top 10% of income earners, look upon their work in terms of hourly rate. How much do they want to earn per year? Now if you want to earn $50,000 per year, that means that you want to earn $25 every hour. If you want to earn $100,000 a year, that’s $50 every hour. So with the law of three, we say that there are only three things that pay you that kind of money that you want to earn. These are your big three.

Now coming back to networking, when you look at return on energy, the percentage of return on time invested, one of the highest returns that you can get in your whole life is by networking and meeting other people who can open other doors and introduce you to qualify prospects because that will save you hours of hard work on your own making appointments, taking trips, starting sales conversations, calling back, making proposals and so on. In a big circle here, or in the case of time management, it’s always the same. How can I use myself at a higher level so that I am getting far more value out of every minute? My experience with networking is that you want the highest returns on energy, the highest return on time invested with any activity that you can engage in.

Ivan:
In your leadership course — I took the leadership course at Brian Tracy University, and I would like to talk about that in a minute. One of the things that you talked about in there that was really important was leverage. Leverage in terms of leadership is very important, but it is also really important in terms of time management. Wouldn’t you agree?

Brian:
Absolutely. Leverage means what are the things that you can do that can give you an inordinate return on time invested? How can you leverage yourself? How can you leverage your time? There are many things you can do.

Learning, by the way, gives you tremendous leverage. Upgrading your skills continually will eventually put you at the top of your field. Networking with other people who can open other doors for you, or for whom you can open doors, is a powerful way of leveraging your talent, ability and personality. The more that you do, the greater results that you get.

Ivan:
That is excellent. Anything else on time management before we talk little bit about your new program at Brian Tracy University?

Brian:
If you took all the time management books and you put them all into a great big hopper and summed them down into one principle, the principal revolves around the answer to one question. The question is what is the most valuable use of my time right now? In time management, you ask yourself that question every minute. What is the most valuable use of my time right now, and whatever you do, make sure that you are doing that every single minute.

Ivan:
That’s excellent. You know, in BNI, I think we’re a great example of the sum of the whole being greater than the individual parts. If everyone went on in their own direction and did their own thing, they would achieve one level of success. But by everyone pulling together and collaborating, you really leverage your time by working with other people and generating more business. When I started BNI, I looked at it as a way of saving time, not just generating business and being able to do it faster. Rather than meeting with people one-on-one to network, getting 20 or 30 or 40 people together to network as a group was, for me, a time management approach to building my business.

Brian:
It allows everybody to multiply their knowledge and contacts against everybody else’s. It’s a phenomenal thing.

Ivan:
To wrap up here, let’s talk about your new program at Brian Tracy University. I really love what you have done there because it’s very interactive. It’s not just material for people to read, but it also includes your videos. You have a wealth of content on a lot of subjects and a lot of videos with you doing various presentations. Everybody that I have heard of really appreciates your presentation style. It’s direct, to the point. It’s clear, articulate. It’s like bringing Brian Tracy right into your office or right into your home and getting an opportunity to listen to you present.

I think it’s a brilliant idea, and what I love about it is it also follows up with material that you can then review to just remind yourself what you picked up off the video. One thing that I saw on the program that I took — there were a lot of nuggets. Leverage being one of them that we talked about, and another one was issues of looking for the highest payoff versus what urgent. Do you want to focus on things with high payoff as opposed to what happens to be urgent at this moment? They were two important techniques or ideas that we know but need to be reminded of. It’s really, I think, very important.

Brian:
When I started off, a poor boy, I didn’t graduate from high school. I worked at laboring jobs. I began asking the question why are some people more successful than others? That question really started to make me curious. Then the second question I had was why are some salespeople more successful than others?

What I found is that the difference is very simple. The most successful, highest-paid salespeople have more knowledge and skill in their field than others do. The second thing that I learned is that all sales skills are learnable skills. If you learn sales skills and practice them until they become habitual, you will earn two and three and five and ten times as much as average people without those skills.

It’s the same is trying to unlock the combination lock and not knowing the numbers or cook a dish and not have the recipe. Once you learn the recipe, it’s the same with sales. Your sales will go up like a skyrocket. But if you don’t, you will struggle and worry about money all your sales career. What we do at Brian Tracy University is we identify the most important skills that a person has to have to get to the top of their field. Then we have a systematic private display of instilling those skills, kind of injecting those skills into people so that their sales go up like a rocket ship.

Ivan:
If you as a BNI member listening to this podcast would like to listen to Brian more, go to BrianTracyU.com. That’s BrianTracyU.com/BNI members. We will make sure and have a link on this podcast that will take you right to the Brian Tracy you website. There’s a little welcoming page from Brian and myself.

There is a huge discount. The Brian Tracy organization is giving 25% off to BNI members to take any or all of those programs. Brian, I really appreciate you offering that to our BNI members. A lot of people know how to run a business. They know how to be in the business that they’re in, but they don’t know how to run a business and sell effectively. This will definitely help them do that. I appreciate your strategic alliance with BNI and appreciate all you do.

Brian:
Thank you. We know that most people are a little bit skeptical when they hear of something new, so we are the only online university in the world who will actually give you a complete analysis, identify the skill that can help you the most, and take you step-by-step with a BTU coach through that lesson, through the exercises to demonstrate to you that this method works. Then we allow you to decide for yourself. There is no cost and no obligation for this free lesson. So please, if you are interested at all, please come and apply and let’s get started.

Ivan:
That’s great. I invite all BNI members to join me. I have taken the courses as well. They are highly recommended. Join me and go to BrianTracyU.com/BNI members. Brian, thank you very much for taking the time to do these. I know you have a busy schedule, but you have good time management skills. You were able to fit it in here. I thank you very much, and I will turn it back over to you, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
That was fascinating. Thank you both so much for that. I think that’s it for this week. Thanks so much for the great information. 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.