The Official BNI Podcast
By Dr. Ivan Misner
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Podcast Description
The Official BNI Podcast is a weekly discussion with Dr. Ivan Misner, the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world's largest business networking organization.
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Episode 257: Making the Most of Your Membership | Synopsis Lawrence Conyers from the BNI Prince Bishop chapter in the UK joins Dr. Misner today to share some points from the educational videos he created for his BNI group. Lawrence decided to set the example for his chapter to do better one-to-ones. He created a video demonstrating bad and good One-to-Ones, then went on to make one for Power Teams. He takes all these roles in both videos. There's a third video he made with his whole chapter on How to Pass Referrals. You can see them all in the next post. If you engage with the material for the educational slots, you'll have a lot more success. Being proactive in your BNI membership makes all the difference to getting referrals. Use your own backgrounds and strengths. Lawrence was a video producer, so he made videos. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 257 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much. I have Lawrence Conyers with me. Lawrence is a BNI member, and I am really excited to have him on. I think once you hear some of his background, you'll understand why. Lawrence has always been involved with the creative media industry. He initially worked for large global companies like PWC. He did work in museum and attraction design. He's done over 100 stage production credits while performing and directing local theater. He joined BNI in early 2009 after being invited by a web designer. So he has been a member now for a few years. He set up a small business in the north of England in some of the toughest economic times. I met Lawrence as a result of him winning the International Conference chapter videos. Lawrence did what has to be by far the best video I have ever seen. What I love about this video- we'll have a link to it in this podcast. You have to go watch it so you can just see how when I tlk about keeping the fun in the fundamentals, these guys did it. It was really funny. So that link will be in here. But Lawrence has done two other videos and those links will also be in here. He has done a video on one to ones and how to do a good one to one. And he has done a video on power teams. You can really see his acting background and his sense of humor. Lawrence, it's a real pleasure to have you on this podcast today. Lawrence: It's been my pleasure. Thank you for letting me join you. It's been a real honor. Ivan: Thanks a lot. Make sure to speak up real loud so everyone can hear you. There are three things that you wanted to talk about for being a member of BNI. I think this is great because you are a member. You are out in the field. The members are mostly the ones who listen to this, of course BNI Directors too, but members are listening to this. From the member's perspective, you had three points that you wanted to make as to advice you can give members. What are those three points? Lawrence: I was looking at spending some time with you in Long Beach having this conversation. A lot of what you said really sunk in. I was thinking about this on the flight home. Ivan: Can I just say it was a result of you winning the contest to come to the conference and part of it was a one to one. I was very pleased to be able to do that with you. So you came back home. Lawrence: It was so effective, and I was thinking on the way home that we're just not doing this right. We're not doing one to ones effectively. We're not getting the benefit for our membership, and we're not generating referrals. We're not receiving referrals. At the time, I was even questioning whether to stay in BNI or not. It just wasn't worthwhile. | 5/23/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 256: The 10 Commandments of Business Networking (Rebroadcast) | Synopsis This is a rebroadcast of Episode 99, published in April 2009. Melinda Potcher adapted Dr. Misnerâs Ten Commandments of Networking (discussed in Episode 32 and Episode 33 of this podcast) into the Ten Commandments of Business Networking. Thou Shalt Not Sell to Me. Thou Shalt Understand the Law of Reciprocity. Thou Shalt Not Abuse Our Relationship. Thou Shalt Not Be Late. Thou Shalt Be Specific. Thou Shalt Take Your Business Seriously. Thou Shalt Follow Up on Referrals. Thou Shalt Communicate. Thou Shalt Protect My Reputation. Thou Shalt Prepare for Success. What do you think of this list? Would you change or add anything? Read the post on Dr. Misnerâs blog. Transcript is in the show notes for Episode 99. Brought to you by Networking Now. | 5/16/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 255: Referrals and New Contacts | Synopsis The full title for todayâs podcast is âGetting to the referral stage with a new contact.â If you remember Episode 253, thereâs no way to rush a business relationship. So how do you get to the referral stage with a new contact? It d... | 5/9/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 254: BNIBranding.com | Synopsis Morgan Rothwell of D&M Creative Limited in Lancashire joins Dr. Misner to talk about the importance of branding and to introduce the new BNIBranding.com website to members. Here are some of the advantages of successful branding. Branding influences buying decisions. Branding creates new customers Branding creates loyalty. Branding gives you a competitive advantage. Branding helps grow your business. If you want to learn more about branding, Dr. Misner recommends the book Do You Matter? How can branding build your chapter? BNI is unique among other organizations, but without a consistent visual identity, we didnât have the visibility and recognizability of a really great brand. Now individual members and chapters can download BNI logos and other artwork from BNIBranding.com to use on their websites and display publicly to proclaim their BNI membership. If you want to know why it's so important to use these official logos, imagine what it would be like if you had 40,000 clients and they all wanted to create their own versions of your logo. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 254 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. This week, I am in Spokane and Portland visiting BNI members in those two areas. It's going to be great to meet a lot of new members. As you can tell, I have been doing a lot of traveling this year and having the chance to meet a lot of BNI members. Priscilla: Who do you have on the podcast with us today? Ivan: Today I have a special guest, Morgan Rothwell. Morgan is the co-owner of D & M Creative Ltd. It is a full service marketing and advertising design firm. Typical projects that they do include corporate identities, brochures, websites- that kind of thing. Morgan attends the University of Manchester. He is an assistant BNI director in BNI Lancashire. He is the person responsible for the new branding. He is the person that the organization selected to do the new branded look. If you have been a member of BNI for a few years, you may have noticed that all of our content visually has changed. He is the man behind all of that. We are real believers in using BNI members whenever possible with everything we do. Morgan was the person we chose to do the new BNI brand. Morgan, welcome to the podcast and let me start by saying thank you for all the work that you do to create the new brand. Morgan: Thank you very much, Ivan. I appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity to do the work. Ivan: It's been fun working with you. You are going to talk about three things today. Benefits of branding to a business- why branding is important. You are going to talk about how strong branding builds BNI chapters. Then we are going to spend most of our time talking about a new website that is available to members, BNIbranding.com. With that, Morgan, why don't you get started and talk briefly about the benefits of branding to any business, whether it is BNI or whatever the individual members do and why that is important. Morgan: Thank you very much, Ivan. I think one of the key things that I would like to say first of all about branding is that branding creates emotional responses. What branding can do for a business is actually influence the decisions that people make when they are deciding whether or not to purchase from one supplier or another supplier. One of the other key aspects is that it creates loyalty. So branding can create not just a customer that will just buy once but repeat customers. | 5/2/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 253: Peach Wine and Networking | Synopsis Emory Cowan of BNI Colorado joins Dr. Misner for todayâs podcast. He tells a story about the time he tried to make peach wine from some leftover Georgia peaches, following a recipe from his parentsâ farm. After a few weeks he got impatien... | 4/25/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 252: “Storytelling in Business? Absolutely.” (Rebroadcast) | Synopsis This is a rebroadcast of Episode 65, originally recorded in 2008. This week Dr. Misner describes a unique experience: a meeting about storytelling. Academy Award-winning movie producer Peter Guber invited about 16 people, including Dr. Misner and individuals such as Warren Bennis, one of the worldâs foremost experts on leadership; Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone; and Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, as well as many other âstorytellersâ from various businesses, backgrounds and areas of expertise. One lesson particularly appropriate to BNI is that âWhat if?â is more powerful in a story than âHow to.â Make your messages personal and concrete. Think about this next time you give a presentation at a BNI meeting. Brought to you by Networking Now. Read the complete transcript on the post for Episode 65. | 4/18/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 251: “Unsolicited Advice Is Rarely Appreciated” | Synopsis Every contact you have with someone is a chance to either construct or de-construct a relationship. Be sparing about the way you criticize people, especially if you donât know them well. Before you either press the âSendâ button or open... | 4/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 250: “When Is Two Not Better Than One?” | Synopsis A member recently asked Dr. Misner why you canât belong to two BNI chapters or two groups like BNI. This is a more important issue than people realize at first. In 1985 and 1986 BNI allowed members to belong to two groups. It was a DISASTER. The Board of Advisors received floods of complaints from members. The divided loyalties of members who belonged to more than one group created serious trust issues in both chapters. A few years later, a member asked why BNI members were allowed to belong to organizations that competed with BNI (other referral networks) if they werenât allowed to belong to two BNI groups, since that created the same problem of split loyalties. The only person who benefits from being in two groups is that individual member. The other members of the groups benefit more from having all their members fully committed to them. If youâre not sure that belonging to competing groups is a bad idea, the next time youâre at your BNI meeting, look to your left. Look to your right. Imagine those people are in another BNI chapter with your profession represented in it. Who is going to get the referrals? Leave a comment and tell us how you would feel in this situation. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 250 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you today? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla, and I have an interesting topic. Priscilla: Okay. Tell us about it. Ivan: When is two not better than one? Two of everything is always better, right? Priscilla: More is better, right? Ivan: Well, not on this topic. I was recently asked a question by a BNI member as to why we can't belong to BNI chapters or why we can't belong to two groups like BNI. Here is sort of an edited version of my response. I hope this is of value to BNI members as to why this policy exists. There is really a long history relating to this issue, and it's important to frame the reason why this is such an important issue. The reason for framing it is that people don't really care about the how until they understand why. Once they understand why it makes more sense as to how to do something. Here is why you can't be in two BNI groups or two groups like BNI: In 1985 and 1986, we actually allowed members of BNI to belong to two BNI chapters. Did you know that? Priscilla: No, I had no idea. Ivan: You could. You could belong to two groups. It was a disaster. It was a huge disaster. There were so many complains that when I created the board of advisers in 1986- remember this is created of BNI members- one of the first things they did was vote on this policy that I had created that you could belong to two BNI chapters. They thought it created animosity among members because a BNI member was splitting his or her loyalty between the two BNI groups. Back then, there were more complaints among members on this one issue than any other issue in the organization, including attendance. Priscilla: That makes sense. Ivan: In retrospect, everything is 20/20. When I look at this, I think that was a really dumb idea that I had. There were some stipulations. They couldn't be side by side. They had to be a significant distance from each other, but it was really all irrelevant. It all came down to split loyalties. The answer seemed really obvious to the board of advisers. Allowing someone to belong to two BNI chapters split their loyalties and created serious trust issues in the affected group. So one of the very first policies that the board created was that you can't belong to two BNI groups. Now fast forward a few years. | 4/4/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 249: “The Four Pillars of a Successful BNI Group” | Synopsis Tim Paulin from BNI Louisiana Mississipi joins Dr. Misner this week to discuss the four pillars of a successful BNI group: Many (4-7) visitors or guests at each meeting. Not all of them have to qualify to join: bring people who can do business with members. A well-run professional meeting. Pay special attention to the hidden elements. (See Episode 9 and Episode 16 for more about these.) Follow-up post meeting. The leadership team needs to follow up with visitors and guests, and members need to follow up about the business theyâve passed. Accountability for the chapter members. One of the most important parts of accountability is attendance, and itâs up to the membership committee to maintain this. If you can do these four things well, youâll have a successful chapter. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 249 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi, Priscilla. I'm doing great. I got to do a webcam with your chapter recently. I really appreciate the opportunity to do that. Priscilla: That was really fun. They loved it. So thank you. Ivan: I do that with a lot of- usually regional- events, but Priscilla- She's my lady. I have to do that for her chapter itself. I do it for a lot of regional and sometimes chapter visitors days. Talk to your local director if you would like me to do some kind of webcam like I did with Priscilla's chapter. Priscilla: Oh yeah. I highly recommend it. So who is with us today, Ivan? Ivan: A good friend of mine. Just to answer the second part of your question, I am in San Diego this week. As the listeners know, I like to let members know that I am out visiting regions and trying to meet as many members as possible. If I come to your area, please come visit and say hello because I love to meet BNI members. I have with me today Tim Paulin. Tim is the Executive Director for BNI in LA and MS. He and his team manage over 50 BNI groups. He is the US National Training Director and has been doing that for about 7 years. Tim went to the University of New Orleans focusing on business administration. He is a native of New Orleans. He currently resides there with his lovely wife Elizabeth, whom I know. My wife is Elizabeth as well, so don't confuse the two. But he and his wife have twin boys, God bless you. Tim is a great trainer and a good friend. His topic today is the four pillars of the successful BNI group. Welcome to the podcast, Tim. Tim: Thank you. Ivan I appreciate it. You know, Ivan, when we first announced that we were having twins, you looked at me and said, âSleep now because you won't once they are born.âMan, you were right. I haven't slept in 8 years. Ivan: I know, it's really bad. Then when they become teenagers, believe it or not, it's even worse. Tim: I'll have to wait for that. We are going to talk today about the four pillars of the successful BNI group. Ivan: Let me just throw the four out there and then you jump in and hit them one at a time. First one is many visitors each week. Second one is a well-run professional meeting. The third one is a follow up, a post meeting. The last is accountability for the chapter members. Those are the four pillars that Tim has put together. I love them. Jump in on the first one, Tim. Tim: Many guests, many visitors at a chapter meeting each week. I go around and do this presentation to many chapters and I like to ask them what does many visitors mean to you? Ivan, I will ask you what would many visitors mean to you at a chapter meeting? Ivan: It's a variable. | 3/28/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 248: Networking Faux Pas (Rebroadcast) | Synopsis This episode is a rebroadcast of Episode 107, from 2009. Dr. Misner shares three networking faux pas that heâs run into over the years. Not responding quickly to referral partners. Donât put off returning phone calls to your referral partners even if youâre not sure they have a referral for you. Confusing networking with direct selling. Networking isnât about collecting business cards and then sending them sales pitches or making cold calls. Abusing the relationship. The worst example Dr. Misner is aware of is someone who disguised a sales pitch as a 50th birthday party. Read Dr. Misnerâs complete article on Entrepreneur.com. What kind of networking faux pas have you encountered? (No names, please!) Brought to you by Networking Now. Read the complete transcript of this episode. | 3/21/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 247: Making Your Mark | Synopsis Marketing and sales is not something Dr. Misner was always confident about, but he unexpectedly became the marketing manager at a business he worked for, so he started reading and learned on the job. Sometimes our lives and our businesses go in unexpected directions. The key to success in referral marketing is helping other people do what they do best. So whatever business youâre in, build your own brand. Name recognition is the biggest challenge for small companies. For Dr. Misner, brand building was about writing (newspaper articles, blogging); for others, it may be video or podcasting. If you demonstrate expertise in your field, people will follow you. Read Dr. Misnerâs Entrepreneur.com post about this topic and tell us how youâre making your mark. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 247 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla. Thank you very much. I am here at BNI HQ this week, trying to catch up from the book tour that we are doing. The topic that I have this week, making your mark, is kind of an interesting one. It was my communications rep that suggested it. In the social media, we get a lot of members that like some of the personal stories that we have on either BNI got to where it is or how I went in the direction I did. This is one of those. There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there that find themselves in a business that they didn't see themselves in 10 or 20 years ago. Like I say, marketing and sales isnât something I was always confident about. As a matter of fact, when I started out in business my bachelors degree was in political science. My masters and doctorate was in administration and organizational behavior. I had virtually no experience in marketing. I think it is ironic that I ended up very much in marketing. What happened that got me into marketing a bit was that I worked for a transportation company in southern CA in the early 80's. In the first month of the job, my boss asked what I knew about purchasing. I said I didn't know anything about purchasing. He said, âWell, read some books because in about an hour I am going to fire the purchasing agent for the company and you are now the purchasing agent. You are going to do that and you're assistant to the president.â I thought okay, I can do that. So I took on purchasing. Then about a month later, he said, âIvan, what do you know about marketing?â I said, âBoss, I know less about marketing than I do about purchasing.â He said, âIn about an hour, I am going to fire the Director of Marketing Services. You are going to be the manager of marketing services. You had better read up.â So I found myself for six months as the manager of marketing services. I really didn't know anything when I took that over. My marketing experience was really trial by fire and it was reading. I just started reading books on marketing, and I just learned as I went. It gave me enough knowledge to do some marketing on my own. Then when I became a business consultant, I was able to take some of that experience and apply it. It kind of brings me back to where I started. If anybody would have asked me when I was 25 years old in marketing for this company where I saw my career 30 years down the road, I would have had no clue that I would be in marketing and that I would be the founder of the world's largest referral marketing group. Sometimes we go in places- this is sort of a message that my communications staff feels would be of value when they talk about the podcast and social media. | 3/14/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 246: Requests for Referrals from Strangers | Synopsis This week Dr. Misner answers a question from a BNI member named Robert: âHow do you handle requests from people you barely know or donât know at all, who ask you to give them names of your contacts so they can connect with those people fo... | 3/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 245: How to Keep Meetings Fresh | Synopsis Today Mike Ryan, a founding member of the founding chapter of BNI, joins Dr Misner on the podcast to provide some tips on how to keep your BNI meetings fresh. (Yes, even after 27 years of attending the same chapter week after week.) Be en... | 2/29/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 244: Do Unique Professions Work in BNI? (Rebroadcast) | Synopsis This is a rebroadcast of Episode 152. About 20 years ago, Dr. Misner met a commercial light bulb salesman who wanted to join BNI. He was a little concerned that a person in such a unique profession might not do well, but the prospective member had no doubts. First, he wanted people he could refer his clients to, because that would strengthen his relationship with them. Second, he knew he was the kind of networker who could get business anywhere. He was right. During his first year in BNI, 40% of the sales he got came from referrals from his BNI chapter. Success in BNI doesnât depend on the profession, but on the person. If youâre willing to give and help and learn, youâll succeed in BNI. Read the transcript in the Episode 152 show notes. Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner. | 2/22/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 243: You Achieve What You Measure | Synopsis In the course of research for his book Business Networking and Sex (Not What You Think), Dr. Misner found that people who had a system for tracking the money they generated were more likely to feel that networking played a role in their success. Without a system, itâs very hard to tell how successful you are. BNI has developed a protocol to measure referral success in a way that doesnât inflate the numbers. You can click here to download it from SuccessNet. Read Dr. Misnerâs post about this topic on SuccessNet. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 243 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am doing great and I am in Omaha, Nebraska. It's my first visit to BNI groups and I am really excited to be here. Priscilla: Great. What are you doing in Omaha? Ivan: I am doing a presentation. I am speaking to members, meeting members, that kind of thing. It's one of the great things that I do in this business, for me, is to go all over to BNI groups. We mentioned in a previous podcast that one of the reasons why I have you ask me where I am at is I want members to know that I am not sitting in my office in some big ivory tower. I am out there visiting and meeting members as much as possible. It's really a pleasure to come out to different regions. If I come out to your region, please come up to me and let me know that you are listening to these podcasts. I always get really excited when I have people come up and say, âHey, I listened to this podcast or that podcast and it really helped.â Priscilla: Okay. So what are you going to share with us? Ivan: Well, today I am going to talk about an article that I wrote for SuccessNet back in January. You achieve what you measure. Tracking your referrals is really important in BNI. You achieve what you measure. This is pretty close to the new year still. It's a great time to do some vision making on what you want your networking efforts to yield over the next year. This generally involves setting some goals and objectives. It's not too late in the year. But you can't really gauge your success in something unless you measure your progress. Hence, you achieve what you measure. Now, I have collected a lot of hard data on this topic. I would like to share it in this podcast. Some of it comes from my new book which was just released, Business Networking and Sex. For the record- I think I mentioned this in a previous podcast. For the record, the book is about gender as it relates to networking. But a book called Business Networking and Gender, well, you can hear the crickets chirping now. Nobody is going to pick that up. But it's about the different between men and women. In this book, one of the things that I highlighted was tracking business and how that relates to networking success. The book was based on a survey of 12,000 business people from all around the world. In the book, we show a table. Maybe we can do a podcast to that article on SuccessNet online. We had a table that we asked people- they were responding to a question where we asked them if they track the money that they generated and we cross tabulated that by were they successful in their networking efforts. The chart is pretty darn clear that people who had a system to track their business were more likely to have felt that networking played a role in their success. Even more notably, those who did not feel that networking played a role in their success were almost twice as likely to not have a system for tracking their business. | 2/15/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 242: The Golden Rule of Networking | Synopsis This week Bob Burg, author of Itâs Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business, joins Dr. Misner in honor of International Networking Week. Bob reminds us that people only do business with those they know, like, and trust. While they might do business with you for a while if they donât like you, as soon as they find a competitor they like better, theyâll switch. Trust puts you ahead nine steps in a ten-step process. People need to trust both your character and your competence. Competence is in greater supply than character, so your character has great economic value. Itâs also important to understand the difference between price and value. Value is what brings worth to a product or serviceâthe reason people are glad to exchange their money for it. We need to give our clients more in value than they pay in money. So if itâs not about you, who is it about? Itâs about those whose lives you choose to benefit. You can download the introductory chapter to this book and 3 others at www.burg.com. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 242 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. I am at BNI HQ this week because it is International Networking Week. It was started by BNI. It was an initiative of BNI's. We started it a few years ago. If you are listening to this podcast, go to InternationalNetworkingWeek.com. You can find out more about it. We have as a guest on the podcast this week- I can't think of a better guest to have than Bob Burg. Bob shares information on topics that are vital to success for today's business person. He regularly addresses audiences of anywhere from 50 to tens of thousands of people. He was for many years known for his book, Endless Referrals. But over the past few years, his business parable, The Go Giver, authored by John David Man, has really captured the attention of readers. Of course, any book called the Go Giver has to resonate with BNI members and our philosophy of Givers Gain. Bob has another book, It's Not About You. Hopefully, we'll have some time to chat about that. He has been on a number of best sellers' lists including the Wall Street Journal. He and John David released their newest book, which is a parable focusing on influence and it called It's Not About You. Bob is an advocate and supporter of the free enterprise system and has been a real friend to BNI. He is one of a few people who have written books on networking that I highly recommend. You have to go out and buy one or all of his books on business networking. I promise you it integrates very well into what we do in BNI. Bob, welcome to the BNI podcast. Bob: Hey Ivan, it's so great to be with you. Thank you for having me. Ivan: If anyone wonders, wow, Bob has a great voice, that's because you used to do television, didn't you, Bob? Bob: Yes. Enough people said that I had a great face for radio that I had to get out of television. Ivan: That's not true. That's not true at all. But very funny. So, Bob, every book you write, you manage to include what you believe is the key to effective networking, what you call the Golden Rule of Business Networking. That is what we titled this podcast. We are going to cover a couple of things, this being the first. What is the golden rule of business networking and why do you feel that way? Bob: Basically, it's simply that all things being equal, people do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust. I think we can take all three of those words. | 2/8/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 241: Online Networks Lag Behind | Synopsis According to one of the surveys conducted for Business Networking and SexâNot What You Think, referral networks have an 82.8% success rate in terms of generating business, while online networks only have a 27.4% success rate. (See graph below.) One reason for this might be that many entrepreneurs donât have a plan for their online networking. If youâre not sure how to use networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and BNI Connect to your advantage, ask one of the many social media experts in BNI. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 241 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: I am at BNI HQ this week and we are bringing in Directors from all over North America and training them, new Director consultants. We're training them at BNI. I made sure to be here whenever we do a training here at HQ because I think it's really important to be part of the training process. I think education is a leaky bucket. Priscilla: What does that mean? Ivan: People put information into the bucket. There are holes. Some of it doesn't stay in the bucket. When you train somebody, information leaks out. When you are training two or three generations- if I train somebody in how to do something and they train somebody how to do something, after two or three generations, you have half a bucket of information. What happens when you have what appears to be half the information? You start putting your own stuff in. It may not be the right stuff. So I am a real firm believer in education and getting it directly from me whenever possible. So there are elements of the consultant Director training that I still do to this day after 27 years. We're doing it here at HQ now. Priscilla: That's good. Ivan: Yeah. So this week I want to talk about online networks lagging behind. It's based on an article that I wrote for Entrepreneur. I want to just tell everybody right up front. There was a lot of data that I was able to collect for the book, which I have mentioned in previous podcasts, that just came out, Business Networking and Sex, Not What You Think. There was a lot of data there that we couldn't use in the book because there was just so much. We literally had hundreds of tables. I wanted to use some of this in other places. I want to talk about it in other places, other than the book. You can't find this information in the book, but it is based on the survey that we did of the 12,000 business people from all around the world. One of the questions that we didn't use in the book was what kind of organizations do you belong to? They could pick more than one. We had a list of things like referral network, contact networks, online networks, social groups, women's business groups, and service clubs. We also asked a question in the survey that was used in the manuscript in several places. That is has networking played a role in your success? We got interesting findings when we cross-tabulated those two questions with one another. When we said has networking played a role in your success and what kind of organizations do you belong to? We expected the casual contact networks like the Chamber of Commerce and that referral networks like BNI would do fairly well, and they did. However, we were a little surprised with some of the other results. I thought it might be interesting to talk about that and why. So here's the bottom line. Don't shoot the messenger here, those of you who are listening to this podcast. Don't shoot the messenger. Online networks did pretty poorly in the survey, | 2/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 240: International Networking Week 2012 | Synopsis International Networking Week will take place February 6-10, 2012. There are events around the world, focused on bringing people together to network with each other. Visit www.internationalnetworkingweek.com to find out more or watch our ... | 1/25/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 239: Bigger Is Better | Synopsis Today Linda Macedonio, Executive Director of BNI Rhode Island/SE Mass, joins Dr. Misner to explain why bigger is better for your BNI chapter. In one region of Massachusetts, the average of the top 5 chapters was over 50 members and the average business generated per member was $34,000. The average size of the bottom 5 chapters was 19 members and the average amount of money generated per member was 12,000. Chapters that double their size consistently triple the number of referrals in their group. So why does this work? It has to do with the 80/20 rule. Chapters with fewer than 25 members spend 80% of their time inviting and recruiting new members just to stay alive and only 20% on building relationships and passing referrals. Groups with more than 25 members can spend 80% of their time on passing referrals. Larger chapters also have more and stronger power teams, so one referral can go to multiple people. Let us know how much business your chapter is generating and how big it is. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 239 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. How are you and where are you? Ivan: Hi Priscilla. This week, I am in Hawaii, visiting the BNI region here and doing a presentation for the new book that came out. We have with us a guest from the other side of the country. She is from Rhode Island. Her name is Linda Macedonio. Linda, welcome to the podcast today. Linda: Thank you very much. Ivan: Linda has been an Executive Director in Rhode Island and Massachusetts since 1998. She became involved in BNI as a member first. Almost all Directors were members first. She was representing her bookkeeping business. She currently oversees about 60 chapters and 1500 members. Over the years, BNI has helped her overcome her shyness. Linda is very nervous for this. She was a contributing author to Masters of Networking. If you have a copy of that book, she did the shy bookkeeper piece in that book. She's also a contributing author to Masters of Sales. Linda really enjoys helping people in BNI and helping them achieve success. She is a great Director for the organization. Linda, welcome to the podcast. You have an interesting topic. Bigger is better. Do you care to explain that to everybody? Linda: I would be happy to. As BNI Directors, oftentimes, we are talking to chapters and to members about growing their chapter. Sometimes we actually get feedback where they think we want them to grow the chapter to help BNI and this presentation was actually designed by Reed Morgan in Tennessee. It makes the point that when a chapter is larger, it is helping the members more than it is helping BNI as a whole. What we did is we ran some number showing the financial return on investments for the members and kind of showing them by numbers that it is a numbers game and that bigger really is better. Ivan: You have some numbers that you are going to share with everybody, right? Linda: I do. I want to clarify that even though we talk about the chapter and the numbers, it's never sacrificing the quality of the membership and the system just for the sake of a larger chapter. Ivan: Listen, you bring up a really good point. It's not just about the number of people, the number of warm bodies, but quality people. You have to be focused on bringing in quality members into the organization. Otherwise these numbers don't hold up, unless you are talking about quality people. Linda: Absolutely. We share that information as well. We do have some data from a few regions. One particular region, | 1/18/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Episode 238: Business Networking and Sex | Synopsis Dr. Misner is about to start his book tour for Business Networking and SexâNot What You Think, which is about gender differences in networking. One of his co-authors focused on the manâs perspective, one on the womanâs perspective, while Dr. Misner took the networking expertâs perspective. One of the important questions the book addresses is âAre men and women really so different?â Both men and women want business from networking and both are willing to work hard to get it. But they approach it in different ways, and need to learn the style of the opposite sex. Here are some tips for women dealing with men: When asking for help, communicate clearly what you want When speaking to men, try to impress them and share your accomplishments When spoken to inappropriately, speak up immediately. Don't accept it. Convey an image that you're a serious business person at all times. For men dealing with women: Slow down. Build the relationship. Don't assume that women don't take their business seriously. Edit what you're about to say. Filter out anything that's not business-appropriate. Remember that women are at networking events for the same reason you are: to get business. Find out more about the book here. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 238 - 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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you and where are you? Ivan: Hey, I am doing great. I wanted to remind everyone I did a podcast a few weeks back, #234, as to why I mention where I am. I think it's really important for members around the world to know that I am out visiting you, visiting regions, talking to members. I am not sitting back at BNI HQ in an ivory tower. I am getting out there. It's actually one of the fun things about what I get to do. This week, I am in the Bay area for a conference and for the beginning of the Business Networking and Sex book tour. Priscilla: I am going to see you then. Ivan: That would be great because you are in that area. Priscilla: That's right. Ivan: I would love to see you. Now, what I wanted to talk about this week was the title of the book: Business Networking and Sex. The subtitle is Not What You Think. I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed because it's really not about sex. It's about gender. It's a really interesting book, and I think that this book is going to help give a lot of exposure to BNI (no pun intended), a lot of branding for the organization because this is one of the best books that I have done. What I wanted to do today is talk about some of the content. There have been a lot of books written about business networking and referral marketing. I have written quite a few of those myself. There have also been a lot of books written about the difference between men and women, which is what this book is really about. However, it dawned on me and my co-authors a few years ago that no one has ever made the effort to combine the two subjects. So that is how this project got born. Business Networking and Sex, Not What You Think is all about the difference between men and women. Over a 4 year period, we did a survey of more than 12,000 business people, including the analysis of it. We surveyed 12,000 business people and we asked a couple of dozen questions. After analyzing the results of the survey, which was open to the public and we had respondents from all over the world, every populated continent. We took these survey results and developed the book because of it. My fellow networking experts, Frank Girafle, he writes from the male perspective. | 1/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 20 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
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The BNI podcast is the fastest way to gain information on how to grow your business.For those who do not have the time to read like Joe Coyle, you can catch up with the pace and race of marketing you and your business in a New York Minute. I believe this is just the start of what will be one of the most valuable podcast. BNI not only will help your business, it will help you grow in your business.
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As BNI training changes its education focus to newer things, this podcast is helping BNI members to remember how to 'stick to the basics'. Looking forward to listening to future episodes! Thanks to Frank and Dr. Misner! Brian Springfield Business Forum Member BNI veteran
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