Creating BNI (Business Network International) The Largest Networking Organization From ONE Meetup with Dr. Ivan Misner

Founder & Chairman of BNI – Dr. Ivan Misner

Chances are you have a BNI group near you (I did, in the middle of no where in Maine!) I grill Dr. Misner on how he started the largest networking organization in the world. It all started from ONE. We follow the growth and how he built it and spread the word. We also talk networking tactics of course! BNI helped me so much when I was just getting started, I was a bit starstruck chatting with him 🙂

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:

• Business Networking and Sex by Ivan Misner, Ph.D., Hazel M. Walker, Frank J. De Raffele

Go to IvanMisner.com and BNI.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript:

Announcer: Welcome to the Eventual Millionaire podcast - with your host, Jaime Tardy. Real talk and real advice from real millionaires, with a sharp focus on you - the Eventual Millionaire.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Tardy and I am so excited to have our guest today. His name is Doctor Ivan Misner and the reason why I'm so excited is because six years ago when I became a coach my mentor told me I had to go to BNI and he is the founder of BNI - Business Networking International. He's also a bestselling author. I'm super excited to have him on the show. Thanks so much for coming on today.

Ivan: Thanks, it's my pleasure.

Jaime: It's so amazing - when I had the chance to interview you I ended up emailing my mentor, going "I'm going to interview the founder of BNI! I'm so excited!" because I remember he made me go to them when I first started in coaching and I was from the middle of nowhere in Maine so it was an amazing place to have people come together, in an organized fashion, too, not just some random get together. So in case no one listening knows what it is, and they all should, go ahead and tell us a little bit about what BNI is.

Ivan: BNI is a business and professional networking organization. We allow one person per profession to join one of our groups. We get together every week and the primary purpose is to pass each other referrals. Last year the organization passed 5.4 million referrals worldwide and we generated $6.5 billion worth of business for our members all around the world. We now have 6,700 groups in 55 countries and it's just about business people getting together and helping each other generate business but in a structured environment. It's been Mr Toad's wild ride for almost the last 30 years - I'm coming up on my 30th year in this business.

Jaime: Wow - how did you even come up with the idea?

Ivan: It was 30 minutes of inspiration and 30 years of perspiration. I certainly didn't invent networking. I'd like to tell you I had this vision of an international business but the truth is that I was looking for some referrals in my consulting practice and I put together a list of people I trusted and who trusted me and I hoped they would be willing to refer me, I was looking for referral business, and I was certainly willing to refer them and we got together and started passing each other referrals. From the very beginning we only took one person per profession and a woman came who couldn't join because her professional was representing and she said "Why? I could really get a lot of business out of this. Can you put me in a second group?" and I said "No, this is what I do - I'm a business consultant. I serve a coach before coaches." We didn't call them coaches then but I purchased small companies and helped them build their business and understand their business better, strategic planning and those kinds of things, so I said "This isn't what I do," and she said "Well this is kind of consulting, you're helping us build our business," so I said "Okay, fine, I'll do it," and we opened a second group. 25 people came to the second group - two couldn't join because of a conflict with the others but they said "Wow, this is really great. I could get a ton of business out of this. Would you help me start my own group?" and I said "No, this isn't what I do!" But I did it and, after a year, we had 20 groups - by accident. I think it was really at that point that I realized I had struck a chord in the business community. Every year since I was in my early 20s, between Christmas and New Year, I pretty much took off and assessed my life - what happened last year, what do I want to do next year, where do I want to be five years from now, ten years from now? I used to think these things through a little bit and that year I thought "What the heck just happened? 20 groups!" At that point I sat down and created a plan and started to develop a strategy for what is now BNI, a global organization.

Jaime: That's insane. What if you had said no to her and said "You can do it on your own, just go ahead!" That's crazy. Did you charge for those first 20 groups, for your time?

Ivan: Yeah, sure, a small fee. Even now BNI does not have a big fee. When you compare it to advertising it's nominal; it's much more expensive to put an ad in a newspaper, a onetime ad, than it is for a year's participation in BNI. What would I have done if I had said no? In our lives, doors open and doors close, and every now and then I wonder "What if I had taken that path instead of this path?" I think about it sometimes from the perspective of "How would my life be different?" but I've made some bonehead, stupid decisions in my life and at the time it didn't seem boneheaded, it seemed like the right thing to do. I think if you want to be successful you have to follow your passion. An entrepreneur is either working in the flame or they are wax - when you're working in the flame, you're on fire, you're loving what you do, you're passionate about what you do, you're excited. When you're wax, it just takes all of your energy, it takes all of the excitement out of you. I think my strategy in success has been to, as much as possible, be looking for my flame and to be working on my flame and so the reason I said yes to her was not because it was what I did, because it wasn't, but when she said "You know, this would really help us. It's sort of consulting and you would be helping us get business," that's what I was in business for - I was in business to help businesses be successful. That was my flame and I said yes.

Jaime: You gave me chills with the flame and the wax. So tell me how to find that. A lot of people who are not in business yet or are just beginning don't know what that flame is yet, so how do they find that?

Ivan: I haven't taught for a while. I taught for many years at the state university in California and then a private university. I travel so much now I can't teach but I really enjoyed teaching and I used to have these kids come to me, young, in their 20s, and they would say "Dr Misner, what business should I go into?" and I would say "Well, what do you like to do?" and they would say "No, what I'm asking is what's the latest, greatest business that I really should get into?"
 And I would say "Yeah, okay, I get it - but what do you like to do?" and they would say "You're not listening to me. I want to know what I should get into," and I would say "No - you're not listening to me. What do you like to do? Because if I tell you this is the business you should get into and you hate doing that, you're never going to be successful at it, and if you do achieve any kind of success you're going to be miserable." So start with what you love to do. I think that's the secret. You have to look for things that you really like and then find opportunities for a living. There are so many opportunities in so many different areas. One of the things I've seen in running BNI is that people make money doing the craziest stuff, they really do, and if they like doing that kind of work they're the happiest people.

Jaime: I'm really curious to find out some of the craziest businesses that you've seen make money. You've probably seen so many businesses, it's insane. There was someone I interviewed who created CelebriDucks, which are rubber duckies that look like celebrities, so if that can work, right? So tell us some of the stories that you've head of cool businesses that have been started.

Ivan: Well I wish I had one of them here - I have it in another office of mine - but you talked about celebrity ducks, I know someone who made Bobbleheads and he would do them to look like you and he made one that looked like me and it's frightening, actually - it really looks like me. I don't know how he makes them look like the person that he's producing them for. I remember a guy, I remember his name so well - Nordy Turgeon, you can't make that stuff up - he sold commercial lightbulbs. Not the fixtures, not a light bulb like a lamp light bulb, no. The problem with that is you couldn't even give him a mercy referral - "Hey, Nordy, I need some light bulbs at home." He sold these giant halogen light bulbs that work in factories. Not the fixtures, just the light bulbs. You don't look like you've been into a lot of factories.

Jaime: Wait a minute! No.

Ivan: Have you.

Jaime: I've been in factories, yeah.

Ivan: Well in the morning, when you turn the lights on in the big warehouses or factories, these light bulbs literally take about two minutes to light up. They start very dim and they get brighter and brighter and brighter, it's a certain type of light bulb. That's all he sold. Well he came to me, this was a long time ago, and I said "I have hundreds of groups I don't have one light bulb salesmen, commercial light bulb salesman." He said "What are you telling me? Are you telling me I shouldn't join?" I said "I just want you to be aware, I have thousands of members and I don't have anybody who sells light bulbs and I just want to make sure you know that before you join thinking that you're going to get a ton of business." He said "Are you telling me I shouldn't join?" I said "I'm not saying you shouldn't, I'm just saying buyer beware, just know." He said "Well I'm going to join because I think that I can contribute to people and if I can contribute to them they will refer me and I can help my clients because I can refer people that they need, but I think I'll get business." I was like "Okay, good luck." A year later I'm back in town and he asks the director if he can introduce me to the event and she said yes and so he read my bio and he said "On a personal note, I'd like to tell you that a year ago Ivan tried to talk me out of joining BNI and I just found out last week that I won the annual sales contest for our company, which I've never come close to winning, and I'm getting an all-expenses paid trip to the Bahamas for my wife and I and 40% of all the sales I made during this contest came from referrals directly out of BNI and he tried to stop me from joining." So after that I decided that it's not about professions, it's about people - you can take the craziest profession in the world and be successful at it if the person is committed to the process and you can take a profession that should clean up at networking and they'll be horrible at it if they're not committed to the process. So it's really all about people, not about professions.

Jaime: Tell me more about that, because a lot of people come to me and they say I'm pretty good at networking. I don't know, we've got the master of networking here. If you're an introvert, you're not a good networker, and I get this all the time, because people are so scared of this.

Ivan: They are, and here's the irony - don't tell anybody, but I'm an introvert. I didn't know I was an introvert until probably about seven years ago. I was having dinner with my wife and we're now empty nesters but at the time we had two of our three children in high school but one night they were at some high school thing and it was just her and I for dinner and so we were having a nice conversation and I don't even know what we were talking about and I said "You know me, honey, I'm such an extrovert," and she said "Erm, no, not so much." I was like "What do you mean, not so much?" and she said "You're not an extrovert." I said "What do you mean I'm not an extrovert? I run the world's largest network - I'm an extrovert." She said "Okay, if that's what you think, honey, that's fine." I was like "Don't say that - come on, what do you mean I'm not an extrovert?" and she starts explaining her understanding of extrovert and introvert because she was just reading about the extrovert and introvert in love and she starts telling me about the introvert and I was like "That's not me. I'm a New York Times bestselling author, I'm a public speaker, I am not an introvert." She kept saying "Okay, whatever you say," and she starts explaining what an introvert is and I'm hearing these things and some of them kind of hit but then she said one that totally hit home ' introverts have to hide to recharge their batteries. They get away. Extroverts, they want to go a party, they go to a party, they have a great time, they come back excited. Introverts, they don't get recharged by going out. That's definitely me. But I am not an introvert. So I was really annoyed and after dinner I went to my computer and got on google and found a test and I took the test and hit enter and it pops up and says "Congratulations! You are an introvert who is a situational extrovert. When you're talking about a subject that you really like you come across as an extrovert. When you are in a context you feel comfortable with you come across as an extrovert. Otherwise you're a total introvert - go and apologize to your wife." Okay, it didn't say that.

Jaime: It should have!

Ivan: It should have. It made me start thinking. First of all, I was shocked - I was 50 years old and I found out I was an introvert. I was shocked but then I started thinking about the kind of organization I had created. When you think about it, BNI is not really aimed at extroverts. If I was an extrovert and created a networking organization, it would be a big event - some big networking 500 where you get hundreds of people together and mix and mingle. I feel uncomfortable meeting people for the first time. I run the world's largest networking organization but one of the things I've done since the beginning is I have somebody who's from that area, when I go and visit a region, walk me around and introduce me to people. It struck me - "My goodness. That's what I tell introverts to do," and that's what I had been doing for decades and I just didn't put two and two together. The short answer to your question is that introverts and extroverts can both be good at networking. I think I'm reasonably good at this and I'm not a total extrovert. Here's the secret - extroverts are great at meeting people for the first time. The problem is that they can't shut up. When they meet somebody, they just talk and talk and talk and talk. An introvert has a difficult time meeting people but they're great at listening and the truth is that if you're going to be a good networking it's like being a good interviewer - a good interviewer asks a question and lets the guest respond and a good networker asks the questions and gets the person to open up. So an introvert just has a hard time meeting that person but they're great at listening. An extrovert can meet people but they're horrible at listening and what you want to do is work on that skill - whatever that weak side is, you need to work on it, and both introverts and extroverts can be excellent at networking.

Jaime: I love that distinction. So we just have different talents on different sides of the fence. I go back and forth so I think I'm a situational extrovert also, now that you say that. It's kind of crazy - when you start labelling yourself that makes sense and you can figure out how to do it from there. Can you give me some tips, especially for extroverts now, since we talked about introverts a little bit? If they were to go into BNI or any networking group at all how would they do that? Epically with having someone introduce you - I do that all the time too, I want someone to introduce me, that's way easier. So give me some tips that you have.

Ivan: If you're an extrovert? Is that what you said?

Jaime: I want tips for both.

Ivan: Let's start with extroverts - they are great at meeting people. The thing is that an extrovert has to really practice not talking about themselves first. They really have to practice saying things like 'So, tell me, how did you hear about tonight's event? What is it that you do? What's your specialty? What's a good target market for you?" just to have a conversation. Extroverts have a tendency to go right in for the kill - "Hi, my name's Ivan, let's do business," and be a little more transactional. One of the things that I've found in some research that I've done in a book on networking is that those people who tend to be transactional are actually not as successful as those who tend to be relational in their networking, where they try to build a relationship not on the spot but on the spot they make a connection that can lead to building a professional relationship. Extroverts tend to be more incisive and go right for the kill, so as an extrovert get other people to talk before you start, and don't be thinking "When is he going to stop? I'm ready to tell my story." Really listen to the other person and engage and respond. From the introvert's perspective, one of the things that you can do is what we've talked about - have somebody walk you around. Meet someone at that event that you know and ask them "Do you mind introducing me to some of the people that you know?" and they're good at listening so they will pay attention and listen. So a couple of key, simple things.

Jaime: I think one of the great things nowadays is if you call up BNI, you've met someone who's in BNI and they can show you around. Or on Facebook, if you're invited to an event you can see who's going to the event and which friends of yours might be also going. There are so many ways nowadays, thanks to technology and people and amazing things like this, so that we can set ourselves up before we go. I remember my first networking event - I was terrified, I didn't talk to anybody, I was like "Okay, I'm going to go." There was like 300 people, I shouldn't have done that as my first networking thing. Now it's not that big of a deal just because I've done it so much.

Ivan: Here's the thing - can I just jump in?

Jaime: Of course.

Ivan: If you go to a big networking event and there are a lot of people there, oftentimes people don't even know where to begin, particularly introverts. I don't have a diagram to show you so I'll use my hands - look for open twos, open threes and open groups. A closed two would look like two people standing face to face, talking. It's hard to break into a conversation where two people are like that talking. A closed three would look like a triangle - you can't break into that. So what you want to do is just scan the room and look for what's called open twos or open threes, which look like a U, and there's an open spot. It's so easy to just slide in when you have somebody in an open stance. A lot of what I teach is simple, it's just not easy - if it were easy, everyone would do it and there wouldn't be an issue. It's not easy because you forget - you get there and you don't think about it - and you don't do it consistently. So go into a room and look for open twos, open threes and open groups, and if you have somebody who is introducing you they can slide in with you to start the conversation. I tell my BNI groups and organizations that I train to train their members to do that because then they'll look at each other and go "Oh, we're in a closed two," and they'll open up and as soon as they open up, boom, three people will be in there, and when you open up a three, boom, four people will be in there - it actually draws people to you as well as making it easy for you to get into.

Jaime: I love this. I did it without even realizing and when you start telling people how to do it, you can see it. That first step of awareness makes all the difference in the world. But I need to know, because I'm sure this is the next question in people's heads - you sneak in there, what the heck do you say?

Ivan: First and foremost, the best thing to do is to find out about someone else. All too often I think people network really badly. Let me give an example of what I'm talking about - I did a presentation in London a few years ago and there were 900 people at this event. It was a networking event and a series of seminars and I was the keynote speaker. I don't know what compelled me to do this but I wanted to try this out so I asked the audience "How many of you here, just out of curiosity - raise your hands - are hoping to, just possibly, sell something?" 900 people raised their hands - it was a sea of hands, they all raised them. I said "Great, thank you. Second question - how many of you are here today to maybe, just possible, buy something? Raise your hands." Nobody raised their hand. Not one single person raised their hand. This is what I call a network disconnect - people show up at networking events looking to sell and nobody is there to buy. When you network like that, you're never going to have success. You've got to go there to make connections. So there's this core to what I teach called the VCP process, and if you want I'll be happy to talk about that, but the first part is that when you're meeting people for the first time you make that initial connection and the best way to make that initial connection is to get the other person to talk about who they are and what they do before you launch into your own sales presentation.

Jaime: Now I need to know what your process is.

Ivan: Most people use networking as a face to face cold calling opportunity and that's not what networking is. I cut you off, I'm sorry.

Jaime: I want to know what your process is - you can't leave an open loop like that, I need to know what it is.

Ivan: Basically, it's the foundation of what I teach. If you don't get VCP done right nothing else matters. It stands for Visibility, Credibility, Profitability. It's a chronological process. Start with visibility - you have to first be visible within the community; people have to know who you are and what you do. Then you have to establish credibility - credibility is when people know who you are, what you do and they know you're good at it, and they know you're good at it because they've used you or they know people who have used you or you have a reputation for being good. Only then can you get to profitability where people know who you are, they know what you do, they know you're good at it and they're willing to pass you referrals on an ongoing, reciprocal basis. When you understand the VCP process you know that when you're meeting people for the first time you're not even at visibility. You goal, then, should be to become more visible to this person so that when you see them again in the future they're going to know who you are because you've connected with them once. What we try to do at networking events is jump over visibility, jump over credibility and get right to profitability, hence me saying that it's a face to face cold calling opportunity. I wrote a book called "Business Networking and Sex" - it's not what you think, it's about the difference between men and women and how they network.

Jaime: It's a good title, though.

Ivan: It is a fun title. One of the things we talk about there is that a lot of people are guilty of what we refer to in the book as premature solicitation. You don't want to say it three times because it will get you in trouble.

Jaime: I'm trying to stop myself from laughing because I'm not supposed to in interviews.

Ivan: That's good, laughter is good. That's where you just meet somebody and you try to go right for the business and you jump over visibility and jump over credibility and get right to profitability. It almost never works. People say "But I went to a networking event and I sold something." Even a blind squirrel can find a nut - you'll stumble into business. What's more important than trying to close a sale is to build the sales force and the way to build a sales force is to build relationships and building a relationship is way better that trying to make a one off sale.

Jaime: I agree a thousand times - but that also takes time, so if somebody is starting a brand new business and they need money then they'll jump over those things because they're going for the straight kill. What advice do you have on that?

Ivan: First off, remember that desperation is not referable. If you come across as desperate - and, believe me, if you are going for that kill every time you meet people, that comes across as desperate and that's not referable. There's a balancing act for new businesses - I tell new businesses that networking is not a get-rich-quick scheme so if you think you're going to generate business overnight, think again. It's about building trust. I'm not going to refer someone until I trust them and I'm not going to trust them until I get through the visibility and credibility phase. In one of my books, "Networking Like a Pro", we talk about the time/confidence curve and the time/confidence curve is an X/Y which shows that it takes a certain amount of time before you have confidence in someone's ability to provide a quality product or service, and that's that visibility to credibility phase. So you have to give it time. What do you do in the meantime? I believe in traditional forms of marketing, advertising and promotion so until you can build a referral based business maybe you've got to go out and cold call. I'm not opposed to advertising. I believe successful businesses advertise. There are some businesses where it's hard to get business. As a coach, if it's anything like me as a consultant, I got nothing out of advertising. Nothing. Nobody hires a coach from an ad, at least they didn't hire me as a consultant from an ad. If you're a travel agency, that's a whole different ball game - advertising is really important. So my advice is to use the traditional mediums of marketing and advertising at the same time that you're working on your visibility and credibility and by the time you start building your business to credibility you'll be able to decrease the cold calling and other forms of marketing that you do and rely more on networking and word of mouth marketing.

Jaime: I love that. It's such a long term strategy. You're not going for the quick sale, you're not trying for the first million, you're trying for the $5 million that's way down the road. I think that's awesome.

Ivan: I think one of the most important lessons I've learned is that networking is more like farming than like hunting. It's about cultivating relationships with other business professionals.

Jaime: I love that analogy. That can shift some people's minds. When my mentor used to talk to me about networking I would think "Used car salesman alert!", right? I used to think that was the problem and I'm not a sales kind of person. Then I learned the right way to do it and I thought "All I have to do is make friends? That's way better."

Ivan: That's why networking has a bad name - people think it's about going out there and just selling, selling, selling. You're way too young to know who I'm talking about but there was a character on a TV show on WKRP in Cincinnati called Herb Tarlek.

Jaime: I'm not that young, but thank you!

Ivan: It's probably before your time. So those of you listening to this, I want you to think of Herb Tarlek who is this slick car salesman-like guy in a polyester suit and unfortunately that's what a lot of people think networking is about. They couldn't be further from the truth, if you're talking about successful networking.

Jaime: I love that. So now I have to ask this question, coming from me - I have a really amazing network. How do you handle so many people that you want to keep in touch with that you don't see all the time? How do you keep it straight? I refer and introduce at least two people every single day. Sometimes I can't even remember who I've introduced before, which is not good. So tell me more about how you handle it, because you have a bigger network than me, I know you do.

Ivan: It's the quality of the network that counts. I think another really important lesson I've learned is, you know the expression "it's not what you know, it's who you know?" I think it's not what you know or who you know, it's how well you know each other that really counts. So the size of one's network is absolutely secondary to the quality of one's network. I've got some amazing names in my database and my network. The question, though, is not how big are they? The question is - could I pick up the phone and call one of them? And would they a) take my call and b) if I asked them for a favor, would they do it? That's the key. So the size of the network is not as critical as the quality of the network. Now how do you stay in touch with those people? We live in such a different age today than when I started BNI. In 1985, the second largest line item in my company's budget was the telephone - it was an extremely expensive piece of the business. Well, now, it doesn't even have its own line item in my budget anymore; it's buried under "technology". Technology flattens the communication hierarchy. In 1985, when I started BNI, if I were global it would have been almost impossible for my members to ever be able to connect with me and with 6,700 groups, if I went to a BNI meeting every day of the week it would take over 20 years to get to all of the groups. It's crazy. But now, look, we're doing an interview via Skype from two completely different locations and I'm able to connect with people in ways that are so much easier. So the short answer is - use technology appropriately for part of those touch points. Get on Skype, have a conversation with someone. Use social media - I stay so much in touch with the people that follow me and who I know through Facebook and Twitter. It's funny because I'll see someone I haven't seen in six months or a year and they'll go "Hey, how's your dad doing? I saw a picture of you and him." Technology, if it's used right, can help solve some of that - but just remember, it can't be just superficial; if it's only superficial it's not going to work for you.

Jaime: If you're a wallflower and not engaging it doesn't build the relationship at all.

Ivan: And if you're just selling online - "Here's my latest product. I have a special. Here's this." It's got to be engagement of some kind.

Jaime: People to people instead of selling, selling.

Ivan: You say people to people - I'll give you a great example that fits that perfectly. I've got about 32,000 followers of BNI on Facebook but Ivan Misner has just under 19,000. But here's what's interesting - when I post something, it gets three to four times the engagement as the BNI page. So just over half the people, three times the engagement. Why is that? The reason is that people are connecting with a human, as opposed to a company, so even though more people are connected to the company, more people engage with the individual. That was a real lesson for me when I was looking at those numbers and I realized that it was the Ivan Misner Facebook page that got more engagement than the BNI Facebook page because they feel like they're connecting with an individual. It's still an individual running the BNI Facebook page, so it's perception.

Jaime: That's awesome, especially as you can see the numbers. Everybody feels like "Of course we want to do business with people that we like," but looking at the numbers and going "Even though it's just a name, technically, it's the same person behind both of them," it's insane what our brains do. That's really, really cool. It's funny, you say that and I'm like "Maybe I should start a Jaime Tardy page instead of just an Eventual Millionaire page. Maybe that will work better." It's interesting to go through these tactics but unfortunately we have to start wrapping up. I could talk to you for a very long time about all of this but I'm going to ask you my signature last question - what's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of $1 million?

Ivan: I'll give you a two part answer. One is - the secret to success without hard work is still a secret. I'd like to tell you that there's some magic bullet that will make you successful but I tell people that I'm a 20 year overnight success - it took me 20 years to build a successful business. We live in this technological world where we expect immediate success, not sustained success. That takes time. The other thing, which is kind of related, is that I really urge people to do six things a thousand times, not a thousand things six times. I see entrepreneurs just bounce around, doing one thing after another after another and not focusing on a plan and then executing that plan - and that plan should be based on going to a coach, a business person, an expert, other people they know who have been successful and saying "What have you done?" Ask the coach, ask the successful business person. Get a strategy and follow that strategy religiously and do six a thousand times. That's what I did - I am consistent and persistent.

Jaime: Thank you for both of those because my people so need to hear this. I said the exact same thing - there's a Bruce Lee quote that's the exact same thing, where you don't want to practice a thousand kicks, you want to practice one kick a thousand times. That's how you find success. Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate you coming on the show. I told my mentor I was excited about you being on the show so thank you so much for being here. Tell us where we can find out more about you, your books and, of course, BNI.

Ivan: I mentioned Facebook - you're welcome to follow me on Facebook. I've got a blog - IvanMisner.com or BusinessNetworking.com with almost a thousand posts up there, so a lot of free content for people. Of course there's BNI.com - we've got groups all over the world, in 55 countries, it's really amazing to see all of these different languages and people from so many different cultures involved in BNI and we would love to have your viewers come visit us at BNI.

Jaime: Definitely. Even if you live in the middle of nowhere, which I did in Maine beforehand and there was a couple of BNI groups around, so you can definitely find one locally. Thank you so much for coming on, Ivan. I really, really appreciate it.

Ivan: My pleasure, truly, and I would be happy to come back again sometime.

Jaime: Definitely.

Jaime: Could you tell I was excited to talk to Dr Ivan Misner? I had been doing BNI such a long time ago, I absolutely adored it, it was one of the first places I ever really got up and spoke in front of people. I remember being so scared, writing it all down and all of that fun stuff. So if you want to go out of your comfort zone but also increase your network locally and try to get more business locally you should definitely check out BNI. They're everywhere - I mean if I could find one in the middle of nowhere in Maine you can find one too. Just go to BNI.com and check it out. If you haven't checked out my book yet and you're listening to this, I would love, love, love you to check it out and see if it's something that you enjoy. I talk a lot about my story of being offline and going online and really enjoying the life that I love now. I'm so excited that we have the internet - no offence, I love BNI so much, but thankfully I have you watching me, many, many of you out there, and I talk about that in the book. So go to TheEventualMillionaire.com and you can check out the book, leave a review, all of that fun stuff, and you can also get the starter kit which goes through and explains exactly how I started my mastermind group, how I got so many mentors for free, all of that fun stuff. So, again, it's at TheEventualMillionaire.com. I hope you have an amazing day and take care.

Announcer: Thanks for listening. You can find out more great information like this on EventualMillionaire.com.

Tags: business network, Dr. Ivan Misner, millionaire interview, networking, networking tactics, Planning

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Millionaire Interviews, Relationships

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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