J25 BNI Derby Business Networking

Synopsis

A newspaper reporter in Stockholm put Dr. Misner on the spot about online networking, insisting that it would replace face-to-face networking. So Dr. Misner turned the tables on the reporter and asked “So why did you drive all the way out here to do this interview in person?”

Some things are better in person. Networking is one of them. Online networking is a powerful tool, but it shouldn’t be the only one we use. To build a strong personal network, you should use both online and and in-person networking. Dr. Misner is active on many online networks, but nothing beats that face-to-face process.

Even the younger people coming into business realize that face-to-face connections are important. In-person networking is not going to disappear—at least not until we can be present by holographic projection. BNI and the service it provides are here to stay.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 103 -

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. How are you?

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

Priscilla:
Where are you today?

Ivan:
Well, I just got back from a number of trips, one of which was the U.S. conference in Milwaukee, which was great, a lot of members, a lot of directors. And before that I was in France and Stockholm, which I mentioned on a couple of previous podcasts. And I want to talk about one of my experiences in Stockholm today.

Priscilla:
Oh, great. I’m anxious to hear about it.

Ivan:
Well, first of all, give a shout out to a BNI member in Stockholm who I met who said he listens to the podcast. He downloads them to his PDA device, and he listens to the podcasts as he drives around each week, and he sits and listens to the various podcasts. I hope he enjoys this one because it’s actually an experience from my visit in Europe.

I was doing a presentation in Europe, and a newspaper reporter with a major publication arranged to do a interview with me. And upon his arrival, he really started putting me on the spot about online networking. Most of what I do, when I do interviews, it not really controversial stuff. It’s how do you build your business through word of mouth. But he was really kind of confrontational, and he told me that online networking is basically going to replace the face-to-face process. He was becoming very militant in expressing his point of view and really didn’t see the value of networking face to face like we do in BNI. He was basically, for all intents and purposes, telling me that traditional networking is going the way of the buggy whip. I was a little surprised, and I was annoyed at first that this reporter was being so confrontational about networking.

And then I asked him a question. I said, “Why are you here to do this interview?”

He looked at me, and he was like, “What do you mean?”

I said, “Well, why did you drive all the way” – because he had to drive a long way to get to the stadium to meet with me. I said, “Why did you drive all the way through traffic?” It was late in the day, and it was during rush hour, and there was a lot of traffic. I said, “Why did you drive all the way in person just to do this interview when we could have done it by phone?”

He looked at me, and he said, “Well, interviews are always better face to face.”

And I said, “Exactly. I rest my case!” Networking is much the same. It beats communicating online or over the phone because nothing can ever fully replace an in-person conversation.

And the reporter kind of sheepishly relented and said, “Yeah, yeah, okay. I get it. That makes sense. Some things are better in person.”

And the truth is some things are better in person. Networking is one of them. This doesn’t mean that online networking isn’t valuable; far from it. Online networking is a powerful tool in our arsenal of networking strategies, however, it shouldn’t be the only tool we use because sometimes it’s simply not the best. For me, the bottom line regarding face-to-face networking versus online networking is that I don’t think it should be an either/or scenario. I think it should be a both/and if you want to build a strong personal network. So I’m a real believer in online networking and I’m active on Facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on Xing, on Ecademy. Ecademy is one of my favorite online networks, very active there. I think it’s a great way to have touch points with people, to connect with people over and over again, and to stay in touch with them.

But the truth is, there is nothing that beats that face-to-face process. Meeting somebody individually and having a chance to talk to them always works better in networking. It works better in almost everything we do. It works better in networking. It works better in interview with a newspaper reporter. It works better on radio shows. Whenever I’m in town, people would rather do the radio show with me coming in to the station to do that show rather than over the telephone because there’s an interaction that can take place face to face that just can’t take place over the phone or over the Internet.

Priscilla:
I think it’s the human condition, because we get so many cues from the face and the expressions. And we’re actually looking at the face more than we’re listening to the words, I think.

Ivan:
Yeah, I think it’s absolutely an important aspect of the process, and I’ve had a lot of people say to me that Gen X and the Millennial – the young people that are coming into BNI, and I’ve talked about this in a previous podcast, by 2010 there will, for the first time, be a non-Baby Boomer organization. So we are integrating technology into our system. I announced BNI Connect will be coming up later this year, which is an online network that will support the BNI membership. And I’ll be talking more about that in some future podcasts.

So I’m a real believer in online networking, but I also believe that what we do in BNI is very important, and that even though there is this real connectedness with younger people coming into business, they realize that a lot of business is still done face to face. And so the Gen X population and the Millennial Gen Y population, people in their 20s, the kinds of skill sets that we provide in BNI in that face-to-face networking is not going to become the buggy whip industry. It’s not going to disappear, not in my lifetime, anyway. Until the time comes when we can have fact-to-face meetings with a holographic image, like the Jedi knights of Star Wars – do you remember in one of those last Star Wars BNI Podcasts, they literally had all these Jedi knights in a circle, and some of them were really sitting at the chairs, and some of them were sitting at a holographic image, and you were talking to these holograms? Do you remember that?

Priscilla:
Yeah, absolutely.

Ivan:
Well, until that happens, I think it’s still a good idea to network in person whenever possible. We’re not going to have that any time soon.

By the way, when the world advances to that point where we can do the Star Wars networking thing, I have dibs on being OB1 Kenobi. Do you remember the Alec Guinness version, right, the older guy with the gray hair? I mean, come on, that only makes sense. You have to admit, you see the resemblence, right?

Priscilla:
Yeah, absolutely!

Ivan:
Slap a smile on his face, and we’re practically brothers, right?

Priscilla:
Yep, looks just like you.

Ivan:
So when that happens, I want dibs on being OB1 Kenobi. Until then, I believe that face-to-face networking is a powerful medium, and I think that BNI will continue to provide that service. And as long as we begin to integrate some technologies into our existing system, which I’ll be talking about in future podcasts, I think we’re here to stay and continue to be the world’s leading networking organization.

Priscilla:
That’s great. Well, thank you, Dr. Misner. I think we’ve come to the end of this podcast. Is there anything else you’d like to add, or is that it for this week?

Ivan:
Well, I think I would just repeat the fact that it’s not an either/or; it’s a both/and. Really successful business people understand that you need to have the online technologies and online networking, but you also need to continue to do the face-to-face networking, and BNI is a great way to do that. Eventually, both, but certainly for now, face to face is our strength.

Priscilla:
Okay, great. Well, thank you so much.

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