Meet Dr. Misner

When Dr. Ivan Misner founded BNI in 1985, he may have never dreamed that it would one day grow into the world’s largest business networking organization. Today, with nearly 100,000 members in 37 countries around the world, it has become exactly that.

With that level of success come many challenges, not the least of which is communication between a single founder and tens of thousands of members and directors across the globe.

As a new member to BNI, it occurred to me that the production of a weekly podcast could go a long way to solve that problem. And when I approached Dr. Misner with the idea, he saw the potential and quickly gave the go-ahead.

The result is The Official BNI Podcast, a weekly 5-10 minute audio message from Dr. Misner to the world of BNI, which I produce and co-host from my home studio.

Just as important as his regular outbound communication is the opportunity for his audience to respond through comments, questions and suggestions they can post on the podcast’s web site. From my perspective, this is the essential power of what is being called Web 2.0: the creation of a community through 2-way communication.

The production format allows Dr. Misner and his guests to call-in from anywhere in the world, which is an important consideration for a man with a packed calendar and a global travel itinerary. Nonetheless, I congratulate Dr. Misner for making the commitment of adding this project to his weekly agenda. I don’t believe he would do it if he didn’t see the overwhelming value in it.

Rather than spend too much time explaining what The Official BNI Podcast is all about, I invite you to listen to the first episode where Dr. Misner explains it himself.

I am very pleased and proud to be a part of this new production and I encourage anyone with a far-flung base of offices, employees, salespeople, franchisees, customers, members, readers - you name it - to consider adding a weekly podcast to your communication menu. It’s easier and less expensive than you might think. Give me a call if you’d like to discuss the possibilites.