BNI Podcast with Jeremy Walsh
Jeremy Walsh joins Dr. Misner again this week to talk about country-wide referrals, which are made possible thanks to Dr. Misner’s vision of how to tie the world together through BNI Connect.
https://www.bnipodcast.com/2018/01/10/episode-540-country-wide-referrals/
Since BNI Connect was first launched in 2012, it’s been possible to pass referrals to members in other chapters–but only in your own region. The most-requested feature has been the ability to pass referrals to BNI members in other regions. It’s now possible to pass referrals to anyone in your own country with the BNI Connect mobile app.
BNI members have always passed referrals to members in other regions, but now you can get credit for them, because it’s possible to confirm that the referral was made.
Passing referrals worldwide has to wait until the BNI Connect team has dealt with the problem of currency conversion, but they’re working on it.
If you have a story about a referral you’ve gotten through BNI Connect, share it in the comments.
Visit Jeremy’s website, The Right Click.
Brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube.
Complete Transcript of Episode 540 –
Priscilla:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Official BNI Podcast, brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube, which features Dr. Ivan Miser and many other networking experts. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you today?
Ivan:
I am in your neck of the woods today, Priscilla, I am in the Bay Area for an Asentiv conference tomorrow where I am speaking. I will wave to you. I won’t be far away.
Priscilla:
That sounds good.
Ivan:
We have a guest who was with us last week. He has been on a number of podcasts. He is a good friend, Jeremy Walsh. He has been a member for 16 years. He handles the customer service for BNI Connect. He has done that amazingly well for the last seven years. He has been President of his chapter, Vice President,. He has been a Director Consultant. I forgot to mention last week that he is now a a member of the Board of Directors for BNI Foundation. Congratulations on that, Jeremy. I really appreciate your contributions to the Foundation by being on the Board. He is also PResident of The RIght Click. I didn’t ask you this last week. When we are all done, you should give your website for The Right Click as well. So today, Jeremy, welcome to the podcast, by the way.
Jeremy:
Thank you so much i. It is such a pleasure to be here.
Ivan:
You have been on a lot. You have probably been here as much or more than any one other guest that I have ever had, so you must be doing a great job.
Jeremy:
Thanks. I could talk about BNI Connect all day.
Ivan:
Especially now. WHen it first came out, maybe not so much wanting to, but you are always good at it. You are always good at calming people down, but now it is such a fantastic tool. Last week, we talked about the app. If you didn’t listen to last week’s podcast, go and listen to it. It is about the mobile app.
So this week, we want to talk about country-wide referrals. So you have six or seven talking points on this. Jeremy, I will let you run with it.
Jeremy:
Awesome. Well, I have to say that since BNI Connect was released- which by the way, if nobody has thank Ed you recently, Dr. Misner for even having this vision of how to tie the world together through BNI Connect, I just want to take the opportunity to personally thank you because it has truly changed so many people’s lives.
Ivan:
Wow. Nobody has so thank you. It was a monumental battle. You know, Jeremy, but for anybody listening to this, thank you, I appreciate it.
Jeremy:
So one of the top requested thing, the top requested things since BNI came out in 2011 and in 2012, we started being able to pass referrals in BNI Connect. We have always been able to do cross chapter referrals between chapters within a region. Unfortunately, it was locked down to just the people who were in your direct area. Something that we have always wanted to do- we would say, well, why do we have these arbitrary borders here in BNI? fF I have a referral for a fellow BNI member from California to Utah to Tennessee, New Jersey to Florida, be able to refer them to anyone I want to?
That is something we have finally been able to deliver just about a month ago in November of 2017. We opened up the borders within the country, so most countries, members can pass referrals to any other member within their country.. If you have a referral, if you are out on vacation and you go and visit a chapter, if you go and have a 1-2-1 with one of those members, record that activity in your Palms report.
This is just really just opening up the doors to networking and the accountability portion of it and get credit for that. IT has been yet another game changer in networking.
Ivan:
Fantastic. What else?
Jeremy:
Let me just tell you how it is impacting me in my chapter. If anybody knows how big Rhode Island is, it’s tiny. It really is small. IT is an hour from the northern most border to southern most border. There was an electrician in my chapter. He had gotten a referral for a client who was all the way in Massachusetts. All the way in Massachusetts. Now, we are talking like 22 miles, which for a Rhode Islander, is just way too far to drive.
So he was able to do through BNI Connect is he was able to find someone in Massachusetts to be able to pass that referral to. Actually using that mobile app, he was able to pass that referral to that chapter in Massachesetts. That is just a short distance referral.
I can tell you in my personal business, we do a lot of stuff remotely over the Internet. So we have clients that are mostly located in Rhode Island, but we have people in other states as well. We have one client with an office here in Rhode Island and another one in Florida. And when they were moving their office in Florida, I had to find another BNI member to help me out with that. Through the mobile app, I was able to pass that referral all the way down to somebody in Florida We both got credit for it in our Palms report, which was just absolutely wonderful, giving out the power of the referral to other people we know, like and trust throughout the organization, not just within our chapter.
Ivan:
You know, a few weeks ago, we actually did a podcast with Laura Hurren and we actually talked about chapters collaborating with each other. And these two stories are really along that line with members collaborating with and helping other members around the world. You know, around 2010 and 2011, Jeremy, I came up with the phrase “local business, global network” and trademarked that. I remember people thinking, “Really? YEah, we are a global network but nobody knows about it.” I really hoped that something like BNI Connect would truly make us a global network and hearing these stories you’re telling, they make me feel awesome in the direction this is going.
What else?
Jeremy:
Have you heard of anybody using this – you meet a whole lot more people than I do on daily basis. Are there any big referrals that you have heard about?
Ivan:
Amazing referrals. Huge referrals. One of my favorites- and by the way – if you have a fantastic story about a referral that you got from another member through BNI Connect, please, you know, post something up on the BNI Podcast. We want to see these stories. One of my favorite was that BNI member in Seattle, Washington, who got a referral from one of the biggest clients. HE went on to BNI Connect to find a – it was a commercial photographer. So he looked for a commercial photographer. He found one. He talked to her and he passed a referral to her. That client was Microsoft Corporate. It was a project for a new product line and she got to do the photography for it. It was such a great gig. She got that referral and many, many others have come because of BNI Connect.
Now we can actually track it and you can get credit for it. I think that is amazing.
Jeremy:
I think there are a couple of places where this isn’t available yet. I think that has something to do with the history of it?
Ivan:
YEah, you are right because when I started BNI in 1985, we did actually allow people to give cross chapter referrals and cross region referrals. We weren’t all over the US yet. ’85, ’86, ’87 around 86 06 87, though, we had to stop doing it. We couldn’t confirm the referrals had actually been done because everything was, you know, pen and paper. So there was no way to actually confirm unless you called the chapter and confirmed it happened.
With BNI Connect, we can confirm that a referral was given. Now, whether it closed or not, you find out later, but we can confirm the referral was given. So it has taken almost 30 years to come full circle but come full circle in a way that documents it which we couldn’t do back then.
Jeremy:
Awesome. I am so glad that it has come full circle, personally. One question I get asked a lot is whether or not we will get worldwide referrals. So I can tell you we do have a challenge with that right now – a technical one- and that is this little thing called currency conversion. It kind of gets in the way, so we kind of have to figure that piece out before we can have that. Because in order to figure out- when you have a cross chapter thank you for closed business, of course, you know, I received the business maybe in US dollars, but if I thanked somebody in US dollars in another country, then the numbers just aren’t going to add up. So we kind of have to figure that part out first but we sure are hoping for that next year.
Ivan:
One of the challenges of a blog all enterprise is that conversion issue, which we have to do every year when we say how much business has been generated.
Well, Jeremy, we really appreciate all the efforts that you and your team have given to make BNI Connect such a success. It really is today. Thank you for all you have done. Is there anything you want to add before we wrap up?
Jeremy:
Thank you for the opportunity and the vision you have. It really has been my pleasure, and I look forward to many more years of doing stuff with BNI Connect that we haven’t even thought of yet that is just going to make members’ lives better, easier, and more profitable.
Ivan:
I am in your neck of the woods today, Priscilla, I am in the Bay Area for an Asentiv conference tomorrow where I am speaking. I will wave to you. I won’t be far away.
Priscilla:
That sounds good.
Ivan:
We have a guest who was with us last week. He has been on a number of podcasts. He is a good friend, Jeremy Walsh. He has been a member for 16 years. He handles the customer service for BNI Connect. He has done that amazingly well for the last seven years. He has been President of his chapter, Vice President,. He has been a Director Consultant. I forgot to mention last week that he is now a a member of the Board of Directors for BNI Foundation. Congratulations on that, Jeremy. I really appreciate your contributions to the Foundation by being on the Board. He is also PResident of The RIght Click. I didn’t ask you this last week. When we are all done, you should give your website for The Right Click as well. So today, Jeremy, welcome to the podcast, by the way.
Jeremy:
Thank you so much i. It is such a pleasure to be here.
Ivan:
You have been on a lot. You have probably been here as much or more than any one other guest that I have ever had, so you must be doing a great job.
Jeremy:
Thanks. I could talk about BNI Connect all day.
Ivan:
Especially now. WHen it first came out, maybe not so much wanting to, but you are always good at it. You are always good at calming people down, but now it is such a fantastic tool. Last week, we talked about the app. If you didn’t listen to last week’s podcast, go and listen to it. It is about the mobile app.
So this week, we want to talk about country-wide referrals. So you have six or seven talking points on this. Jeremy, I will let you run with it.
Jeremy:
Awesome. Well, I have to say that since BNI Connect was released- which by the way, if nobody has thank Ed you recently, Dr. Misner for even having this vision of how to tie the world together through BNI Connect, I just want to take the opportunity to personally thank you because it has truly changed so many people’s lives.
Ivan:
Wow. Nobody has so thank you. It was a monumental battle. You know, Jeremy, but for anybody listening to this, thank you, I appreciate it.
Jeremy:
So one of the top requested thing, the top requested things since BNI came out in 2011 and in 2012, we started being able to pass referrals in BNI Connect. We have always been able to do cross chapter referrals between chapters within a region. Unfortunately, it was locked down to just the people who were in your direct area. Something that we have always wanted to do- we would say, well, why do we have these arbitrary borders here in BNI? IF I have a referral for a fellow BNI member from California to Utah to Tennessee, New Jersey to Florida, be able to refer them to anyone I want to?
That is something we have finally been able to deliver just about a month ago in November of 2017. We opened up the borders within the country, so most countries, members can pass referrals to any other member within their country.. If you have a referral, if you are out on vacation and you go and visit a chapter, if you go and have a 1-2-1 with one of those members, record that activity in your Palms report.
This is just really just opening up the doors to networking and the accountability portion of it and get credit for that. IT has been yet another game changer in networking.
Ivan:
Fantastic. What else?
Jeremy:
Let me just tell you how it is impacting me in my chapter. If anybody knows how big Rhode Island is, it’s tiny. It really is small. IT is an hour from the northern most border to southern most border. There was an electrician in my chapter. He had gotten a referral for a client who was all the way in Massachusetts. All the way in Massachusetts. Now, we are talking like 22 miles, which for a Rhode Islander, is just way too far to drive.
So he was able to do through BNI Connect is he was able to find someone in Massachusetts to be able to pass that referral to. Actually using that mobile app, he was able to pass that referral to that chapter in Massachesetts. That is just a short distance referral.
I can tell you in my personal business, we do a lot of stuff remotely over the Internet. So we have clients that are mostly located in Rhode Island, but we have people in other states as well. We have one client with an office here in Rhode Island and another one in Florida. And when they were moving their office in Florida, I had to find another BNI member to help me out with that. Through the mobile app, I was able to pass that referral all the way down to somebody in Florida We both got credit for it in our Palms report, which was just absolutely wonderful, giving out the power of the referral to other people we know, like and trust throughout the organization, not just within our chapter.
Ivan:
You know, a few weeks ago, we actually did a podcast with Laura Hurren and we actually talked about chapters collaborating with each other. And these two stories are really along that line with members collaborating with and helping other members around the world. You know, around 2010 and 2011, Jeremy, I came up with the phrase “local business, global network” and trademarked that. I remember people thinking, “Really? YEah, we are a global network but nobody knows about it.” I really hoped that something like BNI Connect would truly make us a global network and hearing these stories you’re telling, they make me feel awesome in the direction this is going.
What else?
Jeremy:
Have you heard of anybody using this – you meet a whole lot more people than I do on daily basis. Are there any big referrals that you have heard about?
Ivan:
Amazing referrals. Huge referrals. One of my favorites- and by the way – if you have a fantastic story about a referral that you got from another member through BNI Connect, please, you know, post something up on the BNI Podcast. We want to see these stories. One of my favorite was that BNI member in Seattle, Washington, who got a referral from one of the biggest clients. HE went on to BNI Connect to find a – it was a commercial photographer. So he looked for a commercial photographer. He found one. HE talked to her and he passed a referral to her. That client was Microsoft Corporate. IT was a project for a new product line and she got to do the photography for it. IT was such a great gig. She got that referral and many, many others have come because of BNI Connect.
Now we can actually track it and you can get credit for it. I think that is amazing.
Jeremy:
I think there are a couple of places where this isn’t available yet. I think that has something to do with the history of it?
Ivan:
YEah, you are right because when I started BNI in 1985, we did actually allow people to give cross chapter referrals and cross region referrals. We weren’t all over the US yet. ’85, ’86, ’87 around 86 06 87, though, we had to stop doing it. We couldn’t confirm the referrals had actually been done because everything was, you know, pen and paper. So there was no way to actually confirm unless you called the chapter and confirmed it happened.
With BNI Connect, we can confirm that a referral was given. Now, whether it closed or not, you find out later, but we can confirm the referral was given. So it has taken almost 30 years to come full circle but come full circle in a way that documents it which we couldn’t do back then.
Jeremy:
Awesome. I am so glad that it has come full circle, personally. One question I get asked a lot is whether or not we will get worldwide referrals. So I can tell you we do have a challenge with that right now – a technical one- and that is this little thing called currency conversion. It kind of gets in the way, so we kind of have to figure that piece out before we can have that. Because in order to figure out- when you have a cross chapter thank you for closed business, of course, you know, I received the business maybe in US dollars, but if I thanked somebody in US dollars in another country, then the numbers just aren’t going to add up. So we kind of have to figure that part out first but we sure are hoping for that next year.
Ivan:
One of the challenges of a blog all enterprise is that conversion issue, which we have to do every year when we say how much business has been generated.
Well, Jeremy, we really appreciate all the efforts that you and your team have given to make BNI Connect such a success. It really is today. Thank you for all you have done. Is there anything you want to add before we wrap up?
Jeremy:
Thank you for the opportunity and the vision you have. It really has been my pleasure, and I look forward to many more years of doing stuff with BNI Connect that we haven’t even thought of yet that is just going to make members’ lives better, easier, and more profitable.
Ivan:
Thank you Jeremy. I really appreciate it. I appreciate everything you do. We will definitely have you back on BNI Podcast in the future.
If you have used BNI Connect with the mobile app, please, share on BNIPodcast.com about your experience, especially if there was a lesson there- something you could teach other members, something that helped you get more business or that you found amazing, share it here on BNI Podcst so that other members can see the value of this program.
Jeremy Walsh, do you want to give your website?
Jeremy:
www.therightv=click.net. You can always reach me at Jeremy@bni.com as well.
Ivan:
Thank you, Jeremy.
Jeremy:
Thank you.
Ivan:
Back to you, Priscilla.
Priscilla:
That great. I think that’s it. Some great information. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Thank you for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of the Official BNI Podcast.
:
Thank you Jeremy. I really appreciate it. I appreciate everything you do. We will definitely have you back on BNI Podcast in the future.
If you have used BNI Connect with the mobile app, please, share on BNIPodcast.com about your experience, especially if there was a lesson there- something you could teach other members, something that helped you get more business or that you found amazing, share it here on BNI Podcst so that other members can see the value of this program.
Jeremy Walsh, do you want to give your website?
Jeremy:
www.therightv=click.net. You can always reach me at Jeremy@bni.com as well.
Ivan:
Thank you, Jeremy.
Jeremy:
Thank you.
Ivan:
Back to you, Priscilla.
Priscilla:
That great. I think that’s it. Some great information. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by the Networking for Success Channel on YouTube. Thank you for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of the Official BNI Podcast.