BNI Founder’s Day

The First Annual BNI Founder’s Daystring(36) "The First Annual BNI Founder’s Day"

July 1, 2021
Founder's Day, Ivan Misner 2

In April of 2021, I announced an idea that I have been contemplating for some time: a special day of one-to-one meetings with BNI Members from around the world. More than 170 requests were received, and sixteen Members were selected to meet with me to ask any business and networking questions they had.

Last week on June 24th we had the first BNI Founder’s Day, an enjoyable and fun day of exclusive meetings with amazing BNI Members that I was honored to meet. It has been quite a while since I was able to have 1-2-1 meetings with Members and I found the questions and conversations to be very refreshing.

I want to say Thank You to the following BNI Members for their contributions in helping to establish this new tradition.

Elbert Or, Philippines
Chandana Bandara, Sri Lanka
Mahadevan R, India
Praveen Samuel, India
Soaham Panse, India
Jayant Agarwal, India
Michel Smeets, Belgium
Piotr Muszynski, Spain
Faye Goodwin, South Africa
Ilaria Salonna, Italy
Marjanne Deelen, Netherlands
David Whitehouse, UK
Ryan Sarkkinen, USA
Phyllis Whetsel, USA
Libby Bigolin, USA
Ingrid Misner, Canada

I invite everyone to join me in having a day filled with your own 1-2-1s next year when the second annual BNI Founder’s Day is held on the last Thursday in June.

BNI Founder’s Day

2021 BNI Founder’s Daystring(24) "2021 BNI Founder’s Day"

June 21, 2021
, , , , Founder's Day, Ivan Misner, world tour 2

Welcome to the 2021 BNI Founder’s Day. Later this week, I start a new tradition at BNI. I selected 17 BNI members from around the world for a one-to-one meeting with me on June 24th. These seventeen BNI members represent eleven different countries. I am looking forward to these 17 individual one-to-one meetings.

The 2021 BNI Founder’s Day

It is going to be an amazing BNI Founder’s Day as I have one-to-one meetings with our BNI members. Furthermore, I am anticipating great questions from the BNI members during our one-to-one meetings on Thursday. The purpose is for BNI members to ask any business or networking-related questions during their meeting with me. Congratulations to those who were selected for a one-to-one meeting on June 24th.

187 requests were submitted from my April 15th blog. Thanks to the more than 170 additional BNI Members who also submitted request forms.  I wish I had the time to have a one-to-one meeting with all of you. Founder’s Day will become an annual event on the third Thursday of June every year. I recommend that you reapply again next year (starting in 2023, it will be the last Thursday in June each year).  Therefore, I will be planning to schedule another day full of individual one-to-one meetings with BNI members from around the world. The 2022 BNI Founder’s Day will be on June 30th, 2022. Look for the announcements in mid-April 2022 and submit your request form to my assistant by mid-May.

Celebrate Founder’s Day by Scheduling One-to-One Meetings this year on June 24th 

I invite all my followers to help me celebrate BNI Founder’s Day 2021 globally by scheduling several on June 24th too.

Your one-to-one meetings should be both structured and social. The more you can find overlapping areas of professional and personal interest, the more successful your one-to-one meetings are going to be. The Gains Exchange form (Available on BNI Business Builder for BNI members) is an effective tool for discovering these common interests. There is a direct linear correlation between the number of one-to-one meetings conducted and the number of referrals. Those who do three or more one-to-one meetings per month give and receive twice as many referrals as those who do one or fewer one-to-one meetings in a month. More One-to-Ones equal more referrals.

BNI Founder’s Day, on June 24, 2021, is an excellent opportunity. Schedule your own one-to-one meetings with your fellow chapter members or even BNI members from around the world. Reach out and invite other business owners and professionals to have a conversation with you to learn more about their business. Share your G.A.I.N.S. profile and ask some questions. It can be a great way to build and strengthen your business relationships.

cheese

Big Block of Cheese Daystring(23) "Big Block of Cheese Day"

April 15, 2021
, Ask Ivan 2

Anyone who has known me for long, knows that I loved the TV series, West Wing.  It was television at its best.  One of the episodes introduced the “Big Block of Cheese Day” concept to many people, myself included.

The idea stems from a situation in 1835 where U.S. President, Andrew Jackson, was given a 1,400-pound block of cheese from a grateful dairyman. The gift was delivered to the White House which was a decidedly mixed blessing.  It was a wonderful gift, but it was also 1,400 pounds!!!  Jackson didn’t know what to do with all of this cheese so, he opened the doors of the White House for the public to come in and take some of the tasty (and according to some accounts, smelly) cheese for themselves.  Apparently, thousands of visitors came to the White House and dispatched the massive block in just a few hours.

The TV series had a couple episodes where they took this concept further and required that all the top staff meet with public citizens to listen to topics that they wouldn’t normally embrace.

BNI Founder’s Day

That tradition has motivated me to do a “networking variation” of the idea.  On the third Thursday of June every year, I’m going to have a “Founder’s Day” (starting in 2023, it will be the last Thursday in June).  On this day each year, I will book at least 16 individual 1-2-1’s with BNI members from around the world.  The purpose is for BNI members to ask any business or networking related questions they would like to run by me during their 25 – 30 minute 1-2-1 with me. If you are a BNI member, I invite you to complete the form included in this blog. We will select the best responses from many places all around the world.

Business owners and professionals, have you invited your team or your customers to have a conversation with you or ask some questions? It can be a great way to build and strengthen your business relationships. Even without the cheese.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR 1-2-1 REQUEST WITH DR. IVAN MISNER

BNI Founder’s Day = Thursday, June 24, 2021 from 9:00am – 6:00pm CDT

THIS COMPLETED REQUEST FORM MUST BE RECEIVED BY MAY 21, 2021.

I’m sorry, you have missed the deadline. The opportunity for BNI members to submit their request for a 30-minute one-to-one with me has passed. Please try again next year.