Episode 925: Opportunity vs. Obligation

Summary

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The Official BNI Podcast – Episode 925: Opportunity vs. Obligation

Date: August 27, 2025
Host: Priscilla Rice (guest hosting for Dr. Ivan Misner)
Guest: Tim Roberts

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Overview

In this episode, guest co-host Tim Roberts explores the crucial mindset shift between viewing BNI chapter leadership roles as an obligation versus seeing them as an opportunity. With chapter leadership transitions occurring globally, Tim emphasizes how reframing these roles unlocks both personal and professional growth, increased visibility, and ultimately, greater business success through BNI. The episode urges members to embrace leadership as a means to stand out—rather than as a burdensome task—and offers actionable advice for current and incoming leaders.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Leadership Transition Season in BNI

• Chapters worldwide are currently transitioning leadership roles, typically annually, sometimes biannually.
• Common roles include President, Vice President, Membership Committee, Visitor Host, and Education Coordinator.
• While many members see these transitions as extra work, Tim urges a change in perspective.

2. Obligation vs. Opportunity: The Mindset Shift

• Many members hesitantly accept or refuse roles, seeing them as obligations—something they “have to do.”

• Quote [02:05]:
  "It'll look like work. It'll look like this extra obligation in our life... Many, many, many members miss a massive opportunity because of that veil."
  — Tim Roberts

• Approaching these roles as opportunities transforms both member experience and results.

• Leadership roles are designed to:

  • Increase visibility and credibility within the chapter.
  • Enhance profitability by strengthening personal relationships and skills.
  • Serve as platforms to showcase skillsets, commitment, and professionalism.

3. Roles as Growth Vehicles

• Each BNI leadership position, even less sought-after ones (such as Visitor Host), offers the chance to:

  • Highlight and practice leadership.
  • Prepare properly and demonstrate commitment.
  • Form new connections and strengthen existing ones.

• Quote [03:35]:
  "All of these roles give us just an amazing opportunity to get more out of our membership... not just in tangible referrals, but an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to strengthen skill sets in leadership."
  — Tim Roberts

4. The Double-Edged Sword: Opportunity Can Go Both Ways

• Failing to engage fully in a leadership role damages credibility and visibility.

• Inadequate effort—such as not preparing, not attending, or skipping follow-up—reflects poorly on the member.

• Memorable Examples:

  • President arrives unprepared, as if “they’ve never seen the agenda before.”
  • Visitor Host fails to greet or follow up with guests.
  • Education Coordinator “completely winging” the educational moment.

• Quote [05:20]:
  "You also gain an opportunity to destroy both [visibility and credibility]. If you take a role and you don’t give it your full effort … you will showcase yourself in that chapter in a negative light."
  — Tim Roberts

5. Managing Time and Teamwork

• No BNI role should be overwhelming by itself; overwhelm typically indicates a lack of teamwork.

• Every member is busy—excuses such as “I’m too busy” often disguise a mistaken sense of obligation.

• The true challenge is mindset, not workload.

• Quote [06:45]:
  "Everybody in the chapter is busy. Everybody in the chapter has other things going on outside the room. And it’s missed again because it’s under the veil of an obligation.”
  — Tim Roberts

6. Best Practices for Leadership Selection and Training

• When recruiting, focus on benefits and skills—don’t “beg,” but explain the genuine opportunities.

• Existing leaders: Reflect on how you’ll leverage your role to its fullest.

• Use BNI’s online resources and training for better preparation.

• Seek mentorship with directors or executive directors for strategy and support.

• Quote [08:09]:
  "Make sure you are ultimately prepared with a strategy to take advantage of this opportunity and really grow, learn, and profit from it instead of just taking on another thing."
  — Tim Roberts

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Memorable Moments & Listener Highlights

• Personal Experiences [08:55]:

  • Priscilla and Tim discuss favorite roles: President, Education Coordinator, Visitor Host.

  • Emphasize the unique opportunity each provides for connection and visibility.

  • Quote [09:06]:
    "Those are the most visible opportunities in front of your fellow members and then the Visitor Host... it gave me the opportunity to meet everybody."
    — Tim Roberts

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:29 – 01:00: Introduction of guest co-host Tim Roberts and episode theme
• 01:00 – 03:35: The obligation vs. opportunity mindset; the intent behind annual leadership transitions
• 03:35 – 05:20: Growth opportunities in different roles; the risk of damaging credibility
• 05:20 – 07:15: Examples of negative consequences and importance of preparation
• 07:15 – 08:09: Addressing excuses, how to approach members for leadership
• 08:09 – 08:55: Preparation, training recommendations, and maximizing the opportunity
• 08:55 – 09:24: Personal reflections on most valuable BNI roles
• 09:24 – End: Closing thanks and encouragement

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Tone and Language

The conversation is upbeat, direct, and focused on practical leadership wisdom within the BNI framework. Tim Roberts is candid about common pitfalls, but ultimately positive and encouraging: members are urged to seek growth, visibility, and credibility, rather than additional burdens or chores.

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Actionable Takeaways

• See BNI leadership as a launchpad for personal and business growth, not just a duty.
• Get prepared: leverage trainings, mentorship, and chapter support.
• When recruiting for roles, share the opportunity and benefit—not just the need.
• Use the leadership experience to build long-lasting visibility and strong relationships within BNI.

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Transcript

[A]

Episode number 925, Opportunity versus Obligation.

[B]

You're listening to the official BI podcast with BI founder and chief visionary officer, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Stay tuned for networking and referral marketing tips from the man who's been called the father of modern networking, along with suggestions and insights into getting the most from your membership in the world's largest networking organization, bni.

[A]

Hello everybody, and welcome back to the official welcome to the official BNI Podcast. I'm Priscilla Rice and I'm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I'm joined on the phone today by Tim Roberts, who's standing in today as a guest co host for Dr. Meisner and will be joining us from time to time. Hello, Tim, welcome to the podcast.

[C]

Hello, Priscilla, how are you?

[A]

I am great. Thank you very much. And tell me a little bit about what you're going to teach us today.

[C]

Yeah, so the title of it is Obligation, Our Opportunity versus Obligation. You can go either way, I guess. And it's really about leadership. Within bni, we had a great opportunity to meet with Tim Cook and dive into how leadership plays in our organization, the different levels according to John Maxwell and everything else. But we're in the midst of an important time of year. I know nationally in the US and I believe pretty pretty standard globally around leadership changeover amongst all the chapters. Some regions will change them twice a year, most will do it once a year. And it provides an amazing opportunity for people that is often perceived as an obligation. And what I mean by that is some people will be approached to take a leadership role in the chapter, whatever it may be, from president to vice president, membership committee, visitor, host, education coordinator, whatever role they may be approached about. And it'll be under the veil of, oh, this is something I have to do, this is something I don't really want to do. Maybe they're being begged to take the position because other people haven't been. It'll look like work. It'll look like this extra obligation in our life that I got to spend time on that maybe I wasn't thinking about. And the problem there is many, many, many members miss a massive opportunity because of that veil. They look at something as when we look at something as an obligation, it's something that we have to do that we don't really want to do. But if we can flip that to realize, hey, this is something that's presenting me an opportunity, we will approach it in a different way that will make us far more effective in that role. So what opportunity is really created. The reason why BNI chapters change leadership teams each and every year is because we want to give everybody an opportunity to showcase themselves, to have an opportunity to increase their visibility and credibility within the chapter and ultimately increase their profitability from that chapter by doing so. And that's what every leadership team role, again, no matter what it is, presents us. It's an opportunity to showcase our skill sets, to showcase our commitment, to showcase our professionalism, to showcase our preparedness. You know, how well we prepare for our. Our meetings when we have certain roles to showcase our commitment to our fellow members, to give back. And doing so will increase our visibility amongst the members. Some roles more than others. You know, there are certain roles. When I was a member, I always tried to get if I could be president, I'd want to do that. If I could be the education coordinator, I wanted to do that. Or the most important role that I thought gave me the most opportunity that I think a lot of people take under obligation and don't really put full time and effort in is visitor hosts. All of these roles give us just an amazing opportunity to get more out of our membership, not just intangible referrals, which it should, if we're increasing our visibility and credibility amongst the members, but give us an opportunity to learn, give us an opportunity to strengthen skill sets in leadership. Like we talked about those different levels with Tim Cook. Now, having said all that, I think it's also important for people to realize that while you gain this opportunity to increase your visibility and credibility, you also gain an opportunity to destroy both of them. And I think that's also important to understand and to accept in the sense of when you take a role and you don't give it your full effort, if you take a role and you kind of go, yeah, whatever, I'll do that, but, you know, you're not going to fully commit to it, you're not going to do the training, or you don't pay attention to it, or you don't take the responsibility seriously enough, you will showcase yourself in that chapter in a negative light. You know, there's nothing worse than seeing somebody take a role of president in a chapter and completely show up unprepared like they've never seen the agenda before, or vice president to come into the meeting and be like, oh, yeah, I haven't, you know, been updating the Palms reports. I haven't been updating. I didn't enter these reports. Or a visitor host who doesn't show up on time to welcome visitors, or another one who may Be responsible for following up. Never, never following up on visitors or an education coordinator who you can tell is completely winging their education moment and so forth. We all have this opportunity to to highlight and showcase skills, but when we take it, we have to have the mindset that it is an important thing. No role in B and I should require significant amount of time and effort, but they all require some amount of time and effort. The only time a role is overwhelming is when one person's trying to do everything and you have a poorly functioning team where everybody's relying on one or two people to carry the weight for everybody else. So it's just an important time of year. It's an important opportunity that is given to people that is often missed. Too often we see people turn down these roles for a variety of reasons, but a lot of them are just generally excuses because they don't want to do it. You'll hear, oh, I'm just too busy. I got too much going on. I've got this and that. Everybody in the chapter has those things going on. Everybody in the chapter is busy. Everybody in the chapter has other things going on outside the room. And it's missed again because it's under the veil of an obligation. It's under the veil of something that's work and effort. And one more thing I gotta do. And I'm hoping this podcast leads to some good conversations inside the chapter. If you haven't already selected your leadership teams, you know when you approach somebody, you want to explain what is the benefit for them by doing it. Far too often, chapters go up and just say, oh my God, we need you to do this because nobody else will do it. Well, when you say it that way, nobody's going to want to do it. Explain what is the opportunity? What is the benefit? Why are you picking them? What is the skill set that they've highlighted earlier that you think we want to highlight more and utilize as a chapter in this important role? If you've already selected them, because I'm not sure of the exact release date and you're in a leadership team, incoming leadership team that may start on October 1st, reflect on what opportunity you've now been given and how are you going to take advantage of that opportunity and ensure that you're highlighting yourself in the most positive light, that you are actually increasing your visibility and credibility in a positive way that will pay dividends not only this year, but for years to come. When you do that, ensure that you really are well prepared for that role. Revisit the Training beauty of BNI now with online training 24. 7 access to get, you know, to refresh. Really make sure you understand what your responsibilities are. Really make sure you understand how to be the best you can be at that. Spend some time doing a one to one with a director or managing director, executive director, whomever to learn more. Make sure you are ultimately prepared with a strategy to take advantage of this opportunity and really grow, learn and profit from it instead of just taking on another thing. So that's all I have on it. I think it's an important time of year, it's an important topic and I wish and hope more people take advantage of it when they're presented that opportunity. So Priscilla, back to you.

[A]

Yeah, well, the one thing I want to say is my two favorite roles were being president and. And being educational coordinator.

[C]

Absolutely.

[A]

I love those two roles.

[C]

I mean those are the most visible opportunities right in A in front of your fellow members and then the visitor host. Why I like that is. Cause it gave me the opportunity to meet everybody.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And whether somebody joined or not, I had an opportunity to kind of start that relationship process unlike anybody else. If you're prepared for it.

[A]

Exactly. Okay, well, thank you, Tim. That was a great podcast. Really enjoyable.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

That's it for this week. Thanks so much for joining us. This podcast is sponsored by MeisnerAudioPrograms.com these audio programs will provide you with the tools and the inspiration to powerfully enhance your BNI experience. So check out the great material that's available to [e-mail] and use the promo code IVAN5. Oh, for 50% off of everything. All of the proceeds go to the B and I Foundation. Thanks so much 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 B and I podcast.