Episode 941: My Personal Story

Summary

The Official BNI Podcast – Episode 941: My Personal Story

Date: December 17, 2025
Host: Dr. Ivan Misner
Guest: Anna Rivers, Area Director for BNI Oregon and SW Washington

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Official BNI Podcast features a deeply personal and inspiring story from Anna Rivers, Area Director of BNI Oregon and SW Washington. Anna shares how she used the international BNI network to reconnect with her biological family in Romania after being adopted and living in the United States since infancy. The conversation, facilitated by Dr. Ivan Misner, delves into the power of global networking, the emotional journey of family discovery, and the tangible, life-changing reach of the BNI community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Anna’s Background and BNI Role

• Anna Rivers joined BNI in 2019 and has been instrumental in launching and growing chapters in her region.
• She is passionate about building strong communities—the essence of BNI’s mission.
  [01:03–01:45]

The Global BNI Convention & The “What If” Moment

• Anna describes her first global BNI convention in Madrid, which sparked a pivotal idea: could she use BNI’s worldwide network to find her birth family in Romania?
  • Quote: "I had this very random what if thought when I was a baby, I was adopted from Romania and brought to the United States. ... How can I leverage this global network to find my biological family?" — Anna [02:17]
• She reached out to Manuela, BNI’s National Director in Romania, leading to new opportunities.
  [02:17–04:06]

Leveraging the BNI Network for a Personal Search

• With help from Manuela, Anna joined Romanian Facebook groups for adoptees searching for families.
• Within two days, a social worker responded with news: contact details for her uncle.
  • Memorable Moment: "I posted my information on a Tuesday, and literally two days later, I had a social worker respond to me and say, 'I just got off the phone with your uncle.'" — Anna [03:53]

Rapid Reunification and Emotional Encounters

• The pace surprised Anna; Zoom meetings with her biological relatives—including her mother in Italy—were arranged almost immediately.
• The initial virtual reunion was described as warm and familiar:
  • Quote: "It truly felt like you were going to your family's house for Sunday dinner. Like, we have known these people forever." — Anna [05:36]
• Anna’s cousin shared a resonant Romanian phrase: “Blood is thicker than water.”
  [05:36–06:24]

Expanding Family Connections and International Travel

• Anna shares practical details about meeting her birth family: traveling to Italy and Romania, overcoming language barriers with tech (Google Translate), and quickly feeling at home.
• Anna and her husband are now considering purchasing a second home in Italy for frequent visits—supported by BNI connections, including a real estate agent they met at a BNI chapter in Perugia.
  • Quote: "We always try to go to a B and I meeting... and he [the visitor host] happened to be the residential real estate agent." — Anna [06:42]
• Anna and her husband also used BNI members' businesses for travel tech and passed referrals internationally—showcasing global Giver’s Gain. [06:42–08:00]

The Power and Speed of the BNI Network

• Dr. Misner is astonished by how quickly the BNI network enabled Anna's search:
  • Quote: “One of the things that has surprised me over and over again is how quickly things can happen within BNI. When you put it out there… it’s amazing how quickly sometimes things can come together.” — Dr. Ivan Misner [09:14]
• Both Anna and Ivan reflect on the BNI principle: state your need, and the network responds faster and more generously than you might imagine.
  [09:14–10:02]

Advice to BNI Members: Go Global

• Anna’s key message: attend global BNI conventions if possible—they unlock a world of opportunities.
  • Quote: “Because it wasn't until I went to a global convention in Spain that I really understood how big the opportunities in BNI are... We all spoke the same language, which is Giver’s Gain.” — Anna [10:02]
• Dr. Misner highlights BNI’s unique global culture, comparing international conventions to a harmonious United Nations summit.
  • Quote: “It’s like going to a United Nations event where all the countries love each other.” — Dr. Ivan Misner [11:15] [10:02–11:48]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Anna Rivers (02:17):
  “How can I leverage this global network to find my biological family?”

• Anna Rivers (03:53):
  “I just got off the phone with your uncle.”

• Anna Rivers (05:36):
  “It truly felt like you were going to your family's house for Sunday dinner. Like, we have known these people forever... blood is thicker than water.”

• Dr. Ivan Misner (09:14):
  “When you put it out there… it’s amazing how quickly sometimes things can come together.”

• Anna Rivers (10:02):
  “We all spoke the same language, which is Giver’s Gain.”

• Dr. Ivan Misner (11:15):
  “It’s like going to a United Nations event where all the countries love each other.”

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:03 — Introduction to Anna and her BNI background
• 02:17 — Anna’s inspiration during the global convention
• 04:06 — Finding her uncle within two days
• 05:36 — Emotional family reunion and Romanian proverb
• 06:42 — Meeting BNI members in Italy and planning a second home
• 08:00 — The global reach of Giver’s Gain in action
• 09:14 — Ivan on the surprising speed of BNI networking
• 10:02 — Anna’s advice: Attend global conventions
• 11:15 — Ivan’s reflection on the culture of BNI international conventions

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Conclusion

Anna Rivers’ journey underscores the transformative power of the BNI network and its ethos of collective support. Her story moves from a spontaneous “what if” to remarkable real-world results—within days—demonstrating that personal and professional lives are woven together through global relationships. The episode encourages BNI members everywhere to embrace international opportunities and believe in the network’s ability to redefine what’s possible.

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Transcript

[A]

Episode number 941. My Personal Story.

[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 to the official B and I 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 the founder and the Chief visionary officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you?

[C]

I am at home in Austin, Texas for a few days and always good to be home around the holidays.

[A]

No kidding. So what do you have to share with us today?

[C]

I have a guest and my guest's name is Anna Rivers. Anna is the area Director for BNI Oregon and Southwest Washington. She's a proud member of Portland Business Advantage, the largest chapter on the West Coast. And since Joining BNI in 2019, she's helped launch and grow chapters across the region. She's helped build strong communities, which was what BNI is all about, is building communities. And she's not only supporting business owners through bni, she also enjoys spending time with outdoors with her husband and their chocolate lab named Finch. What a great name. Anna, welcome to BNI podcast.

[D]

Thank you so much, Ivan.

[C]

It is great having you on and you have an amazing story that I've heard and I asked for you to be on the podcast and you know, BNI absolutely goes beyond the confines of the meeting room and your story is an amazing example of that. So I'm just going to let you tell your story and I might add some color commentary as you go tell everybody the story you told me when we met before.

[D]

Excellent. Thank you so much, Ivan, for the opportunity. So my first global convention was three years ago in Madrid. And when I was there, and that was the first time I really experienced BNI on a global level. I had this very random what if thought when I was a baby, I was adopted from Romania and brought to the United States. And I was actually seeing Romania at that time winning a lot of her awards for bni. And so I thought to myself, how can I leverage this global network to find my biological family, my birth family? And so that's when I asked myself, where or who is the national director of BNI in Romania? And that's really what started this idea. Was attending a global convention. And so last year I asked the national director of the United States to introduce me to Manuela, who is the national director in Romania, so that I could see, do you have any members who could help? Can you help in any capacity? And that is when she introduced me to these very specific Facebook groups where people who were adopted from Romania, they can post as much as or as little of their story within the Facebook groups and people try to help you reunite with your biological family. I posted my information on a Tuesday, and literally two days later, I had a social worker respond to me and say, I just got off the phone with your uncle. Let me give you the information.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

Tell us more. This is. I'm riveted by this again.

[D]

Yeah, so it was. It was a whirlwind because it only took two days when we actually posted the information. My husband and I figured we'll start planning now so we can travel to Europe a year from now kind of a situation. But it ended up going much quicker than that. And so we hopped on a zoom call with my biological grandfather, grandmother, cousins, aunts, uncles, everybody came together in my grandparents house to get on.

[C]

And how long was that? From the time you put up the message on Facebook.

[D]

So we got connected on Thursday and that happened the next day on Friday.

[C]

So literally just a few days. I love that.

[D]

Exactly. So it was really fun because of course we don't speak any Romanian. So it was like, hi, hi. But we used a lot of Google Translate. They then connected me to my birth mother and my brothers who now live in Italy. And so after the zoom call with my extended family, we hopped on a zoom call with my biological mother. And then maybe the week after we booked our flights, this was in April, and we were in Italy and Romania end of May, beginning of June.

[A]

So it was very.

[D]

And how did that meeting go leading up to it? It was a very anxious process. Like, I don't know what to expect. I don't know what I'm walking into. It's emotional for me, but it's also emotional for them. Understanding that. But once we actually got there, it truly felt like you were going to your family's house for Sunday dinner. Like, we have known these people forever. My cousin Dennis, he said in Romanian, we have this phrase that blood is thicker than water. And that is truly what it felt like was, this is our blood, this is our family. We may have not seen each other in over 30 years, but we're still family, we're still connected.

[A]

How old were you when you were taken out of Romania?

[D]

I was nine months old.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[D]

Yeah. Just a baby now.

[C]

Do I understand correctly that you're thinking about now your biological mother lives in Italy? Are you thinking about getting a second home in Italy?

[D]

Yeah. So interesting. We started talking about, well, if we're going to go back on a regular basis, why not buy a second home? And so anytime we travel internationally, we always try to go to a B and I meeting, one of which was BNI Valtabarina in Perugia. And the visitor host team being so great, they knew we didn't speak Italian. They sat us right next to one of the members who does, and he happened to be the residential real estate agent of the chapter. So we shared with him, you know, this is our dream. We want to eventually, hopefully buy a second home in Italy so we can go back and forth as often as he wanted. And so that goes to really speaking to the fact that Giver's gain is so global. It wasn't just him. We used these translating devices to be easier to talk with family, and we purchased them from Jay Lucas, who's in BNI of the Tiger in the Ozarks. When we were in Romania, we went to their national conference. My husband was passing referrals to other people in his contact space here. So BNI really is so much more than the confines of your meeting room. It is global.

[C]

It really is global. No question. And I love the fact that you're thinking about getting a second home in Italy. I love Italy. I've always loved going to Italy. I'm a big fan of wine, so I love Italian wine and. And French wine. And I would love to have a second home in Italy, except I have to travel to too many places. But that's a great place to go.

[D]

Absolutely.

[C]

So this happened at a global convention, Right? Or it all started with you talking to somebody at a global convention.

[D]

Yeah. It all began when I was in Madrid and it really was just this, like, what if thoughts. It wasn't until last year that we actually started the process connected to Manuela so we could figure out how we were going to do it.

[C]

Yeah. And were you shocked that it took just a. Just a couple of three days?

[D]

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. We fully expected. We'll start these conversations. It's not going to be overnight that this happens, so we'll plan. Okay. A year from now, we'll be.

[C]

Yeah, exactly.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

That's what I would have thought. I would have thought what's going to take time.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

You know, you're gonna have to meet somebody who meets somebody who talks to somebody who meets somebody else. I'm a little shocked that it happened this quickly, but just a little shocked. Because one of the things that has surprised me over and over again is how quickly things can happen within bni. When you put it out there, all you have to do is put it out there, whatever it is that you need or want. And when you do that, it's amazing to me how quickly sometimes things can. Can really come together. And that's what I see with this. Tell me, how do you see this applying to BNI in general and to BNI members around the world?

[D]

Well, I would say if you are your everyday B and I member and you're wondering if global convention is an opportunity that you should take advantage of, I would say 100%, yes. It can provide value to any B and I member. Because it wasn't until I went to a global convention in Spain that I really understood how big the opportunities in BNI are. I was still standing there. I was surrounded by entrepreneurs from more than 70 different countries. But I realized we all spoke the same language, which is givers gain, which.

[C]

Is why I have the phrase, you know, different people, different places, different countries, different cultures. We all speak the language of referrals. And that is really, really true in bni.

[D]

Yes, absolutely. And it was really that moment that opened my eyes to how much is possible when we stop focusing on what can't be done and start seeing what can be done. Yeah.

[C]

Well, listen, I absolutely love this story and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing it. We just got back a little while ago from the convention in Sydney, Australia. We now have our annual conventions all over the world. And if you're a member and you have an opportunity to go to one of the conventions, I urge you to do it because it's. It's like. It's like going to United nations meeting, especially when you see this flag ceremony where every country comes out with their flag. It's like going to a United nations event where all the countries love each other. And that's what happens at a BNI International convention.

[D]

Yes, absolutely.

[C]

Anna, thank you so much for sharing your very personal story. And I am so glad that you met your biological mother. And I hope you get a place in Italy and get to spend time with your family. And thanks for being on B and I podcast today.

[D]

Thank you so much for having me.

[C]

Over to you, Priscilla.

[A]

Okay, thank you. That's it for today. Thank you so much for that. Great story. Really wonderful. This podcast is sponsored by MeisnerAudioPrograms.com these audio programs will provide you with the tools and the inspiration to powerfully enhance your B and I experience. So check out the great material that's available to [e-mail] and then use the promo code IVAN5O 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.