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Episode number 966, living your succession plan.
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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.
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the official 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 B and I, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Hello, Ivan, how are you? And where are you?
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So, Priscilla, not everybody may know this phrase worldwide, but I'm sure you've heard of it. The phrase deep in the heart of Texas. Yep. Well, right now, I am deep in the heat of Texas.
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That's good.
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This is hot here in. In Austin, Texas. I'm home for a little while, and I love being home. I love. I love the space that I've created here. So I'm deep in the heat of Texas.
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Okay, and what do you have to share with us in that?
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Something completely different than anything I have done with a podcast. My goal is that this message will help people for whenever. Whenever they plan on transitioning to a smaller role in their own organization. Over the last few years, I've gone from being King Arthur to Colonel Sanders, and that was not by accident. That was carefully orchestrated on my part. There comes a. A point in leadership where your greatest contribution is no longer building the kingdom or the business. It's preparing the kingdom or the business to thrive without you. So I'm going to talk a little bit about me, but this. This applies to anyone who wants to think about a transition. And. And honestly, you don't start thinking about a transition the year before you do it. You start thinking about it years before you do it, which I did. I was recently asked at a BNI conference about my succession plan at bni, and I just blurted out a phrase, and my assistant Dana said, oh, you need to talk about that. That's. That's a great topic. And I. What I blurted out was, I'm living my succession plan. King Arthur is about building, leading, fighting the battles, sitting at the head of the table, Colonel Sanders. For those of you who maybe aren't familiar with Colonel Sanders around the world, he. Colonel Sanders was the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, kfc, and he was the founder of kfc. But in his later years was really the spokesperson for kfc. So Colonel Sanders is about being the ambassador, the storyteller, the symbol of the brand, the trusted elder statesman. And there's a difference between building and stewarding. And that is what I've attempted to do over the last 10, 12 years almost. So the early stage leadership of any business requires vision, energy, decision making, and constant problem solving. I mean, constant. There were times where I felt a case of severe decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is the mental and emotional exhaustion that results from making too many decisions over a pretty quick period of time. And I was there and I did my best not to show it very often, but I was there for sure. I had a lot of decision fatigue after decades of running the company. Mature leadership. When you're past the early stage leadership, mature leadership really requires wisdom, mentorship, trust, and it requires letting go. Founders often think that succession means retirement. I've discovered it can mean reinvention. Doesn't have to mean retirement. It can mean retirement. That's the direction that you want to go, that's fine. But I've discovered it can, it can mean reinvention. So for those out there that don't necessarily see themselves retiring, but they want to let go, it's then it becomes a matter of reinvention. And founders often have an identity crisis later in their career. Many entrepreneurs struggle because their identity becomes fused with the company. They believe if, if I'm not running it, I'm not relevant. But transitioning roles can feel emotionally strange to them. So because you have less operational authority, you have fewer daily decisions, others are doing things differently than you would have had. Surprise, surprise. And you have to recognize that. And, and here's an important insight. Different is not always wrong. Ego can quietly sabotage succession. Founders who want to leave a long term legacy can't let that happen. So during the King Arthur phase, you know, Arthur united the kingdom, he built the round table, he fought the battles. Founders have to often create the vision, be the culture champion of the company, which is, which is okay later as well. That's an important piece later. But they recruit believers in, in the business. They protect the mission. You know, our mission is to help people increase each other's business to a structured, positive, professional, referral, marketing platform. So they protect that mission and they drive the momentum. So there's a season where the organization needs that warrior and there's a season where the organization needs the elder statesman. So what I like to call my Colonel Sanders phase is to be the face of the organization, the storyteller, the symbol of the organization, the trusted ambassador. I still am the culture champion. The elder statesman still needs to be the culture champion, but they also need to be the elder statesman of the organization. Colonel Sanders, KFC represented values more than operations. He wasn't back there frying buckets of chicken. He was talking about the brand. And at a certain point, if the founder is still personally salting every French fry, something has gone terribly wrong in the organization. You have to transition from being the operator to the educator. And that means you're becoming the global spokesperson, the teacher, the historian, the keeper of the culture, the champion of the culture. Living one's succession plan. Like I blurted out when I was asked, you know, what's my succession plan? Living one succession plan means living a legacy instead of just leaving a legacy. Let me repeat that. It means living a legacy instead of just leaving a legacy. Most people think legacy happens after they're gone, but living your succession plan means seeing others lead successfully, watching the next generation grow, becoming proud instead of possessive. In my book Infinite Legacy, we talk about leaving an accidental legacy versus leaving an intentional legacy. And I've talked about that in a previous podcast. We'll leave a link to the book here in this podcast. It's a quick read and I highly recommend it. Infinite Legacy. An accidental legacy happens someday, but an intentional legacy happens now. Happens every day. It's how you show up in the world. Letting others lead is incredibly difficult for the owner of a business. For the founder, one of the hardest lessons is that others will not lead exactly like you. And that's okay. And that's inevitable. It's important to choose wisely, and the people that you have take over for you. And if you look at the growth of BNI for the last 12 years, we've grown. You know, I've had people say, B isn't what it used to be. Well, yeah, but we've grown the last 12 years. The organization continues to grow. So we've had amazing people in place. And yes, there have been changes, but those changes were necessary for a. For the globalization of the organization. It's healthy and it's inevitable. And since it's inevitable, then it's important to help guide that direction and not just abandon it if at all possible. If your organization can only thrive under your personality, you haven't built a company, you've built a dependency. Great leaders create leaders. Future leaders need room to build credibility themselves. And the emotional reality is that some days it feels freeing, some days it feels disorienting. Sometimes founders ask, where do I fit Now. And your answer is, I fit where experience creates the greatest value, where my personal experience creates the greatest value to the organization. And I found that there is a great joy in coaching and mentoring instead of controlling and managing. There's great joy in coaching and mentoring instead of controlling and managing. My advice to entrepreneurs is start succession planning earlier than feels comfortable. Don't wait until exhaustion or a crisis makes the decision for you. I had some people say that when I was diagnosed with cancer, I started thinking about bringing in partners, and that's false. I started it before I was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer diagnosis I got delayed. My. My movement not. Not caused the movement. So don't wait until exhaustion or crisis makes the decision for you. Build systems, culture, and leadership pipelines. Ask can this organization thrive without me? That should be your goal. The true test of leadership is not how indispensable you become. It's how sustainable your organization becomes. King Arthur built the round table. Colonel Sanders became the trusted face of the brand. Both mattered. Both served a purpose. The challenge for leaders is knowing when it's time to put down the sword and pick up the story. I want to repeat that. The challenge for leaders is knowing when it's time to put down the sword and pick up the story. Oh, and if you plan on doing that, make sure that you have someone to take your spot. Particularly in bni, if you're growing and you go, well, I'm growing so much, I'm gonna quit, find someone in your organization to take your spot in bni. Scaling means replacing yourself with other qualified people that should be part of your succession plan. So that when you grow and it's time maybe to step down from a chapter, find someone in your organization to take over that spot that should be part of your succession plan. Successful succession is about building something great. Significance is a. Is about helping people thrive beyond you. That's not stepping away from leadership, Priscilla. That's evolving into the highest form of leadership. And that's my message for today.
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Really good.
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Thank you.
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Yeah. I think that you explained it really well and that I've been witnessing it. I've been seeing how you've approached it.
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Yeah, I'm really happy with the succession plan that I'm living, and I hope to still be part of BNI for a long time to come.
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Yeah. Okay, Great, Ivan. And I'd like to say that 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 you@meisneraudioprograms.com and then use the promo code IVAN5O for 50% off of everything. All of the proceeds go to the BNI Foundation. Thank you 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 BNI Podcast.
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Sam.