In the spirit of BNI’s mission to help business grow through relationships, let’s dive into an exclusive interview with Mary Kennedy Thompson, BNI’s newly appointed CEO.
Time of BNI had the unique opportunity to meet her at the BNI Global Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii. The convention, which ran from November 13-16, celebrated BNI’s 40th anniversary and brought together members from across the organization’s expansive global network.
Join us as we get to know the person behind the title and explore how one leader’s story is set to shape the future of the world’s leading business referral organization.
Your journey is fascinating – from Marine Corps Officer to franchise owner, and then corporate leader. Could you share with us how those early experiences shaped who you are today and what they bring to your new role in BNI?
Yes. Well, I think my very earliest experiences come from growing up in a very large family, one of 10 children. My father would always tell me, because I was the oldest, that when he would leave, everything that happens and fails to happen is your responsibility. It gave me a great sense of duty and responsibility and looking out for others because I was always looking out for my brothers and sisters. Then I spent eight years in the Marine Corps, and I chose the Marine Corps because I thought it was the hardest, and I wanted to do something I thought was really hard to do. I was right, it was hard to do. The Marine Corps, like BNI, is very high on culture and having a culture of doing for others and serving and doing the right thing. I always enjoyed leading a group with a very clear mission, knowing what we were going to do, and not always looking to do the easy things, but to do the important things. That taught me a lot. I had sometimes that were stressful military times, and it helped me to get myself like this so that when there are stressful times, I can say, It’s okay.
It’s going to be okay. I think it’s important for leaders not to be all over. They bring the structure, and they bring the calmness, and they put things in perspective for the teams around them. Then, I started off in franchising as a franchisee first. I was a member in BNI in 1994. It was very helpful to me because I didn’t know much about business, and I had just come out of the military and needed a lot of help, and I had all these business owners that were willing to help me and be great. And so, I take all of that with me. How I took my last company and grew it. My specialty is high growth companies, companies just like BNI that are good companies and have a lot of good things. And with a few investments in talent and scaling processes and simplifying, we can go really fast.
You’ve known BNI for almost 30 years – first as a member, and now as CEO. Could you tell us about a moment when BNI made a real difference in your life?
I will say about six months into BNI, I was given a referral for Dell computers. There was a woman in our chapter who knew the head of marketing for Dell computers, and they were looking for a gift. I made cookie bouquets and cookies as gifts. They were looking for a gift to give out every time they had a new release of a product. And they started using us. And it was quite a bit of business. It was some years up to $40,000 in business in one year, which was a lot for cookies. And that was very helpful to me, especially in my early days when I was building up the businesses. And the agent that invited me was also my insurance agent. She was very formative and helped me understand how important networking is and getting me in front of people that could make me better and stronger. I don’t think we should surround ourselves with people that take us down. We should surround ourselves with people that make us lift, make us maybe a little uncomfortable to want to be better.
Every leader brings their unique touch. What’s the personal mark you hope to leave on BNI’s story?
It’s a great question. There’s a couple of things. One is BNI is at a unique inflection point where we have all these leaders of countries that it’s time for them to run faster and make decisions and not have all decisions up here. What I want to bring is, and I did this at Neighborly, is get the decisions at the place where people can move faster and be engaged and enrolled in those decisions. What I’m most proud of at Neighborly is I left with a very strong succession plan, very strong leaders that were comfortable in their roles and had enough discomfort to become really good. That would be one of the things that would be very important to me to lead really good people and really strong leaders that can take BNI to the next place. Because not just today, it’s 20, 30, and 40 years from now. And then also, I really want to see us get to a million members. I’m not going to be happy until we get to a million members. It’s doable. It will take some work, but it’s doable.
When do you plan to meet this?
By the end of 2027. If every member can just bring in one member each year, that takes us to about 2.6 million members. And then, if we have a little attrition, we’ll be well above a million.
Do you think it’s a good practice, the one to give people tools?
Tools are important! When I talk about scalable processes, when I was talking about Chick-fil-A, I know there’s no Chick-fil-A in Italy, but the way they built their drive-ins and drive-throughs so that it was a really great customer experience, that’s how they grew. And we need to do the same thing, which is why I’m in a chapter, so I can experience being a member myself.
Are still in a chapter, now?
I am. So, the entire leadership team, we all made a commitment to join a chapter for 90 days, and then afterwards, stay involved. And so, we have to do everything a chapter member has to do. I’ve done 8 CUs, I’ve done 11 one-to-ones, I’ve given three referrals, and a thank you for close business. And yesterday, when my chapter met, I had to have a substitute in for me. It reminds us of everything we ask of our members.
As we enter the era of AI and digital transformation, while celebrating BNI’s 40th anniversary, what excites you most about the future you envision for our members?
I think there’s going to be something very interesting happening. Dr. Misner touched on it. There is this whole relationship economy that is really becoming very important to businesses. I’ve been studying quite a bit. I started studying it back in my old company because it’s all about relationships. I love AI. I use it quite often, but it does not replace the one-to-one, the conversations, the energy that we felt in that room today. A lot of businesses are seeing the same thing, and so are customers. I believe that one of the things that will happen, I’m very excited about it, is more and more people will want to do business in the BNI fashion because as we have more of typing on our mobiles and being captured by their screens, having a real relationship is becoming a lost art, and people don’t know how to do it, and they need a structure in which help them.
That’s the next question. That’s why BNI is quite unique.
We’re a market leader, and nobody does it the way we do it. It’s so that one-to-one, that meeting. I mean, just even getting up for your 45 seconds and talking about what referral. That brings real business. My last chapter meeting, I watched seven 17 referrals that morning go across. 17. And you just don’t get that in any other place. For every dollar that is spent on dues, the member gets $71 back in close business. And we’re this close this year to hit 25 billion in referred business. It’s huge. There are very few things in this world that do that.
Leading a global organization where members speak different languages but share the same BNI spirit must be fascinating. What has surprised you most about this global family since becoming CEO?
What’s pleased me most is that I’ve not seen any country or any different place that we all believe in and use and work by our values. And I love that because those transcend language and culture. There’s not a culture I know of that doesn’t believe the importance of the abundance mindset and the givers gain and lifelong learning. Those transcend. I really love that. I’ve been very pleased by that. I’ve been surprised by the positivity and how positive everybody is. I love that because you can talk about tough things and still be positive. I really do believe that. In fact, if you can be positive while you’re talking about tough things, you get more done.
I’ve done more than 200 one-to-one so far with people across BNI. And one of the things that has been really pleasing and surprising is that every time we wrap up the video call or the meeting, there we say: “What can I do to help? What can I do for you?” I just love that.
I just have a question that I feel is important. When I come here, I feel there’s no difference between men and women. And I think that you’re being here as a CEO is a great example of woman empowerment.
I had someone ask me once when I took over a large company and they said: “Well, what’s it like being a woman leader?” I said: “I don’t know. What’s it like being a man leader?”.
I think a leader is a leader, and we take care of our people, and we make sure that we help them be the best version of themselves. I just think that we go get it done. I don’t think it ever crossed Dr. Misner’s or the board’s mind at all, considering I was a woman, which is great. It just means I’m here to do the job to do.
Speaking of our local family – when can we expect to welcome you in Italy?”
I’m coming in May to Sardinia, I’m coming to your conference. And I’m going to bring my husband so he can meet all of you. I wanted him here to see how great this is. But he’s an attorney, and he was in court. But he will come to Italy.
I love how graceful Italians live. No matter what, they make time for the important things in life, a good meal, a good friendship, a good seat. And I always appreciated that.
Our magazine represents Umbria, a small but both spiritual and green region in the heart of Italy. What would you say to our local chapters about being part of something so global while maintaining their unique local spirit?”
I think it’s very important that we all belong to something that’s bigger than us, that we spend time and make time to give first, the givers’ gain. Winston Churchill had a really good saying. He said: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”. And this is about making a life. And if you’re only doing your part looking at your feet you don’t see the wonder that is all around you. But when you start looking around and you don’t look at somebody for what they can do for you and you look at them for what you can do for them, it changes how you look at everything.
I encourage the members, and maybe members who have been there for a while feel like it’s the same old, to refresh and renew their energy in that and look to see what they can bring. Because when they do, just like if you mentor somebody, anytime I’ve ever mentored somebody, I’ve gotten as much back as what I’ve given because you get that energy.
The very last one. If you could sit down for coffee with each of our members in Umbria, what heartfelt message would you share with them?
I would like to share that we’re here to do important things and to change the way the world does business. That’s not easy, but we don’t need “easy”. What we need is possible. And so, focus on the possible. And as we change the way the world does business, we’ll change our world, we’ll change our children’s world, we’ll change the world for others.