Steve actually started his career in sales– as a real estate agent. One of his mentors told him he was working too hard and being too transactional instead of focusing on the relationship, limiting his referrals. But as an introvert, Steve felt awkward calling people up to cultivate referrals.
To get around this, Steve started sending gifts to people to give him a reason to call someone. This led to organic conversations about real estate, without the ickiness. (It was also much more fun.)
Using this gifting strategy, Steve got his business to 73% referrals, and made good money while taking a month off. He didn’t have to chase cold leads, and he won business in about half the time it took the average agent. Other realtors asked him how he did it, but complained they did have time to give thoughtful gifts. Steve had the insight that he could provide gifts as a service for other people.
Steve’s first gifts were “cheap”– like little bottles of vodka around the holidays. Not always appropriate, and even if it was, it was gone quickly.
Over time, he developed a more intentional gifting strategy, that you can implement by following his 6 Rules of Gifting:
Focus on the client, not you. This is a gift, not a promotion.
The gift must be high quality.
You must personalize the gift.
It must provide deep emotional impact (painting of client’s dog?)
It must have staying power and not be a one-time use item.
It must increase your connection (come with a handwritten note, video, etc)
Here examples of bad gifts:
Thank you email. This is just a transactional item.
Consumables like food and wine, flowers, or events, which are one-time events. (This means don’t give a bottle of wine, or don’t just give a bottle of wine– give a personalized corkscrew or some fancy wine glasses.)
Swag bags
Promotional items
Gift cards (lazy)
Here are some other tips:
“Attack the kitchen.” Things like ice cream scoopers, pizza cutters, etc get used repeatedly.
Take time to get to know your best clients and partners. Trying to figure out a great gift is a good perspective for asking good questions and getting more connected.
Focus on the top 20% of your clients and partners who provide 80% of the referrals.
Plan to spend 5-10% of the revenue these clients generate on the gift. Gift 1, 2, or 4 times per year.
Have fun doing radically nice things for your best clients and partners.
And if you’d like to watch the episode, here’s the video:
The Wine (& Beer)
Reuben enjoys Para Maria Syrah/Petit Verdot blend from Santa Barbara county. (The second half of the bottle from the Wayne Mullins episode.)
Franklin Taggart, host of the “Your Own Best Company” and the “Daily Virtual Coffee Break” podcasts, coaches freelancers, solopreneurs, and artists on how to connect with audiences and find clients, in a way that suits their skills, personality, and lifestyle.
He was a professional guitar player, and still teaches and also helped kids with anti-gang interventions. He fell into coaching accidentally, after a friend asked him to help facilitate a coaching retreat.
In this episode, learn:
How Franklin fell into coaching, and why he didn’t even think of it as “coaching” (plus, why he’s still suspicious of coaches, and what’s a sign of a good coach).
Why you’re not a “thought leader”, and why humility is important for successful work.
How to ask the right questions to find the people you really enjoy working helping (and the questions Franklin asks).
Why “following your passion” is not good advice, and what to do instead.
The Wine
Reuben enjoys Prodigal Pinot Noir while Franklin is still working on his coffee.
Mark Firth is a traveler of both virtual and physical worlds, moving from London to Bogota and now on to Florida. In Colombia, he realized his Spanish wasn’t good enough for local business, and his attempts to teach English were getting commoditized by the web.
He started a remote digital marketing firm, focused on LinkedIn. Initial results were good, but as the platform got flooded with spam (and LinkedIn services became more commoditized), Mark realized he needed to have more control over this destiny.
In this episode, learn how:
The YouTube algorithm is different from other social media sites
To get started producing video, without fancy equipment
To combine online video and your existing mailing list
Be patient and “find your voice”
To grow beyond the control of anyone else’s platform
The best way to show that you can help people
Of course, we had to put the YouTube video here. 😉
The Wine
Reuben enjoys some Devil’s Corner Tasmanian Pinot Noir (never tried wine from Tasmania before– quite nice– a lot of cranberry), while Mark has some cold green tea.
Corrie has a “very expensive piece of paper that says she can draw well.” An art degree. So instead of waiting tables, she came to join the family electronics reseller business as a graphic designer.
Instead of getting disintermediated by the internet, Corrie was able to use her graphic design skills to promote her customers, the mom and pop electronics dealers.
Corrie realized she was in an abusive marriage and got a divorce with a 5-month-old. Then she realized she was commuting 20 hours per week and paying someone to watch her son part time, just for the commute. Then, she lost her post-divorce partner to suicide.
At this point, she knew she was strong enough to keep going, but she decided to reevaluate her life.
She knew she had to leave the family business, but this was harder than all the other trials.
But Corrie got clients, a social media following, and, within a year, was on a TEDx stage. So now she teaches other people how to start their own consulting businesses.
In this episode learn:
That websites don’t get you leads (I disagree!), conversations get you leads (I agree!). “Conversations are what lead to revenue.”
How to set yourself up for financial success and handling the stress of starting your practice.
How to figure out who you help, what you do for them, and why they should care, including how to hone your niche, and even how to pivot from one niche to another.
How do this with conversations, because if you can’t do it in a conversation, how will your website do it for you? (And stop worrying about colors and brands and logos– focus on the real conversations.)
Why you shouldn’t discount, and what to do instead.
Why the gold is in the follow up.
How to feel confident when having conversations with prospects and partners, including sales conversations.
Why you don’t need to waste time and money on expensive marketing campaigns.
The Wine (& Vodka)
Corrie enjoys a cocktail of vodka, water, and watermelon juice.
Reuben enjoys a Contina di Montelcino sangiovesi. Yumm, tastes like Italy.
Where to find Corrie
LinkedIn (make sure you listen to the episode before connecting).
(Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.
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“Networking” evokes thoughts of small talk and getting stabbed in the eye with business cards, at least for some of us. But it’s essential to so many relationship-based businesses. How can we grow and nurture an awesome, helpful, fun network without feeling icky?
In this episode, Julie Brown, author of This Shit Works: A No-Nonsense Guide to Networking Your Way to More Friends, More Adventures, and More Success (and host of the This Shit Works podcast), teaches you how to grow a great network while having fun and staying true to yourself, including:
You can build a big network– over time, not over night.
How Julie treats friends and colleagues
The “shortcut” to meeting lots of the right people.
How Julie’s network helped her husband launch his architecture firm, amidst the 2008 crash, how it helped Julie launch her business, and how you can apply it your business.
Why traditional icebreaker questions are terrible, and what to ask instead.
How to handle follow up.
Whether we should be happy and/or sad about the Celtics season (OK, that’s a bit of a tangent).
The Wine
Julie enjoys some “cougar juice” (how have I not heard this term before?), in other words, some buttery chardonnay, while I have some Nine Hats Pinot Gris from Washington (it’s over 100 in Texas, and I’m drinking white).
Where to find Julie
LinkedIn (make sure you listen to the episode before connecting).
(Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.
Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):
As business owners, we spend a lot of time trying to make our minds more productive, often without considering that our minds are connected to our bodies. But if we don’t take care of our bodies, we miss out on joy and productivity, and we load up on stress. Ashley DePaulis, who helps large organizations prevent burnout and turnover, is here to give you tips that will make not just your business, but your life better.
Ashley was a recreational athlete, but didn’t envision making athletics and movement a core part of her life (although she did put a friend through bootcamp in 3rd grade– make sure you catch that part of the story). While she was getting her master’s degree in public health, she started working as a fitness instructor on the side, just for fun.
While working in public health policy, she kept picking up fitness clients and health coaching clients. Like many people, she accidentally started her business…
Meanwhile, when she 19, Ashley was in a severe car crash and had a case of PTSD, which returned when she got into another car crash and her PTSD came back. She did EMDR (Eye-movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) therapy, and got turned on to the capabilities at the junction of mind, body, and spirit.
“Movement is my jam.”
We have become sedentary creatures, at least many of us who work in front of computers most of the time. And this leads to chronic pain, reduced productivity, reduced joy, and a host of other problems in modern life.
To avoid this, we have to realize that our minds aren’t abstract things, they are part of our bodies. And we have to be aware of the body.
How do you know if you’re having problems?
Are you in pain? This is our body’s way of telling us that we need to change something.
Are you having trouble sleeping?
Are you anxious?
How can you do that? Ashley shares some great tips, including:
Get outside, or at least look outside, or even just look up. (Every 45 minutes of screen time should lead to 5-10 minutes of these kind of breaks for our eyes, minds, and posture.)
Note that these days people often take “breaks” by taking out their phones, which just increases the screen time and posture issues, and also tends to rev us up more, instead of reducing stress.
Breathe deeply, all the way to your belly.
Be aware of how your body is feeling. Notice what you’re noticing. Set an alarm on your phone to do this 1-3 times per day.
Drink water before coffee in the morning (I’m working on this).
Power down before bed time– a bed time routine is even more important than a morning routine.
Ashley argues that the body is not a machine (I disagreed) and it doesn’t need to be fixed. The body is always working for your survival. Pain is a signal– your body is wise and is telling you something. Pointing out that you need to take action. Pain is last signal– if you can pick up on earlier signals, you can avoid things getting bad.
So take good care of yourself– be a kinder, gentler boss to your body, and literally feel better every day.
The Wine
Reuben is enjoying some Bergevin Lane Moonspell Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington State.
Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.
Note this GQ article on training for boxing matches, especially where he discusses reducing his training load as the fight approaches: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/sport/article/conor-benn-boxing-workout
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Rick Terrien started his first business in college, but he believes that people can (and should) start businesses at any age, particularly later in life. He started the Center for Ageless Entrepreneurs, and wrote Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age.
He comes on Sales for Nerds to share his story, and tips for taking control of your destiny later in life, to work on things that are meaningful to you, including:
What you should be doing around 40, 45, and 50 to launch your business.
How to set yourself up for success.
How Rick looks at markets to find promising niches.
How he found his latest inspiration to help older entrepreneurs.
Why you should be thinking about a “lifestyle business” as a positive, not an insult.
Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.
Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):
Melisa Liberman loved working at a Big 4 consulting firm, but life had other plans and she ended up starting out on her own. (Listen to what happened and why “no one should have sympathy for me”.)
Even as a successful, hard-charging corporate consultant and executive, it took years for Melisa to make the mindset shift to being a business owner, with all the different hats that involves.
Fortunately, she learned a lot on the way, and found people asking her to help them transition to independent consulting, for more freedom, better work-life balance, more impact, and more money. She realized that a lot of the issues she struggled with started with mindset.
And she’s here to help you get your head in order the easy way, including:
The differences between consulting and coaching.
How to think like a strategic business owner, while you’re also an employee (of your own firm).
How to be proactive about client acquisition– you have much more control than you think– and avoid becoming staff augmentation for someone else’s business.
How to create a 3-year vision for your practice that gives you practical things to do today.
How to think about your own thinking, so you can get out of your own way.
Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.
Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):
Liz Steblay had it all– maybe a little too much. A successful career at a Big 4 firm and young daughter. When her boss noted that missing evening meetings to care for her child was “not sustainable” for her career, she agreed, and started off on her own.
In this episode learn:
How to manage money and finances (don’t make the mistake that I made, and that I see people repeating all the time)
How to get clients and build awareness.
How to keep your sanity.
This episode is aimed at people contemplating leaving their corporate careers to strike out on their own, or folks who have just made the leap, but even if you’ve been an independent consultant for years, you’ll find some helpful wisdom here.
The Wine
Reuben is enjoying some Acha Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley in California.
Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.
Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):
