Hey this is Terry Bean with another exciting episode of Business Growth Time. This is episode number 53, thank you so much for joining us. With me, as always, my good friend Janet E. Johnson. I think today E stands for every day, what do you think of that?
Every day, alright!
Every day man.
Every day. Everything, every day, yes.
Everything every day. How are you?
Good, good. How are you doing? The sun is shining, we can’t complain, it’s beautiful outside. It’s just, you know, we were complaining when we started this show together, you and I, it was cold, blustery snow for both of us. So now we’re hitting spring and Minnesota and Michigan, where you are, it’s nice to have nice weather.
You know I was telling you before we got on-air that I was working outside today, not like doing yard work but literally making my calls, sitting down by the fire pit and just hanging out there because, well mostly because I could and I enjoyed that.
I do that sometimes, too, just to kind of, you know, obviously in your office you kind of have your specific things but it’s nice to just kind of rotate and change the scenery, you know.
Absolutely.
You know, you know.
Or have scenery.
It’s hard to stare at the computer with the sun and that’s the only problem but…
Or have scenery which is nice. I don’t know about your office but, I mean I’ve got pictures of scenery, you might be able to see it behind my head, but you know there’s a gray wall like four feet in front of me. It’s a lovely shade of grey but it’s still grey.
Yeah, yeah. And you know, yeah I can see outside but I can only see the bottom of the deck. So it’s kind of not really the most thrilling, view and that kind of thing but. You know and it does make a difference though if, you know, let’s get on the subject for one minute. It does make a difference if you work for yourself. And no matter, even if you work in an office if you have something that’s, that brings a little warmth and brings a little energy, I actually, it’s already down but I have a candle and it’s actually a rejuvenating candle that I light some days when I’m just like oh, I’m tired and you know. So if you could do things that it’s going to give, that provide you more energy, it’s going to make you be more motivated to work, correct?
Absolutely. You know it’s funny I’ve got a windowsill that’s right next to the grey wall so, three and a half feet from me, and as I look out of it I can see a little bit of sky but mostly I’m seeing the bottom of the deck. And in front of that windowsill I’ve got two candles, both of them are, you know, half burnt so or half not burnt, depending on if I’m optimistic or pessimistic, I guess.
Ah.
Uh-huh, uh-huh. And so now they’re half not burnt is what I’m going to go with. But it’s, so that’s funny, you definitely need to have something that makes it feel like there’s energy coming to you and through you.
Yeah.
So you can keep doing what you’ve got to do.
Exactly, exactly coz I kind of call this my dungeon coz it’s down at the basement and it’s cold and a little bit, you know, the spiders come out once in a while and you know it’s a dungeon-type thing. And so you want to warm it up somehow so that you want to be in there. And that’s what I tend to do. You know what, a candle’s perfect and I also have a bling that just dropped on the floor, but a bling stapler so you know
Nice
Have a little light bling behind me, so you got to have, so you want to work, and some people can’t have candles. But you know what, there’s fake candles, too, if you’re in an office atmosphere. But just something that warms so that you’re motivated and wanted to work throughout the days.
It that a bling line stapler? You remember the red Swingline stapler. I want to know if you’re the bling line?
Ah, no, it’s straight up here, hold on.
You’re going to have a homework, you’re going to watch office space now.
Ah, see.
Oh wow!
Isn’t that fancy?
Look at you!
That is my one fancy item. So yes, it’s bling.
That is…
I probably just had a couple fall off when it fell on the floor. Now I am wearing a special shirt, so I’m going to show you.
Oh okay.
And I know you’re going to get a kick out of this and then we’re going to get in to the networking area. But I thought everybody would get a kick out of this, but I don’t know how far back I have to go and I’m connected. Okay, there you go. (Believe in your #selfie – print on shirt)
Nice. You should put that in the one million selfie project. That would be perfect.
I do have a picture with that on, yes.
That would be perfect.
I think.
Chazz would love that.
Yeah. Believe in your #selfie. I think it’s, you know and I do a whole bunch of these shirts and I sell them so people can buy them. I just, I don’t even know this one, I think they can find teejohnson.com/soc4. So you can get this one.
That’s random.
I know it’s random. I need to get them all on my website, I haven’t done it yet. So that will happen and we have a lot of fun social media one. This is just one I wanted myself but I have created a bunch of fun little social media ones, some that are tbt #throwbackthursday. People can create their own hashtags, shirt and stuff like that. So it’s just a fun little thing I do on the side.
Nice. Everybody got to have a hustle and then another hustle and another hustle.
Yeah, there you go, there you go. So let’s talk about main subject today is on networking to other business owners because. Well, you’re kind of the king of it from what I believe, I think. And I haven’t seen you in your mode because I don’t live in the same state which would be fun coz we’d never actually been in an event together. But I can, just hearing from other people and hearing from what you’ve built in Detroit, I know that you’re always out there meeting people and connecting with people. And so I’m sure the first thing that you do Terry is you go up and you just sell yourself, right?
Sell myself man, hey I open my jacket, get it open you’ve got to need a toothbrush, you want a hair dryer. I got some undergarments right here, come on, whatever you need, I do it man, got it! You know that’s a great segue. So networking in very simple terms to me is about what you can do for me, what I can do for you and most importantly what we can do together. And that becomes a real key element. And a lot of people… I was having this conversation earlier, there’s a young man that’s going to start doing, Jeffrey Gitomer Coaching, and he was calling me today saying, “I’m going to get into this business. I’ve been doing orthopedic sales for years, really don’t even know where to start.” And I’m like, “well here’s where you start.” Figure out what you’re looking for, who are your target clients, who are the people that are going to absolutely be the best people for you to work with? Then think about who’s selling to them, who’s working with them? Those are your target partners. When you understand those two things, it becomes imperative that you put the right messaging together that’s going to speak to them. And once you have who you’re looking for, what you’re going to say to them when you find them, then you work on where are they? Whether it’s industry associations, whether it’s specific networking events that cater to them, whether it’s online and social media groups, LinkedIn or Facebook groups are great, but you’ve got to get to where they are. If you’re just running around networking at open events, you’re going to find it a very tiring, tiring process. You’r messaging is going to be tight. Your idea who you’re looking for is going to be tight. And then you’ve got to have the ability to talk and convey what you’re looking for — the people. We’ll talk more about the ask, as I call it in just a few minutes.
I like that concept. And I believe what you’re saying in the niche, finding who you’re talking to and I think I forget even, sometimes. Who am I talking to? Obviously I’m talking to a business owner but you need to be narrowing that down deeper than just a generic business owner. I know a lot of people gone out and they go to those networking events and they say I’m looking for anyone who. That’s really wrong, I mean right? You know.
It’s really broad.
You know, so, you know I work with the dentist and he has to narrow it down a little bit. He says, you know, I look for anybody who has teeth. Well I suppose he does but, you know, I mean, there’s narrowing that in a little more. Well do you like working with kids, do you like working with adults, which, which would you prefer? Yes, you could take anybody with teeth but is there, what would be your preference?
So I tell, I talked about this as you want to own spot one in people’s mental rolodex. That’s your idea. Whatever your business category is, you want to be the first person they think of when they hear an opportunity for you. Because before people use to go to the Yellow Pages, right? Now they go to Google. But in either scenario, before they go to either one of those places, they go right here (points to brain). And if they don’t have a connection right here, that’s when they go outside. So you need to own spot one in that mental rolodex. And when you’re asking for anyone who has teeth or there was a group that did skin care products, anyone with hair and skin, I won’t name them, it used to drive me nuts. Because the moment you start asking for anyone, that actually ends up being everyone. What you’re doing is your shutting your network’s ability to flip through their mental rolodex to pull out their card for you, right? If it’s
Yes.
You’re overloading what I’m thinking about and who I can pull out for you, I can’t pull anyone out for you. It’s counter intuitive but the more specific the person you are asking for is, the better off you’re going to be.
Hmmm. I think that’s yeah, and I think most people have a hard time doing that. When I set up a strategy, I work with a girl that out in Australia and we specifically set up a whole entire strategy first for all the internet marketing, social media campaign. And she was similar kind of product that you’re talking about, the skin care. But she knew, I mean we narrow down her target market to women over the age of 50 that had gone through cancer. I mean, you’re talking narrow, narrow market but that’s actually better. You know, I mean
So much better.
Uh-huh.
Again it’s counter intuitive, right because you’re thinking oh my God I’ve got only one opportunity to make this
Yes.
ask, to make this request. I’m going to ruin it if I get too narrow and no one knows anybody. Wrong. And here why it’s wrong, because every single one of us that’s ever been to a networking event that’s a BNI or whatever local networking group you have, we’ve all made general and broad request. We’ve gotten leads from people who weren’t our ideal client. There’s nothing worse than tracking down people who are never going to do business with you. It is a complete another waste of their time, your time and the person who referred you relationship capital, right? So you’re doing yourself the potential prospect or client and the referrer a disservice by being so broad and generic.
That is a great point and nobody wants to waste time. We’re all here to make money and get leads. And that’s a lot of the reason and provide leads to others so you want to be able to give back, give, give back and that kind of thing and you will receive. And that’s kind of how those groups work. Now as we’ve discussed, I’m not a part of that anymore but I, but I get out, too, like some meet-ups once in a while, that kind of thing, but I tend to do a lot of mine through the internet. And, you know, that’s how a lot of businesses work. But you know what, even with Facebook ads, I just in launching, well by the time this comes out 15 Minute Social is launched by the time this comes out. So that target market, it’s kind of back to the basic social media. So I now am going to run Facebook ads. So you still need to know your niche market even if it’s online. Because the Facebook ads, they need to know what specifically, who exactly am I going to target for this specific product.
Absolutely.
There’s more thing.
And that’s such a key. So let’s dial on that a little bit. Because maybe not everybody knows how to figure out who their target client is. Depending on where you are and the evolution of your business, if you’re just starting, right, the way business works when you start out as an entrepreneur you’ve got this thing that your passionate about, you’re excited about, you’re good at. And somebody at one point said, oh sh*t I’ll pay you for that. So you’re like oh, I’m in business, and that’s great. The trap of entrepreneurship is you’re always looking at how do I make more money. If you do a really good job in what you did, your clients’ going to saym, “oh my gosh, you knocked it all apart, thank you, do you do this?” And invariably you’re going to say, “well of course I do that for years.” You’ve never done it in your entire life. You barely know how to Google it because you can’t even spell it but yeah, I do that stuff, sure, I was doing that yesterday.
I used to be like that years ago, now I kind of like oh no, that person does it better.
Yeah, I’ve said yes to some things that were definitely no for me. Check, no.
Yep. Like
Red pen
Why did I do this, yep.
And you shouldn’t said yes.
Nope.
But you got to say yes.
Yep.
Because you’ve got to say yes because your spouse is saying hey we got these bills to pay and you said you can handle it. Handle it!
Yup
So you say yes.
Yup.
And all of a sudden you figure it out because you’re competent. And you have the ability and the resources to get it done, and you do it. And your clients say wow, you did a great job. And they refer you to somebody for that. Not the thing you love, not the reason you got in the business but you got referred for that. And you’re like well I need the money, I’m going to do it. And that client ask you to do something similar, too. So you’re expanding your skill set concentrically out. And it’s building and your line card and your offering’s getting huge. And you’ve got all these different things now that you can do coz you keep saying yes. The challenge is you’re not great or overly proficient and most importantly not in love with any of them. Imagine this scenario when you say, no I don’t do that but my friend Janet is fantastic at that. Can I introduce you? Yeah, that will be great, I’d love to work with Janet. If you say they’re good, they’re good. Now Janet’s got some new opportunity that she’s working on and delivering. When Janet’s out and here’s a good opportunity for you, she’s going to refer you, too. You are building relationships and strategic partners that are based on the ability to grow business together. You are creating additional sales channels by giving referrals out. So an important element, an important aspect and most importantly, you are loving what you do because your focused in on your footstep.
That’s a great point, I agree. And that’s, I think a lot of people have evolved their business and you’re right, specially when you start. You think you can do it just all. And so when you’re new and sure, sure, I can’t miss a client. I need to do that. I mean I took on some giant SEO projects in the past. And granted SEO but then it change. Google kept changing, changing, changing, changing.
Oh yeah.
Social media kept changing, changing, changing so I’m like going in all these directions and I thought, I can’t do it all. You know, oh I can’t do the graphics, I can’t do the SEO, the website building. Now granted do I know pretty much all of it? Yes. But do I do this specifically for clients? No. I have a strategic partner like you said for SEO specifically. Now do I know SEO enough to be dangerous? Yes. But I do it more to video.
Uh-huh.
So that’s my video SEO is kind of what I do. So I completely get what you’re saying where, you know what, now that SEO person will refer, will think of me for social media. Does that makes sense? So that’s exactly what you said. It’s about screening what you really like to do coz you know honestly I hate chasing the Google algorithm. You know…
I knew it. There’s other people that love it, right? They love it. Can’t stand making social media posts for anybody but love the SEO and the algorithm and dealing with that. I’m like you, I know SEO well enough to impact my own SEO, right? That’s about my level of SEO knowledge. I know how to game it enough but I’m not ready to take someone’s money to do it for them, right. I’ve got business partners that do that. And if I’m telling you I’m going to do you SEO one of us isn’t going to be very happy. And it’s really more like neither one of us are really going to be happy about it.
Uh-huh, uh-huh, that makes sense.
And at the end of the day happy clients are the best clients.
And I also think you need to know who you want to work with because I, it’s funny coz if somebody asks me, you know what types of business do you like to work with? I can come up with a list that I do not want to work with immediately. And I think you know the types of businesses that you do not want to work with. Like I’ll tell you one, no one business and you learn overtime on what you want to do if it’s, the businesses that you work with there’s certain types of business. And you’re going to laugh at this because I know you’re in this industry. I do not take on auto dealerships. No way do I want to work with automotive people. I think they’re pompous, typically. Sorry automotive people but you know it’s just one of those types
You just lost like three subscribers, thanks. That was Janet E Johnson saying that, for the record. I did not even nod or nothing.
So, it’s just something that I have worked with a few auto dealerships and larger ones in the past, years and years ago. And I just said never again. I won’t do it. And so you need to know what you want but you also need to know what you do not want.
And that’s an easier way sometimes to find what you want, right? Because if you don’t have the experience, how often. Think about when you were a kid, think about when you’re in college, think about it as you’re growing up. It doesn’t matter how many times someone tells you you’re not going to like this and tell you find out for yourself that you’re not going to like it, you think they’re wrong, right? And then you have that experience and you go oh yeah, I’m definitely wrong. So let’s get back to finding that target client – people that you are going to resonate with. That you’re going to enjoy spending time with. That to me, if I don’t enjoy spending time with you or if it’s not going to seem like fun, I’m out. I’m out right now because if we’re going to spend a bunch of time and energy together, it’s got to be a good time and I’ve got to enjoy it. My friends call it the no-asshole rule – not going to work with anybody that I think is that. And that makes sense, I like that rule.
Yeah.
Number 2 and unfortunately you don’t get the real good way to gauge this until it actually happens but they have to pay you on time, right? So getting paid in a timely fashion makes for real good clients. We love those people. Number 3, there’s got to be some opportunity to build and to do more. Single projects are nice but if you’re going to be out there doing single project here and a single project there, your business development cycle, your ability to find new opportunities is going to be, it’s going to be a painful experience.
Yeah.
Because what will happen is, specially if you’re a solopreneur, you got to go sell the work and you’ve got to do the work. And it’s really hard to be selling work while you’re doing work. One of them’s going tot suffer. And if you invariably end up going, oh crap I don’t have anything in the funnel because I’ve been doing delivery.
Exactly.
So you want to try and find people that have multiple projects to work on that are a fit for you. And then I think it’s important to find people that are willing to refer you. And I always said that referral process in the beginning, like before we even close business. Hey we’re going to agree I’m going to do this, this, this, and this and if you love it, I’m going to want you to think of three or four people who are in a position somewhere to you that’s going to be cool with doing some work with me in the future, does that makes sense? They say oh yeah, of course. If they actually do it or not and get the referral, totally a different story. But set it up in advance. So those are some of the key things that I look for when taking on new clients. Anything that you would add to that?
I agree, completely with what you just said. The residual piece, on-going piece, if you can find something that is continuation. You know, it depends on your business, too. If it’s an orthodontist office, let’s just use that as an example. They obviously have a one time thing, one time item. But they might have a brother or a sister. You know, they have the family member. My whole family has had the braces and the Invisalign and all that. And so you know they got four with us. So and the little one isn’t there yet. But it’s not an on-going product though. And they don’t really have anything else to offer. So
Oh right and that makes sense.
So depends on the business. I look at
It’s a good point.
Yeah, entrepreneurial like our business like if you look at mine I tend to, I could do website but I don’t want to, it’s a one time shot and I just, you know, I kind of steered away from that. But if it’s ongoing social media help, I’ve worked with LearningRx for three years now. And, well, I help all over online. I mean whether it’s video marketing or Facebook marketing or you know, I’m going social media and help them with their Facebook ads, just across the board their seen ten times better because we do on-going things with them. So I don’t have to, you know, I’d have a lot of those long-term clients that I help them, you know, with their social media, whatever it may be. If you’re a social media person like myself, you know, it’s better to take on somebody that’s going to need on-going social media help versus just a one time set up. Because like you said you’re always going to find things. And, you know, and that’s kind of what, you know the t-shirt thing and I’m doing a few other projects that are, they’re online and they’re more on-going. Like I’ve built a program called 15 Minute Social. Now that program can be sold, you know, as long as it’s updated for over and over and over and over again to different people where I don’t have to do the work. So anybody who can build programs or do steps like that, that is the thing to be doing so that they’re creating the residual, you know. And a membership program would be the best thing. It’s just harder to get people in that funnel to commit to a monthly fee, you know, with the membership program. So you really have to have it. But if you’re niched enough and you have that target market, that’s a fantastic way to make, make an income and you can help people in the meantime doing that. You know where you’re teaching them, training them. Let’s say you are a dog trainer, I don’t know. I’m just throwing it out there. But you know there’s a lot of people that love their dogs and you know, even if you can niche it down or do a specific dog that you’re training and you get this group together that hey, there’s people out there that are willing to pay specifically for that. So lots of ways to make income online and offline. So now let’s get back to finishing up the last, we have about five minutes of time left. I want you to talk about the pitch. What is the pitch? When you go out to a networking event, what is the pitch?
So we, we call it the ask and I’ve coined that phrase years ago because I don’t like elevator pitches from an ideal standpoint. I’ve never done a lot of networking in an elevator. We go to these meetings that are never seen a meeting in an elevator, that doesn’t just makes sense. And the flip side this 60-second commercial. Sixty seconds is a painful long time and it’s even longer because most people have no idea how long 60 seconds really is. So if you’re listening to a 60-second commercial that goes on for two minutes, it’s like punch me in the face right now. So the ask is something that’s really straight up. It’s concise, it’s specific, it’s to the point and it just thrives at the heart of the matter. And what it’s there for is to allow the right people to show up, right? If you put it out there the right way, you can actually see a visual response for people who have the answer for you. I look at networking and when you rotate around the room with your 60-second commercial or whatever, it’s realistically we’re playing the game of fetch. Remember the card game you played with your kids, hey let’s go play Go Fish coz all you’re doing do you have an eight, yes or no? Do you have a CPA, yes or no, right? And so when you do your ask, it’s very, it’s very simple. It contains your name, your business name, your business category and then who’s the one person or one company or one idea that if someone in the room could connect to you right now will absolutely make your week. So it’s my name is Terry Bean, I’m with networking. I do business development consulting for small to medium-sized businesses. I’m looking to meet the VP of Sales from Meadowbrook Insurance. And I knew his name, Tom Hermann, I would say I’m looking for Tom Hermann who’s the VP of Meadowbrook Insurance. I don’t know that that’s really his name, I just made that up.
Oh.
But it’s a, it could be. If it is then I would have to send them this video and we’re going to have to get some sponsorship kid. No, seriously, and here’s the funny thing about that, as I go around the room and say that, as I look around the room while I’m saying it, if somebody knew Tom or if someone knew Meadowbrook Insurance, they’re going to flinch, right? There is going to be a change in their physiology. And I’ve witnessed it time and time again. And the flip side, and one of the more interesting things that happens is people will say gosh, I don’t really know anybody at Meadowbrook Insurance. But I know the VP of Sales of AAA Insurance, would that work? Well yes, yes it will. I’d be happy to talk to them, right? So you’re
Makes sense.
Driving people into a lane that they can actually extrapolate where you might want to go and get permission as to whether or not they want to help you. Now just because they know the VP of Sales at the insurance company, it doesn’t mean they have to give that to you. Now you have to earn it. But the way it’s set up, the way our meetings are set up is you do that piece upfront. And so when somebody hear something whether it’s a match, we encourage those people to get together and talk a little bit further to determine whether or not you’re going to actually make that introduction.
Hmmm, okay.
And I’ll tell you what, I’ve got a really long winded five piece blog post on the concept of this ask. And we’ll make sure it’s posted in the video
Good idea.
You want to read a little more about it, you can.
There we go, perfect. Well that’s a great way to end it. So let’s end with an action step. What would be the action step, well I kind of, I’m going to put together the action step coz you just said it. Everybody should come up with their 60-minute commercial. They need, oh, 60-seconds, sorry. That will be a little long.
You’re not listening. You’re not allowed to do 60-second commercial ever and you’re definitely not doing a 60-minute commercial, that’s an infomercial and you’re not even, you’re not there yet.
That long, we don’t even do, we don’t set as videos. And you know what I think people should practice on video.
I don’t want their ask to be over 20 seconds ever. And in MCC we don’t let people normally go over 15 seconds.
Wow.
The Pledge of Allegiance is 13 seconds long. If you think you need to say more about your business than we need to say about our country then you’ve got an ego problem.
Thirteen seconds, huh? Wow, that’s interesting.
Yes ma’am.
I’m going to test that.
Yes, you’re going to be like ah, go.
Well I think this is a great tips for people. I think there are so many people out there at these networking events and I know this is talked about at these networking events, too, sometimes. But it’s always good to refresh it. I know I’m going out next week meeting a whole bunch of people and honestly I haven’t done this for a long time. I do not, I barely pull up my business cards anymore because I am online. So I’m going to do it for myself, too. And if you guys do it, feel free to share yours in the group and I suggest practicing in a video before you even do it. Because you know what, you can put that video out there also and you’ll never know who will drive traffic to your video.
Put that video on your LinkedIn profile, it’s a great tip.
Hooo!
It’s a good way for people, they’ll understand who you are and what you do.
And you have more tips.
And your ask should change. It should change because as you find the people you’re looking for, you’re going to want to find new people. So my action item for you is to figure out 3 to 5 people who you absolutely need to meet to grow your business and start incorporating that into your ask.
Excellent. Well thanks Terry, you’re a great material today and we will include all the information in the show notes. And this is show number 53, 5-3. Thanks for your time.
Thank you. See you soon.