Real Relationships Real Revenue - Audio Edition | Invest in Relationships to Build Your Business and Your Career

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: How can we stay focused and continue on the growth path while we’re busy with delivery? It’s definitely a challenge. You have to deliver your highest and best work in order to get repeat business, but you also have to spend a lot of energy on growth activities that are very different from delivery. One of the things that Nancy noticed by eliminating all the clients that weren’t ideal for her organization was that it brought those two things closer together. Calendaring and blocking out specific time is also a good way to ensure those activities get done. To identify their ideal clients, the first step was to create a profile. It involved coming up with the right rubrics to understand which companies had the highest sales potential and biggest opportunity for growth. One of the most challenging roles is to be doing both delivery and sales at the same time. Care and honest communication is what will bring your clients back to you each year. Asking questions like “How can we help our clients achieve even more than they think they could?” is important to identifying those opportunities. Nancy also looked at how deep the penetration was into each organization and synergy with other services that Nancy’s organization had to offer. Looking at each client from a utopian/dystopian point of view was a helpful exercise as well.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What’s your best advice to people for deepening relationships in an authentic way? The simple answer is storytelling. Studies have shown that different areas of the brain light up during a story, and it allows people to feel your content, not just listen to it. Storytelling is a powerful way to feel a sense of connection between two people. If the goal is to create a bond, the best way to do that is through story. If you don’t have a great origin story, you should have a calling story. You should also have a collection of stories in your repertoire that shows how your product or service gets your customers unstuck. Origin stories are reasons to believe, but there are also stories just meant to bond or influence. They can come in the form of I, We, or They, and the more distant the story is from your own experience, the more you have to build in performance and empathy. The more you practice telling stories, the more you are able to inject your own genuineness and authenticity. Even Nancy hires a coach to help her craft her story. In one of her more recent internal presentations, Nancy took her slide deck and noted what emotions she wanted her audience to feel and when, and then recrafted the message to facilitate that.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What’s your best advice on creating and closing the meaty business we all want? Anytime you’re speaking to an audience, no matter where that is, the first thing you need to do is think about your audience journey. You need to think about who they are when they walk in the room and who you want them to be when they walk out. Your role in that journey is the mentor. It starts with a big idea: Your point of view on an industry and what’s at stake if the audience doesn’t adopt your point of view. One of the most important things about the hero’s journey is that they start in the normal world and then something happens that moves them into the special world. You need to look at every communication as an opportunity to enrapture the audience, bring them into your special world, and then have them go back to their normal world with new tools and gifts or special powers. As presenters, we often think that we are the central figure, but the truth is that each person in the audience is the hero of their own story. As the speaker, you’re Yoda, not Luke Skywalker. If you deliver your material in a way that makes the audience walk out the door with your idea in their head and their heart, you win. Even if the audience isn’t physically leaving when you’re not giving value, they are mentally checking out. Authenticity is crucial and the best way to be authentic is to use the story structure to convey your perspective. Being able to show vulnerability is what makes you more likeable and connects people to you.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What’s your big idea for people to grow their business that feels great? LinkedIn does a study every year and each year the biggest skills gap is oral communication skills and the spoken word across all industries. How you show up, the presence you have, and how you deliver is how you separate yourself from your competitors Communication excellence takes practice and the ability to understand  frameworks and models. We need to be adaptive to the situation and what we hear, and we also need to be intentional about what words we use when communicating. The first step is always research. You can’t come prepared with good questions without research. The first thing a salesperson should do is understand the strategic initiatives and how things are going to be measured. Empathy is a theme that runs through everything that happens in Nancy’s organization. You can find a plethora of information about a potential customer in their newsfeeds. This can give you an idea of the kinds of pressure they are under. Sometimes an external person can be a better student than someone within the organization. When approaching a prospect, you should take some time to try to understand their perspective as deeply as possible including the culture, the biases, and the budgets. Nancy has a platform that enables her to invite people to part of it, which is a great way to initiate meetings. One of the values of Nancy’s organization is generous experts. Nancy dropped over 100 customers during Covid to focus on 35 of her best, and subsequently, the organization grew over the last year.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Alisa Cohn, the number one startup coach in the world, shares why the entrepreneurial growth mindset is the foundation for business success. Learn how to think about your business holistically, how to create a flywheel of great habits that makes doing the hard things easy, and why the ability to change your state when you need to is an incredible superpower in your quest for business development success.   Mo asks Alisa Cohn: Why is it important to think about running a business holistically? Everybody has to think of themselves as their own CEO. Think with the entrepreneurial mindset on how you are going to manage yourself, so that you can manage others and the business around you. The trouble is that people miss the entrepreneurial mindset and instead focus on the delivery aspect of the work. You need to be building business today, tomorrow, and well into the future. You need to do the activities that will eventually take yourself out of the business so that you can work on the business. When you are managing yourself, the most important thing is your mindset. You must carve out time to focus on things that build your business and not just the day-to-day grind. Structure your calendar so that it has those activities built in. A powerful activity you can do is to journal on what your future self and business look like. Project out what you want your future to look like, and then think about what has to happen in the intervening years to make that a reality. Those are the activities that need to be done today and everyday from now on. Distractions will always be ready to derail you. Practice not being distracted during the time you schedule for your most important things. Don’t check your email, put your phone on silent and focus. You should look back at your week and see what you accomplished. You develop a flywheel of great habits by merchandising your success. Make celebrating your success a weekly ritual in whatever way makes you feel good. This can be done solo or in a group. Celebrating the things that move your business forward is extremely powerful.   Mo asks Alisa Cohn: What’s your best advice for creating and closing more of the meaty business we all want? Alisa’s top tip is to think about your process of how you build relationships that eventually turn into business. Chances are you are great at one area of your process and other areas need work. Think about five different ways you can experiment and try something new for the piece of your process where you feel stuck. The first step is to identify the weak link by creating an environment of psychological safety. People are not going to share their weaknesses or mistakes unless they feel safe to do so. Once you know what to work on, it’s about trying new things and learning from the process. The more you try, the more tools and repertoire you have and knowledge about what does and doesn’t work. Many professionals work in an organization where it’s very difficult to admit fault. You can help create the right environment through a number of ways. This includes open body language and leaders disclosing their vulnerabilities first. The leader should model the openness and warmth that they want to see from their team. Share stories of failure and what you learned. By doing so you are showing that a skill like business development is a skill that can be learned. Leadership is an unnatural act. All of us have to learn how to do things, which at times feel counterintuitive to us, to be successful in the professional world. Ask questions that generate an honest conversation. For clients, ask for suggestions about what you can do better or mention an area where you’ve heard from others that you’re weak in and ask them for help on how you can improve. Asking good questions is a skill that permeates every aspect of being a high-end professional and senior leader.   Mo asks Alisa Cohn: What’s your best advice around how we can deepen relationships with clients and our internal team? First of all, recognize that what you want to and need to do is deepen relationships. It starts with the mindset. We don’t make anything important until we make it important. Build relationships with the people you work with one by one. Start with listening to how they approach the world and tailor your style to that. People prefer real talk, not stilted conversation. Good questions can be the spark you need to ignite deeper conversations. When you stay present in a conversation and listen deeply, they can feel the energy and you become more attractive to them. Follow up questions are very effective at taking a relationship to a deeper level. A great place to start is to ask “What are you most excited about today?” People love to talk about that kind of thing and almost no one ever asks it. For Alisa, she’s most excited about the imminent publishing of her new book, From Start-up to Grown-up.   Mo asks Alisa Cohn: How can we hack our habits to keep focusing on the growth activities when the world is trying to pull us away? Recognize that your job is to put the first things first. You have to separate out what is critically important and what is just the “urgent of the now”. Schedule time for yourself every day of every week to distinguish what the important things are and then put them on the calendar. If it’s not on your calendar, it’s not going to happen. Successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t feel like doing. Do whatever you need to do to create the right environment and get you motivated to do the things that will set up your long term success. Your calendar shows your priorities more than your to-do list does. Alisa encourages her clients to get up and get physical to change their state to start off with. Use podcasts or audiobooks to put the words in your ears that motivate. Music or coffee may be what you need to start the engine, you just need to find the way that works for you. Catalyzing a state change is your superpower. If you need something a little bit bigger, you might need to take a bigger break. Taking a digital sabbatical once a week is a great way to reset. If you’re feeling burned out, it may be from the critical voices in your head. Demonstrate self-compassion and surround yourself with people that make you feel great because that is one of the best cures for burnout. Find your purpose and then collect the things that keep you connected to your purpose.   Mo shares his insights from the habits of Alisa Cohn. One of the most important things you can do is have an entrepreneurial growth mindset. Stay on track with your energy. If you feel out of balance or like your energy is being drained, do what you need to do to refuel and motivate yourself. Get up and exercise, read a book, listen to music, take a coffee break. Whenever Mo gets a complimentary message from a listener or client, he puts the message into an inspiration folder so that when he’s feeling low he can go back and remind himself why he does what he does. Leading others is based on the relationship you have from them. You develop that relationship by asking good questions and connecting with them at a personal level. Document what the people you know care about and what they are trying to achieve. This will remind you of their purpose and how you can support them in their goals. Creating an environment of psychological safety within your business is an important way to lead the business forward because that is how progress happens. Psychological safety drives growth, because if people can’t share what they are worried about, the problems will never be solved.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Alisa Cohn. One of the most important things you can do is have an entrepreneurial growth mindset. Stay on track with your energy. If you feel out of balance or like your energy is being drained, do what you need to do to refuel and motivate yourself. Get up and exercise, read a book, listen to music, take a coffee break. Whenever Mo gets a complimentary message from a listener or client, he puts the message into an inspiration folder so that when he’s feeling low he can go back and remind himself why he does what he does. Leading others is based on the relationship you have from them. You develop that relationship by asking good questions and connecting with them at a personal level. Document what the people you know care about and what they are trying to achieve. This will remind you of their purpose and how you can support them in their goals. Creating an environment of psychological safety within your business is an important way to lead the business forward because that is how progress happens. Psychological safety drives growth, because if people can’t share what they are worried about, the problems will never be solved.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com

Mo asks Alisa Cohn: How can we hack our habits to keep focusing on the growth activities when the world is trying to pull us away? Recognize that your job is to put the first things first. You have to separate out what is critically important and what is just the “urgent of the now”. Schedule time for yourself every day of every week to distinguish what the important things are and then put them on the calendar. If it’s not on your calendar, it’s not going to happen. Successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t feel like doing. Do whatever you need to do to create the right environment and get you motivated to do the things that will set up your long term success. Your calendar shows your priorities more than your to-do list does. Alisa encourages her clients to get up and get physical to change their state to start off with. Use podcasts or audiobooks to put the words in your ears that motivate. Music or coffee may be what you need to start the engine, you just need to find the way that works for you. Catalyzing a state change is your superpower. If you need something a little bit bigger, you might need to take a bigger break. Taking a digital sabbatical once a week is a great way to reset. If you’re feeling burned out, it may be from the critical voices in your head. Demonstrate self-compassion and surround yourself with people that make you feel great because that is one of the best cures for burnout. Find your purpose and then collect the things that keep you connected to your purpose.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com

Mo asks Alisa Cohn: What’s your best advice around how we can deepen relationships with clients and our internal team? First of all, recognize that what you want to and need to do is deepen relationships. It starts with the mindset. We don’t make anything important until we make it important. Build relationships with the people you work with one by one. Start with listening to how they approach the world and tailor your style to that. People prefer real talk, not stilted conversation. Good questions can be the spark you need to ignite deeper conversations. When you stay present in a conversation and listen deeply, they can feel the energy and you become more attractive to them. Follow up questions are very effective at taking a relationship to a deeper level. A great place to start is to ask “What are you most excited about today?” People love to talk about that kind of thing and almost no one ever asks it. For Alisa, she’s most excited about the imminent publishing of her new book, From Start-up to Grown-up.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com

Mo asks Alisa Cohn: What’s your best advice for creating and closing more of the meaty business we all want? Alisa’s top tip is to think about your process of how you build relationships that eventually turn into business. Chances are you are great at one area of your process and other areas need work. Think about five different ways you can experiment and try something new for the piece of your process where you feel stuck. The first step is to identify the weak link by creating an environment of psychological safety. People are not going to share their weaknesses or mistakes unless they feel safe to do so. Once you know what to work on, it’s about trying new things and learning from the process. The more you try, the more tools and repertoire you have and knowledge about what does and doesn’t work. Many professionals work in an organization where it’s very difficult to admit fault. You can help create the right environment through a number of ways. This includes open body language and leaders disclosing their vulnerabilities first. The leader should model the openness and warmth that they want to see from their team. Share stories of failure and what you learned. By doing so you are showing that a skill like business development is a skill that can be learned. Leadership is an unnatural act. All of us have to learn how to do things, which at times feel counterintuitive to us, to be successful in the professional world. Ask questions that generate an honest conversation. For clients, ask for suggestions about what you can do better or mention an area where you’ve heard from others that you’re weak in and ask them for help on how you can improve. Asking good questions is a skill that permeates every aspect of being a high-end professional and senior leader.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com

Mo asks Alisa Cohn: Why is it important to think about running a business holistically? Everybody has to think of themselves as their own CEO. Think with the entrepreneurial mindset on how you are going to manage yourself, so that you can manage others and the business around you. The trouble is that people miss the entrepreneurial mindset and instead focus on the delivery aspect of the work. You need to be building business today, tomorrow, and well into the future. You need to do the activities that will eventually take yourself out of the business so that you can work on the business. When you are managing yourself, the most important thing is your mindset. You must carve out time to focus on things that build your business and not just the day-to-day grind. Structure your calendar so that it has those activities built in. A powerful activity you can do is to journal on what your future self and business look like. Project out what you want your future to look like, and then think about what has to happen in the intervening years to make that a reality. Those are the activities that need to be done today and everyday from now on. Distractions will always be ready to derail you. Practice not being distracted during the time you schedule for your most important things. Don’t check your email, put your phone on silent and focus. You should look back at your week and see what you accomplished. You develop a flywheel of great habits by merchandising your success. Make celebrating your success a weekly ritual in whatever way makes you feel good. This can be done solo or in a group. Celebrating the things that move your business forward is extremely powerful.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com