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

Mo asks Marissa King: How can people use their networks to deepen relationships? Networks are relationships and the quality of those relationships is determined in the moment. Two of the biggest obstacles to deep relationships are simple distractions and not being present in the moment. If you're in a meeting, turn your phone off and put it away. Simply having a phone on the table during a conversation makes it less pleasurable and it makes you look less empathetic. Research showed that the truth of the parable of the Good Samaritan is that how much of a hurry someone is in determines whether they stop to help. The key for everyone is to slow down and be present. Being in a hurry is the biggest roadblock to real connection. The most effective relationship-building super power you can have is the ability to listen. Most people believe they are great listeners but that's not the case for the majority. Oftentimes people just need space to be seen and heard. Give them that full space and it's amazing how quickly relationships can move forward. Self-disclosure and allowing people to see more hidden aspects of yourself is how you connect on a human-to-human basis. Finding uncommon commonalities is the key. If you discover that you both love to unicycle, it will lead to a much deeper connection than more surface level stuff. Give people more color and character. We all want to know each other as humans and that's all part of your story. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com socialchemistry.com

Mo asks Marissa King: How can high-end experts create more opportunities to close more business that feels authentic and leverages the idea of a powerful network? One of the most powerful things about networks is that we can use them to think about our relationships in general. You can grow your book of business by matching whatever you're trying to sell with network thinking. If your product or service is hard to evaluate from the outset, one of the best things you can be is embedded in a network that can vouch for you, like a Convening network. The repeated exposure in this sort of network is critical to selling such a service. If your business involves either keeping people apart or putting them together, one of the key traits you need to cultivate is empathy and the perception of being empathetic. This overcomes the tendency of people to doubt your motives. The takeaway from Expanisionsts is to stay in touch with people in the network on a regular basis, especially if your product or service is easy to understand and purchase. The ability to close deals almost always boils down to trust. High-quality interactions with people in your network, no matter what kind of network it is, are how you build that trust. People want to help you. The power of networks is that when you put individuals together into groups you get outsized gains. By investing in your network and creating value for them, that value comes back multifold to you. When you don't ask someone for help, you are denying them the ability to be helpful. By asking for help you are actually strengthening the relationship, as well as giving the other person a sense of mastery. People like people who ask for help. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com socialchemistry.com

Mo asks Marissa King: How can we grow our book of business and career through networking? Research has shown that ⅔ of professionals, even those whose businesses depend on relationships, are actively resistant to the idea of networking. Our relationships are something that we hold dear, so being intentional and strategic about them seems morally off-putting for many people. We know that networking is certainly important and one of the best ways to overcome your initial resistance to it is to think about what you can give in an interaction instead of what you can get. It's not just networking that matters, it's your network. Understanding what your network looks like and what its current strengths are is going to be more effective than just increasing the number of people you know. From three decades of social science research, we know that most of the positive outcomes we care about are determined primarily by the type of network we have. We all have certain network signatures and there are three basic types. The first type is the Convener. These people invest a lot in maintaining existing relationships and have a few deep ties. This preference for stability comes with a lot of trust and emotional/psychological support. The second type is a Brokerage network. Brokers tend to straddle multiple social worlds careerwise, and talk to groups that don't normally talk to each other. They are in the idea import/export business. Brokers have the strongest personality predictor, known as self-monitoring, which is a chameleon effect. The benefits of this type of network are innovation, creativity, and a better work/life balance. The third type is an Expansionist network, which is the quintessential network. Expansionists know exponentially more people than the average person and this kind of network is great for visibility, popularity, and influence. There is extraordinary value in your existing network, no matter what type you have. What are your current strengths and what needs do you have at the moment? Understanding that is your first step. The key to forming and maintaining a really effective network is in tapping to your existing network's strengths, rather than just growing it. For Conveners, there is great value in reaching out to dormant connections. Those people are much more likely to provide you with new information because of the underlying trust that still remains. One of the best things you can learn from Brokers is focusing on where you are going rather than who you know. Spend time in a new space or learn a new hobby and by simply putting yourself in a new place you are likely to regenerate your network. The Expansionist ability of being able to give from one to many is a strength that anyone can take advantage of. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com assessyournetwork.com

Kara Goldin shares how she persevered through difficult setbacks and challenges on her way to growing a $100 million beverage company by being relentlessly curious and creating her own opportunities out of adversity. Learn how great business developers can ensure their long-term success by thinking differently, always looking for the opportunities around them, and creating a persistent mindset around adding value to their client's business. Mo asks Kara Goldin: What is your best advice on how to focus on business development, grow our book of business, and grow our career? The first thing you can do is take care of your existing customer base since they were the customers that got everything started. Our natural instinct is to fear the companies with more money and more experience, but historically speaking those are the companies that end up in trouble because of their inability to change. The key to great business development is to figure out how to think differently. To look for new opportunities you need to come at them from the point of view of the underdog with passion and curiosity. As a consultant, sitting back and waiting for an RFP to land in your inbox is not a good strategy. You become stuck in reactive mode and more commoditized, with a low chance of winning. Creating your own opportunities is much more important. Kara learned early on not to listen to all the rules, and by doing so she ended up gaining access to an incredible amount of opportunities. She relates the story of landing her first job out of college and how the skill of "half-listening" and just being willing to learn and put herself out there opened doors for her all over the country. Don't answer for other people. When it comes to pursuing relationships, don't dismiss yourself before you try. Overthinking is what prevents people from creating the relationships and networks they want to have. Have fun with it and brush off the rejection. Perseverance is 100% a skill that you can learn and master. History definitely helps us if we allow it to help us. Look back at what worked and what didn't. Mo asks Kara Goldin: What can we do to create and close more opportunities? Look around at the unique opportunities that other people are not paying attention to. The key to being the best salesperson or business development person is always looking for a way to solve problems and thinking like the customer. Don't be afraid to think differently and put yourself in the shoes of your customer so you can see their problems from their perspective. The key to understanding people is in understanding what they really want. What is the one thing that they care about most and how can you help them get it? Most business developers make the mistake of starting with themselves and what they want. Creating opportunities is fundamentally about listening to people and understanding what problem they want to solve. Kara is an incredibly curious person who likes to ask questions and this is how she finds the opportunity to help someone. Kara gains more inspiration by learning from other businesses outside her industry. She prefers to expose herself to new ideas and new approaches by purposely putting herself in situations where she's going to learn something new. Just being a good person and doing what you do well every single day is how you attract more opportunities into your life. Acknowledging someone else's problem and authentically trying to help them with it is the simple secret to success. Mo asks Kara Goldin: What is the best way to deepen relationships with the people who matter to us? Deepening relationships stems from understanding what other people's goals are and what you have in common with them. Before meetings, Kara doesn't do much research because she wants to understand what's important to them directly. People remember the surreal moments in their life. Unlikely shared experiences with someone are a great way to create a connection with them and develop an authentic relationship. You have to do the work and have a presentation ready, but if you can relate with the prospect and have a genuine conversation with them it can be even more persuasive. Building a relationship in unique ways is a simple way to set you apart. The first interaction is often awkward, but if you push through and break the ice, the next interaction can be seamless. To rekindle older relationships, engage them along the lines of something that you share. Just reaching out and making an offer to have them join you for an event or webinar is a great way to start off and almost no one does it. Asking why is a powerful tool to finding a solution to problems. Being in the pursuit of a solution can allow you to become a connector for other people. If you can be a bridge for other people, you become more valuable to them and they will often want to reciprocate. Mo asks Kara Goldin: What is your habit when you get told no? Kara was a gymnast when she was growing up but she never really excelled at it. It was during those training sessions where she learned the discipline to always look for the good in the experience. Kara tells the story of how she lost Starbucks as a client for the Hint beverage company, a loss of 40% of her business in the span of two weeks. Despite the loss, having the product in Starbucks was the foundation of her opportunity to get into Amazon's grocery business and led to Kara realizing that customer data is crucial. After being told by both Starbucks and Amazon that they weren't going to share their customer data with her, Kara realized that she needed to focus on business development and start her own direct-to-consumer business. Seven years later, direct-to-consumer sales are now over 50% of the business. There were plenty of naysayers that said beverages can't be sold over the mail but business has tripled since the beginning of the pandemic, which wouldn't have happened had Kara listened to the people saying it couldn't be done. Challenges and failures are the learnings that help you to do better in the long run. Great growth-oriented business developers take a setback and feel the pain, yet realize that there is something to learn from and opportunities can still come from it. When you get told no, it's important to understand their why. Maybe that deal is not meant to be part of your journey but there is always something to learn from the experience and opportunity to find out more. Get all the info you can. A phone call about why you lost may not sound like a fun conversation but can be very enlightening. Be a resource to people that is a joy to be around. Resourcefulness is a crucial aspect of business development. Understanding the probabilities also helps give you perspective. If you are swinging for the fences and have a low probability of success and you know that, if it doesn't work out it's not going to be so disappointing. Mo shares his insights from the habits of Kara Goldin. Think differently. Expose yourself to lots of different ways of thinking by going outside of your industry and learning from people who do things differently. Typically when you go to conferences with like-minded people who are doing the same things you are, you tend towards the average of those people. By exposing yourself to completely different industries, you open yourself up to incredible insights. If you share the same struggle but day-to-day work is very different, that's where you can find some of your best ideas. This is the reason mastermind groups can be so powerful. If you aren't part of a group with diverse perspectives and experiences, either join one or create one. Create your own opportunities. The best opportunities are created before a client knows they have them. This goes back to the "move without the ball" concept from Mike Daimler. Average business developers wait until they receive an opportunity and then they react. Great business developers create their own opportunities by investing in the potential client and put themselves in a position where they are the natural choice. Offer your time upfront at no charge and dig into a client's problem. Start helping them and end it at the point where you should get paid to do the real heavy lifting. A great give-to-get satisfies three criteria. It's relatively easy for you, it should be valuable to the client, and it should lead to the next step. The number one correlation to success is to keep helping people. Great business developers are undaunted and keep reaching out and finding ways to help. They create connections and show that they care. Most people quit after one setback. Great business developers are undaunted, continue to be helpful, and are always adding value. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com karagoldin.com - Get her book Undaunted

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Kara Goldin. Think differently. Expose yourself to lots of different ways of thinking by going outside of your industry and learning from people who do things differently. Typically when you go to conferences with like-minded people who are doing the same things you are, you tend towards the average of those people. By exposing yourself to completely different industries, you open yourself up to incredible insights. If you share the same struggle but day-to-day work is very different, that's where you can find some of your best ideas. This is the reason mastermind groups can be so powerful. If you aren't part of a group with diverse perspectives and experiences, either join one or create one. Create your own opportunities. The best opportunities are created before a client knows they have them. This goes back to the "move without the ball" concept from Mike Daimler. Average business developers wait until they receive an opportunity and then they react. Great business developers create their own opportunities by investing in the potential client and put themselves in a position where they are the natural choice. Offer your time upfront at no charge and dig into a client's problem. Start helping them and end it at the point where you should get paid to do the real heavy lifting. A great give-to-get satisfies three criteria. It's relatively easy for you, it should be valuable to the client, and it should lead to the next step. The number one correlation to success is to keep helping people. Great business developers are undaunted and keep reaching out and finding ways to help. They create connections and show that they care. Most people quit after one setback. Great business developers are undaunted, continue to be helpful, and are always adding value. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com karagoldin.com - Get her book Undaunted

Mo asks Kara Goldin: What is your habit when you get told no? Kara was a gymnast when she was growing up but she never really excelled at it. It was during those training sessions where she learned the discipline to always look for the good in the experience. Kara tells the story of how she lost Starbucks as a client for the Hint beverage company, a loss of 40% of her business in the span of two weeks. Despite the loss, having the product in Starbucks was the foundation of her opportunity to get into Amazon's grocery business and led to Kara realizing that customer data is crucial. After being told by both Starbucks and Amazon that they weren't going to share their customer data with her, Kara realized that she needed to focus on business development and start her own direct-to-consumer business. Seven years later, direct-to-consumer sales are now over 50% of the business. There were plenty of naysayers that said beverages can't be sold over the mail but business has tripled since the beginning of the pandemic, which wouldn't have happened had Kara listened to the people saying it couldn't be done. Challenges and failures are the learnings that help you to do better in the long run. Great growth-oriented business developers take a setback and feel the pain, yet realize that there is something to learn from and opportunities can still come from it. When you get told no, it's important to understand their why. Maybe that deal is not meant to be part of your journey but there is always something to learn from the experience and opportunity to find out more. Get all the info you can. A phone call about why you lost may not sound like a fun conversation but can be very enlightening. Be a resource to people that is a joy to be around. Resourcefulness is a crucial aspect of business development. Understanding the probabilities also helps give you perspective. If you are swinging for the fences and have a low probability of success and you know that, if it doesn't work out it's not going to be so disappointing. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com karagoldin.com - Get her book Undaunted

Mo asks Kara Goldin: What can we do to create and close more opportunities? Look around at the unique opportunities that other people are not paying attention to. The key to being the best salesperson or business development person is always looking for a way to solve problems and thinking like the customer. Don't be afraid to think differently and put yourself in the shoes of your customer so you can see their problems from their perspective. The key to understanding people is in understanding what they really want. What is the one thing that they care about most and how can you help them get it? Most business developers make the mistake of starting with themselves and what they want. Creating opportunities is fundamentally about listening to people and understanding what problem they want to solve. Kara is an incredibly curious person who likes to ask questions and this is how she finds the opportunity to help someone. Kara gains more inspiration by learning from other businesses outside her industry. She prefers to expose herself to new ideas and new approaches by purposely putting herself in situations where she's going to learn something new. Just being a good person and doing what you do well every single day is how you attract more opportunities into your life. Acknowledging someone else's problem and authentically trying to help them with it is the simple secret to success. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com karagoldin.com - Get her book Undaunted

Mo asks Kara Goldin: What can we do to create and close more opportunities? Look around at the unique opportunities that other people are not paying attention to. The key to being the best salesperson or business development person is always looking for a way to solve problems and thinking like the customer. Don't be afraid to think differently and put yourself in the shoes of your customer so you can see their problems from their perspective. The key to understanding people is in understanding what they really want. What is the one thing that they care about most and how can you help them get it? Most business developers make the mistake of starting with themselves and what they want. Creating opportunities is fundamentally about listening to people and understanding what problem they want to solve. Kara is an incredibly curious person who likes to ask questions and this is how she finds the opportunity to help someone. Kara gains more inspiration by learning from other businesses outside her industry. She prefers to expose herself to new ideas and new approaches by purposely putting herself in situations where she's going to learn something new. Just being a good person and doing what you do well every single day is how you attract more opportunities into your life. Acknowledging someone else's problem and authentically trying to help them with it is the simple secret to success. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com karagoldin.com - Get her book Undaunted

Mo asks Kara Goldin: What is your best advice on how to focus on business development, grow our book of business, and grow our career? The first thing you can do is take care of your existing customer base since they were the customers that got everything started. Our natural instinct is to fear the companies with more money and more experience, but historically speaking those are the companies that end up in trouble because of their inability to change. The key to great business development is to figure out how to think differently. To look for new opportunities you need to come at them from the point of view of the underdog with passion and curiosity. As a consultant, sitting back and waiting for an RFP to land in your inbox is not a good strategy. You become stuck in reactive mode and more commoditized, with a low chance of winning. Creating your own opportunities is much more important. Kara learned early on not to listen to all the rules, and by doing so she ended up gaining access to an incredible amount of opportunities. She relates the story of landing her first job out of college and how the skill of "half-listening" and just being willing to learn and put herself out there opened doors for her all over the country. Don't answer for other people. When it comes to pursuing relationships, don't dismiss yourself before you try. Overthinking is what prevents people from creating the relationships and networks they want to have. Have fun with it and brush off the rejection. Perseverance is 100% a skill that you can learn and master. History definitely helps us if we allow it to help us. Look back at what worked and what didn't. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com karagoldin.com - Get her book Undaunted

Grant Baldwin shares how getting booked and paid to speak not only positions you as the authority in your space, it can help you create and deepen relationships with potentially hundreds or thousands of your ideal clients all at the same time. Learn how to create and close more deals from the stage, how to set up a system that puts your follow-up process on autopilot, and how to fill your pipeline for years to come. Mo asks Grant Baldwin: What's your big idea on how to get better at business development? Public speaking is the key and because of Covid, there is even more opportunity for virtual speaking. One of the major benefits of public speaking is that you get real-time feedback from the audience. Like a business idea, a presentation is an educated guess, and getting feedback is crucial. You can see people responding directly to what you're saying and you get immediate feedback that can help you refine your message and idea. Speaking also builds rapport and connection with people in a way that isn't possible via an email or blog post. Speaking is no different than any other service-based business and the human connection plays a major part in that. Many people try to overcomplicate speaking or think that they need to be famous in order to speak, but as speakers you are simply in the problem solving business. In the corporate world, speaking is a form of lead generation. From a speaking stand point, you become the authority on what you talk about and it can generate a lot of business for you at the same time. Speaking is flexible and you get to decide how it fits into your business. It can be a full-time effort or just a few times a year, it's up to you. If you are an account manager, speaking will help you better understand the challenges that your audience/clients are experiencing. You can use that information to become better at what you do. You can use speaking as a marketing engine as well as for getting into the weeds with your clients and understanding their problems on a deeper level. Speaking can also give you the confidence to take on more responsibility within your organization. Mo asks Grant Baldwin: How can people use public speaking to create and close deals? As speakers, we have to realize that we are in the problem solving business. The audience doesn't care about whether you are passionate about your topic, they want to know why what you are saying matters and what it means to them. Be very clear about what actual problem you are solving for your audience. The more specific, narrow, and clear you can be, the easier it is to book gigs. One of the most common mistakes is speaking to everyone about everything. We need to hone down our message and narrow our focus. By doing one thing really well, you're more likely to attract the right clients and the right audience. As speakers, one of the best things you can do to build your business is to be really clear about solving one specific problem for one specific audience. The other key is learning where your ideal audience gathers. All over the world, there are natural gathering points for the people that are your ideal clients. The first thing you should do is to begin building relationships with the organizers of those spaces. Conferences and trade shows are already interested in finding speakers for those events,so getting an audience with them is an easy way to get your foot in the door. Another possible avenue is to organize your own event. For many audiences, there is no existing gathering point so creating your own event is a great way to fill a room and give a speech directly to the people you want to speak to. Virtual events are another great option, especially as people become more comfortable with the technology involved, and they can be put together more spontaneously than an in-person event. Events don't have to be large to be valuable. Small local events are a good resource too. Event planners are in the risk mitigation business so there has to be a high level of trust in the the speakers they hire. One of the best ways to create that experience with you as a speaker is to invite people to your presentations and create a mixed audience of clients and prospects. Mo asks Grant Baldwin: How can we use speaking to deepen relationships? One of the best things about speaking is that oftentimes it's an in-person human experience. People do business with those they know, like, and trust, and there's no better way for that than meeting someone in person at a conference or an event, especially if you're a speaker who is seen as an authority. Speaking at an event gives the audience a sense of who you are, and whether they can trust you to connect with their people. It's a way to build the camaraderie and rapport that leads to future business. Being a speaker at an event changes the way people think about you. Your perceived value and reputation skyrockets after speaking and you're assigned a certain level of authority that's hard to replicate in other ways. Being a speaker also gives you the opportunity to get to know other speakers. Speaking gigs don't always result in commercial opportunities right away; sometimes they are a means of connecting to other speaking opportunities. You never know who will be in the audience and what that relationship could turn into. Part of being a speaker is planting a lot of different seeds with a large number of people. Being a speaker is a long-term business and you can find opportunities by being persistent, following up, and just constantly showing up. Mo asks Grant Baldwin: How can we hack our habits to keep focusing on the long-term and stay top-of-mind? Speaking is a person-to-person business. One of the keys to success as a speaker is regularly following up with past events or with events that you would like to speak at. There is a consistent turnover each year as event organizers look for new voices and little touch points over the course of a few years will help you stay top-of-mind when they begin the process of looking for their next speaker. The more times someone is exposed to you and what you do, the more likely they are to feel familiar with you and take you up on your offer. To organize your follow-up efforts you need to have a system. This could be in the form of a spreadsheet or a CRM, but it can't just be in your head. Pre-schedule your follow-up tasks months into the future, that way your only day-to-day task will be to check your CRM and see what you need to do in terms of follow-up for that day. One of the most important things you can do as a speaker is have a system in place to help you be responsible in your follow-up. When you do follow up after promising to do so, you're giving the person a taste of what it is like to work with you. People want to do business with people who make their life easy. In terms of tasks and time, Grant checks his CRM (currently Hubspot, but the software isn't as important as the system) each day and then executes on that follow-up task first. These follow-up tasks also give him a high level view of the leads in his pipeline which allows him to plan ahead. Like a flywheel, you have to keep putting energy and effort into your business or at some point it's going to stop. You need to put in a little bit of work each day to keep your business going. Build in the time now or it's going to be 100 times harder to get things going again in six months when you run out of work. Mo shares his insights from the habits of Grant Baldwin. Speaking is an incredible way to simultaneously create and close business at the same time, either by going to where your ideal client already gathers or by organizing your own event. Both methods work well. If you're trying to land a speaking gig for a big event or conference, you usually have to start a year in advance. You need to figure out who the decision makers are and get your name in front of them before they start looking for speakers. Learn what themes they want to emphasize for the following year and get into a dialogue with them so you can show them you can deliver on what they want to accomplish. Ideally, you want to be able to show why your unique perspective will solve their problem. If you can stay top-of-mind while they are writing out what they are looking for in a speaker, you're going to win far more often. If you do the work up front and help them shape where the event is going, it will greatly increase the odds of your success. If your ideal client tends not to gather in a specific space then putting your own conference together can create great results. The first step is to find one or two partners and then look to work together with a university or non-profit. If you can combine someone known for their knowledge, someone known for their technology, and someone known for their research, you can create an incredible brand for your conference. This kind of event creates an incredible level of collaboration between you and your partners as well as for the people attending. Sometimes it's best to start with a small, intimate group instead of a grand-scale event. When you're speaking, you're building a relationship with your audience at scale. There is a major difference between delivering a talk on your own and delivering it with a client. Not only is it an incredible relationship-building experience with that client, you are also able to change the mindset and expectation of the audience at the same time. One of the biggest benefits of speaking is the scale and efficiency of each presentation. Make your talk about whatever you would talk about in a one-on-one conversation. Don't let the organizer determine the topic completely. Instead find win/wins that meet in the middle. People do what they rehearse in their mind. Ideally, you want people in your audience identifying with the stories you're telling on the stage. At some point in the conversation, you make the next step as easy as possible. The goal is to have a speech that actually converts into a conversation with the people you want to talk to, either by making the offer directly in the presentation or by offering a more in-depth one-to-one discussion. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thespeakerlab.com