You Can't Afford Me
You Can't Afford Me
From Spa Start-Up to Dog Training Dynamo: Christie Ann's Masterclass in Sales Strategy and Relationship Building
Unlock the full potential of your sales strategy with a treasure trove of insights from Christie Ann Randall, the serial entrepreneur who knows how to make businesses thrive. On a journey that zigzagged from a mobile spa to dog walking and training, Christie Ann has woven two decades of experience into every piece of advice. Tune in and transform your sales meetings into masterpieces of engagement, learning to listen in a way that earns trust and opens wallets. Absorb the essence of successful cold contact strategies and follow-up techniques that turn lukewarm leads into red-hot opportunities. Christie Ann goes beyond textbook tactics, offering a real-world roadmap to the sales success that awaits those ready to learn.
Dive into the heart of business growth where generosity meets strategy, inspired by the game-changing principles of "The Go-Giver." Discover how Christie Ann's personal anecdotes reflect the transformative power of giving, transcending transactions to build relationships that fuel success. Unearth the secrets to tracking business metrics and harnessing the underestimated power of referrals. It's not just about the numbers; it's about the relationships behind them—and we'll show you how to grow both.
Finally, join us as we explore the significance of networking and influence meetings in the context of Christie Ann’s flourishing dog training business. This episode isn't just a conversation; it's a clinic on cultivating valuable, reciprocal relationships that support and sustain business growth. We're not just talking dogs—we're talking about the loyalty and dedication that come from nurturing connections, just like the ones you'll build after absorbing the wisdom shared here. So, leash up your ambition and get ready to take your entrepreneurial journey to new heights!
www.themrpreneur.com
Dream of launching a business that combines innovation with social impact. Legacy Vending Machines Entrepreneur Program is a gateway to make it happen. I'm Sam Anderson, co-founder, inviting you to join a movement reshaping the future of vending. With personalized coaching, access to prime locations and a unique model that supports nonprofits, we empower you to start a profitable vending operation that truly gives back. Whether you're new to entrepreneurship or looking to expand, we're here to guide you. Profitable vending operation that truly gives back. Whether you're new to entrepreneurship or looking to expand, we're here to guide you every step of the way. Be more than an entrepreneur Be a legacy builder with Legacy Vending Machines. Apply today to take the first steps towards a business that makes a difference. Visit our website now at wwwlegacyvendingco. Your legacy starts here. Anybody who knows me that I've talked business with I will openly admit that one of my favorite things to do as an entrepreneur is sales, and we got the person today to talk to about that. We got Christy Ann in the studio today. Christy, how you doing today.
Speaker 2:Pretty good. Happy Tuesday Awesome.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So first tell everybody that's listening who you are, what you do.
Speaker 2:Christy and Randall. I am a business owner and I've owned and operated businesses for about 20 years, so I have quite the experience under my belt at this point in my life. Right now I own and operate Walk this Way dog walking and training. That is a fairly new business that I just launched and it's funny because it kind of just fell into my lap. I started very, very, very part-time, having absolutely no expectations whatsoever, and because of my knowledge on how to properly run a business and increase sales, it did very, very well, very quickly, so fast to the point where that is what I do full-time now. Oh, wow, oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just recently, actually, just literally a week and a half ago, nice, and you know before that I'm coaching people with their sales, with their businesses, helping them grow their businesses as well.
Speaker 1:So so are you still doing the coaching?
Speaker 2:No, I officially just put my notice in that I could no longer coach clients as of a week and a half ago. I guess Wow, and yeah, it's like a bittersweet story. I absolutely love the company that I was with with Southwestern Consulting, absolutely loved it. I really am going to miss my clients. Thankfully, we still have the internet and I can still connect with all my people and anytime anyone ever needs any help I'm still here. I'm not like, am I? I didn't leave the planet. So if they still have questions about anything, I'm always happy to help them. You know, I feel like I just do that in general Anytime anybody has questions about hey, how do I do this with my sales, how do I do this with my business? Like, I love sharing that knowledge with people and helping them. Um, because at the end of the day, that's really what it's about is just helping other people.
Speaker 1:Um so yeah, so now that you left them, uh, I can get sales coaching a little bit cheaper now.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm always open to help. Obviously Awesome Within reason, I'm not going to spend hours with you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I get it. So walk us back. Like before you became an entrepreneur. What were you doing?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I was young, so I moved here from upstate New York in 2007, when, I mean, this Richmond was totally different in 2007, when I mean, this richmond was totally different in 2007, I was right around the time of the real estate crash yeah, yeah, oh yeah, we were part of that.
Speaker 1:That was fun great time to move.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's exactly when we bought our house, too, bought our first house like right during the recession. I was like cool, wow, immediately underwater. So I worked in the spa industry when I first moved here and in New York the standards were much, much higher than they were here back in 2007.
Speaker 2:There actually was no licensing protocols when I moved here and it was mind boggling to me, but I worked for a you know a couple different places and I'm quickly realizing nobody knows what the hell they're doing. I was like nobody knows how to run a business. I'm like I don't have business experience per se I was only 22, but I knew what to do, what not to do, right, yeah? So I worked for a few different places and I was pregnant with my first son, worked for a doctor's office and I absolutely loved it, but the hours, like everything about it, just did not work for what I wanted and what I envisioned as being a mother as well and a working mother.
Speaker 2:So I was like, all right, how can I do what I enjoy doing but also be a mom and not miss out on those precious moments with my kids? So that's where my ex-husband he's actually in advertising. So we put our brains together and we were like, okay, how can we maybe make this work? So he helps me brand a business. And so I launched my first business when I was 23.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, you started pretty young.
Speaker 2:I was a young mom. I was a young business owner. What?
Speaker 1:was the business.
Speaker 2:So it was actually a mobile spa and that was what I figured, figured out. I was like, okay, if I make this mobile, I can, you know, make the hours however I need to.
Speaker 1:I can work around my kids schedules I can work around my husband at the time schedule you put the kids in the van and go do something well, I worked when, when my, my husband was home with the kids so basically it was like a nights and weekends kind of thing initially.
Speaker 2:So that's what I started with and I learned a lot along the way because, like I said, I had no business experience whatsoever. I made a ton of mistakes and I did that for, let's see, I had my second son in 2010. So I did that from 2007 to 2010. And then I had the opportunity to actually have a brick and mortar space with a shared gym and, because one of my friends was friends with the owner of it was called CrossFit RVA. Then I think it's called Performance RVA now okay yeah yeah, it's right down the street yep.
Speaker 2:Um. So I met up with Jake Jake's freaking awesome, I love him and so he was like, yeah, I have a, an extra room. We're actually going to be moving to a larger location. This is when they were down at Lee Street before they were where they're at now yep um, he was like, yeah, I'm open to you, know, renting the space out to you. And I was like, all right, let's go. Again having no idea what the hell I was doing.
Speaker 1:But that was a perfect like choosing something like that. It put you in a space where you had ready-made clients there for you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. So my business model quickly changed because initially it was a mobile spa where I focused on facials relaxation. It was just a very soothing, calming experience, shifted into banging weights like loud music. It was just a very drastic shift.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, Because that clientele isn't worried about relaxing. They just need their muscles worked out so they can get back to CrossFit the next day.
Speaker 2:Exactly so my business model, everything drastically changed. I was like, all right, this is not going to work. So I rebranded the business. I actually changed the name of the business. I changed it to River City Massage and Wellness, and so that was the focus, was sports massage, and so I was all of a sudden a sports massage therapist for athletes.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:And it was awesome. I loved it so much so I was there about three years.
Speaker 1:So for somebody that's looking at a business like this, give us a ballpark of what somebody as a solopreneur could expect to make per year doing something like that.
Speaker 2:As a massage therapist. Oh geez, back then it was so different. I mean, the rates then were so drastically different than what they are now. Back then, I think my rates were around $50 to $60 for the hour. Now you could expect to pay probably about $80 for the hour. It's changed so much just in a short period. I say short period of time, but that was back in 2010. Yeah, and we all know everything has gone up since then drastically. But yeah, it just depends. And then it depends on how much you want to work too and, like I said, I was working on my kids schedules, so I think I worked on maybe 15 clients a week, so it was still very, very part-time. And.
Speaker 2:I did that until I maxed myself out. But then I realized I still had people that wanted to see me, but I was booked out for weeks. So I was like, OK, I need to start hiring a team. And that's where I grew and realized what to do, what not to do as far as hiring people, as far as making them an employee or an independent contractor.
Speaker 1:That was fun, Benefits and pro. I say the most difficult piece of running a business is managing employees.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Like it's so much to deal with. You got the different personalities, you got different goals. Like everybody's fired up about something different, it's. It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah it. It was a total game changer for me. For sure. It was awesome because I was growing the business. It was growing so quickly to the point where we outgrew the space at CrossFit Um, so we moved to where do we go from there? It was a little office space, umary town. It's not even there anymore.
Speaker 2:they actually tore the building down oh, wow so that's why we had to move, otherwise we probably would have been there a little longer. But then we ended up moving to the fan. We basically rented out um an old fan house and converted it into a spa. It was oh my gosh, it was gorgeous. It was the perfect timing because the owner had just bought the building and he was renovating it.
Speaker 2:When I met him, he's like yeah, come on in and make it however you want it. And I was like really, this is great. So I got to choose the paint colors, I got to choose the light fixtures, like everything.
Speaker 1:Wait, hold on. Was this building across the street from VMFA?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh, no, across the street from vmfa. Yeah, uh, no, it was um. What is now pbr? Pbr was not there. Okay, all right. The way you were describing this was like exactly how I left my last building. I thought it was the owner's girlfriend and she had like a day spot and they came in and repainted like, did like they took over the whole building oh really and it was like me and one other company in there.
Speaker 1:We're like, yeah, we're getting the hell out of here. Like they just took the whole building, oh really. And it was like me and one other company in there and we were like, yeah, we're getting the hell out of here. Like they just took the whole building over. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I boot you out.
Speaker 1:So talk to us about, like, the startup cost for getting something like that going. So I understand, like the mobile unit. When you say mobile unit, is that like a Sprinter van, that like you could actually do, or it was just like you coming to people's location?
Speaker 2:and providing the massage service. Yeah, I literally lugged a massage table into people's houses.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that starting there because I want people to get a sense of, like, how little you can get in the business for what were your startup costs?
Speaker 2:for that business. Oh, it was hardly anything. I mean, especially back then I bought a massage table which I think was I don't even remember Maybe $500?. Yeah, your LLC. I bought a massage table which I think was I don't even remember maybe 500 bucks, yeah.
Speaker 1:Your LLC costs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you have all your business expenses, obviously.
Speaker 1:But as far as material items, you know that stuff, I think in a roundabout way it was probably around $2,000, to start Now somebody listening to this right now is blowing 2k a month on eating out and Gucci bags and all this other stuff, and they're still been thinking like I don't have the money to start a business. This is why I like bringing people like you on the podcast, because people can start to see hey, there, there are entry levels to this where it doesn't cost a lot of money being. Everybody has this idea in their head that you have to get. I guess what with Silicon Valley and apps and all this stuff. Everybody thinks, oh, you've got to raise a gajillion dollars and immediately hire a staff of 100 people and it has to scale to this degree.
Speaker 2:No, you can start a business for two grand Baby steps. Baby steps, I mean, even if you just literally pay for the business license. Step one, it's like $100. Yep, come on.
Speaker 1:Yep $100. Start there, I think everybody should have an LLC, even if you work a full-time job and you really don't have a business that you've even really conceived. I tell everybody just start an LLC, just for the tax breaks, like everything that comes along with owning a business.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just start an LLC as a side hustle. Oh yeah, business. Yeah, to start an LLC is a side hustle, oh yeah, um, all right, let's get into the sales stuff. So let me ask you this what do you think is one of the most important skill sets to become a successful salesperson?
Speaker 2:Uh, authentic Authenticity goes a very long way. People are smart.
Speaker 2:You can tell when someone is not being authentic, genuinely being interested in what the other person wants, asking the right questions, that goes a very long way. If you're going in there and you have one thing in mind and you're like, I don't know, I sell cameras, yeah, this is the camera that you want, and they're trying really hard to sell them one particular camera. But the person's like, but I don't need that camera. But you're like trying really hard to sell them on this camera, they're going to fight you every step of the way. But if you're asking them, hey, what are you looking for in a camera? What are some things that you need for a camera? And then you make a list and you realize, hey, we probably have that camera in stock. It's not that one, but we have another one. And immediately they're like oh, that's great. Like you were actually listening to me.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, a lot of people just want to be heard. Like, typically, if I'm, if I'm having a sales meeting with someone and let's say we're scheduled to meet for an hour, that first 30 minutes of the meeting is just letting them talk like get it off your chest, like, and a lot of people will do business with you just because they feel they're being heard.
Speaker 1:Exactly they don't have a lot of places in their life. They can go where they can just be heard. So, like I, they can go, or they can just be heard. So, like I'll start off. The process is like first off, like if this is like just a cold contact, like tell me about yourself like blah, blah, and then you know we start joking about kids or sneakers or whatever it is. Um, start to build some rapport there. Okay, like why did you want to meet? Like what's going on in your business? What is it that you need? And just let them go through. Yeah, um, because you never just want to go in saying because obviously we all want to make the most money we possibly can, but I've never gone into a sales meeting thinking, oh, I got to get them at the top package.
Speaker 1:Like until I hear their opinions and they voice what's going on in their business, I have nothing to sell them. So, to your point, you don't want to be that person going in just like, oh well, let me just sell you this. Well, now you need to hear the person first and then decide what it is they need after that.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:All right, and this is probably one of my favorite topics to talk on, because it's just the game of sales where, like, let's put the money to the side. Money is important and I don't want to say the money ain't important. Money is very important. But I love those moments where you know, let's say, I get a meeting with somebody who doesn't even necessarily like it was kind of a pull to get them in a meeting where they're just like ah, you know, I don't know if we need this right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you one. It's a struggle just to get the appointment to sit there, but when you get that you've heard them out and then you start to go into your pitch and you start to see their eyes light up. And then you realize at some point in that conversation I got them Like they didn't think they needed this before, and now they're at a place where they can't see their business surviving without me. Like that game. Right, there is everything to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because as soon as I close that, I'm like all right, cool, like they could write me a check for the full year. I'm excited for five minutes and I'm like all right, what's next? Who am I after next?
Speaker 1:Because, like it's just the game of it, where it's just fun, like if you truly make it that. And another big reason I love sales is because it's literally unlimited income potential, like there is no stopping you from the amount of income that you can generate as a salesperson. You know, with sales it's one of those things where, if you work hard enough at it, if you work on your craft, like there's nothing stopping you from making whatever salary is that you want. And I think, if I know, a lot of people's personality isn't like that. What have you traditionally seen where it's like I'm sure you can look at somebody right now and talk to them for two minutes and be like, oh yeah, this person make a kick ass salesperson.
Speaker 2:What is it that you see in someone where you're like they got the makings typically those people are, uh, extroverts, for sure um guilty um, or they could be a blend, so like I feel like I'm a blend right yeah like I love being out in people like you're not a full-blown extrovert yeah, but then, like there, I get to a point where I'm just like, okay, I'm tapped out, need to just go back, go back to my little hole and recharge, um, but typically they are extroverted, they love to talk to people, they love to ask questions, they're really engaging with people and that's where it really comes back to like wanting to get to know other people and genuinely being interested in other people. And those type of people usually do really really well in any type of sales atmosphere or running a business, because they genuinely care. And that's where that authenticity comes back into is like they are being themselves. They're not trying to pretend to be someone that they're not.
Speaker 1:They're not trying to pretend to be someone that they're not. If someone's looking at their business right now, or they're a salesperson which I think everybody should go through sales training because you're selling something at every aspect of your life, like when you met your spouse, you had to sell yourself. When you go in for an interview, you're selling yourself. If you own a business, you're selling your product or service, like everybody's selling at some point. And it's such like back in the day. I think salesmen got a bad name because it was those days where, like, people are going door to door selling Hoover vacuums or whatever it was like that's not sales today.
Speaker 1:Like sales can be done through your social media channels, through phone, through email, whatever it is. So people kind of need to get their head around that. But, like, if people just develop the skill set of a salesperson, I don't care what position you're in, what company you work for, I think it would excel you in whatever career field that you're in right now. All right, so let's play a little game. I want you to take us through a scenario where you get someone as a complete cold contact. I want you to walk us through the process of what that looks like, with you reaching out to a cold contact and getting them to the closed table. So we're going to break this down.
Speaker 1:So first you have, I'm assuming would be a list of potential clients that you want to reach out to. When you're reaching out cold, Are you doing it by email phone? How do you start that process?
Speaker 2:Typically, what I recommend is all three points of contacts, because you don't know what's the best form of communication for somebody, Great point. So honestly I would say all three.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause we have some clients that are like don't email me, text me, yeah, and they do not respond to our emails.
Speaker 2:And most people nowadays don't like talking on the phone either, and that's totally fine. However, at some point I do try to get them on the phone, because it's such a different dynamic when you're actually talking to somebody on the phone. Rather, than in a text or an email, cause you can't really hear their tone of voice. You don't understand their personality. It's very different. So to kind of back up a little bit, though, honestly, the first thing that I do with every single person is I look them up online. Do your research.
Speaker 2:You have to do your research.
Speaker 2:You need to know a little bit about who you're calling or who you're trying to reach out to, finding what we call the golden nuggets, the things that you can the golden nuggets, the things that you can resonate with, the things that you can talk about with this person, because if you're just going to call them up and be like, hey, joe, it's christy, uh, with so and so and so and so business, um, immediately they're going to be like yeah, you know, versus if you found out joe is a massive chicago bears fan and you can talk about.
Speaker 1:Talk to them about they're talking about trading Justin Fields, which hopefully he's coming to the Pittsburgh Steelers because we need him bad. But to be able to open up the conversation like man, what do you think about this Justin Fields thing? Do you guys want to keep him? And that just opens up like a 10-minute conversation.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, immediately, their guard is down a level for sure, and the more golden nuggets that you find to talk to this person, they're immediately like this person's, like my best friend, all of a sudden. And wait, why'd you call me so? Finding that golden nugget that even a person, the name dropping helps a ton. So if you go on LinkedIn, linkedin I love LinkedIn for this, especially because usually, especially if it's within your area, you can find somebody that they're connected with that knows them, yeah, and even if you can't just scroll through their profile, find something.
Speaker 2:Yeah. At least two, three things that you can resonate with with this person, and, before you call them, make notes, say he likes this, this, this and this, and so try to bring that into the conversation. The very first thing, though, call them like you're calling an acquaintance. Do not call them like it's a business call, because the people I mean they're gonna hear that immediately. They'll be like sales call click. So call them like you're calling your friend. Hey, sam, it's christy.
Speaker 1:Yep, pause yeah, let's pause right there. That is a sales technique that so many people miss out on is the art of silence, because generally, I think I know where you're going with this the person who speaks first is the one who lost control of the conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, if you can be strong enough in yourself to just sit there in silence and oftentimes like especially it's probably more for the introverted people like two seconds of silence seems like an eternity. I could sit there and sweat somebody out for five straight minutes and not say a thing, like I will just sit there like, okay, I've said my piece, I'm just letting them process yeah, that that is you.
Speaker 2:I mean, you literally hit the nail on the head. Um, it's exactly that. It's so. Many people struggle with this because when they're on the phone even if you've been in sales for years anybody that's making cold calls. Nobody likes cold calls. Yeah, nobody likes it, everyone's like. I just want to get this done yeah, I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to fly through it. They're going to tell me no Next call. So you have to slow down, you have to force yourself. It is going to be very uncomfortable, but guess what? We don't grow when we're comfortable right, exactly.
Speaker 2:You have to be uncomfortable in order to actually have change and you'll start to notice a huge difference in your sales when you slow down. So if you're like, hey, sam, it's Christy, sam's going to be like in his literally in his head, rolodexing, oh great, wait, wait, do I? I don't know if I know you and then you make a joke about it, you have to have a sense of humor. If you're not funny, try to be yeah, like. Try to have a sense of humor, have fun with it, make a game out of it. That's what I used to tell my clients all the time. Nobody likes cold calling. Try to make it fun. What do you enjoy doing? You know, if you make five phone calls, go do something that you enjoy doing real quick and then go right back. Yep, um, you reward yourself in some way, shape or form, um, but yeah, that's really it.
Speaker 1:It's just so you think phone calls are the is your number one go-to for first making contact with someone I would know so if you want to like a step-by-step, I would say go to LinkedIn first.
Speaker 2:Connect with them on LinkedIn, because they're going to see your face. Let me ask you this have a really good LinkedIn profile, by the way, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:I'll do the LinkedIn thing, but I prefer to find someone on Facebook if I can, because they're they're going to be way more like. We all know how buttoned up LinkedIn is. But if I find their Facebook profile I can get really in the weeds in terms of like I can figure out because on LinkedIn you're not putting like who your spouse is and all that stuff. Like on Facebook, I can find that I can figure out how many kids they have.
Speaker 1:I can see what they're doing on the weekend, they're probably more likely to respond my link. I have a love hate relationship with LinkedIn because I get so many crap messages every single day and it's like I feel bad for the good ones that are reaching out to me, that are doing it the right way, because generally I'm just going to LinkedIn to clear out my inbox, but Facebook for me has been that where I'm able to find that connecting point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean either one honestly. So whatever method you want to use, you can do both. Right Is finding that connection with them so they can see your face.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And that way they see your name as well, and then I would honestly send them an email and then call them and if they don't answer, text them.
Speaker 1:So let's break that down. So you email them. Are you saying like that same day follow up with the phone call or let that email sit for 48 hours, then give them a?
Speaker 2:call. Well, I would say, maybe email, and then 24 hours later give them a call Gotcha, yeah, yeah. Because then they're going to be like oh wait, I've seen that name somewhere. They probably haven't really looked at the email, and if they did, they probably just skimmed through it real quick. Yep. But at least it's kind of familiar within that 24-hour window. Yep, yeah, same thing when you meet somebody at a networking conference or something. If you're meeting someone and you want to talk to them again.
Speaker 1:Make sure you're doing it, at least within two days. I do that right there in the moment, like if I'm meeting somebody in a networking event or I'm at a conference or something like that, and it's like, hey, we should connect.
Speaker 1:Like don't hand me your business card, hey, let me send you an email or text you right now so that we both have each other's contact information. And then later on that day, when I get to the hotel and be like, hey, this is Sam. You know, we met earlier at the like, I want to be top of mind and say, oh yeah, I really like that guy. I need to make it a priority to meet with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really, really important, because there's a lot of people that will go and meet a whole bunch of people at an event or something and they'll have a list of names and then they're like oh yeah, I'll get to it, I'll have it on, you know, I'll do it next week and I'm like they're already gone yeah, like you're probably being generous there.
Speaker 1:Most people probably wait in two, three weeks, I know, and then by that time you're completely out of their memory oh yeah, they're like who are you again? Yeah, all right, so you give them a call or you email them first. Let's talk about that, that email. I've been, and I'd love to get your opinion on this. I've been using the hell out of ChatGBT to help me construct email. I love.
Speaker 1:ChatGBT oh my gosh, I love it and it's so. I will tell people this, and I recently did a training on ChatGBT. We're going to I do trainings here every other Thursday, so we're going to have another one of those coming coming up. The cool thing with chat GBT is if you get your prompting right. So I actually had another guy on the podcast I can't remember, I think it was two or three episodes back where we talked about chat GBT and AI systems and things like that. He challenged me to make a prompting sheet because, especially like with me running multiple businesses, like every time I get in chat GBT, it's something different. Yeah, but to have specific prompts. So now I have prompts where I have a whole message in chat GBT that everything's already scripted out and then I can just put a message in there saying, ok, now make this email for a dog walking business.
Speaker 1:Oh that's cool, and now I'll personalize it for that, and then I can go back in there and I'm like, okay, now my next goal contact is an attorney. Okay, now make this email for an attorney. And it'll change some of that language around, so you're a fan of using.
Speaker 2:ChatGPT for emails. Oh my gosh. So I just started using it, maybe three months ago.
Speaker 1:Did you go up to four? You're paying for four. I'm not paying for it. Oh so the difference between chat gbt 3.5 and four four you pay 20 bucks a month. I think I was on the waiting list for like I want to say like two months and they finally opened it back up.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure if there's waiting list now, but pay the extra 20 bucks for chat gbt for it does so much more like it'll make graphics for you, like you can prompt it and say hey, I'm making a post about blah blah, blah. I need you to create a graphic for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a image somebody put in the chat, GPT, for I want you to create a an image of me and an image of the great pyramids being built, and it may like. It looked like somebody was there back in the day and snapped a photo. Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Our one-on-one coaching tailor strategies to your unique business goals. Dive into interactive workshops fostering skills essential for success. Looking for an inspirational speaker for your next event? Book Mr Prenuer to elevate your gathering. Visit wwwthemistaprenuercom to learn more and embark on your path to entrepreneurial success. Mistapreneur, empowering your entrepreneurial spirit what Insane.
Speaker 2:Technology.
Speaker 1:I swear Upgrade to four it is mind-blowing, but what do you think about? How has that changed the game for you in sales versus before? What you would do for cold calls or cold emails did you have like a standard script and you just copied and pasted and sent that to everybody honestly.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't. I didn't script my emails at all. I just kind of used it based on what I saw with their information that I found online and then based on what I did. So usually I would try to use a name more than anything. That's, honestly, like, probably the most important thing. It doesn't you can find all the golden nuggets you want but, the name is bigger than anything.
Speaker 2:Um, so I would just, it would short and simple. Hey, sam, uh, you know, I was talking to my friend so-and-so the other day and they just brought your name up and thought that we might be, you know, be able to help each other out in some way, shape or form. Whatever your business is, just make it short and sweet and just say hey, I just wanted to, you know, chat with you sometime soon. That's it. Keep it short and simple. Also, when you are making a phone call call, most people don't answer the phone. You have to keep the voicemail short and simple. Yep, do not get on their voicemail and be like hey, it's christy with such and such business I delete those voicemails immediately do not go into your whole spiel on their voicemail.
Speaker 2:They will will never call you back.
Speaker 1:Yep, just keep it real quick and sweet.
Speaker 2:Hey, it's Christy. Give me a call back. I really would love to talk to you about X Y Z. I'll be available today. This is also very important. Give them a time frame because it also gives a sense of urgency. I'm available today between 11 and two.
Speaker 1:If you can give me a call back before then or during that time, that would amazing yep, I've also that time constraint thing is so beautiful like I picked this up from a guy one time where, say, for instance, we got somebody that's like a little wish washy on, like signing up for a package or whatever, um, I'll give them a call. If we've been playing phone tag or something like that, and as soon as I get them on the phone, hey, joe, don't have a lot of time, I'm at the airport, I'm about to jump on the flight, I just want to run through x, y and z with you real quick. So immediately they're like oh well, this, this guy's on the move, like he's at the airport like he's making things happen.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, and then they're not gonna. The conversation's not gonna be extended longer than it needs to, because I've already set the precedent. Hey, I got five minutes. I'm at the airport. I'm about to get on the flight this is all the time I have to talk. So if we're going to get this done, we're going to get this done now. It gives that sense of urgency without really putting the pressure on. They don't realize the pressure is being put on them at that moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that's short and simple. Yeah, first contacting someone. Keep it simple, don't overthink it. So many people get in their heads about this and I'm like it's not, you're literally just saying hi to the person. Look at it like you're trying to make a new friend.
Speaker 2:That's it. That is it, and seeing if you can help them. Get it in your head, though, that you cannot help everybody. There are people that are going to say no, and you can even make it a game too. How many no's can I get today? Because the more no's I get, the more yeses I have.
Speaker 1:And if you're playing the long game, those no's often turn into yeses. They're just not right now.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And at that moment in your business where you thought you had to have that sale, when that sale comes back around two years later and your prices have increased and that business is on a better playing field, it's going to be a much better situation for you yeah that's why I'm such a big fan of connecting with people online, because oftentimes what I'll do is I'll. I'll see someone that I'm like. Yeah, I would love to have that person as a client. I friend them again. My go-to is normally Facebook.
Speaker 1:My friend, I'm on Instagram, facebook, linkedin, whatever, and I don't say shit like for the longest time You're like the creepy stalker. I'm not stalking them, but like I put out so much content, like on Facebook alone, I make two posts every single day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if I connect with them within two to three months oh, they've seen my name a ton, yeah. So if it is something where I'm like you know, I'd like to convert this this year. I may not wait two, three months, but I'd at least give it a month. Let my content start to show up on their newsfeed. They get familiar with who I am. So when I reach out, it's like oh, sam, like that dude, like hey man, you were just at this place or you're doing blah blah. Like they already feel like they have rapport with me. And we haven't even uttered two words to each other yet yeah the other piece is just connecting with people and not saying jack.
Speaker 1:And the amount of people that come to me now that have been following for years, that are just like, hey, man, I've seen your content, I need your services. When can we talk like playing that long game? So, with what we're just talking about here, because I want to get through this, because this is valuable stuff for people We've gotten through the cold emails. We followed up by phone. What's that follow up game look like for you? Because to me, that's where majority of people lose a sale is that they are so afraid to follow up.
Speaker 1:And I think the biggest reason a lot of people are afraid to follow up because they don't want to come off as annoying. But I, when I tell you this is God's honest truth, not. And my staff has come to me and before I said same, I just emailed them like a day or two ago like cool, email them again, that doesn't matter. Um, nine times out of ten the client often comes back. Even when my staff is like dude, it's a little overboard, just like, relax, he'll get back to us they often say you know what?
Speaker 1:I really appreciate the amount of times you followed up with me. Yeah, like, this is something that I need to make a priority.
Speaker 1:And if you hadn't been continuously following up, like I had a guy that we signed this month I followed up with him for 12 straight months 12 months and it wasn't like every single week I was setting them up yeah but it was like I didn't go more than two months without making contact with this guy because the first time I met him he was all juiced up on our services and it just kind of fizzled out because things got busy. You never know what's going on somebody's life they could have lost a parent, like lost about, like anything could have happened. Um, and then when I hit him up it was just like the right time and one of the first things he said was man, I hope you follow up with other clients or you follow up with me, man, because you've been on this and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:And not only did he end up signing up for service, he stroked us a check for the entire year. We didn't even get a contract in place. He was like can I go ahead and write you guys a check? Yeah, of course you can. So talk to me about the follow-up game. What should people be doing when it comes to following up with potential clients?
Speaker 2:So the first thing is you don't want to come off as your typical salesy person and try to sell them every single time you reach out to them. At this point you're building that relationship with them, You're giving them value. That is the biggest thing that I cannot stress enough.
Speaker 1:So one thing it's like a first date.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's exactly like that. Think of this relationship as like you're dating someone for the first time. You're taking them out to dinner. You're learning about them. Dinner, you're learning about them. You're, you know, asking questions about them.
Speaker 1:You're building that relationship that trust um you don't just try to get to the bedroom, you're trying to get to the second date. Like, don't rush it, exactly, you're not trying to get married is on the first date right that's.
Speaker 2:That's like trying to sell someone the first time you meet them, unless, unless they are genuinely looking for that service and they know exactly what they want and you have it, which is a rarity. That's literally, I think, 1% of the people that you talk to, so very rare that that happens.
Speaker 2:The majority of the time you're building that relationship and it could take time, it could take a year. You just never know. And so when you're reaching out to them, giving them value when I say value, it's something that you know that they would enjoy, something that you know they would benefit from. So if it's one of your clients and you know that they're looking to give me an example, like some, what's the? What did this person do?
Speaker 1:They wanted. You're saying what the client does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, what did they? What did they want?
Speaker 1:They wanted video services.
Speaker 2:Okay, so giving them different examples of something that might help their business, that they can be working on themselves, and showing them how to do it. It could be like a 30 second video of hey, this is how you do X, y, z.
Speaker 2:And they're like, oh, that's so cool. And then they see a return they get some revenue by doing that and they're like, hey, this guy actually might know what he was talking about, right. So and that's what I did with coaching too is we would constantly give value to these clients that were like, yeah, right now is not the best time, and I'm like, well, what's one thing that you're really struggling on? How can I help you? And most people are saying, well, it's probably time management. And I'm like, okay, a lot of people struggle with time management.
Speaker 2:So I'm like how can I help you with that? I have all these different tools, I have all these things, all these things that I can share with you. Which one of these things would help you the most right now? And I share that with them and they are like. They come back to me usually like a week or two later and they're like that was awesome, like that helped me so much, and I'm like that's great, I'm so glad to help you. And then just keep doing that, keep giving them stuff Give, give, give, give, give, give, give. And it all comes back to this book that I've read twice now. It's called go giver, highly go giver all right highly recommend this book.
Speaker 2:I don't even remember who wrote it, it's a red book I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't play when people something, when people give me book recommendations, I don't play who wrote this book? What was the name of it again?
Speaker 2:It's called.
Speaker 1:The Go-Giver.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's by Bob Berg and John David Mann.
Speaker 1:Got it. It's red, it looks like this it's red with gold on it. Yep.
Speaker 2:Such a good book.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm ordering that today.
Speaker 2:I am a major book reader. There's so many different books that I can recommend.
Speaker 1:But that one. If you're in sales, you have to be reading.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that one in particular. It's a very short, easy, easy read, but it basically teaches you to give more than you receive. With business, with life, like anything Give, give, give, give, give.
Speaker 1:That's such a hard concept for a lot of people to grasp. I do a lot of time studying millionaires and billionaires and I'm actually being mentored by a multimillionaire right now and the one comp. Actually, there are two common traits I see in all millionaires and billionaires. One in terms of one of their streams of revenue or what's in their portfolio they all own real estate. That's a common factor between every single one of them.
Speaker 1:Number two they all give of their time and money, and when I realize that you don't give to get something back, but once it clicks in your head and realizes because there's somebody who's listening to this right now and they can't understand why their breakthrough hasn't come. They've been doing all the right things. They're a hell of a salesperson, They've got the right team, They've got all these different things in play, but it's one aspect of something that you're doing that's not taking you to the next level and oftentimes it can be the giving factor. If you are giving of your time and money, it's just the way the universe operates. You are going to be rewarded for that and doors are going to be opened.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what this book is about. So if you are that person, you will resonate so much with that book. There is a character His name is Joe. He is exactly that way. He's a phenomenal person, a great, you know. I think he was a financial advisor in the book Amazing financial advisor, doing all the things that he's supposed to be doing, but he's like why, why am I still struggling?
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And that's the missing piece and it was part of giving. So it's not like he was purposefully not doing that, but we all get so busy in our lives.
Speaker 1:We're caught up in our own little world and like I. I didn't plan on saying this, but I just want to give people an example. Um, non-profit, I'm on the board, for somebody from the board reached out and said hey, we have this one kid in the school system that we work with and His family's really strapped for cash. He didn't have enough money to eat lunch every day. Like who's willing to help out? Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I had just come off like some video or something where it talks about the giving factor and how that can expand things for you, and I didn't hesitate, I Venmoed them $100 and was like you know, get this kid taken care of.
Speaker 1:And I know I wasn't the- only one, like the entire board I'm sure gave. It was all private donations, but, um, without one request, I'm sure that kid got a thousand bucks put on his lunch on his meal card for the semester. Um, but it's just like number one too, like your reaction right there, the feeling you get when you do something like that.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's amazing yeah, I even had. I'll say this um, this isn't really giving, but like it kind of goes into this where we had a disgruntled client a few weeks ago, my favorite. Oh my gosh Guys cuss me out on the phone Like he's yelling, he's screaming all this stuff and I'm just trying to get to the bottom of it and I'm very choosy with my words.
Speaker 1:Like he's saying one thing and my team is telling me another, so I'm not going to give you an answer on this call, like, okay, I'm taking the information that you're giving me and I'm going to go back and discuss with my team and you know figure out a solution.
Speaker 1:So, second call, I'm trying to get to a solution, but he just keeps screaming cut me off cussing all this other kind of stuff. Ultimately, he just wanted his money back for the previous month's services. The ego in me and the big dog is like the hell you are getting your money like we did x, y and z, like blah, blah, yeah. But then at the end of the day I was like you know what? It really is not going to make a difference on our bottom line that much um.
Speaker 1:But then I went a step above, and I learned this from one of my best friends. Not only did I refund him the amount that he was charged for the previous month, I put another two, three hundred on top of that because the thought process in my head was dude, I don't know what you're going through. We're not talking big money. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm like dude, I don't know what you're going through, but you obviously need this money more for your business than I do. So because of the trouble or whatever, here's a little something extra on top. So, that takes me out of the situation where because at one point he was threatening like I'm going to go, leave you guys bad Google reviews and do X, y and Z and blah, blah, blah, and I'm like Jesus, dude Like relax, calm down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm like you know, if I refund you your money, not only give you exactly what you wanted, but give you more on top of that. You can't ever turn around and be like Sam mistreated me. I took care of you. I did above and beyond what you asked me to do, and that's a different feeling than what you get from giving. But it's like when you put back out into the universe it's just a natural loss. Something has to come back to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you don't give to get something, but understand that you're going to feel good about it, but there's also going to be some return on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And if not in that very moment, it will come back to you in some way, shape or form. And I love that because I have a motto that I had with my previous business, with my employees, and our customer service was like phenomenal, because our motto was literally kill them with kindness. Yep, there we are. I mean, there were people coming in every once in a while that were just angry and I'm like, clearly, this person has something going on in their lives that they are just projecting out onto every person they see, and we are getting the brunt of it right now and I'm like I'm just going to love on this person as much as I possibly can and go above and beyond what they expect me to do, and that's what we did.
Speaker 2:We always went above and beyond. That's what I do with my existing business, and that's what we did.
Speaker 2:We always went above and beyond. That's what I do with my existing business, um, the the walk. This way, I go above and beyond what most of those types of businesses do, yeah, and it always comes back. I mean, every single time I give something, I go above and beyond of whatever is expected of me. It always comes back in return in some way, whether they're like oh you know, my neighbor just said that they need your services too, and I, you know, I love talking to them about you and about what you offer, and you know, nobody else does.
Speaker 2:This is amazing, yep. And just going through the process of giving the things that I like to do and going above and beyond for my clients, that to me just warms my heart, like I love doing it so much, knowing that I might not get anything back in return. But that's not the point. That is not the point at all. So once you start doing that and you get that into a routine, it just it changes your business so much.
Speaker 1:It's funny we're talking about this because yesterday, during our team Monday meeting, I brought up to my staff. I was like, guys, we're going to become better givers this year and I was like we're going to figure out how many nonprofits we're going to give to through our services within a year's time. So the team collectively decided that we're going to donate to four nonprofits this year. We selected the services and what the terms for that would be, and then the next week or so we're going to start releasing that and say, hey, nominate your favorite nonprofit, here's what we're going to be giving away. And again, you don't do it to get something in return. But I can't remember a time in my life where, like I gave up something and it didn't come back tenfold. Like I just launched something with my coaching program for entrepreneurs, I'm giving away three months of free coaching.
Speaker 2:I saw that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I got one person. I think I've selected the person I'm going to pick, but another person like their story was so compelling but like I got to go with the other person that I'm picking, I'm still gonna give them a free session. So I don't get the three free months, but I'll I'll get them a session and I think this person could honestly afford my services. But it was just like the story was so compelling of like why they needed this, like me giving them that one free session is probably going to turn into a six to twelve month client for me so it's it.
Speaker 1:It's like if you just give blindly and just plant these seeds like stuff will come up later on, and I think the people that aren't givers and don't pay attention to this stuff, they're not in this for the long game, they're looking at the short, short term.
Speaker 2:What can I get?
Speaker 1:to in the next quarter.
Speaker 2:How can I hit my quota?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's not what it's about. I got two more things. I want to make sure we hit on before we have to wrap things up. What do you think is one of the biggest mistakes?
Speaker 2:most salespeople make, being pushy, being your typical sleazy salesperson, and it comes back to that. Oh, I'm just calling to follow up. Are you just calling to like genuinely follow up and see how this person's doing, or are you just trying to close a sale? For them.
Speaker 2:Because a lot of people that's all that's on their mind is I need to hit the sale, I need to get the sale, I need to get this quota for the month, whatever it is. They're just so focused on the number. They're not really thinking about the person. So that is the biggest mistake, honestly, is they're not thinking about what the other person genuinely wants and what the other person needs.
Speaker 2:They're only thinking about what they need. They're thinking about themselves. Yep, you have to be thinking more about the other person than you are yourself yeah, and people can read through this crap like people aren't dumb.
Speaker 1:Um so when you're leading, when you're leading with the right intentions, like that comes through. Like I've said it before with social media, I've seen people making videos and I swear to God, there has to be somebody off camera pointing a gun at their head, forcing them to do video.
Speaker 1:Like it's obvious you are not enjoying making this content, so don't do it Same thing with sales. Here's a big question I want to ask you what systems have you found best when it comes to sales, like tracking your warm lead funnel, people's contact information when you last contacted them. When you need to follow up again, what systems do you like to use for that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean what we would call it with Southwestern is your CSFs, your critical success factors. These are your key metrics of what you need to do every single day to move your business forward, and a lot of times we'll use that the end goal so say I don't know. Someone says I want to make $100,000 this year. Okay, well, what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Let's reverse engineer that number, break it down how many people? What's your average cost per sale for one? So you break that down and then you're like, okay, well, how many people is that? How many people do I need to actually talk to every single day in order to get to that end goal? Because really, what you'll find when you start tracking these metrics is it's going to be tweaked throughout the time that you're doing it.
Speaker 2:When you first start it's just a very vague, basic kind of plan, and then you'll realize oh well, I thought I only had to reach out to maybe ten people. I'm realizing I'm gonna have to try to reach out to like 20 people in order to actually talk to five people. And out of the five people, how many people are gonna set a meeting with me?
Speaker 1:yeah so you just start going through those metrics and you have no way of knowing this if you don't start tracking your numbers.
Speaker 2:Exactly no way. I mean you have to track your stuff. I am literally looking at my metrics at least twice a week, at least at a minimum. I mean, I was in bed last night looking at all of my metrics in my business right now.
Speaker 1:That's some pillow talk right there. I don't normally do that, but last night, hey babe, look, it only took me 10 cold calls to close this one.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't do cold calls now, but it's all about the numbers. It's really what it comes down to. When you're operating a business, you have to know your numbers. You absolutely have to know your numbers and if it's not something that you are good at or that you enjoy, find somebody that does. Find somebody that can help you do that thing, pay them to help you do that thing, because it is that important. It is absolutely crucial to know those numbers, and that's the only way you're going to grow honestly.
Speaker 1:So do you just make this stuff in a spreadsheet or do you have like a system that you would say, hey, it's worth spending the money to get this system?
Speaker 2:It's different for every business. Honestly, like for my current business, I have a software that I have all of my numbers housed in. I mean, you can do something as simple as QuickBooks though. Yeah, quickbooks tracks like sales. Well, it's not going to track your. Well, it'll track your sales but, you could also put them. If you want to really, really want to make it simple, you can do it in a Google Doc too. Yeah, just put the things that you know you absolutely have to track.
Speaker 1:So don't get fancy with this.
Speaker 2:No, keep it simple. Keep it super simple, Like if, for instance, if you're in sales and you know you have to make calls or you have to reach out to people, start there say okay, calls, literally call it calls, and say, weekly I have to make. Or let's say, my goal should be 100 calls a week.
Speaker 2:That's pretty average for people in sales is 100 calls a week. Okay, out of the 100 calls, how many people do I need to actually reach? And a reach is how many people you actually talk to and had some sort of communication with. So let's say my goal is to reach 25 people out of that 100. That's pretty realistic. How many of those people did I actually set a meeting with? So that's the next thing. And then say my goal is five meetings a week. Pretty realistic. It seems very low, but that's realistic, right, it could be different.
Speaker 2:I mean, you could be freaking, crushing it oh yeah and be setting more, and if you realize that you're setting more or less of these numbers, you're gonna tweak it, you're gonna adjust it as time goes on so five, I mean five meetings a week, like with people who are saying I'm interested in your services, that's a really good number I know like that's really good five people, like if I had I went to public schools.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to do math in my head real quick uh, three, six, nine, twelve, that could be for me. Potentially that could be eighteen thousand dollars of new recurring monthly revenue if I close five people if you closed all five.
Speaker 2:So there's the catch too, is you?
Speaker 1:have the five meetings. You're not going to close all five on a good day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, say, maybe two would be your goal, maybe three if you're really good at what you do, right? So you're tracking all those numbers and then you're saying okay, well, how many closes is my goal a month in order to meet my financial goal?
Speaker 2:of $100,000, for instance. So how many closes does that equal? And that's really what you want that goal to be. The other thing that you want to track is referrals. I cannot stress enough how important referrals are. That is a game changer in so many people's businesses is having that name, having that name to connect with, is so different than saying I'm going to Google all these people I need to try and connect with. And it's a 100% cold call rather than Sam hey, who do you know that does really good website design.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I call this person up and I'm like yeah, sam, highly recommended you. That conversation goes very different.
Speaker 1:Oh, thousand percent. On that same note too, like if we're like right now we're on a big push, like to build our, our cold and warm lead list right now. Typically, if I go to a website I'll hopefully they have an about us section and like I can find that person's title and I'm like that's the person I need to talk to, I copy and paste our name, put it in Facebook and I see what friends we have in common.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same thing. Then I'm like yeah.
Speaker 1:And this is why I prefer Facebook over LinkedIn, because I'm connected with like 15,000 people on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:I don't know anywhere close to it.
Speaker 1:And people will hit me up all the time like, hey, can you give me a warm lead introduction to this person? I'm like I have no idea who that person is yeah but on Facebook typically, if I put their name in there and I see we have mutual friends, when I hit that person up that I know well and like hey, do you know this person?
Speaker 1:like oh yeah, I just had drinks with them last week, like the connections are a little bit more real there. Um, so I'll reach out that way and say, hey man, would you mind sending a text? Or like put us in an email, together and introduce us, yeah because if you get that in, like it's like, they'll at least give you the meeting out of respect for their friend.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, so tracking referrals and trying to get, I like to say, at least 10 a week. That's kind of just a good baseline starting point 10 what a week 10 referrals a week.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Which is pretty easy to do. With the technology that we have, that is very easy to do. I mean, everything is literally fingertips now. Yeah, so let's see. Was there anything else that I missed? Oh, coi meetings, center of influence meetings. So, if you're, if there's something like for, for instance, you right, you have a lot of connections I would say hey, sam, you want to meet up some time? I'd love you know, to chat with you and just see how we can help each other. Yep, how can I help you? That is your focus. My sole focus would be how can I help you? Because, in return, you know you're going to help me in some way, shape or form. How can we help each other Absolutely.
Speaker 1:But my goal is how can I help you? Yeah, and it's also surrounding yourselves, around people that think that way. So, like my best friends, like I've said this for years my best friends, we all help each other, make money.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like the guys that I truly consider my best friends, all we talk about when we get up is health and fitness and our businesses and financials. That's all we talk about, like, get up is, uh, health and fitness and our businesses and financials that's all we talk about, like my wife would be like oh, how's his girlfriend doing? I don't know. You were just on the phone with him for an hour. What y'all talking about. We don't talk about that like as long as he tells me.
Speaker 1:As long as he doesn't tell me something about his relationship, then I assume everything's good. Other than that like this is this is this is what we talk about. Yeah, but yeah, create creating those relationships, having those people around that, because most people aren't thinking of your business on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But some of my true friends. When they're closing a meeting for their business, in the back of their head they're like okay, as soon as I get this ink dry on the paper. I they're like OK as soon as I get this ink dry on the paper I got to introduce them to Sam, like I've done a full evaluation of their business.
Speaker 1:We've sat here and talked for two hours. I know they need Sam. So this is going to be an easy end for me, and I got friends who do that on a continuous basis. Yeah, and when you have a circle of people like that that you're all supporting each other, you're all going to network events together, you all have your individual circles, that you're getting people connected here and there, it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:Like sales can become a lot easier with the right people in place. Like all these techniques that you're talking about and I'm praying that you guys, some of y'all, are going to need to listen to this two, three times Like there were some gems dropped on, like how to properly do sales yeah.
Speaker 1:You need to listen to this a couple times, chrissy. This has been awesome. I kind of want to keep the conversation going, but we're coming short on time, if people want to, and I know we didn't even really get into your dog training business. Yeah. But if people want, well, real quick, give us some insight on the dog training business.
Speaker 2:Like what service do you provide there? Yeah, so right now we are only servicing the Midlothian location. However, we're growing so fast that I foresee us moving to other locations throughout the Richmond area very quickly. I'm actually going to be hiring out pretty soon here.
Speaker 2:And it's exciting, it's just crazy how fast we've grown um. But again, like I said, it all comes back to giving, yep, give, give, give, give, give, um, give as much as you possibly can and it will come back to you tenfold I, I promise you, if you're doing it and you're doing it the right way and you're doing it like genuinely want to do this thing, it makes a huge difference. But we do a dog walking, of course, and in every session that I meet with a client, I include some sort of some sort of basic training, um, whether it's you know something simple like they need to learn how to sit, they need to learn how to stay or come or stay down, drop it, leave it, things like that.
Speaker 2:Basic training is always included. Again, that's adding value, and it's included in all of our services. Obviously. If they're like, yeah, they don't need any of that, then I'm not going to bother Taking really, really great photos. Apparently, I'm an amazing photographer, so that's something I'm learning about myself is I absolutely love taking photos of dogs, and so we'll see where that goes. That actually might be something that we expand on a little bit later. And then we also do pet sitting services. So if you have any kind of pet and you need us to come in and take care of them, do that as well.
Speaker 1:Um, but, yeah, that's, it's pretty simple I'll be calling you on our next vacation, dude, people don't realize. Like when you have a dog, like it's like I remember before we had kids. Obviously I can understand kids getting babysitter and all that stuff, but like when me and my wife were on vacation before kids and we had the dogs, it's like jesus christ man, I gotta find a sitter you gotta do all this like blah blah.
Speaker 1:I'm like dogs are just like kids to that capacity yeah um, but we'll definitely be calling you next time we go on vacation and and need that service good, good, because I've always like I'm trying to get myself in the right mindset because, like I remember, I was over my mentor's house one time dude lives in a freaking mansion and like during that he was like, oh, give me a second, like the dog walker's here. I'm like what, what kind of wealthy shit is this going? On person comes like, grabs his dog.
Speaker 1:He's like, yeah, I'll take him out for like 30 minutes and he comes right back in the living room we finish up our conversation and I'm like man, I gotta get on this level, man, when I ain't even gotta walk my own dog like, somebody can come in here and take care of these things for me. And it's it's that mental shift, and I'll end this here, cause I'm about to go on a on a tangent here- I know I can see myself going on a tangent I'm like, but wait, there's more yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's like, once you realize how valuable your time is and the small things so like and people have heard me say this before I thought it was bougie to pay somebody else to catch a grass. But it's like, if I can go out and earn 150, 200 bucks an hour, why would I do a job that I could pay somebody 20, 30 bucks an hour to do? Like it doesn't make any sense and a lot of business owners think they're saving themselves money. No, you are costing yourself money by not doing the things that you're gifted at. That's just going to bring in the most revenue for your business. I'm going to leave it right there. So if people want to get in touch with you, whether it's on the sales side or they need help with their fur babies, what's the best way for them to find you and reach you?
Speaker 2:So the website, which is full of puns, and thank you, chatgpt, for helping me with that, but it's walkthiswaydoggocom. I like that it's so fun, so cheesy. So that's our website, and then they can also shoot me a text message. It's 804-601-6730. They can call or text whichever, but you'll see on the website there's a way to create a profile for your pet. It's basically just like Rover.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Except better there you go Because they're awesome.
Speaker 2:There's no fees, so it's really nice, very easy to use.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it. Well, appreciate you being on the podcast today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, that was exciting.
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