Month: May 2020

Let’s talk about how to use Facebook groups to find clients for your service-based business.

 

My name is Ryann Dowdy. I am a sales coach and I help brand new entrepreneurs build six figure businesses by mastering their sales conversations and their mindset. And the number one question that I get is where do I find clients?

 

Where are they? Help me find them.
That that is another topic. So, if you want to know where to find clients, you can absolutely go check that out.

 

Facebook groups.
How do we do it? It’s a piece of advice that I got a hundred times early on in my business building journey, and I never really felt like anybody did an awesome job of talking about how to use them.

I get it. Go into Facebook groups, but what do I do when I’m there?
So, first things first, I want a mindset to check a couple of things. Some people are uncomfortable networking in Facebook groups because they feel like it’s poaching other people’s clients and other people’s audiences. I want you to really think of this as a networking opportunity.

 

There are people out there on the internet who have already gathered your potential clients in groups and in communities. In fact, at this time, Facebook is loving groups. They’re promoting groups. They want people in groups, groups are a big part of their business model. So, Facebook groups are hot and they’re popping up all of the time. And there’s tons of groups for really anything.  If you are in the BDC space and you work with moms or women or men or whatever.

You’re a health coach, you’re a life coach, you’re a parenting coach or whatever. There are groups of people already gathered. If you’re in the B2B space, maybe you’re a business coach, a digital marketer, a freelancer, a virtual assistant, or a bookkeeper. There are groups of business owners already gathered.

 

My message to you in all of this is somebody has already done the work of gathering all of these people together. And we are just going to view networking Facebook groups as a networking upper Trinity. So we’re not poaching other people’s clients. Our goal is to not go in and steal people’s money out of their pocket or anything like that. It’s to go in and build relationships because that’s how we find clients. It is by building relationships. It is no different than going to your local chamber of commerce or your local BNI or a local networking group in your hometown or wherever it is that you live and going there and meeting people. It’s the same thing as going to story time at the library and meeting other moms. We’re just using Facebook groups as a way to meet people.

 

So that is my first mindset check for you. We are not poaching other people’s clients. We’re not going into other people’s groups and being spammy or promotional. We are using already gathered groups of people as networking opportunities to build relationships because we build relationships. That’s how we get clients.

 

So, first thing I want you to think about is how do we build relationships with strangers? And my biggest piece of advice about building relationships with strangers is to make it about them. So I want you to view every networking, every Facebook group you go into as a networking event meets cocktail party. What do we do at networking events? What do we do at cocktail parties?

 

Well, at cocktail parties, we have fun at networking events. We talk to people. So when you go into a group, I want you to go in and talk to people. And I don’t want you just talking to people who are your ideal client, or just talking to people who fit a specific profile, or just talking to people that are looking for you. These are some of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that you are looking for people who are looking for you instead of going into a group and actually building relationships with everybody in the group, whether or not that your ideal client. If you were at a networking event, you would not just meet the people who are your ideal client. You would meet everybody. If you were at a cocktail party, you would not just talk to some people. You would talk to all of the people that you got the opportunity to meet.

 

So that’s the number one thing I want you to really think about. I am in this group to build relationships. The only way to build relationships is by talking to all of the people, not trying to cherry pick the conversations.  Not to only get involved sometimes or only weigh in when I have something really, really valuable to provide, but really just how can I go in and talk? And there’s already conversations happening, guys. This is why Facebook groups are such a magical place to start. The conversation has already been started. People are already there starting conversations, asking questions, building relationships. So what do you do when you’re in the group? You provide value.

 

Some of you were thinking I’m brand new to business. How do I provide value? What does that even mean? I like to think of providing value as answering questions. Most people posting in Facebook groups are asking questions and they might be asking anything from how do I get my toddler to sleep through the night? What is your favorite protein powder? Or what email do you use for your business? Or how do I get clients?

 

I mean, there’s a million questions happening and I want you to go into groups and they want you to answer questions. Even when you are not an expert. Why is this important? Because it’s about building a relationship. If a girlfriend asked you what protein powder you do use, you wouldn’t tell her you don’t know anything about protein powder. You’d be like, well, we don’t actually do protein powder a lot, but what I have in my cabinet, I really like, I bought it at Sam’s club. It was X number of dollars.

 

That is how you would answer the question. I want you to answer the question in the same way. I want you to provide a value just like you were talking to a friend, because remember, we’re at a cocktail party and you wouldn’t ignore the question. You wouldn’t not answer the question because you didn’t have anything of value to add. You would add what you could to the conversation.

 

So even if you don’t have expertise, maybe you read an article, maybe you listened to a podcast. Maybe you watched a YouTube video. Maybe you’ve seen other people at other groups have conversations about whatever this person is asking. How can you be a valuable human? How can you provide a value in some way and then start a conversation?

 

So I’m going to go into my protein powder example.
I have no idea why I’m there.  But, maybe somebody is looking for a recommendation on protein powder. I might say, Hey, we don’t actually do protein powder a lot in my family. But when we do, this is what we buy. We buy an organic protein. It looks like ABC XYZ. We typically buy it at Sam’s club, but let me ask you, what’s your goal with your protein powder?

 

So not only have I given them my experiences in what I have used, but I want to know their goal because not all protein powders are created equal. Like maybe my protein powder is meant for weight loss and somebody else is looking to bulk up. So we just want to provide value and ask questions and start conversations. Now, once we are in a conversation with someone, our goal is to take that back and forth conversation.

 

That’s happening in the comments and we want to move it into the direct messages.  So, I want you to think about how walk up to your cocktail party, there’s a group of people you shake hands with everyone, and then you just kind of wind up chit chatting with people around you. That is the DM. The DM is the chitchat.

 

If we’re using my cocktail party and networking event example, and then the final thing that I want you to think about when you are thinking about how do we find clients is as you continue to provide value and comment on things and get into DMS, people are going to want to come check you out. And there’s a lot of controversy around this.

 

We have probably talked about this here as to whether or not to use your personal profile for business. Here’s my thought: you’re running a business in the year 2020 or whatever it is that you’re reading this. And honestly, Facebook has already congregated groups of potential clients. Why would you not use it as a business networking tool? You’re going to give me a lot of reasons.

 

What about pictures of my kids? Like I’m really private. This might be weird. And I encourage you to throw all that out the window and just say, Hey, you know, I am running a business. And so I have to network and connect with as many people as possible. And this profile gives me the opportunity to do that. Because when you’re networking in these groups, you’re networking from your personal profile, not your business page. People are going to come check out your personal profile and that personal profile has to be set up so people can figure out that you are a business owner.

 

It does you no good to go to all of these networking events if nobody knows what you do. If when they’re like, Oh, I met that person at the event, they were super helpful. They were awesome. What do they do? And they go look you up and they can’t figure out who you are, what you do, because your profile is locked out. It doesn’t make mention of your business. And it’s not set up in any way, shape or form for people to feel like they can or should start a conversation with you.  So we’re doing all of this networking, but we’re leaving money on the table if our profile is not optimized. People need to know you are a business owner of some kind. We have to build relationships, provide values, and get into the DMS.

 

Our profile is set up and now what we need to do is make sure people know how to work with us. We need to tell them. This might be in the DMS or inviting people to sales conversations. Maybe this is a Facebook live video that you are doing. You are letting people know that you are accepting clients right now. Maybe this is a really great written post. I’m talking about the problem that you solve for your clients.

 

Now we have eyeballs. We have a network of people, and now we just need to make invitations to sales conversations to turn them into clients. That is how we use Facebook groups to get clients. We go into the groups, we seek to build relationships. We’re looking to build relationships with everybody in the group, not just the people looking for us, not just our ideal client, not just the people with money.

 

We are looking to build relationships. Every single person that you meet has a network of people. Every single person that you meet is an opportunity for you to build a relationship. I really want you to think about that when you go into these Facebook groups, and then I want you to be as valuable as you possibly can, answer all of the questions in a really thoughtful way, and make sure you ask a question in your comments so you can get the conversation going back and forth, and then finally make sure that your profile is set up.

 

Once people are thinking who is this super interesting person in this Facebook group? I totally want to meet them. They are the life of this cocktail party. They know what kind of business that you have, and that there are consistent invitations for people to interact with you in some way, shape or form.

 

So that might be in the DMs or inviting people to sales conversations. Maybe it’s a Facebook live. Maybe it’s written content, but people need to know how to work with you. And your profile needs to be set up to do that. And that my friend is how you find clients in Facebook groups.

 

If you have not yet, download our five-step system for getting clients – do that. It’s going to walk you through everything from lead generation to discovery, call to pitching your services and beyond. If you’re not yet in the sales skills for women in business, Facebook community, make sure you join us over there. And then finally, if you’re not following us on Instagram, we are @UncensoredSales. We want to hang out with you. We want to help you get as many clients as possible and make money doing what you love.

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Let’s talk about fear.

 

We use a lot of different words to avoid saying fear when we talk about the reasons why we aren’t going after what we want. So, we’re going to use today’s topic to talk about fear and all the different ways that it’s probably showing up in your business.

 

My name is Ryann Dowdy. I am a sales coach and I help a brand new entrepreneurs build a six figure businesses by mastering your sales conversation and your mindset.

 

I’ve heard things like I am a perfectionist or I have imposter syndrome, or I’m not ready yet, or I’m still learning, or I need to finish this certification or that certification, or there’s a few more people I need to talk to, or I’m still doing some market research or there’s just a couple of things that I need to finish my website, and I need to finish this, or I need to do that, or I’m getting ready to do this.

 

I could go on for days, but my friend, they all go back to one thing, which is fear and fear is a totally normal emotion when you’re doing something new. For some reason, we don’t like to call it fear because we don’t want to admit that we are afraid of something. But, when you decided to start a business, you decided to really totally change your identity.

 

If you are like myself or going from employee to entrepreneur, it’s a whole new person, your learning a whole new skill, a whole new skill set, doing all sorts of things you’ve maybe never done before in your business and in your life. And it’s terrifying to try new things.

Because we don’t want to say, I am terrified to do this new thing. We use a lot of different words to describe it. It feels better to say that you have imposter syndrome, or it feels better to say that you’re a perfectionist, but truth be told my friend, it really is all about fear. And I want you to know the good news and bad news is that your fear is totally normal, and you should be afraid. It’s your brain’s way of keeping you safe.

 

Our brains, as powerful as they are, are very simple. It’s job is to keep us safe. It is the brain’s job to keep us safe. So, when we decide, we’re going to do this new, fun, crazy thing and we’re going to kick everything we’ve ever known to the curb and start this new business – it’s got to be amazing and magical. It’s no flipping wonder that our brain is like, Nope, Nope, Nope, stop, stop doing that.

 

Don’t do it because that’s scary. That’s scary. And it’s okay. Fear is totally normal. I think the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is whether or not they push through the fear. I think successful people are scared and they do it anyway. I think that unsuccessful people let fear be the thing that holds them back.

 

And if you have been letting fear hold you back so far, understand that you can’t change that. But I really think that that is the difference. If it were easy, my friends, everybody would do it. If it wasn’t scary, everybody would be an entrepreneur. There is a reason that we all like the secure and the security and the comfort of a day job or what we thought was secure and comfortable pre COVID. It’s because it felt less scary. It felt less risky. So, here you are trying to do this thing that is scary and overwhelming and terrifying. All of a sudden, we don’t want to use those words.

 

So, we come up with all of these different reasons as to what is wrong with us, because there must be something wrong with us. If we’re not just plowing full speed ahead into the stream, it’s a new skill. It’s a new thing. Being an entrepreneur is so, so, so overwhelming. And there’s a lot to it. There’s a lot of moving parts and pieces. You have to learn how to sell what you’ve never done before. You have to learn how to market, which you’ve never done before. You have to do your own customer service and your own billing and your own bookkeeping and all of these things like, of course, it’s overwhelming and it’s scary, but I want to give you some really actionable ideas as to ways to overcome your fear.

 

Fear is normal.

It is your brain’s job to keep you afraid. So, I want to talk about three really specific things you can do to overcome fear or to push past the fear.

 

The number one thing to push past fear is really understanding that I’m not the only one who is afraid.
For some reason we think we’re the only ones that are scared. It’s only me. I’m the only one that has this problem. I’m the only one that’s all tripped up in my perfectionism. And I’m the one who’s all tripped up in my imposter. You’re not, my friend. Everyone out there is scared to some degree.  Even as you up level, and even as you have more success in it, make more money and your business grows and flows and changes. Like it’s still scary.

 

There are just different things to be afraid of.  It’s always every time you up level, there are new fears. So, the first thing I want to think about is that everybody else is scared. They’re just doing it anyway. Sometimes, it just takes knowing that you’re not alone.

 

I think we think we’re the only ones experiencing that emotion. And I promise that you’re not. So that’s your number one way I think to really push through fear is this idea of we’re all afraid. We’re all afraid of different levels of different things. And you know, I’m going to be the person who does it even tho I’m scared.

 

The second thing I like to do, and this is really kind of counterintuitive is go to the worst-case scenario. What is the worst-case scenario? If you launch this business and it’s not successful, what is this worst-case scenario? If you go out and start networking and talking to people and nobody wants to talk to you or you’re not successful, or you get told, no, what is the worst-case scenario? If you get on a sales call with someone and they say, no, or you say something ridiculous, or you put your foot in your mouth or you don’t handle the call well, or you’re not able to handle objections, what is the worst-case scenario? Sometimes, when we go to the worst-case scenario, we let our brain go there and we realize it’s really not nearly as scary as we think, right.

 

It’s not nearly as scary as you think. You might hear “no.” Nobody likes “no” and no one ever feels good and rejection, isn’t fun, but it’s really just an emotion. It’s definitely not an emotion that would kill you.

 

Knowing that, okay, I might hear, no, I might get rejected. I might say something silly. I might get embarrassed. I may fail. Really let yourself deal with those emotions. Then come back to taking action. I really like to do that. What’s the worst-case scenario. I put myself out there and nobody buys it. I put this new thing together and nobody likes it. I post this thing on social media. Nobody reads it. I go live on social media and nobody watches it.

 

My second thought is the idea of what is the worst-case scenario and is the worst-case scenario really, as bad as you were making it out to be?

I find that 90% of the time, the answer is no. The worst-case scenario is not nearly as bad as you’re making it out to be.

 

Then, the final thing about really overcoming fear is facing your fear is understanding what it is you are afraid of.

I’m big on mindset. I have learned that that’s a huge part of my journey. I come from a corporate background where I was very action oriented and very type A. So, this is been a journey for me to get in touch with the mindset, thoughts, the mindset part of this and the thought work that goes into it.

 

Just writing down all of the things that you are afraid of kind of like my worst-case scenario, exercise, but like really, what are you afraid of? Like, are you afraid of being judged? Are you afraid of being laughed at, are you afraid of failing? Are you afraid of what people think of you? All of the above?

Now look at it. Is that true? Like, does that even matter? Cause sometimes we worry so much about what other people think of us, but in the grand scheme of things, does it matter?

People are not judging you, my friend. They are too darn worried about themselves to give them think about you. Sometimes, it helps to just brain dumping out all of those fears and all of those things.

 

I find that people are often surprised what they find in this exercise of what it is they’re actually afraid of. I have some clients that have told me that they are fearful of success. What will people think of them? What if they become a different person? What if their family judges them? What if their spouse doesn’t like who they become when their business is successful and makes a lot of money? I know that sounds ridiculous.

 

Like who the heck is afraid of making a lot of money and having a successful business? But until we really start to examine those thoughts and examine those fears, it’s really impossible for us to get past them. So, that’s really kind of what I want you to think about is the idea of fear and understanding everybody is afraid at a certain level. What is the worst case scenario and will that worst case scenario really kill you?

 

The third part of it is really knowing what the fears are and getting past them.
Every time you come up with one of those thoughts that you’re afraid of, push it aside. Realize that most of those things aren’t true.

 

Most of those things are just thoughts. And again, our brain is just this wildly powerful tool that we have, but it also is really primitive in the way that it is meant to keep us safe. It wants us to stay safe. Our brain likes routine, it likes consistency. It likes safety.

 

If you are operating from someplace with a fear in your business, I want to just let you know that it’s totally normal. If there’s not some level of fear, it’s the opposite side that maybe there’s something a little wrong with you. However, the good news is that every day that you take action and every day that you show up, you’re training your brain to think that maybe this isn’t so scary, right? This isn’t so scary. This isn’t so bad. There’s nothing to be afraid of here.

 

Every single day that you show up, the more consistent you become in working towards your goals and working through that fear. It will get easier every day. So, my overwhelming message in all of this is that you just have to start even when you’re scared, even when it’s hard, even when it feels just like the most terrifying thing in the world.

 

Okay. I hope that that is helpful for you. I hope that you enjoyed this conversation. I would love if you would join me over in the sales skills for women in business, Facebook community, if you are not there yet also you can follow us on Instagram @UncensoredSales and I will see you in the next video.

 

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Why does everybody want a six-figure business?

 

What is that about a hundred thousand dollars? That is this magical mythical thing that you hear about in entrepreneurship. If we have not met yet, my name is Ryann Dowdy. I’m a sales coach and I help brand new entrepreneurs build six-figure businesses by mastering your sales conversation and your mindset.

Today, I want to talk to you about the idea of the six-figure business. Everybody hears it. I was just said it in my positioning statement. I tell you that people want to build a six figure business. I also deal with a lot of brand-new entrepreneurs that are like Ryann. I don’t need to make $8,000 a month.

 

I just need to make, you know, $2,000 or $3,000. I just need to replace what childcare would cost or that gap between my former salary and childcare, or maybe it’s a matter of, we don’t even really need to make some money in our business or in my family, but I just want to make a couple extra thousand dollars to pay down debt or go on vacations or whatever.

 

So, what is this buzz around six-figures and why is it so important? I get that question a lot, so, I wanted to talk through it. For me, when I started my business, the focus was really about getting out of my full-time job. Like it’s all that I wanted to do. Just replace that salary and everything will be fine.

 

But what I learned when I started a business is that businesses have expenses and, I have to save for taxes and all of those different things. So, a six-figure number divided over 12 months is $8,333 per month.

Well, the first thing you have to do, my friend is lob off 20-30% for taxes. Please consult your tax professional for this, but a certain amount of that is going to go directly to taxes.  And then there’s going to be business expenses. Maybe you’re investing in coaching. Maybe you are hiring a virtual assistant, maybe you have software and tools and things like that that you invest in.

 

Once you take out for taxes and account for expenses, oftentimes you’re only left with a few thousand dollars in your business. And that I think is why people are so focused on this $100,000 business idea.

 

And for a lot of you, if maybe you’re not making a hundred thousand dollars on a corporate job or something, that number feels lofty and silly. You’re like, why would people say that? Or why would people do that? Because I remember early on in my journey, thinking that’s, that’s crazy, that’s aggressive.  Even coming from a successful corporate career, I thought, I just need to be able to pay my bills. I knew what I needed to make moneywise in my family and replace that salary.

But when you really think about the expenses in a business and making sure all of those things are covered and accounted for, that’s where you’re really shown what is left with your take home pay or your take home salary.

 

It doesn’t have to be as unattainable as it might feel. And if you’re brand new and you haven’t even gotten that first client, you probably can’t even think about, $100,000.

 

I know that and I feel that, but I think when we think about big picture, we really think about where do we want our business to go? We need to be able to back into those numbers. I’ll give you a specific: I have a client who is grossly talented, wonderful woman, found out when she did the math on her revenue goal in her business and how many clients she was going to need to get to hit the dollar amount she wanted to make. The number was just impossible.

 

She was never going to be able to do that much client work to hit her income goal. So when we begin with the end in mind, when we think about what is that $8,333 a month business going to look like, we have to think about how many clients does that take? What is the math on that? How do we make this work for us so that you’re able to take home the amount of money you want to take, but you’re also not, working around the clock?

 

You’re not working 60 hours a week, because again, that’s not why you started this business. You started this business for freedom. Think about why $100,000 has been so important and why do so many people talk about that? For many people, once you take out the expenses and taxes and things like that in your business, it actually leaves you with the dollar amount that you want to take home and hopefully allows you to grow from there.

 

The second piece of it is thinking about how you are positioning yourself, even now as a brand-new entrepreneur, to grow to that place by understanding how your pricing and packaging is going to help you hit your financial goals.

 

So, I hope that you find this helpful, and this gives you some clarification on the buzzword around six figures. Realize that once you get into business and you start investing in the tools and the things that you need to up level, the things that you need to hit your goal, that there are expenses and taxes that will eat up the income that you’re pulling in, in your business.

 

If you are brand-new entrepreneur and you want a system for getting clients whenever you want, I want you to download the uncensored sales system. It gives you my entire five step process that I take all of my clients on how to get clients. Also, if you’re not yet a member of the sales skills for women and business, Facebook community, and we’d love for you to join us. And of course, follow us over on Instagram at @uncensoredsales. See you soon!

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I want to talk today about where to find clients.

 

This is one of the biggest questions that I get from people inside of my community. Where do I find clients? We’re going to break down three things. First of all, I’m going to tell you where to find clients. Then I’m going to tell you which social platform to spend your time on. And then I’m going to tell you the biggest mistake I see new entrepreneurs making in finding clients.

 

My name is Ryann Dowdy. I am the founder of Uncensored Consulting. I’m a sales coach and I help brand new entrepreneurs build six figure businesses by mastering their sales, conversations and mindset, which is why this question comes up. Where do I find clients?

 

Where are these mystical people with money to give me?
I hear this one a lot. My friend, clients are everywhere. They’re absolutely positively everywhere. There are millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of people in the world that need your services. Truth is, if you’re a brand new business owner, you probably only need a handful of those people to give you their money for your business to be successful and for you to hit your financial goals.

 

So I want you to really think about this idea Instead of clients are this mystical thing that just happen like in the wind, try the idea that clients are everywhere and no matter where I go and how I connect with people, I can find clients cause they are absolutely everywhere.

 

I know that feels like a flippant answer, but I really want you to think that through because so many people think that there was one right place to be. I should spend my time on Facebook. No, no, no Instagram, no LinkedIn. My people are definitely on LinkedIn and truth is, my friend, is that your clients are everywhere. They’re on whichever social platform that you choose to spend time on.

 

If you are any post COVID world and you’re able to network, they’re at networking events. They are gathering all over the place, whether it is a chamber of commerce or BNI or a mom’s group or a backyard, barbecue or preschool pickup or your spouse’s holiday party or wherever it may be. Literally… clients are everywhere in the world. Because when you are brand new to business, you don’t yet have a clear niche, which means anybody who has the problem that you solve can become your client, which then means that clients are everywhere.

 

My second point is which social platforms should I spend my time on?
I am of the belief that you should spend your time on the social platform that you enjoy spending time on the one that you will actually show up to, serve people on and spend more time on. If you hate LinkedIn, I don’t care if your ideal client is on LinkedIn, you’re not going to show up there. You’re not going to connect with people. You’re not going to spend the time they’re needed to build the relationships to actually get clients. So, I want you to pick the social platform that you enjoy spending your time on, because it doesn’t matter which one you choose. There are literally millions of people on each platform and the 5, 8, or 10 of them that you need to hit your financial goals are absolutely there.

 

Stop the drama of I don’t know where to find my people. You know, I’m not sure they’re on Facebook.
Yes they are. Um, they’re absolutely on Facebook.

 

Finally, the biggest mistake that I see brand new entrepreneurs make.
Going out and doing a little bit of networking. Going to the hangout, a couple of Facebook groups, and then they deciding, you know what? My people, they’re not on Facebook. I’m going to go ahead and try to learn LinkedIn, because I think that they’re on LinkedIn because everybody that I’ve met inside this Facebook group, they don’t have any money. And I think people with money and they must be on LinkedIn or some version of an app.

 

I’ve heard it all. But what I really want you to think about here is that it does not matter which platform that you were on. There are people that will buy your services on every single one of the platforms and doing something for a few weeks or a few months, and then pivoting without really having any true data is sometimes a mistake. Maybe you are just getting traction because the statistics say that somebody needs to see your offer between 8 and 16 times before they’ll consider buying it. That’s a lot of times! Most of us give up on like, try number 4 or 5, or we quit talking about our business after 4 or 5 times, or inviting 4 or 5 people to discovery calls or running 4 or 5 discovery calls and getting told no.

 

And then we think, well, nobody has any money. This isn’t going to work. This isn’t the place for me. I’m hanging out in the wrong places. You’re not hanging out in the wrong places. You just haven’t done it enough to find the right people.

 

People tell me all the time nobody has any money. Well, how many discovery calls did you run? They tell me about six. Six is not a sample size, my friend. Run closer to 200 calls, and then we can talk about changing your audience.

 

So, I really want you to think about this idea that clients are everywhere. Then, if your gut is telling you to change social platforms or where you’re interacting with your people, because nobody has any money or nobody has the problem you solve, then considering switching.

 

There’s only brand new entrepreneurs on this platform.
I hear this one a lot that I really encourage you to think about where you are spending your time.  If you were spending time on Facebook with brand new entrepreneurs, and the, of course, you’re getting on the phone with a lot of brand new entrepreneurs, many of whom do not have the money to invest in different services. That does not mean that nobody in that group has any money. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people on my Facebook groups. My Facebook has 4,000 people in it. Um, you can’t tell me that not a single one of them need your services. The problem is that you haven’t shown up anywhere consistently enough to get a client in that space. But, if you are hating it and you’re like, I hate these groups, they just really are draining me, then pick a different group!

 

There are so many different groups to hang out in. If you’re over on Instagram, there’s so many different people. If you’re over on LinkedIn, so many different ways to connect with new people. I encourage you to not think about changing the social platform that you’re spending your time on. I encourage you to maybe change the groups that you’re hanging out in, or to really just keep going and think that maybe you just haven’t found the right people yet.  Maybe the group that you’re in is not representative of people who will invest in your services, but you don’t know that if you haven’t tried. I see this a lot. People say I started my business three months ago and I’ve been hanging out in Facebook groups and I haven’t gotten a single client. So my ideal client must not be on Facebook.

This is the biggest mistake I can see you making. First of all, there are so many things to factor into. How much time are you spending in those Facebook groups? How many new people are you talking to every day? How many people are you inviting to sales conversations? How many of your current friends and family know that you have a business? How many of them are referring you? How many coffee chats have you booked lately?

 

If the answer to any of those questions is a low number, then it doesn’t mean that your ideal client isn’t on Facebook, it means that you just haven’t been persevering enough to get that client. So to recap, where do I find clients? Clients are everywhere. Pick the platform in person online. Doesn’t matter. They are literally everywhere.

 

There are millions and millions of people in the world who need your services.

You need a very small fraction of them to have a successful business. Anything other than that is just a lot of drama.

 

Second. Social platform.
Again, pick the platform that you enjoy, that you will show on consistently show up on consistently. That is the key to success in business. Consistency. So pick the platform that you will consistently show up on that’s the platform for you.

 

Finally, Do not give up with a very small sample size, do not give up until you have really, really dug in and checked in with yourself.
Am I legitimately spending an hour every day networking? Am I legitimately inviting people to sales conversations every day? Have I legitimately run enough sales conversations to determine that this is not the right place for me.

That is probably not the answer. You just have not persevered long enough. You haven’t shown up often enough to find clients in that place. If somebody is going to give you their money and invest in you, they have to know you, like you, and trust you. And they can’t do that if they don’t see you often enough to build a relationship with you.

 

I hope that this has been helpful for you. I encourage you to download my five-step process to getting clients. I have a system called the uncensored sales system where we take people from hello to close. I talk about lead generation in that system. So, please make sure that you download that. It’s a fantastic tool for you to go all the way through that sales process. Finally, if you’re not in the sales skills for women in business, Facebook, community, we would love for you to join us over there. And then of course, we would love for you to hang out with us on Instagram @uncensoredsales. And I will see you soon!

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We are going to talk about your number one priority as a brand-new business owner.

My name is Ryan Dowdy. I am a sales coach and I help brand new entrepreneurs build six figure businesses by mastering your sales conversation and your mindset. I want to talk about priorities in business this week, because I get so many questions and so many mixed messages out there from you guys. I want to talk about your number one priority when you are brand new to business. The first thing that you need to focus on is making money.

 

It is NOT tuning a niche, building a website, starting blog, starting podcast, starting a YouTube channel, building a Facebook community. Those are all things that I see a lot of brand-new entrepreneurs doing that they’re doing because they think it will be easier to make money if they have those things. While yes, at some point in your business, those things will become important. They’re not when you’re brand new. Your first priority is to figure out how to make money.

How do I legitimize this business? I talk about sales and I talk about mindset, but really the first hundred dollars, thousand dollars, $5,000 is really about building that belief in yourself that you are a business owner. You can make money doing what you love and the skills that you have are valuable and people will pay you for them.

 

That is literally your first priority. Everything else can come after that.

Okay, Ryan, well, how do I make money? If I knew how to make money, I wouldn’t be sitting here watching your YouTube video.

I got you. No problem. How do we make money? My friends, we make money by talking to people. We make money by selling one to one. We go out, we shake hands with someone virtually or in person, and we jump on a call or we sit down and have a cup of coffee with them. We determine if we’re a fit to work together. Then, if we are a fit to work together, we make an invitation.

 

It’s very simple, but it often gets over complicated and convoluted and watered down. I’m out there in marketing land. I’m on the internet. I really want you thinking about this idea of your number one priority is to make money.

How do I go out and make money?

It’s by talking to people and by becoming an interesting person. It is by building a network. That is the difference between marketing and sales. Marketing is this idea of talking to a lot of people and getting the attention of a lot of people. Sales is getting the two to three clients that you need to get this month to hit your revenue goal. Sales is really about shaking hands, talking to people, connecting, providing value, and really becoming a business owner, and becoming a person who provides value to your people.

So how do we do that?

The first thing I want you to do, is be really, really clear on the problem that you solve for people. Then go out and tell as many people as you can that, you are a social media manager and you help X kind of brands do this. Or you are a bookkeeper who helps this type of business do this. Or you’re a health coach that helps busy moms do this. Go out and tell people what you do, shake hands, practice saying it over and over and over again until you have somebody to say, “that’s really interesting. I think I have that problem. Can I learn more about that?” Then, you are in a sales conversation.

 

This isn’t a marketing conversation, it’s a sales conversation.

As soon as you can get it under your belt and you can make a couple thousand dollars, then you can start thinking about big picture. You can start thinking about a niche. You can start thinking about where to take your business from here. But if you are thinking about or spending your time right now in your business on anything other than that number one priority, which is to figure out how to make some cash and start building belief in yourself that you are a business owner and people will pay you for what you do, I honestly think that you’re wasting time. You are really just making yourself feel productive. I know that we all want to feel productive. I totally fell victim to this early on in my journey.

 

We want it to feel like it was working well. So, I’m going to give you some examples of what this looks like. So you have some tangible action items. My number one priority is to make sure that you make money. So, the first thing that I would do if I were brand new to business and I were starting all over is I would make sure that my warm market, the people that I already know, know that I was starting a business. That would be my number one priority because there are already people that know me likely and trust me. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Well, I already have a network of people that know me, like me, and trust me. So, I can tell those people what I am doing, and that I have started a business, being a bookkeeper or a digital marketer or a freelancer or health coach or a business coach.

If I can let people know about what I’m doing, and who I’m looking for, and the problem that I solve, and who I want to talk to, I’m going to be able to make money so much faster than focusing on trying to go find new people who have no idea who I am. That is the difference between sales and marketing.  We sell to people. We market to bring in strangers and while talking to strangers is important, and it definitely needs to be part of your strategy, too many new entrepreneurs that I work with are out there focused on, finding these strangers and getting them into their world that they’re not even talking to the people.

 

If you’re thinking “I don’t have any business owner friends” …
Doesn’t matter. You never know who people know. You tell your best friend that you have started a business, but she’s not a business owner. Maybe her husband is or maybe her uncle is or maybe her father is or maybe her sister is, or maybe she is part of a networking organization that she can bring you to. You can meet more new people by telling one person you know. So many people don’t want to put their new business out there because they’re terrified of failing! They’re not letting the people that can help them find those first clients and get that first dollar a hundred dollars, $500, $5,000 in their business because they want to figure it out on their own, or because they think that they need to be hiding behind some sort of marketing.

So, your number one priority in your brand-new business is to make money. The fastest way to make money is to make sure that the people that already know you, know that you have a business and know the problem that you solve. It is okay to tell your friends and family that you have a business and that you would love an introduction to anybody who has this problem. Mention your business to anyone who’s an avid networker. I love to meet just other avid networkers because they know a lot of people. So, I know in that one coffee chat, I might get access to hundreds more people who might be potential clients of mine. Start thinking about this idea of building a network and talking to the people that are in your current circle.

Then go out and start talking to people, talking to strangers and pulling those strangers in, and really focus on the marketing part of growing your business. But that is not your number one priority. Your number one priority is to make money, find a way to make money, find a way to get clients. Find a way to do that as quickly as possible. Start building confidence, start building belief, start building a network.

Then we can start layering on some of that more marketing driven activity in your business.

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