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This is a business truth that is often overlooked.
Your business will only grow to the size of your current circle. You can reach a specific audience, and unless you actively and purposefully expand that audience, you will never get your information in front of new potential customers.
You may be thinking, Chris, you mean my business will never be bigger than it is now?
Absolutely not, but I mean you must be proactive. You must expand your influence to reach more people in order to develop. There are many different ways to expand your business circle, but I want to talk about a few more effective methods for Youpreneurs:
- 1) Be consistent with other experts
- 2) Participate in live events
Be consistent with other experts
Expanding your circle really starts with the people you choose to get along with. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn said that you are the average of the five people who have been with you the longest. Let’s pause for a moment. That is huge. It is really important to understand this. The five people you interact with the most have a profound impact on you. If the people around you don’t understand all of your content, then you will immediately go upstream, upstream.
If you With people who know you, You will find that sailing in successful waters is much easier!
I even went a step further and said that you should be with someone more experienced than you. You never want to be the smartest person in the room or on the phone.
However, you shouldn’t build relationships with other influential people just because you want to access their email lists, or because you want to participate in their podcasts, or because you want to be invited to live events they host. It’s about building real relationships, and these relationships will develop for many years.
Relationships should be cherished, not used!
One of my biggest worries is when someone I hardly know asks me to promote their product. I met them five minutes ago and they want me to help them sell things because they know that I have a big email list. That’s someone who just wants to use relationships. For me, it didn’t go well at all. I think you will find that it will not fail with anyone else. Take the time to really get to know the people you want to ally with.
Long-term relationships will promote long-term success, but the burned bridge can never be crossed.
Align yourself with the type of influencer you want to be known for going out with, but do so for the right reasons. One of the best ways to build close relationships with people is to get to know them on a personal level.
Start by making a list of four or five people in the industry with which you wish to build a deep, lasting relationship. You may already know all or some of the people on this list and want to take these relationships to the next level. Or maybe you have never met or talked to these people before, but you want to start a relationship with them. No matter what the situation is, write down their names.
Once you have the list, start figuring out what these five people are doing and how you can help. How can your expertise directly benefit them? Maybe they have encountered a problem they are trying to solve, and you can provide a solution.
The important thing is to make sure that you sincerely want to build a real relationship. How do you establish this personal connection? One way is to understand that pen and paper are still valid. In fact, I often use this strategy. I have a pure white postcard with my Chris Ducker logo printed on it. That’s it. There is nothing else on either side. There are no cliché photos, slogans or similar things. This is just a simple card with my logo on the top. I use these to give people handwritten messages.
OMG… Chris, please tell me you are not talking about stamped real mail and everything! This is exactly what I want to say. I often send these postcards to people, and you should do the same. Sometimes, at meetings, there will be a batch of these cards in my bag, when I meet someone for the first time, if I have a nice dinner with them, or if I like the brief that we held in the hallway Coffee meeting, I will write a short message to them on one of the cards. Then I took it to the hotel concierge and said, “I’m not sure which room Mr. Smith is in, but can you be sure he got this from me?”
People remember this kind of thing. Follow-up is not always necessary through tweets or emails, in fact, sometimes it should not be done.
This personal style is important for developing relationships, which will obviously help expand your circle and your business in the coming years.
Participate in live events
The second way to expand the circle is to participate in live events. I like live events.
I want Build relationships with Handshake, hug and high-five.
Sometimes I might even kiss on the cheek because I am British and we like to do this from time to time!You want to be with the people you want to be close to, I mean to be with them personally.
We live in a very fragmented world, especially when building an online business, sometimes actually very lonely. As an entrepreneur, you need to be alone and it is great to be able to participate in live events and hang out with people. Therefore, build relationships by shaking hands, hugging, coffee meetings, dinner, and even running around in the gym the first thing in the morning. Just go out and socialize.
Not all live events are created equally, so be sure to choose carefully. They spend money. Whenever you participate in an event, you buy more than just event tickets. You also have travel expenses, hotel expenses and food expenses.
One strategy I recommend is to stay away from major industry events in the first place. Instead, build relationships with people in smaller activities. People you want to bring in and expand your business circle may participate in small events and large events, but it is easier to find them in small events.
Another reason you need to carefully choose which activities to participate in is time. As entrepreneurs, time is our most precious commodity. When you commit to a meeting, you will spend two or three days in the event, traveling back and forth as a couple-this is a week in your life. You gave up your work for a week, and you will never come back again. You must choose wisely not only because of your money investment, but also because of your time investment.
When you participate in live events, please leave a strong positive first impression on the people you meet. This means that there are some things to avoid.
the first-Don’t be the one who doesn’t buy tickets Attend the event but who walks around in the hallway, attends all the social gatherings, and hangs out in the hall, trying to attract people’s attention. This is annoying at best, and you certainly don’t want to be called that person.
second-Even if you buy tickets for the event, don’t just walk into the room and start throwing business cards like a ninja star! Before processing your contact information, take a moment to meet with people. I’m unlikely to keep a card and let someone who has no background or who doesn’t know who that person walks forward and hands it to me.
third-Avoid drinking alcohol at live events. You don’t need it. It may be okay to have a drink at dinner, but you don’t want to be the drunk and self-righteous person at an Internet party in a bar. That person will not have a strong, lasting relationship with the real player; they are just being labeled as avoidance.
That’s not who you want to be!
I hope these strategies are helpful to you-there are many more sources of them…
This article is an excerpt from my new book “The Rise of Youpreneur”, now available in RiseOfTheYoupreneur.com (Including bonus!), and other places to sell good books!
