Earlier this year Brian D’Angelo (Loveyourmondaymornings.com) and I sat down to discuss what you really need to start a business (vs what you think you do), how to master your mindset and how to QUICKLY land a big client.
It’s a great interview with a ton of strategic small business marketing tips – and we break some myths about building a small business to 6-figures and landing your first freelance client.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, want to land more freelance clients or simply want to know how to make 6-figures as a freelancer, watch the video below.
XOXO,
Kate
P.S. While the free-trial offer has expired, you can learn more about Six Figure Freelancers here.
Start Your Business, Quit Your Day Job Summit Interview with Brian D’Angelo
Full Transcript:
Kate Bagoy – How to Land Your First Client – Launch Your Business, Quit Your Day Job Summit with Brian D’Angelo of Loveyourmondaymornings.com
Brian [00:00:00] Hey everyone it’s Brian D’Angelo and welcome back to day four of the Launch your Business, Quit Your Day Job Summit.
Brian [00:00:06] Our last lesson today is with Kate Bagoy, who’s going to teach us her short term marketing strategies so that you know how to land your first big client and before we dive in I want to tell you a little bit about Kate so let me read her bio to you.
Brian [00:00:25] Listed as one of Thrive Global’s limit breaking female founders Kate Bagoy is an award winning designer and business coach for creative entrepreneurs. After quitting a corporate dream job in 2008 Kate moved to Silicon Valley to manage design and marketing for a mobile startup. The valley wasn’t a fit, but she caught the startup bug and has been working with entrepreneurs ever since.
Brian [00:00:52] Kate has worked with more than 50 startups as a designer, marketer, product manager, strategist analyst, and advisor. She’s a graduate of the Portland Seed Fund, served as mentor at multiple accelerators and educational programs (including Washington State University’s MAP program and Georgia Tech’s ATDC bootcamp) and has led projects for several Fortune 500 companies including Nike, HP, Apple, BP and Microsoft. Kate holds a BFA in graphic design and an MBA in marketing and international business.
Brian [00:01:30] Obsessed with travel since a flight to Oregon at 6, Kate left the U.S. in January 2017 to travel full time and runs her business entirely online. She helps other creatives do the same at sixfigurefreelancers.com. Kate’s personal mission is to inspire and empower people to lead lives by design not default.
Brian [00:01:54] And Kate’s free gift to each of you is a 14 day free trial of the Six Figure Freelancers Accelerator program. You can try the program which retails for $1999 completely free for 14-days. Get access to more than 30 videos and 70 bite sized lessons for growing a six figure freelance or consulting business you can run anywhere. Visit the address on the screen to access it or by clicking the free tab underneath this video you can access the link directly.
Brian [00:02:29] OK so in this class Kate’s going to tell you what you need in order to land a 5 k client in either your consulting or freelance business and then also how to select the right marketing platforms for your business and will continue the conversation for how to attract and close clients without feeling sleazy or salesy. All right we hope you enjoy folks!
Brian [00:02:55] Hey everybody welcome back. So I’m here now with Kate Bagoy. And Kate I’m so excited that you decided to join us for this summit. I had to chase you down a little bit but I’m glad that I was able to lock you in place and again I’m so excited that you’re so thank you very much.
Kate [00:03:13] Thanks Brian – I’m good. I’m excited to be here and I’m glad you did chase me down.
Brian [00:03:17] We’re going, we’re going to talk about some cool stuff today. So you know we’re really going to discuss some marketing strategies but we’re going to do it from a short term perspective. Right? Because I think one of the biggest struggles that early entrepreneurs face is landing their first client. Right? So you’re really going to give us some practical strategies that they can follow so that you can get your first client. Yippee. And you can build some really short term marketing strategies that work really well for your business. So, super excited for this conversation. Let’s dive in. I want to ask you a question and let’s back it up just a little bit. So first things first… If you are starting a business what are some of the things that you really need to know about business in order to be successful?
Kate [00:04:09] What a fabulous question, Brian. There are so many things but you know there are really there are two really really important things to do before you think about starting a business.
Kate [00:04:21] Number one is understand that your mindset is hands down the number one factor in your success. I’ve been working with startups and small businesses for over a decade. I’ve been involved in over 50 or 60 startups and I can tell you that every one of them that failed did so because the founder gave up. It’s 100 percent a mindset problem like yeah. There’s always an excuse. I ran out of money. We ran out of funding. You know my dog died, I couldn’t go to work, whatever. But it’s really it’s about mindset. If you don’t master your mindset you will give up because building a business is hard. If it wasn’t everybody would do it because it’s fantastic – right? So that’s number one is adopt that business owner mindset.
Kate [00:05:02] But number two is really you have to understand what business is – particularly important for small business owners and creative people – that’s the the my clients are tend to be creative people and creative people. We didn’t study business in college. Nobody told us what a prospect was or what operations was. So you need to understand the pieces of business and more importantly need to understand marketing.
Kate [00:05:26] So I have a visual here that I want to share, just really quickly that I created for some of my clients. Are you able to see my screen here.?
Brian [00:05:37] We got it.
Kate [00:05:39] Cool. So this is business in a nutshell. I like to just break it down to the basics because people over complicate business and thinks it’s it’s just this really complicated process to start a business. And the reality is, from a small business standpoint, there are four big areas of business: there’s marketing, which is where you find leads and connect with people. there is sales, which is turning those people into customers, operations, which is doing the work, getting the stuff done and then everything else. And I keep that everything else there because for small businesses that’s usually stuff like accounting and you know stuff that you don’t necessarily need to spend a ton of time on and you can outsource. Right?
Kate [00:06:18] So really understand business itself is simple. We over complicate complicated as entrepreneurs and the more creative you are the more you will overcomplicate this. So try and keep it simple. And then from a marketing and sales it’s really important to understand the timeline of how you connect with people in business and you know I like to define words for people – particularly the creative people -because I think it’s very unclear what a prospect is versus a lead in all of that stuff.
Kate [00:06:48] A prospect is basically anybody that is potentially a client for you. And that’s really the whole world, technically, but for our purposes today we’re going to say anyone that interacts with you or your brand that could potentially down the road be a client.
Kate [00:07:04] A lead is someone that actually says “Yeah, I’m interested”. In some format or other – they gave you their email, they gave you their business card, they said hello… Whatever. They’re actually interested. Then, a client, of course, is somebody that actually said “I want to hire you”. Right?
Kate [00:07:20] And then partner is what you do with those clients long term. When you do a really great job and they want to work with you again they start promoting you and they start actually sending prospects and leads your way. Right. Really cool thing. And this is what it looks like in real life.
Kate [00:07:34] You meet somebody, you get the digits, you get hired, you get more leads.
Brian [00:07:40] Love it, Simple.
Kate [00:07:41] Marketing in a nutshell.
Kate [00:07:44] I’m going to stop here.
Brian [00:07:45] No, that’s fantastic, and I love how you simplify it simplify it because I do think that a lot of people tend to make it much more complicated than it needs to be. And I think it actually goes back to your first point about mindset, right? You know our mindset tends to make this much harder than it needs to be and so let’s cut through that and let’s make it really simple for people.
Kate [00:08:09] Keep it simple.
Kate [00:08:10] That is the best advice you can get when you’re first starting out.
Brian [00:08:15] Awesome. So if you let’s say I’m an aspiring entrepreneur and I want to build a really high end brand, is there a specific formula that you follow in order to do that? What sort of methodology that you take?
Kate [00:08:30] Yeah. So there I mean there are millions of ways to build a business and I like to always be clear about that. Make sure that any time you’re building a business you’re authentic to you, particularly as the founder, you want to build a business your own way. There is no you must do X, Y and Z.
Kate [00:08:46] That said… I have found in my experiences for service based business owners and small businesses that want to build a high end brand, there are like five areas that you really want to focus on from the long term standpoint of building that brand.
Kate [00:09:02] And the first thing, again, is you want to create a you want to master your mindset and within that you want to create a vision for the business that you’re creating. I know a lot of entrepreneurs that go into business kind of accidentally or haphazardly and then a couple of years later they realize “I hate everything that I’ve done – I hate the life I’ve created for myself.” You know you end up being a business operator instead of a business owner. So the first thing I want to do is really set a vision and understand what you want to build so that you can be authentic to yourself. Right?
Brian [00:09:35] You don’t want to leave the rat race to join another rat race essentially.
Kate [00:09:39] Exactly right. So you master your writing but think like a business owner and then visualize that success. Decide what you actually want to build before you build it set some clear goals and that acts as a North Star. So as you start building your business you guide you to make the right decision. Right.
Kate [00:09:56] The third thing that I think is really important is to understand that you need to position yourself as an expert if you are a service or your company isn’t specialized. You want to be a specialist not a generalist right. You want to be a painkiller not a vitamin. And that’s what allows you to work with the higher end brands at higher end prices. Generalists don’t make the big bucks, typically.
Kate [00:10:20] Unless you’re specialized in a very niche market ,which is the fourth thing – is you know your market. And you want to know your audience better than they know themselves, and more importantly, you want to really understand their pain points and the outcomes that they’re after. Because people aren’t buying your service – they’re not buying your products – they’re buying the results that come from them.
Brian [00:10:45] Yeah.
Kate [00:10:45] Right. You know I’m not buying graphic design service. I am I am buying a better brand. I am buying better communication, I’m buying more clients, ultimately. And in business – if your business-to-business, usually the outcome is more leads. More sales. More money. If you’re a business-to-consumer it’s usually feel bette,r be more confident. That sort of thing. But you need to understand what it is you’re really selling not the service that you’re offering.
Brian [00:11:15] I want to just reiterate that for a second here so you know I think what you’re really keying in on here is determine your niche, right, determine what you’re going to specialize in. And you said it, but I’m going to reword this just in my own words. Specificity brings opportunity. So, the more specific you are, the more people you’re actually going to attract. And that’s key. So get really really clear on your niche. Right. From there. What was your next step?
Kate [00:11:44] And from there it’s about learning how to sell the outcomes, not the service or the solution, the product. You’re selling what they really want. So it’s narrowing down your niche to the smallest market possible, knowing them really well, and then selling what they actually want. You can give them what they need, but you’ve got to sell them what they want.
Brian [00:12:08] Yep. So. So just as an example here if I want to lose weight. Right? That’s my goal and I might need to shift my mindset or release some emotional blocks that I have that are keeping me holding onto the weight. But that’s not what I’m buying. I’m buying the losing the weight. Right. So yeah I love that. That’s great.
Kate [00:12:32] I’m buying being able to get into a swimsuit this summer. I don’t want to buy a diet program. I don’t want to buy a coach that’s going to tell me not to eat sugar anymore and make me uncomfortable. I don’t want any of those things! I just want to look good in a swimsuit! So focus on the outcomes and the way that I define that in my Six Figure Freelancers formula, I’ll just recap that really quickly because I got a little excited there and I got a little off track..
Brian [00:12:56] hahaha.
Kate [00:12:56] It’s about mastering your mindset is number one right. Think like a business owner.
Kate [00:13:00] Number two is visualizing your success and creating the vision and the goals for your long term vision so you don’t create a business you hate.
Kate [00:13:09] Number three is positioning yourself or your company as experts and specialists. Be a master not a dabbler. All right.
Kate [00:13:17] Number four is narrowing down your niche market, so the the smaller the market the better because you can talk to them in their words that you know exactly what they need. And it actually broadens your reach, believe it or not.
Kate [00:13:29] And the fifth one is promoting your brand or your services not your skills, right. You’re you’re you’re promoting those outcomes.
Brian [00:13:38] Yeah. You know I want to ask you a question because I see this all the time I see new business owners coming in and getting really terrified to niche down because they don’t want to leave anyone out. And I get it – as someone as as empathetic as I am, I want to serve everybody. But it’s just not possible. So what do you say to those folks? Why is it so critical to get really specific hyper specific, if you will?
Kate [00:14:06] Yeah. If you’re trying to talk to everybody you’re speaking to nobody.
Brian [00:14:09] Right.
Kate [00:14:10] The reality is that by niching down, niching down does not mean you can’t work with anybody that comes to you, that wants your your services, your outcomes… But what you want to do from a marketing perspective is be hyper-clear and focused on the outcomes, on the things that your ideal client wants & needs.
Kate [00:14:29] And when you can narrow your client down into something so specific that you can actually picture a single person as your ideal client – all of your marketing communications become seamless. It becomes easier. Conversations become easier and when you’re niched down and it’s very clear what you do and who you do it for and the outcomes they get – sales conversations become just that! They’re conversations. You’re not selling. You’re not having to be sleazy, you just talk about “What’s your problem? Can I help you? Would you like to work with me?” “Yes please.” Ka-Ching.
Brian [00:15:01] Yep
Kate [00:15:03] That’s sales. IF you have targeted your products and services in a manner that works for that client.
Brian [00:15:12] Yeah I love it. And it confused mind says no. So if you are all over the place right, and you do a little bit of this,and a little bit of that, you’re you’re not you’re gonna have a really hard time selling. Right. So. So I think like a real key that I want to bring to the audience here is make sure that you niche down because like Kate says, it really is going to help you to speak to that customer in really clear and compelling ways. And it does ultimately makes the sales process effortless and that feels nice.
Kate [00:15:47] It’s just cool. Yeah it’s crazy. You can tell the difference you know if you go to a website that’s really broad and that uses really general terms you know “we make websites” yay. Versus you go to a site and it’s like “Killer websites for startups,” and you’re a startup. Boom – I’m already in. Like, just that headline alone, tells me this person understands my problem and gets me.
Brian [00:16:13] Yeah I love it. OK. So. Was there a step five? Did I miss that?
[00:16:18] Step five was just promoting your your outcomes and not your skills. So promoting your brand not you know your service. Like, don’t sell “graphic design,” sell “better communication” right. Don’t sell “diets”. Sell “Looking good in a swimsuit.”
Brian [00:16:36] All right. So you know so we’re gonna get into this process now where we’ve identified our niche we’ve gotten really specific. We’ve got some really compelling messaging in place. Now we need to go out and we need to start attracting people to us. And, you know, as you know, the Internet’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger and everyday it’s just like the universe it’s just ever expanding. Right? And so there are so many options and opportunities that are out there in terms of marketing and I want to get your opinion on sort of the best marketing platforms that are out there for online businesses or even for some brick and mortar businesses that have online presence.
Kate [00:17:17] OK. Yeah. So a couple of things there. First, I’d backup really quickly to online presence. And I would just say that really I want you to remember that the goal of any online marketing activity is simply to turn cold leads into warm leads.
Kate [00:17:32] And I didn’t talk about cold versus warm but basically you know, a cold lead is as somebody that you’ve never really interacted with. You know they were strangers until recently, and a warm lead is somebody that you’ve built some sort of relationship you, or they’re a friend of a friend or a referral and they feel like they know you.
Kate [00:17:48] And the reason that we do all of this online marketing and we do e-mail programs and Facebook lives and websites and all this stuff is simply to start building a relationship before we actually have a conversation. And it turns those cold leads into warm leads.
Kate [00:18:02] So with that in mind you want to think about where you need to be online in order to connect with your ideal client. So, if you’ve done what we talked about before – you figured out who it is you want to work for and what you can offer them. That’s number one and right – you know your customers. So the next question is, “where are they hanging out already?” Super super simple.
Kate [00:18:24] You know, if you know your client, you know where they are online. So make a list of where they are online or in person! You know, maybe it’s events – like, when I started doing freelance design years ago one of my strategies was just to go and volunteer at startup accelerators, right? That’s where my clients were.
Kate [00:18:42] Just make a list of where they’re hanging out online in person, all of that. That’s the first part… And then the second part of that is you need to know yourself and particularly this is for the solopreneurs that are just starting out – You need to know what platform YOU actually enjoy and will stick to. Do NOT pick something that you hate to do because you won’t do it. And then you’re not doing any marketing.
Brian [00:19:07] True Story.
Kate [00:19:08] You know. And also with that, don’t try and be everywhere when you’re first starting out. Pick one to two networks – preferably one to become an expert in like for me, that’s really from a social standpoint, that’s Instagram. I’m a creative person. I love taking photos. I travel full time. I use Instagram. But, that said, if you are in a business to business role – do not underestimate the power of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is hands down THE best platform for connecting with B2B clients. I personally have used it as a designer to lend a ninety thousand other job and a sixty thousand dollar design contract, without doing anything. These people came to me, because I had picked the right keywords. I had a compelling headline, I had a clear call to action. And the rest is history.
Brian [00:20:01] Voila.
Kate [00:20:01] Voila. So, if you’re B2B, be on LinkedIn. If you’re anywhere – you know if you’re B2C, probably Facebook or Instagram depending on your style. Maybe Twitter. Maybe Quora. There are so many options… but figure out where your customers are and where you want to be and find that overlapping venn diagram. You should be right in the middle of that venn diagram.
Brian [00:20:25] Yeah, I love that. And don’t underestimate some of the other ones that are out there. Pinterest is an example a lot of people say that you can’t get good business from Pinterest but that’s so far from the truth right. And I would think especially if you’re a creative creative person in your selling to creative people that Pinterest would be a fantastic place for them.
Brian [00:20:45] My other favorite one for younger folks right. Millennials or younger would be Reddit, but I mean believe it or not there are discussion forums out there all over the place and just all the young folks seem to gravitate. I’m now officially old but only young folks seem to gravitate over there. But I I love this. I love your recommendation and I want to again underscore this. Choose one – maybe choose two – but if you really want to become an expert. Start with one, build it out, get really comfortable with it, make sure it’s one you absolutely love to use and then move on from there.
Kate [00:21:25] 100 present. And particularly when you start out, because that is one of the most common mistakes that clients come to me with that have been in business for a while they’re not getting any traction and they don’t know why and they’re like I’m working a hundred hours a week I’m posting on every social media platform. But they’re not doing it right…. They’re not understanding the platform, they’re not understanding that every platform has different purposes, different audience behavior, different psychology about what to post. Like, speaking of Pinterest versus Instagram – Pinterest works really really great if you’re into content marketing and you can do a list of all of five things to grow your business and you do a nice big infographics and it links to your site or you’re a designer and you do a Web site that sort of thing. That doesn’t work as well on Instagram. It can work. If you do a nice animated video I’ve got a designer friend that’s 60 thousand followers on Instagram. He does really well, but it’s not as common, right?
Kate [00:22:17] Instagram is more like – I want to check out. I want to look at really cool places. I want to be inspired, I want to see cool clothes. Facebook like I want the dirty gossip – who’s spilling the tea – and usually a way to just check out.
Brian [00:22:30] And one of things that I do love about Facebook is the power of groups within it, right.
Brian [00:22:37] So that’s a really it’s a way to not only build an audience but to also have them highly engaged, right, which I think is a little bit more difficult on more and more open platforms like Pinterest as an example.
Kate [00:22:52] Yeah. One hundred percent. And again – going back to that “Know Thyself” – groups can be phenomenally powerful, but they take a lot of effort. And if you’re somebody like me who is an introvert, and doesn’t like to spend a lot of time on social media, it’s a bad idea. I tried it! I tried building a group but I’m like “This is hard. Nobody is interacting…”.
Brian [00:23:13] hahaha.
Kate [00:23:13] And there’s nothing like running a Facebook group with just crickets, right?
Brian [00:23:16] Yeah.
Kate [00:23:17] Know yourself, know what time you really want to put in. Know what that’s going to get you. If you love being on Facebook and you like doing Facebook lives or posting regular and interacting with people – groups can be phenomenally powerful.
Brian [00:23:29] Yes.
Kate [00:23:29] But they take a lot of a fair amount of effort to get going at the beginning.
Brian [00:23:33] So any other recommendations that you have just about selecting and leveraging online marketing platforms.
Kate [00:23:43] Those are really the biggest ones. I mean, I would say if I look at it from a standpoint of somebody that’s brand new to business and maybe only used social media for personal – don’t stress so much about social media, particularly when you’re first starting out, because that is a really a long term strategy.
Kate [00:24:01] As I said, online marketing strategies it’s really about building your brand, right. You’re, you’re turning those cold leads into warm leads. Social media is typically not the best way to go to market in terms of landing your first clients.
Brian [00:24:15] Yep.
Kate [00:24:15] Which is a great segway.
Brian [00:24:17] Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about landing your first client because I think that what a way to you know really prove to yourself that you can do this right when you land that first you know four figure client, there’s there’s this feeling that happens that is just absolutely exceptional so. So what’s the process that you use?
Kate [00:24:40] Yes. So I, again, this is where we tend to really, really overcomplicate starting a business. Everybody that thinks about starting a business for the first time usually thinks in order to go to market and start / launch my business…. “I need this amazing website that I gotta spend twenty thousand dollars on and I’ve got to have a professional logo and I’m gonna have an email marketing program and a funnel and …” .
Kate [00:25:07] You know… all of these things in place. I need to have an MBA and the right certifications and the testimonials. We overcomplicate the crap out of it.
Kate [00:25:15] What you actually need to start your business is a product or service offering that somebody needs, a way to connect with those people and an offer to get them to work with you. Period.
Brian [00:25:29] Yep. That’s it.
Kate [00:25:30] And there are people – I have met people that run six figure businesses with just that. They never even bothered to get their Web site. You know it depends on what you want in the long run, but you can really get simple with this.
Kate [00:25:42] And so what you actually need to get a client is, again, going back to knowing your clien – you want to create some sort of package or service offering. This is for the higher end package. We’re assuming that we’re talking about getting a five or ten thousand dollar job, you know, if you’re a coach you need to have some sort of package or offering and you need to know what they’re getting for that money right.
Kate [00:26:05] You need to understand those pain points and list them out. And then I highly recommend some sort of online presence. If you’re B2B that can be as simple as a LinkedIn profile – like you don’t need a twenty thousand dollar Web site. And in fact if you’re spending 20 thousand dollare on a website before you have a client I will tell you you’ll probably fail in your business your first year.
Brian [00:26:27] yep.
[00:26:27] Don’t waste your money before you validate your service or solution. Right? If you want to do a real website, start by doing a single landing page. Just keep it really simple. And then you’ve got to have a way to talk to people. You Know I used Calendly for the first year of my business. Calendly is a great little tool for instantly booking a call, a consultation. And I had multiple clients when I was doing design work say “the main reason that we’re having this call is just because you made it so easy to get in touch with you. All these other designers had these contact forms and I had to fill things out and tell them what I want. And yours was just like pick a day and we’ll talk.”.
[00:27:09] So make it easy for people to talk to you. Make sure that you’re in places where you can talk to people, and have an offer to give them. That’s another thing that people fail to do. You know it blows my mind sometimes – I’ll talk to people and they’ll be like “well, you know I meet all these people and I think they’d be great candidates, but they never seem to want to work with me. Like, “Well, did you ever make them an offer?”.
Brian [00:27:29] Mmm
Kate [00:27:32] We forget – you have to actually say “do you want to work with me?”.
Brian [00:27:36] Yep
Kate [00:27:39] Ewwww. You know the introverts in us go “oh my god, promotions.” Sleazy…. I want to be a car dealer. But the reality is what we talked about earlier – if you’ve done a good enough job of understanding your potential client, the outcomes that you’re offering, it just becomes a conversation.
Kate [00:27:56] You know it’s “Hey how you doing? I heard you have this problem.” “Yeah. This is what I’m struggling with…”
Brian [00:28:03] So I make a comment about this because I look at the sales conversation as an extension of delivering service to your client. So, if you are a coach, if you’re a consultant and that’s your day to day – what you do -the sales conversation is really just an extension of that. You are still serving, you’re still providing value. And like you said, it makes it much more of a conversation.
Brian [00:28:28] Now, when I started love your Monday mornings I want to just go back to what you said about using Calendly. I used Acuity. I did not have a web site. In fact, my website still not up. We’ll be eventually, but… But, you know, I started off by connecting with all my friends and family, letting them know what it is that I was doing. I set up Acuity, which is another scheduling system similar to Calendly, and just provided the link to everybody and said “hey, if you know somebody, put him in touch with me, here’s a link to schedule an appointment.
Brian [00:29:00] And, you know, I want to say that just within a month long period I ended up having 30 conversations with potential clients. And I learned so much through that process about what they did, what their pain points were, how I could serve them. And you know, honestly Love Your Monday Mornings and my programs within Love Your Monday Mornings were born as a result of that as a result of that. Just listening to those people and really designing something that they actually needed. So so I love that. I love that you don’t have to go out and spend 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars on a fancy website with all these bells and whistles. You know Calendly or I’m going to say Acuity cost me, 20 dollars a month?
Kate [00:29:49] Mmmh, yeah.
Brian [00:29:49] That’s all it took me to start my business.
Kate [00:29:51] Yeah. And Calendly’s Free.
Brian [00:29:54] Good to know.
Kate [00:29:54] So, yeah. Well they have a paid program too…but Yeah. I mean, when you’re starting out – keep it simple. There was a book a few years ago for anybody that’s been in tech called The Lean Startup that changed the game and it’s about iteration. Right. You want to prove – you want to validate your idea before you go all in on it. And so you got to get out there and talk to that. And so yeah. You know when you’re first starting out it’s great. You have that vision and you can imagine that twenty thousand dollar web site and how amazing that’s going to be to have everything automated.
Kate [00:30:26] But at the beginning, you want to take a step back and you want to focus on your fastest path to cash. And your fastest path cash is always going to be warm leads. So it’s just like you said, it’s sharing on the existing networks that you have. It’s reaching out to your friends your family everybody you know to tell them that you launched a business. That’s one that people love to do to – like “well, I don’t know why my friends and family aren’t supporting me?”…
Kate [00:30:47] Did tell them that you started a business? Did you share your website? Did you ask them to share your website? Did you make it easy to share your website? That’s another thing – make it easy for your friends and family. Give them a templated e-mail or a templated social media post that they can share your stuff on. Make it easy for them, because people are busy and we got our own lives. Everybody’s busy and focused on self. That’s just the reality of the earth. Maybe Mother Teresa once in a while we get those that are truly other focused. But everybody is typically focused on their own stuff on the day to day. So make it easy for them to help you and connect you with the people that you want.
Brian [00:31:26] Yeah. You know when I you know again going back to when I started Love Your Monday Morning and I went out and reached out to my friends and families. I literally sent them emails that they could share with other people. You know I said “Hey I’d love for you to refer people to me. Here’s an email that you can send them with a link for them to schedule the appointment.” Just like that. I mean it’s super easy for them to just cut and paste and forwarded along and and voila. Like we said you know 30 30 conversations later… You know my business was off the ground. I had a bunch of clients that I was working with and was able to grow from there solid.
Kate [00:32:01] 100 percent. Yeah, absolutely. And really I just want to you know kind of a conclude with a really easy exercise for how to get going with this idea. Once you’ve got your ideal client and you know what you want to offer them – sit down, take out a pad of paper, and write down a hundred people or more that you know.
Brian [00:32:21] Yeah.
Kate [00:32:21] Just anybody that you can reach out to you and ask for a referral, Or invite to work with you – literally everyone you can think of that you have a good relationship with. Right. Start There.
Kate [00:32:32] And then go through your list and pick out five people who you think are the best candidates to actually work with you and get in touch with them! And you don’t go straight for the sales – you don’t just be like “hey buy my produc,t” whatever. Start a conversation. Say “Hi. Thinking of you. I wanted to let you know I’m now in business. Do you have any interest in having a conversation?” Or just “Hey, thinking of you” and allow the conversaion to unfold.
Brian [00:32:56] Yes. And literally the exact same process that I followed and I think I ended up putting about 200 people on my list but I love what you said about going and going through that list and cherry picking, right. You pick the people that are easiest, that you have the warmest relationship with, and you cold check them first because chances are they’re going to want to support you and they’re going to go out and refer. And then you move on to the harder ones. Like, I had found that the hardest people for me to ask for referrals were the people at the job that I had just left. That was the hardest for me. So those folks went to the bottom of the list and eventually I got to them and even some of them I scratched off the list. I was like “No, I can’t do it”. But you know make it easy on yourself and I think that that’s a fantastic way to do it.
Kate [00:33:42] It’s just you know and you’re gonna see on that list, with some people you’re gonna be like “oh my god that would be the perfect guy”. Like, maybe that’s actually where I came up with my ideal client… I was thinking about you know Christina or Brian or whatever, and other people you’ll be like “No, but they love me…” You know, like, my mom – not my ideal client at all – but, my God, does she share everything I’ve ever done. She’s terribly proud of me and comments on every single social media post I’ve ever made in my life. You know she’s my number one fan.
Brian [00:34:11] Yep
Kate [00:34:13] And that’s what making that list is – you’re going to see how many people are really there to support you, that you can reach out, and just ask for a referral, ask them if they’re interested, ask “Who do they know” that would be interested?
Kate [00:34:27] That’s a great way to phrase it, rather than thing “do you know anybody?” Say “Who do you know”. Because it triggers that question, where they actually start thinking about people and you know visualizing that internal Rolodex.
Brian [00:34:39] And I also find that asking permission essentially so asking them “would you be willing to share this with people that you may know?” right. That that I think gives them an out – they can say, “you know what, I don’t really know anybody” and that could be that. But it’s a little softer approach than just saying “hey, send this to all of your friends!” All right.
Kate [00:35:00] 100 percent.
Brian [00:35:00] How do you know I want to mention something that happened when I was doing this just to give people a heads up that this is the reality of what will happen.
Brian [00:35:09] Some people will completely ignore you.
Brian [00:35:12] And I want you to know in that process that that has nothing to do with you. And it has nothing to do with your business. That is their own stuff. And for some reason they they are just stuck in that and that’s OK. So you know just know that as you’re contacting those hundred people and people just fall off the face of the earth that that again that has nothing to do with you and come from an open heart and forgive those people because really it’s just it’s just their own stuff that they’re working through.
Kate [00:35:44] Yeah or they’re just busy, or they miss the e-mail. I mean the reality is that it is nobody else’s job on the planet to support you, except you. It is your job to support you. It is your job to believe in your business. It is your job to know your vision. It is your job to understand your client. It is your job to promote your business. Nobody else is obligated to do so. That said there are probably a lot more people ready to support you than you really imagine.
Brian [00:36:12] Yeah. True story. Awesome. Great stuff.
Brian [00:36:16] So you know any final thoughts for folks in terms of landing their first client and really getting themselves out there so that they can start to build their business?
Kate [00:36:28] Stop making excuses. Stop over complicating things, and just take action.
Kate [00:36:33] If you take action immediately, you’re far more likely to actually get moving. So if you have an idea, sit down, write down those people that you want to work with, send an e-mail today. Or schedule it, put on your calendar – but take immediate action and just step over complicating things! Keep it simple.
Kate [00:36:50] It’s what we do. I do it still.
Brian [00:36:56] Yeah, and I’ll add… don’t beat yourself up in the process and pay attention to the thoughts that are happening because all of those thoughts. “What am I doing? Why am I doing this? I’m not good enough. I’m never going to write.” Those are the things that are ultimately going to hinder you. So you really have to become really good at putting those thoughts aside, pressing forward ike you said, taking action day after day and recognizing that you’ll get better. It it’ll get easier. Right. And then it eventually will just start to fall into place. And I it’s like we we said in the beginning of this conversation – so many people quit their business for so many excuses. But the reality is that they just didn’t continue to take small steps forward and they left their head in the way.
Kate [00:37:45] Yep. Consistency wins over huge actions every single time. If you take small steps every single day you are more likely to stay in business longer than that person that does like “let’s do 16 hours in a row trying to get everything done” and then doesn’t do anything for months. Be consistent. Small things add up a lot faster than you imagine and a hundred percent – Watch your mindset. You are worthy. You are loved. You are worthy of everything you want in your life. And you’re absolutely capable of doing anything you want in this ifetime. If you actually take the action and stick with it.
Brian [00:38:23] Here here.
Kate [00:38:23] I wish you the best of luck.
Brian [00:38:26] Thanks Kate. This was, fantastic I really appreciate your time and folks hang on because Kate’s got a really exciting bonus for you guys and we’ll talk about that in just a bit. But again thank you I appreciate you joining us today.
Kate [00:38:37] Thank you. I’m really glad that you invited me and kept after me so that I would be here today.
Brian [00:38:43] Yeah no problem. All right we’ll talk soon. Folks.
Brian [00:38:47] Great stuff from Kate Bagoy. What a way to end day four of the Launch Your Business Quit Your Day Job Summit. Don’t forget to join the conversation this evening at 4:00 p.m. Pacific 7 p.m. Eastern in our exclusive Facebook group, where I will talk a little bit more about messaging, branding and marketing your business. The group can be accessed at Facebook.com/group/launchyourbusinessquityourdayjob.
Brian [00:39:17] OK let’s talk gifts for a second. To all of our summit attendees, Kate is offering a 14-day free trial of the Six Figure Freelancers accelerator program. You can try the program which retails for $999 completely free for 14 days. Visit the address on the screen or access it by clicking the free gift tab underneath this video to access the link directly. And for our backstage pass holders, Kate has invited you to participate in her burnout to business owner seven day mini PDF course for finding your gifts and determining the target market for your consulting business.
Brian [00:39:59] You can get it by clicking the bonus gift tab for Kate in the backstage pass access area and don’t forget to take the assessment I developed so you know what steps to take to launch your business from where you are right now. You can get started at loveyourmondaymornings.com/assessment.
Brian [00:40:19] Well folks, tomorrow begins day five of the Launch Your Business Quit Your Day Job Summit and it’s all centered around how you need to think as an owner. Feel like a success and behave like both. If you want to launch your business and take the leap. Each lesson is packed with practical advice to get yourself in the right frame of mind and day to day flow to be successful in the transition. Have a great rest of your day and we’ll see everybody tomorrow.
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