I know that when I try to use the standard marketing funnel with deadlines, urgency and FOMO, I close zero percent.
I know that when I try to sell myself as a speaker with outbound marketing, I get zero bookings.
I know that when I try to play the numbers game with outbound marketing for my consulting, agency or training programs, I create zero revenue.
So, how do I make money with zero traditional marketing practices, zero funnels, zero chatbots, zero webinars… you get the idea?
I create opportunities for an invitation to a relationship.
“Relationships at scale?” you ask…
Yes, you heard me right.
Prepare for a long, valuable email if you wish to read on.
I open up the invitation, and the people who feel aligned choose to accept. Then, if they see how I might…
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help grow their business
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inspire their audiences
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help design and profit from their new business category
…they invite me to help them create the solution they desire, and I get to make the choice.
It’s kinda like the picture in this post (enable images if you can’t see it).
Are you drawn in to see what’s beyond the arch?
The Water?
The Mountains?
The People?
The Food?
The Blue Skies?
The Sun?
This is what I do. I initiate curiosity in the benefits of a relationship.
When I attend conferences, or engage in FB groups, or follow, like and comment on IG stories I don’t do so with a goal to “close X number of deals” or “collect X number of business cards to follow up with an invitation to a connection call”, or “get X number of return follows.”
Three recent clients, and a book deal came from invitations for a call from fellow conference attendees four months after the event, fellow FB group members who became FB friends six months previously, and fellow Discord engagement a year after I joined the Discord server.
I have a call scheduled in two weeks with a person who remembers a conversation with me 18 months ago, and I could not remember where we met until I reviewed his website from the URL in his email address. He is just now responding to my invitation to a relationship, and I can’t wait to chat!
I just received an invitation to an international keynote opportunity from an event coordinator who saw my chapter in a book I co-authored that was published in June. Now, I get to negotiate, and make the choice to accept or politely decline.
When I finally realized that this was my most aligned, creative, courageous way to do business, I became very curious as to how far I could take it.
How many relationships could I invite and initiate that could create success for us both?
In order to answer that question, I need to share with you my relationship invitation process.
- Use these tools to find people and businesses that align with my purpose and goals:
- PodBot
- LI Connection Bot
- FB Group Bot
- IG Leads Bot
- Attend Conferences (just a few of my recent favorites):
- The Commitment Summit (TCS)
- Social Media Marketing World (SMMW)
- Capitalism Conference (CapCon)
- The Uprising
- Nurture the resulting connections by:
- Publishing my own social content
- Creating email content
- Engaging with their social content
- Subscribing to and engaging with their email content
- Using Relatable* to create interactive videos to nurture relationships at scale
- Accep the resulting INBOUND invitation to a connection call using Calendly and Zoom.
Now, let me show you how this has worked in just the last 30 days.
KEYNOTE DEAL:
CLIENT 1:
I met the client who referred this client at Affiliate Summit West in 2018. He has hired me several times for several projects ever since. His referral booked an appointment a week after the introduction, and hired me during that call.
CLIENT 2:
I joined, and engaged in this client’s FB group, and answered questions in the group about bots, and automations. She asked to get on a call with me, and asked if she could hire me to help her increase engagement on her FB page & Messenger.
CLIENT 3:
Client #2 referred this client to me, who also just asked to get on a call with me, and hire me to help him do the same.
In the last 6 months, I’ve placed myself in situations where I could choose to accept, or reject invitations:
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Write and Publish a book with incredible marketing entrepreneurs the likes of Mark Schaefer
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Sell my home and all my possessions to travel the world with my honey, and meet people from other cultures
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Sit and watch the swans, ducks and people walk the promenade around Lake Lugano, Switzerland while I take this picture on this post, and write this message to you
- Help innovate and market on AppSumo an incredible task automation tool that I use and sell
- Help create and market an amazing new interactive video relationship tool called Relatable*
It’s like what many people say about luck.
Do you create your luck by putting yourself in situations where it seems luck plays a hand, or do you just wait for luck to strike?
Do the former, and your experiences will more often “feel lucky” and you’ll receive many more invitations to engage with people and situations that could change the trajectory of your life.
Are You Ready to Invite Relationships at Scale.
P.S. I would love to get your response to this post. Do you think I’m full of crap, or will you use some of these tools to create your own invitations to relationships at scale? Which ones will you use? Why? What types of relationships do you intend to invite?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
* I receive a commission if you choose to subscribe to Relatable when it is launched to the public in July. All other links are not affiliate links. I simply believe in these companies, conferences and products, and hope you find them useful.
