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Grow Your Business Using Personalized Strategies in a Digital Age | RR242
Episode 24223rd January 2024 • Relationships Rule • Janice Porter
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Ready to jazz up your business growth game? Let’s learn from Lex Roman, a seasoned growth marketer. With her rich background in assisting tech giants like Silicon Valley startups, Lex sheds light on the misconceptions around scaling businesses solely through sales and marketing blitzes.

In this episode, we dive into the heart of building authentic relationships with customers, the evolving dynamics of the market, and the growing need for small businesses to carve their unique niches. Together, we explore the essence of connecting with customers, overcoming the fear of human interaction in business, and the true value of personalized strategies in today's digital age.

Tune in to discover a fresh perspective on business growth that prioritizes authenticity, relationships, and sustainable success.

In this episode you will learn:



  • The crucial role of genuine relationships in fostering business growth
  • Using customer feedback to improve business strategies
  • The innovative "Growth Tracker" tool
  • Maintaining client relationships through value-added communication
  • Low-energy strategies for business growth
  • Tracking leads and building a valuable network
  • The use of AI in LinkedIn messaging and it’s limitations
  • Leveraging existing connections for business growth

Learn more about Lex: https://lexroman.com/

Growthtrackers Program: https://joingrowthtrackers.com/

The Low Energy Leads Show: https://www.lowenergyleads.com/

A little about me: 

I began my career as a teacher, was a corporate trainer for many years, and then found my niche training & supporting business owners, entrepreneurs & sales professionals to network at a world-class level. My passion is working with motivated people, who are coachable and who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking (online & offline). I help my clients create retention strategies, grow through referrals, and create loyal customers by staying connected. 

In appreciation for being here, I have a couple of items for you. 

A LinkedIn Checklist for setting up your fully optimized Profile:  

An opportunity to test drive the Follow Up system I recommend by taking the  

10 Card Challenge – you won’t regret it.   


Connect with me: 

http://JanicePorter.com 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiceporter/ 

https://www.facebook.com/janiceporter1 


Thanks for listening! 

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Transcripts

Janice Porter:

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's episode

Janice Porter:

of relationships rule. With me this week is Lex Roman. And Lex

Janice Porter:

is a growth marketer for creative entrepreneurs. She

Janice Porter:

actually comes to us from Atlanta, Georgia, which we I can

Janice Porter:

see behind her on the wall. So it's something she's pretty

Janice Porter:

proud of, I think at this point, she's on a mission to help small

Janice Porter:

business, get seen and get sales without being beholden to big

Janice Porter:

tech. And I'd like to start there. But first, I'm going to

Janice Porter:

welcome her to the show. So welcome Lex. And lovely to have

Janice Porter:

you here.

Lex Roman:

Great to be here, Janice.

Janice Porter:

So tell fill fill my audience in a little bit

Janice Porter:

more, because I just gave them the tip of the iceberg. So who

Janice Porter:

are you and what's your what's your passion with what you do?

Janice Porter:

Yeah,

Lex Roman:

so I started my career in growth as what's

Lex Roman:

called a growth designer. And I used to work with tech companies

Lex Roman:

to help them find customers, convert them into paying

Lex Roman:

customers and keep them for years on end in subscriptions,

Lex Roman:

reduce churn, things like that. And a lot of what I did in

Lex Roman:

Silicon Valley was help people connect with their customers and

Lex Roman:

actually understand who these people were, and what was

Lex Roman:

getting in the way of revenue. And a lot of times, you know,

Lex Roman:

companies think, Oh, we just need to like hammer people with

Lex Roman:

sales and marketing stuff. And they will come to us with their

Lex Roman:

wallets open. And so much of, of growing a business is really

Lex Roman:

about people and relationships. And that's true at any size

Lex Roman:

business. And after doing that, for about a decade, I turned my

Lex Roman:

attention to small business owners. And I've seen, you know,

Lex Roman:

in my time in Silicon Valley, an increasing, you know,

Lex Roman:

monopolization of companies, and increasing consolidation of

Lex Roman:

companies more companies getting acquired. And what that means

Lex Roman:

for small business owners is that it can be harder and harder

Lex Roman:

to play in the same arenas as Amazon, Google, Facebook,

Lex Roman:

Netflix. And so we need to lean into things that are unique

Lex Roman:

advantages of small business owners. And so what I do now is

Lex Roman:

help small business owners really turn away from big tech,

Lex Roman:

and think about things that are going to be more effective for

Lex Roman:

them that play to their strengths, where they can get

Lex Roman:

sales in a sustainable way.

Janice Porter:

So when you were work, first of all, when you

Janice Porter:

were working with the the the big companies, were they

Janice Porter:

listening to that piece around, once you get the clients, you

Janice Porter:

know, nurture them keep them coming back, or was that

Janice Porter:

frustrating?

Lex Roman:

It's interesting, because I think all companies

Lex Roman:

struggle with this, I have a small business owners, I just

Lex Roman:

got off a call actually, with my members, I have a membership

Lex Roman:

program now. And one of them said, I really didn't want to

Lex Roman:

talk to my customers last last month, but I'm so glad I did. I

Lex Roman:

think it's something that we struggle with as business owners

Lex Roman:

like to talk to other people is scary. And so in that way, I

Lex Roman:

definitely worked with a lot of founders who were like, hesitant

Lex Roman:

to do that, but generally supportive of it, like they

Lex Roman:

wanted someone doing it that that's why they liked what I

Lex Roman:

did, they didn't necessarily want to do it themselves. I did

Lex Roman:

work with a couple founders that were very aware of their

Lex Roman:

customer base like Andrew Blackmon who is the co founder

Lex Roman:

of the black Tux one of the companies I worked for in LA,

Lex Roman:

very customer centric, the black Tux had brick and mortar

Lex Roman:

locations, in addition to being an online business, spent a lot

Lex Roman:

of time in those brick and mortar locations, spent a lot of

Lex Roman:

time talking with customers. And he actually recently wrote about

Lex Roman:

one of his recent campaigns where he gave customers his

Lex Roman:

phone number. And the black Tux actually is an interesting, like

Lex Roman:

growth case study, because the black Tux does wedding and

Lex Roman:

formal wear. And so if one person is getting married, it's

Lex Roman:

likely that other people they know might also get married. And

Lex Roman:

that's a great growth mechanism for that business. So they

Lex Roman:

understood that early on, and that was a big thing that we

Lex Roman:

focus on. You know, once we get one customer, we've acquired an

Lex Roman:

entire crew of friends and family who will also become

Lex Roman:

customers, you know.

Janice Porter:

So, you know, you're talking my language when

Janice Porter:

I hear all of this about the relational side of things, but

Janice Porter:

you just said something, also that, you know, we all need to

Janice Porter:

do it, but a lot of us are afraid to do it. That I don't

Janice Porter:

understand. But it's true. But why do you think why do you

Janice Porter:

think people are so afraid to to do it?

Lex Roman:

It can feel unknown and risky to talk to another

Lex Roman:

person. And I think, you know, we, we have this sense that

Lex Roman:

like, if we do something with a computer, that it's going to be

Lex Roman:

some what predictable for us, like we put something up on

Lex Roman:

Instagram or we blast out an email, like we're going to, it's

Lex Roman:

going to be okay, right? It's going to be predictable. And if

Lex Roman:

we get on the phone with someone, we're going to have

Lex Roman:

this, you know, scary unpredictable, like, who knows

Lex Roman:

what's going to happen, right? And I think it's just the nature

Lex Roman:

of people. It's, they're not predictable. Well,

Janice Porter:

but okay, I have to argue a little bit to that

Janice Porter:

point and push. I think it's a generational thing in some

Janice Porter:

cases. is

Lex Roman:

I don't think it is I'll tell you I worked with

Lex Roman:

three Wall Street guys that were pushing 70. And they didn't want

Lex Roman:

to talk to their customers either.

Janice Porter:

Well, interesting. Yeah. And I'm sure

Janice Porter:

it's not completely like, I don't want to blanket that, you

Janice Porter:

know that it's generational in that sense. However, my first

Janice Porter:

tendency is to pick up the phone. Now I know most people

Janice Porter:

aren't going to answer the phone. But that is my first

Janice Porter:

tendency, it isn't to send that email and just let it sit there

Janice Porter:

because it drives me crazy that it doesn't get answered. Right,

Janice Porter:

I can get a more instant response if I'm if they answered

Janice Porter:

the phone.

Lex Roman:

But when you're calling people, you're probably

Lex Roman:

calling people that you know, already, right?

Janice Porter:

Not necessarily, not necessarily. Yeah,

Lex Roman:

the cold call is tough, though, I mean, that you

Lex Roman:

got you must have a hard stomach for that, Janice, like, it's not

Lex Roman:

easy to cold call people. And you don't know, you know, people

Lex Roman:

could hang up on you, people could yell at you. Like, there's

Lex Roman:

all kinds of things that can happen. And I do a lot of phone

Lex Roman:

banking. So I'm well aware of all the things that can happen

Lex Roman:

when you're talking to people on the phone. But I think the point

Lex Roman:

is that, when you actually hear directly from your ideal

Lex Roman:

customer, for your ideal buyer, or from a current client, that

Lex Roman:

information helps you move so much faster in your business.

Lex Roman:

And so inside a larger company, like I worked with Toyota and

Lex Roman:

Nissan, right, which are pretty substantial, global

Lex Roman:

corporations, we can run tests at scale in those companies. But

Lex Roman:

I will learn so much faster, by pulling up to a gas station and

Lex Roman:

interviewing drivers than throwing things out there and

Lex Roman:

waiting for the results to come back on it. And that holds true

Lex Roman:

for small business owners too, you learn so much faster, when

Lex Roman:

you talk to your buyers, whether they've already purchased or are

Lex Roman:

about to then just putting stuff out there and hoping that it

Lex Roman:

lands and not having any sense of whether or not it is and why

Lex Roman:

not. So

Janice Porter:

so that makes me think of, you know, we you know

Janice Porter:

that I do LinkedIn training. And there's a lot of LinkedIn

Janice Porter:

trainers out there. But you know, one of the things that I

Janice Porter:

pride myself on or what my lane is, is using LinkedIn to build

Janice Porter:

relationships to grow your business. And so many people

Janice Porter:

focus on the content side of things. And to me that's

Janice Porter:

throwing mud at the wall, especially with the algorithms

Janice Porter:

the way they are they change every two minutes. And mind you,

Janice Porter:

I'm not sure that a lot of people even think about that

Janice Porter:

part of it, because they just want it they think they're doing

Janice Porter:

something productive by putting content out there. And that

Janice Porter:

isn't necessarily so can you speak to that from your Yeah.

Lex Roman:

So with you, I'm so with you on that Janice, like I

Lex Roman:

think it again, is a really challenging thing to nail

Lex Roman:

because you have to nail your message. And if you don't know

Lex Roman:

exactly what those messages are to bring people in and what the

Lex Roman:

calls to action are, you know, is it reply to this post? Is it

Lex Roman:

share something is it come to something that can be quite an

Lex Roman:

experimentation ground. And so what I like to say is cut the

Lex Roman:

factors down. And if you go face to face with someone, then it's

Lex Roman:

really just is this person interested in the kind of space

Lex Roman:

that I'm operating, and you have much more fluidity there. And

Lex Roman:

you have much more wiggle room to be wrong about your exact

Lex Roman:

phrasing and things like that when you're DMing someone or on

Lex Roman:

the phone with them? Versus like blasting out a post and hoping

Lex Roman:

that it, you know, stops the scroll. So so to speak. Yes.

Janice Porter:

Yeah, exactly. So you have a program, your

Janice Porter:

membership program is called growth tracker, become a being

Janice Porter:

growth tracker. And that comes from your background, right? So

Janice Porter:

you track what works and what doesn't work. Right? To do that.

Janice Porter:

Is

Lex Roman:

that correct? That's right, the growth trackers

Lex Roman:

embody a method called Test Track tune. It's a loop that we

Lex Roman:

run. And what we do is we test what will bring leads and sales

Lex Roman:

into your business, we track whether or not that worked, what

Lex Roman:

worked and what didn't, and we fine tune and run it again. And

Lex Roman:

that may involve running different tests, it may involve

Lex Roman:

taking a message that works somewhere and moving it to a

Lex Roman:

different channel, it may involve ditching a strategy

Lex Roman:

that's not working for you.

Janice Porter:

And so you've you've brought it down to the

Janice Porter:

solopreneur, the small entrepreneur level, the creative

Janice Porter:

entrepreneur, so that it doesn't seem so huge, because that's

Janice Porter:

what the big boys do. But you've made it work for small

Janice Porter:

businesses as well, correct? That's

Lex Roman:

right. Yeah, I've translated a lot of the growth

Lex Roman:

methods that I use with larger companies and that I used with,

Lex Roman:

you know, scalable software brands, to small businesses to

Lex Roman:

service based businesses. When I started shifting towards this, I

Lex Roman:

wasn't sure that some of these things with land but I

Lex Roman:

increasingly find that they're in some ways even more relevant,

Lex Roman:

because of the things that we just spoke about how important

Lex Roman:

it is to be close to your customers. Service providers

Lex Roman:

have a unique advantage. and being close to their customers,

Lex Roman:

because we're often face to face with our clients every day. So

Lex Roman:

we're much more in tune with what they're saying what their

Lex Roman:

needs are, and things like that, that can be challenging if

Lex Roman:

you're earlier stage in your business or if you're pivoting

Lex Roman:

your audience, but over time, service providers are way more

Lex Roman:

in tune with their customers than a large startup or large,

Lex Roman:

you know, enterprise company is

Janice Porter:

so that I was going one direction, but now go

Janice Porter:

to ask this this question. So if you have clients who are close

Janice Porter:

to their customers, you know, because they're smaller, and

Janice Porter:

they're service based, do you find that they nurture their

Janice Porter:

customers enough still, or do we still forgetting about them?

Lex Roman:

The challenge for service providers is often that

Lex Roman:

they're delivering the thing that they are selling. And so if

Lex Roman:

you're delivering a lot of work, it can be hard to also be

Lex Roman:

nurturing and selling and, and making sure that you're keeping

Lex Roman:

up with everyone. So that's the hard part, right? Because you

Lex Roman:

are executing the brand package that you sold, or you're

Lex Roman:

executing the copywriting strategy, or whatever it is that

Lex Roman:

you sell. And then you're wondering, you know what the

Lex Roman:

next project is, but you don't necessarily have time to go back

Lex Roman:

through your Rolodex to figure out who you should reconnect

Lex Roman:

with that can be really challenging, and it can feel

Lex Roman:

really manual for service providers. So So one of the

Lex Roman:

things we try to do is figure out what exactly those recipes

Lex Roman:

or levers are that you can rerun. Some of them you're going

Lex Roman:

to do year round, they're going to be sustainable enough that

Lex Roman:

you can do them while you're executing project work. And some

Lex Roman:

of them are going to feel like they need to be more seasonal.

Lex Roman:

And you might do those in down periods where you need to drum

Lex Roman:

up work, for example, we're about to, you know, as you and I

Lex Roman:

record this and to the holiday period, for many of us, that's a

Lex Roman:

down period in the service provider space, not so much in

Lex Roman:

the consumer goods space. And so people are thinking about, well,

Lex Roman:

how do I drum up leads for q1 of 2024. And so looking at those

Lex Roman:

levers and those recipes that you've already tested, that have

Lex Roman:

already worked for you, and having those in your back

Lex Roman:

pocket, rather than starting from scratch with your marketing

Lex Roman:

strategy every time you need new

Janice Porter:

clients. Well, I think sometimes we forget, that

Janice Porter:

we, we shouldn't always be looking to as part of the

Janice Porter:

nurturing process, we shouldn't always be looking to market the

Janice Porter:

next thing to them, we need to separate that sometimes and say,

Janice Porter:

Hey, I value you as a customer. Thanks for being there. That you

Janice Porter:

know, Thanksgiving in the United States is coming up as as this

Janice Porter:

as we are talking now. And that's a perfect time to say I

Janice Porter:

appreciate you not trying to sell you something else at the

Janice Porter:

same time. Right? I can't tell you know, okay, one of the tools

Janice Porter:

that that you know, I use is Send Out Cards, and I love using

Janice Porter:

that to stay connected with my clients. Well, I, I remember,

Janice Porter:

and this still happens that I have a longtime friend who's a

Janice Porter:

big time realtor here. And she sends out a very religious

Janice Porter:

Christmas card because she's religious, and it's got a family

Janice Porter:

and it's got one of those family letters in it, as well. And then

Janice Porter:

she puts her business card in it. To me that just defeats the

Janice Porter:

entire thing. Okay, because then it takes away from the fact that

Janice Porter:

I'm sharing with you that I appreciate you and you know,

Janice Porter:

Merry Christmas. I wish you all the best. Here's what my family

Janice Porter:

did, although it's anyway, that's another story. I love the

Janice Porter:

family letter. Oh, yeah. We're all perfect. And we all did

Janice Porter:

everything amazing all year long. Anyway, but that I

Janice Porter:

digress. But you know what I mean? Like, we have to separate

Janice Porter:

those things sometimes. And I always say give, give, give ask.

Janice Porter:

Right. So I love that. Yeah, right.

Lex Roman:

I mean, I think people, I see people on both

Lex Roman:

ends of the spectrum, right? I see people that are like

Lex Roman:

shelling way too much. And then I see people who are not really

Lex Roman:

asked spending much time yeah, they're not spending much time

Lex Roman:

and that most of the folks that I work with, are on that side of

Lex Roman:

the spectrum where they haven't been keeping up with their

Lex Roman:

clients, they've been sort of waiting to be asked, you know,

Lex Roman:

to continue the relationship, rather than looking for

Lex Roman:

opportunities to continue. I really like reframing it in

Lex Roman:

terms of like, your network or your community, whatever word

Lex Roman:

makes sense for you, the people that are supporting your

Lex Roman:

business's growth, because it doesn't just include your

Lex Roman:

clients. It also includes amplifiers, partners, and people

Lex Roman:

who are not necessarily going to transact with you, but are

Lex Roman:

contributing to the success of your business. And I think your

Lex Roman:

mindset is fantastic and important to embody of like,

Lex Roman:

what, in what ways can I offer value to these people? What does

Lex Roman:

that look like? And that sort of gets into maintaining

Lex Roman:

relationships at scale, because I've seen that done in some

Lex Roman:

pretty cool ways. And it doesn't always have to be, you know,

Lex Roman:

sending a card to every person or making a phone call to every

Lex Roman:

single person on your list.

Janice Porter:

Right. So you have a podcast and it's called

Janice Porter:

the low energy leads show And I was listening to one of the

Janice Porter:

episodes, I think it was a solo episode that you did. And you

Janice Porter:

were talking about 22 ways to get leads without social media.

Janice Porter:

And I thought that was pretty brave in this society. And and

Janice Porter:

because you're a social media person in lots of ways, because

Janice Porter:

I mean, you're that you're of the generation that right that

Janice Porter:

it's everywhere. And

Lex Roman:

generation invented social media. Yes.

Janice Porter:

So. So in that podcast episode, you talked

Janice Porter:

about relational strategies and broadcast strategies. And I love

Janice Porter:

that because I loved that you were talking about things that

Janice Porter:

weren't necessarily high tech. And so I wondered if you could

Janice Porter:

share some of those with my audience, because we're always

Janice Porter:

looking for ways to and and at the same time, I'd love you to

Janice Porter:

share the title, the meaning behind the title of your show,

Janice Porter:

because I think it fits into exactly what we're talking about

Janice Porter:

here. Yeah.

Lex Roman:

So this show titled, the Showtime Yeah, we'll start

Lex Roman:

with the show title. The show title comes from two things,

Lex Roman:

it's a nod to the fact that I have an auto immune disorder

Lex Roman:

called Hashimotos. It's a thyroid condition. And I'm tired

Lex Roman:

a lot, I'm tired, a lot. And I can't, you know, aspire to this

Lex Roman:

really high intensity marketing plan that I see being sold

Lex Roman:

everywhere else. And even, you know, running with the tech bros

Lex Roman:

in Silicon Valley was also sold, even though that wasn't

Lex Roman:

necessarily what's actually being practiced by a lot of the

Lex Roman:

successful companies.

Janice Porter:

Oh, that's great. Oh, that is so true. We have to

Janice Porter:

come back to that. Go ahead. Yeah,

Lex Roman:

yeah. So there's always you know, a little bit of

Lex Roman:

smoke and mirrors around around growth. And it's always been

Lex Roman:

like, growth has always been like, get it get after it,

Lex Roman:

hustle culture, right. And so I really, I want people to know

Lex Roman:

that they can grow their business, and it doesn't need to

Lex Roman:

take over their life. And if they have someone that they're

Lex Roman:

caring for at home, if they have a health condition, if they have

Lex Roman:

a disability, they can still be growing a business. And so, you

Lex Roman:

know, you don't need to be beholden to anyone else's, like

Lex Roman:

hustle culture nonsense. So that's one thing. The other

Lex Roman:

thing is that I find a lot of people put too much energy into

Lex Roman:

things that are not yielding value. And I saw this inside

Lex Roman:

corporations, I see it with my clients. Now, they'll put a lot

Lex Roman:

of energy into things, believing that more energy means more

Lex Roman:

payoff, and I have not found that to be true. And so instead,

Lex Roman:

I really want to encourage people to put low energy into

Lex Roman:

higher value things, see those results, pay off, and then

Lex Roman:

invest more and build incrementally. Rather than sort

Lex Roman:

of go full throttle into all these things we're being told

Lex Roman:

will work for your business, right? Make all this money, if

Lex Roman:

you just blah, blah, blah, that's not gonna ever work,

Lex Roman:

you're never gonna be able to just like rip someone else's

Lex Roman:

playbook. You're always gonna have to try it on for size, see

Lex Roman:

how it works in your business, you're gonna want to do that in

Lex Roman:

a low energy, high value way. Until you also mean,

Janice Porter:

when you say low energy in this context, do you

Janice Porter:

mean necessarily? Low price point.

Lex Roman:

I mean, low cost, low time investment. Yeah. So like,

Lex Roman:

for example, if you're thinking I should run some Facebook ads,

Lex Roman:

I would not recommend you go out with like a 10k, Facebook ad

Lex Roman:

budget, I would recommend you start with something smaller,

Lex Roman:

maybe like 100 to $500, right. So you don't want to just sort

Lex Roman:

of like, run headfirst into a six month long strategy that

Lex Roman:

you've not tested or run headfirst into a high budget

Lex Roman:

item, without any evidence that thing is going to pay off in

Lex Roman:

your business. Like, I spoke with a business owner the other

Lex Roman:

day was sponsoring a golf tournament. And I was kind of

Lex Roman:

like, you know, if you've sponsored events in the past, it

Lex Roman:

was like, No, he just went out and sponsored this golf

Lex Roman:

tournament. And I was like, wow, time, and I think that's really

Lex Roman:

hard to measure the ROI on like, that's just not the first test I

Lex Roman:

would have been in that space, maybe, you know, so. So

Janice Porter:

a whole first maybe and see, yeah,

Lex Roman:

or sponsor another kind of event right go smaller,

Lex Roman:

you know, thinking about what is the thing I'm trying to get out

Lex Roman:

of this activity? And what is a slice that I can take at that to

Lex Roman:

make sure that there's something here that it's going to be

Lex Roman:

executed in the way that I believe it's going to be

Lex Roman:

executed? Right? A lot of times we just we go full force in

Lex Roman:

these projects. We don't think about is this even going to

Lex Roman:

work? And how do I do this that I see people just overbuilding

Lex Roman:

all the time, these complex funnels and timers and email

Lex Roman:

sequences and widgets everywhere. And it's like, well,

Lex Roman:

is this even the right offer for your people? You know, could we

Lex Roman:

test that maybe in a high touch way? Then we can start to build

Lex Roman:

out some automation, right, then we can start to systematize

Lex Roman:

those things.

Janice Porter:

So can you give me three or four, low energy

Janice Porter:

relational strategies that you think are pretty good to start

Lex Roman:

with? Yeah. So low energy is it extremely personal,

Lex Roman:

I think that's a really important thing to take away

Lex Roman:

from it. Some people will find, talking with others high energy,

Lex Roman:

as we've already spoken about, especially the introverts among

Lex Roman:

us. And other people will find things like content creation,

Lex Roman:

high energy. So low energy is very dependent on you, your

Lex Roman:

business and your skill set. But I would say that one of the

Lex Roman:

first things that I recommend people do, and this falls into

Lex Roman:

the relational bucket is to figure out how you're going to

Lex Roman:

reengage past clients. And that's something that I think we

Lex Roman:

leave on the table a lot in our business, as we just spoke about

Lex Roman:

and think about, okay, I know I can reach out to them one on

Lex Roman:

one, or I know that I can call them. But maybe I want to think

Lex Roman:

about a way to add value, what is a way that I could add

Lex Roman:

continuous value, not necessarily with a new offer,

Lex Roman:

but just continue to add value into their lives continue to add

Lex Roman:

value into the work that we did together, continue to invite

Lex Roman:

them back into my business, and whatever way makes sense for

Lex Roman:

your business? And so, you know, first experiment that we often

Lex Roman:

run in growth trackers is bringing people in to an email

Lex Roman:

segment, you know, would you like to be on my email list

Lex Roman:

would be an example of something that you could do that's

Lex Roman:

generally kind of low energy kind of depends. And trying to

Lex Roman:

just reengage those conversations, hey, I'm thinking

Lex Roman:

about this, or here's something that I read that's relevant to

Lex Roman:

the work that we did together. What do you think about that,

Lex Roman:

right, starting a conversation with those past clients, that

Lex Roman:

can often lead to more work, new conversations, additional

Lex Roman:

projects, things like that?

Janice Porter:

That's a good one. I always say to my, to my

Janice Porter:

clients, you know how many Look, let me see you've got 2000,

Janice Porter:

LinkedIn connections, when was the last time you ever talked to

Janice Porter:

any of them? Yeah. Right, because we're so busy looking

Janice Porter:

for the new ones. And if we shake that tree a little bit,

Janice Porter:

and just reach out and say, hey, it's been a while I'm making an

Janice Porter:

effort to reconnect, you never know the timing could be more

Janice Porter:

right for some more, right? It's either right, or it isn't. But

Janice Porter:

it could be right now for something that they were going

Janice Porter:

to think about doing with you before. But the timing wasn't

Janice Porter:

right. So absolutely, I agree, that's a great strategy.

Janice Porter:

Anything else comes to mind.

Lex Roman:

One of the other things that I would recommend

Lex Roman:

people do is track their own leads. So going back to the low

Lex Roman:

energy thing is really personal. I have folks who get a lot of

Lex Roman:

their work from relationships that they have, I have other

Lex Roman:

folks who get a lot of their work from specific communities

Lex Roman:

that they're in, or from specific channels, like, I do

Lex Roman:

have some growth records, who really get a lot of work from

Lex Roman:

Instagram, for example, or from LinkedIn, I have some who get

Lex Roman:

more of their work from like a specific community that they're

Lex Roman:

a part of. So the lowest energy strategy is going to be

Lex Roman:

replaying something that's already worked for you. And

Lex Roman:

often we forget those things. So I would track those, create a

Lex Roman:

lead tracker, if you don't already have one, and look back

Lex Roman:

at the channels that have brought people into your

Lex Roman:

business and the channels that have helped you close leads into

Lex Roman:

sales. And see if there's something there that could be

Lex Roman:

rerun in a slightly bigger way. That's what we call evidence

Lex Roman:

building. Because if you already have evidence that it has

Lex Roman:

worked, then you can go a little bit bigger with that thing. Do

Lex Roman:

it in another channel, right, bring in a message to another

Lex Roman:

channel, bring it to a new audience, try the same message

Lex Roman:

that you tried in the successful community with a new community,

Lex Roman:

for example, try and add in a new space. So that would be

Lex Roman:

another low energy strategy where you're using evidence from

Lex Roman:

your own business and parlaying that into the next. The next

Lex Roman:

great thing. Yeah,

Janice Porter:

you make me think too, about, you know, the lead

Janice Porter:

tracker. I do remember where usually where people have come

Janice Porter:

from, but it would be smarter to have it on a sheet, you know, so

Janice Porter:

I can really see the statistics around it. Because I'm, you'd

Lex Roman:

be surprised, Janice, like, we think we know where

Lex Roman:

these people come from. But then we look at it. And it's like

Lex Roman:

you, we end up having recency bias around it where it's like,

Lex Roman:

and it'll shift over time. And so it's really helpful to have

Lex Roman:

it on there, especially especially if you stay booked

Lex Roman:

pretty continuously, because then you hit a down period, like

Lex Roman:

something like a global pandemic happens. And your your whole

Lex Roman:

business is turned upside down. And you're like, wow, I really

Lex Roman:

need to go back to the drawing board here. So you're gonna want

Lex Roman:

to have that data. And there'll be stuff in there that you

Lex Roman:

forgot about that worked one time that maybe you you didn't

Lex Roman:

need it, so you just stopped doing it, but it's there for you

Lex Roman:

when you do on it again. And so it's it can be really

Lex Roman:

instructive. The other thing is that we often don't break down

Lex Roman:

word of mouth like I've started saying that, you know, I can't

Lex Roman:

stand when people tell me their leads come from word of mouth,

Lex Roman:

because it's like me asking you, what did you have for lunch and

Lex Roman:

you saying food? Like, yeah, word of mouth is a huge part of

Lex Roman:

marketing. You know, the internet, also not a lead

Lex Roman:

source, right? So you want to break that down and when you

Lex Roman:

break down word of mouth in your lead tracker and you don't just

Lex Roman:

say referral, but you say the name and even better you

Lex Roman:

categorize it. You say the kind of referral it is it was a

Lex Roman:

client. It was an industry partner. It was strong

Lex Roman:

conference, you can start to get a sense of the leading

Lex Roman:

indicators that are creating that valuable network. Because

Lex Roman:

you know, your mechanic probably isn't sending you copywriting

Lex Roman:

leads, right? So it's not just word of mouth from anyone it's

Lex Roman:

word of mouth from very specific relationships and you want to be

Lex Roman:

tracking who those people are. That's really valuable,

Janice Porter:

valuable for, for us all to think about. Because

Janice Porter:

we'll also be surprised when we, when we get that list, for sure.

Janice Porter:

I loved also what you said about an opportunity, you know, when

Janice Porter:

you're reaching out to people to reconnect, asking them to be on

Janice Porter:

your newsletter list, for example, because I don't want

Janice Porter:

you to just expect that I'm going to put you on there

Janice Porter:

because a lot of people do that. Right. They meet you once on

Janice Porter:

LinkedIn, and then you're on their newsletter. Hang on, you

Janice Porter:

know, I don't. In fact, I sent out a message I think I was I'm

Janice Porter:

doing an event, as I always am on LinkedIn on I saw put the

Janice Porter:

event on LinkedIn and send out some invitations, this for my

Janice Porter:

LinkedIn Advantage program that you're aware of. And I got a

Janice Porter:

reply back from the invitation, which was a canned reply. Thanks

Janice Porter:

for coming into my mailbox. I have some space on my calendar,

Janice Porter:

blah, blah, blah, that I don't know this person, right. So I

Janice Porter:

ignored that. And I sent the next message that said, don't

Janice Porter:

forget to actually register for the event. Here's the link, and

Janice Porter:

I got another canned response. And I thought, wow, not just the

Janice Porter:

first one. But the second one, too. Yeah. So

Lex Roman:

it's probably a little bit of AI gone wrong,

Lex Roman:

like AI is all over LinkedIn. Now with the messaging. Yeah,

Lex Roman:

it's interesting. I mean, you know, cold pitching is another

Lex Roman:

thing that people are always asking me about, because cold

Lex Roman:

pitching can work. And depending on your industry, it works

Lex Roman:

better in some than others, like writers do a lot of cold

Lex Roman:

pitching pretty successfully. Writers writers. Yeah, like

Lex Roman:

copywriters, you know, because like, writing the writing space

Lex Roman:

has always been very pitch heavy, right. And so if you're,

Lex Roman:

if you're writing articles, or if you want to be doing

Lex Roman:

copywriting work, cold pitching is pretty common. And it is like

Lex Roman:

so much a volume game. And even though people will say I hate

Lex Roman:

receiving cold pitches, how could this possibly work? Like?

Lex Roman:

It does work? It's a volume game. Because if you hit enough

Lex Roman:

people, some of those people will be in buy mode, right? And

Lex Roman:

that that canned response is the same thing. They don't

Lex Roman:

necessarily care that they're degrading relationships, because

Lex Roman:

that one person is out there who will find that to be useful.

Lex Roman:

It's, it's interesting with AI especially, it's been

Lex Roman:

interesting to see.

Janice Porter:

Do you I do believe that? I don't know,

Janice Porter:

what's your thought on going forward in terms of AI?

Lex Roman:

Well, there's so many different ways that you can be

Lex Roman:

using AI. So I think it depends a bit about how you're using it.

Lex Roman:

I haven't I have used actually LinkedIn AI, I use something

Lex Roman:

called copilot AI, which is a LinkedIn chat bot that uses AI,

Lex Roman:

what it does, it sends

Janice Porter:

requests, if you use this chance, I haven't used

Janice Porter:

that one. No, it

Lex Roman:

sends requests to people in my second degree

Lex Roman:

network to connect. And then if they respond, it'll respond with

Lex Roman:

a script. And then at some point, it will tell me to take

Lex Roman:

over the conversation. And it has worked for me. It the

Lex Roman:

problem with it for me is that I'm not actually in a volume

Lex Roman:

game. So I actually have a very small capacity for clients. And

Lex Roman:

I'm very specific about them more specific than like industry

Lex Roman:

headcount, the kind of things that are in Sales Navigator. So

Lex Roman:

it wasn't vetting enough stuff. And so I was having too many

Lex Roman:

conversations with people that like we're in a great fit for

Lex Roman:

the business, and it couldn't get more specific than that. So

Lex Roman:

if you, you know, do have a volume business, and or if you

Lex Roman:

have a VA, who can do a lot of that, you know, vetting for you,

Lex Roman:

then it could be worth it. Like, you know, the trick is really

Lex Roman:

that it's a volume game. So if you want to pay to play the

Lex Roman:

volume game in time or money, like it can be played, you

Janice Porter:

just have to be careful with the bots as opposed

Janice Porter:

to even having a human do the outreach for you. Because

Janice Porter:

LinkedIn is is really clamping down on those automated things.

Janice Porter:

I think

Lex Roman:

also like for service providers, especially, and for

Lex Roman:

and for solopreneurs. Like of any kind, you just don't need to

Lex Roman:

be playing in those arenas necessarily. And you have, like,

Lex Roman:

ways that you can be running your business where you're not

Lex Roman:

constantly having to, you know, throw logs on the fire, where

Lex Roman:

the engine can be burning itself. And that's the kind of

Lex Roman:

business we want to work towards. And that's true even at

Lex Roman:

scale. When you look at a company like Facebook or tick

Lex Roman:

tock or Google, these are companies that leverage growth

Lex Roman:

mechanisms to keep people in the orbit to bring people into the

Lex Roman:

orbit, right. They leverage us as their users to bring people

Lex Roman:

in LinkedIn does the same thing. Right. So who can you bring in

Lex Roman:

to us? LinkedIn isn't out there getting every single one of our

Lex Roman:

colleagues on their work. Doing that, right? So that's an

Lex Roman:

example of like, you know, you want to step off that marketing

Lex Roman:

treadmill, you don't want to be, you know, building your business

Lex Roman:

around something like cold pitching, it can be an okay

Lex Roman:

starting place. Yeah.

Janice Porter:

So I said earlier, we got to come back to

Janice Porter:

this. And this was something and I can't remember that episode

Janice Porter:

now that I interviewed this, this guy who he wrote this book,

Janice Porter:

and I can't remember the name of it right now. But I'm gonna send

Janice Porter:

it send you the, the episode, because it was really good. And

Janice Porter:

it was talking about, we were talking about relationship

Janice Porter:

building and relationships in business. And he and he was

Janice Porter:

saying that something you said, which is even the maybe you said

Janice Porter:

it in the podcasts that I was listening to, but you said, even

Janice Porter:

the big companies out there, use real people use relationship

Janice Porter:

building skills to get their business like Google and Amazon

Janice Porter:

or whatever, they've got a Salesforce of real people out on

Janice Porter:

the streets. And so right, and it's not everything is not done

Janice Porter:

through social media. It's done through people meeting people.

Janice Porter:

And you know, we forget that, but it's so true. Right? So

Janice Porter:

yeah, so relationship marketing, meaning speaking to each other,

Janice Porter:

I think is really is really still valuable. Yeah,

Lex Roman:

I think also, you know, that is from that is

Lex Roman:

mentioned in that episode on 22 ways to get leads without social

Lex Roman:

media, because I talk about not only sales teams, but

Lex Roman:

partnerships, teams, events, teams, like all the different

Lex Roman:

sort of what I would put in the bucket of relational marketing

Lex Roman:

as big components of these large tech companies that are like

Lex Roman:

seemingly running off software, right. We think that Facebook is

Lex Roman:

just like building apps and like, hoping it works for the

Lex Roman:

best, right? But But actually, they have a big partnerships

Lex Roman:

team, they have a big events team, and they're doing all

Lex Roman:

kinds of stuff with

Janice Porter:

customer, what do they call them? Like?

Lex Roman:

Like Exactly. account managers? Yeah, you can get an

Lex Roman:

Ad Account Manager to help you with your ad, even even at a

Lex Roman:

very low budget. And so that's a very relational approach that

Lex Roman:

they are taking to make sure that people are successful with

Lex Roman:

ads, so that they keep spending money with Facebook ads, right?

Lex Roman:

Yeah. When I worked with the black Tux we had, you know, big

Lex Roman:

partnerships, focus, we we focused on partnerships with

Lex Roman:

wedding publications, like the not with, you know, retailers

Lex Roman:

like Nordstrom, when I worked with the team at gussto, they

Lex Roman:

had a big partnerships team that focused on accountants and

Lex Roman:

financial professionals, because they realized that if they built

Lex Roman:

relationships with those people, that that would lead to multiple

Lex Roman:

leads, right, and multiple success stories, not just one on

Lex Roman:

one. And you know, even within software, when you look at

Lex Roman:

something like, you know, LinkedIn or any social media

Lex Roman:

platform, they're always trying to get you to bring friends and

Lex Roman:

bring colleagues in to our network. Right. So that's what

Lex Roman:

the sharing mechanism is. And that's a growth mechanism.

Lex Roman:

That's not a marketing lever. That's a growth mechanism,

Lex Roman:

because they're getting you as a user to drive the growth of

Lex Roman:

their business. They're saying, Okay, we've invested in Janice,

Lex Roman:

she's here, who else could Janice bring to the party? And

Lex Roman:

small businesses could do the same thing? Yeah,

Janice Porter:

exactly. This is brilliant. I love your, your

Janice Porter:

approach. And and you explain yourself really well. And I love

Janice Porter:

that too. So I really do encourage my my audience to go

Janice Porter:

and see your website. I think it's lex roman.com. Right. And

Janice Porter:

your low end, the low energy leads show is your podcast, and

Janice Porter:

you've got some pretty valuable stuff for small business owners

Janice Porter:

and entrepreneurs. And that's my audience. So I love that. One

Janice Porter:

last question. One last sort of business tip for my audience

Janice Porter:

that that you would like to share? Yeah, I

Lex Roman:

would really think about who already is close in

Lex Roman:

your business close to buying something close to adding value

Lex Roman:

in your business who you are neglecting. So rather than

Lex Roman:

people often go way out to strangers, who else can I meet?

Lex Roman:

Where can I be networking? What else can I be? You know,

Lex Roman:

blasting out there, who's already here? Who you could

Lex Roman:

bring closer into the fold? And in what ways can you do that?

Lex Roman:

Fantastic.

Janice Porter:

I think that's a great idea. And this is a

Janice Porter:

perfect time of year to do that. If this will end this will if

Janice Porter:

this airs before Christmas. That is I'm not sure. But if it

Janice Porter:

doesn't, even the New Year is a great time to start. So it's

Janice Porter:

always a good time to go back to the people that you have worked

Janice Porter:

with the warm market, so to speak. So Lex, thank you so much

Janice Porter:

for being here. Thank you for all your wisdom and ideas. And

Janice Porter:

to my audience. Thank you again for listening. If you like what

Janice Porter:

you heard, please let us know and remember to stay connected

Janice Porter:

and be remembered

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