Summary

In this episode, Michelle reflects on the year and shares a mishmash of topics. She expresses gratitude for her listeners and invites feedback for the podcast. Michelle emphasizes the importance of normalizing communication in sales and encourages people to let others know when they are no longer interested. She reminds listeners that they are the boss of their own businesses and should make decisions that align with their preferences. Michelle also highlights the significance of tracking lead sources and using program names that tell a story. Lastly, she suggests writing a letter to reflect on the year and looks forward to an exciting 2024.

Takeaways

• Normalize communication in sales by letting people know when you are no longer interested.
• Remember that you are the boss of your own business and have the final say in decision-making.
• Track lead sources to identify what strategies are working and where to focus your efforts.
• Use program names that tell a story and engage your audience.
• Write a letter to reflect on the year and express gratitude for the lessons and growth.

Links:

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Focused Visionary

Sunday Morning Brew

Chapters

00:00

Introduction and Gratitude

04:41

Chapter 1: Normalizing Communication in Sales

09:51

Chapter 2: You Are the Boss

13:18

Chapter 3: The Importance of Tracking Lead Sources

16:03

Chapter 4: Program Names and Storytelling

18:58

Chapter 5: Writing a Letter to Reflect on the Year

20:52

Conclusion and Excitement for 2024

omg it's the last episode of 2023. so i want to i have a mish mash of things i want to share with you on this episode. i was really thinking about like what did i want it to be? what did i want to talk about on the last episode of 2023? and quite honestly i've got a couple really good things i want to share with you but i also just there's like

that you really would love for me to cover. If there's something you feel like you're really struggling with that I've not covered, please, like, send them my way. I want this to be a podcast that you really, really gain from, that you feel like at the end of it, you can take action from every one of these episodes, all right? And so, if there's something that I am not talking about that you really want me to, or there's something that you're struggling with, please send it to me. You can email it to me, you can DM me, whatever you wanna do, but please.

You know, it's interesting moving into a new year because I think there's always a level of excitement as we move into a new year. And I'm not saying I don't have that level of excitement this year, but I think what I'm most excited about or what's making me feel more excited is that there is a level of contentment going into the new year. You know, and just this flow with ease. It's funny, I was actually at a friend's house the other day and she kept asking me all these questions. I was like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, that's fine.

that's fine. Yeah, no, it doesn't matter. Yeah, perfect. That's good. You know, and that was kind of my answer. And she's like, that's a lot of I don't cares and a lot of whatever's and I said to her, I said, you know, it's interesting because I truly mean it. Like I am in such a place of contentment that I'm at this place of just go with the flow, let things flow with ease. Like when I'm saying that, like I would use, I would say a couple of years ago when I'd say like, yeah, I don't care. I didn't really mean I didn't care. I just didn't feel like.

I just hope that you're excited, right? I hope that there is a new energy. I hope that you're feeling some level of new year energy, all right, because it's a fun time. It's an exciting time and it can be very, very powerful when you harness that power and that excitement. So, but let's dive into today, my mashup.

Roundup, maybe we'll just call it a roundup. Like my five, year-end five roundups for the end of the year, all right? So number one, can we start normalizing letting people know when you're not a hot lead? All right, this is something I have been actively trying to do. I would say at least for the past quarter, if not the past two quarters, but.

So many times and I know that people don't intentionally ghost us, right? So I don't want to say like, let's stop ghosting people because I really don't think intentionally we mean to ghost people. But if you, we did the episode last time, last week about sales versus marketing, right? And like getting and having people in your pipeline. So let's say I'm in your pipeline and you follow up with me. I appreciate your due diligence. I am here. I am a business owner. I understand sales. I get it.

I am in your pipeline, I am fully open and aware and expecting you to follow up with me. However, it is my job as a prospect to let you know when I'm no longer a hot lead, right? Things change, maybe you've decided to go a different direction, maybe it's just not a good fit at this time, maybe you just decided like you're gonna spend your money somewhere else or you've decided you wanna.

put that on hold like after you, you know, I've done this so many times where I get excited about something and then I let it sit and I'm like, you know what, I really don't wanna do that. Like I'm not a hot lead. So I have been very open lately in saying to people, I think you should remove me from your pipeline at this point or I am not a hot lead at this point. I did this accidentally on Facebook or Instagram a couple of weeks ago, somebody posted about an offer and I just.

there was like one of those stickers that they call them boops. I don't know like boop right here or tap right here or whatever. And I thought it was like an actual like icon that was going to take me to a website where I could actually learn more about this offer. But it didn't. She was using it as like a lead generation. Like if you tap this, you're basically saying, hey, I'm interested. So she did her due diligence. She sent me a message. She followed up with me. She was like, hey, I see you, you know, engaged with my story. Blah, blah, blah. I just was honest with her. I was like, hey, listen, I didn't. I accidentally hit that.

I am by no means a hot lead in your pipeline. I really just was looking for more information because I wanted to see about it potentially for 2024. And also I wanted to be able to learn more about it so I could refer people to you because she does something that I don't do. I mean, just tell people, like tell people I am not a hot lead for you. And that is going to eliminate this state of like the person that is following up feeling like, oh my gosh, they're I'm being ghosted. They would

They don't like me, they must hate me. I must have pissed them off. I must, if you ghost people, right? And it also eliminates the constant state of like, well, where are they at? That wondering, where are they at? But then also on the receiving end of it, like if you're the person in the pipeline, if you're not interested, how many times do you wanna be followed up with, right? Like, and instead of getting annoyed or unsubscribing, like understand that this is business and as business owners, it is their due diligence to follow up with you. You inquired with them.

You let them know you were interested in their services. You've become a prospect in their pipeline. Now, if you don't wanna be in their pipeline anymore, that's on you. That's on you to let them know, I am no longer a hot lead. Or this project is on hold. I will be in touch with you in March. Feel free to follow up with me in March if you don't hear from me, right? Like let's just start normalizing business sales

conversation. It is nothing to be afraid of. It is not that hard to say no. Yes, it might be like, ah, bummer. But isn't it easier to know like, hey, this person's not a lead right now so that you can focus and put your efforts on the people that are, right? So stop feeling bad about it. Take the emotion completely out of it on both sides and let's just be business owners and understand that this is business transactional activity.

And you can be empathetic about it. You can have emotion with it. I'm not saying you can't say like, hey, Michelle, I appreciate your following up. Like I'm super interested in your offer, but like literally right now it's on hold. I've got all these other things going on or I decided to move in this direction. So at this point, like I would honestly not consider myself a hot lead in your pipeline, but please do not like let's stay in touch. Like I don't want you to think like I'm mad at you or anything, right? Like if you want to really,

be and give a nice explanation. I'm not saying don't be emotional in that sense, but I'm saying like take the emotion out of it of like worrying about like, oh my God, they're gonna hate me or oh, I don't wanna tell them no, or oh, I feel bad, or I know what it, you know what they feel bad about? They feel worse not knowing. They feel worse feeling like I'm following up with you and you keep telling me you're interested when you really aren't and you're wasting my time. So normalize letting people know when to take you out of their sales pipeline. Okay, got it? Can we agree on that?

Yes, yes, I'm hearing you all say yes, and I'm giving you a high five, yes. Okay, number two on my roundup. You're the boss. At the end of the day, you are a business owner, and you are the boss. And as business owners, we hire a lot of mentors, we hire people to help us grow our business, we hire people for their opinions, we ask people for feedback, but at the end of the day, you're the boss.

And if there is a certain way you want to do something, just do it. Okay. I have this client, I have this conversation with a client all the time. She is very particular, very anal OCD, like, and there are certain things that she just likes done a certain way. And she said to me one day, she goes, Michelle, I feel like you'd give in. Like eventually I always just say, okay, yeah, let's do that. Like, that's fine. She's like, I feel like you just give in on me. Like, why are you just giving in?

Why, you know, because, and my answer to her was, because at the end of the day, you've given me enough validation. Like if I say to her, I think you should do something this way, or hey, I think we should try this. And she goes, yeah, but, or she's given me all of these validations about why it's important to her to not do it that way. At the end of the day, then just say, okay. Right, like stop feeling bad about wanting to do things a certain way. Like, you know how many people tell me I need a project management software?

I need to be using a project management tool. You need to be using a project management tool. You need to be using all these tools because you're gonna lose all these things. You're gonna lose your ideas. Things are gonna fall through the cracks. You know how things don't fall through the cracks for me? When I get a new idea or when I have something to do, I send myself an email, which is super old school, but I live by my email, or I put it in my calendar. And that works for me. What doesn't work for me is having to check another app that then I have to upload, I have to find how to do it.

I know how to send myself an email. I can even do it via voice text. Like if I'm driving, I can literally hit the button on my steering wheel and say, hey Google, send Michelle at Michelle Denial an email. Right? Like it is so simple and it works for me.

So at the end of the day, I appreciate people's opinions and I appreciate their feedback and I appreciate all these people that can show me a better way inside of Notion or Airtable or ClickUp or any of these things. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna tell you, I'm the boss and this is what works and I'm just gonna freaking keep doing it that way, okay? So you get to make those decisions too. And if I'm your coach and if you're working with me and I tell you, hey, Michelle, I don't.

You know, I give you suggestion, you say to me, I don't want to do it that way. And I challenge you a couple of times because that's my job. That's my job as a strategist to challenge you. And as your coach to challenge you a little bit. But at the end of the day, if I feel like these are extremely valid concerns or reasons.

I'm going to say, you know what, let's do it. Let's figure it out. Let's put a strategy behind it. If that works, keep doing it. Because at the end of the day, what matters most is that you're moving forward in your business. And if using a tool or doing something or changing your process is going to keep you stuck and not moving forward, then it doesn't make sense. It does not make sense to continue doing that, okay? So you are the boss. Can we agree on that one? I'm high-fiving you.

I'm saying yes, you are the boss. I hear you. I'm giving you a virtual high five right now. All right, number three in my roundup is these five words need to be your most important question. They're five words. Where did they come from? Okay, those five words. This is anytime you get a new client, anytime you get a new lead, anytime somebody reaches out to you about an opportunity, anytime anybody approaches you about anything.

I want you to ask yourself, where did they come from? I absolutely love this. I asked my clients this so many times. Like I am the strategist, the coach, that when you say to me, just landed a new client, I'm gonna say, awesome, great job. Where'd they come from? Right? Not because I'm dismissing or not wanting to celebrate your fricking win because I'm celebrating your fucking win like huge, okay?

But at the end of the day, I'm trying to figure out what strategy is working and what strategy is not working. And when I can ask you where did they come from, I know exactly what strategies are working. So if you can tell me like, hey, I just landed a new client, great. Where did they come from? Oh, I first met them at said networking group, or oh, so-and-so introduced them to me, or my affiliate, blah, blah. I've talked about this over and over on the episode with Nicole, but.

Speaking of Nicole, that episode, the case study episode where we did about the affiliate program, I asked her this question so many times that the other day, because we're also BizBesties, which is, you know, it makes for both sides. I'm her coach, but we're also BizBesties. So a lot of times I send her my celebrations as well. And the other day I sent her, I was like, hey, three new signups for the Focus Visionary. I'm so excited. I'm just cannot freaking wait for this program to start. Like I am just jacked up about it.

We celebrate a new client, we celebrate a new lead, we celebrate a new opportunity, so get used to it because I'm going to ask it. And because this is the data that is going to tell you exactly what's working and where you need to spend more time, okay? So, where did they come from? I want you to like put a sticky note on your computer right now, on your laptop, make it your background. I don't care, make it your phone background. Where did they come from? And start tracking this stuff because you will be amazed.

to find how many people, where they're coming from and how they're finding you, you will be shocked, I promise, all right? Giving you another virtual high five because you're gonna start asking yourself this question. All right, roundup number four is program names. So many people get so wrapped up in their program names and they're constantly changing it. I'm that way, right? Coffee chats.

to clients, it was LeGen done differently, it was the ultimate relationship marketing bundle. So again, as always, I always tell you, I am here with you doing all the things, but I worked with a client recently and I was like, why don't we just name all your programs after Crystals? So because she, everything she does revolves around Crystals, right? So I was like, who cares what it is, let's just name it Crystals, because it's relevant to her brand and it creates a story.

And so when you're talking and you're having conversations about your programs and you're telling people about it, there's always a story behind it. The Hunter Coffee Chats Club is a perfect example of this. I named it the Hunter Coffee Chats Club because there's a story behind it, right? And so when I tell people about it, I'm like, oh, I also have the Hunter Coffee Chats Club. Well, what is that? And where did that come, like, where did that name come from? Well, it came from, here's the story, la la. Right? So sometimes just having a...

package name that is relevant to your brand or relevant to something that's happening in your business gives you an opportunity to share the story behind it, which engages the audience a little bit further, which allows you to explain it a little bit better, right? And then it creates this better, like people get more intrigued by it. Like, oh my God, that's so cool. Like for Britt, we named one of her programs Amethyst, which there's a whole long story around why Amethyst is.

good and your sales activities are good. They don't care what the hell the name of the program is they want in because they like you and they're sold on you not the name of the program. So name your programs whatever makes sense but I am a huge fan of giving them a program name that allows you to tell a story right? Tell a story. So something to think about got it? All right and number five. This is something at time of recording I have not done yet.

but I plan to do before December 31st of this year. And I got this idea from Matthew Allen, who is going to be a guest on the show here in a couple of weeks. You can look him up on Instagram, but he recently moved from Colorado to Oregon, and he posted a reel where he did this letter, and he wrote a letter to Colorado, and it was called Dear Colorado, and it was so beautiful, all about everything that Colorado did for him.

That's my five roundup, mismatch of random things to close off the year with. I love you, I will see you in 2024. I'm super excited about it. I cannot wait. We've got some fun and exciting things planned. I'm just really excited for the new year and I'm feeling super content about where I'm at in business and I hope you are too. And if you're not, maybe I can help you get there.