Episode Summary

In this episode of the Make Space for More podcast, host Melissa Swink discusses effective strategies for growing and scaling your business through three specific conversation types. Tune in to hear her personal experiences with these conversations and how they have positively impacted her business.

Key Highlights:

• Networking is crucial for generating leads and referrals. 
• Don't underestimate the power of word-of-mouth referrals.
• Engage in conversations with industry peers for mutual benefit.
• Reconnecting with past clients can lead to new opportunities.
• Regular conversations with coaches can provide valuable insights.
• Be open to learning from business owners at different stages.
• Collaboration and cross-promotion can enhance visibility.
• Invest time in building relationships with others.

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone, welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink, and I just want to take a minute to welcome you to the show today. Thank you so much for tuning in. It is my desire to share as many practical tips and tools and strategies for growing your business as possible and sharing from quote unquote the trenches, like personal experience of mine,

success that our clients are having, lessons learned from my mentors, all of the things that I encounter on a day-to-day basis, I wanna share those with you so that you're able to take those things and apply them to where you're at in your life, in your business. So one of those things is Today I wanted to share three powerful conversations to grow your business now. And this is really born from some of the things that I have been doing recently that I've been seeing a lot of success with.

but also experiencing a lot of energy and joy and momentum through, because I think that's part of it. I think certainly we wanna be focusing our energy and our time on things that are moving our business forward, but there's also something to be said for things that energize us as well. And so it's always a bonus when those two things can go hand in hand. But the reason why I came up with this conversation for today is because like a lot of you,

I am also paying attention to where are our leads coming from? Like we do, you know, our fair share of marketing, you know, I do networking and I am frequently looking at how can we reach our ideal clientele just like so many of you are. And time and again, as I'm looking at where are our leads coming from when a potential client schedules a consultation with us or a client or connection.

refer somebody to us, I'm always looking at, how did these people come into our world? Like what are some of the things that have encouraged them to reach out to us? Number one is word of mouth and referral, time and time again, no matter how much marketing that we do, which is important, don't get me wrong, it all goes together, but our number one source of leads is referral. And I feel like that's the case with so many people that I talk to on a regular basis. And so with that in mind,

I have spent the last probably six months or so in my business exploring the world of in-person and online networking. I feel like I did a lot of in-person networking prior to COVID and I met a lot of wonderful people through those experiences and then COVID hit and of course networking pretty much shut down in terms of in-person opportunities. Everything went online, it was maybe...

a little bit foreign to some of us at that time. No, we were fortunate that we have a virtual company. We always have been. So it was a little bit more natural for us. But just overall, like there were some there was some time in there of figuring this whole thing out. Right. So I drastically reduced the amount of networking that I did just kind of naturally dropped off on some of these activities that I had been doing. And so earlier this year, when I was looking at what are the ways that I want to

market my business this year, what do I think is going to be the best use of my time? And networking was something that came up. And so I had talked to my coaches and mentors about this, and they had several great suggestions for me, but they really encouraged me to look into online networking, because I have an online business, and people who are networking online are used to doing business online, and so on. And then of course, we talked about other ways to network, like through volunteering.

which is a great way to give back to the community and develop meaningful relationships with people. And also maybe look at some industry or some associations that make sense based on our business and where we're at. So I've been doing a lot of exploring in the world of networking and I'll be honest, I actually decided to hold off on joining a group and I've just kind of been mixing things up myself a little bit lately. So I wanna share a little bit more about that.

There may come a time where I decide to go all in and join a formal networking group. Right now, really at the end of the day though, I'm having a lot of great conversations with a variety of people, which I'll share more on in a second. And so there's a part of me that's like, if this is working, then let's just kind of explore and see where this goes. So I wanted to share this with you because I am having some fantastic conversations that are not forced, that are not.

awkward where you know go to a networking situation and people want to do a one-on-one with you and some of those one-on-ones are a little bit more relevant than others and don't get me wrong I've met a lot of great people that way but there's also been plenty of times where I've had one-on-ones with people over many years really where it just didn't quite you know there it wasn't a fit in terms of

who they're looking to serve and who I serve. And there really weren't a lot of great opportunities to refer business back and forth between one another. Maybe it didn't really make sense for us to kind of continue some of those conversations in the future and what have you. So what I have been doing is I have been focusing on three types of conversations that I wanna be having on a regular basis.

And of course, these are in addition to consultations with potential clients. So this is separate from quote unquote sales calls or sales conversations, if you will. So here are the three types of conversations that I'm having that have been extremely powerful. And I hope that these trigger some ideas for you as well. So number one, I am talking to other CEOs, business owners, executive directors of similar companies or organizations.

and or serve a similar clientele. So these might be complementary business owners where they don't provide the exact same services as we do, but they work with a similar clientele. Or in some cases, I've had some really great conversations lately with another VA agency owner, which has been fantastic because she and I both understand that we serve a different target market and our business models are very different.

but there's a lot of similarities and overlap and great information to be shared back and forth and it's a mutually beneficial conversation. So I would highly encourage you if you're hearing this going, I don't wanna talk to my competitors. Like I'm afraid that I might give away too much information and then that actually has the opposite effect on my business. Highly encourage you to.

Take a look at having conversations with people in your industry because it can be highly beneficial, especially if you have a mutual respect for one another. My take on this has always been the right people are going to be drawn to me and my company and that doesn't mean everybody. So there'll be plenty of people who I'm just not the right fit for, our approach just doesn't work for them.

We don't just jive and that's okay. Love having other people in my industry that I can connect and refer them to. So just wanted to share that with you in case you're like, wait a second, why would I talk to somebody who's in my same industry? You could also, depending on your type of business, talk to somebody in a similar industry who's in another part of the world as well, where maybe they're not so close to home, where they're your neighbor and you're showing up at the same Chamber of Commerce events. You get the idea.

But anyway, I love having conversations with other like-minded entrepreneurs that are in various stages of business as well. I feel really energized and encouraged by people who are beyond me in business. Maybe they have a larger team, maybe they have a higher revenue, maybe they have a different type of clientele than I do. I love learning from them.

Now, I'll be honest, there have been times in my life in the past 12 years of being a business owner where that might've intimidated me a little bit, but what I found is, first of all, get over yourself. I've had to get over myself and just listen to the knowledge and the wisdom that they share from some of the things that they have learned along the way in their journey. Same is also true. It's also great that I found to connect with business owners and professionals who are

at maybe earlier stages of business or in their career because they have a fresh eye on things. Like sometimes I don't wanna say that I sound old and jaded, but sometimes it's kinda like, eh, I'm not sure I wanna do that. Eh, doing TikTok, eh, I'm not sure that that's for me. I don't know if my clientele's on there. But having a fresh eye, it's like, hey, why not shake things up? Why not try something new? So it's great to connect with other business owners, entrepreneurs.

who share similar values as you, I think that's the number one thing, that you just really understand each other and the approach and are trustworthy and then look for people who are on various stages of business compared to where you're at. But some of the things that we've been talking about in these conversations, I love asking them things like, how are they marketing their business? Because who doesn't wanna generate more leads and referrals?

Or if you have more business than you can handle and you're looking for quality team members, you could be asking like, how are you recruiting team members? How are you finding people to support the work that you're doing? Similar conversations, right? Like what's working for you? And you know, what can I take away from it? And certainly this is meant to be a mutually beneficial conversation. So be prepared to share, you know, here are some of the things that are working well for us or here's something that I've noticed. Another thing that we're talking about in these conversations,

systems that they're implementing. I'm getting really excited by some of the really cool funnels that people are building right now. And I realized that the word funnel is a little bit overused and it sounds very generic, but there's some really cool sales tools that people are developing right now. I know that I've been speaking to another CEO of another company similar to mine and they have a really cool

what we would call a team member toolkit. This is something that lives in our Google Drive where it has like templates and all the frequently asked questions and things that our team members leverage on a day-to-day basis to help them do their jobs more efficiently. She has taken our team member toolkit type of concept and made a full on like internal website that can give step-by-step how-tos of how to navigate different situations that

her team might experience. Very, very cool things. And I love hearing about what people are creating and developing. Other things that we're talking about in these conversations, certainly opportunities for collaboration or cross promotion. I have invited several people that I've connected with just purely on a let's just connect and share as one CEO to another. And they've been on my podcast because they've shared so much valuable information with me.

and I want to share that with all of you. So that is one way that I can collaborate with other business owners. We've done email newsletter swaps as well recently where we have taken over an email newsletter for a colleague of mine and shared tips and tools and strategies for working with a virtual assistant or being more efficient with the work that you're doing.

And vice versa, she has shared some valuable information with our audience as well within our email newsletter. Certainly cross promoting events is something that we've done. There's just lots of great opportunities to be exposed to another audience, but then also give back and share that same opportunity with another business owner. And the other thing too that comes up in these conversations is who...

Who do you think that I would enjoy meeting? It doesn't have to be for a new vendor. It doesn't have to be for a new potential client. Just who is another awesome entrepreneur that you really enjoyed connecting with recently? And would you be open to making an introduction? That's been a really good way for me to get higher quality one-to-ones on my calendar, if I'm being perfectly honest.

Those are some of the things that I'm talking about with other CEOs of similar companies or companies that are serving a similar clientele. Okay, the second type of powerful conversation to grow your business now is connecting with past clients, past potential clients, and maybe even past team members. In my case, I've actually...

been reaching out and having just some virtual lunches with past team members who, of course, have gone on to do other things in their careers. Everything was very amicable, super happy with them and where they're at in their careers, even though it's not with our team anymore. But it's really great to connect with them. We do a virtual lunch because we're all busy, right? So even yesterday, I'm thinking about I met with a former team member of mine.

we each kind of got our lunches together or had them delivered, whatever you want to say. And then we hopped on a call for about 45 minutes and we were just chatting and eating lunch. And it was just really good to connect with them because I have also found that past team members do sometimes refer business to us. Like I'm too busy, I don't have capacity for this, or somebody reached out to me and is looking for support with this, that's no longer.

the type of work that I do, always really great to connect with former team members. Past clients and past potential clients are somebody that I have also been being intentional to invite to virtual coffee chats. So what I'm doing with these, and I know this sounds a little scary, and I still get nervous when I do this, but I've actually been calling and inviting.

these folks to a brief 20, 30 minute virtual coffee chat. Just because these are people that I've emailed with in the past and maybe they've gone a little bit dark on me, but I also know that we're all so busy and we're just so bombarded with email and messages coming in every which direction that sometimes picking up the phone is just more personal, first of all, and it gets their attention because we're not a spammer.

We're not another political reach out via text or phone, nothing like that. It's somebody that they have spoken to in the past and it's a familiar voice and it's just great to make that connection. So I've actually been seeing a lot of success with picking up the phone and asking questions like, what are you focusing on in the last quarter of this year? At the time that I'm recording this, it's the first week of October. So we're looking at how are we finishing this year strong?

Things like, what are some of the top two to three challenges that you're facing in your business right now? And maybe asking them for some very specific updates. Like for example, I was speaking with an executive director of a nonprofit earlier, gosh, earlier this past summer, and her number one focus at that time was recruiting board members. And so I hopped on a phone call with her just wanted to see like, hey,

how are recruiting board members going? Did you find some quality people? And just opening up that conversation, being very specific. So I picked up the phone, I've invited people to conversations, they've been really, really receptive, and I'm just so grateful that I have pushed through that awkwardness or that fear of picking up the phone because if I just hammered these people with emails, probably would not have opened up that conversation.

Surprisingly, the vast majority of people that I have called and invited to a virtual coffee chat have responded enthusiastically and scheduled time with me. Now, I just want to emphasize here that I am not doing a bait and switch and then slapping them with a sales pitch at the end of this call. That's not what these are about. This is truly reconnecting and reengaging in conversation with people that I've talked with in the past.

provide any insider value that I can based on what they're sharing with me, and then also offering to make connections for them. Like, hey, who are you looking to meet? Do I have that type of person in my network that I think would be a great fit for them? This is all about just reconnecting. Okay, the last powerful conversation that I've been having to grow my business, and I believe that this would also grow yours. We've talked about some of this in the past.

talking with my coaches and mentors. Now I have talked about on the podcast how beneficial having a business coach, having a life coach and a health coach has impacted my life on just the best possible level. But just wanted to emphasize here that it's always great to have conversations with them and make sure that you're engaging with them regularly. Especially if you're investing in a coaching relationship.

really important for you to also invest time in that relationship. It always blows my mind how many people invest in coaching programs or they join masterminds and they really don't participate in those things or they don't book those one-on-one calls with their coaches because, I don't know, life gets busy or they don't know what to ask or they feel like they're doing okay or they're just not even sure how to engage with their coach. Having those regular conversations

is always a game changer. And I'll be honest, a lot of times I hop on those calls and I need to be willing to let my guard down and be open and transparent about, here's something that I'm struggling with or here's what just doesn't seem to be working for me right now and asking for help. Yes, I'll say it again, asking for help, picking up the phone. I'm dealing with this situation. I've never seen anything like this before.

What do you think I should do? Or have you seen something like this? What have you done? Huge to be able to have those conversations. And the other thing is too, it just doesn't have to necessarily be all of the struggles and the strategizing and the troubleshooting. It can also just be talking about simple strategies to improve or maximize what's already working for you. Like, hey,

I am seeing a lot of traction on LinkedIn right now. I have a lot of people engaging with me in DMs. How can I do more of this? Or if that's working, should I look at doing a similar strategy on Instagram? I'm just kind of throwing these out there as general examples, but connecting with coaches and mentors regularly. First of all, investing in these relationships. then number two,

giving of your time and being intentional about connecting with them is going to be extremely powerful for your business as well. And I know even if there's not, in a, I should say in addition to valuable information shared on those calls, nothing else, these people are there to lift me up and support me no matter what I'm going through. If I am in a slump and in a difficult season in my life and business,

or if I'm on top of the world and things are going great, it's always very beneficial for me to have some help with renewing my energy and my focus in what I need to be doing, the most important work that I need to be doing either in my business or for myself and my family. So having those regular conversations with coaches and mentors is huge, very, very powerful for growing your business and getting you to that next level that you want to be at. Okay.

All of that being said, if you know a business owner or an executive who is committed to finishing this year strong, would you please take a moment and share this episode with them? Because it may spark some ideas for who they could connect with to have some powerful conversations themselves. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I appreciate you so much. And I will be back with another episode to help you grow and scale your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you.

Have a wonderful day. Bye bye.