 My name is Brian Hilliard, and as you can tell, I am not from the south. That's fine, okay? Anybody want to take a guess? Maybe part of the contract. I don't know if you're going to get a different state. Part of the contract. Mid-Atlantic. That's interesting. That's interesting. No. Mid-Atlantic. No, northeast. That's absolutely it. I'm originally from Connecticut. I'm originally from Connecticut. I moved down here back in 98, actually, was actually born in New Jersey and then went up there and stayed up there for a while, obviously, when I was growing up, went to school in North Carolina. So I actually went to do a marketing degree and an economics degree from those folks. One of the interesting things was, I always tell people, that was the first time I realized that there's a whole section of the country where you don't have to shut this down. You know, and I tell my wife, I said, this is real, I don't know about anyone who's living over the base and next to me. She assures me that that wouldn't work because of some capacity issues down here. But beyond that, it seemed like a really good idea. So I lived in, like I said, went to school in North Carolina, moved here in 1998, 1998, and then was going to work a little bit for some different companies. It's not a lot of business right after 9-11, right after 9-11, that same year, you know, got my business license and took care of some business. I'm a coach by trade, marketing person, speaker, I've written a few books and stuff like that. We can talk about that. But essentially what I do is, I help these entrepreneurs market their business in less than nine days. Okay, and what we're going to talk about is how as a, either a consultant or developer, business owner, freelancer, art center, entrepreneur, I've been using that lately, okay. How you can, as a business owner, be able to generate more business with WordPress and be able to do it the way that doesn't have to feel easy about it, just being able to get to a point where people feel comfortable. Does that make sense? Everybody cool with that? Give me a little something. Everybody cool with that? There we go, thank you. All right, so, oh, oh, I almost forgot. I said this was going to be the second thing I mentioned, which technically is. Second point, which is, there was a young lady who was up here. If you, apparently, she lost a cell phone, okay. So I'm just going to read this. She said it was a cell phone. It was an iPhone 6S. Last time she saw it was in the ballroom, in the keynote. So for whatever reason, anybody comes across an iPhone. She said to you guys just to be able to drop it off over at the registration date, if you see it. So that's our public service announcement, okay. You're just testing it. That's funny. That's good for it. I don't know, because I didn't ask her for that. Anyway, so we have got, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to talk three mistakes. The top three mistakes people make in terms of trying to get more business with WordPress. Okay, top three mistakes people make while trying to get more business through WordPress. And what we're going to do is we're just going to kind of count down. I've got some Q&A and stuff in between. So it's going to be a dialogue. All right, we're going to have a nice good discussion and we're going to get into it. All right, so here we go. I see some people writing stuff down and I'm going to I love these whiteboards. You know, it's kind of like if you were to be able to give people like, this is awesome. I might use all, not full, I might use all brand new. All right, mistake number three. If you build it, we already know where this is coming from. They will come. Okay? If you build it, they will come. Now, first of all, what do you think about my nifty little color? It's a little different, right? I got this one from the office the last one. But if you build it, they will come. You know, what it is that when you, as a business owner, okay, as a business owner, there is a tendency to think that I just need to put up my website. I just need to get my business cards and I will get more business. All right? How many people believe that's true? Good. Okay, because I was my true question right off the bat. Sometimes I let warm people up for that and I just need anyone right off the bat. That is not true. Right? And why is that not true? Well, part of it is because we live in a, there is so many, I started in 2001 before India, except just when the internet literally was coming on a lot, as we know it, was just coming on a lot. We live in such a fragmented, skeptical society that they need to be able to see what it is that you're doing. All right? Part of the other thing too is when you talk about this if you build it, they will come and this is kind of I think a big point. People think that marketing or whatever is a bad thing, okay? Marketing is not a bad thing. You know, just, marketing is not a bad thing. Marketing is the idea. People think marketing is trying to convince others to buy your stuff. That's not what marketing is. Marketing is about creating an awareness with your potential client base. The other need that you could potentially solve. I'm going to say that again. Marketing is about creating an awareness with your potential client base regarding a need that you might be able to solve. Okay? So, when you go with this if you build it, they will come to the challenge is it's getting an understanding as to what the heck it is that you really need to be able to do. All right. So, the first thing that we want to be able to talk about inside of this is a challenge that is, I see all the time inside of this. It's the only problem that's got sometimes I don't know how to do it. Inconsistent marketing efforts. All right. So, let's talk about inconsistency. So, I have a website and I have a blog and I've got all this stuff, right? So, I publish a newsletter every once in a while. I have a website and I have all this stuff at Business Marks and I publish, you know, a blog post every once in a while. I have a newsletter and I have a site and I put together a video just to see what happens because you know I've had a little time and I feel like marketing. Okay. Inconsistent marketing is a challenge because what happens is people aren't really clear of what it is that is coming out there. There's no, we're not going to get into, if you want to talk about branding, I guess you can, but that's not really the point of this discussion. But inconsistent marketing effort is no way is going to help build your brand. Okay. You think about one of the better brands in this country. Coke. In my opinion. Disney. Okay. There's just some of the better brands in this country. And you know, every year, every year with the Coke, I know that I'm going to get myself, the kid and the polar bear with the thing saying I wish I could buy the world a cup. Every year, I know I'm going to get that and you do too. Okay. I get branding. I get the same thing with Disney. I get branding. I get consistent marketing. Disney has an entire television station whose sole goal is to present more Disney stuff. You ever look at Disney TV? They don't have, they don't have commercials about other stuff. It's all about their stuff. Okay. And as a marketer, as a freelancer, as somebody who's an entrepreneur, what can you do? Alright. In order to get past the inconsistent marketing, you have to be able to understand, first of all, that marketing is not, it's something that you do want to be able to do. It's creating and awareness. Second thing you want to understand is that you want to be able to, part of the issue is that people try to beat everything to everyone. Okay. That's not going to do it. So when they get overwhelmed by marketing and it devolves into inconsistent marketing, right? So they start with this idea of I'm going to go out and market and then it devolves into inconsistent marketing. Because there's so much stuff they need to do. So what you want to do is you want to get yourself some target markets. I call them spheres of influence. Alright. What is a sphere of influence? Sphere. Sphere. As in like, whatever. I don't know. Sphere of influence. What did you say? Sphere of influence, right? Yeah. Yeah. Here's what I define. This is my personal definition. Sphere of influence are groups of individuals who are most likely to use your service. Alright. Let me say that again. Sphere of influence are groups of individuals who are most likely, that's important to use your service. Let me tell you why that's important. Because sometimes people say, well I'm going to have a target market and I'm going to go out to doctors and lawyers. I'm going to go to business. What are you for? As you've seen, it makes a difference and that's fine. Okay. The difference between what I'm talking about and the example that I just made part up is that the former, the spheres of influence is taking a look at people and going to a place of a value who are, they understand that they need potentially your service. Okay. They just have to figure out whether they're going to use you or the other guy. Versus target markets, that's a you-based company. I want to get doctors and lawyers. So let me give you an example. Let's say if obviously you guys are, you know, like let's say they're not the website. You do not want to be talking to people who are saying that I don't need a website. For Brian, for Brian, I need to give a hand. I need to educate these people. I thought, I need to. Right? You've heard this. Oh, what are you doing? They have a problem. Well, that's okay because I'm educating them. That's fine. If you want to do that, that's fine. That's not what I'm going to talk about, but that's fine. Okay? What do you want to do when I'm talking about are people who understand, using this example, the value of a website. People who understand the value of market. The people who understand the value of block. People who understand that it needs to look good and not look like something else. Okay? Those are spheres of influence. Now those might be two or three and don't feel like you need to get industries. I know people say, oh, I want to lock myself into one industry. What do you think about industries? You can do profiles. Okay? They might be business owners who are two or more years who are living in the Atlanta area. They might be business owners who are service professionals. They might include doctors and dentists and lawyers and people that you've talked about before. That's fine. We're not saying do not include them. We're just giving you an understanding. Once you've got that, you have a message. Okay? The other thing you don't want to do to get around this in terms of the marketing is do yourself a favor and get yourself a marketing calendar. I'm going to give an old school order. Okay? I'm talking about the kind that you get at the office supply store. The same place where I got things, actually. You too can get a 2000 and whatever and you can write stuff in it. I do that. They say, I've got my iPad, big pad, 29,000. Okay? That's just now what I'm talking about. That's fine. Okay? What I'm talking about is a physical marketing calendar. All right? I'm going to have a conversation about this calendar on your desk from the center. You lift it open and on Saturday you see what you're supposed to send out on your blog post. You see what you're supposed to send out on your newsletter. Okay? If you want to get like me, which I'm not suggesting, but if you do, you get different colored pens too. We're just talking. I'm not saying you have to do that. Okay? And what I'll do is I'll have something that goes out to my newsletter. Okay? I have a newsletter. You guys for the graph, you're going to do what you want to be able to. You'll be getting, you know, because we have all day. What you'll be getting, those you'll be getting newsletter. Email. Value ads. Okay? And you'll be able to see when those go out. So now what I'm doing is I'm making sure that people are in that deal. Now, let's talk about when we link that back to Wordpress. What do you want to do? I'm sure you guys know this, but let me just go over real quick. The ways you want to do that, you don't have an online newsletter that's just going to have to really, really, really strongly encourage you to kind of bear down and get that. I personally use MailChimp. It's real easy. It's a free service. It is like no time. Your service, you can't hear. Oh, you can't? On this whole time you haven't been here? I'm from Connecticut. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. MailChimp. I'm bringing them back to WordPress, my son. I'm bringing them back to my blog. So what happens is, as you guys know, it's all about traffic, right? We bring people back to the thing. So I'll do a video on YouTube. I'll put it out there. I will then load it into my MailChimp newsletter. Obviously, it works with me on that. And then I link that back to my blog. And then with my blog, what happens is people are able to see what's going on. I'll ask for, I did something the other day where I even talked about getting business through WordPress. I said that the newsletter asking for some speaking engagements. I just said, hey, listen, I'm trying to get serious about doing more speaking as you know somebody in this area of trade associations and stuff like that. A conference, guy comes back, so that's OK. Going out, going on an engagement. So you can use your site in terms of your blog, not only if you do speaking, that's fine, but that's one example. You can do it for getting referrals. That's a big one. We won't get into that right this second. But don't be afraid to have a page on your site geared specifically for referrals. You say, Brian, help me understand essentially what that looks like. Well, what would happen is you've got somebody who, OK, let's think about this. This would be the person who knows you. They know you. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to introduce you to this other person who does not know you. So sometimes what happens is you get an email introduction, and we've all seen how that works. But wouldn't it be great where instead of just replying back and saying, oh, it's so great to meet you, and I'll call you and see if I. Wouldn't it be much better if you can then send something back to this person with a page on your Wordpress site that maybe has a little video on there, maybe has a little elevator pitch. What is this if you do? Maybe has a little bit of something that gives a little bit of something about you. Am I making sense with this? OK, I'm saying you have to do all of this, but that gives you a feel for what it is that you're trying to do. OK? All right, marketing now and all that good stuff, we have covered that. All right, let's get into our next mistake, which is, let's see what we've got here. Ah, all right. Yeah, that's three because I can do that. All right, next is thinking sales is a four letter word. Let's talk about that. Thinking that sales is a four letter word. Now, a lot of people, when they think about sales, they kind of get a little edgy, right? They think of sales as a, well, let me ask you. Just if I say sales, what's the word that comes to your mind? Hard sales. Hard sales, money. Telemarketers. Telemarketers, I heard pushy, I think, over here. Consultant. You think of sales with consultant? I spend the way to sales. OK. I'm a driver. OK. I'm a home care. OK, that's interesting. I haven't heard that one. OK, that's fine. You usually, we hear more of the other stuff that you said that's more pejorative in nature, right? Where people are like pushy and use car salesman, something that comes up, you know, and all that kind of stuff. Let me kind of get you to think about this a little bit different way. If we're talking about getting new business and we're talking about growing as a consultant or whatever it is that you're doing, sales is something that you have to do because people have to be able to get something to buy in the first place. We don't present it, and we'll talk about that. We don't present it that no one's going to buy it and we all have to go get a job. I'm just, OK, then we all go home, shake hands, Brian was a great speaker, and then we go get a job. OK. So there has to be something that we do in order to not have to do that, OK? And here's the way that I describe it to folks. Everything that you probably know of, 95% of what you know about sales probably is what I'm going to call the traditional sales approach, if you don't mind, OK? Negative, pejorative in nature, just very down, OK? But let me put that on the box if you don't mind, and let me call that the traditional approach. Just for a second, let me call that the traditional approach. And if you don't mind, I'm going to open up this other box over here. And I'd like to call that, I know you said you didn't like consulting, but that's what I would call it, which is a consultative sales approach, all right? Now, let me just tell you what a consultative sales approach can look like. A consultative sales approach can be an education-based conversation. It can be a question-oriented discussion. It can be a dialogue where you are trying to understand where that person is coming from, so that you can determine A, if you are the right person, and B, what that service offering is. A consultative sales approach is one, so one of the things that I'm doing on my Facebook account is I'm doing movie reviews. I watch too many movies. I have Netflix, and I watch too many. And that's fine. But I figured I'm just going to start putting it out there, and I put the trailer and stuff like that. Has anybody heard of the movie Primer? Yeah, I love that. If you haven't heard it, it's a time-shifting one. Yeah, it's exactly right. It's exactly right. And what it's about is about two guys. They have an experiment, stuff like that. They're working on it. And yeah, they develop a box that has a little bit of time-lapse situation into it. And it's really, really, it's not like a Star Trek. It's really, really good. It's one of my favorite movies. I gave it five out of five stars. If you get a chance, I'd recommend it to you. Take a look at it. Now, let me ask you something. Was that sales? I mean, it was, yeah. Hold on. I heard no. I heard yes. That's the new age of sales, isn't it? OK. So was it sales or not? Yes, ma'am? Well, you weren't really selling a thing. You were more sharing an idea or an information. Interesting. So I was sharing. Now, that's an interesting word. I was sharing. OK. Are my people OK with that thought? OK. Did I ask for the business? Did I ask for the business? No. No. Great. We have to recommend this. Hold on. Say that again. Being from Connecticut. Uh-huh. And your reviews on taste books were like, hey, you've discussed. You built that authority so you can recommend something and hence sell something without hard selling. OK. That's a distinction, though, now, isn't it? Yes, ma'am? Now, let me ask you this. This is a rhetorical question. Why can't we do that with our business? Why does when we're trying to get business, when we're talking to somebody, why does it have to be this anxiety producing, live or die, shoot out at the OK corral? I also saw a tombstone, which I like. Why does it have to be this adversarial conversation? You know why? Because that's all we were taught. You know why? Because we grew up in an age where the past all the ways really changed in 2000 with the internet. Let's just as a baseline. But for the other 500 years before that, it was interruption-based. It was, let me, I'm at the phone. I'm eating dinner in the phone range. It was, I'm watching television and the commercial comes up. I'm on the internet and the pop-up comes up. It was all interruption-based. It never occurred to anybody that that is one form of sales. But why does it have to be the only form of sales? Which brings us back to the point of the work. What if we were to be able to, instead of trying to sell our services and to give more business as a WordPress consultant or whatever, instead of doing the traditional approach, what if we say its name is Act? And we go to more of a consultative approach. Great book, by the way, is called Solution Selling, Michael Bosler. Very good. First sales book I've read. Now make sure you're going to do this. Get the one that was written like in the 90s, OK? There's this new one that he has out. I'm not going to college with that. But I'm sure it's fine. I just didn't read that. You have read the new one. The new one's OK? You like it? OK. Yes? So in your sharing thing that you did, I was a question. I was a question. He double-clotched like twice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, I turned the corner and I got, so back to when you were doing the soft sell, you came up, you got them excited, but there was no call to action. So there was no resolution on their part. I wanted to know how to do, well, not really, but I wanted to know, I want to watch that. And can you tell me how? So in case of selling window screens or whatever, you have to have a call to action, I think. Yeah, you have to have a call to action. Well, that's a good question. You do have a point. You have to have a call to action. Whenever I'm working with people, I only say, and we'll talk about that, ask it for the business, that's another point. But no, I'll bind it into it. But you have to have a call to action with these people. If you don't, then no one does anything. I mean, I can't help it. I don't make these rules, OK? So you have to have some type of call to action with these folks. Otherwise, you're not going to get anything at all, all right? But yes, the point that the room made, which was sharing and which was the idea of the action. Because there's no call to action? Well, the recommendation, I said, I suggest you get a chance to see it. If you can, that's exactly what I said. The only reason I know I say that. Is it called action? Yeah, because I know it. Yeah, that's a call to action. I didn't say you have to. I didn't say you get your computer with it. I could say that. You know, walk to them, right? Walk to them. But you want to be able to have it where you have something where people are understanding what it is that's going on. Hang on just for one second. Hang on for one second. Let me just finish up the point. And then we'll go right into Q&A. And totally fine with this, OK? I was just wondering how many people wrote down your movie name. Old Primer. How many people wrote down the movie name? I have no idea. I'm pretty sure I wrote it down. And I wrote down two of them, so I don't know why. It just didn't move it. All right, so let me tell you some questions that I like. Let me tell you some questions that I like to use. Because I remember I said it was question-based. And then I promised we'll open up for Q&A, and you will be the first one, OK? No problem. All right, so questions that I like to be able to ask during a consultative sales. Tell me a little bit more about what brought you here in the first place. So this is assuming you're sitting down with these people, right? Tell me a little bit more about what brought you here in the first place. What you're getting at there is what's there pain, OK? So tell me a little bit more about what brought you here in the first place. This is another one of my favorite. That's actually one of my favorite ones. The other question I like to ask is, what are some steps that you've taken to address this problem? So if they say, oh, well, my website is terrible. This is a problem. You say, oh, OK, what made you decide to, what have you done? I like that because it assumes the intelligence. In a world where we have a fourth grade reading level, that's true. In a world where we have a fourth grade reading level, I like to assume the intelligence. What have you done to address this? And depending on how you feel about the person, you said, and if the answer is not a lot so far, that's totally fine. See how we said so far. All right, that's question two. And then question three, and you can do all of these, is in a perfect world, what would you like to see happen? In a perfect world, I use that phrase a lot. In a perfect world, we're not saying that you're going to buy, or not buy, or do, or not, I didn't say anything. All I said was in a perfect world, what would you like to be able to say? And the terminology that I talk about is meeting people where they're at. You have to meet these people where they're at. That implies a degree of intelligence. You want to get business as a consultant, as a, you know, and you're coming from this marketing place and you're doing so much. You want to do that. You need to meet people where they're at. You need to, the traditional sales approach, you know what the traditional sales approach does? Let me tell you what the traditional sales approach looks like. The traditional sales approach, is everybody cool with this? Yeah. Okay. So the traditional sales approach goes, the traditional sales approach says, I'm here and you are here. Your father's here. And we're across this great divide, okay? And what happens is, I'm here and you're here. And what we do is we try to say everything we can do as a service provider to get you to come across. I'm the best person that you've ever met. I'm the number one agent in town. We do all of this great stuff. You need to try this. You get a pretty computer. We do all of these things. The whole objective of the traditional sales approach is to get this person to go that way. If something, you need to boil it down and we can talk about this afterwards if you want. But I'm telling you, that's what the deal is. Okay? Versus the consultation sales approach. Okay? The consultation sales approach says, I'm here, you're here. And it says, okay, so first off, tell me a little bit about your situation and what got you here in the first place? Take a step closer. You say, well, gosh, we've been trying to hire other developers and it's just been terrible. What is it that you did or did not like about that? Well, it was terror. Listen, I don't know if this is gonna work for you, but would you be open to maybe hearing some ideas I've used with other companies similar to your own? Yes. Well, some of the things that we provide as a consultant is this, this, and this. Really. And you bring them back to you. Does that make sense? That's a consultative sales approach. All right, we'll open up for some questions. Stephanie, can you make sure we're gonna have everybody's, I have her first and then I'll hit you. We wanna make sure I'm gonna grab this if I can. If you have put your render wrap up a little bit. If you put your business card in here or a piece of paper which looks like a lot of people have. By the way, Stephanie's one of my mom's kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, if you put your business card in here or anything like that, we're gonna be doing a wrap up for this and we also have the newsletter that goes out. Does that find out? So make sure you put your name and your email in there. So I'm gonna start over here. If you've already done it, great, just keep passing around and then we'll go from there. Okay, you were first and then, ma'am, in the, I don't know what color that is, red. The second. Go ahead, ma'am. Yeah, so I use a really clear report question. When you, I think the key thing when you were talking about, let me tell you about the film and people were listening to you is that you were not reaching into their pocket. At least not yet. You were not saying, you know what? For 10 bucks, I will give you this movie tip. Or you weren't saying hire me. You were just sharing or offering or more. There was just certain, I guess, of bringing people close to you because you're saying something useful in front of you. You know what the word is? You were kind of searching for it? The word is authenticity. Okay. What you were sensing was a degree of authenticity that allowed me to be able to connect with you and that you felt that I was trying to help you. Which actually is true. My question though, and this is rhetorical, is why wouldn't that be the same thing with our business? Right? If we want to help people, which I'm assuming you do, then why can't we have a degree of that same level of authenticity? Part of it is because we come from scarcity, which is a whole other conversation. Part of it is we come from a place of, this is all we've been exposed to. We just think that this is how we're supposed to do it. Ha-ha! But a lot of us do our work. We're good at it. We love our work. We are not trained in sales and business and seeking clients in that that's uneasy territory. Part of it is your comfort zone, not you personally. You figuratively. Okay? One of the points I make, and we can talk more about this, one of the points that I make is, as a business owner, you are your business. Just FYI. And if you want one to grow your business, the growth of your business always precedes the growth of yourself. I'll say that again. The growth of your business always precedes the growth of yourself. You need to be able to, your business does not grow until you do. And part of it is that, you know, people, I've been doing this now for 15 years. 2001. And I'm not the same person that I was when I started. People think, oh, you've written these books and you know, that one became a best seller and people are like, oh, you know, what? You know, I tell people, I do these business all across the country. I have had on four separate pages less than $20 in my checking account. I don't know if anybody's had that before. Okay, I'm not asking for a show of hands. And I'm telling you, it's not pleasant. Four separate occasions. $20 or less. No money from your parents, no money from anybody. You know what the only thing that kept me going? My wife says she didn't get upset about it. She's originally from Jamaica, you know. She's from New York, but originally from Jamaica. And, you know, where she's from, I was like, oh, we got two chickens. I heard a story, you know. We're fine. Two bottles. I was like, okay. And I'm like, make sure she heard me, right? She's wanted dollars. She's like, ah! Just give me the money, it won't be fine. Okay. So my point, not to, you have to get out of your, I'm not you personally, the figurative view, it's about getting out of the comfort zone and it's about growing yourself in your business. Okay, we can talk about that when I promise her next. And then I'll go to you. Yes ma'am. I would love to answer to this question. Okay. To the question of in a first world, what would you like to see happen? I've had so many calls like this and I have another one on Monday. The person's gonna say, I would love you to come moderate, speak, whatever, that's my first world. Okay. So you're a speaker? Yes. Okay. Now, I'm speaking for free here. Well, and I have a call, I think, but sometimes not for that. Mm-hmm. But how do you just have that? Depends on what you're trying to do, okay? For me as a, so did I hear the question, how do you offer to speak for free? What's the deal? Yeah. Okay. It depends what you're trying to do. So he has a coach. My deal is I'm all about clients, okay? So I'll come down, I'll drive over to wherever if I think I'm gonna get business out of it. Now part of it, one of the conversations I have, I have a website that's called WordPress. It's called monetizemyrep, okay? Dot com, monetize. If you want to, that's fine, but it is for speakers, coaches, who are looking to monetize their reputation as an expert. And one of the conversations I have is monetizing a free speaking group, all right? Now, do things that you wanna do with that. Number one, you wanna let people know that you're gonna have some resources for sale. Okay? And we'll get to that in a second. Number two is you need to be able to have a call to action about what people can do if they wanna work with you. Okay? And then from there, I gotta tell you, and we can talk more about it in detail if you want, that's fine, if I can talk about it. But from there, you've done right and your services are packaged properly. That should do it. It should do it. If you're telling me it hasn't, or if you're telling me that maybe it hasn't as consistently, then I'm telling you there's something that perhaps you might be missing and we can talk about it. Just tell me what you're doing, we'll do it offline and I'm sure we'll figure it out, okay? But yeah, the free speaking engagement, I don't have a problem with that. Man, it's like, I would do that every day if you want to. Okay, good question. Last one and then we're gonna do the raffle. Yes, ma'am? I just wanted to add onto your consultive sell. I was taught that years ago as a radio station, right? And what people need to realize is that people love talking about themselves more than anything. Roger that. If you go in there with the consultive sell and ask them to tell you what their problems are. Right. You're offering a solution to that problem. So why are you uncomfortable if you're able to help somebody with a solution? And they're gonna tell you what their problem is if you just listen. Right, right, right. And part of it is why they're uncomfortable. Part of it is because it's out of their comfort zone and that's fine. We don't necessarily need to figure out why they're uncomfortable. We just need to figure out what they can do to transform that uncomfortableness into not being a barrier to growing their business. And what I tell people is a lot of times it's being able to feel comfortable in terms. Most people don't have a problem recommending a movie. Like I haven't met somebody yet who I asked that. They're like, no. So I use that as a starting point. Okay, and then I make what I think is a logically based question, which is then what exactly is the difference between recommending a movie and a service that you believe in, right? And then you start uncovering some different things. I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you. Last question. How would she say I want to pay? Yeah, she said so. So she's saying is if the thing is asking for a free speaking presentation and then you're trying to get to a pay deal, that, that, that depends on who you're talking to. There's people who just don't have the money. So I can send to the WordPress Atlanta people. Word Camp Atlanta. I can call Kathy maybe now. I don't have her number, but maybe. Somebody has it. And I can say, hey listen, I'm not coming back until you give me two grand. That's the number. I'm not coming back until you give me two grand. What does that have to do with it? I don't know. I can't do it. Is it because she doesn't like Ryan Hillyard? Probably not. She doesn't really know me. I mean, I don't think she's gotten to the point where she doesn't like me, right? Okay, so you can't get a call from someone. So, so, so saying I want to be paying, if I did that, I mean, I'll give you the phone and you can do it, you can see how that works out. But I'm not calling her to tell her not. You know, instead, what I'm doing is I'm looking at the situation and I'm seeing people that I can impact. I'm seeing people who I can help. I'm seeing people who, you know, maybe want to be a part of some of the stuff that I do. That's what I'm seeing. And what you're seeing, hopefully, is learning some good stuff. And if you wanted it in the program and work with me quick, if you don't, fine. Okay. And I don't say I want to be paying. Not for the people, if you can't get blood from the stone. If you're talking to a company, yes. If you're talking to a nonprofit organization like WordCamp, no. If you're talking to a nonprofit organization like Trade Associations, no. If you're talking to a franchise convention, yes. You have to know who has the money. Know your audience. Yeah, you can't get blood from the stone. Okay, I'm gonna keep moving because we're gonna get five down if I don't watch out. But we can definitely answer some more questions like I'll be around, okay? We got these. All right, thank you so much. Anyone who didn't point it out? Yes, I am. Absolutely that's it. There's a process here. Now it's time for you up. All right. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna raffle some stuff off here. One of the things I talked about was our book on Networking Like a Bro. This actually became a bestseller. One of the things that it talks about is a 12 by 12 by 12 rule and talking about managing the perception that other people have of you. You know, my mom is a motivational speaker. I didn't tell you guys that. And she actually came up with a 12 by 12 by 12 rule. She talks a lot about positive parenting and things like that. And you know what I tell you? You know the best part is in having a mom who's a motivational speaker. It's very motivating. You know? And you feel like you can sing like the sound of music every other week. Other best thing is that you get to use her stuff and you don't have to pay any royalties. Okay? So, that's what we did. And it turns out she likes that, okay? So we're gonna raffle off. We've got a little guest certificate here. I'm gonna raffle off set. You wanna pull out the name? Don't pull out your own. Did you put your own in here? Okay, just don't pull it out. Okay, awesome. All right, it says Canada on here, which is good. I'm used to living here. Where's Canada? There it is. Where's Canada? There you go. Oh, that's a good question. Let's give a round of applause. It's a good certificate for you. I used to live in Canada, actually. I lived in, Edmonton. Okay, where I would think that would be like the ocean, but you're telling me no. Okay. All right, let me also, we have got another little raffle here. This is going to be one of the programs I told you about was I talked about how I do, how to market your business in less than 90 days, which is a coaching program that we do. I'm gonna raffle off a little 30 minute console with yours truly, all right? We can talk a little bit about your business, talk about some questions and stuff that you might have, and that is no problem. So Stephanie, we're gonna do another one. Also, another card. This is interesting. Ben Coat, the, where's Ben? He, on his card, what does it say then? The internet genius. The internet genius. That is somebody who gets to deserve this. Give him a round of applause. All right, Ben, you can give us a call. We will set something up, and that is not a problem. Okay, awesome, awesome. Now, sometimes people ask me if they want, they say, boy, you know what, I wanted to kind of get on that list, Brian, and I wanted to kind of chat with you, but I didn't win. We try to be an all-inclusive community here. So what I've done, these are three deals, okay? It's a 15 minute laser coaching session with yours truly. We put some slots down here, name, phone number, email. So for you now, 15 minutes, if you wanna talk a little bit about yourself, your business, and what it is that you'd like and balance the different questions, you're saying it's been over a year, so fine. Then that is, that is fine. Make sure I get my pen back. I'm gonna be watching. And just circulate that around. And if you can't fill a slot or a time, just write your name or your number on the back or something, and either myself or Chris will get back to you. Okay? All right, we are on the move, and we have got number one, which is, this is something that I know you've seen all the time, okay? And very simply. Okay, the steady number one is not asking for what. Not asking for the business. What is wrong with people who get to the proverbial three-yard line football term and they let it go, okay? And what happens is, you know, part of the problem, yeah. Part of the problem is that when you ask, when people are afraid, and that's the word, afraid, it's a fear-based, it's a fear-based behavior. It's just like avoidance behavior, procrastination, okay? When people don't ask for the business, let me tell you what happens. They don't get the business. Very simple. You don't ask for the business, and you don't get the business. Now, one of the things that I tell people, I mentioned something before, and I'll tell you this again, kind of in a different way, sales and asking for the business is less about getting the sale and more about creating a buying environment. Let me say that again. Asking for the business is less about getting a sale. Oh, I'm gonna get the sale, I'm gonna hunt it. You know, gap. It's about creating a buying environment. Jeffrey Goodimer talks about this a lot, okay? A buying environment is a place where people are both good to taking that next logical step with you. A buying environment is where you say, hey, listen, I'd love to be able to work with you, and I think I can help you out in these three ways. See now, she's trying to take the pen. I told you don't do it. It's being able to say, hey, listen, I think I can work with you, and here's how I can help in these three ways. I'd love to be able to work with you, okay? You wanna create an environment, you guys mentioned before, an authority, okay? You wanna be able to have credibility, and then, gosh darn it, you wanna be able to ask for the sale. Part of the challenge, okay? Part of the challenge is that a lot of people are so focused on how it feels to not get the sale, looking back. And I get that, like, you think I like losing? I don't, I mean, that's a little, I don't like losing, in any way. Okay, lost a game of chess last night, I'm still a little upset about it. How are you married? Huh? What is that? What is that? I didn't hear what he said. Okay, all right. How am I married? How am I married? Because I'm a good-looking guy. What are you talking about? What is that? What's the question is that? Anyway, I am like losing. All right, on any of this stuff. And what you wanna be able to do is, you wanna be able to create an opportunity where people are able to see, hey, listen, this is a next step. Part of it is, a lot of times, people don't know what the next step is. This sounds great. I got this, what do I do? Well, here's what we do, you put a $100 deposit down, get this, we'll be able to put the installments down, we'll do this, and here's what I always tell people, okay, whatever I'm doing, kind of my deal. This, I wrote an article on this a while back. When you talk about price, and that's a whole separate discussion, I know Van Gogh threw out that earlier with that. Okay, so I'm not gonna, whatever. What you wanna be able to do is, when you get into delivering and asking for the business, I think of it as going up and back down the hill again. This is how I think, okay? Up the hill is where you're talking about the benefits, you're talking about whether or not you can connect. Up the hill is creating a value. Is everybody with me on that? Talk to the hills when you talk about what that compensation is going to be. Before you say anything else, you then go back down the hill, reiterating the value of the deliverables that they're going to get. Okay, so let me give you an example. What I'll say to people is, if we wanted people to come in our program on marketing or business in less than 90 days, we're gonna have three sessions, it's gonna be an hour of these, it's gonna be blah, blah, blah, but we're gonna be able to get you all this great stuff and that's gonna be for X dollars. Now, for X dollars, what you're gonna get is these sessions, the ability to do this and to be able to do that. Up and right back down the hill. I do not ask what they think. That's a killer question. What do you think? Oh! It's like a physical pain when I hear people say that. Okay, I ask people what they think because that's a left frame. People buy with their right-foot side, okay? So you say, well, how does this look to you? How does it feel like? Do you see this being something you can use? Do I make any sense with this? Okay, those are all up the hill, back down again, have the price be able to move and be able to do those types of things. So when you ask for the sale, you need to absolutely make sure that people are able to get what it is that you're doing and be able to move forward, all right? I'm gonna stick around afterwards. I told you a little bit before just so that I'm not a hypocrite. We do have a copy of our book and a CD. It's 20 bucks and if you want to be able to do that you can swing by over here. We even have a coaching certificate if you want to watch the package as well. Yes? Just one question. Okay. I'm kind of trying to figure out how do we talk about the sales? Yeah, kind of sales, sales. Can we talk about the one thing? We're gonna have to talk about that offline. That's cool because I don't have 10 seconds answer. But you'll be the first one there, we'll talk. Okay, everybody, that is awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry.