In this solo episode of Million Dollar Grit, Julie Chenell answers a client’s question: how to sign five new clients before the month ends. She frames the solution around an audience‑warmth foundation, using a solar‑system metaphor to describe three concentric rings of prospects – Mercury (past clients and leads), Venus (warm audience), Earth (broader followers). She outlines five concrete actions: (1) reach out to past clients with a simple, easy‑yes offer; (2) solicit referrals and introductions from generous network contacts; (3) launch a time‑limited “reason‑to‑reach‑out” email and social campaign with an irresistible offer; (4) engage heavily across platforms by replying to comments and messages to keep the orbit active; (5) host a free, no‑pitch workshop to generate live interaction and a soft pitch. She adds a sixth, high‑visibility step: publish a strong case study across all channels to pull prospects into the orbit. Throughout, Julie stresses building systems, tracking outreach volume, and maintaining perspective during slow periods, reminding listeners that change is constant and that a well‑nurtured audience reduces emergency client‑hunting. The episode blends tactical steps, mindset advice, and a structured framework for rapid client acquisition.
Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories, it's about the grit it takes to get there.
Hey, good morning. This is Julie. Welcome back to Million Dollar Grit today. I am going to tackle a question that I got in Voxer from one of my private clients. And she said, Julie, if I wanted to sign 5 clients by the end of the month, what should I do? And I thought, okay, awesome. This is going to be a great podcast episode because I think a lot of us can look at our balance statement, our bank account and go, crap, I've been so busy doing XYZ. I really, I really need some clients. And that sense of urgency can sometimes come on us and we're like, okay, we're ready to do the thing. And that's what I wanna talk about. One thing that I need to begin with, and this is really important, this is like a foundational principle, is that you need to be consistently producing content and keeping an audience warm. In the moment that you need clients, if you have literally no one around you, this is going to be difficult to do. and you need people that are in your orbit. Okay? I want you to think, like, about the solar system for a second. The Sun is the center of our solar system, and then you've got, you know, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, whatever. I can't remember the order of the next 3. I think it's Neptune, Uranus, Pluto. I think William would be proud of me. But think about, like, Mercury. Okay? That's the first circle. Around the sun. These are your, you know, your clients, your customers. These are people that are like really in your orbit. And then we go to Venus next, and that's people that maybe aren't your customers and clients yet, but they are definitely paying attention. They're on your email list, maybe they listen to your podcast. Then you've got Earth next, which would be people that maybe are following you but are not really— well, they don't really know you that well. And if you're starting this and you're like, oh, I need to listen to this episode because I need 5 clients by the end of this month, but you don't have an email list, you don't have long-form content, you don't have a social media presence, that's your first problem. Okay? Those things need to always be, uh, going because it's way easier to activate people who are already nearby, right? Who are in those like 3 rings around you than it is to build an audience from scratch. Always build an audience sooner than you need, if possible. And I'm following my own advice. I have a, you know, sheep farm that I'm building, and I started my YouTube, my TikTok, my Instagram, my Facebook page, and we are not going to be selling lambs for another year. That's giving me a year runway to build an audience and build some credibility in that market. And I realize some people don't have that. And that's okay. But again, if you're listening to this and you're like, crap, why should I do social media? Why should I take my time to do this? Because when you need to sign clients quickly, they're in your orbit. Okay. What are you going to do? Well, first, what I would do is I would start with the people that have already paid me money in the past. Okay. So I would go after past clients, people in my audience, people who have messaged me before, people who have emailed me, who've said, I want to work with you. Someday, and I would create just a simple easy yes offer designed for them. Let me give you an example. I have someone who was in my inbox and she was saying, you know, I think I wanna, I think I wanna start working on a webinar. For whatever reason, the timing wasn't right to work together. Well, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna reach out a couple weeks later. I'm gonna offer her an easy yes. Let's say a webinar audit. That is very clear for her. And that's what I would do. That's what, what I would consider like a direct offer to a past lead. The second thing I would do is look at the relationships I have in my network where I have been giving and generous, because it's way easier to make an ask when I've already been generous and just giving in other ways. So I would look and say, okay, Do you know what? Do you, could you make me an introduction? Or do you have any referrals? And I would go through those people next and see if I can get in touch with anybody. That's like the Mercury ring. Okay. Past clients, past leads, asking for introductions and referrals. Okay. The second thing I would do would be a, what I call a reason to reach out email campaign. And I would create some sort of irresistible offer and I would send it out. I would use email. and I would use the call to action, hit reply, and let me know if you're interested, and I would then begin having conversations with folks in email that were interested. I would also do a similar like story campaign on Instagram, possibly a post on Facebook where I would say, you know, comment below if you're interested, and I would work every single one of the replies that I get, and it could be like a simple easy yes offer. It could be a discount on my coaching. But it has to be like something that is in time, that is going to run out, that might, you know, expire just to get people to take action, right? Okay. Then, like, so that's Venus, right? So now we're going to go to Earth. The third ring out is I would be replying everywhere. Okay, reply, reply, reply, reply, reply. If you're in Facebook groups, if you're on X and LinkedIn, putting comments, even though these people may not become clients right away, what they're— what you're doing is you're warming up and you're activating people who, you know, maybe you're only going to get clients from, you know, past referrals, or I mean past clients or referrals, but those people that you're replying to may start following you and they might get on your email list and they might become part of that second ring. So I would do reply, reply, reply, and I would track how many times I replied in a day. Did I reply to 25 comments, 50 comments, right? And I would just keep track of that number. And sometimes it feels like leads fall out of the sky. I promise they don't fall out of the sky. You're just not making the connection. And you never know when one of those replies plies is going to create a connection that may do something along the line later. I read this article about— it's kind of on the idea of like 80% of our revenue comes from 20% effort, or, you know, in the music industry you have a hit on an album. Not every song is a hit, but one song is a hit. And it can be frustrating because when you're doing lead flow like this, when you're doing like sales, you might feel like you're wasting time because 9 times out of 10 people don't respond. But then there's one time when someone responds and that person happens to be a super connector. Maybe they work with you, maybe they give you a whole bunch of business, and you wouldn't have gotten that 1 out of 10 had you not, you know, prospected the 10. And the moral of the story is you have to create systems in your business whereby you can do the 10. You can easily throw your shot out there, but you're able to double down when that one hit comes instead of saying, oh, this sales system is broken because 9 out of 10 didn't respond. No, that's actually numbers. That's statistics. That's very, very common. So the reply, reply, reply is an easy way to start getting more activity on your accounts. And then the next thing I would do— where are we? We did Mercury, we did Venus, we did Earth. Now we're going to do Mars. Oh, I forgot Mars, I think. Then I would do a workshop. Not a webinar, a workshop. The only reason I'm saying that is because there are plenty of people who could easily do a webinar and sell right then and there. But the people who are doing webinars regularly often don't get cash-strapped quickly because they're doing a weekly webinar. You know what I'm saying? So it's just one of those funny things. But a workshop, like a free workshop with no pitch that you can do on the fly where you can send out a Zoom link, gets people— like gets you visible in front of people and can often start conversations. And you can do a very easy, like, soft pitch at the end. So I would do that. And then the last thing I would do that gets us out to Jupiter, I think, is that I would use one of my best visibility engines, whether it's my podcast or it's a YouTube or it's my blog, and I would publish the best case study I've got, and I would do some actual real work and make sure I've got the research down, and then I would use that piece of material in every possible way that I could. And those are the 5 things I would do to get clients. And the truth is that the majority of the clients are probably going to come from that Mercury, maybe that Venus, which is the Mercury is talking to past clients and the Venus is the reason to reach out. And that's probably where most of those clients— and so you may say, well, then it doesn't— I shouldn't worry about the reply, reply, reply. I shouldn't worry about the workshop, and I shouldn't worry about like the podcast or the YouTube case study. And you would be mistaken because those things are pulling people into your vortex. And it makes it less likely that you are gonna find yourself in the, oh crap, I need clients right now. And if you're listening to this and you're like, man, I'm already doing all this stuff and it's just slow, try to take a beat. You know, at the time of this recording, you know, we're on the brink of World War III. The world is kind of disruptive and messy right now. And sometimes it's just a slow month. Sometimes it's, just a slow season. And it's really important not to catastrophize what it means when things are slow right here and now, because it doesn't mean they'll be slow forever. We know that the only thing that doesn't change is change, right? Or the only thing constant is change, or whatever that saying is. And as sure as busy seasons will change into slow seasons, slow seasons will change into busy seasons, especially if you keep up with this kind of work. Talk to you soon.
And there you have it, folks, another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie Chenell, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.
