The 5 Conversations Every Entrepreneur Needs to Close More Deals

If you're anything like me and you're exhausted trying to keep up with algorithms, trying to post more, show up more, create more, and it still feels unpredictable, I have a solution for you today. I wanna offer you a different way to think about business growth because I believe that when things get complicated, the best thing to do, and this has worked for me for a long, long time, is to go back to basics. So over the last 6 months, I've been teaching a philosophy that has helped entrepreneurs to get out of that algorithm hamster wheel and back into something much more reliable and much more fun too. I call it conversations as currency, right? Talking to more people. Somewhere along the way, we were taught that visibility alone equals growth. We were taught that more content equals more clients. And that if you could just crack that elusive algorithm, everything's gonna work in your business. But here is the truth. Algorithms don't build trust. Funnels don't build relationships, and content alone doesn't close deals. Conversations do. This is especially true for those of you who are doing premium offers or high-ticket offers. So before social media— remember the time before social media? Before ads, before funnels, Businesses were built one conversation at a time, and that hasn't changed. So what has changed is that many entrepreneurs are spending their time creating content, a lot of content, trying to go viral, and they're creating content for people that they'll actually never talk to instead of having intentional conversations that lead to business development opportunities. And that is the lens through which we're going to see this today— generate business development opportunities. When you start treating conversations as currency, everything starts to shift. You stop asking, how do I get more views? How do I go viral? And you start asking a different question. And that different question is, which conversations will actually move my business forward? Because not all conversations are created equal. Conversations as Currency is based on one simple truth, and that is that every business benefits from high-quality, intentional conversations. Not, I'm feeling like a real business owner because I'm keeping myself really busy with calls. Calls. Not awkward persuasion selling calls, not chasing strangers calls, just the right conversations. And they're had on purpose. They're had with intent. There are 5 types of conversations that every entrepreneur needs in their business. And when you understand these and you actually start applying these, then you stop guessing and you start actually not only directing momentum but generating it yourself. So I'm going to give you the overview here and then I'm going to break each one down more deeply in future videos. But for today, I just wanted to give you the actual repertoire, right? What are the 5 videos that you, or the 5 conversations you should have? Keep in mind that for every one of these conversations, you can apply the 3-question high-trust relationship building framework that I have shared in another video, and I will link to it around this video and in the description as well. So let's get into it. Number 1, connection conversations, also known as coffee chat. These are relationship-first conversations, no pitch. The only agenda is getting to know more about the other person than they get to know about you. It's not always possible, but you try for that. They're about building rapport, building trust, getting to know who they are and understanding them at a deeper level. It's a touchpoint to start understanding who this person is. And I like to say that there are two lengths of coffee chats. You can have an initial 15-minute coffee chat for first-time connections or a longer 30 to 45-minute coffee chat for a second touchpoint. You can use both or either or. Now, for me personally, I like— I record all of my calls. I like to record them with Fathom because it generates an AI summary and it also generates a transcript, which I really love to be able to go back and remind myself of who that person was when I had that conversation. Now, if you want to add a layer of sophistication and automation to your business, you can connect your Fathom to your CRM, and then from there you can track your conversations as opportunities, and then you'll know exactly where you are in your relationship building process because it will be laid out in front of you. If you'd like to know which CRM we use in our business, then you'll find the link in the description of this video. So the first conversation is to be able to have that connection conversation. The second one is validation, validation conversations. These are conversations where you conduct market research, or say you, for example, have a new offer that you're considering putting out into the market. You want to do market research before you create it. You can use this to gather insights on your marketing as well. So think of it as I'm trying to validate something and find out if people want this thing or if I'm barking up the right tree. At IconMaker, we call them validation calls, and our clients do a process with reading a script and asking 11 questions in order to determine desire for the proposed solution that they're looking to offer and that we create for them in our program. Right? So validation conversations. Remember that for each of these conversations, I'm going to have a more in-depth video on each of them on my channel. We're just reviewing what the 5 types of conversations are. So validation conversations is where great offers are validated, not just invented out of thin air without any market research to back it up. No data. Strategy conversations is the third one. This is also known as sales calls, right? We need to be making sales in our businesses. These are conversations where clarity is created. In our world, We use these, we call them strategy sessions, to screen, qualify, and award people into a high-ticket offer. Okay, if you are selling high-ticket, you're selling maybe premium offers, you're going to want to provide people with a strategy conversation as a way of understanding them more deeply, their desires, their goals, and the gap, and helping to solve that gap, helping to solve that problem. And it also builds massive credibility for you and trust with the person that you're talking to. So you're not convincing necessarily, right? You're not pressuring them. You're just giving them some insight. This is often where people realize that they wanna work with you when you actually strategize with them for real. The fourth conversation is partnership conversations. These conversations lead to collaboration, to referrals, joint venture opportunities. Iconmaker was born from a partnership conversation. These have the flexibility of going in any number of different directions. The idea here is to have a conversation about how we can collaborate, how can we play together, how can we partner, what can we build together so that we have a win-win outcome for all parties involved. This is how businesses scale without relying on algorithms, right? We believe strongly in referral partnerships joint venture relationships. And then the 5th one is platform conversations. These are conversations that lead to visibility through trust, like podcasts, stages, communities, guest speaking opportunities, mastermind speaking opportunities, sponsored talks, discussion about lead generation talks, being a guest faculty member in someone's program. Any number of ways you could go with this. Platforms, borrowed credibility, beats cold traffic every single time. And when you know which type of conversation that you're having, you actually stop forcing outcomes. You're no longer asking, how do I sell this person, right? How do I sell, sell, sell this person? And start asking, what kind of conversation is needed next, right? Relationship building. That's where the alignment here replaces pressure. This is also where monetization becomes a lot simpler. When you're having more conversations. Every one of those conversations naturally leads to one of three outcomes, and I call this the 3P monetization strategy. I have another video on this channel that will go into more depth on the 3 Ps, but essentially they are patron, partner, or platform. And that's the lens through which you wanna see those conversations, right? Always be asking yourself, where is this leading? Like, where's the potential? This is the 3P monetization strategy. And again, I've done a video on it. I'll link it around this one as well. So with this strategy that I'm sharing with you today, these 5 conversations, there's nothing random about this. There's nothing forced about this. This philosophy is for coaches, consultants, service-based entrepreneurs who are frankly fed up and done with chasing those algorithms and ready to build a business that is based on trust, clarity, and actually, you know, actual real relationships, real relationships in business. So if this resonates with you, I'd love to know which conversation do you think that you've been avoiding? Be honest with yourself. Which one have you been avoiding? And if you want the next video where I break down each conversation type step by step, make sure that you're subscribed to my channel. And because at the end of the day, Listen, at the end of the day, businesses don't grow from content alone, especially in a world where the algorithms are against us. They grow from conversations. So I encourage you to get out there and apply these 5 conversations to your business. And I would very much love to know how it goes for you and what results you see.