The Golden Link Strategy

Today I'm going to share one of my favorite ways to generate leads and grow your business. And the best part is you don't have to run any ads or buy any fancy marketing services. This is the Launch your business podcast because we know starting a business is challenging, but it doesn't have to be confusing. Each week we'll give you the tactical advice and the necessary tools to scale your business with without feeling burnt out. I'm Terry Rice, business development consultant and staff writer here at Entrepreneur Magazine. Let's dive in. You may have heard this story from me before and actually hate telling it, but it highlights a point that I want to make today. I once spent two weeks cold emailing members of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and my goal was to hop on a call with them and tell them about my services. I got one positive response that made me $100, so that was clearly disappointing. But I did not give up on the Chamber of Commerce. Instead, I emailed them directly saying, hey, can I put on a free event for your members? They said yes. They then promoted me to the same database. I spent weeks cold calling. 60 people showed up for the event and I got two clients that made me $4,000. So quick math will tell you that approach worked better and faster. That's when I discovered what I now call the golden link. These are the organizations that have access to your potential clients and could be partners in exchange for the value that you provide to them. And in this case, it's a speaking topic that will be relevant to their community. I'm going to explain how you can take advantage of the same process by creating and pitching valuable speaking topics to relevant organizations. The first thing is you want to create your speaking topic. And there are three parts to crafting an engaging speaking topic. There's the title, description and key takeaways. So let's walk through this process. The first is determine a valuable topic you can present to your audience. And to get started, think about a powerful transformation you can provide in about 30 to 60 minutes. What should your audience do, think or know that would be helpful? Then create a title that speaks to these outcomes. It could be as simple as five common mistakes solopreneurs make and how to avoid them. Here's how I think about creating an intention grabbing title. Pretend your Persona your target audience is walking down a busy street in Manhattan and they see a newspaper stand. What would have to be written on one of the covers in order for them to stop walking? Pick it up and read it. You want to have that kind of attention grabbing headline for your topic as well. Then jot down the key takeaways. What are three to five things they'll learn from your talk? You'll use these takeaways to structure your presentation and describe your topic. Be sure to state what they'll learn and why it's important and on your end, to make things easier in the show notes, I'll have a few examples of topics that you can use for inspiration based on your key takeaways. In the topic, you're going to write the event description and I often use the following four step framework. I'm going to use that Solopreneur talk as an example. First is the situation. What is going on? And in this case we're talking about common mistakes solopreneurs make. Next up, the complication. What makes it even more challenging? Gosh, as a solopreneur, you have no one to rely on but yourself and it's difficult to move forward without this critical information. After that, a question Given this issue and the associated challenges, how can you solve it? And you're literally going to say so what's a solopreneur to do? Next up, the answer. And that's the information you provide in your talk. I also suggest adding a relevant statistic or quote from a thought leader to increase your credibility. That way it's not just you saying how important this topic is. So now you have your topic ready. Make a list of the organizations that have access to your target audience and are seen as a trusted source of information. It could be a public library, a chamber of commerce, a college or university, executive education programs, apps, tools or products that your audience uses. And then lastly, accelerators or niche groups they might belong to. You know your audience better than I do, but this should get you off to a good start. And as a heads up, you'll be much more likely to get a yes if they're already offering live workshops to their audience. Just Get Started if you've ever looked for tips on launching a business, just get started seems to come up a lot. And while that's vaguely motivational, it does not provide any real direction. Because the next logical question for anyone would be, well, how do I get started? What specifically should I do? Well, if you're looking to quickly start a business without the confusion, risk and pressure of doing something entirely new, I've got a solution for you. It's called the Solopreneurs Fast Track a step by step process on how to start a business using the skills you already have and actually enjoy using. So let's say your favorite part of a previous job was email marketing. You'll learn how to start a business offering other companies advice on how they can improve their email marketing. Or maybe you are really good at integrating complicated tech tools. You can help other organizations do the same thing without the need to bring on a full time hire. So the main point here is that everything you need to start a business is already within you. You don't need a cool website or fancy tools. And by completing the course, you'll also discover a simpler approach for attracting clients without using complicated funnels or cheesy sales tactics. You can finish it over a weekend and start making money in as little as 30 days. You'll gain the clarity and confidence you need to start your business and receive a one page business plan so you can immediately apply what you've learned. Get started today and receive a 20% discount by heading to TerryRice Co fast. That's TerryRice Co fast. So now that you have your topic and organizations to identify, your next step is to find the contact person for you to pitch your topic to again. If the organization is already offering events, you might be able to find their information by visiting the events page or staff directory. They'll usually have something along the following words in their events Content, Education Coordinator, Partnerships, Programming and if you're not seeing anything there, you can also try to find the right person on LinkedIn. Just go to the company profile, go to the People section and put in those titles I referenced in a search bar. Once you identify these individuals, go to their profile and hit the button that says Contact Info. They might have their email address there. If so, great, we'll chat about how to use that shortly. If not, you'll send a connection request. And as a heads up, if you're reaching out to them on LinkedIn, check their activity to see if they've been engaging on the platform lately. If they have not posted or engaged in the last month, find someone else from their organization because they're never going to see your message. And whether you're reaching out via LinkedIn or email, keep your pitch super short. Focus on the value that you can provide their audience. Don't just talk about yourself the whole time. Here's an example. Hi, I'm reaching out to see if you ever partner with external experts to speak to your community. I have a short talk, five Common Mistakes Solopreneurs make and how to Avoid Them that I believe will be a great fit for your community. This talk will help them avoid wasting time and money is this something you'd be interested in? You'll have to slightly shorten this if you're sending a connection request on LinkedIn, there's a 300 character limit and you should include a sentence or two about yourself if you're reaching out via email. As a heads up, you might pitch 5, 10, or even 20 organizations with no response. You're gonna want to give up. Don't. It may take some time, but once you do get that yes, it becomes much easier the next time around. Once you land your first event, you want to focus on two goals. 1. Provide valuable content. 2. Give your audience a reason to contact you. You provide valuable content by simply delivering on all the promises that you made in the key takeaways of your talk. In regards to getting people to contact you, there are several ways you can encourage them to do so. The easiest is to offer a copy of your presentation in exchange for their email address. You can also provide a valuable resource or guide that aligns with your expertise, also known as a lead magnet. Or encourage them to book a discovery call, also known as a sales call. The most important thing is to overtly state that they can hire you, but do so in a way that naturally flows within the conversation, for example, saying and if you need help with this, that's what I do for my clients. This same process has worked for me and several of my clients over the years, and the best part is the more people you get in front of, the more people that tell their network about you too. So you can also grow by getting referrals from the audience that hears you speak. And I want to bring something up just in case you don't feel comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. The more you do it, the easier it gets. And beyond that, everyone is there to learn from you, so even if you slip up a little bit, they'll overlook it because they know that you're there to provide them with value that's going to help them. And that's our show for today. And by the way, if there's anything you want me to talk about on a future episode, reach out. You can contact me at terryrice Co or on Instagram at Terryrice. Apply what you've learned on today's show. You'll find the show notes and more resources at TerryRice Co Podcast. Again, that's TerryRice Co Podcast. And the best way to support this podcast is by subscribing, telling a friend, and leaving a review. Also, you can get more tips by following me on Instagram @TerryRice or follow me on LinkedIn. This episode was produced by Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Dan Lardy. Special thanks to my wife, Dominique, for keeping our kids relatively quiet as I recorded. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.