The $25K Opportunity Sitting in Your Network

Let’s say that you needed to generate $25,000 bucks, an additional $25,000 outside of anything else that you’re earning in the next 30 days. You might think if I need to make some extra money, I need to create new funnels, new offers, new ads, new content, etc. But really, for that amount of money, what you really might need is just better conversations with the right people. Right now, you may not realize this, but you know people that could hire you for your services. You know them. They could refer you. Right now, you know people that could refer you somebody that needs your help right now. You have past clients that could re-engage with you or buy again. You have prospects that said no, that are ready to get started. Like, you have all of that. But this opportunity, it often gets missed. It gets missed because like thinking about those that are in our network is like this massively underutilized asset. Too many of us focus on strangers instead of on relationships. I had a very high level client come into town just this past week and uh and we met end of last week actually. We met at uh up in Paneavidra uh right near TPC Srass. He’s there for a big conference and um and so we met for a cigar at a cigar bar. He’s a cigar guy. I’m a cigar guy. So we met. We never met um in person before. We’ve only met online. And he was referred to me by a really dear friend of mine, Todd Herman. And uh and we got, you know, started talking and I mean, oh man, just so much joy in that conversation. I mean, so many things in common, backgrounds, all that kind of stuff. And we start talking about speaking engagements. and he’s like he’s like, “You know what? I I I want He does an event with over a thousand people at his event. He’s a he’s a a coach in the real estate industry and um has over a thousand clients, so paying clients that pay him five figures plus. So very very big business.” And I didn’t even know I didn’t even know he ran a big event every year. He’s like, “Oh, will you please come and speak at my event?” I’m like, “Okay.” You know, I’m looking for events to speak at. You know, I’m being a little bit discriminating on that. Like, I want to speak at the right event with the right audience and with the right people in the audience. My kind of people. But here is somebody in my network, right? In my network that I didn’t even know he had an event. and he’s asking me to speak at his event when, you know, probably 2 3 months ago, 6 months ago, I could have had the same conversation with him if I realized it or even if I just opened it up. The reality is the people that we like most easily overlook can be our warm relationships. So, let let’s talk really quickly about who I mean by that. So when I say network or warm relationships, here’s just kind of some broad definition of it. So that could be your past clients, that could be your current clients just like I shared about my buddy and uh that could be prospects who never bought and we have so many with bestseller publishing of people that came into our funnel, bought my books, tens of thousands prospects who never bought. They could be referral partners. They could be friends in business like great relationships. It could be, and this is kind of an extended network, but yes, it could be relationships on social media, relationships on Facebook or LinkedIn. Certainly, it’s your email subscribers. It’s people that already trust you, right? People that already have at least maybe on a scale of 1 to 10, a level five, six relationship with you. And all of those people have that or greater with you. your next best client probably already knows you and you probably already know them. So, we we’ve got to lock in on this and look for ways to like get these conversation starter started. So, number one, let me give you what your massive, incredible, hugest advantage is if you have a book. Now, if you don’t get it done, okay? Get it done fast because your book is your massive advantage with your warm network. You see, without a book, like reaching out to somebody feels like, hey, you know, just checking in. I mean, it feels weak, right? It it doesn’t feel it feels needy. It doesn’t feel like you have anything to offer. With a book, you have something to offer. Hey, John. I wanted to to send you something that I just released. I thought of you when I wrote this chapter or this story in this chapter made me think of you. This might be helpful where you are right now. When you have a book, you have a real reason to connect with somebody in your network that could lead to tremendous opportunities for you. You see, a book a book is valuable. It’s not an out a weak outreach of like, hey, just, you know, wanting to check in. No, it’s it’s thoughtful. It’s relevant. It produces conversations naturally. And of course, it builds your authority instantly. It gives you a reason to reach out without feeling salesy. Okay. I I have a couple um people that were referred to me in the past six months and um very high level folks that like you would know companies that they sold for hundreds of millions of dollars and these people absolutely want to do a book but they’re so busy and they got so much going on. So we’ve just maintained a casual relationship. We’re now at the level where you know what the next step for me is to say, “Hey, you know, I don’t know if you ever got a copy of my book, but I’d love to send it to you. Give me your address. I’m going to send you a copy of my book.” And I’m going to do that with a sticky note right on it, something specific for them to read because I do know where they’re stuck and a cover letter. And you know what? That could be the very thing that gets them over the edge. A book gives you a reason to do that without it being like a text where you’re like going, “Hey, you know, just checking in.” No, no, weak. We want to be strong, right? We We want to approach this from authority. All right, that’s number one. Number two, here is like steps. Let me give you some ABCD steps of a simple 25K, 100K, 500K strategy. I mean, I have clients. I I have their books right on my desk. I mean, Pamela Moss Garrett did this strategy, $60,000 in the first 60 days. Jennifer Edgars did this strategy, $500,000 over a two-year period using this simple strategy. So, what are we going to do? So, step number one, identify 20 to 50 people, like real names, real relationships and contacts. Just start small. If you go, “Oh, 50 sounds like so many.” Start with 20. Make a list of them. They could be your past clients. I gave you the long list of of who this is. past clients, prospects, uh referral partners, uh people that respect you, respect your work, right? People on your email list or or people that you’re connected with on social media that you just know that there’s perhaps opportunity there for you to help each other. Identify those people, 20 to 50 people. That’s number one. Number two, reach out with value. Right? Use your book as the bridge that we’re talking about right now. It could be um you know, hey, I I finished this book recently. You may not know it, but wow, it it’s always been a dream of mine to write and publish a book. It’s done. I’d love to to send a copy of it to you because I thought of you. You’re not asking them to buy anything. You’re actually going to give it to them. You could say, “Oh, there’s a section in it. There’s a story in it. There’s something in it that I think applies to what you’re currently doing. I would love to get your thoughts.” Right? You’re using the book to reach out with value because you already know, right, of these you made the list. These are 20 to 50 people that you made the list of. You know, you can help them. You know that there’s synergy there. You know there’s opportunity there. You reach out with value. You start a conversation from that. You don’t pitch them immediately. Hey, did you get a chance to read my book? I’m ready to sell you something. No. No. Right. Start with curiosity. Ask questions. What are you focused on right now? What’s the biggest challenge you’re dealing with? Whatever it is as related to your book, right? If you’re sending a book about Roth conversion secrets, then you’re asking about Roth conversion secrets, right? You’re asking about something one specific maybe financial challenge or since retirement or whatever. Again, your list is going to be specific to your network and what it is that you do. From there, you identify the opportunity. As they respond, you listen. They should do most of the talking, not you. If you’re doing most of the talking, I promise you, they’re not interested. My dad taught me this a long time ago. He said, “Rob, in sales and in life, the person that is talking the most is the most interested.” And that is always true. So, if you’re trying to build a friendship, you’re trying to help somebody, you’re trying to get a client, you should be the one asking questions. They should be the one talking. You should be the one listening. So, let them respond. Find, listen for problems that you can solve, frustrations, gaps, whatever it is, opportunities, and then make a simple offer. You should have an offer already. We talk enough about offers. So, you should have an offer already. If you don’t, then, you know, it could be like something simple, right? It could be uh you know, hey, would it be helpful if we kind of talked through this and saw, you know, look to see where maybe we could help? I mean, that’s not a specific offer, but at least it’s the next step. It’s a bridge to the potential next step. You could say something like, you know, I’ve helped others with this exact issue. We could map this out together. We could strategize how to get you from point A to point B. Right? The goal is not to push here. The goal is to start the conversation and invite somebody. And this is remember people already in your network, but people that see that you’re an authority in this space because of the book that you sent, because of the relationship that you’ve built. Here are some numbers and some ideas of how this could work. If you reached out to 30 people and these are people in your network and 10 respond, that’s kind of a low response rate, but let’s let’s just say that 10 respond. If two to three of them become clients, that’s easily 20 $25,000. If you had a higher ticket offer, it could be a lot more than that. You don’t need like scale. You need movement. You need getting the right people into conversations. Don’t hope that like somebody comes across your book and finds it. They’re in your network already because of who you are. Get them the book. When Pamela did this, she sent out a larger number of these books, somewhere in the 100 to 120 range. It led to $60,000 in revenue, $5,000 at a time. It led to 12 opportunities, 12 new clients from that. I don’t know exactly how many conversations it led to, probably more conversations than the 12 that actually got started. maybe double that, maybe triple that number, maybe even some got started after the 60 days. The point is there was movement, there was action, people within the network saw how she could help, they see how you can help, and they begin to get started or at least take some step in that direction. So, what are what are some mistakes that we need to avoid along this path? Well, this is something ideally I’d love for you to do as soon as your book is published, as soon as it’s out. Okay, you don’t need to wait too long for this. Now, if you haven’t done anything like this and your book was published some time ago, don’t sweat it. You can still do this because your book is still relevant. I published my book seven plus years ago. I still send it out to people. It’s still relevant. So, get it out there. Another big mistake people wait is it make is they wait too long to follow up. Yes, when you send a book, you need to be the one to follow up. Ask them, did they have a chance to look at it? Did you look at the chapter that I mentioned to you, etc. Make sure that you follow up and that you don’t wait too long. Now, you always have to make an offer. A big mistake would be not leading it to make some kind of offer. They need to be the one to say that they’re not interested or that they’re not going to move in that direction or that they don’t need your help. But, God forbid that you should not make an offer that they can’t actually take you up on if they potentially do want your help. You don’t need to sound perfect. You don’t need to overthink this and you need to make sure you have the conversation. Most of these opportunities don’t die because you’re terrible at sales or you hate sales. Most of these things die because people don’t do them because of inaction. So don’t think about sales. Think about helping people, serving people. Don’t worry about rejection. You’re there to help and your book will go before you and do that work. So some practicals, some kind of next steps for you like take the first step. Start with 20 people, 25 people somewhere in that range. Write them down who they are. Choose five to contact immediately. You know that’s that’s part of you. You hear these numbers from me over and over and over again. That’s part of our speaking engagement strategy. Send five books a week. Now these are cold. These aren’t to your warm network. How much better in your warm network? Send the book. Send a message first. the message I mentioned to you, you know, hey, just thought of you. Just did something that I’d always dreamt of doing or my book just hit bestseller or you know what, something happened and I I thought of you and I wanted to get you a copy of my book. Start the conversation. Make an offer. If you don’t have any leads, now you do. Okay? Now you have an opportunity. Now you have some leads in front of you. If you already have leads, then guess what? You probably have a huge number of people in your warm network that have a semblance of a relationship with you and they would like to take the next steps with you. Let’s give them that opportunity. And you use your book and it feels strong. It feels like it comes from a place of authority and that’s exactly what we want to have.