How I got leads without paying for them

When I was 32, I got laid off from a dream job. Prior to that, I said I would never be A) a business owner B) a sales person. I believed I was made for corporate America.

I was working in for a large corporation. They are listed in the top 50 of the Fortune 500 list. I was part of a small team building specialty departments to expand their reach into more niche aspects of the industry they serve. I believed I was made for corporate life. I was making a lot of money.

I never wanted to be a business owner. And an extension of that... I never wanted to be in sales. I was allowing corporate America to pile on stress to avoid the alternative

The stress of it was causing me to wake up nauseous in the middle of the night. But money and status were things I believed were what life was about. I kept going. Young kids. Little to no sleep. Social life was dwindling. My job took over all aspects of my life.

One day, someone walked in my office, closed the door and told me to pack my things. Our business unit had lost a major contract, and a restructure was taking place. My role was consolidated into another role, and my time was up.

I left there that day feeling a very odd sense of relief mixed heavily with excitement. It was in that moment that I realized the amount of stress that I had been under because it was immediately erased.

I had no idea what was ahead, but I knew that a massive change in my life was about to take place.

After playing the unemployment game for a few weeks I realized that I could play around in my community, find a little bit of work, and make more money than unemployment was paying. So I made some phone calls and got to work.

I started doing the 2 things that I said I never wanted to do or be. I started a business. I became a business owner. And naturally had to become a sales person. The irony of the story is that i quickly realized that neither were what I thought they were. And in fact, I came to be so passionate about both that my business ownership took me into coaching others using my education and experience as the backdrop.

For me, sales was about convincing other people to buy a product.

I was offering a service. I learned that sales is more about identifying needs and finding opportunities to serve others. But sales is a downline exchange.

When business development is performed properly, sales is a seamless exchange. I developed an addiction to business development. I became passionate about connecting my network and referral partners with like minded people who could serve one another. When I started doing that, the leads started pouring in. The sale was done before the phone rang. Once the phone rang it was a matter of schedule and making sure that the cost of service was discussed.

I've become so passionate about building communities by empowering business owners to leverage their business as an asset that I'm creating a course to help contractors of all types learn my Dartboard Marketing methods. There will be an emphasis on Restoration Contractors, but this skill set can be applied to any contracting business.

Sometimes all it takes is blocking an hour of your day to have a coffee or a beer with someone in an effort to build a relationship with them. They don't have to be your best friend. But they should be someone that is aligned with your desire to build your community. If they are aligned, then there will be mutual benefit in growing together. There is an old quote that says, "High tides raise all ships". Be a ship seeking high tides. Get together with others that are seeking high tides. Collaborate to build one another up.

If you are interested in hearing more about my Dartboard Marketing course, please send me a DM or subscribe to our blog notifications to get updates when it is published.

Take control of your business. Embrace Restopruenership™️ and business development to build meaningful connections and grow your business.