This is the third installment in this particular series of articles sharing the importance of doing the right kind of research that will get your business/career efforts working for you in the most efficient, effective manner. We started Part 1 with sharing the very first, but most involved, step - which involved a lot of research. Then in Part 2 we had you create keywords about you from a professional view, and develop a contact list.
By the time you completed Part 2 you might be feeling a bit exhausted and wondering if this is worth it. It is worth it ! In fact you may find it encouraging to know that this time you have invested in researching and doing these homework assignments will result data that can be reused in multiple ways for decades to come. This data will be essential for effective online activities, the wording that you use in posts, articles, advertising and copy writing. This is why we really encourage you to take the time to really get creative here with your data collection... nothing is insignificant at this point.
Just what do you do with all this data?
Let's start with the data you gathered for the 3rd assignment: the contact list. Today, your homework is to reach out to each person on that contact list. There is no rush, take your time and really think about how you want to approach each individual.
To do this you need to create the goal of setting aside one-hour sessions at a time, working it into your current schedule so that the task becomes do-able.
Set a goal of reaching out to 5 people on your list every single week. Again, take this slowly, work systematically and always keep long-term networking in mind.
If you are using a spreadsheet, as we suggested, then it is easy to use a color code for the people you reached out to. Pale blue means you reached out. Green means they responded positively. You'll need to have one more box available to take notes about that conversation so you can refer to it later. The notes can be in bullet format. For example here are the notes I have for one contact in my list:
Met Nov 21 '22; had a chat re: networking options Nov. 29 - she runs 2 blogs: Wild Creations Stories and Wild Spire. Interviewed for the Wild Spire Podcast on Dec. 13 * She might be a Brummet's Conscious Blog guest re: entrepreneur, podcast host interviews; sent the coaching genre interview q's Dec. 12. Podcast interview was published August 20 '23: https://youtu.be/7Ezl4bqyr00 & her blog post for it: https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/living-consciously
Now when I come back in 6 months time I can see at a glance my history with that person and can communicate with her in a much more informed and professional manner.
Likely this initial contact list is going to include folks that may not be an obvious fit for your business. Reach out to them none-the-less.
You might email the person who came to fix your gas and let them know what you appreciate about them, that you kept their card just in case and would recommend them anytime. Perhaps you can share the information to a resource, group, or event that they might benefit from. If you can offer them something, do that now. In our situation, because we feature World Of Entrepreneurship interviews on the Brummet's Conscious Blog we might offer this to them. Now is the time to come in with the "By The Way" aspect of the letter where you atlk about your work, your product really briefly.
"By the way, I just released a novel which I'm super excited about, maybe you know someone who enjoys reading / would like to attend my upcoming event... here's my links and a list of ways we might be able to network. I absolutely love networking, if there is any way we can network in the future, do let me know".
Now if the person is close to you such as a friend or family member you'll obviously leave the business language out and write a more personal letter. Once you've had a nice little chat you'd come in with something along the lines of:
"Hey I was just thinking of you, and recalling when you talked so enthusiastically about your adventure. How are you? Here's what has been going on in my life and I'm super excited to share with you this new adventure... here's my links. I absolutely love networking, and am looking for any leads. If you hear of anyone or hear of anything that may pertain to my situation or if there is any way that you and I can network in the future, do let me know. It would be super cool if your family would consider my books when it comes to shopping for xmas gifts."
While you systematically go through that contact list and become more comfortable with the process, take a look at the schedule and see if you can squeeze in another hour or two where you can concentrate and not be distracted in anyway. Use that time to examine the keyword phrases you have come up. *It is helpful to sort the data alphabetically to eliminate any accidental repetition. What we want to do here is examine each line and really think about a few "talking points" - experiences, skills, stories or thoughts that you have to share on that particular topic. Create a new spreadsheet with these talking points. Later on you'll organize these talking points into similar genres. Talking points, for instance, about your upbringing. You might create one page that has talking points about starting your own business, another page of talking points regarding balancing home life while running business. And so on.
These talking points will come in very handy whenever a casual conversation begins with someone. They might be interested in one topic that you can speak to them about and that conversation then leads to what you do for a living, etc. Applying for speaking gigs or sending quest queries to podcasts or blogs, reaching out to organizations, writing articles, blog content... there really is a wide array of options, ways that you can use those talking points to benefit your business.
Remember when I said "nothing is insignificant"? You'll discover the truth in that statement when you being sending queries to the media. Perhaps the fact that you are a grandfather is just the thing that opens the door for you - you have some amusing stories, helpful advice, encouraging personal insight, skills you learned or relearned in your journey as a grandfather. Maybe you have great ideas for things to do when grandchildren are visiting, help for dealing with divorced parents or foster kids or step-grandchildren... or anything else that you may come up with. Each of those becomes a talking point that you can propose to various podcasts that focus on different aspects of being a grandparent. The host will use your bio, share your links, they will ask about your books/services/business - but the topic will be your experience as a grandfather.
Let's look at this in another way... Maybe your talking point will focus on the struggle you had with character development, or the research you did to enhance scene creation, or a section in the book was inspired by an experience you had.
Ok so lets look at using these lists in another way: Maybe a character in your book is a fisherman ...so perhaps you could do a book signing at a sporting goods outlet. Maybe you could offer your book as a door prize at an event put on by non-profits and community projects that focus on wetlands, healthy waterways, restocking fish, etc.
Do this project, and each step in this series, slowly - methodically - thoughtfully - carefully. Pace out the activities so that you are not rushed and avoid burn out.
Watch for the closing article in this series on October 14th.
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