…and the two questions that were my most powerful takeaways from this Thought Leader Business Summit…

Hey there! We have just finished the Thought Leader Business Summit. I’ve been here with fifty of the industry’s leading thought leaders, highly successful coaches and entrepreneurs. And I wanted to share some of the takeaways and tips and best practices that we talked about from day two and three. We were so jam-packed for the past two days it’s hard to keep track of it all, but here’s the highlights that I want to make sure you have for your business.

We spent a lot of time talking about the criteria for referral partners. A lot of times we see in businesses that people are just like: “give me a referral, any referral, and anybody that wants to pass me a referral.” That’s great and that can be a great place to start. And as you evolve, it becomes very important to pay attention to what type of referral partner is going to send you, not only a good quantity of leads and referrals and new clients, but good quality as well. So really pay attention to what kind of referral partner is the ideal referral partner for yourself.

Another thing that we talked about – and we spent quite a bit of time of this on day two – was making sure that you take time to acknowledge what got you here. Especially as coaches we spend so much of our time with our clients looking forward, and what’s the next goal, what’s the next desire, where’s the nex t transformation, that we forget to take stock of what got us here. We wentaround the room and there was over 50 different elements that people listed. And when you can do this in a group like in a mastermind, or a group coaching setting, or within a circle of trusted colleagues and confidants, you will have ideas that maybe something that got your colleague to where they are right now, maybe you haven’t tried that yet. And it can be a source of inspiration for new strategies to grow and expand your business. But take time to acknowledge where you are and what got you here.

Another trend that we talked about was that the market, the buyers, people looking for transformation in their lives, they’re yearning for a deeper, more personal connection. So how can you usedifferent tools and resources at your fingertips to create more personal contact, communication and interraction. We talked a lot about using Facebook Messenger and different chat tools to create that know-like and trust factor as you’re building the relationships, that might be something that you could integrate into your business as well.

And then we spent a large amount of time – I’ve got my notes here because I don’t want to miss a tip or a best practice – but we spent a lot of time on looking at your sales team. Now you might be sitting there saying: “Melinda I’m just getting started. I don’t have a sales team.” I totally get it! You are the sales team. So whether you’re the only sales team, or you have one or two people or a whole team helping you, spend time every week to look at your sales team. What is working, what’s not, what do you need to do differently. Take stock with where you are right now and get a baseline for how you are converting prospects into paying clients, and then identify steps that you can improve and enhance along the way to increase your efficiency. This was a big eye-opener for me.

We have a sales team, but we have coaches that help us with our clients to make the next right decision for them coming into our programs. And we don’t spend as much time consciously looking at how can we better support our community, and making those decisions for themselves.

Then we spent a lot of time mixing business with pleasure – you know that’s one of the values that I have; how can you mix business and pleasure. The first night we got dressed up as if we were going to the Oscars, and we had dinner on a private yacht going around the San Diego Bay. It was so much fun to connect with our colleagues in that way, and just have a fun evening together. Andthen the second night we had a little pijamma party. So people are in their yoga outfits, and they’re in sweatpants, and just some comfortable clothes. And we go to this place together, and we’reall piled into a living room. And a Mentalist comes and we just have an extraordinary mind-blowing event! Think of the movie “Now you see me” – I think that’s the name of it, yeah. And this guy was in that movie, and in the second movie – he was a consultant for it – and it was incredible how our minds blown! And the message that he gave to us is: “with your clients, don’t only give them what they expect, but go beyond what they expect, surprise and delight and dazzle them beyond what they’re expecting from you. That’s where powerful referral partners are created, that’s where raving fans are created.”

Then we had day three. I want to share a couple quick tips before I head out. I got ahead to the airport to head back home to Virginia. But one of the things that we talked about in the morning of day three was something called “entrepreneurial burnout”. Are you experiencing this? And the key characteristic that we identified, that leads to entrepreneurial burnout – and this is when you start resenting you passion, and feeling guilty about the gifts, and not loving what you’re doing. And that is… it’s when you’re doing it all. Right? When you are doing everything! And it’s important to really pay attention to where can you leverage your superpowers and your gifts, and where can you get other resources. And that might mean to create more efficiency in your back end; it might mean add more automation to some of your funnels; it might mean bring on a virtual assistant or some other team members to help you. But as you grow, you must be conscious of your entrepreneurial burnout, or it will get the best of you, and you won’t be successful. And that’s not what we want.

And then we spent the afternoon talking about leveraging stages to get in front of your audience. This is one of my favorite topics! I’m brand new at speaking on stages. We’ve been virtual for 14 years, and I just love being in front of large groups of our people that are struggling with the same challenges, and want the same results. And how can I support them in their journey? And so we spent a lot of time. So how can you leverage sales, whether it’s in your local area, at associations, whether it’s at a regional area, at conferences, maybe a national level, public speaking, maybe your own events that you’re doing? Or like this, on Facebook live. Like where are your stages, so you can be seen and be heard? The world needs your voice, the world needs your presence, the world needs your gifts. Get yourself out there!

And then we wrapped up with my two favorite questions of the entire event: who do you need to become for your dreams to be a reality? And the first question that we asked ourselves was: what do I need to let go of that’s keeping me playing small, maybe keeping me stuck, maybe keeping me in a story that’s no longer serving me? What do I need to let go of? And we all really contemplate it and meditated on that for a while.

And then the second question was: what do I need to take on? What skills, what mindsets, what perspectives do I need to take on to support me in my journey? Make sure you’re asking yourself those two questions as you continue on your journey.

Here’s to your success! Make sure you’re mixing business with pleasure. And post below what are some of the things that you need to let go of? What are the saint’s some of the things that you need to take on to become the next greatest version of the next grandest vision that you can have for yourself? I can’t wait to hear about it!