Everybody Needs More Leads

I am. I mean it, whatever. And I really mean that for just about anything in life. Listen, if you let your life be ruled by what other people think, your life is not good.

It is the Daily Boost. My name is Scott Smith. Good to have you here today. Thanks for stopping by. And yesterday, of course, a very different show for me.

I was going to apologize for mispronouncing all those Greek words, but now why? It's not going to do any good anyway. I figure if your life got thrown off track because Scott can't pronounce a Greek word and that caused you to miss all the good stuff between the mispronunciations, I ain't your huckleberry anyway.

I've just never cared. I know there are people I've had coaching clients that care so much about certain itty bitty little things like that. They can't get what they want.

And I just sit back and wait. I do. I'll wait a year or two or three and wait until they finally hit the ball and go, you know what? I got to stop that thinking.

I go, yeah, welcome. Come on, let's do some good here. Anyway, so I hope you got something out of that yesterday. Today, a little bit different road. Based on a conversation I had this morning at the gym, and I often told people, I said, you need to go to the gym more, not because it's good for you, not because you get muscles, none of that stuff, but because people like me are there.

And that sounds really arrogant. But people like me are there and people like my friend Billy are there. Multi-millionaires, billionaires, people are there. I'm not a billionaire, by the way.

And what I mean by that is Billy does lots of events, big events. He works in the real estate mortgage market. He talks and trains teams. He does the whole thing very good at what he does.

He's got people lined up to talk to him. His phone is blowing up usually in the morning. I'm working with him on that. And yet we spend probably three hours a week in conversation over workouts.

And we get up on the stair monster rotating stair thing, or we go in the sauna and we talk for 45 minutes. And we're just mastermind. It's all we're doing. And today we were talking about it.

We said, isn't it kind of cool? there's no desire to take anything or to get anything from the other person. We are just giving. It's got the go-giver kind of attitude.

We're just enjoying this mastermind-y level conversation. And what's really sad about it is, see, you're not there. If you're not there, you're missing the conversation. I cannot tell you how rare it is that somebody kind of snuggles up to me, that's a bad word, on a treadmill or something and knows what I do and strikes up a conversation.

It's happened. And when it's happened, I cannot tell you how many times that we end up in a four-hour conversation at the coffee shop. I charge people for that in my business. And yet, because somebody made a friend of me at the gym, just like I made with Billy, we get all this incredible masterminding.

It's amazing stuff. So if you're not at the gym, go to the gym just for that, okay? So in the conversation this morning, I shared with you last week something about a gentleman I met in the sauna. He's from Nepal.

And sadly, I don't have his name yet. It's just one of those things where we're just talking. Good conversation. And no, I didn't even forget it. I never knew it.

He knows mine. My name is Scott. That's easy. I never knew it. And so we're having this conversation about him and he was talking about one of the biggest issues that all business owners have.

Number one issue every business owner have. And I will contend for those of you who are not business owners, I'm going to run away from me right now. I will contend that you have the same problem in your personal life and every single aspect of your life. This same problem we're about ready to talk about is your problem too.

And that is getting leads in this case for your business. Every business must have leads. A lead is a prospect. A lead, ideally, will become a customer.

A customer will become your business and become your lifestyle. Every business must have them because customers come and go. There's customer life cycles and the whole thing. And no business owner likes to go after getting leads or prospects.

In fact, most people I talk to say, I hate sales. I hate marketing. Too bad. If you're in business, strap it on, buckaroo, because you're a marketer. It's what you are.

So this is the number one problem we run into all the time. So I start with that because that's the truth. Now, I did say it happens in all your life as well.

I will go so far as to say, and I'll stand on this hill. I'll die on this hill if I need to. If you need a job, you need to find a lead. You need to find somebody who's hiring.

That's a lead. So you can become an employee. If you are single and you need a girlfriend, you need some leads. You can talk to your buddies and say, hey, do you know anybody?

Same if you need a boyfriend. I can look at this in any possible way and say, if you are opportunity negative, you don't have enough opportunities. A lead is an opportunity. So in any part of your life, if you feel stuck, stranded, stalled, in neutral, whatever the life coaches are calling it today, you need a lead.

How do you get that? That's the big question. That's why it's so valuable. People come to me and the one thing I don't do is I don't help customers get leads.

I will show them how to do it. I will tell them how to do it. I will walk them through the process. I'll coach them through the process. I'll tell them what systems you use and how to do it.

But I will not do it for them. I could. I can make a lot of money. I just don't want to be in that business. I don't want to be in the business of having to be responsible for giving you leads so you can build your business.

Because I fully understand that if you can't generate your own opportunity, you probably shouldn't be in business. You probably should be doing something else. And the same thing with most aspects of your life. If you can't generate your own happiness and you rely on somebody else, if you can't get leads that make you happy, if you can't find a wife or a girlfriend or a job or whatever you're looking for, then you have to start digging a little bit deeper.

You can't rely on somebody else to do that for you. Ooh, this is getting deeper. This is not even pretty, is it? I dare you. You don't like to do it. Now, some of you right now said, man, I love getting leads.

I love talking to people. Now, I'm that guy. I love it. So my friend from Nepal is in the sauna. I think I may have told this story already. I won't go too deep into it, but one day I walk in the sauna, and he goes, where were you, Scott?

I've been waiting for you. I've been saving a spot for you. And he was the only guy in there by himself. I said, what time did you get up? He said, 4.45.

I got here early, waiting for you. And he's just being so friendly. He's like, how can you not like this guy, right? And so we get a good conversation.

So finally, I ask the world's most popular question. My good friend, New York Times bestselling author, multiple times, 17 books these days. Joel Kahn is his name, and I talk to Joel quite often. Joel wrote a book called, So What Do You Do?

That's the question. That's the most popular question on the planet. So I remember Joel's question. I said, so what do you do? Boom. He was waiting for me to ask that question.

He goes, oh, I'm in marketing. I'm a savvy guy. I hear the word marketing. I'm like, here it comes. But most people aren't savvy enough to think that way.

But I'm savvy and I jumped in anyway. I said, so what kind of marketing? He said, household goods. I said, so what kind of household goods? He said, detergents and soaps, things like that.

Oh, sounds like Amway. Are you in Amway? Are you in network marketing? He goes, yes, I am. And without a blink of the eye, he says, meet this. He goes, so are you in a network marketing?

And I love it because I used to be a network wire. I'm not anymore. I didn't like the vibe. I was very good at it. I made a lot of money and it was hard to get out of it because not because of the money.

It was hard because they didn't want me to leave. You know what my pitch was? If you guys are in network marketing, here is my pitch. I'll give it to you.

He just did it to me. He might've heard me before. I said, so are you into network marketing? That's what I say. Just cold. Anybody doesn't matter where it is.

I just say that word. And it's either going to be hell no. Or, yeah, I'm kind of interested. I just haven't found a deal. Or I tried, but it didn't work out.

There's some version of that is in there, right? And if it's a hell no, that's a hell no. That's fine. If I hear a hell no, I go, what happened, man? And suddenly when I say what happened, they tell me what happened.

They go, oh, we don't do it that way. Boom. I'm in. This is my friend here that I don't know his name. He could have talked me into being in network marketing.

Why do I say that? Even though I'm absolutely against doing it. He established a relationship. He had a lead that was dangling out there like a little shiny fruit that's dangling.

And you and I well know that if he had the right combination of words and the right combination of opportunity, that we all lean in, don't we? Even if we say, no, we're never going to do that.

Humans are great like that, man. So what would I say? Just guarantee me a million dollars a year and leave me alone. And I probably said, I'm your Huckleberry.

Let's go. I probably would have done it, right? He just didn't say that. I don't know why. So here's my point. He just generated a lead. Now, he may think he's going to get me someday and that's fine.

He's not going to get me because, well, like I said, maybe he will. If he comes with a million dollar check, screw the podcast. I'm moving on. No, I'm not.

I'm going to tell you to join me. Get on my downline and we'll make more money. How's that? That's just being honest, right? Come on. Let's think this way.

So then something else happens today. So I'm on the way home. from the gym. I've just gotten, I talked to my buddy from Nepal yesterday. I'm talking to Billy this morning and having a great call.

And on Fridays I've gotten in the habit of basically making my wife say, what are you doing? I leave the gym, usually 8.45 in the morning, something like that. I've already had breakfast, but I ate breakfast like 6.30. Had some overnight oats.

But on Friday, I have realized that I like to have, I like a bagel sausage with cheese and egg sandwich. I do. And I like it at Wawa. And so one day a week, I'll go buy one of those, maybe get some hash browns, and I'll get some orange juice, and I'll sit on a little patio, and I'll just sit out there and strike up a conversation and eat my stuff.

I know, I know. You had 800 calories. Would you do that for us? I know it's Friday. I got to do something on a Friday. That's how I start my weekend. Right.

So I did it. My wife doesn't understand it, but she does look at my credit card to count how many times I've done it. She says, you know, I know it's my life. You know, when I die one day, they'll say it was all because of bagel sandwiches.

But I go into the Wawa today. Not thinking too much about anything. I'm just a just a person, just a customer walking in there. And I pick up my bagel.

I like bagel and sausage. Although today I may have changed my mind to bagel and bacon. It might be a little better these days. And I'm thinking that might be the way I go.

But anyway, behind the counter is, I know her name is Regina. I know that because there's a piece of paper in front of me that says Regina. And she gave me her phone number.

I noticed her way before that, though, because the lady in front of me was talking to her. And she was being so nice and so smiling and so happy. And I was feeling like, oh, my gosh, she's going to not talk to me like that. I hope I'm that friendly.

But mostly because the lady in front of me actually had a Gatorade and a bag of M&Ms. And I struck up a conversation with her really fast. I said, man, I love that kind of breakfast too. Gatorade and M&M's.

She goes, yeah, this is good. I said, my problem is about the family size. She goes, I usually do too, but I got to work today. I didn't want to do that.

I said, I love this one, man. So that conversation is happening. She goes on her way. And then Regina looks at me and she says to me, hi, good morning.

How are you today? I said, awesome. Had a great workout today. Feeling pretty good. How are you today? That's exactly what I said. She goes, I can't complain.

I gave her my one-liner right back. I always do. Sure you could. If you could, what would it be today? And she said, I can't think of a complaint. I said, well, good for you.

You have nothing. But sometimes complaining is good. And she said, what do you mean by that? I said, well, I've had a couple of little negotiation things I've been doing as part of the volunteer work I do at the church I go to.

And I didn't complain, but I complained in a positive way to affect a leadership change and some adjustments that have happened really nicely. And I was serving as a wise elder, I think. And I kind of told her all this very quickly. There's nobody else in line behind me.

I said, so that to me, that was kind of like complaining because I saw some things that weren't right in the way they needed to be. Growing church, young people, just issues. They needed some leadership help. So I jumped in to do that.

So I guess I complain. but it came out okay. She goes, I guess so. I can see how that can work. And she says to me this, is it a new church? I said, yeah.

She goes, are they building it right now? Are they designing it? I said, well, it's already built. She said, are they going to plant some others? I said, I'm not sure.

And so she leans down and she's writing on a piece of paper and she hands it to me. Anna says, hi, my name is Regina. Here's my phone number. I'm an interior designer and something else.

I forgot what it was. And so if they do anything, feel free to contact me. And if you want to come back in here, I can meet on my lunch break. We can go over stuff with you out there.

And the first thing I said to her, I'm kind of blown away by it. And I said, are you allowed to be doing this? I guess it's like, wow, all right. Oh, man, I mean, I may have just got her fired.

I don't know. She goes, yeah, my boss is OK with it. And I thought, it's fine. It was right there. She's reaching out, trying to find a lead, working behind the counter as a cashier.

And I thought, God, I love this. I love somebody who's working hard, who's upbeat, who's positive, who knows where she wants to go, is not afraid to reach out and see if somebody needs me. I don't need her, but guess what I did? I came on a podcast holding her piece of paper.

I'm not going to give her a phone number, but it's here. I don't want to throw it away. She has made a connection that I want to put this to the side. And I'm like, well, maybe I need her or maybe somebody else needs her.

And I'm walking out and I'm thinking to myself, what just hit me? I have no idea. And I stumble into conversations all the time. I call it a walkabout.

I tell my wife all the time, I'm going on a walkabout. She goes, what do you mean? Well, she used to say that. She knows what it is now. It means I'm going out and I'm going to walk around town.

I'm going to go to stores, going to go someplace, wherever I end up, and I'm going to find conversations. That's why I do the work I do. I go out and I talk to people. I just strike up conversations everywhere I go.

It's not an issue with me. I just do it. As I'm walking out, I'm almost to the electronic doors, the double doors, they're going to slide open. And Regina says, excuse me, sir.

I'm like, OK, what? So I turn around. She goes, I didn't catch your name. What is it? I said, I'm Scott. She goes, have a good day, Scott. And I walked out of that door just smiling.

It's like, wow, it was such a neat experience. And I love it so much because I tell you what, this girl is going to do so well. And she's probably in her mid-20s, I'm thinking, at this point.

Working there at the cashier, being nice to everybody and getting leads. And yeah, it may get her fired. You know, just her doing it. If she gets fired, it's not because I talked about her.

It's because it's what she's doing and it may not work for them. I get it. But still, number one problem for businesses, for anybody in the world is having leads, having opportunity. I would guess right now that I can tell you this and be very honest with you.

There is only one thing that makes me upset. Only one. Well, there's two. The word no, I don't like. Just saying. I don't like it. I'll abide by it. I'll say it a lot.

I don't like the word no. Opportunity. The ability to grow. This country is America, like it or not, it's built on mobility. It's built on the ability for you to grow and move around and do whatever you want to do.

It's built on this. Capitalistic system is built on that. And again, whether you agree or not, I don't care. I do. That's a different conversation. I like it.

It's built on your ability to choose your path and to do what you want to do to pursue happiness, right? So a long time ago, I looked at it, I said, well, that's it. I just recognize that every time that I feel like I'm down and out, I don't want to do anything and life is not going my way. It's just because I don't have any opportunity in front of me.

I don't have anything that's like firing me up. And so what's my number one job? It's the, it's the make crap up. I, I'm going to go one more minute. Okay.

Then I get out of here. I was talking to a client yesterday and she said, well, how do you break out? And I said, I make stuff up and make crap up. She goes, what do you mean by that?

I said, I get rid of the chaos of my mind. I take a little bit moment to get cool, get grounded, just to get back to myself and get out of the busyness of the day. I have a lot of business. I coach a lot of people.

I get caught up in their lives. So I have to get back to myself. When I get back to myself, what happens is my brain starts kind of wandering a little bit. And in that wandering, I tend to find a little idea that gets me excited.

You hear a lot of it play out on this podcast. I'm an idea machine. You know, 90% of them, I'm a verbal processor. So 90% of these ideas will never come to fruition.

Scares my wife to death, I tell you. But the truth is, in some of those ideas, I see opportunity. I see a place to put my energy. I see a place that can help you.

And as soon as I spot that, boom, game on. I just go. So I'm always looking for that. So when I'm coaching you and any of the groups that I do, you can guarantee that's what I'm trying to create in you.

I'm trying to take you, not to get you unstuck. I could care less about that crap. I want to give you an idea that gets you so excited you can't not go. That's what I want to do.

And I found that everything you want in life is virtually automatic once we can figure out what excites you and then just say, that way. And yeah, we got to adjust it all the way, but man, does it ever work.