← Travis Makes Money
Travis Makes Money
SOLO | Make Money by Having the Conversations You've Been Avoiding, part 3
00:17:43
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Study and play come together on a Windows 11 PC and for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more@windows.com studentoffer while supplies last ends June 30th terms at aka mscollegepc. You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast presented by gohighlevel.com for a free 30 day trial of the best all in one digital marketing software tool on the planet, just go to gohighlevel.com travis welcome back to the show. This episode is part three in a series that we've been doing the last couple of days. So if this is the first one you're tuning into, be sure to go back a couple episodes so you have a little bit more context as to what we're going to be talking about today. So without further ado, here's part three of the series we've been doing lately. Information about you and if you want them, if you want them to like see more additional information about you, don't put it in the dm, just link it, link it to something else like your website or your substack or whatever. Like hey, here's a little bit about what I do and then they can go read more on you if they want to. But most of the time I found, especially when I was doing link tracking and stuff, like a lot of people didn't even care about that. So I just, I, I, I stopped putting a whole paragraph about like who I am and what I've done and why they should say yes. I like my name's Travis and I just link my name to my website. It's like if you want to go read more about me, this link will go directly to my About Me page on my website. So you can read more if you want to. So just keep it, keep it short, sweet, to the point and then go in for the ask. And then if you have any additional credibility here, if you're starting from scratch, it's probably not going to be much. But if you have some additional credibility, some names that you can drop, maybe people who've already said yes to this. So this, this gets a little bit easier when you're on day 22 instead of when you're on day one because you'll inevitably have some people who say y yes. And then you can start like referring to some of those people in those, in those reach outs to, to throw in a credibility piece. And then, and then at the very end, you quick give a quick sign off and that's it. That's the whole thing. The first part, like the first couple things I recommend doing on video, okay? So video is just a better differentiator in the DMs. And it also proves that you're not just using AI to AI and a VA to just send mass DMs out to people where it's like hey there and, and you're not even addressing their name or it's hey there, Instagram user. And it's just like their username or whatever. Don't do that type of stuff. Just pull out, pull out your camera, go for a quick walk, like a five minute walk. Send the five DMS and the camera is your friend, okay? It's going to allow people to see you, hear you, see that you're somewhat competent. If you have like a, like for me, like I'm, I'm sitting in my podcast studio right now. If you have something like that and makes me look a little bit more legit when I'm sending those DMs, I'm not even speaking into the microphone, my microphone's just off to the side. But I can tell that I, you know, I'm professional, that I've, that I, that I do this, that I'm not going to waste their time. That's the only, the only real question you have to answer in these reach outs is are you going to waste my time? That's the only real answer because most people don't care about your following or your audience size. It's the question, are you going to waste my time? Now, having a massive audience obviously means that by definition they're not going to be wasting their time because they're going to be exposed to a huge audience. So that's obviously makes it much easier. That's why, you know, the Rogans of the world can get whatever guest quite literally on the planet that they want to get because it's by definition not a waste of their time. And those people will fly halfway across the world and spend four days in flights and hotels and just to go to his studio in Austin, because they know that it's going to not be a waste of their time. But you don't have any of that, that's fine. Just try to imply as much as you can that I'm not going to be somebody who wastes your time. So that's, I think sending a video implies that a little bit more that you're going to bring this, this level of professionalism to it and then it allows that personalization again at the very beginning. So then you can copy and paste the second part of this into all of these reach outs to make it a little bit easier. So you can, if you have some, if you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H VAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done to throw in. Then throw a little bit of that credibility in with that scripted part. Throw in the, you know, here's my website part at that part. But at the very beginning, you're just going to pop up your, your camera and just say something along the lines of, hey, so and so. My name's Travis. Been watching, you know, the last couple of posts you put on Instagram, whatever. I got huge value from this. I sent it over to my group chat and I'd love to actually go a little bit deeper into this. So right now I'm doing a 30 day interview challenge, just trying to interview as many successful people as I can. Would love for you to be a part of. Let me. I'm gonna go ahead and drop some info below, but it's really important to say their name. Don't fanboy or fangirl out over this one. You don't want to give the perception that like, you're hanging on their every word. You want to give the perception of, like, I respect you and what you've done, but I also am a busy person and I'm not trying to waste my time and I'm not trying to waste your time. Like, that's kind of the, the, the idea that you're trying to get across in these. So don't come into it with this like, oh my gosh, I'm just such a big fan of everything that you do and it would just mean the world to me if you could just take a couple of. I promise I'll be super professional. And I got some questions for you, like just don't, don't get into that. What happens is when you start off any sort of relationship, that's the first impression of the relationship, it automatically teaches that person to just put you into the fan bucket instead of the peer bucket. Now, obviously, obviously, subconsciously, everybody's making judgment calls all the time, but consciously, they might look at it and go, like, okay, well, they are not in the peer bucket because they clearly have not accomplished any of the things that I've accomplished. And that's not a bad thing, by the way. That's just a thing. It just is what it is. The reality of the situation is the reality of the situation, regardless of how much you want to dress it up. But the point is, you don't have to address it, okay? And if you do address it, you might find it more difficult actually for. For people to. To say yes. So, hey, so and so, saw the last couple things you did, or I read your book, or I watched this YouTube video that you did. It's so good. And I took notes like a crazy person. Or I sent this to my group chat, or I texted this to my wife as soon as I saw. Cause I knew it was going to be really valuable for her too. Like. But you can personalize that a little bit more effectively in the video even than you can on. On. On writing it out. So use the video to your advantage and then copy and paste the rest of the script in the chat there. And then that's it. Just send it off. It is not. It is not that difficult. Do not overcomplicate it. Do not wait till you have, like, the perfect thing to say. Because if you just wait again, you're just gonna be a professional waiter. And there's plenty of people who are professional waiters. And I do not mean waiting tables. They're just waiting and waiting and waiting for the perfect time, the perfect day, the perfect script, the perfect accomplishment that they just had in their career where they can finally have to ask what they want to ask. Don't wait. Just start doing it. And I promise you, on day seven, when you've sent 30 of these things already and you're about to send your 35th one, you will feel wildly more confident. You will have tested a couple different hooks or a couple different angles or a couple different scripts. You'll have tested some of those things out, and you will, by the end of this, after sending 150 of them over 30 days, have a very clear system that you've found that works really well for you and sounds like you in your voice. So just start doing it. Do not wait until you have, like, the perfect script. And then. And then once you get the S, then, you know, make it easy to schedule. I, I, I would recommend getting a calendly link. I went back and forth on mentioning this because I don't want to add more friction to your process. Just get started. But it does make the scheduling a little bit easier. And then those are the options that I usually give people is like, if it's easier for you, you can use this link to schedule, or you can just email my assistant and we'll get it on the books. So those are like the 2opt. Both of those options are, yes, both of those options are the outcome that I want, but it gives them a little bit of autonomy and control over which one they think is going to be easier for them to schedule with. So a calendly link can make that process a little bit more frictionless. But once you have the interview set up, and by the way, if you do set up accountinglink, do not put in like 15 required questions in the form. Don't do that shit. It's, it's annoying. It's more friction, and it will probably discourage people from getting to your calendar. So if you're gonna, if you're gonna do it, just like, name, email, whatever, you know what I mean? Don't ask for a bunch of, bunch of stuff in there, and especially don't ask them to do all of your prep work for you. I hate that when podcasters reach out and they have a form that's like, what questions should I ask you? Like, what are the core topics that you talk about the most? It's like, well, if you're having me on your show, if you're having me, if you want to interview me, you should know all of this already. Like, stop asking me to do your work for you, for your show, for your thing. I'm already doing a favor by saying yes, doing just, just you do your job and I will show up, you know, so if you're going to do that, make it again really quick and frictionless. And then, and then the only remaining part of this is figure out what questions you want to ask. So here's a few questions that I think are solid that you could, that you could include in this. Okay, what's a decision that you made to change the trajectory of your life or your career? What did you believe early on that turned out to be wrong? What skill, habit, or relationship has produced the most leverage for you? What would you do differently? If you were starting over from my stage, like, if you were in my shoes, what would you do? What is one thing most people misunderstand about success in your world, what's the hardest lesson you had to learn? The expensive way? What's a big mistake that you made? You know, asking about obstacles or things like that. What. What helped you before you were. You were qualified to be able to get the opportunities that you have? What do you look for when deciding whether to help someone? What separates the people who stay stuck from the people who break through? What, like, just write out a list of 10 to 15 questions, maybe just cycle through those with different people, depending on the time allotment that you have with that person. But again, don't overthink this part of the process. Try to come up with some unique inventive questions that are useful and valuable for you and for the people who might be doing the same thing that you're doing. But ultimately, don't spend too much time on this. Just make sure that you're sending the DMs and getting them to say yes at the end of the day, and then asking a question at the end, like, is there someone who you think I should talk to next? You know, like, that's a great way to get people who you're having good conversations with to open up their Rolodex and introduce other great people to you. That was how I filled my show for the first, like, year and a half, because I was starting from scratch, didn't know anybody. I was doing three interviews a week on my podcast. Three, like 35 to 45 minute interviews every single week. And so I started with like 20 or 30 people. But I would ask all of them for introductions, and then, you know, some of them inevitably don't do it, which is fine. But a few of them ended up being like, oh, yeah, here's six people that I can introduce you to that talk about this topic really well and are really well educated, really well educated around this thing. And then you go talk to those people, do a similar process. The difference is here is that you get a warm intro, so there's not as much of a friction to them saying yes, and you can decide whether or not that's somebody you want to continue talking to. So the, the loop here that we're trying to create, to create this confidence is that you send the message, you survive the rejection, you get a response from some of the people, you don't get a response from some of those people. You learn that silence and rejection are survivable, then you get a yes, then you have a conversation, Then you realize that you're more capable than you thought. So you send the next message with less fear and then it just starts becoming like clockwork. Like, you just send the message. Don't even think about the fear of whether or not they're going to get back to you, whether or not they're going to reply, whether or not they're going to be annoyed. You just send the message and go, all right, well, that was my work for the day. That's why I like the idea that it's not necessarily a challenge to do 30 interviews. It's just the challenge to send the DMs because you will be shocked at the volume and quality of people who just who say yes just because you asked. So Kanar's paper that we talked about at the beginning of this connects informational interviewing to social cognitive theory, where self efficacy is shaped by mastery experiences, vicarious learning encouragement, and emotional arousal. Informational interviews are powerful because they create real world mastery experiences rather than just theoretical advice. So you can't think your way into becoming the kind of person who reaches out to people who are seemingly out of your league. You reach out your way into becoming that person. So couple quick guidelines here as we, as we close this episode, do not use this as the opportunity to ask to, to make the other party uncomfortable. Okay? The reason why this works is that you're simply asking them for some time because you respect them so much, not because you're trying to get a deal out of it. So don't use this as a sales call. You know, don't, don't ask for a job in the first message. Don't ask them to be your mentor immediately. Or don't ask them if you can pick their brain or get a virtual cup of coffee. Like, don't, don't send generic copy paste stuff to people. Like, it's just AI that wrote it. Don't guilt people for not responding. This is a, this is a big one. Actually, my producer Eric and I were talking about this on an episode of the show recently because he was talking about somebody who had reached out to him, want to do some sort of collaboration or something. And Eric told him at the time, like, hey, I'm not doing any interviews right now because I'm focused, heads down, focused on these like six projects. Which was absolutely true, by the way. He wasn't just like saying this to, to piss him off or to, to say no without saying no. It was, it was legitimately true. He did not. What, he was blocking all interviews because he was. Heads down, folks. On a couple projects this person responds to that and basically has this entire email berating Eric for having said no to this opportunity to collaborate. And all that does is ensure 100 that they're never going to do anything with you in the future. So don't like you got to try your best to remove yourself emotionally from the situation and then try your best to put yourself in their shoes for just a half a second. If you're somebody who's never experienced a high level of success, somebody who's never been in a situation where you get hit up all the time by people in their, in your network, then it's really difficult to imagine this. But imagine if you can for a second, the volume of reach outs that they get from people just like you, just like me, who are asking for some of their time, all their family. Like if they're, if they're successful, they, they get this from their family, they get this from their friends, they get this from friends of friends. They get this from speaking at a conference, they get this from being a guest on podcasts, they get this from their own social media content. They get so much volume that you cannot take it personally when something doesn't work out, when they don't respond or when they spot where they respond with that's, that's negative, or, or they say yes and then they no show to the interview. What, like whatever happens after that, just accept the situation as it is and try your hardest to put yourself in their shoes and say, okay, I can understand from your perspective why this would be a no for now. So don't guilt people for not responding or for saying no. Hey guys, Travis here. Just letting you know that sometimes on this show I go a little bit longer. I try to keep these things, these solo shows, pretty short, like 10 to 15 minutes. But sometimes when I get going, I just can't stop, if you know what I mean. So this, if you're listening to this message, that means that this episode is being put into two parts and the first part is now coming to a close. So be sure to tune into the next solo show to hear part two of this episode. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you next time.