Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / No Time for Business Development Because of Client Work? Listen Up

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No Time for Business Development Because of Client Work? Listen Up · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
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  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs,
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  founder and CEO of Mylands and the host of this podcast.
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  Today I'm going to talk about business development and
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  specifically when you just don't have time for it.
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  And I hear it from so many customers.
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  I've experienced it myself and it's I'm busy with client work,
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  I'm busy delivering. I only have so many hours in the
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  day, hours in the week, and I just don't have time for
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  business development. It's such a common thing, and if
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  you're listening to this and you clicked on this, you can
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  probably resonate at least to some degree that there's at
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  least certain periods of time when things pick up in your
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  business and you just don't have time for business development.
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  The other thing that ends up being true is you have this full
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  plate or you have a full enough plate, you're making enough
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  money and you're like, I'm good. I don't need a client right now.
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  I'm making enough money. Maybe I have some pretty long
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  term clients like I have pretty good, you know, horizon that I'm
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  going to be making enough money for the foreseeable future.
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  And so I don't have time. I don't really need to do it
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  right now. And so I'm not making time for
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  it. And there was a very specific
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  shift in my language just there and I'm curious if you caught
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  it. There's, I don't have time and
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  there's I'm not making time because the end of the day, we
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  all have the same number of hours in the day.
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  So if you have 24 hours and you sleep for eight of them and then
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  you, you know, eat and workout and take care of your kids or
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  dog or whatever it is you have, let's just say, let's call it,
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  we'll keep it, keep it simple. You have 8 or 9 hours a day.
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  If you wanted to be working, you could.
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  And maybe you went out as a fractional or independent or
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  founder and said, I only want to work 5 or 6, right?
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  I want, I want to work less. And that's part of the reason I
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  did this. OK, great.
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  Let's just say you have 6 hours a day that you're going to put
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  into your working world. So if you have six hours, we all
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  have the same six hours. So it was very much an
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  intentional choice how you spend that six hours.
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  And I'm not making it right or wrong, good or bad.
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  It's just true, right? We all have the same six hours.
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  And so you get to own, you have to take full accountability for
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  exactly how you spend that time. And if you spend that time all
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  on client work, that's a decision, right?
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  It's not, again, not right or wrong, It's just a decision.
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  So we're going to immediately change our language to, I am not
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  making time, I'm not creating time to do business development
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  for my business. And I really want to relate to
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  you because I feel it. And one of the things that's
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  true, at least for me and I know a lot of our customers is that
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  we're not head of sales, we're not B2B salespeople.
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  We haven't done that in the past.
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  The majority of people listening to this are not salespeople by
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  default. What you are, you might be
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  marketing, you might be product, you might be tech, finance,
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  operations, chief of staff. There's lots of different
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  functions here that maybe you either do now or did in your
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  past. But sales isn't at the top of
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  your list. Which means is probably true
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  that one, you don't love doing it.
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  And two, it's not your bread and butter.
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  Like you're not the most amazing B to B salesperson 'cause you
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  didn't go through proper training.
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  You haven't gone through roles in sales and gotten feedback and
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  learned and iterated and grown in that role in the way that you
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  have in your primary function. So you're not the best in the
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  world at it. You don't feel super comfortable
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  doing it and you don't love doing it.
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  And so you're like, it makes sense.
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  Like why would I make time for something that meets all of that
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  criteria? And the reality is this is the
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  harsh truth that we're all in is that.
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  And it doesn't need to be harsh truth, but it can be for some,
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  is that finding new clients, let's say attracting new
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  clients, is the most important part of your business.
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  Whether you like it or not, whether you think it's right or
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  not, it's just true. If you don't attract new clients
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  on a somewhat regular basis, your business is not going to
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  thrive and succeed and exist long term, right?
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  We need paying clients. Whether clients, customers,
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  whatever your kind of customer is, you need that to sustain
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  your business long term. There is no other option.
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  You could be the most amazing fractional CMO or agency owner
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  in the world, but if you aren't attracting new clients on a
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  regular basis, at some point your business is not going to
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  exist. It is the lifeblood of your
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  business. If the only thing that
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  absolutely needs to happen for your business to sustain, right?
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  Because somebody else who's average at delivering for their
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  clients, but really intentional about their business
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  development, they're going to win over the long term.
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  I hate to say it's just true. Now let's be honest that
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  delivering great work leads to referrals leads to ongoing
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  business for you. And that's that's true.
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  And there's only so much that we can do with referrals because
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  it's not a lever that we can pull.
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  So at the end of the day, we have to be doing more than just
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  delivering great client work to have our business sustain for
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  the long term. And a lot of people, we don't
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  like the idea of quote UN quote selling or self promotion,
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  right? It feels cringy.
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  Again, we don't like doing it. We're not used to doing it.
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  And So what I'd encourage you to do is, is completely reframe it.
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  What you're really doing when you're quote, UN quote selling
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  or let's just say when we're doing business development is
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  you are finding opportunities to share your expertise to solve
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  problems you're already really good at solving, right?
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  You love doing this work. That's why you're doing this,
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  right? You love solving these problems.
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  You love working with these either founders or executives or
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  senior vice presidents or whoever it is.
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  You love doing this work. And so all you're doing is
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  you're finding people with those problems that you know how to
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  solve really well. So if you reframe business
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  development as instead of oh, this is like gross thing, I got
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  to put myself out there and be, you know, self promotional and
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  all those kinds of things. If I reframe it to all I'm doing
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  is looking for the opportunities to share my zone of genius,
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  that's what I'm doing. All of a sudden it might shift
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  for you into, OK, like I can do that.
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  I can look for those opportunities, I can attract
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  those opportunities to share my zone of genius with my ideal
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  customer, and it can totally reframe it.
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  If that doesn't shift something for you, that's OK Find a way
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  that does. Like, this is all about
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  interpretation, right? If it, if it, if your
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  interpretation is this sucks, I hate doing it.
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  I don't like selling. It's cringy, it's gross,
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  whatever. Yeah.
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  Like, you're not going to want to do it right?
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  You're not going to make time to do it.
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  But if you frame it in a way that really lands with you in a
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  genuine, authentic way, you might love doing it, right?
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  You might look forward to doing it.
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  So find an interpretation that works.
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  Like if you're going to need to do this for your business, which
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  you do, then you might as well use an interpretation that is
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  empowering, that makes you feel good, that is genuine and
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  authentic to you. So now, once you find something
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  that works for you, the question is like, OK, well, what do I do
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  now, Right. And we get that question all the
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  time. And I'm going to argue that if
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  you do these small things, but you do them consistently, you
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  are going to have success for the long term.
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  I'd almost guarantee it. What I'm talking about is 30
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  minutes, thirty minutes a day. That's it, right?
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  If you have 6 go back to our six working hours each day, you
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  spend 112th of that just 30 minutes.
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  That's it. Doing business development every
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  single morning. And because it's the thing you
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  don't love to do, do it first thing in the morning.
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  That way, frankly, your day is a success and you can spend the
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  rest of the day doing the things you love, delivering for clients
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  and making beautiful products and engaging with your clients,
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  building on those relationships on down the line.
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  So you're just spending the 1st 30 minutes doing the hard thing.
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  Quote UN quote hard's an interpretation, right?
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  But doing the thing that is the lifeblood of your business, it
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  is the most important thing, whether you like it or not.
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  So 1st 30 minutes and I'm going to argue, let's just keep it
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  simple, right? 15 minutes of content and we're
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  going to talk about LinkedIn, right?
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  That's that's where I thrive. 15 minutes of content and 15
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  minutes of new connections or engaging existing connections.
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  That's it. 15 minutes content, 15 minutes of connection and
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  that's it. And those small daily actions
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  will compound into a never ending pipeline.
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  We had a guest on this podcast, Elliot, a few weeks ago and she
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  talked about she's four months into her business and her
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  pipeline is $1.4 million in value right of her pipeline.
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  And these are the activities she does.
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  She creates content, she add new connections and she engages with
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  those connections after a few weeks, after they've had an
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  opportunity to see her content. Most people are not willing to
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  do this. And so that's why so many
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  consultants, so many fractional executives, they go out there,
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  they get their first few clients from their network and
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  referrals. They kind of land in their lap
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  and then they're like, Oh my God, now what do I do?
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  And they often, not often, but at times go back to a full time
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  job or they're pulling their hair out like what do I do?
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  And This is why, because they're not willing to put in these 30
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  minutes a day and that's all we're asking for, right?
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  It's 2 1/2 hours a week. That's all we're asking for.
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  And let's be clear, these are not the only actions you can
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  take. If you don't resonate with these
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  actions, the using LinkedIn, creating content, adding new
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  connections, totally fine. Find something that works for
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  you. If you told me that you were
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  this really powerful SEO expert and you were going to use SEO to
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  power your fractional business, power to you.
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  Like I would almost guarantee that if you do that right and do
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  it in the right, in the thoughtful way, you're going to
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  make that work. Now, I would not be the one to
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  advise you on that. I don't think it's the best
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  strategy. I'm very clear on what I think
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  is the best strategy that has worked for me for years and
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  years and years and thousands of consultants we've worked with,
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  but it's definitely not the only one.
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  There's tons of strategies that work.
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  It could be YouTube, it could be X, it could be TikTok for all I
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  know. I mean, find something that you
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  love. Like this doesn't have to be
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  painful. I love recording this podcast.
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  I love sharing my expertise. I love connecting with the
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  guests. I love creating like the flow of
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  the show and what it's going to look like and asking thoughtful
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  questions and like, I love it. So it's not painful for me to do
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  now. It still takes a lot of
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  discipline to record an episode every single week.
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  We're at like 80 weeks in a row right now, right?
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  So it's like almost two years worth of every single week
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  showing up here. But so that takes discipline.
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  But I enjoy doing it. So it's not just like, Oh my
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  God, pull my hair out. There's no way I could record 80
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  episodes in a row every single week if I was, if I was
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  miserable doing so. What you really want to do is
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  you want to apply this 8020 principle to your own business
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  development because I'm going to argue 80% of the fruit, if you
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  will, from your business development is going to come out
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  of the 20% of the time. So, you know, if you spent your
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  entire week on business development, 80% of the value is
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  going to come from 20% of the effort.
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  So all you need to do is put in that 20%, which I'm going to
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  argue is that 30 minutes a day, That's it.
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  So find the things that you really enjoy doing it, reframe
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  it in a way that's empowering to you.
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  Drop the fluff and the noise and just focus on the actual needle
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  moving activities in that 30 minutes.
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  And then really protect your time.
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  Like Lily, set a timer right the night before what you can do.
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  And this is what I do. I write down what I'm going to
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  do. Like first thing in the morning,
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  I'm going to do the gnarliest thing for my business.
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  The thing that makes me scared, the thing that makes me
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  uncomfortable, the thing that I necessarily don't enjoy, but is
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  incredibly important to moving the business forward.
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  That's what I'm going to do first thing in the morning every
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  single day. And the only way that's going to
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  happen for me is night before I say, OK, these two things get to
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  happen First thing, nothing else is happening.
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  I'm not opening Slack, I'm not opening text, I'm not opening
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  e-mail, LinkedIn, nothing. I am doing those two activities,
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  period. End of story.
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  And that way, honestly, my days a success because product and
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  talking to customers and all that kind of stuff.
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  I love doing that. That's not going to not happen,
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  right? Like that's fun for me.
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  And so I'm going to do the things that aren't quite as fun,
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  but the business needs first thing.
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  Because if I postpone them later in the day, I can easily come up
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  with an excuse that I don't have time and I'm tired and I'm not
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  as sharp right now and I'll do it tomorrow.
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  It's right. Like there's a easy way to get
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  out of it, but not if I just commit first thing in the
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  morning. And the last thing I'm going to
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  share here is set yourself up for success.
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  There are so many systems and tools and templates and
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  repurposing you can do. You know, we obviously built the
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  Mylance tool to make creating content on LinkedIn as easy as
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  possible, where it's still genuine, where it's still
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  authentic, where it's still in your voice and where it's going
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  to resonate with your ideal customer.
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  So Mylance, obviously we have our own tool.
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  There are tons of tools out there.
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  There are tons of AIS. Like you're not going to just
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  like post generic AI BS, right? But there's, there's ways to use
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  AI and automations and systems that frankly take your manual
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  process and just make it faster for you.
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  So that would be my recommendation is come up with
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  your with a manual process that feels really good for you and
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  then start using AI to automate it.
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  Don't do it the other way around.
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  And the other thing I do, and I'm very open about this is I
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  leverage a virtual assistant, I leverage a VA and he's
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  absolutely incredible. I mean, he saves me tons of time
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  and energy. He say he gives me hours back
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  every single week. He does the things frankly that
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  I don't really enjoy doing that don't take like the highest
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  amount of brain power and he gets them all done and he does
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  them in excellence. Like he does an incredibly good
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  job. Now, it's not always the easiest
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  to find that person. So, you know, we've shared our,
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  the agency that we used to find him rigorous interviewing, all
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  that kind of stuff, like make sure that you find someone
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  really great. But the point is set yourself up
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  for success. Like use the tools, create
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  systems, find Ava, if that makes sense for your business and find
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  a way to get it done. That's what this really what
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  this comes down to. It's like reframe this for
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  success, 30 minutes a day, activities you enjoy and create
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  systems or get people that are going to support you along your
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  journey. The last thing I will say around
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  the people is I also have a podcast producer and look, I
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  could use like an AI tool probably to produce this podcast
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  and it would be fine. But he holds me accountable,
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  right? I can't buy that, frankly, like
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  I guess I do, I pay for him, but he does not only keep me
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  accountable, he sends me reports on how it's doing and he
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  optimizes the the podcast. He creates shorter clips for
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  other sort forms of social media.
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  So I'm setting myself up for success to make sure I'm hitting
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  my goals of we're going to have a podcast every single week.
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  And then our podcast turns into a blog newsletter, LinkedIn
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  post, tweets, Instagram, YouTube, like it just it's
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  multipurpose. So anyway, find the the solution
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  that sets you up for success that you can actually knock this
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  out. So just to recap here, this is
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  about you creating the time you have the time, you're not
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  creating it if you resonate with that.
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  So reframe it in a way that's empowering to you know that it's
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  giving to a customer, you're giving a solution you're not
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  taking. It's the most important thing in
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  your business and knock it out first thing in the morning with
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  that signing off. Thanks so much for listening.
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  I hope you got value out of this episode.
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  We'd love to hear from you. Shoot me a note on LinkedIn,
• 15:44
  share this with a friend, give us a review.
• 15:47
  And if you're looking for support with your LinkedIn
• 15:49
  becoming a thought leader, we're in empowering improving your
• 15:52
  thought leadership on LinkedIn. Come check us out mylance.co and
• 15:57
  we'd love to chat with you about to see if it's a good fit.
• 15:59
  Have a great rest of your day.