“Why would they ever give me the time of day?”
“How could I possibly add value to their life?”
“How could I reach out without feeling needy, desperate, or an intrusion on their day?”
These are just a few of the excuses founders make for not reaching out to the game-changing mentor or advisor that could dramatically accelerate the growth of their business.
Instead of the “who” — they play it safer by focusing on the “how”.
It’s far easier to order the top 10 books on company culture off of Amazon than it is to personally reach out to the CEO or founder REFERENCED as the main case study in all those books.
Learning the “how” is great.
It’s a necessary part of your growth and learning as a founder.
But it’s an incremental, highly linearized “long game”… and unless it’s supplemented with the sheer magic of having the right mentor at the right time… you’re essentially giving up the possibility of any kind of exponential, hyper-accelerated growth.
I experienced this first-hand at Flowtown, where my co-founder Ethan got invited to attend the Summit Series — a gathering of some of the world’s most elite entrepreneurs.
After some resistance, Ethan finally went — and the contacts he made from that event alone helped Flowtown hit cashflow break-even.
Later on, Mark Cuban, who also came out of that “network” ended up investing in my next company, Clarity.fm.
Needless to say, I’m a huge believer in growing your network of mentors and advisors (and it’s why I’m so adamant about getting my coaching clients inside SaaS Academy to dial in their Dream 100.
But as a quick primer, I recorded this episode to show you the 4 fundamental questions you should be asking before building your “reach out” strategy.
Exclusive Resource: Create Your Dream 100 List – Learn How to Identify The 100 People That Will Transform Your Life (Peers, Advisors & Mentors)
At a high level, it comes down to these 4 questions:
- What are your goals?
- Who’s done this before (ideally in your city)?
- How can you add value to this person?
- How can you spend more time with them?
As I mentioned, I get the most resistance with #3.
Founders, especially in their early stages, have so much doubt about how they can add value to people much further along in the entrepreneurial journey.
I promise you it’s possible.
And in today’s episode I share a few specific things that you can do immediately to kick-start that process.
Give it a watch, and then let me know in the comments WHO you plan to reach out to — and what value you plan to offer. I’ll reply back with my feedback.
