September 14, 2025 • 34 mins
LinkedIn Prospecting Workshop - September 22 @ 12pm CST
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LinkedIn | How I hit multi-six figures in year one.
Ever wonder why those steady referrals that built your business suddenly dried up? In this episode, I unpack the exact strategy to reignite your referral engine without begging, pestering, or resorting to desperate tactics.
After my own journey from relying on past employer referrals to building a sustainable pipeline, I've mapped the patterns that repeatedly work for B2B service businesses. The secret isn't becoming a social media superstar—it's becoming remembered, trusted, and recommended within specific circles where your expertise matters most.
Discover the "niche networker" approach that blends strategic community participation with intentional LinkedIn relationship-building. Rather than passively posting content hoping someone notices, learn how to curate your feed with direct prospects, referral partners, and industry peers who can naturally connect you to opportunities. I share how one client went from zero pipeline (and three months away from missing mortgage payments) to a wait list in just six months using these exact methods.
The process hinges on three key components: finding the right niche communities where your dream clients already gather, crafting a gateway offer that gives people an easy way to recommend you, and mastering the "magic DM" approach that turns LinkedIn connections into meaningful relationships without being sleazy or salesy.
Want to put this into practice? Join my LinkedIn Prospecting Workshop where I'll share the templates, systems and exact approach that generated $94,000 in just 30 days—no paid ads, no spam, no cold calling. Check the show notes for details and keep marketing small
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Tiny Marketing.
This is Sarah Noir-Block, andthis is a podcast that helps B2B
service businesses do more withless.
Learn lean, actionable, organicmarketing strategies you can
implement today.
No fluff, just powerful growthtactics that work.
Ready to scale smarter.
Hit that subscribe button andstart growing your business with
(00:20):
Tiny Marketing growing yourbusiness with tiny marketing.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello, I'm Sarah Noelle Block and this is tiny
marketing.
This is episode 154 and it's myfirst solo episode in months
because all summer we did theuncut summer series.
So I mean to you they were soloepisodes because a lot of them
were sharing trainings that Ihave recorded in the past, but
(00:50):
to me I haven't recorded a soloepisode in probably six months.
It's kind of crazy, but it'sgood to be back.
Hi, I've got some cozy moodlighting If you're watching the
video on YouTube.
If you're not, you can catch itthere.
And welcome back.
So this episode is for thoseB2B service founders, fractional
(01:16):
leaders, indie consultants whoneed to do more with less You're
all on your own.
More with less You're all onyour own.
And I'm going to focus in on mymission three inside the Tiny
Marketing Club today, and that'sniche networker.
So if your referrals have driedup, then this mission is the
(01:40):
thing that will flip it back onA lot of people.
When they come to me, they tellme that they survived.
Their business survived onreferrals.
Maybe they had a client from apast employer.
Actually, this is pretty muchthe story of every client I've
had, but it's also my story nowthat I think about it.
(02:03):
My first client was a pastemployer and they liked my work,
so they hired me as acontractor when I built my
business Actually my first two,now that I think about it and
then they referred me to otherpeople and that's how my
business expanded.
(02:23):
And I have a LinkedIn post thatI wrote where I share all the
other things that I did to fillin the gaps when I was building
out my business to multi sixfigures in the first year.
I'll share that in the shownotes to share the whole shebang
.
But that's not the point oftoday.
Today is how to get referrals toturn back on when they dry out.
(02:47):
Because they do.
They do when you first start abusiness.
People are so giving and theywant to help you, they want to
see you succeed.
So referrals come like fast andeasy because they're thinking
of you, you're top of mind, theycare about you.
(03:08):
But probably when you get toabout the two-year mark is when
people usually see thatreferrals are drying up.
They're not coming as easilybecause, well, new businesses
have started, they're supportingthem, they're helping them grow
.
So you need a way to be able toturn them back on.
(03:29):
Referrals are amazing whenthey're flowing, but when your
business is relying exclusivelyon referrals, it's terrifying
because they can just stop.
A referral is goodwill, areferral is goodwill.
(03:50):
So often this happens becauseyour network forgets about you.
That's one of the reasons.
When you first launch yourbusiness, you're in launch mode.
You're talking about yourbusiness, you're telling people
you started a business and then,as the years progress, you get
busy with client work, You'renot talking about it as much and
your network just kind offorgets.
They start thinking about thepeople who are talking about
(04:10):
their business regularly, ormaybe you haven't been visible
in the right places.
So all fine and good.
You get referrals within yourlittle bubble, your niche, but
as those start to dry out, youaren't visible in the places
(04:31):
where your dream clients arehanging out.
So for most people who watch orlisten to the tiny marketing
show, that's going to beLinkedIn and that's going to be
niche communities.
Those are the two biggest onesfor me and my clients.
So I won't get into the wholeprocess.
(04:52):
I've gotten into it before.
I'll share one of the episodes,but in the show notes, just in
the show notes.
But here's the gist of theprocess.
I will join a niche communitythat has my ideal client.
I know they're hanging outthere and when I see that they
(05:12):
have a question that applies tomy particular expertise, I'll
answer that question.
I might DM them and see if theywant to go deeper on it and
I'll connect with them onLinkedIn.
So connecting with them onLinkedIn gives me the
opportunity to be able tonurture that relationship
long-term.
They're seeing me on there,they're seeing the content I'm
(05:33):
writing and they learn to trustthat I know what I'm talking
about.
So that's the general process,like for me anyway.
Niche communities is where thediscovery happens.
I find them, they find me, wetalk and I start to become
(05:54):
connected as the person who isthe expert at that thing, and
then the nurturing happens onLinkedIn.
So make sure that you're in theright places.
You're finding those nichecommunities where your ideal
client is hanging out.
Another reason that referralsdry out is you haven't given
people an easy way to recommendyou, so you don't have an easy,
(06:17):
yes, gateway offer that letspeople say, oh, you have this
problem.
Okay, you got to try this offerfrom so-and-so and they're so
good at it.
Like the gateway offer is thereason that it's so easy to
refer my clients and think ofthem right off.
The a client let's get intothat who felt invisible on
(06:52):
LinkedIn.
She was showing up all the timebut no one was really engaging
with her content.
She kept just waiting forpeople to come and find her, but
weeks went by.
Nobody turned into a lead.
And if you're doing it, ifyou're doing LinkedIn passively,
(07:16):
that is going to happen.
You can post all you want, butif you're not building this
community around you on LinkedIn, it won't really matter.
People need to care what you'retalking about and even be aware
that you're talking about thething.
So one of the things that we doinside of Mission 3, the niche
(07:40):
networker in the tiny marketingclub is we have the LinkedIn
playbook and it shows youexactly how to build the
algorithm around you.
So your dream clients are inyour feed and they're seeing
your content and you're buildingan active relationship with
(08:00):
them, and that's why leads comefrom LinkedIn is because you're
building a relationship.
It's not about how amazing yourcontent is, although that helps
.
It's more about, like, I knowthis person, I see them all the
time, we're friends and I trustthat they know what they're
doing.
So it's about building acommunity around you and
(08:21):
ensuring, kind of like curatingyour feed so the right people
are seeing you.
So that's incredibly importantand that's what happened with
this client.
So she was posting.
No one was really responding.
She didn't want to take thetime to build those
relationships until we wentthrough mission three and then
(08:45):
it started to become fun.
She started to buildrelationships and get into the
DMs, have real deeperconversations, and then, all of
a sudden, the lead startedturning on and not only was she
getting clients really easily,but she was getting speaking
opportunities because the rightpeople were seeing her content.
It made it a lot easier.
(09:06):
Another way to be able to getmore leads from LinkedIn is to
just make it super freakingclear exactly what you're doing
in every single post.
So I don't recommend sellingdirectly in a post at all, but I
recommend always having a supersignature that tells people who
(09:28):
you work with, what you do andhow they can work with you.
That makes it a lot easier.
So you're teaching somethingand then you have your super
signature which shows them howthey can work with you, and then
people will start sliding intoyour DMs and asking those
questions asking how they canwork with you, because and then
people will start sliding intoyour DMs and asking those
questions asking how they canwork with you because you're
making it easy.
(09:49):
Every single post tells themexactly what you do, who you do
it for and how they can workwith you.
Without it being salesy, it'smore passive.
So all of this you also learninside of mission three niche
networker.
All of this you also learninside of mission three niche
networker.
So networking isn't aboutcollecting business cards
(10:09):
business cards um, who even hasbusiness cards anymore?
But you get what I'm saying.
It's not about like addingpeople to your crm or growing
your follower count to 10,000 orwhatever.
It's about becoming the personpeople remember when a problem
comes up.
That's why the gateway offer isso important, because you have
(10:30):
a clear promise in that gatewayoffer Like within two weeks
you're going to know how tosolve this problem.
That's pretty.
That's pretty good.
By the way just side note thegateway offer is mission one.
That's.
The first thing we do is figureout what your easy yes offer is
that leads into those highticket offers.
(10:51):
Okay.
So you want to be top of mind ina very specific circle.
It's not about becoming aninfluencer or having everybody
know your name or being inmagazines and featured in quotes
and whatever.
It's not about that.
(11:11):
It's about being the go-toperson for very specific people.
You don't need to be freakingfamous.
You need to be known as theperson who solves this problem.
So when someone says I needhelp building a marketing system
, I want people to instantlythink Sarah Noelle Block, tiny
(11:32):
marketing, she is the one whoknows how to do this and let's
get into that.
So one of my clients inside ofthe club.
She started off with no pipelineand that's really hard because,
for reference, you want yoursales pipeline to equate to
(11:55):
three times what your annualrevenue goal is.
So when you're at zero, that'sreal rough because you're
looking at a pipeline in thenegatives.
With that, you just haveoverhead at that point.
So she was at that point whereshe had started her business
(12:15):
maybe six months before reachingout to me and her pipeline was
at zero.
She wasn't sure how to funnelpeople into her pipeline and
that is so common.
I didn't.
I didn't know how to do thatfor a long time.
I was doing a lot of likeactive work to fill my revenue
(12:40):
and my pipeline in those earlydays because I didn't know how
to get people to hand raise oridentify me as their person.
I just knew how to get work.
It's hard.
It's hard when you're startingout.
I was there.
So that was her.
She was in a position where shehad bought a house right before
(13:07):
getting laid off and when shegot laid off she was like you
know what?
I'm just going to try and dothe thing and build a business.
So that's what we worked on andshe reached out to me when it
(13:27):
was getting to the point whereshe was about three months away
from not being able to pay hermortgage.
And we built out her gatewayoffer first, what is an easy
hell yes offer that people atlike a no brainer price that
people can fill into.
And first we just sold that towarm people who already knew her
.
So we didn't have to start fromscratch.
(13:48):
It was just like people sheused to work with.
It was people who were alreadyin her network.
And then we started going intomission three, the niche
networker, where she found thosepockets of people who would be
the perfect fit for her offer,who would be the perfect fit for
(14:12):
her offer.
And then within 60 days she hadfilled out her like she was at
max hours, she had bookedherself out and six months later
she had a wait list and ascalable offer.
So it was all really down to thecombination of having that easy
yes offer right off the bat andknowing where to spend time to
(14:36):
be able to sell that offer,because the gateway offer fills
in those high ticket offers.
That's the goal.
You sell the easy hell yesoffer and then you upgrade them
into the execution piece of theoffer, which is your high ticket
(14:56):
main offer, and that's how itworks.
You build trust with thatgateway, but it also allows you
an opportunity to say you knowwhat I didn't like working with
them and I wouldn't want to workwith them again.
So you can choose not to upsellthem.
So it's a little test for bothof you at a price that is easy
(15:17):
to say yes to.
I like to stay right underneath$1,000.
That's enough money that peopleare like, okay, I need to take
this seriously.
Um, but it's not so much thatthey're gonna say no, it's, it's
an easy yes answer.
It's a easy yes price is what Imean.
Okay, so, um, let's get intothe dream prospect map.
(15:46):
So I have notes right here.
If you're watching on YouTube,that is what I'm scrolling
through is my notes.
Instead of shouting into a void,you need to map out exactly who
you need to connect with inorder to get the right people to
see your content and buildrelationships with them.
(16:08):
So you want to fill your feedwith direct buyers, or I mean at
first it'll be direct prospects, people who would be a good fit
for your offers.
You also want it filled withreferral partners, so other
people who work with your dreamclients but don't do the same
thing as you, and then industrypeers who might bring you
(16:31):
opportunities.
So this could be like agencyowners.
It could be old co-workers,something like that, People who
do similar things to what you do, but not exactly what you do
Like.
I'll give you an exampleProbably in like year two and
(16:54):
three of my business, I wasworking heavily with a lot of
marketing agencies because theydidn't want to do content
strategy.
They wanted some expert to do it.
So they would pull me in to docontent strategy for their
clients and then they would dothe execution piece.
So, even though they're kind ofa competitor, they're not
(17:16):
really a competitor because theydidn't want to do that work.
They wanted someone else to doit and that person was me.
And there are in any industrythat you're in because, like
people inside of the tinymarketing club, they're often in
the finance space, they're inthe operations space, a lot of
marketers too, actually, becausethe tiny marketing club goes
(17:39):
from like offer into actuallyoffer to offer, because the
first mission is gateway offer,the easy yes offer.
And then we go into fast cash,which is a sales sprint where
we're selling a bunch and makingmoney.
And then we go into niche, notworker, which is mission three,
(18:00):
and then we get into marketingpieces, the lead waterfall, so
scaling lead generation.
And then we get into what doesa scalable offer look like?
I'm booked out, I don't havetime, but I want to increase my
revenue.
What does this look like?
So there's six missions insideof the club, so we have, like
(18:22):
finance ops, marketing prettymuch anyone who'd be in the
C-suite that are inside, perhapsmarketing pretty much anyone
who'd be in the C-suite that areinside.
So there's someone in each oneof those categories that are
technically a competitor butdon't want to do exactly what
you do.
Like the client I was talkingabout a few minutes ago, she
(18:48):
works in the finance space.
She doesn't do bookkeeping,though.
She only does taxes.
So you can see that she canconnect with a bookkeeper and
that would automatically fillher sales pipeline.
Because they don't want to dotaxes, she doesn't want to do
bookkeeping.
It's a symbiotic.
I think I pronounced that right.
I think I pronounced that right.
(19:10):
Relationship.
Okay.
So a quick exercise for you.
If you're listening or watching, pause and jot down 10 names of
people that you could connectwith right now to get clients
tomorrow.
That's an easy thing that youcan do is write down 10 names.
Pause.
It's an easy thing that you cando is write down 10 names.
Pause.
(19:32):
Write down 10 names of peopleyou can connect to, who can
connect you with clients, okay.
So when I was going throughthis, I wrote down one.
All of those aggregators of like.
I used the mom project, I usedmarketer hire.
(19:52):
Those were simple ones, becausepeople are already going there
saying they need marketingsupport and then I would connect
through them.
Other ones for me weremarketing agencies.
Ones for me were marketingagencies.
(20:13):
I also connected a lot withwebsite designers because I
would do the copywriting, Iwould do the strategy, or they
would have a client who didn'thave any marketing and they now
they have this beautiful website, but they didn't know what to
do with it afterwards.
So they were great referralpartners for me too, because
they would come to me andthey're like okay, so they have
an awesome website now, but theydon't know what to do next.
(20:33):
So I was their next person.
So find your hidden allies thatyou aren't tapping into and tap
into them.
Okay, all right.
So next is building credibilitythrough connection, and that
really comes down to those nichecommunities.
(20:54):
So how I found most of mine isthrough connection calls.
I would connect with people whohad the same dream client as me
.
They work with the same personas me and I would ask what
communities they're part of.
That was the easiest way tofind perfect ones.
(21:14):
Some of my most profitable nichecommunities came from
recommendations from otherpeople.
That's the first thing I woulddo Ask.
Ask people who already have thesame clients that you want.
Another one is just go onLinkedIn and write a post, say
I'm looking to connect with moreof X.
Whatever your dream client is,what communities would be a
(21:43):
great place for me to startbuilding those relationships.
So, instead of trying to beeverywhere and having a profile
on Facebook, instagram, tiktok,youtube, just everywhere, just
show up consistently in like oneto two spots.
For me, that is my nichecommunities and that is LinkedIn
.
For you, it might be somethingelse.
(22:06):
I don't try and box you into mybox, no-transcript.
So one of my offers is calledthe strategic story and in it,
clients come to me and they askme to, and what I basically
(22:27):
create is an all-in-onemessaging, content and marketing
strategy.
Interview their clients and Ifind out how they make buying
decisions, and pretty much allof them have told me that they
(22:51):
go to their trusted networkfirst and they ask for
recommendations.
So when you become that trustednetwork, or known to that
trusted network or networkthrough niche communities, you
become an easy person to referbecause you're a trusted
referral and that's what peopleare looking for.
(23:14):
They're not looking forsomebody to find the best
trending sounds, unless they'relooking for a social media
person.
They're looking for someonethat's trusted.
Okay, this is going a littlelong for a solo episode, so I'm
just going to touch on two morethings before I wrap up.
So how do we move people fromyou know, reading your content
(23:40):
maybe passively, not even likingit, who knows to having an
active conversation?
That's where the magic DM comesin.
So the magic DM is basically anon-slimy way to get hand
raisers.
So basically, what you do is,instead of cold pitching so so I
(24:04):
get so many, so many coldpitches in my LinkedIn DMs and
it's like, hey, I do this, wantto get on a call, here's the
link.
It's gross and I don't havetime and I don't know you, so no
, what the magic DM is is whenyou're connecting with someone.
(24:24):
Tell them where you found them.
So there is that connectionpoint, like, hey, I found you in
insert niche community and Ithought you would be a good
connection.
And then the next line isbasically that super signature
what you do, who you do it withand how people can work with you
and then end it with some sortof soft close like I'm really
(24:48):
looking forward to your posts.
So that is the magic DM and itintentionally will filter out
people who aren't interested inever working with you, because
that signal when you tell themwhat you do, who you do it for
and how people can work with you, if they accept that connection
request, that's a little signalthat they are interested in
(25:11):
possibly working with you oneday.
They're at least not shuttingthe door on the possibility.
So that's the first thing Iwould send in a connection
request.
And this turns strangers intowarm leads without any pressure.
They have passively noddedtheir head to your offer and you
(25:36):
can start having a conversationwith them.
Ask them so tell me more aboutyour business, what is, what's a
project you're really excitedthat you're working on right now
and that you want to eventuallyturn that into a connection
call, which is just like a lowpressure 15 minute conversation.
Or you can learn more aboutthem and see are they a good fit
(25:57):
or are they a friend who knowsFit or friend fit or are they a
friend who knows Fit or friend?
Okay, so step four is thefollow-up flow.
So the magic DM is it's a hello, but it flows into a
(26:19):
conversation.
So you want to keep thatconversation going and your goal
is to eventually get them on acall so you can figure out
fitter friend and then keeptrack of those conversations and
follow up with value.
So I take notes on every singleconversation I have, like what
(26:39):
can I do to support them?
What resources would make sensefor me to share with them?
Pay close attention to thepeople that you're having these
conversations with so you can behelpful, comment on their posts
, share their posts, be reallyencouraging and just an ally for
them.
(27:01):
So here's a quick tip If you canfollow up with just like just
two or three times with value,you'll stand out from 99% of the
people on LinkedIn who are justconnecting with them and then
not building a relationship withthem.
You don't have to like inundatetheir DMs with a thousand
different things like, hey, I'mdoing a webinar, here's the link
(27:24):
, sign up.
That's might be doing them aservice, but it's also like I'm
asking for an hour of your time.
That's not super valuable.
What is valuable is finding outwhat challenges they're going
through and then sending themsome resource, even if it's not
your own, that could help themthrough it.
So make sure that youcontinuously be a value for them
(27:47):
.
This should be part of yourbusiness development strategy.
Okay, so if all of this mymeandering conversation has been
helpful for you, has beenhelpful for you, we have to
acknowledge the elephant in theroom.
You might be thinking, okay,but what do I say?
(28:16):
How do I write these DMswithout sounding awkward?
How do I build theserelationships?
That's where my workshop comesinto play.
So if you're listening to thisearly, then you can still sign
up for the LinkedIn prospectingworkshop, which is happening, I
think, a week from when thiswill air.
(28:38):
So I'm going to drop the linkfor that in the show notes page
If you missed it.
If you're listening to this ayear later, that happens all the
time that's okay, because thereplay is also available and you
can just DM me if it's notreadily available to you and you
(28:58):
don't see it.
But LinkedIn prospecting I'mgoing to show you exactly how to
curate your feed so the rightpeople are seeing you and how to
slide into those DMs withoutbeing a creep.
So how to have these naturalconversations and I'm sharing
the templates.
We're going to build it outtogether.
(29:19):
It's going to be awesome.
We have a good group alreadygoing, but I'd love to have you
too.
So I will have the link to signup in the show notes and if
you're listening to this late,just DM me and I will send you
the page to sign up for thereplay.
Sign up for the replay.
(29:45):
So this particular workshop willexplain how I was able to make
$94,000 in 30 days with LinkedIn.
It actually was a combinationof niche communities to LinkedIn
.
It was that process that Imentioned earlier.
So I'm going to show you theexact LinkedIn system no paid
ads, no spam, no cold callingthat I used to fill my pipeline
and make that $94,000.
(30:07):
So inside of this you're goingto get your dream prospect map.
So how to curate that feedthat's basically what that means
the connection blueprint.
So how do you have thoseconversations without coming off
awkward or salesy?
The magic DM template, a promptpack and a follow-up system.
(30:32):
So you know exactly what to sayto keep that conversation going
.
So you continue thatrelationship.
So the workshop itself is $97.
You can grab it and you alsoget a guest pass to the next
tiny marketing club office hours.
So that's super excitingbecause once you go through this
workshop and you start playingwith these ideas and testing
(30:54):
them out, you might have somequestions.
So you're getting a guest passto the office hours where you
can join me live and come withthem.
Come with your questions.
Seats are limited, but go tothe show notes and see if
they're still available now.
So, to wrap it up, mission threein the tiny marketing club is
(31:15):
all about being remembered,trusted and recommended.
So I invite you to join theworkshop that is available to
everyone and put this episodeinto practice and then maybe, if
it's a good fit for you, youwant to apply for the Tiny
Marketing Club.
That would be amazing, and youcan go through those six
(31:38):
missions with me and we willbuild you out a booked out
business together.
So I mean, that sounds prettyfun, doesn't it?
Keep marketing small but makingit big.
So I can't wait to see you atthe workshop.
Head down to the show notes andI'll see you there.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
You love all things tiny marketing.
Head down to the show notespage and sign up for the wait
list and I'll see you there.
Welcome to Tiny Marketing.
This is Sarah Noir-Block, andthis is a podcast that helps B2B
service businesses do more withless.
Learn lean, actionable, organicmarketing strategies you can
implement today.
No fluff, just powerful growthtactics that work.
Ready to scale smarter.
Hit that subscribe button andstart growing your business with
(00:20):
Tiny Marketing growing yourbusiness with tiny marketing.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello, I'm Sarah Noelle Block and this is tiny
marketing.
This is episode 154 and it's myfirst solo episode in months
because all summer we did theuncut summer series.
So I mean to you they were soloepisodes because a lot of them
were sharing trainings that Ihave recorded in the past, but
(00:50):
to me I haven't recorded a soloepisode in probably six months.
It's kind of crazy, but it'sgood to be back.
Hi, I've got some cozy moodlighting If you're watching the
video on YouTube.
If you're not, you can catch itthere.
And welcome back.
So this episode is for thoseB2B service founders, fractional
(01:16):
leaders, indie consultants whoneed to do more with less You're
all on your own.
More with less You're all onyour own.
And I'm going to focus in on mymission three inside the Tiny
Marketing Club today, and that'sniche networker.
So if your referrals have driedup, then this mission is the
(01:40):
thing that will flip it back onA lot of people.
When they come to me, they tellme that they survived.
Their business survived onreferrals.
Maybe they had a client from apast employer.
Actually, this is pretty muchthe story of every client I've
had, but it's also my story nowthat I think about it.
(02:03):
My first client was a pastemployer and they liked my work,
so they hired me as acontractor when I built my
business Actually my first two,now that I think about it and
then they referred me to otherpeople and that's how my
business expanded.
(02:23):
And I have a LinkedIn post thatI wrote where I share all the
other things that I did to fillin the gaps when I was building
out my business to multi sixfigures in the first year.
I'll share that in the shownotes to share the whole shebang
.
But that's not the point oftoday.
Today is how to get referrals toturn back on when they dry out.
(02:47):
Because they do.
They do when you first start abusiness.
People are so giving and theywant to help you, they want to
see you succeed.
So referrals come like fast andeasy because they're thinking
of you, you're top of mind, theycare about you.
(03:08):
But probably when you get toabout the two-year mark is when
people usually see thatreferrals are drying up.
They're not coming as easilybecause, well, new businesses
have started, they're supportingthem, they're helping them grow
.
So you need a way to be able toturn them back on.
(03:29):
Referrals are amazing whenthey're flowing, but when your
business is relying exclusivelyon referrals, it's terrifying
because they can just stop.
A referral is goodwill, areferral is goodwill.
(03:50):
So often this happens becauseyour network forgets about you.
That's one of the reasons.
When you first launch yourbusiness, you're in launch mode.
You're talking about yourbusiness, you're telling people
you started a business and then,as the years progress, you get
busy with client work, You'renot talking about it as much and
your network just kind offorgets.
They start thinking about thepeople who are talking about
(04:10):
their business regularly, ormaybe you haven't been visible
in the right places.
So all fine and good.
You get referrals within yourlittle bubble, your niche, but
as those start to dry out, youaren't visible in the places
(04:31):
where your dream clients arehanging out.
So for most people who watch orlisten to the tiny marketing
show, that's going to beLinkedIn and that's going to be
niche communities.
Those are the two biggest onesfor me and my clients.
So I won't get into the wholeprocess.
(04:52):
I've gotten into it before.
I'll share one of the episodes,but in the show notes, just in
the show notes.
But here's the gist of theprocess.
I will join a niche communitythat has my ideal client.
I know they're hanging outthere and when I see that they
(05:12):
have a question that applies tomy particular expertise, I'll
answer that question.
I might DM them and see if theywant to go deeper on it and
I'll connect with them onLinkedIn.
So connecting with them onLinkedIn gives me the
opportunity to be able tonurture that relationship
long-term.
They're seeing me on there,they're seeing the content I'm
(05:33):
writing and they learn to trustthat I know what I'm talking
about.
So that's the general process,like for me anyway.
Niche communities is where thediscovery happens.
I find them, they find me, wetalk and I start to become
(05:54):
connected as the person who isthe expert at that thing, and
then the nurturing happens onLinkedIn.
So make sure that you're in theright places.
You're finding those nichecommunities where your ideal
client is hanging out.
Another reason that referralsdry out is you haven't given
people an easy way to recommendyou, so you don't have an easy,
(06:17):
yes, gateway offer that letspeople say, oh, you have this
problem.
Okay, you got to try this offerfrom so-and-so and they're so
good at it.
Like the gateway offer is thereason that it's so easy to
refer my clients and think ofthem right off.
The a client let's get intothat who felt invisible on
(06:52):
LinkedIn.
She was showing up all the timebut no one was really engaging
with her content.
She kept just waiting forpeople to come and find her, but
weeks went by.
Nobody turned into a lead.
And if you're doing it, ifyou're doing LinkedIn passively,
(07:16):
that is going to happen.
You can post all you want, butif you're not building this
community around you on LinkedIn, it won't really matter.
People need to care what you'retalking about and even be aware
that you're talking about thething.
So one of the things that we doinside of Mission 3, the niche
(07:40):
networker in the tiny marketingclub is we have the LinkedIn
playbook and it shows youexactly how to build the
algorithm around you.
So your dream clients are inyour feed and they're seeing
your content and you're buildingan active relationship with
(08:00):
them, and that's why leads comefrom LinkedIn is because you're
building a relationship.
It's not about how amazing yourcontent is, although that helps
.
It's more about, like, I knowthis person, I see them all the
time, we're friends and I trustthat they know what they're
doing.
So it's about building acommunity around you and
(08:21):
ensuring, kind of like curatingyour feed so the right people
are seeing you.
So that's incredibly importantand that's what happened with
this client.
So she was posting.
No one was really responding.
She didn't want to take thetime to build those
relationships until we wentthrough mission three and then
(08:45):
it started to become fun.
She started to buildrelationships and get into the
DMs, have real deeperconversations, and then, all of
a sudden, the lead startedturning on and not only was she
getting clients really easily,but she was getting speaking
opportunities because the rightpeople were seeing her content.
It made it a lot easier.
(09:06):
Another way to be able to getmore leads from LinkedIn is to
just make it super freakingclear exactly what you're doing
in every single post.
So I don't recommend sellingdirectly in a post at all, but I
recommend always having a supersignature that tells people who
(09:28):
you work with, what you do andhow they can work with you.
That makes it a lot easier.
So you're teaching somethingand then you have your super
signature which shows them howthey can work with you, and then
people will start sliding intoyour DMs and asking those
questions asking how they canwork with you, because and then
people will start sliding intoyour DMs and asking those
questions asking how they canwork with you because you're
making it easy.
(09:49):
Every single post tells themexactly what you do, who you do
it for and how they can workwith you.
Without it being salesy, it'smore passive.
So all of this you also learninside of mission three niche
networker.
All of this you also learninside of mission three niche
networker.
So networking isn't aboutcollecting business cards
(10:09):
business cards um, who even hasbusiness cards anymore?
But you get what I'm saying.
It's not about like addingpeople to your crm or growing
your follower count to 10,000 orwhatever.
It's about becoming the personpeople remember when a problem
comes up.
That's why the gateway offer isso important, because you have
(10:30):
a clear promise in that gatewayoffer Like within two weeks
you're going to know how tosolve this problem.
That's pretty.
That's pretty good.
By the way just side note thegateway offer is mission one.
That's.
The first thing we do is figureout what your easy yes offer is
that leads into those highticket offers.
(10:51):
Okay.
So you want to be top of mind ina very specific circle.
It's not about becoming aninfluencer or having everybody
know your name or being inmagazines and featured in quotes
and whatever.
It's not about that.
(11:11):
It's about being the go-toperson for very specific people.
You don't need to be freakingfamous.
You need to be known as theperson who solves this problem.
So when someone says I needhelp building a marketing system
, I want people to instantlythink Sarah Noelle Block, tiny
(11:32):
marketing, she is the one whoknows how to do this and let's
get into that.
So one of my clients inside ofthe club.
She started off with no pipelineand that's really hard because,
for reference, you want yoursales pipeline to equate to
(11:55):
three times what your annualrevenue goal is.
So when you're at zero, that'sreal rough because you're
looking at a pipeline in thenegatives.
With that, you just haveoverhead at that point.
So she was at that point whereshe had started her business
(12:15):
maybe six months before reachingout to me and her pipeline was
at zero.
She wasn't sure how to funnelpeople into her pipeline and
that is so common.
I didn't.
I didn't know how to do thatfor a long time.
I was doing a lot of likeactive work to fill my revenue
(12:40):
and my pipeline in those earlydays because I didn't know how
to get people to hand raise oridentify me as their person.
I just knew how to get work.
It's hard.
It's hard when you're startingout.
I was there.
So that was her.
She was in a position where shehad bought a house right before
(13:07):
getting laid off and when shegot laid off she was like you
know what?
I'm just going to try and dothe thing and build a business.
So that's what we worked on andshe reached out to me when it
(13:27):
was getting to the point whereshe was about three months away
from not being able to pay hermortgage.
And we built out her gatewayoffer first, what is an easy
hell yes offer that people atlike a no brainer price that
people can fill into.
And first we just sold that towarm people who already knew her
.
So we didn't have to start fromscratch.
(13:48):
It was just like people sheused to work with.
It was people who were alreadyin her network.
And then we started going intomission three, the niche
networker, where she found thosepockets of people who would be
the perfect fit for her offer,who would be the perfect fit for
(14:12):
her offer.
And then within 60 days she hadfilled out her like she was at
max hours, she had bookedherself out and six months later
she had a wait list and ascalable offer.
So it was all really down to thecombination of having that easy
yes offer right off the bat andknowing where to spend time to
(14:36):
be able to sell that offer,because the gateway offer fills
in those high ticket offers.
That's the goal.
You sell the easy hell yesoffer and then you upgrade them
into the execution piece of theoffer, which is your high ticket
(14:56):
main offer, and that's how itworks.
You build trust with thatgateway, but it also allows you
an opportunity to say you knowwhat I didn't like working with
them and I wouldn't want to workwith them again.
So you can choose not to upsellthem.
So it's a little test for bothof you at a price that is easy
(15:17):
to say yes to.
I like to stay right underneath$1,000.
That's enough money that peopleare like, okay, I need to take
this seriously.
Um, but it's not so much thatthey're gonna say no, it's, it's
an easy yes answer.
It's a easy yes price is what Imean.
Okay, so, um, let's get intothe dream prospect map.
(15:46):
So I have notes right here.
If you're watching on YouTube,that is what I'm scrolling
through is my notes.
Instead of shouting into a void,you need to map out exactly who
you need to connect with inorder to get the right people to
see your content and buildrelationships with them.
(16:08):
So you want to fill your feedwith direct buyers, or I mean at
first it'll be direct prospects, people who would be a good fit
for your offers.
You also want it filled withreferral partners, so other
people who work with your dreamclients but don't do the same
thing as you, and then industrypeers who might bring you
(16:31):
opportunities.
So this could be like agencyowners.
It could be old co-workers,something like that, People who
do similar things to what you do, but not exactly what you do
Like.
I'll give you an exampleProbably in like year two and
(16:54):
three of my business, I wasworking heavily with a lot of
marketing agencies because theydidn't want to do content
strategy.
They wanted some expert to do it.
So they would pull me in to docontent strategy for their
clients and then they would dothe execution piece.
So, even though they're kind ofa competitor, they're not
(17:16):
really a competitor because theydidn't want to do that work.
They wanted someone else to doit and that person was me.
And there are in any industrythat you're in because, like
people inside of the tinymarketing club, they're often in
the finance space, they're inthe operations space, a lot of
marketers too, actually, becausethe tiny marketing club goes
(17:39):
from like offer into actuallyoffer to offer, because the
first mission is gateway offer,the easy yes offer.
And then we go into fast cash,which is a sales sprint where
we're selling a bunch and makingmoney.
And then we go into niche, notworker, which is mission three,
(18:00):
and then we get into marketingpieces, the lead waterfall, so
scaling lead generation.
And then we get into what doesa scalable offer look like?
I'm booked out, I don't havetime, but I want to increase my
revenue.
What does this look like?
So there's six missions insideof the club, so we have, like
(18:22):
finance ops, marketing prettymuch anyone who'd be in the
C-suite that are inside, perhapsmarketing pretty much anyone
who'd be in the C-suite that areinside.
So there's someone in each oneof those categories that are
technically a competitor butdon't want to do exactly what
you do.
Like the client I was talkingabout a few minutes ago, she
(18:48):
works in the finance space.
She doesn't do bookkeeping,though.
She only does taxes.
So you can see that she canconnect with a bookkeeper and
that would automatically fillher sales pipeline.
Because they don't want to dotaxes, she doesn't want to do
bookkeeping.
It's a symbiotic.
I think I pronounced that right.
I think I pronounced that right.
(19:10):
Relationship.
Okay.
So a quick exercise for you.
If you're listening or watching, pause and jot down 10 names of
people that you could connectwith right now to get clients
tomorrow.
That's an easy thing that youcan do is write down 10 names.
Pause.
It's an easy thing that you cando is write down 10 names.
Pause.
(19:32):
Write down 10 names of peopleyou can connect to, who can
connect you with clients, okay.
So when I was going throughthis, I wrote down one.
All of those aggregators of like.
I used the mom project, I usedmarketer hire.
(19:52):
Those were simple ones, becausepeople are already going there
saying they need marketingsupport and then I would connect
through them.
Other ones for me weremarketing agencies.
Ones for me were marketingagencies.
(20:13):
I also connected a lot withwebsite designers because I
would do the copywriting, Iwould do the strategy, or they
would have a client who didn'thave any marketing and they now
they have this beautiful website, but they didn't know what to
do with it afterwards.
So they were great referralpartners for me too, because
they would come to me andthey're like okay, so they have
an awesome website now, but theydon't know what to do next.
(20:33):
So I was their next person.
So find your hidden allies thatyou aren't tapping into and tap
into them.
Okay, all right.
So next is building credibilitythrough connection, and that
really comes down to those nichecommunities.
(20:54):
So how I found most of mine isthrough connection calls.
I would connect with people whohad the same dream client as me
.
They work with the same personas me and I would ask what
communities they're part of.
That was the easiest way tofind perfect ones.
(21:14):
Some of my most profitable nichecommunities came from
recommendations from otherpeople.
That's the first thing I woulddo Ask.
Ask people who already have thesame clients that you want.
Another one is just go onLinkedIn and write a post, say
I'm looking to connect with moreof X.
Whatever your dream client is,what communities would be a
(21:43):
great place for me to startbuilding those relationships.
So, instead of trying to beeverywhere and having a profile
on Facebook, instagram, tiktok,youtube, just everywhere, just
show up consistently in like oneto two spots.
For me, that is my nichecommunities and that is LinkedIn
.
For you, it might be somethingelse.
(22:06):
I don't try and box you into mybox, no-transcript.
So one of my offers is calledthe strategic story and in it,
clients come to me and they askme to, and what I basically
(22:27):
create is an all-in-onemessaging, content and marketing
strategy.
Interview their clients and Ifind out how they make buying
decisions, and pretty much allof them have told me that they
(22:51):
go to their trusted networkfirst and they ask for
recommendations.
So when you become that trustednetwork, or known to that
trusted network or networkthrough niche communities, you
become an easy person to referbecause you're a trusted
referral and that's what peopleare looking for.
(23:14):
They're not looking forsomebody to find the best
trending sounds, unless they'relooking for a social media
person.
They're looking for someonethat's trusted.
Okay, this is going a littlelong for a solo episode, so I'm
just going to touch on two morethings before I wrap up.
So how do we move people fromyou know, reading your content
(23:40):
maybe passively, not even likingit, who knows to having an
active conversation?
That's where the magic DM comesin.
So the magic DM is basically anon-slimy way to get hand
raisers.
So basically, what you do is,instead of cold pitching so so I
(24:04):
get so many, so many coldpitches in my LinkedIn DMs and
it's like, hey, I do this, wantto get on a call, here's the
link.
It's gross and I don't havetime and I don't know you, so no
, what the magic DM is is whenyou're connecting with someone.
(24:24):
Tell them where you found them.
So there is that connectionpoint, like, hey, I found you in
insert niche community and Ithought you would be a good
connection.
And then the next line isbasically that super signature
what you do, who you do it withand how people can work with you
and then end it with some sortof soft close like I'm really
(24:48):
looking forward to your posts.
So that is the magic DM and itintentionally will filter out
people who aren't interested inever working with you, because
that signal when you tell themwhat you do, who you do it for
and how people can work with you, if they accept that connection
request, that's a little signalthat they are interested in
(25:11):
possibly working with you oneday.
They're at least not shuttingthe door on the possibility.
So that's the first thing Iwould send in a connection
request.
And this turns strangers intowarm leads without any pressure.
They have passively noddedtheir head to your offer and you
(25:36):
can start having a conversationwith them.
Ask them so tell me more aboutyour business, what is, what's a
project you're really excitedthat you're working on right now
and that you want to eventuallyturn that into a connection
call, which is just like a lowpressure 15 minute conversation.
Or you can learn more aboutthem and see are they a good fit
(25:57):
or are they a friend who knowsFit or friend fit or are they a
friend who knows Fit or friend?
Okay, so step four is thefollow-up flow.
So the magic DM is it's a hello, but it flows into a
(26:19):
conversation.
So you want to keep thatconversation going and your goal
is to eventually get them on acall so you can figure out
fitter friend and then keeptrack of those conversations and
follow up with value.
So I take notes on every singleconversation I have, like what
(26:39):
can I do to support them?
What resources would make sensefor me to share with them?
Pay close attention to thepeople that you're having these
conversations with so you can behelpful, comment on their posts
, share their posts, be reallyencouraging and just an ally for
them.
(27:01):
So here's a quick tip If you canfollow up with just like just
two or three times with value,you'll stand out from 99% of the
people on LinkedIn who are justconnecting with them and then
not building a relationship withthem.
You don't have to like inundatetheir DMs with a thousand
different things like, hey, I'mdoing a webinar, here's the link
(27:24):
, sign up.
That's might be doing them aservice, but it's also like I'm
asking for an hour of your time.
That's not super valuable.
What is valuable is finding outwhat challenges they're going
through and then sending themsome resource, even if it's not
your own, that could help themthrough it.
So make sure that youcontinuously be a value for them
(27:47):
.
This should be part of yourbusiness development strategy.
Okay, so if all of this mymeandering conversation has been
helpful for you, has beenhelpful for you, we have to
acknowledge the elephant in theroom.
You might be thinking, okay,but what do I say?
(28:16):
How do I write these DMswithout sounding awkward?
How do I build theserelationships?
That's where my workshop comesinto play.
So if you're listening to thisearly, then you can still sign
up for the LinkedIn prospectingworkshop, which is happening, I
think, a week from when thiswill air.
(28:38):
So I'm going to drop the linkfor that in the show notes page
If you missed it.
If you're listening to this ayear later, that happens all the
time that's okay, because thereplay is also available and you
can just DM me if it's notreadily available to you and you
(28:58):
don't see it.
But LinkedIn prospecting I'mgoing to show you exactly how to
curate your feed so the rightpeople are seeing you and how to
slide into those DMs withoutbeing a creep.
So how to have these naturalconversations and I'm sharing
the templates.
We're going to build it outtogether.
(29:19):
It's going to be awesome.
We have a good group alreadygoing, but I'd love to have you
too.
So I will have the link to signup in the show notes and if
you're listening to this late,just DM me and I will send you
the page to sign up for thereplay.
Sign up for the replay.
(29:45):
So this particular workshop willexplain how I was able to make
$94,000 in 30 days with LinkedIn.
It actually was a combinationof niche communities to LinkedIn
.
It was that process that Imentioned earlier.
So I'm going to show you theexact LinkedIn system no paid
ads, no spam, no cold callingthat I used to fill my pipeline
and make that $94,000.
(30:07):
So inside of this you're goingto get your dream prospect map.
So how to curate that feedthat's basically what that means
the connection blueprint.
So how do you have thoseconversations without coming off
awkward or salesy?
The magic DM template, a promptpack and a follow-up system.
(30:32):
So you know exactly what to sayto keep that conversation going
.
So you continue thatrelationship.
So the workshop itself is $97.
You can grab it and you alsoget a guest pass to the next
tiny marketing club office hours.
So that's super excitingbecause once you go through this
workshop and you start playingwith these ideas and testing
(30:54):
them out, you might have somequestions.
So you're getting a guest passto the office hours where you
can join me live and come withthem.
Come with your questions.
Seats are limited, but go tothe show notes and see if
they're still available now.
So, to wrap it up, mission threein the tiny marketing club is
(31:15):
all about being remembered,trusted and recommended.
So I invite you to join theworkshop that is available to
everyone and put this episodeinto practice and then maybe, if
it's a good fit for you, youwant to apply for the Tiny
Marketing Club.
That would be amazing, and youcan go through those six
(31:38):
missions with me and we willbuild you out a booked out
business together.
So I mean, that sounds prettyfun, doesn't it?
Keep marketing small but makingit big.
So I can't wait to see you atthe workshop.
Head down to the show notes andI'll see you there.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
You love all things tiny marketing.
Head down to the show notespage and sign up for the wait
list and I'll see you there.
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