Not Having to Say No

Saying no is one of the hardest things entrepreneurs need to learn. However, sometimes saying “NO” is NOT the answer.
 
 In this episode, we will talk about an alternative to saying no while safeguarding your time and brand.
 
 Full show notes & links to resources mentioned: https://rachelbrenke.com/epi3/

Join the Business Bites Podcast® group to chat about this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessbitespodcast

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to the Business Bites podcast, the podcast for busy entrepreneurs. Whether you are an online entrepreneur or seeking after brick and mortar success, this podcast brings you quick bites of content so you can learn and grow anywhere you are. Now, here's your host, Rachel Bke. 

Speaker 2 (00:17):

Hello guys, Rachel Brinke here. I am your host for today's episode of the Business Bites podcast. I am super excited to talk about a topic that I feel like a lot of people don't really address. It is the topic of saying yes to most opportunities that come your way versus learning to say no. I know many times you'll hear me in the other podcast talk about balancing of family life, business and everything and choosing wisely choosing your rocks. But the thing that I found that when you're growing your business that you can't always say no to opportunities. You need to be able to make room as much as possible for good opportunities that come down the pipeline. So I wanted to walk you guys through a little bit how I was able to take on as many opportunities for partnerships or appearances as possible during my busy seasons now, and also when it was super busy in the startup growth periods of all of my businesses. 

Speaker 2 (01:15):

And I think the thing is, I feel like so many of us that are balancing everything feel like we have to put a limit on only X amount of networking events or X amount of speaking engagements or any type of writing of articles, sharing of other people's content. You need to put a limit on that, and I will agree with that. I do agree that there's a point that you can only do so much, but sometimes it's not in your best interest when other people are offering to share you with their audience, with their customer base, you don't want to say no. So the very first tip that I have for you guys on this is when you're looking at your opportunities before you even get to the point of saying yes, which I'm going to help you be as efficient as possible when we get there, but you first need to make sure that the business person that is approaching you to be in your network to go hard, for you to promote you to their audience and their client base, you need to ensure that they are actually even going to be worth your time. 

Speaker 2 (02:15):

And I don't mean that in a derogatory manner. I mean that in a sense that one, you're able to give back to them and they're able to give to you if you don't have the time to give them, it's not a good time for you to say yes to the opportunity. If they are wanting you to give and give and give such as content creation and go on their blog or appear on their podcast, but they're not able to reciprocate anything in response, it's probably not a good opportunity. Now, reciprocation doesn't necessarily require that they have to guest post for you or create any content for you. It could be as simple as sharing your article that you've written for them X amount of times and a certain amount of timeframe, especially if you've aligned that with a special promotion or a launch of a product or service. 

Speaker 2 (02:58):

And you just want to make sure that you're going to be able to have a two-way street going on while you're scratching their back, they're scratching yours. Because one thing that's really easy when you first start out, and even now years into business, I have to remind myself that just because they are a really large name in your industry, which is another point that I need to make, you need to make sure it's even going to serve who your target audience is going to be, who your target client or customer would be. Make sure that if you're spending your time creating content or spending time on a business relationship that it's even going to get in front of people that are actually ultimately going to convert to you. And on top of that, you also want to make sure that they have a good reputation. 

Speaker 2 (03:39):

Just because they may have a big name doesn't necessarily mean it's somebody that you want to be attached to. And just because a big name in the industry and they're well recognized doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get traction, doesn't mean that you're going to get their audience. They may share your blog post, nothing may come from it. I know that I had an opportunity recently within the last year that they offered me a, I could write a guest blog post an article for their site, and I was completely excited. This was a really large name. I had gotten no return out of it. They didn't share it adequately like they had promised, and it was just kind of lost amongst all the other content on their site. And so I actually got a better return by taking a smaller fish in the pond as opposed to this large fish and really cultivating the smaller relationship. 

Speaker 2 (04:26):

So that's kind of the whole thought process that I go through when I'm going to determine whether or not I'm even going to work with another individual. You notice I really didn't even discuss payment. I didn't discuss free products or any of that. I think those are kind of extras that come after you make that first decision whether or not to become a do a business partnership, a relationship affiliate ship, whatever it is that you're going to be doing, you need a first look at the reputation if they're going to scratch your back and if you're going to get a good return out of it, and if you have time to give to them as well. So we get to that point and you decide, okay, I need to take these opportunities. I go through that whole entire process that you just walked me through, Rachel, that safeguards me. 

Speaker 2 (05:04):

It gets me to a point that I'm ready to commit, but what do I do then because I'm so completely utterly overwhelmed. Alright, so there's three main things that I think that you guys can look at doing or work towards having in the future. The number one is being as efficient as possible. I am all about email templates, newsletter templates, canned responses, everything. I always try to make it personalized as much as possible, but one of the things that I really like to do, especially when I get a lot of requests for business partnerships is to have, first of all, a submission form for them to be able to go through. Sometimes people just blindly email me, which is totally cool, but we like to keep a database of all people that inquire. So I just whip up a gravity form, which is a plugin for WordPress, and they go into that, they submit the form, I get an email when it's done and I'm able to evaluate, and I've already asked all the questions I already need to know, and a lot of it is built upon what I just walked you guys through in the first step. 

Speaker 2 (06:01):

That got me through the thought process of even to, is this an opportunity that I'm willing to go through? And this is how I really get there is through the application process. Once they do that and I'm ready to pull the trigger on it, I already have a folder of images, text videos, articles, an invitation to my affiliate program or partnership is all already put into one location. What is so phenomenal is that I can respond to these partnership emails from my phone by having Dropbox. I have all of this ready to go. It's really a media kit in a sense, except I'm obviously not pitching to somebody necessarily. They've already pretty much pitched to me or we've already gotten to the point that they know about me. I'm just giving them enough information that has a list of texts that has my biography, it has all of my contact information, all the different social media handles and links as well as where I want to send them on the blog, any lead magnets I may have. 

Speaker 2 (06:58):

Then my folder of images, I've got my logo, my headshot, any other applicable marketing materials that are going to further my brand, I may throw in a little few videos as well. And one thing that's really important, and this is you can't really keep this in the standard Dropbox folder, but I keep another separate folder of pre-written articles ready to go is because you don't want to in that same folder because if everyone pulls the same article, it's going to be everywhere. It's going to ruin SEO. Some people are going to be unhappy, and you don't want duplicate content across the web or magazines or marketing materials, wherever it is, especially if you're working within the same industry. People are bound to see the same thing over and over. So I always have a separate folder full of articles, and I can directly link that in an exact article that I feel that that is a best fit for that audience. 

Speaker 2 (07:43):

Sometimes I have to go in and tweak it in order to make it custom to that site, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've done the most of the legwork by having the headshots, the logos, the texts, the videos and the invitation to my affiliate program or my current partnership opportunities at that time, all in a Dropbox sent off to them so that they can start processing and getting all of that set up. And then I'll follow up with the article on my favorite things to do. I absolutely love it. The next thing that I recommend that you guys look at doing, it's really hard if you're very busy, very high volume. We're a very high volume on all our brands with our customer service emails in the content output. So we had to be very methodical. And while people may fire off emails to me requesting business partnerships, we try to work in a more methodical fashion where we do a quarterly evaluation of partnerships. 

Speaker 2 (08:32):

Now, if one comes in the inbox that I'm really, really, really think is going to be a good return, I'm not necessarily going to wait to the next quarterly review process to decide to do outreach or response, but for the most part, the majority of people that come to me, I tell 'em that we've put it into the queue and that we'll be evaluating it on X date. And we try to do that every three months. We do a lot of stuff quarterly on the backend, and that is one of the major things is ensuring that we can go through all the partnerships. And the good thing for that too is that I'm able to adjust my calendar of my promotions of whatever I'm going to be offering at the time. Because if I have all these random people coming in, it's really hard to keep track of. 

Speaker 2 (09:11):

And also, it's hard for me to identify how I can promote them in my schedule. Again, if they're going to scratch my back, I need to scratch thirds and so forth. So be methodical. Look at doing a quarterly evaluation of partnerships or affiliate ships, whatever it is that you're trying to do in order to further to market your business. In the last tip is something I'd only recommend if you've reached the point that you have a member, I'm sorry, a team. If you can have a team member to manage this for you, it's always good to have someone that can do all of the receiving of requests, doing the outreach for you, and also that can help manage these individuals, provide them not just that first Dropbox that we talked about, that folder of images, texts, videos, and articles, but so that maybe you can send them, this team member can be tasked to send updated information, updated logos and images, as well as the calendar of upcoming promotions so that these people can continue marketing for you. 

Speaker 2 (10:11):

You don't want just this opportunity of maybe your article or feature going on their blog and then nothing else you want to continue outreach with them, continue the relationship. The hardest part is getting the opportunity. It's easy to maintain it. I mean, if you keep scratching, they're back and they keep scratching yours and you both are growing, that's a fantastic way to keep growing your business. And it's a relatively low cost way as well. You don't necessarily have to have a team member manage it, but that is a third option if you're absolutely overwhelmed and it will keep you from having to say no, especially if you're receiving return out of the opportunities. You could even get someone just for a couple hours a week or maybe every quarter just for a couple hours to do all the outreach and management for you to get all of that set up. 

Speaker 2 (10:54):

So I hope this Business Bites episode for today really helps you guys to understand you don't have to say no to opportunities simply because you're overwhelmed. Marketing with businesses and other individuals in your industry is really a awesome way to further your marketing doing it on a low cost and a more effective way. So I hope you guys have enjoyed today's episode. If you enjoyed it, please head over to iTunes and leave us a review. And of course, we would love if you would recommend this to your friends so that they can learn on the go in a quick little bite to further their business to success. 

Speaker 1 (11:27):

Thanks for joining Rachel on this episode of The Business Bytes. For show notes, a list of recommended tools or referenced episodes, you can find them@businessbytespodcast.com. Until next time.