How a Sharpie Can Save You Hours and Make You Millions!

Welcome to another episode of the Expand the Business Podcast with Casey Eberhart. Today's episode is a short form piece of content where I will be revealing "How a Sharpie can save you hours and make you millions"

Intrigued? Tune in to the episode for the full explanation and details.

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Episode transcript below:

 

Casey Eberhart (Speaker and Host):

Hey, hey, hey everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the Expand the Business podcast. My name... My name? My name is is Casey Eberhart, I am calling in from Los Angeles, California today, with a short-form episode, just a little quick tip, a little thing to help you save time and make more money when you are out networking. And we're going to talk about the 99 cent tool that you probably have in your purse or your junk drawer, that'll help you do the two things that we aim to teach and train on the Expand the Business show, which is save time and/or make more money. So if you are in a position where you need and/or your businesses is being built on referrals, then head on over to ExpandTheBusiness.com, we've got a free download for you over there on getting more referrals. We've got some goodies for you over there, but just happy to have you jump on the show today. And again, you can head over to ExpandTheBusiness.com for your free goodies. So look, let me set the scene for you for just a moment. You get in your car, you put your makeup on, you drive to a networking event, and those networking events are either super early in the morning, maybe you're going to them at lunch, maybe you're going to them in the evening, and it's a Chamber of Commerce event or BNI, LeTip team, Referral Network, eWomen network. Maybe it's even Kiwanis or Lions Club, maybe it's your local chamber. Maybe it's just a networking group where you get together with a group of people and have referral exchanges. Maybe you're headed to a mastermind event. All of these networking events are designed to help connect you with potential referral partners, referral... Of course the phone rings right inside there, right? But it allows you to connect with other people that can produce business and/or referrals and/or relationships for you. But here's what happens most of the time. Most of the time people go there and they are exchanging business cards. And does business really get done that way anymore? No, let's be real. How many times have you got some business cards and you bring them home from that event, and then they go in the trashcan or they sit on your desk for five or six months and then they go on the trashcan. Well, here's the thing, at Expand the Business, we really try to give you the tools and techniques that allow you to cement relationships and move forward with those people that you feel are going to be the best in your connection and best in your network. So here is the 99 cent tool that you should carry with you every single time you go to a networking event. It is a Sharpie. Now, there is a very specific reason why I am suggesting a Sharpie and not just a regular ballpoint or a pencil. Here's the deal, so many people now are carrying glossy business cards to a networking event. And what happens is if you write on a business card with a pencil or a ballpoint pen, very few of those glossy cards are gonna allow you to actually make an imprint on the business card itself. So all you gotta do is go to your local store, your purse, your junk drawer, maybe it's in the seat cushions of your couch, maybe it is in the seat cushions of your car, grab a Sharpie and take it with you to the networking event. Now since you've probably already gone to ExpandTheBusiness.com and got yourself a copy of Get More Referrals, you'll notice that I talk about this exact technique inside that audio, which obviously you're more than welcome to go grab a download of, again, at ExpandTheBusiness.com. But here's what you can do with this Sharpie, when you go to a networking event, you want to be able to decide as you're meeting and connecting with different people, who it's actually worth connecting with and moving forward in a relationship with right there at the event. Okay? And so what you're going to be able to do now is when somebody gives you a business card, which by the way, one of the easy ways to get out of a conversation with somebody is to simply get their business card and say that you will follow up with them later or that you're connecting with folks or whatever your line is that allows you to connect with folks. But you want to take your Sharpie out, and as they hand you your business card, I'm going to suggest two different things that you do with that. Number one is that you code your business card. Now, I have a code that I use for myself and it's really a call or no call symbol. So for me, I used to write that I didn't want to respond to somebody on their business card. And I'm not going to tell you what I used to write, but if you've heard me speak live, you know exactly what that is. And if it's something that I want to follow up with or someone that I feel is a good connection for me, I'm going to put a star right there on the business card with my sharpie pen. Now, if you want to do C no-C, for call and no call, if you want to do FU, for follow up or NFU for not follow up, whatever you want to do, my suggestion is that you use a code so that in the event the other person actually sees what you wrote on their card, they're not going to actually know what it means. Now, for me, what I do is I'll take that business card and while I'm talking to the person in real time, in real conversation, what I'm going to do is I'm going to make some notes on the back of their business card, even if I'm writing over the top of their information, usually on the back that's less vital than what they have on the front. And I might write some things like, "This is going to be a good connection from a referral partner. This might be a prospect, this might be somebody that I just feel is influential and I want to stay in touch with." If they give me some tidbit that's going to help me later on connect with them on a deeper more meaningful relationship, then I'm going to mark that on the business card itself as well. Now, the reason that we use a Sharpie versus a pencil or a ballpoint pen is quite frankly because if you use a ballpoint pen or a pencil, you're going to be like carving into that business card like you are a cave person scraping into a rock. It just doesn't work, there's newer better ways. Now this doesn't mean that you can't do your other things in kind of the relationship building process, like maybe take a picture of the two of you and text it to the person. Maybe you want to connect with them on social media. But remember that followup and the relationship building networking, the onus is on us. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna do two things for this technique to work: Number one, you're going to head over to ExpandTheBusiness.com, grab yourself Get More Referrals, so you can listen to that on your way to a networking event. That's going to give you some great tips, strategies, and things you can say to help you generate more referrals. And number two, you're going to dig around in your purse, you're going to dig around in your junk drawer, and you're going to simply throw a Sharpie either in your car or in your pocket, in your purse, wherever. And the next networking event you head out to, you simply take that in there, and that becomes your tool of choice right there in the conversation. You can write notes on there. Make sure that you understand going in, by the way, that not every person at that event is going to be worthy. And I don't mean that as a person, but from a business perspective, of following up with, staying in touch with them, putting in place your process to help drive and deepen those relationships. So we all have those things where we talk to somebody and they just aren't going to be a good fit. We don't want to be rude, so we just simply mark that as non follow up with whatever code we use with our Sharpie, give them the respect and the time to finish out the conversation and simply move on. Now when you get home, the great thing is the people that you aren't going to follow up with, simply just go to the trashcan, which they would anyways. And number two, the people that you are gonna follow up with, you are going to connect with, now you have a sift and sort mechanism. So you guys, this is Casey Eberhart with another episode of Expand the Business, and again, final offer if you want to head over and generate more referrals, head over to ExpandTheBusiness.com, and there we've got some free goodies for you, we're happy to have you join in the fun. So with that, give somebody else an awesome day. Follow up with a Sharpie as your tool at your next networking event. Until next time, guys, have an amazing day! Ciao, ciao!