Core 10? No, I’m not talking about the top 10 exercises that will give you 6 pack abs. What I”m referring to are those top 10 relationships that serve you both personally and in your business. (Yes, I’m stealing this concept/idea from my one of my Core 10 people – Greg Blackbourn. But Greg, popular guy that he is has a CORE 30 ! So when I grow up I want to be just like GREG!)
Ok – back to topic and a clearer definition. My Core 10 are the 10 people in my world that double as both friends and business “assets”. For example’s sake – let’s take my friend Tiffany Peterson. Tiffany is both a close personal friend AND someone that in the frame work of my business model I can a) do Joint Ventures with b) create events with c) refer my clients to and d) combine her talents with mine to create a brilliant synergetic combustion! She can teach my peeps about sales mastery and I can teach her tribe about Ideal LifeVision. When my client is suffering because they can’t close a sale – I have them call Tiffany. When her clients need more clarity and a tool to focus on their goals – she sends them my way.
Four years ago – when I decided to officially get into coaching and training in a big way – I was in a spot where I didn’t know many people. I was new to the industry and so I didn’t yet have the opportunity of having my business friends refer me – because I didn’t have any 🙁 (wahhh) And I couldn’t do a combined workshop because again – I didn’t know anyone!
As a visionary – I could SEE what I wanted! Friends – lots of friends that had their own business (similar but different than mine) where we would refer business back and forth.
I could foresee that if I knew people that were in finances (not my strength) or relationship coaching (not what I did) it would be a win/win all the way around. We would win and of course our clients would win.
So what were the steps I took to bridge that gap? There are 3 of them. Let me explain….
1) Get out there and make some friends!
Get out there and just make LOTS of friends in the business world. I did this mostly by attending Live Events ……. Networking events, workshops, seminars, etc. There seemed to be something going on weekly and I was all game to attend to learn more in addition to meeting new people. In the beginning, it was an interesting battle to remind myself that it wasn’t about getting a “client” but rather about becoming interested in people and just getting to know them and what they did.
2) Cultivate the friendships that naturally develop
This is simply the difference between seeing someone at the events on a monthly basis and ……. becoming friends. Because we all know there are FRIENDS and then there are ACQUAINTANCES. (big difference). Honestly, there were a few people that I set an “intention” to be good friends with. Their name – it simply went into my LifeVision. Other friendships organically grew and it wasn’t long before I was out of that “WAHH, I have no friends” to hanging with some pretty amazing people.
One important things should be mentioned right here. I had no ulterior motive than to just make friends in my business community. I wasn’t looking to latch on to the most up and coming new (or old) entrepreneur in the city. I genuinely wanted to meet new people and became interested in others and what they did.
But at the same time – I was also looking for people that could serve my clients in a way that I couldn’t. And you can imagine that people were all over that!
3) Can friends talk business? Absolutely!
And we did! We had the business world in common – that’s how we met – so let’s talk about it!
How can I create value for you? – a phrase I learned from one of my friends and mentors that I began asking others that frequently led to an opportunity to serve a business friend where they could see some of my strengths
How can we create value for both of our clients? (And a Joint Venture or an event was born)
So I invite you to consider how having a solid group of friends in the business world can create a thriving community for YOU! I can honestly say I would have never survived my first few years of business without my CORE 10. These 10 people believed in me – they encouraged me – they talked “shop” with me – they sent people my way and helped me get going.