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So… you want to generate some leads. Awesome! 

If you’re not sure how to go about it or maybe you’re looking for a new tactic you haven’t tried before… THIS is the episode you want to listen to. We’re rounding up some of the best ideas we’ve heard, found, done or seen and bringing them to you in a brain-dump style. Get your pen & paper handy to jot down some notes… because it’s gonna be a fun ride.

HARO (Help A Reporter Out)

Podcast Tour Episodes:
Episode 56 – The 3 Different Ways To Grow Your Online Business
Episode 60 – What to do BEFORE You Launch Your Book to Make Sure You See Success
Episode 69 – Creating an Intentional Podcast Guest Strategy with Paul Zelizer
Episode 88 – How To Use a List Build If You Sell Physical Products
Episode 94 – How to Turn Your Book Into Multiple Income Streams
Episode 119 – The Secrets of Paid Speaking (even if you’ve never done it before) with Bri Williams

Podcast episode that talked about Direct mail to wish list:
Episode 16 – Good Funnel, Bad Funnel: How to tell if your funnel works and what to do when it doesn't

Check out the entire library of list building episodes here.

Alyson Lex 0:03
Jenny and I have challenged ourselves to develop, and brainstorm and list out ways that you can promote your business, build relationships, generate leads get opportunities. Without doing the summit thing, which we love the summit thing.

Jennie Wright 0:28
It pains my heart, but it's also good. It's,

Alyson Lex 0:31
we love the summit thing. And so, the other week, Jenny and I had a nice little brainstorming session, we didn't even talk. I don't think during this session, we just got into a shared Google document. And Nope, didn't even talk just I forced Jenny into the Allison way of brainstorming, which was to not over analyze, or ask questions or do anything but write down

Jennie Wright 0:54
ideas you kept locked me to shut up? Yes, you did. I

Alyson Lex 0:58
mean, I yelled at I mean, there might have been curse words, there was into this Google document. There was, at some point, when I told her to stop something.

Jennie Wright 1:09
Let's because I struggled to just list, I immediately want to go into the sub list or explain what this means or I don't know what that was. Or we could do this or what do you think and Allison's like, stop. Just list and that was really, really hard. But we came up with a list of like,

Alyson Lex 1:29
4646, is what we came up with, yep. 46, I feel like we could have gotten through a lot more and, frankly, had we like broken down each one of them, because some of them have multiple things or tactics in there. We probably could stretch that list out. But the reason I'm telling you this story is we thought we would share some of them with you. And now we haven't gone through this list. And we haven't organized anything this is I don't know who Jenny is lately, but she is just rolling with the Allison energy. And I am here for it. So a couple of these things we have talked about on this podcast, a couple of we haven't a couple are going to feel doable, a couple one, a couple are going to apply and some won't. And all of that is okay. But the whole point is to get you thinking about what can you do that might be outside of the box? That's different than just creating content. And hoping. Yes,

Jennie Wright 2:40
there's yes, there. And I not put a finer point on it. But this came out of a conversation of what everybody's doing isn't working, or what we what the norm is for a launch or for getting leads or attracting leads isn't necessarily working right now. And one of the one of the things that came out of this was, well, if you keep doing the same darn thing, expecting the same results, well congratulations and welcome to you know, that version of of making the same decisions and having the same bad results. But the goal for this was to change. It was a bit of a changing my mindset and analysis too. But mostly mine because it was me that was feeling like I was in a bit of a crater. And this was to get me to snap out of with transparency was to get me to snap out of this is the only way I'm going to be able to attract leads. Now there's you know, Yeah, cuz I mean, when I'm 10 years old, and I had this conversation yesterday, I thought I was nine years. But I just realized yesterday, I'm 10 years in this business. So I completely lost a year somewhere, but we won't go there. And I realized that after 10 years, I'm still doing the same six techniques. We wrote 46 In a matter of 20 minutes. What the actual bleep am i doing by not exploring all of these other things? And before we get into this last thing I want to say on it is none of these things are below you. Okay, none of these things

Alyson Lex 4:20
are below. You. I just had you saw it on my face. I had the physical goose bump, visceral. Holy guacamole reaction, such a good line.

Jennie Wright 4:41
Okay, because because if you look at these, yeah, do you want to get on a high horse and say, I've been in this business for 10 years. The only thing I'm going to do is webinars, challenges, summits, blah, blah, blah, or you're going to say yeah, I can You know, I'm prepared to throw everything at this, including the kitchen sink, to achieve what I need to achieve, because if it ain't working, okay, or if you're feeling stagnant in your in your launches, or if you're feeling stagnant in your lead gen, this is what you kind of need to do. And you may never touch any of these, like, you know, the number 36 on this list, I will probably never do, quite honestly. But just putting it on the list means that I'm open to the possibility of just exploring my options. Okay, so that's my, that's my preamble on this. Let's talk about some of these because I have favorites, I have things I will never do on this list. But they open up your head, and they get you thinking, and that was the whole point of this.

Alyson Lex 5:47
Okay, so what we're going to do I really liked how you put, you said about number 36? Because I have actually used that strategy very successfully in my own business. But we're going to pick a number. I'm going to pick a number, you're going to pick a number, we're going to talk about it. Okay, sure. I want to talk about number eight, direct mail to wish list is what we wrote down. Okay. And this one is, create a wish list of people you want to work with partner with get to know and send them something in the mail, this is going to require that you uplevel your stalking skills, if they aren't awesome already. Send them send them a mail, send them a letter or say hey, I really like you. And I want to I want to work with you.

Jennie Wright 6:28
Why not? Why not try it? I mean, what's the harm in putting I mean, the people are gonna say, putting myself out there is hard, or I wouldn't know what to say or whatever. Yeah, I get it. But putting yourself out there out there is the key. And this reminds me, I used to do direct mail, too, when I worked for when I worked for the big box retailer, I did in person and phone call sales for for memberships for this company. And we would do direct mail to like, Hey, I was one of the companies was IBM, we had an IBM location like a head office close to us. And I was like, hey, IBM, I would love to come in and present big box retailer memberships to your staff. This is how I you know, blah, blah, blah. And I would basically ask for an opportunity to come into their location and talk about what I do and then sell these memberships. Do you know how hard it is to write a letter to IBM thinking that everybody at IBM is gonna laugh at you like, because that's how I felt. That's just eliminate from that, that from your mindset, you're gonna get a ton of nose, but the yeses that you get are the ones that can be the things that change everything. And it's worth it for that one thing, right?

Alyson Lex 7:37
Yeah, I used to quick storytime to talk about this. I know that. Yeah. I used to have a service that was I was contracted for a certain amount of little gifts each year. And I would submit a name and an address and a little letter that I wanted to have her send. And she would put together this thing and send it out while I was coming up on my year and I had leftovers. So I went through my wish list. And I started sending them out. I had them never use them or lose them. Might as well use them. And it made me money. It built relationships. It got my name known. Number eight is going to be

Jennie Wright 8:21
Yeah, like number eight. And I remember when you did that, too, because if I remember correctly, those little gifts for something very sweet. Yes. Very, very sweet. Very, very sweet. Yeah.

Alyson Lex 8:31
I'm right. Pick your number.

Jennie Wright 8:33
Ah, my number is number one. Yeah. Okay. So number one is a podcast tour. We've talked about podcast tours before. But you know, podcast tours take consistency. And if you throw the kitchen sink at trying to get on podcast tours, that's a wonderful and you can do that. And we have other episodes we've talked about this will link it in the show notes. So we can talk about podcasting and things like that. But the goal of me saying this one is a reminder to everybody that it's not just oh, Jenny already did the podcast tour in January. And I you know, I booked five podcasts. Well, how about we know we're going into q2 at the time, we're recording we're going into q2 at the time we're recording this this will come out later in q2. But what are you doing for q2? What are you doing for q3? What are you doing for q4? So podcasting don't forget is the long game, right. So the podcast episodes that you record now will live in perpetuity as long as the podcast is out there. So get on that podcast you are because those things pay in dividends. What's your number one? What's your next one?

Alyson Lex 9:40
All right, my next one. It's kind of on here. Right? So number 28 is just speaking gigs, which that's one of those that we could break out into 35 different opportunities alone Okay. But one of the things that I actually just did this last night, I found an expo small business expo genetic. I sent you the link.

Jennie Wright 10:13
Yeah, I got it this morning. I haven't I haven't looked at it. Yeah, I opened the landing page and it looks good.

Alyson Lex 10:18
It's a it's an event. And they have they're in multiple cities. And there is a link on there that says, Present. It's applied to be a speaker. So I'm going to do that. And so we're not just looking at the big name conferences in your industry, you're looking at, where can you get in front of a room of 100 or 200 people? Or 50? People? Where can you even find these smaller ones? In order to get in front of people that could potentially hire you, or work with you or partner with you or build a relationship with the can further your business?

Jennie Wright 11:00
That's a sponge just looking like an I was actually just going through it? Oh, yeah. So my, my next one is going to be something that is really, really hard for me, but I think is kind of cool. And this harks back to my days doing like direct sales, it's going to be number 45. And that's going to be getting in touch with local, co working spaces. And asking to get presentations or to connect or come in and do a, you know, a training. So in 2013, I was invited by a local real estate company that's down the street, I think they have like 1000 agents. And I was invited to come and give a presentation to talk about the importance of having a website as a real estate agent. And that presentation, it was 45 minutes, I sweat bullets the whole time. But that presentation closed five or six clients before I even walked out the door, right and a bunch more because at the time I was doing websites, believe it or not, that was one of the first things I did. So it's a, it can feel like a lot. But it's local. And you can do it in person, which is going to get more eyes on you and you're going to deliver great information. So when I do that, I think it's a great opportunity. I'll send your next step. What's your number?

Alyson Lex 12:28
I'm gonna pick are you, there's so many oh my gosh, there's so many. Okay. I am going to go with number 43, which is kind of related to 42. So can I combine 42? And 43? Yeah, go for it. Okay. So we have a client that we've been working with that has been working on getting some traditional PR. And in that process of working with this person, I have kind of been immersing myself a little bit more and wondering, hey, what can what could this look like for me? And I'm not talking about the higher accompany and get the logos level of PR where it's just like, Crap flip fluff pieces that do nothing but say I was on blah, blah, blah.

Jennie Wright 13:24
I was on some paper, I was on some publication that nobody's ever heard of and has a reach of 300.

Alyson Lex 13:30
Well, no, not even just that. But like, oh, no, I was I had a an ad sponsored placement put on an ABC affiliate out of, you know, no town, Nevada, that nobody's ever gonna see. But now I can use the ABC logo. I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm talking about the carefully selected actual PR that can

Jennie Wright 14:02
that can kind of move the needle forward for you like the actual

Alyson Lex 14:05
Yeah. Well, it's credible, but it also I mean, okay, so that's 42, then 43 is where I mentioned a potential resource, which is called harrow or Help a Reporter Out. And if you Google it, you'll find it. It's basically like a, I'll throw it in the show notes too. But it's also it's a daily digest. Hey, I need help. Yeah, there are times and stuff. Yeah, I have used this in the past. And I was quoted in a magazine, a monthly magazine for pizza of restaurant owners. I know it's really random. This was like 678 years ago. That reporter, that content creator whatever she goes, you know, writer reaches out to me periodically when she has other clients. Hey, Alison, I'm writing this. Do you have some Yes. Hey, Alyson, I'm doing this do you have Yes, I now have a relationship with someone who has ties to certain aspects of the media. So, again, you're not above being a quote in a monthly pizza restaurant owner magazine. It's fun. It took like 12 minutes, guys. But it builds that relationship. And one of the things that Jennie and I were talking about when we started this list was looking at what we've both done in our businesses differently. And I have hyper focused on growing that. And, in fact, I think Jenny even said, one of the reasons she wanted to hang out with me in the very beginning was because of my network. Yeah.

Jennie Wright 15:49
I mean, you've I felt like

Alyson Lex 15:50
you knew everybody. That's on purpose. Well,

Jennie Wright 15:54
I know, I was intentional. And that was a, you know, and I and I valued that as somebody who is a little bit introverted in that respect, or has some slight social awkwardness and new situations. I was like, damn, I need access to those people. I just don't want to have to work for it. So I'm going to use Allison.

Alyson Lex 16:13
I don't I mean that, that is not going to be item number 47 on those ohms Allison for connections, but it shows the value, right. I've been doing this for a long time. I've been building my network for 15 years. And all of it has been on purpose. Some of that has to do with the media. So again, I'll link it in the show notes Help a Reporter Out but they send you like a little alerts, you can see which ones are right for you and pitch to try and get quoted somewhere. And that is a nice passive way to get some PR or you can go with active PR.

Jennie Wright 16:50
I'm a fan. My next number is number five, so JV webinars, or I want to broaden this out to a little bit more on the masterminding side of things. So it is very difficult to do this on your own if you have no other people that you can mastermind with or connect with and get exposure with it feels very it's very isolating this this online business is very isolating unless you know people like without having my partner involved in this and you know Allison being my my best friend doing all this. It's you sit and stare at the screen going What do I do now? What I like about doing joint venture webinars or masterminding is you're connecting with people who are also either in the same boat as you or have progressed a little bit further along with you. What you want to create is a sort of what's the word it starts with an ass but it's like a you want to synchronize synergy. Thank you. Thank you, God, thank God for a copywriter. You want to create a synergy between your skills and the other people either that you're masterminding with or you're in a joint venture with. So as an example, we were I was talking about doing a joint venture webinar with our mutual friend Katie Brinkley. And what Katie Brinkley brings to the potential, you know, and by the way, I haven't even asked her to do this yet. So Katie, hi. You on blast putting you on blast girl. Okay. But what Katy brings to the table is her social media exposure, right? So she has a following on social media. She has a great Rolodex of people that she networks with, she knows all the peoples. I don't know all the peoples like the way that she does. So by connecting with Kay Brinkley, and maybe doing a joint venture webinar, where she and I present together, she invites people, I invite people, I would get exposure to audiences and people that have not yet seen me, right. And on the other hand, what Katie gets out of it is the fact that I would probably fund for all of the tech because that's my superpower. So the landing page would get done and those types of things would get done. So we create a very synchronous symbiotic relationship where it's even and that's a real key for joint venture it has to be even because if it's not one person's kind of feel like they're getting taken advantage of asked me how I know.

Alyson Lex 19:21
Well, and yeah, like, you and I JV a lot on if you think about it with clients all the time, and we will. There are some times when we're like, oh, yeah, no, this is a split 5050 And there are other times when we're like, Hey, this is mine, and this is yours and we just be up front with those conversations. Well, that's a whole nother thing.

Jennie Wright 19:44
Okay. We got good. Okay, what's your upper huh? I think we should do to wait one more each. And then yeah, wrap this up. Yes,

Alyson Lex 19:57
I am. I am actually because you tease it at the top of this episode. I'm going to reveal number 36. Oh no, Dan. Okay. So, number 36, I wrote find agencies to partner with. And so to translate this to you, where you may not have a marketing business like us, find people who sell services that either include or complement your services and be all, you know, work with them to be their resource to provide those services. Here's what I mean. I work with an agency that builds amazingly new branded websites for personal brands, experts, course graders, those kinds of things. I write all their copy. They pay me for that. But their clients hire them. I'm essentially what's known as white labeling. So I write copy for this. And they, you know, they just sell it to their clients. I have another one where they have product, they have experts that create products, and they sell them through their own platforms, I write their copy. They could hire an in house copywriter, but it's better for them. To hire me. So who can you work with that could hire you? The fun part about that is I don't have to go client finding. I find one client, I get like a bajillion.

Jennie Wright 21:39
Yeah, I can see why 36 would be your Ruby your bag, you could definitely do that. Okay, so mine is I'm going to pick this one because it feels. Again, this is another challenging one for Jennie. And that's number 22. So, yeah, so 22 on our list was pitching content to various YouTube creators and channels. What that would probably mean for me is finding YouTube channels and creators that have I very close relation in terms of what they do and what I do, and pitching them content that I could provide. Or it's adjacent content, like maybe they talk about marketing, but they don't talk about summits. Or maybe they talk about sales, but they don't talk about lead gen. Right and offering to their, you know, to their channel for me to come in and do like a training or a video or something with them. It's along the same lines as doing podcasting or doing trainings in Facebook groups or on LinkedIn lives or whatever. It's in the same vein. But YouTube, because YouTube is such a powerful search engine at this point. It could be incredibly useful to do something like that so that when somebody pops in a search that I begin to come up, and it leverages other people's audiences and we talk about OPA and a ton of episodes OPA other people's audiences. So it would be me leveraging other people's audiences to gain more exposure for my own. Alright, who, how many did we cover? Out of our episodes basics? I have no idea. 12345678 we covered eight good job on us. Okay. So

Alyson Lex 23:28
I'm gonna just quickly mention, a lot of these things are about shooting your shot, getting on podcasts, getting JV partnerships, sending direct mail, finding agencies to partner with pitching content to YouTube channels, getting speaking gigs, getting put in the media, calling coworker spaces. The theme here is shoot your shot.

Jennie Wright 23:51
What's another way of saying that?

Alyson Lex 23:55
Take a chance. Just do it. Get out there. Give it a shot. Give it a try. Trying to say the word you don't like the shoot your shot. Part of it was shooting? I don't know.

Jennie Wright 24:09
But I know it's a phrase. I know. It's a Yeah.

Alyson Lex 24:11
So I've been you know, I love Hamilton. I've been listening to it. And you're not going to wait your shot is part of it. Like just what the worst that can happen. Is they say no.

Jennie Wright 24:28
Yeah, it's not going to damage your reputation. It's not going to make it's not going to do anything negative other than hearing the word no. And yes, I please part of the resiliency of being an entrepreneur is to be able to accept six noes until you get to yes.

Alyson Lex 24:44
And if they say no, like let's just walk through this. Okay. I've reached out to an agency. I'd love to partner with you. I'd like to help solve this problem for you. They ghost me which has happened they say no. Which has happened. I wasn't working with them to begin with I'm literally no worse off. I think maybe it was just I sent a letter. Okay. Took 10 minutes, maybe cost a couple bucks.

Jennie Wright 25:15
And in the meantime, you probably refined some of your messaging, quite honestly,

Alyson Lex 25:19
find my messaging felt good about taking a chance had created, I created the opportunity.

Jennie Wright 25:27
Yeah, for Yes. This is all about creating opportunities, all of this, this whole thing is about creating opportunities. And if you're going to, if you're going to be in this business, you got to look for those opportunities. So on that note, let's wrap this awesome list up. We're actually not going to share the entire list with you guys on the show notes. We debated it. But we've covered eight of the list of 46, we may actually do another episode, and do a couple other ones on this. Not sure yet. We'll see how that goes. We'll see what the interest is.

Alyson Lex 25:57
Let us know. Yeah, if you like more, let us know we'll do more. Yeah, if

Jennie Wright 26:01
you want to hear more of this list, like, let us know you can reach us from system to thrive.com, you can leave us a review. You can always reach out to us, there's a contact form on the system to thrive.com website. You know, let us know what you think. And make sure that you're listening to the episodes that are coming up. We've got some really cool episodes coming up in the not so distant future that are going to help you in terms of creating additional content in your business and sales in your business. We've got some really cool series coming up. And actually right now at the time of this recording, we're actually planning season three. Right, which is insane. We're planning 2023 My friends 2023 right now. So we're really trying to turn up the dial a little bit turn up the heat on how we're providing content. And that's all driven by you. So let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you. Awesome. Okay, thanks so much for listening. Everybody. Go check out the system to thrive.com website. Check out the show notes for this episode. We'll link a whole bunch of stuff. I'll talk to y'all soon. Take care