Alessia Citro 0:02
Welcome to the corporate dropout podcast. I'm your host Alessia Citro. If you're sick of the corporate hamster wheel and looking to feel inspired and empowered to live a high vibe life as your own boss, you're in the right place dare to drop out in 321. Before we start the show, I want to tell you about the business I'm launching. Starting a business can be hard work, but it doesn't need to be confusing too. And that is why I founded Theia collective, a learning community for entrepreneurs. Learn from experts across law, finance, tax operations, marketing, sales and more. And get the blueprint on how to set up and run your own business. Text biz, that's BIZ to 949-577-8709, or head to Thea dash collective comm to learn more.

Alessia Citro 0:51
Hello, friends. So today I am back with Sam Lee, if you didn't listen to our interview that aired yesterday, be sure to go and do that after you listen to this. Sam is the Founder and Managing Partner of E three ventures a platform that invests advisors and builds companies that unlock human potential. He is also the founder and CEO of Indy collective, the place where top independent workers go to supercharge their careers. And he is an alum of WeWork, Goldman Sachs and AOL. So Sam, thanks for coming back on the show, you're going to be talking all about relationship building at scale, cannot wait to hear your tips and takeaways. And I'll let you take it away.

Sam Lee 1:28
Absolutely. Well, great to be back. And, you know, when when it comes to dropping out to going independent in your career in life, chances are you've already walked a couple of interesting pads, you've gone to the schools, you've worked at the companies. you've plugged into your local community. And therefore, when you go independent, as one of my mentors and friends, Ashley Quinto Powell coached me early in the days of going independent, she said you shouldn't have a handful of referral partners, you should have an army of champions. And when she said that to me, you should have an army of champions I lit up because I said heck yes. That's exactly what I want in my corner as I'm building my independent practice. So how do you get to that place from a handful of referral partners to an army of champions? Well, one of the frameworks that we teach through indie Collective is this framework of relationship building at scale. And it's the first sales read go to market playbook that we teach, because you should always start with your network if you've invested far too much time in life, connecting meaningfully with people not to start there. Because we can always go beyond your network. We teach how to do that, too. So how do you relationship build at scale? It's a three part process. And it really starts with storytelling. If you listen to us on yesterday's episode, you heard me talk a little bit about the importance of storytelling in the corporate context, as well as in your independent life. So so what we do in indie collective and the start of this week on relationship building at scale has helped you get really tight on your storytelling, namely three things, who you are, what you offer, and the impact that you have. And we help you to activate those three legs of the stool through a couple of different examples of clients, or previous employers you've worked with. Because when you can tightly speak to those three things, your sales storytelling, you're going to enter every conversation armed with the data points to help people to be your raving fans. So that's part one to know your storytelling. Part two of relationship building at state at scale comes to your network. Right? How do you transform from a couple of referral partners into into an army of champions is Ashley told me years ago, so this is this really comes down to looking at your network in creative ways. So as she said to me in the early days, Sam, you've got a list of 200 people 200 People who are nodes of influence in your network, people who you've crossed paths with, whether they be at school, in your community, through jobs, those are people that you need to reactivate and importantly, recalibrate. Because as I shared in yesterday's episode, strategy is merely story well told, you need to make sure those 200 people know who you are today, right, that storytelling that you've just refined. So step two of relationship building at scale is taking that storytelling on the road. And getting in front of this list of 200 these nodes of influence in your network. So you recalibrate them to who you are, what you offer and the impact that you have. So that's step two. Step three, relationship building at scale is staying top of mind. Because once you're clear on your storytelling, once you've begun to recalibrate your network to those three things that are you today, you then need to stay top of mind. So how do you go about doing that? Well In our workshopping at Indy Collective, we share dozens of different ways that you can do it. But it just comes down to what are two or three ways in which you can stay top of mind that feel authentic to you. Think about the platforms where you already live, do you have a podcast? Do you have a newsletter? Are you active on social, right? So figure out the platforms that makes sense to you figure out the types of shares, posts, conversations that you typically have, that you enjoy having, and then start doing them with some consistency weaving in this new narrative that's been clarified. So that you have once you've reactivated this network, you're top of mind. And when you do these three things in unison, and I'd say generally, it takes a good six or so months, after you begin recalibrating, and storytelling to start seeing the benefits, you're going to find that there is a flow of business towards you. And it's the right types of clients and the right engagement formats. Because you've clearly articulated your network who it is that you want to connect with. And bottom line, people want to help. People always want to help but if you've not equipped them, with the right data points about who you are, what you offer, and the impact that you have, they can't effectively help you.

Alessia Citro 6:16
I love that. And so let me ask you something to do you feel like it's important when you are reconnecting with people to offer something that is valuable to them, whether it's insight or a connection, how do you navigate that piece?

Sam Lee 6:30
Yeah, I always I always like to say the biggest mistake somebody can make going into an inverse informational conversation or into a ketchup conversation is not to be clear on your gifts and your asks. So always know your gifts, Always know your asks, your gifts are things that, as you just said, are things that you can offer, that hopefully shouldn't require a huge amount of your effort, because you're gonna have a lot of conversations as you're building, building your business and building your independent, independent work. But that are things that are valuable, right. So it might be an introduction, it might be an invitation, it might be, you know, adding somebody to this list that you're creating for an incredible movement that you're building who knows what the thing is, but you've got to have some gives. And then the asks, will hopefully not be again cumbersome for the person that's in front of you, but that are tailor made, so that they're easy enough for somebody to do but that are valuable and advancing your agenda. And I think the storytelling precedes all of this right? It precedes the conversations which precede the storytelling because the the staying top of mind because you want Once you're clear on who you are, what you are for the impact that you have, you're going to know what your assets really are, and who it is that you're trying to get in front of.

Alessia Citro 7:48
Well, that's what's so great. Thank you for coming back for a second episode. I have so enjoyed talking with you. Like I said in the beginning of our interview that dropped yesterday, it's not that often that I'm impressed. And I'm very impressed by you by you know, your resume everything and just who you are as a human how eager you were to connect with me and help me when you didn't even know me. So thank you for that. I'm just so grateful to have gotten to do this with you today. And I appreciate you coming on up and before we sign off you have to tell everyone where they can find you connect with you and work with you to

Sam Lee 8:19
absolutely well you can find me and indie collective at Indie collective i n d collective.co. You can also find us on our podcast, the modern independent, you can find that wherever you listen to your podcasts we're meeting with with new business builders every week seven and eight figure business builders who are sharing their playbooks as well as our members who are working on their points of leverage to get further faster in their businesses and lives. Well,

Alessia Citro 8:45
Sam, it's been a true pleasure. Thank you again for coming on. And thank you to everyone for listening today.

Sam Lee 8:50
Thanks for having me.

Alessia Citro 8:51
This episode was brought to you by Thea collective the learning community I founded for entrepreneurs text biz, that's BIZ to 949-577-8709 or head to Theia dash collective calm. That's THEIA dash collective.com to learn more. Thanks for listening to the show. If you enjoy today's episode, please help me get the word out about the corporate drop out by screenshotting and sharing this on social. I would appreciate it so much if you would subscribe and leave a five star rating and review as well. And I do the show for you and I want to hear from you. So tell me what is it that you want more of text me at 949-541-0951 or slide into the DMS at corporate dropout official or Alessia Citro with two underscores until next time