My favorite way to book clients

Let me tell you about my favorite experience booking a client.

Now I've generated leads a whole lot of ways, and I teach all of them inside The Division.

From chatting it up in conference lunch lines and cold emails, to being useful in online groups and nurturing relationships in Instagram DMs. And many others.

But this one combines two of my favorite things.

The band Muse and guitars.

Before my mom passed she bought me a beautiful little champagne sparkle Daisy Rock guitar. And it sat unplayed for years while life got in the way.

But 2020 left all of us with a lot more home-time on our hands, so I decided it was time to reconnect with a big piece of who I was.

The only problem was, while that guitar is super cute and scaled for “girls,” it sounds pretty horrid and I inherited my dad's massive hands. Thanks dad.

So it was time for an upgrade.

And I knew exactly which guitar I wanted. A Matthew Bellamy signature, special edition. With a Midi pad in Holoflake sparkle.

It just so happened that there was one available at a guitar shop in LA. The only guitar shop in the country to carry this model.

So I reached out in an IG DM, put the guitar on hold, was confused for my husband in the process (always happens, I call it my differentiator), and set out to LA for the day to pick up my new baby.

Given that this was during lockdown I was the only one in the shop, so the owner and I started chatting.

I'll never forget when he said to me, “It's not everyday a woman comes in here and buys a rare guitar. I felt like I had to clean the place before you arrived. So who exactly are you?”

Now I'm an introvert. And a tad awkward in person.

But give me a chance to talk about my love of Muse and guitars, pull up a chair. We're going to be awhile.

He eventually asked what I do.

I casually said I own my own design studio (because people don't understand lettering — meet people where they are) to which he said, “I need a website designed. Do you do that?”

And at the time we did. Within a week we signed Imperial Vintage Guitars as a client, and not only were we paid well, we got some sweet guitar deals for many years after.

Was it luck?

Maybe.

If luck is a combination of being in the right place at the right time with the right circumstances and experience and interests.

You see, he didn't just hire me because I showed up in his shop.

He hired me because we bonded over our love of Muse and he knew he didn't have to explain his inventory with me to build the website correctly and explain things like Reverb integration and how to categories vintage guitars.

Is this replicable?

Yes, to an extent with the following:

• Be human with human interests. You'd be amazed at how many clients my studio has booked (without any negotiation) simply because we belonged to the same interest-circles as our clients. From UAP to true crime. Clients want to work with people who get their world. If all you can talk is business, there's very little to connect over.
• Get out into the world and meet people. And not just to talk business. Build IRL relationships with people. I don't need to tell you that AI can't do that, and people are more and more looking to in-person connections, no matter how “small” of a market you think you live in.
• Be a Muse fan. Just kidding. But I want to drive this one home again in case you skipped the first tip. Have a life you can geek out about when you're not working. As an introvert I've always found that if I can talk to people about my favorite music or films or books, I will always have something to talk about. And it just doesn't help with in-person meetings and networking. It's the one way to make outreach so much easier. Find connection points with others outside of “Hey, I'd like to work with you.” I once emailed Gibson guitars and told them I named my childhood Jack Russell Terrier after the brand. And I got a positive response.

We've said it many times that the industry is changing. But clients are still out there and are looking to work with good people with good work. We see it every week inside The Division.

Now go be a good person and show good work to as many people as you can.

Bonus points for finding those natural connection points.

Stephanie Owens

Muse Super Fan (Again)

Introvert Who's Good at Peopling

Co-Founder | Maker Division

P.S. If you know you need to work on your lead gen game rather than sitting around wondering why nobody is calling, check out this week's episode of the Maker Division podcast where Ben and I rank our favorite — and least favorite — methods to generate new business.

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