The Connect and Profit System is an innovative way to creating relationships and attracting high-paying clients. Susie Carder’s guest in this episode is Yakov Smart, the creator of The Connect and Profit System. Yakov shares with Susie how you can attract clients without having to undergo heavy marketing activities. The key is to build genuine relationships with connectors and give them value. Connectors are the centers of influence that gives you access to best potential clients. Do you want more tips on how to transform your business from struggling to attracting high paying clients? You don’t want to miss this episode. Tune in!
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Attract High-Paying Clients The Better Way With Yakov Smart
My next guest Yakov Smart is known as the leading authority when it comes to attracting premium clients through other people’s marketing. He has grown his coaching company from 0 to the multiple 6-figure incomes as a direct result of tapping into strategic and systematic approaches he teaches. His innovative approach has also led Yakov from being booked to speak on numerous stages, receiving thousands of dollars in free publicity by having business owners from across the globe attend his seminars. Yakov has proven systems, entrepreneurs and thought leaders have a new way of attracting their ideal and dream client, without the marketing activities they hate but what they have been told they should do. Please welcome my guest, Yakov.
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Welcome to another exciting episode of the show. I’m so excited because you are going to love my guest. Yakov, thank you for being here. I’m excited that you are here. Welcome.
I’m happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
Yakov is a leading authority in attracting premium clients through other people’s marketing. You have heard about using other people’s money. We are going to talk about using other people’s marketing. He grew his coaching business from 0 to a multi 6-figure as a direct result of tapping into systems and strategies, and he teaches it so we can all do it as well. This is the secret sauce. My part and passion are because it’s a proven system. We are not talking strategy ideas or concepts. We are talking about it. Yakov, tell everybody what your magic is? What do you do? How do you do it? Give me a high-level overview so people can be excited to learn from you.
The big challenge that a lot of business owners face is attracting those premium clients. It keeps a lot of people up at night and a lot of businesses are still getting most of their business from word of mouth, which is a great thing as businesses grow as they scale and even in the coaching space. Especially it’s about attracting those high ticket, premium clients who can afford to pay you what you are worth and you can do your best work with.
What I have created, accidentally from my years of experience, is a client attraction system that does that. It doesn’t involve a lot of the marketing and advertising the people here they should be doing. There are so many things you could be doing and should be doing online to get clients that it’s overwhelming talking about them.
What I have done is I have simplified the client attraction process, create a model called Connect & Profit, which is all about an innovative way of creating relationships that lead to leads, clients, sales and profits. That’s what we teach. It’s something that a lot of people gravitate toward because it simplifies this monumentous process with client attraction and boils it down to things that work and that’s relationship building.
I have been playing this game for a long time and there is a system. I sucked at it for years because no one has given you the it. They are telling you, you’ve got to do it but, “What do I’ve got to do? How do I track it? How do I make it happen?” You give us that messaging and more importantly, the psychology behind the messaging. Why do you think psychology is important for building that relationship and with the center of influences?
You call them center of influence, I call them connectors. That’s what we call them and Connect and Profit land. We have to understand where people are coming from. Usually, as business owners, who are reading this, are like, “There are centers of influence. They have my clients, I get it. Great concept. I love the idea. Why aren’t more people executing it? Why aren’t more people attracting clients through it?” Most people fall into 1 of 2 categories. Category number one, they do nothing. They think, “There are these centers of influence. There’s little old me. I’m not going to approach them. They don’t know me from Tom. It’s going to go bad. I’m not going to get rejected and put myself out there.
Attract high-ticket, premium clients who can afford to pay you what you’re worth and who you can do your best work with.
Therefore, I’m going to do nothing. I’m going to post on social media and hope that someone comes to me and wants to give me money.” That’s what a lot of people unfortunately do. The other camp is the people that are like, “These are centers of influence. Let me tell them about how we can make a bunch of money together.” They start putting together these long-winded messages and essentially going door-knocking and annoying the hell out of people. That’s the other side of the spectrum.
What we have to find the balance between that. There’s a middle ground. That middle ground is understanding, “What’s the psychology? What are the ways I can add value to that person?” When we work with people, one of the things we have them do and coach them through is, sit down and make a list. What are the ways you can give value to these connectors?
It doesn’t have to be that you can write them a big commission check. That’s nice. That could be part of the value add. Correct me if I’m wrong most of the time but if you feel like someone has bad intentions or bad content, even if there’s some opportunity to make some money, you can make money in other ways. There are so many ways to make money out there. For a lot of connectors, I will give you a couple of the things that are towards the top of that list. Number one, does it make them look good? If it doesn’t make them look good, they don’t want to touch it with a 10-foot pole because most of these connectors are in it for the long game, which you and I are.
The second thing is, is it going to take a lot of work? Are they going to have to sit there and write copy? Are they going to have to sit there and think about how to position and promote? Are they going to have to go and have their teamwork long nights, trying to set up a separate funnel and all that stuff? It’s not fun. No one wants to do it. If you come to them with something that’s turned key, that’s valuable.
Number three, does it solve a major challenge that their people already have? There’s some different challenges business owners have, for example. If you can articulate, this is a solution to a challenge. It’s a new method or strategy, something innovative they can use that comes back to the connector and makes them look good.
There’s the opportunity to make some more revenue and for them to also maybe get some exposure because a lot of you also have lists or you certainly have spheres of influence that you have, people who you know so you’ve got the opportunity to give someone else more reach, visibility and eyeballs, too. Those are the things it usually comes down to being able to convey that immediately. We talk about breaking the ice. It’s like you are at a bar or a restaurant. You see someone of the opposite sex or the same sex that you like and it’s that moment, I call the moment of excitement. We are like, “I wonder what that person is like?” You start getting curious.
It comes down to like we are talking about here if you authentically approach them, it gives value and leading, you see where it goes and it could go somewhere. If you approach them in a way where you get in their face and start yelling at them or asking them to marry them right at the gate, it’s probably not going to go well. If you do nothing, you will never know where it can go. It’s like this wacky dating analogy in terms of approaching connectors and breaking the ice.
You can’t go, “What do you have for me, Yakov?” You can’t come to me like, “What could you do for me?” You’ve got to understand and it takes time. People are looking for a quick win. You can’t get married if you haven’t gone on a date. That’s where I think so many partners go, “I have this thing. Will you promote it?” “I don’t know you.” I don’t know if you are going to do what you say. That’s huge. We are going to talk about you get it but you’ve got to do what you say and deliver what you promise, which is scary for an influencer to go, “I’m not sure.” You take this on.
There’s a process. It’s not as long as people think. Sometimes people think that they have to go and have a bunch of virtual copies and do a bunch of networks. I don’t know about you. I’m not a fan of that stuff. There are other things I would rather do. That’s why you want to be intentional going in. Now that you have broken the ice, what’s the best, quickest, and most authentic way to turn that connection into a collaboration? A lot of people will say, “I’ve got 10,000 connections on LinkedIn. I know all these people. I know all of these masterminds. I have been in all these events.”
Is that getting somewhere? Is value being created or do you know them? Is that just the number on your phone? Is that just a contact you have on social media? Part of the magic is, how do you then turn those connections into actual collaborations? For me, a collaboration, I define it very simply, it’s a business relationship that leads to value. The type of value that we look for is a win-win value. It’s a win for you, for them and their people. It’s creating that. Most people don’t quite realize this because they will go into these conversations and think that they are networking.
Maybe that person sent them a client here and there but it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a nice pleasant conversation. They don’t hear from that person. It’s not because the person doesn’t like them. It’s because they are all busy so they hear crickets. Instead of hearing crickets, what we teach people how to do is, “Let’s have a conversational framework where it’s like a sales conversation.” There’s a structure to it where you are learning about the other person and what’s valuable for them, seeing how you can add value. Just like in a sales conversation, it’s the right that you make an offer in a Connect and Profit conversation to collaborate.
We call it a collaboration power offer where you are making it very clear, “Here’s how we can play. Here’s what makes the most sense. What do you think?” You are giving it a structure where the answer is going to be either, “Yes, let’s do it. No, but what if we did it like this?” You are creating that opportunity and I cannot stress this next point enough, get it on the calendar because if you don’t get it on the calendar, it’s never happening. That’s a key thing that people miss.
Don’t get, “I will follow up.” Don’t follow up. Do it now. It’s so hard to get people on the phone. The busier the people are, the people that you want to do business with because we are all busy, which is great. I know a lot of people during this pandemic and COVID, we all had to shift our model. You and I had to shift from live events to online events. Share with us how can you weather this storm? How can you use OPM, which you call Other People’s Marketing, which I love, instead of OPP?
It’s just like with live events, the way that I used to do it. It was all about filling the events. Fill the event, deliver content and make an offer like the classic model. It has been that way for years. It’s going to be that way for years, probably. Online events and webinars are similar, a little different. Some people do longer form events. People do shorter formats but it doesn’t matter because the traffic filling the event is pretty much the same process. If you have other people, they have mailing lists, clients and you are giving them away to promote whatever you’ve got going on or whatever the entry point is to learning about you and doing business with you.
It’s having that juicy piece of concept where before it would have been in person but now it’s a webinar, a challenge or all these different things. Sometimes people obsessed with what’s the latest and greatest funnel. No one gives a crap about what’s the latest funnel. It’s like, “If I opt-in, what am I getting?” If it’s delivered through a webinar, great. If it’s delivered through a challenge, great. If it’s delivered through a cheat sheet, great. No one cares about your fancy automation, what you call it, all that. It doesn’t matter.
With Connect and Profit, we talk about this next thing, turning collaboration into profits. The best way to boil it down is to have juicy content that people want to get. You find other people to drive, in the world of internet marketing, we call it traffic. It’s sending people there so they can get the thing and then that thing, it educates and it also inspires action because that’s the key that inspires the action. That turns those people that came from other people’s marketing into your best potential clients, into your best clients. It’s similar to live events. It’s delivering the content virtually. It’s a different mechanism for delivering it.
There are so many people are waiting for it to get over. If I hear that one more time, I’m going to smack them. I’m not going to say anything. I’m going to say anything, “Snap out of it. It’s not getting over. We have all had to shift our model so shift it now.” Be at the forefront. Being in that, “What happened?” There are still three types of people that are day drinking, “What is happening?” There’s this person is like, “What happened?” The other people are like, “Let’s get back to work.” There’s the general. Now let’s pivot.
More wealth is built in economic hardship than at any other time in history. What Yakov and I are both talking about is how do you leverage those relationships to do good in the world. Use this time. Be that general. Stand up. Get it done. Make it happen. What would you say is the first step for someone reading to get excited about this type of system and attract their dream client? What’s step number one?
You’ve got to think about who’s got your people. Who are your connectors? There are a lot of different categories but you may already know 5, 10, 15 people who potentially promote your webinar, your next thing or your event when those come back. It’s about laying that groundwork now, getting back in touch and making those offers. That’s key. What are you going to offer for them to promote?
Educate to inspire action to turn potential clients into your best clients.
What’s in it for them? Thinking about that beforehand. You go into it intentionally. We are not just saying, “I haven’t talked in a while. Let’s catch up and shoot the breeze.” That’s cool but people have things to do. It’s reverse engineering creating that and then starting with, “Who are the connectors, and what’s going to be the best way to approach them?”
You have done many different levels of business. You have played in the high 6-figure from 0. Share with us because some of my biggest lessons have been inside my failures or my biggest challenge, obstacles, whatever you want to call them. I want to know a story that brought you to your knees. You want to give it up, quit it all, then you come back from it and what did you learn? Share with us what was that, and then what came out of it?
I will give you the condensed version. Right before COVID hit, I was doing live events. My model was very straightforward. I would do a one-day event and then enroll people in programs at the event. It was cool. The way we would fill these events was through the systems that I teach, Connect and Profit. We would find connectors in a local area and give them our process.
We would have a full room. I would show up and do my thing. It was great. I was traveling with my girlfriend at the time and we were traveling in New Zealand and Australia. I said, “How cool would it be while I’m on this trip, I get the tax write-off and do an event in Australia? Make a bunch of money and have a great time and do my thing.”
That trip was going to be in January and February 2020. I started thinking about this in October 2020, and then we made it happen. I showed up and there were two events. One was a lot more successful than the other. The one I will talk about was the unsuccessful one. This was in Melbourne. This was on February 7, 2020. I believe it was on a Friday. This was right before COVID. We had a pretty full room. That room had a capacity of about 50. We had about 45 in there. Everyone who paid a seat wants to be there. These are business owners.
We had a system and these discovery days that we do. They had worked well at clockwork. The presentation and content were the same. I was very confident in that system but for whatever reason and I know a few of the reasons, it completely bombed. I didn’t quite have the delivery and communication that I usually had. The energy in the room wasn’t quite there. It was like this blank energy. I didn’t understand what was happening. When I went and made the pitch, it completely utterly bombed.
I’m laughing because I can identify. I have been in those rooms many times like, “What is happening?” You can see a train wreck happening. You are like, “It’s going down.”
That was supposed to be a big chunk of my revenue for that month, too. When that happened, I was like, “What am I going to do?” The next month on top of that, COVID came and I was supposed to have my bounce back in Dallas. That event never happened because things started getting shut down. It was at that point, I had had a couple of low months. I sat there and didn’t know what the hell I was going to do because live events were off the table. Online, I had my list, I was doing some things but I was like, “It’s time to pivot.”
The breakthrough came from good fortune too I manifested or whatever you want to call it. I had a guy reach out to me in a specific business niche in the real estate space. He was like, “I like your stuff. Let’s do something. How can we collaborate?” Using some of the stuff that I was talking about, I made them an offer. We created a collaboration. We did one webinar. It was smashing. He had created a new course, sold that on the webinar. His buddies started reaching out and saying, “Let’s collaborate. Let’s do a JV. We’ve got other people on our list who would love this stuff.”
I was back at that same revenue level within months with a completely new program. It was cool because one thing led to another and it also led me down the track to where I don’t care if live events are going to be back in full swinging. I have always wanted to have online, be the bread and butter because then I can move from anywhere. That’s what people will want to aspire to as well on the other side of this thing.
I have appreciated not traveling as much and being home in my bed versus some hotel bed and nasty hotel food. To go, “This is amazing.” When you can leverage, I like to ask about the failure because sometimes those are our gifts that are wrapped in sandpaper. They suck when you are in them but on the other side, it made you reinvent your business. All this made everyone look at their business differently.
If you can do the ongoing, when did I pivot my business? You don’t have to wait for the COVID, pandemic, hurricane, typhoon or whatever it is to pivot. Just go, “What do I need to change in my business?” Following your heart. What I love is every time you talk, you are so passionate about this. What do you want to be the one thing you have that you want to be remembered for?
Someone who was in alignment led by example and showed people a new way of doing things that transcend not only in business but in my personal life as well and some of the other work that I want to do before it’s all said and done.
What do you wish I would have asked you that I didn’t ask you? What’s that one question you are like, “I was dying for her to ask me this,” and I didn’t? What would that be?
“What if you don’t have a big list?” A lot of people get into list shame. They were like, “I only have this amount of people on my list. This person has this amount of people.” The truth is a lot of these people have huge lists. The lists are oversaturated. They were not as responsive. They could say they have X amount on their list but how many do they have?
I want to pinpoint one specific thing with that, too. We look at different levels of OPM. What’s the most valuable level of OPM, Other People’s Customer, people they are already doing business with? If they promote to their customers, that’s more valuable than to their 20,000 Facebook likes because those people aren’t buying anything.
They haven’t spent a penny. For the people reading, “I don’t have a big list yet or I only have friends and family on my list.” That’s better than zero and you have different values you can give to that connector. It’s not just about, “I can promote your stuff to my list.” It’s like, “Here is what’s in it for you and your people.” The long-term play there. I have done many of my best collaborations when I had either no list or a tiny list. They were massive successes for everyone because of the type of collaboration.
Show people a new way of doing things.
I’m like, “I have a small list but it’s small and mighty. I’m working with partners that might have 100,000 people.” Are they engaged? Are they participating? Are you the first that they delete? They were like, “Here’s another email from whoever Bob.” I know you have a delicious gift for our clients. What are we giving them?
I’m giving a masterclass. It’s free and juicy training. If you are reading this and you like what you see and you are intrigued, you want to learn more, here are some more examples and see some of the actual flow charts to get detailed and dive in. You are going to go to ConnectAndProfit.co/Susie. It’s an on-demand masterclass. You can watch it anywhere at any time. Be ready to take notes.
You are going to hear some examples. This is a whole new way of attracting clients. We are talking about something that’s so much easier and more seamless than a lot of what’s out there. It can change a lot of businesses and transform businesses from struggling and only relying on word of mouth to having an actual system for attracting those high-paying clients.
I never know who’s watching you because partners are watching other partners and they are watching how you play. Go and look at the masterclass and take those nuggets. I encourage you because you are leaving millions of dollars on the table by not leveraging this strategy. I have in my past because I didn’t know how to do it. We sucked at it because we were following this cookie cutter that was like, “You mail for me. I will mail for you.” That didn’t work. Understanding the system, process, how to contribute and give, what is that juicy nugget that you give that nobody else gives and add value to people’s community?
I closed a $150,000 client from her watching somebody else. I have been in that tribe and community. She goes, “I have been watching you for a long time.” I said, “What else do you need to know to say, ‘Yes?’” She goes, “Nothing. I have been watching you.” That was the easiest sale. I’m like, “Good. Be consistent.” Those are great days.
Thank you so much for your time, energy, the gift because we love prizes. Yakov, how do we find you on social? Some people are going to want to spy on you and check you out before they do anything. I know our tribe and community. They want to stalk you a little bit. If you are reading this, he’s very handsome too, to watch. That helps. How do we find you on social, your name, connect, what do we do to find you on social media?
LindkedIn, @YakovSmart. Facebook, it’s a little more personal. People want to get personal.
Thank you, my brother. Have a blessed day. Tell that beautiful woman we say hi and we support that. I love the lifestyle you are creating. You are a beast. We appreciate you and thank you for your generosity and your wisdom always when we meet.
Thank you.
You are welcome.
Important Links
- Yakov Smart
- @YakovSmart – LinkedIn
- Facebook – Yakov Sav
- ConnectAndProfit.co/Susie
- Connect & Profit
- https://www.Facebook.com/Connect-Profit-107597021373357
About Yakov Smart
Yakov Smart is known as the leading authority when it comes to attracting premium clients through other people’s marketing. Yakov grew his coaching business from zero to multiple six-figures as a direct result of tapping into the strategies and systems he now teaches.
This innovative approach has also led to Yakov being booked to speak on numerous stages, receiving thousands of dollars in free publicity and having business owners from across the world attend his seminars. With Yakov’s proven system, entrepreneurs and thought leaders have a new way of attracting their dream clients without the marketing activities they hate but have been told they “should” be doing.
