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Build Your Business Through Profitable Relationships with Dov Gordon, Under the Radar Leaders Networking Consultant

If you’re a consultant, coach, or some kind of solo-preneur who offers some level of professional service to your clients, how do you build your business?

Well, if you watch and listen to all the self-proclaimed marketing gurus, you ‘build your list’ and buy Facebook ads and Google ads. You create and sell digital programs and products that produce an amazing ‘passive income.’

If you’re one of the fortunate consultants for whom that works well, consider yourself lucky. For the rest of us, that whole cyclone of thinking and activity can become what feels like a never-ending black hole of marketing activity that sucks the life out of you and drains your bank account.

Enter Dov Gordon, a consultant who helps his clients build their businesses by becoming what he calls “Under the Radar Leaders” in their industry. The foundation of his philosophy is so simple, it could easily be dismissed if it didn’t work so well!

On this episode, Laura and Dov dig into the space of what it means to purposefully build healthy, long-term, mutually beneficial relationships that facilitate the exchange of products, services, and payment for value. He shares his framework for the 4 Types of networks he builds and helps his clients build to facilitate the growth of the work each member is doing.

He shares his experiences and lessons learned over the course of his own professional career, going from the point of “not knowing what I didn’t know…” to consciously understanding his process, discerning what worked and why, what didn’t and why, and making course corrections along the way.

If you’re in any kind of consulting business – where what you offer is your expertise and experience – you have to listen to this episode!

Dov’s Bio

Dov Gordon helps consultants and experts get ideal clients. Consistently.

There are millions and millions of consultant/coaches who are really good at what they do.  But they’re not charismatic guru types.  And they never want to be.

They LOVE their work.  And all they want is a consistent flow of great clients.  Clients who value their expertise, AND who value who they are as people.  And pay them well for it.

Dov and his small team take a tactic-agnostic approach.  They help you build a strong strategic foundation and to apply to it to build a simple, client-getting system that is best for YOU.

Dov has been a guest on The Art of Charm, John Jantch’s Duct Tape Marketing podcast, Jeff Goins’s podcast and dozens of others.

You can learn more about Dov’s work at https://ProfitableRelationships.com

Connect with Dov and Other Resources:

Get a quick free training: https://profitablerelationships.com/laura

Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/ConsistentFlowOfClients/

LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/in/dovgordon/

Twitter:        https://twitter.com/DovGordon

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/dovgordon/

YouTube:     https://youtube.com/c/DovGordon1

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Do you know who you are?

Last week, I spent some time in Huntington, WV, meeting with clients. One of them was kind enough to join me for lunch, and she suggested we dine at Jim’s Steak and Spaghetti. The place is truly a landmark in the city! And it’s a shining example of crystal clarity on who they are and what they stand for.

The Jim’s menu is very simple and clean. They offer a few sizes of spaghetti (meat sauce or marinara), and few sandwiches, a few salads, a few drink options, and several choices of home-made pies. Nothing fancy, just good, solid home-cooking presented and served in a no-nonsense way by very friendly staff.

When I arrived, about 30 minutes early, the place was bustling, with booths and counter space full throughout the restaurant. As I waited for my “date” to arrive, I observed the place. It’s decorated as I imagine it has been for years — reminiscent of an older coffee shop or diner; simple, serviceable fixtures. The front counter has a sign that clearly states the establishment does not accept debit or credit cards; although they do provide one of those slim-line ATMs if you need to get cash (I assume they prefer to not deal with the fees charged by credit card companies, but are not averse to their customers paying them, if need be!). Note that this lack of accommodation for a mode of payment we all take for granted these days has not slowed business at Jim’s one iota! Pictures adorn some of the wall space — clearly, many a dignitary has dined at Jim’s, including JFK and Senator Joe Manchin.

My lunch companion grew up in Huntington and has been a customer at Jim’s since high school. She shared stories with me of what a local icon the place is and how it hasn’t changed much in the many years she’s been going there, even though it is now managed by Jim’s daughter.

I’ve been thinking about Jim’s for a whole week now. It’s a great example of knowing exactly who you are, what you stand for, and what you’re good at. Jim’s puts on no pretenses and that’s exactly why its success has stood the test of time.

There are valuable lessons to be learned here. Can you state, with equal clarity and simplicity, who you are (as an individual or as a representative of some organization) and what you stand for?

If not, I encourage you to spend some time working on this. If you aren’t clear, imagine how fuzzy it is for your employees, suppliers, customers, and potential customers…and what the implications of that lack of clarity has for your success.

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Intentional Leadership — M10 Strategy — Wrap-up

For the past four weeks, we’ve been focused on Strategy, and now it’s time for this month’s wrap-up. Hard to believe! And we have only two months left on this Intentional Leadership Journey.

In an early blog post, I shared the story of my encounter with a young man working at the MAC counter in a mall I was shopping in. We got to talking and I shared that I had moved to the mid-west from Washington State and he talked about how he hoped to live in Seattle one day, soon. My response was that “hope is not a strategy,” which startled him back to reality, I think. He said he’d never thought about it that way. I asked how he thought he would get to Seattle — realize his dream — if he didn’t have a plan and take some action. We talked for a while longer, and as I left the store I could see the gears in his mind turning and turning…

Without a plan, our dreams will vanish. As a leader, we must be able to develop an actionable strategy for our team’s/organization’s vision to become a reality. And while it’s certainly crucial to your future success, having a strategy isn’t enough. Once you’ve cast the vision and engaged your followers, you must develop the strategy and then move forward to the next step: Execution. Great leaders don’t simply have a plan, they make it happen!*

So what does a sound strategy entail? It needs to be clear enough to give direction and flexible enough so you can adapt to changing conditions and unforeseeable events along your journey. As we’ve discussed, the only constant is change. If you aren’t moving forward — and I mean intentionally moving forward with a destination in mind — you are falling behind; in today’s world, that will result in the demise of your organization.

My mentors have told me — and I share it with my clients, as well — that leaders must deliberately and consistently set aside time to work ON their business, not just stay mired in the daily effort of working IN their business. I encourage my clients to schedule in “think time” as often as they need it — some do it daily, some weekly. Whatever the cadence you need, you need to do it and you need to make it a priority. In fact, I have some clients who have told me that when our coaching or mentoring engagement has concluded, they have maintained what they’ve referred to as the “Sacred Laura Time” (meaning our coaching/mentoring sessions were high priority and not to be messed with) as their thinking time, as they were already in the habit and had trained their colleagues and staff that they were engaged in important work during that time.

Be mindful, as you develop your strategies, to take into account the strengths of your team/organization, and work that knowledge into your plans, which will give you and even stronger chance of success down the road. The best strategies exploit an organization’s finest qualities.* In this way, you can prioritize your limited resources and use them to the most advantage for your organization.

As we conclude this month’s focus on strategy, spend a little time with your journal and reflect on what you’ve learned.

How are you thinking about strategy differently?

What steps do you need to take now to fully engage your organization, leverage their strengths, and propel yourself forward?

Are you disciplined enough to develop and stick to your strategy, even in the face of inconvenient circumstances and conditions?

Your answers to these questions will dictate the nature of your influence in the years ahead.

“See” you tomorrow, when I’ll introduce next month’s topic. In the meantime, have an intentional day.

 

*From the Intentional Leadership book by Giant Impact. 

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