The Introvert’s Edge On Rapid Growth

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Think introverts can t thrive in business Matthew Pollard author of The Introvert s Edge to Networking offers strategies on how introverts can harness their strengths and set themselves up for success through systems and planning He is an internationally-recognized consultant speaker blogger author mentor coach and serial entrepreneur with five multi-million dollar business success stories under his belt all before the age of 30 As the founder and CEO of Rapid Growth LLC he also reveals the formula for optimizing our skills and story to achieve maximum ROI 00 01 – 05 51 Finding Success as an Introvert Matthew talks about how he used his introversion to his advantage Misconception introverts have no business in sales and networking The key is planning and preparation so we can make use of our strengths Differentiating introverts from extroverts Matthew tells us about his experience of social exhaustion 05 52 – 24 04 Creating a Rapid Growth Business Rapid growth has nothing to do with functional skills Separating ourselves from the industry and leveraging the power of the story We engage emotionally with stories vs just using jargon Matthew shares the success stories of his clients The importance of finding a niche and building relationships Matthew talks about realizing his higher-level benefit and becoming the Rapid Growth Guy Teaming up with someone who s not the ideal customer can help narrow down a niche 24 05 – 25 40 Closing Segment Reach out to Matthew Links Below Final Words Tweetable Quotes My mission is to help introverts realize they re not second-class citizens Their path to success is just different from that of an extrovert – Matthew Pollard Most people are amazing at their functional skills but rapid growth has nothing to do with your functional skills – Matthew Pollard You have to separate yourself from that industry and you have to leverage the power of story to educate – Matthew Pollard —————————————————————————– Connect with Matthew through his website Discover the Rapid Growth Formula and get the template at matthewpollard com growth Download the first chapter his book The Introvert s Edge to Networking at introvertsedge com networking Listen to his podcast The Introvert s Edge Connect with me I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns Facebook LinkedIn Like subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts or whatever platform you listen on Thank you for tuning in Email me sam brickeninvestmentgroup com Want to read the full show notes of the episode Check it out below 00 00 00 Matthew Pollard The big framing for me is that I learned to succeed as an introvert And I will tell you that most people think that introversion is a disadvantage when it comes to selling to networking I actually realize that we have a real edge as long as we realize that we can t behave extroverted that we systemize out our disadvantages while leveraging our strengths And planning and preparation really allow us to leverage our major strengths of active listening and empathy which something I d say extroverts aren t quite as good as us at 00 00 41 Sam Wilson Matthew Pollard is the author of The Introvert s Edge Amazon s eighth most sold book of the week Matthew welcome to the show 00 00 48 Matthew Pollard Hey I m excited to be here Thanks for having me on 00 00 51 Sam Wilson Hey man The pleasure s mine In 90 seconds or less can you tell me where did you start Where are you now And how did you get there 00 00 56 Matthew Pollard Oh in 90 seconds or less Well introverted kid reading speed of a sixth grade horrible acne no business being in sales fell into sales as a result of losing my job just before Christmas 93 doors before my first sale it was a horrific day of getting sworn at and getting told to get a real job went home taught myself how to sell watching YouTube videos became the number one salesperson in the company in about six weeks fast forward just shy of a decade I had been responsible for five multimillion dollar success stories And the big framing for me is that I learned to succeed as an introvert And I will tell you that most people think that introversion is a disadvantage when it comes to selling to networking I actually realize that we have a real edge as long as we realize that we can t behave extroverted that we systemize out our disadvantages while leveraging our strengths And planning and preparation really allow us to leverage our major strengths of active listening and empathy which something I d say extroverts aren t quite as good as us at 00 01 54 Matthew Pollard And that s really you know what got me to where I am today I moved to the US I started teaching people how to create rapid growth businesses by differentiating by creating a niche strategy and by creating a sales system that works some of those people in the syndication space and and really that s what s allowed me to continue my mission of helping introverts realize they re not second class citizens Their path to success is just different to that of an extrovert 00 02 18 Sam Wilson Can you define for me Cause I m not sure that even everybody has a clear understanding of the difference between an extrovert and an introvert 00 02 25 Matthew Pollard You know it s actually interesting I I think that psychologists have been paid a fortune in research grants to make it more complicated not less so So the classic introvert you would assume is not either you or ism you know the classic introvert would be that person hiding under the bridge And I I promise that I would out you as an introvert on this show So there you go And this is the biggest thing that I focus on that most people perceive the introvert as the quiet person that doesn t want to talk to anyone And what you may be experiencing right now is what you would perceive as perhaps two very articulate people having a dialogue about a topic that they you know if they were true introverts they wouldn t be able to have And that s the mistake that everybody makes Introversion has got nothing to do with your ability to succeed in being a podcast host being a podcast guest speaking from a stage networking selling gosh any other so-called extroverted or any you think as a matter of fact I think that introvert dominate on you know all of those as long as they ve got a great system and they do planning and preparation previously The difference is that after those activities we re exhausted Where an extrovert is buzzing they re charged up and they want to go to the next so-called extroverted behavior 00 03 36 Matthew Pollard So the thing that I will say that separates us and the best example I can give you is I run an event in Austin called Small Business Festival And you know Jim Cathcart number one most award-winning speaker in the world is a friend of mine He came down he s like Matt I m going to be a closing speaker And I m coming down for the full three-day period At the end of that three days he and I had been involved in the event We d hung out with people We d interviewed people from stage We d both spoken The difference was at the end he was charged up and wanted to go and experience rainy street in the city of Austin the live music capital of the world I wanted to put on a hoodie and watch Netflix and maybe cry a little bit by myself and talk to nobody I ve never in my life had to ask a 70-year-old if I could please go home I was tired ever but that was the time He was so charged up because he had three days of charge I had three days of using my charge That s all introversion is It s got nothing to do with what we can achieve 00 04 31 Sam Wilson Right No I appreciate that Yeah And that s the definition I was hoping you were going to give cause it s absolutely true I mean yeah I m doing I run a daily podcast I m doing 12 interviews today And let me tell you when these this is all I do on Tuesdays this interview and when Tuesdays are over I m spent Like I just go I go home Like I I really don t get any of their work done on Tuesday It s like I m exhausted I m just exhausted And I had a great day had a great great time conversing with people like yourself all day long I get to meet the brightest and best minds in real estate every Tuesday all over the country It s amazing And it wears me out That s just just the way it is 00 05 06 Matthew Pollard And you own that And that s the important thing I think a lot of people either get embarrassed by that Now truthfully you have a ton of advantages being an introvert and extroverts I don t want to be perceived as extrovert-bashing extroverts have a ton of advantages too The goal is that you have to understand you have strengths and weaknesses and you have to leverage your strengths while learning how to improve on your weaknesses The difference is an extrovert will go and learn how to actively listen or they ll go and learn how to empathize better An introvert believes that they can t and that s really where the biggest hurdle is And I will tell you Sam I actually batch my interviews too for my podcast The Introvert s Edge I batch interview over a two-day period the entire series every time I launch one because I don t want to do it again for another long period 00 05 51 Sam Wilson That s awesome I absolutely love it Let s talk about achieving rapid growth So I know that s one of the things you re well known for break down that process for me if you don t mind 00 06 02 Matthew Pollard Yeah absolutely And I think the important thing for people to understand when it comes to rapid growth is that most people are amazing at their functional skill but rapid growth has nothing to do with your functional skills As a matter of fact if you explain what you do as a functional skill then people are less likely to want to work with you So what I really highlight for people is there s three steps to rapid growth that are outside the scope of your functional skill If you can nail these three and do them well then you really can create a rapid growth business that that you deserve So what I m going to do is I m going to give you an example that s kind of outside your industry but I want to tell you that I actually applied this to a syndication business That s a feature in my new book The Introvert s Edge to Networking and he was able to obtain rapid growth really really easily But the key was by the way don t call yourself a syndication specialist If that s what you are don t say it to everyone That s not in syndication It sounds like a Ponzi scheme like a scam like I m going to give you my money and you re going to run away from it with it I should say Now here s the thing that I will tell you to everyone that knows what it is It is a really good way of making money and it s a great way of leveraging income but the truth is the average person outside that the only way you re going to be able to explain it to them is by educating them that s like opening your fire hose of information 00 07 16 Matthew Pollard So you have to separate yourself from that industry and you have to leverage the power of story to educate So what I m going to do is I m going to give you an example that does both I m going to show you how it applies then I ll show you how it applies to syndication but I m also going to leverage the power of story because especially for those introverts out there story does a few amazing things The first thing it does is it activates the reticular activating system of their brain which for an introvert that struggles to develop rapport it allows my brain to synchronize with the brains of everybody that s listening It creates artificial rapport that I can leverage into real rapport super powerful And it allows me to foster a relationship with everybody that s listening now This is really really powerful as well because people buy from people that they like but it also is for introverts and for extroverts that feel like they need to educate it stops us from putting so much jargon into the explanation So leave your brochures leave your manuals and your jargon talk at home Tell a story instead The second thing that I will tell you is when you tell a story people remember up to 22 times more information So my goal of sharing this story with you is also that you retain it that you remember it and you actually apply the advice that I m about to give you 00 08 24 Matthew Pollard And then thirdly and I think this is the most powerful it actually short circuits the logical part of your brain So when you hear a story your emotional part of the brain is what hears a story The logical part has no way of processing it So literally in short circuits your emotional brain goes story time and listens So the difference here is that if you try to give somebody jargon for six seconds until they re bored you tell someone a story they re going to listen for two or three minutes And they re only going to listen for whether the moral applies to them which is even better because they assume all the detail is fact So because of that it gives you a huge advantage of everybody else especially in the investment space where they re just overwhelming Everybody in the industry just overwhelms people with jargon 00 09 04 Matthew Pollard So the example I ll give you is actually of a language tutor that was out of California And she taught kids and adults Mandarin And for the longest time she was able to charge 50 to 80 an hour for a private consultation Now she did that successfully until there are a whole bunch of people moving into California willing to charge 30 to 40 an hour for a private consultation On top of that we now live in this global economy There were people in China offering to do it for 12 an hour on Craigslist and technology that says Hey I ll charge you nothing You teach me English I ll teach you Mandarin You know no one charges anyone anything so she s competing against free So she comes to me and she says how do I compete in this crowded marketplace What she s looking for is how to sell more effectively But the key is that if you start with sales you ve already lost What I said is we ve got to avoid the battle altogether So I looked at all the things she did for her clients outside the scope of her functional skill and what I realize is for two of these clients and literally she d worked with hundreds it was just two She helped them understand some pretty important things These were executives being relocated to China Now the first thing she helped them understand was the importance of rapport Like here if I was a really bad salesperson at the end of 45 minutes I might say do you want to move forward 00 10 11 Matthew Pollard And you ll say yes no or everyone s favorite let me think about it Well if I come back a week from now and you still say you want to think about it you re probably not going to go ahead In China they re going to want to see you five or six times before they discuss business They re probably going to want to see you drunk over karaoke once or twice It s just the kind of people that they are but that s because they re talking 25 to 100-year relationships not transactional deals like we do here She helped them understand the importance of eCommerce or the differences between eCommerce in China and in the Western world and the importance of respect why learning the language isn t enough You ve got to reduce your accent how to handle a business card why it mattered These are the things that were significant to these two clients And I said when you doing so much more for these people than just language tuition what are you doing Now in syndication everyone has their own unique skills their own things that they bring to the marketplace that they struggle to articulate Otherwise you won t have clients that keep coming back to you And she said look there s just a few things I m just trying to help but I m like you re stuck in your functional skill Is it fair to assume as a result of the assistance that you are giving these people they re going to be more successful in China And she s like I mean yeah I mean that s the point right I said great Let s call you the China Success coach then Forget about Mandarin for a second Let s focus on creating what we ended up calling the China Success Intensive which was a five-week program to work with the executive the spouse and any children being relocated to China 00 11 30 Matthew Pollard Now she loved the idea of this but she s like well who do I sell it to And I said well who do you think your ideal client is What she s asking is who do I go out networking to find right Now everyone assumes the biggest group So I said well who do you think you re supposed to sell this to And she said well obviously the executive I m like yeah I mean I was terrified of moving from Australia to the US Imagine going to China where they speak a different language Still not your ideal client though She s like well the companies are going to pay I m like yeah they got millions of dollars writing on an executive being successful fair assessment Still I don t think so Frustrated she s like well who then I said I think you re right Your client s the immigration attorney She looked at me puzzled She s like what I said what do you think about this for a second An immigration attorney gets paid five to 7 000 for doing a visa doing all the paperwork and bureaucracy that comes with it They ve got staff they ve got office space they ve got a pay to get a client They d be lucky to make 3 000 I said so just offer them 3 000 for a simple introduction They were like double my profit for a simple introduction sure What have I got to say These people are ecstatic to meet her at a networking event 00 12 30 Matthew Pollard She said well all you ve got to do is say congratulations you ve now got a visa I just want to double check you re as ready as possible to be relocated to China These people pretty confident they d say yeah I think we re set You know we ve got our place sorted We are learning the language Kids are getting pretty good at it too We ve got our visa now Thank you I think we are good to go and they just respond with there s actually a lot more to it than that I think you need to speak to the China Success coach She then got on the phone with the easiest sale in the world Now put this in perspective She charged 30 000 for doing this She paid a 3 000 commission for this five-week program She made 27 000 for the easiest sale in the world instead of struggling every day to charge 50 to 80 an hour she had a business that exploded Now how do you apply this to this syndication space Simple You first need to decide the niche for you 00 13 18 Matthew Pollard I worked with a client recently who specialized or had a lot of clients in the medical space surgeons people that were you know highly specialized doctors Just so you know you re supposed to feel sorry for these people because they spent a fortune learning Then they get into their career and they put themselves in golden handcuffs They ve got expensive lives expensive spouses Their kids are going to expensive schools They have no idea how they re ever going to retire The thing they do have is a huge income but they invest it in things like condos and triplexes The problem is that usually they end up the landlord and the hourly rate s horrible and the properties cause they ve got less time to look than everyone else they usually lose money not make money So they give up on all that That was the group that he cared about though He sold it to everyone I said specialize here Then we can frame the messaging differently We actually called him The Arbitrage Architect Why Well arbitrage means buy low and sell high Well if you can buy things low in a way that nobody else can if you ve got a high income that allows you or affords you the opportunity to be involved in a syndication a much smaller group so it s more manageable and more profitable Well of course you re basically making money out of arbitrage So we created the unified message of The Arbitrage Architect We then niche down to doctors and surgeons and then we created a sales system that leveraged the power of relationships through other surgeons and messaging out to surgeons and doctors That s what created his rapid growth business Funnily enough as soon as he started doing it while the people that knew him were like what are you doing You re a syndication specialist just stick to that Even his father-in-law thought he was insane He actually had a doctor s association in Canada reach out to me like you know what We need someone to speak to our doctors Can you work with us and help us with that And he had a dream set of clients Now he has no problem raising money and all the choice deals get given to him first because they know who he is He breaks through the noise So if you focus on these steps firstly sales step three is a lot easier but gosh you stop feeling like you re having to convince and cajole people to do what s in their best interest 00 15 28 Sam Wilson Yeah I like that That s absolutely right And I I think you started with something there at the beginning was to leverage the story You know like any good brand leverages the story I don t know if you ve ever ever done a whiskey tour right I remember I was on the bourbon trail in Kentucky and and it s like in the end it s the same almost the same you know same product you know Okay All the all the bourbon drinkers like no it s not I m going to get a bunch of hate email but but seriously in the end they ve always got some founding story and it s I mean the whole thing is about the story and how special the water is and how special the grains and what it s like okay 00 16 02 Matthew Pollard Oh I m with you I mean how many times have we gone to a winery and actually had pretty bad wine but then we bought a bottle because the story was so great You felt connected to this bottle of wine It was nowhere near as good as a bottle half the price from California that we could have got it home 00 16 17 Sam Wilson Right Exactly Exactly You re like gosh is this a 6 bottle or a 2 I don t have any idea This is not good though I know that Yeah That s exactly it And that s why I never need to go on a whiskey tasting tour ever again It s like this is I ve heard the story Thank you But still even though even so I liked really what you said there of leverage the story What are some things that people should do I guess to begin you know finding their unique story Like for you I think it sounded like it came from the experience of identifying yourself as an introvert going okay you know what I m an introvert and this this does not come naturally or easy for me And I think you built upon that What can other people do to really find their way of leveraging their story 00 16 57 Matthew Pollard Yeah absolutely So I think what we need to do is you need to say what are the skills that I have outside the scope of my functional skill and then say well what is the higher level benefit of that So for Wendy it was eCommerce understanding of respect understanding of rapport The high-level benefit was China Success For Shane who became The Arbitrage Architect it was the fact that he understood what doctors were going through how to find deals how to raise the money how to connect with those right people And then you know The Arbitrage Architect became the perfect fit for him because he understood what they were going through He understood that while wealthy they were actually stuck in golden handcuffs and they were trying to invest It s funny we came up with this slogan stop investing like a poor person right Because the whole framing was around a super rich egocentric kind of individuals that knew that they should be able to get access to something that everyone else did and they just couldn t find it So it was a really easy fit 00 17 50 Matthew Pollard For me I went well hang on a second you know I learned to sell as an introvert yes But then I started my own business and I realized that if you start with sales you ve already lost So I actually learned to market by the way salespeople tend to be undergrad qualified people or people that aren t seen as highly qualified Marketers on the other hand are highly qualified but have never had a relationship with a customer They don t really go and speak to customers So salespeople tend to hate marketers and marketers tend to devalue what s going on in the sales team I actually was able to play in both spheres Because of that I actually had the ability to communicate between So most people that are in small businesses they generally have to hire a sales coach then they have to hire a marketing specialist and neither of them are actually connecting the dots for the other Then the world went online So I went well I understand sales and marketing offline That s how I grew my business And then I moved them online And more specifically I learned to move them online and realized that while everybody else was blogging every day podcasting every day taking photos of their donut for something to say on Instagram because their focus was to be the loudest I realized that if you were the clearest i e had a great message you didn t need to be the loudest you could optimize and even automate to break through the noise i e in networking and online if you can be the clearest you don t have to be the loudest 00 19 07 Matthew Pollard By bringing all of this together online and offline marketing and sales and the psychology because truthfully look I ve learned you can create a rapid growth business out of anything I built five multimillion-dollar businesses myself from the ground up And the thing I can tell you is there s nothing worse than a rapid growth business with customers you can t stand the business you don t like So it s ensuring that you actually create the right rapid growth business as opposed and trust me you ll make more money if you focus on a business you re actually passionate about too Now most people in this syndication space are so focused on the money but there is a passion behind it They just are so logical and so practical-minded or so focused on making money they don t take time to think about it and learn how to articulate it My realization that no one else does this stuff made me realize that what my higher level benefit was was yes I was passionate about helping introverts passionate about helping service provider businesses more specifically than all businesses in general And what I realized is I had a unique competency which was twofold One was that I had the ability to help a business create rapid growth but also had the ability for a business owner to help a business owner obtain rapid growth in their mindset their focus the business that they were going to create So they actually created the business the rapid growth business that they love as opposed to the rapid growth business that pays really well but makes them suicidal So I called myself the Rapid Growth Guy because it encapsulated that 00 20 31 Matthew Pollard By the way the first time I told a friend unified message is the last thing you should tell somebody else It s like walking up to someone and saying Hey Sam I know you ve called me Matthew my whole life Now when I want you to call me Tom It just feels weird Like the first time I said to someone called me the Rapid Growth Guy it was a friend of mine that was a sales trainer And by the way you don t want to call yourself a commodity right When I called myself a sales trainer people looked at me like I was one step above a scam artist When I called myself a marketer they go oh I need that How much do you cost Now I m talking about price But when I said to a friend I called myself the Rapid Growth Guy now he looked at me and he s like Matt what are you doing I mean you sound like a male enhancement drug and not a good one right So for me it was about making sure that I shared it with new people 00 21 12 Matthew Pollard Shane the first time he called himself The Arbitrage Architect his father-in-law was like oh my gosh I think you ve hit your head right But now he s got a rapid growth business So the advice I would give you is look at the skill sets Every single person yes you do syndication or you do property that everyone has unique experiences unique past customers unique qualifications unique passions and missions that perfectly qualify them to help a demographic and that provide them unique skills in order to help them with But here s what I ll say You don t need to hire me to figure it out I actually have a five-step template that I give away You can go to matthewpollard com growth and there you can download the template and it literally walks you through the steps of creating your own unified message and discovering your own niche willing-to-buy clients 00 21 54 Matthew Pollard It s funny I did this at the National Freelance Conference and this sounds amazing until I tell you the second part At the end of the 45-minute session I said who here now has a unified message they believe will excite and inspire a prospect to want to know more So when they introduce themselves at a networking event people don t look at you like you re a scammer or say oh I need that How much do you cost But actually just intrigued to want to know more But also they ve identified a niche of people that are willing to pay themselves pay them what they re worth And like 97 of the room put their hands up And as I said sounds great until I tell you this I said people keep your hands up If this is the most time you spent actively working on your marketing since you started your business Now the keyword is actively You might have read some marketing books read them and then read the next book I mean these people that read a hundred books a year and apply none drive me crazy So the thing that I will tell you is that these people 85 of the room kept their hands up that this is the most time they ve spent actively working on their marketing since they started their business So the key thing is this template works if you spend the time doing it 00 22 57 Matthew Pollard And what I would suggest to people that are listening is team up with somebody that s not in the syndication space at all Find a hairdresser friend a florist friend a lawyer friend somebody that is not your ideal customer but also not somebody that works in your industry cause they ll get you out of your industry jargon and you won t be selling to them in the process right But focus with somebody and spend maybe get them to listen to this podcast I m sure Sam would appreciate you getting them to listen to this podcast anyway but get them to listen to this podcast and then download the template and spend an hour and a half on them and then get them to spend an hour and a half on you And you ll easily come up with a niche that makes sense because they ll hold you accountable to realizing that if you speak to far less people you become the only logical choice as opposed to having more opportunity where nobody really takes you seriously or wants to work with you So they will force you to make a decision and then you ll be able to work through what the high-level benefit of that is And the template will take you through all of that So go and download the template at matthewpollard com growth And that ll really take you through every step you need to create the message and find the niche 00 24 04 Sam Wilson Matthew thank you for taking the time to come on today This has certainly been informative and insightful have really appreciated everything you ve shared with us My last question is typically how do we get in touch with you But it sounds like you ve just showed us matthewpollard com Thank you again for coming on Is there anything else you d like to share the listeners before we sign off 00 24 22 Matthew Pollard Yeah absolutely For the introverts that are listening you don t need to buy my book either to learn how to sell or network as an introvert You know I m really conscious of trying to make sure that introverts get over that belief that they can actually sell or network So you can actually download the first chapters of my book at theintrovertsedge com You can get the sales book there in theintrovertsedge com networking And that ll get you the first chapters the sales book for instance I actually will help you overcome your belief You can sell and give you the full seven steps If you do nothing more than what you currently say into those seven steps you ll realize there s some things out of order you can fix that There s some things that don t fit That ll be all the jargon that you tell the client you should throw that out And then you ll realize that there s some gaping holes like asking great questions and telling great stories If you just do that you ll double your sales in the next 60 days So whichever you want to focus on networking or sales there s a book for you 00 25 10 Sam Wilson Fantastic Matthew thank you so much Appreciate it Have a great rest of your day 00 25 13 Matthew Pollard My pleasure cheers Click here to visit this podcast episode