I quit four times in my first year, and I blamed myself every time

I think I quit four times in my first year. Every time, it was because I'd convinced myself I couldn't do this. Building a practice is hard, really hard, and when my 90 Minute Meetings™ weren't turning into Focus Days, there was only one person I could see to blame. Me.

I wasn't short on effort. I had a rule: five meaningful conversations every day before I was allowed to do anything else. Anything. It could be with a connector or with another EOS® Implementer, but EOS® had to be woven into the conversation somewhere for it to count. I didn't dig any deeper than that. If we talked about EOS®, that was enough.

And it never stopped at five. The hard part was the first phone call. Once I got through that, the rest came, and five became ten, then fifteen, and then I was meeting somebody for lunch. There was a lot of activity.

We talk about four, two, one in this work, and for me it was a numbers game. So when the numbers didn't come through, I took it personally.

Hindsight being 20/20, blaming myself wasn't accurate. The problem was more specific than that, and I don't think I knew it at the time. It was all subconscious.

I walked into every 90 Minute Meeting™ wanting to get through it. I had to get them all the information. And the part I went fastest through was step two, the about you section, which is the one part of the meeting that's about them. I had to get my stuff out. It was all about that.

I can't point to the exact moment I saw it. What I know is that I had 90s that didn't close, and I replayed every one of them. What could I have done differently? Where could I have gone deeper? I brought it up on the Monday business development calls. I refused to give up until I figured out why these weren't converting. Sometimes the answer was simply that they weren't target market. But not every time.

The turning point came when I started diving deep in step two. Really finding out what they want out of the business. What difference it would make if all this stuff was in the rear view mirror, and whether they even want it there. What happens to the business if this isn't a good fit and we don't do anything. I go further on the question we all ask about what's missing from the business, because I want to figure out whether I can help them.

As EOS® Implementers, we know every pain point fits into the Six Key Components™. The work is finding out what this team specifically wants and tying it back to that.

I still get through all the information, and I still deliver it purely. But there are areas I don't have to go as deep on, or don't need a story for, because they already came out in step two. That's when the majority of my 90s started converting. Not all of them, but a lot. I made the 90 about them.

The other shift was one word. I stopped thinking about the 90 Minute Meeting™ closing. What I want now is to give the warm lead in front of me clarity on whether EOS®, and my help, will get them everything they want out of the business.

I say it at the start, in so many words: my goal is that you get clarity on whether this is a right fit for you, and whether I'm a right fit for you. That puts me in a mindset, and it puts them in one too. He's not trying to sell me something. He wants me to be clear.

Then at the end I can ask, "Do you have clarity?" If it's not for them, great. If they don't know, shame on me, because I didn't do my job. So I ask what part they aren't clear about.

Needy's creepy, we all know that. And even if you want the client and it's not a good fit, getting them into the system doesn't help anyone. You're not keeping them anyway.

I'm coming up on nine years in February. I teach boot camp now, and I keep hearing from Implementers six or nine months out who are doing the Monday calls and everything else we suggest, and still don't have the clients they want. When I hear that, I think about step two.

I still never say close. All I'm doing is giving clarity.