And I was really dreading looking for what we now needed… and additional $250,000.
Around this time, someone, whom I’ll call Phil, telephoned me. Phil was a good friend of one of my investors. I met Phil a year earlier, where he decided not to invest. But as a favor to my investor, he now agreed to meet me for lunch.
I knew Phil was not interested but only doing his friend a favor. Even so, I knew he would be very helpful with his advice on what I should do.
Phil was a multi-billionaire who managed his own private investment fund where he and a group of investors made a lot of money investing in small start-ups like ours.
At lunch he had many questions for me. What were my projections? What were my clients’ demographics? What were my contingency plans? What was my valuation of the company’s stock? And so on.
I was honest with him. I told him with certainty when I knew it and with uncertainty when I didn’t.
At the end of lunch and his many, many questions, Phil asked how much I was looking to raise. $250,000.
Evidently Phil liked what he heard.
I nearly choked on my desert when he said, “Why don’t you come by my office after lunch and I’ll write you a check,” which ended up being for the entire amount!
And that is when I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my life, the power of energy vs. action.
Energy—when you get someone excited about what you are doing. They are moved, inspired and truly impressed with what you are creating and doing.
Sounds straight forward, yet not easy to implement authentically.
It is important to note you must not use “energy” for the purpose of getting something from it. People will read right through that and you’ll lose credibility.
In my case with Phil, I was telling him about all the progress we had made with our company since we had last met. He heard and saw my excitement and passion.
Action
Asking someone to do something. When and only when the other person is “energized” from your conversation is it appropriate to move to action.
Otherwise it comes across as pressure.
It is like watching a nervous man walking up to a gorgeous woman who clearly doesn’t know him. The man asks her, “So, would you like to go on a date with me?” In kind of a shock she said, “Thank you, but no.”
The man went right into Action without any time being spent on Energy.
And when you think about it, in any type of “selling” we do, often we go right into Action mode before the other person has received any Energy from us.
Here’s the secret:the way to make sales come to you is to focus on Energy. Just be honest with your leads. Forget you want to sell them something (the Action). Just authentically be with them in that moment. Once they are energize, then take them to the action step (make a request for them to do something.)
And you will know when they are “energized” when you are energized.
And just like Phil, those energized by what you are doing will most likely take you to the action step: they’ll ask you about your product or service you are offering.
Action Step For the Week
Practice Energy vs. Action all week. Start with easy things. Want to go with a friend to a movie? Want to ask someone out on a date? Want to have someone buy your product or service?
Focus on the energy step. For example, if want to go to a movie with a friend, talk about the cool things you’ve heard about the movie, how you are looking forward to being with your friend and catching up, etc. Just be with the other person and be authentic.
Once they are energized by your conversation and being authentic with them, then go to the action step: ask them if they’d like to go with you.
Most likely, if you do this well, your friend will ask you if you’d like to go to the movie!
Have fun with this!