Nina Hershberger: [00:00:00] I spent $9,000 on shutters and I never got anything. Not, not a thank you, not a note, not a nothing and in a mix, you know?

Yes. But let me say this. In all fairness, we’re gonna give a bye to people that are listening to this. There’s been times when I’ve done the same thing, right, and have appropriately thanked or send a gift, we all get busy. So this is not beating up on him It’s really trying to put it, you know, start keeping notes, inaudible you know, and make it simple.

I’ve got one client who is in the construction business. His business now is 21 million dollars. It is a third generation business. When he took it over 10 years ago, it was only 10 million. And I said, what was your secret, Sean? He said, I went old school. I went old school, direct mail, very targeted to my target list of what I wanted.

And I added personality and I did [00:01:00] sequence. I didn’t get caught up in all the things we can do cuz there’s a million things you could. do You get good at a few things, which is why I only got eight things in my book. You get good at those things and those things only, it will revolutionize your business. 

Narrator: Welcome to the Million Dollar Equation Podcast. A podcast about the easiest, fastest way to build a million dollar business based on the best selling book, the Million Dollar Equation If you Love Business, each episode reveals all of the core fundamental essentials for growth. Now, here’s your host, Richelle Shaw.

Richelle Shaw: Yay. So this is probably one of my favorite interviews that I’ve been waiting so long to do, but we couldn’t get on the right schedule. Absolutely one of my friends from way, way back, but we were [00:02:00] attracted to each other because we’re both implementers, because we both like to look at a project, break it down and decide, okay, let’s go do it.

And my friend Nina has been crushing it and crushing it for so many years. She is the go-to for any ideas. If I’m stuck, I call her. I go, okay, what should I do here? And she can like lay it out on a piece of paper. She’s creative. She’s just, excellent, excellent businesswoman. I want you guys all to meet my friend Nina Herschberger. 

Yay! Nina, introduce yourself to the audience. Just give us a quick two, three minutes of you know who you are and have them fall in love with you as I have. 

Nina Hershberger: Oh, well that’s sweet. You know, I’m the gal who, when I was a young kid, I begged my parents to go door to door selling rusty bobby pins.

Richelle Shaw: I love it (laughter). 

Nina Hershberger: I dunno if you ever knew that story.

Richelle Shaw: I didn’t, I’ve never heard that before. 

Nina Hershberger: Yes. Well, I used to sell Christmas cards, door to [00:03:00] door. I used to sell Avon door to door. So, you know, this kind of thing is just in my blood. But I will say, I did work in corporate America probably for about 25, 30 years. So I did have a long career there, but I’m an entrepreneur at heart and so I’ve been full-time as an entrepreneur for over 13 years now.

 I think we met probably at least 10, 12 some years ago and stuff. But I’m with you. I’m an implementer. It’s not about getting ideas and then letting them just sit. And let me tell you, one wise person told me something, years and years. I asked, I was new in the direct response marketing and I asked whether the copy that I wrote for a postcard, I think it was gonna work.

And the guy said, I don’t know. But nothing will work if you don’t do anything. So that’s my wise wisdom passed on from this really smart guy . 

Richelle Shaw: You know what? And that’s so true. Cause I’ll never forget one time, I think my audience knows Bill Glazer. If you don’t know him, please go look him up.

But I was [00:04:00] so excited I had done this 8-1/2 X 11 postcard and I wanted to get his take on it, you know, because I had gone really upsized and outrageous. I flew to this event so that I just could show him and I was like, look, look, look at my postcard and he said the exact same thing to me. “What Rochelle? I’m not looking at that. You know, did it work?”

I go, “I don’t know. I haven’t sent it out yet. I was waiting to get your approval.” And he goes, “That doesn’t matter, right? Like there’s. An idea isn’t good or bad, it’s an idea until you implement it and get the results and that’ll tell you if it was a good idea or a bad idea.”

 And truly that kind of changed my life and made me a better implementer because so many people I think wait for it to be ready and for it to be perfect and it never gets that way. Would you agree? 

Nina Hershberger: I absolutely. I had one client, cuz we do newsletters. I have a newsletter template service. That can be used by any kind of industry.

 I had one client, it took a year and a half and 30 [00:05:00] revisions for newsletter number one. Ah, and we never did another one. I mean, really, truly don’t do anything if you’re gonna take that long. In fact, I think that’s what makes you so brilliant or one of the things that makes you so brilliant. Oh, I mean, you look at your stuff and it’s just, it’s, you laugh at it.

It’s like really Richelle and yet you get it out and the only thing that matters is the cash register ringing. 

Richelle Shaw: That’s it.

Nina Hershberger: And we both understand that’s the success. Cash register ringing. 

Richelle Shaw: That’s it.

Nina Hershberger: I think another thing, the reason why what you do is so great and I model your kind of style is because everybody does think it has to be perfect.

Everybody thinks it has to be for color. Everybody thinks it has to be glossy and all sorts, and you gotta talk like businesseey, I call it and it’s like, oh, scrap that talk like a fun. Remember Dr. Wells, remember the one postcard you did that he wore, you know, a pull up thing with, you know, with the coconuts on a bra?

Richelle Shaw: [00:06:00] Yes. The bikini. The bikini, yes, yes, yes. You know what, that one, I mean, probably was his biggest response that he’s ever gotten on a postcard that we ever sent out for him, as well as with him, the very first direct mail project we sent out, so that’s why I kind of giggle with these folks that are, you know, you’re scared to post on social media, that’s free.

It’s like, what? You know, we do stuff that, like, you have to mail it out. You have to actually spend money. But his very first sales letter that we sent out for him, his phone number was wrong. So the person it worked because one of his patients called and said, Hey, I’ve been calling all these different numbers because the number was wrong.

But I finally got to it. I was like, so embarrassed. And he’s like, well, you know what, let’s just fix it. So, I did a handwritten, gosh, I almost, I used to have it on my desk, a handwritten note. So I, I wrote it on a white piece of paper. I copied it on a yellow line piece, [00:07:00] right, so that it looked like it was a yellow notepad and it was all about, I’m sorry.

 And Karen’s gonna get fired, because Karen had the number wrong. So if you got the original one, and if you got this, please call and let us know that you’ve got this note. Well, guess what happened?

Nina Hershberger: The phone just rang off the hook. 

Richelle Shaw: The patients were just calling 

Yeah, they’re like, tell Karen we’re so sorry, and tell her don’t worry about it. We got the first one. We just didn’t call because we weren’t really sure how it worked. But now we’re calling and we’d love to set up an appointment. 

So, you know, I even turned mistakes into, as you taught me right, mistakes into really good success. It’s just about getting the project out. 

Nina Hershberger: Well, you know, you say that, but some of my very most successfulness is when mistakes happen.

In fact, when I have a mistake happen and anything, I go, yes, . Because now it’s a reason why. Yeah. For instance, I worked several years at the University of Notre Dame and I did [00:08:00] several mailings and stuff for them. One we brought in 1.3 million dollars. I won’t go through the whole story, but it was because of a mistake.

I was able to even talk about it and send another peice. You know and 1.3 million is not shabby and it was only a small list. So yeah. We were good.

Richelle Shaw: Yeah. Yeah. No, you know, gosh, it’s, it’s such an important lesson. We could talk like hours about how many mistakes have we’ve made. But I think it, it always comes back to is, I don’t care that I make the mistake.

Like, you know, the Million Dollar Equation, if I had a person who was an editor, go through the book and you know, send it back to me with all of these things that I can change and I was like, but it doesn’t matter, right? It’s already out. Like there’s nothing to do. I remember on my launch day the day that it went to number one on Amazon, right?

One of my former colleagues was calling me, calling me, and I thought she was calling because she wanted to get, you know, a boatload of copies of the [00:09:00] book, Right. And she, it was like 5:30 on launch day. So I’m almost done. 

I’m just happy that it’s over and I finally call her back and she goes, oh, well I just wanted to call you to tell you to stop the launch because there’s three errors in the book that I found and you should stop selling it because how embarrassed are you gonna be.

 I’m embarrassed that you’re my friend that you called me to say Stop the launch . Yeah. That’s what I’m embarrassed about .

Nina Hershberger: I just fired a client. So you know, we do a lot of books and this one client, I was gonna be the publisher of this particular book, didn’t help her write it and we actually got it on Amazon.

 I made the cardinal mistake. I took her on as a client, as a favor to somebody and I didn’t get money in hand before I started doing anything. Biggest mistake ever. If they show up, they get charged. But anyway, I made that mistake. We did all the formatting. We did any kind of changes she wants. She [00:10:00] signed off on the book.

I got it on the Amazon and next thing I know, she had turned it over. She had showed the manuscript to her hairdresser, of all people and the hairdresser found three errors. She was so embarrassed and started sending me the most nasty text you ever saw in my life. I said, and she owed me $2,000.

I sent her a text and I said, I canceled the invoice. Don’t ever contact me again. 

Richelle Shaw: Oh my goodness.

Nina Hershberger: It’s like, if she’d only realized she could have made a story out of that, I would’ve taken her to an Amazon bestseller. I would’ve done all sorts of an incredible stuff and she missed out because of that perfection syndrome.

Whoever’s listening to this, listen to Richelle and I and listen carefully, get it out of your head. If you’re an engineer, turn it over to , the guy that was a [00:11:00] class clown, I don’t care. Whatever! Yeah. But do not get into that perfection syndrome because it’ll kill you.

Richelle Shaw: Yes, yes. And, and kill your revenue. Thats what it does.

Thank you so much for listening to My Passion Project and the Million Dollar Equation Podcast of what you’re hearing. If you like it, I love it. So click the subscribe button to get each week your new favorite episode.

you know, so it makes you just rethink and rethink and should I change and should I update it and should I just do? Just do it! Right? I mean now, tons of people on this summit have said, just do it. But I don’t think that people really get it, not just do it, not just start and take a year and a half to send out [00:12:00] the one newsletter, which is, that’s why he didn’t do it again, because all he thought about was it took me a year and a half and it was 30 revisions and this was so hard.

 It’s like, no, no, no, what was hard, was all of that BS that you did. It’s really not that hard. Just get it out. Just get it out. You know, I have a former client who, you know, when he does his, he makes hundreds of thousands of dollars off of it, but his perfection syndrome keeps him from making the money.

Like, just, it drives me nuts. I said, I don’t understand. Just send it. It doesn’t matter. I said, you know what’s even funnier is take an old one and change the date and send it out , because not everybody’s gonna read it. 

Nina Hershberger: That’s right. 

Richelle Shaw: Yeah. You know, you think you have to be so creative and so and I’m not, I’m not just telling you to always do a shortcut.

I’m saying that the one thing that Nina taught me that that is so true is she said, Richelle, it’s about consistency over time. 

Nina Hershberger: That’s right. 

Richelle Shaw: It’s not [00:13:00] about being unique, it’s not about being creative, it’s not about having the funniest jokes in it. It’s about getting it done in consistency over time. Because if you show up every single month, every other month in front of your customer, they will remember you, talk about you, refer you, period! Period! Right? But so many people get caught up in that and I love your template service, which is a under a hundred dollars and you’re silly if you’re not using it, right, because it’s like, look, she’s got all the content.

You just have to, what is it? Just do your do your intro, right? Is that all you do? 

Nina Hershberger: It’s a printed newsletter, so they have to do their own masthead. You know, that’s easy. And then put an article there. We got it full of content, but you can send it all just like that, if you want to put your, name and address, doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. 

Let me tell you another story. So right behind me, we’ve built a house, we’ve just been in here about seven months now. Right behind me are some blinds. So they’re plantation shutters.

Richelle Shaw: Yes. They’re beautiful. 

Nina Hershberger: So the guy, we did not ride from this [00:14:00] guy, but I’m looking at some mechanical mechanized or automated shades for upstairs.

And so this guy, his name is Wendell Valet, that’s the name of his business. So he came out and he knew I was into marketing cuz you know, I can’t keep my mouth shut. You know, just like he would just, we just like, we have to, we have to at least say something. 

 So he said, you know, there’s one thing, the ideal client is the person who’s just about ready to move into their house, they’re brand new house, who doesn’t wanna move in and have windows in the bedroom totally open. So they need something and they’re getting ready. That’s the ideal, but I don’t know how to crack the nut to get them. He does have a guy that goes to, I don’t know, 10 different home places that are being built and, by the time they put a mailbox out front, there’s a little newspaper box underneath it.

Richelle Shaw: Yeah. 

Nina Hershberger: And so then they slip something in there. I said, well, let me see what you’re slipping in there. So he pulls [00:15:00] out this traditional, what you would, it was actually a door hanger that they stick in, but it was pretty, and it just says, we do stuff, you know, big deal. I said, you know what? Create a newsletter and make it in Golden Rod.

I said, let me tell you a story. The other day in that newspaper box, I pull up into my house and I’m looking, and there’s this golden rod thing sitting. I get out of my car and I go and I pull it out and here’s a gal who for $25 a night will take your pet overnight. Now I saw it, I read it, I paid attention. She stood out. 

I said, I’d do it. In fact, I’ll let you see it, here’s the flyer. You can model it. So I said, but now what you gotta do, because you are a window valet. What is a valet? It’s a person who’s helping and who’s doing and stuff. I said, get a tux or get a something. You need a costume and you need a window and you need to look like and it needs to be great big on that newsletter and [00:16:00] stuff. 

Few days later, he’s got a marketing gal in the office, don’t we, they all, you know, I mean? She probably just graduated from college. I’m sorry. If you’ve got kids or you’re the one that just graduated, you know and so of course it was pretty and it was boring and it didn’t have his picture on it and I said, no, no, no.

So again, it’s really, really simple, but they gotta think out of the box. You’ve gotta think differently. 

Richelle Shaw: Yes. Stop doing, stop following people who are following people who are lost. 

Nina Hershberger: That’s right.

Richelle Shaw: Right. You know, you don’t even know if their stuff works. 

Nina Hershberger: That’s right.

Richelle Shaw: That’s why we test all the time and I just model the things that work and I had to get over this fact that I needed pretty stuff.

But don’t get me wrong, we do some pretty stuff too. Like, as a matter of fact, Nina did this for me. Yes. You know, by wonderful. Beautiful tear sheet that, you know, talks about me. It shows all of my books. It’s a beautiful, [00:17:00] beautiful piece that, but we’ve written everything in it, you know, we make sure that it talks about, Me in a certain term.

I’m not saying anything. We had it professionally written, who writes newspaper articles, magazine articles, you know, we can do pretty stuff too. However, we add in the pretty stuff with other effective stuff, with headline, with, offers, always!

Like, you know, how come there’s no offer? I see that all the time. I’m like, so you just sent this out and what do you expect to happen with it? What? Tell me!? Oh, well, they’re gonna call and they’re gonna buy. Oh, are they? Okay. Well, there’s, you know, did you tell them to call? Oh, well they can see the phone number there. I’m like, no, you have to tell them . 

Nina Hershberger: Yeah. Oh, I’ll make another offer besides just call. It’s like, Hello!

Richelle Shaw: Yeah. Call in and get the free, you know or free temporary shades, because it does take a while to put those plantation shutters up, right? [00:18:00] So what are you gonna put up in your house? You don’t wanna put newspapers in this beautiful brand new house. You don’t wanna put old curtains or, you know, what do you put the sheets up?

I mean, who could be so tacky to do that in your beautiful homes? So what if they had the paper ones right here? We’ll just put out the paper ones for free, whether you buy from us or not. That’s a great offer. Now you get in front of the person and you can pitch them. Well, what are you gonna do with your windows?

You’re not gonna put mini blinds up, right? You just invested, you know, all of this money in this gorgeous house. You’re not gonna put up mini blinds. You know, here’s your options. Now you’ve got an opening and then you can go in and sell and close them. 

Nina Hershberger: That’s a perfect, I never thought of that. That’s why I love talking to you. I’m writing it down . 

Richelle Shaw: Yeah, well tell him to send me the check. 

Nina Hershberger: Yeah. Well, these things take six to eight weeks to, you know, to get in.

Richelle Shaw: Right! Right! So you sit in your house and it’s, oh my goodness, you know, what am I gonna do? And one of the things that you can do, you wanna solve a right now problem, so that [00:19:00] you can solve the long term problem, right?

When I think about a service business, is that I automatically think of, okay, well, you know, how can I get in front of the prospect by giving them an almost. It’s kind of like, when you go and you need to have a tooth replaced and they give you the flapper. You know the flapper isn’t perfect, but it’s gonna get you so that you don’t have this hole in your mouth as you’re waiting for your implant to come.

 It’s the same idea, but it gets you in front to sell what they really want. Right. You’re not competing with everybody else because you’ve already done them a favor. Now it’s the reciprocity that kicks in. And they’re more likely to buy from you.

Nina Hershberger: Okay, let’s talk about reciprocity for a minute. I got, so again, out in the front of our house, we have these most beautiful flowers and they’re all in pots because I don’t have as much yard as I used to have. There is a local landscape place, flower place that gives free fertilizer water. All you have to do is bring your jugs and fill up.

So [00:20:00] now, what do you think? I’m thinking every week when I’m going filling those jugs, I’m looking at the flowers today. I said, you know, I want some landscaping next year, next spring, because I’m filling my water. It’s that reciprocity.

Richelle Shaw: Yep. 

Nina Hershberger: They’re giving me something for free and I’m thinking I owe them.

Richelle Shaw: I owe them and I can’t wait to buy and patronize them. Right?

Nina Hershberger: That’s right. 

Richelle Shaw: You know, when somebody says, well Lowe’s is having a sale on them. You’re not gonna go there, you’re gonna go to where you’re getting the free fertilized water. Right. Right. 

And I think that even in building the business, I think that people make silly mistakes because they get caught up in what it should be, instead of, just be who you are and give things that people need. It’s okay. You wanna make the investment in attracting the right kind of people and the right kind of person will fill that reciprocity and not just take, but I think so many [00:21:00] entrepreneurs get focused on, oh, well how much is this gonna cost me?

And I’m like, that’s not the right question. 

Nina Hershberger: Well, you know, I go back to my window valet and he said, I don’t even remember right now what it is. I said, how many leads do you get from those things in the box? And he gave me what, I said, if you increase that leads numbers by just 10%, how would that change your business?

He said, Oh my goodness, it would mammoth. I said, okay. Then, so how many leads do you close when you go in? He said, well, and he told me a number. I think 8% or whatever. I said, if you could go to 82% or 85%, he said it would literally change his business. It’s those incremental small amounts that you pay attention to, that I wrote about in how to find $10,000 in your business without spending a dime.

Cause I wasn’t asking him to spend a dime. Now I was just saying, if you did this and you tweak this and it could incrementally increase, it would make a big [00:22:00] difference. 

Richelle Shaw: Sure. Well I see that most folks when they come to me they come asking, oh, Richelle, I need to get more leads, right? Because they think that that’s their problem, which is why, you know, that’s not how you hire me.

 Number one, is I’m like, no, no, no, let’s fill out this application. Let’s go through and and figure out where you are. So one of my former clients, that’s what he came to me for, but when I actually looked, he had a pile of leads, piles. But what I saw was that he didn’t have a sales choreography, he didn’t have a system, you know, he didn’t have a system to what to do with the lead.

I said, well, how do you handle the lead? Well, we call one time, if they don’t call us back, then we don’t. Okay, well wait a minute. You know, and a lot of these, especially the ones from the internet, are bad. Well, how do you know that? Well, because when I call ’em, they’re just price shopping.

 Well all of them, you know, now. So we put in place the sales choreography. Which he didn’t have to spend any more money, but was closing 50% more [00:23:00] business making, you know, a hundred percent more money. 

Nina Hershberger: Yeah, yeah. No, it’s perfect. Perfect. 

Richelle Shaw: Like, look, you know, if you, oftentimes they just haven’t figured out what the flow is and what’s the next step. So I saw that you did a book, you did my tear sheet. You have a newsletter template. You know what? Oh, oh, show them your wonderful wallet mailer. That one, that one, that one. Tell about that one. 

Nina Hershberger: So this is, this was my original known around the world for, so it looks like a man’s paper wallet.

We address it, stamp it, tab it and inside it we put a fake piece of money. So now let me stop here a second. So, in your marketing, you need personality. You know what just happened? Is my dog barked? My grandchildren are coming in. Yeah. My little granddaughter is saying, I’m shutting the door and we’re having this recorded conversation that’s gonna go out to thousands of people.

Richelle Shaw: Yeah.

Nina Hershberger: It’s just [00:24:00] reality. So, it is, you know, never be afraid of doing that. You know, it’s realty, So anyway, so we put fake money in. This is Dr. Anzalone. He’s down in, what is it, Arkansas, I think it is. This is, this goes to people that have, not that he came into his practice, he prescribed something, they walked out and they didn’t buy.

So now he’s got a post coming in sequence and I forgot again how much he said he makes off of that. But if you didn’t do that, if you just let him go and most people do. Yep. Then you you’re leaving money on the table. 

Richelle Shaw: Joy, that’s probably one of my favorite, just to do, is do a no buy list. Okay. Show me everybody who didn’t buy from me. Okay, now let’s go after them. Let’s give ’em a better than, better offer, right? Even in my reactivation in The Million Dollar Equation, same strategy. These are people who have left. These are people, but you’ve already paid to get their attention one [00:25:00] time. So now let’s get it again, and maybe with a slightly different offer.

That way you can get them coming through. Now those are, those are fantastic. That is actually how we met. I’m pretty sure. Dr. Anzalone is actually one of my clients too. Former clients. We did a really fun joint venture together, that was just ridiculous and off the charts, but he’s one of those that super implementer, you know, you say something, he’s like us. Yep. Probably one of my favorites ever, ever.

Hey you. We are so grateful that you are part of MDE Nation. Are you enjoying this episode? Let me know what you think, especially if you have a question. I would love to answer it personally. You can go to RichelleShaw.com/podcast to get more information about each episode or to be reminded of the MDE weekly assignment.

And so much more. [00:26:00] Go to RichelleShaw.com/Podcast.

Since we’re talking about favorites. Tell me about your favorite client. You know, I’ve asked everybody on the summit, tell me about your favorite client. So how about you tell me about your favorite client ever?

Nina Hershberger: Well, I’ll tell you about who it is in a second, but what the criteria is, somebody who allows us to just get things done and doesn’t micromanage, doesn’t question and is hands off. So I have a physician who is in a particular niche, and it is a niche where they have to pay money, so it doesn’t go through insurance.

 So he pays a lot of money to get leads and you know, and so you wanna convert those leads. But once they’re converted, once they say, yes, I wanna do what it is you do. Then they get scared and there is [00:27:00] this remorse and so what we did is we put together what’s called a shock and all package and it does numbers of things.

It resells them on why they should do it. It resells their family and friends and it resells maybe their primary care physician as well. So he is the ideal. He’s the one I’ve had the most fun with, because his personality, he understands the marketing is just all around really, really good. The ones I don’t like is the one I just fired.

Richelle Shaw: Right. 

Nina Hershberger: Who is so like this? Yeah. That they simply can’t get out of their way. No, I don’t do anything, I don’t do anything. Here’s my two rules. Nothing political and nothing adult. Otherwise we have a good time with things. 

Richelle Shaw: Yeah. Yeah. Those are my two rules. I have another one, well, adult / marijuana, cannabis. That’s just not my thing. It’s really big here in Vegas, but I’m, yeah, no, you know, it’s not about the money, it’s [00:28:00] just about that that’s not my thing. So I let everybody else do that. But I, I love. have just random, random, silly products that turn into, you know, that we make them fun in the end, right?

Because nobody’s excited about having a pap smear. I don’t care what you say, nobody says ,YES! I can’t wait to go to the doctor to have a pap smear. But we made it fun and we made it exciting. You know, still 11 years later, 12 years later, he is still a client. You know, just from basic stuff just to having a good time.

So That’s awesome. Well, now tell us, what do you think that folks listening, my audience, now that they’ve seen this, they’ve seen all the stuff you do, they’ve heard about our mistakes, what do you think is the one thing they need to do to just crush the rest of the year, like to make 2019 memorable?

Now look, if you’re listening to this in 2020 or 2021, We’re probably gonna say the same thing too, then, but what do you think is the number one thing that they need to do.

Nina Hershberger: [00:29:00] The number one thing I see failure, my opinion is they fail to maintain a list, a list of prospects and a list of customers.

You talked about going back to your current customer and getting more money out of it. You talked about Dr. Wells who might not have had a listed before he met you? The doctor I was just telling you before, he did not have a list before I met him five years ago. I just looked yesterday.

The list is now 56,000 people, not all patients, but again, now he can talk to the list. Most people don’t do that. That’s why I was able to do 1.3 million at Notre Dame. They had the list, the specific list I was going after. So I think it all starts with a list and it all ends with the list. And of course then there’s a lot of things in between in the book and you can get it on Amazon.

 I’m telling you, you can get it on Amazon. It’s 20 bucks, [00:30:00] 1995. I have eight ways and I guarantee it. It says I’ll find $10,000. Sitting in any business as long as you’ve got a business. Now it’s not startup, but it’s a good place to start. I guarantee I’ll find $10,000 sitting in your business and you didn’t have to spend a dollar. Things that you’re not doing and you’re leaving money on the table.

Richelle Shaw: Always. Always. Well, you know, I mean, how many times have you met with a client that says, oh, we used to do that. 

Nina Hershberger: Yes. 

Richelle Shaw: Oh, we used to do that. Okay, well why’d you stop? Well, you know, cuz we really, it wasn’t working and it’s, and it never is one thing, you know and I believe that it is a combination of multi things that come to a crescendo and then it finally, you know, it’s like the volcano that finally explodes.

But it doesn’t happen when you do one thing cuz you get a little mini explosion, right? But when you do one thing, two things, you know, just massive implementation of a whole bunch of stuff and before you know it, here it comes and it explodes over. And it doesn’t have to cost a [00:31:00] ton of money, it just means that you’re being consistent.

Consistent properly. Thanking a customer is half the battle. You know, when you spent and made the investment in those beautiful shutters, you know, what’d he give you as a gift? How do he thank you? 

Nina Hershberger: Nothing. Not even a handwritten, I mean, I spent $9,000 on shutters and I never got anything. Not, not a thank you, not a note, not a nothing and in a mix, you know?

Yes. but, let me say this. In all fairness, we’re gonna give a bye to people that are listening to this. There’s been times when I’ve done the same thing and have appropriately thanked or send a gift or, you know, we all get busy. So this is not beating up on him, It’s, it’s really trying to put it, you know start keeping notes, *inaudible*, you know, and make it simple.

 I’ve got one client who is in the construction business. His business now is 21 million dollars. It is a third generation business. When he took it over 10 [00:32:00] years ago, it was only 10 million and I said, what was your secret, Sean? He said, I went old school. I went old school, direct mail, very targeted to my target list of what I wanted.

And I added personality and I did sequence. I didn’t get caught up in all the things we can do, cuz there’s a million things you could do. You get good at a few things, which is why I only got eight things in my book. You get good at those things and those things only, it will revolutionize your business.

Richelle Shaw: Sure. I agree. Agree and part of the, even the thank you is there’s services now that you can create the system. 

Nina Hershberger: Yes. 

Richelle Shaw: You know, just put it in there. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be handwritten. It just, it would be nice to get ’em, you know, I got a thank you postcard from on my lease on my car and I was like, well, that’s very nice.

You know, it was a [00:33:00] significant investment and it just came automated. It didn’t, you know, it wasn’t handwritten. Yes, we could fix it, but it was just, I felt like I was valuable to them. 

Nina Hershberger: Right.

Richelle Shaw: And I’ve told 15 people about it. Yep. You know, so if referrals are important and referrals, especially with a brand new home that you built from scratch, you’re gonna meet your neighbors and they’re gonna say, where’d you get the shutters?

You know? Well, those are fantastic. Did you think it was a good deal? Did you like them? Did you, you know, now you’re like You know, instead of, wow, he gave me a wonderful gift.

Nina Hershberger: Yes. 

Richelle Shaw: Yeah. You know, I talk about the gal that when I bought my first home, she gave me a washer and dryer set for my house.

Nina Hershberger: Oh, wow. 

Richelle Shaw: Exactly. So I told everybody. Right, and my first house was $125,000. She gave me a washer and dryer. She said, I just want to thank you so much. You know, I know that [00:34:00] this was a long process, which it was, but, you know, thank you, Great. It wasn’t a really nice one. It was brand new, but it was just a standard.

Nina Hershberger: Yeah. 

Richelle Shaw: So when I upgraded to my palatial estate she was out of the business. She was doing something else, and I used another realtor. She gave me a pot from Costco with the pasta in it. Yeah. You know the little glass jar with the pasta? It what a thank you note. I didn’t refer her. The other one, I bought a fourplex of triplex , you know what I mean?

And this, I mean, this was a huge, she made a tremendous commission and I went really not that she needed to buy my washer and dryer, but I thought that it could have been now they have rules that it can’t be over $50 and da, da da da da. And I just, you just made like your commission for the year, off [00:35:00] a this house.

Nina Hershberger: Mm-hmm,.

Richelle Shaw: You can make some adjustments. So I I know that if you are in a business where you want referrals, that the best thing to get is a really great thank you gift. One of the things we did was, with a client that does the backyard courts, right? Is that his thank you gift is we do a backyard party.

Oh. So that when it’s all done, they’ve got this beautiful , you know, court to invite all of their friends and we throw a party. Now , at first it used to be really elaborate and then it’s like, no, he goes to Little Caesars and gets the $5 pizzas and Anne he found a trophy place that they have a three point contest.

So the little kids sit there and shoot their three point contest, but they invite all of their friends. Now they’re talking about him, they’re talking about the courts, they’re talking about, and that’s where people who buy these courts, they live around people who want them to. So we’ve used the thank you gifts, the thank you parties to really generate [00:36:00] lots and lots of more business and more money for him.

Which worked really, really well. But you know, there’s so many things that just by taking care of the customer that you have and is included in your book, that they can transform their business and really just change the world, right? Change their world, at least, you know, change their world from struggling to, oh, okay, now I can take a breather because

Nina Hershberger: That’s right.

Richelle Shaw: Those leads come in automatic. They really do. Well, gosh. I talked a lot and I’m supposed to interviewing you.

Nina Hershberger: I always learn.

Richelle Shaw: That’s crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. All right, so any final things for our wonderful audience? Listening to you of course below, we’ll have all kind of links where you can get the newsletter service if you wanna do a monthly new newsletter, which, if you’ve read the Million Dollar Equation, it’s one of the core things that I talk about.

There’ll be a link to her book. There will [00:37:00] be all things, if you wanna chat with Nina and see if you can hire her, that’ll be underneath too. But she’s gonna put you through a couple of things before you get to just go directly. But, you know, anything else you wanna talk to them about before you go?

Nina Hershberger: Well, I’m just saying congratulations for being smart enough to be on Richelle’s Summit, online summit, because there’s nobody better. And she attracts, The best of the best, and I know lots and lots and lots of ones that you’ve already been interviewing and so congratulations to you and congratulations to the people that were smart enough to listen in.

Richelle Shaw: Oh, you’re so awesome. I am forever grateful and I thank you. Thank you. Thank you my friend. Have a good one.

Nina Hershberger: Thank you.