Renee Hribar [00:00:00]:

Let's talk about the biggest mistakes I see smart women making when they finally get someone interested. They have the call booked. They're on the call, they have this warm lead right in front of them, and then the whole call turns into a TED Talk, or let's call it a free consulting buffet, or a weird, like, half coaching, half teaching, half let me prove to you how smart I am and that you must hire me to type of performance. It can get super awkward, super quick. And then by the end, everyone's tired. Everyone hates discovery calls. After that, they're like, I never want to do that again. Nobody ends up knowing what the next step is.

Renee Hribar [00:00:45]:

And the expert is sitting there like, but I gave them so much value. Yeah, I know. That's the problem. So today, I want to show you how to run a call that actually does what it's supposed to do. It helps the right client see the opportunity. It gives them a real win, and it sets you up to offer a clean, clear, paid offer without feeling awkward, pushy, or mushy. It's about showing someone a map, letting them see the mountain, and then saying very calmly, you want to hike it yourself? Or do you want a Sherpa? You're the Sherpa. Let's get into it now.

Renee Hribar [00:01:32]:

Before we get into this week's episode, this is my podcast. Welcome. I call it the Selling youg Expertise podcast. My name is Renee Rebar. I know the age is silent, and whether you heard my TEDx talk or whether you read my book, which is also the name of my book, I don't get very creative with those things. Pretty simple. But I'm a sales coach, and I have shared these strategies, this content in a thousand different ways to thousands of different people over my career. And I've helped them make millions of dollars.

Renee Hribar [00:02:05]:

And that is my absolute joy. And I want the same thing for you, but for you to continue this conversation with me. After the podcast, you're going to want to go to askmecoach.com and you're going to find out you're in the right place. So let's go. Okay. Depending on when you started your business, you most likely have hit yourself over the head with this phrase, give value, give value. What's changed is a lot of experts are still selling like, it's 2019. They're saying, book a discovery call.

Renee Hribar [00:02:41]:

Or, you know, they're throwing a random link out there, and they're like, oh, please, book a call. And I see it on LinkedIn all the time. Book a call is lit Up. It's an extra feature they're hoping strangers will self identify, show up fully ready, and buy into a bigger project after only a vague conversation. And meanwhile, buyers are tired, they are busy, they are skeptical, and more importantly, we're all distracted. And they do not know what to do. Just because they said they want a website or just because they said they want an OBM or a fractional marketing team, they do not understand what is about to happen. And what they're trying to avoid is a big pitch ambush.

Renee Hribar [00:03:31]:

Now, this does not mean calls are dead. It means the call. And typically their entire sales process needs a makeover. And this is why I love specific call outcome focused strategy sessions as the first paid experience with any client. Not a vague discovery call that ends up lasting two hours and still has you trying to figure out what you should give them and trying to get everything they want, only to realize that they were saying different things than you imagined. So I really want to emphasize this. Yes, get on an initial free call, but don't feel like that initial free call has to be you giving away your strategies or you giving away your everything in your brain. It's not like, hey, let's just, you know, chat and you can tell me everything you need.

Renee Hribar [00:04:25]:

That's not what we're doing. You are not an order taker. So I tell my clients to imagine that they are a medical doctor and a patient comes in with symptoms. It's the doctor's job to ask questions, do tests, not rush into a transplant surgery with oh, oh, oh, I know that one. We know you know how. That's why we're here in the first place. Instead of approaching fresh leads with a first crush energy, I want you to approach the call with skepticism. If someone books a call on your calendar, I want you to be skeptical that they understand what you do.

Renee Hribar [00:05:02]:

I want you to be skeptical that they actually understand what they even need. And I want you to be skeptical that they understand how to communicate anything. Not because they're dumb, it's just because they are customers. When I'm a customer, I do not know those things, otherwise I would have just done it myself. So instead of approaching it with I hope they like me, I need to show how smart I am. I want you to be skeptical. Think. Does the client really know what they're asking for? Doubtful.

Renee Hribar [00:05:35]:

Do they actually understand how or what they're saying fits into this overarching bigger strategy of the business growth that they're looking to accomplish in the next few months? Not like you do. This is Why I love selling a strategy session first. A strategy session is a clear, focused bridge from where they are to where you know they want to go. It's a clear container, typically an hour. It's a clear, deliverable. You'll have the plan by the end of the session. It's a clear next step. They want, you know, to get a project done.

Renee Hribar [00:06:12]:

They want something accomplished in their business. They will get homework to think about, research, even evaluate the plan that you create together so that they understand all the pieces that they don't even know are a part of this project. But you do. And when you do this right, the client walks away thinking, oh, I get what needs to happen now. And, oh, wow, I hadn't thought of that. Or, oh, this is much bigger than I realized. Or, oh, she could absolutely help me with this. And that's the point.

Renee Hribar [00:06:48]:

Not to convince them, but to clarify everything. So when you think about when someone first meets you and they book a discovery call or they book any initial free call, I say you can do that call in 10 or 20 minutes because you're not trying to scope out the whole project on the discovery call. What? Renee, how am I going to make a proposal? I want you to sell the strategy session separately. Wait, but I usually include that in my project. I know. Sit down. I know you're still gonna do strategic planning inside the project. It's impossible not to.

Renee Hribar [00:07:26]:

But I want you to sell the strategy first and separately because it is just like dating. And the initial free call is like a day date, right? Like, let's meet for coffee in a busy cafe in case you're a psycho murderer. Right? And then a paid strategy session is like a form, nice dinner out on a weekend, still public, not at their house yet, because we don't know what they're collecting in their closet and what they think is a good time, we might not also agree. I want you to show me. Because that is one of the biggest problems that I see amazing experts have, is the customer comes to them or the potential client, and they're saying, I want this and I want that. I want this. And in the expert's mind, they have a clear picture of what this, that, and this are. But when you ask further questions, specifically the show me question to the potential client, and you actually see what they mean, you realize we have different visions in our head of what that means.

Renee Hribar [00:08:30]:

It's just like when you ask your kids, so you cleaned your room, right? And they're like, yeah, I did. And you're like, great, show me uh oh, I bet you their version of their room being clean is different than the one you had in your head. And so this is exactly like that. Your client is the excited, awesome kid. Your kid's smart, they're awesome. They're not trying to mess with you. But their idea of done is different than your idea. Just like all those things your client listed in their pre call questionnaire and all the things they told you on the discovery call.

Renee Hribar [00:09:06]:

Hey, yeah, I get it. I understand. Show me. The strategy session is the show me part. Or if you're dating, it's the credit report you're going to run. Oh, wait, you don't do that. Okay, you should start doing that. Or the other things.

Renee Hribar [00:09:20]:

Maybe a background check. Hey, listen, bottom line is this. We want to get into the right relationship with the right people under the right conditions. Selling strategies separately is how you do it. But I'm not here to just convince you. I want to show you. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through what a strategy session actually is. What it isn't.

Renee Hribar [00:09:39]:

The five part structure that makes it work. How to keep it valuable without doing any part of the project on the call. And how to turn that session into a natural high ticket project offer. And I'm not going to just share a few, you know, boring theories and strategies here. I'm going to share this with stories because, you know, I love my stories and I have a lot of amazing humans that I get the chance to work with because at least for me, when I hear a theory with a real life scenario around it, it clicks way faster. So I hope you're on the same page. Let's start this baby off. First things first, what a strategy session actually is.

Renee Hribar [00:10:21]:

In my book, a strategy session is a small, specific paid step. It's highly structured. It's a front end session that helps a client move from one part of the problem to where they can see the goal, the path, the finished process project. It's not the whole solution. It's not your full methodology. It's not let me build your house in 45 minutes for the price of a welcome mat. It's the first paid. Yes, it's like I said, the day date before you even think about getting on one knee with a ring.

Renee Hribar [00:10:56]:

You know what I'm saying? The proposal. It's the front door before the full renovation. It's the appetizer before the entree. Oh my goodness. How many times have I been fooled by. Remember back in the day when I don't know they probably still exist. Applebee's. I haven't been to Applebee's in like a hundred years, but I used to always think, I used to see those ads before there was Netflix, before there was all this streaming.

Renee Hribar [00:11:18]:

When you saw actual ads like, oh, Applebee's. Look at those appetizers. They look so good. You'd go there. Always disappointment. The company was good, the food disappointing. Sorry, Applebee's. But the reality is that this paid strategy session is your chance to get a taste test of the potential client.

Renee Hribar [00:11:38]:

Again, you're approaching this with skepticism, not I hope you pick me. We're not doing that. The job of this session is to do three things. First, it's to make the problem and the path to the solution visible. Second, to give the client a useful map. Third is to surface how they think. Are they looking for strategy? And then they or their team will take over. Are they looking for you to become a fractional advisor or part of the team? I mean, there's a thousand variables in any word that we use in business, so we want to know for sure.

Renee Hribar [00:12:16]:

Remember? Show me. So if you keep trying to make the strategy session do everything, you're going to break the whole thing. So let's dive into this. The biggest mistake experts make on these calls is right here. They realize they have been trying to make this strategy session, quote, unquote, worth it by giving more and more. They have been beat over the head with give value or you are a sleazeball. Right. It's not true.

Renee Hribar [00:12:49]:

And there's a tipping point where you filled their cup and all that's happening now is you're making them drink from a fire hose. The biggest mistake is thinking I have to show them everything I know so they understand how valuable I am. No, please stop. This is employee brain dressed up as an entrepreneur. That's still let me earn my gold stars. Owner behavior sounds more like this. I know what matters most on this call. I know what to leave out.

Renee Hribar [00:13:22]:

I know how to guide this person to the next best step. You do not need to teach the entire contents of your brain in one sitting. I've tried, Believe me. I am the pot colony Heddleblack on this. How do you think I learned all this by putting my hand on a hot stove? 1800 too many times. So this is not a lesson I learned once or twice or thrice. This is a lesson I learned too many freaking thousands of times. And that is the benefit of hearing this advice from me.

Renee Hribar [00:13:51]:

Because I am not just some coach who read a Freaking book and got a certification. And now I'm telling you, I'm telling you all those things because I've done all those things and I have my 100,000 hours of field experience. And so what I mean is, when I. When you have a client that is in front of you, approach it with skepticism. I'm just going to keep saying that over and over until you absorb that into your being. Okay, let me tell you a story. So I had a client, brilliant as I believe all my clients are. I don't work with people that are knobs.

Renee Hribar [00:14:23]:

So I had a client. Of course she's brilliant, sharp, strategic. Like, I look up to my clients. I admire them, they're wildly capable. But every sales conversation she had was turning into a mini masterclass. And this is a woman who was like, I don't do speaking engagements. I don't need to be out there. I don't put myself out there publicly.

Renee Hribar [00:14:43]:

And she's right. She didn't even need to because she's so good. Except for at the sales process, which is why we were hanging out. Her prospects would leave, saying things like, oh, that was so helpful, and, wow, you gave me a lot to think about, or that was amazing. And then nothing. Zero. Zilch. Crickets.

Renee Hribar [00:15:05]:

The equivalent of checking the answering machine 10 times to you have zero messages. Why? Because she was explaining every gear, every lever, every back end piece. So the prospect got overwhelmed, not empowered, once she shifted. Here's the gap, and here's the sequence to get from here to where you want to be. And here's the first piece to implement. Hey, here you try. Here's some homework. And then she started to get into this recommendation mindset.

Renee Hribar [00:15:40]:

People started buying. So let's break down the structure of the strategy session into five pieces. All right, so here's the framework. The first piece is you want to open with authority and set the container right. So you've had the discovery call. They said yes to strategy. This is maybe your first time delivering it. And you're wondering, what do I do on this call? Because you used to do this call inside of the existing project.

Renee Hribar [00:16:07]:

You're still going to have strategy inside your project, but this comes first. So you're not going to shuffle in apologetically. Don't start with, so I was just thinking maybe we could kind of. No, stop that. You open like the expert guide that you are, and you say what this session is, what you're doing, what they'll leave with, and what happens after. For example, today I set aside 45 minutes for us to map out your client re engagement system. We're gonna look at the first capture point, the follow up sequence and the off season fill strategy by the end you'll leave with a roadmap and a few action steps to move this forward before our check in call. And yes, there is a follow up call.

Renee Hribar [00:16:53]:

I do strategy sessions in two parts. I do the session and then I book the check in call or success call or whatever you want to call it in a couple days time. I don't, it doesn't even need a week. It could be two days, three days. I book it right away and I never leave it just floating out there till the end either. I don't just, I start by booking it because the end something happens and calendars fill up and it just gets taken down the river. Remember, you're all up against the law of depreciating intent. There is never ever a time that's going to be better than now.

Renee Hribar [00:17:28]:

Have two speeds, have now and never. Obviously I want you to do it, so do now. All right, next, show the roadmap before you go into details because people need orientation. Show them a visual, show them a mapped out flowchart, show them where today's work fits into the bigger picture and when they can see it like oh this is step one of a larger ecosystem, they can relax. They don't have to feel like oh, I have to remember everything you're going to tell me right now. And so I'm thinking of another client who served a very niche market and was had a really particular practical offer. But her buyers were not especially techie. She was good people.

Renee Hribar [00:18:16]:

These her clients are established business owners but not living in the weeds and systems and automations and geeking out with tech like we might right in the marketing space. So every time she jumped into like technical tools and how things worked, they glazed right over. For those of you who may know, I live about 10ft away from my in laws and my father in law is like 80 and he's been a welder his whole life and I love him to death, he is so sweet. But if you ask him for help with anything, anything, he's going to tell you how the metal was made, what type of metal it is and we could be talking about hey can you help me just adjust the lock on my screen door? It's not lining up with our door jam. He's this metal is aluminum and it was produced in this. I mean his base of knowledge is freaking amazing. Does it help me actually get the thing Done that I want, which is my screen door to close. Only if I'm willing to sit through a thesis, a dissertation of metals and trajectories.

Renee Hribar [00:19:15]:

I love them. Again, very kind, but still, it's like, okay, just. Can we just get this done now? So with her, when she started with, like, here's the three step path. Today we're focusing on step one. This step feeds the rest. When that was how she started to talk to her potential clients. In this case, the first paid strategy session. Instead of every single teeny tiny techy piece, their whole posture started to change.

Renee Hribar [00:19:43]:

And she noticed it. And, you know, she's not like a body posture expert, body language expert, but it was something that she reported back to me right away. So why is this different? Why? What was changing in her potential customers? What was changing during this strategy session that she used to hold in the middle of the project and now, or as a part of the project and before, during. Because projects can get pretty wild and crazy because she wasn't doing this outside of the project. There were so many things that made it better. So why did their posture change? Because their brain likes a map. You're not just teaching content, you're reducing cognitive load. You're not just teaching them, like, here is step one.

Renee Hribar [00:20:28]:

You're helping them understand what they're about to do with you and how it fits into their bigger goals. And this alone increases the trust. All right, so next you are gonna teach them enough to create momentum. You're not holding back, you're not withholding. This is a very important sweet spot, right? It's not too vague. It's not too deep. It's not. Just trust me, babe.

Renee Hribar [00:20:54]:

It's not. Also, it's very much not. Let me download my entire brain in hopes that you see what I do and why I'm so valuable. Right? You want to explain the strategy in a way that makes the client say, oh, I hadn't thought of that. And that makes perfect sense. And I can see how that all locks in together. And, oh, I understand the sequence now. Boom.

Renee Hribar [00:21:18]:

That's the win. Their understanding, their clarity of what they were asking for in the first place on the discovery call and exactly how it will fit into the project and where that supports their bigger, ultimate goals. You are not trying to complete or even outline every single teeny tiny implementation task on this call. So instead of saying, you'll need a landing page, an email platform, a QR code system, domain setup, tags, automations, deliverability, prep, audience segmentation, and messaging architecture, instead of that Say step one is capturing the information directly so you own the relationship from the first touch. Then we automate the welcome and follow up. And then we build a sequence that brings people back and prompts referrals. See the difference, same plan, less chaos. So next, make it interactive.

Renee Hribar [00:22:14]:

This is huge. A strategy session is not you monologuing over a screen while somebody nods politely. They should be thinking and choosing and reacting and deciding. They're participating. And participation creates buy in. I had a client who was so caught up in her own need to show how smart she is, she assumed her prospects needed more information. And actually what they needed was more involvement. And once she stopped over presenting and started co building pieces of the project during the strategy session, live, choosing angles, selecting priorities, her prospects felt ownership.

Renee Hribar [00:22:58]:

Then at the follow up call, when she made the offer to implement the rest to do the project, they already felt the difference between I get the concept and oh wow, actually doing this is a whole other thing. And the gap is where the main project gets closed. All right, lastly, what you're doing on the strategy session, send them away with homework that reveals the next real step. And again, a lot of my clients are saying, well, I do strategy once they buy the project and while we're in the project, that's when I just do everything for them. They don't want to know how the sausage is made. Renee, I get that. And that's why we have to choose our homework intelligently. So this part matters so much, right? Do not end up with great session and then a vague good luck blessing.

Renee Hribar [00:23:52]:

Right? Give them a short list of specific actions, not a list of 14 things. Not redo your whole business, not none of those things. A few concrete tasks. Because what we're trying to do is help them understand how valuable you actually are. Right? We want to give them enough rope to run with it, hang themselves, and most of them are going to realize this is too much rope. I don't even like rope. Rope gives me hives. That's what we really want because we are ready to do the project for them.

Renee Hribar [00:24:23]:

But we want them to understand the value of every piece we're about to present on the check in call so that they go, oh yeah, I see why that's ten grand. A hundred percent. Here it is. Can I pay up front? Not what I thought it would be. $5. We're not playing that anymore. So a few concrete tasks, because the homework does these two things, it creates momentum toward the project and it shows them whether they can implement any parts of this themselves. And that is so very important.

Renee Hribar [00:24:56]:

Because if they have ever tried to implement any of it, they often undervalue if they haven't tried to do anything, even making the decisions, because again, you cannot put a price on micro decisions. Decision fatigue is real. So if they haven't even tried, the homework could be think about something, the homework could be do this, could be find this, research that. But if they haven't even tried, then they often will undervalue your project offer. But once they've tried to set up a page or write an email or think of something or find assets or name assets or get the tech connected or any of it, now they understand. And now when you say I can do this with you or for you, that lands differently. All right, so that was the entire structure of the strategy session. You can listen back to this as many times as you want.

Renee Hribar [00:25:54]:

This is 100% something that I work on over and over again with my clients. Learning what to do that I've just shared with you is a great start. And some of you might be able to take this and run with it, just like we would have with our own clients. But many of you are going to need practice, which is why I'm gonna tell you Again, go to askmecoach.com and check out all the ways that you can get further support beyond this podcast. All right, now onto what to include in the session Deliverable. Because I work with service providers, they like deliverables, they give deliverables. And your strategy session should leave them with a working document or roadmap as the deliverable. So the deliverable can include the sequence you mapped, prompts, examples, tech or setup, checklist, their homework of course, and a check in date.

Renee Hribar [00:26:43]:

And this is where people get scared and think, oh, but if I give them all that, why would they hire me? Because information, like I was just saying, is not the same as implementation. Let me say that again for the people in the back clutching their Google Docs. Information is not implementation. I've had clients that buy all kinds of courses. I've gotten all kinds of certifications. They, you know this one, she was very impressive. She had a whole airtable of all of the courses and what they were categorized as and how they would help her and links to it. And guess what? How many times did she log in? Never.

Renee Hribar [00:27:22]:

It was just like having a library full of books that you never read. So a map is not a completed trip. A map is not a project done. A recipe is not dinner. A floor plan is not a furnished, beautiful home. It's Right. Like your client is not only paying for ideas, they are paying for decisions, making support. Because you've been there and back, right? You're the Sherpa.

Renee Hribar [00:27:51]:

You've been to the mountain and back again. You know the way, you know what to avoid, and you know how to get there the most efficiently. They're paying for sequencing and skill which you have, shortcuts which you know and follow through. A lot of people that you are going to do projects for have been thinking about that project for a long time. So here's a small but mighty piece I need to share with you right now. Mini Assets Digital assets. When I first came online, I was working with a coach who was like, you have so many digital assets. Because I had run other companies before, I had a sales agency for years.

Renee Hribar [00:28:31]:

So yes, I had a lot of digital assets, but I wasn't leveraging them. So one of the smartest things you can do is start building tiny support assets as you go as you deliver both with strategy sessions and your projects. Little videos, little screen shares, little explainers, little templates. Why? Because when your strategy session doesn't get eaten alive by tech tutorials, you don't have to stop every five seconds and explain what a QR code is or where to host something or how to connect a domain or where to find a setting. You can say, I've got a short walkthrough for that in your doc today. I want us focused on the strategy and then you can use that walkthrough when you implement. Beautiful, right? Also, those assets become part of your own library that you get to share ongoing. Which means over time, you stop reinventing the wheel for every client.

Renee Hribar [00:29:26]:

And that is how your business gets lighter, cleaner, scalable. Which is exactly what's possible. Let me share with you another story. We're going to call this one Lucy. In high school, I had my arch nemesis. Her name was Lucy. I literally scratched her face out of the yearbook. I have no pride.

Renee Hribar [00:29:45]:

Okay, so sure, she's a lovely person today. One of those. One of those memes are like how we used to unfriend someone. All right, so in this case, we'll call her Lucy. That's not her real name. She has a marketing agency of one and one semi, pseudo, sort of part time contractor, also known as her brother. She was talented, very excited about her high client engagement. She was out there, she was getting things done.

Renee Hribar [00:30:12]:

She was connecting with people. But every single client engagement started at zero. New documents, new explanations, new examples, new everything. Just saying that out loud Exhausts me. And she was also exhausted. Not because her work was wrong, but because her delivery. Her delivery, because her delivery had no reusable structure. If you've been.

Renee Hribar [00:30:43]:

So the thing, if you go digging in your Gmail looking for the last email you sent to a similar person about a similar scenario, and then you grab it and you rewrite it inside Gmail, I'm talking to you. Yes, I'm talking to you. Stop it. My three favorite words about creating a sustainable, high ticket, high profit business is document review, refine. So in this case, she had nothing documented. Once she started a project, she was literally starting everything from scratch. Once we started creating a repeatable library of prompts, examples, mini walkthroughs, common frameworks, not only did her delivery get stronger, but her confidence. Her confidence, because when she brought on a new client, she in her head was like, ugh, this again.

Renee Hribar [00:31:35]:

I gotta start from scratch. I gotta go to zero. And all that junk in her head was like, do I even really want a new client, for gosh sakes? And that's again, part of the process of digging up, excavating, evaluating, and refining a sales process is if you're feeling like you don't have the right clients, or you're resenting your clients, or you're not even sure if you can handle more clients. Those are all symptoms. Those aren't real problems. Those are easy to fix. But it starts with making sure that the little pieces are in check. Because repetition creates authority, not fake authority.

Renee Hribar [00:32:10]:

Felt authority. You stop sounding like somebody who hopes this is gonna work. And you sound like somebody who knows where the door is and has walked people through it many times before. Because that is what you do. Also, that helps us evaluate how many different types of projects you're doing. And if you're doing all kinds of different projects all the time, then there's gotta be a better way. That's where we start to structure patterns and systems and process for delivery and not let the client lead the way. I had a client who had six phases of development.

Renee Hribar [00:32:44]:

She hadn't documented them. They were just in her head. I helped her pull them out. And then I asked her which phase comes first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. She said, depends. I'm like, on what? She's like, what the client wants. I'm like, wrong answer. You're in charge.

Renee Hribar [00:32:56]:

The client doesn't get to decide. They don't even know what they're doing. They wouldn't need you if they knew. And so you can take them through the same steps, but well, some people have this and some people have that. I go, great, well, that gets handled earlier on. And then once they start the project, everybody goes on the same train tracks. And that allows her to create structured systems automations. Yay for client onboarding, client delivery, reminders, all the pieces.

Renee Hribar [00:33:22]:

Because if you're listening to this, chances are your clients have to do some kind of work or give you some kind of decision or information or access for you to do the project. And we've all had clients that dragged their ever loving feet with giving us those decisions, those access points, those pieces of the puzzle that we needed to do our job right. And so that this, all of it gets ironed out and that's how we get sustainable businesses that, yes, can generate, with just us, a quarter of a mil, half a mil a year. Especially with all the technology that we have access to our. Right. By now I think you're starting to see the forest of the trees. Right? So here's the real job of the session. The real job of this strategy session is not to make the client say, wow, you know so much, no, that's nice, but that's not the metric.

Renee Hribar [00:34:20]:

So the real job is to make them say, I hadn't thought of that, huh, that's a good idea, or, oh, I see what's missing, or, ha, I see the past, and yeah, I'm definitely gonna need more help with this than I thought. That is success. They are opening their eyes to the fact that you know how to get them where they wanna go. And you're opening their eyes to an opportunity inside of their existing business. You are showing them revenue and retention and client conversion potential they weren't fully seeing before. Because no matter what you actually are doing, all of it's tied back to those exact things, right? Think about it. This is valuable, extremely valuable. And you do not need a giant case study vault to do this.

Renee Hribar [00:35:08]:

So now let's talk about the most important part, honestly, is the handoff. Because this is where people get weird. They do a beautiful strategy session. The client's engaged, they see the path, they're nodding, great energy. And then the expert says, let me know if you ever want help. No, stop it. This is a natural next step process. So I do strategy sessions in two parts.

Renee Hribar [00:35:35]:

And part two is what I call the success call. And again, you can book it in a couple days time, in a week. It really depends on your schedule, not as much theirs. And on that call, on that second part two of the strategy session, you get to evaluate what did they do for their homework. Where did they get stuck? What felt easy, what felt heavy, and what is the highest leverage next move. Then you make your recommendation. And that's what experts do who are making a quarter of a mil or more a year solo is you do not sit there like a decorative fern waiting for them to read your mind or figure out their next step. We don't ask them what you want.

Renee Hribar [00:36:22]:

What Henry Ford said it right. If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. So you can say based on what we mapped out and what I've. What happened when you started implementing the next best step is this. And in this project, we'd get to X, we'd finalize Y, we'll launch Z. And you're not piecing this together on your own. That's not pushy. That's leading the path like the expert CEO you are.

Renee Hribar [00:36:53]:

And here's the deeper truth. Some people will want to DIY it and then you can use those mini digital assets as a little course and charge them for it, or someone will want to do it with you and they'll just pay you for your strategy and your advice. I know this is hard to hear service providers, but it's true. They might even pay you more even if their team doesn't. I remember the first time I walked one of my clients, she was an expert at ads and she worked with this one big franchise and they were paying her $40,000 for four months. So like 10 grand a month just to advise their team in house team for their ads. She couldn't believe it. She doesn't make that.

Renee Hribar [00:37:37]:

She's like, I don't make that when I do the ads. And I stress all day long. I'm like, this is your future. And it was so. So there will others, of course be that do want you to do it for them, which is what we're used to. But the session is designed to sort that out. So when expert service providers start implementing my sales processes and we work on it and we practice and we take this part out and we put this part in and we document, review, refine, what happens is their business gets to grow without adding more time to their already busy day. So at the end of the day, these strategy sessions are not to teach so much that the session becomes a big mush pile of information.

Renee Hribar [00:38:20]:

And they're not. It's not to try to solve every problem that they're ever gonna have. No. And it's definitely not helpful to skip the roadmap or to gloss over Implementation gaps. What I want you to do is I want you to think about who this person is and I want you to avoid the feeling of I don't wanna be salesy because that line has cost so many people so much money and it's a line that's in your head. It's just on repeat. I don't want to be salesy. You're not being salesy.

Renee Hribar [00:38:49]:

You are leading with confidence and kindness and you're being direct. Making a clear recommendation after a strategy session is not salesy. It is responsible. So here's your challenge this week I want you to create a strategy session visual. This is going to be great because this is something you can use in so many places. List out all the steps that a typical project has. So may have to look back at your project boards or your contracts and create an infographic where you I use napkin AI still. Again, AI is always changing.

Renee Hribar [00:39:23]:

I've even used NotebookLM where I just input the information into a notebook LM and it creates a little short explanation infographic, even slide deck. Again, AI is getting smarter every day. Use it where you can. Don't get caught in a canva scenario where you're in there for 72 hours. It's a trap. Not that I don't like canva, it's just it is what it is. So I want you to think about this as something you can share this visual in your initial free call on a paid strategy session. Like we talked about today and anywhere else, you want to share all the pieces of the bigger picture and why your projects are so valuable.

Renee Hribar [00:40:01]:

So here's what I want you to remember we talked about a lot today. Your strategy session is not there to prove you're smart. It's there to create clarity of the bigger picture and clearly expose the gaps so that you can share a clean path to the project. You are not brain dumping or just giving ideas. You are designing a future. And when you do that well, your selling gets simpler, your clients feel more supported and your offers stop feeling like giant leaps over a canyon where you're sweating bullets and you're not even sure you wrote the proposal right. And you hope you included it all. And I hope I priced it right.

Renee Hribar [00:40:46]:

And I wonder if they're going to say yes, that all goes away because now you've just created the obvious next step. And if you want help making your offer more specific, more sellable and honestly more doable for the buyer, go to askmecoach.com and check out all the freshest opportunities beyond this podcast. We're done over explaining. We're definitely done pretending they are my favorite people. I hope they choose me. No. And we're definitely not going to hope they connect the dots in your strategy. All right.

Renee Hribar [00:41:24]:

I've said a lot today. You know that. I love you. I'll talk to you soon. See you next week.