You finally got that prospect on the calendar.

You want to make a good impression.

But you don’t want to come on too strong.

Or worse, seem desperate for the work.

So you back off heading into the call.

I’ll just lean into building a personal rapport.

Keep it casual. See what’s on their mind.

The opportunity to help will reveal itself if it’s there.

30 minutes later, you might have waltzed by a few interesting nuggets.

But then time’s up.

It ends with the dreaded:

“Thank you for your time.”

And poof — another one falls through the sieve.

What if you had used that precious time to go deeper?

What if you had shown them something powerful to internalize and react to in real-time?

What if diving into substance allowed them to drop their guard and tell you what’s really going on?

It’s possible to add value and build trust on the first call.

But resting back on your honed skill of winging it will often fall flat.

Bring a prop like a Headshot that quietly-yet-loudly demonstrates your expertise.

And watch how deep you’ll go.

💡

-Wes

P.S. - Off next week + test audience volunteers

I’m off next week to soak up the last bit of summer and polish an upcoming talk.

Speaking of...if you missed yesterday, I’d love 1-2 more volunteers to offer feedback on a dry run of a new talk/workshop on Intellectual Headshots on Thursday Aug 28, 9am US Pacific (Noon ET).

Just reply “I’m in” and I’ll add you to the invite.

Otherwise, see you in September! 😎