Algorithm Newsletter
The Space Between Events, New Pod, and Free events
The Hickory Algorithm is a marketing agency and community hub dedicated to celebrating the stories, culture, and businesses that make Hickory, North Carolina - my favorite. Each Newsletter spotlights solutions, experiences, and a different perspective to help you, the small business owner with insights, inspiration and strategies for personal and professional growth.
🚨New Pod Alert - Business Spotlight🚨
The Hickory Algorithm was joined by William Karslake, licensed counselor and provider of LENS Neurofeedback discussing what exactly LENS Neurofeedback is and how it works. A patient of William’s is also on the program this week. A middle schooler with ADHD talks about their experience with LENS Neurofeedback and his father’s point of view. Give it a listen during your commute:
➡️ LINK to William Karslake YouTube Podcast HERE ⬅️
During the Pod, Mr. Karslake and your boy made a music playlist. Each of us picked 5 songs from artists we know as popular, but, maybe a bit of a deeper cut from a loved album. We called it:
🎼 Gems in Plain Sight 🎶 Old school blues, old school rock, and even some modern rock but buyer beware - We Like the Jams - playlist is only 10 songs but is an hour and 10 minutes at length 🤠 #fortheloveofthegame
Last week we touched on Building Bridges, Part 2 of our Art of Networking series. We focused our attention on overcoming the anxiety of attending a networking event, how to attract the right people to you, and some secrets I use to help with networking.
📍Last Week's Algorithm Newsletter featuring The Art of Networking Part 2: Building Bridges 📍
We have planned a networking group to attend, we overcame the anxiety of attending, we walked through the door, identified the people we want to connect with, and then we did it. Now what?
You're standing over your desk with a stack of business cards wondering what on earth you are going to do with them all. I can tell you what I do with them but, I’ll save that for another newsletter because I do not throw them away - any of them.
👀 Following up
Go thru that stack of business cards just like they are baseball cards (or whatever kind of cards you collected) separating them into two piles. One pile is a follow up pile and the other is archive.
Follow up pile - consists of potential clients or partners
Archive pile - saved for a later date
Put the archive pile in a safe place for another day. The Follow up pile with all the potential clients and let’s dive into following up!
When looking at the card of the person you want to follow up with be sure to see which platform they prefer. It’s a little thing but, if they don’t have a LinkedIn profile on their card than I’m not going to reach out through there. Facebook or Instagram? I would follow with them for sure but, wouldn’t reach out through those channels but I would make sure to like and follow them. They see you are now following them and you can tell pretty early if they follow you back - call that the Long Game.
Reaching out in a day or two while conversation is still fresh in your mind with a personalized message. Mention something specific from your last conversation.
Example: “Great meeting you at __________, I enjoyed our conversation about ________. What I would like to do is grab a coffee soon to chat more about how we can potentially collaborate.”
Two spots of personalization in a follow up is great because they remember YOU, not what you were trying to sell or promote.
Provide the person with value first - offer a resource (Hey, do you know ____) or insight before an ask.
It’s amazing when you start connecting people together what happens for you. You may never get business from someone at a networking event but if you can help them with a problem they are having or connecting them to someone that may help them fix their problem. They will remember what you did for them.
After the initial follow up email if they do not message you back I would schedule a soft follow up on my calendar a week or two from that initial follow up to reach back out. If nothing after the soft follow 👻ing is probably happening and guess what. That is ok. They are just being nice and don’t want to upset you by saying no, but, take it as a no and move on.
💵 When to Sell (when not to)
Man, I learned this the hard way. In my past sales gig, I was trained that every appointment is a sales pitch. Every time you make an appointment its not an appointment unless your selling.
All my appointments and contacts started to burn away. Leaving me feeling some type of away about the approach. Realizing it wasn’t for me and it could be for others but my style is not that.
Signs it’s the right time to sell?
They ask about pricing
They express a problem you can solve
They ask you about your services
Example: “I know you talked about the challenges with social media marketing, I’d love to share a strategy that worked for my clients. Want to get a coffee sometime?”
We tend to over complicate things. Make things seem more of big deal than it really is. Stop that. I have a little devil on my shoulder telling me “keep it simple stupid” whispering in my ear when I am debating on that first invitation to discuss services.
Signs it’s not the right time to sell?
During a networking event
Fundraiser events
Social Events
These seem pretty obvious but, your boy, has done each of these. Starting out very green when it came to sales. I didn’t know any better and I was watching YouTube videos, following (allegedly) great sales people on socials, and diving deep into the psychology of it all. That’s called, overthinking.
You know the videos “sell sell sell” or “be the best salesperson.”. I wanted to get better, and I did. Going through all the wrong you have done helps you find the right. Whether that is in relationships, business, networking, or sports don’t overthink it.
How many times have you heard, in your life, “run the football and play good defense” when someone is speaking about football? It cannot be that simple but maybe it is, KC and Eagles do both - the best. 🏈
Don’t overthink things. Your first one of anything isn’t going to be good. Keep at it, work at it. The Art of Networking is about finding what works for you! If you take one thing away from any of this, then that is a win!
If you missed the first two parts of The Art of Networking here they are:
The Art of Networking Part 1: Group Options
The Art of Networking Part 2: Building Bridges
👀 Keep an eye out
📍FREE CONTENT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES 📍
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEOGRAPHY INVITE ON OUR YOUTUBE PAGE
🆓 Do you want free professional videography content on your socials? Hickory Algorithm is looking for 10 well, 9 no, 6, now, small business owners to come to Happy Sips in the Hickory Arcade Building on February 8th. How does it work?
🆓 We ask you the hard questions like “How do you eat your pop tart?” Describe, possibly demonstrate, how you eat your pop tart, shout out your business, and we keep the video around 30 to 45 seconds, and we sent you the clip to post across your socials. Content doesn’t always have to be serious. Smiles are the best content.
Cost is again - FREE.
⬇️New YouTube Music Playlist⬇️
I grew up in the 90s, we burned cds and made playlist. It’s always a thing.
This playlist is gonna get a good run this month while cooking dinner.
Headspace - Playlist on YouTube Music <~~~~~ LINK
💪 Partnering with the Hickory Algorithm 💪
Want to partner with the Hickory Algorithm? Here some ways to do so:
Learn more about the Podcast, Form: HERE
Help with your Facebook management with organic weekly contact, or knowing where to grow your socials, Form: HERE
This Newsletter has partnerships for advertising or sponsorships available, Form: HERE
#fortheloveofthegame