IAM1324 – Coach Helps Entrepreneurs Get Qualified Referrals

Do you know how entrepreneurs struggle with getting qualified referrals while building their businesses? Toni Harris Taylor is the proud franchise owner of Network in Action Global Partners. NIA Global Partners is a community of business owners who come together to mastermind and grow their businesses, bring each other warm referrals, and be a supportive community for one another. She is also a marketing and sales coach where she teaches entrepreneurs to get known, get connected, and get paid to make six figures and beyond.

• CEO Story: Toni specializes in building relationships, and turning contacts into contracts. In 2019 came the opportunity for her to own a franchise in NIA Global Partners which changed her life and her clients. Watching them turn from caterpillars into butterflies.
• Business Service: Referral source, business building. Coaching program.
• Secret Sauce: “Nobody connects like Tony Harris Taylor” a Business coach who connects their clients and mandates that you will learn to be a connector.
• CEO Hack: Show up – being prepared. Show up with energy. You’re not gonna attract your ideal client if you’re not attractive energetically. Invest in yourself.
• CEO Nugget: You want to invest at a level you want it to play at. If you never invested at a certain level in yourself, you’re never gonna be able to ask for an investment at a certain level. Play full out.
• CEO Defined: You don’t have to have your hands on everything. Know your numbers.

Website: meetwithtoniharristaylor.com

Facebook (personal): toniharristaylor

Instagram: nianortheasthouston

LinkedIn: toniharristaylor

YouTube: toniharristaylor

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Transcription

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00:16 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:44 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very, very special guest on the show today. I have Toni Harris Taylor of Dresser Results and Network in Action. Toni, super excited to have you on the show.

00:54 – Toni Harris Taylor

Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, super excited to have you on as well too. Before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Tony so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's working on. Do you know how entrepreneurs struggle with getting qualified referrals while building their businesses? Tony is the proud franchise owner of Network in Action Global partners.

NIA Global Partners is a community of business owners who come together to mastermind and grow their businesses, bring each other warm referrals, and be a supportive community for 1 another. She is also a marketing and sales coach where she teaches entrepreneurs to get known, get connected, and get paid to make 6 figures and beyond. Tony, super excited to have you on the show and all the awesome things that you're doing. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:39 – Toni Harris Taylor

I am ready. Thank you so much. And I like that intro. Who wrote it?

01:45 – Gresham Harkless

I don't know. I don't know. Somebody who knows and sees somebody doing some phenomenal things. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So I know we connected at a networking event not too long ago. And so what I wanted to do to kind of kick everything off or what resonated with me when I visited the networking group was to hear what I like to call your CEO story. We'll let you get started with all the awesome things you're working on.

02:07 – Toni Harris Taylor

Well, awesome. My CEO story. So, everything I talk about, everything I do, the word drastic permeates it, right? So drastic results are helping entrepreneurs to get out of their way when it comes to marketing and selling their services. You know, most people love what they do. They just don't want to market it or sell it. And I specialize in helping them to build relationships that turn contacts into contracts, which includes how to network the right way. In 2019, I was approached to purchase a network and action group.

And what's ironic about it is the week before NIA came into my life, my coach said you should start a networking group because you're so passionate about helping people to grow. But I was like, I don't have time to start something from scratch. I don't have technology. I don't know what to charge. I don't know how to structure a meeting. No, Thank you. A week later, NIA came into my life and it changed the game for not only myself but my clients. And NIA is the place where I get to watch business owners go from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

03:33 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I love that. And especially, I think it speaks to something that I think is often overlooked about, you know, businesses, I often talk about the journey of going from the caterpillar to a butterfly, what that looks like, and how a lot of times, as you said so well, a lot of entrepreneurs, CEOs, business owners are talented at something that they do, but they sometimes struggle in those aspects of getting it out there, having people know what they do, having people want to buy their products and services. And I imagine that's where everything you do kind of comes into play.

04:03 – Toni Harris Taylor

Absolutely. It's drastic, especially Gresham when it's our baby. We can sell other people's products, but when it's our baby, It's our services, it's our intellectual property. It feels personal when people say no. And so I help them with their messaging. Who are they? Who's their target market? What is their brand? What do they stand for? How are they different? And then getting it out there through networking and speaking, unless you want to do cold calling, who wants to do that? Nobody.

Door knocking, now I'm 1 of Jehovah's Witnesses and I don't want to knock on doors for my own business. If you don't want to do expensive mailers or expensive social media ads, your only option is networking and speaking to attract your ideal clients. So I give people out of their head about it, give them a community to be around so that it is, it's warm and it's embracing and we hold each other up as well when the world is crazy and things aren't going well or we had a cross world and life and decisions, network and action people come to us to get more referrals and it ends up changing their life because they create relationships that last a lifetime.

05:29 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's huge and it's so funny that you said that because I so often say that when we're trying to grow our business, we're trying to get more leads, opportunities, referrals, all those things that help build our business. Sometimes we forget that as we're trying to quote unquote build our business, we're also building ourselves and getting those relationships, that opportunity to connect. And I imagine so much more you get from being around like-minded individuals helps out with that tremendously.

05:52 – Toni Harris Taylor

Absolutely. So, it's critical because the other problem we solve, Whether you're in my drastic results community or my network in action community and most of my coaching clients are network in action members as well, is we solve for loneliness. Most of most small business owners are working from home or in a silo. Home or in a silo and it gets lonely. When you are in corporate, you have your coworkers, as crazy as that is in the politics of it all, but you at least have community at work. But when you're an entrepreneur, you're by yourself, it is, it's lonely.

And people usually have an urge to be around other people, like-minded people. So again, while Network in Action serves as a referral source, business building, helps you make more money. It's so much more than that. My, the other thing that I love about Gresham is when you coach with me, my community is so supportive of each other. I've never seen another coach's community like mine. I mean, and I'm so proud of it because they go to each other's events, they spend money with each other, they look inside of their network before they go outside the network, and They are constantly sending each other referrals.

And, you know, they always say, well, we have to give the leader credit and I'll take a little bit of credit, but I attract people who have a giver's mentality and they want to see everybody win. So I don't attract people with scarcity. This is my ball, you can't look at my ball, you can't play. No, if you all have the same ball, figure out how to collaborate. You got clients, I got clients, let's collaborate, let's learn how to build together.

07:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's huge when you start to have that abundant mindset and mentality. You have that environment around that. So absolutely love that you've been able to kind of build something and have so many people that can kind of benefit from a business standpoint, but also from a human standpoint that is such an overlooked part of business and life.

And so I know we touched a little bit upon how you serve your clients and sounds like you have a moat where you're able to help people from a coaching standpoint and also that networking standpoint. So I wanted to hear if there was anything we didn't touch on about that, but also I wanted to ask you what you feel is your secret sauce. This could be for yourself, the businesses are a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:34 – Toni Harris Taylor

Tony Harris Taylor is the coach in that area. No other business coach connects the way I do. Even before I had a network in action, 1 of my claims to fame is once I know you and your business, I've been a networker for 20 years. I know people all over the globe. I can hold the door open for you so you can walk through, make connections, introductions, and my secret sauce. Nobody, nobody connects like Tony Harris Taylor. And I will stand on that. Show me somebody else who's a business coach who connects their clients the way I do and mandates that if you're going to play in my field, you must learn to be a connector. So it's not only me that's going to connect, the energy of connections.

09:26 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this is a little bit more of an apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:37 – Toni Harris Taylor

My CEO hack is to show up. What does that mean though? That does not mean just going. Yeah, That's the first step. Just going is the first step. But showing up means being prepared, and looking the part. You know how many times people have said, I just want to know who you are because you look so good. Because I make an effort to pick out the right hair for the day. Fix my face, put some lipstick on, pick out the right glasses, you know, and show up with energy. People are attracted to energy. And I don't care that you're an introvert or, yeah, introvert, leave that in the car, leave that in the car, leave it on the side before you join the Zoom meeting.

And I know it's easier said than done, but you have to flip a switch. And my hack is you're not going to attract your ideal client if you're not attractive. And that doesn't mean physically, it means energetically. Yeah, I guess it means physically too because you can't show up as a slob and expect people to want to take you seriously as a business owner, but it is about your energy. And pay money to show up. Can I tell you that Gresham, that's another hack? You have to invest in yourself. If you want to make real money, you can't hang out with free people, because free begets free.

You got to invest and you got to invest at a level you want to play at. If you never have invested at a certain level in yourself, you're never gonna be able to ask for an investment at a certain level. And say that again, if you never put $10, 000 into your business coaching or whatever, you're never gonna be able to ask people to invest $10, 000 in you. If you want to up-level your business, invest at the level you want to up-level to. That's another hack, by the way.

11:43 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that's a huge hack. That's why it's so important to make sure that you have, you know, the right people in your corner and, you know, be able to kind of push you and propel you into those opportunities because it kind of reminded me in this and I was going to ask you for like a CEO nugget, which is a little bit more of like a word of wisdom piece of advice or something you might tell a client or your younger business self.

But I almost wonder if that's along the lines of being able to kind of go to that next level. You need to, as we talked about, make sure that you are investing in yourself, but also make those steps, make that commitment, have the mindset, or do that work so that you can do that. Do you think that's part of a nugget you would provide?

12:18 – Toni Harris Taylor

Absolutely. You got to do the mindset work and you got to invest in that. Here's the other reason you got to invest. And I am going to harp on this a little bit. It's because if you don't put money into it, you're not going to do the work. You will let yourself off the hook every time. When you don't feel like it, you're not going to do it, you're not going to show up. You're not going to do the work. So that's why you have to invest. So absolutely it's key.

12:43 – Gresham Harkless

I appreciate that. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Tony, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:55 – Toni Harris Taylor

I'm going to be transparent and tell you that I am just at the place where I feel like I'm a CEO. Now I've been a solopreneur for over 10 years, but I've been, I've created a job for myself. I am now delegating, trusting, investing at a higher level, and putting myself in upper-level situations. And I have people that mouths to feed now. That's the definition of a CEO. You feeding somebody other than yourself.

But what I'm learning is I don't have to be, I don't have to have my hands on everything. And the other thing I'm learning is a CEO knows their numbers. The part now I work with people on their marketing, which is 1 part of the second part of business t their number guilty. But if I'm going to be a CEO, numbers and I'm now investing help to understand that I can make smart decisions as I grow my business.

14:12 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Tony, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you have to tell our readers and listeners, and of course, how best people can get a hold of you and find out about the event and all the awesome things that you have that you're working on.

14:30 – Toni Harris Taylor

Wonderful. I'm having an event. I do want to share it with the audience. So it is called Profitable Events for Drastic Results. It's Friday, April 29, and Saturday the 30th, all virtual from 9 to 4 a.m. You can find out more information at profitableeventsfordrasticresults.com. It's for coaches, consultants, and service-based entrepreneurs who want to use small or large events without using their own money.

Schedule an appointment. I am responsible for my clients. So even if you aren't ready to be a client, I need to introduce you to somebody in my world so I can fulfill my obligation to them. But I tell you what, almost nobody who has shown up in my world, life has not changed. I'm very proud of that and I'm grateful to lead a community of entrepreneurs who get the power of connection.

15:37 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. No, I appreciate that so much and all the work that you do. Of course, we're going to have the links and information that show notes as well too, so that everybody can get a hold of you, find out about the event, and all the other awesome things that you have that you're working on as well. But I appreciate you so much for using your gifts and your talents to be able to serve so many people.

I think that's the meaning of the gifts and the things that we have that are given to us to make an impact in so many other people's lives. So thank you so much for doing that. Of course, taking the lead in so many other ways. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:08 – Toni Harris Taylor

Thank you, Gresham. You rock. And thank you for the work you're doing, because I am a CEO.

16:16 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Please tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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