If you've been watching AI roll through
every industry and wondering what's left,
what's my edge, what can't be automated,
this episode is for you.
Because the answer isn't more tech, it's
actually the opposite.
And I'm gonna walk you through three
simple, intentional things you can start
doing this week to deepen relationships
with your best customers.
The
was, sitting in a theater, watching the
Super Mario Brothers premiere.
It was me, my son, my brother-in-law, and
my nephew, the four of us.
Now my bank, because of all the business
and charity accounts that my wife and I
have, assigned us a personal advisor.
And his name is Adrian.
And he handles all of our bank account
information, our business information,
all that kind of stuff.
And it's just like a private service.
So if I want anything, instead of going
to the bank, I just go to Adrian and
Adrian handles it all.
It's actually created a lot of
convenience for us because in the past,
if we had to send bank wires over for our
charity as an example, we'd have to go
into the bank and you have to show ID,
you have to do all this kind of stuff,
now with Adrian, we just call him and
say, hey, can you wire
this amount to this account?
And boom, it's all handled.
So that's an example, like it's just a
different level of service.
Now, I share all that as background
because the bank invited us
to this VIP movie premiere.
And it included free tickets, free drink,
popcorn, and candy for each of us.
So when you do the math on this, it's
roughly $160 to $170 for the four of us
because the popcorn, the drink, and the
candy, it was a combo, that was like 23
bucks by itself plus tax.
Then you got the ticket to each of the,
for us, for the movies,
like it was pricey, right?
Now, take that in for the four of us,
then there was about 100 families there.
So the bank, they're putting in a real
investment here and there
was no business going on here.
Like there was no, you know, we had to do
this or we had to do that or we had to
sign up for this account
and there was none of that.
There was no transaction.
It was just a pure
investment in relationships.
Now, while I was there, I saw Adrian and
we had like a five, 10 minute chat.
It was super short.
We were catching up
about a bunch of things.
He's, you know, about to run a marathon.
So we were chatting about that because
that's something that I've
got on my calendar as well.
And then we just got chatting about
business and I asked him, I said, "Hey,
has AI impacted what you do?"
And he paused for a second, then he
looked at me and he said, "Not really."
He said, "Because everything I do is
based on relationships and AI can't
replace relationships."
That's when the light bulb went off for
me because here we were, there was four
of us from our family sharing a memory
and Adrian was the reason.
And that 10 minute chat, well, yeah, in
the midst of that, I talked to him about
setting me up with a tax strategist
because Amy and I want to get more tax
efficient and we actually need that.
And he's like, "Sure, no problem.
I can help hook that
up for you next week."
Now here's the bottom line.
Relationships are the one
moat that AI can't cross.
And in this episode, I want to show you
exactly how to build yours.
And there are really three
relationship key factors.
now the big idea here is that the more
the world automates, the more rare and
therefore valuable that
human connection becomes.
Now there's research to back this up.
Bain and company found a 5% increase in
customer retention can
boost profits by 25 to 95%.
So just think of that.
A small increase in customer retention
can have a big increase
in bottom line profits.
Now there was research coming out of
Cornell as well that suggested
face-to-face requests are 34 times more
effective than email.
And the Harvard Business Review on the
experience economy found that people
remember how you made them feel long
after they've forgotten what you said.
So the more the world automates, the
rarer human connection becomes and
therefore the more valuable it becomes.
So what this tells you and me is simple.
If you wanna build something that lasts,
go where AI can't follow.
Go deeper with the
people that you already serve.
so here's relationship idea number one,
the experience touch point.
I wanna encourage you to create a shared
in-person moment that your
customer can't get anywhere else.
So what did the bank do right?
Well, they didn't just host an event,
they created a family memory.
And that's the key insight here because
family friendly
dramatically increases their yes rate.
Why?
Because it's not competing with family
time, it is family time.
And so if this were on like a regular
weeknight, I likely wouldn't have been
able to go because kids have got practice
and we've got stuff going on.
But because busy people, they say no to
nights out because they wanna say yes to
time with their family.
But this was the perfect mix.
This was on a Saturday
morning and it was for the family.
So we said yes, because now
we can share it with our kids.
Busy people say no to nights out, but
they say yes to experiences that they can
share with their kids.
Now, how could you apply this?
It could be movie premieres, ball games,
theme park days, family picnics, like it
doesn't have to be huge.
It could just be a local thing.
Like it doesn't matter what it is as long
as it's intentional and
it's crafted for the family.
And if you're a B2B, you could bring the
kids along, make it a Saturday morning
thing just like the bank
did, but make it unforgettable.
And here's another key,
don't make it a pitch event.
Don't make it where people gotta listen
to a sales pitch, there's no selling,
it's just the experience because the
relationship is the ROI.
Is this making sense so far?
Okay,
relationship key number
two, the care touch point.
I wanna encourage you to reach out when
life gets hard with zero agenda.
Now this is an idea that our company
implemented when the
hurricanes were hitting the US.
They were hitting the US hard and there
were a lot of people
and families in danger.
And so what we did was we pulled a list
of every customer in the affected areas.
And then we sent a simple note and we
said, "We're thinking
of you, are you safe?"
What we didn't do was we didn't attach a
discount or we didn't make a pitch and we
didn't ask for anything.
But what happened was that people felt
seen, they felt heard
and they felt remembered.
So why does this work?
Well, most companies only reach out when
they want something, but you stand out
simply by caring when others don't.
People don't remember your marketing,
they remember how you
showed up when it mattered.
So how do you apply this?
Well, watch the news for what's affecting
your customer base, whether it's weather,
economy, industry shifts, whatever it is.
Keep your customer list organized by
location and life stage.
And a two sentence message is plenty.
Don't overthink it.
We immediately got replies from that
hurricane message from people just
letting us know that they were safe or
what their situation was or
how we might be able to help.
But point blank is that people felt cared
for and it deepened the relationship.
All right, relationship tip number three,
the intimate touch point.
Here is where I wanna encourage you to
create small, high value gatherings for
your best customers.
We're actually doing that this year.
See, once a month, we open up our
calendar for what we
call a mini mastermind.
And what we've done is we've sent out
invites to everybody in our
highest level masterminds.
These are all people that are running six
figure memberships or above or in our
highest level mastermind, that's impact.
These are all people running seven figure
plus membership businesses.
So these are our best,
highest, most valued customers.
And so what we did is we sent out an
invite to everybody.
It's an open door.
And once a month, we
have a mini mastermind.
But it's only available
for four people for the day.
And what we do is we do two hot seat
interviews in the morning and two hot
seat interviews in the afternoon.
So what I do is I record with them.
And that typically becomes
one of our podcast episodes.
So they get lots of exposure that way.
And that also goes on YouTube.
So they love it, right?
So they get the podcast and the YouTube.
And then we do two of those in the
morning, two of those in the afternoon.
And then over lunch, which is like, we
usually make it a little longer.
So it's usually like an hour and a half.
We do a mini mastermind.
And it's where they get my eyes and ears
directly on what they're building.
And plus they get the feedback of others
that are there with them.
And it's like really intimate.
So it's a lot like if I were to do a VIP
day, but you know, much more condensed.
So it's super valuable for them.
And it feels really intimate.
If we were to have like 40 people there,
it would feel like a conference.
This is really intimate.
And certainly they get to connect with
the others that are in
that mini mastermind.
They get a lot of time with me.
And they also get to meet our team and
see that they're real
people and they care.
And a lot of times these people have been
interacting with our team, but they just
never met them in person.
So it's a great opportunity for that.
But bottom line is they walk away feeling
seen and they have connected to each
other and to our team.
See small equals deep, four people feels
intimate. 40 would
feel like a conference.
And so this is how you deepen
relationships with your best customers.
The ones worth an
outsized investment of your time.
So here's what I suggest you do.
your top 10, 20 customers.
Invite them to something small.
Even if it's a virtual hot seat, a dinner
where you're in their city, or a
quarterly Zoom in a tiny
group, the key word here is small.
And resist the urge to scale it.
Another good example of this by the way
is my friend Dan Martell.
Last year he did a
virtual mini mastermind lunch.
And it was literally
two hours long, virtual.
And he invited four to five other people.
So it was really small and intimate.
And it was very focused
on a particular topic.
So it doesn't have to be in person.
It can be virtual.
it is the higher the perceived value.
The key word here is small.
Resist the urge to scale it.
Now, some of you are gonna listen to this
and you're gonna
think, is this efficient?
No, it's not.
And it's not supposed to be.
It's supposed to be intentional.
And that's one through
line of all of these ideas.
Intention.
They don't happen by accident.
You have to literally
put them on the calendar.
And you have to build the list and you
have to pick up the phone.
Relationships don't deepen by accident.
They deepen on purpose.
So what you and I need to focus on is
being intentional about the touch points
that AI cannot replicate.
So as we look to wrap this up, here's
what I want you to do
before the end of the week.
I want you to pick one of
these three relationship ideas.
Just one.
And then just take a small action on it.
Maybe it's the experience touch point.
Start brainstorming an event that would be family friendly
for your best customers.
Maybe it's the care touch point where you
pull a list of 10 customers you haven't
spoken to in six months and send them a
I'm thinking of you note.
Or maybe it's the intimate touch point
where you block one day on your calendar
over the next quarter and invite three or
four of your top
customers for a small gathering.
Just pick one of these relationship ideas
and take one small action.
And do it before the week is out.
Now,
as we wrap up, of course, I'd love for
you to rate and review the show because
that is helping us
climb the marketing charts.
My friends, do you know that we are
flying up the charts and it's all because
of you rating the show, reviewing the
show and sharing the show.
So thank you so much.
And as always, you know you can find the
show notes in the link
below or not in the link.
Yeah, I guess it's in
the show description.
It's in the show description. It's in the show description.
And I want you to know that we value you
and our relationship with you.
And honestly, at the end of the day,
these relationships, this is the moat
that AI cannot cross and that is the
human connectedness and the
relationships that we have.
And there's three
simple ways to deepen it.
One, through the experience, create a
shared in-person moment, especially
family friendly ones.
Number two, care.
Reach out when life is
hard with zero agenda.
And three, intimacy.
Host small gatherings
for your best customers.
All three come down
to one word, intention.
And if you think about Adrian's quote
that I shared with you at the very
beginning, AI can't
replace relationships.
AI can copy your content, but it can't
copy the way you care.
The more automated the world becomes, the
more human you have to be.
Thanks for listening, my friend.