Business is a “contact sport.”



Meaning, in order to do business, you need to be making contact, consistently, with people who could – or may in the future – be interested in giving you money.


The best way to make contact with any person, for any reason, is to connect as directly as possible.



In person.

On the phone.

Email.
Physical mail (higher open rate than email).


The mistake people make – which doubles as YOUR opportunity – is that most people would rather make contact indirectly.



People choose this, because indirect is easier, there is less chance for rejection and discomfort, and because everyone else does it.



These are three great reasons to NEVER do something.



1) It’s easy.

2) Low chance of failure.

3) Everyone else is doing it.



The opportunity is always in the opposites.



Since business is a contact support, you need to be consistently in contact with your people – people who have already purchased from you, AND people who could buy in the future.



Because if you are not in contact with them, it’s easier for them to forget about you – and thus, when they are ready to make a move, you will not be the first person on their mind.



This is a failure on your part. A failure to maintain your relationships.



If you get my emails, you see how often my name pops up in your inbox. You don’t need to publish as often as I do, but you MUST be consistent – and, more importantly, you need direct access to your audience.



Translated: You must be able to reach your audience WITHOUT going through social media.



Why?



Because Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and everyone else has complete control over how, how often, and how easily you can reach “your” audience.



Here’s a rule of life.



If someone else controls your access to something that you call “yours,” it’s NOT yours. It’s theirs. They are letting you borrow it.



This is how social media works.



You don’t “have” followers on social media. Instagram and TikTok have followers; they let you borrow them for as long as you play by their rules.


I’ll prove it to you. Delete your account on one of those apps. What happens to your followers?



Nothing happens to them. They’re still there. Which means they’re not yours. If they were yours, they would leave with you. Social media is borrowed land. You own NOTHING.



But, on the other hand, when you have direct access to your people – via phone number, email address, or physical address – you can reach them without social media as a tax-collecting middleman.



So, if your social media accounts get hacked, you get banned off of a platform, or social media itself gets hacked, you are not shit-out-of-luck when it comes to reaching your audience.



You may think that it’s impossible for social media to go away or be somehow unaccessible. It is VERY possible for it to happen, and it has happened (to people and companies) in the past. It’s happening to someone today. You want to make sure it’s not you.



If every social media application got deleted today, or they all banned together and decided to kick just me off of their platforms, I still have direct access to my audience.


I can send you an email.
I can text message you.
I can send physical mail to your house.



Why? Because I have all that information from you.



That information is what we call a “List.”



A list just means, people who have given you their direct contact information, and with it, the implicit permission to reach out to and market to them.



The list is the most valuable asset a business owns.



Eight years ago, Facebook tried to purchase Snapchat for $3 billion. Snapchat refused the offer. Why did Facebook offer $3 billion for an app that, as was proven shortly thereafter, they could easily copy on their own (this copy became Instagram Stories), with their own in-house team of engineers?



Good question. Here’s the answer.



Because Snapchat had a list that Facebook wanted access to. Young, social-media-savvy, and heavy social-media-using youth are Snapchat’s users.



Facebook was willing to pay $3 billion for it. It wasn’t for Snap’s technology. Facebook could develop that on their own.



A few years before that, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for somewhere between $16 and $19 billion, depending on who you ask.



Why? For the exact same reason.



This is the power of the list.



Understand that your list is more than just the names, numbers and email addresses; it is the relationship you have with the people on the other end of that information. That relationship is worth a lot of money, because when you have a relationship with an audience of people, they usually listen to what you have to say, and if your stuff is any good, they buy it.


This is how you could sell your business in the future. But, ONLY if you have the relationships.



This is especially important for those of us in the thought leadership space (authors, coaches, speakers, etc.). We don’t usually have proprietary technology. Anyone can copy our information and concepts.



Which means, the day after you die, the majority of your business becomes worthless.



Unless.



Unless there’s a strong relationship between you and your audience, to where someone can pick up where you left off, and the business can continue.



The fact of the matter is, this rarely happens.



I know, on very good knowledge, that many well-known thought leaders – famous people whose names you know – after they passed away, the value of their businesses went to damn near zero.



These are people whose talks, speeches, and stories still circulate on social media to this very day.



But, since they did not do the work of building a solid relationship with an audience that they had control of, and direct access to, without the main person around, there was no business.



Their concepts are great, the stories amazing, and their theories will be taught forever. But, none of that equates to business.



They had no list, and no direct relationship.



YOU need a list. You need to build a relationship with that list. Maintain your relationship with that list. Now, and forever.



If you do one thing in your business on a consistent basis, this is the thing to do.



Not writing more books.
Not creating new courses.

Not recording more videos for YouTube.

Not doing more live streams.



Building direct access to an audience of people who want to hear from you and have given you permission to continually market and sell your stuff to them.



This makes a sustainable business.



In Work On Your Game University, I’ll coach you on how to make this in your business, meaning your business can last even after you retire and can continue to generate revenue even when you’re not working – which means your business can be more than just a job that you’ll always have to work for.


Learn more here: http://www.WorkOnYourGameUniversity.com
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