You have been told to network more. Put yourself out there. Talk to strangers. Nobody ever hands you the actual steps. So you white-knuckle through the event, leave early, and tell yourself you are just not a people person. Bill Lennan builds the steps.

Bill and I got connected recently and clicked on the first call, the kind where you both go, okay, we need to talk more. He was raised on islands, and he has spent his career building products and teams across mobile, recruiting, e-commerce, and now education. These days he specializes in building high-functioning teams. He also used to have real social anxiety, so he built a system to get out of it, and he has taught it to more than a hundred people since.

Key Takeaways

• Social anxiety was the thing about to stall Bill's career the day he got his first team to run. He treated it like any other problem and built a fix. The doors that opened after were not small. Networking inside the company, public speaking, even dating all got easier.
• The 2 minute recipe: Bill's on-ramp for social anxiety is a short physical routine he runs before he walks into a room, built to drop your heart rate and make the first exchange easy. He walks through the exact steps on the show.
• Communication is a stack of skills, like math. You do not start at calculus. Start conversations a few thousand times until they come across as easy and natural instead of needy. Needy is hard to date with and hard to sell with.
• Lead with curiosity, not your pitch. Bill keeps a small set of reusable questions he uses on strangers, on his own team, and on executives alike. They are simple, and he lays them out in the episode. If you are patient, people tell you their problem.
• If you run a team, your job changed. Bill learned early that leading people is a different job than doing the work yourself, and that the real work is clearing what slows everyone else down. He tells the story of the day that clicked for him.

Listen If You...

• Keep getting told to network and have no idea what to actually say to a stranger
• Call yourself an introvert and use it as the reason you stay quiet at events
• Just moved from doing the work to leading the people who do it, and it is not clicking

Connect with Bill

Find Bill at 40pb.com. His book, Talking with Strangers, is on Amazon.

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

You have heard the advice a hundred times. Take a breath. Pause before you react. Then a real moment hits, your chest tightens, and you are just standing there wondering what you are supposed to do with that pause. Hiba Tanvir builds the part everyone skips.

This week I got to sit down with my friend Hiba Tanvir. We met at Sheryl Powers' author symposium last October, I was emceeing, and we have been trading messages on LinkedIn ever since. She is an emotional intelligence speaker and an award-winning author, and she is the creator of the Play and Pause methodology and the Zest framework. She is also the one who walks into a room full of executives with a tub of Play-Doh and watches the whole mood shift.

Key Takeaways

• All emotions are welcome, but they are not equal. Hiba splits them into high-value emotions like compassion, joy, peace, and collaboration, and low-value ones like anger, shame, and frustration. The mix you live in is what she calls your net emotional worth. Aim for emotionally wealthy, not emotionally poor.
• A pause only helps if you know what goes inside it. Build two or three small moves you can run in 90 seconds or less, and practice them before the hard moment shows up. Nobody runs their first fire drill during an actual fire.
• Play changes a room faster than any icebreaker. Hand people something low threat, Play-Doh, a pen to doodle, a walk outside, and the nervous system settles, the jaw unclenches, and real conversation starts on its own.
• Play stops being play the second it has an audience. If you are doing it for a photo, for likes, or for a finished thing to show off, you have traded the benefit for the performance.
• You do not need a checklist or a blocked calendar to start. Doodle on the next call. Take the call as a walk. Pick the kind of play that is actually you, and let it happen without scheduling it.

Listen If You...

• Keep hearing "just pause" and have no idea what to do in the actual moment
• Run meetings or trainings and want the room engaged instead of glazed over
• Think showing emotion at work makes you look weak and want a better frame for it

Connect with Hiba

Find Hiba at htcompassion.com.

Her latest book, Future Ready Performance Playbook, is on Amazon. It is about staying unapologetically human in the AI era, and it goes deep on the Play and Pause methodology from this conversation.

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

I once watched a speaker work a room of about 400 people. She was the best speaker I saw that whole year.

A month later, I caught them again, in a much smaller room. Before they went on stage, I walked up and told them how good she was. Their first words back: "So did you buy the program?" Not thank you. Not even a nod. Just a receipt check.

That one sentence cost her over 20% of the room.

And this is just one example of not stopping and being intentional with your words.

I break down why that happens in this episode, and it comes down to three things: how you position yourself, the words you use, and the actions you actually take. Get any one of them wrong, and it doesn't matter how right you are.

Key Takeaways

• Why every single thing you say or do creates a feeling in the other person, whether you mean it to or not
• The line I use on myself before giving anyone hard feedback: "I get what you're going for, here's an idea that might help" instead of "that's stupid, do it this way"
• A former client that I couldn't back anymore, even though I agreed with everything they said
• Why chasing the algorithm with your words instead of the feeling behind them makes content fall flat
• The gap between what you claim about accountability and whether you actually follow through, and why that gap does more damage than staying quiet

Listen If You...

• Have ever said something true in a way that still hurt somebody
• Get views on your content but can feel it's not building real trust
• Talk a big game about your values and want a gut check on whether your actions back it up

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

We are creatures of habit. Same drive, same desk, same routine, day after day. I noticed my own thinking had gone flat lately. The ideas were not showing up like they used to. That rut is comfortable, and that is the trap.

This episode came out of one small choice. I recently joined a group of people looking to just go do cool things together. Last Friday a few of us went to a comedy club downtown. Instead of driving, I took the train for the first time.

There were a couple of small annoyances. A nine minute walk in 102 degree heat, and watching the clock so I did not miss the last train home.

Those were nothing.

What the trip really did was remind me how much I need to try new things and get out of my comfort zone. That is what gets the creative brain moving again.

Key Takeaways

• Comfort dulls your creativity. A change of scenery gets your mind paying attention again.
• New experiences make your brain troubleshoot, ask questions, and figure things out in real time.
• An offsite day at a coffee shop every couple of weeks resets how you think and work.
• Small experiments lead to people you would never have met. One networking event I almost skipped gave me a close friend and a future podcast guest.
• Trying something new does not mean being reckless. It means stopping to ask if you are stuck in your ways.

Listen If You...

• You do the same thing the same way every day and your ideas feel stale.
• You work from the same spot behind a screen and rarely change your surroundings.
• You have been meaning to shake up a process or a routine and keep putting it off.

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Last Friday I was at ConnectFest, an amazing annual event put on by Sheryl Powers, when something happened that stopped me in my tracks. A gentleman (Jack Kearney) on the panel pulled out my own books in front of the whole room and told everyone, "If you want to learn this stuff, go read these." I had no idea he was going to do that. It hit me hard, and it got me thinking about how important moments like those are and how bad we are at acknowledging the impact we make on those around us.

In this solo episode, I'm talking about appreciation. Not just giving it, but knowing what to do when you receive it, because most of us let it slide right past us on the way to the next thing.

Key Takeaways

• Why calling someone out for helping you costs nothing and means everything
• The habit of screenshotting every testimonial and compliment, and why it matters more than you think
• How a folder of saved moments can carry you through the days you want to quit
• Why business owners downplay their own impact, and how to stop doing it
• What to actually do the next time someone tags you or thanks you online

Listen If You...

• Have ever brushed off a compliment instead of letting it land
• Are in the middle of a stretch where nothing feels like it's working
• Want a simple habit that costs nothing and pays off on your worst days

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Most people think book marketing starts the day the book comes out. It does not, and that mistake can cost you months of wasted effort. I got to sit down with someone who has helped launch over 5,000 bestselling authors, and he broke down exactly when marketing should start, and why the timing matters more than the tactics.

Steve Kidd is an international bestselling author, syndicated radio host, and visibility strategist. He has spent 40 years helping entrepreneurs and authors clarify their message, and he has written 43 books of his own. This conversation covers what actually moves a book from finished manuscript to real business asset.

Key Takeaways

• Get the book live first. Skip the pre-launch promotion and use the first few days to lock in bestseller status. That credential does more for you than months of hype ever will.
• Marketing takes about 90 days to show results, and it dies within 90 days of stopping. Treat it like Coca-Cola treats its ad budget, not like a one-time push.
• AI can edit your book, but it cannot tell you who you are. Feed it your own stories first, or the book will not sound like you.
• Reviews carry more weight than almost anything else you can do for a book. People check reviews before they buy, same as picking a restaurant or a car.
• Watch the shiny object. A book that does well brings people asking you to teach them how you did it. Chasing that can quietly kill the business you actually built.

Listen If You...

• Are close to launching a book and are not sure when the promotion should actually start
• Are wrestling with how much AI should touch your writing process
• Use your book as a credibility tool for your business, not as the main income source

Connect with Steve

Steve gives a free 15 minute call to talk through where you are with your book, no matter if it is 25 years old or still just an idea.

Link: https://askstevekidd.com

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

I got to reconnect with an old friend for this one. Robert Plank and I met back in 2008, at a marketing event in Phoenix. We lost touch for years. Then we found our way back to each other, and this conversation reminded me why that matters.

This one goes deep on what actually happens after you hit stop record. We get into turning one guest conversation into weeks of content across every platform. We talk about why podcast guesting only pays off if you follow up after. And we get into why podcasts still work for building real relationships and referrals, even in a world that moves fast.

Robert runs Marketer of the Day and Done For You Podcast. He's recorded over 1,600 episodes. He helps entrepreneurs turn podcast conversations into content, referrals, and clients.

Key Takeaways

Turn one 20-minute recording into dozens of pieces of content across every platform.

Learn why being a guest on a show is step one, not the finish line.

Get a simple system for repurposing years of past episodes without starting from scratch.

See why following up with a guest matters more than the interview itself.

Hear why starting messy beats waiting for the perfect setup.

Listen If You...

You have a podcast and feel behind on posting consistently.

You guest on shows but never turn that time into real relationships.

You keep putting off starting your own show over gear or format worries.

Connect with Robert

Robert's service is at dfypodcast.com. Check out his show, Marketer of the Day, at marketeroftheday.com.

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.

Your mom said it once. "It's not what you say, but how you say it." That line sticks with me more than most. Most people never stop to ask what their words are doing.

This episode covers the real cost of bad communication. Not the big scandal kind. The everyday kind: emails, posts, conversations. Three layers decide if people trust you, or tune you out.

Key Takeaways

• Communication runs on three layers: words, tone, and actions.
• Trying hard to sound authentic usually backfires. Just be authentic instead.
• A joke that threatens someone's income never lands right.
• People judge your posts the same way they judge your actions.
• Read your words out loud before you hit send.

Listen If You...

• You want people to trust what you say.
• You've wondered why a post landed wrong. Even when your point was right.
• You're building a personal brand that needs to hold up.

Tired of prospects ghosting you after your first conversation? Grab my FREE 5-day email course at https://thefollowupfix.net/ and learn the five relationship-killing mistakes that are costing you sales (and how to fix them without being pushy).

About the Show

#MeetCoolPeople is where founders, creators, and entrepreneurs share real stories about building businesses that matter. Hosted by Ely Delaney, each episode goes past surface-level advice to uncover the mindset shifts, failures, and frameworks that separate people who talk about success from people who actually build it.