E382: Do this to save any meeting that’s not going as well as expected.
A great way to turn a mediocre meeting positive is to end on a high note.
This simple trick is very likely to leave the other person feeling good about you when the meeting ends.
This is one of my favorite tools from my networking toolbox, and I’m looking forward to sharing more.
00:00 My Secret for Ending Meetings on a High Note 00:36 The Secret: Finishing by Letting Others Speak 02:33 Networking and Digital Marketing 03:02 Lessons from Selling SEO 04:52 The Surprising Strategy: Be an A**hole 06:33 Personal Reflections
#networking #howtowinfriendsandinfluencepeople #networkinghacks #socializingtips
The Edward Show. Your daily digital marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
I'm going to share something that I probably shouldn't share on today's episode of the podcast. This is a trick that I have for ending engagements, ending meetings and leaving it so that people feel nice about you. There's expression and things on a high note. I don't think people realize just how important ending things on a high note is. So I'm going to share a trick that I do when I am meeting with people, whether that is over lunch, over a meal, going for a walk, having a video call, whatever that is. This is a trick that I use. And that's what I'm sharing on today's episode of the podcast. Here's a trick. Very easy. Shut the F up when you are nearing the end of the engagement. That is it. That is what I do. This is my trick. You want to end things on a high note. The sweetest sound to a person is their own voice. It's not their name. It is their voice. That is the sweetest sound to a person and people want to speak. And at the end of a meeting, whatever that meeting is, people are feeling warmed up. And that's when you should let them talk the most. And that is when they will feel the best. And that's what they will think about. The rest of the meeting could have been awkward. But if you end the meeting with them talking, they feel good about it. And so this is a trick that I do whenever I have meetings, which aren't as often as I used to do because I spent so much time making content. It's crazy. Doing this daily podcast, making a video at least one video every day, the newsletter every week. But when I didn't have this rigorous content scheduled, this is something that I would do. And I still do this now. It is my trick for meetings is I like to end meetings with the other person speaking. So maybe it's like five minutes before the meeting ends or ten minutes before the meeting ends. Something goes off in my head. So we are about to end this, Edward shut the F up. Just get the first in talking, whatever, like, even if you talk for most of the meeting, as long as you end the call with them talking, they will feel good. You want to end on a high note is what they are most likely to remember about the call. Like I said, you could have been super awkward for the rest of the meeting. But if the end of the meeting ends with them talking and you listening, listening and listening and listening, maybe asking questions here or there just to show that you're listening, but not really talking. They are doing 95% of the talking. The people or person that you are with is 95% of the talking. If you do this strategy, people will like you more. It is a strategy that I use. I know this is a digital marketing podcast, but I think networking is a very important thing in digital marketing, actually. I've gotten crazy press mentions because I know how to network with people because people like me. They connect me with journalists or I meet journalists and they like me or I get partnerships and that leads to press, that leads to stories or I meet people who just share tricks with me. Why do they share tricks with me? It's because I'm really good at shutting the F up. I really am. I realize this when I was learning how to sell SEO 10 years ago, I was going to networking events every night tech networking events every night in York City trying to sell freelance SEO. This is before I was at a major company doing search engine optimization for some of the biggest companies in the world like Procter and Gamble or Nintendo. Before I did SEO from Microsoft, it is when I was just getting started and I needed to make money and I was going to tech networking events trying to sell freelance SEO. At first, I went and I talked about myself and I talked and I talked and I talked and I squocked and I squocked and I flapped my mouth and I learned through a hardship that people don't want to hear that. I mean, they want to hear it on the podcast and I'm very grateful for the people listening. I'm grateful to you for listening and watching, but meeting face to face or meeting over a video call or going for a walk or going for a meal is the other person who wants to do the talking. What I learned was to meet people and just very quickly show them it's okay to talk. I'm going to shut up and listen and people would like me more and then eventually people would get interested in what I had to say because they would talk and talk and talk and then they would know who they were talking to, but it took 20 minutes took 20 minutes for the people that I was meeting to talk themselves out and then it became my turn to speak and we could create more of a friendship more of a relationship that way and people remembered me more. I had more top of mind awareness for SEO. I actually sold SEO this way because when these people had friends who needed search engine optimization, they thought about the guy who listened to them and they recommended me and then when I talked to these people, I did the same thing and then actually I learned something more advanced about selling, which is be an asshole. It sounds crazy. One of the craziest lessons about sales that I learned is listen is very important, but showing that you don't care because you have so much business and I didn't do this deliberately. I'm very bad at lying. So actually I don't lie. It was when I was taking freelance clients when I had all this other work and I had so little time for freelance clients, but I would get on the phone with these people anyway and it was very clear that I was so booked and this would make people want me more because they could feel it for me and how could they feel it for me. I just noticed that I was being more of an asshole. I had less patience and for some reason people wanted me more. I could charge more. I didn't have to spend as much time with people. I have notices from myself all the time. I mean, this is kind of a law of life, supply and demand. The less supply that you have, the more demand that there is. It is kind of funny how when it rains, it pours, but even then when I was still kind of a bit arrogant because I was so booked, when it had all worked out and I was so booked, I still was very good at listening to people. It is still very important. And actually I'll say this, the most I talked was when I was the least booked. The most I talked was when I wanted to prove myself the most because I had the least going on. I think shutting up is a way to signal to other people that you're in demand because you know what, when you're in demand, you are going to listen, you are going to listen as soon as possible so you can find out if somebody is worth your time. When you're non-demand, you are going to talk as much as you can to try to prove yourself to other people. So I just really adore the method of shutting the F up and listening to other people. But sometimes talking gets the best of me and I find myself talking more than I should be talking. And when that happens, I shut up and especially towards the end of meetings. It is just something that has become a habit at this point, I do it so much. At the end of my meetings, I just get quiet. People don't really notice, except they notice themselves feeling better because they're talking more. And then you end every meeting on a high note, people like you more, they remember you more, you're more likely to get what you want and people are more likely to feel better. It is a total win-win. So if you're having a bad meeting, the title of this episode is do this to save bad meetings if you're having a bad meeting. If you notice that this meeting isn't going as well as you want it to be going, whatever you're meeting with, just shut the F up, start asking questions, shut the F up and listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. And then end the meeting around that time once the other person has talked a ton. It is actually a great way to be memorable. It is a great way to have other people like you. And it is a great way to make other people feel good themselves. And that's what I wanted to share today. Again, normally this is a digital marketing podcast. I love talking about networking. I love talking about making other people like you. I like the feeling that I get when other people are having fun talking to me. When other people are having fun around me. I love that. And I especially like sharing these things with other people as well. I'm lucky to have this podcast. I'm lucky to be able to get to talk to all of you like this. So I hope this was valuable. Let me know if you want me to make more episodes like this. I have so much fun sharing stories around meeting people, things that I've learned about how to talk to people, different tricks that I use actually before recording this podcast. I was doing my daily stretching and I sometimes I'm not in the mood to do the show. So what I did is while I was doing my 10 minutes daily stretching, I just started talking. I just opened myself up by talking, talking, talking. And then when the show started, I was already warmed up. That's the thing about meetings is the longer they go on, the more people warm themselves up to talking, then the more people want to talk. And so once the meeting has warmed up, if it's coming to an end, this one, the other person wants to speak the most. So let them do that. All right. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. This episode 382 of my daily show, I do this thing seven days a week. I came up with this episode as I was going on a bike ride an hour ago and I said, that's what I'm going to talk about today. And I will talk to you again tomorrow, bye now.
