576: Locate Your Ideal Client Through Relationships, Pillars, and Mentor Moments with Lee Richter

Speaker 1 0:00 Marketer of the day. Episode 576, locate your ideal client through relationships, pillars and mentor moments with Lee richer Hey

Robert Plank 0:09 everyone, and welcome back to the marketer of the day podcast. We're chatting with Lee Richter, and Lee has spent more than 30 years building dynamic and community driven businesses, and her unique vision and systems create massive results, multi million dollar companies, hundreds of jobs, and she offers education to 1000s of people all over the world. And Lee is a speaker, best selling author, a forward leading thinker, and she's gonna tell us all about what she does, how she does it, and we're gonna go in lots of interesting places. So glad to be talking to you. Lee,

Lee Richter 0:42 yes, I'm happy to be here with you. Thank you.

Robert Plank 0:45 You're very welcome. So, I mean, what's on your mind these days? I know you have a ton of things going on. You have the vet stuff. I mean, what's your focus these days?

Lee Richter 0:57 That's a good question. Actually, recently, I noticed that I was focused on relationships, that I went into an hour speech, and when I looked at my notes, I had one word on the page, and it was relationships, and that's my focus.

Robert Plank 1:12 Okay, so what does that mean? Exactly.

Lee Richter 1:16 That means that when I am wanting to connect with my ideal client and my ideal tribe or audience. I think of the way that we build our relationships together, and the more we build our relationships, the more we know like and trust each other and want to do business with each other.

Robert Plank 1:35 All right. I mean, I agree with you there that that know like and trust aspect is really important. But then, sort of, my, I don't know, my difficulty with the whole relationship building is a lot of it seems like it's, I'm not sure if a waste is the right term, but it seems like a lot of work, and sometimes the results are iffy. So I mean, do you kind of see what I'm saying here?

Lee Richter 1:57 Absolutely. I think, you know, in my early 20s, someone taught me how to look at relationships in my life as a diagram where there's four quadrants, 123, and four. And honestly, it comes down to, there's only so much time you have in life and spend it with the ones

Robert Plank 2:19 Nice. So don't waste your time on those, those fours and less on the threes and the twos. Actually,

Lee Richter 2:25 it's a little less dramatic. I think it's more sometimes there's a connection for a moment and maybe a mentor moment that's exchanged, or something that's really good in the moment. Doesn't mean it has to be forever,

Robert Plank 2:36 okay? Yeah, fair enough. I mean, I, for sure, had had mentors and like, you know, business relationships and things like that, where it was good in the moment it got me to where I needed to go. But definitely was not forever. Yeah,

Lee Richter 2:51 sometimes it's just a little strike of clarity that that makes the inner action worthwhile.

Robert Plank 2:57 So do you have any interesting stories along those lines to jump into, to kind of hammer in the point and get us inspired to maybe be on the lookout for these kind of relationships that are good, but not forever.

Lee Richter 3:10 Absolutely, I personally call them mentor moments. I think people connect with me. Sometimes we're together for eight hours in a in a workshop or some sort of educational seminar or relationship building exercise. And what I notice is, when we have that connection, if we're looking for, you know, we resonate with what we're looking for. So if we are very focused on what we want, then the people in the room that resonate at that frequency will magnetically and no matter what find you in the room. And so just let it happen and be authentic. And you know, if you're ready to be a thought leader, if you're resonating at the connection of being a thought leader others, it's almost like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. They just appear. You see them, even if other people don't see them, you do. And I think what you focus on you become. And I know some of it's from the secret, and I know some of it's from people acknowledging their route to that end result, but to me, it's just the path that makes the most sense for me to just go to what I do want. So I'm really focused on creating that reality. Yeah, I

Robert Plank 4:21 mean, I'm right there with you, and I think that there's probably also some component of that red car syndrome, right? Like, it's like, if you never see a red car in the street, but then you buy a red car, and then all you see are red cars all around you, but you didn't, you just were noticing them before, and so, so, yeah, it's, it's like, if you, if you, if you're looking for something, then you're going to be finally open to these things that maybe were all around you, but now you finally perked up and looked at them. And what I'm hearing, also from what you're mentioning here, is just how important it is to to have these goals and know what you want. Because it just, it seems to me, like maybe a lot of people. Don't really have goals, or don't have good goals, or don't know what they want, and that sounds really scary. What do you think?

Lee Richter 5:06 I think that's true. I think what happens is, if we think about it as mentor moment is, what do we need to know right now to just get to the next step doesn't have to be the full on goal. Maybe it's just the next step towards that goal. My husband wants me to eat vegan. So I always said, well, one meal per day, I'll try vegan for right now. Let me step into it and see what it feels like, and not be so fully committed that I feel right away. But instead, try it on and see how I like it. If I like it, I'll do more. So another example is, you know, just being clear with noticing mentors on the way and when you do, take that moment and see how you want to apply it at a decision point in your life. But being exposed to that information puts you in the know rather than the unknown. And I think it's important to just pay attention to your path and what you want, and just look at the clues. The clues will appear. You've put them in place for yourself, almost in a way. And I think if you're clear on the path, you'll have mentors that show up to help guide you on the path. Open. Yeah, yeah.

Robert Plank 6:08 I mean, I like that a lot, especially that advice of just do one thing, just take that next step. Because it's easy to get overwhelmed, and it's easy to say, well, have all the stuff in front of me. And, I mean, why even start right? I mean, I think about, you know, like I might have hundreds of podcast interviews to do at some point, but if I just do one at a time, that's doable. Or it's like that advice of, you know, you've always thought about going back to school. Well, don't get overloaded with all the years you're gonna have to attend and going all these classes and homework and tests and and tuition and all that, just maybe get a catalog from that college. So that way you can kind of take that first step. Or if you're if you want to get a house or a car, don't get overloaded, just get a brochure, just get a flyer or something. So that way you can ease yourself into that. So I mean this, this makes me wonder, so have you had moments in your your life and your business career and things like that, when you really had a real, this kind of dark point, and you're you're about to give up, and you found your way out of it?

Lee Richter 7:15 Um, yes, and I paid attention to the clue, and it took me in a whole different way. So instead of being rigid in the way I thought it should have been, I then was at a decision point where I'm like, Okay, I'm just gonna go with the flow and see where it takes me. And it took me to something bigger and better than I ever imagined. And it took me actually, to a mentor moment. May I share that mentor moment with you? Heck yeah, please. Excellent. Um, it was somebody running $100 million company. And it comes back to your first question to me, which was, when you want a mentor to show up and help you, and you're resonating at that, how do you even know the right question to ask? Right How do you know the pathway to go? And in this person, he was running $100 million company, and I was watching all these people going up to him and kind of pitching their idea of how they should be doing business together. And at the end of a few days, he came to me and said, I really need to talk to you. And I said, Okay, I'd like to, I'd like to pursue, maybe having a collaboration. I was, like, so surprised. And he said, you're like, the only one who didn't come up and ask me for anything. And I said, Yeah, I couldn't even see where that connection was, but he did, and he was really honorable with it. And during that time, I asked him, when you're in the room and people are pitching you all of these ideas, how do you know which ones to say yes to if there's all these opportunities, right? Because the more successful you get, the more opportunities that appear, because you're resonating at that level. And so he's like, Well, I go with one purpose, one focus. And when people come up and they say something in that code. In that time he was building funnels. So if he said the word funnel, he's like, Oh, I'm talking to you more, because he was building his brand. And he said, when someone came up, and I was talking funnel, I was talking more. But in that moment when anything else I had to think of, who else could I send them to to get the next step done? And he had pillars in place, and you would refer to them and say, This person needs your help in this place. Will you help them? And they had a program in place and actually got them through that next loop. And because they did, they had a mentor looking out for what they needed for the next step. And I think that that is really the best thing a mentor can do, is shine a light on the next step.

Robert Plank 9:19 Okay, great. And so, so it's, it sounds like it's super duper important to have that mentor. And then as far as focus, like you said, so you have that you have that focus. And then if the if the things coming at you, whether those are people pitching you or new ideas or whatever they are, if they don't align with that focus, then maybe don't pay as much attention to those things or tuning them out. But then if they are speaking in that code, then dial that up and pay more attention to that. So how do you balance the like,

Lee Richter 9:50 Oh, if they speak the same language, we have this more conversation. If they don't, they're turned over to a pillar who's an expert in helping them towards the path. Of getting that accomplished. So it doesn't shut them down. It actually gives them the next step. It gives them the opportunity to take one step towards their goal of actually accomplishing that.

Robert Plank 10:10 So when you say pillar, what does that mean? Exactly? Are you saying but you're referring them to someone else who's better suited in the area. Or what's a pillar means?

Lee Richter 10:18 A pillar is somebody who's already shown an expertise in that area that maybe is the teacher of the people in that class. I'm in a mastermind that has a lot of leaders like that in it, and each one of them is the leader of a community, but they come to us, and they can be them, you know, we support each other, and one of them wrote a book ready to be a thought leader. And I think what happens is, it makes us think. It makes us it challenges us to think about the other side or the other position.

Robert Plank 10:49 Okay, well, cool. So, um, so, yeah. So, so we need to to have these mentors, we need to have these thought leaders. We need to have focus. We need to have goals and so like, what sorts of things, what sort of like, actual, like, businesses have you been setting up these last few years?

Lee Richter 11:07 That's a great question. Thank you for asking. I actually, during this year, in May of 2018 I am so surprised that I sold a business for more than eight figures, and it's something that I built, and I'm rebuilding again in another industry. I'm really close to doing the same thing, if not better. And what happens is, is I enjoy finding those pillars that people are really great at whatever their passion is, and sharing that with people who really want that and resonate with it. And so right now, I'm doing it holistic vet care. My husband is the lead veterinarian@holisticvecare.com and we have a bricks and mortar place on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, and building a brand around integrative medicine for pets. And it's a big calling and supporting him on his calling. And it's definitely one of my pet projects, as it were. And I love connecting people with rescues and organizations are coming to me saying, I want to help you do that. And that makes me really happy, not only being a thought leader in the pet industry, but doing something that's good for humankind and pet kind of like,

Robert Plank 12:20 yeah, it takes all the boxes, right? It's like you you you can make the money, you can solve a problem and use that, that entrepreneur part of your brain, and, you know, combine things, but then also it has that big impact, that lasting effect. It helps people. So when you say, this is integrative medicine for pets. What does that mean exactly?

Lee Richter 12:43 So we're putting eastern and western medicine together. So we're adding a lot of Chinese herbs and acupuncture chiropractic. We actually do things with hyperbaric oxygen, and we're just helping pets have a healthier life. Integrating holistic approaches that up until now have not been part of the discussion as much as they should be.

Robert Plank 13:06 Okay, great. And what you reminded me here is of is a about 10 years like, I have a cat here who he wasn't. He was doing really bad health. He had all kinds of like, flus and viruses, and he was hospitalized for a couple of weeks, and he's still alive and healthy now, but when he was he was just about on death's door, and they were trying everything with them. They were trying to even acupuncture with them. And this was 10 years ago, and I was blown away. I was like, whoa. I had no idea that acupuncture was even a thing to use on animals, and so is this like? So I'm imagining that this, is this like on, I guess. How do I say it? Is this like, like voluntary, or is this like in an emergency situation?

Lee Richter 13:53 Oh, well, interestingly enough, it's all throughout the life cycle. So it could be preventative medicine, and looking at ways to extend and have a healthy life break from the beginning, it could be creating good habits for the family and for the pet, because we speak for our pet when we feed them, we speak for our pet when we exercise them. You know, whatever we do they do, right? So, or whatever we set up that they do. And when we think about being their advocate, we do the best for them. We might as well do the best for ourselves. So it's integrated for our family as well. But integrative health care for pets is holistic and general practice together. What's the best way of looking at it in both Eastern and Western what's the best way to approach it? And my husband gives some really great examples, and we have some YouTube videos I could share with the audience around him, teaching you know that exact philosophy of paying attention and connecting and knowing which is the best choice, Eastern or Western or combination. Okay,

Robert Plank 14:54 yeah. I mean, are you able to easily drop a link to those videos right here as we're talking?

Lee Richter 15:01 I can't say that I am at this moment, sorry.

Robert Plank 15:03 Okay, or is there like, an easy, like, keyword or channel to search, at least?

Lee Richter 15:09 Let's see I can put it on my go ask lead page. I'll make sure that they get on there today. I'll do links to YouTube videos for you. Okay,

Robert Plank 15:15 fair enough. And then so as you're explaining some of this stuff, like, you know, like the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and chiropractic for pets. Do you ever get, I don't know, like, like, laughed at a little bit. And I mean, I mean no disrespect, but, like, I really love to to pamper my cat. He's my baby. And I mean, even to the point where I got one of those, uh, like, one of those pet strollers, like, do you put a chihuahua in and I put him in there, and sometimes walk him around the block, because I just, I want to, you know, give him the best life possible, but sometimes I get laughed at. So do you ever get just a little bit of, I don't know, like people are a little like, confused or kind of weirded out by by this sort of advanced pet care?

Lee Richter 15:59 I'd say our clients that come to see us just love us for who we are and how we show up and how we help their pets. We definitely have taken some cases that other doctors have given up on, and even given time limits, 369, months. And you know, we've surpassed that and help their pet. But our number one thing is if we can help with some pain management when they need it, either before after surgery or due to old age or, you know, senior pets need different care than puppies do so and kittens do so, paying attention to those things and being able to adjust them and help you know where they are and what they need, just like we do with humans. Humans go to their acupuncture or their chiropractor and they tune up in whatever way that works for them. And you know, we're advocate for our pets to do the same thing. And I will say when we see the pet chiropractor before and after surgery, the pets definitely do not need as much pain medicine and recover much quicker, because those things were paid attention to before a dog has surgery, so adding that little bit in can really shorten the time it takes for them to recover. Just knowing those little things can make a really big difference in decision making, especially when it's not about the money, but it's about the best care.

Robert Plank 17:15 Yeah, that's awesome. It's it's good to know that there are additional options out there, especially as those pets get older. And so have you been doing other than the YouTube have you been doing anything as far as the internet marketing of the business to get extra attention on it?

Lee Richter 17:35 For holistic vet care we are going to visit that we're we're actually in the process of adding some leadership team members and a little bit of more marketing team effort as well and support there. So the next quarter, we'll visit that more and see what works best to serve our community. Super

Robert Plank 17:54 cool. So you have the the vet care, and it sound like you have all kinds of other businesses going on, so you have an easy way of telling us about a couple of those other fun ventures you've had lately.

Lee Richter 18:07 Sure I'd be happy to we also have the pet concierge, which is our education center for people who love their pets. We have people come on site in person. We have some people come through other ways, whether it's a zoom call or even a Skype call. And what we do is we share from the experts mentor moments on how to best take care of your pet. And while we're doing that, we'll be making also some YouTube videos that we'll be updating. We're holistic vet care. We're in Oakland, California, and it's holisticved care.com and what I'll do is have the team keep updating the YouTube channel and adding things. We have so many videos, and next week we'll have about 40 hours with a video guide just to focus on it. So we'll make some things happen in the next week that'll be super fun,

Robert Plank 18:57 awesome, well, exciting stuff. So in all your years and your travels and everything, you think there's something that you do really well in your business that other people aren't doing. Is it a matter of like, persistence or putting in the time or being dedicated? Or what would you say is your magic, your secret sauce?

Lee Richter 19:16 Oh, I'm so glad you asked that. That's so smart. And I can't wait to hear yours one day too, if not today. What I think my secret sauce is paying attention to my mentors and paying attention to things I learn and how I feel, and sometimes when I feel triggered, figuring out what that is and working through it so I can let it go and just evolving and paying attention. You know, I think a lot of it comes down to paying attention. So I attribute a lot to my mentors and people in my life. They either, you know, had me look at things because I enjoyed them, or looked at things because I was going to learn from them, and paying attention to the clues. And, you know, really being grateful to my mentors already. Eight and always making sure that they know. I noticed that point of reference as soon as I figure it out. You know, sometimes it takes a week, sometimes a month, maybe a year. Sometimes it doesn't take more than 10 years. I want to say it doesn't it. Sometimes it does take more than 10 years to really realize lessons learned, and when you look back, you could see some clues and break breadclub bread crumbs as well. It becomes obvious when you look in that rear view mirror and you're seeing clearly that you know, the clues along the way. So I like to pay attention and notice them in the moment and go, Aha, I'm paying attention. I'm going to go that way with confidence. And I feel supported and looking for the people like Denise who wrote ready to be a thought leader, or, you know, paying attention to beyond entrepreneurship and breakthrough advertising from Gene Schwartz, like paying attention to how they paid attention teaches me how to ask the right questions. Paying attention to how they see the world helps me see the world a little differently, and I think that helps my experience as a human Yeah, it comes to these relationships. You know, right from the beginning, every one of them has built an importance in my life, and it's because of that connection and relationship.

Robert Plank 21:32 I mean, I can relate to a heck of a lot of that in in paying attention and knowing when things are working and knowing when things aren't working. I mean, you think about, I was just thinking this morning about how things like Uber like the idea where you just take your phone out, push a button, a car comes to you. I mean, why hadn't anyone thought of that before, or Netflix or stream movies over the internet? I mean, such a simple idea, and it's just a matter of paying attention and seeing where the disconnect is, and then that whole idea of paying attention, I mean, it applies in a lot of ways, right? Because there's the paying attention as far as well, what business do I need to create to solve this problem? There's paying attention as far as, how is my mindset, my my health, my motivation, doing and paying a lot of attention to myself. And so what I'm hearing a lot from from you, is that it's really important to be curious, to have that curiosity and always be reading and researching, and not just stuck in the same old zombie patterns, not just watching the same old TV shows, reading new books, meeting new people, and, you know, not just getting stuck in those same patterns. It's a really scary place to be. And yeah, Eugene scorch, breakthrough advertising. I read that about maybe 15 years ago, when it was out of print, I had to go to a library and find it. But yeah, just as far as looking at all of those, like the the winning ads and seeing all like, kind of getting into his mindset. I mean, yeah, that's huge. And you always hear about that advice of like, sometimes to like, just read biographies or autobiographies of famous and successful people, to get into their head, so that way you can notice and think the same way that they noticed. I mean, that's huge right there. And then to to answer your question on me, as far as what has helped me a lot, my secret sauce is to break down the steps. If I had some huge steps, huge task in front of me, I break down, like, what are just the minimum number of things I need to do? Or what of the what are the smaller, manageable pieces to get there, but, but, yeah, I think that we all need to remind ourselves to pay attention and be grateful. As you said,

Lee Richter 23:48 I love it. I love that we agree on 100% of everything you just said, Heck,

Robert Plank 23:53 yeah, because I mean, why fight it? It's the best advice in the world. It's the most proven stuff, right? It's the Think and Grow Rich sort of stuff where it's like, okay, well, you can find it, but fighting it equates to being one of those people that's miserable and doesn't want to try things, and who wants to be that, right? Why make it harder on yourself? Why not follow along on that, that path to success? So I mean, yeah, we heard a lot of stuff from me today about just that, importance of taking those steps, having those relationships, having those pillars, having those mentors, connecting with those ideal clients, having the mentor moments, deciding what we want, being authentic, paying attention, and I'm sure that people want to know about all these things that you have going on. So can you tell us about a good place where people can look you up and stay in touch and just hear about all the projects and advice you have?

Lee Richter 24:50 Well, I will say YouTube would be the first place to start, because my team is paying attention and sharing things there, and I am too. I'm, you know, so hard to. To be on video sometimes, but it's so real and in the moment. And the thing I do is I love sharing the gifts of other people, just like you. I mean, the beauty of what you're doing here is you're allowing people to just, you know, be themselves and share the things that are learning, opportunities for them that might, you know, help your audience as well. And I think that is very generous, and where people can meet me, I think best is my LinkedIn, or, you know, I hate to say Facebook and LinkedIn, because that sounds so dated when my daughter's now all over Instagram and everything is Instagram this and then and Snapchat that. So since my team's at YouTube, I guess we want to build up the subscribers there, and I should be very confident as a PR marketing person. And it's interesting because you as my client, I'm confident all day long, exactly the first step and second step and third. And I'm a clear example of it's hard to do it for ourselves, and we have to have experts do it for us. And so what I do is I create the team of experts to get the job done, and they're doing it for me right now too. And it's funny for me to be the client sometimes, but it's also a really great learning opportunity for me to see what it feels like to be the client when it's sometimes not in our natural best interest to want to feel that that's the thing to do. So marketing is the driver, though, and the more we as an entrepreneur do 80% of our job as marketing and connecting and having high level conversations and resonating at a place where you can make a positive impact on the world. That's where I am as a CEO. Is wanting to do more of that. I love it,

Robert Plank 26:40 and we should all be doing more of that. And that's really great. Really great lesson that you had in there of find a way to make it work. If you can't figure it out yourself or your block for some reason, then hire someone or hire a team to do it. It's always easy to look at someone else's business and do the work or see what needs to be changed, but then looking at at your own is sometimes difficult, and sometimes you just need to hire that, that coach, that mentor, that worker, whoever, to jump in and do it for you. So that way it just gets done. Somehow it doesn't matter if you got it done or someone else got it done. What matters is that it it happens. So so, yeah, make sure that we also focus on doing that 80% marketing, because it's also easy to get stuck in the cave and to be just hunkering down and working on that business or working on that book or that project, but and forget that it's also important to talk ourselves up, and that's maybe awkward and uncomfortable and unnatural at first, but if we can Remember to spend 80% of our time on the marketing, then a lot of problems will be solved. We'll get the traffic, we'll get the attention, we'll get the PR so really important lessons there, and make sure everyone to look up Lee Richter on LinkedIn and Facebook. That's first name Lee, L, E, E, last name Richter R, I, C, H, T, E R, just like the Richter scale, and just like Andy Richter. So thanks Lee for stopping by and for sharing a lot of these insights with us. I really appreciate it.

Lee Richter 28:08 Thanks and truly my pleasure. Thank you.

Robert Plank 28:11 Heck yeah. Thank you too. Do you want a podcast like this one? Well, what's been holding you back. What if it was easy and you had someone to help you get it going? Check out. Done For You. Podcasting.com where we'll handle some or all of your podcasts, set up, production, marketing and more. See you soon. At done for you. Podcasting.com