Silence from potential clients doesn’t mean no—it usually just means they’re busy.
Renee Hribar shares how to shift your mindset around follow up, moving away from the idea that you’re forcing attention and instead focusing on continuing the conversation. Through a simple yet powerful “front window” strategy, she demonstrates how spotlighting one clear offer can attract ideal clients, generate discovery calls, and lead to long-term projects.
This approach not only makes follow up easier but also transforms it into a natural part of building relationships and growing your business. By reframing your mindset and making one edit to your offers, you can start turning conversations into paying clients.
Transcript
Okay, so last week. Although I don't remember the last time I had one last week I shared about Sheila. That still feels like Sally sold seashells by the seashore. Anyways, so the story I told you last week was about Sheila, the bookkeeper, and I'll be honest, I got lots of responses. Thank you. I really appreciate it when you share the podcast and I really, really, really appreciate it when you leave a review, uh, that is so helpful to get this out to more ears.
ght finally be able to crack [:All different kinds of good things can happen when you just follow through on the conversation. the responses I got last week were a lot of like Me too. And it feels like you were describing me. Well, it's because I've talked to a lot of people and as much as we all believe our story is so unique and there are unique pieces, we all suffer from very much the same themes.
And so. One person in particular though really stood out to me and she got me thinking about what to do. You know, it's dangerous when I start thinking right about what to do if you've been following up and making offers, but no one is jumping in. Dun dun. You're following up Renee. I am following up.
You're [:That's how things work. I love that about us. So let me work with you on this. So she's like Renee. I feel like when I follow up, I'm forcing people to pay attention to me in a way that they don't wanna give me. Their attention. I mean, does that sound familiar? Right. You feel like when you're following up, you're sort of forcing attention?
could go weeks, but I don't [:I just. She probably picked up her phone, saw it, and was like, I'm gonna text her back in a minute. And then whoosh was taken down the river of life and all of the things that are pulling at us. And so when I send another text, I'm not like, oh my goodness, I'll just send another text.
I won't even necessarily say, Hey, do you want to answer that question above? I might often just send a. Totally separate question or totally separate. Mostly it's memes that we share. Let's be honest, that's our communication. Different weird things we see on the internet. So I don't even need to necessarily nudge her.
Like I don't wanna be like, Hey, just wanted to ask you again the same question that I asked you already, but no, uh, what, what I usually do is what I teach people to do anyway, even though it's not always your friend you're talking to, which could just be someone who is a colleague or a peer. And the reality is, is that I wanna ask a different question a lot of times.
So here's how it goes. It is [:I'll grab all of it, or, Hmm, parts of that feels like me. I'll take some of it and put it into action. That's why I always make the action steps as streamlined and simple as possible. Because the real transformation comes when we work together, most likely. most people aren't going to be able to do a self-guided tour through sharpening their sales skills, at least not to the same speed that they could if you were in one of my programs or courses or working with me privately.
ttention to, and it is about [:What do I do, Renee? I'm about to tell you. Don't worry, I've held you up enough. Here it is. It's one edit. Honestly, it's one edit. I'm gonna use this one example here. So I have a client. She is so smart. Like so many of you listening, she can do so many things. She's like, what do you need? You need a website?
I got you. Oh, you want a social media campaign? Written and created and and published. No problem. Oh, ads. Perfect. Google ads. Meta ads. What do you need ads for? I, I can run ads Funnels. Perfect. What platform do you need to funnel on? You need it on ClickFunnels funnel. Gorgeous. You need it on high level.
t giving her advice, but the [:So that's what put us together, and I'm so. So glad, so jazzed is what I wanna say, but I felt like that was gonna date me. But whatever I am, I am the age I am. I was so jazzed because I really, really, really love what she does and I respect what she does. So here's what we did. This one edit when she was saying, 'cause she was consistent, she was doing consistent follow through and she was consistently saying, Hey listen, you can just book a call to talk more about that.
But people weren't taking her up on it. Here is what we did. Instead of saying, Hey, I can help you with websites and social media and ads and funnels and email sequences and SMS campaigns and AI builds. What do you need? Because that, it's a lot. I mean, I think you can see the problem already, right?
can relate to the fact that [:You know the ones with the big display windows. I want you to think about what you might feature in that front window during a set. Timeframe. So whether that's a week or 10 days or 30 days, what is that timeline, that timeframe that you can feature? One thing. Now, as soon as I recommend this to people, they immediately go, oh, well, if I put my website in the front window, then my social media, my ads, my funnels, my email sequences, my SMS campaigns, my AI builds, they're all gonna be.
Put to the side. I'm like, well, it doesn't matter right now because no one's taking you up on anything. But I mean, that's what I wanna say. But what I say instead is, well, you're not stopping them from buying those things. You're just giving everyone one thing to chew on one thing to see and go, oh, I need that.
Oh, that's what I [:Right now at the point, her business is right now, if she got 50 new clients in one month, it would put her outta business so. We don't want that. We want two new clients a month right now. That's what she's like. Yeah, two new projects a month would be fantastic because she does know how to follow through and keep inviting people, but getting them in, getting fresh new clients in that are paying her at a higher rate as her expertise has grown across all of all the areas that she's great at.
its timeframe. Its spotlight [:I'm like, if you could just riff on all the things that you see people are doing wrong with their websites, how many things could you tell me? Could you talk, could you talk about it for like. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. She's longer hours. How much time you got? I'm like, okay, so here is what I want you to do.
Open up your phone. I always say get the Otter app. I'm not sponsored by Otter. I just use it. I'm just a customer. I open it up. I don't even, it's free. I'm pretty sure. I think there's a paid version. It doesn't matter. I otter like, uh, the animal ai. Just download it on your phone. You can use it anywhere. I am very.
A DHD. So I need to move so I, my brain can smooth out. So I'm walking a lot and thinking and talking to myself. I know it doesn't sound surprising at all. I'm basically talking to myself right now. You're, you're listening at the moment, but I'm alone right now. There's no one around. It's just me and my microphone.
you know that, it's kind of [:She created a, a transcript that was like, I don't even know, I think it was 38 minutes now. I did not listen to it all. I don't need to. We have AI workflows for that. So she was able to pull out an email for her email list. She also has, a LinkedIn newsletter, which as we know, doesn't capture a lot of data.
bsite. I had her go and do a [:Then she went back, we did a third layer of this to everybody she had spoken to and said, listen, I'm focusing on demystifying SEO and websites. I am opening up three spots. This is personal dms by the way, so there it's not a mass thing. She did I think like, I don't know, 10 ish. I'm open, I'm focused on websites.
For the next two weeks, I'm looking to demystify websites. I've got three spots open where I'm gonna do a free one-on-one website evaluation. Do you want one of these three or do you wanna give one to a friend or a client? Every single one of those three was taken up. I don't know how long it took her. A couple days maybe.
away, just from the dms. Now [:Those are in essence discovery calls. Hey, let's look at your website. Okay. Lemme give you some homework. All right. Here, let's come back in a couple days and let's see how you did. Oh, I can't do it. Okay, great. Do you wanna hear what it might look like for me to start that with you? Sure. Okay. Well, let's book up a strategy session.
Let's get that all mocked up, and then we'll do a VIP day, and then we'll go from there. Now that client, let's say one of those people turns into a VIP day for their website edits. Let's call that three grand. And then if you're working with me, you're not gonna be like, cool, thanks. Bye. Not only does she do lots of things, and if you don't, that's fine.
you can do them. I mean, you [:Through multiple touch points. I call them progress opportunities, next steps, meetings that you have with your existing clients that those lead to the next project, even if it's a few months down the road, they're always either paying you for an upcoming project. So again, the first VIP day was three grand.
In this case. I'm hypothesizing here, but this is 'cause it's happened so often. Okay, you need four more VIP days over the course of the next eight months. Let's book those now and then that person can just start paying in a monthly installment for those other VIP days. They don't have to pay one price to get that bundle.
, unquote, just VIP days. So [:It opened up so many options. And guess what? The next, the next timeframe in the front window will be something else. So it'll be, let's say her social media that she offers, and then the next front window rotation could be all about ads, and she'll do the same process for funnels, email sequences, SMS campaigns and AI builds.
thing as the starting point [:Again, knowing that it's a long game. We're not just coming in to fix one thing. We're gonna start. With that one thing, knowing that it'll be more and more and more over time, and so I just can't say it enough. You have so much opportunity all around you, so if you have been thinking that following up is forcing attention and you've been following up and still making offers and still not getting leads or people to follow through and buy from you, there are ways through this.
I, I, I just can't say it enough. I want you to make money, okay? That's what this is all about. You are, you have a particular set of skills. You are in business. It's time to make money. So here's my action step for you today. I want you to reframe the story in your head. The next time you hesitate on following up, I want you to say to yourself, I'm not pushing.
versation. And then consider [:It doesn't mean no. And if you can remember that that following up gets you a lot closer than you were before and it gets a lot easier over time, then you are going to do great. That's it for today. Reframe the story. Send the follow through messages, make things time bound and specific in your front window.
You have a new thing. You can do that one edit. Instead of talking about it all, choose one and let's do this. Let's make some money.
