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Success Advice

Don’t Pitch Straight Away: Show Value And Build Rapport First.

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Understanding this concept has helped me in business and in life.

Whether you like it or not, your existence on this planet is made up of a series of pitches. You pitch to get into school. You pitch to get a girlfriend. You pitch to get a job or start a business. You pitch to get married. You pitch to have kids etc.

What are so many of you doing wrong?

Blindly pitching like a cheap salesperson in a 1990’s infomercial, selling a magic sponge.

Start with rapport.

Example to start with:

You send me a blind message on LinkedIn.
You say to me that you have the best product in a particular field and you’d like to discuss it with me.
You make no reference to anything I’ve done or anything that shows you know me.
You use a generic pitch template that you’ve sent to lots of people before me.

What do I do when I see any message, on any platform that does any of these four things? I do what the majority do.

I delete your message, ignore you and never deal with you or your business again.

And the beauty? It takes less than one second to get rid of your message and delete you forever.

I’m not telling you this to be an a**hole; I’m telling you so that you’ll stop hurting your chances of success. You must always start with rapport before you pitch anything. Period.

How do you start with rapport Mr. Tim?

You start by sending a quick message that’s no more than nine sentences long.

• The message must have a paragraph every three sentences so it’s easily readable.
• You must sound human. Crack a joke, show empathy etc.
• You must respect the persons time.
• You must get to the point quickly.
• You must show you care and you’ve done your research on the person.

This list above helps to build some initial rapport and make you likable. Likable people go places in life and get to chat with people that are valuable to them.

“Rapport is always the first step, not the pitch. The pitch works once rapport exists”

I thought everyone knew this but I’ve learned recently that this is not well-known. Now it is, no excuses.

By using rapport, you create a bridge that allows ideas to flow between yourself and the person you’re trying to chat with and eventually pitch. Once that bridge is established, you have a way to get through to the person and get them to take action.

Show value first.

What do I mean? Value is such a broad thing to explain. In simple terms, value means to deliver something that can be beneficial to the other person. The aim is actually mutual value. That’s where you both win out of the interaction.

Showing value is straight-forward.

“First, you do your research on the person you want to pitch. Then you try and work out what’s important to them”

Let me give you an example:

The other day I went to meet with a very influential recruiter about looking at some career options. Everyone wants him to represent them and he knows every possible company you could ever dream of working for. The roles he works on are all high paying and his endorsement can change your career.

Rather than go in and pitch him on why I’m the best candidate since Steve Jobs created Apple, I did my research. I checked out his Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

I looked back on previous written correspondence we’d had. I worked out who initially introduced us to re-establish leverage and trust.

By doing my research, I took the following action:

– I didn’t wear a suit when I met him because his Twitter profile said he loves jeans
– I worked out where he was born (a place I’d been to) and talked about it
– I found a couple of highly influential people he didn’t know and offered an intro to them to drive revenue for his business
– I found one skill I had that he desperately needed (blogging and social media assistance)

The big pitch.

I arrived at the cafe early to meet the recruiter. I asked what he wanted and he requested a juice. Rather than just get him a bottle like any other monkey would, I asked him to take a seat (showing him I was paying) and spoke with the waitress to assess what juice options they had.

The waitress informed me that they had bottled juice and freshly squeezed juice. I told her that freshly squeezed would be great. Let’s stop there a second. Why did make the extra effort? Because demonstrating value involves showing that you care first. It’s the little details that count.

I finally took a seat and started with rapport building. I then created a sense of community by introducing several people we’d both worked with so things felt natural and like we were from the same flock.

I then spoke briefly about things that were personal to him to further demonstrate rapport.

Once all of that was out of the way, the execution was really easy. I’ll go slow.

I started by confirming that the thing I think he needed (social media advice) was something he wanted. I demonstrated using my phone, the ability to fulfill that need. I then offered (for free) to assist him with it if he wanted help.

The second part of the process was to see if the contact I thought he must know was valuable to him. He confirmed the contact was and I offered an intro which he gladly confirmed he wanted.

Then I came in with the pitch. Word for word, here’s what I said:

“Hey, I’ve got this small challenge that I’d love your advice on. I’m looking to reinvent my career and am looking to see what’s out there in the market, job wise. Where should I start?”

Now let’s take a minute to analyze this action. At this point, I’ve built rapport, given him access to a skill that I have which he wants, added one highly valuable contact to his network and made sure he has the best tasting juice to make his morning.

What do you think his response was?

He said the following:

“Tim, I think I can help you. It’s probably a good time to see what’s out there. Can you send me your resume and a few roles that interest you, and I’ll start chatting with a few contacts I know that I think will have roles that you’ll love.”

Rapport, tick.
Mutual value demonstrated, tick.
Sounding human, tick.
Simple, short, non-confronting pitch delivered, tick.

There’s one final step though: You have to actually do what you say you’re going to do. Getting someone all hot and sweaty over your pitch is useless if you don’t take action.

And taking action is not enough. The action needs to be swift.

So, what I did was ten minutes later, after arriving back at the office, I sent him an email and did the intro with everything that was promised. Execution is everything.

***Closing Thought***

Pitching straight away without doing any of the above is lazy. Lazy people end up failing at life and having huge regrets. You must show value and be in rapport with anyone you want to pitch. Putting in the extra time means fewer pitches and more successful results.

The people you are pitching to have limited time (so do you) and they can’t say yes to every request. Therefore, you need to take time to do it right. Otherwise, when you get turned down all the time, you have no one else to blame but yourself.

“Blindly sending messages that have a selfish pitch will get you nowhere”

It’s wasting your time and making you feel like crap. You can 10X your results with this simple pitch strategy. Try it and let me know how you go.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

Aussie Blogger with 500M+ views — Writer for CNBC & Business Insider. Inspiring the world through Personal Development and Entrepreneurship You can connect with Tim through his website www.timdenning.com

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Change Your Mindset

You Become What You Absorb: How Input Shapes Your Life

We let the world dictate who we spend time with and what input we allow in, rarely stopping to consider the effects it’s having on us

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How Input Shapes Your Life
Image Credit: Midjourney

“Input” is anything from the outside world that influences your mood, mindset, and emotional state. It includes the media you consume, the books you read, the podcasts and music you listen to, and the movies and shows you watch. But it also encompasses much more: the environment you live and work in, the conversations you have, the people you surround yourself with, and the events, personal or global, that unfold around you. (more…)

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This Overlooked Skill Drives Real Business Growth

It strengthens relationships, enhances decision-making, and fosters trust.

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In every successful leader’s toolkit, one skill stands out above the rest: the ability to listen. While good leaders are known for making confident decisions, great leaders understand that those decisions are only as strong as the information they’re based on. And that information? It comes from truly listening to their teams, peers, and even critics. (more…)

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Scale Your Business

Tired of Wasting Money on the Wrong Marketers? Here’s How Smart Entrepreneurs Are Finally Hiring Right

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truthmetric, burning money on marketing

If you’ve ever Googled how to hire a Facebook marketer or best TikTok marketing agency only to spend thousands on someone who couldn’t deliver…congrats, you’ve joined a very expensive club! For many entrepreneurs, hiring a digital marketer feels like more like visiting a casino and gambling with your runway, than it feels like securing a partner who’ll help build your business. Often,  it feels like you’re betting on a stranger to grow the dream you’ve poured your savings into.

And way too often, you lose that bet.

You don’t need another list of the “Top 10 Agencies” with five-star testimonials and polished logos. You need to know which marketer can actually drive results for your business. Not in theory. In practice.

This is where entrepreneurs are learning to pivot. And it’s why a new platform called TruthMetric.com is turning heads across the startup world.

Why Most Startups Burn Through 3–6 Marketers Before Finding the Right One

Here’s the hard truth: most startups don’t fail because of their product, they fail because they can’t get sales or sell it fast enough. And in trying to fix that, founders usually go through five or six marketers, burning tens of thousands before finding someone who truly knows how to convert.

You build your product, get your website live, maybe even launch an ad campaign. But when you search for help and look up how to “hire a YouTube ads agency” or “top Facebook ad expert for Shopify”, you get hit with a sea of shiny portfolios, “ninja” titles, and endless promises.

Three months later, you’re still waiting on your first profitable campaign, and you’re most likely out tens of thousands, feeling utterly defeated…and maybe grinning with an affinity for that upcoming boxing class with a picture of that marketer’s fac……nevermind.

If this sounds like you, it’s time for what one entrepreneur called a strategic shift to scale smarter, not harder.

Introducing TruthMetric.com: The Transparent Marketplace for Hiring Marketers Who Deliver

TruthMetric.com isn’t just another freelancer platform or agency directory. It’s the first hiring solution where you can see three years of real, verified marketing performance before spending a dime.

That includes:

  • Verified ad campaign performance
  • Actual return on ad spend (ROAS)
  • Industry-specific experience
  • Platform specialties (Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Google Ads, and more)

Whether you’re looking for a Facebook ads expert, a TikTok marketer, or a YouTube growth strategist, TruthMetric.com lets you filter and compare based on what actually matters, results.

This level of clarity is something you won’t find on platforms like Upwork or Fiverr. And it solves what many founders know too well as the New York Pizza Problem: where every marketer claims they’re “the best,” just like every pizzeria in Manhattan says they’re #1. Often without showing you results, you get sucked into this dream of collaboration, until the nightmare commences the moment you fork that first invoice payment. Hence the deception that leads to many business owners losing their hard earned savings and budget to launch their grand idea.

With TruthMetric, you finally get the data to decide for yourself, BEFORE you hire. Now if only New York Pizza shops had the same transparency then maybe you’d finally find the best pizza in New York, perhaps the perfect post work out after a boxing sesh? I think so!

Why Founders Are Shifting to Results-First Hiring

Most entrepreneurs think they need to do it all themselves, until they burn out or burn through their budget. That’s exactly why this founder had to drop the Superman complex and hire a marketing genius.

What makes TruthMetric so powerful is that it turns hiring into a confident move, not a hopeful one. You’re no longer guessing. You’re choosing from proven performers. You know what vertical they dominate. You know their past client performance. You see the monthly results from the campaigns they ran, and the outcomes they achieved.

It’s not just efficient. It’s empowering.

Scaling Quickly Requires Automation and Eliminating the Noise

Founders who scale quickly understand one thing: growth isn’t just about hustle, it’s about systems. TruthMetric is the system for finding great marketers at speed. No more DM’ing ten freelancers or interviewing agencies feeling like you are asking the world of them to just see some prior results. Instead you get to see the information you need to make an informed decision and plug into verified talent, all ready to perform.

This difference allows for you to match perfectly with the right talent quickly. If you’re building your business to run lean and fast, this convenience plugged in with automation can help you scale your small business right alongside your new marketing hires.

Why TruthMetric Is Also a Boon for Marketers, Not Just Founders

This isn’t just a win for founders, it is a gift for great marketers, too.

If you’re a freelance marketer who’s been quietly pulling 10x ROAS for clients while being passed over for flashy agencies, you now have a stage where your results speak louder than your brand.

TruthMetric is a true meritocracy. No fluff. No sales tricks. Just data.

If you’re tired of being overlooked and ready to stand out based on what you actually deliver, this is your home.

The Secret Weapon for Investors and M&A Operators

There’s another angle here that some of our readers might miss.

Investors, private equity firms, and M&A advisors should be drooling at the thought of having a proven talent pool they can plug and play and the ability to use TruthMetric to revive underperforming companies. Imagine acquiring a business or becoming an active investor, then dropping in a verified operator with a history of explosive growth in that niche.

It’s plug-and-play. Scale on demand.

That kind of insight has never been available before. You couldn’t do this on Upwork. You certainly can’t do it through a friend-of-a-friend referral. 

And when it comes to attracting high-performing talent, here’s how to hire top talent and keep them around.

Let’s Really Drive This Home…

If you’ve wasted money on agencies or freelancers who couldn’t deliver, it’s not because you’re bad at hiring, it’s because the game was stacked against you. Trusting dreamy charismatic sales pitches over data was a doomed approach from the start. 

TruthMetric levels the playing field by showing you what no other talent marketplace does and that’s proof.

Real marketers. Real results. Real growth.

It’s time to stop guessing and start hiring based on data.
Visit TruthMetric.com and make your next marketing hire the one that actually works.

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Personal Development

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