EMMA: [00:00:00] If business has gone quiet for you, I might have a tactic to help you. Hello, hello, and welcome back to Tea with the Queen. I have a question for you today. When you turn the tap on in your business What happens? Now, I know that sounds like a really funny question, and you might even be thinking, "Emma, what on earth are you talking about?"
But stay with me, because I think, I think this might become one of my favorite ways to think about business development. You see, I hear the same thing almost every week, "Emma, I need more leads. Emma, sales have gone quiet. Emma, I don't have any clients. Emma, I don't know where my next client is coming from."
They're all saying the same thing. Business feels like it has slowed down. The pipeline has gone a little bit quiet. And I used to answer those questions by talking about marketing, especially in my community. Now I answer them with one simple question, [00:01:00] "What happens when you turn the tap on?" Because every business has taps.
Some women know exactly what they are, where they are, some have forgotten, and some don't even realize they have them. So today I wanna help you find yours. Does that sound like fun? One of the women I coach is in the legal industry. She is part of a small group of coaching clients, and she jumped into one of our small group coaching client calls very recently and she said, "Emma, I need another couple of bookings this month."
Now, I could have given her 20 different marketing ideas. Instead, I asked her, "Have you sent your referral newsletter?" She smiled at me and she said, "No." And I said, "What normally happens when you send it?" And she said, "I usually get bookings." So I said, "Why haven't you sent it?" And she laughed. She laughed because there wasn't really any good reason.
So she wrote it while we were on the call, and she pressed send. [00:02:00] Do you know what happened next? Ta-da. The next day she got two bookings with more inquiries coming through. Nothing magical happened. She simply turned her tap on. Another client of mine runs a successful consultancy, and she also subcontracts to another organization, and when she wants to increase her income, she doesn't spend six months building a brand-new offer.
She simply lets them know she's available for more hours. She turns the tap on. Simple, predictable, reliable. Yeah. I know. Sounds simple, huh? We need to stop looking for new taps. And that's when it hit me. Maybe every successful business has taps. A tap is simply an activity that has already proven it can bring opportunities into your business.
Not something you hope will work, not something a guru on Instagram told you to do, something that has already [00:03:00] worked. Because here's what I see. The minute business slows down, we start looking for shiny new taps. "I should probably start a TikTok. I should probably do a webinar. I should launch a podcast."
I mean, you should launch a podcast, but anyway. "I probably need a funnel." Yeah, maybe, but before you build anything else, before you build another tap, have you actually turned on the ones you already have? That question has shaped the way I now coach, especially with my one-on-one clients and my Thriving Women clients.
Now, what counts as a tap? This is something that's really important. Being busy is not the same as turning the tap on. Let me say that again, just for those in the back. Being busy is not the same as turning the tap on. You can spend hours updating your website. You can spend hours changing your branding, rewriting your bio, making Instagram reels, perfecting Canva graphics.
Do I need to go on? If those things don't consistently create opportunities, [00:04:00] they're not taps. They're just activities. A tap has one job. When you turn it on, ch-ch-ch-ch-ch, business flows. I reckon there are four, four different kinds of taps. Number one, relationship taps. These are often the quickest because trust already exists.
Sending a referral newsletter, calling a past client, checking in with someone you met six months ago, following up an old proposal, asking a happy client if they know someone who you could help. Number two, visibility taps. Speaking at an event, being interviewed on a podcast, running a podcast, running a workshop, writing a LinkedIn article, sharing a client success story, helping more people know that you exist.
Number three, invitation taps. Inviting someone for coffee, inviting people to your webinar, inviting people to your networking event, inviting people to your list, into your community, inviting someone just to have a [00:05:00] conversation. Sometimes people simply need some way to say yes. And finally, number four, generosity taps.
These are my favorite. Introducing two people to each other, promoting another woman's business, sharing someone else's event, helping someone solve a problem, doing a little bit of business development for someone else. We call it sneaky BD. I have watched generosity come back around for years. You don't do it expecting something in return But it has an incredible way of creating momentum for you and most importantly, for others.
Let's build a tap map. Now, I want this to be really practical. I don't want you to finish this episode thinking, "That was a nice idea." No, I want you to finish knowing exactly what to do. So I'd love you to create what I call a tap map. Grab a piece of paper, and at the top write "My business taps." [00:06:00] Now list every single thing that has consistently brought clients into your business.
Not the things you think should work, not the things everyone else is doing, the things that have actually worked Then answer these five questions. What's my fastest tap? If I needed an inquiry this week, which tap would I turn on? Two, what's my highest value tap? Three, which one tends to bring me my best clients or my biggest projects?
Four, what's my easiest tap, the one that takes the least time, money, or effort? What's my forgotten tap, the one that worked beautifully before, but I haven't touched it in months? And finally, which tap am I going to turn on this week? Not five, not 10, just one, because action creates momentum. Imagine if every Friday afternoon you looked at your tap map and asked yourself one [00:07:00] question, "Have I actually turned a tap on this week?"
Can you imagine what that would do over the course of a year? You would stop guessing. You would stop panicking. You'd know exactly what creates opportunities in your business. Amazing, I know. Need to think of a better name than a tap map, ladies. Anywho, here's another exercise for you while you've got your notebook open.
I'd love you to do just one more thing. Think about your last 10 clients. Write down their names. Now ask yourself, "How did they first hear about me?" Was it a referral? Was it networking? Was it at a speaking engagement? Was it on LinkedIn? Was it an email? Was it a past client, a podcast, a collaboration? I reckon you'll discover something pretty fascinating.
One or two taps probably account for most of your revenue. Now you know where to focus. You're welcome. The thing I've noticed over years of coaching [00:08:00] women in business is this, women under 100K often ask, "Where will my next client come from?" Women making over half a million dollars ask a different question.
They ask the question, "I'd like another 20 grand this month. Which tap should I turn on?" Can you hear the difference? One is hoping, and the other is an operating system, and that's where confidence comes from, not because business is perfect, no way, but because you understand your own business well enough, and you don't go crowdsourcing someone else's.
So here's your challenge should you choose to accept it. Don't build another tap. Turn one on. Send the referral email. Invite someone for coffee. Reach out to an old client. It's not that hard, right? Tell people you've got capacity or you've got another spot. Book yourself to speak somewhere. Introduce two people.
Run the webinar you've been talking about for the last, you know, 18 months. Whatever your tap is, turn it [00:09:00] on, and then watch what happens. Because every time you do, you're collecting evidence and data. You're learning what works, what still works, what doesn't work, and you're becoming less reliant on hope and more reliant on a system.
And eventually, business will go quiet, and instead of panicking, you'll simply ask yourself, "Hey, which tap haven't I turned on?" And that's a completely different way to run your business. Doesn't it feel a bit more calm? I reckon. I'd love to know what your tap is. Send me a message or a LinkedIn or an Instagram and tell me, what's the one thing that every single time you do it, opportunities start flowing?
Because I have a feeling your answer might be exactly what another woman in business needs to hear. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of Tea with the Queen. Until next time, keep showing up, keep serving, and if business feels a little quiet, [00:10:00] you don't need to panic. You probably just need to, you know, turn your tap on.
Thanks for listening to Tea with the Queen. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It really does help to get the word out. For more about me, please visit emmamcqueen.com.au and I look forward to your company next episode
