In this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur, host Jim James meets with Faris Aranki, an effectiveness facilitator and coach, to discuss how he uses the tools that he learned to convert cold leads through engagement and voice notes on LinkedIn.
Aranki explains the three pillars of IQ, EQ, and FQ, and how they can be combined to sharpen and master a business strategy, along with sharing his approach to making an engaging and memorable voice note on LinkedIn. He also shares some tips on how you can get your business noticed.
Post-production, transcript and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
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The UnNoticed Entrepreneur is hosted & produced by Jim James.
Welcome to the Unnoticed Entrepreneur. This show will tell you how to get the recognition you and your business deserve. Our guests share their practical insights and tools, which you can use straight away. Your host is International entrepreneur, podcast host, and author Jim James.
Jim James:Welcome to this episode of The UnNoticed Entrepreneur. Today, we're not traveling too far, we're just going up to London to meet Faris Aranki. Faris, welcome to the show.
Faris Aranki:Thank you, Jim. It's great to be with you today.
Jim James:Well, it's great to have you because you are an effectiveness facilitator and coach. You had a, you know, a long and illustrious career. But we're gonna talk today about how you are using some tools that you've learned.
Faris Aranki:Yeah.
Jim James:To build engagement, but also how using "voice notes" notably in LinkedIn to get an 80% conversion rate on 'cold-leads' and a few other things as well. So Faris, welcome to the show. Tell us just a little bit about you and then we'll move into how you're managing to get so many people interested in the services you offer.
Faris Aranki:Yes. Thanks Jim. So I'll keep my intro brief and hopefully people will be interested enough to find out more about me. But yeah, you are right. I run a little business called "Shiageto Consulting." "Shiageto" is the Japanese word for a sharpening stone, because we sharpen other businesses. So, just like you would with when you have a dull knife. And how do we do that? We do that through three pillars. Which is IQ, EQ, and FQ. So your ability to come up with ideas that's the IQ. Your ability to take others on the journey with you, that's the EQ, the emotional intelligence. And the FQ, many of your listeners might not have heard of before, is the 'Focus Quotient.' How focused you are to deliver on those ideas, okay? Put those all together. You've got success. You will unlock your strategy and you'll be effective. And I do this now, you know, I built this business three and a half years ago, which your smart listeners can do the math, that's just before COVID. So, I had to experience the pains of COVID just six months after we were born. But my backstory is I was a Strategy Consultant for some blue chip strat firms. I worked in the energy industry in the strategy team of a large energy company. And a long time ago, I started as a School Teacher. So, I use a lot of techniques developed over those years from all those arenas.
Jim James:Faris, yeah. As I say, you've got a lot of things going on. So let's unpack that just in the 20 minutes that we've got.
Faris Aranki:Yeah.
Jim James:You're the first person I've ever met that integrates, you know, EQ, IQ, and this 'Focus Quotient'. And I think, it'd be really interesting. Why don't you explain how the focus quotient works and how you dovetail that with IQ and EQ?
Faris Aranki:Yeah, so too often when I go into companies, I realise they're not focused enough, both at the corporate level of the company level and the individual level. Now, what do I mean by this is too many companies, you know, I've gotta stop laughing. I walk in and they tell me, "Yeah, we've got a hundred strategic projects." And I was like, "How can you have a hundred projects that are strategically important?" Right? You wouldn't have a hundred things important in your life at the same time. And you know, although they kind of get it, they're unwilling to let go of stuff, because I always say like, "It's far better to do 10 things really well than a hundred diluted." Not just for you, but you're asking your staff to make choices, micro decisions every day. "Should they work on this or this or this?" And if you could give them that clarity, that focus, think how much better and more productive and effective your company will be and they will be. So that's really the essence of the FQ, the focus quotient. And that also applies to our us, right? We imagine you have a very important task, Jim, and you say, "Look, I've gotta write this report." But then your phone goes and you are distracted by that. You're not giving it the a hundred percent focus that you want. And we don't realise it, but lots of little things in life, rob us of our focus from emails to we're hungry, we're cold, we've just had an argument with our loved one. And the more you can sort of close us off, the more you can get focused and deliver quality work on what you should be working on.
Jim James:Faris, I love that. And I can see there's many different applications, but you know, this shows about getting noticed.
Faris Aranki:Yes.
Jim James:So let's drill down on how you're using this formula that you have on EQ, IQ, plus FQ.
Faris Aranki:Yeah.
Jim James:To get noticed for your own business.
Faris Aranki:Yeah, so if I take you back to the start of this journey, I started the company and it was going well. And then, it all fell off a cliff because of COVID and we had no work. So I was back to square one. And what I realized during that time is actually everyone was at home and the volume of communication and information there was all being went like magnified. Everyone was doing a webinar, everyone was doing emails, and everybody was trying to reach out. And so I took a step back and this is where the IQ part came out. I said, "How can I cut through the noise? I need to connect with my customers or potential customers?" So I generated all the ideas that I had. Things I'd tried before, things I hadn't tried. That's the IQ part. And I really kind of weighed up the pros and cons. But then I said, "Look, I'm just gonna pick one. One that will be really effective." That's where the FQ comes in. Don't try and do a little bit of everything. Don't do some cold calls, don't do some a bit of webinars, a bit of pick the thing that really works for you. And you know, the thing works for me was 'voice notes.' It had been proven successful. Now, it might not be for everyone, right? I will give this tip. But I will equally say to when I give it to people. "If you don't get energy from this, don't do it. If you are someone who loves to go and shake hands at a conference, make that your FQ. If you are someone who loves to do webinar enough, make that your FQ." But for me, it was voice notes. And so that's really what the focus part is about. And then it comes to the EQ. How can I do a voice note full of EQ that really is engaging and really draws the other person in, stands out as memorable? And that's what I perfected. And that's what drives the core of my business.
Jim James:Faris, let's talk about that because I've tried voice notes on LinkedIn, but you can only use that on the mobile app. You can't use it on the desktop.
Faris Aranki:You can only on the mobile app. I don't know why that's the case, but it is the case. And often that's why a lot of people are completely unaware of the fact that you can do a voice note on LinkedIn's. But you're right, Jim. That is where I do most of my voice notes. And I talked about getting joy from it, funnily enough. I was doing before LinkedIn, I was doing it on Facebook. Every one of my friends whose birthday would pop up would get a personalized voice note from me. And I thought, "Hey, why not try this on LinkedIn?" So I don't need new connections. I have enough connections. Why not send them a very warm voice note that is just saying "Hi. How are you?" Right? And just find a reason to send them a voice mail. And LinkedIn is full of reasons to contact people, you know. Maybe it's their birthday, maybe they've just changed job, maybe they've just written a report, or maybe they've posted something about something that's happening in their life. What I do every day over my first cup of coffee, Jim, is I pick 25 to 30 of these people from whatever stimuli I get on LinkedIn, and I send them a voice note and the voice note. is No more than 30 seconds, okay? Now, I'll talk about the perfect voice note, but if this is something that's taken me sort of two years to perfect a great voice note. I can fire them off over the couple of course of for coffee. And lo and behold, about 80% of them reply. Okay. And that is more than good enough for me and my business.
Jim James:You know, that really is inspirational because certainly most of us are in the position with LinkedIn where we're sort of trying to pursue more connections, more engagement. And yet ignore this very sweet way of engaging with the people that we've already got in our connection. So, Faris, you've studied this, perfected it. Maybe you can save us some time and probably some embarrassment, or sending inappropriate voice messages. Tell us, how do you structure that message to get a result?
Faris Aranki:Yeah. And you're spot on, right? You know, someone said to me earlier in my career, "Your best next customer you'll ever have is the one you've already got." So don't go chasing somebody you need. But what makes a perfect voice note, as far as I'm concerned? As I said, it's gotta be not too long, right? People's attention spans are a thing. And there's a curiosity factor. We're still in this stage, many people have never seen it. So when it pops up, it can be quite intimidating. So you don't want it to be a minute or two minutes, and they're like, "Okay, I'm not gonna invest the time in that." So less than 30 seconds is key. The tone has gotta be very warm and convivial. "Hi. Great." You know, it's gotta involve nothing to do with selling. You're not talking about, "I have this fantastic product, I really wanted to reach out." It is nothing more than, "Hey, Jim, I just saw your post on LinkedIn. I just saw it was your birthday. I just saw you just change up. Made me think of you. Made me think of the time that X," and referenced a time that you two shared together. And said, "And do you know what made me think it would be great to catch up for a coffee sometime. What do you think?" So leave an action, leave a hook on the end. That takes 20 seconds, no more. And it's amazing if delivered in the right tone and genuinely not like you're reading off a script. Gets the other person going. "Yeah, I do remember Faris. I remember, oh yeah, it may have been 10 years, but we had a great experience and I wonder what he's up to today. Let me have a look at his profile." I'll just reply and say, "Yeah, I'd love a coffee. Let's see where it takes us."
Jim James:Faris, I love that. And so you are writing, you say 20 to 25, and actually, if you're doing 20 to 30 seconds, it's only taking you 20 minutes, not taking a lot of time either. So it's very efficient. When you get people to reply, what do you do next? Because you're potentially creating, you know, a growing body of people who are going well, he wrote to me once, spoke to me once.
Faris Aranki:Yes.
Jim James:And then, I replied, but he didn't reply back. You know that?
Faris Aranki:Yeah.
Jim James:You do create the potential for some degree of overwhelm at the other end.
Faris Aranki:You do. You do. And this is where the FQ comes back into play, right? And I learned this the hard way. I was a bit, sort of slap dash. It requires a bit of Project Management skills, a bit of a CRM, or however you treat it. Because you need to carry on those conversations. And so for me, what I do is I immediately try and schedule something, you know, within seven days. I learned long ago that people's attention is usually seven to 10 days. And so I try and get something in within the next seven to 10 days. Even if it's just a quick catch up, and usually I try and direct it to a virtual coffee, you know, because that saves me a lot of hassle, sort of logistically. So try and arrange something within the next 7 or 10 days, a few back and forth. If they say, "Let me get back to you." I immediately, what I do is I put in my calendar. So after I've received that a week from now, saying, "Okay, follow up with Jim," okay. And that has a certain color code in my Outlook calendar. Okay. Everyone will get one reminder, after that another 7 to 10 days, I'll put a second reminder saying, "Close off the conversation, if we've not had a positive outcome. Or it doesn't look like we're going to arrange something." And that's a different color. So, they get a formal close off from me. So let's say, I've sent you the voice note, you've replied, and then I've not heard anything from you. You'll get one reminder, and then you'll get a second one saying, "Oh, Jim, you know, thanks. Clearly we weren't able to work this out. Maybe it's further down the line. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm gonna take this off my to-do list because I'm a busy guy." And do you know what happens? You send that, if you get to that stage, I'd say 50% of the time they quickly come back to you and say, "Sorry, I was just occupied somewhere else. Let's go for that coffee." But that is my system. I don't overcomplicate it, I just use it in Outlook, but it does mean there is a process to it, and it does mean that you know, you're giving prods and giving people the sign posting that they need.
Jim James:Faris, I love both the simplicity and the authenticity of that, and I can really see how well I can use it, as I'm sure all my fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs can as well. You're not just living on LinkedIn, presumably, you've got other assets which go beyond if someone says, "Well, Faris is good. He's sent me a voicemail. Let me check out what he's doing."
Faris Aranki:Yes. Yeah.
Jim James:What would they see?
Faris Aranki:Yeah. So, your listeners will probably say, "Well, he said just focus on voice notes." But yes, I do back it up, because you are more than just a voice note. So, while 'voice notes' is my main engine, I do blogs once a week. I do appear on podcasts. I do speaker events. And what I'm doing is creating an ecosystem around me and my company that is drawing people in, is playing on that EQ, that they feel that they are part of a journey now, right? And that they are invested and they're interested, and it's amazing. Again, you know, the blogs and the, events that I do are full of sharing personal stuff and building trust. And so just recently last week, Jim, I was on a holiday, in fact. And I blogged about it and it's amazing. I had more views of a blog about my holiday than ones where I write articles about strategy or things. So, it was quite, and then, you know, since I've come back just this morning on every call I've been on, people have asked me about my holiday or my clients, what have meant to be sort of either workshops or things they go, "Oh, how was your holiday? How was it?" So it is that kind of supporting aspect to build a relationship, to build trust that really compliments the voice notes and fits in nicely.
Jim James:That's wonderful. And from the holiday and the blogs, are you sharing that on LinkedIn or is that separately?
Faris Aranki:No, I do this all on LinkedIn. I actually do my blogs on Medium. And then, I linked them on LinkedIn just so that they stay as you know, a compiled body of work. Whereas, in LinkedIn they'll be lost in the feed. And what's been, you know, really nice in the last year that's become... my feed has been picked up by a couple of other websites, newsletters, and it gets showcased. So you know, I'm a firm believer - if you keep building, you know, good stuff will happen. So my number of viewers go from sort of, you know, two years ago it was 20 people, each blog. Now we're sort of, 200, 250 each blog. And, you know, it's not gonna be one single activity is what I tell people. It's a combination of stuff. Don't lose the faith. And if you are doing good stuff, if you're feeding the beast, you keep feeding the beast will feed you eventually, is what I say.
Jim James:Good. Yeah, that's very reassuring, isn't it? Because I think for everybody as well, there's a danger of sort of overwhelm and burnout. But you've got this ecosystem. We haven't really talked about 'Medium' before on this show.
Faris Aranki:Yeah.
Jim James:Tell us about Medium for those people that are not familiar with it and why that would be a platform of choice.
Faris Aranki:Yeah, so if you are a blogger and you enjoy it, there's a couple of blogging websites out there. Medium and Substack are probably the two most prolific. Now, what they allow you to do is build a profile and attach all your blogs so they're in one place so someone can come and find your reader. Whereas on LinkedIn, they'll have to troll through your other posts. It might be lost. So this is just pure about your blogs. The other great thing is it's where magazines and newsletters go to find feeds. And crucially, if you reach a certain number, a bit like an Instagram or something, you start to get paid. So you need a hundred followers and you will start to get revenue. So, Medium has a 'free level' and a 'paid for level.' And if as soon as you reach the hundred level, you get a share of the subscriptions, depending on how many people are reading your blogs. So if you are a really good writer, it's a good additional revenue stream.
Jim James:Well, Faris, I had no idea because I published on Medium. But I have to confess, I find the fact that they send you a link to log in each time. A little bit awesome. That's I found when you try and get into Medium. But anyway, that's another story. Let's just talk then a little bit as well about EQ, because we were talking before we started recording about how many people approach a potential customer.
Faris Aranki:Yeah.
Jim James:With low EQ. And part of your skillset is to teach EQ. So while we've got you on the mic, be real shame not to learn from you. How does EQ work in that situation where you are approaching somebody maybe with a little bit of anxiety anyway? And, you know, possibly making some mistakes. What would you be your guidance there, Faris?
Faris Aranki:So my guidance is, and we could all use more EQ in our life, is it's approach a conversation as though you are there to listen not to speak. Okay. You know, too often salespeople do 78%, 80% of the talking. And it should really be the other way around. Ask more questions, listen more. Mirror their language. Mirror how they're speaking. Try and work out. Are they a, you know, a detailed person? If so, I'll go into detail. Are they a big picture person? I'll stay at the big picture. So it's really about reading the room and flexing your style to really bring together what I call is the 'Platinum Rule'. Not like, so you might have been taught the golden rule as a child, which is treat others how you wanna be treated. No. Scrap that. If you want to have lots of EQ, "Treat others how they want to be treated." Okay. So either you can ask them or you can pay attention and then you can adapt. And then you'll be a far more effective salesperson.
Jim James:Okay. Well that's really interesting. So you have to treat people as they want to be treated. Any examples then of how that would work in a practical setting, Faris? I think you mentioned one earlier that you might want to share.
Faris Aranki:Yeah, I mentioned earlier. So I said to you jokingly, I'm the kind of idiot who loves cold calls receiving them. Not just, you know, I reply to everyone and I see it as a chance to meet someone new and practice. And I was once sitting on my desk and my phone rang, and it was a Recruitment Consultant trying to sell me his business, his recruitment consulting. And he spoke at me for 10 minutes. Literally, he didn't give me time for breath. And at the end when I kept saying, "No." He said, "All right. Okay. What is it you do anyway?" And I said, "Well, first of all, you should have researched that before you rang me." But I said, "I'll tell you what I do and I'll show you what I do. I'm gonna go through your 10 minutes that you spoke and explain exactly how you lacked any emotional intelligence. You didn't pause long enough there. You didn't ask me a question, you didn't, you know, use the same language that I used. You didn't, you know, when I showed confusion, you didn't sort of summarised and use an anecdote to help me." And I played it back and it literally telling me about every puff and huff he'd said. And he said, "That is amazing. And I said, yeah, that's what I do. And he said, "Is this something you could teach?" And I said, "Of course, I can." He said, "I'd love it if you could come in and teach me and my team how to do that to be better salespeople." So, off the back of a cold call, I ended up with a day's work for a consulting firm and they're now still clients of mine. I go in once a year and train their new recruits. So really, if you know, and it doesn't have to be a sales call. It could be your loved one, your daughter, your son, your husband, your wife, who maybe you could listen a bit more, maybe you could show a bit more emotional intelligence in that conversation. And then see what results come from it.
Jim James:Yeah. You say listening is a skill that we're not taught, and yet it's something that we all really need. Faris, you know, you've built your own business, although initially, as you say, you were, you know, a Teacher, and then an Employee, and a Consultant. What would you say to the fellow unnoticed entrepreneurs that, that I'm a member of, about what's really worked for you getting noticed? You've talked about the cold calls with the LinkedIn voice. Is there sort of something else that you've been doing to build the brand?
Faris Aranki:Yeah, I think, the number one thing I say to anyone is, "keep the faith." And it's similar to your best next customer is the one you've already got is use the artifacts you've already got to promote your business. You don't need to go out creating new stuff. Start with what has already worked, all right? And it could be a great piece of work you've done somewhere, right? Can you think smartly? How can you use that more? Could you get the client to write a testimonial about it? Could you splice it up? Could you anonymise it and put Driplet out into the market? Could you, get somebody else to write, an article about it? Yeah. Could you go on a podcast and promote it? You only need one really good piece of work or project. And if you are creative enough, you can think of 10 ways to use it, before you go. Too many people rush off and go, "I just need to build something else, and then I'll be successful." You've already got the keys around you. Just unlock the doors.
Jim James:Faris, if people want to not just unlock the door, but knock down your door...
Faris Aranki:Yes.
Jim James:And receive one of your fantastic voice notes. How can they find you?
Faris Aranki:So, well, they can come find me on LinkedIn. I spend a disproportionately large amount of time there, but I do love it. So look for "Faris Aranki." I think there's only one of me. And the other place is come to the company website, "shiageto.com." So Shiageto is S H I A G E T O. As I said, the Japanese word for a sharpening stone. Look us up and yeah, drop me a line. I'd love to carry on the conversation. Yeah, always love talking to new people.
Jim James:Faris, I've loved talking to you. And we met on a platform called "matchmaker.fm", which is for grownup people that want to be on podcasts, not for any other untoward platforms. So there's another great platform if anyone's interested in being on podcasts. That is where Faris and I met. Faris, thanks for joining my fellow unnoticed entrepreneur. And sharing all your great news about LinkedIn notes and EQ and turning stories around. And ultimately, Keeping the faith and selling what you've already built rather than continue to build. Thank you so much for joining me today on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur Show.
Faris Aranki:Thank you very much, Jim.
Jim James:So you've been listening to Faris Aranki. Of course, I'll put his details in the show notes. And I would ask you if you've enjoyed this, to please review the show and also to share it with the fellow unnoticed entrepreneur. This interview will then become an article. That's how we repurpose our content. And of course, as you know, these articles going to the book currently available on an Amazon published by Wiley. So encourage you to check that out. And until we meet again, just encourage you to keep on communicating. Thanks for listening.