1.  Reuben reveals why your sticky notes and spreadsheets aren’t cutting it anymore.
2. Learn the secret to transforming awkward sales calls into fun conversations.
3. Discover the power of “just having conversations” to drive your business forward.
4. Find out how to overcome your introvert barriers in client acquisition.
5. Get access to free resources and templates to boost your consulting practice instantly!

Reuben's Valuable Free Resource (VFR):

https://www.mimiran.com/

Join Reuben Swartz, founder of Mimiran, as he shares how independent consultants can ditch awkward selling and embrace fun, authentic conversations to build a thriving client base. Discover how to make business development feel easy—even for introverts!

02:10 Ideal Client: Independent consultants and fractional experts selling expertise, not excited about sales.
02:33 Problem Solved: Replaces clunky CRMs with Mimiran—designed for relationship-based selling.
03:20 Valuable Free Action (VFA): Clarify who you want to talk to, start real conversations, and nurture your best relationships.
05:05 Valuable Productive Action (VPA): Schedule calls with people you already know to build confidence and have enjoyable, productive conversations.
08:33 Bonus Material
09:32 Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Access free templates and resources on Mimiran.com to jumpstart your conversational selling journey.

(Note, this was transcribed using transcription software and may not fully reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Welcome to the Goalbusters Expert Peak Productivity Tips podcast, where top business experts get just seven minutes to answer five rapid fire questions about what they do and how they stay productive.

Each episode is packed with actionable insights to help boost your efficiency and achieve your goals. Let's dive in and unlock the secrets to peak performance.

00:22 ROBIN

Well, hello, everyone. My name is Robin J. Emdon, and I'm the creator and author of the GetResultsology system and a dedicated accountability coach. My mission is to empower solopreneurs to unlock their true potential, boost their income, and achieve extraordinary success by maximizing productivity, streamlining their businesses, and aligning their goals with their authentic vision and purpose.

If you're ready to turn ambition into action and transform your goals into reality, you're in exactly the right place.

And speaking of being in exactly the right place, I am delighted to welcome our guest expert today, who is Reuben Swartz.

Reuben is the founder of Mimiran, the fun anti CRM for independent consultants, born of his experience as a sales and marketing consultant for the Fortune five hundred who struggled with his own business development efforts. He's also the host and chief nerd on the Sales for Nerds podcast.

Reuben, welcome to GoalBusters.

REUBEN
Great to be here. Thanks for having me, Reuben.

ROBIN
You're very welcome. Whereabouts in the world are you, Reuben?

REUBEN
I'm in Austin, Texas.

ROBIN
Oh, fabulous. And I think we established just before the call that it's it's getting hot now, but it hasn't been till today.

REUBEN
I think today is officially the first day of summer temperature wise.

ROBIN
Excellent. And you can tell I'm British because I went straight in for the weather question.

Alright. So shall we start with questions proper?

REUBEN
You're the boss.

Yeah. Let's get the clock up. There he goes. Ruben, could you tell me please who is your ideal client?

02:10 REUBEN – Ideal Client
This is an independent consultant, and sometimes they call themselves a coach or a fractional or something, but they basically are selling their expertise. And they are great at serving clients, but they are not necessarily so thrilled with the part of their business that requires them to get new clients.

ROBIN
Absolutely. So and on that note, what exactly is the problem that you solve?

02:33 REUBEN – Problem Solved
Well, a lot of these folks invest a lot of time, energy, and effort in trying to get clients, and they need a way to keep track of the people that they meet and who they need to follow-up with because their spreadsheet isn't doing it for them anymore. Their sticky notes are all over their desk or whatever it might be. Someone tells them they should get a CRM. I know I went through this process myself, and then they end up with this ginormous enterprise CRM, which is really built for a VP of sales keep track of a sales team instead of an individual to create nurture relationships. And that's where Mimiran comes in.

ROBIN
It's almost like you're talking to me personally.

Well, you are talking to me personally, but I am leaning in and listening to what you have to say. I'm fascinated. So what is one valuable free action that our audience could implement that will help them to solve that problem or get some way towards solving it at least?

03:20 REUBEN – Valuable Free Action (VFA)
Sure. So a lot of things that we could talk about here, but I think the main thing that I would love everyone listening to come away with is if you are in a relationship business, which as a consultant, you are, you are in a conversation business.

And I spent years trying to avoid that because I don't like selling. I'm an introvert, etcetera. And so if you're in a conversation business, you need to get very clear on who you need to talk to, who's your ideal client, who are your ideal partners, and then you need to actually talk to them.

That's it. If you do those things, you will create a virtuous cycle and good things will happen. And what tends to happen is we're a little fuzzy on who we wanna talk to.

So the conversations feel awkward. We get discouraged. We pick up a bunch of shiny objects of either technology, this, AI that, that promises to get us out of the conversations, which is what we're looking for. And when we don't have conversations, then we end up in a vicious cycle. I've been through all this myself. So I'm telling you, make sure you are creating that virtuous cycle. And if you're not sure who to start with, call up your favorite client.

Right? Ask what you did for them, how it went, what were they struggling with, what are they trying before they called you. And before you know it, you're gonna have a very clear idea of how to find more people like that.

ROBIN
Yeah. Excellent. Again, I am genuinely leaning in and listening to every word you're saying because I know you are absolutely on the money there. One hundred percent.

Thank you very much for sharing that insight with us. So now that we have a better understanding of what you do, let's dive into GoalBusting, which is focusing on how to maximize productive time to achieve business goals. Could you share any tips or advice for someone looking to improve their productivity habits? And I bet you can being in the business that you're in.

05:05 REUBEN – Valuable Productive Action (VPA)
Well, like I said, I think one of the big things that my tribe struggles with is actually having conversations with people. They will do everything except have the conversations. And I say this with love because I did the same thing for years. But if you actually set it up right… right, you get very clear about who you want to talk to, you're gonna find yourself having really interesting, fun conversations.

They don't always lead to work. They don't always lead to people showering you with money, but they're going to be enjoyable, and you're going to want to do more of them. I now spend most of my day on Zoom talking to people, which if you told me a decade ago was how was it gonna spend my day? I thought what horrible crime have I committed to be sentenced to this terrible fate.

And it's actually super fun because you get to show up more like a doctor with a waiting room full of patients talking about things that you enjoy talking about as opposed to sort of the used car salesman chasing people across the lot trying to convince them to buy a car.

So what I'd say is build the habit of having these conversations.

And we tend to forget that as humans, we are not good at anything innately, maybe breathing. But everything else we have to learn, and it's a struggle. And then you become an adult, and especially, you know, business, an expert, kind of adult, very responsible, we forget that it's okay to not be good at something yet.

And so when it comes to building this business development habit, this habit of conversations, it doesn't have to be perfect, but just go have the conversations.

And I think for building up, an actual practical way to do this, first of all, put time in your calendar to do this. I have blocks in my calendar throughout the week where I'm just… this is time for me to talk to people. And then don't make it super hard. Don't try to go close that that big client or big prospect that you're dreading talking to. Talk to the people that you're gonna have a fun time talking to that's gonna be easy. People that that you already have a relationship with, your past clients, partners, people that you can go make a connection for.

Make it easy. Make it fun. Build up the habit. And before you know it, it's not gonna seem intimidating to actually have these conversations.

I think what happens is we don't do it, and then we feel a lot of pressure to go have the conversation to close the one referral we just got, and then it feels awkward, and it kind of creates those bad feelings. Instead, most of us already know more people than we can really keep up with anyway.

Why are we spending so much energy trying to meet new people? It's wonderful. I'm not saying it's bad, but make sure that you're actually talking to the people that you already know. Make it easy. Make it fun. Build up that habit of conversation.

And before you know it, it's gonna be easy. And you're gonna get more clarity on who you want to talk to, and then that's going to create that virtuous cycle of making those conversations even more fun and productive.

ROBIN
Thank you very much. And I am particularly interested in what you're saying because you'd opened this conversation by explaining that you're naturally an introvert personality.

So what you've described there is gold because you're explaining how you work through that and how you overcome it and how it works for you. I mean, you said it took you years to get to doing what you do, and so I think it's extra valuable the advice you've given there. 

Thank you very much. So in our last few seconds, Reuben, what is one question I should have asked you today and I didn't and your answer, please?

08:33 REUBEN – Bonus Material
Well, I think when people hear this, they think, well, why aren't people doing this?

And I think there's a lot of… we carry a lot of baggage in our heads about what business means, what sales means, what asking for money means, and we create a whole bunch of awkwardness in our own head that is not in the other person's head. Right? So let go of the awkwardness in our head and actually go have a fun time with this. And before you know it, you'll be able to have a bunch of great conversations without feeling awkward.

ROBIN
Yeah. Absolutely brilliant answer. Absolutely. I have so many times been telling people, you really don't know what they're thinking.

Are they probably are not thinking anything like what you think they're thinking? Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you so much.

That was excellent. Thank you. A real master class actually, genuinely very interesting indeed. So speaking of very interesting, how can people reach you, Reuben?

And, also, is there, like, a valuable free resource they could get from you as well, which I always think is a good way to get to know more about your offer?

09:32 REUBEN – Valuable Free Resource (VFR)
Sure. So you can find me on LinkedIn. If you search for Reuben Swartz, it should come up pretty easily. You can also find out more about the tool at Mimiran.com And that website has a whole bunch of free resources from proposal templates, lead magnet templates, to even free trainings on how to set up and implement this kind of schedule of reaching out to people and perfecting who you wanna talk to.

ROBIN
Excellent. And I'm not joking where I'm just saying as soon as we finish talking, I'm going straight over there to have a proper dig down into the service that you offer. It's definitely something I'm very interested in, and I think anybody in my business, or something similar to what I do working from home should absolutely be interested in a platform like yours. So thank you so much for sharing your little bit of time with us today, but a huge amount of information. Thank you so much, Reuben Swartz.

REUBEN
Well, my pleasure, Robin. And this is stuff that I have struggled with over the years, and my mission is to make it accessible to people without quite so much struggle.

ROBIN
Yeah. That came across loud and clear, and I'm very grateful that you did that too. So thank you again. So thank you, Reuben. And remember, keep GoalBusting. Make your future self proud.

OUTRO
Thanks for tuning in to GoalBusters. If you're enjoying it, please subscribe, rate, and review it on your favourite podcast platform.
Your support is very much appreciated!

And if you're ready to boost your online profits, skyrocket your productivity, crush procrastination, and see a positive change in your bank balance all within just thirty days, this is your opportunity

Take my free five day challenge at skyrocketyourproductivitychallenge.com

Robin J. Emdon is the creator of GetResultsology®: The Science of Getting Stuff Done!, a research-backed system that helps solopreneurs beat procrastination, build momentum, and follow through on what matters most.

Robin was one of a small, invitation-only group selected for an intensive life-coach programme taught by Tony Robbins* and his faculty in 2001. The training was meant to prepare them for roles at his organisation in San Diego, but when that opportunity changed Robin stayed in the UK, launched his own life-coaching practice, and later stepped back to raise his two young sons.

Known to clients today as The Procrastination Slayer, Robin had a face-palm moment in 2019 when he realised it had taken him ten years to finish a six-year degree. That wake-up call launched his mission to master procrastination.

During the Covid lockdowns in 2020 he discovered that researchers had published more than 900 studies on procrastination in a single decade and pulled the most practical lessons from the strongest research and leading books to shape his momentum formula:

Do it today, Profit tomorrow, Repeat.

Peer-reviewed research from the Dominican University of California shows that working with an accountability partner can raise goal-achievement rates by up to 33 percent, a finding woven into every GetResultsology® plan.

Robin hosts The GoalBusters Podcast, now past 100 episodes, where he talks with fellow solopreneurs and uncovers the real-world productivity tactics behind their success.

From South Devon, England, he coaches clients worldwide, helping solopreneurs, creatives, and other no-boss professionals turn scattered effort into consistent progress and profit.

Want an engaging guest who sparks action or an accountability coach who keeps you on track? Book Robin for your show or request coaching details.

*Tony Robbins and Robbins Research International are not affiliated with, and do not endorse, GetResultsology® or its services.

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