Saying NO on a coffee date, but turning them into a Referral Mojo Partner

Hey fellow Ronin,

I had an interesting thing happen on a coffee date on Friday that I thought might be valuable to share with you all.

Taking Travis' "detached investor" stance, I politely told someone "Sorry I can't help you here, your business is currently lacking some of the key ingredients I need to bake that cake for us to share".

(The missing ingredient was the offer was too new and unproven, even though the idea sounded great)

Obviously, this made him want to work with me more. It's funny how high school dating psychology like "hard to get" still works with middle aged men in a business capacity.

However, I wanted to make it a point that I was saying no for now, not no forever. This led to a conversation about the perfect businesses I look for, and what I would like to see in his business before I would consider investing in it.

This led to a conversation about other (non-competing) business owners he knows who might be a good fit. Then I transitioned the coffee date into one of Travis' referral mojo calls (in the classroom section if you're unfamiliar) He's now introducing me to someone who seems like a great fit!

This probably should've been obvious to me all along, but from now on, if I'm ever saying no to a business owner, I'm going to actively transition the conversation to Referral Mojo.

Hope that's helpful to you all as well!

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