The discovery call was excellent. She leaned in. She asked smart questions. She said, let me think about it — and then the line went quiet.
Two weeks later, you’re staring at the thread wondering: what’s the right way to follow up?
This is the moment most people either vanish or push. I do neither. Here is the system I use — the same one I use with VIP Day clients — when I want to re-enter a conversation with depth instead of pressure.
STEP 1 Find where your worlds actually intersect
“L” is an ideal client. Twenty years in her industry. Advisor to high-profile companies. Teaches at a university. Wrote a book.
The only place my world intersects with hers is one specific thing: harvesting the framework that is hers — not her company’s, not her industry’s — and turning it into a signature talk.
But the signature talk can’t be so ‘inside baseball.’
It has to be served up in what I call ‘hamburger and french fries.’ Everyone from 3 to 100 years old loves french fries. A nurse. A surgeon. A high school dropout. A PhD. The talk has to travel.
Let me give you an example of what I mean.
On Netflix, there is a movie that is fundamentally about bioethics. But that sounds so darn boring. It’s wrapped up in “beautiful Latina American goes to London, meets handsome British professor of poetry and falls in love.” It’s not until mid way through the movie, the viewer understands the gorgeous professor is dying of a terminal disease and has elected to forgo treatment. Upon his passing, she takes up the teaching torch and replaces him, becoming visible and legible.
A bioethics story — served as hamburger and french fries.
That is the question I'm sitting with for "L": what does she talk about that everyone could benefit from? I like the audience to realize a micro-win, as soon as they leave the room.
That's the making of a GREAT! keynote. Most people can't craft this on their own.
That's where I come in.
Step 2 Create a Deck in Canva
I never follow up with a paragraph. I follow up with a proposal.
The deck includes:
What I heard her say she wanted
What she already has in the way of assets
The talk she has yet to realize
My GREENROOM Method — the five-stage process I use to extract her IP
What she walks away with
Testimonials from clients who’ve done this work
Next steps
A deck signals that I’ve actually been thinking. It also signals the level of work we’d do together.
Step 3 Record a Video in Loom
I never want to ‘hand off’ a deck cold. I walk folks through it using a platform called “Loom.”
My Loom has four beats:
The hook. “I so enjoyed our conversation. I’ve been thinking about it since, and I wanted to send you this because…”
The insight. Sixty seconds on what you see that she can’t. This is the whole thing. If the Loom does nothing else, it must do this.
The framework. Sixty seconds on what you’d do together. Name the process. Name what she walks out with.
The invitation. Thirty seconds. A link to book a call. No pressure, just a door.
Keep the Loom under four minutes. Pick the lines that feel most natural and drop the rest. Everything else is scaffolding around the one line that signals you can see what she can’t.
A production note: use Loom’s window-share setting so your face sits in a small circle beside the deck while you speak. It means you’re not memorizing — you’re walking alongside the information. I hook up a DJI or a SHURE mic to my laptop for audio quality. It’s worth it.
Inside Loom, you have the ability to choose which window to share in order to create the little circle that sits on the side of your deck as you speak.
This way, I’m also not having to memorize a TON of stuff. I’m walk alongside the information.
Hint: I hook up my DJII microphone or my SHURE mic to my laptop to optimize audio quality.
After I am done recording, I can pop the link into the email I am crafting to send.
Step 4 Send email with the Loom recording embedded
Don’t send the Loom cold.
Send it inside a short, warm email.
Script:
“_________— I haven’t stopped thinking about our conversation. I recorded a short video with some thoughts on what I see _____________
[Loom link]
Would love your reaction.”
OR
I recorded a short video walking through what I see and how I’d approach it.
[Loom link]
Would love to hear what lands.
Evidence this works
For the right person, this level of depth and thoughtfulness works.
I use this with VIP Day clients.
I worked with a CEO for 36 hours in Barcelona, drafting the playbook that would sit at the heart of her advisory in the future.
PS. Loom also sends you a notification when the person views your video, which is a feedback loop.
Voice and face do something text can't. Research from the University of Chicago shows that when evaluators hear a candidate speak rather than read their words, they consistently rate that person as more intelligent and more competent.
Behavioral economists call this the "effort heuristic" (Kruger, Wirtz, Van Boven, Altermatt, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2004): people perceive things as more valuable when they perceive more effort behind them. A custom Loom —says I made this for you.
That perception of bespoke effort is itself part of the offer.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
If you have a discovery call that’s gone quiet and you want a second set of eyes on the follow-up, reply to this email. I read everything.
— Joya
When you are ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
Attend my workshop Friday April 17th Finding the “ONE WORD” Your Personal Brand hangs on (and make money intelligently from it)
Do you want my system on how I pack?
Most people pack by the calendar — Monday this, Tuesday that. The result is clothes that don’t speak to each other and mornings spent staring into a suitcase.
This framework reorganizes everything around one question: What are you actually doing?
Do a VIP Day with me in Chicago April 24th. It’s 1:1 and I take you through my GREENROOM Method to distill your signature talk.