Hey {{first_name}} ,
She said no to my high-ticket offer six months ago.
We hopped on a call today anyway.
Not a sales call. Not a "follow-up." Just two people who genuinely enjoy talking shop.
I gave her some tips about her LinkedIn strategy. She shared what's been working in her business. We laughed about how many lead generation services are flooding the market.
Standard Thursday morning.
At the end, she said something that stopped me:
"I'd love to join your Skool community."
No pitch from me. No special offer. No "limited time" anything.
She just saw the value and wanted in.
The "long game" isn't a game.
I didn't stay in touch because I was secretly waiting for her to buy something.
I stayed in touch because I genuinely like her. She's got this cool character, sharp insights, and makes me think differently about my own business.
That's it. That's the strategy.
Be genuinely curious about interesting people.
She's joining a community of 40 people.
Not 400. Not 4,000. Forty.
Today we had six people on our call. Every single person contributed. Real insights. Real breakthroughs. Real connections forming.
One member helped another land their first high-ticket client. Another shared a LinkedIn strategy that tripled someone else's engagement. A third person asked a question that made everyone rethink their positioning.
This is one month old.
I'm unbelievably proud of this 40-person community.
Because those 40 people are building something together. They show up. They care. They contribute.
They're not consuming content. They're creating transformation.
And yes, it's already paying me significantly.
Not because I have thousands of half-engaged members paying for access they never use.
But because I have 40 people getting real results who tell everyone about it.
Quality compounds.
In relationships: One genuine connection beats 100 templated follow-ups.
In communities: 40 engaged members beat 4,000 strangers.
In business: Caring about people's success beats caring about their credit cards.
Everyone talks about "playing the long game" while sending automated sequences to people who said no six months ago.
The real long game means staying genuinely interested in interesting people.
Building communities you're actually proud of.
Focusing on depth over width.
Not everyone will buy from you. But if they're great humans, why would you disappear from their life?
Your community might never be "big." But if it's changing lives at 40 members, why would you dilute that rushing to 4,000?
The path to significant income isn't through volume.
It's through significance itself.
Forty people who genuinely help each other will outperform 4,000 who don't know each other's names.
One relationship maintained with care will outperform 1,000 contacts in your CRM.
The hard part isn't the strategy.
The hard part is believing that small can be mighty.
That genuine beats optimised.
That caring without agenda creates more sales than any funnel.
My "rejection" from six months ago just became my newest member.
Not because I played some long game.
But because I didn't play games at all.
This is exactly what we're building inside Authentic Navigators.
Not a massive community where you're just another face.
But a tight group where your wins get celebrated, your challenges get solved, and your weird ideas get taken seriously.
We're 40 people strong and growing intentionally.
Every week, we show up for each other. Real calls. Real connections. Real results.
$97/month while we're small enough to know everyone's name.
Join us before we're too big to feel this special: https://www.skool.com/the-linkedin-basecamp/
Because sometimes the best communities are the ones that chose quality over quantity.
And the best sales are the ones that happen six months after the "no."
Jack.
