Welcome back to the Articharm podcast, a show designed to help you communicate with power and become unstoppable on your path from hidden genius to influential leader.

Now we know you have what it takes to reach your full potential, and that's why each and every week, Johnny and I share with you strategies and interviews to help you transform your life and unlock your own unique X factor.

Whether you're in sales, leadership, building client relationships or even looking for love, you shouldn't have to settle for anything less than extraordinary speaking of extraordinary.

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Sign up today and use code charmed to get a free month at stitcher.com. Now today we're talking gifts. We know it's the holiday season, so we brought in one of our friends and gifting experts, John Rulan.

He's the author of giftology, the art and science of using gifts to cut through the noise, increase referrals and strengthen client retention.

Now he describes how generosity is the secret weapon to grow your business and your professional network. And guess what, there is a right and wrong way to give and we're going to talk about it.

How mastering reciprocity can boost your bottom line, laser targeting whom you should be giving gifts to, and how to become a part of your client's inner circle.

Now we know the holidays are upon us and of course everyone's thinking about gifts, but did you know there's a strategy behind gift giving we're so excited to talk to John today about just that. Welcome to the show, John.

Thanks for having me.

Now with the holidays on us, everyone is probably thinking about what gifts they're going to receive, but today we want to talk about actually the art of giving gifts and ways that we can use it to enrich every relationship in our lives, our personal relationships as well as our professional relationships.

And Johnny and I would love to just start with a little bit of the backstory of what got you so enthusiastic about the art of gifts giving.

Yeah, well, it's like a lot of things in life, it comes out of desperation, right? Most of our best ideas come when our backs against the wall, our backs in the corner, or poor, or hungry.

I grew up no one goes on a on a farm. So I didn't go up around nice gifts. I was the kid that wanted the air Jordans, but I was ending up with like the Walmart or aims at the time special.

So I wanted to get out of that. I hated, you know, milking goats and bail and hay and I was going to be a doctor, a good deal or a chiropractor because I wanted to make money and I didn't know what I didn't know what I'm on from there was.

But my life changed because of a mentor who was this rain making guy. He was amazing at relationship building.

And I looked at him and he was 60th of time as my girlfriend's dad and I was like, I want to be him someday. I want to have the relationships, I want to have the referrals, the deal flow. Like people just flock to him because he was radically generous with all of his relationships, not tactical, not like, hey, here's a gift.

Now I'm going to ask you for favor. He just loved on people. And because of that, he just had this amazing law firm, but he also in real estate that magically became the Walmart, like those sorts of things just happened to him all the time.

And I'm like, Paul was just this, you know, this magnet. And so I pitched him cut who knives in turn with cut, got a desperation. Like I just know sales experience.

My mom was like, nobody can afford these stupid knives. Like, how are you going to pay for med school? And I'm like, I'm just all these knives, mom. She's like, you're not.

So I pitched him thinking maybe he'll give all this client that Christmas, these like a pocket knife. A lot of his clients were men. They're into hunting fishing outdoors. And he's like, John, I don't want to order the pocket knives.

I'm like, I understand Paul is like, I want to order a hundred of the paradise. I'm like, Paul, you want to go a bunch of dudes like a kitchen tool. Why?

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