Stacey Brown Randall's Blog

It’s time for my year-end referral reflection episode!

In this episode, I take a moment to reflect on the past year and share some key insights that can help you as we move into the new year.

Referrals are evergreen! They’re not a new trend but a timeless strategy that every business should have in place. Whether you had a great year or a challenging one, referrals can significantly impact your business.

Here are five key points to consider as we head into 2025:

Know who refers you and take care of them properlyDevelop new relationships with people who can refer youCreate a referable client experience and learn how to extract referrals from itHave the right processes in place for various situationsDevelop a multi-layered referral strategy and execute it consistently

These points are not just a checklist; they are essential components of a thriving referral business.

I also share some personal reflections on overcoming a year that didn’t go as expected, the importance of focusing on your own goals, and the significance of measuring what matters in your business.

But that’s not all! I’m excited to announce some changes coming to the podcast in 2025. In addition to audio, we will be adding a video component. Now, you’ll be able to see me as I share insights and tips. I can’t wait to embark on this new journey with you.

Lastly, I’m hosting a special VIP experience in Charlotte for a small group of business owners in February 2025. This is a fantastic opportunity to collaboratively build your referral strategy in just two days!

Stay tuned for more details on that. If you’re not already on my email list, please visit StaceyBrownRandall.com to sign up!

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #340, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, and welcome to episode 339 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 11 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

So typically, at the end of every year, I use the very last episode to do a reflection and do a referral reflection, kind of like my thoughts on how I saw referrals evolve or change or be impacted by the year.

And so I’m still gonna do that. It’s just gonna be smaller. I’ve got some other things I wanna talk about as well that I think are necessary as we move into 2025. But instead of doing the referral reflection at the very last episode of the year, we have something different planned for that episode.

So I’m doing the year-end referral reflection now, which is, of course, just a couple of weeks into December. But don’t worry. I will have a very cool end of year episode coming up.

So while this may be a couple weeks early, I mean, really, we’ve had over 50 weeks in the year, so I feel pretty qualified to do a referral reflection on what referrals have looked like over the past year.

But here’s the thing. I do a referral reflection, a year end referral reflection every year. And after a bunch of years, let’s be honest, they start to sound the same because referrals are evergreen.

Being able to generate referrals in your business is not a new flashy tactic that came onto the scene and now you’ve got to go understand it and how to use it and what to do with it. It’s not new. It’s not flashy. It’s fabulous. It’s another F word I would call for it. It’s not flashy, but it is fabulous.

And there is a lot to consider when you think about referrals, but they’ve been around forever. And they’re evergreen, which means you should always have a referral strategy in place in your business each and every stinking year.

And so as you think through what I would say about a referral reflection, it always, always comes down to the basics. And it’s what I believe every business should have in place.

Because generating referrals, whether referrals are going to be 30% of your new clients, 50% of your new clients, or 75% of your new clients, whatever you want referrals to turn into in terms of paying clients, you have to have a strategy in place. You have to have a plan in place so that ultimately happens.

So I’m not necessarily doing a here is my reflection on referrals. I mean, for those of you who didn’t have a great year, referrals probably mattered more than you could have ever imagined.

And for those of you who had a great year, I’m going to guess probably referrals were a piece of it or could have made it even better if you had had strategies in place to generate more referrals, because you should have a strategy in place for referrals each and every year.

So what does that look like? Well, it’s these five bullet points overall. And this is the thing that I would say this year and next year and every year moving forward, and it’s probably the things I’ve said in previous year referral reflections.

And that is this. Number one, know who refers you and take care of them correctly.

Number two, know how to develop new people referring you.

Number three, create a referable client experience and know how to extract referrals from that experience.

Number four, have the right processes in place for different situations that you will face, whether that is when referrals arrive or when those referrals, you have issues with them because they’re not the right quality, what to do within the buyer’s journey, what you should be doing with referrals on social media.

If you do events, how do you extend the referral ROI of those events, right? Have the right processes in place for different situations that you may come upon.

And number five, develop your multi-layered strategy for referrals and execute it on it every stinking year, year after year after year.

That’s really those are the five. Those are the things I want you to do. I just went through and boom, boom, boom, because you’ve been hearing me talk about them.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a really long time, oh, like six years, then you’ve had six years’ worth of episodes where I talk about this and how necessary these individual points are.

You know, just for the person and maybe in the back that didn’t hear it, let me just hit these again real fast, these five.

Number one, know who refers you and take care of them correctly.

Number two, know how to develop new people referring you.

Number three, create a referable client experience and know how to extract referrals from your clients.

Have the right processes in place for different situations, whether that’s when referrals arrive, what you’re tracking, issues with referrals, what to do in the buyer’s journey, social media, extending the ROI of your events with referrals.

And number five, develop your multi-layer strategy for referrals and execute on it every stinking year.

I could just play this on repeat every year because it’s the same thing I want you to know and do as we move into the next year, whichever next year that happens to be. These are the things you need to have in place.

Okay, so that’s my referral reflection for you. Referrals are evergreen. Good year, bad year, you need to have a focus on generating referrals.

Some years, they’re the things that’ll save you. Other years, they’re the things that’ll just make your year that much easier. And sometimes, they will take your year to an entirely different level that you didn’t see coming.

Referrals will always play a part in how you are bringing on clients if you will let it. And some years, it’ll be what makes you survive. In other years, it’ll be what helps you have the best year ever.

They have their place, and their place is with you every single year, not the flash in the pan, the latest, the greatest strategy that you need to be doing on social media or with this funnel or with this communication or how you should change your website this way.

They are the steady Eddies, and you just need to have referrals as a steady Eddie part within your business. Let it perform for you by doing it the right way.

Alright, so I want to do a few other year-end thoughts. There’s actually a couple of things I want to hit on. We’re going to do a couple of year-end thoughts, and then I want to talk about some gadgets and tools that I’m using now that I am loving or learning to love.

I think I should give that a caveat. And then, of course, we’ll round out with what changes are coming to this podcast. Alright, so let’s move into some other year-end thoughts.

So the first thing I want you guys to think about is how do you overcome a year that wasn’t what you expected?

So this year, 2024 for me was one of my best years revenue wise. What was interesting about that is that it didn’t feel that way. Like I was tracking it, I could see the numbers, but there were moments throughout the year where it didn’t feel like it was going to be my best year.

And it really kind of took a totality look back of reflecting on the entire year and being like, oh, actually, that was better than I thought it would be. And that is because of the emotional piece of it.

My emotions of how this year felt did not accurately reflect what was hitting the bank account from a revenue perspective. And I think that’s really important that we pay attention to moving into next year.

For some clients that I worked with, the election and the fear that was around the election really impacted maybe their spring, but definitely their summer and their early fall, and kind of continued to impact, in not a great way, regardless of who was elected, through the end of the year.

For others, it didn’t have an impact at all. But for some, they definitely felt it. So for some of us, right, we had a great year. For others of us, maybe we didn’t have such a great year. And regardless if you had a great year or not, for some of you, it just didn’t go according to plan.

And I know for many of you, possibly in the real estate market, it probably didn’t go according to plan for the second year in a row, which is really tough to hear, I know.

But what I always feel in this, and what this year reminded me of, is that even though I had a great year, I didn’t always feel it throughout the year, is how very important that I didn’t allow that to detract or derail my planning for next year.

So how I managed my thought process, my mindset, what I bring to the table, my energy, my beliefs, the things that I believe to be true, and really paying attention to that and having tools in place to actually deal with that.

Because that’s what I find so fascinating is I know some people who didn’t have a great year. And I would tell you throughout the year, I wasn’t really quite sure I was having a great year.

Even when I had a buddy saying, oh my gosh, your business is just blowing up. I was like, oh, it blew up for a month. I’m like, actually, no, it didn’t. It did a little bit more than that.

But I was always finding the context for why something was happening. And I think that negatively impacts our thought process.

So regardless of what your year looked like, great year, average year, not so great year, think it through how you felt throughout that year. Think through what felt heavy, what had you nervous, what created fear for you.

One of the things I like to do is when I recognize that I’m having fear thoughts and I’m having fear moments, is I’d like to invite that fear to get its butt into the backseat, preferably the trunk. Like, get out of the front seat. You’re not the driver. Get to the back seat.

Actually, get all the way into the trunk. I mean, I don’t think fear will ever leave the car. You know, fear sometimes can be good. It does keep us alive in certain situations.

But recognizing what it is, labeling it for what it is, and then telling it to, you know, take a hike or at least get out of the driver’s seat and move to the back seat or the trunk.

And I think that’s really important. And I think it’s something that business owners don’t spend enough time thinking about.

So the question that I want you to consider as you’re reflecting on 2024 is how do you overcome a year that wasn’t what you expected?

Most of the time people hear that question and they think it belongs to them if their year didn’t go according to plan or wasn’t as good as they anticipated in January of this year.

But it can also be if you did have a great year, but you forgot to really recognize it and enjoy it along the way as well. Remember, very few things are a linear straight line. Most things zig and zag all over the place and that is okay.

One other thing I want to talk about is you need to keep your eyes on your own paper. Remember that? We are always told that not to cheat, right? In school, keep your eyes on your own paper. Don’t look at your neighbor’s paper for the answer.

It’s the same thing in business. You’ve got to run your own race. You’ve got to be willing to run your own race and you’ve got to keep your eyes on your own paper because what you’re building, what you’re developing and the constraints or the benefits and strengths that you bring to the table are different from the person, the business owner sitting next to you.

It doesn’t matter how similar you think you are, you’re just different and your business is different, and you probably want different things.

So most of you know because I’ve talked about it here on the podcast before that I am in a mastermind with other business owners and some of those businesses I am doing better than and some of those businesses are doing way better than me.

And I have to remind myself, keep my eyes on my own paper. I am running my own race. And there’s a reason for that. And I don’t have to try to compete or look like other businesses that may be doing things differently than me.

One of the quickest ways I bring myself down to I would say like just getting off of the comparison game, is I quickly pay attention to what is their life like outside of their business.

So when I look at someone who’s like business is like exploding, I’m so happy for them because they probably wanted that, right? Most people who want it, that’s, I mean, some people I guess who don’t want it, it still happens to them.

But you know they’re working hard for it, and that should be honored and celebrated, and we should be paying attention to that. That is amazing.

But before I let myself get down the path of comparing myself to their explosion and their growth, I do pay attention to what else is going on in their life.

And not like, oh, they have this, and I have that, or they have this, and I don’t have that. I don’t mean it like that. I just mean looking at the totality of the person.

I look at it as, from the perspective of, there’s a lot that I’m attempting to do with my business that allows me to have the home life and the family life that I want. And that’s, you know, not everybody has that. That’s just the fact, right? Not everybody has that. And so it affords time for us to do different things.

And so I always just pay attention to not only, oh my gosh, they had all this great business success, but what else was happening outside of business that allowed that to happen or didn’t allow that to happen or is impacting or maybe not impacting it, right?

There’s all these factors that kind of come into place. And so the most important thing for us to remember is that we need to run our own race and we need to keep our eyes on our own paper.

And when you do find yourself starting to compare yourself to other people, it is okay for you to take stock of what’s different between you and them and what makes you as amazing as you are.

And maybe some of the things they’re doing or having to do to get to the success they’re having, you’re not willing to do. That’s a big one for me.

When I watch other people have success and I’m like, hey, how many hours do you work in a week? Or what does that look like? What’s your travel schedule look like? Or are you working on your vacations? Those are the kind of things that I’m most interested about.

And so if they’re like, yes, I never stop working, but I’m having this banner year, I’m like, oh, I don’t want a banner year like that. I’m OK with that.

I just think it’s important for us to run our own race and keep our eyes on our own paper and stop trying to compare ourselves to others.

Celebrate others’ success. It’s amazing. It should be celebrated. But it doesn’t mean you have to want that for yourself. And it’s OK to kind of pay attention to what that looks like.

OK, here’s another thing that I want to talk about real quick before we move into the gadgets and tools that I’m loving or making myself love.

And that is, don’t forget. As we move into 2025, what gets measured is actually what gets managed.

If you’re measuring, if you’re tracking, if you’re setting metrics, and you’re setting whether it’s goals or it’s metrics or it’s KPIs that you want to hit in your business, KPIs being key performance indicators, if you’re actually setting those, like this is what I want to do, and then you’re trying to measure your success against that, you will naturally manage them.

They will get managed. Obviously, you guys know what gets measured gets managed is not my quote, but it is such an important one for us to keep in mind. Like what we pay attention to typically expands, typically grows.

So it’s important for you to recognize in 2025, what are you committed to tracking? What are you committed to setting maybe goals on? Or if you don’t love the word goals, maybe it’s the KPIs that you’re committed to tracking.

Maybe it’s the type of activity you’re willing to commit to doing and then tracking if you do that activity or do those different projects, whatever it is. But what are you committed to tracking in 2025? I think that’s a really important question that we need to reflect back on.

OK, so last piece, I just want to talk about something I personally think is kind of fun, and that’s some gadgets and tools that I’m loving or, as I’ve said a couple of times, trying to make myself love.

Plus, what changes are coming to this podcast? Definitely let’s make sure we talk about that as well.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. If you’re a long-time listener of this podcast, then you’ve heard me mention my Building a Referable Business 12-Month Coaching Program.

But there are two other ways to work with me as well. You can dip your toe in and get started with my starter course called Your Next 5 Referrals, which is a four-module online course. Or if you have a team and you want me to build your strategy for you, then my VIP experience is right for you.

Links to all the ways to work with me can be found on the show notes page for this episode. So you can find links to Your Next five Referrals, the Building a Referable Business Coaching Program, and my VIP Referrals in a Day experience. Now back to the episode.

Stacey Brown Randall: Alright, so some tools and some gadgets that I’m loving or trying to make myself love. Let’s start with what I’m loving.

So I got introduced to Miro board. I think it was earlier this year. It may have been actually at the end of last year, but I had heard about it and then kind of forgotten about it and then got reintroduced to it.

And for me, I’m a very visual person. So for me, I like to see things when I can see them, then they can click. I map out all of my trainings and the referral strategies that I do when I do trainings and stuff. I map them out linearly.

Like I just I like to map things out like this and this and this. And then I like to visually see it, and then it helps me connect the dots so that I can put it in a linear process that helps me teach it. It’s just kind of how my brain works, right?

And so for me, the Miro board allows me to have a digital version of seeing things like big picture from a visual perspective, which has been great.

Now, we are moving into a new software called Funnelytics in the company. We are just diving in. I don’t have a lot of opinions yet. In fairness, Kathy, my assistant, will be the leader of that.

She typically has a tendency to be like, I’m going to dive into that and learn all about it because I know if it stays on Stacey’s to-do list and it’s technology-based, it won’t happen because she’s so smart. She knows me well.

But hopefully, I’ll be able to say after time next year of using Funnelytics that we love that too. So Miro board and Funnelytics, they’re kind of similar, kind of mind mapping, but they are very different types of software.

I don’t usually have like gadgets and software that I’m loving. That’s not my love language is to be like, Oh, I’m loving the software. It’s just not who I am. So the fact that I had some, I was like, Ooh, I actually want to mention them.

Okay. Something else that I’m loving is actually my standup desk. I know many of you have had a standup desk since like pre-COVID, but for me, I’m a little late to the game on some things, and this is definitely one of them, but I’ve been really enjoying my standup desk.

Now, I also got a walking treadmill. And this is the thing that I would say that I am trying to love. It has been a little bit more of a learning curve than I thought it would be.

And my husband was so funny because when I was complaining about my walking treadmill, he like sent me an article that talked about sometimes walking treadmills create more anxiety. You may be getting your steps in, but you’re creating more anxiety.

And I think for me, I’m just trying to get used to the idea that I’m walking at a slower pace than my mind is moving when I’m trying to stand up and do work. And so I have had to just reposition how I think about and use this walking treadmill and what I should be expecting from a work scenario.

So I have a goal. I’m trying to do three hours a day on the walking treadmill, not all in one three-hour block. And I hopefully will increase that. But every day, my day looks a little different.

I’m not always in my office every single day of the week, like Monday through Friday. So it’s not always getting used to that. But that’s the goal. That’s what I’ve set for myself.

If I can do three hours of walking on the treadmill and then obviously spending the rest of my time sitting down or just standing. So we’ll see. I’m going to be honest. I have stumbled off the stinking treadmill.

So if you have a treadmill and you’ve stumbled off and you think you’re the only person in the world, you are not. because I have two. So this is what I’m trying to love is the treadmill.

But I really am enjoying my stand-up desk. And of course, I got both mine off of Amazon. I was like, let’s make sure I like it before I decide 100% that I’m going to do it.

Something else that is, I guess, a gadget that I’m really enjoying is actually a pop-up steam room, like sauna.

Like I know this sounds so crazy but my friend got one and she was like oh my gosh you have to get this it’s literally like a pop-up steam room, like you go in you turn it on and it’s like this it looks like um like a tarp but it’s like you know positioned around these poles and it’s little, two people could probably stand in there, but one person can sit in there.

It sits for us in our sunroom, and it’s just a great way to wind down the day. And I’ve been starting to make my son, who plays competitive baseball, I’ve been trying to make him get into it after he works out and stuff. Just give yourself 10 minutes.

His big thing is it’s boring because you can’t have your phone in there. I’m like, then that should be the best 10 minutes of all of our days. But he’s a teenager, so phone addiction is real.

But I am loving this pop-up, pop-up as in we don’t take it down, it stays up. But this pop-up steam sauna. And that was just a couple hundred bucks, which I thought was pretty amazing.

So a few things that I am loving this year have to do with like me trying to get, you know, healthier, which I think is important. But I just wanted to mention this couple of things that I am loving.

Alright, so let’s finish up this episode with what’s changing for next year. I have two things I want to talk to you about. I’m very excited.

So first up, the podcast is sticking around. Don’t worry. I know I mentioned earlier, there may be some changes happening to the podcast. This podcast is coming back for 2025. Do not worry, but we’re becoming a video podcast.

And I hope you can hear all the excitement in my voice as I say that because I’m forcing myself to say that. If you know me well, you know how much I love batching my podcast episodes when I’m able to do it. I don’t always get to batch every single month. Some weeks that’s not what it looks like.

But when I get to batch my episodes, I like to like, you know, sometimes I’m hanging out my pajamas and I am churning through a bunch of podcast episodes, batching for my editor to produce them. And a video podcast is just going to be different because then the camera’s got to be turned on.

So I know this will be great. I believe that it will be great. And I believe that before the year is out, I will be like, I’m so glad I made the decision to add a video portion to the podcast. So of course, we’ll be loading the video portion of the podcast on YouTube, on my YouTube channel.

The podcast will still be on all your favorite listening apps, so don’t worry about that. You’ll still be able to find the podcast wherever you listen to the podcast.

The audio, me here, in your AirPods, your earbuds, will still be there, but we’re also just creating a video portion of it as well. So we’ll see how it goes.

I mean, guys, just say like, fingers crossed, send some good mojo vibes my way, say some prayers, that I last the entire year. That’s the goal. The commitment is to do a video podcast for next year and see how it goes. So we’ll see how that goes.

Alright. And the last thing I want to mention is depending on how long you’ve been kind of like in my orbit, in my world, or a follower of what I do, you know that I work with clients in three ways, right? We’ve got our online course, we’ve got our coaching program, we have our VIP experience.

And of course, with the VIP experiences where I build your customer referral strategy for your business, I come to you and your team for two days and it’s all built, and we implement and then I’m with you for an entire year on call as you deploy, and I help you deploy and help you implement.

It’s an awesome way for me to work with my clients, but it really truly, let’s be honest, it isn’t for everyone, whether that’s a team size constraint or a budget constraint or timeline issue, right? So the VIP experience isn’t for everyone.

So I decided that I’m going to offer a VIP experience in Charlotte for a small group of business owners in first quarter of next year.

So imagine what the VIP experience is like if I came to you, right? That’s still available. I can still come to you, build it for you and everything. Or you can join me in Charlotte. We’re aiming for February.

You can join me in Charlotte in February for two days and we will build your referral strategy for the rest of 2025 together. And it’ll be our ability to knock out your plan and all the facets of it fast. And we’ll do that together in two days.

So instead of having to do the VIP and know that I’m coming to you and that’s all the kind of pieces that are in place. You can come here, and we can do it together in two days and you’ll do it with a group of other amazing business owners.

So be on the lookout for more information coming out about that. We will have a wait list that goes out for people to start signing up, so you’ll be able to find all the information you need.

When the waitlist is live, we’ll first announce it to our email list. If you’re on our email list, you get our emails every week, now you will definitely be the first to hear about this. But we will also be sharing more information about it here on the podcast, too.

But just kind of put that in your thought process like, hey, if I want to do a VIP experience with Stacey, but not doing it the way she does it when she comes to a client but come to Stacey.

Go to Charlotte to be with Stacey and do this in two days like, go ahead and put that on your radar. Put in part of your first quarter 2025 plans because we’re going to do it it’s going to be amazing, and I can’t wait.

Alright, perfect. There we go. That is all the things that I wanted to share with you for this year, and I am so excited that we have another year coming up together.

Now, we still have two more episodes coming up. We’ve got a Q&A episode next week, and then, of course, with our final episode for the year, we’re doing something a little different. I’m very excited to see how it turns out.

So, of course, all the resources that I mentioned can be found on the show notes page at StaceyBrownRandall.com/339.

All right, we’re back with another great episode created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #339: Year-End Referral Reflection appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

In this episode, we continue our three-step Q4 referral plan of action, building on the groundwork we laid in episode 329 and episode 334.

Here are some key takeaways to help you prepare your referral strategy for the upcoming year:

Create a Touchpoint Plan for Your Referral Sources: I recommend mapping out five to seven outreach efforts throughout the year to show gratitude and maintain connections with your referral sources. Remember, it’s not just about the initial outreach; it’s about cultivating those relationships over time.

Maintain a Clean Database: Review your referral database monthly or at least quarterly. Ongoing maintenance is essential for understanding your referral sources and capturing all necessary information. A clean database means you’ll always know where your clients are coming from, which is key to generating more referrals.

Develop a Follow-Up Strategy: Don’t lose hope with prospects who didn’t immediately say yes. Create a follow-up plan that outlines how often you’ll reach out and what you’ll say. This is especially important for referred prospects, as they often require a more personalized touch. Nurturing these relationships can lead to future opportunities!

Setting Referral Goals: Define your ideal referral sources and set a target for how many new sources you need to cultivate in the coming year. Understanding your conversion rates will help you determine how many new connections you need to make to achieve your referral goals.

I encourage you to listen to the full episode for more insights and actionable steps as you prepare for the new year. Let’s make 2025 your best referral year yet!

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Episode #329: Q4 Referral Plan (Step 1)

Episode #334: Q4 Referral Plan (Step 2)

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #339, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, and welcome to episode 338 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business, now 11 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

Okay, so it’s the first episode of December, and we are continuing our three-step, quarter four referral plan of action. So in episodes 329 and 334, we started with the first two parts of this 90-day plan.

So the October episode, which was episode 329, was all about walking you through what to prep, like just pull these things together for me.

And then the November episode, episode 334, was explaining what actions I needed you to take from all of that prep you did the month prior.

For this episode, we’re gonna build on what you did in November, but really focus on how we use this moving into next year.

So I’m gonna make a huge assumption that you did the to-dos from episodes 329 and 334, so I’m not going to explain them. You’ll wanna go back and listen to those episodes if you’re a new listener or you didn’t listen to those episodes or you listened to them but didn’t do the work.

So you’re going to want to go back and do that work because I’m not going to explain them. I’m just going to build on them. And so you can understand exactly what we want to do as we move forward.

Alright. Now I’ve condensed these down, so it’s not a full six this time. We actually have five of them because a couple of them we could combine, and they could work together. So here we go.

So one of the first things I asked you to do was, as you know, to figure out who your referral sources are, right? I walked you through the process of reverse engineering, figuring out who your referral sources are from the last couple of years.

And then in November, I asked you to do one outreach to your referral sources. And that could have been something, what I said was just do something showing gratitude and you could certainly decide what you were going to do.

So you know who your referral sources are and you did one outreach in November showing them gratitude for the fact that they refer to you.

So here’s my question for you as you move into next year. What will you do throughout the year, next year? You need a touchpoint plan of five to seven outreaches in a calendar year. So what will you do?

Now, if you’ve read my book, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, you know in there we talk about four to eight. But what I have found over the last decade of doing this work with clients is the sweet spot in that first year is really five to seven.

You don’t usually need eight, and four is not usually enough. So six is really like a happy place for me when people are new and they’re putting in a touchpoint plan of how they’re going to cultivate and deepen the relationship with their existing referral sources.

So here’s what you need to do. You need to put some pen to paper now and map it out. And then once you’ve mapped out what your five to seven outreaches will be, I then need you to add it to your calendar or your project management software so it will actually happen on time.

If you’re going to actually generate referrals throughout a year, you actually have to be willing to do a little bit of work throughout that year. And a great place to start is have a plan in place for how you’re going to take care of your referral sources, your existing referral sources, the ones you can identify because they have referred you before.

And you’re going to want to make sure that you have a touchpoint plan, an outreach plan in place. Map it out now. Don’t assume you’ll get to it every month or every quarter or whatever it is you think you’re going to do. Map it out now.

That’s what I do with my clients at our yearly retreat when they’re a coaching client in my coaching program, BRB, Building a Referable Business, or they’re a VIP client. We come together once a year in Charlotte, and they actually map out the entire next year plan.

Do not leave this to chance that you’ll just get to it throughout the year. So map out those touch points.

Okay, number two. So prior, you went through for me, and you cleaned up your database. So you have sources of where your clients and prospects came from. Now sources meaning more than just referral sources. This is any source of where a prospect or a client came from.

So you went through and you cleaned all that up, and you’ve tightened up your intake process. That means moving forward, you actually have the information on where people came from, so you don’t have to go back and do another cleanup. See how that works together?

Alright, so here’s my question for you as we move into next year. In my opinion, a cleaned-up process feels amazing in the beginning. But if humans are involved in maintaining that cleaned up process, well, we have a tendency to sometimes fall off the wagon of maintaining it and keeping it going.

So it needs to be reviewed every month or at least every other month. Now, at a minimum, I would say it probably needs to be reviewed every quarter, like at a very, very minimum. If you’re going to push it out at any point, no more than a quarter, every three months.

So here’s the thing. You have this great database. You’ve just spent time cleaning it up, tightening it up, putting in the source information. Now you understand the intake process so that you are making sure you’re gathering the source of where your clients and prospects come from.

But it doesn’t work perfectly. So there’s going to have to be some type of human involvement. They’re going to have to go behind the scenes and request the information when you didn’t get it or follow up with people who didn’t give it to you the first time that you requested it or didn’t fill it out on your form when they first scheduled a meeting with you or whatever.

But you need to make sure that you’re spot-checking it at a minimum, right? So if you always know where your prospects are coming from, that means you’ll always know where your clients came from.

Because every client is a prospect first. First, they’re a prospect. First, they show interest. First, they’re considering working with you. Then, they say yes or no. If they say no, they stay a prospect, right? If they say yes, they become a client.

If at the very beginning of that, at the prospect stage, you’re gathering their where they came from source, then you’ll always have that information as they move to a client as well. But here’s the thing, sometimes people don’t give you that information and so you need to be able to go back and make sure you have a process in place where you’re re-asking for that information.

Oh, how did you hear about us, right? You’re re-asking for that information, and you have a process in place for that. and that you’re spot checking it, at least I think at the end of every month.

If you were to run all the prospects that came into your business at the end of every month, and then check the source of where they came from, you’d quickly see any holes that would alert you like, hey, we have three prospects that came in this month.

We don’t know where they came from. Let’s figure that out. Let me make sure I’m asking, or I’m finding out, or I’m just updating the data because maybe you have it. It just didn’t get into the system.

So when you have this cleaned-up process of your database of the sources of where your clients and prospects came from, and you’re capturing that information in the intake, it’s gonna be amazing, but it’s gonna have to be maintained.

So make sure you have some process on the calendar that you go in at the end of every month, at the end of every two months, or at the end of every quarter, and you check the prospects that came into the business. Where did they come from, so that you know exactly what’s working and what’s not working.

And then of course, it all feeds into your bigger picture. If those prospects are referred to you, you’re capturing the referral source name and that feeds into the bigger picture, which is even better. Okay, just got a couple more to go.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. If you’re a longtime listener of this podcast, then you’ve heard me mention my Building a Referable Business 12-month coaching program. But there are actually a couple other ways to work with me as well.

You can dip your toe in and get started with my starter course called Your Next Five Referrals. Or if you have a small team and want me to build your strategy for you, then my VIP Referrals in a Day experience is right for you.

Links to all three ways of how to work with me, Your Next Five Referrals online course, the Building a Referable Business 12-month coaching program, and the VIP Referrals in a Day experience are in the show notes page for this episode. Now, let’s get you back to the episode.

Stacey Brown Randall: Alright, number three. So I also asked you to come up with your list of prospects who had been referred to you, and then you were supposed to reach out to them.

So you cultivated that list of prospects that had been referred to you throughout the year. These are the ones that didn’t say yes, didn’t become a client, and then you reached out to them, right? Yes, I know you did it.

Okay, here’s my question for you. What follow-up will you be doing moving forward into next year? Depending on how your outreach went, which hopefully you did when you reached out to them last month, depending on how your outreach went, you need to make sure you have a follow-up plan in place if those people didn’t say yes last month when you reached back out to them.

So if they didn’t become a client last month when you reached out, you need to know, OK, so am I going to follow up again in December? Am I going to follow up again in January? Maybe I’m going to have a reason to follow up in February.

Maybe when I followed up with them in November, they said to me, hey, you know what? This is definitely something I want to do quarter one. Let’s do it. And so I need to make sure I have a plan in place to follow up with them quarter one.

Some people maybe told you when they would be interested in moving forward. I’m going to guess, though, some people did not. So you need to create a follow-up plan for those that you don’t have direction from then on when they may want to consider putting this back on their radar and hiring you and moving forward.

So you just need a follow-up plan and how often you’re going to follow up and what you’re going to say when you follow up and the delivery mechanism of how you’re going to follow up, right?

It just can’t all be done in email, folks. Come on now. You just really need to know what that looks like. You got to map this out for next year. Very, very important.

That follow-up, and this is follow-up you would do for prospects really no matter if they’re referred to you or not, but it’s how you do the follow-up. It’s just referred prospects are different. They usually need a little bit of a better touch because they were actually referred to you by someone.

They didn’t just come in cold because they filled out a form on your website after doing a Google search. It’s just an entirely different type of prospect when they’re referred to you.

So how are you going to move forward with your follow-up next year? And that’s what I need you to map out now, so you know what this looks like for next year of how you’re going to follow up to the point where they either say, no, I’m not going to work with you, or yes, I am going to work with you.

I mean, I’ve done some follow-up with folks for over a year. Like, not every day, week, or month. That’s weird. But I’ve done follow-up and just kind of like, hey, staying in touch, just putting myself back out in front of your radar.

And hopefully, if they’re on my email list, they get my weekly email anyway. And so that helps me stay on the radar, too. But that’s not all I do. I don’t rely on that weekly email that I send out, my weekly newsletter that I send out, to be the thing that gets people to be like, oh, yeah, I need to work with her.

Like, I’m doing my own follow-up. And I have kind of like a system in place of how and what that follow-up looks like, just based on how much potential I think that person has to actually become a client.

You should have that in place for prospects moving forward. But I’m also asking you to consider adding these folks to it. Like, how are you going to keep following up with them when it’s the whole next year, right? That’s the point there.

Okay, number four. So the fourth thing I asked you to do was to have a list of new connections made from this year. So you created a list of all the new people you met this year, and your to-do for them is to actually, you were to send them a note that showed that you were thankful that you guys had connected, or if they were someone from your past, that you reconnected.

So, you created a list of all the new connections you made this year, or people you connected with that you hadn’t talked to in a really long time, and you sent them a note. That’s what you did over October and November.

Now, here’s my question moving forward. How will you continue to follow up to nurture this relationship, this newer relationship in the new year? What will that look like throughout the year?

So when we talk about, let me pause here for a second, because when we talk about follow-up, I’ve talked about now three different kinds of different follow-up you need to be doing for different groups of people.

One, what follow-up are you going to be doing? We call it outreach. What outreach, what touch points are you going to be doing for people who have referred you in the past or are referring you?

That’s your touch point plan for your existing referral sources. That was back when we talked about the first thing in this episode, right? That’s number one.

The next round of follow-up I told you to do is that when you have prospects that were referred to you, your follow-up for them as you take them continuing through the buyer’s journey to say yes to being a client.

That’s a different type of follow-up because that’s somebody who’s actually interested in hiring you, which is different from an existing referral source who refers people to you.

Now I’m layering on a third level of or a third layer of follow-up. And this is for the folks that, hey, you met them. If you believe they have potential to one day refer you, you have to keep nurturing that relationship. So what will that look like throughout next year?

You have to kind of keep this in mind, right? What will that look like as you nurture those relationships throughout, not just in the new year, but throughout the entire year?

And the thing to consider here, and I think this is really important, and I think it gets overlooked. easily. But the thing to consider here is what it looks like in terms of, like, over 12 months, not just what am I going to do in the first quarter, like over 12 months, what is that nurturing going to do?

And with my clients, we talk about sometimes the follow up is dictated by how the conversation went, or something that’s popped up in that relationship you’re forming.

And then you also just kind of need in the background, a plan running in place of how you’re going to follow up with folks, even when there isn’t an actual reason to.

So you kind of have to think about this in a couple of different ways, but that’s three different types of follow-up I’m asking you to consider. And you can do all of this because you’re capable. You started a business. You got this. Let’s not stress out, right? Yes, it’s a little extra work and you can do it.

Okay, here’s the last thing we’re going to talk about for this episode. So before I asked you to create your ideal referral source description, this is not like one person, they all do this and they all live here and they all look like this. This is a multitude of who has the potential to refer you.

So usually, you have multiple referral source descriptions or it’s like one description, but it can be different types of people. It’s not 15 types of people, it’s usually like a couple, right?

So you have your ideal referral source description, you know who the best folks are to refer to you. And your goal is to really use this as you look to add new people to refer you next year.

So now you’re like, okay, I have this referral source description and I’m gonna use this as I look for new people to refer me in the new year and next year that they fit this description.

But here’s a really important question you need to ask yourself and this is the last piece of prep, or I guess planning I want you to do for next year.

Do you know how many new people, new referral sources, you need? If you’re going to have an ideal referral source, kind of like overall description of who these people are that are best to refer you, right? And your goal is to use that to actually add new people to start referring you next year. Do you have a target?

Like, do you know how many people we’re going after? Do you have, is it, do you need five new referral sources or 35 new referral sources? And that’s all dictated by how many new people you need referring you, right? It’s how many people you’re going to cultivate to start referring you is based on how many new people you need.

If you have 10 people referring you right now, and they average one referral a year, and that’s 10 referrals, but you need 20 next year, well, then you probably need to add 10 new people to refer you if you can’t get more referrals from the 10 that are already referring you.

See, I’m really big on metrics and goals, and I think people overlook this. And they’re like, let’s just go make it happen. I’m like, make what happen for what purpose, right?

So I really want you to understand, how many new people do you need next year? You need a target. You need a number. You need a goal.

But here’s the thing, when you have met somebody and you’re thinking, oh my gosh, it’d be so great if they started to refer to me, that doesn’t mean they’re going to. And it doesn’t matter, if you do the cultivation or not, it doesn’t necessarily get a guarantee that someone will start referring you.

I tell my clients all the time, you’re gonna kiss a bunch of frogs before you find your prince and your princesses that will actually refer to you. So you’re gonna have to cultivate and meet more new people that will ultimately end up actually referring you.

And so, like, this is, I got a client, I think it was last year, it could have been the year before, needed new referral sources. And in her first, like, four months, I believe it was, she had 15 people that were new that she was trying to cultivate to refer her.

And out of those 15, four actually sent her a referral in those first four months. May have been in the first quarter, I can’t remember, but whatever, three or four months in, she had done outreach to 15 new people, started the cultivation process, and four of them actually referred her.

It was great, right? So it’s not a 100% conversion rate. Like, I just need to set some expectations here. So that’s really important for you to kind of keep in mind.

So I have my clients determine how many new referral sources they need by running some numbers on three different scenarios. So once you determine, hey, I need 10 more people to refer me, the question is, OK, great. So then how many people do you probably need to cultivate to get to those 10 people who will refer to you or be new referring to you, right?

And so we look at this based on a conversion of a low average, medium average, and a high average. That you’ve identified these people, you’re cultivating them.

So let’s just say on a low average, you’re going to cultivate 30 people next year. And a low average, maybe only, five or six of them will actually start referring you. And a middle average, it would be maybe more closer to like 12 to 15% would actually start referring you of those 30. And on a high average, maybe 18 to 20% actually start referring you.

I always tell folks, when you’re setting your conversion numbers, just go with the low. If you are better at it, that’s great. If you end up with a middle or a high average, you actually just get to stop sooner, because you’ll hit your number faster.

But think through this. Take a minute. Re-listen to this section. You’ve determined you need x number of new people referring you next year. Great. Let’s just say it’s 10. You’re not going to meet the first 10 people, and those 10 people are going to refer you. You may have to actually cultivate 20, or 30, or 40, or 50 people to get to those 10.

Keep that in mind, and look at this from a low, medium, and high average of what you’ll actually convert. Because some people will love to refer you, they just can never do it. Some people, no matter how much cultivation you do, they just won’t refer you. And some people will, so just keep that in mind.

Okay, so there you have it. Go back and listen to this episode. Review episodes 329 and 334 to help you as you’re creating all of this in your mind. You’ve done your prep work from 329. You’ve taken some small action in 334. Now you’ve got some planning to do for next year with this episode, episode 338.

And of course, you can find links to those episodes in the show notes page, which is StaceyBrownRandall.com/338. Don’t forget, Stacey has an E.

And remember, if you want the step-by-step roadmap of how to do all of this and you want me to shortcut all of your trial and error and make this easier, then you just need to reach out and let’s consider working together. I can walk you through those options.

Alright, we’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do my friend, take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #338: Q4 Referral Plan (Step 3) appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Liz Walton from Liz Walton Home. She is an accomplished interior designer from Pennsylvania and a client of my VIP experience, Referrals in a Day.

Liz shared her journey of transforming her referral strategy and the significant impact it has had on her business.

We discussed the differences between my two programs: the Building a Referable Business coaching program and the VIP experience. While BRB allows clients to learn and implement strategies at their own pace, the VIP experience involves a more hands-on approach where I work directly with clients to build their referral strategies for them.

Liz explains the importance of referrals in her business, especially in a competitive market where trust is paramount. After implementing the strategies we developed, Liz reported a remarkable increase in revenue—$185,000 from referrals alone in just ten months!

Throughout our conversation, Liz emphasized the significance of building relationships and the joy of working with her ideal clients. She also noted the importance of consistency and tracking her referrals, which has now become an integral part of her business operations.

This episode is a testament to the power of a well-structured referral strategy and the incredible results that can come from it when business owners are willing to put in the effort.

Join us next week as we dive into the final step of our 90-day plan series, designed to help you take control of your referrals and build a referable business.

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Website: Liz Walton Home

IG: @lizwaltonhome

Work with me at the VIP Experience Level, like Liz!

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Next Episode:Next episode is #338, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, and welcome to episode 337 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 11 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

There is nothing quite like a certain level of anticipation and excitement and joy that I have when I get to share with you guys a conversation, an interview that I did, with a client of mine.

Because I truly believe it gives you the opportunity to hear your own story and situation in someone else and then you get to hear how they had success by working with me and how referrals became a true reality for them.

So usually when I bring people on the podcast that are clients of mine, they are in my Building a Referable Business coaching program. So they’re in the BRB coaching program. But I wanted to also make sure you guys were hearing from people who are part of my VIP experience.

Now real quick, let me give you the difference between the two, and then let’s dive into the interview I have with this very special VIP experience client.

So the difference between the Building a Referable Business or BRB coaching program and the VIP experience called Referrals in a Day is really ultimately how you want to consume the information to have your referral strategy built.

The coaching program is 12 months. The VIP experience is 12 months. Actually, it usually ends up being about 13 to 14 months. But it’s the same strategies.

It’s just in the coaching program, you’re going to watch the video trainings, do the work on your own, and then upload it for me to review and have your questions answered on weekly office hours and one-on-one calls with me.

And you’re going to go through, but you’re going to build together your entire referral strategy over time, month after month after month. And you’re going to be watching the trainings, and you’re going to be doing it yourself, uploading it for me, and then I’m going to be reviewing it, giving feedback, and making edits, and blessing it, so to speak.

And it’s a little bit of a go at your own pace. So it’s great for like solopreneurs or really, really small companies, because it really allows you to go at your own pace without being overwhelmed. And I tell you what order to go in based on where you are.

What’s different than to the VIP experience is this is the experience where people are like, I don’t want to watch a video. I just want you to do it for me, Stacey. I just want you to build it for me.

So you complete a five-part assessment. And from that assessment, I pretty much know everything I need to know about what I want your company to put in place when it comes to your referral strategy.

So I build it myself. I put together some pretty expansive decks and workbooks that I bring with me, and then I spend two days with you and your team, and we put the whole entire strategy into place.

And then I’m with you for 12 months after that, in what we call a deployment roadmap, where we have strategies based on everything I’ve taught you, the things you’re supposed to be putting in place, or what we’ve already put in place that you’re managing and maintaining, month by month by month, and then we have check-ins.

So same strategies. It’s just really, do you want me to do it for you, VIP? Do you want to do it with me, which is going to be you going through the videos and getting my feedback? And that’s BRB coaching program.

OK, I wanted to put some things in context for just when you listen to this interview that I did with Liz Walton from Liz Walton Home out of Pennsylvania. I just wanted you to put into context when she says, when you left, you’ll know, oh, right, that’s because Stacey was there with Liz and her team for two days.

So Liz is an amazing interior designer. Actually, I have had the privilege of working with a lot of amazing interior designers over the years. And they are probably, like, I don’t have a favorite type of client that I work with. Like, I work with a lot of attorneys, and I love them for a few key reasons.

I work with a lot of interior designers. I love them for a few key reasons. My CPAs, my bookkeepers, my accountants, them too, my consultants, my coaches, my real estate agents. I mean, I’m leaving groups out, but I like them all and love them all, that industry and, of course, those people, for different reasons.

But one of the things I really love about my interior designers is that then I start following them on social media and I am inspired daily to make massive changes to my home, which my husband and children just kind of have to deal with because, wow, talk about creative magic.

I think, my daughter actually, she’s 14, freshman in high school, is very interested in being first an actress and then, sorry, actor. She always tells me, it’s not an actress, mom, it’s an actor. First an actor and then an interior designer. And I’m like, do it. Because I think those are some amazing businesses that live in beauty.

I know it’s a lot behind the scenes. I know exactly what it looks like to run an interior design firm, but the finished product you get to produce is so magical and so creative and just beautiful and building beautiful spaces. That’s pretty cool. I do not have a bone in my body that says I’m capable of that.

So I’m excited to share this interview with you. It’s the first one I’ve done with a VIP client in this format. And so I’m excited for you guys to hear this conversation between Liz and I.

And I’m excited for you to hear her talk about her aha moments, what they struggled with, and how really and truly they went all in on what I taught, and they put it into place, and they made it part of their business’s practice. And that, my friend, is why they were successful.

When she starts talking about revenue numbers and things in terms of the success, the amazing success they have had this year, it is, please note, yes, they had a proven roadmap and process to follow for me, but they put in the work.

So without further ado, let’s get to Liz and listen to her and I talk about her experience in the VIP Referrals in a Day program.

Stacey Brown Randall: Liz I am so excited to have you here on the podcast chatting about all things interior design and referrals. I loved the time I got to spend with you and your team when I was up there, many, many months ago, it feels like it was just yesterday, though I know it was tense. almost a year ago.

You have an amazing business. And I always tell this to folks, like I work with a lot of industries that I love. I love like lots of groups of folks that I work with. They’re all kind of like, as an industry, they all kind of have things that they do similar.

And one of the things I love working about with interior designers is because you guys make me want to change my house like every day, just scrolling through your Instagram. I’m like, oh, I could do that. Oh, I could do that.

So right now I’m painting a bookcase. And I like to say that it’s inspired by all my interior design clients. You guys do amazing work.

So why don’t you tell, I mean I gave the official bio, but why don’t you tell us a little bit about your company and the work that you do?

Liz Walton: Sure. So we’ve been in business, this is our 16th year in business, and we are outside of Philadelphia. So we serve, if anyone’s familiar with kind of that mainline area, working professional families. That’s typically who is hiring us.

They are short on time. have big projects, though they typically live in multimillion-dollar homes, and they are looking for an advisor and someone to hold their hand throughout their project.

So we are taking them from start to finish. We are meeting with our contractors. We’re really putting our entire project in a pretty little bow and delivering it to them so that they can focus on their lives and their families and anything else important.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, and I think the fact that where you kind of are, and the niche that you’re in, you’ve really honed in on the type of client that just like, just make it happen. Like, here’s what we want it to look like. Just make it happen.

It’s already so disruptive. Anybody who’s ever done any type of work to their home knows that it’s going to be disruptive. And then to have to manage all the pieces and, you know, parts and people and stuff is that much makes it that much harder.

So you really do try to step in and like, we will handle it. We will take care of it, which I think is awesome. And so tell folks how long you’ve been doing this.

Liz Walton: I’ve been doing this for 16 years. In business for 16, I’ve been in the industry for 21.

Stacey Brown Randall: Awesome. Okay, perfect. So let’s talk about why referrals are so important for your business.

Liz Walton: Sure. So we, I think, do a nice job of we have systems in place, you know, we think we’re running our business great. And referrals was always something that we talked a lot about as our best projects were coming from referrals, and we needed to get more of them.

And like a lot of things, we threw a lot of things against the wall and hoped that some of it would stick. If it was gifting or thank you cards, we didn’t have any kind of plan in place.

There was no rhyme or reason to it. It was just, let’s try and get more referrals. Because we knew that that was really, that was going to serve our business in good times and in tough economic times.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah. So I know when you think about like good times and tough economic times, those clients that come from referrals, like most people understand the basics of like, yeah, the referral showed up.

That means the new potential client already trusts you, right? They, because they have somebody who trusts you, that that’s who they’re like vouching for you. So they already trust you.

They kind of understand who you work with, who your ideal client is. That doesn’t mean every referral is going to be an exact, perfect fit. But it’s that goal of like, hey, you know, I even tell folks, I’m like, even in good economic times, we know it happens in not so great economic times.

People are a little bit more judicious with how they spend their dollars and who they give their dollars to, and they do not want to make a mistake, particularly when it’s not great economic times.

But a lot of people act that way in good economic times, too. Like they want to know, this is the right person for me. This is the right company for me to hire. And this is who I’m going to ultimately work with.

So they want someone to vouch for you before they decide to be like, here, help me with my half-a-million-dollar renovation or my million-dollar renovation or whatever it is.

And I always think that folks think about referrals like, oh, I just wanna make sure I’m getting, them during the good times. I’m like, yeah, but you also wanna make sure you’ve got that right strategy in place to do it during the not so great times as well.

And I know when you and I were having that conversation last year, so it had been last fall of 2023 before you hired me, that was something you had already put your finger on the pulse.

You were like, we have an election year coming up. There are things happening next year in our country. And of course, by the time this recording is aired, we will know who the new president is. Right now, it is still a mystery. And it’s still stressful for everybody, no matter who you’re voting for.

And so you kind of knew that was coming. You’re like, this is happening, and we want to be prepared for it. So I always appreciated that when we first talked, you were like, I want to get ahead of this and make sure I’m ready to go.

But the other thing I always like folks to pay attention to is, yeah, this is going to help through this year, and we’ll talk about results in a little bit, but also like it’s a process to keep going with. right?

Have you found that as you guys are putting things in place that we worked on and that I built out for you guys that this is like we will be doing this not just in one year but like three years?

Liz Walton: Totally. Totally. But I think that was something that we were looking for. So I met you at Luann Live last October, so a little bit over a year ago. And like you said, we had identified that this was a pain point for us.

And we aren’t asking people for $50. We are asking people for a lot of money. So their projects are high dollar, right? So for them to trust us with their project, we take that very seriously.

So to your point of like, if a referral comes in, someone to vouch for us is huge, right? They’re probably not going to go to many other places.

So we knew that coming into an election year, it was like, we kind of said, revenue is probably going to stop coming in in July, right? Because people are going to start feeling the stress. So we need a plan in place.

And I think I even contacted you over the summer, Stacey, it was like, we started, we hit the ground running in January, we had our plan, we started doing all of our things, and it felt really good.

And I think even when you came, the first visit, we had gotten like three referrals. You were like magic during your visit. And we had regular referrals. And then over the summer, it was like crickets.

And I remember calling you and I was like, Stacey, I don’t know what to do. The referral, everything has gotten cold. And of course, you’re right. I said, just hang on, just keep doing what you’re doing. And then like a windfall of referrals came in.

So it does work. I really believe in it. And I’ve told my whole team, they all know about this. And this is something that we will continue to do forever. It’s, it’s that important.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, I think that here’s the thing. Most people, when they think about making an investment in their business, like, I’m going to do this for marketing. We’re going to do this to bring on clients. They’re looking for that.

You hear it all the time, that like repeatable expectation or that consistent results that I can get. And I always tell folks, you can get consistent results with referrals, but you have to be willing to look back over six months or 12 months, not what’s coming in every single day or week or month, because that is something we can’t control.

We can’t control when the referrals will come in. We can’t control external or internal factors that are happening. So when people are like, I just want consistent referrals, I was like, I want consistent referrals for you too, and I want you to have that growth that you’re looking to have.

But I can’t say you’ll get three in March, and three in May, and three in July, right? It’s not that, that type of consistency.

So you, and when you reached out over the summer, you’re like, things have gone quiet. And I was like, but you predicted this. Like, I was like, you already knew this. I was like, smarty pants, you kind of already knew that this is probably what it was going to look like.

You’re so like attuned to what happens in your industry and with the clients that you work with. What I knew and was able to bring to the table is yeah, but it was working. You were getting referrals since we started together in January. It’s just the lull.

The lull was always coming no matter what, but those referrals, they were waiting on you. And so, and as you said, like that windfall happened, we got past the summer and then it was, good things started happening again.

Liz Walton: Yes. Yeah. And we’ve gotten projects with, so we focus on builders, Realtors. We’ve gotten projects with people that we had our eye on for years and I had reached out to and gotten nowhere. And I mean, I can happily and proudly say today that we’ve had success. So that feels amazing.

Stacey Brown Randall: That’s awesome. Yeah. Because for you, you know, and every business is a little bit different, but most businesses kind of follow, like there’s a little bit of the same baseline framework for most businesses that I’m in interior design or not.

And that is you probably have people referring you which you did. Right? And so let’s cultivate more referrals from them or look at the people who are referring you and be like, it’s not the right fit or it’s been a really long time since they have referred. So let’s maybe clean up the list of who is our existing referral sources.

But like most designers that I work with, you had your eyes set and your sights set on a few people that you’re like, these are the folks that we ultimately want to refer to us. And most people follow the same playbook for that.

They just reach out and be like, hey, I’m a designer. I do awesome work. Check me out. I’d love to show you my portfolio. And that’s not usually what gets anyone’s attention.

And so when you learn the process that I teach, that running five, keeping warm framework, it allows you just to connect on a different level and in a different way. And it takes time. Nothing happens overnight.

I do love how you say, I was there that weekend with you or those two days with you. And you’re like, we got three referrals. It’s magic. I do keep a running tally of when that happens.

Liz Walton: You should.

Stacey Brown Randall: Just for clarification for the people listening, so Liz worked with me at the VIP level. That’s my VIP experience. It’s called Referrals in a Day, where I build everything and then I go to their team for two days and we implement it.

And so I look at every VIP client that I’ve worked with this year and I’m like, okay, who got referrals while I was there? And up until this point, I am five or six.

Liz Walton: Wow. You are magic.

Stacey Brown Randall: Just think, when you decide to focus on something, right, that is when you’re rewarded with it.

Liz Walton: Yeah. But I think also focusing on the right things. So my team and I, we have weekly meetings and we always talk about the referrals, and it came up that prior to working with you, we didn’t have a plan and we weren’t laser-focused.

And identifying the people that we weren’t getting great referrals from was just as important as the people that give us really good referrals. It was like, okay, let’s, cause we’re not made for every job.

So, and I think you really brought that to light of like, Hey, if these people keep referring you and it’s not the right project, we might want to let that go.

Stacey Brown Randall: Right. Yeah. And I think that it’s, you know, most people think about referrals and they’re like, oh, I just got to do this one, I got to figure out what the one way is to get more referrals.

And I’m always like, no, like, there’s a lot to it. There’s nuances to it. There’s situations in which you need to have the type of, you know, like laser focus on how you’re going to handle that.

And generating referrals in your business is a business decision like any other investment or business decision you’re going to make about growing your business.

It shouldn’t be looked at as I’m going to do this one thing that’s going to work. It’s an ecosystem. I mean, I couldn’t come and spend like one hour with a company and be like, okay, you got it all. I can barely get through all of it in two days.

So I think that’s the thing that when business owners like lock in on that and they’re like, oh, this has got to be a focal point for us. This is something that we have to talk about as a team. This is something that we have to measure, that we have to track, that we’ve got to have metrics around.

There are activities or actions that we have to do. There is like things that we’ll be doing and saying, and we have to be consistent with that. I mean, it really does kind of become a way that you add on to how you run your business. And I know that you found that to be true as well.

Liz Walton: I love that add on. It is a lot of work. It’s so worth it. But you told me in the beginning, if you don’t put in the time and do the work, it’s not going to happen for you. And we carved out, it’s on the calendar and we color-coded it and it is part of what we do.

And it’s like I said, it’s part of our systems. So all of those little things we carve out the time because it, it works, it works, it pays off.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Okay, cool. So let’s talk a little bit about the results that you’ve been having since we worked together. When you talk about the number of referrals received, however you kind of want to talk about this from that perspective, I think is important.

But just kind of share like what 2024, because we started working together in January, so we’re going to count it as like a full year, but like, well, not yet. We’re closing it on a full year. What does 2024 look like or that’s been different from a referral perspective than it’s been in previous years as you compare it?

Stacey Brown Randall: How many Black Friday sales do you think you’ll participate in? How many Cyber Monday deals do you think you’ll attempt to snag? Guess what? We’re no different. I am gonna be taking part in some Black Friday sales and trying to score some amazing Cyber Monday deals as well. And we are offering one to you too.

If you’ve heard me talk about my online starter program, the best place to start to dip your toe in or to get the basics in place before you start working with me, it’s called Your Next Five Referrals.

And we’re offering an amazing deal for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So we’re giving you a few days to make a decision if you want to snag this offer.

But here’s the thing. You either have to be following us on social media or you need to be on my email list. And actually, you know, reading my emails and not allowing them to land in spam. So you’ll see about this limited-time offer.

If you’re interested, we’d love to have you come join us with this offer inside Your Next Five Referrals. But hurry, because it will disappear soon. So either get on our email list or make sure you’re following us so you see our social media post.

Liz Walton: So we kind of looked at this from a dollar standpoint, right? So we’re very financially motivated.

So this year, just from referrals, we had $185,000 increase in revenue just from referral. And that’s just in, I’ll say 10 months, because we started working with you in January, but that was the end of January. And so it was really like nine months.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah.

Liz Walton: We had a client with a new prominent builder that we’d been going after, that was a $20,000 plus spend with probably more to come. Another client from a referral, it was actually her daughter that referred her to us. She’s $60,000 plus in revenue.

We have another one reaching $100,000 in revenue. And just last week alone, we received four promising pre-vetted referrals, and I have meet and greets coming up with them soon.

And I think this is a big number, at least for us, we have 17 new strong referral resources that are referring us consistently.

Stacey Brown Randall: That is awesome. Yeah, because that’s the thing you know it’s about getting the right projects. It’s not how many referrals can we get, it’s how many referrals can we get to the right projects.

So okay, this is like an unfair question to ask you that you did not know was coming so I’m just curious.

With the what you’re at so far revenue-wise and then the four promising ones you have coming up, best guesstimate. If you were to close all four of those plus the revenue from referrals you guys have already received this year, where would that put you?

Liz Walton: That would put us well over half a million.

Stacey Brown Randall: That is incredible. And here’s the thing, we both know, because we know each other well now, I am happily going to take all the credit for that.

Liz Walton: As you should.

Stacey Brown Randall: But clearly this is actually happening because you and your team are putting in the work and you’re following the process. And you do the things.

Like, I always talk to my clients when they’re starting work with me, I’m like, things are going to work, and then they’re going to slow down. And then they’re going to work, and then they’re going to slow down.

Because that is the ebb and flow to how humans behave. And we don’t control the opportunity people come across. We control the desire to choose you over the other 50 or 100 amazing interior designers that are within driving range. And so we have to pay attention to that.

But I always tell folks, I’m like, but when things slow down, right, and you get nervous, you have to call me, right? You have to reach out to me, because more than likely, the number one thing you’re thinking is, oh my gosh, is it going to stop working?

And if the minute you allow that into your head, then you start taking different action. The minute you’re deciding, I don’t know if this is going to work anymore, you show up differently in those conversations with folks.

You look to take shortcuts when it comes to the referral work that I want you putting in. So I always tell folks, I’m like, if things slow down, I’m not scared of them.

It’s OK for you to call me with bad news and be like, hey, it’s been really slow, right? But I know that we have to trust the process and we have to show up to the process on an ongoing basis, like you just got 14 referrals, not like, oh, it’s been three months since I’ve gotten one.

Because that intentionality that you bring to the referral work that you do to be able to generate those new referrals, like they need that same mindset when times are good, even when times are slower.

Liz Walton: Totally. And I think what I love about working with you Stacey so much is I don’t feel like a used car salesman. And I think that was, I’ve read so many business books and it feels natural. It feels like the way I would talk to somebody.

It all just, and it’s not rocket science. That’s, it’s not anything hard to do. It’s time, but it’s the way I don’t know how you came up with this system, but it’s really simple things, but it’s the order in which you do them and the way in which you say them.

It’s the tweak of a word or the tweak of a gesture, and it feels good. I don’t feel like I’m a sleazy salesman.

Stacey Brown Randall: Which is really important.

Liz Walton: It is.

Stacey Brown Randall: I mean, it’s so funny. I remember one time I was talking, this was like early in my career or whatever, and someone’s like, okay, I need you to, I was like in sales. I was like in my twenties, like, you know, it was like a lifetime ago. It feels like sometimes.

And they were like, okay, we need you to do this. And I’m like, yeah, I’ll do that for like a day, but that feels real bad and I don’t know if I’m going to keep doing it.

And that’s what I realized really early on. If I don’t figure out a way to do things that feel good for me and work like if they don’t work, it doesn’t really matter that they feel good, that I just won’t keep it going. Like that’s just who I am. I will not keep it going if it doesn’t feel right.

And, you know, everything I do, like you say, it’s like the shift of a word or the shift of a gesture. For me, I always am thinking about if I were receiving this, how does it impact me?

And when you can put the focus on the other person, it usually changes everything about what you’re ultimately thinking about doing. And then it’s just like, I just want to show up in the right way.

And that genuineness, that being authentic, authenticity, like that all comes through and your referral sources see it. And then of course, like, there’s a framework and there’s science behind it. And there’s things that we say on purpose. And there’s like, there’s a system behind it.

But really, it comes down from that place of just being like, hey, like, I want to do something that feels good, but it’s also the right thing to do. And it works.

Liz Walton: We have a, we have a motto at work, jobs that bring us joy, right? We only want to do things that feel good and work with people. And this is something that brings me joy, it feels good to do it. So it’s like, why not?

Stacey Brown Randall: I love it. That is so awesome.

Okay. So I know in our time working together, you probably had like little tiny ahas and big ahas and you’ve kind of shared a few of them or whatever, but I was just curious if you had to articulate it down to like the one thing or the two things or whatever, right?

It doesn’t really matter, but that were totally like new to you. Like a total aha moment that you didn’t really see coming with what I teach.

Liz Walton: This might seem silly, but it’s the language when someone asks me, how’s business? Like, it’s now, it is second nature to me and my team laughs at me because they’re like, Oh my gosh, you’re saying it again. But it works. It’s just that that whole language, I feel so equipped.

And I, like I said, I don’t feel sleazy. That feels great. And the thank you cards. We always write thank you cards always, always, always, but I was writing them wrong. Like, who knew?

Stacey Brown Randall: Who knew you could write a thank you card wrong?

Liz Walton: Yeah, right. And we are huge on thank you cards. I’m like, oh my gosh, for 14 years, 15 years, I was writing these wrong.

And I think just the cadence, that is mind-blowing that we keep track of it. And there are multiple spreadsheets going and you can actually measure this. That was kind of mind-blowing.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, so you and I both know I don’t do math in my head, so I can’t figure out what the percentage of the ROI is on what being a VIP, that investment was for you versus the revenue that you’ve received and the intended revenue that’s to come. But it’s a whole bunch.

Liz Walton: I mean, I would do it again. Yeah, it was worth every penny. And I really believe in coaches, especially for things that you can’t do yourself. And we weren’t doing this ourselves. So, and there’s just too much, there’s too much revenue to walk away from.

And relationships. Like what you help us do is build relationships. And I feel like this whole world is about relationships. So yes, it’s about getting new projects and increasing our revenue, but we are really strengthening relationships with people, which is like, you can’t measure that.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, that’s so true. I mean, and the fact that there’s a systematic way to make sure that you’re just doing it the right way and in the right cadence.

I think that’s the piece that people are like, oh, so I probably shouldn’t meet somebody for the first time and then ghost them for six months. I’m like, not if you want them to remember your name.

Liz Walton: Yeah.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah. So it’s, some things feel very small. You know, I’m not a rocket scientist. This isn’t, I’m not solving some crazy disease. It is like tweaks in some cases, different ways to say things, different ways to show up.

There is science that runs through everything that I do. But I love the fact that I just help people do what they want to do anyways, which is really connect and build relationships with the people and take care of the people who are going to also take care of their business.

And I just give them a framework to be able to do that in a way that then also produces more results. But for most people that I work with, it feels very natural to show up in this way.

And that’s awesome. Because the last thing I want to do is tell people to do something and they’re like, oh, heck no, I’m not going to do that.

Liz Walton: I mean, I’ll tell you when you came and left, you said this, we were like, oh my God, it was so overwhelming, but then it’s just baby steps.

It’s not, you don’t have to do it all in a day. And once we got set up and running, it’s like I said, now it’s just, it’s clockwork.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah. I love it. That is so awesome. Okay. So if you were having a conversation with another business owner and they were deciding to work with me at that VIP experience level, what would you say to them?

Liz Walton: I would say it’s worth every penny and more. I just, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I just think the strongest projects come from people that already know us and selling is hard.

It’s really hard to convert someone that you don’t know into a client. So why not, you know, take a shortcut and have a referral from someone that already knows you because chances are, if your friend refers you to me, you’re already taking out a lot of the guesswork. So it makes things easier and it’s fun.

Stacey Brown Randall: That is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Liz, for being here with me today. It’s always fun to connect and catch up, and I appreciate you.

I just want to give a shoutout to you and your team for being the folks who do the work. Maybe I didn’t say it enough earlier. I probably should have.

The truth is, I can provide the roadmap all day long, but the clients that have success, and the clients who are willing to trust the process are also the ones who are willing to do the work.

And that’s not me. I’m not sitting in your office doing the work with you guys. You guys are doing it. I’m just there for guidance and the roadmap. So congratulations on all your success.

I just know those four potentials are going to turn into referrals. I can feel it in my bones as long as they’re the right fit for you and they’re the type of clients that will bring you joy. And I can’t wait for you to tell me what that ultimately looks like in terms of revenue dollars for you.

But I appreciate you being the type of client that wants to put in the work because you’re ready to reap the rewards. And you have, and you’ve deserved every single one of them.

Liz Walton: Thanks, Stacey. We couldn’t have done it without you. So we appreciate it. And I’ll sing your praises to anyone who asks.

Stacey Brown Randall: Thanks, my friend. I appreciate it.

Stacey Brown Randall: I hope you enjoyed listening to this conversation between Liz and I and just hearing another business owner talk about the success that you can have when you have the right roadmap to follow and then you’re willing to put in the work to generate referrals.

I am so pleased with all of their success. Again, I say this all the time, I’m happy to take full credit, but the truth is it’s always my clients who are putting in the work that are actually generating those referrals, and I’m so proud of them.

It was so fun to talk to Liz. She is so kind and just has so much energy, and I love talking to her. So if you want to check out Liz, we will list in the show notes page how you can contact her. You just go to the show notes page for this episode, which is StaceyBrownRandall.com/337.

And we will link to Liz’s website and her Instagram page. And you can learn more about her and her team. They are doing a beautiful interior design in the Philly mainline area.

Okay. So we’re coming up on the final month of the year. You’re so ready for this. What do we have coming up for you?

Well, you already actually know the answer to what we have coming up for you, because I say the same thing every week. We’re back next week with another great episode created with you and your needs in mind.

In fact, we’re going to actually dive into that final step that we’ve been doing, breaking down the 90-day plan. We did one in October, November, and now we’re going to kick off with the first one for December.

Okay, so until then, you know what to do my friend, take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #337: Designing Great Referrals appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

We continue with part two of our “Now and Then” series, where I reflect on my journey from overcoming business failure to success over the past 11 years.

If you missed part one, I highly encourage you to listen to episode 335, where I shared the first three lessons I learned from my initial business failure and how I applied those lessons to build a more successful second business.

In this episode, I dive into the fourth through seventh lessons that transformed my approach in business number two.

Building a Referral System: I became intentional about creating a referral system that allows me to generate referrals without asking. This system has been crucial to my success and is now a core focus of my business, helping clients worldwide.

Having a Plan to Scale: I emphasized the importance of having a scaling strategy from the beginning. You can’t scale when you’re overwhelmed, and being open to opportunities for growth has been vital in my journey.

Office Space: I shared my experience of moving into an office space, which helped me separate work from home life and improved my productivity. While not everyone needs an office, it was a significant factor in my success.

Willingness to Hire Help and Seek Support: I highlighted the importance of outsourcing tasks and seeking support through mastermind groups and coaching. This shift has allowed me to focus on my strengths and grow my business effectively.

These lessons are not just theoretical; they are practical insights that I’ve applied in my own business, and I believe they can help you too.

Don’t wait any longer to start building the business you’ve always dreamed of. If you’re ready to get serious about your referrals, email me, send me a direct message, or book a time on my calendar. Let’s chat about the next best steps for you!

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Episode #001: Seven Ways I Overcame a Business Failure

Link to Episode #1 Resources

Episode #335: Now and Then (Part 1)

Episode #201: A Business Intersection

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #337, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: Okay, here we go, part two of Now and Then.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 336 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business and now 11 years later, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

So I’m excited to jump into the second part, part two, of our now and then episode. So if you missed last week’s episode, that is episode 335, we will absolutely link to it in the show notes page for this episode.

But if you missed last week’s episode, I’m really going to encourage you to pause, just stop, stop listening to me right now and go listen to that episode because that was part one.

What I’m doing is I’m listening back to the very first episode I did on the podcast, which of course is episode one. And it was seven ways I overcame a business failure, and like seven ways business number one, or number two, is different from business number one, the one that ended in business failure.

So I don’t go back and listen to podcast episodes. I think some people do, and I think that’s awesome. Very rarely do I go back and listen to them once they’re live. Like, you know, live for you to listen to in your favorite podcast listening app. I just don’t go back and listen to them. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong. It’s just how I’ve always done it.

And so, when I was thinking through doing this, I was going to do this last year when I hit my 10-year anniversary, and then I just didn’t. I didn’t have room for it in the editorial calendar, and I was like, I don’t want to go through another whole year and not do this.

So basically, what I’m doing is I’m going back and I’m listening, and we’re listening together technically, but I’m sharing with you each of the seven ways that I changed my second business from my first business. So it’s like the seven ways I overcame a business failure and made business number two better.

So I’m listening to it and then we’re playing it for you guys to listen to as well. So we’re clipping it from the first episode and then I’m coming back in and I’m giving you my thoughts and opinions and reactions to it, which has been really, really fun for me to do this. I may have to do this for some future episodes. I don’t know. I’m kind of enjoying it.

But I kind of give the entire backstory of this in episode 335, and I go through the first three lessons that I learned and lessons that I shared for how I overcame a business failure. So we’re going to move on with this episode to lessons four, five, six, and seven. I got a little long-winded.

And I think in a good way with the last episode, I was like, okay, we’re breaking this into two episodes. So that’s what we’ve done. So anyways, I do encourage you to go back, listen to episode 335, where I kind of start at the beginning and start moving through these before you listen to this episode.

And the other thing I just want to remind you of, and you’ll hear this in the last episode too, is that when I recorded that first podcast episode, it was June of 2018. That was five years into the business I’m in now. Now I’m 11 years in.

So I started this business 2013 and in 2018 I launched the podcast a few months before my first book came out, which is Generating Business Referrals Without Asking. So I launched the podcast and now I’m like, what, five, six years later, and I’m doing this again, going back and listening to that episode.

But I think it’s really important for you to recognize that these seven ways business number two is just better than business number one, the one that failed, is because I had five years to figure it out.

I didn’t figure it all out in day one or even day 180 or day 366. It took me time to figure it out and then for me to be able to compare, oh, these are all the things that I’m doing smartly and differently that are allowing me to be successful.

So here we are, X number of years later, and I’m just telling you what’s changed. And so we’re gonna dive in. So we’re gonna start now with the fourth way. We’re gonna listen together.

The fourth way that I overcame a business failure and made business number two better than business number one. Okay, so let’s go back in time and let’s listen to what I had to say for the fourth way.

Stacey Brown Randall: Number four, this is the fourth way I have been intentional about making my business different this time around, my second go around. And that is I built my referral system.

Now, if you knew from the beginning, what I did not know, that you could generate referrals without asking, you’d probably start this a little sooner than I had. But the truth is, I knew when I started my second business, a major gap was that I hadn’t figured out how to generate referrals.

I loved everything about referrals, what they meant to you, what they said about you, how easy they were to close, how you could receive referrals and then close them, get them to the goal line, get them through the buyer’s journey faster.

Referrals are just gold. They just are. So I knew I wanted to build my second business by referrals. And I love everything about what referrals stand for and how they fit me and who I am. My guess is they probably fit you too.

So I set out to crack the code on how not to ask for referrals. And the truth is, as I refined that strategy for myself, generating over 100 referrals every year for multiple years now in a row, I did start teaching it to other people.

And it’s a focus now of my actual business. I provide online programs and one-on-one VIP programs to help people figure out how to generate referrals in their business without asking for them.

When I sat down to figure out how to generate referrals, most of the advice out there was, you just got to ask. Well, asking for a referral feels awfully like a second cousin to a cold call to me. It’s the most dreaded thing I could imagine.

Cold calling being first, asking referrals being second. And I just figured out, you know, as I talked to more people and I did the research, most people had issues asking for referrals. But all the advice, all the experts, all the gurus said, well, if you want them, just ask. And if you’re not willing to ask, well, then that’s your problem.

And I just could not agree with that. So I decided, well, let’s figure out what makes a referral a referral and how does it work. And I’ve got more of that coming up in a couple of episodes. But I wanted to know, how do I make referrals happen that I don’t have to ask for?

And I boiled it down to a process and a system. And it became a huge factor for my business success, so much so that it’s what I do now when I’m helping clients. And the cool thing is, it’s just five steps.

And I am truly obsessed and passionate about making sure that everybody understands you can generate referrals without asking. And building my referral system has made a measurable difference for me and the success of my business. And so if you don’t have a referral system in place, you definitely should get one.

Stacey Brown Randall: I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone that one of the ways I survived a business failure and made the business I have now a success is because I figured out my referral strategy. I don’t think that comes as a surprise.

If you’re listening to a podcast that is titled Roadmap to Referrals, it’s probably not a surprise that the referrals, the process, the procedures, the strategies, the language, all the tactics and everything that I learn and teach my clients today, that obviously clearly learning that was a game changer.

Developing that, learning that, creating that, throwing a whole bunch of spaghetti on the wall and seeing what would actually stick and what would work and now building an entire business around that.

I don’t think that comes as a surprise that even back then I would tell you that big difference between business number one to business number two was figuring out my referral system and then building that and then being successful with that. And then, of course, eventually teaching that to clients.

I kind of giggled when I said, there was a few things that actually made me giggle, but I kind of giggled when I said that I think the most dreaded thing you can do is cold calling first is the most dreaded thing you can do. And second dreaded thing you can do is asking for referrals.

I still 1,000,000,000% feel that way. And I always will. I mean, clearly, because I don’t think you should be asking for referrals, and the science backs me up. And of course, there’s results from myself and my clients to ultimately prove that as well.

But one thing that caught my attention, and I think I had just kind of forgotten, was when I said, way back then, was my whole process was just five steps. And I was like, oh my gosh, it was. Back then, I really taught one foundational strategy. And it’s called my Growth by Referrals strategy. It’s what my first book, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, is based on.

And a lot of times, people were like, so this is it. This is the strategy. And now, I’m like, no, no, I teach 19. I teach 19 different strategies. And there’s one I’ve been teaching to clients for probably about the last 24 months that I’m like, I need to make this an official strategy, not just an add on and say, I have 20 strategies that I teach because I do.

So it’s just crazy to me, like when people, when I, you know, over the last couple of years, if you’ve been a long-time listener to this podcast, you’ve heard me talk about the layers to our referral strategy.

You’ve heard me talk about the referrals exist in their own ecosystem within your business. And there’s lots of places that they hide, and you can uncover them, and you can put strategies and tactics in place to be able to develop them and cultivate them and pull them out.

But way back then, way back then really was. It was my Growth by Referrals strategy. It was the strategy based on if you receive referrals, here’s how you get more referrals from those people who are currently referring you, which we call existing referral sources.

But that’s so funny that I was like my whole process is five steps. In case you’re wondering, it is not. It is so much more than that. Growth by Referrals is still a foundational strategy. It is in, if you’re a client of mine, you know this, we call it the green box. It is in the green box of trainings. Everybody goes through it when they work with me.

It is what I call the low-hanging fruit strategy for most, not all, but most businesses. And of course, it’s one of my favorites because it is the low-hanging fruit and usually it helps me help my clients get, if they’re going to get those quick results that’s usually, not always, but usually where it’s going to come from.

But I’m like yeah, my whole process is just five steps okay folks it’s not anymore. I have 19 different strategies. And some are simple, like, hey, learn how to say this. And some are more of a process or a plan and a workflow you have to put in place.

So, wow, has my business evolved. I love that. I mean, always growing, always learning, and always making sure that what I’m teaching is helping my clients. That’s awesome.

Okay, so let’s move on to way number five that I overcame a business failure and made business number two better than business number one. So let’s go listen in now together, you and me, to past Stacey as I talk about the fifth way, the fifth way to make the business better.

Stacey Brown Randall: All right, number five. Always a plan to scale your business. That’s right. Always have a plan to scale your business. Here’s a really important lesson that I learned when my business was failing. You can’t scale when you’re drowning.

Now, my first business was an HR consulting firm. And my second business started out as a business and productivity coaching practice. So I got really clear on what my limitations were going to be with my second business.

One thing I knew as a business coach, we’re going to trade dollars for hours and you’re going to hit a ceiling with how much money you can charge and how many hours you have that you can trade for those dollars.

So I got open very early on in the second business to what scaling could look like. I didn’t know what it would actually look like until of course I discovered my referral plan.

And then it clicked for me that that is something that I could scale, that I could take those five steps to generating referrals without asking, and then I could put that into an online program and serve people all over the world.

And in the last couple of years of being able to do that, I’ve been very fortunate to work with students not just across the United States, but all across the world. I’ve got students in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.

So I knew that I needed to figure out, starting a business and productivity coaching practice, you better have a plan to scale or you’re going to hit a ceiling.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with hitting a ceiling. And if that’s what you want, to have a certain business that generates a certain amount of money and you only work a certain number of hours, go on with your bad self.

But if you do want to actually build a business that has some scalability and some growth, if you’re trading dollars for hours or you’re going to run out of time to do the work, you’ve got to think about scaling.

Now the truth is, there are a number of ways to scale and deciding to offer an online program is not your only option. You can bring on employees, you can bring on other people who can deliver the work that you can do, but you’ve got to figure out the scaling mechanism that works for you.

I happen to like to go it alone, so bringing on employees and other people to do coaching wasn’t really what I was looking for. And the truth is, I knew I was open to scaling, I was just looking for the right idea.

And because I was open to it, and because I was paying attention to it, and I was investigating options, I think that’s what led me to finding this scalability option in my business sooner rather than later.

So I had a hunch that I could grow my referral generation without asking into a program that I could scale, and it worked for me. I think if I wasn’t looking for the opportunity, it probably would have passed me by.

And so all I’m saying is you don’t have to scale. But if you want to scale, you need to be open from the beginning and at all times through your business because you never know when that opportunity will find you. Again, you can’t scale when you’re drowning. A really hard lesson I learned as my first business was failing.

Stacey Brown Randall: Have a plan to scale. Okay, hey there. Welcome back to Present Day Stacey. Oh, I do love this one. It created a lot of angst for me when my first business failed. And it was something I was laser focused on when I started my second business, particularly as a productivity and business coach.

Because you do, and I mean there are ways to evolve a coaching practice so it’s not necessarily trading dollars for hours but a lot of times for coaches it is. And I knew that going in it was a problem I had had with my first business. You hit a ceiling with how much money you can make and it’s a lot dependent on you to do the work.

And so I knew I needed a plan to scale but never got even close to figuring out what that would look like with my first business. So I got really laser focused on it. And that really helped so much, oh my goodness, of what my business looks like today.

So we mentioned this earlier, but I think that when I talk about scaling, in the context of 2018 Stacey, doing this reflective on the first five years of my business, and I talk about having an online course or an online program that would allow me to scale. That was Growth by Referrals. It was my very first strategy that I taught. Still teach it today, like I just mentioned earlier. Still teach it today.

It became my first online course, and it allowed me to test out this idea of scaling, this idea of recording the knowledge and then putting it in a password-protected website, so to speak, where people could pay for it and access it and go through it. And so I wasn’t teaching them live.

They were watching the trainings, right, and going through it and putting the process in place. And it really did allow me to test out this whole idea of scaling, but it was very, very particular to only online programs. Like that’s the, that was to me, that’s all I needed. That’s how I’m gonna scale.

And if you would have asked 2015 Stacey, when Growth by Referrals first launched. So Growth by Referrals, my first online program, launched December 2015. My very first sale came in on Christmas Eve. It was a very beautiful Christmas that year.

It was also our first Christmas that we had custody of our nephew, Danny. It was beautiful in a lot of different ways. But I’ll never forget getting that first sale that like, oh my gosh, I’m validating the fact that someone will buy this online program. That was 2015.

And then I’m reflecting back on it in 2018. And by 2018, obviously I had some ancillary programs that went along and supported the signature program of Growth by Referrals. And so eventually I did add other strategies as individual online programs.

But the reality of it is 2018 Stacey thought my scaling would only be online courses. And that’s how I would run my business and that’s how I would scale my business.

Now you got to remember back in 2013 and it kind of started like around 2010 and moving forward, online programs, online courses became all the rage. Now I think people have fatigue around buying another online program where they don’t talk to anybody.

But that was like, that was the focal point, like this is how it’s going to work, right? I’m going to have online courses I’m going to have a maybe a bunch of them or maybe one signature one and I’m going to sell it and everything’s going to be great I’m just going to sit back and rake in the money.

Okay, seriously, we all know that’s not how it works. But what I do like about listening to myself back then is that I did say, and I think this is so true and has served me so well moving forward, is that I talked about how if I hadn’t been looking out for the opportunity to scale when I started this business back in 2013, the opportunity to make referrals part of an online program and to be what I would first try to scale, I do think I would have missed that opportunity.

I think if I didn’t have my eyes open for it, if I wasn’t looking for it, I do believe that opportunity may have passed me by. And I don’t know, I don’t think I would be sitting here today still looking for something to scale. I would like to think I would have figured it out.

But recognizing that referrals was my place to play in. It was my blue ocean because I was a contrarian in the space. Yes, referrals is a very crowded space, and there’s a lot of people who will try to teach you referrals.

And back then, there were still a lot of people who could teach referrals, but they all taught asking for them or paying for them. And here I came in, in my blue ocean, teaching referrals and teaching how to do it without asking and without compensating.

And yes, the marketplace is still crowded. Actually, now it’s just crowded with people who rip off my intellectual property, which is really frustrating. I do see it a lot, and even from people that I know. And so that can be really frustrating from time to time.

But I do think that looking for it allowed me to see it. Knowing that I was looking for it allowed me to see it. And having that plan to scale and not knowing what it would be, but being open to it when it popped up, allowed me to grab it and be like, yes. this is how I’m going to scale.

What’s interesting is that I’ve kind of like completely, not a complete 180, but now I’m like, I don’t want to go through another online course. Most people don’t. We have online course fatigue.

And I started feeling this back around the time, like when 2020, 2021, and maybe it had something to do with COVID because that’s basically all people were really then pushing were online courses.

But as an online course creator, as the person who recorded the information and put it out on a website for you to access after you purchased it, right, with your password, I started missing talking to people. A lot.

I missed having conversations with my clients. I missed being able to be like, what are you working on? What is your stumbling block? Have you ever thought about doing it this way? And I missed it.

And so that lesson of always looking to scale and being willing to look for something different in your business, being open to it, not knowing what it was, but being open to it so it couldn’t pass you by, was even more true for me in 2021. And that was another very pivotal year for me.

It’s interesting listening back to this as I’m like, oh gosh, I forgot that was a pivotal moment for me, or that was a really impressionable moment for me. And here I am 11 years later, right? But 2021 was really a pivotal year for me.

I talk about the pivotal year that 2021 was for me in episode 201. The title of that episode is called A Business Intersection. And you can definitely go listen to that episode.

That episode is where I talk about finally figuring out how I wanted to run my business and work with my clients, where it brought in my zone of genius, my sweet spot, and where my clients got their best results.

And that is actually the birth of the Building a Referable Business coaching program. And it has evolved to now there is a VIP experience for people who are like, I don’t want to be in a coaching program. I just want you to do it for me, Stacey. And so there’s that option that evolved.

And it existed in the past, but nothing like it exists today. And that was able to evolve because I had this pivotal process that I went through in 2021 and changed the game on how I worked with my clients and started moving away from, I’m going to only scale an online course, which much more of that’s not how I want to work with people.

And eventually. Like in 2023, 2024, you no longer could purchase Growth by Referrals. That very first course that started it all, it still exists. It just only exists inside my coaching program and inside my VIP experience. But you no longer can actually purchase that a la carte.

I was like, no, no. I want people to understand what referrals looks like when they are doing it right and doing it with access to me. And that model is just different for me than it is an online course.

Now, do we have an online course? Yes. To fill the gap that taking away any of our a la carte online courses that people could buy in the past, to kind of fill that gap, I created a new process, not a new process, but I guess a new program called Your Next Five Referrals.

And that is our online, what I would call our online starter course. It’s like the basics that I really wish every single business would put in place, particularly before you start working with me.

Nothing makes me more happy when I have a new client that starts in the coaching program or in the VIP experience, and they’re like, okay, here are the things that we’ve already done. Check, check, check, check, check.

And I’m like, yes, it’s like they went through Your Next Five Referrals, because a lot of times they had. Or I do it with them real quick. That’s where we start if they haven’t done it. So we do still offer that online course, but it’s much more the, hey, anybody can put these things into place. But they’re at the starter level.

They give you the basics. It is not all the things that I teach my clients that get my clients those amazing results you hear us talk about when I interview a client, or when you see their results on social media, or when you’re maybe on the page reading about one of my programs and you see results from my clients. Those come from my bigger programs.

Those do not come from a four-module starter program called Your Next Five Referrals. But it is the basics to get in place. So we still offer that starter program. I realize that that was still a gap when I took away the option for people to go through Growth by Referrals or any of my other online programs.

But yeah, it’s really interesting kind of how as I think back through how much my business has changed, but it all started with, I’m going to scale and what that’s going to look like. And then always keeping my eye on, this is how I want to scale, but this is how I’m scaling now. And it’s different.

And it has allowed a lot of things to shift and change. And truly for me just to be happy, more happy in my business. I’m just not the type of person who can just sit behind a computer screen and record a bunch of stuff and then never talk to anybody. I gotta know what’s going on. I gotta figure out how I can help you.

I want you to make sure that the light bulb is going off and you’re putting what I teach correctly into practice. Because a lot of people at first glance think they know what I’m saying, and sometimes they actually have to take a minute and pause and really understand it.

And I can help them get there faster when they’re working with me, either in the coaching program called Building a Referrable Business, or as the VIP experience level, which is called Referrals in a Day. But it is so true.

Okay, so this was a big one for me. This was like, oh my gosh, that’s right. I created this mindset of looking to scale. And when I scaled the first time and changed how I was doing my business, I kept that mindset and was open to the fact that my business would evolve so many years later. And I would scale in a different way. and in a way that brings me so much joy.

I did also giggle at this part when I talk about, we’re in three countries now, because now I’m like, well, we’re in 14 countries now outside of the United States. So business, it’s growing and it’s always awesome and it’s always amazing.

Okay, stay with me. We have two more ways that I overcame a business failure and made business number two better than business number one. Let’s get to way number six.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. I’m gonna make this super, super quick because as I’m talking about how I changed my business over the 11 years that I’ve been running this business, I’ve been talking about also the ways to work with me and how that has shifted and changed as well. So you probably don’t need a mid-episode commercial hearing about it all over again.

So here’s what I’m gonna say. If now is the time for you to take control of your referrals, if you want to start a year strong, end a year strong with having processes and procedures in place when it comes to your referrals, we need to talk. You need to reach out to me, email me, DM me, and let me know you’re ready to get serious about your referrals.

I can send you a calendar invite, you can get on my calendar, answer a couple questions so I understand where you are, and I can help you figure out what is the next best step for you. So, is it time you and I chat? I hope so. And I hope to see you in my inbox, in my DMs, or on my calendar very, very soon. Now back to the episode.

Stacey Brown Randall: Okay, number six. This one was really funny for me because I don’t do this one anymore. Number six is really interesting. Again, I’m not going to spoil it. Let’s listen to the number six way that I overcame a business failure and made business number two better than business number one. Alright, let’s listen in.

Stacey Brown Randall: Number six. Alright, this is the sixth way that business number two is different from business number one. And that is office space. Now wait, let me just say you don’t need office space. You don’t have to have it. You don’t have to need it.

But here’s what I learned by actually getting office space with my second business. It is not for everyone, but for me, having an office space meant a couple of things in my coaching practice could shift and change.

Now, the type of business you run dictates whether or not you need an office. Home offices are awesome, and if you can have it, do it. It’ll definitely save you money. But for me, there was a big mindset shift that had to happen coming off my first business failure.

So here’s a little bit about me that you don’t know. I have three kids. And right now, they’re 8, 9, and 10. And they are at home a lot, minus the time that they’re in school. I am also distraction and procrastination prone. Like, it’s pretty bad.

And I have a bad default habit that I kind of developed with business number one when things got tough, or I had a hard day. I would convince myself it was totally cool to do laundry at 2 p.m. in the afternoon versus working on my business.

Now going to an office, that distraction and that procrastination, it isn’t the same for me and that was really important. And having an office space that was separate from the home, it gave me a really clear space to work and for me to differentiate between I’m at work versus I’m at home.

And I made my office my own. And I think that’s what matters most. I have a huge whiteboard in my office, so I can always sketch things out. I’m a very visual person. I even have a rocking chair. And yep, I got a couch. And every once in a while, you can catch me taking a nap on it. And I definitely have been able to decorate that office to work for me.

Again, please hear me, you don’t have to have an office, but one way my business has been successful is because I broke the mental hold a home office had on me to the bad habits that I had developed working from home, particularly when things weren’t going well.

I was working with a business coach, and I’ll never forget, we were on one of our calls, this was my first business, I was sitting at home, I was taking our coaching call, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, she said, Stacey, where are you sitting right now? And I said, at the kitchen counter.

And she goes, why aren’t you in your office? And I had never said these words before, but I uttered, I hate it in there.

And that was a clear moment for me to know things weren’t working with my first business. And what I needed with my second business is a place to separate home from work. And to recognize that it’s okay to need to do that.

Now will I always have an office space? I don’t know. I just know when I started my second business and about 12 months after starting, I got my first lease on an office space. That has really changed the trajectory of my success because it’s allowed me to think different and perform differently with my business.

You need to decide for you if it’s right. And in that freebie you can download on the show notes page for today’s episode, I’ll kind of walk you through some pros and cons to consider so you can figure it out for yourself.

Stacey Brown Randall: Okay, office space. Now, I felt like such a big girl, and I’ll be perfectly honest with you, like I was the real deal in 2014, less than a year into having my business, or I guess right out of year into having my business, that I got office space.

I remember being really scared to sign a year-long contract and realize that I was on the hook for that rent payment every single month, but I was in that office space from 2014 through 2020. A very long time.

And I love that office space. It served me really, really well at the time. I talk about in that little snippet that my kids were 8, 9, and 10, which effectively means they were in elementary school. And my office was like, I don’t know, 50 steps from the front of the elementary school.

It was like perfectly positioned to where we lived and where my kids went to school. And I could get home super quick. I could walk to work sometimes. Across the street was actually a Starbucks, too. Yes. you know, all good things.

And there was, like, two grocery stores that I could grab lunch if I needed to. It was, like, just super convenient to stay within my bubble in my life, which is, if you know me personally, you know I don’t leave my bubble unless I have to. And that’s just how I manage being as productive as possible in my business.

Now, my kids are older. And so I go out of my bubble all the time to take them and do things. And I’m like, oh, that’s really out of the bubble. But it’s so funny for me to say my kids are 8, 9, and 10. And now I’m like, yeah, well, now my kids are 17, 16, and 14. So it’s just kind of crazy.

But it’s funny because I did have office space through 2020, and it actually wasn’t COVID as the reason why I gave up my office space. Having access to the office space was actually really important when COVID first started because it was an escape that my husband or I could both use and go to the office.

The problem was, is before COVID started, a couple of months before COVID happened, we had moved. We had left our neighborhood. We were in an apartment looking for another house to buy, going further from our perspective in Charlotte, going a little further south in Charlotte.

And I knew when we moved in 2019 and landed in that apartment that where we were looking was going to now be out of my new bubble, and I wouldn’t be driving to that office space anymore. So it was only a matter of time before I let go of that office space.

Obviously, 2020 kind of accelerated that because now I was working from home. I would go into the office from time to time. But the house we purchased has a really cool log cabin at the end of the driveway. And I turned that into my office.

And so I feel like I have the ability to escape when I need to. It’s also a little bit easier, too, because the kids are older. And let’s be honest, they bother me less.

Actually, they try not to bother me because then they know I’m not checking on them to seeing how much time they’re spending on their phones and how little time they’re spending studying when it’s during the school year.

So I still think dedicated office space is important. I think it looks a lot of different ways for folks. I’ve definitely, I mean, I wouldn’t say I’ve like done a 180 on this. I think having office space is important. And if I didn’t have this log cabin, there’s no way I would work in the house that we have. I would have found office space somewhere else.

I just got lucky that it’s kind of like a combo unit and 15 steps from my kitchen door. So that works really well for me. But dedicated office space out of the house, if you can swing it, if you can help it, it just helped a lot. It helped a lot for who I am.

And the separation factor of getting distracted and procrastinating, that kind of still lingers in me. I’m a big girl, right? So I do know how to control it much better than I probably did in the past when my kids were younger.

But that separation factor of not having to leave my office and, you know, walk down the hallway to go anywhere or do anything and see all the things I could be doing around the house has been helpful having that separation factor. So definitely office space. I kind of feel like we can, it’s just different. And I think it’s whatever works best for you.

You don’t need independent office space outside of your house, but if you’re like me and you need that separation factor, it’s nice to have. I just feel like I have the best of both worlds right now.

Okay, we’re at the final one. Let’s listen in to the seventh way I talk about overcoming a business failure and making business number two better than business number one that failed.

Stacey Brown Randall: The seventh way that I am making business number two different from business number one, and that is my willingness to hire help and seek out support.

So I got really clear on what I didn’t want to do with business number two. And the minute I had money to afford it, I started outsourcing the things that I knew I could to someone who could do it better, faster, smarter than me, which means I outsource my bookkeeping, my graphic design, and even my website maintenance.

Those are just things that are not my jam. And that’s OK as long as you are in a place to be able to afford it and the time you’re going to save, you put back into growing your business, not, I don’t know, doing laundry at two o’clock in the afternoon.

And I looked for hiring a virtual assistant, which I think was really key to outsourcing some of the, I don’t know, the mundane tasks that I would have to do in my business. I don’t have to be the one that manages my calendar. Truly, anybody can, and they can manage it from anywhere, as long as I teach them what to expect when it comes to managing my calendar.

So don’t be afraid to hire help when the time is right for you, and you are ready. But be really clear on what you want to outsource and what you’re looking for if you decide to hire, like a virtual assistant.

The other thing is, is look for support. Don’t be afraid to get the support you need, just preferably the positive support you need. So I joined a mastermind group, and actually I’m on my second one now.

Mastermind groups come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes you pay for them, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you get together with a group of like-minded people, which is how my first one worked, and it’s actually how the second one is working.

And you really spend the time diving in with the people in that group, so that you can share your business concerns and what you need help with. And then you can support other people.

Having a community of like-minded people is so key for people who are on your side and want the best for you. And let’s be honest, aren’t afraid to call you on your stuff when you need to be called out. So consider joining a mastermind.

Or, now let’s be honest, I’m a little biased on the next one, but hire help if you need it. Like a coach, like a business coach, productivity coach, an executive coach, whatever type of coach you need, there’s great ones to hire.

But that’s not the only help that you can hire. Right? You can also consider maybe hiring a fractional CFO. A fractional CFO will come in and help you with your books if you need to get them figured out.

When I made a major shift in 2016 to how I ran my business, I was making a massive model shift. And I’ll be honest with you, I was scared to death. It was raising my rates. It was changing how I worked with my clients. And I was so afraid, which was, of course, all up in my head, that my business was going to fall apart on January 1, 2017.

And it didn’t, but I hired a fractional CFO, which is a CFO for hire. It’s effectively what it is. I hired a CFO to come in and just run my numbers for me and make sure I was doing it right.

And what he said to me after he came in, he’s like, Stacey, you know your numbers better than anyone I know. Why am I here? And I laughed and I said, I really need someone to give me permission.

I just needed one other person to look at what I was doing and say, yep, I think this is great. Sometimes you’re going to need that. So consider hiring the resources that you may need to help you grow your business.

Stacey Brown Randall: Oh, yes. Welcome back to present day Stacey. Yes, that willingness to hire help and seek out support. I got to tell you, I’m a master at this now. I just, I think everything changes.

You know, as your business grows and develops and starts becoming successful, you do start looking at things differently. You look at the value of dollars differently. You look at the value of your time differently. You look at things that are I get much better about putting things in priority order.

Like, hey, these are seven things I could solve in my business, just for sake of argument. Like, if I was thinking through, hey, these are a couple things I could solve in my business, and I clearly recognize which ones are revenue-producing things that need to be fixed and which ones aren’t and put them in a priority order.

All that stuff just kind of comes with being a business owner year after year after year. I’ve been doing this for over a decade. But that first major shift that I talk about did happen in 2016 when I changed the model of how I worked with my clients.

It also got me used to doing it so that when the big shift again came a few years later in 2021, I was ready for it. I was confident in my decision-making process. I had thought through how to make this work, and I was ready to do it.

So definitely doing that first major shift in late 2016, which would have been, what is that, three, four years from starting my business. It certainly made it easier to make all the other shifts in my business that I have made as well.

And the ability to hire help and the willingness to do so, as soon as you can afford it, nothing has changed my belief in this, that what I said five years ago still rings true today, or whatever that was, six years ago on that podcast episode. Still rings true today.

When you can, hire help and seek out support. Do it. There are people who can do things better, faster, and easier than you can, and you should involve them in your business as soon as you can. Adding team members, outsourcing, delegating, all the things. You should be doing them.

I talk about in that clip how, like, what I first started outsourcing, and all those things are things today that I still outsource. I just outsource, like, triple the number of things that I used to and I have more of a permanent part-time assistant that has been a game changer as well. Shout out to Kathy. We love Kathy. She is amazing.

So I outsource everything that I can and I keep the things that I really love but also is my zone of genius and where my sweet spot is in the business too. I’m not saying you have to outsource and get support for everything and completely be hands off in your business, unless that’s what you want. That’s not what I want. That’s not the kind of business I want to build.

I think that’s the other thing, too, is I think as a business owner, hopefully people will get to this point faster than I did, but it’s that evolving into your comfort zone. And I don’t mean comfort zone like something that holds you back.

I mean evolving into the comfort zone of knowing here’s what I’m good at, here’s what I enjoy, and having all your confidence come from that, and here’s how I want to build my business.

I’m going to build my business so it works for me. It’s okay if it doesn’t work for you, right? You don’t have to build a business just like me. And that’s very, very important.

So yes, I completely agree with everything I said about hire help, get support, hire the experts that can do things better than you can do them. Super, super important.

Okay, so this is really fun, I’m really glad I finally did this. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it a year ago as well, if I had done it last year, like I had planned. But we did mention some other episodes that you can certainly check out.

That downloadable resource that we mentioned way back in episode one, it’s still available too. So we’re going to link to all the resources on the show notes page for this episode. And those resources can be found in the show notes page for this episode is StaceyBrownRandall.com/336.

We’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #336: Now and Then (Part 2) appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

Let’s take a reflective journey back to the very first episode I recorded, which aired in June 2018. Titled “Seven Ways I Overcame a Business Failure,” this episode marked the beginning of my podcasting journey and my transition from a business failure to a successful entrepreneur.

As I revisit the key points from that inaugural episode, I’ll share my thoughts on how my perspectives have evolved over the past five years. The first three ways I discussed are:

The Power of Mindset: I emphasized the importance of protecting my mindset from negativity and external opinions. I still believe in the power of mindset and have continued to focus on it, incorporating new strategies and resources to maintain a positive outlook.

Having a Focused Sales Plan: I talked about the necessity of a focused sales plan and tracking activities through a dashboard. This approach has remained vital in my business, and I’ve since refined my understanding of how to generate, nurture, and convert leads.

Knowing Thy Numbers: I highlighted the importance of understanding financial projections and tracking business metrics. Since then, I’ve adopted the Profit First methodology, transforming how I manage my finances and approach profitability.

Upon reflection, I realize that while my methods have evolved, the core principles still hold relevance. Be sure to come back next week, as we’ll cover the remaining four ways I overcame my business failure in the next episode.

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Episode #001: Seven Ways I Overcame a Business Failure

Link to Episode #1 Resources

Books recommended – The Big Leap, You are a Badass at Making Money, Profit First

Episode #273: My Leads Framework

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #336, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: We’re going to do something a little bit different with this episode. I’m not even going to give you a spoiler alert. You’re just going to have to keep listening. Come on. This will be fun.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 335 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business, now 11 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently, has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

So this is an entirely different episode, and it’s one I had considered doing last year, and then somehow it didn’t happen. Somehow there just wasn’t room for it within the editorial calendar. And I was like, nope, it’s happening this year. I’m calling this episode Now and Then. Or should I say Then and Now? No, Now and Then.

Okay. So what I’m doing for this episode, it’s something I was going to do last year for my 10-year anniversary and then didn’t, was to really just look back and I’m going to give you kind of like a what was going on back then versus what are things, how things are working in my business now.

And the way I decided to do this, because in 11 years, let’s be honest, so much has changed. Oh my goodness, so much has changed. And it always, and probably in 11 years from now, so much will probably have changed. I don’t know, maybe not.

I feel like the last four years I’ve been pretty, I have made less changes in the last three years after I made some massive changes four years ago. I’ve made less changes in the last couple of years. So maybe, no, there won’t be many, many changes. But, ooh, did this business go through some shifts and changes when it started.

And so what I’ve decided to do is listen. You and I are going to listen together to episode one. That’s right, the very first episode from this podcast. Now, not the whole episode. We’re going to go in and we’re going to edit out each of the tidbits that I talk about in that very first episode.

So this is episode one. If you’ve never listened to it, maybe you’re more of a newer listener to the podcast. Maybe you’re just new this week, new this year, or just new in the last couple of years. And you’re like, Stacey, you’re 300 something episodes and I’m not going back to the first one.

But a lot of people do go back to the first one. I hear that, which is fascinating to me. And I guess I never thought about it, but a lot of people will find this podcast multiple ways, but they’ll find this podcast and they’ll listen to the most recent episode.

And if I maybe reference another episode, they’ll go listen to that one. And then they jump all the way back to episode number one and listen to a couple going forward. And that’s back from 2018. Like that’s forever ago.

So I thought it’d be really cool if I could do an episode where we’re gonna listen to each of the points I talk about in the first episode and I’m gonna give you my thoughts on it, like my reactions to what I said all the way back in 2018. We’re talking like what, six months ago? Like it was a long time ago.

So episode one dropped June 28th of 2018. That’s about four months or a little less than four months before the book came out in October of that year. My first book, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking.

I’ve been saying my first book forever and now it’s actually real because book number two will be out and available for purchase in September or October of 2025, which I’m very excited about.

So this podcast started, the first episode that dropped, the first episode title was Seven Ways I Overcame a Business Failure. So what I’m going to do is I am going to listen to each of the seven pieces of advice I give. You guys are going to hear it, we’re going to listen to it together, and then I’m going to give you my opinion, my thoughts on it.

Do I still believe that? Do I not believe that? Has nothing changed? Do I have additional advice to give you? Do I think that advice is so solid I have nothing to share? We’re going to do this for each of those seven ways that I talk about overcoming a business failure.

And so if you haven’t listened to the whole episode, you certainly can do that. But really, I’m just going to give you the highlights of those seven ways.

So a little bit of backstory. September of 2013 was the start of this business. And it came because my first business that I had had, prior to this business, failed after four years. I had to go back to corporate America. I had to get a job. It’s a really painful story. But I did it. I was in that job about 15, 16 months. And then I started this business in September of 2013.

And so I go through, so think about that. This business started September of 2013, but this podcast episode where I talked about the seven ways I overcame a business failure was done in June of 2018, right?

So what is that? You guys all know I have to count on my hands. If you don’t know that about me, you’re about to find out. 2013 to 2014, 15, 16, 17, 18, I guess five years. I know you’re probably like, gosh, you’re really bad at math, Stacey. And guess what? You would not be wrong. Okay. And that’s okay. I’m okay with myself.

So five years later, I did an episode on the seven ways I overcame a business failure. So this wasn’t like, here’s how I overcame a business failure and I’m my first year in business.

Like I had five years under my belt and I did a reflective look back and that’s how I decided to kick off this podcast is I need to acknowledge the fact that I had this business failure, I learned a bunch of stuff, it’s actually why I teach what I teach today, my referral strategy, it’s why I teach what I teach.

So I thought this would be really cool. We’ll just do a then and now. So you’re going to hear a snippet from the podcast where I’m talking about one of the seven ways, and then it’s going to come back to me in present day. And I’ll tell you it’s me in present day.

I think you’ll actually be able to tell the difference in my voice. I listened to a little bit of episode one before I started recording for you guys right now, and I can hear the nervousness in my voice, since it was my first one.

So anyways, but I will also be like, okay, back to present Stacey, right? Back to me of today. And I will give you my opinion on what we just listened to. So I thought this would be kind of a cool way to do this.

If you want to go back and listen to the entire episode, it is StaceyBrownRandall.com/1, as in like the number one, just the one. And remember back then the podcast was called Roadmap to Grow Your Business. A couple years ago we changed it to Roadmap to Referrals.

And there’s other things you’ll notice that are different if you go back and listen to the episode. Like back then I actually had like a professional introduction and now it’s just me reading the introduction. Like we’ve evolved, we’ve changed, the music has changed, like lots of things have changed.

But hopefully not that you enjoy it. Hopefully that has stuck around for the many, many, many, many years that we have done this podcast. So again, and that was the big thing I want you to know.

I recorded this podcast, episode one, the first episode of this podcast with the seven ways I overcame a business failure, five years into this successful business, this business. So this wasn’t like, here’s seven ways I overcame business failure, and I’m 30 days into this new business. No, I was five years in.

So just want to put some context in there for you, for those of you who are newer to me. Maybe this year and the last couple of years, I just want you to understand how I’m setting this up and what this is like.

Okay, so here we’re going to go. We’re going to dive in, and we’re going to play the first thing I talked about with how I came, way number one, that I overcame a business failure.

Stacey Brown Randall: Alright, so number one of the seven ways that I am avoiding another business failure is working on the mindset. The truth is, when my first business, I was really excited to get started. And then my mindset took a beating.

I listened a little too much to what others thought about my business, whether they were well-meaning or not. And when a well-meaning colleague once told me, oh, Stacey, with two small kids under the age of two building a business, you’re just building a lifestyle business, not a business that grows and develops.

Well, I bought in hook, line, and sinker. Now, buying in, that was my fault. But what I didn’t have into place was the ability to protect my mindset and the ability to shut those noises and to shut those voices out.

I definitely was an active participant in letting my mindset get damaged and definitely impact my business failure. And so today, I’m a much better participant of protecting my mindset. I’ll read books that will help me remember and remind myself why I’m doing what I do.

I set a BHAG, a big, hairy, audacious goal to make sure that I am always focused on what matters most. And I use visual reminders to remind me of why I’m doing what I’m doing.

So when my first business failed, I had to go get a job. That’s right, the J-O-B, back to Corporate America, the 9 to 5. And at that company, I had a nameplate that was outside the door of my office.

When I left that job to start my second business, when I left that job, I asked to take that nameplate with me. It said, Stacey Randall, Chief Talent Officer. I took that nameplate with me and now it sits above my door in my office as a visual reminder that I’m not going back to where I came from.

So I actively work on protecting my mindset. And I do that by reading the right books, by making sure I’m really clear on my why, and using visual reminders so I don’t fall into the trap of believing possibly what other people think of my business.

Now, I’ll put in the show notes for you a couple of lists of books that I think are great for you to read that will help you with your mindset, too. Just a couple of them are The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. I think it’s a great book for understanding how to get to the next level with your business.

And another couple of ones that I have in there, too, You Are a Badass at Making Money. Those are some great books to read. And I’ll make sure that you can get those in the show notes.

Here’s a question for you. How’s your mindset? When things get tough, how do you protect it? They will always be the doubters, the haters, and those well-meaning people who have negative things to say.

But if you’re going to grow a business to be successful, and one thing I’m definitely doing different with business number two, is I’m protecting my mindset. And you need to be willing to do the same. So let me know, how is your mindset today?

Stacey Brown Randall: Okay, so back to present-day Stacey. This is crazy for me, talking about mindset, because nothing has changed.

And what’s crazy, when I recorded this and this came live in 2018, I was really focused on mindset. But what’s crazy is a couple years later, I would become even more focused on mindset.

And I would say over the last two to three years, I would say, yeah, definitely 2022, 2023, and all of 2024 has been an even higher focus on mindset, like taking this to the next level for how I protect my mindset.

So I think that’s awesome. Nothing’s really changed. I talk about reading books. I talk about understanding my why. I talk about visual reminders. I still do all those things. So that’s definitely like something that has helped me get more and more successful, which is awesome and amazing.

So yes, I am a big fan of books that you can read that will help you protect your mindset and help you develop and grow. I used to only really read business books, like specific business books, and I have evolved in some of my reading taste, reading some different books that are a little bit more focused on mindset and the psychology of that and things like that.

Which is awesome. So, I mean, I still read a lot of business books. I don’t read nearly as many as I used to. I really need my kids to go to college so I can get back to my reading practice.

But, yeah, I love it. Nothing’s changed. Like, yes, visual reminders, books, understanding my why. My why has evolved. Not really too much. I mean, my family has always been the big part of my why. But it does continue to evolve.

Every season of life that we shift into, I notice that my why changes just a little bit and grounding myself back to that I think is really important.

Like the main why doesn’t change, but I think the peripheral pieces or like the outer ring or the next ring out of my why kind of shifts and changes just because life changes and I get older, and my kids get older and life changes.

So I think that’s really cool. Okay, so now let’s go listen to number two.

Stacey Brown Randall: Alright, moving on along to number two. The second way that I am building my business different from my business failure is I have a focused sales plan.

Now, here’s the thing. We can all be schooled in all the ways to bring in clients. There are so many activities you can do to bring in clients.

And activities, I mean like cold call, direct mail, network, one-on-one coffees, attend trade shows, set up some advertising, Facebook ads. There are so many different activities that you can do that will be bringing in new clients to you.

But here’s what I realized. I went through a process of doing a lot of stuff and then trying to figure out what worked. And having a focused sales plan has made all the difference for my business continuing to grow year after year after year.

So I started out by writing down the activities I thought would work. And let’s be honest, what I really mean is the activities I’m willing to do.

So I knew I could do one-on-one networking. I knew I could give free speaking engagements. And I definitely wanted to figure out how to generate referrals. So I figured out a plan to work those activities.

But here’s the secret. I then created a dashboard to track my activity and results. So an example is in my first year of my second business, I wanted to give 12 free presentations, just groups that I would go and speak to that had my ideal client in the audience. And I would go speak on my topics of expertise.

And when I created a dashboard to make sure I actually did those 12 speaking engagements, guess how many I actually landed in my first year? Twenty-three. What Peter Drucker said, what gets measured gets managed. And I was measuring it, so it was happening.

So when you think about what you’re trying to accomplish, having a focused sales plan is really important. And having a dashboard that holds you accountable is super important to making sure that you’re actually doing the work you say you need to be doing.

Now, I put a freebie that you can download in the show notes for today’s episode that actually will have a kind of a sneak peek at what that dashboard should look like. You may take my idea and change it up to work best for you, but this is exactly what I used my very first year starting my business.

And I think if you don’t have a focused sales plan, you are definitely going to need one. And it allows you to understand what’s working and what’s not working, which is really important in terms of ROI and metrics.

Stacey Brown Randall: Present day Stacey here. Oh my gosh. Like sometimes I listened to these things and I’m like, wow, I was really brilliant back then. Sorry, that was like the least humble thing I could say. But it’s so true.

I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes. That focus sales plan, like nothing’s changed except for how I think about it. That’s changed. So that’s what I want to talk about.

So in that clip, you heard me talk about the three activities that I did when I was starting my business back in 2013. I did a lot of one-on-one networking. I mean, we’re talking about 7 million cups of coffee.

Like I’d sit at Starbucks, and I would like stack those meetings because I wanted people to understand that I had left the corporate job, that I wasn’t going back to what my business failure had been and that I was launching this new business.

And so, which then of course was a productivity and business coaching practice. And I did a lot of coffee meetings and like a lot of one-to-one networking in terms of those coffee meetings, meeting people for coffee. And then of course I did networking itself.

But then I also talked about free speaking engagements and then obviously figuring out referrals, which changed the entire game for my business. That really, when those first couple of months in, in 2013, and I started to receive referrals towards like the end of my third month in business, like that’s what I latched onto and changed everything.

But I talk about my secret is having a dashboard to track results. I’m actually going to link to that. We still have that freebie; I think I called it. I don’t think we call things freebies anymore. I think we just call them resources because we’ve grown up.

But I’m going to link to that resource. It’s like a multi-page PDF that kind of walks through the things you need to know for each of the seven tips that I talk about, each of the seven ways that I overcame business failure.

So like tip number one had a bunch of books that I would have recommended. Of course, this is from back from 2018, which those books are all still good. So I’m going to link to that in case you want to see what this dashboard looks like, because tracking those results is really, really key.

I have evolved in how I think about my focused sales plan. And if you listen to episode 273, I will link to that in the show notes page, that episode is called My Leads Framework. And how I think about the focused sales plan of now in my business versus back then in the first five years of my business.

How I think about it now is everything, the activities that I do, right, that’s what a focus sales plan is, are the activities you’re going to do. How I think about my focus sales plan of today is more from a lead generating, lead nurturing, and lead conversion. It’s like a three-part process.

So what do I do that generates new leads or new prospects? What do I do that nurtures those prospects into wanting to work with me? And what are the things that I do that converts those folks to actually saying yes to working with me?

And so I do look at it differently, and you can hear all about that in episode 273. Obviously, a big part of how I work with folks are referrals. Like it’s interesting. When I pay attention to the things that I want to do on social media or the things that I want to get better at, and people are like, well, are you looking to get leads from LinkedIn?

I’m like, no. I mean, that would be great. I’m not going to say no to that. But I actually look at LinkedIn or Instagram, those are the two main social media platforms that I’m on, those are lead nurturing.

It’s like, hey, we’ve connected somehow. More than likely, you were probably referred to me, or somebody recommended my book to you, or you heard me on a podcast. There are other ways, but those are going to probably be, or you heard me give a presentation, those would probably be the main ways that you’re going to stumble upon me.

And so sometimes people find me cold on LinkedIn, but not normally. That’s not to say that there’s not a strategy for that. I know. I just don’t have to do it. But I’m looking at those platforms as how I nurture things.

So I think that helps you kind of figure out where you spend your time. So back then, when you listen to that tip, it was more about what am I doing to get some clients in the door? Of course, figuring out referrals changed everything.

I rarely do one-on-one networking. I don’t actually go to networking events anymore. Sometimes I feel like maybe I’m missing a little bit of that human connection. I do a lot over Zoom with people, but I didn’t even needed it.

I don’t have to spend a lot of time networking because I have referrals because I’ve developed relationships and then I know how to take care of those relationships because that’s what I teach people to do and I practice what I preach.

So I don’t know this is really cool. The focus sales plan, that thing like worked and it helped my business be successful. So I think that you should definitely Absolutely. Maybe just re-listen to that point.

Go download that resource if you want to, but really go listen to episode 273 when I talk about my leads framework. That’s how it’s evolved today, looking at what I do when I’m trying to generate new people as prospects, when I am looking at bringing those people through a nurturer process and nurturing them, and then getting them to convert to a client.

So I don’t know if you guys can hear my dog in this room sometimes lately. I don’t know if you guys know this, but we have like a almost six-year-old. She’s still a puppy to me because she’s like six pounds, little Maltese. Maybe you’ve seen some of her pictures on social media.

She is the most beautiful, most adorable dog in the world. Anyway, she just kind of went through like a coughing fit. I don’t know if you guys can hear that, but if you do hear that, it’s my little puppy. She’s not a puppy, but I still call her my puppy.

Okay, let’s move on. Let’s get on to number three. Let’s listen to the third way that I overcame a business failure.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. So as a longtime listener of this podcast, you’ve probably heard me mention my Building a Referable Business Coaching Program, but that’s only one of the three ways to work with me.

We have my starter course, which we call Your Next Five Referrals. It’s a great way to dip your toe in and get some of the basics in place ASAP. You can do it quickly, like in a matter of hours.

Or if you have a small team and you want me to do all the work, you want me to build your strategy for you, then my VIP experience is probably right for you.

And then, of course, right there in the middle between our starter course, Your Next Five Referrals, and my VIP experience is the one we’ve been doing now for getting ready to start in our fifth year, which is the Building a Referable Business coaching program, the 12-month coaching program.

So you know what these ways are. My question for you is, why aren’t we working together? Find the one that’s right for you and come join me. I would love to help you take control of your referrals. Finally, start this new year in a different way.

Start it with a baseline of strong strategies in place and let’s get that referral explosion for you next year. Okay, now let’s get back to this episode.

Stacey Brown Randall: Alright, let’s listen in to the third way I overcame a business failure. Alright, number three, moving right along. Know thy numbers. That’s right. As a business coach, I work with multiple six-figure and million-dollar business clients. And it is always shocking to me, those who don’t know their numbers.

And I’m not talking about just your revenue and your expenses. I’m not talking just about the current or the past expenses or revenue you’ve made. I’m talking about the ability to project what’s coming, what do you need to be focused on, what do you need to do so that you can actually know what income or revenue you’re going to be bringing in.

I don’t know why there is so much resistance to actually projecting out our business, but if we can’t project out what we’re hoping to bring in or what we’re working to bring in, all we’re doing is looking back to what’s happened. And knowing our numbers is so very important.

Look, let’s be honest. Some months, even if you’ve been in business a couple of years, your projections for what you’re thinking will come in will be a big fat zero. That’s okay. But here’s what I would tell you.

As you start working with clients, or as you’re working towards building up your second and third year, you’re going to have some numbers you can work with. You’re going to be able to pay attention to some projections in the future.

You need to know what revenue you expect your business to bring in, so you can balance that against the expenses you know you’re going to have. And here’s the thing, you don’t know what you don’t know until you write it down and track it.

So you have to know your numbers. You can’t just guess, and you can’t just assume. You need to make sure that you have put in place a habit of tracking your numbers.

So I have a client that I worked with, and the question was for him always, right? He was bringing in $20,000 to $30,000 every month but was always cash poor. The truth is he never really got into the daily habit of tracking his billables. And I say daily habit just because that’s the way it worked in his business. It’s probably not necessary for yours.

But this client, he finally decided to switch into the habit of tracking his work output, his billables. And then all of a sudden, he realized that he was able to bring in the money he needed to run his business, $20,000 to $30,000 a month, and he could project out what to expect and balance that out against his expenses.

Now, to be honest, the accounting part of your business and knowing your numbers, that is a whole other episode in and of itself. But I know too many people who can’t tell me, what is your business doing this year and what do you project it to do? And you need to be able to answer those questions.

So it’s important you get really cozy with your accounting software or your accountant or your bookkeeper or that Excel spreadsheet, doesn’t matter to me, but you have to be able to project and you have to know your numbers. You can’t just guess your way through running a business that you want to be successful.

Stacey Brown Randall: Oh, present day Stacey here, the numbers. Yes. They either make you really excited or they maybe strike a little bit of fear and dread in you. Oh, knowing your numbers, like I said in that clip, it’s so much more than revenue and expenses.

It’s your ability to project, right? It’s your ability to, while there will always be some guessing and some assumptions in your business of what’s going to happen, because you never know. You could have the best year ever. It’s still good to know, like, hey, what am I doing this year? And what am I expected to do? I love how I said, get cozy with your numbers. It’s so true.

So what’s interesting as I listen to that clip, this is before, because this was summer of 2018. So this is before I put Profit First in my business. I did not institute Profit First in my business until August, September of 2019.

So it was like more than a year later, but I was a spreadsheet tracker. I mean, I’ve had a bookkeeper since pretty much the very beginning of this business and of course, a CPA. If I’m not having to get into QuickBooks, and I’m obviously never going to do my own taxes, let’s be honest.

But I’ve always had a CPA and started using a bookkeeper when I started this business because that was necessary, because I was terrible at keeping up with QuickBooks. So they helped me stay cozy with my numbers.

But it’s interesting that I still had that mindset around understanding your numbers and knowing what it looks like. Because here’s the thing, I didn’t. Like I never knew my numbers. I never knew if I was in the black or the red with my first business that failed, that HR consulting firm, the one that landed me in the business failure club.

And so that was a strong focus that I took. Like, what are my upcoming expenses? What does that look like? What do I need to cover? It’s kind of like understanding what your monthly net is every month in your business and understanding that your revenue is above and beyond that. Obviously, that’s what we want. And understanding what that looks like.

And then I would say, then after I implemented Profit First, things really changed. I think I would give all the same advice that I gave about being cozy with your numbers and knowing thy numbers, but just now I look at it in an entirely different way.

So if you’re not familiar with Profit First, it is a book by Mike Michalowicz. It’s actually a, I mean, I think it’s a little bit of a mindset of how you think about your money, but it’s actually how you manage your money.

And yes, it does come with a whole bunch of bank accounts and a specific way to do something, but effectively it’s making you take your profit first before you decide what you’re going to use as your expenses.

If you’re not familiar with it, we will link to Profit First in the show notes for this page. You should go check it out. It’s probably one of my favorite books I’ve read of all time. I know one day, I’m just putting it out there to the universe, I’m gonna meet Mike Michalowicz and it’s gonna be great.

He’s gonna be as lovely in person as I imagined him to be when I listened to his podcast. And of course, I have been interviewed by him. I’ve been on his podcast, Grow Your Accounting Practice, but that was many years ago. But one day I know I’m gonna meet him.

Anyway, so I think once I put Profit First in the business, it really did shift everything about how I managed my money. And I got really good at like keeping, you guys are going to laugh at me probably, but I had this massive spreadsheet that has every known expense on a yearly basis.

So every piece of software that I pay every year, every service that I participate in every year is on this spreadsheet. It’s broken down by what is reoccurring monthly versus what is reoccurring quarterly, and then what is an annual payment.

So I always know going into a new year, this is the number. You’ve got to hit it if you’re going to be able to actually afford to run this business. Now, that doesn’t necessarily always take into account maybe like, well now we’ll start taking into account obviously like my virtual assistant who is more on a permanent part-time basis and then also some of the other folks that help me in my business.

But I kind of know, like I know what I’m gonna range in paying my bookkeeper. I know every month when I’m paying my bookkeeper and even when I’m paying my CPA like I know all those numbers.

Because I didn’t know them just magically like I watched them happen in my business but then I sat down and tracked them one year and it was great. And so that’s helped a lot. And then understanding that’s what my business needs to run on.

But with profit first, it’s like pulling out your tax and putting it into a special account, pulling out your profit from your monthly revenue, putting in a special account, like just doing that, everything shifts and changes.

You start to look at money different. I can’t really explain it. Maybe I should be able to explain it better than I am. I feel like I’m fumbling here, but like, I can’t really explain like how everything changes.

Like there was more money in my business just by changing how I looked at it. I didn’t necessarily make any more money in 2019 than I had in 2018, but it looked different. And I know it’s what helped me survive 2020 and actually come out ahead versus being in the red, which a lot of businesses went through in 2020 with COVID.

So anyways, I just, yes, know your numbers, friends. You gotta know this stuff. Now, if you’ve been in business for five years, 10 years, 15 years, you’re probably like, yep, of course, Stacey.

Maybe for those of you who are in business the first couple of years, you’re like, okay, good advice, I needed to be doing this. But just know your numbers and have the right professional resources around you to know your numbers really well.

Obviously as your business grows and it gets bigger and you bring on more people, maybe you have people on your team who are doing that for you, but as a business owner, that is your responsibility to know your numbers. And that is looking at what it takes to run the business, projections of what you’re gonna do from a revenue perspective, all very important.

So, okay, here’s the thing. So I started this episode thinking that I was going to get through all seven ways I overcame a business failure and give you my comments on those as well. I really thought that that was going to happen.

Like I was like, yeah, we’re going to go through all seven in one episode. And here we are coming up on like 25 minutes and I’ve only gotten through three. I’m not making this an hour-long episode.

So we’re going to cut this in two and I’m going to be back next week and I’m going to talk to you about the other additional ways that I overcame a business failure, number four, five, six, and seven. So we will do those next week.

So you’re going to have to come back and listen to my commentary on what I think about what I said five years ago when it comes to, or was that more than five years ago, of what I was talking about with how I overcame a business failure.

So, of course, we’ve mentioned a lot of resources. We’ve mentioned other episodes you can go listen to. We’ve mentioned other resources you can download. So all of that will be listed in the show notes page for this episode, which can be found at StaceyBrownRandall.com/335. That’s 335, and Stacey has an E.

So go to the resource page, 335, go to that page for the show notes for this, and you’ll be able to find all the links to the previous episodes we were talking about, and of course, the resources you can download.

Alright, like I said, we’re back with another great episode next week, and you already know what it’s gonna be. And we can’t wait to get back. I can’t wait to continue this. So until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #335: Now and Then appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

We continue with our systematic approach to ending the year strong with your referrals over the next 90 days.

Let’s build on the foundation we established in episode 329, where I guided you through the preparation phase. Now it’s time to take action and position yourself for success in 2025.

Here’s a quick recap of this episode:

Gratitude for Referral Sources: It’s essential to show appreciation to those who have referred clients to you over the past three years. Be sure to create a simple yet effective gratitude plan.

Database Cleanup: If your database needs some TLC, get it organized to ensure you’re capturing the right information about your prospects and clients.

Tightening Your Intake Process: Review your intake process to ensure you know where your prospects are coming from.

Reconnecting with Potential Clients: Now is the perfect time to reach out to prospects who may still have potential and restart those conversations.

Nurturing New Connections: A simple handwritten note can keep you on the radar of new connections who may become valuable referral sources in the future.

Identifying Ideal Referral Sources: Refine your definition of ideal referral sources and work on cultivating new relationships that can lead to more referrals.

This episode is packed with insights and practical steps you can implement right away. Whether you’re looking to boost your referral game or simply want to ensure you’re on the right track, this episode is for you!

And don’t forget, if you’re interested in joining our attorney-only or Realtor-only cohorts, this is your final opportunity! Check out the links below for more information.

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Check out and apply for the BRB Attorney-Only Cohort!

Check out and apply for the BRB Realtor-Only Cohort!

If you missed the Step 1 of the Q4 Referral Plan, go back and listen to episode 329

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #335, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: Let’s continue our methodical approach to how you’ll end the year with your referrals over the next 90 days.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 334 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 10 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I just want to let you know that if you are an attorney or you are a real estate agent listening to this episode, this is your final chance today to join our attorney-only cohort and our realtor-only cohort.

So if you want to make sure that you end the year strong and start the year with a focus on getting referrals in place and ready to go, you need to consider joining the Building a Referable Business cohort, which is only for six months.

And it’s focused on one group right now, just attorneys, and another group, just real estate agents. Go to the show notes page for this episode, and there will be links to each of the information pages. So if you’re an attorney, you’re going to click on the attorney link. And if you’re a real estate agent, well, you’re going to click on the realtor link.

Just go to StaceyBrownRandall.com/334. That again is StaceyBrownRandall.com/334. Stacey has an E, and of course, 334 is 334. So please check that out while you can.

In episode 329, which was released on the first Tuesday in October, we started the first part of this 90-day planning or this 90-day action. The October episode, 329, was all about walking you through what to prep.

So the way I broke down this 90-day plan is we’re taking the first episode of October, November, and December, and I’m just walking you through the things I want you to do that will allow you to end this year in just a little bit of a better place, maybe than where you started it when it comes to referrals, and give you a better foundation and starting point for the beginning of the new year.

So when you think about this 90-day plan, it’s basically just these three episodes. You can come back to them year after year. And really just, it’s like, hey, these are the things to focus on as we’re getting ourselves ready.

So the October episode was all about walking you through the prep, right? So in this episode, the November episode, you’re going to start taking action. And then there will be more action for you to take with the December episode that will come out the first Tuesday in December. And it’ll also have some planning for 2025 mixed into that as well.

Alright, so the first thing I’m going to do is give you a quick recap of what I asked you to prep for me in October. So I’m just gonna run through these six points that I asked for you to like pull together, pull a list of, do some work, right? This was the prepping that you did. And then I’m gonna walk through each of these six things and then tell you what to do with them for this episode.

So real quick, number one, I asked you to identify by name all of your referral sources from this year and the two previous years. So identify by name all of your referral sources from this year, 2024, last year, 2023, year before, 2022, and basically wanting to know who your referral sources are based on who they referred, if they became a client, or if they did not.

So in episode 329, I talked about how to reverse engineer this information. I talk about it a lot, how to uncover who your real, true referral sources are by looking back at where your clients and your prospects came from.

So you can go back to episode 329, and it will walk you through that reverse engineering process. So you should have now a list of your referral sources from the last three years, right, from 2024, 2023, and 2022, and you’ll have a little bit more detail in them. You’ll have not only who are your referral sources, but also who they referred, whether that person became a client or stayed a prospect as well. Okay, so that’s the first list you should have for me.

The second thing I asked for you to do is just identify if your database needed any cleanup. Are people categorized correctly?

I mentioned that a lot of times when I work with clients in my coaching program, Building a Referable Business, or BRB, or at the VIP level, my VIP experience, Referrals in a Day with clients, that a lot of times we get stalled out because they have to go in and clean up their database.

It’s a temporary stall. We work through it. It’s not the end of the world. It happens to everybody. Sometimes it happens when you merge from one database to another. Sometimes I’ll see it with law firms when they’re maybe going from I don’t know, Salesforce to Lawmatics, or something to Clio, or whatever it is, right?

They’ll be moving from one database to another database, and then it just doesn’t transfer correctly, and then you gotta go back in, you gotta clean that stuff up, particularly if people aren’t categorized correctly in your database.

And sometimes it just happens because you have different people on your team putting in different information, and no one’s following the same process. And sometimes it happens because it’s you in the business, and you’re just not consistent with what you’re logging people in as.

You’ve gotta be categorizing these people, right? You need to know when someone goes into your database, right? Okay, this is a prospect, and this prospect came from where, right? You gotta go deeper with that. So I asked you to identify if your database needed to be cleaned up.

Alright, third thing I asked you to do was to tighten up your intake process. So you should now be capturing where your prospects come from and should be labeling them correctly in your database. This is kind of goes hand in hand with number two that I’m asking you to do.

The fourth thing I asked you to do is pull out your list of prospects that were referred to you that may still have potential, meaning they were referred to you at some point this year. You could have gone further back, but they didn’t say yes. So there’s still a prospect. And you think there’s still potential.

You’re pretty sure they didn’t go with a competitor. Maybe they did. Maybe finding out who they went with is great. But at this point, you’re just pulling out a list of your prospects that were referred to you that may still have potential. You don’t know if they do, but you’re just thinking they might. So you have a list of those folks.

And then you’re going to pull out a list of new connections that were made this year, specifically those who you feel could be good potential referral sources. So that new list of connections, right? Who did you meet for coffee? Who did you meet at a networking event? Who joined your group? Who joined that association you’re a member of and is new, like whoever you met with, right?

And it also may be, you know, I think one of the examples I gave in the October episode 329, like it could have been a podcast host that you jived with. It could have been someone that you met at a conference.

It could be somebody that you’ve only ever met virtually. Maybe you’re like really did a lot of connecting with them on LinkedIn. So this isn’t every new connection you made in an entire year, but these are the ones that you think have the potential to refer you.

And then the sixth thing I asked you to do was create your description of your ideal referral source. This is not only one type of person. This is probably a few different types of folks, and it may be based on what they do or where they’re connected or the type of clients they work with, right? There’s a lot of pieces that can come into place there. So you’re going to pull out your description of your ideal client referral source.

Okay, so here’s what we need to do with this information and these lists that you prepped for me. Here’s what we’re gonna do with them.

Okay, number one, your list of existing referral sources, people who have referred you over the last three years. If you aren’t going to put together a five to seven touchpoint plan in place, like the one that I teach my clients, please do at least one thing to show gratitude to your existing referral sources this time of year.

You can decide on what that one thing will be, but please do something. Do not go dark on the people who send you clients or try to send you clients, even if they don’t become clients and they’re just prospects. Please do not go dark on them. Please do not ignore them this time of year.

Of course, I think that you should have a plan of how you take care of these referral sources running in the background of your business. That’s why my clients built out a five to seven touchpoint plan. And there is a science-based framework of how we build that out with my clients, but if you’re not going to do it, please just do one thing, something, one thing to show some gratitude to your existing referral sources now.

Okay. Number two, you’ve identified that your database needs to be cleaned up. Guess what? Do it. I don’t care if you have to do it yourself. Delegate it. Outsource it. It doesn’t matter. Just get it done. It’s probably going to take you longer than 20 minutes if your database needs to be cleaned up. And hopefully it won’t take you 20 hours. But you need to set aside some time.

I was having a conversation with my assistant Kathy. And I was telling her, like, hey, in December, this is how I’m going to want us to spend our time. Because, you know, most of the time, things slow down. I mean, not always, but for the most part, things slow down for us.

We do close between Christmas and New Year’s. And so, like, she’s off, I’m off. Like, we still monitor our inboxes and things like that. And we still make sure that our clients can access any of our platforms or portals and things like that that they need access to. But the office is technically closed.

So we only have a couple of weeks in December. But after I get through the in-person retreat that I do for my BRB and VIP clients, which is like the second week of December this year, once we get through prepping for that, things really slow down.

And so, you know, I’m not traveling for speaking engagements. I don’t really do any VIP two-day in-person intensives with my clients in December. So things really slow down. And so I told her, I was like, we’re going to be working on organization. If your database needs to be cleaned up, maybe you need to add that to the list of things that you want to get organized.

Now, for some of you, end of year is like fire drill, crazy busy. So that’s not the right time to do it. But maybe now is, maybe now between now and Thanksgiving is the right time to get organizing.

If you are just trying to like, pull yourself over the finish line of this year and try to have a year like you had last year or a little bit better than you had last year and you feel like this year you’ve been behind, things have been slower, things have been sluggish, well then maybe this isn’t the right time to do the database cleanup.

Actually, if you’re slow, it is the right time to do it. Take advantage of slow times in your business by getting yourself organized and getting yourself right processes and procedures and things in place.

But if you feel like you’re like going to just be humping it to the end of the year because you’re like trying to make, you know, to have a good end of the year, you’ve got a big revenue deficit you need to make up, okay, then maybe you’re going to do this in January.

Whatever it is, though. I need you to clean up your database if you’ve identified that it needs to be cleaned up and organized. And what I specifically care about is that where your prospects and clients came from, that that stuff is actually noted in your database and your referral sources in your database are noted as referral sources, right? So that’s the big thing.

Okay, number three. So you have tightened up your intake process. Good job, right? We talked a little bit about what that looks like back in the October episode, episode 329. Now here’s what I want you to do.

If you’ve tightened up your intake process over the last 30 days, it probably means you have some data to look at. So I want you to review the results and I really want you to get into the habit of doing this every 30 days to see what you’re capturing.

So if you remember back to the episode 329 where I talked about tightening up your intake process, for my purposes, I really just want to make sure that you’re capturing where people come from when they get into your database.

Like when somebody comes to you, like when they fill out a form online, when they call your office, when they send an email, when they text, whatever it is, however somebody communicates with you, if they’re referred to you by email or text, that you’re capturing that information correctly, by asking. You got to know, where are these people coming from. So that’s how you’re tightening up your intake process.

Well, now if you’ve done that, right, if you’re making sure that you’re capturing the information of, where did this prospect, soon to be hopefully client, come from, I want you to review the results of how your intake process is working.

So I have a law firm client in D.C. who tightened up their intake process. And after the first month, they reviewed their 50 intakes. So their 50, I would use the word prospects, right? They use intakes. They reviewed the 50 intakes they had over a 30-day period. So their 50 intakes in one month. And the staff had only put in about 17 sources of where people came from. And the majority of those were referral sources.

And so the owner of the company said, he goes, I went back to the staff and I made them update it. I said, you need to call the people or email the people and find out where they came from. Because we took 50 new potential clients in, 50 intakes, and we only know where 17 of them came from.

And guess what? now they have about 40 filled in. It’s pretty cool, right? I mean, they went back, and they got over, you know, what is that? And you guys all know I don’t do math in my head, just over 20 more sources completed. They only had put in 17.

They weren’t following the process. He went back and made them follow the process, go back and do extra work because they didn’t do it the way they needed to the first time. And now there are about 40 or so sources filled in. And the majority of those, which is what I love, are referral sources.

And you’ve got to capture that stuff. You’ve got to capture that stuff. You’ve got to know where people are coming from. So if you’ve tightened up your intake process, you really need to be going back every 30 days and reviewing it and making sure, particularly if you have a staff, that they’re actually capturing the information correctly.

And not only are they capturing it, that they’re also inputting it into the system, the database, correctly. And if it’s just you doing it, if you’re just a solopreneur or just you and a very small team, make sure you’re doing it, but still review the results. Review that it’s getting done, and then review the actual what’s the data telling you. That’s super, super important.

I mean, just think of the opportunity that could have been lost for this law firm if they only had had 17 sources put in, the majority of those were for all sources, and now they actually have 40.

The opportunity lost, right, of like who they could be thanking, who they could be adding to their list, who they could be paying attention to is referring them more than ever before. Like, oh my gosh, the opportunities that could be lost. It just, it’s boggling to my mind. And I’m so glad that they went back and captured it.

So if you’re gonna tighten up your intake process, please review your results every 30 days. So now’s a great time to review what happened in October. You can do it in December, review what happened in November, right? End of the month, beginning of the next month, just review the month prior.

Okay, stick with me. We’ve got three more of these to go and we’ll tell you what action to be taking.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there! Pardon the interruption. So, a little bit different what I want to share with you today. I just want to make sure that you understand the ways that you can work with me when you’re ready.

So, long-time listeners of this podcast, you’ve heard me talking about the coaching program, Building a Referable Business, what we call BRB. You’ve probably also at some point heard me mention that for teams, I have a VIP experience called Referrals in a Day.

And of course, if you’re just wanting to get started with all the things referrals without asking and doing anything you don’t want to do, then you may have been checking out or need to check out my starter program called Your Next 5 Referrals.

Here’s the thing. I want to let you know about a couple of things that are upcoming. So I mentioned that we are running a couple of cohorts. Cohorts are specific by industry. So we have an attorney one happening and real estate one happening.

So I’m getting some questions about, will you be doing those again next year? I don’t know. It’s the idea of how well do these two go will dictate doing them again. But I believe I will. I just don’t have a timeline to share.

So if the cohorts go according to plan and go as well as I’m hoping, then yes, they will be opportunities for you to do the coaching program, the BRB coaching program, but in six months and with a smaller group of your peers doing the work with me.

So be on the lookout for that. If you’re like, hey, I think actually a cohort is perfect for me, and you’re not joining this round of our attorney and our realtor cohort, and maybe you’re not joining this round because you’re actually not a realtor or an attorney, so you can’t. Be on the lookout.

If you’re interested in me doing a cohort model for your industry, let me know. We can put it out there and see if there’s interest within the people who are learning and following me.

And also, please make sure you’re keeping your eye on your inbox. This means you gotta be on my email list, but please keep your eye on your inbox, because we have something really cool that’s gonna be happening for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

So yeah, of course, like most businesses, we’re gonna get in on the action and do a Black Friday sale. So just keep your eye on your inbox. The only way you’ll hear about it is in your inbox. We’ll be emailing you about it. So make sure you’re checking that out.

We’ll put links to all that in the show notes page for this episode, so you can check that out. But let’s get back to the episode.

Stacey Brown Randall: Alright, so number four, we’ve done the first three, so here’s the action I need you to take on the next three.

Number four, so you’re gonna pull out that list of prospects that were referred to you that may still have potential. Here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re going to reach out to them. It’s not very complicated.

You’re going to see if they want to restart the conversation, review their options again. Maybe you want to share any new information or pricing changes that’s going to be happening next year.

This is a great time to reach out to folks who maybe said no back in March or no in June or even no in September and being like, hey, has anything changed? And so when you do that, you give that opportunity, to reach back out to them, to put yourself kind of back on their radar to see if now is the right time.

And in particular, this isn’t one of those opportunities where you should be like, hey, like you can do it as like, hey, if you join now before the end of the year, you’ll get a discount. Lots of companies do that. You could do that too.

But definitely if you are going to be doing anything with your pricing for 2025, I always like to give a wide berth in terms of notice. Like, hey, like, and we’re doing this ourselves. Like, we are increasing the investment to be in our BRB, Building a Referable Business Coaching Program. We are increasing that investment. And so we’re not going to spring that on people with like seven days’ notice. I think that’s just really unfair. I hate it when people do that to me.

So, you know, we’re going to be doing that ourselves, right? We’re going to be communicating it to like all of our people who are like on our email list and in our social media and things like that all of our followers all of our prospects that are you know our pricing is increasing in first quarter of 2025, but we’re going to give notice to that.

And of course we’ll go back to anybody who’s shown an interest who has maybe previous or the current pricing in their mind and just say, hey, just so you know that we’re increasing that pricing. That’s something you could be doing too.

So if you do want to say, hey, is it time to restart the conversation? Do you want to review the options of how you can work with me? Or if there’s new information, hey, we’ve added something different and we now offer this service and we now offer this option, or of course, pricing changes, you’re going to want to communicate that as well. I like to give like 60-day notice when we’re communicating pricing changes.

And, you know, when you’re thinking about what this looks like for your business, it may still be a no from these folks. That’s not the point. The point is, is that you’re reaching back out to see if there is potential. But it could also be a great time.

Now, recognize that some people aren’t going to make purchasing decisions the last two months of the year. And some people are going to make purchasing decisions the last two months of the year because they’re trying to have more expenses to get that tax benefit, right? To have another deduction from their taxes from an expense benefit.

So you just got to recognize that some people this is not the time of year. They don’t want to be thinking about making new investments and things and other people are looking for it. So you just gotta communicate it. You don’t know that prospect, which side of this they’re gonna fall on. So you’re just gonna communicate it to them and let them know.

And of course, if you don’t have any new information or updated pricing or anything like that you’re offering, there’s still other reasons to reach out just to see like, hey, we talked back in February, has anything changed? Like that’s a legitimate reason to follow up as well. So do that with your list of prospects.

Okay, number five, pull out your list of new connections that you made, specifically those that you determined have fit to be a potential referral source, and I want you just to send them a note.

I just want you to take a minute and hand write them a note, not an email, not a text. You may have to do a little Google stalking to figure out their address. But send them a note. You may even have to just email them and ask them for their address.

But just send them a note and tell them that you’re thankful that you connected. Or if it’s someone that you hadn’t connected with in a long time and you reconnected, tell them you’re thankful that you reconnected. But just send them a note.

So many times we meet people, and then we get busy, and we go on to meet the next group of people. And six weeks later, we’re like, who did we have for coffee with six weeks ago? We’re like, we don’t know. And they don’t remember you.

So like this is part of what I teach in one of our strategies. It’s called the running five, keeping warm framework, but it’s like when you meet somebody who has potential to maybe refer you, there’s things you have to approach to do first, which will feel very backwards when you learn my strategy, but it works.

And then after that, you actually have to make sure that you are staying on their radar. That is an important step. And people forget, like they have coffee with somebody and then six months go by and they’re like, I don’t even know who I had coffee with six months ago. Like, you need to stay on people’s radar if you want them to remember you.

So, all I’m asking you to do right now is anybody that you met new this year that has potential to refer you, if you’ve done nothing else, please just send them a handwritten note and tell them you’re thankful to be connected or reconnected.

Okay, number six. I want you to pull out that description you created of your ideal referral source. So it may have a couple of different ways that you’re looking at who is your ideal referral source. I don’t have just one type of human or one type of person that refers to me.

Yes, my clients refer to me. That’s always going to be one category of an ideal referral source. But then when I’m looking at my centers of influence that refer to me, like who are those people? And so you may have a couple of different avatars, so to speak, in that regards.

So I want you to use this as you look to add new people to start referring you next year. So when you have this description of who your ideal referral source is, you can use that to kind of guide decisions you make as you’re starting the new year of who you’re going to cultivate or try to cultivate into referral sources.

But the thing you need to do before you’re like, yes, I’ve got my ideal referral source description, like who they are, I must start identifying those folks. You know, in the groups that I go into, like the networking groups that I’m in, the leads groups that I’m in, the events that I go to, the trade shows that I go to, maybe it’s the people that I’m communicating with on social media, right?

Whatever it is, as you’re going to use that description to guide who you’re going to focus on connecting with because you’re looking to add new people to start referring you.

But here’s something I need you to do as you’re doing that. You really need to determine how many new people you need to start referring you, which means how many new referral sources do you need, right?

So how many potential referral sources do you need to become an actual real referral source because they’ve started referring you? And then once you know how many new people, new referral sources you need, then you can create a plan to identify and cultivate.

Okay, so that’s the six things I asked you to pull together in episode 329. And now in this episode, 334, I’m telling you what to do with those things. And we’re gonna do a one more round of this with our December episode, okay?

You got this. You completely have this. I have full confidence in your ability to do this, to carve out the time and do this work. And if you want more referrals, particularly, my friend, if you want them consistently, you have got to start somewhere. These six steps will get you started. So get to work, my friend.

All right, of course, if you are wanting the resources that we mentioned, maybe it is how to work with me, maybe it is the link to episode 329, so you can go back and listen to these in order. You can just go to the show notes page for this episode at StaceyBrownRandall.com/334. That’s StaceyBrownRandall.com/334. And don’t forget, Stacey has an E.

We’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #334: Q4 Referral Plan (Step 2) appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

In this episode, I chat with Melanie Shaffer, CEO of Talent Suite, about the often-overlooked return on investment (ROI) of referral strategies.

Melanie, a member of the Building a Referable Business (BRB) coaching program, shares her journey in understanding the mindset shifts necessary to maximize referrals.

She emphasizes the importance of identifying the right referral sources, particularly those who swim upstream in the business landscape. We also discuss the importance of gratitude in business relationships as Melanie prepares for her first client appreciation event, reflecting the principles we’ve covered in the coaching program.

What sets this episode apart is Melanie’s unique perspective on ROI—not just in terms of increased referrals and revenue but also in the invaluable time saved through structured processes.

Melanie illustrates how the BRB program has helped her streamline her approach to business development, allowing her to focus on meaningful relationships rather than feeling overwhelmed by the pursuit of new leads.

If you’re looking to enhance your referral strategies and save time in the process, tune in to discover actionable insights and hear Melanie’s inspiring story of transformation.

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Connect with Melanie:

Website – https://talentsuitellc.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieshafferts/

If you haven’t gotten a chance yet, go back and listen to Episode #332: Upstream vs Downstream Referrals.

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #334, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: Have you ever considered all the different return on investments you can get when you decide to invest in referrals? Let’s talk about it.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 333 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 11 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

Please join me in welcoming Melanie Shaffer to our podcast. Melanie is the CEO and co-founder of Talent Suite, an HR consultancy that helps businesses unlock their people’s performance. Melanie is also a member of my Building a Referable Business (BRB) coaching program. And it is so fun every time I get to talk to her.

I love the fact that in my programs, I work with my clients for a year. Because in that amount of time versus, you know, something that’s just like online, and you never really talk to them, or maybe it’s something that’s just for a week or two or a month or two, when you work with somebody for a year, you just, you get to know them. And it’s great.

And not just the business side of them, you get to know the personal side of them, which is always so fun for me. And then when I’m in certain areas where I have clients, I always try to reach out so we can get together and meet in person, which I have had the pleasure to be able to do with Melanie.

So Melanie is going to talk to us today about really understanding mindset shifts that she went through from a referral perspective as it relates really to her business and the referrals they were already receiving.

So, a lot of times when I have my clients on this podcast, they have really cool numbers to share, or really cool results to share. It’s like this, you know, they doubled, or they tripled the number of referrals that they received.

Or they 3x’d or 4x’d their revenue from referrals in one year, or they closed their biggest client ever because they received a referral. And those are fun, and we will definitely have more of those coming up here on the Roadmap to Referrals podcast.

But I specifically wanted Melanie to come on the podcast to talk today about just a different perspective on ROI within working with me, and within my referrals without asking methodology, and specifically what she’s seen with the coaching program.

And a big part of that ROI you’ll hear her talk about is actually that saving time, which for me is just as powerful and important as it is actually receiving more referrals because you’re not getting enough or being able to at least increase your referrals as well.

And so Melanie is going to talk about the things that she has going on in business and what that looks like for her and how having a structured process behind what she does when it comes to referrals has really been the game changer for her to actually save her time, and they can keep getting the results that they’re getting.

So that is just a different perspective of ROI for those of you that are interested in hearing another business owner talk about that. She’s also going to talk about something we talked about recently on the podcast.

Obviously, we have had an episode that was back in episode 332. So just last week’s episode, we did an episode on upstream versus downstream referrals. So we will link to that in the show notes page for this episode.

And the show notes page for this episode is StaceyBrownRandall.com/333. That’s for episode 333, and Stacey has an E. But we will link to last week’s episode, episode 332, where we talked about upstream versus downstream referrals because Melanie and I actually mentioned it as part of our conversation too. So without further ado, let’s talk to Melanie.

Stacey Brown Randall: Melanie, I am so excited to be chatting with you and having you on the podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

Melanie Shaffer: Thanks for having me.

Stacey Brown Randall: So, OK, I did the official intro, of course, but why don’t you tell everyone listening just a little bit about the work that you guys do and who you ultimately are helping?

Melanie Shaffer: Yeah, so we work with mid-market executives who we say are time-starved and growth-minded that have reached a pivot point in their business that they need help with people strategy.

So oftentimes it’s coming in and looking at hiring processes, how they’re developing leaders, and then their culture. So we come in and take a holistic view of how to move them to the next stage.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah. And then you guys provide, like tools for them to use as well. It’s not just like, Hey, here’s some consulting. It’s like, here are the tools that are going to keep serving you, which I think that’s a really cool part of your business too.

Melanie Shaffer: Yeah, that’s a great point. So one of the things that we do with the tool we have is called the predictive index and it is a talent optimization platform that underpins all of what we’re doing so it becomes sustainable and not just kept up at the C-suite, but disseminated through the middle level of management, which is where companies typically break, is in the middle.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yes, those poor middle managers.

Melanie Shaffer: They have a hard job.

Stacey Brown Randall: This is why I own my own business, and I don’t sit in middle management somewhere.

Melanie Shaffer: Yeah, I’ve been there too.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yes, absolutely. OK, cool. So you have been in the Building a Referable Business coaching program. We’re not quite at a year. So by the time that this podcast episode goes live, you won’t have hit your year mark. You’re still a couple of months out from that.

But before we kind of dive in on what BRB and the referral strategies that I teach have meant for your business, why don’t you talk a little bit about the work that you do as it relates to why referrals are so important for being able to connect with potential new clients.

Melanie Shaffer: Sure. So typically, the initial conversation that we’re having is with the CEO of a mid-market company sized between, and I’m going to go employees because that’s where we come in with the level of complexity in the business.

Typically, when they hit about 50 employees up through kind of 500 employees, is that range where they’re growing rapidly and they know they need help doing something differently as it pertains to hiring, developing, and retaining their people.

And you don’t get access to a CEO through cold calls, or I heard you’re great at this I wanted to have this conversation. You get those conversations and the audience with them through typically a trusted source they’re already working with.

So, for example, those CEOs are in peer groups and there is a chair that runs those groups. And so we get a lot of referrals from them.

Strategy consultants often are working with the C-suite team around how you disseminate and communicate that strategy down to that middle level so that people are clear on the execution of how to get to results.

So those are our typical kind of referral partners that see issues with people, and then the CEO is motivated to have that conversation to solve that issue.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, I think that’s really important, the identification. And I just recently did a podcast episode about this. I’m not going to force myself to remember the exact number of the episode, so I’ll just link to it in the show notes page for this episode, for those of you listening. But I just did an episode on understanding the referral sources that swim upstream versus downstream from you.

And I think Melanie, what you just did is like laid it out very perfectly in terms of these are the types of referral sources for your business. Typically, not only, but typically that swim upstream from you, meaning they’re having conversations with the CEOs long before you would ever be a part of the picture.

And they’re identifying, hey, you’ve got these problems, and we need to figure out how to help you to solve them. And that being strategy consultants and it being folks that run CEO-type peer groups.

And so I think identifying, that’s a big part, right? Like we always talk about this inside BRB, is that this isn’t like a spray and pray model in terms of let’s just see who we can get referrals from. Let’s just try everybody. No, that’s a recipe for a waste of time.

And so we want to make sure we’re getting really clear on who’s having these conversations with our potential clients before we’re ever on their radar that can uncover these problems and then be able to refer those potential clients to us.

And I love how crystal clear you are with that because it’s really important. In some cases, with folks that I’m working with, it takes a while for them to get to like, not only, it doesn’t take a while to identify who are their best referral sources, but their willingness to go all in into those folks and say, these are my couple of groups of people who are best served to refer to us.

And of course, we’re not talking about your clients in this case, but they exist too. Obviously, you get referrals from clients as well. So I always just like to set that aside. Clients, yes, their strategies around referrals from them, but let’s also make sure we know who swims upstream from us.

So I love how crystal clear you made that. That’s probably gonna help somebody listening be like, okay, that answer was very clear to know who should be referring to me. And I’m assuming, as you narrowed in on this is who should be referring to us. This is where those people hang out. This is how we’re getting in front of those people.

I know one of the things you talk about within BRB, it’s a little bit, I think, it’s the ROI that I don’t think people talk about that much. But it’s there. I feel like every time we talk about ROI on any type of investment, but in this case, in the coaching program, most of the time we’re talking about how many referrals, and then how many more referrals, and then revenue from those referrals.

But I love your approach to looking at this from a time saving. perspective. So I think that kind of goes hand in hand with you being very laser-focused on who refers to you, but talk a little bit about how working within the coaching program has helped you get to that place of being like, okay, this is how I’m saving time with my referral strategies as well.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. Want to know how to work with me? Get started with the basics of referrals with my starter online course called Your Next Five Referrals.

Want to learn all of my referral strategies with access to me as you build and implement them? Then apply to join my Building a Referable Business coaching program. This is the coaching program that Melanie is a member of.

Have a small team and want me to build your referral strategy for you and your team, and then have me onsite for two days as we put everything in place? Then apply for my VIP Referrals in a Day experience.

Link to all three ways to work with me can be found on the show notes page for this episode. And of course now, let’s get back to the episode.

Melanie Shaffer: Okay. So I think before I did the program, First of all, it did take me a little while to figure out who the right partners are as referral sources, because some of the ones that seem like you’re most drawn to and you have commonalities, maybe the types of clients they will work with don’t align with who you want to work with.

So that did take time. I’m going to say if people are listening. It took a couple of years. So don’t feel bad if you’re in that stage, OK?

But as far as what the program has done is I already, gosh, I think we were five-and-a-half years in to knowing kind of who we are and having cultivated those sources, and I really needed a better way to stay in front of the sources. And have an organized way to add a few new ones at a time, because my role is not just business development. I own the business.

So what your program did was gave me a structure to really start categorizing the sources that have referred to us because I was spending a lot of my time chasing the new ones. And it felt overwhelming because I wasn’t organized about how I was following up with them.

And instead of that, it took me to a mindset of let’s first really hone in on the ones that have created the most value. And then let’s have really intentional structured touch points that keep you front of mind that aren’t exhausting or don’t feel disingenuine or not asking for something. So I absolutely love that now I have that in one place.

It also brought more activities that I’m doing with the referral sources that I actually enjoy that now are business development, but they don’t feel like it.

So I love the touch points of the gift being something small that you can even just send out to the people we’ve identified as those most important referral sources. And some of them even tagging me on LinkedIn when they open it. And it’s, you know, something as simple as a note in the summer with a tea bag and instructions on how to make an iced tea in Texas.

So I love that kind of thing. And I would have never associated that with business development in the past. So I think it’s just, first of all, given me more intentionality and structure and clarity of how to stay in front of those people.

It’s given me activities to do that don’t feel creepy, slimy, what’s in it for me. And then it’s given me the structure to have the intentional ones I’m cultivating and a way to even opt them out if we aren’t gelling or I’m not seeing this energy and not feeling bad about it, you know?

Like, before I would have felt like, oh, I have to kind of keep meeting with this person, even though I kind of know that they’re probably not going to refer me. And I’m very big on referring back too.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, I think that we come in to, I find with most people when they come into the coaching program, they come in with all these I should be doing, I need to be doing, I’m supposed to be doing, right?

There’s all these things, that this baggage that people bring to the table. Because there hasn’t been this structured approach and understanding exactly what should be happening with your referral sources.

And then when they start identifying their existing referral sources and building out the touchpoint plan and then identifying their potential referral sources and building out their running five, keeping warm, then they realize, oh, wait, there’s structure behind this. There’s a reason and an objective behind this.

And yes, we come at everything from a place of gratitude and thankfulness. Like we should take care of the people that are referring to us. Like that makes business sense. Right? So we come at it from that place and then it gives us that structure to be able to say, but that doesn’t mean everybody fits. And that’s okay.

In some cases, it is, it’s like giving permission for people to be like, you don’t have to keep cultivating that relationship. That doesn’t mean you don’t love that person. That doesn’t mean that person’s not amazing. It just means you don’t have to keep cultivating them. And I think people get really stuck in that place of like, but I feel like I should.

And so when we kind of see it right from that perspective. I think it’s, you know, sometimes I spend time feeling like I’m just helping people remember how to be a good person, and then giving them permission to do the things they kind of already know they need to do but giving it to them in a way that they don’t feel like they’re going to miss out on something.

Because now we have this structure and this platform and this procedure kind of behind it, which I think has been great to kind of see that you run with. And obviously, I know how busy you are.

And you travel around to do a lot of speaking engagements, so folks, if you’re listening and you ever want someone to come in and speak to your organization about Melanie’s area of expertise, her sweet spot. She’s a fabulous presenter. But you also travel a lot.

You’re a mom, you’re a wife, like you’ve got a lot of stuff going on in addition to just being the business owner as well. So I love it when you’re like, it’s saving me time while having the intended positive results that we are looking for as well. Which is really great.

And I think something that sometimes people overlook is that ROI on time saved, obviously when it’s working, is as valuable is any other result that we can get.

And I want to go back and talk about the tea bag example that you gave. So that was one of Melanie’s touch points and it’s so funny because you’re like how to make tea in Texas, which is that’s how that touch point worked.

Now, if people are like, I don’t get it, you kinda have to be in the program, I think, for how we build out the outreach, what we call touch points. But the outreach that we do for our existing referral sources, and in some cases, potential referral sources, not everybody is sending out a teabag. Like this was Melody’s specific touch point.

And it made me think about when you said like how to make tea in Texas. I was like, if I did that, how to make tea in the South, I’d be like, forget the tea and just dump in a whole bunch of sugar.

Melanie Shaffer: Sugar. Yep. That’s true.

Stacey Brown Randall: That’s all we need. That’s all. Here’s how you make tea.

Melanie Shaffer: It’s the little sugar packets.

Stacey Brown Randall: And you need like 1000 of them. I mean, yes, totally. Oh gosh, that’s so funny.

Yeah, so I love the fact that when people are customizing their outreach to their referral sources, we focus on letting their personality shine through. And what I love is that you made that connection too.

And then it doesn’t really feel like business development. It doesn’t really feel like I’m trying to do that business development work. It just kind of feels fun and good. And definitely, I think, as you kind of think through all the things you could be doing for business development, this is definitely, I’m assuming you would say, a better way to go about doing it.

Melanie Shaffer: Oh, my goodness. Yeah, a lot more fun. And I get to involve my team in it, because we come up with ideas for these touch points.

And we’re having our first client appreciation event as a result of this program next week. And we’re focusing it on gratitude. So it really kind of ties a bow on what we’ve been doing throughout the year.

And we’ve gotten a great response of people that are excited to come and learn what we mean by that. And be in community with other like-minded folks that are thinking, going into the holidays, about how can I better express gratitude?

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, that’s perfect. I can’t wait to hear how that event goes.

Okay, so what is one thing that you would say that was like an aha moment that you had when you joined the coaching program and you kind of learned the different ways that we generate referrals? What was either like an aha moment that you had or something that surprised you that you didn’t anticipate?

Melanie Shaffer: Hmm, I mean, I think, I don’t know that I have like an aha. I think it was more, oh, there actually is a way that you can put structure around what has felt like nebulosity. So that’s probably not, that’s why I’m like, it’s not an aha, but it is an aha. It’s not an in the moment, it took time.

Because the steps you take in the beginning, maybe my aha was, I didn’t realize how disorganized I was, okay? So like, I had to put the list together and cull it down, and I was like, oh my gosh, like this is daunting, right?

So my aha was, I guess that I was wasting a lot of time on a lot of energy and effort that probably wasn’t in the right places. Maybe that was my biggest aha.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s different for everybody. And some people have like little, tiny ahas throughout. Some people kind of have like that first big one, you know, like, oh my gosh.

And, you know, for some folks, it’s just the willingness to think about referrals differently. Like, wait, I can get these without asking for them? I have to do other stuff, right? I can’t just like, you know, cross my fingers and wish that they’re going to show up, but I can do other stuff. But like, you know, thinking about referrals differently.

And then for other folks, it is like, hey, we have good stuff happening, but to that point, we’re not as organized or streamlined as we need to be so that we can, you know, save time and have the same kind of results.

So, okay, so let me wrap up by asking you this final question. When you think about the coaching program and BRB, if you were having a conversation with someone about the coaching program and joining, what would you say to them as to like, hey, just jump off the fence, go all in and join the coaching program?

Melanie Shaffer: So, well, you know, I have two people that have joined your program directly as a result of me saying these things, but it would be in conversation with someone that is a services provider that shares with me that they are kind of overwhelmed with their business development activities or the energy they’re putting in is not yielding enough return.

I have said, you need to work with Stacey Brown Randall in her program because she gives you a way to make this so much less with so much less friction and with efficiency and clarity. And for the right people that I run in circles with, those are the people that immediately reached out to you.

Both the people that you have worked with because of my sharing that with them, it was one time. I said this one time to them and they’re like, I got to work with her.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yes. They’re like, let me join.

Melanie Shaffer: Because people know, I am all about maximizing everything I do. So if I recommend something because it created utility and efficiency and maximization for me, they’re like, oh, well, then I’m going to do it.

Stacey Brown Randall: Oh, my gosh, I love that. Yes. And Jonathan and Mindy have been amazing to work with as well. Yes, I do appreciate that. Not only are you a client, but you are also a hundred percent ratio of referred prospect to client for me as well. A hundred percent.

Melanie Shaffer: Girl, I told you I’m a reciprocator. That’s where my relationships, I want to only have relationships where I can also provide a source of revenue for them. That makes my heart so happy to know that if you’re helping me learn something that increases my capacity, I want to do the same for you.

Stacey Brown Randall: Well, I appreciate it. I very much appreciate it, of course. And I love that that’s your heart. And I love that that’s the place that you come from.

You know, there is something to be said for the people that I help and the people that ultimately end up having success. Not only do they have to do the work, right? The stuff is not like just like you don’t push a button and things just appear, right?

So not only do you have to do the work, but you also have to come at this from the right place, from a heart place of feeling like I want to take care of the people, right? I want to take care of the people who take care of my business, and I want to cultivate and help other people first before I expect something to come back my way. I think that’s really, really important and kind of goes to the mindset of how all this works.

So, okay, perfect. Well, Melanie, I thank you so much for spending time with me today and being on the podcast. I really appreciate it.

Melanie Shaffer: You’re welcome. Thanks for asking.

Stacey Brown Randall: I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Melanie as much as I enjoyed having it with her.

I always think when I can bring my clients on the podcast and you can hear from them that they’re real people, that they own real businesses, that they are doing great things and also still struggling with some things, always helps all of us when we are thinking about this from our business’s perspective.

I think when you think about the type of client that Melanie talks to, we’re talking about CEOs of middle market companies in that 50-employee range up to that 500-employee range and figuring out how to help their middle managers, that middle level of managers in those businesses succeed from a performance perspective and a culture perspective.

I think it’s just a different, right, it’s a different type of environment, but still an environment that needs referrals to be successful.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation with Melanie as much as I did. Of course, remember, we are going to have links to everything that we mentioned in the show notes page for this episode, including how to connect with Melanie if you want to check her out.

Maybe you need her. That would be amazing if you actually heard her on this podcast and was like, I actually have a problem that I need her to help me solve. Please reach out to her.

You will find her contact details to be able to reach out to Melanie on the show notes page for this episode, which can be found at StaceyBrownRandall.com/333.

Alright, we’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #333: Saving Time with Referrals appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

When it comes to referrals, it’s important to know the difference between upstream and downstream referrals. This helps you find the right people or businesses to connect you with your ideal clients.

Upstream Referrals are those who talk to your potential clients before you do. They help identify problems that you can solve. Think of them as ones who swim upstream, uncovering needs before you even get there!

Downstream Referrals are those who find it challenging to refer clients to you. They often don’t have the conversations that reveal the problems you solve. It’s like trying to swim against the current!

Understanding who swims upstream from you is key! These are the people you want to cultivate relationships with. They can help you connect with your ideal clients by identifying their needs first, leading to more effective referrals for your business.

Take a moment to reflect on who your ideal clients are and who might be swimming upstream or downstream from you. Who do you think fits into these categories?

Feel free to send me an email, and I would be happy to provide my feedback.

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #333, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: Upstream referrals? Downstream referrals? Whatever am I talking about?

Hey there, and welcome to episode 332 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 11 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals. protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

So throughout a few episodes, I have mentioned this idea of upstream versus downstream referrals. We talk about it a good amount inside my coaching programs and when I’m working with my VIP clients, helping them understand this concept and really understanding the difference between upstream and downstream referrals.

And so I wanted to make sure you guys had the same clarity when it comes to upstream versus downstream referrals, because it really gets to the heart of who you want to generate referrals from, and I want you to be as crystal clear with it as my clients. So let’s get you the same clarity.

First, think of a stream. How does the water flow? Only one direction. That is the visual I need you to keep in mind as I am describing to you upstream and downstream referrals.

So let’s start. What are upstream referrals?

Upstream referrals, the way that I define it, is those are the people who swim upstream from you, which means they are going to be talking to your clients or your potential clients before you do. They help your clients understand that they have a problem that maybe then you will be able to solve.

Now, this is not like the intentionality behind people who swim upstream for you. They’re not necessarily looking for the problems you solve. It just means that they are working with their clients, and it will naturally become something that is up for discussion or is uncovered in conversation with their clients that they have something else they need to deal with, but that person doesn’t do it.

So by definition, this person swims upstream from you, right? It is typically another company, another business owner, who swims upstream from you, is having conversations with your ideal clients before you do. They know about the problems those clients need to fix before you do.

Now, it doesn’t always have to be a business owner having a conversation with their clients, and then they discover that there’s other problems they need to solve, meaning you would be the perfect fit for them.

Sometimes it’s just people who have conversations with other folks and because of the level of trust or relationship that they have or maybe they’re in the same networking groups or whatever it is, they are having conversations with other people and the topic of conversation will come around a problem they need to solve and then of course there you are as someone who can solve it.

But these people swim upstream from you, meaning they are hearing about the problems that you can solve. They are hearing about those problems from people that have the problems before you do. They swim upstream from you.

What we want is for those people to uncover said problem from that person and say, Hey, wait, I need to send you down the river and you need to stop and talk to Sam. You need to stop and talk to Jennifer. You need to stop and talk to Jonathan, right? That’s what we want.

We want the people who swim upstream from you who were there when problems are identified that you can solve, and then that person floats them on down the river to you. Effectively sends them to you.

I know I’m going to probably take this river analogy like way too far. Or am I supposed to say river metaphor? Whatever, I’m gonna take it way too far with what I say, but it’ll be fun for both of us. So here we go.

Okay, so that’s what an upstream referral is, right? Referrals that swim upstream from you are where the people hear about the problem you can solve first, and then the goal is for them to give those to you. To pass those potential clients on to you. They get there first, they swim upstream.

Now, of course, a downstream referral for you is the opposite of an upstream. A downstream referral is someone who actually, they can’t, they don’t hear about the problems, so it’s really hard for them to refer to you. That doesn’t mean they can’t.

I do want to say this. That doesn’t mean people who don’t swim downstream from you can’t refer to you. It just is really hard to refer upstream. It’s really hard to move upstream against the current.

So when you have downstream referrals, for what I try to have people understand with this is that there are just some people who swim upstream from you and they come across problems before you would. They’re talking to your clients and identifying things before you would. And that’s why they can come down to you, downstream to you.

But people who are downstream from you, they rarely can actually send referrals back to you. What they’re hoping is that you can send referrals to them. See how that works?

So when people are defining and they’re trying to build out, okay, who is my ideal referral source? Like if I’m looking at people to refer me that are not my clients.

So of course, clients is one bucket of group of folks who can refer to you. But if you’re looking for another group, another bucket of folks to refer you, and we’re not talking about clients, we’re typically talking about contacts and specifically centers of influence, right?

The people who know what you do, don’t do what you do, so there’s no competitive overlap and come across your ideal client with some level of regularity.

But when you’re talking to people who swim downstream from you, I see a lot of people try to cultivate relationships. And what they realize is, is that the people who swim downstream from them, they never have the type of conversations with other people and or their clients that would reveal a problem that we can solve.

So when we’re having people, when we’re trying to cultivate relationships with people who are downstream, if they’re never going to be able to identify a problem and somebody to be able to refer that person to you, they won’t refer to you.

So it’s just harder for people who are downstream from you to refer upstream to you, just like it’s sometimes hard for you to refer to the people who are upstream from you. But everybody always has somebody upstream from them. And we all have somebody who swims downstream from us as well.

And if we’re really good at giving referrals, then we should also be really good at receiving referrals and understanding kind of how the flow of that river, of that stream, or the flow of the current ultimately works.

So I use this analogy, though, when I’m trying to have people understand who you should be focused on generating referrals from.

So a great example I’ve always used is that when I was a business coach, I would always be having conversations. So I was a business coach and I was specializing in productivity. I was always having conversations with my small business clients that you need to be outsourcing more. And one of the things I thought everybody should outsource is bookkeeping.

So of course, naturally, I swam upstream from the bookkeeper that I referred to. I was identifying those problems in my clients, and she just had to wait for the referral.

I’m having the conversations. That’s a trusted conversation with someone saying, hey, you need to outsource more. Something you could outsource is your bookkeeping. Bookkeeping, it doesn’t cost a fortune every month, depending, I mean, that has a lot to do with how complicated your business is. I’m like, this is one of the easiest things to outsource.

So when I would have conversations with business owners and I’d be like, you need to outsource, I was a trusted resource telling them, right? I was a trusted partner. I was a trusted advisor telling them, we need you to outsource this. And here’s someone I recommend. Here’s someone that I would refer you to.

So I was upstream from my bookkeeper, but it didn’t always work the other way around. right? It didn’t always work that way. It can, right? And it has, right?

So when I have somebody who is having conversations with clients, and they are maybe a business coach themselves, or maybe they are a bookkeeper, and they’re having conversations about you need to grow more, we need to get you like more business. And then they have a conversation about referrals, right?

In that case, they’re identifying a problem in a client. And then they can hand that person to me, just because based on what I do, So it’s just, it’s really important that you’re paying attention to use this to determine who should be referring to you, right? Who you should be identifying and cultivating as potential referral sources.

So when you make that ideal center of influence list, think about people who are swimming upstream from you, and not the ones who are swimming downstream. That doesn’t mean you’re gonna get this perfectly like the very first time you do it, but that is ultimately what I want you thinking about, okay?

So I wanna take a minute and I want you to spend some time thinking about who swims upstream versus who swims downstream. So let me give you a few more examples as well.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. do you wanna know how to work with me? You can get started with the basics of referrals and getting them in place with my online starter course, Your Next Five Referrals.

If you’re ready to learn all of my referral strategies and you want access to me as you build and implement them, then you should apply to join my Building a Referable Business coaching program.

But if you have a small team and you want me to build your referral strategy for you and then spend time on the ground with you for two days and then be on call as you’re implementing, then you need to apply for my VIP referrals in a day experience.

Links to all three ways to work with me can be found on the show notes page for this episode. Okay, let’s get back to the episode now.

Stacey Brown Randall: Again, it’s important that you’re thinking about this from the perspective of who should be referring to you, right? Who should you be able to identify and cultivate because they have potential to refer to you? Who swims upstream from you?

And then paying attention to when you have people on your list that you want referring to you, well, actually, are they not doing it because they swim downstream? So just take a minute and think about who this is for yourself.

And actually, I would love it if you want to shoot me an email, if you’re on my email list and you get my emails, shoot me an email and tell me who you think swims upstream from you versus downstream.

I don’t need like a list of 10 people, but just give me a couple of ideas of who swims upstream and who swims downstream. Now put this in context for me, right? I kind of need to know like what you do, and like who your idle client is so that I can understand and have context around who you believe swims upstream versus downstream.

And I would be happy to review that list and come back with any questions that I have for you or things maybe you haven’t thought about. So if you’re willing, you can shoot me an email and I can help you figure out who is downstream versus upstream. from you.

But for those of you who are not going to do that, because you’re listening to me while you’re working out or, you know, it’s October now, we’re not really cutting the grass anymore as much as we are blowing leaves.

So if you’re listening to me while you’re doing something else, maybe you’re even commuting, then just take a minute and think about it. Think about who your ideal client is, right? So this is the process of how I want you to think about it.

Think about who is your ideal client? Who else are they hiring? Or are they working with, where conversations could be uncovered or could bubble up, where the problem that you solve would be identified.

Now, I used the business coach to bookkeeper analogy, right? So that’s one, right? Now here’s the thing. Sometimes you can make the argument that people that you need to refer to also need to refer to you. That’s great, right?

Sometimes you can have a few types that are gonna be, hey, they swim upstream and downstream for me, and that’s totally fine. It’s just not, it’s a little bit more rare than you kind of actually understand, right? Just a little bit more rare.

So an example I used when I was a productivity coach telling my clients to outsource some things, bookkeeping being the one of the things I would tell them to outsource ASAP, that’s because I was being hired as a productivity business coach.

I don’t have those conversations with my clients anymore, right? The conversations I have with my clients now, teaching them, being on the sales side or the business development side and helping them generate referrals without asking for them, I don’t have outsourcing conversations, productivity type conversations with them all that much.

That doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Absolutely. But they just don’t happen the same way they used to. So it is something for you to keep in mind as you’re thinking through who you swim upstream from and who swims downstream from you as well. But just take a minute and think about it.

Now we’re thinking about this outside of the clients. We understand that clients, and they could come from a variety of industries and backgrounds, and that’s great, depending on who you serve.

We’re not talking about clients here. We’re talking really about those centers of influence, right? Those other people, other business professionals that do come across your ideal client and could refer them to you because of how they swim. Upstream or downstream from you.

So let’s talk about this from an interior designer perspective. So quite possibly, if you bring somebody in to do window treatments or wallpaper or painting, they swim downstream from you.

So if you’re the interior designer who is managing a renovation, and you were hiring a bunch of vendors, or what’s referred to as trades, in the interior design business, if you’re hiring a bunch of people who are in the trades, you’re hiring your wallpaper person that’s gonna hang the wallpaper, you’re hiring your painter.

You’re hiring the person who’s gonna do the woodworking to build that new cabinet you need for that bar unit you’re putting into in the dining room, whatever it is, those trades people usually, not always, but usually swim downstream from you.

They are looking to get referrals from you when you have those jobs where you need wallpaper and painting and trim work, right?

On the flip side of that though, swimming upstream from you are probably the builders, the architects, the contractors that are needing a designer to pull everything together, and quite frankly, probably make sure everything looks good when it’s all said and done, right?

So they’re looking to work with an interior designer. So that’s just another example of upstream versus downstream.

Let’s say you’re a marketing agency. Actually, you know what? I want to do a different one. I want to use a different example.

I want to use an example of, let’s say you’re an HR consultant. And so who has conversations with your clients, which are probably business owners or heads of HR departments? Who has conversations with them and helps them realize you have a problem that we cannot solve internally, and we need to bring in outside help to do that? Who’s having that conversation with them?

Is it other consultants that may be working in the business? Hey, I’m in there as a fractional CFO, and they have some serious culture issues. I’m going to make a recommendation and referral to the HR department to probably bring in an HR consultant.

So who are the people who are having those conversations and having those dialogues and help people identify their problems, sometimes before the person knows that they have a problem, but then when they’re aware, they get to make the decision, do I want to work on this? Is this a problem I want to solve?

Okay, so that’s just a couple of examples, but I want you to think through what this looks like for you. And again, my offer for you to share what you do, so I have some context, who your ideal client is, and who you believe swims upstream and downstream for you.

I would love it to be able to get an email from you and respond back. I may not respond back the same day, so let’s recognize I may need a little bit of time to get back to you, but if you are willing to email me that information, I am willing to look through it and give you any thoughts that I have as well.

I think that would be, well, super valuable for you and I think fun for me, so email me and let me know what you think.

Alright, the show notes page for this episode can be found at StaceyBrownRandall.com/332, which is of course also where you always will find the links to the resources mentioned in any episode.

We’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #332: Upstream vs Downstream Referrals appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

Does being an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert affect your ability to generate referrals?

I believe my referral strategies work for everyone, regardless of personality type.

Focus on Building Relationships: The essence of generating referrals lies in building meaningful relationships. Both introverts and extroverts can excel in this area, albeit in different ways.

For instance, introverts may prefer deeper, one-on-one interactions, while extroverts might thrive in larger social settings. The method of relationship-building can be tailored to fit individual comfort levels.

Putting Others First: The foundation of my referral strategies is centered around putting other people first. This means genuinely caring about the needs and interests of your connections.

Both introverts and extroverts can excel at this as long as they approach it with the right mindset. Remember, it’s not just about what you can get out of the relationship; it’s about how you can support and uplift others. When you focus on serving others, referrals will naturally follow.

Staying Top of Mind: Staying top of mind with potential referral sources involves being meaningful and memorable in your interactions, regardless of the method. This approach is not limited by personality type; it is about finding the right strategies that feel authentic and comfortable for each individual.

The only people my referral strategies won’t work for are those focused solely on taking rather than giving. People who view relationships as transactional and who lack a genuine interest in others will likely find it challenging to generate referrals, regardless of their personality type.

Anyone can generate referrals if they approach it with the right intentions and a commitment to building meaningful connections.

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Check out episode 253 for my interview with Fabi Preslar, the owner of Spark Publications.

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #332, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: So you’re an introvert, or maybe you’re an extrovert. Do you identify with an ambivert? I don’t even know if I’m saying that word right. Regardless, introvert, extrovert, does it really impact the referrals you’ll receive?

Hey there and welcome to episode 331 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 11 years in. I know, generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

Back in episode 253, I interviewed a client from my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Her name is Fabi.

And as part of our interview, we had a quick discussion about how, as an introvert, Fabi felt what I teach, my methodologies, my strategies, the philosophy, the tactics, worked really well for her as an introvert.

Actually, worked really, really well for her. You should have to go listen to episode 253. I’ll link to it in the show notes, but you got to go listen to it to hear how well it worked for her in her first year and her ongoing years as well.

But I was reminded of this recently, this like little, tiny snippet that she and I had this conversation around being an introvert and what I teached works really, really well for her as an introvert.

And in that interview, I was reminded that a lot of times when there are sales strategies being taught or promotional strategies or marketing strategies or prospecting strategies, whatever those strategies are in terms of like growing your business, it really does feel like they’re just built for the extroverts of the world.

They’re just really built for, oh, just go network a ton. Well, that may not sound awful to an extrovert, but it probably does to an introvert.

And when she said it in that interview about how what I teach worked for her really well as an introvert, it gave me pause of like, wait a minute, there are people probably who are wanting to generate referrals.

And the reality of it is they feel like that means they’re going to have to always be on. They’re going to have to have a ton of relationships.

And so the question comes down to will referrals and specifically the way that I teach referrals, do they work for introverts the same way they work for extroverts?

And when I was asked this question recently, I had a flashback to that conversation with Fabi, and I was like, wait, I kind of need to dedicate an entire episode to just talking about this.

So here’s the bottom line. Generating referrals without asking, without manipulating, without incentivizing, and without networking all the time works regardless if you are an introvert or extrovert. Period.

I really could stop the episode right here. They really don’t need more than just a couple of minutes I just took to say that. Because it’s true.

Now, you may need to hear a little bit more as to why my strategies work, regardless if you’re an introvert or an extrovert. So let’s dive into that. But truly, the strategies that I teach are not personality based.

They’re not, hey, the most energetic person in the room gets the referrals and everybody else does not. Because they’re based on relationships. So it has absolutely nothing to do with your personality.

Now, let me just go ahead and say this as my disclaimer, and I’m probably, I can already hear it in my own head. I’m going to say this a couple of times throughout this interview.

When I say this is not based on your personality, what I mean in that is, is that you can’t be dead inside, or you can’t be a constant taker and think that, well, quite frankly, anything’s going to work for you long term or even in the short term.

So when I say that introvert, extrovert doesn’t matter, what I mean is, and then I also say that it is not, this is not based on your personality. What I mean is, is that you actually care, like you’ve got a heartbeat, and you care, and you care about how you treat people.

If you’re dead inside or you’re only a taker and you only care about yourself and you see everybody and everything as dollar signs, well then nothing’s really gonna work for you. And quite frankly, I would say that obviously you should assume that what I teach is not gonna work for you and quite frankly, nothing else will either.

But let’s dig into this just a little bit, alright? For those of you who really need to hear a little bit more about the fact that the strategies that I teach around referrals do work, whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert.

Okay, so by definition, I mean, I just pulled these off the internet, let’s be honest. The extrovert, right, outgoing, overtly expressive person is how they’re defined.

An introvert is usually a shy or reticent person. I think I’m saying that right, reticent. Actually, I’m gonna be honest, I had to look up what that meant. I’m like, what does that mean? It means not revealing one’s thoughts or feelings readily.

So we got our introverts and our extroverts, and of course, a couple years ago, okay, probably way longer than that, maybe a few decades ago, the idea of an ambivert came out, and that’s a person whose personality has a balance of extrovert and introvert features, which let’s be honest, I think we all are that. At some level, we are all an ambivert.

I know for me, most people are like, oh, Stacey, 1000%, you’re an extrovert. Except when I’m done being in crowds around people, and I need some alone time, I’m done. And I need some alone time. And I need to, you know, re-energize myself, like quietly, sitting on my back deck drinking a cup of coffee. Well, you know, my frou-frou-y fancy lattes.

But I think most of us are ambivert, or what I actually feel is probably more true for me is that I’ve grown into being one. I do think being around people got me going, got me energy, and that served me well through my school years, my college years, my early 20s and stuff.

But I do think as I’ve gotten older, I have definitely taken on more of that ambivert, and I feel like I have a very good balance of extrovert and introvert.

Now, some people would say I’m an introvert 1,000%, some people would say I’m an extrovert 1,000%, and I don’t know, I don’t know the science behind this, but I do know that a lot of folks fall into the category of an ambivert.

Again, I don’t even actually know if I’m saying that word right, I’m just gonna assume that I am. I have a whole episode full of words I don’t know if I’m saying correctly. But you love me anyways, right? Okay, good, let’s just move on from the fact that I may not be getting things right.

Alright, so why referrals work despite your personality. And specifically, what I’m talking about when I say why referrals work despite your personality, I’m talking about the way that I teach you to go about generating referrals.

I am not talking about all the other old school advice that is out there about generating referrals. I’m talking about the way that I teach you to generate referrals. So why does it work despite your personality?

Well, the first thing is, is that my strategies for generating referrals are focused on building relationships. And both introverts and extroverts do that really, really well. They may do it differently, but they do it very well.

So this question of like, I remember one time I was working with an attorney, and she was an introvert. And this is one of the very first people that I worked with. And we were having a conversation.

She was like, look, if your strategy and your process means I got to go network all the time, or I’ve got to go like, take 15 people to like coffee, like all at one time, or I’ve got to like host all these crazy big events, she was like, I’m out. Because I’d rather pull out my fingernails.

And I was like, okay, that’s graphic. Nope. What we do, is building relationships is how you decide to do that gets to look different. The focus is on building relationships. The how you go about that, you can absolutely do to fit for who you are. You still have to do it, but you can definitely do it for who you are.

The second thing about why what I teach works, despite your personality, is it’s focused on putting other people first.

Like I said earlier, like you can’t be dead inside or be a taker all the time or only see people as a number because what I do, why it works, why the outreach that we do, the objective that we take, the strategy behind it, the language that we use, the time we’re willing to give it, all that works in terms of my strategy because we are always putting the other person first.

Yes, I know we do want referrals at the end of it, but we are putting the other person first and releasing the outcome from that moment. And that’s really important. And again, introverts and extroverts, all kinds of humans are really good at putting other people first if they choose to be really good at it.

The next reason why it works despite your personality is because it’s helping you stay focused on having a process to stay top of mind and be meaningful and memorable.

So, you know, if you’ve read my book, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, we talk about the minding your M&Ms, right? That’s the meaningful and memorable.

This is not your newsletter. This is not mailing a card for every major holiday that you never sign. This is not trying to take someone to coffee every single month. Nobody, including yourself, has time for that.

But it’s having a process where you’re staying top of mind and you’re being meaningful and you’re being memorable. And that works despite your personality. You do the things that works for you.

You know, one of the things I talk about is these platinum principles of referrals. And the second platinum principle is it’s got to be authentic to you.

It’s got to feel good doing it, which means introverts may do different things than extroverts, but they’re still capable of doing the things that work as long as they’re willing to do the work to stay top of mind and be meaningful and memorable.

And here’s the other thing I really wanna make sure that I say. Extroverts don’t have the market cornered, so to speak, on building relationships.

Let me say that again. Extroverts do not have the market cornered on building relationships. Introvert, extrovert, ambivert, outgoing person, shy person, I don’t care how you define it. No one group of category of humans has cornered the market or is like the only group that knows how to build relationships with others.

So if you’re capable of building relationships, then you’re capable of generating referrals because that’s where referrals come from is from relationships. So if you can build relationships, you can generate referrals.

Now, you can’t just have a ton of relationships and think that’s somehow magically going to make the leap over to generating you a bunch of referrals. There’s a strategy behind it. There’s the what you do, the how you do it, the when you do it, and the language that you use when you do it. But it can work for you regardless, regardless of your personality.

But I don’t want to leave this episode without talking about who this doesn’t work for, because I think that’s important.

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, pardon the interruption. Do you want to know how to work with me? You can get started by implementing the basics of referrals with my online starter course called Your Next Five Referrals.

Do you want to learn all of my referral strategies with access to me as you build and implement them? Well, then you should apply to join my Building a Referable Business 12-month coaching program.

Or maybe you have a small team, and you want me to build your referral strategy for you and then show up onsite for two days helping your team implement. Then apply to see if you and your team are a fit for my VIP Referrals in a Day experience.

Link to all three ways to work with me can be found on the show notes page for this episode. Alright, let’s get back to the episode.

Stacey Brown Randall: Let’s have a conversation about who this doesn’t work for. Now, spoiler alert, I’ve kind of already talked about it a little bit. Who this doesn’t work for are truly those folks who are dead inside.

They are takers. They care only about themselves first. They’re willing to put other people first for a very short amount of time. And then when it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, they’re kind of like, bah, forget it. This isn’t working. I just need to go back and tell people to give me what I need, right? Or whatever their mentality is in their heads.

Because the truth is your personality isn’t going to impact whether you’re going to have success. Your mindset does, though, and what you truly believe about people impact your success as well.

If you believe that people are just a number and you’re just supposed to show up and get yours and not worry about anybody else, well, what I teach is definitely not going to work for you. I’m not quite sure, frankly, anything will work for you.

But the other thing is, is that your willingness to put other people first, it can’t be time bound. I know that’s really hard because you’re like, hey, I just want referrals. But when I see my clients having success, it’s because they’re putting the strategies in place. They’ve removed the outcome.

Even though we have goals for everything, they’ve removed the outcome from any particular one thing they’re going to do. And they’re trusting the process. And they’re coming at it from a mentality of, I am going to put this process first. I am going to put other people first. And I’m gonna trust that it’s actually going to work.

Because you cannot say, I’m gonna do these three things and then that person’s gonna give me a referral. It doesn’t work that way. I know people want you to believe that it does but think about the last time you gave a referral.

Did you give 14 referrals in the last seven days? No. Okay, maybe one random person did. But most of you guys listening to this podcast didn’t.

For some of you, you’re thinking back, it’s been months since you’ve actually given another business a referral or been in the opportunity because you’re helping someone to give a referral to someone else.

And some of you, if you think back, you’ve had opportunities to give a referral to somebody that you know and trust, and you let the moment pass while you’re in conversation with the person who said they were talking about a problem they had to solve.

It’s really, really important that we remember that when we want referrals to work for us, we have to be willing to trust the process, put other people first, build relationships and release the outcome expectation that we would have because it’s based on some timeline we’ve created in our head or that it’s based on the idea that, you know, I just do these three things and then boom, I’m going to get referrals.

You may do these three things for one person and then it takes six things for somebody else. And guess what? Some people, even if you really, really, really badly want them to refer you, they still never will. And that may have absolutely nothing to do with you, my friend.

It’s important for you to recognize that your ability to generate referrals, it’s not based on your personality. It’s based on what you believe about other people, how you’re willing to put them first, you’re willing to take the time to invest in relationships, and you understand the right strategies that are authentic to you and are really about what the other person, the referral source, needs, and then understanding the right language to use.

This stuff is not complicated. You probably haven’t thought about it the way that I teach it, but it’s not complicated. You do have to be, of course, willing to do the work. That is very, very important and not something I can do for you.

So again, we didn’t need a 30-minute episode to talk about referrals work, introvert or extrovert doesn’t really matter because referrals are from relationships. But the truth is some of you may be sitting out there thinking to yourself, I’m not like you, meaning me, right?

I’m not like you, Stacey. So will referrals work for me? Yes, absolutely. They will. Doesn’t matter. Introvert, extrovert, ambivert, doesn’t matter. As long as you come to referrals with the right intentions and the right expectations, you’ll be fine.

Because again, let me say, while you deserve referrals, you are not owed them. So there will always be some work to do.

The show notes page for this episode can be found at StaceyBrownRandall.com/331.

We’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do, my friend. Take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #331: Introverts, Extroverts and Referrals appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.

It’s time for another referral Q&A episode! Let’s dive into some fantastic questions submitted by listeners just like you.

In this episode, we explore the challenges of building real relationships in business, finding authentic ways to encourage referrals, and maintaining integrity while generating leads.

Here are three key takeaways that I think you’ll find incredibly valuable:

Making Time for Relationships: Many of us struggle to find time to build real relationships. I share insights on how to prioritize relationship-building in our busy lives and make it a non-negotiable part of our week.

Authenticity Over Cheesy Tactics: Authenticity is paramount when asking for referrals. I discuss non-cheesy ways to ask for referrals that feel genuine and come from a place of gratitude.

Stay True to Your Values: It’s important to maintain your integrity while generating referrals. I address how to be authentic and transparent without coming off as pushy or salesy.

I’m here to help you on your journey to generating referrals naturally and consistently. If you have questions or topics you’d like me to cover in future episodes, feel free to send me an email. I’d love to answer them for you.

Links Mentioned During the Episode:

Want to dip your toe in with our Starter Course? It’ll be the best $500 you spend to get Your Next 5 Referrals.

Want to work with me so I can help you 2x, 3x, 4x your referrals over last year? Then apply to work with me inside my coaching program, Building a Referable Business. Please submit your application now.

Want me to build your Referral Strategy for you? Then check out my VIP Referrals In A Day service where I handle the heavy lifting for you. First step is to apply to see if you’re a fit and then we’ll schedule a call.  (*A minimum of a 2-person team is required for this Done-For-You service.)

Next Episode:Next episode is #331, which is another episode created with you and your needs in mind.Download The Full Episode TranscriptRead the Transcript Below:

Stacey Brown Randall: When you, my listeners, ask me questions, I love answering them. I set aside every 10th-ish episode to answer questions that I receive. So let’s dive in.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 330 of the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation.

I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. My journey from a business failure to a successful business now 11 years in, I know generating referrals naturally and consistently has made all the difference. Working with clients around the world, we leverage the science of referrals, protect relationships above all else, and help you build a referable business.

Alright, so episode 330. First, I just want to pause for a moment and be like, holy cow, 330 episodes. That’s six plus years. I can’t do the math in my head that quickly when all of you guys are staring at me while you’re listening to me. So, okay, you’re not staring at me, but you know what I mean.

So it’s a lot of years. That’s crazy. That’s awesome. I’m really glad that you guys show up every single week to listen or binge. Like, you don’t listen every single week, but you come back, and you binge the episodes that you missed.

Or maybe you’ve just found me. And you’re like, what is this Roadmap to Referrals podcast? Is it really possible to generate referrals without asking? The answer is yes and welcome. I’m so glad you’re here.

I show up every week dropping into your Air Pods or earbuds or your favorite podcast listening app, to bring you information about building your business the better way, which of course is the referrals without asking way.

And I show up every week and I do this because I know it helps you. And I’m so glad that you’re here. And I’m so thankful for those of you who show up, week after week, month after month, year after year, and keep listening. Thank you.

Thank you, my friends. I do this so that you guys have content that you need, resources that you need so that you can start generating more referrals in your business.

And it is an honor to be on the list of podcasts that you subscribe to and that you follow, hopefully that you love and possibly have left a five-star rating and written review on. That’s amazing, too.

Haven’t made a request for those in a really long time. So, you know, if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking to yourself, yes, I do love this podcast, and I haven’t left a five-star review and maybe also a little written review as well.

Can you hop into your favorite listening app and do that for me? That would be amazing. But I’m here for you. So let’s get to answering your questions.

So I’ve got a couple of questions that have been submitted that I wanted to talk about. They’re each similar, slightly different, but really similar as well.

So when I was looking through these questions, for a couple of them, I was like, ooh, I feel like I may repeat myself. But I think that’s OK. I think sometimes we need to hear things more than once for them to really sink in.

So this is a question I received from a business valuation consultant. And he said, my biggest challenge is making the time and the processes in place to build real relationships.

So making the time to do the building of relationships and putting the processes in place to build, and I love this, he said real relationships. And that means he gets it, right? Oh, he gets it because he understands that these aren’t surface relationships.

These are not relationships where you are only seeking what can you get out of it versus what can you, you know, you’re thinking about what you can put into it versus what you can just take from it.

So, you know, we love our givers. And so I respect this quandary. I respect this question. This is the challenge for him, is making the time. And I think it is for most of us.

When I talk to people about joining any of my programs, whether it’s my starter program, Your Next Five Referrals, which is just an online program, or you’re coming into my 12-month coaching program, or maybe you’re joining one of my coaching cohorts, or you’re doing the VIP level, the VIP experience with me, you need to make time to do the work and then implement what we’ve built.

And so I respect that. And it’s no different for me in my business, right? There’s different things that I look at optimizing and doing better and utilizing better in my business.

And I always know, like, I may want to do that, but if I’m not going to put in the time and energy, it’s just going to stay a want until maybe it becomes a, you know, a hot mess, burning fire, and then it becomes a need to do right?

But we need to be making time for things in our business before they became a massive, massive need. So, all right, so the biggest challenge is making time.

So, here’s the thing I like to tell folks, and this is one of the things that I notice with people in my coaching program, is making the routine time is usually helpful, right?

So, I have one business consultant actually in my program who makes time like every Monday morning. It’s just kind of like his referral space. I like to call it his Stacey space, and he always laughs when I say that, but it is his referral business development space with a strong focus on referrals.

Now, does he need to do something with referrals every Monday morning? No. But if he’s received a referral the week before and he didn’t write a thank you note, he knows he’s got time carved out to do that.

It also carves out time for him to make sure he’s doing his outreach to the people he’s trying to cultivate into referral sources and kind of creating that space.

Now, I know there’s many of you listening to this and you hear me say he’s carved out time every Monday morning and he holds to it, and he does his referral slash business development time or work during that time.

And most of you are thinking, you can put it on your calendar. But you know you will blow right past it come Monday morning off to do something else. That’s a bigger issue, right? That’s not that you can’t do it.

That’s that you’re choosing not to do it. You’re choosing to blow past it to do something else, which means it’s just not a priority for you. And that’s OK, right?

When people come into my coaching program, I want two things to happen. Well, okay, I want three things to happen.

One, I want them when they joined it to be a hell yeah, like they wanna be there. They’re excited to do the work and they’re ready to watch this happen and they’re ready to do the work to make this happen and they’re ready to watch their results, right?

Two, I want them to obviously get the results of the goals that we’ve set that they are after. But three, I need them to be committed.

That doesn’t mean they’re committed every single week or even every single month over 12 months with me. Most of them will fall off the wagon and disappear for a couple of months at some point during those 12 months. Most important is that you know to come back.

So if you are putting things on your calendar and then you’re blowing past them, and I am 1,000% guilty of this, for a lot of different things. It means you’re not making it a priority. And it means you are struggling with some level of procrastination. And that’s just a bigger issue.

That’s not an issue specific to referrals or specific to business development in the same way that it’s not an issue specific to your bookkeeping, right?

If you set aside time every month to do your own bookkeeping, which really, as soon as you can outsource that, please do that. But if you set aside time every month to do your own bookkeeping and then you blow past that time because you’ve decided to do something else or answer emails or deal with another burning fire that maybe is not really a burning fire, but you feel like it is, so you do the work, that is a prioritization and a commitment issue.

It’s not really the task issue, right? I mean, of course, anything you can outsource is great to outsource. But this guy got it right because he said, I want to build real relationships. And that means he’s going to have to put in the work, which means he’s going to have to make space and make time for it.

And there isn’t a way to sugarcoat that. There isn’t a way to be like, hey, if you want this to work, you’re going to have to do the work. I don’t sell an easy button or a magic bullet. I sell proven processes that work as long as you’re willing to do the work.

And come to me when they’re not working so I can help figure out what’s going on and we can tweak what we need to tweak for you so that we can make it work. Like, that’s what I want my clients to understand.

But making the time for it, that is always going to be a bigger issue than just one particular thing you need to make time for. You’ve got to decide it’s a priority and only you as a grown adult running a business can decide that for yourself.

I’m sorry if this like hits some of you like right between the eyes and you’re like, okay, didn’t need that right now, Stacey. Maybe not. So hopefully you’ve heard it said in love versus probably like the sternness I feel like I just said it with.

But making time for anything in your business will always be something as business owners that we have to be committed to and that we may struggle with. It’s why there are so many people out there who teach productivity stuff. Right?

There’s courses and coaches and books and trainings. I mean, there’s tons of stuff out there to help you become more productive. But even when I was a productivity coach, I used to tell my clients, I can teach you everything under the sun. But if you’re not going to do it, what does it matter? This is no different.

But I really appreciate this guy’s question because he understands he’s got to make time for it. That is his biggest challenge. But also, because he wants to make sure he’s building real relationships.

The real relationship piece, that really comes into play when you are doing the cultivation of identifying who should be your referral sources, that can refer to you, and then cultivating them into a referral source, and that has to be real.

And so that you just need a process to follow. Again, you still have to follow the process. That’s never going away. But if you have a process to follow, it makes everything easier.

And that’s what I teach in one of my strategies called Referring Machines. It’s called How to Turn Clients and Contacts into Referring Machines, which is basically getting new people to refer to you.

It has a process for it so that you can build real relationships and put the other person first while planting referral seeds through the process that allows them to become referral sources. It’s a couple of things working together to make it work.

So the right processes typically means you’re more likely to stick to it if you can trust that this will work. I just need to do the work. Typically, you can make a greater commitment to it to do it.

But this guy was right on the money when he was like, I got to make the time for that. But what helps you make the time is knowing that the process you are following will work.

So just make sure the processes you’re following to cultivate referrals from people already referring you or cultivate new people into referral sources so that they start referring you. Make sure you’re following a process that actually works.

Because if you’re just doing things in vain, like a whole bunch of email asking people not to forget about you, that is not going to generate referrals for you at all.

Okay. Second question I got came from an interior designer. And the interior designer says, I struggle with finding non-cheesy ways to encourage my clients to refer me to friends and family. I also need better meaningful ways to thank those clients and peers who send me referrals.

Okay, here’s what I want you to understand about that. Really, okay, I’m gonna break this down, because there’s two questions and there’s one question, right?

So I struggle with finding non-cheesy ways to encourage my clients to refer me to friends and family. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, non-cheesy is the goal, right? You’ve got to find a way that’s authentic and genuine for you.

The way that I teach it is that it comes from a place of thankfulness and gratitude, so it never feels cheesy. And then the what you do builds on what your referral sources need, which you would be surprised how little they actually need. Usually, they need acknowledgment. But also factoring in what feels authentic to you.

So when I help my clients build out that five, six, or seven touchpoint plan, that they’re going to do for their referral sources who are referring to them, right? That means we’re thanking them throughout the year, not just with a handwritten thank you note.

So, her other question was, I need a better meaningful way to thank those clients and peers who do send her referrals. Yes, send a handwritten thank you note. You do not need to include a gift card. Do not include your business card either, if you still have those.

But you really need to make sure that you are taking care of them throughout the year. That is how that we build out something that is meaningful.

Actually, the framework that I teach, the plan for people who refer to you of how you take care of them, there’s a framework there. And it’s based on what we call the Platinum Principles and a few other things that we pull from behavioral economics.

And one of the things is what we call minding your M&Ms, which is memorable and meaningful, which means that newsletter you want to send out, not going to cut it. Not going to cut it.

That card you want to send out for every major holiday, starting with New Year’s Eve, running through St. Patrick’s Day, maybe Valentine’s Day, hitting maybe Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and on and on. Not going to cut it because then you’re just mailing out a bunch of cards.

Memorable and meaningful is the way to go. And so understanding the framework and the science behind that allows you to build something that will allow you to be meaningful when you’re thanking your clients, in between them actually sending you referrals. Because when they’re sending you referrals, you’re also sending them a thank you note.

Now, of course, she also said non-cheesy ways to encourage her clients to refer her, right? And so that comes down to what I just answered the question before with having a process in place of how we cultivate people into referral sources.

Someone who’s never thought to refer you, but may, but could, but they’ve just never done it because maybe they’ve never thought of it. This isn’t about a very specific, like, wow thing you have to do or multiple wow things you got to do to get these people to refer you. This comes down to you building a real relationship with them, putting them first, and knowing the right language to use.

The thing that encourages your clients to refer to you or your centers of influence to refer to you, is knowing that you care about them, that you’re not out for yourself, and that you also then know how to plant referral seeds so that the idea referring you percolates in their consciousness and subconsciousness and actually becomes their idea, even though you’ve been planting the right language all along.

That is the missing piece that I find people get wrong more than not. It’s the language of how we plant referral seeds that matters. And we don’t plant them in every conversation or every interaction. There’s a cadence to it.

But that language piece, I mean, I’ve always said this, that is my secret sauce. When I figured that out and I figured out that’s what was helping me start generating my own referrals and then seeing it work for my clients, that is my secret sauce and that is what I provide to my clients.

Because I know we don’t just come up with this stuff on our own. Like, when you see it, you’re like, oh my gosh, that’s so simple and authentic and feels right. And you’re like, why didn’t I think of that myself? It’s like, just because you didn’t, right? And that’s OK.

Alright. And so my last question comes from a real estate agent. And the real estate agent asked, the biggest challenge for me is to come off authentic and not pushy or salesy.

She’s like, many in my industry have a bad reputation for being overly aggressive. That’s not me. I don’t want to pester. And I want to be authentic and be transparent and have integrity in all that I do. So maintaining those values while still generating referrals without asking is a nut I have yet to crack.

I totally get it. Every single client who shows up on my doorstep feels the exact same way. They want to be authentic. They don’t want to be pushy. They don’t want to be salesy. They don’t want to have a bad reputation as being aggressive or pushy, right?

They don’t want to pester people. They want to be authentic. They want to be transparent. They want to be genuine. And they want to have integrity in what they do. And they want to keep those values while still being able to receive referrals.

And that is exactly what I teach inside my programs, whether it is Your Next Five Referrals starter course, or it is the Building a Referable Business 12-month coaching program, or my VIP Referrals in a Day experience.

All of those things. All of those programs that I have teach you exactly how to do that. There’s not one podcast episode I could do lay it all out for you, right? And of course, I wouldn’t because that’s what my clients pay me for.

But that is the exact question. I mean, I thought this question was like bullseye to what a lot of my clients say when they talk to me before they become a client.

They’re like, I want referrals, but I want to do it in a way that feels good. But I also want it to work. And I want to make sure that I’m being authentic. Yes, and all of those things are possible. You just gotta follow the path to get there.

Alright, so thank you for these questions that were submitted. Anytime you have a question you want me to answer here on the podcast, all you have to do is shoot me an email. Just email me.

If you’re on my email list, you can respond to the weekly email you get from me every single Wednesday. Just hit reply on that email and ask me, hey, will you answer this question for me on the podcast? And I would be happy to do that.

Alright, the show notes page for this episode can be found at StaceyBrownRandall.com/330. It’s also where you’ll find links to any resources mentioned like the three ways to work with me.

We’re back with another great episode next week created with you and your needs in mind. Until then, you know what to do my friend, take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.

The post Ep #330: Referral Q&A Episode appeared first on Stacey Brown Randall.