EP 74: Mastering The Foundations of Referrals With Stacey Brown Randall
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If you didn't know her before, you're going to love getting to know her now. Today's guest is Stacey Brown Randall, a friend of mine who is the author of Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, a bestseller book, podcast host to Roadmap to Grow Your Own Business, and very successful entrepreneur.

Stacey's been featured in Fox Business, Inman, and Forbes. And just as good as being a guest on today's podcast, she is joining me for our Epic Focus Conference in February of 2023 as a keynote speaker. She's going to help us dive all into the topic of focus.

into referrals, how to understand them, make them tick, and make them work for you. So listen in because today she's coming at you with 18 ways you can identify your referral sources. My name is Joanne Bolt and I am intent on helping women stop playing small in their businesses, get out of the messy middle, and into profitability.

I'm a Southern mama with a snarky attitude who built a $56 million real estate empire just to prove I could, and now I work from home and run a seven-figure immersive coaching business, all while sipping coffee in my fuzzy slippers. Together, we'll uncover the tried and true tactics to building a business you love while giving you the real deal on how to make them work for you so that you can get out of your way and into action.

Is it all rainbows and unicorns? No way. So put your big girl panties on and get ready because we'll dive into it all from failures to success to money and emotions and everything in between. Think of this as your girlfriend's guide to business. Grab your coffee or pour yourself a punch bowl of wine because this is the B Word Podcast.

Hey, Stacey, welcome back to the show. It is always a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. Oh, of course. You're literally one of my favorite people on the earth, especially when it comes to business chit chats. I feel like we are, you know, the besties that never have actually met in person, but that's going to change soon in December when I'm coming to your next program that you've got going on. So I'll give you a second to really give a plug for it. And then we're going to dive in to the meat of today's episode.

all about your action item list on how to identify referrals. Yeah, definitely. So it's the refocus retreat. I'm really excited. I haven't done a live event since 2018. So I can't even use COVID as my excuse as to why I haven't done one. I just haven't. I just didn't make it a priority.

So I'm really excited to do something in person. I have a methodology that I teach around goals. So not really much to do with referrals. It's just something as a holdover for my business coach days. I teach this reverse goal setting methodology and I just love teaching it. So I was like, hey, we're going to do this retreat in December. We're doing in Charlotte.

It's December 5th. I'm going to feed people. We're going to end the day with a champagne toast after we've spent the day reversing our goals. And then, of course, some of my other clients are coming to spend Sunday with me the day before. And we're going to talk all things referrals for that day. And then that Monday, December 5th, we'll talk all things reverse goal setting. And you can find it at StaceyBrownRandall.com forward slash goals.

Their registration will close sometime in November. So keep your eye open if you definitely want to come and join me in Charlotte. I do need to know how much champagne to chill and how many charcuterie boards to buy. So I got to know, right, who's all coming. I mean, I might need two glasses. Can I get two? Are you pre-ordering? Okay.

I'm pre-ordering. We have a bottle set aside for you. Yes. She knows me. She knows me. All right. I'm super excited about it. I know I'm going to be there for the day because I am always in the mode of learning, constantly learning. It doesn't matter what piece of the business I'm in or how good I think I am at reverse goal setting. I love to hear it from other people and get fresh perspectives. So I'll be joining you there as well.

It's going to be awesome. Well, you know, right there, it's going to be a party. Right. I mean, I always bring the party. Right. Yeah. You know, it's funny. So a conversation we had earlier, um,

you know, every time we get into a conversation regarding referrals, we can take this in a lot of different directions because there's a lot of things that people need to be considering to grow their business and to grow their practice, you know, and referrals should be a huge part of that. And most people, when they talk to me about, well, what can you teach me when it comes to referrals? And I'm like, well, which of the 18 strategies do you want to learn? Right. So, and

I always say that when I'm talking to folks about my 18 strategies, I'm like, I'm not saying that to overwhelm you. You may feel overwhelmed, but most people don't need all 18, right? They just need some of them. So I think the best way to visualize this is actually what

It's called our Building a Referrable Business Roadmap. It's really like a flowchart. So think flowchart. People can, when they're listening to this and they're like, what is she talking about? I want to download my own copy. They can get it from stacybrownrandall.com forward slash flowchart. So just go to that link. You'll be able to download the actual image of what we're talking about. But it is the 18 strategies that I teach. So the way we define flowchart

thinking about your business and building your practice to be referable, right? We call this building a referable business. It's not just one strategy. It's not just one tactic. It's looking at where the gaps are in your business and what you need to have in place. And the way that I teach this is what we call it's foundational pieces, then your situational pieces, and then your next level pieces, right?

So the foundational pieces are really what I tell folks. Everyone starts with one of these three. I will talk about some of the other ones and people will be like, oh, but I want that one first. I'm like, yeah, but the best thing you can do for your business is to start with one of the three foundational strategies. And the reason for that

It's because the situational and next level strategies you use in a moment, when the situation calls for it, when the situation needs that strategy, you pull the tool out of your toolbox and you implement. The foundational strategies are actually the strategies, the tactics that you should have running all year long in your business. So they're the ones that you need to be super consistent with. And then the follow-up would be the situational, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And the follow-up is really based on the situation. So let me give, let me just give an example before we dive into our foundational ones. So if you're thinking about some of the things that would be situational in nature, let's talk about when you're meeting with somebody who's been referred to you.

So you've got a prospect, they've been referred to you. There is actually a strategy that we teach about how you should conduct or like hold that meeting with that referred prospect. And it should be different. It should sound different. You should ask different questions. There's almost a different tactic and outcome of it from that curiosity perspective because they're already referred to you.

But it should be totally different than a conversation you have when you're walking your dog and a neighbor comes up to you and they say, I hear you're a real estate agent. Tell me everything about this neighborhood because I want to sell my house in 5 million years. Right? You know those people, right? Oh, yeah. The idea that

How you have a conversation with somebody who comes to you almost cold or because you meet them at a networking event, right? Or maybe they've seen some of your social media or maybe they have been in your database for a decade and they've been getting all the stuff you email to them, but they don't know you. You don't really know them.

That conversation looks different because there's not as much trust built in than with the prospect that says, yeah, Joanne told me I needed to call you and you're the only agent I can work with because you're amazing. Like it's an entirely different conversation. So we have a strategy that when you're meeting with a referred prospect, we call it the first meeting script.

We have a strategy that when you're meeting with that referred prospect for the first time, like here's the outline of how that conversation should go. And here's what I need you to say just a couple of times throughout it to help that meeting close with them saying yes to working with you. So that's like a situation. You're not always meeting with a referred prospect, right? So if the situation calls for this, this is when I use this. Another example of a situational strategy is

My favorite thing is, is everybody knows that I teach when you receive a referral, you need to follow up with your referral source, right? The person who referred you and send them a handwritten thank you note. And a lot of people think that's just where it stops. I'm like, no, that's just, that's just the mantra and the drum that I beat all day long because that's the minimum that I want you doing when you follow up with your referral sources. But there's actually this whole process we teach called closing the loop.

And it allows you to not only keep the referral source like up to date on what's happening, but every time you're doing that, you're actually planting more referral seeds because you're reminding them, right, about the fact that they referred someone to you by just keeping them updated. But there's a way to do that that doesn't seem too pushy, right? The right cadence, the right strategy. And then let's be honest.

Our ability to follow up with somebody after they've referred someone to us comes down to our ability to create it into some kind of automation and system, or it's just not going to happen, right? So those are situations. And that's why we call them situational strategies. And then layered on top of that are what we call next level strategies. And when people download this flow chart, they'll see it. The situational strategies are all in blue. Next level is all in red.

where you need to start, because I know it's where your low hanging fruit lies for most business owners is in the green and it's in our foundational level. And it really comes down. This is how I tell folks to think about it. It really comes down to this. Do you have people referring you now? If the answer is yes, then you probably need a strategy to get more referrals from those people referring you now.

Do you not have any referral sources or really your referral sources is like your mom. And at some point she's probably going to stop knowing people that she can refer to you, right. And send your way. So do you not have any referral sources or do you have like maybe one or two, or really it's like your couple of best friends in the world that refer you and that's it. There's you've never cultivated past that inner inner teeth, like really tight circle. Well,

Well, then you actually need to learn how to take that client that loves you or that contact or that center of influence that you have. And you need to know how to cultivate them correctly into start referring you. So that's your potential referral source strategy. Like you need to know the process to get new people to start referring you because you can't just send them an e-newsletter once a month and be like, done. I'm going to get a whole bunch of referrals because I sent a newsletter this month, right? Like it doesn't.

It doesn't work that way. And like, and I know people are out there be like, well, you do your drive-bys and your drop-offs and you, you know, you have the, the, what the contest that people can apply for and things like that. I'm like, yeah, but that's actually not triggering referrals. It is triggering them like to remember that you're an agent and that's great if they need an agent.

But it may not actually trigger referrals with consistency. And that's what all of these strategies are based on. If you consistently follow the strategy, then you should be able to get to a place where you're consistently receiving referrals.

And then that brings us to the third strategy. And I always tell folks, it's the one that most people want to start with, but I always have them start with existing referral sources or potential referral sources, because I know that we can move it faster if they start there and they start learning how to get referral sources to start sending them more referrals. But the referable client experience is also, you know, it's like one of those things, Joan, it's like, let me just back up for a second and give my disclaimer.

To cultivate referrals from referral sources, whether they're existing or potential, you need to be referable, right? It's like, wait, pause, time out. Let me just rewind for a minute. You need to actually be referable, which means you need to have a referable client experience.

Which means there's got to be moments within your client experience where your processes, your systems, what pieces are automated, how you handle communication. How do you handle when the market goes soft all of a sudden, right? Like all of those things are how you manage your business and that client, the experience that that client has with you.

And so that needs to make you referable. But then also there are moments throughout that client experience where you could be gathering little referrals and planting referral seeds because it's the moment calls for there to be a planting of referral seeds. And most people move right past them and miss them all because they're just so busy trying to get the work done.

All of this starts with if you have referral sources or not. And then we make sure we got our foundational pieces in place. One, two, three. And maybe you only need two of them, right? Maybe you have like 50 referral sources. You're like, I don't want any more, right? But I do want to make sure my client experience is more referable. You pick the foundational pieces you need. And then as you need the rest, you layer them on top. We call it strategy stacking inside my group coaching program called Building a Referrable Business.

I love that. And, you know, I want to kind of pause for a second and say there is no...

entrepreneurial journey out there that couldn't take advantage of understanding this. I mean, even from, I mean, heck, we're on a podcast today, right? So the podcast experience from the listener, was it a good experience? Did the audio go great? Was the, you know, the guest host good? Am I bringing in the right people? If I am, I'm creating an experience where someone might refer my podcast to someone else, right?

So there's always that layer of any business you can look at and go, can I do one, two or three? And then how do I put the next piece in? And how do I put the next piece in? Absolutely. And I think what's just as valuable is recognizing the things you do really well.

And then paying attention to where your gaps are and then deciding which gaps you want to close. Like when people look at these strategies, I know in their moment, they're like, I got to put them all in place. I'm like, you may actually be doing some of them already and you don't even know it because you've never thought about it this way. Right.

Right. Like a lot of times, you know, one of the things we talk about in the next level is actually being able to generate referrals from your testimonials. So our training for that is called Testimonials Made Easy. And a lot of times I'll talk to folks. I'm like, tell me about how you gather testimonials. And they'll talk me through it. I'm like, you figured out the piece of referrals without me having to tell you. You just didn't realize you were that smart. Right. You already had it nailed down that you already had it going. So, yeah, it's not supposed to be complicated.

complicated. It's not supposed to be overwhelming, but it is a part, to your point, it is a part of everything we do as a business owner. I just find that when you know exactly what the one, two, three steps are in order, it feels less overwhelming. And then you're actually going to move it to implementation. And the more and more you do it, and the more you're consistent with it, it may seem awkward at first. It's going to get easier and easier. And then it'll become something that's so automatic, you don't even realize you're doing it.

Absolutely. So, you know, I mean, I think when people look through this and they're like, you know, they go and they download the flowchart

And they're looking at this and they're saying, okay, I tell people literally print it out. You don't have to print it out in color. It's very colorful. You don't have to print it out in color, but print it out and like do check marks and X's by the things you think you have down and the things that you think you need to work on. You know, if you close the people that are brought to you as referrals, you probably don't need the first meeting script. You probably know what you're going to say and how you're going to handle that meeting with a referred prospect. Your closing ratio is high enough, but just put the checks in the X's. But what,

And once you finish that process before you're like, wait, teach me how to plant referral seeds when I'm doing social media. I know that's like all the pieces that all the fun stuff is usually in the blue and the red. That's what I tell people.

But we really have to- It's the green that brings in the dollar. It is the green that brings in the dollar. And here's the thing. It's the green that brings in the dollar the fastest because those are the three strategies that you do consistently. Not every day, not every month, right? I'm not talking about you have to do something every single day for referrals.

But it's a strategy you put in place in January and it's still running come December. And when the strategy was built and the plan was created, you're just doing what the plan says when the plan says, hey, this is the next thing we need to do. And when you do that, those green boxes actually follow that process. It makes everything else easier. But.

Like we talked about when we first started, you don't even know which green to start with if you have no idea, if you have referral sources and you have no idea, of course, you know, how to ultimately identify them, which is really important. Okay, so how do we identify those referral sources?

Yeah. So my question for you is how much do you love data? Oh, well, I'm a data geek. I love numbers. So here's what I always tell folks, whether you love data or hate data, right? Because some of us love it and some of us love it. What I love most about data is the story that it tells me on the back end, right? It's that story that it tells me on the back end from that perspective. And so for me, I think it just...

It gives us that idea of understanding so much about our business when we're paying attention to the data that our business reveals. And in this case, the data is actually names. It's the people. And most people, like my favorite, I was on actually a call with somebody last week and she was like, well, I came up with a list of my referral sources like off the top of my head.

And I was like, don't do that. Like, I get it. You probably know the people who referred you in the last 30 days, the last 90 days, right? You probably can remember who's referred you most recently. Or you can remember those prospects that you're working on or those most recent clients that you've onboarded, where they came from because of the recency factor, right? I mean, we are biased towards what's been recent in our minds. And so that's what we remember. And I always tell folks, yeah, but what about the person who referred you back in February?

Or what about the person who referred you last summer? That was like your biggest deal ever. And you've already forgotten about them. Right. And that's what people do. And guess what? It's not because we're bad people. It's not because we're like, thanks for the money. I peace out. I'm out of here. Like, I don't care about you anymore. That's not who the majority of the people I work with. That's not who they are. They're actually like mortified. They're like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe I allow myself to get so busy and

That I forget to take care of the relationships that are feeding my business, that are serving my business. And that's what this comes down to. So when you're identifying your referral sources, I have found that the best way to do it so that we make sure we get the right people is step one, list out your clients. Now, if you're working with me, I'm going to ask you to go back three or four years. If you're an agent in your first or second year, you just work with what you have, right?

But if you're working with me, one or two years isn't going to cut it for me unless that's all you've been in business. I want you to go back three or four years and I want you to just pull a list of your clients. And then I want you to pull a list of how they learned about you. Now, sometimes we're really good and we've been keeping up with this all along in our CRM, our client relationship management tools, some kind of database, some kind of spreadsheet, some kind of something.

And sometimes we aren't great about it. So sometimes we have to recreate some of this information. But it's like, hey, those 12 deals you did last year, where did those clients come from? Right. Those 33 deals you did two years ago, where did those clients come from? And we piecemeal it together if we have to. We hope that we've got some of this in the database. So it tells us where these people came from.

And let me just kind of just do a side note here. Like it's not even a pro tip. It's like a one-on-one business owner tip. You should be tracking this in your database, right? I mean, we can talk all things database all day long because I think you and I get to see like the bad side of real estate agents databases. I think sometimes we see the good, bad, the ugly and the worse than ugly. Yeah. It's like, what is going on in there? Like, how are you keeping anything straight? Yeah.

And I was having a conversation with a real estate agent the other day and she was like, it took me two years for it to hit me what I was really supposed to do with this database. I'm like, I know because they preach the importance of the database for an agent and they're not wrong.

But keeping it organized is another whole teaching. Well, I find most of them just treat it like a address book at the end of the day. You know, and so getting them understanding not to use it as an address book, but it's an email list. How do you accurately use that? Why you need to segment who's in that list, you know? Oh, yeah, I know. All the things. I mean, seriously. And it's like if you've never done business with someone, they're not a client. Stop tagging them as a client.

Like you're not manifesting that one day in the future, they'll be a client. You're actually communicating with them in a different way if they're a client versus not. It's like, that's why the tagging matters. If they live in your neighborhood, but you've never actually met them, they're not a sphere.

Just because you know someone breathing lives in that house and one day they may sell it. You know what I mean? I mean, yeah. So my thing I always tell folks is you got to track this stuff. And just about every CRM out there, and I don't know which ones you recommend. I see them all.

what I've almost never found one that doesn't allow you to customize what information you're capturing about the source of where that prospect came from. And remember, they're actually a prospect before they're a client. So when you're entering that prospect that you're hoping becomes a client into your database, you should also be tracking where they came from. If you're not currently tracking, so now let me get back to the basic 101 tip I'd started with. If you're not actually tracking that prospect,

was referred to you in the referral sources name, you're missing a huge opportunity. Like that's really important to track. Not only was this person referred to you, but by whom? Because then when I come along and I'm like, hey, pull me a list of your clients in the last three years, the last four years. I'm like, now tell me how they learned about you. What's their source, right? Where did they come from? Did they come through a Facebook ad? Did they come through a TikTok reel? Is that what they call it in TikTok? I don't know, I don't do TikTok. I don't, it's Instagram reel. I think it's just TikTok.

Is it just, yeah, because that's all it is is dancing videos. Yeah.

Just kidding. I know it's not, but I'm all about Instagram, not so much TikTok. But did they meet you on social media? Right. Like, did they have you known them forever because you used to work together at a company long before you were an agent? Right. Like there's all these sources of how people know you. And one of them should be if they're referred to you and then it's the who referred them. So if you capture your clients, like put the year. So if I was teaching this to you in Excel spreadsheet or a Google sheet, right, I would be like three columns. Simple.

One is the year they became a client. Two is the actual client's name. Third column is going to be the source, how they learned about you. And if it's a referral source, it'll be that referral source's name. So you would see things like Facebook ad, chamber networking event, Stacey Brown-Randall referred them, right? Like you would see those things in your spreadsheet. And then, because not all

I mean, not all prospects become clients. It's also important to do this process one more time with your prospects that said no or not now. And usually people don't have that stuff tracked the way they should. So I'm like, give me a year. If you can give me two or three or four years, even better. But pull up the people you had a conversation with about working with you, but then they decided not to for whatever reason. Right. And so from that perspective, then you look at the same three steps. What year do they become a prospect? What

What's the prospect's name? How they hear about you. And then you're looking for the sources that are human because those are referral sources. And here's something to note. You are not referred to

by your BNI group. You're not referred by the Chamber of Commerce. You're not referred by your local real estate leaders of America, whatever networking group. The ads you paid for on Facebook is not a referral source. That's a marketing source. Exactly. And I always tell folks, if you got a referral from your, let's just use BNI or the Chamber as our example, right? If you got a referral from there, there was somebody in

that organization that referred you. A human said your name. Right. Now, if you went to a chamber event and you met somebody and they're like, I need an agent, then you can give credit to that networking event. But if you are at an event and or you're participating in your chamber or your BNI group or whatever it is, and somebody refers you from inside that group, it's the name of the person that referred you. That's really important. And the other thing I see that people do here is

What's so fun for me about working with real estate agents is you would think in your industry there isn't that much repeat, but there is. And some agents, that's how they survive. I have a real estate agent that I'm working with. I've been working with her for years. I adore her. She is out of Washington State. And when we sat down a couple of years ago and she's like, I'm getting lots of referrals. I'm like, oh, good. I have something to work with. This will be so fun. She was like, oh, my gosh, wait, repeat clients aren't referrals. I'm like, nope.

You don't a repeat client. You cannot refer yourself. You're just a repeat client because guess what? You're amazing. You had that referable client experience and they came right back, but they're not referring themselves, right? They are just a repeat client. And she was shocked. The first thing she said was, thank goodness. I'm good at what I do so that I get all these repeat clients coming back because this is how I've survived. And then she looked at it and I was like, okay, here comes the next piece. I know it because she's super smart. She was like,

Oh my gosh, I'm leaving so much on the table. And I was like, ding, ding, ding, ding. There it is. I was like, so let's figure out who your referral sources are. Because the number of those people you have that are referring you, that will dictate how you start if you truly want to build a referable business. Because it means if you have five or more people referring you pretty consistently...

Then I want to build a strategy around that. And I want to get those five or six or 10 or 12 or 22 people that are referring you now. And maybe out of that group of 15 referral sources, right, you're getting about on average, right, about 20 referrals a year. Then I'm like, great. You know what I really want to do with those 15 people? I want to get them to give you 30 referrals.

in a year or 40 referrals in a year. And so when people hear me talk about, okay, Stacey, you talk about in one year, if I follow your strategies, I can double, triple, or quadruple my referrals. It's really actually based on this dynamic.

It's like you have people referring you. I know that the strategy I'm going to teach you of how to take care of them and the language to use with them is going to get them to the place where they want to refer you. And for most people, that's how I get into the double mark. Like if you're getting 15 referrals or 10 referrals a year right now or 25 referrals a year right now, depending on how many humans are providing those referrals for you. And there is a formula involved. So I'm not like making a guarantee, but that's where I'm looking at my great. I'm going to take that.

And I want to double it. Like that's my first number I want to hit. And usually it happens with people who have referral sources. But that's not to say if you don't have referral sources, you can't cultivate people to start referring. You're like, they all start somewhere. And so with other folks. If you don't already have them, you're going to walk in, learn the strategies so that when you have them, you don't leave money on the table. You already know how to cultivate.

You know, it's so true. I always tell folks, if you don't have referral sources, I want you to learn the strategy first and how to cultivate new referral sources. But pretty quickly when it starts to work, you're absolutely right. You're going to then need to learn the strategy to take care of the people that are referring you. One and two, they almost always go together. And then the referable client experience.

I do have people who are like, hey, I've got 15 referral sources. I've got 35 referral sources, whatever the number is. They're like, that's about all I can handle. I just want better referrals from them. And I want to close more of them. And I want to keep getting the referrals from those people. I'm not really interested in having more humans to take care of. Then we're going to put in your existing referral source strategy so that we can keep that consistency of referrals coming in because you're being consistent and how you take care of them. And then we're going to layer on our

quality situational strategy, right? And so that you can have the quality conversation with them. And then we're going to layer on the first meeting script so that you actually can increase your closing ratio. And for some people, that's it. That's all they need. That's the magic sauce.

Right. And for others, right, they're like, oh, this is so good. What's next? I'm like, well, there's 18. So you've got a ways to go. So they add what they need. But my favorite sometime are the people who are like, this is where I'm headed. Like, this is where I want to be with my referrals. How do I get there? And based on what's going on in their business, I can tell you at a moment of seconds which strategies you're ultimately going to need if you can provide me with clear data, not garbage, to be perfectly honest. So

So not just the things you're making up because of recency bias. So I can tell you the strategies that you need. And I always err on how few strategies can we do this with to get them to where they want to be? Because the last thing I want you to do is ever, ever be able to say, I didn't do anything because I just sat and overwhelmed. I want to be like, no, no, I'm not giving them all to you. And I'm not.

I never would give them to everyone at one time. Not that my group coaching clients don't have access to all 18. They're right there on the portal for them. But I'm really clear about strategy stacking. This is the order you go in so that you will actually learn

and then implement and then create a system around it or outsource or delegate what you need to do before you even move on to the next strategy. I mean, that's just efficiency at its best. So what a powerful and smart way to teach something. Because if they can't get the first step, they're never going to get step number six. So if you throw it all at them at once, you're just setting them up for failure.

My favorite conversations are when I have with people and they're like, I just need it all right now. And I'm like, do you? Oh, those are your high D on the dis profile. That's the maze of the world. But yeah. Yeah. And the easiest question to ask them is, is tell me about the last time you got a whole bunch of strategies given to you and you implemented all of them flawlessly. And then they're like, um, no, it didn't happen like that. I'm like, of course it doesn't happen.

doesn't happen for any of us. I don't care how amazing we are, right? Or how much we want it. The reality of it is, is that the priorities you make, the commitments you make, the strategies you decide you're going to deploy for a strong 2023 or whatever year it is in the future, like they all start with priorities and commitments. And the truth is, there's a reason why they say don't have more than three or four goals in a year, because they're

You can't get to 18, right? You can't get to eight. You can't get like most people cannot accomplish that. Not and have a fully, I would say fully live a full life outside of just doing business. Well, and if you get too stressed out and overwhelmed, then you'll start to not like it. And then your motivation and energy level and like it's so impactful on everything you do versus if you can just take that one strategy, nail it. And when it's good and golden, you know, stack that next one on.

I mean, the implications of what's going to happen after that are just exponential.

Oh, completely. I just totally used a lot of big words there. You did. It was really impressive. Actually, I'm going to go get my dictionary. No, but I think you're right. Like, I just think this whole concept of, you know what I think it comes from? I think it comes from an every single business owner. I don't care who they are, wakes up and thinks to themselves, no matter where they are on the spectrum of newbie or super successful. Right. I think they wake up and they think to themselves, I just thought I'd be further along.

Like, I think we all do that. So I think when we decide, okay, I'm going to get serious about, let's use our topic as our example, referrals, then you're just like, give it all to me. Like, what all do I need? Let me get it all implemented. But if that isn't going to lead to actual implementation and execution and then consistency of keeping it going, then

what's the point? You're just wasting all of that time. So, I mean, a lot of times that I'm working with folks when we have their onboarding call, when they're coming into my group coaching program, I'll be like, talk to me about your capacity. And they're like, what a weird question to start with. And I'm like,

Well, yes, because I need to know what capacity you have right now to do the things I'm about to ask you to do. And I'm going to do it in 90 day sprint. So I don't need you to tell me your capacity 12 months from now, but what's your capacity over the next 90 days? So I know how many strategies I believe you can actually get through. And for some people it's one. And that is okay because in three months when that strategy is working and they're getting referrals, I'll be like, that was worth it.

Aren't you so glad we did that one strategy instead of trying to do like four of which in 90 days you had none of them implemented and nothing was happening and you were still working on that first strategy? Like there is something to be said about just getting narrow focused in the moment to get something done before you add on the next thing you want to accomplish. You know, and I've actually got a quiz out at realbosswomen.com forward slash boss quiz. And I'll put a link to it in the show notes too.

Based on that same concept is where are you in your boss journey? Because so many people think that they're at the scaling stage just because they're not in the first year of business when really they're still at the beginner. And some of them think they're still at the beginner and they're really already midway to building an empire. And so based on your answer for those, it's like five questions or six questions, then there's a whole list of resources just for you at your level because...

You can't get to the end line without first starting at the beginning and building on all the strategies. Oh, it's so true. And I think sometimes people like it, particularly when we're at the new stage, that newbie stage, like nobody wants to eat at the kids table.

Like we all like want to be further ahead, but there's something about as we get further ahead, we all of a sudden revert back to thinking we're not as far along as we are. Yeah. It's this really weird dynamic, I think, that goes through for every single business owner. And I think that's really, really important. Like I was reading this, I do not know this gentleman.

like billion dollar CEO of some company. I don't even remember what company he was up. And he was posting about his, like how lonely it is at the top of his empire. And like, he'd even considered suicide. And I'm like, there was this moment when I was reading his article that I was like,

And he had imposter syndrome and he doubted himself and he wondered if he was making the right choices and the choices were hard and they involved lots. And I was like, if I'm going to have those same doubts, I don't want to have all of that. Right. If I'm going to have the same doubts when I have all of that, then I probably need to be okay with having those same doubts right now. Like obviously not the suicide piece, but like that whole idea, like wait, imposter syndrome, wait, never leaves you. Like it's always there. Well, if,

then why is it holding me back now? If I'm still going to maybe potentially have to be participating in it right later down the road, like I need to get used to it and get okay with it now. What's holding you back from growing where you want to grow then? Because if you can deal with it now, you can deal with it then. Oh, that's such a great quote. I think that's going to be one of my favorites from the entire episode because you're right. If you can deal with it now, you can deal with it then. And if you can't deal with it now, you better figure it out because it's never really going away. All right, girlfriend. Well, thanks for being on today. I appreciate it. As always, it was phenomenal.

I can't wait to see you at your retreat in December. And then again, you're going to be speaking for the Real Boss Women in February at the Nashville Focus Conference, which is funny because I think you're calling your retreat the Refocus Retreat. So we are thinking along the same lines.

And you've got an hour and a half on stage with us to do a lot of deep diving. So give everyone just a little bit of a sneak peek behind the curtains of what maybe that hour and a half might look like if they attend the conference.

Mind blowing. I just wanted to say that. You know what's interesting? What I really look forward to spending some time with the folks that are there with us in Nashville, what I really look forward to spending time talking about is understanding when I say generate referrals naturally, there's a whole science behind it.

component behind it. And I really want to give some like real world applications to what that looks like and then take it down even more tactical and be like, okay, I want those folks to show up with what we talked about today, their referral sources, like identified, like who are the 12 humans? Who are the 22 humans? And then let's talk about what the heck we do for those humans and what it looks like and what we ultimately need to know about how we create referral success, not just in your first year,

But putting strategies and systems and tactics into place that you're still using five years later, that's my ultimate joy. So 90 minutes still may not be enough time, but I'm going to make the best use of that time that you're giving me. I mean, we're going to talk about the things that I really want them to mind. I want them to have a mindset shift.

on understanding that referrals are not the way the real estate industry teaches it to you. You do not have to ask, I promise. And I will show you a better way and I will show you where it starts when we're together in Nashville.

Okay. And so one of my favorite things too is after that first day of the conference, you and I are going to have a cocktail opportunity for like 20 or so of the attendees at the event just to come and sit down and pick your brain in person over a cocktail because that's the most fun part or way to do it all. As long as you have a bottle for me then. Oh, I will have my bottle for you if you have mine ready in December. You got it. All right. Thanks, guys. Make it a great day.

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