What Makes a Client Truly Referable with Stacey Brown Randall | RR349

In Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's

episode of relationships rule losing my voice, it seems

today's conversation is all about trust, reputation and what

truly makes someone referable. I'm joined by Stacey brown

Randall, who returns to the show after five years. I can't

believe it. It's so exciting with a fresh perspective from

her new book, The referable client experience, Stacy

challenges the idea that referrals come from asking, and

instead invites us to look at how clients feel, how safe they

feel, and whether they feel proud to put their name behind a

recommendation. So welcome to the show.

Stacey Brown Randall: Stacy, thank you so much for having me

back. Janice. I'm excited to be here,

my pleasure. So I want to start by just asking,

because when we met the first time, you had just written your

first book. I'm excited. Your new book is pretty new. I think

in the fall it came out, yes, October. In the fall, yes. And

we're at the beginning of 2026 now. So I am curious though your

is your new book an extension of the first book, or is it like a

big revelation of something new that you have discovered in your

experience within the last five years? Yeah.

Stacey Brown Randall: So I love that question, because I think

it's important to put the books in context. And like, I had

somebody the other day goes, well, I was going to buy your

first book, but then I just decided to buy your second book,

because I'm assuming it's like, all the new stuff, and I'm like,

not exactly like, That's not exactly how the books work. So

the context that I think helps people understand and some

people just ask, like, which book should I start with? And

that's an excellent question, because they actually address

different strategies and different needs within your

business. So when I work with a client on referral generation

and increasing their referrals, right? We I actually teach 20

different strategies. That's not to say there are 20 huge

strategies with complex processes and procedures and all

kinds of like to do lists and checklists and things, right?

Some of those strategies are situational and they're language

based, or they're because this happened, we need to know how to

respond, and this is the process we follow when this happens. But

I do teach referrals like they live as an ecosystem within your

business, and you need to know where they are living and hiding

or where they should be, so that you can actually cultivate more

referrals into your business. Because of that, I don't teach

referrals as referral. If you want a referral, that's a nail,

and the only tool you need is a hammer, right? I teach a fully

stocked toolbox, and that's where those 20 strategies come

from. There are three foundational strategies that I

teach. The first book, generating business referrals

without asking comes from the very first strategy I deployed

for myself, and then I started teaching to others. When others

started asking me how I was getting referrals so quickly

when I started this business, which was actually a coaching

practice back in the day 13, almost 13 years ago. So that

was, like, that signature strategy. This is how I was able

to generate referrals. But from that, of course, that's just one

group of people and so, and that is people who already refer you.

And that's really what the book was based on, is like, Hey, you

have people who are referring you. This is the strategy we

follow to generate more referrals from them. It became

one of the signature strategies that I teach, and it has been

for almost 13 years that I've been in business, and it's one

of those that's just evergreen. It's never going to change.

Like, you know, people talk about having to update their

materials and change what they teach because the algorithm

changes, or this changes, or whatever. I haven't had to do

that, which is a blessing, but because referrals are evergreen,

and people are people, and so that is a really important

piece. So the first book speaks to one of those foundational

strategies, but there are three of them. The second book speaks

to another one of the foundational strategies, so they

operate separately. So that's why I tell folks that pick the

one to start with, but they are, they tackle different things. So

when we talk about referrals, I talk about the three groups of

people that you can get referrals from that you get the

fastest ROI. There are other groups, but the three that you

can get the fastest ROI from are going to be the people who refer

you now your existing referral sources. That's book one. The

second one's going to be within your client experience, and

making sure you understand what your client experience needs to

look like, and you actually know how to bridge the gap to

referrals. That means you got to be more than just amazing. You

got to be more than just doing amazing work. And the third

group, of course, and that's what the second book is based on

the referral client experience. And the third book, if I ever do

a third book, but it's going to be, there must be a third book.

Yeah, maybe I don't know. Every time I write one, I'm like, I'm

never doing that again. But if I do a third book, it will

definitely be based on the third strategy, which is how to get

new people to start referring you. And so you think about it,

people who already refer you, existing referral sources.

That's a group. That can refer you more clients can refer you

depending on what you do, but clients can refer you. And then

we all have people we wish would refer us, and those are our

potential referral sources. So that's how the books, they

actually complement each other. There is different information

in both because they tackle different strategies.

Okay, that makes total sense. All right. So this

book is about the client experience. So what are you

hoping people understand when they hear that phrase, the

referable client experience?

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, so the big thing I want people to

understand, and it's actually I want them to, like, take a deep

breath and give themselves a break, because most of the time,

people believe that if they're doing excellent work, they

should be receiving referrals, and maybe something's wrong

because they're not. And what I want people to understand is

doing excellent work does not equal referrals. You can do

amazing, excellent work, probably like like you and I do,

and all of your listeners do, right? Like we do, like we don't

do perfect work. That's not what I'm talking about. We do

valuable work. What we do matters. It's valuable to our

clients, right? And when there are problems, we know how to

solve them on behalf of our clients, that kind of stuff. But

the idea is that that's all you have to do to generate

referrals. And then that leads some people to be like, Well, I

must be doing something wrong because I'm not getting

referrals. It's first thing I want people to understand is

they don't equal like doing great work, you can't equal

referrals, right? So don't expect them, and don't think

something's wrong because you're not getting them, it doesn't

mean you're not doing excellent work. What people don't

understand is they think, because my client loves me, that

means they must refer me. And the truth is, because your

client loves you, that's why they're your client. And if they

can repeat and come back to work with you again, that's why

they'll do it. And will they maybe talk to you out there in

generic terms, probably, but will they actually take the

extra step, and you know, to put their reputation on the line, to

actually connect someone to you who has the potential to hire

you. That's a whole different jump you got to make within your

clients, and most people don't realize that. And so the first

thing I always want people to know is like, if you're not

getting referrals, that's that's okay. It's just because you

don't know what to do to bridge the gap to referrals, but you

can still get amazing testimonials. Have your clients

give you amazing feedback. Have your clients tell you that

you're awesome. Tell your have your clients tell you that they

talk about you. None of those things are referrals, though,

and so it's just important for people to understand, Oh, I've

got what I need now. I need to know how to bridge the gap to

referrals, but I'll be honest. Janice, there's a lot of folks

that I talk to that I'm like, you're not actually referable

yet. Like, there are some things your business has to have in

place that more than just doing great work, you have to first

have like, what we call like, the the environment for

referrals to even start. And that is being referable means

more than great work. So think about it this way, the work you

do is one part of the equation, one part of the formula, the

relationship you build with your clients is the other piece, and

when you have both of those pieces, then you can bridge the

gap to actually knowing the tactics or the strategies to do

to generate referrals well.

But like that, to me, seems like a no brainer,

like, if I'm working with somebody, I'm going to build a

relationship with them that's just through my curiosity,

through my conversation with them. It's not just cut and

dried, like, here's the work, you know, like I've done it.

Goodbye. So, so what does that look like? I mean, for people

who who don't know?

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, so I think you and I are in unique

positions, because it's a big part of what we teach others,

right? It's a big part of like, how we run our businesses. It's

a big part of how our work is set up, right? Is to have to be

in relationship with people. But for most business owners, and I

mean, I would make the argument, I know I sometimes fall into

this as well. When you get a new client, you get so like, into

the moment of jumping in to do the work, right, jumping in to

follow the process, right? Of like, onboarding that client and

getting them up and going, and whatever your process looks

like, depending on what you do. And the more clients you have,

the more distance you get from actually having relationships

with your clients. And when I say being in relationships, what

I'm talking about is not that you know everything about their

life. It's not that you always know everything that's

happening. It's not that you're taking your clients for coffee

every month or every quarter, because, let's be honest, none

of us have time for that, and most of us aren't even local to

where our clients are. Right? The idea is, is that you

understand, like the way that I talk about the relationship

piece in a relationship, in a client relationship and a client

experience, it's understanding what your client is going

through as they move through the stages of work. With you, and we

define those in three stages, but as they're moving through

working with you through these stages is what is what we call

the quiet voice. What are the things that they're thinking but

not saying, and how are you addressing them before they have

a chance to even articulate it to you, and then making sure

you're leaning in so that they know you see them more than just

a client more than just a number, right? This isn't the

relationship terms in terms of we're now going to be best

friends, right? That's not what we're talking about on that

is it understanding them better and

knowing where to go in your next steps because of something they

may be exhibiting or sharing

Stacey Brown Randall: with you? Yeah, it's, it's that overall

totality of being like, a little bit of that surprise and delight

factor, like, Oh, I just didn't expect that from my CPA, right?

I just didn't expect that from my architect. I just didn't

expect that from my marketing consultant, right? It's that

ability to be more human, but keeping it within a repeatable

process, so that all your clients get to feel it. And the

way that I teach it is you do that based on what your clients

are going through and what they're feeling through the

process, and then you're just looking for moments to infuse

what we call relationship touch points, and sometimes they have

nothing to do with the work that you're doing in that moment, and

sometimes they're complimenting the work that you're doing in

that moment. But it's just reminding your clients that you

see them more than just a number or more than just a name on your

to do list, to handle something for them. No one starts a

business to see their clients as a massive checklist. But the

more, the longer you're in business, the more that's what

business starts to look like. And so it's like, Oh, I gotta do

these things. I gotta do these things. I gotta, you know, in

addition to like operations and payroll and finances and all the

things and running my business, businesses become one long to do

list, and it's just that ability to reset. And if you have a

team, it's ability to reset with your team to make sure that you

are referable. And that referability piece comes from

the relationship that you build, which means it has to be more

than just the work you're doing.

Okay, so you mentioned the word touch points,

and you distinguish in your book between work touch points and

relationship touch points. Can you share an example of how one

small shift can change how a client feels?

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, so here's one I just want. Okay, I

want to give an example, and then there's a couple that I

could give. But let me start with this example. One of the

things that I think people miss out on is is like making sure

that their clients understand that there's a human behind the

business too, right, and just that connection piece. So one

easy thing I tell folks to do is that sending holiday cards, but

not putting a generic holiday card together or not putting,

you know, like a holiday card where it's just like a picture

of the business. Maybe it's a picture of the team within the

business. Maybe, if it's just you in the business, or you

don't want to put your team on the Christmas card or the or the

Hanukkah card or the the Holiday Card, maybe it's you and your

family, right? It's the reminding of that relationship

piece of like, hey, right, you're a person. I'm a person.

We've got families behind us. Like, that's one simple thing.

Other times, when we kind of talk about examples of this, we

talk about the quiet voice as someone moves from the new

stage, the active stage, the alumni stage, and sometimes the

quiet voice is all the things they're not saying. And one way

you can show up on that relationship side is when a new

client starts, and they're onboarding, they're having all

kinds of thoughts they're not telling you. And it's actually

more than just buyer's remorse. It's usually a mix of buyer's

remorse, anticipation, excitement and concern, and it's

all kind of rolled up into one. The longer you're in business,

you know what your clients are feeling, because eventually

clients start to verbalize it, right? Oh, I was excited to hire

you, but I knew that meant I was going to have to do work. Oh, I

was looking forward to working with you, but I knew that meant

that I was actually going to have to change or be challenged

or get better at this, or be willing to do this when I

usually don't do it, whatever it is, right? Yeah, and it's

acknowledging that to them. So you may have your onboarding

process that's happening, where they're completing the

registration form and paying their deposit or whatever it is,

right, signing the agreement, getting started in my worlds,

like getting started with your pre work, getting to understand

how the online portal works, if they're in my coaching program,

but it's also then showing up as a person being like, hey, like,

just a handwritten card, like, hey, like, I'm so excited to

work with you, but I know this journey is going to probably

stretch and challenge you, and that's expected, and that's

normal. And you're not alone. I'm your co pilot coming right

alongside you, right? We call that the journey card. It's the

mapping out the journey that your client is probably already

feeling and already sensing, and then mapping it out for them,

because once you label it, and once you call it out, and you

like say, Hey, this is probably what you're feeling, then you

normalize it, then there's no concern regarding it. And what

people don't realize is that when you put me at ease, that's

when I start to trust you more, and that's where our

relationship starts to grow. So that journey card, right? It

feels very much. Like, well, it feels like a work touch point,

but it arrives to your client on the relationship side because of

what it says. It doesn't say, thanks for being our client.

We're so excited to make money, right? You're like, that's a

terrible welcome card, but most people's welcome cards

effectively say that. They're like, thanks so much for

becoming a client. We're excited to work together. Like, do more.

Think about what your clients going through and really meet

them there in that moment. And that's a simple, handwritten

card.

Totally, yeah, that that makes sense. And

again, there's that there's that misnomer, I guess, that it's the

wrong word, but I can't think of another one between thinking

that just because you put you finished working with somebody

actively right now and now they're on an email list, and

you just send them this sequence of emails, which I don't do

because I can't stand them. But you know, they those are touch

points, but they're really not the same. I know that you have,

I think you talk about, is it six to eight touch points a year

for your alumni clients? And we can talk about what that means.

You can clarify if you want, but is that, is that right? So those

touch points, whether it's at six, 810, whatever, they're not

all the same.

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, the variety piece is kind of

important, and I think it depends on the type of business

that you have and what you want to do, like, so here's the

thing, I don't think there's anything wrong with sending a

monthly email to your alumni clients, right? Like, I'll just

kind of give it the perspective from inside my business. So

inside my business, you know, most of the time when people,

whether they're referred to me, or they hear me on a podcast,

like your audience, or they see me speak, or, you know, Amazon

Gods favor my book in the moment, and they promote it, and

you're like, oh, okay, I'll get that book. It's got some good

reviews. Let's check that book out, right? However they land in

my world, right? If they make the decision to work with me,

and then we've gone through the process of working together, and

over that's 90 days in my accelerator or a year in my

coaching program. Like, once they get to the end of that,

right, it's I don't want them to receive, and while they're a

client as well, I don't want them to receive the weekly

emails I'm sending to people who are just starting to learn about

me that haven't made the decision to hire me, right?

That's what my weekly emails are for but once you've been a

client and you've moved to that alumni stage right, one of the

things that we've instituted is actually what we call is a

monthly roundup email that we send out on the first of every

month. But for our alumni, it is entirely different than what

prospects are going to be seeing on a weekly email. Now my

clients are used to getting a monthly roundup email because

all of my programs, no matter which of my three programs

you're in, and we're about to add it for a fourth program,

they're used to getting monthly roundups that tell them what's

happening that month in the program that they're in. Like,

here are the Q and A calls. Here's the link to schedule a

one on one with me. Here's something you need to do with

your dashboard. Here's something we do every February, like,

whatever it is, right? Yeah, but in addition to that, so for the

alumni to start receiving that, but they are specific to what I

already know the alumni have learned, and I just want to

remind them of the things that they've learned when they worked

with me, so they don't forget to do the things they're supposed

to be doing, right? But that's 12 emails a year. They are the

same, you know, they're inevitably going to be missed.

If they stop checking them, they will eventually land in

someone's junk folder, right? And then they won't see them

until they see one and pull them out and rescue them. So I think

if you're going to email your alumni clients on an ongoing

basis like that, is not a well, I send this email to everybody

so they can get it too. Ours are I personally write my alumni

emails every single month, and so it's, I'm specifically

saying, hey, it's January. You know what you have to do in

January? Set up your new dashboard for the year, right?

You're not working with me. I'm not giving you one, but go copy

last year's. Do it again, right? Like, here's what you need to

do. So I think the email piece is fine. I think as long as it

is something that they want and something that is useful, right?

Yeah. But to your point, though, the other parts that you're

going to do for your alumni clients, there has got to be

some variety. So for our alumni clients, it really depends on

where you are, like, are you in your first year of being an

alumni? Are you in your fifth year of being an alumni? And we

definitely tear down, and we just have to, because of volume

and budgets and all kinds of things, right? But at a minimum,

if you're an alumni client of mine, and you've been in the

last couple of years, you're going to get a holiday card,

right? You're probably going to get an invitation to something

else that we're doing, like, there's other things that we're

going to include you on and involve you in, depending on

what we're doing, but it you're probably going to experience

more of that in your first year and less of that as your alumni

five. It's been five years, and she worked with me, so there's

not a there's not a number, like it's got to be seven. It's got

to be four. But there is this idea that you need to have some

type of when they're no longer a client, there's no longer. Work

to deliver now we're only leaning into it from a

relationship perspective. What does that look like? And you

know, I've been teaching the referral client experience as

like, a strategy that what versus like. How I usually first

teach something is I'll teach it live, and then I'll record it

for my clients, and then it can be available to the those in the

online program. But this one we started teaching like, late

2020, because I really realized people were missing this. Like,

I always made a disclaimer, I can get you referrals, but I'm

assuming you're referable. And then finally, I was like, Maybe

I should actually define what that means and make sure

everybody's on the same page. It's not just great work, but we

actually made it a like, a like, it was taught live to people,

and then it was part of our program as one of our 20 like in

2021 2022 or something like that. We've even, since then,

I've even evolved what our alumni client experience looks

like. So these things do take on evolution, and they do change,

and sometimes we've pulled back and sometimes we've leaned in,

but you should always make sure that if if you want repeat

clients, if that's possible, or you want referrals from your

alumni clients that aren't referring you before they move

to alumni, you're going to have to figure out how you're going

to stay top of mind awareness

with them. So most people, most people think,

Oh, I've got to remember to ask for a referral when I'm done

business. Or ask, you know, right? And I know you're like,

that's the complete opposite of your strategies and your your

your business, but where does that come from? Why? Why do we

feel we have to ask?

Stacey Brown Randall: Yeah, because it's the only advice

that's been out there for decades and decades, right? It's

that idea that, if I want to, if the the gurus and the experts

who teach the asking, the mentality that they bring to it

is, I want to get you as quickly as possible to the next

prospect, right to the next potential client. And one quick

way to do that is to ask people to refer right somebody else to

you in on in like, not even theory, but like, in terms of me

just saying it there, like you, it sounds like, okay, I guess I

could see how that would be true, right? It's like, from

this perspective, like, if you want to get me as fast as you

can get me to the next prospect, then telling me to ask my

current clients is probably the fastest way to get there. What

was never paid attention to, what was never acknowledged and

was usually said. If you feel this way, then you should get

over yourself, right? Is actually how awkward that is,

and actually how uncomfortable that can be, and how it changes

the dynamics of the relationship with the person you're asking

and how it starts to commoditize the relationship with that

person. Because the science wasn't clearly considered when

that advice was created, it's just like, hey, this is easy.

You want another client go ask somebody to give you one without

realizing that, oh my gosh, there's so much. This is not a

plus b equals c. Like, there's so much lost in translation

between A and B that that's why you never really get to see and

so that's really like, when people start talking about,

like, but asking, I've been told I have to ask. I'm like, Yeah,

because nobody had thought about a different way to do it, and

that's what they just taught for decades and decades.

I love that you call yourself a contrarian

because I love that word in itself, but yeah, that you know

there is another way, and you've got a handle on it, and you've

got the market on it, which is great. Something I you and I

have talked about in an email, actually conversation, I think a

while back when I I heard you on somebody else's podcast, one of

your past clients, I think, and the cop, the topic of the

question or conversation was about sending gifts that are

branded with your business. And I had just been talking to

somebody, a colleague, not really a prospect of mine or

anything, but he was new in in his business, and he was talking

and he was so excited about how he had just purchased these

beautiful, I forget the name Yeti, maybe water bottle,

whatever, and he was going to send them out to his 12 new

prospects and and I thought I looked at my water bottle and I

thought I never would take one out or like, if it's got your

company name on it, I don't really want that. If it's got my

company name on it might be kind of cool, but anyway, so I had

just heard you talking about this, and I said to him, I told

him my theory on it, and then I heard you, and it was like,

exactly the same. And I went, oh god, I've got to send this to

him. Do you think I'll insult him, or do you think it'll help?

Anyway, I did send it to him, and he was appreciative, but I

want you to share that theory. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stacey Brown Randall: So here's what I always tell folks. I have

some hard and fast rules around logoed items, and then I have

some gray area. And I think it's important for folks to

understand that my hard and fast rule around logoed items is that

when you were using logoed and when you were using any type of

gift that you were sending to somebody. Who is a referral

source. So this is whether they're a client or a center of

influence or like you know your college roommate, right? So when

they, no matter what their label is, client, center of influence,

whatever, right family or friend, when they refer you and

you choose to send them a gift, right as part of your plan for

how you're going to take care of them, that gift should always be

about them, never about you, and your logo on something is always

about you, right? Even if it is, isn't the brand new Yeti or the

brand new Stanley, right? It doesn't matter. It is about you

because your logo's on it, and that is a hard and fast No,

absolutely not. We do not put our logos on items that we are

gifting to our referral sources. That's my hard and fast rule.

Now, where I find like, there is some gray in that is when you're

talking to your clients and your client experience, and you're

talking about prospects, and then you're doing right? And

then there's like the next layer is, like the sponsorship booth,

right? Everybody's got logo items there. That's why, one of

the reasons why you have a booth, right? But the idea here

is, is when you move to the clients and you move to the

prospects, right, there is more of an understanding that you're

going to probably, there's like, people will probably give out

items that have their logo on it. But I always ask the

question is, depending on how much those things cost you, what

happens if they never make it out of the house? Like, what

happens if they never act like we get we we have gotten logoed

yetis before, right? And I don't think I make a conscious

decision not to like, to deliberately not grab the one

that has like the commercial real estate's logo on it. But I

do definitely defer more to like my college alumni, or like my

college mascot, or my kids schools, high schools, mascot,

I'm like, I just or my beloved Red Sox. Like, I'm just gonna

defer to that one over your commercial real estate one. No

disrespect, right? But like, that's the reality is, how often

they actually use because you want them used as a billboard

for your business, but they don't work like that. So I think

at that point, if you're going to do something that's going to

be like we do the same thing inside our client experience is

we don't actually give out anything with our logos on it,

right? But we do give out things that talk about referrals,

right? So we can still extend the brand messaging without it

being like a blanket, like logoed cup, or right, or logoed

mug or something like that. We do extend the brand messaging by

maybe what we're including and what we're actually like.

Sometimes, when people have, like, tag lines and things and

things like that, those things can work better, right? Or you

have sayings that you're known for. So one of the sayings that

I'm known for is, keep calm and referral on like, that's

something I've been using for, I don't know, the 1213, years I've

been in business. Like I saw it early on, I switched it out, and

I was like, this is fantastic. And, you know, we have it on

candles, we have it on stickers. We put it on cards, like, so you

can do things that are valuable for your client, valuable for

your prospect, where the brand identity can be there, but it's

so much better than just doing something that is logoed. I

would, I would still, even though it's gray area, I would

tell folks, don't do it if you don't have to, you can probably

be more clever.

Yeah, exactly. And I love that. Thank you for

sharing that so so use I have a comment here. Small Businesses

have something big brands can't replicate. What is that

advantage, and how can my listeners and viewers lean into

that?

Stacey Brown Randall: It's being small. Like, for so long, being

small was kind of seen as, like, the Oh, I'm not there yet, or I

haven't arrived. I haven't built this eight, seven figure, eight

figure business. I don't have a team of 10 or 50. Yeah, I'm just

getting started. And small is, like, you don't want to stay

small. You want to scale right? Like, being small is your

superpower, and you can still be considered small and have like,

10 or less employees, or 50 or less employees, like, everybody

gets to define small a little bit differently. But I think the

smaller you are, the more nimble you are, and in that case, it's

your ability to connect better and to do the things that big

brands could never do because their people aren't always

talking to their clients or but think about this. Think about

the larger companies where you go to purchase something from

them, and you never talk to any like you maybe watch a demo on

the website, right, but you never actually talk to someone.

Or think of a larger company that has sales reps, but they're

doing enterprise sales, right? They're doing like, Hey, you're

I'm going to sell to you, and then I'm going to go talk to

somebody else and sell to them, but the delivery of that is

going to be handled by somebody totally different, and I can

influence it, and I'm totally separate. The smaller you are,

the more integrated everything becomes, yeah, and that ability

to really lean into that, to that client experience, and to

do different things and to show up in different ways. To me, I

just believe it, and I see it every day with my clients and

with myself like that are my ability to do that is because

I'm small, and I think that is our true superpower.

Yeah, I tend to agree with you, because I love

working one on one. With people and and that's when I shine. I

believe, and I love that, and I'm not trying to scale in this

time of my life. So you know, if I can stay connected to the

people that I'm working with, it's funny, yesterday I was

working with a client, and it was our last session on LinkedIn

session together, and he has gone from corporate to

consulting on his own. He's sort of in transition, and he's got a

lot of people that he knows and trusts in his business, because

he's been in it for a long time, in the industry, commercial real

estate, actually, and he said something about he he had talked

to, he talked to, I think, someone he was asking to do a

recommendation for him on LinkedIn. And because I was

encouraging him to get recommendations to it's the only

social proof on LinkedIn right now. And because he has a lot of

people that know and respect him in the industry, it would be

good to have something on there. He said, Oh, that's no, no

problem. So he's talking to this guy, and so he's sharing with me

yesterday, because he's very, I guess, introverted in that he

doesn't want to put too much of himself out there. He's not

really interested in doing a lot of content. I said, Well, you've

got to be visible somehow. But anyway, we had this

conversation, and he said that this person that he was asking

made some comment about his view on, on doing your LinkedIn

profile, your about section, and something about, you know, it's

really got to be about your what your customers want, and what's

in it for me, and he's giving him this lecture When he's

already had me work with him on it, and has a new one. So my

client said, well, take a look at the one that I just that I've

just finished. And he said, Hey, that's really good. So he wanted

that, you know, that, what's the word? You know? He wanted that

pat on the back that he'd done the right thing, and yet he was

kind enough to let me know that that had happened, which was

really kind and and I appreciated, but it was just

that people are always looking for, what's the word I'm looking

for? They're looking for, like people that agree with them

they're looking for. Oh, okay, yeah, I know, sorry, and that

they've done the right thing. Well, maybe that would help if

he decides to refer someone to me, I'm not going to ask him,

but I'm going to stay connected with him and so be top of mind

with him, so that maybe you know, more people, because

you'll be more proud of what we've done together. So, yeah,

yeah. And, you

Stacey Brown Randall: know, I think that that's a, I think

that that validation, right? I think that's yeah. I don't know

what come to me either, but I knew exactly what you're trying

to say, yeah. But I think that that validation, particularly,

like, you know, he's newer, right? Starting a business, he

may be super well versed in the subject matter expertise. And

most of the people I work with are expert based business

owners, right? Like, and I always tell them that I have

worked with a lot of folks who've got a nice alphabet soup

after their name, right? They are true expert based business

owners. And they're like, I am a great attorney, and I decided to

start my own firm. I am a great finance or financial advisor,

and I wanted to go out on my own. Or I am a great interior

designer and I wanted to go out on my own, or I'm this amazing

change management consultant, and I worked at this, the big

consulting firm, and now I want to go out on my own right, and

then they have to figure out how to be a business owner, yeah, on

top of their great, amazing expertise. And so, yeah, I do

think there's sometimes when that can be very overwhelming.

We find ourselves in a place where we're like, you know,

we're talking to folks, we're getting advice or whatever, and

we kind of want to be like, I'm already doing that. I already

got that. Like, we just want to, like, prove ourselves. Like, why

grab that box check? Like, I hired a consultant to make sure

I had that piece right? Like, yeah, I think that that is

always because, let's be honest, as a business owner, right? I

mean, I've been in business almost 13 years. There is still

so many people trying to vie for my attention, to try to help me

with my business, to sell me something, right? And it's no

different than what I do. It's no different than what you do,

right? You're out there to help people with their LinkedIn

profiles. I'm here to help people generate more referrals,

and there are a multitude of people like us or compliment

what we do, or in our exact space, or in other spaces, and

it gets really noisy for business owners to figure out,

who am I going to listen to, what am I going to focus on? And

that's why I always tell clients, I'm like, you can't

solve all your business problems in a year, but you could

probably solve three or four of them. So like, do you even know

what the three or four that you need to solve this year? And

then find the experts you decide you to listen to and in that

particular area, and go one by one, and then decide if you're

going to hire, who you're going to hire from those that you've

narrowed it down to, but if not, you'll just be ping pong and all

over the place looking for folks that can. You know, give you

advice, because there's tons of those folks out there willing to

give advice.

That's for sure, daily in my inbox. All you know,

as soon as I went and I thought I told you this, but I forgive

me if I didn't that, I'm now on YouTube as well. And as soon as

I put my podcast on YouTube, a zillion people telling me how to

do it better.

Stacey Brown Randall: Oh, and they're getting like, this is

the I see this a lot. So we're really, we really leaned into

YouTube last year. I finally conceded to my assistant, Kathy,

who was like, You have got to turn your podcast into a video

podcast. And I'm like, fine. So finally did it last year. So

we've been all on YouTube too. And like in the beginning when

those folks would reach out, like, hey, let's improve your

YouTube channel. Now they're just mean, yeah, they're like,

here's the 14 things you're doing poorly and you need to fix

it. And I'm like, everything's fine right now for what I want

it to be. And like, and a part of me is like, like, I would

ever use somebody who's just mean,

there's all the things you're doing wrong. Yeah,

I know. I've had, I've had so many of those lately. Anyway,

alright, if someone wants to start becoming more referable

without overhauling their entire business, where is one

meaningful place to begin?

Stacey Brown Randall: Okay, so this is a great exercise. It's

going to take a little bit of space. This is not something you

can just knock out on your morning walk or knock out, and

like a 30 minute session, you may need an hour. So just, it's

a great exercise that you can do, though, and that is just

from start to finish. Imagine a new client said yes to you, and

you're going to write down, okay, a client just said yes to

me, what's the very next thing that happens? And then you're

just going to ask your question yourself, what's the next thing

and the next one. And then this is going to help you create your

entire client experience start to finish. So you're mapping out

your entire client experience start to finish, from the things

you do, from the minute they say yes, till they're done working

with you. And if you do anything in the alumni stage, anything

that you're also connecting with your clients on in the alumni

stage, you're going to map it all out, right? Then you're

going to look at everything you wrote down and everything that

is delivering work, like the main purpose of it is to deliver

work. You're going to put a W by it, and then you're going to

look and you're like anything that is purely relationship

based, that client appreciation party, those holiday cards,

whatever it is like, those are the two I find that most that

some people have a majority of people have, then you're gonna

put an R by 'em, and what you're looking for is how many W's do I

have in relation to the number of r's that I have work being,

W's being work, touch points and R being relationship building

touch points. And some of them may be both, right? It may be

like we're ending the job with the client and we're providing a

gift. So it may be a W and an R, but you look at how many W's you

have versus how many R's you have, and as you look through

each stage in your business, new, active and alumni, and

depending on how long the active stages you want to make sure

you've got at least 20% of the touch points in any given stage

being relationship focused. Most folks map out their client

experience, then they assign their W's and their R's, and

they realize they send a welcome card at the beginning and a

holiday card every year and a thank you card at the end, and

that's it. And they're like, oh,

barely at 1%

for the for the relationship, for the r's that I'm trying to

do,

but it's the best place just to see the gaps, yeah, that you

have, right and

just acknowledge like, I don't need, like, I'm not. This is

not, this is not a one to one for every work I do, I deliver

relationship that's creepy and weird. Don't do that. But you

know, like, I think about it from like, for every three or

four or five touch points that you're doing that's work

related. Is there anything that you're coming behind that from

that perspective, and doing that is relationship based as well,

but what you do based on which stage matters, and we have best

practices in the book. So like when you get to part two of the

book, we break down the new stage, the active stage and the

alumni stage. We talk about pitfalls to avoid the things

that matter most in that stage, and then some best practices,

like they're in the book. So people can go grab them from the

referable client experience, or just use them to jump start your

creative thinking in terms of what other relationship touch

points you could be doing.

That's fantastic, and that's a great reason for

people to go and purchase your book, which I'm guessing they

can buy on your website and on Amazon

Stacey Brown Randall: they get, not on my website, but wherever

books are sold, so which, whichever retail they have, a

local independent store, an indie store, if they have lay

like Barnes and Nobles over Amazon, it doesn't matter

wherever books are sold, you'll be able to purchase the book.

Yes, perfect. Um, alright, that's a wonderful last

question, really, to ask you, because it makes me want to go

and do that myself. So that's awesome. I'm going to reread the

part in the book and and get a fresh sheet of paper and my

fountain pen, and I'm just going to, yeah, anyway, it's

fantastic. Thank you again. Tracy Stacy, I did it again.

Amen. Good. Hey, DC. Stacey, with a knee too, and for being

my guest again, and I love to. Um, to share your work with my

clients, because it's such a good fit. I, in fact, I have a

couple of notes I had written down that my that your book

strongly aligns, aligns strongly with me and relationships rule,

because it is, it's with staying connected without an agenda

being remembered for how you make people feel, building

relationships that Outlast transactions and appreciation as

a strategy, not a tactic. So you don't need to force the

connection. It will happen organically if you lean into the

feeling side of a conversation. And I love that, because, as I

said earlier, it's my curiosity that makes that go further and

happen. So I always inspire for people to be more curious,

because that's what will make it build the relationship faster.

Because when you're asking questions, it's about them, it's

not about you, right?

Stacey Brown Randall: And I always tell folks, sometimes,

when they learn those things for me, and I'm like, we're going

backwards, they're like, Wow, we're going roll backwards. This

feels real slow. I'm like, yep, because that's a human on the

other end,

yeah, yeah. It's fantastic. Well, thank you so

much, and I hope that my my viewers and my listeners will

see the power in this conversation and as a reminder

that referrals are not transactions, they're moments of

trust, pride and connection, and I know that Tracy has given us a

thoughtful way to look at our relationships and our client

experience through a much more human lens. So Stacy, thank you.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom and for reminding us that

how we make people feel is always what they remember.

Stacey Brown Randall: Thank you for having me. Janice, I loved

being back.

You're very welcome. Thank.