Ep. 088: How to Stop Relying Solely on Referrals

Referrals are really awesome, but it's hard to plan ahead in business and be intentional when you are at the whim of others. You need a marketing routine in your business that is sustainable for you and makes sense for your business and your goals. In this episode, I’ll share simple things you can do each week, month, and quarter to get fresh eyes on you and your business. Using these tips will easily take your business to the next level and out of the position of relying solely on referrals.

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  Welcome back to the it sister podcast. I recently asked in my group coaching program, rebellious success. I asked the members to help me choose the January episodes of this podcast. And this was the clear, clear, clear winner. I knew I wanted to start the year with my fresh, fresh approach to goal setting one, which was last week's.

  Um, but then this was definitely like, you know, people were like, I need to hear your thoughts on this. So I knew it had to be in the second week for sure. And this is something I hear, you know, thinking about referrals is something I hear from, I mean, gosh, everyone from people who are. Really, really, really, uh, struggling for any sort of consistent revenue all the way up to people who are literally making multiple six figures, but it's all coming from referrals or like a combo of referrals and, or doing consulting work for like companies, right?

  Like larger companies that have budgets for, uh, the type of consulting that they do. But they're not necessarily. Happy, uh, continuing to go down that path and they want to work with more individuals and they need strategies though, to find those individuals who will invest in them. Right. Because they don't have, they don't want to keep relying on these, these corporate budgets and then being boxed into these corporate, um, constraints.

  And it feels really hard though, to think about, okay, how do I get out of this cycle? Of B you know, waiting on referrals. Right? So referrals are obviously awesome, but it's super hard to plan ahead in business and be intentional when you are at the whim of others. Right? So in last week's episode about goal setting, I said that sometimes we want to focus on the end result.

  And sometimes we want to just focus on our actions that can hopefully help foster that end result. But since we have more control over our actions, then. What, you know, then over the actions of others or the inactions of others, it's better to just focus on what we, what we can do when it comes to the date, the day to day, the week to week in our business.

  So instead of worrying about, you know, all of the different marketing things that can be done out there to get more visibility on us, It's better to think about a simple marketing routine that is sustainable for you and make sense for your business and your goals, because there are so many ways that you can Mark it.

  There are so many ways that you can get more people learning about you. That is not just through referrals. Uh, but if, you know, if it's, if it's too much, you're never going to be able to keep up with it. Right. So people generally don't want to do. Marketing tasks in their business. Uh, they're generally not zone of genius activities.

  Even if we do marketing for a living, like I love helping people. If they're marketing plants, I absolutely love it. I super geek out over it. It's really fun for me, but that doesn't mean that I always, always, always love doing my own because. I am a lot like you, I would just like if I, if my, these could just purely be spent with zone of genius activities, like if I could just show up and I could teach sales and marketing and I could teach, offer design, and I could just teach all the things I know, and I love to talk about, and then if I could coach clients.

  That would be, that would be dreamy, but you know, we also have to, we have to do some stuff. Uh, even if we, even, if our businesses are to a place where we have a lot of things outsourced, we will still always in some ways, and in some seasons have to do a few things here and there that maybe are not, uh, like the dreamiest of dream things to do.

  But they are important to do because they enable us to do the work that we really love to do and to serve the clients that we really want to serve. So these are things that become a means to an end. And when you systematize them, when you make them routine and when you pick the right ones, it's actually easier to keep them up.

  And this doesn't mean that you. Like, we'll just stop taking referrals too. Right. Referrals are really, really, really great. But even for people who get super booked up on referrals, like I've definitely known a lot of people and you know, some friends and some clients who have zero problem getting booked up for some of the services that they offer.

  But the problem is, is that if they are trying to get there, you know, if they're still trying to grow their revenue, if they are trying to, uh, scale their business with a new, scalable, scalable offer. Well, once you have that, you still need to have some sort of marketing system. That is going to drive people to it.

  Right? So even for people who I have known who have amazingly strong referral-based businesses, there's generally going to be an element there somewhere of needing to figure out, uh, you know, repeatable marketing processes that can happen. To generate more ongoing leads all the time. So you're not leaving it up so much to chance.

  And before we dive into the strategy and the tips that I want to give you today is that I it's really important to acknowledge on this topic. Uh, the role that mindset plays in, you know, when it comes to marketing and when it comes to being more visible. So since the purpose of marketing is really just to get more visible by those who are most likely to hire you or to refer you to people who will hire you.

  Um, this can feel super, super, super vulnerable, and exposing and can bring up a lot of stuff for people. But if we can view our marketing systems as something that we do to keep our businesses thriving, that enable us to do the work we love, it's easier, easier to approach these tasks with a supportive mindset rather than a de-motivating one.

  So that is like the initial groundwork that we have to talk about here, because the fact of the matter is, is that. In modern online business, we sometimes have to do things that maybe we would rather not do. And I don't mean like rather not do, like they cross our moral or ethical boundaries, but you know, if you're like, Yeah, I would just love to never, ever, ever, ever live on social media ever have any accounts on social media ever show up there even for five minutes?

  I mean, there, there are some ways around it, but social media is, excuse me, is a tool that you can really. Leverage to your advantage. And it doesn't mean that you have to be all of the places, but it is kind of part and parcel, um, with modern business, especially if you don't have a kajillion referrals coming in.

  All the time. So there are some simple things that you can do each month, each week, each quarter, each year, whatever the cadence is for the task. That makes sense in order to continually get fresh eyes on you. And I will say, even if you're like, Oh, tell me that about social media, Erica. Like I just, I hate it.

  And I want to give up. I will say the flip side is you do not have to live on social media to be successful. You do not have to have a good Jillian followers. You do not have to be making reels. You do not have to show every aspect of your life on stories. You don't have to do that. So even for people who are like, if I have to plan out my grid, I will just completely lose my mind.

  You don't stress about it. Yeah. I'm not here to tell you they have to do that because honestly you don't have to do that. So here are some things think about that could be part of your marketing routine, right? Your marketing system. So emailing your list and getting people to it with helpful free content.

  So, uh, you know, with a freebie, an opt in, uh, Any sort of like free content that somebody would get in exchange for their name and email address. Those are things that you can put out there as a way to build your email list. And then I highly recommend regularly emailing them, even if it is once a month, still send them good, helpful info from you once a month and be super, super, super consistent.

  Uh, social media, the obvious, um, some things to keep in mind about social media is that you do not have to be in all of the places on all of the platforms, if you are like, you know what I like LinkedIn, because LinkedIn just feels way more. My speed. That is awesome. Stick to LinkedIn. If you're like, I fricking love tock, tick tock, and I'm all about it.

  Perfect. Hang out on Tik TOK E any of the channels that you're on are going to work. If they feel aligned to you and you have a strategy around sharing value and being authentic and. Targeting your ideal clients there and making real connections, like actually being social on social media. Uh, if you are doing that, it can work really, really well for you.

  And if showing up all the time annoys you then bachelor content. Right? So if you're like, I really don't want to have to think about being on Instastories every day. You don't have to actually be on Instastories every day. You can take a day a week and you can batch different things that you want to say that you want to talk about.

  You can film it all at once, save them into your phone and then upload them throughout the week. You can also schedule the posts on your grid. Like you can do all of that. And then you can just. Pop in for 15 minutes a day and engage with new people, um, reply to comments, reply to DMS, things like that. And you can also outsource when possible.

  So if you go back to last week's episode on goal-setting, maybe one of the things that you've set for yourself is, you know, if you hate social media, But you've already decided you're like, okay, well, LinkedIn is the place I'm going to be. And I still don't love being here, but I'm going to, what I'm going to do is I'm going to do 30 minutes in here.

  Three days a week. Like that is what I'm, I'm going to be very intentional and minimum of 30 minutes, like three days a week. That is totally fine. But then you're like, once I get to blah, blah, blah, whatever goal, then I am going to hire somebody who can do this for me. Right. That can be something. If that motivates you to reach that goal faster.

  Cause you want to get off LinkedIn faster, then by all means, do it. Uh, some other ways you can, um, or things that you can put into your marketing routine, um, trainings or teachings and places where your ideal client hangs out. So that could be either paid communities, freed communities, um, any organizations that your.

  Ideal client might belong to see if you can come in and do a training for that organization. You can be on other people's podcasts. You can be part of, um, different like digital events or in person events when they happen again. Um, you can, uh, guest on other people's social media platforms like doing them.

  An Instagram, uh, live together with somebody, or if you have anyone that, like, if you do an Instagram takeover of somebody's account for a day, you can do that. You can also do a guest blogging and you can, uh, another way to actually get people on your list is if you host your own free trainings that people have to sign up for, then that is another way to grow your list and also give a ton of value.

  Um, another way is networking. So look for local meetups and various, um, groups that make sense for you. Uh, obviously again, right now, most are not meeting in person. Um, but you know, if you have one, like let's say for your state or like, or the next closest city to where you are, or if there's one that's, you know, just for women or whatever it is, a lot of times.

  These groups now are still meeting. They're just doing, um, like virtual networking, right? You don't necessarily have to worry, you know, if it's like thousands of people and that feels overwhelming. Uh, don't say don't sweat it, but, you know, see if you can find something that makes sense for you and then do those.

  Um, and if you cannot find anything, you could also potentially start your own again. Right now, this can be. Easier than ever, uh, because everything is virtual. So you're not having to like rent space or, you know, go anywhere like reserve a room. Um, a friend of mine has actually been doing these like speed networking things where everyone pre fills out a Google sheet.

  And then everyone has two minutes to do their, their little like elevator speech and their pitch. Um, and I just did one with her a few weeks ago and I went through and then I made personal connections with everyone. After, uh, and same thing, like a smaller way, even if you're like, I dunno, like networking, it's still like, even with 20 people, it feels too much for me.

  Um, just try to do like coffee chats, virtual coffee chats, 20, 30 minutes. You can set them up on your call scheduler and create a booking link. And then as you come across different people who you feel like you might want to connect with, you can just send them the link and say, I would love to get to know you better on a virtual coffee chat.

  You can do that, that way, um, collaborations. So these would be like joint venture webinars or joint trainings. Um, again, that kind of is in that realm of the like training slash teachings that I already talked about, but generally they are. Um, very intentional at Sam's, especially with JV webinars. Usually there is a actual, like pitch for something paid and like an affiliate payout for either person.

  So you're, you're making money and growing your list and, uh, doing it both ways like with each, each person does it for the other person's list. Uh, so that is another way you can do it. You don't have to have it lead to a paid thing. It can just be purely a list builder, but those are really fun. Um, and then when I say joint trainings, what I mean is if you, like, I I've done this with, um, my friend Jessica of the social Localist.

  So before I moved from New York to Michigan, uh, she is a social media manager and she would work with a lot of local businesses and she knew, like, we, we both realized that our clientele, like my clientele. Um, had a lot of questions about using social media and her clients had a lot of questions about, okay, well, now that I'm on social media, like how do I get that to convert into sales?

  And so we did a really cool training a few Januaries ago. I was in-person and it was called get social to sell and we sold tickets and we split the money 50, 50. After we paid for the room that we reserved for it. And that was really, really fun. Well, now it's easier than ever, because again, everything is virtual.

  So all you would need is a zoom room and you could do it free. You could do it paid however you want, but that way you are. Um, if like we literally created the training, she and I created the training together. And it was super, super, super fun. And she put it out to her people. I put out to my people. And so in doing that, there were people who only knew her before, who then knew me and vice-versa.

  So that was really fun. So if you know of somebody who. Serves, like if you both serve the same type of clients, but you do different things, you could definitely create a joint training together. Uh, next step is SEO or Pinterest. So these are a bit more like. If you're thinking like long-term strategies.

  So doing search engine optimization on your blog posts or creating new blog posts or other forms of content, like, um, for YouTube or on Pinterest that are. That people will find organically through search because, um, Pinterest is the third largest search engine. And I know like YouTube is way up there as well.

  So basically what happens when somebody is searching for something and. Uh, in Google, it will also pull up the, um, it, it like crawls over, like the web crawler pulls the text from, um, YouTube videos and also from Pinterest pins. So if you utilize those, like, no, you might not get. Money coming in the very next day, but they are good long-term marketing strategies.

  And then lastly paid ads, which I will just say, if you were using paid ads and paid ads can definitely work. I have several clients. They work really, really well for either outsource this and know that it's going to be an investment or learn from a very, very, very good person. And then be prepared to invest in the ad money and some trial and error.

  Again, it can work. It definitely does work for a lot of people. I just, I know a lot of people's gut instinct is like, well, I'm just going to go right to ads because then it's going to get, you know, just a bunch of people on me and that's going to be great. And then, you know, it's going to solve all my problems, but it's.

  It, I promise you it doesn't, uh, so that, that is a viable strategy, but it's not one to necessarily just be entered into Willy nilly. And also, like, I know sometimes too, the ads can be tempting cause it feels like. Well, then it's just going out to like total, total strangers. And, uh, you know, I'm just going to be getting these like leads on demand or sales on demand or whatever it is.

  And maybe you even feel a little less vulnerable because it's not you actually having to like show up and, you know, do a video that you are like putting out live on whatever platform you're using. So it can, you can feel a bit more removed and a bit like safer that way. Uh, but it can also still, you know, it can be very costly and you need to like really keep an eye on it and make sure, uh, so yeah, just wanted to just wanted to put that out there as something to, to be mindful of.

  Um, and so in the lists that I just mentioned, some of those are things that you can do each week. And some make more sense to space out. So for instance, if you were doing JV webinars and podcasts, interviews and stuff, if you were doing that every week, that would get really like, unless you have tons and tons of other support in your business that is going to get really exhausting really, really quickly.

  Uh, and so what I would suggest is that, you know, social media. Is like the, the pace of social media moves very quickly. So that is one that you would probably be doing multiple days a week. Not that you have to live on there on those days, but being very mindful of like, okay, three to five days a week, I'm going to be checking in here.

  Or even if there's like two platforms that you like three times a week, you check in on one and two to three times a week. You check in on the other. Because that content is going to be moving through much more quickly. Now, if you're writing blog posts or something for SEO, maybe you do, you know, one a week or a few, uh, every month, because those are going to have a bit longer shelf life.

  Maybe you do a podcast a month, a JV webinar a month, a training a month or every six weeks. Right? Networking. Maybe you do that. You know, it's a once a month thing that you go to those events. Emailing your list. You could do that every week. You could do that every other week. So again, it's just, it's really looking at the strategies and kind of having a mix because if you are doing every single thing is like super, super, super long-term.

  It can take a while to get that going and you could feel really frustrated, waiting for results to come through. Okay. And conversely, if you are doing a lot of stuff that you have to be very, very, very present for every day, like tons of social media, that can also be exhausting too. So I suggest picking a mix of like three things, no more than five that you know, that you can create a system, a routine, a habit around because at the end of the day, what you really should be focusing on is.

  Uh, being very consistent and quality versus, you know, tons and tons of quantity. Because consistency in your efforts is going to give you consistency in your results. And when you are like a lot of times, what people tend to do is this like boom and bust cycles. So they will wait. Until, you know, maybe they have a bunch of clients that are ending their contract period, and there's not a lot of new leads and they're starting to freak out.

  And then they're like, Oh my gosh, I have to go out and be all the places and try to get new leads and get new clients. And it feels very chaotic. Right. So as opposed to doing that and as opposed to like, you know, a lot of people just, um, really like. The the going hard, like the hit it and quit it right when, when they need people and then feeling, um, that feels super like overwhelming and frantic.

  And it's a weird, like, desperate energy that none of us love to have as we are marketing. So instead of worrying about having to do that, it's better to just think about what you can consistently do and then do that. So, uh, you can, so like, let's just say. 2021. You're like, you know, what I haven't done yet is I want to start, um, guest writing on different platforms.

  So maybe that's medium or like mind, body green, or, um, seeing if you can contribute to Forbes or these like different platforms. And you're like, well, I don't, you know, I don't necessarily have a ton of time to just be like, Writing content for other platforms all the time. Like if I try to do that, you know, once a week on top of client work on top of all of the rest of it, like, I don't, I don't know if that's something that I can do.

  Okay. Well, how about start with like maybe once a quarter or maybe once a month, right. So instead of having to go from like zero to 60 and go from, I'm not writing anything, not even for my own blog to now, I'm trying to write an article a week. That might be a lot. So just start smaller. And let's say, even if you're like, no, I actually love writing and I would love to do an article a week and I have a million ideas and I'm gonna, you know, bust them out and it's super great.

  Uh, that's awesome. But also. Don't try to stack like a bunch of other brand new marketing efforts on top of it either. Right. So don't be like, I'm going to write an article a week for somebody else's audience and, Oh, I'm gonna start a tick-tock and figure out how to do that. Oh. And I'm gonna. You know, pitch to 10 podcasts a week and I'm going to start to do joint venture webinars.

  And like, because again, that is not something that we can stick to. It's like the January curse of people being like, okay, I'm going to do a whole 30 and I'm going to read a book a week and I'm going to get up at 5:30 AM. And I'm gonna go, um, you know, I'm gonna run four times a week. Like we try to do all of these things at once, rather than like, just gradually making them part of our routine and getting really acclimated to one before we add another one in.

  So that would be, that would be my like last chunk of advice. Uh, Is, as you were thinking about these marketing efforts, as you are thinking about, you know, where and how you can give really great value, um, where and how you can make really good connections and all of that, just bring in one new thing at a time until it becomes part of your routine.

  And then once it's part of your routine, then you can bring another one. In and so on and so forth. And again, you don't really need to have, like, it shouldn't be that you have, you know, every week you're doing 10 different things that you're having to juggle between. It could literally be that you set it up for yourself, that you either have one day a week where you are just doing like a content day.

  And you're just doing all the stuff that you're getting it set up and you're getting it scheduled and, and all of that. Or you can do. Like little bits at a time. So maybe on Monday you schedule your social posts and then maybe on Tuesday, you, you know, like write, uh, write an article or a blog post, and then like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you just really like check in on your connections.

  Mingle connect, whatever. Maybe each week you do like you save room for one or two coffee chats, and then once a month you hope to get on a podcast, right? That is perfectly, perfectly fine. Again, it's more important to be consistent then to work on volume and as you are doing it, as I mentioned in last week's episode, Track what you are doing.

  So, you know, what is working because when you know what is working, when you know where those non-referral new clients are coming from, you can double down on what is working. So if you have been doing. JV webinars and podcasts and Instagram and LinkedIn, let's say all four of those things, but you're like, it seems like my new clients, like when I look through where they're finding me, it's like all LinkedIn and it's all podcasts.

  Well, the good news is, is that it means that if you're like, I actually, haven't been loving being on Instagram. You can drop Instagram. And if you haven't been loving doing the JV webinars, you can drop the JV webinars. Cause you know, that LinkedIn and podcasts are actually getting you people. And so then in the next, you know, quarter or half of the year, whenever it is that you're looking at the data when you're planning your marketing stuff for that next period of time, then the time that you had allocated to Instagram and those JV webinars.

  Just spend more of your social media time, strictly on LinkedIn and more of your collaborative time, strictly doing podcasts. And then one last step further is as this is growing your revenue and you're getting more clients, you can actually start to look at. Outsourcing. So then it could be that you have somebody who is looking at potential podcast to pitch to, and maybe even pitching on your behalf, or you have somebody who is doing community engagement on your Instagram and thus getting you new organic connections.

  Or maybe you have somebody who is scheduling all your posts or you. They're like mapping out your content plan for you. Right? Those are things that you can then outsource. So that, again and again, you are getting closer to being in. That zone of genius, the, the stuff you really love, your high quality high value work that you absolutely adore and less and less time stressed about marketing.

  So you can actually make your marketing work for you instead of it just being this thing that you have to slog through week after week, that. Just feels terrible. So again, focus more on a strategy on a consistent, simple marketing strategy track what you are doing, track what is working and then tweak it to suit your needs rather than always having to wait on the next referral too.

  Come knocking on your internet door. Um, and also instead of spending a million hours every week, feeling like you should be all the places and doing all the things in order to get new clients, because the fact of the matter is. You don't, you just simply don't need to, you can have a small list, you can have a small social following and you can still have a thriving business where you get leads that come from more than just referrals.

  So I know this episode was a little bit longer, but I really wanted to make sure it was super high value. And I gave a lot of examples because there are just so many ways that you can market. So it's really about finding what works for you. And if you have any questions about any of this, or do you want to run any ideas past me?

  Then, if you are on Instagram, definitely follow me. Say hi, um, posts in your stories that you are listening to this episode and your thoughts on it. I met Erica Tobin's consulting over there. I love, love, love hearing from my listeners over there and meeting new people. And you can also find me at Eric dot com and shoot me an email there as well.

  All right. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope it helps you think about marketing in a different way. And I hope you know, that you absolutely can get tons and tons of amazing clients, uh, from your own very simple, consistent efforts. And as always happy selling.