Hi everyone, this is Mike Garrison: Welcome to the 1st episode of the Why Should I Refer You Podcast. If you've known me before. you probably are expecting a pretty hardcore, direct video and recording and that will happen. But I really wanted to share with you why this podcast is so important to me, and why I'm doing it.

I've tried to do a podcast in the past and it it just never really resonated. This one's about the heart. One of my best friends is Larry Levine. He's the writer of Selling for the Heart; he said. I love him. Never met him, but every time we talk to each other, we tell each other we love each other. We'll meet sometime, if not here, someplace else.

But here's the deal. The most important word in Why Should I Refer You is the last one, and it's you. And that's really what this is about. It's really what my entire mission is when it comes to business by referral, not only by referral but by referral. It's about you. because at the end of the day, referrals aren't for everybody. Referrals are for people that are willing to be courageous, that are invested in other human beings, that believe that we can still achieve great success without compromising without technology.

And so that's what this podcast is about. It's about answering that most important question, the question that that really challenges us to look at ourselves 1st before we obligate other people to to help us. And so when you think about this, please understand that, like I'm a Christian, and the reason I'm a Christian is because of referrals, because I was exposed to a way of doing business that just valued humanity so much without a cross and without a whole bunch of other stuff without churches involved people, loving other people and and relying on them and believing in them, and then having tremendous business success without compromising values, and when you get down to it, the the book I published 2 years ago, Can I Borrow Your Car; Which is about, how do we use risk mitigation to enhance referral success. It's also about caring and loving people. Because that's what we're doing when we're referring. We're not just doing an e-commerce transaction. We're actually leveraging other relationships, and and how we do that for for what reasons is important.

But here's the other thing, and this is new, and and I'm kind of spitballing this a little bit, but if you stick around you'll learn that I do that a lot. This is kind of the secret to burnout when people do business by referral; when they are getting what they need and what they want through relationships with other people, and they enjoy that process; they're connected to their business in a really healthy way, because they've answered that question usually through time and and experience. They've answered that question of why should you refer them? And other people are telling that story for them, and and are are doing so because they trust them with something that's precious, that's unique, and that's another human being.

That's really what this podcast is about, yes, we're gonna get pretty direct. And so I'm gonna have people on here from all kinds of different walks of life and different belief systems, except they're all going to share one thing. They love people. They believe in people, and they believe that there's something not only beautiful but in incredibly effective in this referral game. Even in the world of AI and social media, referrals still are one of the best ways to get the clients that you really want.

And that's what we're going to do here. We're gonna ask questions directly. And I'm East Coast kind of guy, so every once in a while it's gonna be bombastic and confrontational. But we're also going to explore, you know, stories about referrals and and about things that didn't work and things that did. But the end of the day. This is what I want you to remember: you is the most important word in this podcast title. It's the most important thing in referrals. And it's really the most important thing in your life? How you do business? Most of the people that I work with are already very, very successful, and yet they're burnt out and they're tired. They know what to do, but they're not doing it. I imagine some of you may not be in that position yet. You're striving and looking to succeed. And you're trying to figure out, how can I get to that level of success?

I hope that this helps you understand that if you connect now your heart to your business, your heart to your life and business, that when you get to that level of success you won't be done. It'll just be beginning. I hope it excites you, and I hope you'll tune in for all these episodes with dear friends, some of them new, some of them old. And I hope that you will kind of join me in this journey with our hearts.