Tariq was a very young, very successful Financial Advisor.  He made great money, had just bought his first house. But it wasn’t his heart’s desire. He decided to leave that career to pursue his dream and passion. He wanted to be an entrepreneur.  He wanted to go from employee to entrepreneur.

It is very powerful to actually take the action to go after what it is that you want in your business, in your life.  It is leaving the “known” for the “unknown”, leaving behind the “golden handcuffs” which offer security.

Tariq was driven to reinvent himself, to shift, to take a risk.  

He made his first YouTube video as a teen. It was about a minute long, He wanted to inspire people and motivate people, but it never happened.  He never did it. He never made that leap because of fear.  

A few years later, he still had this dream to become a YouTube personality;  but more importantly, to impact people, to be able to share his voice, his story, and encourage, motivate, and inspire others.

He created a couple of videos, but then got inconsistent.  He went nine months without posting a video on YouTube. In those nine months though, the videos he had posted started to take off. They started to get thousands of views and hundreds of comments.  And it sky-rocketed.

With the help of a mentor, and a lot of persistence and discipline, Tariq has built wild success on YouTube.

It's so hard to get through all the noise and all the messaging these days. The average person gets at least 3000 marketing messages a day;  it comes at us from a lot of different directions.  So how do you cut through all of that? 

The title of Bill’s newest book is Radical Relevance: Sharpen Your Marketing Message and Cut Through the Noise. It’s about getting people’s attention, in a very cluttered market. To attract the right people, you must have the right market, and attract the right market with the right message, to the right person at the right time.

To create a 100% referral-based or introductions-based business, there are the three main things to consider: Engagement, Leverage, Connection:

•    Create engagement early on in the relationship;
•    Use that leverage to ask for referrals; and
•    Get connected; ask for the referral.

One of the most important things is something Bill  calls a Value Discussion or a Value Check-in.  Check in often with clients or customers for genuine feedback.  What are we doing right?  What needs to change?  Resolve problems quickly.

The most valuable part or aspect of sales and marketing is the concept of empathy. We understand their situation. We have an appreciation for their situation.  We offer solutions.  We become the trusted go-to guy.

https://referralcoach.com/ 

https://referralcoach.com/radical-relevance/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/billcates/

Integrity and Ethics in the Workplace.  Usually given a cursory mention as part of an un-stimulating new job orientation process. It’s dry, and usually represented as a box to check when completed.  

Intentional integrity (a term coined by Mr Chesnut), is the idea that if you want to act with integrity, you need to be intentional about it.  It’s more than a 20-minute presentation or video, or a faded poster in the break room behind the restroom door.

True intentional integrity calls for transparency, honesty, “talking the talk and walking the walk”, and holds true for everyone in the organization.  Most importantly, it must be demonstrated by top leadership.  It requires 100% buy-in, and starts at the top.  

An organization or company that operates with intentional integrity is not only one that attracts plenty of satisfied employees, but attracts more customers.

Chris was just one of those guys born to be an entrepreneur.  As a young teen, growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, he knew there was something more for him.  He just had to find his niche.

He soon found some success in car sales, and selling older cars from his driveway was when he realized the true secret to sales.  

It was appreciation.  It was about customer respect and care.  Treating others as you would want to be treated.  

It paid off in so many exciting ways!  Not only was his business growing successfully, but Chris was earning a reputation for honesty and integrity.  If he couldn’t help a customer, he would find another reputable salesman who could.  He became known as The Connector in the community.  

The business grew.  It expanded into other ventures.  He was finally making the kind of money he needed to improve his and his mom’s lives.

Chris had a significant turning point in his life when he was approached by a church pastor to partner up to repair cars for single moms in the congregation.  He didn’t understand;  this church was caring for those less fortunate?  At no cost?  Kind of like he and his mom started out.

Again, another important Life Lesson learned!  He had found a way to impact so many in the congregation!  And it was in helping others that Chris was drawn to Jesus Christ!!

People need help today. People need help, even if it's just an encouraging word. So we need to do our part as God’s children to go out there and seek out those who need a hand up.  Opportunities are everywhere.

Born into a home of alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, and neglect, Bridgette and her two sisters were bounced around from house to house within the foster care system.  She was nine when she and her sisters fortunately were adopted into a loving home.

From a very young age, Bridgette had a passion for creativity and art, which her parents happily encouraged.  That led to college degrees in Art and Art History.  She sought out and worked in galleries and other creative venues, then realized her true calling was to own her own art gallery.

At age 26, Bridgette bought her first gallery in Philadelphia, which is still open today, 20 years later.  She describes how owning her own gallery helped push her out of her shy comfort zone, enabling her to speak confidently, connect, communicate, and build relationships with people.

Bridgette now lives in Florida with her husband and toddler son, making art, practicing gratitude and meditating.

Tonia describes her personal and professional coaching as an “inside-out” process.

It has to start on the inside, with your thoughts.  We all have had that one little random negative thought snowball into an entire day of negativity.  Tonia’s successful method of coaching is to consistently challenge those negative thoughts.

By encouraging, empowering and challenging her clients, Tonia helps them identify and reach their break-through.  By reaching that level, you can successfully create a business that aligns with who you are, and what your values are.

Key is finding the right people to support you, to have your back, to challenge you, and to empower you, so you can rise into leadership positions, and be number one in what you do.

In this episode of Referral Secrets Curtis interviews Ed Wallace, a leading expert on the power of business relationships, Ed speaks for companies and organizations around the world with a client list of Fortune 500 companies. Ed is the #1 bestselling author of The Relationship Engine and has written three other books on the power of relationship capital - Business Relationships That Last, Creating Relational Capital, and Fares to Friends.

When it comes to relationships and transforming contacts or acquaintances into relationships, this is the guy!  In this episode Ed outlines the five steps to relationship development, to create the most favorable experience for the customer.  Beginning with establishing common ground, to enjoying a peer business relationship, and finally acting as advisors to each other, you can learn to transform contacts into a high-performing relationships.

Business owners don’t generally think about client retention when times are good and they can lose a customer or two. But when the going gets tough, businesses that aren’t built on a solid foundation of client relationships are the first to topple down like a house of cards. The Newsletter Pro founder and CEO Shaun Buck couldn’t be more emphatic about this in his book, Stop Losing Customers! Joining Curtis Lewsey in this episode, Shaun explains the critical importance of retention to achieving success in the increasingly relationship-based economy. He also shares some practical tips on how you can use and reuse content to drive more leads into your funnel. Join in and relearn some of the most basic, but often overlooked aspects of marketing, which may not be the sexiest, but certainly the most foundational.

It is often said that change begins with yourself, and rightfully so. If you cannot trust what you can do, manage positive change, and achieve the fulfillment you are longing for, how can you inspire other people to do the same? To present the roadmap for this personal mission, Curtis Lewsey talks with Jonas Cain, the Creator and Owner of Hashtag Positivity. He dissects the three pillars of positivity, goes over the five levels of happiness, and answers seven questions for initiating change. Jonas also looks back on his life full of challenging moments, even a loss of a loved one, which pushed him to chase for bigger things and help others emulate his growth by launching online courses.

Even if you have the most enticing offers out there right now, you may still be unable to grow your business because of poor marketing strategies and processes. For most entrepreneurs, not knowing where to start hinders them from taking a huge step forward. Curtis Lewsey aims to solve this challenge once and for all by sitting down with business and life strategist Lisa Lieberman-Wang. She presents her comprehensive seven-point approach to help you run and actually achieve success in your business venture without having to sacrifice a lot of resources on your end. From starting to measure results and modeling success to delegating work, Lisa dissects the most important yet not fully utilized points of business management.