Get Same-Day Referrals From Your Top 10 Clients with Brian Ouellette: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire! brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Goal Digger. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we will be breaking down how to get same-day referrals from your top 10 clients. To draw these vibe bombs, I brought Brian Ouellette into EO Fire Studios. Brian went from stockbroker and market commentator on TV to apparel company founder, to coach of pro-athlete advisors, to SaaS founder, the paths exactly as it was Penn sophomore year in high school, or not.

0:37In today's information, we'll talk about how anybody can be a center of influence. We'll talk about the 80-20 rule, how to get 10 to 25 clients, how to be persistent about what you enjoy and passionate about what you are driven about, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Brian and our sponsors. Nudge, hosted by Phil Agnew, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Ever notice how the smallest changes can have the biggest impact? On Nudge, you learn simple evidence-backed tips to help you kick bad habits, get a raise, and grow a business.

1:09Oh, and it's the UK's Fast-Growing Business Podcast. A recent episode on how to win any argument shares decade-long research into persuasion from a world-leading neuroscientist. Listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Brian, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:52What's up, Fire Nation? What's up, John? I'm excited to be here. So just to kind of touch on this, about getting to success, you know, it's funny, there's a zillion different paths people take to become successful in whatever that definition of success is for somebody. A lot of times in business, we tie it, it's a monetary success. But then, you know, to me, it's doing, you know, what do you enjoy doing? There's a lot of ways to make money and to be successful, but what do you enjoy doing? So I think for me, it's lots of trial and error. I mean, I think you hear a lot of people will say it's lots of trial and error, but it's staying persistent and being driven by what's important to you and being driven by, you know, what you're passionate about as far as helping others.

2:38You know, I just saw recently a quote about, you know, a lot of times successful people get a negative, you know, people speak negative about successful people. oh, they're just worried about money, all this stuff. It's like, I've yet to find someone that's been successful in business and has not been driven by helping people in some way. And that's really what this is. You know, I've been, this is my third decade of business since college. And I've done a few different things, but I've found that everything kind of feeds in the next chapter is the way I've looked at it and getting you to where you are now.

3:14And that goal is ultimately you're trying to be successful in every chapter of the way, but you're also learning every step of the way. So they all, they work together. One can't exist without the other. So Fire Nation, as I mentioned in the introduction, we're talking about getting same day referrals from your top 10 clients without having to ask for them again. So let's start off with that topic. Let's start chatting about referrals. Are referrals even really that important? That's a great question. It's interesting. I look back at my, out of college, I became a financial advisor and I had the benefit in 95 of the market heating up.

3:53So as a young stockbroker at Payne Weber, I was probably getting referrals. Rising tide raises all boats. I was probably getting referrals I had no business getting, but everybody was feeling good. The market was heating up. And what I found oftentimes with that was referrals, it was a bit of a passive marketing campaign. And when I say that, what I mean is they happen and sometimes they literally happen from a phone call or being out to lunch or run into somebody and, hey, you got to talk to so-and-so or so-and-so needs this. And I would always sit back at some of these just quick referrals. I'd be like, wow, that's so easy.

4:30Why don't you just replicate that? And then months will go by, right? And there's no referrals. And then something happens again. And there was, for the most part, advisors and people overall, referrals, it's a passive marketing campaign. And when we look at your, who is your number one advocate over anybody, your number one center of influence over anybody, it's your clients, the people that can refer you, your top clients, we're mostly focused on. I'll talk about that a little bit later. And what can we do rather than doing the traditional, hey, you got any referrals for me, which is better than not asking, right?

5:04But most people, I always say the idea will show you how to get same-day referrals without feeling like a tool. And what I mean by that is it often puts you in an uncomfortable position. Oftentimes, clients. Clients don't necessarily like being asked for referrals, but they love giving them. It's a status client. People are going to refer people because it makes them look good. So how do you find that bridge in between? And that's what we've worked on. I've been 10 years in developing this, but that's what we're going to talk about, I think, here, John, in the next couple of minutes. And I love how you really break that down.

5:37And Fire Nation, I hope you can understand the power and the value of what Brian's talking about right now. And I want to move into COI. What does COI stand for? And who really is our hashtag COI? That's a great question. Thanks for touching on that because I think about COI quite a bit. But COI is center of influence. And oftentimes in business, we think of center of influence, at least my experience has been in working with thousands of advisors over the last decade. We think of them as if you're an attorney, it's your accountant. Or if you're a financial advisor, it's the realtor or whomever.

6:17And really, anybody can be a center of influence. What I've done the last 10 years, I've been coaching pro-athlete financial advisors for the most part. and attorneys and realtors, but for the most part, it's been financial advisors because that's my background. And sports agents are great center of influence relationships. I mean, they're fantastic. They're by job description, they're connected people, right? Not just to their athletes, but to other industries. So we've been developing that for the last 10 years and created a system around that. And it really struck me in the last, I always have said 18 months, now we're at about 24 months.

6:50It hit me that, wait a minute, even with sports agencies, Even with these advisors that had sports agent relationships or working with pro athletes already, you still have to develop the relationship more. Or if you're just beginning the relationship, start it. And I began to uncover that, wait a minute, somebody, these advisors, especially successful ones, they've got a built-in COI already. And it's better than any other COI out there. And it's their existing clients. When you vote with your money to work with somebody, there's nothing higher than that. People can say, you know, words can only go so far, but when people actually move money your way, they're investing in you as their advisor.

7:32And it hit me that everything we've been doing to develop these relationships with these key gatekeepers and sports agents can be applied to your current clients. And we're going to do a little better than that. We're going to focus solely on advisors top 10 to 25 clients. And that's why for this system we've developed, it really works for established advisors who've been in the business more than three to five years. And our focus is right on that. Focus on your top clients and putting a system in place that connects with your clients and allows them to share the people in their lives. I'm sure we'll get to this in a moment, John, but I think we'll talk about the amount of reach just one client has is quite dramatic.

8:16And I never looked at it until I began researching this the last 24 months. I never realized how much reach a single client has. And I try to share this at every opportunity. It can just be one conversation, one person, one even passing comment that can crack open so much for you, Fire Nation. I mean, somebody asked me earlier, you know, I'm thinking about going to podcast movement, but is it really going to be worth it to me? And I'm like, listen, you're going to be in a room with thousands of other like-minded people. but you're going to have conversations with fellow podcasters, with fellow entrepreneurs, with fellow people who are looking to make a stance and a splash in the business space.

8:54And what if just one conversation, just one interaction that you had changes everything? Because this happened to me multiple times before, so I know it's out there and I know it's possible. And Fire Nation, COI, Centers of Influence, think about what Brian broke down there. And I love, Brian, how you shared, words can only go so far. But when people vote with their money, it speaks volumes. Fire Nation, people need to speak with their money. They need to vote with their wallets, with real dollars and real cents. And Brian, I love the Pareto Principle, but can you expound upon why Vilfredo Pareto matters to us?

9:37You know, it's interesting. The 80-20 principle, you know, the Pareto Principle, it just, it appears everywhere. And especially business, you know, you're aware of it, John, people were aware of it. And you begin to realize how much influence the few can have. And this is why, you know, our business really shifted to focusing on the, you know, the 20 % of your top clients. You know, we want to take care of all of our clients, of course. But there's the 20%. I can make a bet in just about any industry that that top 20 % of someone's clients, their customers, are accounting for 80 % of the revenues, 80 % of the sales.

10:13And we really wanted to be that the thread that runs through this entire business is simplicity. And we really want simplicity in every regard because something we can have this great idea. But if we say, hey, take this great idea to every client, you know, every person, you know, all this stuff. People might be impressed by that at first. But then what happens in action? No action. Right. And with no action, it's hard. It's hard to create results. If we give people a simple plan like, listen, you're only going to focus on your top 10 to 25 clients. It's your top, you know, your 20 % that you deal with the most.

10:47That's the sweet spot. And that's what we want to focus on. And I'm not sure if we'll get to this, John, but, you know, one of the pieces that really struck me was, you know, through the benefit of family, friends, social media, Zuckerberg, LinkedIn, all those things, the average person right now is connected to around 600 people. And back to what you just said a few moments ago, John, about it's that one moment, right? One moment. That one connection. We talk about connections in a different way with our business. A lot of people think of connections as someone's Rolodex, their address book, and who they know.

11:27We look at it a little bit differently. We look about what's that one moment where you made a connection with somebody and a relationship again. And sometimes it's just passing someone in the street. Sometimes it's a friend just introducing someone. Oh, you met this person. Meet him on social media, meet him out and about, whatever. A funny story. My wife, we met at a coffee shop. I just walked in, was having coffee with my uncle, and she sneezed. I said, Gesundheit. And she said, thank you. What's that mean? And my uncle and I started laughing. from that moment on we've we've been together ever since you know and that was a connection now you can't really develop a business from looking you know looking around for people sneezing and saying gesundheit but that defines what a connection is something that simple created a connection where we could have a conversation and begin obviously the relationship and grow a family and that happens in business all the time when I look back at my successful advisors over the last 10 years.

12:25We have the system we use to develop the relationships and you follow that. But then relationships happen in all of the different ways. And that's when we talk about connections, we want to do, what can we increase, what can we do to increase the possibility of connections? And with those, the average person connected to over 600 people, I don't think I finished that thought back there, John. The average person's connected to over 600 people. Every one client has a massive reach. And if we want just the simplicity of connections, just making those connections, those 600 people matter. Because if you've got something, a service you provide, an answer to a question somebody has, if you can help in any way, we want to be able to be that conduit through your top clients and through those 600 people.

13:10You know, the numbers, it's pretty easy. Your top 10 clients would be, are connected over 6 ,000 people. Top 25 clients, over 15 ,000 people. Your reach is so large through your existing clients. The need to ever market outside of your existing clients, it really is not there. Fire Nation, the Pareto principle is real. It exists in every walk of life. So please do not underestimate it. And I love how you broke that down, Brian. And we're going to be talking about how valuable a single client can be when it comes to connecting with others. We're going to be talking about automating lead generation without ever asking for one again from a referral.

13:46and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship. More things added to your to-do list every day and less time to accomplish the things that matter most. Add to all that the number of tools it takes to run your coaching programs, online courses, growing team, and your physical product sales, and you've really got your hands full. Doing business has never felt harder. But what if there was a way to simplify everything, a way to manage your entire business with a single platform? Sounds like you'll need a miracle to make it happen, doesn't it?

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14:58Thought Leader is a speaker coaching company that has helped over 550 and counting coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts land TEDx talks. Thought Leader is not affiliated with TED or TEDx, but they're able to get these results because their founder, Taylor Conroy, is a four-time TEDx speaker himself and past EO Fire guest. You might be thinking a TEDx talk sounds great, but where do you start? Taylor has put together a free training that's going to teach you how to land a TEDx talk in as little as 90 days. Join Taylor to learn exactly what TEDx organizers are looking for in their speakers, how to write a talk that goes viral once it goes online, and more.

15:35Visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head out of your heart and out into the world where it belongs. That's thought-leader.com slash fire. A big reason why Kate and I moved to Puerto Rico back in 2016 was because we were ready for lifestyle freedom. We love to travel and we love new experiences. So we decided to shake things up. After living here for over eight years, it turns out Puerto Rico has introduced us to way more than we ever expected, including becoming hosts on Airbnb. That's right. After traveling off island for months at a time during the summer, we realized that we could Airbnb one of our homes while we're away.

16:19So when we travel to Maine and California in just a couple weeks, we'll be looking to share the beauty of Puerto Rico in one of our homes with travelers from near and far. So it turns out we had an Airbnb and we didn't even know it. Our own home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. So Brian, we're back. And I want to start with that thing that I teased right before the break. How valuable is one single client when it comes to connecting with others? Can you break that down for us? So we think about it, you know, just to review the reach each person has now, thanks to social media and just relationships people have is massive.

17:02If it's half that number, 300, 400 people, there's a massive reach. So what do we do then to be that conduit to where, you know, again, I'm never going to say don't ask for referrals and don't consistently ask for referrals. Because really, statistically, even though 90 % of clients, there's a financial advisor server that goes out every couple years. And the numbers are always consistent. And I'm pretty certain this falls across the board in most industries. 90 % of clients say they'll refer. 90 % don't. And the reason being is they never get asked. Only about 10 % of people consistently ask.

17:37So we know they're ready to do it. It's the how you ask. And so I always, you know, hand it to people. I'd rather have someone asking for referrals than not. But what if there's a better way to do this? And what if there's a way to do this to where it's just running for you on autopilot 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, where it's a place for your clients and the people in their lives to come to, to Q &A and Q &A with the expert who, you know, for the advisors, they're problem solvers, right? People have questions, which equal problems. Advisors provide solutions. That's what their job is there for.

18:12And the beautiful way when you do it in such a way where you present, provide a channel for people to communicate through, it's a safe place and known place to Q &A with the advisor. And maybe getting ahead of myself a little bit, John, but that's kind of the big picture we're getting to here is by providing an advisor, they're providing their clients a place to Q &A because that opens up a whole lot of opportunities we've found. And Fire Nation, what are you listening for, if not opportunities? And I'm pretty curious how you're going to take this, Brian, because, you know, as I was going to go over some of these questions, I was like, this is going to be an interesting one.

18:52Who most closely resembles our listeners, Fire Nation's top clients? Can you answer that generally for all of us? Yeah, I mean, that's another one. It's like I've got a crystal ball, but it's not that complicated. If you think about this for a moment, you know, a lot of advisors and people in business where you're trying to develop the new business, where's the new business going to get come from. And as I think Roland Frazier, which is someone you're probably familiar with, John, but I just saw this great quote from him recently, where he talks about people neglect to look at the value of their current clients, their current clients, the value, the value of a current client versus trying to get a new one is dramatically higher.

19:29It's a multiple hire. And what do we do to put something in place to where we can continue to develop our clients? We can go out and you can do you can do advertising, you could do presentations, seminars, whatever. But what if you already had a captive audience of people that resembled your top clients? Well, who's going to resemble your top clients the most? It's going to be the people in their lives. It's going to be their family. It's going to be their friends, the children, the families grow up together and spend time together, all those things. And so rather than trying to look and find people that replicate your best clients, work from within.

20:10And that's really kind of the secret here that we've discovered is we spend all this time trying to create new business where it's just sitting right in front of us. And an interesting thing with what's happened this last year, over a year with COVID, people have a lot of questions. People have a ton of questions we didn't have a year ago, a year and a half ago, right? It's created all these new questions that people have. And what are people talking about when families, we're doing less of it now because we're getting a little more freedom to be able to go out and about. But when families resume calling and phone calling and text and all this stuff, more so than ever because of the pandemic, questions are coming up.

20:47Questions are coming up about someone's financial plan, their real estate, their tax situations, their finances, their debt, estate plan, all those things. There's all these new questions that have come about. So we know current clients are primed right now and talking about this stuff. So if you're able to get in there and provide them a place, they always know. You know, interesting thing. Clients know they can always call you. Clients can always email you. They can send meetings. Yeah. That's a traditional way. That's always there. But what if there's a dedicated place to Q &A where clients know this is specifically designed to ask my questions?

21:28My advisor, they're busy. I don't want to bother them. But I got this place I can go and ask these questions. Oh, wait, I was just having a call with my best friend who just sold this company and is looking to invest or looking to buy some real estate or has tax questions, whatever. hey i'll send them here you can ask a question right here and it's a designated place to ask that question that all of a sudden opens up a whole new world and sometimes you know one of the things we found over the last 10 years i was guilty of this when i was in the business you send people to your company website or have them send an email and that's fine those are all ways of making connections but sometimes sending someone to your corporate website or even a more personalized website, sometimes it can be like having a first date and taking the date to meet your parents that first night, right?

22:14You got to kind of work your way to that. Sometimes it's too formal going to the website. It can feel a little stale, but if you've got a specific place that is designed for Q &A, that can open up a whole new world. And that's really the thread that runs through this business is providing that simple place to Q &A with the experts, the experts or the advisors and to do it in a way where clients feel open to share that, not just to use it for themselves, but to share it with people in their lives that have questions or needs that these advisors can help with. Does that kind of make sense? It makes sense.

22:46And I love how you broke that down. And Fire Nation, again, I'm really just hoping you understand the logic and the truth behind what Brian's sharing here, because that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to make your systems more efficient, make your business run better. We're trying to save you time because let's be honest, we all want more time, Fire Nation, and we all live quite full and busy lives. I mean, let's be honest, we've all built fullness and busyness in our lives. And the last thing we really need is more, quote unquote, work. So how, Brian, how can we automate lead generation of referrals without ever asking for one again?

23:27Two key ways. I'm going to show you one I'll talk about briefly. and we actually talk about this in our, we've got a main masterclass that's just running 24 seven. So that's where we run this through and run through the whole system about 35 minutes. But one is a free way and it's a way, a free way and it's a way you can do it right now. We get done with this podcast. If you have an email, everyone in business, you have an email. I'll talk about that, how you can just share it as a simple PS in your signature. And then the second way is using the software program that we've been developing. It's really the hardcore software development's been going on since September 12th.

24:02But the business, the idea itself has been developing over the last 10 years. And after, you know, you do something, you put 20 ,000 hours into something, you learn a few things. So I'll talk about those two things. The first one is we want to provide an open place for clients to Q &A. And there's something kind of magical about Q &A. People maybe forget this. But when someone has a question, something about, say it's about their 401k plan, they're not going to, if they have a list of five questions and they've got a place to go and ask an expert that question, they're not going to ask their fifth most important question.

24:39They're going to ask their number one most important question at that time. So instantly we filter out all the fluff of the back and forth and going back and forth. What do you really need all this stuff? We go directly to what the question is. And what we want to do is with this email, with your email, I'll talk about this a little bit more in the webinar, but I can give you the quick 411 on this. It's really simple. Provide a simple PS in your signature that moves people to ask those questions. And make sure it's open, not just for your clients. Because a lot of times clients, as much as they know you're their advisor and they're working with you, There's a gray area sometimes of, well, you know, my father's got this estate planning question, but you know what?

25:23He's already got his own advisor. I'm not going to send it to mine. And there's that gray area. And, John, you know, gray area in business is not a good thing. Gray area equals inaction. And we don't want inaction. We want action. So we want to move people to be open to ask those questions. So on your PS, it's going to include, do you have a question about blank? And that blank can be anything. about your 401k, if there's something in the news, something specific, feel free to just click here and ask me here. Or if you know somebody in your life, someone important to you in your life, feel free to have them ask me here too.