Ep #200: Celebrating 200 Episodes

Stacey Brown Randall: We made it. We hit 200 episodes with this podcast, the Roadmap to Grow Your Business, and we have something very special in store for you today. So let’s get to it.

You are not just another hustling salesperson. You are the expert, the
resource, the valuable partner for your clients, and how you grow your
business should reflect how your clients see you.

Welcome to the Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast. We generate
referrals without asking, build positive client experiences, and help
you take control of your business.

Here’s your charmingly sarcastic host, Stacey Brown Randall.

Stacey Brown Randall:          Hey there, and welcome to episode 200 of the Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast. I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall. Okay first, our shout-out. Little different this week, but I want to do a shout out to you, my loyal podcast listeners. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been listening from the very beginning, or you just recently discovered this podcast. I’m here showing up 200 weeks in a row because of you. Thank you for subscribing and following this podcast. Thank you to my binge listeners, who find the podcast and then start binging on previous episodes they’ve missed. And of course, thank you to my weekly ritual listeners, those that wait every Tuesday for the new episode to drop. I wouldn’t be here without you, so thank you so much.

                           It is, I’m just going to say it, a huge accomplishment to do something consistently for 200 weeks in a row. That’s a lot of years, that’s a lot of weeks, so thank you for all of your support. Thank you again for subscribing, for following the podcast, for listening every week. Thank you to those who leave those five star ratings and then write the awesome, amazing words in the reviews that you leave on your favorite podcast listening app. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing up, for listening, for consuming, and then for actually applying what I teach you. It is not an easy feat to make a podcast happen, so I just want to say thank you for making it so fun and so easy, and a no-brainer to continue in my business. Thank you, thank you.

                           Okay, let’s dive into our episode. When you hit a milestone like this, the big question is always how are you going to celebrate? 200 episodes, it’s a pretty big milestone. How am I going to celebrate? So I decided to first look back to say, “Well, I’ve hit some other milestones, right?” I mean, you don’t get to 200 episodes without hitting 50 and 100 and 150, so I looked back on some other milestones, and I thought to myself, “Well, what have I done in the past when I’ve hit a milestone, and can that help me figure out how I want to celebrate this milestone?”

                           So the first thing I did is I looked back at my very first episode, my very first episode, episode one, right? And I shared the seven ways that I overcame a business failure. I was sharing my tidbits, I was baring my soul a little bit about what it’s like to go through a business failure, and then how I overcame it when I started my second business. So I was definitely revealing and sharing on the personal stuff as well.

                           And then for episode 50, I actually had my nephew Danny on, and he was asking me questions submitted from you guys, my listeners, and that was all the way back in May 2019. He’s a teenager now, like a full-fledged teenager heading into high school this fall, so there’s no way he would agree to come back on. I have, of course, had my daughter McKenzie, my son, Jacob, and even my husband, Norm, on as well. I think any of those three would still come back on. But episode 50, I had my nephew on and he was asking me your questions. Then I looked back at episode 100, and I did a big giveaway for one person to join me inside the Growth by Referrals program, and then of course I shared some tips I had learned about podcasting. And then fast-forward to episode 150, I did a little bit more sharing and I gave a few more lessons learned from starting a podcast.

                           So I looked back to see, okay, this is how I kind of spent the episodes around these previous milestones, and it seems to me that it’s really in-line with the whole point of my podcast, which is giving, providing weekly information, little nuggets hopefully that you’re using that help you on your business journey, and of course, giving away other things as well. So it makes sense then that giving should really be the theme for this milestone episode too. I mean, how could it not? I think I should just stick with a good thing when you got a good thing going, so that’s what we’re going to do, so we’re going to do some giving.

                           I have got some great prizes and giveaways that I want to do and give to you. That’s right, only to the listeners of this podcast, because you’re only going to hear about it here on the podcast. Now, somebody may see a post in the future and be like, “What was that going on at episode 200? Let me get in on that,” and come back and listen to this, but they’re going to have to listen to this episode to be able to partake in these fun prizes and giveaways that I’m giving.

                           Okay, so let me walk you through some of the prizes or giveaways that I am going to be providing to our lucky winners, and then I’ll walk you through the three ways to participate, because I want to make this inclusive, I want it to be for people who can participate in a couple of different ways, or you can participate in all the ways, and then you’ll just be entered more times to win.

                           Okay, so here’s what I’m giving away. I am giving away, and I’ll be doing a couple of each of these, the first category is I am giving away a book bundle. I’m going to give away a couple of these book bundles, which include my favorite business books, all-time favorite business books. In full disclosure, there may maybe a sixth book that is included that is probably going to be mine, Generating Business Referrals Without Asking. It would be awesome if it could include a seventh book, and that would be the second book I’m working on, but hence the words “Working on,” I’m still working on it, it’s not ready. But I am going to be giving away my five favorite business books, but I’m not going to tell you what they are yet. Nope, nope, you got to enter to win first, and then of course, if you’re chosen as a winner, then you will learn what are Stacey’s five favorite business books.

                           Now, I’m going to guess some of you can figure out what maybe one or two of these are, so if you’ve got a guess, you know I want to hear from you, tell me what you think what my five favorite business books are, because there are some books that I talk about religiously because, well, they have meant the world to me in my business journey.

                           The second thing I’m going to be giving away is actually some one-on-one coaching sessions with me. That’s right, for 45 minutes, we’re going to dig into your business. Now, we’re not going to talk about the things that I’m not qualified to talk about, but we are going to dig into your business, and for 45 minutes, you’re going to have my uninterrupted, full-focused attention, where obviously you should probably be talking about business development, business growth, referrals, client experience, all the likes, right? But maybe you have questions for me about how I wrote my book, or maybe you’ve got questions for me about starting this podcast, or how I generate content and the things that I put out there in the world to support you, or what my small but mighty team looks like?

                           I don’t know what your questions would be, but I am going to give you 45 minutes to pick my brain and to have me get my eyeballs on your business, and we will give away a number of these coaching sessions as well. It’s funny, when I was telling my daughter one day that I was coming up on episode 200 and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, did I want to do an interview, or did I want to give away stuff? And I told her I had kind of landed on giving away some items and stuff, and she was like, “Well, like…” I think she had that thought of like, “What could you give that anybody would want?” Yeah, the heart and the mind of an 11-year-old, right?

                           So I was telling her some of my ideas for things that I was going to give away, and she told me, she was like, “Mom, you should give away 200 hours of coaching.” And I was like, “McKenzie, I will never be able to pick you up from school again because I will need every hour in the day to get through those 200 hours.” I was like, “Do you know how long it would take me to do that?” And she was like, “Yeah, actually, you know what, mom? I need you to be a little bit more present and available, and drive me places and take me to do things, so that’s probably not a good idea.” I was like, “I’m sure people out there would think it would be awesome, but I’m not quite sure that’s something I could do,” but I am going to give away some coaching sessions. They’ll be one-on-one with just me, we’ll do it over the phone or on Zoom, whichever you prefer, and they’ll be about 45 minutes each.

                           And I’m also going to give away some of my training programs. So I have got some great training programs that you actually may never have heard of. The truth is, sometimes they are bonuses when you join some of my other paid programs, like Building a Referrable Business, or Growth by Referrals, right? Or Referring Machines. Sometimes they’re bonuses, and sometimes they’re just these things that we put out to people who are on my email list, and so you may have heard about something that we have that we’ve rolled out that’s available. Sometimes we do eventually go into a full-on promotion of these programs, but sometimes you just don’t even know about them until you’re in my world, and then you realize, “Oh wow, look at all the different strategies Stacey teaches when it comes to referrals,” and some other topics.

                           So just to give you a taste, some of these training programs that we’re going to give away are going to be about referrals, and some of them are going to be about goals. So I’m excited for these training programs, to be able to get these into your hands for you guys to actually dissect them, go through them, and then execute, please implement on them as well.

                           Okay, so again, there are multiples of each of these three categories that we’re giving away, and I’ll be honest, I haven’t decided I’m only doing five of each, I’m only doing two of each, I really haven’t decided what the number is. I thought I would just kind of let you guys guide my enthusiasm and my excitement based on you participating in this giveaway. So if there’s a whole bunch of you that participate, I’ll give away more so that I can have more winners, and if there’s not a whole bunch of people who participate, well, then I’ll probably do a little bit less. So if you participate, if you enter to win, you’re actually increasing your chances of winning, because that probably means I’m going to be giving away more.

                           Again, what we are giving away, our prizes, my gifts to you, book bundles, my five favorite business books. I will personally purchase them for you and ship them off to you as well. My five favorite business books, we’re doing some book bundles, we’re doing some coaching sessions, and we’re giving away some of our training programs, maybe even some you’ve never heard of, because if you’re not inside some of my programs, you haven’t seen them before.

                           Okay, so that’s what we’re doing. How can you participate? How can you enter to win one of these fabulous gifts and prizes? Okay, option number one, leave a podcast rating and review. So I’m looking for the rating, like… I mean, let’s be honest, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was hoping you’re going to give me five stars, that’s kind of the goal, but you need to be honest, right? But I’m looking for the podcast rating, and then also the written review. Once you do it within your favorite podcast listening app, I want you to screenshot it, and then you’re going to email me your screenshot of that podcast rating and review, and then once you email it to me, you’ll be entered to win.

                           Of course, on the show notes page for this episode, I will make sure you have the information, like all the details of exactly how to do this, so you’ll have my email address and all that kind of stuff will be there on the show notes page so you know exactly how to send this to me. If you don’t email, if you’re not like… Don’t think about emailing it to me, you can also send it to me through direct message as well, and I’ll put which platforms you can direct message me through, like LinkedIn, and some of the other ones that I use, but I don’t use them all, so I don’t want you just private messaging me and then I don’t see it. That would be the worst thing ever for me, to know that somebody did it and then they weren’t entered to win because I didn’t see it. So on the show notes page for this episode, which is staceybrownrandall.com/200, 200 for episode 200, of course, “Stacey” has an E, I will include how to email me and where you can direct message me a screenshot of your podcast rating and review.

                           Now, if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re like, “Stacey, I gave you a rating and review like a year ago,” or “Three years ago,” thank you. Don’t worry, there’s two more ways that you can win, okay? So don’t worry. So if option one, you’re like, “I already did the rating and review,” like I see you, Jordan, I see you, Neil, I know, I love you guys. If you’ve already done the rating and review, then of course there’s more options coming, but that is option number one. Now again, you can do all of these, and that means you’ll be entered multiple times, but option number one is to leave a podcast rating and written review and then send me a screenshot of that as you’re posting it.

                           Okay, option number two. On LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, there is going to be a special episode 200 post promoting this episode. It’ll go out when this episode is live, which will be April 12th. There will be a post on each of those platforms about episode 200, and you need to do two things with that post. You need to like it, and then you need to comment on it. Now, what can you comment? Whatever you want that is appropriate. Let’s not be weird and mean, right? So whatever you want, right? You can say “Congratulations” to me, right? You can say something that you love about the episode. You can say maybe which prize you’re hoping that you win, just put it all in there, but you’ve got to like the post, and you’ve got to comment on the post, and we’re doing this on LinkedIn, Facebook, which will be my business Facebook page, and Instagram, so those three platforms.

                           So you don’t have to do all three of them, just whichever platform you’re on, right? Some of you guys hate Facebook, I totally understand. Some of you are all-in on Instagram, right? And some of you are all-in on LinkedIn, whatever. Some of you love Facebook, it doesn’t matter. One of those three, just whichever one you’re on, go find the post for episode 200, and then make sure you like it and you comment on it, and the comment needs to be something relevant, and obviously let’s keep it PC, people.

                           Okay, so you’re going to comment on that post, and again, you can do it on all three. You can go to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and comment and like all three of them, that’ll just enter you more times to win, but I’m trying to make it easy for you to go to the one where it’s easiest for you, for the platform that you’re currently on.

                           Okay, option three. I told you there’s three options, here’s the third one. The option three is jump into our Referrals Without Asking Facebook group. So if you’re not a member, you’re going to have to request to join, and you’re going to have to answer some questions and agree to the group rules before we’ll let you in, so don’t wait until the last minute on this, because this does have a deadline, and it does take us a little bit of time to accept you because we have to make sure you’re actually a real person and you are submitting the information that we request, so you got to answer the questions and agree to the group rules. But you’re going to jump into the Referrals Without Asking Facebook group, and you’re going to start your own post telling me what your favorite episode is.

                           So again, we are celebrating our 200th episode on the podcast, and in celebrating that, I want to give gifts and prizes to you, my listeners. You’re the only folks that are going to hear this and know about this giveaway. So what I want you to do then for your third option is to jump into the Referrals Without Asking Facebook group and start a post telling me what is your favorite episode. Now, I’m hoping you actually put a little bit of thought into this and you don’t just pick like 199, because that was the last episode. I hope you think about it.

                           This is maybe the first episode you listened to that you’re like, “Wow, I want to keep listening to this podcast,” or maybe it was one that really resonated with you, or you had a big aha moment, right? You were like, “Pull over, stop the car, this is gold, I’ve got to write this down, what Stacey just said in episode…” Whatever the episode is, right? I would love for you to tell me what your favorite podcast episode is, and I will see it, and then I will be able to enter you to win, okay?

                           So again, the three options, leave a podcast rating and review, and make sure to send me a screenshot of your rating and review as you are loading it. Number two, like and comment on the episode 200 post that will be posted on our LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram platforms. Like and comment. Option three, jump into our Referrals Without Asking Facebook group and start a post telling me which is your favorite episode of the podcast. Of all 200 episodes, which is your favorite? Start your own post and do that. That’s three ways to win, three ways to enter. You can do all three. There’s actually some multiple ways within those three, but I’m hoping you’ll pick just one and you’ll do just one.

                           So if you’ve always thought about leaving a rating and review, great, do that one, option one. Let’s get it done, send me a screenshot of it so that I know that you did it and I can enter you to win. If you’re already on social media all the time, well then, that’ll be easy for you just to jump on over to LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram and find the episode 200 post where we’re promoting this episode, make sure to like it and then leave an appropriate comment as well.

                           And if you’re in the Referrals Without Asking Facebook group and you’re active, yeah, I see you, I know, hey Eileen, I know when you guys are active in the group, and you’re posting and you’re asking questions, and you’re commenting on your welcome post, I see that, and I start remembering names, right? So if you’re already in the Referrals Without Asking Facebook group, get on in there, start your very own post. Don’t wait on our post, start your very own post, and tell me what your favorite podcast episode is so far, because obviously we’ve got hundreds of this more to go, but tell me what your favorite podcast episode is so far and why it is your favorite.

                           Okay, you have seven days-ish. You have today from the minute… Well, this podcast episode drops on April 12th, so you have from the moment this drops and you hear it on April 12th, or whenever you hear it in the future, through next Tuesday, April 19th, before episode 201 drops, and our podcast episodes are always scheduled to drop at 6:30 AM Eastern time. So you have from the minute you hear this episode, but starting at 6:30 on April 12th, today, through the next seven-ish days, giving you all the way until next Tuesday, April 19th, before we drop episode 201, okay?

                           Again, full details will be on the show notes page at staceybrownrandall.com/200, and I will link to the Facebook group and the LinkedIn profile and the business Facebook page and the Instagram, we’ll link to everything so you can easily find it if you’re not already following me or friends with me or connected to me, right? We’ll make it really easy, we’ll include the link to the Facebook group as well, and we’ll remind you about how you can enter. But you’ve only got seven days to do this, because once episode 201 drops, we’re going to cut off folks being able to enter, and then we’re going to take everybody who’s entered and we’re going to start giving away prizes. Okay, I cannot wait, it’s going to be so awesome.

                           So again, all the details are found in the show notes page, which is staceybrownrandall.com/200, 200 for episode 200, “Stacey” has an E. And then of course, coming up next week is episode 201, and we’re going to be discussing a very important business intersection. I hope you’ll join me. Until then, take control and grow your business. Bye for now.

Thanks for listening to the Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast. To
access all resources and links mentioned in today’s show, and to
connect with Stacey, head over to www.staceybrownrandall.com.