Ep #393: Most Listened to Episode of 2025

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, and welcome to the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, a show that proves you can generate referrals without asking or manipulation. I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall.

I teach a science-backed methodology and framework that generates referrals without asking. This podcast and working with me is all about taking control of your referrals on your terms. Join me every week as we break it down.

Okay, as is tradition, each year at this time of year, at the end of the year, I play my most listened to episode from that year. And I typically play it as the final episode of the year.

But this episode is going live on December 23rd, if you’re listening to it on the day that it actually drops. So clearly not the final episode of the year.

But that’s because I have a surprise episode next week. So we moved the tradition up by a week. That’s okay. We’re keeping the tradition. We’re just changing a little bit about when we execute on it.

Now, at the time of me, like right now, standing in my office and recording this introduction, what I’m recording, the words I’m saying right this second, right?

At the time of me recording this introduction, I have no idea what the most listened to episode of 2025 is. So when it is released, I’m going to be surprised right alongside you.

And let me just say this, if by chance, the episode that is most listened to from this year is from the very beginning of the year, like the first couple of months of the year, before we move to a video podcast, well, just FYI, if you typically watch this on YouTube, there’ll be nothing really to see, because there won’t be a video of the most listened to episode if it happened at the beginning of the year.

Now, if the most listened to episode happened after we moved to a video format, well, a video and audio format. Clearly, some of you still listen to this podcast while you’re listening to me in your earbuds.

Others of you are watching this video on YouTube. So just keep that in mind, okay? If the most listened to episode happened to be released at the beginning of January, there is not gonna be a video, there’ll be nothing really to look at on YouTube.

You can still go listen to this episode on YouTube, but it’ll just be, you know, like a boring picture of me playing the entire time while you listen to my voice. And we’ll have some captions going too.

But of course, this episode is one of the episodes most listened to after we started the video podcast, well, we’ll just play that one. So, who knows? Who knows what it’ll be? We’re gonna all hear it together. I’m very, very excited.

So let’s get to it, all right? Let’s do a little drum roll, please. Here we go with the most listened to episode of 2025. Let’s do it again.

Stacey Brown Randall: Every year, without fail, there are a few tips I teach my clients to do specifically because it’s the beginning of the year. There is something magical about January, specifically if you have things that work best when done at the beginning of the year.

So these tactics or tips that I teach always help us kick off a strong start on cultivating referrals. That doesn’t mean it’ll kick off an avalanche of referrals headed your way. I mean, it could, but that’s not what I’m saying.

What I’m saying is it’s gonna help you kick off a strong start and focus on cultivating referrals and give you the opportunity to start planting those very important referral seeds right now at the beginning of the year.

So if you’re hearing this in January, get started. If you happen to be listening to this episode and it is later in the year, that’s okay. You can make some modifications to it and do it anyway.

There’s one of these tips, and I’ll talk about which one that is, that I actually tell my clients, you can do this one multiple times throughout the year. But it always has a certain I don’t know, like it always has a certain ability to have a longer leverage or a longer lifespan, I would say, when you do it at the beginning of the year.

So there are four things on this list. As I go over this list, I want you to notice which ones maybe you already do and you already have in place, which kudos to you. Let’s do a little happy dance.

And then of course, I want you making a list of the ones that you need to do because maybe you’re not doing them or quite possibly, you’ve never thought about doing them. Well, that’s okay. That changes now because now you’ll know.

Alright, let’s talk about these. Number one. Number one is to reach back out to all referred prospects from last year who didn’t become a client and reference who referred them to you. So this means anybody that was referred to you.

Now this only works with prospects that were referred to you, not ones that came in maybe because they heard you present, or they heard you on a podcast or maybe they were part of your SEO and they happened to fill out a form on your website.

It’s not for cold leads that maybe you did cold outreach to, you did a cold call or a cold email. This only works for those prospects that were referred to you, okay?

So, you’re gonna reach out to those referred prospects from last year. The ones who, of course, they didn’t say yes, because had they said yes, they would’ve already be a client, right? And they didn’t say a flat out, no, I’m going in a different direction.

These are the prospects that were referred to you that you don’t know what decision they made. They either said, no, not yet, or talk to me later, or nothing. Maybe they ghosted you, or maybe they were just like, they went silent.

So you don’t know the decision they made. You don’t know if they made the decision to solve their problem. You don’t know if they decided their problem was no longer a problem.

You don’t know if they went with a competitor. You don’t know what happened. And in that case, this is who you wanna follow up with. So hopefully you’ve got a list of who these referred prospects are.

I mean, one of the foundational things that I teach, and it’s even in my Your Next Five Referrals starter course, is you need to be tracking this stuff. You need to be tracking every referral received.

And you need to start a new tab in that Excel tracker. If you’re not using a CRM, some type of software, you need to start a new tab at the beginning of every year. So open up a new tab for 2025 and start tracking any time you get a prospect.

But definitely make sure you’re tracking the ones that are referred to you and who referred them to you. OK, that’s like basics. You can do this. Alright. So if you’re tracking, then you have this list. If not, you’re going to have to go compile this list.

But you wanna reach back out to all the referred prospects from last year who didn’t become a client. That’s who we’re reaching out to. And you’re gonna see, hey, is it time?

They didn’t make a decision last year, maybe they’ll make one this year. And just make sure you reference who referred them to you as well.

Okay, number two. And okay, let me just go back and say quickly, for number one, that can absolutely be done in an email. I know that’s a question I’m gonna get, so let me go ahead and answer it for you. So yes, reaching back out to your referred prospects, you can certainly do that in an email.

Alright, let’s move on to number two. The second one I want you to do is I want you to send a New Year card to all of those new connections you made last year that you identified could be a good new referral source.

So if you work with me, this is known as your Running Five, Keeping Warm. And it’s taught within one of my foundational strategies called Referring Machines.

It’s the process and I would really say the system behind how we take someone who’s never referred you and move them through a process to cultivate a better relationship with them and to have them thinking about referring you where that’s not what they’re actually feeling like you’re doing, right?

And so this is a very specific process that I teach about how we cultivate someone who’s never referred you to actually refer you without you telling them to do it. Because, you know, I am completely against you asking people or telling people that they should refer to you. That’s really bad.

So if you are following some type of process where you are meeting with new people, or maybe you’re reconnecting with people you just haven’t seen in six months or a year or four years, and you identify them as like, wow, this person actually probably has potential to refer me.

First of all, I hope there’s a process that you follow that you’re staying in front of them, right? You’re staying in touch with them throughout the year.

You can’t just go to coffee with somebody once or virtual or in person or whatever, meet up with them at a networking event or an event and think like that’s all it’s going to take for them to start referring you. So let’s like we all know that’s not how it works.

So what I want you to do is if you have a list of folks that you did meet with last year, whether you went to coffee with them and never talked to them again, or hopefully better, that you actually did something to continue to cultivate and nurture that new relationship or that reconnecting of a relationship and you did something throughout the year.

It’s a great time now to reestablish that connection as well. And a great way to do that is to send out a New Year card because it’s the new year. That’s why we’re doing a New Year card, right? It’s to send out a New Year card to all the connections that you made last year, that you’re like, hey, these folks have good, strong potential to start referring me.

Now, you can’t just send out a New Year card and think that, of course, is gonna unleash a whole bunch of referrals from that person, but it is a step in your system. It is a step in the process.

But please, for the love of pizza, do not reference in that note you’re sending them that they should be referring you. Don’t do that. That’s bad. Like, so bad. Just please don’t. You’re above that. We’re all above that. So don’t do that.

Okay, so that’s the second thing. You’re gonna send out a New Year card to all the new connections you made last year. Of course, you don’t have to send it to every single person you connected with. Some people you probably met with and you’re like, they’re awesome, they’re amazing, but they probably can’t refer me.

This is for people we’ve identified can refer. That’s the people we wanna make sure we’re staying connected with. Now, you need more. I just, I’m sorry, I gotta say this again. You need more than one card sent in January for them to actually start referring you, but it is a great place to start.

Okay, number three, finalize your outreach plan to your existing referral sources. And existing referral sources are those who have referred you before. You’re gonna finalize your outreach plan to those folks.

Now your aim is five to seven touch points within 2025, so within one calendar year, 12 months. And please keep in mind, your cadence of when you do these five, six, or seven touch points throughout the next 12 months. Your cadence of when you’re doing them matters as much as what you do and what you say.

So you can’t be like, okay, I’ve got motivation and I’m going to do referrals differently this year. And I’m going to take what I’ve learned from Stacey by reading her book or listening to the podcast. And I’m going to create a plan, and you go out, you come out strong out of the gate.

You’re like, woo, we do something in January. Then we do something in February. Then we do something in March. And then maybe you’re like, wait, is it working? I don’t know. Maybe I should stop doing it. That’s the first thing you’ll think.

Or maybe it will work for you, and you’ll get some referrals and then you’ll get busy. And then you’ll be like, I’m too busy now in April to do the next touchpoint.

A couple of things happen here. Number one, the cadence matters, yes, to you and your ability to keep it going. Because if you had to do everything the first five months of the year, you would become overwhelmed. We all would.

So on some level, it matters that the cadence allows you to make this manageable. But that is not the most important piece of this. The most important piece of this is the experience that your existing referral sources feel when they’re receiving these touch points.

And an experience, well, it unfolds. And so you need this touchpoint plan of these five, six, or seven touchpoints, whatever it is for you, you need these to unfold over the course of a year.

Here’s a tip. Knowing now what your five or six or seven touchpoints are going to be throughout January through December of 2025, will make your life so much easier. You’ll be more likely to do it and have consistency with your actions so that the cadence can work for you.

Now, you’re gonna have to figure out what it is that you’re gonna do, and that’s gonna be important. And of course, what you’re gonna say throughout those touch points too, all that’s really important.

But please just remember what I’m asking you to do with this tactic number three is just finalize that outreach plan. Like what are you doing? What are the things you’re gonna do? Sit down and make a list.

This is what I’m doing this month, and then I’m gonna do this a month or two later, and then I’m gonna do this, and then I’m, right? That’s what I’m talking about. What is it that you’re gonna do, right?

Okay, so you’ve got those first three tactics. Let’s move into the fourth one.

Number four. Determine your referral goals for the year. I recommend tracking at least two things as a goal, and then that’s the metric you track throughout the year. But I recommend two goals.

Number one, the number of referrals you want to receive this year. And number two, the number of new referral sources, new people, you want to start referring to you.

So two goals, the number of referrals you want to receive, and of course, the number of new referral sources, new people you want to start referring you. Those are two key goals my clients track every year. We have a spreadsheet.

In January, they all got brand new spreadsheets. They start tracking this stuff. They have their 2025 dashboard. It is in a spreadsheet, if you’re wondering, yes. And they have it, and they have their goals that they’ve also set for 2025. All that’s really important. That is if they’re in their first year with me or they’re in their eighth year with me.

We do this religiously every single year because it matters. And if we’re tracking it, we can see it working, and then we will keep it going. And that is most important to me, is that it’s working, and then that helps you keep it going so you can keep having success.

Here’s the thing, this list is a great place to get started. Of course, it’s not everything you could be doing, and it’s not everything you would be doing if you were a client of mine, but it is a great place for you to get started and turn your focus to a strong start with referrals.

Now, I do wanna dig in a little bit more to each of them, because there’s a couple of things I wanna bring to your attention. Particularly if you’ve never set referral goals, I wanna walk through the math really fast on that too. Okay, so stick with me, here we go.

For the first three tasks or tactics, that language you use in your outreach to the referred prospects, in your card to those potential referral sources you connected with last year, and within the touch points you do for your existing referral sources throughout the year, your language is really important.

We call that referral seeds or planting referral seeds, knowing how to do it and when to do it and when not to do it. It’s really important. So you need to spend some time on it to get it right. Think through the messaging and the language you would use in each of those moments.

Again, outreach to the referred prospect, in the new year card to the potential referral source that you connected with last year, and within those five to seven touch points you’re gonna do for your existing referral sources throughout the year. The language is important, so spend some time with it to get it right.

Now, if you want my help, you can consider joining me for the in-person workshop I’m hosting in February called the Referral Accelerator.

Okay. We’ve talked about the first three tactics. We’ve talked about why they’re important and what you need to do. And we’ve talked about tactic number four, which is setting referral goals.

But if you’ve never done it, I just want to quickly walk you through the math behind it so you can understand, like, we’re not just pulling numbers out of thin air here. Like, there’s a rationale to them, right? There’s a way that we do this.

So the best way to set referral goals for this year is based on your results from the last few years. Three years is ideal. But again, not all of you have been in business for three years.

And for some of you, tracking this is going to be hard because you haven’t been doing that very well. So you just work with what you have. But you want to find your average number of referrals over the last couple of years.

For example, let’s say you counted up your referrals, and here’s what you came up with. Last year in 2024, you got 18 referrals. In 2023, you got 20 referrals. And in 2022, you got 15 referrals.

Now, if you take those numbers, 18, 20, and 15, and you add them together, divide by three, your average referrals per year are 17.

Now, to set your 2025 referrals received goal, I want you to double that number, so double 17, and your goal would be 34 referrals this year. That is your new goal. Okay, so we take the 17 and we just simply double it. How does that sound?

What difference would that many referrals make in your business? Now, of course, I mean, your number may not be 34, but you totally get the point. Whatever your number is, your average is, just simply double it as a starting point.

Now, here’s the thing. You can’t just double your numbers to set a goal and do nothing different. As with all metrics, you need a plan in place to make the goal a reality.

So if 2025 is the year you finally take control of your referrals, then let’s do a happy dance. You’ve got four tactics you can start with right now. And if you do these, future you is already celebrating.

You’ve got this. And if you need my help, just remember, I’m here.

Stacey Brown Randall: Well, I hope you enjoyed listening to our most listened to episode of 2025.

I know I didn’t run it on the last episode of the year, but that’s because I have a special episode for you next week that I don’t want you to miss.

Now, as always, you can access the transcript of this episode and any links that are mentioned on our show notes page at StaceyBrownRandall.com/393.

Well, thank you for making it to the end of this episode. Until next week, take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.