Dr. Jeremy Weisz is the Co-founder of Rise25 Media, a company that helps B2B business owners connect with their ideal prospects, referral partners, and strategic partners through a done-for-you podcast service. He has been involved in podcasting for 11 years and has also been running his own podcast, Inspired Insider, since 2011. He features top entrepreneurs and founders/CEOs of companies such as P90X, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, the Orlando Magic, and many more through video interviews on his podcast. Dr. Weisz also continues to run his own chiropractic and massage facility in downtown Chicago and has also founded a nutritional supplement business.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz is back on the Smart Business Revolution Podcast to talk to John Corcoran about the best strategies for getting more referrals for a business. They’ll be discussing the benefits of making and giving introductions, how to use a podcast to get more referrals, and the benefits of having a referral program.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- Dr. Jeremy Weisz’s obsession with blenders.
- Strategy #1 – Give referrals and make introductions without expecting anything in return.
- Jeremy and John talk about using double-opt in introductions and how they use TextExpander.
- Strategy #2 – Pay to support your biggest advocates and champions.
- Strategy #3 – Have a podcast and leverage the principle of reciprocity.
- Strategy #4 – Have a formal referral program.
- The thought leaders and networking experts Dr. Jeremy Weisz admires
Resources Mentioned:
- Rise25 Media
- Dr. Jeremy Weisz on LinkedIn
- AchieveNEXT
- Nick Araco on LinkedIn
- Dan Kuschell on LinkedIn
- Ian Garlic on LinkedIn
- John Ruhlin on LinkedIn
- Michael Roderick on LinkedIn
- Kevin Thompson on LinkedIn
- Kevin Thompson’s interview on the Smart Business Revolution Podcast
- Kevin Thompson’s interview on the Inspired Insider Podcast
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
- Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention by John Ruhlin
- TextExpander
Sponsor: Rise25
Today’s episode is sponsored by Rise25 Media, where our mission is to connect you with your best referral partners, clients, and strategic partners. We do this through our done for you business podcast solution and content marketing.
Along with my business partner Dr. Jeremy Weisz, we have over 18 years of experience with B2B podcasting, which is one of the best things you can do for your business and you personally.
If you do it right, a podcast is like a “Swiss Army Knife” – it is a tool that accomplishes many things at once. It can and will lead to great ROI, great clients, referrals, strategic partnerships, and more. It is networking and business development; and it is personal and professional development which doubles as content marketing.
A podcast is the highest and best use of your time and will save you time by connecting you to higher caliber people to uplevel your network.
To learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at [email protected].
To learn more, book a call with us here.
Check out Rise25 to learn more about our done-for-you lead generation and done-for-you podcast services.
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:14
Welcome to the revolution, the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we ask today’s most successful entrepreneurs to share the tools and strategies they use to build relationships and connections to grow their revenue. Now, your host for the revolution, John Corcoran.
John Corcoran 0:40
All right. Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. You know, you might know a little bit about me. I’m a recovering political hack and a recovering lawyer who spent many years working politics including as a speechwriter since working in the Clinton White House for California Governor and spent years practicing law in Silicon Valley, San Francisco Bay Area. And you know, in 2010, about 10 years ago, I discovered the medium of podcasting. And I’ve been doing it ever since. And it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done in the most time saving, because rarely do you ever get to do something that is so many things at once. It’s uploading your network. It’s business development, it’s referral marketing, it’s producing content. It’s all that kind of stuff. And over 10 years of hosting the show, I’ve had the privilege to talk with so many great CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, and all kinds of different companies. And today I’m also the co-founder of Rise25, where we help b2b businesses with the strategy and production they need to create a podcast that produces tremendous ROI and connects them with their ideal prospects, and referral partners.
And, you know, before we get started with today’s guest, Dr. Jeremy Weisz is back again this week, I’m going to give a big shout out to Nick Araco over at AchieveNEXT, which is a community for CHROs and CFOs. If you are a CHRO or if you’re a CFO, go check it out. They provide a unique combination of pure advisory networks, especially as human capital performance solutions to enhance leaders and their teams. So check them out, achievenext.com. And first, before we get into this episode, of course, I want to mention that this episode is brought to you by Rise25 Media, where we help b2b businesses to get clients referrals and strategic partnerships. With done few podcasts and content marketing. We specialize in helping b2b businesses with a high client lifetime value. So if you want to learn more about that, and get some inspiration and ideas about how to get clients referrals and some of the best friendships in your life through a podcast, go to rise25media.com You can also email us [email protected] And Jeremy before we launch into the topic today, which is, of course how to get more referrals, we’re going to talk about three to four different strategies for how you can get more referrals, I’m going to cover today’s obsession. Now this is a new feature on the show that Jeremy’s never
Jeremy Weisz 2:43
We should leave that for the end.
John Corcoran 2:45
Jeremy has a, he has different insane bizarre fixations or obsessions, I guess you might call it on different things. Today’s topic is blenders. We’re talking about it before the show. And Jeremy in case you don’t know him very health conscious guy. And we were just talking beforehand about how this is the wild and crazy life that he lives. One day he woke up and he had this crazy idea he was going to replace this blender So Jeremy, your obsession of the day blenders share it with us.
Jeremy Weisz 3:12
Yeah, I mean it relates to a bigger better topic which is health right and over 20 years ago I got a Vitamix which at the time when you bought a 500 $500 Blender you were deemed insane. This is before no you know Costco now has Vitamix is obviously but before anyone had heard of Vitamix was me a commercial Blender but that was like all the money I had, I guess winters is blender and anyway so now you spend all your money
Jeremy Weisz 3:41
I think I was watching a YouTube video where it was like a blend of anything . If anyone hasn’t seen those, please put a cell phone in the blender and pulverize it. I’m like I need a Blendtec. My Vitamix still works amazing after 20 years but I need a Blendtec so that’s the obsession
John Corcoran 3:59
well you did give me a Vitamix was a very kind of a couple years ago and I have to say it’s one of the best gifts I’ve gotten quite a long time it is amazing those things just can blend the crap out of anything but for
Jeremy Weisz 4:11
kids you need some you need a blue all the pulverize anything and like exactly all the things so
John Corcoran 4:19
yeah exactly but you’re such a wild and crazy guy just wake up some morning and just decide I’m going to replace my blender that’s his wild was that that’s pretty off the hook often suburbia there for you. We’re gonna talk about referrals, how to get more referrals. And we’ve got a couple of different strategies on how to get more referrals today quickly because everyone wants more referrals. But it’s hard right? It’s hard to just reach out to your clients and say can you refer me? Someone can do you any good clients and you know that you can send me to because no one wants to do that unless they know that that person needs to meet someone like you. They don’t want to introduce them because they know they’re putting them into possibly like a sales conversation right? So The question is, how do you get more referrals for your business?
Jeremy Weisz 5:06
So Jeremy, get started with strategy number one, the first one is, I love this one, which is very simple. And we always like to leave with giving, not asking, right. And so this one is, the best way to get referrals is to give referrals and make introductions without expecting anything in return. So, making introductions and giving referrals, so what I tell them is like, Listen, look at your network, look at the people who are big champions of you, who you just love what they do. And think of who in your network maybe should be introduced to those people for what they do. And make an introduction, maybe talk, I always do a double opt in introduction. And so to you, John, it’s all reach out and go, Hey, I really wanted to connect, you know, one of our, you know, good friends and, you know, amazing human being Dan Kuschell. So if I think Dan is like a marketing genius. Hey, like, have you talked to Dan before? Like, I think, I think he would create some breakthroughs for you. Here’s his bio, just chat with him. I’m not saying you, I’m not saying the person, you should use them as a service, but chat with them. You know, and same thing with Ian Garlic our friend, Ian Garlic, like someone you know, needs to uplevel their business by creating a video case story of their clients. Then I’m like, Listen, have you done this lately? You haven’t done this ever. You need to talk to just he’ll give you tips. And you know, those people are givers. We know they’re going to show up on the phone and provide a ton of value. And also not it’s not going to be like a salesy conversation, they’re gonna provide a ton of value. And the person’s gonna thank us for introducing us to Ian or Dan or whoever it is. So I would challenge someone to look at your network, see who you just love what they do. If there are two people you love with you, and you have introduced them, they should be talking to each other. And maybe they could be referring to each other? Who knows. So make introductions, make referrals.
John Corcoran 7:05
So follow up the question. I want to know from you, what you do in order to make that process more painless, because it is n’t , you know, the part of the reason people don’t do this can be really time consuming. Yeah. And then also caveat, do you always do double opt in or there always is where you don’t?
Jeremy Weisz 7:23
Well, I wouldn’t say oh, maybe 90% of the time double opt in. Okay, but I know people enough that they would say yes. So sometimes I won’t, okay, like, if it’s someone that I’m introducing to you, I’d be like, I know John’s gonna love this person. Like, I know you well enough that I will just make the introduction over to you. But so it depends how well you know the person but that’s a good point. Like, if you make 10 to 30 introductions every day, you’ll get that that’s like, could equate to three hours. And I don’t have stock in this company, by the way, nor do I get an affiliate commission from this company and you and I, you already know what I’m gonna say, but I’m one of the best purchases I’ve ever made in my life for business is TextExpander. What is that? It’s a whopping $4 a month, I’m gonna get 30 cents of affiliate commission No, no affiliate commission there text. expander is a desktop app, where you can load up in the cloud a response or a bio of someone. Like I have John Corcoran, you know, so I have a shortcode. That’s intro John Corcoran. And when I type that in anywhere, my computer and my email in Facebook and LinkedIn anywhere, a nice, written, pre written, formalized introduction that I’ve saved for you pops up. And so I could just say, John, meet John Corcoran, meet Ian Garlic. And then I already have, you know, I ns thing saved in there, it takes two seconds, by the way, just to save it in there. And then I say, Hey, you guys should chat. Boom, here’s John’s intro, boom, here’s ions intro, and I give you guys background on each other.
John Corcoran 9:01
And by the way, you can use it for other things, too. All kinds of different things across different programs. I’m a huge fan of it as well. You just type in a couple of letters that you’ve designated yourself and boom, and you know, could be 1000 words of text that get spit out. So that’s a
Jeremy Weisz 9:16
short break, I would mention, we should have text expander reach out to them. They should be a sponsor or a LinkedIn live.
John Corcoran 9:22
They should actually. So I will point out that when I do introductions, I’m the same way I’m a big believer in double opt-ins except if I know that, like for example, someone wants to be a guest on podcasts. And I’m introducing someone to be a guest on a podcast and I may just do it directly because I know they’re interested in being a guest on a podcast. Yeah, but I’ve been the recipient of introductions where it’s awkward. You’re not sure why these people are introducing you. That’s another reason to use to use text expander By the way, because I have a whole intro template built out where I explain include in that why I think they should connect with Which I think is critical and also asking them to set a time quickly, like in the next two to three weeks, because otherwise a lot of times people just don’t take action on these things. So
Jeremy Weisz 10:10
I know that I love the term superconductor. But Michael Roderick, I would consider a superconductor. And he is really a big proponent of making it specific, making sure people know why you’re introducing them, not like, Hey, I think you guys should know each other. But there’s an actual reason why. And giving those people as a reason. So when they do it also helps frame the call when those people get on the call. You’ve already helped frame the call. So it’s not an awkward call when they get on the call with each other. Like John, I think you’d be a good guest for Ian’s show. Yeah, go? Yeah,
John Corcoran 10:45
absolutely. All right. So that was point number one. Point number two, was that you should pay to support your biggest advocates and champions. What do you mean by that?
Jeremy Weisz 10:54
I mean, yeah. So if you have friends, and you think their services are awesome, I think we’re big. We’re big advocates and proponents of paying them, like actually hiring them and paying them like, if we work with Ian who’s a friend. Ian Garlic is a friend, like we want to pay him, we don’t expect it for free. And we want to pay him what he knows, it’s hard work. And he’s spending the time energy money. So we don’t expect it and we want to pay them. Right again, and just being like looking at you’re the biggest advocates in your universe, enjoying their programs, buying their stuff, hiring them for things if it only makes sense. Yeah, but um, you know, we are, we’re big advocates of that.
John Corcoran 11:41
So paying to support your biggest advocates and champions is point number two point number three, have a podcast, of course, how do you use the podcast to get more referrals?
Jeremy Weisz 11:51
Yeah, I mean, again, like it goes back into the whole premise, the whole thing about referrals is to give. And we’re looking at ways to give to our network. And one of the best ways to give to our network is to have a podcast because I can profile just like we’re doing here. We’re profiling, thought leadership or profiling, what they’re doing on our podcast. And then spreading it across you know, if you know, when you put out a podcast, it goes across 15 or more channels, you can put on your blog, it goes on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play now Amazon podcasts in. So you put across so many platforms, and you’re shooting them out to the universe, and it’s all about them. And so a podcast is a great way to give your network it’s a great way to uplevel your network and increase your network’s authority in the same sense, you are helping your own authority as well. And in positioning in the marketplace, right as there are so many benefits. I mean, you mentioned like the Swiss Army knife, there are a million benefits, but it comes down to giving to your network. When I asked someone to be on my show, that’s a give. And it’s a great way to profile them.
John Corcoran 13:02
And I always cite Dr. Robert Cialdini wrote the book influence one of his principles in there for achieving influences the principle of reciprocity when you give to others, naturally, our human nature is we want to return the favor for most people, not all, but for many people, they want to they want reciprocate. And so you’re leveraging that principle. So that’s number three. Number four, have a formal referral program where you pay referral commissions. Now, this is an interesting one. I’ve heard some different differences of opinion on that. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think that that’s still effective
Jeremy Weisz 13:35
in today’s day and age? I think yes, I think it just depends how you express it. Right? Because, you know, most people aren’t, I mean, at least in our network, they’re not referring because they’re expecting any money from it. They’re referring because they trust you, and they think you provide a good service. But, you know, we like to thank people with appreciation. But we also like to think, with money. And, you know, we also make referrals, just because we think it’s a fit. But you know, when people say, you know, thank you. This has resulted in business and they send us money for it, we totally appreciate it. And it’s not like we’re expecting it. So it’s not like a transactional thing. It’s, it’s still because it’s, we think it’s a fit, or, you know, that’s why people referring, but we like to, you know, we had a conversation other week, someone referred us a client, we pay a referral commission, because that way, we don’t have to spend it on Google and Facebook, I’d rather pay a sum one of our friends than Facebook. You know, and that’s what I tell them. Like, I’d rather pay you than Facebook. So just accept the money. And they go, Oh, I didn’t even realize I didn’t expect anything. I didn’t realize you even have a you know, or referral program or anything. So sometimes people don’t even know but they do appreciate The The, the gift in the market.
John Corcoran 15:03
Alright, so just to wrap up the four points number one, you should be giving referrals and making introductions using a tool like a text expander in order to speed it up so that you can make more introductions more quickly. Always use double opt in unless you know that there’s absolutely going to be a slam dunk between the two. Number two, pay to support your biggest advocates and champions join their groups or programs do their coaching hire them. Number three have a podcast, leverage the principle reciprocity and feature people in interviews. Number four, have a formal referral program where you pay referral commissions to your friends not because you think that that’s totally going to be the reason they make referrals but because you want to support them. All right, let me ask you last question, Jeremy. Who else out there in your network do you admire who does a great job with referrals or who is kind of a thought leader around this idea of building your network and generating referrals?
Jeremy Weisz 15:59
He has a couple of people that come to mind right off the bat John ruin is definitely one that is a thought leader in this space. His book gift ology I actually uninspired inside our podcast did a top giver series where I thought about who are the biggest givers in my network and got their thoughts and ideas around this. So John Ruhlin is definitely one of them. Michael Roderick, who we just mentioned, the other one Kevin Thompson is always looking to serve and give first. I’m trying to think of what about you?
John Corcoran 16:33
You haven’t, Compton was definitely one of my most influential interviews on my podcast, he talked about, you know, podcasts as personal development as professional development. I remember doing the interview with him probably about five, six years ago now. And it just opened my eyes to what was possible. Some of the ideas that Andy had, his song comes to mind. Yeah, he was on your giver series. Also, I think David Gonzales was on your givers series. I think you did, you have Alex neom. Also on your givers. Okay. Like,
Jeremy Weisz 17:06
if you are still listening, comment. I don’t know if you’re listening on LinkedIn or the podcast, but email us or comment or wherever you are. And who do you consider the biggest giver in your network? Maybe we should profile them?
John Corcoran 17:20
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I would love that recommendation. All right. So wrapping things up. Jeremy, where can people go to learn more about you and us and connect with us to learn more about these ideas, referrals?
Jeremy Weisz 17:32
Rise25media.com I think we have a cool bantering video, you’ll get our personality out and you can email us anytime the contact form on rise25.com. All right.
John Corcoran 17:45
Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.
Outro 17:47
Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com. And while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.