10 Steps to Simplify Your Business Growth with Referral Partnerships with Chad Durfee

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover and then live your why. You see, we believe that knowing your why, that driving force behind every decision you make and every action you take, is the essential first step to really knowing yourself. It allows you to move forward faster and have a bigger impact. If you're already a fan of the show, then you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we introduce you to somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. This show will be more powerful for you if you've already discovered your why. If you still need to do that, head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now let's meet today's guest.

This week we're going to be talking about the why of right way to do things the right way in order to get results. So if you have this why, then you believe there's a proper and correct way to do things and that things should be done right. You see no point in skimping on details or cutting corners and believe that to achieve success you must follow procedures that have been proven. You also prefer to use systems that have been developed, tested and shown to work over time, and you have no problem making adjustments and corrections numerous times in order to produce the right outcomes. You know that if you create structures and processes that work, the right results will follow. So today I have a great guest for you. His name is Chad Durfee. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and business growth strategist specializing in helping companies find perfect strategic referral partners. His ventures include a a coaching company that teaches their systems and processes, an agency that implements them in a software company that automates, tracks and pays out referrals on autopilot. His journey has been marked by the successful launch and sale of several businesses and a few failed ones along the way. Currently, he leads four thriving businesses, each with a unique mission. He is passionate about helping others scale their businesses. He focuses on boosting revenue and client acquisitions by accessing the lucrative world of strategic referral partnerships. His approach is tailored to each business's unique challenges and opportunities. Beyond work, he cherishes time with his family, exploring new places with his wife, working out with his son, and dancing with his daughter. Personal development is a continual journey for him and he seizes every opportunity to grow both personally and professionally. Chad, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Appreciate it Gary. Happy to be Here.

Well, this is going to be fun. So you and I have spent a lot of time talking in the last couple of months, and I thought it'd be great for our audience to get to know you. So. So let's do that. Chad, where. Where were you born? Let's go back in your life. Where were you born and what were you like in high school?

Yeah, so going way back. So I was born in Twin Falls, Idaho. I'm a. I'm a country boy at heart. My parents were teachers, grandparents were teachers. Grew up on my grandpa's ranch in the summers, and then, yeah, high school, it was all about sports for me. So I was a basketball standout. I played collegiate basketball. Everybody in my family kind of did that. My grandpa played collegiate Division 1 basketball, my dad, myself following. And now my son, who's 14, is going to be the starting quarterback his freshman year for Tampa Tech, one of the bigger high schools here in Tampa, Florida. So he's already got some eyes on him. So it's. Grew up in an athletic family. If you knew me in high school, you know that I was the. I wouldn't say jock because I didn't really go by labels, but I definitely hung out with that crowd. If there was a sport, I was playing it. My dad was a history teacher, so I spent a lot of time with him, just, yeah, you know, doing like politics. He taught politics, doing sociology type work. I grew up very religious, so lots of service.

That we were doing. All throughout high school, my dad would volunteer me for the worst jobs. So if there was a. If there was a low paying, hard job, my dad would volunteer me for it. So from moving sprinkler pipes to bucking hay to, you know, anything that was really rough, you know, he was happy to put me in it.

Well, what do you think now, looking back, was the secret to your success in sports? Why were you a standout in sports through high school and college?

Yeah, I think it, it mostly came from an understanding of the, the strategic nature of the game and how to put myself in that position. I think that a lot of people just feel like if they play really good or they're really athletic, they're going to make it. My advantage was I had a dad and a grandpa who had done it. Both were varsity basketball coaches. My dad was my varsity basketball coach. I mean, I grew up in sixth grade with my dad having me watch video and teaching me how to break down different presses. So the game was much slower for me by the time I got there because I had Spent so much time studying it. Witch. You know, as a 61.

Not super tall, not super athletic kid, I was still able to, you know, play pretty well.

That was going to be my next question because I, you know, we haven't met yet in person, so I don't know how tall you are, but so 61. So you had.

Yeah, yeah, I had a 38 inch vertical. So I, I hang my hat on that. I'm like, okay, I could jump a little bit, but no, I, I didn't miss my shots. I didn't turn the ball over and I played defense and there's always a place for somebody like that.

And it sounds like you could dunk it.

Oh, pretty. Yeah, my freshman year was the first time I, I really put it down pretty hard.

Nice. Okay, so you graduated off to college. Where'd you go to college?

Yeah, so I started at byu and so I played a year of basketball there. And then. Well, actually directly after high school, I went on a mission for my church. So I moved down to Argentina for two years. So I turned down a couple scholarships to Yale, to Princeton, to Lehigh, to. I don't know why all the Ivy League schools were doing it because my grades weren't that great. I think I just kind of hit their recruiting circuit at the right time, but got back, had lost all my scholarships and so went to BYU and they had a great program to, to recondition athletes that had been gone for a couple of years out of country.

And then after that moved back home and finished up my collegiate career at the University of Oregon.

University of Oregon. So even that, you know, that's, that was Pac. What was it back then?

Pac. Pac 10. Pac 10 back then, yeah. And then from there to Pac 12 and now Big 10 this year. This year. It's exciting.

So what was your career like in basketball in college?

You know, short. So I only played for one year and you know, after playing for a year, I was, I was playing behind Austin Age, Danny Ainge's little nephew. And I think that I had been away from home for three years at that point. You know, I hadn't seen my family much, hadn't had much time at home. So my parents just told me if I came home, they'd pay for my school. So I was like, this is great. I don't have to beat myself up and I could go home and still have my, my scholarship. So. So college collegiate career was pretty short, but by that point I was kind of burnt out of basketball. I think that throughout high school I had Self identified with my, with basketball. Right. If I thought about myself, I thought about myself as the basketball player. And by the time I got back, you know, from serving a mission for a church and learning a little bit more about life and having a little bit more experience, I was able to kind of detach from that identity and start to look for something a little bit more.

Long term, which was good.

And so what did you go into? What did you major in?

Yeah, so my story is lots of different positions. So I got my degrees in psychology, so behavioral and social psychology. I got a. So I got two bachelors, one in psychology, one in history. Yeah. One in history, minor in Spanish, ended up getting a master's degree in education. And so I became a high school teacher right after college. And again, all my family were teachers, siblings, parents, grandparents. So I kind of followed it because I just knew it. It wasn't necessarily something I was passionate about. You know, I think I did it for the summers probably more than anything. And then after about two years of being in it, I was in a school district that had some pretty rough budget cuts. And so I got taken for full time, down to part time and realized really quickly, like, you can't support a family on that. I had a one year old son at that point. And so I had a family friend who was a federal marshal and he told me I should go for a secret service position. So I did that right out of teaching. Got hired there for six months. Hated it.

So I was, you know, while I was doing that, I ended up getting my pilot's license because I had an uncle who was a colonel in the Air Force. So I ended up getting a flight contract to fly for the Marine Corps.

Didn't go into the Marine Corps. Two weeks before we were going into officer candidate school. I realized how long the deployments were and had another baby on the way and it was just, it didn't fit the family goals. So from there I went into high end banking and then from there into real estate, and then from there into mortgages, and then from there into exploring the world of my own businesses. So I started out with a CBD company and then I started. So built a CBD company and sold that. Started a personal development company, built that for three years and sold that and then moved from there into.

The referral and strategic partner game, which is how I built almost all of my business.

Was using the referral system.

Yeah, strategic referral partnerships.

Yeah.

Just, you know.

I was never good at marketing. Like, I didn't. I still don't understand anything about Facebook ads or paid advertising. It's not something I ever really mastered or had had a desire to. It was pretty tedious and technical for me, which is not who I am. Even though I like processes and systems and everything, I didn't want to go into that.

And going out on social media and trying to build a huge following on social media just didn't feel authentic to me. Like, I would go on there and I would try and do videos that I thought were going to get clients or maybe was going to get some reach, and it just wasn't who I was. And those were really the only two ways that I was kind of taught Legion. It was like, oh, it's paid advertising or it's social media content creation. Like, you're either on this hamster wheel over here or you're in this area over here. But where I'd always built was strategic referral partners. I'd always had people in the industry who were great friends, who had bigger businesses than me that attached themselves to me or I attach myself to them, and then they just funneled their business directly into mine, which is how I built both of my companies so quickly. So I just kind of went back to the drawing board and figured out what my systems were around that and then how to duplicate that for other people in a way that was like systematized and scalable. And it's been super successful, which has been a lot of fun.

So strategic referral partnerships.

What do you mean by that?

Like, how do you define that? Yeah, so essentially it's identifying other business owners who are working with your ideal clients, but who aren't direct competitors. And in best cases, your offer actually enhances their offer. So a good example of that could be if you're a fitness coach, a fitness fitness professional.

Chiropractors, physical therapists, divorce attorneys who are working with people who now have to get back on the market, that haven't been on Tinder or Bumble for 20 years and they're overweight wedding planners. All of these are other business. And by the way, for that, you, we could find a hundred strategic partner business types. And so it's identifying those outside the box referral partners who are every day working with your ideal clients and don't have somebody like you in their Rolodex that they could be referring to. And so how do you identify who those people are? Where are they hanging out?

What.

What do you say to get them in a conversation with you? How do you close them down quickly as a referral partner and then how do you get them referring you really quickly and then from there, how do you turn that referral partnership into a business friendship so that it's got longevity? So we just systematize that entire process and it works for any business. You know, if you are a financial planner, maybe CPAs are going to be great referral partners. Maybe real estate agents, maybe mortgage brokers, maybe different, you know, certain types of insurance. If you're an ads agency, maybe videographers and website designers and SEO and I mean there's so many different. Every industry has adjacent industries that support but don't compete. And so our entire philosophy is collaborate, don't compete.

I love that. It makes a lot more sense.

Yeah, it does. I think that most people just don't think about it. Like most companies have one or two good referral partners or sometimes maybe more, but they kind of luck into them. You know, they kind of fall into them because they met somebody at a mastermind or one was a client of somebody and they're like, they happen to have a business as well that they started referring. But not many people have really understood it as like a lead source. At least a lead source that could be scaled. But it's a $6 trillion industry. You know, if you look at, let's say the Dorito Taco is a good example. That's a strategic partnership between Yum Brands and Frito Lay. Or you have red bull and GoPro, or you have Chevy and Disney or I mean, so all the Fortune 500 companies do it. They have full departments that run it. But Most companies under 10 million a year aren't even aware of it. Definitely under 1 million a year aren't aware of it. But it's, it's faster and easier than building a social media following and trying to get leads that way. And it's faster and cheaper than running paid advertising. So it's a phenomenal place if you're low six figures, all the way up to eight figure type companies.

So if you're, I'm listening now and I'm thinking, well, how would this work for me? What are the steps that I should take to build a strategic referral partnership? What are the steps that someone can take to, to create that for their business?

Yeah, so there's a couple different ways to do that. The first thing that I would say is to leverage your, your sphere of, your sphere of influence, your warm network. You know, we teach people how to do that and, and we show them step by step how to do it. But you know, that's something I could give to your audience for free. We have, I've got a two day challenge that I could give you a link that you can put out to any of your listeners where they can jump in and under 30 minutes a day over two days, they could probably land four or five amazing referral partnerships from connections that they've already fostered. But maybe they haven't identified who they are. Maybe they know who they are, but they don't know how to approach them. Maybe they have approached them and they've got something from it, but they don't know how to get higher quality or quantity of leads from them. And so the very first step for somebody that just wants to do it on their own is understanding how to look at your network. So let's, let's practically, let's say I look at my iPhone and I see all my contacts on my iPhone. And it would be segmenting them into two different groups. It's, you know, who can create an impact on my business and well, I guess two different groups. One would be who owns businesses and everybody else, right? So everybody else are going to be family, friends, other people of the people that own businesses who can impact my business directly and whose impact, whose business can I impact directly? So understanding how to segment upstream referral partners, these are people that could send you clients to downstream referral partners, these are people who you could send clients to. Oftentimes those are synergistic, but they don't have to be for it to be successful, you know, and then, and then just understanding how to reach out to them. It's as simple as, you know, me reaching out to you, Gary. If I, if you were in my Rolodex and just saying, hey, Gary, I know it's been a while since we've spoken. I think there might be a cool referral partnership here. I'd love, love to learn more about your business to see if there's a way that I can support you open to jumping on a call. It's, it's something that simple.

And what's the typical way that.

Businesses support each other? I mean like, what are you seeing is the, hey, I'll send an email out for my list? Or like what, what's the most? Or is that a fair question?

It's a great question. I think that the sky's the limit on that. It really comes down to how, how they speak with their clients, how they want to send their clients to you, or vice versa. It could be something as simple as they just Send you referrals via email or text. They could do an email blast to their audience, just to their client list. They could do an email blast to their entire list. They could put you in front of a Facebook group that they run. You know, there's a lot of different ways that they could do it. I have these things. You know, I think I've got 124 strategic partners now, and we're doing it in all different ways. Some people, they have automated referrals to me. So every new client that comes into their EcoSystem at day 25 or day 30, they get an automated text that says, you know, hey, Gary, you're doing great in the program so far. I also wanted to let you know about one of our partner companies that I think you should start a conversation with. This is what they do. Is it cool if I connect you? You know, and so they just, they'll automate it. I have other ones that just, they do it manually. I have other ones that will do a one time blast to their list. I have other ones that will do it quarterly. It just, it really depends, you know, on what you want to create with that company. Usually the way that we see it working though, and this is important to understand if you're talking with your warm network. So these are the people that you already know. It's probably going to start with a couple of manual referrals just so they can kind of test the waters. And then if they feel like you handled those really well, you can graduate to maybe the next step, which would be an email blast to their audience. If you have something of value to give away, that's where you would do an email blast. You definitely don't want them to do an email blast just telling people to talk to you. What we usually like to say is, you know, we'll even pre write the email form and it'll just say, you know, hey, whoever on the email blast, exciting news. We just partnered with Chad Durfee from referral partner Academy. And for the next seven days, he's hooking you up with his two day monetize my network challenge for free. You know, go ahead and lock in your seat today, something like that. And so now it gives me access to their entire audience and a bunch of leads that would come through, let's say my free challenge. And then if they're going through the free challenge and they like what they get and they're seeing value and they're getting results, then there's a really easy opportunity for them to have a further Conversation with us about taking that to a cold audience of referral partners, you know, so basically expanding their warm audience into the world.

So compare for our listeners the difference between Facebook ads and building out your social media profile and testing ads and spending on ADs versus strategic referral partners.

Yeah, so the first thing I want to say is I'm not against any type of lead gen. Like, I love it all. I think it's all important. And I think no matter what you try, if you do it long enough and test it enough, you're going to have success with it. Whether that be social media or paid advertising or strategic partnerships or live stage speaking. Like, whatever you want to do, you can make it work for your company if you spend enough time and tweak it enough. The difference for me and the reason why I decided to stick with strategic referral partnerships is because I didn't want to be on social media a lot, you know, so if any of your listeners go look up the Chad Durfee on Instagram, maybe you'll see 20 or 30 videos that I've done around strategic partnerships. But I don't rely on that for business. It's more just for me to kind of put some content out that's supportive for people, you know, so we'll have some people come through there, but it's not. If I'm not on social media for the next two months, nothing changes in my business. And I love that. Right. Because I don't want to have to constantly be writing copy and figuring out hooks and headlines and creatives and what's the next video I have to do. And now I got to deal, like, with. With camera and video editing. It's just there's so much that comes with that that people don't realize. For some of your listeners that are involved in it, they're probably like, oh, my gosh, like, if I could stop having to do three videos a day or all this content, I get my life back. So that's kind of why I wanted to stay away from the social media game a little bit. And also with AI coming out, there's so much content now that. That prospects and consumers are getting so inundated with what's out there, they don't even know what to think anymore. They don't even know if it's actually you doing the content, you know, unless it's, like, you on video. So it's just not something I wanted to touch. And then the paid advertising, to really be successful at that, you know, you either need to be a Genius right off the bat. Or you need to hire a company that's really good and knows what to do, but it's just so expensive to get into. I think that paid advertising is probably one of the best ways to scale a company once you figure out how it works. But for most companies, they don't realize it could take a year and it could take a hundred thousand dollars of investment of running ad spend and most companies go into that too early and it ruins them. Right. Because they just expect I'm going to run some ads and I'm going to get clients and it doesn't work like that anymore. So for me this was easy because I don't pay money unless I get clients. So there's, for me there's zero risk. Also, if I can find another company that has my ideal client and that company already has rapport and trust with them, why wouldn't I get that company to funnel their clients and audience directly into my company? Especially if I can enhance their offer and what they're doing and make them look good. So again, I'm just funneling business into mine from other places and it's a win win for everybody. It doesn't cost me any money up front and I control my own margins based on what I pay in referral commissions. So if I want a 10 to 1 return or a 7 to 1 or an 8 to 1 or not, which, which any day of the week beats Facebook returns on, on spend. So it just gives me full control.

What's typical for a referral partner? What you have to pay A referral partner?

Yeah, again that's going to be industry specific. So if you're running software and there is zero.

Manual aspect to it, what would be typical for a software company is anywhere from say 40 to 75% in recurring revenue. But that's because they don't have any, you know, they're not doing coaching. Right. There's not a lot of actual service being provided. If you are a product company and you're selling products, then again anywhere from, you know, the 25 to probably 60% range. And then if you're a service based company, which you and I are typically where you're going to see is anywhere from 10 to, let's say 20 would be ideal.

10 to 20% you pay?

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And there's lots of little things you can do with that as well. One of the biggest things when you're, when you're getting new referral partners is yeah, everybody tells you they'll refer you, you Know when you, especially if you talk with your warm audience and they're like, oh, of course, like I'll send you clients. And then what most people experience is they say they're going to do it and then it doesn't happen. And one of the biggest misses is when people are first establishing referral partnerships, they don't put any urgency into it. And so the referral partner thinks they're genuine in saying that they're going to send everybody to you, but they've got their own business, they got their own life, they got all their other things, they're not focused on you. It's in one ear and out the other, even though they're genuine when they say it. So what we like to do when we're working with the referral partners is we let them know, hey, listen, if you make your first referral or two or you do your first email blast in the, in the first two weeks, then we will double your first commission. Right. So we actually pay twice on the first one to get quick action. And we just let them know, hey, we do that just to, to thank you for being a great action taker, you know, and we find that that provides enough urgency that people will start to make a few intros. And once they've done it, once or twice now, they know how to do it, they see how easy it is. They usually keep coming. And then when you get one closed and they get that commission and it's double now they're like, wow, this is great. That was so easy. I could do this every month.

So you said they send for you.

Like what's a typical thing that they send out?

Are you wanting them to send something that gets you an instant sale or is it gets them a call to you and then you close the sale? Or how is that?

Yeah, so we don't, we don't rely on our referral partners to sell people. All we want is introductions. We're just trying to expand our reach and our internal processes are good enough that, you know, the things that we're giving away have enough value that people naturally tend to ascend into a paid experience with us. And so again, for referral partners, if you put too much on them or you expect them to convince the referral or do much more other than make a simple intro or send one time email, you're expecting too much. It's not going to happen very, you kind of have to step your way into the partnerships. So the first few referrals, we try to make those as simple as possible. For our referral partners, we essentially do everything for them minus the act of actually making the intro or sending the email. But we'll write the emails, we'll do like, we'll do everything. And then once we get a couple of deals that close, then we'll re approach the conversation and say, hey, that was really great. This is really resonating. How do we now take this a layer deeper? Right? And what does that look like? And so now do we become part of their process? Are we doing a monthly training inside their group? Are we putting a module inside their course? Like, how do we take it a step deeper? And so it's just a, it's a. Every time you, you know, have a review with your referral partners and they see that things are working, you can typically weave yourself into their business deeper and deeper to the point that you are a part of their business. Like you, you are actually a part of their offer because you help their clients so well.

So you're wanting them to send an email that introduces them to your free product or something free from you, and.

That'S typically what you want to do. Okay, yeah, typically what you. So we call it a carrot. You know, in the industry, you hear people talk about like lead magnets, right? But lead magnets are typically like kind of valueless little PDFs or like little informational pamphlets or, you know, here's this little thing over here that doesn't have any value. Or maybe they'll give them something that has value, but they have no strategy around how do we give them this thing and help them see the value and then ascend them into the next thing where we want them to be. And so we help our clients create what we call carrots, which are essentially, it's a free give of something that has a high enough perceived value that your referral partner wants to do it with or without a commission because it makes them look good. The fact that they can hook up their audience with this thing, it has a high enough perceived value that it just makes them look good to be able to give it away. So not only do we need the prospect to have a high enough perceived value to say, wow, I'm really excited about that. I could use that. But we need the referral partner to say, wow, that's going to make me look good to give away. And also, can I get that for myself? If those two things are there, you're going to get tons of referrals. It's going to be easy for you. And then if on the back End of that, you have an easy ascension process, which again, there's probably not time to go into all this today, but we have really simple systems that are copy and paste inside our business that work for every industry where we do this for, for our clients. If you have an easy ascension process built, once they come into the, the carrot, a free thing, it's really easy to ascend them into the thing that you want them to be in. That's the paid thing.

Got it. And then at that point you've basically done all the sale, but your or your automation process has, and then that's when you pay the referral partner.

Exactly.

Yep.

And so, and so for it's, it's the same as if I'm bringing in my own leads through doing social media content creation. I have to do all the work to put out the content, I have to figure out what the content is, I have to film the content, I have to edit the content, I have to test the content. And I still have to sell all the clients when they come in as well. I'm doing all of that or paid advertising, I'm spending money on ads, I'm testing the creative, I'm looking at the targeting, I'm, I'm doing all the work and then I still do all the work. When they come in the door with referral partners, I don't really have to do any work to get them in the door. The partners do that for me. I just give them a carrot that they can give away that looks awesome and their audience already loves them, typically trust them and if they put a carrot in front of them, the audience is like, yeah, let's go. So, yeah, I'm still doing the work of selling them, but I'm only doing half of the amount of work as anybody else doing social media or paid advertising or speaking on stages and having to travel and talk and try and live sell. And you know, this is really easy because by the time I get on the call with somebody, they're already kind of pre sold because they came from a trusted mentor. And so all I got to do is provide some value. And it's a really simple process.

It sure makes a lot of sense and it simplifies things quite a bit.

Because yeah, that like a variable out of.

Does. Yeah, it's actually, I know it sounds a little bit complex the way that I talk about it, because there are some really specific foundational pieces that need to be in place, but as long as those pieces are in place, the process is actually really simple. In A nutshell, it's who else is working with my clients that's not a competitor that would love somebody like me and their Rolodex. And then how do. What do I give them to make it easy for them to refer me? And, you know, so we build all the pieces around that, but that's pretty much it. And then, you know, we help people identify, okay, who are they? Where are they? What do we need to say to engage them enough to hear that? And then how do we get them referring you?

And then once you start paying them, they want to do it even more.

Yeah, well, and I think there's a big misconception that the commission is what's going to make them do it. It's not. It's helpful, and it's going to motivate them. So the better the commission structure, the more it's going to motivate them. But what they really care about is that you make them look good. You're increasing their social capital within their audience. Right. Because the difference between strategic referral partners and let's say, affiliates. Right. Oftentimes I hear those two interchanged affiliates are a little bit more mercenary. They're selling any offer they can to make a commission, but they have no trust or rapport with their audience. Your referral partners, they have their own business. They're spending their own time and energy and efforts and money building that trust with that audience. And so you're just leveraging that to funnel those people. To funnel those people to you.

Okay, so let's talk about what you're doing now, because you've taken this to another level. There's plenty of people that have done strategic partnerships, but you've taken this to a whole different place. Let's talk about that.

Yeah, so what we've done is we've brought scale to it. So most people, you know, they'll go to a mastermind, and they might meet somebody in a mastermind or their BNI or, you know, somebody that they know, they. They create it with. But these are all warm connections that they're building, these relationships with that are kind of happenstance, or it was a client. You know, somebody got lucky and they had a client that also happened to be a business owner that turned into a good referral partner. What we've done is we've been able to, let's say yourself, for example, Gary, let's say that you're. Well, let me ask you your best, your top three referral partners, because I'm sure that you have some people that Refer you what, what industry are they there? Are they typically.

Yeah, they're in the coaching space. They have their own network. They're, they're, they're coach leaders, let me.

Put it that way. Perfect. So let's say that, that, let's say business coaches or executive coaches or even agencies, these are going to be some of your best referral partners. What we've been able to do is we can take that title and we can go to LinkedIn and we can search business coaches, executive coaches, we can put in as many titles as we want and we can pull 500,000 of those. And then we could scrape that list for all of their emails too. And then we can use those emails and those names to find them on all their social medias as well. And now what my team can do is my team can send out over, you know, send out Messages to over 2000, 2000 to 5000 of those coaches a month with simple, with simple.

Messages that, that keep defenses low. Right? Like, usually if somebody connects with me on LinkedIn within a day or two, they're trying to sell me something like, hey, Chad, do you want 50 leads and 50 days guaranteed and you're gonna make a hundred thousand guarantee, you know, And I'm like, no, I'm good. Like, defenses are up. I know you're trying to sell me something versus if I reached out. And I was like, gary, thanks for connecting. I was just looking at your page and it looks like we're working with the same types of clients, but we're not competitors. I think there's a great referral opportunity here. Is it cool if I send you a little video? Is it cool if I send you some details? Is it cool if I show you what I'm seeing? And now you're like, oh, interesting. Tell me more. Defenses are low. And then we send you some information that makes you say, wow, that this sounds like a great opportunity. How do we get on a call and discuss this? And then we teach you how to get them on a call and close it down really quickly. And then we teach you, once you've closed it down, how to get them to refer you within a couple of weeks and, and how to keep referring you so we can do it at scale. Once you crack one industry, it's just you rinse and repeat that process with everybody. So, you know, we could get you 200 executive coaches that are referring you business every single month if that's who your ideal referral partner is. And then my team does all the work. So we, we Use software to hook into your LinkedIn and to hook into your email and to hook into your social media, where my team does all the outreach and we just book your calendar with these people. So you get to do the closing calls and we teach you how to do it. But these partners have no idea that we even exist because from the beginning they've been hearing from you, right? They have no idea that we're the ones doing the messaging, that are setting everything up, that are getting them engaged, that are getting them excited. They get on a call with you and it's been you the whole time as far as they're concerned. So we don't broker relationships. We want the relationship to start and end with you. Even though we're kind of like the silent, the silent tool in the background that's, that's doing it.

And, and you also now, okay, so that's a done for your service. And then you also have software that's kind of almost like a dating app, right?

Yeah. Well, so we got a couple of things coming. So the first thing that we developed is a software called leadpath, which is a referral, a high ticket referral, tracking and attribution software. The biggest issue that we found when we started getting referral partners at scale was tracking referrals and attributing referrals to the right people and then paying out commissions consistently on time. And most people are trying to do this on spreadsheets if they're in it and, or they're hiring VAs to like run these spreadsheets or they're trying to track like the tracking isn't. It's, it's the most tedious thing ever. Like if you start really doing it at the level that we can get you to do it, you're gonna have to hire VAs to track on spreadsheets and you'll have three or four or five of them. So we developed a software they can track online and offline high ticket referrals. Whether they send you an email referral, they do a text intro, somebody opts in to an opt in, you know, live selling from, from a stage. We can track any referral anywhere. Link in, you know, link this software to your CRM, to your payment processors and it will immediately track where the referral came from, attribute it to that referral source, and then if any payment at any time in the future comes in from that person, it'll recognize who the original referral source was and attribute the sale to that referral source with whatever preset commission you've put in there. So it basically does it all on autopilot, which is nice. So it's not going to get you referrals per se, but it's going to make the process of building trust with your referral partners, having transparency with your referral partners, and just, you know, getting rid of all the tedious work of having to track and attribute on a spreadsheet. It just happens automatically, which is nice. And then lead swipe, which is the one that you were talking about, the hardest thing to do is to find referral partners who are also in that awareness stage where they're also looking for referral partners themselves. And so, you know, trying to do it yourself is very difficult if it's outside of your sphere of influence. A company like us, we do that. I think we're the only one that I know that actually does it for people. So we're basically building like a dating app that hasn't launched yet, but we're hoping at the end of this year we'll launch that will help ease that burden. So anybody that's, you know, wanting to do it themselves, they'll be able to go on there and instead of swiping for. For dates like on Tinder or Bumble, they get a swipe for dollars. You're looking for referral partners who are also in that awareness stage and they're looking for you, too. So if you guys match calendar pops up and you guys can schedule in each other's calendar and start to have conversations right inside the app.

Wow, that's a whole different level. You're just simplifying all this.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I mean, honestly, when it's all said and done and we talk about why, I spend a lot of time comparing myself to other business owners who were further ahead than me, who are getting more deals than me, who are growing faster than me, and I think in the entrepreneurial space, that's really easy to do with the way that social media is. You see everybody's best on social media and you see all the amazing things they're doing, and you sometimes get in that comparison state. And so what really helped me get away from that was rather than competing and comparing with those people, it was celebrating those people and then reaching out to partner with those people and, and leverage that success. So I think that if more, you know, we're all in this together. You've got your business, I've got my business. A ton of your listeners, listeners probably all have their businesses. And I think oftentimes we look at Entrepreneurship as a lonely journey because you're focused on what's yours, but it doesn't have to be. We're all brothers and sisters in arms here. And so why not collaborate and help each other grow? And referral partnerships are the solution to that. Not just the solution to growth and easy business, but it's the solution to a better business and, you know, growing with the right types of people, taking care of your clients, but doing it with people that, you know are in that same mind space.

You know what else I like about it, as I'm learning more and more about it, is it creates a community.

You know, 100%.

You kind of, kind of create your tribe and now you got some friends all over the place.

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I introduced my referral partners to each other. They introduced me to their referral partners. Like, you know, once you get a good tribe of referral partners, every time they're bringing on new people, they're reaching out, saying, hey, who do you need to call it? Who do you need to be connected with? Who do you need in your Rolodex? What do you like? What are you looking for? And so it becomes a very supportive kind of growth experience versus a very lonely, kind of tedious, difficult one that a lot of, I think, a lot of entrepreneurs are experiencing.

So let's talk about some of the not so good things about this path. What are some challenges that are the reality of it? Because, you know, everything sounds great.

When you learn about it. And then there are. It's not like tomorrow everything's going to be perfect for you. Hey, I decide I'm going to start with strategic referral partners. By Friday, I'll be have this massive business. It doesn't work that way. Like, what's the reality of what someone can expect and what are some of the challenges that are typical?

Yeah, so I think consistency is the biggest thing. I think if you're doing it, you're on, on your own and you don't really have any systems or processes around it. What tends to happen is you'll get two or three or four referrals from a partner, and then that partner tends to kind of like fade away and it tends to wash out the relationship ends. There's no real structure to it. And so you're going to spend a lot of time on conversations with people and creating partnerships, and you're going to get a few referrals, but it may not necessarily last if you don't have it set up appropriately. And so that's one of the Big things that we really strive to do is systematize and automate the nurture part of the process so that when you do land a good referral partner, that lasts, right? So you don't, you know, you really only need six to 12 good partners. It's not a lot and you'll be a seven figure business in no time. So when we work with our clients, we're also really clear about expectations too though, you know, it takes us about three weeks to build their system and then once we start doing outreach, it takes us another 30 days or so to really start to get good calls booked on their calendar, sometimes sooner and then from there another two or three weeks to start getting referrals in the door. Right. So from start, from starting with us to getting your first client, it may be 60 days, you know, anywhere from 45 to, let's say 60 days. And so it's not though it can have rapid results.

The lead source is more of a long term play. You know, you're, you're building, ideally you're bolting something onto your business that's going to last and, you know, and stand the test of time. It's not a fad, kind of, kind of lead gen type thing. You know, it's not the 30 leads in 30 days that you're going to go talk with that nobody even answers their phones or emails. Like they're not good leads, you know, so you're spending all your time chasing leads, you're going to spend more time building here. But once you get it rolling, it'll save you time on the back end. But there's not really, honestly, Gary, there's not a lot of bad to it. Like once you learn the process, it's a copy and paste type of thing. So once you know how to get good referral partners and maintain them, you can do it as often or as little as you want. You can turn it on or turn it off at will, you know, so it's, it's a very.

Organic way.

What, what do I need? So I'm, I'm putting myself in the place of a listener right now and I'm thinking, man, that sounds so good. But I don't know what I have to offer. Like, what can I, I have my business and I have what I do. But like what, what would somebody want to send out about me? Or what do you need as someone that others will want to refer to?

Well, so it depends on where you're at in your business and it depends on what type of business it is. And so I think that this is where creativity comes in and this is where our company can be really useful. Because we've done so many of these, we can really support in creating what we would call that carrot that we were mentioning.

It doesn't need to be perfect to start. You just gotta have something. So. So I think a lot of people are like, they're trying to create the perfect thing, but it doesn't have to be that way. You, over time, you like, I've changed my carrot probably 20 times in the last three years because I keep finding something more valuable that I can give away and something. Something more valuable that gets clients results immediately or potential clients results immediately. And so I'm like, oh, this is going to be the carrot now? Or I find something that referral partners just love, and they're like, I want to give this away. So. But I'll give you some examples of what those types of things could be. So it could be access to a DIY course. It could be access to a discovery call. It could be like an audit. It could be access to a quiz that gives them some type of fun information that they might not otherwise have. It could be access to.

Scripts or wireframes or software. There's so many different things. It could be a vault, you know, if you do like, you know, your podcast, if you. If you held back, like certain podcasts that were only for clients, you know, it could be a vault of kind of your VIP podcasts. There's so many different things you could create with the content that you already have. A lot of people probably actually already have their carrot built. They just need to maybe re. Relabel it, retitle it, and maybe tweak one or two things to it. And it would be great.

A challenge. I mean, there's so many things that could be.

So Chad, if there are people that are listening right now that are like, hey, man, I want to learn more about this. I want to. I want to talk to Chad, I want to connect with them, I want to do this. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Yeah, so with these podcasts, do you put. Do you have podcast notes down below where people can click links? Yep. Okay, so I'll give you my social media. So the Chad Durfee would be my Insta. Or you can find chad durfee on LinkedIn. Just look me up there. Or.

And C H A D D U R F as in frank EE and so you could put that in the notes. I'll also give you access to my free Monetize My Network challenge. So anybody that wants to get a couple referral partners this week, it'll, it'll walk you through, step by step, how to take your phone contacts and your Facebook friends and your Insta followers and your LinkedIn connections. It'll, it'll teach you how to segment those things, how to sub segment, and then I even give scripts and, you know, processes for how to reach out to those people. Exactly what to say, how to get them on a call, how to pitch them, you know, so you could sign up for that. So once you're registered for it, it just sends you a text every morning with a, with a link to that day's action items. And so I'll give people access to that as well. So definitely do the Monetize My Network challenge. That's your first step. If you've not done anything with strategic referral partners, and then, yeah, if they find me on social media or I guess that would be the best way, you know that my calendar is at the end of that challenge. So at the end of that challenge, if people want more information or they just want us to do it for them, they can schedule in on our calendar there. And same for social media. They can reach out to us and we'll have a call with them just to make sure that it is a fit based on their business model and structure. We can ask any questions they have, we can make sure that we can create a good carrot and then if it does feel like a fit, we can show them what it would look like. And then we guarantee all of our services too. So we build it for them, we implement it for them, and we guarantee it for them.

So what's your goal with, with these, all the companies? Where, where are you headed?

Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know that I necessarily have a specific goal in mind. Like, I don't have a certain amount of people I want to help. I don't have a specific. I think the overall goal is just to make collaboration in the entrepreneurial space the standard. You know, I really want people, rather than comparing themselves to other people's journey, to be able to know how to connect with and collaborate with people versus compare themselves to, you know, wherever they're at. So I think my main goal, and again, I could get more specific on this, is just a healthier mental.

Landscape around business growth.

I love that. So last, last question for you.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given what's the best piece or the best piece of advice you've ever given?

I don't give advice anymore.

I learned, I've Learned in my 41 years of life that the best piece of advice I could potentially give somebody, if they're not in a stage in their life that they can understand it, it's not going to land. So I try not to give advice, but I would say the two best pieces, I'll give a couple. So Seneca, a stoic, said, he who suffers before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary. And I think oftentimes we get stress and we get anxiety and we get what if, what if this doesn't work? Or what if I'm wasting my time here? What if I don't, I can't make enough money this month? Or what if my business doesn't go? Or you know, all the things, what if I'm wasting my money again on this, on this coaching experience?

And so that's been the biggest thing for me to just stay really even kill and chill and chill. I don't suffer before it's necessary. And so that is probably one of the best ones for me. And then more recently there's a, there's a guy named David Bayer, anybody who would maybe look into him. He's more in the professional development kind of emotional intelligence community, but he's had some, I've had some big breakthroughs from him recently which have like, it's been like a midlife awakening for me where it's helped me understand that everything is kind of make believe, you know, everything around us, our circumstances, the meaning we give it, it's, it's all mental. And so it's helped me understand that like anything that I want, I can create. And the more certain I am of the outcome, the more powerful my actions toward the outcome. And so that's been really game changing for me too because every time I would have what you might call a failure in business or something didn't work out, or I experienced something that didn't feel great, it's helped me realize that it's just turning the dial, right? It's just every, every turn of the dial is something else and eventually you're going to get it to click. And once it clicks, you can move to the next dial and turn that dial maybe 4, 5, 6 times, click next dial, maybe it's 72 spins and then you get the click. And so it's just helped me be much more resourceful, consistent, committed, taking powerful action because I know the result is certain. And with that certainty comes power. Those are the. Those are the two biggest ones for me.

That's awesome. Chad. Hey, Chad. Thank you so much for being here. I know you're super busy, but I'm glad we got a chance to connect and let our audience learn about you and what you're doing, because I love what you're doing and it just seems like such a great way to.

Build your business based on connections, based on collaboration versus competition. So I love it. Thanks for being here today.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. It's the best way I get to build with friends, so it's perfect.

I really hope you enjoyed today's episode and that through today's guest, you heard how important it is to know your why and how impactful it can be in your life and the lives of those around you. Be sure to head over to yinstitute.com and discover your why today. Remember, the more you know about yourself, the more you'll know about others. I'm Dr. Gary Sanchez, and I'll see you on the next episode.