Yesterday, I shared the story of The Found Referral, the type that falls into your lap unexpectedly. Today’s story is about The Sitter Referral, the one that you’ve been patiently waiting to pass, when the time was right. I’d been working with a client for years as they scaled from a local operation into a … Read more

Yesterday, I shared the story of The Sought Referral, the type you intentionally go after on someone else’s behalf. Today’s story is about the opposite, The Found Referral, the one that appears by chance, simply because you were paying attention. During a client meeting, we were discussing future updates to their systems when the director … Read more

Over the next few days, I’ll share three short stories that explain the three types of referrals you’ll come across in any strong business network: The Sought, The Found, and The Sitter. Today’s story is about The Sought, the referral you go out of your way to track down because someone in your network has … Read more

You may have thousands of contacts in your phone book and on social media but how many of them have you taken time to build a referable relationship with? A few years ago, I met the Director of well-respected digital marketing agency at a networking event. We had heard of each other through mutual contacts … Read more

Have you ever attended a networking event hoping referrals will “just happen” but realised that simply showing up is not enough. Networking is a skill and you need to learn the five steps to make yourself more referable. That’s why we created the R.E.F.E.R. Method™, a structured, measurable system that turns relationships into consistent referral … Read more

Ex light heavyweight contender and Liverpool boxing legend Franny Hand ran a proper old-fashioned gym, a gym where a young Tyson Fury had his first sparring session, a gym Tyson described as “a backstreet Bronx gym from the 1940’s“. I remember seeing Tyson and his father, John, one of Franny’s stable of fighters, in the … Read more

In the mid 1990’s, I started one of the first web development companies in the UK. At the time, everyone was talking about “the internet” but the tone was very different to how we talk about AI today. People knew it was coming. They knew it was going to be big. But many didn’t believe … Read more

One of the biggest profit levers in business isn’t working harder, it’s specialising. Years ago, my web development business made a deliberate shift. Instead of being “just another web developer,” we focused specifically on a key area of our business, membership platforms and CRM integrations, and that decision changed everything. Membership platforms and CRM integrations … Read more

Successful networking groups don’t thrive because of one big idea or a single standout personality. They succeed because they do lots of small things consistently well. On their own, these behaviours can seem insignificant: how meetings are run, how members engage, how newcomers are welcomed. But together, these small details compound to create trust, energy, … Read more

In the world of referral networking, there’s a simple truth: you get what you ask for. The specificity of your request can shape the opportunities that come your way—and ultimately, the growth of your business. Take the example of two IT consultants. The first consultant, eager for work but unsure of his niche, asked his … Read more