How I Learned to Generate Referrals for My Business.

In January of 2014, I left a stable, nearly decade-long career as a mental health therapist to start a marketing company. I’d been managing the marketing for my wife’s business for five years, watching small and mid-sized businesses sprint from tactic to tactic, wasting time and money. Taking the time to understand what their customer wants and how their customer buys would help them grow faster and much more cost effectively.

But I didn’t know how to generate leads. Every morning, my alarm would wake me up at 5 a.m., I’d get a coffee or five, and head out the door to a local networking event. Podcasts about lead generation became the soundtrack to my life. My calendar was full of coffees and business lunches, but it took six months to generate my first real lead. I was meeting with the wrong people, in the wrong industries, and in the wrong target market.

I was meeting with the wrong people, in the wrong industries, and in the wrong target market. — Lesson 01

13 years later, after a lot of difficult lessons, I have a steady flow of conversations with people who are a good fit for my business. I have to work at it harder during hard times and can let it coast during easier times.

Ignition Canvas was built the same way I’m describing here. Word of mouth and referrals from partners who know us drive almost all of our growth. I tracked it. I know which relationships have generated $75,000 contracts and which ones cost time and produced nothing. The guide is what the data taught me.

If you read it and decide it isn’t useful, that’s fair. If you read it and want to talk about what’s not working in your practice, my door is open. Just schedule a call here.

But that’s not what this is. Read it because it might help.