IAM2719 – Entrepreneur Helps Small Business Owners Take Control of Their Business

Stacey Brown Randall is a three-time entrepreneur, award-winning author of Generating Business Referrals Without Asking, host of the Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast, and national speaker.

Her programs help small business owners and solopreneurs take control of their referrals, their client experience, and their business.

Stacey has had the privilege of helping well-known corporations and franchises such as Bank of America, Mass Mutual, International Minute Press, and Re/Max but her focus is on small business owners and solopreneurs.

Stacey has been featured in national publications like Entrepreneur Magazine, Investor Business Daily, Forbes, CEO World, Cheddar TV Network, and more.

She received her Master’s in Organizational Communication and is married with three kids, an 11-year-old son, and a 9-year-old daughter, and she and her husband are raising their 11-year-old nephew.

• CEO Hack: App- Bonjoro for connecting through videos
• CEO Nugget: Asking the question ‘Were you brave today'
• CEO Defined: Freedom and Control

Website: http://www.staceybrownrandall.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/staceybrownrandall
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/staceybrandall
Twitter: @staceybrandall
IG: @staceybrownrandall
www.generatingbusinessreferrals.com

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam423-entrepreneur-helps-small-business-owners-take-control-of-their-business/

Check out one of our favourite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favourite CEO Hacks HERE.

Transcription:

Stacey Brown Randall 00:00

You know, it's one thing I always think that would serve me well in my younger years and serves me well today and will continue to serve me well. And it's actually something I started doing with my daughter, but I also noticed that I do with the boys as well, but particularly with her, is asking her the question is, were you brave today? So when she started a new school and you know, did you go up and talk to somebody that you didn't know, were you brave today? For me it's usually figuring out a new piece of technology. Like was I brave today? Into the technology? I think asking yourself that question, I don't need the answer to be yes, but I do think if we can ask that question or to like step outside myself, I think that's an important part of being an entrepreneur and it's a question we should be able to ask ourselves.

Gresham Harkless 01:05

Hello, hello, hello, this is Greshfrom the I Am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Stacy Brown Randall of Stacy Brown randall.com Stacy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Stacey Brown Randall 01:14

Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:15

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Stacy so you hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Stacy is a three time entrepreneur, award winning author of Generating Business Referrals without asking, host of the Roadmap to grow your Business podcast and a national speaker. Her programs help small business owners and solopreneurs take control of their referrals, their client experience and their business. Stacy has had the privilege of helping well known corporations and franchises such as bank of America, MassMutual International, Minute Press and ReMax, but her focus is on small business owners and solopreneurs. Stacy has been featured in national publications like Entrepreneur Magazine, Investor Business Daily, Forbes, cp, CEO World, Cheddar TV Network and many more. She received her Master's in Organizational Communication, is married with three children, an 11 year old son, a 9 year old daughter and she and her husband are raising their 11 year old nephew. Stacy, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Stacey Brown Randall 02:09

Yeah, I'm ready Awesome.

Gresham Harkless 02:10

Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started with your business?

Stacey Brown Randall 02:17

You know, it's interesting. I do what I do today and have the opportunity to work with people, whether it's, you know, doing corporate trainings or folks in my online program or my VIPs that I get to do one on one work with. Truly out of sheer necessity, because in my past I actually had a business failure. I had an HR consulting firm with big name clients like kpmg, bdo, Ally bank, some really big name companies. And that business would make it four years, not quite five years before it would fail. And the lessons that I learned from that business failure, while I was, you know, cleaning up my ego and like getting over all that business failure stuff, I took a corporate job in between is really what helped me kind of change the direction when I launched my second business and we're going on six years now and it was all about, okay, I got to figure out how to fill this pipeline, this business. I can't have another business failure. And so I really figured out how to grow my. I started at my second business as a coaching, coaching practice. It was productivity and business coaching. And I really started developing and building that business by following some strategies I had learned the hard way through my business failure and then started having some really great success with it and then started kind of did a pivot in my business and started teaching people exactly what I had learned about how to generate referrals without asking and how to build a business that can actually be referable.

Gresham Harkless 03:29

Nice. That makes perfect sense. And I think a lot of times, you know, business owners are looking for business for visibility and opportunities, but I think a lot of that comes down to being able to build those relationships, build that network. So I appreciate you for, of course, you know, it's hard going through those difficult periods, periods. But I think a lot of times sometimes we can clam up and, and not want to do anything. But I appreciate you for, for basically not even, not just helping yourself, but also helping out so many entrepreneurs and business owners as well.

Stacey Brown Randall 03:54

Yeah, I've found in the beginning I wasn't like, oh, let me tell you all about this business failure. I mean, let me just, let me be honest. Like it wasn't like day one I was like, woo, I had a business failure. Let's party. Let me tell you all about it. But over time I got comfortable with telling the story of my business failure and that helped like everything, it helped put it into perspective. That helped kind of say, okay, right. It wasn't like God was picking on me with my business failure, but he certainly handpicked me to learn some things coming out from it that I can now share with others. And now I get to have a successful business coming out of it. So it's definitely there for a reason. It has a reason, it has a purpose. I wouldn't change it. But it did take time before I was comfortable talking about it. And now it's been so long. I mean, I just, I'm happy to tell anybody about it because I think that if you can learn from my mistakes, why in the world do you need to go make them yourself?

Gresham Harkless 04:39

Yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Which is why I definitely, you know, appreciate you for doing that because I think, you know, we can definitely, you know, go and make those mistakes ourselves. But it's the really great thing that we can do with people, you know, like yourself, that are willing to share is that you can tap into your mindset, type into some of the things that you've learned to be, you know, successful ourselves. So I know you touched on it a little bit with your business. Now can you tell us a little bit more about your business, what it is you're doing for your clients and of course about your book and all the awesome things you're working on?

Stacey Brown Randall 05:05

Yeah, sure. So I do have a few online courses. I also offer them as VIP options for people who want to work one on one with me. But for the majority of what I do, it's my online programs. I have growth by referrals, which is the program where I teach people my five step process to how to generate a referral explosion in their business. Specifically referrals you will never ever ask for. That's my thing. I don't think you should be asking for referrals, but I do think you should be getting them. And so I teach a process of what that looks like that isn't gimmicky or, or inauthentic. And so that's my main program, growth by referrals. I also have sticky client experience. It's another online program that helps make sure you're actually referable, like your business is ready to be referable before you decide you want to go get those referrals. And then I have another of other masterclasses and other products that I've available for people who are looking to get better at business development and referrals and client experience. So that's the main focus right now of my business, of course I'll do corporate trainings for companies that have like a team of sales professionals. But really I focus in on people coming to my online program. That individual financial advisor running their own operation, or that realtor, or that business coach or consultant, you know, that attorney, that CPA that's kind of started their own firm, that's kind of like the market that I go after in terms of really being able to help them and help them be successful. So it's really online programs. I do have one on one options for the VIP and some corporate trainings as well as well. And then of course, the book is generating business referrals without asking, and it's available wherever books are sold.

Gresham Harkless 06:27

Nice. I appreciate that and I appreciate those two aspects that you kind of pointed on or touched on, you know, being able to make sure that you're getting those referrals, you know, without asking and having the opportunity to get those referrals. But I think one of the parts that a lot of people miss as well too is that second part you kind of touched on, which is making sure your business is referable. Because a lot of times, you know, we don't realize or we can't get past like what it is that we do. We don't realize that no one can really kind of refer our business or maybe even speak to anybody else about what exactly we do. So making sure you have those two pieces and order our key to kind of be successful.

Stacey Brown Randall 06:56

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 06:57

Absolutely. Nice. And so you might have touched on this a little bit already, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for you personally or for your business, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Stacey Brown Randall 07:08

So, you know, I'm actually in an industry that's been around for decades and decades and decades, and I haven't been around for decades and decades and decades. So it's interesting. I'm like most people who had a business and wanted to get referrals for it. When you think about my second business, my business and productivity coaching practice, I was like, I want referrals. And I went out like most people and figured out, okay, how do we get referrals? And then all the information and all the discussion points and all the books and the articles and the trainings were all on, well, here's how you ask for them. For me, that instantly felt weird and icky if I'm being honest and a little bit too salesy for me. Like I Don't have any issue with sales. I think sales are a necessary part of life, but I don't need it to be overly salesy. And that's what asking felt like to me. I like to call asking for a referral as that as a cousin to a cold call. I just don't want to do it right. And so. And most people don't want to receive it. They don't want to be on the receiving end of it, nor they want to be the giving end of that asking for a referral. So what I really set out to do is like, hey, can I figure out how to get referrals and not ask for them? In the beginning, it wasn't like, I've got an idea, let's go, like, test this hypothesis. It was more like, let's just see if I can figure this out and let me just do some things and see what works. And then as it started to work, I mean, my first year as a business, which I generated over 112 referrals, actually, exactly 112 referrals that I didn't ask for and have every year since. Over 100 referrals received without asking. Then my client started saying, hey, what are you doing? Like, you're, like, getting crazy successful and you're raising your rates and it's hard to get on your schedule. And when that worked, I was like, oh, let me show you what I'm doing. And then that forced me to refine it down into my five steps. But I'll tell you what makes me different from everybody else in my industry that's been teaching referrals for decades and decades and decades is I figured out how to generate referrals consistently with the stream that can actually help through your pipeline of clients, but you're going to do it without asking for them. The main thing about referrals today is here's how you ask, or you get them by paying for them. And what I teach as a process where you don't ask, you don't pay, you're not overly promotional or gimmicky, and you get to stay in your, you know, in that genuine place that most of us want to be by being authentic.

Gresham Harkless 09:07

Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to touch on, is like, kind of that authenticity, because you can kind of be who you are. You don't have to step outside of, you know, who you are. Be something that's not in alignment. Because I think a lot of times when you do that, you. I don't. I don't know what's worse than not getting referrals, but you kind of run the race the risk of doing that because you can kind of shun people from wanting to even kind of work with you or even talk to you sometimes.

Stacey Brown Randall 09:27

Yeah, I mean I think that, you know, it all comes down to that language piece I think is critical whether it's in our marketing and our communication. Like it all comes down to the language piece. And, and I always tell folks that the language that I teach people so that they're not asking for referrals, it's gotta feel normal. And if it doesn't feel normal for you, I write very gender neutral when I'm teaching people but I'm like, if it doesn't feel normal for you, you've got to work it so that it does feel normal for you, which most people can appreciate, which is like it's just the stuff we all want to say. And that communication piece is so very important.

Gresham Harkless 09:56

Exactly, exactly. Communication is definitely everything. So what I wanted to do is switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book or something from your book or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Stacey Brown Randall 10:10

It feels so self serving to get a hack from my book. So I'm not going to. But there's actually a great app that I have been using but I really think so out of the referral side and jumping into the client experience side, one thing that I've really started using is an app called Bunjuro which allows you to set it. There's a, there's a number of them out there like it. I happen to prefer to use Bonjouro but it is an app that allows me to send a quick video to people when they join my Growth by Referrals program. When they join, we load up their emails into the app and it allows me to send a quick little welcome video and I can do it whenever, like it just shows up a new student's join here, you need to send the video to them. And, and I always tell folks I can do it when I'm on my morning walk or evening walk. So like having being showered isn't necessarily something I have to worry about. Just an opportunity for me to connect with the people who bought my program. We have students in the Growth by Referrals program and send them different countries all over the world. I am ever. I'm not going to even meet the people who are two states away from me, let alone the people who are halfway around the world for me. And so this gives me an opportunity to connect one on one with them specifically send them a direct video, but do it in under like a minute or two because it's right there on my phone. I can just set it up. I don't have to worry about lighting and camera and all that kind of stuff. It's just for my phone. And runjuro handles sending it out for me. And the open rates are amazing. And my response, I get back from my new students, they really appreciate that extra touch with the client experience.

Gresham Harkless 11:29

Yeah, absolutely. I think especially in this day and age, you sometimes feel like whenever you do, you know, sign up for a program that you're never going to talk with anybody. But to even get that, that touch and that video, especially if it's coming directly to you, is definitely something that is. It kind of takes everything over the top.

Stacey Brown Randall 11:43

Right.

Gresham Harkless 11:44

Nice. And, and so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Stacey Brown Randall 11:54

You know, it's one thing I always think that would serve me well in my younger years and serves me well today and will continue to serve me well. And it's actually something I started doing with my daughter. And so I have three kids like you mentioned in my introduction, so. And they're host 12, 11 and 9. So as you can imagine, it's really loud in our house and it's a lot of crazy and there's two boys and a girl and it's just so, you know, one thing I kind of started doing with my daughter, but I also noticed that I do with the boys as well, but particularly with her, is asking her the question is, were you brave today? So when she started a new school and did, you know, did you go up and talk to somebody that you didn't know, were you brave today? For me it's usually you have a new piece of technology, like was a brave day into the technology. I think asking yourself that question, I don't need the answer to be yes, but I do think if we can ask that question or to like step outside myself, I think that's an important part of being an entrepreneur and it's a question we should be able to ask ourselves.

Gresham Harkless 12:42

Yeah, absolutely. I would definitely echo that. And I think. And I forgot Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, I remember she was talking about her father. I don't know if you ever heard that story, but she said every day, every night at dinner, her father would ask her what she did. I think what she did, she was afraid of doing, and if she never did anything, he'd be disappointed. But if she did something, even if she didn't succeed, he was happy. He gave her a high five and all of that. But it kind of conditioned her to understand, understand that especially with running a business, you kind of have to do those things you're afraid to do, do those things that are brave, do those things that might end up being failure. But you start to get used to it, I guess, to a certain degree, because that's part of life, and that's really definitely part of, you know, running a business and entrepreneurship.

Stacey Brown Randall 13:24

Yeah. And I think when you have to answer that question was, no, no, no, multiple times and multiple days and weeks in a row, it does force you to kind of shift, you know, your thought process about, maybe I don't want to answer the was I brave today? Question with a big fat no again. Maybe it should actually be something bright. So I think it can also help jumpstart some motivation, too.

Gresham Harkless 13:42

Yeah, absolutely. No, that is definitely a great thing as well. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote, unquote CEOs on the show. So, Stacy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Stacey Brown Randall 13:53

I think for me, it means freedom and control. It's that ability. It's not that I don't work hard. It's that I get to work when it works for me, and that's important with a growing family and all the things that I have in my life. And I'm gonna be honest, I like my control. Like, it just. I mean, I think I've spent years and years acting like I don't like control. Finally, I'm like, whatever. I just like my control. I just like things the way I like them. And you know what? In some ways, that's okay, and in other ways, it's not right? So, I mean, there's moderation is everything, but for me, kind of being in control, I really. That really motivates me and gets me jived up. And then having the freedom to work when and where I want to work is important as well. I still work, work a lot. But I also know that if I want to take off on a Wednesday and pick my daughter up early from school, I don't Have a boss to check in with and tell them I'm going to do that. I just. I just go do. And that's really important to me as well.

Gresham Harkless 14:42

Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of times, you know, when you start working, you start doing all these things, you know, to build a family, to, you know, provide for your family. And sometimes you lose perspective on why you're doing exactly what you're doing. And sometimes you want to be able to, you know, go Wednesday at lunchtime and go meet your daughter or do whatever you want to do. To have the flexibility to be able to do that is huge. And I definitely, you know, I think that's a phenomenal definition in perspective.

Stacey Brown Randall 15:04

You know, it also means I'll. I'll admit this. So I was out. Yesterday was a Sunday, and it was challenge baseball season in our life. And so I sat out in the hot sun from like 11am to 5:30pm and by the time the second baseball game rolled around, I was that mom sitting there with a notepad on her lap, working on some notes for an upcoming podcast episode that I needed to do. So, you know, being able to work when you want to work also means sometimes you work when you don't want to. But to be honest, I was like, this is my second game today. I need a description. Let me do some work. So there it was, the one mom, right In a sea of other moms and dads, and they're all watching the game, and I'm like, just tell me my kids. Kidding. Okay. Working on notes for an upcoming podcast episode. So I like that, too. I like that. And I don't feel bad about that. I like that kind of flexibility in my world.

Gresham Harkless 15:47

Yeah, absolutely. You earned it for being out of the house as well, too. So you have that opportunity to get ready for that podcast episode. And like you said, you know, I think, you know, even when I grew up, I remember, you know, my parents being out there, you know, in the stands, you know, whatever. My mom was crocheting and doing things like that. But you remember those things. So being there, you know, goes really, really far. So you being able to kind of be there and also get ready for your podcast interviews is something that's really awesome. So I appreciate that perspective. Yeah, well, awesome. Stacy, I appreciate you and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you to the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then, of course, I best they can get a whole view and find out about all this with things you're doing.

Stacey Brown Randall 16:23

Yep. So the home base is Stacey Brown randall.com where they want to find out any information on the book generating business referrals without asking on my podcast Roadmap to grow your business. There's definitely places to go. The book is available wherever books are sold. The podcast is on the podcast listening apps and then the home base being Stacy Brown randall.com would be the the place I would tell folks to get started. Of course I'm on most of the social media sites. Just look for me for my full name, Stacey Brown Randall. And of course Stacy has an E. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Gresham Harkless 16:50

And we'll make sure to have those links and that information in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up. But thank you so much again Stacey. I hope you have a great rest of the day.