Transcript00:00:05 Joanna Lindenbaum
I’m Joanna Lindenbaum, a coach ritualist and all around transformation nerd who is obsessed with helping clients go deep to create more change and results with their clients. I created the coaching.00:00:20 Joanna Lindenbaum
Revolution podcast to share with you coaching skills, tips and advice as well as a deeper understanding of human behavior and.00:00:29 Joanna Lindenbaum
Of yourself so that you can do even better client work and group work. Grow your business organically.00:00:37 Joanna Lindenbaum
And know that you’re making a real difference in the world. This is about creating a revolution in the transformational industry so that more practitioners feel amazing.00:00:40Ohh.00:00:49 Joanna Lindenbaum
About what they do and so that more of our clients experience life changing shifts, let’s get started.00:01:06 Joanna Lindenbaum
Welcome back to the show. I’m so glad you’re here today because we’re diving into one of the most effective, powerful, joyful and often overlooked ways to grow your coaching or transformational business. And I’m talking about referrals. Referrals are gold for your business.00:01:28 Joanna Lindenbaum
They’re much, much warmer than cold leads, and in fact, research shows that referrals are four times more likely to say yes to working with you. And that’s because they often already have a sense of trust in you before they even hop on a sales conversation.00:01:47 Joanna Lindenbaum
Referrals are also so much more cost effective than ads, social media content or spending hours chasing down new leads, not to mention, and I love this part especially.00:02:00 Joanna Lindenbaum
Me. You don’t need a big e-mail community or to be a social media star. You don’t need complicated tech or funnels in order to generate leads from referrals. There are so many people that you can activate referrals from.00:02:21 Joanna Lindenbaum
Friends, colleagues, people that you know from various places and of course a great type of person to activate referrals from.00:02:32 Joanna Lindenbaum
Are happy clients and when you activate referrals from Happy clients who sing your praises.00:02:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
It not only brings in leads, but it boosts your confidence and when your confidence is boosted, you’re more likely to market more boldly.00:02:53 Joanna Lindenbaum
You’re more likely to do more outreach to make yourself more visible. To speak more from your heart, to make change and impact.00:03:04 Joanna Lindenbaum
When your confidence is boosted, you are more likely to charge aligned rates etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.00:03:14 Joanna Lindenbaum
In other words, when you get referrals from happy clients who sing your praises, you naturally become more magnetic and poised to grow your business. You may already know this because I’ve shared this before, but I’m going to share it again because I think it’s so profound.00:03:34 Joanna Lindenbaum
Easily easily 45 to 50% of my total income comes from referrals from very satisfied clients, and in fact in sacred depths. Even more than 45 to 50% of.00:03:53 Joanna Lindenbaum
Our students come from referrals from other sacred depth graduates who have been so happy with the certification that they refer their friends and their colleagues. I cannot say enough.00:04:10 Joanna Lindenbaum
Of how important referrals are for a thriving business, and especially in 2025, when people are craving more personal and values aligned experiences. And I mean, let’s be honest right now and there’s research.00:04:31 Joanna Lindenbaum
Kindness. Right now there’s just less trust in out in the market in general, and because of this trust factor, referrals are more important than ever. People don’t just want another expert with polished branding.00:04:51 Joanna Lindenbaum
They want someone who gets them and someone who their friend or their colleague says. You’ve got to work with her. So if you’ve been wondering how to get more clients without burning out on Instagram or pouring money into complicated.00:05:10 Joanna Lindenbaum
Tunnels. You are in the right place.00:05:14 Joanna Lindenbaum
Today I’m going to be sharing some very common mistakes that people make, especially coaches when they try to generate referrals and what to do instead, and I know the title of the episode, says 5 mistakes. But I actually added in two.00:05:33 Joanna Lindenbaum
Extra bonus pieces for us to look at because I couldn’t resist sharing them with you. They are really important and each one of the seven mistakes that we’re going to be looking at today are going to make a difference for you.00:05:50 Joanna Lindenbaum
And heads up this podcast episode is also a little teaser for something exciting I’ve got coming up next week. It’s a totally free five day training called become a referral magnet where I’m going to teach you how to step by step by step, activate more referrals.00:06:11 Joanna Lindenbaum
In a way that’s completely authentic and aligned with your values, I am kind of obsessed with telling as many people as I can about become a referral magnet because the information inside of those five days is solid.00:06:28 Joanna Lindenbaum
At gold, it’s rooted in everything we know about human behavior, and it makes use of transformational principles that are going to help you magnetize new business and have more prospects come your way.00:06:45 Joanna Lindenbaum
I can say for certain that if you participate in all 5 days of become a referral magnet, it will poise you to grow your business. We hosted become a referral magnet last year and people started activating new leads before we were even done with the week.00:07:06 Joanna Lindenbaum
The thing about become a referral magnet is that you get all of the training and templates and strategies that you need to activate referrals, and you also get to do some very deep inner work so that you’re in the right place.00:07:26 Joanna Lindenbaum
And energy to do referral outreach and as part of those five days, you also.00:07:34 Joanna Lindenbaum
Get 5, get it done, sessions so that you can write your referral copy in real time and not only that you get personal feedback on everything that you write. Me and my team will take a look at anything you want us to and it’s all for free.00:07:55 Joanna Lindenbaum
So I’ll share more about become a referral magnet as we go along, but you can also head to the link in the show notes and register right now. OK. So let’s jump in to the seven mistakes that block referrals mistake #1.00:08:13 Joanna Lindenbaum
Is not asking for referrals.00:08:17 Joanna Lindenbaum
Out of fear of being pushy.00:08:21 Joanna Lindenbaum
So let’s just start with the big one. So many incredible coaches don’t ask for referrals simply because they’re afraid it’s going to make them seem salesy or pushy or, uh, like one of those people.00:08:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
And I really get it. None of us want to feel like we’re imposing or pushy or using people. This is a biggie for me personally. I really get it.00:08:57 Joanna Lindenbaum
And the truth is, is that if you don’t ask for referrals in the right ways, it can inadvertently end up sounding pushy or imposing.00:09:13 Joanna Lindenbaum
But not being said when you’ve got the right language to use and when you shift your energy to be magnetic, then referrals become about connection.00:09:27 Joanna Lindenbaum
Instead of those referral.00:09:28 Joanna Lindenbaum
Requests feeling like pressure for you or for who you’re asking.00:09:34 Joanna Lindenbaum
They can become about giving people a beautiful opportunity to help someone they care about.00:09:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
In become a referral magnet, we’ll go deep into this one because it’s a biggie. So in addition to learning how to language your referral outreach so that it’s not pushy, we’ll actually walk through a powerful inner process for you to deeply explore and shift.00:10:01 Joanna Lindenbaum
Your fear of being pushy or too salesy. And here’s the thing that I guarantee.00:10:08 Joanna Lindenbaum
P If the fear of being pushy or too salesy or aggressive is showing up for you around referrals and holding you back from asking for referrals, it is also showing up in other areas of your marketing and your business and it’s blocking you.00:10:29 Joanna Lindenbaum
So this is a biggie. This is one we absolutely need and want to tackle. And here’s a spoiler alert when you shift your energy around asking for referrals. People are grateful that you asked.00:10:47 Joanna Lindenbaum
It’s the exact opposite of being pushy.00:10:51 Joanna Lindenbaum
All right, let’s move on to mistake #2 that is often made when people want to activate referrals. You don’t ask for referrals because you assume that the people that you know don’t know other people who could be your ideal clients.00:11:13 Joanna Lindenbaum
Now this one sneaks in a little more subtly.00:11:18 Joanna Lindenbaum
You end up thinking something like. Well, my cousin works in finance and my old college friend is a mom of three. I doubt that they know anyone who wants coaching or somatic work or this or that, right?00:11:33 Joanna Lindenbaum
But here’s what you might be forgetting.00:11:37 Joanna Lindenbaum
People know people.00:11:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
And sometimes the connections that bring you your next amazing client aren’t direct. Maybe they’re one or two degrees removed.00:11:51 Joanna Lindenbaum
When you stop making assumptions about who knows who and instead allow yourself to actually do the outreach.00:12:01 Joanna Lindenbaum
And plant thoughtful clear referral seeds. You open up entire new networks that you didn’t even realize were available to you.00:12:14 Joanna Lindenbaum
And by the way, this is also true of the assumption that the people that you know don’t know other people who can afford your services. I have been there before, I promise you, and I am here to ask you, please, please, please do not make that.00:12:33 Joanna Lindenbaum
Assumption.00:12:35 Joanna Lindenbaum
While it might be true in some cases, it’s not true in all cases.00:12:44 Joanna Lindenbaum
Don’t underestimate the pull that a potential prospect has to invest with you. If they really trust you and want what?00:12:55 Joanna Lindenbaum
You have to offer.00:12:57 Joanna Lindenbaum
Sometimes I can’t afford it or it’s too expensive means just that I don’t have the money in the bank, so I literally can’t afford it. It literally your offer is too expensive, but I also promise you that many.00:13:17 Joanna Lindenbaum
Other times it’s too expensive or I can’t afford it actually means.00:13:24 Joanna Lindenbaum
I’m not sure that your service is worth the investment, so when you ask referrals in the right ways.00:13:38 Joanna Lindenbaum
And also when you.00:13:40 Joanna Lindenbaum
Have a good sales process in place.00:13:43 Joanna Lindenbaum
You’re going to see that the people that you know do know people that can afford you or your ideal prospects.00:13:57 Joanna Lindenbaum
So again, please, please please if you’ve been holding back from doing outreach because of these assumptions, I really want to challenge you on this. And if you come and join us for become a referral magnet, we’re going to learn how to speak to these resistances.00:14:18 Joanna Lindenbaum
When you ask for referrals as.00:14:21 Joanna Lindenbaum
All right, let’s move on to mistake #3 common mistake that people make when they want to activate referrals in their business.00:14:30 Joanna Lindenbaum
This one is you think you need to sound glossy or slick or formal when you make your asks. Alright, let me break this one down a little.00:14:43 Joanna Lindenbaum
That very often people coaches try to quote UN quote sound professional when they do referral outreach and when you get too hooked into. I got to sound a certain way. I got a sound you know.00:15:03 Joanna Lindenbaum
Slick or glossy or formal or whatever it is, then you end up writing emails or messages that feel stiff or inauthentic.00:15:15 Joanna Lindenbaum
Or.00:15:17 Joanna Lindenbaum
You just don’t end up writing anything at all because you are completely creatively blocked by the idea that you need to sound a certain way.00:15:29 Joanna Lindenbaum
Here is what I want you.00:15:30 Joanna Lindenbaum
To know about this.00:15:34 Joanna Lindenbaum
Your warmth.00:15:35 Joanna Lindenbaum
And your realness are your greatest marketing tools. Not a polished elevator pitch, not a sleek sales page. It is a you. You are your greatest marketing tool, and this is true of referral marketing. And this is true also of.00:15:55 Joanna Lindenbaum
All of your marketing, the more authentic that you are, the more you sound like yourself then the more magnetic your marketing becomes and.00:16:09 Joanna Lindenbaum
I can tell you I remember back to the first few years of my business where writing copy was so hard for me because I thought I needed to sound a certain way or I thought I wasn’t professional enough or you know that marketing had to sound like this, that.00:16:28 Joanna Lindenbaum
And the other thing it really, really blocked me and it.00:16:32 Joanna Lindenbaum
Is just the farthest from the truth.00:16:35 Joanna Lindenbaum
Inside of become a referral magnet. I’m gonna teach you how to write referral outreach. That is natural, heartfelt, and persuasive without being pushy at all. And we are going to give you templates and lots of examples.00:16:56 Joanna Lindenbaum
So that you’re not staring at a blank screen, wasting time trying to write.00:17:04 Joanna Lindenbaum
All right, mistake #4. When it comes to activating referrals is not knowing how to articulate.00:17:15 Joanna Lindenbaum
What your work is for and who your work is for.00:17:22 Joanna Lindenbaum
If people don’t understand what you do.00:17:27 Joanna Lindenbaum
Or who you help.00:17:29 Joanna Lindenbaum
It becomes really, really difficult for them to refer potential.00:17:36 Joanna Lindenbaum
Clients to you.00:17:38 Joanna Lindenbaum
And this is true even if they love you, even if they adore you.00:17:43 Joanna Lindenbaum
Even if they really.00:17:44 Joanna Lindenbaum
Want to refer to you?00:17:47 Joanna Lindenbaum
And you know, you wouldn’t think this is true, but it is true even for clients that have worked with you and have achieved incredible results with you, you still need to be able to articulate for them for referrals. What your work is.00:18:08 Joanna Lindenbaum
And who it’s for, and this is where so many brilliant practitioners get trip.00:18:14 Joanna Lindenbaum
Up. They’re good at the work, but when it comes time to explain the work in a sentence or two, it’s like you go completely blank, or you ramble. Or you sound too vague.00:18:32 Joanna Lindenbaum
Vague or generalities do not help marketing at all. You want to be very specific.00:18:40 Joanna Lindenbaum
And by the way.00:18:42 Joanna Lindenbaum
No shame or judgment if this is you.00:18:48 Joanna Lindenbaum
I have been there many times and by the way, not just in the past. So even though I’ve been in business for years and even though I’ve been marketing for years, and even though I am somewhat expert in this and I teach all of this, I will still tell you.00:19:09 Joanna Lindenbaum
That it is ongoing work for me to get more and more and more targeted in my messaging and also to continue to shift my messaging as my work grows and evolves and changes.00:19:26 Joanna Lindenbaum
Articulating what your work is and who your work is for is something that, if you are in business, you are going to be doing for the lifetime of your business. It’s not a once and done.00:19:45 Joanna Lindenbaum
In become a referral magnet. If you join us, we’re going to get clear on your referral messaging. You’re going to articulate your work in language that clicks for your referral requests.00:20:03 Joanna Lindenbaum
And as I said.00:20:05 Joanna Lindenbaum
Earlier this is the part that makes my nerdy heart really happy.00:20:11 Joanna Lindenbaum
You’re not going to be doing this on your own over those five days. You are going to be getting. Get it done. Time with my team. And then you’re also going to be getting feedback from me and my team on your writing so that you’re going to walk away with messaging.00:20:31 Joanna Lindenbaum
That feels good and that works.00:20:35 Joanna Lindenbaum
All right, that.00:20:36 Joanna Lindenbaum
Brings us to mistake #5. When you are looking to activate referrals and this one, this next 1 is really important. I mean, these are all really important. Anyway, the mistake is asking for referrals.00:20:56 Joanna Lindenbaum
Out of the blue from people that you’ve.00:20:58 Joanna Lindenbaum
Lost touch with.00:21:01 Joanna Lindenbaum
So I think we’ve all been there suddenly remembering someone you meant.00:21:07 Joanna Lindenbaum
To stay in contact with.00:21:10 Joanna Lindenbaum
But haven’t and what you don’t want to do.00:21:15 Joanna Lindenbaum
Is to be reaching out for people, for referrals only when you need something.00:21:25 Joanna Lindenbaum
It can feel awkward, and it often doesn’t work. Not because they don’t like you, but because the relationship feels cold. It needs more warmth and connection, and This is why having a keep in touch system.00:21:44 Joanna Lindenbaum
Is essential.00:21:46 Joanna Lindenbaum
Well, you want to be nurturing relationships throughout the year, not just when you’re launching or looking for clients and you want the people you’re reaching out to for referrals to feel that you really care about them and their lives and what they’re.00:22:06 Joanna Lindenbaum
Up to.00:22:08 Joanna Lindenbaum
At the heart of all marketing, all marketing is relationships, plain and simple now.00:22:19 Joanna Lindenbaum
Keeping in touch regularly sounds easy, but in practice not so easy, because how do you stay organized and on top of keeping in touch with people when life is so busy? How do you remember to be consistent?00:22:39 Joanna Lindenbaum
In keeping in touch with folks.00:22:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
What do you even?00:22:42 Joanna Lindenbaum
Say to people as you’re keeping in touch with them.00:22:46 Joanna Lindenbaum
So in become a referral magnet, I’m going to be giving you an easy doable system to stay connected with. The folks in your network or to reactivate connection with people in your network. And it is a system.00:23:06 Joanna Lindenbaum
Where you don’t need to be on social media all day long, I promise you.00:23:11 Joanna Lindenbaum
It’s simple, it’s repeatable and it feels good because you get to stay in touch with people that you really like and you really value. You get to have more relationship in your life.00:23:28 Joanna Lindenbaum
All right, now we’re moving into our bonus time territory. I’ve got two more mistakes that I wanted to share with you.00:23:38 Joanna Lindenbaum
The next one is.00:23:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
Of all, everything we’re looking at today, it’s honestly the one that I am the most passionate about. If you know me, if you’ve participated and been a student in the sacred depths, transformational practitioner training, or any of my trainings, you.00:24:02 Joanna Lindenbaum
You know, I take a stand for this next one and the mistake is not having excellent and extraordinary coaching and transformational skills.00:24:18 Joanna Lindenbaum
This one is real and I’m just saying it straight up and I hope it doesn’t sound harsh. Please please know that I say this with love and respect.00:24:32 Joanna Lindenbaum
The best way to generate referrals is to be referral worthy in your work.00:24:44 Joanna Lindenbaum
When your work is deeply transformational, when you have the skills to really support your clients to Co create results and to change when your clients walk away from the work with you.00:25:06 Joanna Lindenbaum
Feeling seen and empowered and changed.00:25:13 Joanna Lindenbaum
That’s when they want to tell people about you. They become your biggest fans.00:25:21 Joanna Lindenbaum
Sometimes without you even needing to ask for referrals when your clients are obsessed with their work with you, they are more likely to refer others to you.00:25:38 Joanna Lindenbaum
So if you’re not seeing a lot of referrals from current clients, it is a very worth looking at how you can deepen your mastery of your skills, how you can deepen your presence when you hold your client containers.00:25:57 Joanna Lindenbaum
And how you can really level up?00:26:01 Joanna Lindenbaum
The experience that you provide in your client containers and again this is something I love talking about and you know this is what all of my practitioner trainings are about helping you become such an extraordinary coach and practitioner that you 10 times.00:26:22 Joanna Lindenbaum
Your ability to support your clients through every goal.00:26:26 Joanna Lindenbaum
Every situation, every fear and resistance and shadow. And yes, we will be talking about this inside of become a referral magnet too, because I can’t help myself and also because great marketing is built on great.00:26:45 Joanna Lindenbaum
Delivery.00:26:47 Joanna Lindenbaum
All right, so that brings us to our final piece that we’re going to take a look at in our episode today. Mistake, #7 when it comes to referrals.00:26:59 Joanna Lindenbaum
And this one is as follows, thinking that you don’t know enough people to create a referral event. So let me back this one up a little bit and 1st tell you I love love, love creating and leading.00:27:19 Joanna Lindenbaum
What I call referral events, if you are not doing this in your business, I promise you you are missing out.00:27:30 Joanna Lindenbaum
There’s a lot that goes into describing a referral event, but for now in short, referral events are when you host a workshop or a class or a meeting or a party, or really any kind of event in person or online, where your inner circle.00:27:51 Joanna Lindenbaum
And come and bring their friends.00:27:54 Joanna Lindenbaum
This is an incredible, incredible marketing tool that really poises you to activate more leads through referral.00:28:05Yes.00:28:06 Joanna Lindenbaum
It can also help you reactivate old clients who maybe haven’t been working with you for a while to start working with you again. Now you might be listening to me right now and saying to yourself, well, that sounds really great, but I don’t have a big audience. I’m not sure.00:28:27 Joanna Lindenbaum
Anyone would come to a referral event.00:28:31 Joanna Lindenbaum
But here’s the thing. The beauty of all referral marketing is that you don’t need a huge list or a huge social following to activate referrals. What you do need in this case is a well designed, intimate event.00:28:51 Joanna Lindenbaum
That gives people a meaningful experience of you and your work.00:28:59 Joanna Lindenbaum
As well as an effective invitation to share it with someone who would benefit.00:29:06 Joanna Lindenbaum
So again, I love, love, love referral events. They are one of the cornerstones of my business and inside of become a referral magnet, I’m going to teach you how to create these kinds of referral events. They are low pressure and high value.00:29:27 Joanna Lindenbaum
Previews of you and your work that naturally lead to referrals and enrollments, and you’re going to walk away with a plan that you can really start implementing right away.00:29:45 Joanna Lindenbaum
So as we.00:29:47 Joanna Lindenbaum
Move towards wrapping today’s session, which I hope has been really valuable for you. I hope you’ve been taking notes and are taking away a lot from this episode. I think I want to end by saying this. Yes, of course.00:30:05 Joanna Lindenbaum
Referrals are about bringing in more clients, but that being said, and I hope you really got what I’m about to say from the episode today, referrals are also about so much more.00:30:24 Joanna Lindenbaum
They’re about building your business on relationships, integrity and transformation.00:30:33 Joanna Lindenbaum
Referrals are about allowing the people who already love you and or your work to help you grow, and they’re about feeling and creating more intimacy in your business because you get to be in deeper relationship.00:30:54 Joanna Lindenbaum
With more amazing.00:30:56 Joanna Lindenbaum
People.00:30:58 Joanna Lindenbaum
So if any of the mistakes that I mentioned today made you think Ohh 5 definitely done that again, I want you to know you’re not alone. I want to normalize all of it and the good.00:31:12 Joanna Lindenbaum
News is that.00:31:14 Joanna Lindenbaum
Everything that we looked at today are totally.00:31:18 Joanna Lindenbaum
Learnable skills.00:31:21 Joanna Lindenbaum
And that’s exactly why I really, really, really hope that you’re going to join me for become or for all magnet we start next week. And I would love to have you there so you can head to the link in the show notes to grab your spot. I am so, so passionate about this one.00:31:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
Because you get so much for free.00:31:46 Joanna Lindenbaum
And if you know a fellow coach or practitioner who’s been struggling with client attraction, or who wants to build their business more relationally this year, or who wants to grow their transformational skills, please, please.00:32:05 Joanna Lindenbaum
Send this episode their way because referrals start here to and as always I am so, so, so appreciative of anyone that you let know about this podcast.00:32:21 Joanna Lindenbaum
Oh, and one last thing before we wrap for today. We have slowly or I shouldn’t say slowly but kind of behind the scenes we have opened the doors for the next round of the sacred depths, transformational practitioner certification and.00:32:41 Joanna Lindenbaum
People have been coming in and joining the new cohort, which starts at the end of September.00:32:49 Joanna Lindenbaum
Number right now is the lowest rate on Sacred Death, so if it’s something that you’ve had your eye on, I definitely would take a look at the page and sign up to have a conversation with me.00:33:10 Joanna Lindenbaum
Or someone on my team. Yeah, we’ll help you.00:33:16 Joanna Lindenbaum
Answer all of your questions and just see if it’s right.00:33:18 Joanna Lindenbaum
For you.00:33:20 Joanna Lindenbaum
All right. Thank you so much for listening. As always, it gives me such great pleasure to share everything that I share in this podcast with you. And I can’t wait to see you next time.
