Growing Your Private Practice with Only Referrals
In this session, I had a fantastic conversation with Andrea Nordling about building a referral-based business without using social media. Andrea shares her personal journey from real estate to holistic nutrition, and how she's successfully grown businesses without relying on social media. We delved into the power of referrals, using email marketing to nurture referrals, and honing your messaging for results. This session is perfect for those looking to bring in more referrals to their practice.
Takeaways
Focus on existing clients and create a referral mindset
Make it easy for clients to refer by providing clear instructions
Improve the client experience to encourage referrals
Use email marketing and websites effectively to connect with clients
Believe in the referral process and have confidence in your transformation
Meet the Speaker: Andrea Nordling
Andrea started as an entrepreneur almost 20 years ago and has since launched and grown 3 successful businesses to six and seven figures...from scratch.
And guess what? The two most lucrative businesses have been built without social media. It's her not-so-secret sauce.
These days, she gets to show fellow holistic nutritionists and health coaches how to ALSO build a profitable, impactful online practice and make consistent income every month in their biz without relying on social media.
Transcript
Timestamps
[00:00:00] Welcome to Elevate Your Practice: The Power of Referrals
[00:00:33] Meet Andrea Nordling: Entrepreneurship Without Social Media
[00:01:09] Andrea's Journey: From Real Estate to Nutrition
[00:02:57] The Shift to Business Coaching and the Profitable Nutritionist Program
[00:04:37] The Strategy: Growing a Business Through Referrals
[00:05:38] Andrea's Framework for Leveraging Referrals
[00:09:00] Practical Tips for Generating Referrals
[00:24:17] The Importance of Simplifying Your Offer
[00:27:08] Tracking Referrals and Final Thoughts
[00:29:30] How to Connect with Andrea and Summit Conclusion
Full Transcript
Welcome to Elevate Your Practice: The Power of Referrals
[00:00:00] Samantha Mabe: I'm so excited for this next session of Elevate Your Practice.
In this session, I'm talking with Andrea Nordling, all about building a referral based business. So a lot of what we've talked so far about in the summit has to do with social media, Websites, email marketing, the typical marketing channels we think of, but I don't want us to leave referrals behind. And Andrea has a really unique perspective on how you can grow your private practice without using social media.
Meet Andrea Nordling: Entrepreneurship Without Social Media
[00:00:33] Samantha Mabe: Andrea Nordling started as an entrepreneur almost 20 years ago and has since launched and grown three successful businesses to six and seven figures from scratch. And guess what? The two most lucrative businesses have been built without social media. It's her not so secret sauce.
These days, she gets to show fellow holistic nutritionists and health coaches how to also build a profitable, impactful online presence and make consistent income every month in their business without relying on social media.
Hi Andrea, thank you so much for joining the Elevate Your Practice Summit.
[00:01:06] Andrea Nordling: I'm so excited to be here, Samantha. Thank you for having me.
Andrea's Journey: From Real Estate to Nutrition
[00:01:09] Samantha Mabe: Can you tell us a little bit more about who you work with and your background and how you got into working with the people that you do?
[00:01:17] Andrea Nordling: Yes. So I work mostly with holistic nutritionists and health coaches that are growing their practices online. I have personal experience with that. Through my own health crises in 2015, I found nutritional therapy and got certified as a nutritional therapy practitioner, which I never intended to make into a business. That was not my intention at all. I just wanted to heal my body and I wanted to feed my family better. I know this is a familiar story for a lot of people that find themselves in health and wellness.
But actually I had a background in real estate. So I had been selling real estate since I was 22 years old. I don't know who to blame for this, but someone in my life at age 22, when I graduated from college, I intended to apply to the FBI Academy, but you couldn't do that till you were 23. So for, I had a year to kill and someone in my life said, you should sell real estate. Now, who tells a 22 year old that has never even bought a house before that they should sell real estate? It's the dumbest thing I ever heard, but maybe they knew something because actually I was pretty good at it. It went really well.
And so I had a decade of experience working as an entrepreneur and getting clients and serving them and figuring out processes and time management and how to get referrals. I knew how to do that in my real estate life. My real estate life, however, made me very sick and need nutritional therapy in the first place.
So I came into my holistic nutrition practice in 2015 not thinking it was going to be a business, decided it most definitely was. And I got clients very quickly because I knew how to do that. That was a skillset I already had. So other colleagues came to me and we're saying like, how do you do this? I don't understand, how are you doing it? And I was growing my practice online. I was working with people in person. I was doing all of the things.
The Shift to Business Coaching and the Profitable Nutritionist Program
[00:02:57] Andrea Nordling: And I really just over the course of three or four years officially decided that I would way rather talk about business than talk about nutrition. If I'm being very honest with myself, I have a love for business and passion of 20 plus years now in business. So that is what I now do full time, but I did run a holistic nutrition practice for quite a while. And my colleagues that were coming to me were spreading the word about the great results they were getting, how they were signing a lot more clients, how their marketing was really landing better. So that has turned into what is now the Profitable Nutritionist Program and the Profitable Nutritionist Brand. I also have a podcast.
So that has all evolved since 2019, since I was just helping people to get their practices off the ground. I think you probably said this in the bio and a lot of people like this about my approach, is I personally am not on social media, so I have grown my practice without social media. A lot of people are also very curious about that.
[00:03:47] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, definitely. I don't practice in this space, but I work with entrepreneurs in this space for website design, because I also had to go on a health and wellness journey and I found all these amazing people. And I was like, Your websites are not very good. People cannot find you. Let me help you so that you can get your work out into the world. And it has been so impactful for our family. And I think so many of us find our way into this area because we're having to deal with things ourselves.
[00:04:20] Andrea Nordling: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's the best job. I truly think it's the best job. You get to have all of the freedom of being a business owner, being an entrepreneur, setting your own schedule, deciding what kind of business you want to have while also helping people transform their lives. It's such a win. I love it.
The Strategy: Growing a Business Through Referrals
[00:04:37] Samantha Mabe: So you mentioned that you don't use social media and I wanted to talk to you about that and how you're growing from referrals. I think A lot of businesses start out, we grow by referrals, and then we're convinced we have to move on to social media for our marketing to continue to grow. So I want to talk about why referrals is such a powerful means of growing a business, especially in this industry.
[00:05:03] Andrea Nordling: I was on social media from 2015 to 2020. I was on social media. I was on all the platforms. I was doing all the things, but I wasn't really doing all the things cause I didn't like it. I, it was a lot of pressure. I. I just, it was like, I should do this. Everybody says you should grow your audience. Everybody says you should be more visible. So I was doing all of the should things, but I didn't like it.
I felt like this is just out of integrity with how I want to live my life. I don't want to be on a screen all the time. I don't want to be constantly on my phone scrolling. And that doesn't feel like holistic health to me. It's a conundrum. I know a lot of people will relate to that.
Andrea's Framework for Leveraging Referrals
[00:05:38] Andrea Nordling: I just decided I'm going to do what I'm already doing and I'm going to lean into referrals. And if I do a really great job serving my clients, they're going to go tell people about it. And I'm just going to believe in that.
And I'm going to structure my business so it's really easy for people to refer to me. I'm going to talk to my people as if they're already referring me, which is going to make my copy a lot more bold. It's going to Land better. So we'll talk about that. I have a framework for this that I'll share with you. And then I just decided this is what I'm doing. People are going to refer me, now I'm going to structure everything accordingly.
And I really had to remind myself that businesses have been successful long before social media and people were successful entrepreneurs, myself being one of them in my real estate days for 10 plus years, I had a exclusively referral based business. I didn't even have a website. I didn't, I wasn't on social media at all. So I really had to step back and say, I already know how to do this. And it's not that hard.
And the caveat to that is, since then I have realized that I wasn't successful in my business in spite of not being on social media, I really feel like it's because I wasn't on social media because every minute of time and energy and bandwidth that is spent scrolling and thinking about what someone else is doing or just getting lost in the feed or any of that, I just wasn't doing it. So my time was spent so much more productively in my business. And also I think just a healthier life in general.
It has been my superpower for years now growing my business and thinking really strategically about how do I make my process better for my clients? How do I get them better results? Because that's where my time is focused instead of what engaging thing am I going to do? What Reel am I going to do? I know that people spend a lot of time on that. And since I'm not, I think that it has really helped me to make a process that people want to refer.
[00:07:29] Samantha Mabe: That's awesome. You mentioned you work on client referrals. So are you mostly focused on getting clients to refer you? Or do you also do any networking to have other people refer that you might have similar clients with?
[00:07:41] Andrea Nordling: Both. I do lots of both. So I think when you put yourself in a frame of mind that you are going to receive referrals and you just decide like that my business is going to grow because of referrals. People are going to get insane results and they want what I have. So they're going to tell everybody about it. And when you decide that and you really sit in it and believe it, and I know this is a little woo, but I think the people listening to this are going to be here for it. So when you believe that, you speak about your business in a different way. You talk to people as if, of course, they're going to refer you. You meet new networking partners that of course are going to refer you because it's the way you present what you do and how you help people. You just exude that confidence and your messaging lands in a much better way.
Now there's some tangible ways to do that, but I think it is a way of being as well, which is much different than I got to grow my audience. I got to grow my audience. I got to get more people. I got to get more people. Because that presumes that the people that are already paying attention aren't paying attention, but they are because we already all have people in our lives that want to support us. Even if we don't have a huge email list or a huge database of people, and we do have people that are interested and they have people they can refer to us.
Even if you've never worked with a client before, you can get referrals because there are people in your life that want to help you. So we can talk about that. I have a few notes of things that I wanted to share that I think might be helpful for how to do that. So can we just dive in?
[00:09:00] Samantha Mabe: Yeah.
Practical Tips for Generating Referrals
[00:09:00] Samantha Mabe: Let's dive into how do we get started with all of this? And then what are your strategies and tips?
[00:09:05] Andrea Nordling: What comes to mind to me is someone at Christmas seeing like their uncle that they haven't seen for a long time or just, this could be any situation. You'd be at your kid's sports games, whatever, networking with other parents, talking about what do you do? What do you do? That kind of thing. Or just a catch up. Like how's that nutrition thing going? I work with nutrition so I was using nutrition examples. How's that health thing you're doing? Whatever it is.
People are interested in what you're doing and we think they know what I do. Of course they know what I do. They, first of all, have no idea what we do. They really don't. They have no idea who we help. They have no idea what sorts of people would benefit from the help that we give. They don't want to act dumb. So people are not going to ask a lot of questions typically. They're not going to say, can you tell me more? Oh, I didn't know that. Tell me more about that. Not typically going to be how the conversation goes because people. Oh, I don't know what she's talking about. So I'm just gonna, I'm just going to go a different direction here. And it seems like they're not interested and really, they just don't understand what we do.
So I'm always thinking of you're at Christmas talking to your uncle and they're like, how's that nutrition thing going? So easy to say something along the lines of Oh my gosh, I love my business so much, specifically because my clients get great results. Like who wouldn't love their business when their clients are getting amazing results? In fact, my favorite clients to work with are people that have chronic insomnia. So if you know anyone that has insomnia, you send them my way. Just that sort of a really confident, tangible thing.
It doesn't matter what it is, but pick a thing and just say it. And now that person is forever going to associate you with insomnia or you with whatever that is. And our brains cannot help but take a mental inventory at that moment of, Oh my gosh, who do I know that has that, who do I know? And then names start popping in. And then they're thinking like, Oh, I could send this so and so to you. I could talk about it.
It just starts the conversation and it makes it so much easier to continue because now you have an opening. So now that person you're talking to is hold on, insomnia? What does that have to do with nutrition? Or what does that have to do with chiropractic or whatever that is? And now we have something to talk about. Oh yeah, this, it's the craziest thing. You would be amazed at the kind of stuff that I can help my clients with just with these small shifts that we do.
And it's now the conversation is going, now they're asking questions. Now they're thinking of who can I send your way? And that's, what's going to happen.
So I think one really huge thing about getting referrals is making sure that the people in your life that are already there, that are already paying attention, that already want to support you, know what you do. Give them some breadcrumbs to follow here so that they can help you and refer to you. So that's number one.
[00:11:36] Samantha Mabe: That's so helpful. And I love that you're really specific with I love working with people with this specific issue that they might mention.
[00:11:46] Andrea Nordling: It's just a conversation starter, right? And maybe you have 50 different conversations like that. And every time you say it, you say something else, like just play with it, have fun, who cares, but the more conversations like that you have and you give people something like, Oh, okay. I got to connect this with you. You're going to have those referrals coming in.
[00:12:02] Samantha Mabe: I have that all the time as a website designer. Who do you design websites for? I can say just anybody who needs a website and that doesn't help anybody. But if I say for chiropractors or for therapists, then when my mom sees someone posts that they have a new therapist, like it connects in her mind that's okay. Now I know what this is.
[00:12:24] Andrea Nordling: Absolutely. Absolutely. And just like compounding those conversations, just have more and more of a, make it fun and just see what happens. A lot of times what will happen is you're talking to someone who has that condition and you might be crafty like that. And you might just know through the grapevine that this person has acid reflux or has chronic pain or something like that. And you weave it in, but you say it and present it in a way that it's if you know anybody. And then, of course that could open up the conversation with them as well.
Just having those little interactions in your life with the people that are already paying attention, it's going to start that snowball effect. It's going to start people reaching out to you. You're going to be having discovery calls. You're going to be having more conversations with actual people that need your help.
So you're going to be hearing, okay, how do they describe their problem? Maybe it's different than the way that you describe it. Usually it is, usually we're not using the words that our people use to describe what they think they're actually struggling with. So having those conversations, Oh, okay. Taking note. Got to change my messaging a little bit. This is how people are describing it. Ooh, I'm talking over their head, or I need to simplify this a little bit.
You just gotta get the ball rolling by having lots of those conversations. And then it becomes easier and easier.
[00:13:29] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. So what else do you do? You start having those conversations, but what other things have you seen really work to start bringing in referrals and getting those clients in the door?
[00:13:39] Andrea Nordling: Yeah. So when you're working with clients and this works, even if you only have a couple, even if they're practice clients, but regardless, you got to speak to your clients as if they are already referring you.
So this is the assumptive close. It's just presuming that of course they're referring you. So you're saying things like, okay, Susie. I'm so incredibly proud of the results that you've made. I know we've talked a lot about it, how far you've come. Obviously people are asking you about this.
And I find with my clients that they get a little bit hung up on how to even explain what we're doing, cause we're doing so much. So when you talk to people about the work that we're doing, here's how you should explain it, or here's how you could explain it. Or here are some things you could do and tell people how they can explain What your process is really simply.
So what this does is it again, makes that person that you're talking to take note. They can't help but take inventory of Oh yeah, I should be talking about this. Or I am talking about this. Am I explaining it right? And it just assumes when you're going to be telling people about it. So you're planting the seed of course you're gonna be talking about it. Of course you are.
And that's you again, coming in more confidently and expressing that I'm going to make this really easy for you when you talk about the results that you're getting, when you talk about the work that we're doing together, when you're talking to people that may want to work with me, here's what you can tell them. And it's just, it's very assumptive, which works like a charm. It really does.
[00:15:01] Samantha Mabe: Yeah. It really can be framed too, as you're helping them. Because when you work in this space, people are like, I don't know how to tell you what I'm working on and what all this stuff is doing in my body.
And we're giving them a framework to say These are the things that we're addressing, this is what it's helping me with, and giving them kind of the script for when somebody asks those really intrusive questions. For, okay, this is what I can go back to because I've already internalized that.
[00:15:27] Andrea Nordling: Yeah. And a lot of my clients will say things like I work. I work with people with irritable bowel syndrome and nobody wants to talk about that. First of all, yes, they do. They're in Facebook groups all about that, talking about it all the time. So A of all, yes, they will talk about it.
But if that's what you believe, if you think nobody wants to talk about this, then you will shrink back. You're not going to say things like, this is how you refer me. You're not going to talk about it in that confident way, because your belief is nobody wants to talk about this. So we got to first break that. Yes, they do.
People want to share what's working for them. We all have this human desire to be the hero. Like we want to be the one that gives the great referral. We want to be the one that connects someone to the solution that they've been looking for. That's just. Being human. So presuming that people don't want to do that is not helping you or them at all, that we got to work on that first.
And then secondly, make it really easy for them to do that and just say here's how we talk about it. Yeah, we talk about some sensitive stuff in here. People might be wondering what the heck are we doing? Here's at the core, what we're doing. And then you talk about very simple, foundational set, like how we're balancing the foundations. Go to the simplest part of your process, how you would describe that and tell them, this is how you explain it to people. And then they will.
[00:16:38] Samantha Mabe: Awesome. So what's your next step to encourage more referrals? Do you have another part of that process or something you recommend?
[00:16:45] Andrea Nordling: I do. It is making your Client experience so good that they cannot help but go talk about it. This is where some of my clients will get like, Oh, what does that even mean? It's different for everybody, but how can you make your process simpler for your people? How can you make it more doable? How can you make it even easier for them? How can you evaluate with them so that they're seeing their results every day or every week or every time you meet with them, they're reminded of how far they've come? And it's top of mind for them.
Just these little things that we can do in our client delivery process makes such a big impact on obviously our client's getting better results, but then them going and spreading the word. So when in doubt, I think love on your clients, figure out how to make the experience better for your clients, how to make a framework for them or something that's going to make their experience better. Because that is time that is going to come back as referrals, especially if you are showing up in your business as if of course people are going to refer you.
I don't want to To mislead anyone, like you don't ever want to grow your audience or get more visibility. But especially in the beginning, it is my opinion and I've coached thousands of people on this. Now, it is my opinion that is not the best use of your time because you maybe don't feel that solid about the process and the thing that you're selling yet.
So when you really dial that in and you see your people are getting amazing results, you are going to grow your audience so much better. Your marketing is going to be so much better because you believe it. You see it. You have the results on your side. I can help someone they come to me. I got them. And in the beginning that. It just might be one person. It might be two people. It might be those first 10 clients that you're really ironing out the process a little bit, but focusing on that before you think you need to amass a huge audience, it's going to be time very well spent because that audience is going to start to grow itself.
And that's the beautiful thing about getting referrals is all of a sudden your email list is growing and it's not you out spreading the word. For me, not being on social media, that doesn't mean people aren't talking about me on social media. It's just not me doing it.
[00:18:43] Samantha Mabe: So you mentioned you have an email list. You have a website. So are those the things you depend on to then keep in communication with past clients, potential clients, referrals, as opposed to being on social media to talk to them?
[00:18:58] Andrea Nordling: All roads lead to Rome for me, to my email list. It's all about my email list. If you're not on my email list, you wouldn't know what I'm selling, when I'm selling, nothing.
But because that is my goal, I have really valuable emails and people love getting my emails. I consistently get feedback that I don't read anyone's emails. I don't even like getting emails, but I read your emails and that's because I always say like you to get my stuff, you got to get my emails.
For the first three years of my business, I didn't have a podcast. It was only emails. So I was sending out paid emails to other like other professional organizations that had my ideal clients. So I was paying to send emails. Then those were directing to my website, people signing up for stuff and getting on my email list. That was a very successful strategy for me. It still is. Finding people that have your same audience, but have a parallel focus and leaning into that and paying for for that access, which is a great.
But then I launched my podcast about three years into my business. And still, even with the podcast, every call to action on my podcast is something that's going to get people on my email list, because even though people do listen to my podcast and that gets shared a lot, I know like it's email list for me. That's my focus. All my best stuff goes out through email and I know I get the best referrals via email. So that's always my focus.
[00:20:15] Samantha Mabe: And I think that's really helpful to hear is you are not depending on a client to mention you one time. And that person walk into your office the next day.
[00:20:24] Andrea Nordling: No, I have a real process for nurturing those people once they get on my email list. Yeah.
[00:20:29] Samantha Mabe: There's like actually a step that's not okay go sign up for this right now. It's. Just get on their email list and start learning. And then you're taking over and you're building that trust. You're doing the same thing social media is, but in a very specific way, in a very specific place.
[00:20:45] Andrea Nordling: So what I think a lot of people do, especially when they don't have a team and it's them posting on social media and marketing on social media is they get really nervous about emailing because they feel like I've already said this. Everybody's already heard this. Everybody's already heard this because they have been posting this message and saying the thing and saying the thing. And in reality, people are not seeing that probably.
And your email is that's the gold. That's where people are going to be the most engaged. That's when people are going to be most likely to hear what you're saying. So I would always say, focus on that first.
And then if you're marketing on social media and you have the time and the bandwidth to do it and all of your other. Priorities have been done, then do that, but don't do it first because then you're going to shy away from being really bold in your emails and in having good calls to action in the email, because you'll think I've already said this and you're having that thought all the time, which isn't even true.
[00:21:35] Samantha Mabe: Do you recommend that people have some kind of a referral program for their clients to incentivize referrals or do you just do it organically?
[00:21:44] Andrea Nordling: I say just organically. I think there's too many moving pieces to try to do an incentive, something like that. I think that if your results are amazing that your clients are getting, they're going to want to give you referrals. And I think that serves your business a lot better than thinking they have to be compensated for it.
[00:21:58] Samantha Mabe: Are there any other steps in the referral process that we need to cover?
[00:22:01] Andrea Nordling: Okay, so focus on your clients and the people that are already there instead of growing your audience. I think for most of us, that's a really good idea. It what you said about and you pointed out I do have a really good nurture process for warming leads and converting leads that are already there. And I guess we did gloss over that a little bit. So let's talk about it.
I think that is a huge part of the referral process is having the mindset that the people are already here. So if they have not hired me yet, it's just because my messaging is off, or they're still confused about something, or they don't understand what I do, or they have questions. Make it something that you can actually improve instead of just not the right people. That's just not useful. It could be true. It could be, who knows, but it's not useful.
So always think about, okay, the people are here. They are paying attention. I need to have more conversations and maybe I need to talk about it a little differently. Maybe I need to explain things a little bit differently. Make it a game to improve instead of thinking I, this is the wrong people. Nobody's here. Nobody's watching. Cause that isn't actually true and it's not useful.
So focus on your clients and the people that are already there and figuring out how to speak to them and to their problems and to the solution that you offer and ultimately the big results that they want. I think people really shy away from that. Oh, I don't want to over promise because I can't guarantee they're going to get the results. So they don't talk about the results and that leads to people in, especially in the health and wellness space, your potential clients, not understanding what is even possible for them. Because we think, Oh, they know. No, they don't know. You need to tell them.
So always thinking about the messaging, always thinking about the people that are there, and when you do that, they will share it and it will grow your audience. But without you, like with that hustley Chihuahua energy of I got to get more people. I got to get more people. Think about the people that are already there that will always serve you.
And then secondly, the assumptive close, just presume that people are referring you, make it really easy for them by literally telling them, this is how you explain what we're doing to people when they ask you, it's just, it's so simple, but it's it's so basic. It's so reassuring though.
But don't we love that? Don't just as humans. We'd love to have our marching orders like, Oh, thank you. Okay, good. That's what I do. Give them their marching orders.
And then third, make it really simple.
The Importance of Simplifying Your Offer
[00:24:17] Andrea Nordling: So have a simple offer. Have simple messaging, have a simple process for where they should send people. Don't ever tell someone that wants to send someone your way, I have these six different ways that I help people. If they want this, we could do this. If they want this, we could do that. No, nobody knows what to do. Don't do that.
I suggest having just one offer. But even if you have more than one, just tell them one thing to do. Like they need to go to this page on your website and fill out this form or they need to text you or or they need to call you. Have just one Thing that they need to do and make it really simple.
[00:24:51] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, I totally agree with that from a user Experience point of view on a website when you've got a million choices people don't make a choice
[00:25:00] Andrea Nordling: So they feel like they have to go do homework. I gotta go do some research before I can do anything.
[00:25:04] Samantha Mabe: And a lot of times in this space, You, they're not going to choose the right thing anyway. So you need to get them on that consultation call to get them into the right bucket to understand what their issues are. So you're much better off to just say, this is the transformation that we work on, sign up for a call, and then we will get you in the right place instead of depending on them to make that decision.
[00:25:26] Andrea Nordling: Absolutely. And people feel that confidence . Make it a selling point, say, Oh, okay. I work very personalized process with my clients. So I have to understand more about what you've already tried that hasn't worked. And so I can customize the process to you. I will explain that on the call, but I have to learn more about you. This is what we do.
And make it a selling point for them. Make them feel like, Oh, I don't need to figure anything out. There's already a process here. I don't have to do homework before I do this call. This is going to be way different than any experience I've had so far. I don't need to go figure it out on my own. Okay. I got this.
That is that kind of confidence is really what your clients want. They don't want to go to your work with me page and see five different options where they need to figure out what stage am I at? Do I need this first? Do I need this first? They don't understand. They want to be told for exactly what you just told me, this is what we're going to do. Okay. Okay. That's what we're going to do. That's the only option. That's the only thing. It's so much better.
[00:26:21] Samantha Mabe: Yeah, and that's where honing your messaging after you talk to your clients and after you're seeing all of this comes in handy because then you're speaking directly to what they're saying, what their issues are, the transformation they're looking for. So it's really easy for them to come and see, okay, that is exactly what I just told my friend I was looking for the other day. Yeah, I'm gonna make sure that I get onto a call and work with this person.
[00:26:43] Andrea Nordling: Yeah, I remember one example that just stands out in my mind so much as I worked with a client early on in my nutrition practice, and she described herself as a total lemon. I'm just a total lemon. It was so funny. So I put that on my website. I was like, if you're a total lemon, here's what we're going to do. And then people kept talking about that. They're like, that's exactly what I am. I get it. I have all the problems. And just, yeah, you have to have the conversations.
Tracking Referrals and Final Thoughts
[00:27:08] Samantha Mabe: Do you have any metrics or indicators that help you track how your referrals are going and if you need to make adjustments to how you talk about them or any of that stuff?
[00:27:22] Andrea Nordling: Oh, that's an interesting question. Okay. So for my business right now at the seven figure level, we do have an affiliate program that's clients of mine that are in the profitable nutritionist program can refer the program and earn a commission. So we do have we actually do have an affiliate software that tracks that now.
But for my clients that are doing this, I think, no, I think no metrics. I think having an intake process where you're asking, how did you find out about me is going to be great for all of us to do. Always find out from your clients where they came from and why they came in super great. So a lot of times if it was a referral, you're going to find out then.
I would be curious about your thoughts about this. I'm not too married to this thought, but I don't know that it's the best use of time for early business owners to be hyper focused on that metric in particular. What do you think?
[00:28:09] Samantha Mabe: Knowing like who referred them can be helpful, and a lot of times, cause I was having this conversation when we were talking about Instagram for the summit, even if somebody follows you on social media for a while, or even if they've been on your email list for a while, when they reach out, they're always going to go back to this person referred you. So that's really the information that you need and everything else just gets really complicated when you're looking at referral.
[00:28:36] Andrea Nordling: Yeah, I totally agree. I would be so much more interested in why. Ooh, what did they say that caught your eye? That's what I would want to know.
[00:28:43] Samantha Mabe: Okay. Yeah, I think that's helpful. And especially as like you work with people and you can see more of that messaging language and like what somebody said or what they were going through at the time.
[00:28:54] Andrea Nordling: The clients I work with have usually pretty high ticket offers. So they will, when they do get a referral from someone, they will oftentimes like send flowers or a thank you basket or something to that person just as a completely surprise over delivery. Thank you for that kind of referral. So I do think definitely tracking it and knowing and having a process for how to show appreciation when that happens is wonderful, but I also can see how people in the beginning of their business would get very excited about having a system to track it. Let's go get so many referrals that we need to track them. And then we'll solve that problem.
How to Connect with Andrea and Summit Conclusion
[00:29:30] Samantha Mabe: So where can people find you since you're not on social media with you?
[00:29:34] Andrea Nordling: You could connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm newly on LinkedIn. I'm not really spending a lot of time, So this is really bad call to action to give.
So you would come to the profitable nutritionist. com. That is my website and there will be ample opportunity to get on my email list to opt into anything on the website. That is what I would suggest. I have a free course at the profitable nutritionist. com slash free, and that is going to walk you through 10 days of daily exercises, how to set your business up for referrals.
[00:30:03] Samantha Mabe: Thank you so much for tuning into this session of Elevate Your Practice. I was so excited to talk with all of the guests in this round of the summit, and I hope that you'll share it with a colleague or a friend who could use this magnetic marketing magic as well. You can send them to elevateyourpractice. co to register now, and they will get access to the summit right away.
