Referral Marketing for Professionals: 5 Proven Strategies to Get Picked Without Paid Ads

May 18

Direct Answer: Referral marketing helps professionals attract clients through trusted relationships, partnerships, and recommendations instead of relying entirely on paid ads or cold outreach. The strongest referral systems are built through visibility, consistency, credibility, and genuine connection.

Referral marketing is one of the most effective ways for professionals to grow because it starts with something advertising has to work much harder to create: trust.

When someone refers a lawyer, consultant, therapist, accountant, or other professional, that recommendation carries credibility before the first conversation even happens.

That is what makes referrals so valuable.

The challenge is that referrals rarely happen by accident. The professionals who consistently generate them usually build relationships intentionally, stay visible, and make it easy for others to remember what they do and who they help.

Here are five ways to build a stronger referral system.

1. Stop Selling and Start Connecting

Most people do not enjoy being sold to.

They are much more receptive to someone who is useful, generous, and interested in helping.

That means the best referral relationships often begin without asking for referrals at all.

Instead, look for ways to create value.

You might introduce two people who should know each other, highlight a local business, share someone else's content, invite a professional onto a podcast, or help promote an event.

That changes the relationship.

You are no longer approaching someone as a vendor looking for business. You are becoming a connector and resource.

Over time, that makes it much more natural for people to think of you when someone in their network needs the kind of help you provide.

2. Build Real Relationships, Not a Contact List

Referral marketing is not about collecting as many names as possible.

It is about becoming known and trusted by the right people.

One useful strategy is to create content that features others.

For example, a lawyer might interview a financial advisor, business owner, therapist, accountant, or other professional who serves a similar audience.

That content helps the other person while also creating a reason to stay connected.

It can also strengthen your own online presence by showing that you are active in your professional community and connected to credible people.

A good referral relationship should feel like a relationship, not a transaction.

3. Show Up Where Relationships Actually Develop

Digital networking matters, but real-world relationships still create valuable opportunities.

Professional associations, community events, business groups, conferences, local organizations, and industry gatherings can all lead to referral relationships.

The mistake is attending with the goal of collecting clients.

A better approach is to learn about people.

What do they do?

Who do they serve?

What problems are they trying to solve?

Who might you be able to introduce them to?

Referral opportunities often develop naturally when people see that you are genuinely interested in helping rather than immediately asking for business.

4. Stay Visible Long Enough to Be Remembered

Many professionals are good at meeting people.

Far fewer are good at staying in touch.

That is where referrals are often lost.

Someone may genuinely like you and respect your work, but if they have not heard from you in a year, your name may not come to mind when an opportunity appears.

Consistency helps solve that problem.

Stay visible through useful content, occasional check-ins, newsletters, LinkedIn posts, podcast episodes, events, or thoughtful follow-up.

You do not need to contact people constantly.

You simply want to remain familiar.

When someone eventually asks, "Do you know a good lawyer?" or "Do you know someone who can help with this?", your name should be easy to recall.

5. Build Intentional Referral Partnerships

Some relationships have much more referral potential than others.

The strongest referral partners often serve the same type of client without competing for the same work.

For example:

business attorneys and accountants
estate planning lawyers and financial advisors
family lawyers and therapists
employment attorneys and HR consultants
consultants and fractional executives

These relationships make sense because both professionals regularly encounter people who may need the other's services.

The goal is not to create a rigid referral exchange.

It is to understand each other's work well enough that a recommendation feels natural when the right situation appears.

That kind of trust takes time, but it can create a steady source of high-quality opportunities.

Referral Marketing Also Builds Online Authority

Referrals are often thought of as an offline strategy, but they can strengthen your digital credibility too.

Professional relationships can lead to:

podcast appearances
guest articles
speaking opportunities
media mentions
backlinks
introductions
reviews
professional recognition
collaborative content

Those third-party signals matter because they show that your expertise is being recognized outside your own website.

For professionals focused on AI search and online authority, this is especially valuable.

A strong digital presence is more credible when other people and organizations also reference, recommend, or feature you.

In other words, referral marketing can help build the same broader credibility ecosystem that supports both human trust and online discoverability.

The Be-Picked Perspective

Visibility gets you noticed.

Trust gives someone a reason to choose you.

Referral marketing sits directly between those two things.

A strong referral network helps other people carry your credibility into conversations you are not part of. Someone else is explaining who you are, what you do, and why you may be worth calling.

That is powerful because the recommendation arrives with trust already attached.

The goal is not simply to generate more leads.

It is to build a reputation strong enough that the right people are comfortable recommending you when the opportunity arises.

Getting found matters. Being remembered, trusted, and recommended is what gets you picked.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is referral marketing?

Referral marketing is a strategy for generating business through trusted recommendations, professional relationships, and partnerships rather than relying entirely on paid advertising or cold outreach.

How can professionals get more referrals consistently?

Focus on building genuine relationships, staying visible, helping others, and developing connections with professionals who serve similar clients without directly competing with you.

Can referral marketing help with AI search visibility?

Indirectly, yes. Strong referral relationships can lead to third-party mentions, podcast appearances, guest articles, reviews, backlinks, and other public credibility signals that strengthen a professional's broader online authority.

Andrew Colsky (00:12)
Welcome to be picked. We are the podcast that talks about how professional service providers can build their business and get out there in this new age of whatever the heck is going on on the internet and what type of marketing you need to do. My name is Andrew Colsky. I am your host. And today we're talking with Billy Sammons and Billy runs live local marketing.
and he's going to talk with us about referral marketing and what that is and how you do it and how he has made a success for himself by doing that. So Billy, welcome to the show.
Billy Sammons (00:45)
Dan, thanks for having me. I love the idea that your group is the perfect people that need all this information and we need to have some mindset shifts. So we're gonna get some mind shifts going on today. We're gonna teach people how to have fun marketing because it's not broccoli, it's ice cream.
Andrew Colsky (00:59)
All
right, well, I'm looking forward to it. Nobody's nobody's going to turn down ice cream.
Billy Sammons (01:04)
Nobody.
Andrew Colsky (01:06)
So maybe the best place to start is you're someone who's not just talking about it. You're someone who's talking about it because you did it and you live it. So you had to start your business at some point from
scratch, which a lot of our listeners are struggling with that.
So can you give us the background story? what, how did you do it? What happened and what got you to where you are?
Billy Sammons (01:30)
Yeah, superhero origin story, love it. So it was 16 years ago. 16 years ago, it sounds weird saying that out loud, 16 years ago. So 16 years ago, I started real estate, which is in similar position with a lot of the lawyers and the doctors and the people you have in your profession where we have to get sales, we gotta meet people. So I was on that same wavelength.
I got into this space, but I didn't want to be the typical real estate agent because they're a dime a dozen. You can't walk through the grocery store without bumping into three or four or five of them on the way through the grocery store. So I wanted to be somebody that was different. I was somebody in my past who was also a teacher and a coach and somebody who was very community oriented. So I wanted to carry that into my real estate and be somebody who is involved in the community.
And about that same time, we had a local brewery that opened up and it one of those that had like food trucks every Friday and kids games and you can bring your dogs. And it was such a community feel to it. It was a really awesome place, but it was really tucked away kind of far back. And I was there a few times and I met the owners. like, hey, listen, I need all the people in my audience to know you're here because I need you to succeed. We don't have a lot of cool stuff here. I want you to do well. So I'm like, why we do a commercial? At that time, my first son was about to be born and my wife bought a camera to take pictures.
This is pre like cell phone, cell phone couldn't do the job. It was the whole stand in the camera. I'm like, let's do a quick commercial. So 16 years ago, we did the commercial and I had so much fun doing it. Then I'm like, I'm doing more of these. This was a good time. And so I went to the bakery. I went to the school charity. I went to the police station. I went everywhere and started just meeting people and doing these commercials. And about halfway through, I realized that it wasn't necessarily like trying to gain attention from my audience as it was.
making great connections with local business owners in my community. And when I started that mindset shift of I wanna be popular and have a bunch of audience to I need to know all the local business owners, my business expanded, it grew three, four times and I started getting referrals and became referral partners with a lot of the business owners in my community and my
business took off from there. So it was just a matter of giving with intention and actually doing the thing you're saying you're gonna do and just meeting people through connections, it was fun.
Andrew Colsky (03:34)
Wow, so, all right, one of the things that I'm sure is spinning around in the listener's minds right now
Billy Sammons (03:38)
Let's go. Yes, let's go.
Andrew Colsky (03:40)
is, well, sure, you went out there and you got, you know, boots on the ground. You went and visited all these businesses. I'm sitting in my office. I can barely keep my head above water with my work. I can't do that. How
Billy Sammons (03:51)
Hmm?
Andrew Colsky (03:52)
am going to do it?
Billy Sammons (03:54)
So I mean, you have to have clients and you have to have customers. The only other way, the way I was told in the very, very, very beginning is you have to have cold leads, right? You have to go give Zillow your money. You have to get Google your money. You have to give them your money. They give you lists of people. But even then you still have to call that person three to five times before, you know, that lead converts. And even then, after you call them three to five times.
those only convert 3 % of the time if you're hustling. So why wouldn't you go out there and make one-on-one connections with people that have audiences already built in instead of chasing down all these cold leads that only convert 3 % of the time? Because you know if you're buying leads, which you can't afford if you're a startup business anyway, a lot of your audience is startups. You don't have 10 grand laying around and start doing Google Ads. And even then, most of the people are just...
wackies, they're just clicking buttons. They're not really clients, they're not really people you need to meet. However, if you go out there and make these intentional connections with people in your community, they've got referral bases, they all need your services. They see that you're an ally, they see you're somebody on the community
trying to help them, and you start becoming referral partners. That is the quickest way, the most genuine way, and the most affordable way to grow your business. So I would
Andrew Colsky (04:57)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (04:57)
counterpoint that with referrals better.
Andrew Colsky (05:01)
Okay, all right. So if a doctor or a lawyer, let's pick those two first, if they're listening to this and they say,
Billy Sammons (05:06)
Yes. Yeah. Yes.
Andrew Colsky (05:10)
okay, all right, so you've convinced me to get out from behind my desk and go and talk to people in community. What am supposed to say to them? Hi, I'm a lawyer, hire me? What do I say?
Billy Sammons (05:21)
No, actually you don't you don't talk about your services at all really because most lawyers most doctors are doing what they're doing because they want to help others that is generally the Cornerstone that I believe because most people aren't in it for the money first and foremost They want to genuinely give and help so you reach out to community. Hey listen
I'm starting a firm, I'm new to the community, I wanna meet more people. I wanna start helping, I wanna start giving. And I know you may need more attention or I've got an audience or I've got people I'd love you to meet. Can we just do a quick commercial? It'll take like a half an hour. And then from there, you've made that connection with that business owner.
key is you want to make sure you start with business owners and people that align with your values. So as a doctor, as a lawyer, you need to stop and think about what your values are, what's important to you. Because once you start with yourself and what the values are, you know who you should start aligning with. You don't want to start aligning with people that are takers or people that are like salesy or you need to know who you are first. And then once you start making these connections and start getting out to the audience and you start building that rapport, people start coming your way.
Be like, hey, listen, Fred, who owns the law firm, does these quick videos. There's like a half an hour and he's got a pretty good audience. He's a good guy to know. They start coming to you. So I mean, the hospital is only for the first few years anyway, because once you start establishing yourself, people start coming to you for a little bit of attention. And odds are they probably
need some of your service. A lot of these business owners, business owners over everybody, need lawyers, need doctors. They have families.
Andrew Colsky (06:45)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (06:46)
They have things they need. So that is exactly your target audience. So.
It makes sense to start cutting some time every week to start reaching out to businesses and say, listen, I want to help. I want to be part of this community. It's important to me that you succeed. Can I just come to a video? Don't pitch yourself. Don't say what you
Andrew Colsky (07:01)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (07:02)
do and what you have. Just say, listen, I want to help. That's
Andrew Colsky (07:05)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (07:05)
it.
Andrew Colsky (07:06)
So, you know, that hits upon a sort of a psychological principle that I use not
Billy Sammons (07:11)
Yes.
Andrew Colsky (07:12)
only in marketing, but I happen to do mental health work, which is what led me to have to learn marketing and do all this. And one of the
Billy Sammons (07:18)
Yeah, yep, yep.
Andrew Colsky (07:20)
things that I talk about with people all the time from either the mental health side or the marketing side is they'll say, you know, I never get invited anywhere. Nobody ever reaches out to me. People don't come. And I ask them,
How many times have you invited them? Well, I haven't. Okay. Well, maybe it's a two-way street. Maybe if you
Billy Sammons (07:40)
Then maybe.
Andrew Colsky (07:43)
reached out to them first, they'd get to know you and then they'd feel
Billy Sammons (07:47)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (07:48)
the desire to invite you to
Billy Sammons (07:50)
Exactly.
Andrew Colsky (07:51)
the next thing. You can't always be the one to be invited. You gotta do some inviting.
Billy Sammons (07:58)
And the beauty of this system that you're talking about and the referral system I teach is you can be introverted or extroverted. mean,
Andrew Colsky (08:03)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (08:04)
what's more introverted than meeting somebody one-on-one and having an intimate conversation about their business?
If you're extroverted, great, you can parlay that into events. You can parlay it into more things to do. But either way, invert or extroverted, this works for you. It depends on how you want to go about and approach it. So that's exactly
Andrew Colsky (08:19)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (08:19)
what you're saying.
Andrew Colsky (08:20)
Yeah. And I bet if you're a listener and if you were to go out to, it can be anything, a Chamber of Commerce event, a local meeting of entrepreneurs, businesses, whatever, I
Billy Sammons (08:30)
Yeah. Yes, yep. Yep.
Andrew Colsky (08:34)
bet when you're there, if you're a doctor, you're going to find other doctors. If you're a lawyer, you're going to find other lawyers. If you're a realtor, you're going to find other
Billy Sammons (08:38)
Yes. Yes.
Andrew Colsky (08:41)
realtors. They're out there marketing. They're the ones getting the clients. So if you want to start getting the clients, you need to be doing the same thing.
Billy Sammons (08:49)
Here's the beauty of it, to piggyback off of that. Let's say there's four other doctors in the room, but you're the one saying, hey, listen, I wanna help you, wanna do a commercial with you. Who are they gonna call when they need services? You, because you're in the ally. You've helped them. You've helped them in some of their business. Story time, quick story time. I was at an event and I bumped into somebody who I did not know, but made Netflix movies in our community. I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool.
Had I just said, hey, Shelton, can we sit down and grab coffee sometime? They'd have been like, yeah, whatever. It wouldn't have been a priority.
But I said, hey, listen, I've got this podcast. I want to have you on and start talking about the next movie you've got coming out. He made it a priority because he knew that I was going to give him something and bring him an audience. And so the situation changes. The value add you provided makes a deeper and better connection that makes you more memorable. And so when they need
you for something or they think of something that is related to doctors or lawyers or whatever, you're the one that stands out because you've been by their side helping them, not just another doctor, just exchanging cards at the BNI groups.
It makes all the difference
Andrew Colsky (09:47)
Right.
Billy Sammons (09:48)
in the world.
Andrew Colsky (09:49)
Right. my God. So that's that's that's a super important thing that I want to highlight here for a second. So,
Billy Sammons (09:53)
Yeah. Yes.
Andrew Colsky (09:56)
you know, I can tell you just personally as someone who attends events, the last thing in the world I ever want to hear is somebody new coming up to me not to just introduce themselves, but to just push the hard sale. You know,
Billy Sammons (10:12)
Yes!
Andrew Colsky (10:13)
guaranteed, I will go to somebody else before I go to you if you approach me that way.
You are not there to sell something. You're there to meet people
Billy Sammons (10:20)
Never.
Andrew Colsky (10:21)
and make genuine connections as a human.
Billy Sammons (10:24)
Yep.
Andrew Colsky (10:24)
People will then naturally ask about what you do and they'll
understand and they'll remember it. You're not trying to get a sale this second. You're trying to build that relationship. So what has your experience been with things like this?
Billy Sammons (10:39)
Oh, absolutely. I I mean, just think the two sentences, right? Like you walk up to somebody like you said and say, hey, listen, I love what you're doing at the bakery. I just want to come in and do a quick commercial because I'd love my audience to see what you do. And I want more people to know about you. Like I love what you're doing versus, hey, I'm Billy. do real estate. When you're ready to buy a house, just let me know.
The impact of those two different sentences are huge because one is going to get you in a connection and make a referral partner and you're going sit down with somebody and create an actual relationship because most of the people in your audience are not working a job, they're building a career. And if you
Andrew Colsky (11:12)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (11:12)
want to build a career, you need to make these referral relationships early in your career and then stay in touch and keep in touch with these people because that's how you build a practice, not just the job where you sell one-off gigs.
And so those
Andrew Colsky (11:24)
Right.
Billy Sammons (11:24)
two sentences, think about that, like, hey, I'm a doctor, I help you versus, hey, I do a local podcast or I do a video commercial. And I use those as my example because there's three reasons. I do that because I know every business needs it, more promotion, more exposure. One, two, I have fun doing it. It was just something I enjoy doing it because you have to have fun with whatever you decide your give is. And three, it's scalable. Like I can do it with any business. I don't have to customize that.
for anybody, can just do the same video commercial for any businesses. So those three things ticked off the boxes. But if you're
Andrew Colsky (11:54)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (11:55)
somebody who has
a different give and you think those three things are there, it's fun and scalable, then do something else. I just always use my videos and my podcast as an example because every business needs more FaceTime, you know?
Andrew Colsky (12:06)
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to share another story that you maybe think of as we're talking about this.
Billy Sammons (12:11)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it.
Andrew Colsky (12:13)
you know, working for yourself, you generally, you can get lonely sometimes. And so what I
Billy Sammons (12:20)
Yeah
Andrew Colsky (12:21)
do during the day is I'll go out to local coffee shops and things and sit down, get a cup of coffee, bring my computer, do some of my work. So there's a new
bakery slash coffee shop that opened up down the street from me about a year ago. And I went in and it was really good. You know, I really enjoyed it. People were nice.
Billy Sammons (12:38)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (12:40)
And they asked me, this is early on, I'm new customer, new whatever, but I started to know the people behind the register and they said, you know, would you mind doing a Google review for us? I
said, sure, I'd be happy to. So
Billy Sammons (12:50)
Mmm. That's it.
Andrew Colsky (12:52)
I don't do Google. You I don't even think about doing that stuff. But I said, sure, I'll be happy to. So I take out my cell phone. I literally just snap.
you know, a couple pictures inside the bakery and I give a nice comment,
Billy Sammons (13:03)
That's it. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (13:05)
honest comment of what I think about the place. That was, we're probably about a year ago now. Within, I think it was three months of me posting that, in the first three months
Billy Sammons (13:18)
Yeah, you saw it.
Andrew Colsky (13:20)
it had had over 250,000 views. Now we're up to, it's probably close to a million views by now.
Billy Sammons (13:28)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (13:29)
So, you know,
the reach that you get, the goodwill that you get. I didn't ask for anything from them. I've never asked them for a free cup of coffee. I'm not interested in that. It's just building the rapport, but they know me now,
Billy Sammons (13:40)
Exactly.
Andrew Colsky (13:40)
you know? And if people are getting into a conversation and they're saying, you know, I know a guy that does that stuff. That's the way that this works.
Billy Sammons (13:47)
Yes,
I Mean alright, so take that example. Let's say you run a doctor's office use the email that has your doctor office logo and Now 250,000 people have seen your logo and you didn't do anything. You didn't spend any money You didn't do you just left the review now. Let's do this Let's say you're the doctor's office and you're very focused on live local framework. You take that Google review page
put it on your Facebook page and say, hey, listen, if you've ever been to this coffee shop, also leave review and tag the coffee shop so other people can leave reviews too. The coffee shop sees it and we're like, not only did he leave a review, but he got me 10 more reviews. This guy really wants me to do well. And so you establish yourself as somebody different in the community that's not just out for yourself, but you're trying to help other people grow too. And it makes all the difference in the world. I'm telling you.
Andrew Colsky (14:30)
Yeah,
yeah, absolutely. But there's one big but here. The big but is
Billy Sammons (14:35)
Let's go. Let's do it. I love it.
Andrew Colsky (14:37)
if you're going to be doing reviews, great, you know, we just gave you the case for doing it. But please don't
Billy Sammons (14:43)
Yeah, that's right.
Andrew Colsky (14:44)
put a bunch of negative reviews out there. That is not going to make you look good. And you're really not achieving anything. You know, we need to
Billy Sammons (14:46)
Yeah, just skip it. That's right. No.
Andrew Colsky (14:53)
leave the ego and everything at the door.
Billy Sammons (14:56)
Yeah, if you didn't have a good experience, just go back one more time because sometimes businesses have a bad day and try it one more time and if the second time doesn't go well, you know, just kind of keep it to yourself. Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Colsky (15:06)
Yeah, because you think that you're
making the business look bad, you're making yourself look bad. Because then people see your reviews,
Billy Sammons (15:11)
Yeah, it's not good.
Andrew Colsky (15:12)
this is just a whiner. This is just someone who complains about everything. And they're not gonna wanna
Billy Sammons (15:14)
Yeah, that's right. It's true.
Andrew Colsky (15:17)
do business with you.
Billy Sammons (15:19)
No, no,
no, no, no, no, but...
Andrew Colsky (15:20)
So,
so, all right. So, you know, when we talk about the, you know, referral marketing, obviously this is what we have been talking about, but you know,
Billy Sammons (15:31)
Yeah. Yes, yes.
Andrew Colsky (15:34)
what, other than just sort of going and meeting local businesses in the community, is there, is there more of a...
plan or intentional plan that you talk with people about that they can kind of develop as they're getting themselves going and really figuring out where do I really want to go and start.
Billy Sammons (15:54)
Yeah, it depends on what your goals are. Obviously, that's where most businesses start with. What do want to achieve? What do you want to do? I would think for most law firms, business doctors, offices, real estate, people of that nature, they're trying to grow audiences and they're trying to be remembered. They're trying to stay front of mind. Right? So one
Andrew Colsky (16:06)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (16:07)
of other things you want to do is you want to start creating an email list together. Right? And so that email list is a very important way to stay in front of mind. But if you sit there and talk about your services every single week, people aren't going to open those emails. I mean, there's so many times you can talk about law where people are like, wow, that is boring. I am not opening this email anymore. And you'll see your open rates like three percent, four percent.
Now take my case. My open rates around 40 to 50 percent depending on the email. It's because I don't sell any of my own stuff.
I talk about what food trucks are opening up this weekend. I do the most recent interview that I've done with the little bakery or whoever I wanted to meet, or I make a list of here's some three or four things you should do this weekend. It's stuff that people need and want to know about their own community. And so my open rate's really high because they know they're going to get value once they click on it. They go in there and they can see the interview I just did with the Poke Bowl place.
I've
Andrew Colsky (16:55)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (16:56)
trying to meet him to see that place. I've seen the truck here and there and so my open rates are high because I'm not selling anything. I'm giving them value because you're doctor, you're a lawyer, people just assume you know what you're doing with the law and you don't need to keep talking about how much you know about law. You need to show them what things in their community they need to
know about or what things in their community are important and you need to be town hall. If you're town hall and everybody's had to go through to get some information, your open rates are gonna expand. You're gonna be 40, 50, 60 percent.
Stop trying to just put these boring law firms like me. How many times can I talk about FH loans before even I fall asleep reading my own emails? Like it's just terrible.
Andrew Colsky (17:32)
You
Billy Sammons (17:33)
Like I'm not doing it. I'm doing fun stuff that people actually want to read and actually want to do it. And that's one of the beauties of doing this. It's the unlimited content you create once you go out to the community and start just doing some interviews and doing some things with the people in your communities.
Andrew Colsky (17:46)
Right, right. So, all right. So then here's my next question for you.
Billy Sammons (17:51)
Do it, do it, do it.
Andrew Colsky (17:52)
As an entrepreneur for myself, I, in the very beginning of entrepreneurial pursuits, I had to learn that if you're going to be successful,
you need to be willing and accept the fact that you need to fail. And you need to fail
Billy Sammons (18:11)
Heh.
Andrew Colsky (18:11)
a lot because you need to try things. In other words,
You can't fail if you don't try, but if you don't try, you go nowhere. The biggest thing about it though is learning from those things that didn't work because that's what makes you learn and succeed. So, you you obviously started somewhere. There was some, you know, one day before you were doing this and then you started on a certain day. So I'd love to hear some of the non-success stories.
that you learn from. Tell us some things that didn't go the way you thought they would go and then you realize, my God, okay, next time it's gonna be different so that we know what to avoid and what to
Billy Sammons (18:51)
Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (18:51)
head towards.
Billy Sammons (18:53)
Yeah, all right. So there's two good ones. So, well, first of I'm gonna do the technology side of it. Technology has been an ever-growing, it's not necessarily a failure, but it's something that you're gonna learn. There's easier ways to do everything. So it's constant. So I started with the camera and the tripod and now...
For under 50 bucks, you can start doing this. Like all you need is your phone, which acts as your camera. You need a lapel mic for $9 on Amazon, and you need a tripod for like 12 bucks. So that's all you need, and that technology is gonna continue to improve. It's not necessarily something I did wrong, it's just something that has progressed over the years that's become easy. So that's the other part of your startup. For 50 bucks, you can do reform marketing. That's all it takes. And a mistake I made though, is once I started growing and I started getting...
introduced to more and more businesses, I started seeing opportunities to do like collaborative events, which I had a lot of fun doing. So I'd bring this event, this business together with this event and I'd play cupid and we'd do an event together, which works ish. I learned pretty early on that if I was the hero of that story
and I took on all the responsibility and did all the things, it wasn't gonna work. The first one I did was, I went back to that brewery actually, and I knew the bakery people and I did a cupcake and beers.
So the bakery made a bunch of cupcakes that paired with the beers at the brewery, and they actually used some of the beer ingredients in the cupcakes and stuff. And I'm like, this is gonna be great. It's gonna be so much fun. Zero people showed up because I didn't lean on the businesses to also help promote it. I wanted to be the star. I wanted to have all the
responsibility. I wanna be the one saying what's going on. And that's not the way to do it. You gotta share.
I've learned that when you do events, everybody needs to stay in their lanes and everybody needs to do their things. Like you create some materials and content and you do the marketing and invite your audience, but also lean on the brewery and give them content and remind them that they need to put it out. Same with the bakery and they need to get content. It's a teamwork together and you're not the hero. You're a collaborator. You're the glue that keeps the two of them together once the event happens. And so I learned the hard way that I'm gonna do events, but I'm gonna do it with the business and continue giving them material and post them up as the hero.
and make them the center of attention. And I learned that the hard way and quickly and I changed all the marketing I did after that because it was very, very early on. But that was something I learned the hard way. Being the hero doesn't work. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Andrew Colsky (21:07)
Right. Right. Yeah. No, that's that that's an important lesson. And that's exactly the type of stuff I'm talking about. So, you know,
really, it's not about me. It's about us. And, you know,
Billy Sammons (21:20)
Yes, exactly.
Andrew Colsky (21:23)
the whole concept and I really want listeners to think about this for a second. The concept of pairing up with another business, it can be a
business that's complementary to yours. It doesn't even have to
Billy Sammons (21:35)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Colsky (21:36)
be directly complementary to yours. But the idea of creating an event, cupcakes and beer, local community, business people,
Billy Sammons (21:44)
Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (21:46)
really is something novel that people like because the other businesses are trying to promote themselves as well. So everybody wins when you come up with a creative situation like that. And like you said, as long as you're not trying to be
It you're just a part of it. You're making it happen. Everybody is benefiting equally The goodwill that you build from that and the exposure and everything else that we're talking about here.
Billy Sammons (22:12)
Yep.
Andrew Colsky (22:12)
That's where it's going to be coming from and you know There are unlimited ways to create that there is not a single person listening to this
Billy Sammons (22:20)
yeah. Yes.
Andrew Colsky (22:22)
Now or ever as long as the show lives. There's not a single person who cannot develop relationships like that You just have to open your mind as to how you're going to do it
Billy Sammons (22:31)
Exactly.
yeah, I can't agree more. That's the perfect
Andrew Colsky (22:33)
Well, yeah.
Billy Sammons (22:35)
way to do it. You know, one of the greatest benefits is you start playing that Cupid. So once you start meeting enough businesses and this person's complaining that they're like, I loved doing early on the coffee shop in our area was complaining that the things you put around the mugs, those little holders, you ever see those, the insulators, they're like,
Andrew Colsky (22:49)
yeah, the little... So, right.
Billy Sammons (22:53)
Yeah, they're like, God, this is eating our budget. This is crazy. And at the same time, I happen to know a lender who was looking for creative ways to promote himself. And I'm like, dude, if you go in there and make these little coffee things for them, people will see your logo on these coffee mugs as they hand it out. And it'll be one less thing that the coffee shop's got to do. And so doing those little like marriages and kind of playing cupid for
businesses works awesome too, because again, you're adding value. I'm not the hero. Nobody knows I did it, but those business owners do. And they make a great pair and they work together now a lot.
So just little things like that. Be right. Take yourself
Andrew Colsky (23:23)
Yeah. Wonderful. Wow.
Billy Sammons (23:26)
out of the center of attention. It's fun.
Andrew Colsky (23:28)
Yeah, yeah. So, okay. What other types of things, well, let me ask it this way. For you yourself, as you're doing this for your
Billy Sammons (23:37)
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (23:38)
own business, do you use any help or how can someone get help? You know, I can understand if I'm a doctor, lawyer, whatever, accountant, real estate professional, whatever I am, maybe I'm not good with...
social media and posting stuff. Maybe I don't know all the tools. I haven't had time to sit there and figure out the nine million different buttons that I can click on YouTube and all this stuff. What do
Billy Sammons (24:02)
Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (24:06)
I do? Like, how do I get help?
Billy Sammons (24:09)
I always preach keep
it simple. So yeah, all the systems and the framework that I talk about is I keep it simple is always my theme because I say, you assume all the people that I work with have full-time jobs and this is just meant to compliment what they're already doing as a part of marketing. And it's supposed to help take a lot of the marketing off because once you do a video with the local commercial or the local business owner,
you now have like five or six clips you can pull from it too. So now you have the full video, you got five or six clips. And then from there, you just gotta decide where are my people? If my people are on Facebook, cool.
You you put a little bit of law firm stuff out there every once in a while, but you really do a lot of local content. And as you start doing these, you get more and more local content. You'll have like five or six full videos. You'll have 30 or 40 clips, and you can start recycling and using these. So it takes a lot of time off your plate because you have a lot of this content that people are actually interested in because they want to meet the person that owns the bakery. They want to know who, if the charity is doing the event this weekend. They want to know these things. And if you can go in there and meet some of them and help them out, even better.
If you, if your people or I would say email, like make sure you're putting in emails because that's the greatest way to control your audience and know, you know, everything. I also use it for followups. So if I'm helped a person buy a house eight years ago and I have to follow up with them every six to eight months.
Every time I follow up and I'm like, hey, how's the family? That gets boring over that's terrible too. Instead, what I'll do is I'll post a video of the taco truck and be like, I got to fill out with Bob today. Hey, Bob, I this recent video with the taco truck. I know how much you and your family love Taco Tuesdays. I'm following up, but I'm doing it in a much more fun way and I'm adding value to the taco truck and Bob. And so it's checking all the boxes, you know,
Andrew Colsky (25:43)
Right.
Billy Sammons (25:43)
so you can have a lot of fun doing your follow ups. You can have a lot of fun doing your content. You can have a lot of fun giving to the audience.
because you're giving content that they care about and it's helping the community. I mean, that's as a doctor, as a lawyer, that's really what you wanna do. You wanna be ingrained in your community. They wanna be like, you're the person that everybody goes to when they have a law issue or they have a doctor's appointment they have to make because you're the community leader, right? So no better way to be the community leader than giving into your community. I mean,
Andrew Colsky (26:11)
Right.
Billy Sammons (26:12)
that just seems like it's a natural fit. So, yeah.
Andrew Colsky (26:14)
Right,
know, there's another thing about that which has always intrigued me is I say that I'd like to understand the psychology behind a lot of this stuff as to why people are doing what they're doing. So
Billy Sammons (26:25)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (26:28)
I remember, must
be 15, 20 years ago, I went to this talk. I don't remember what the topic was, but I'm sitting in the front row.
and the person is on the stage right in front of me. mean, it's in a hotel meeting room, so they're, what, 10 feet from me?
Billy Sammons (26:44)
Wow, nice. Front row Joe.
Andrew Colsky (26:47)
And then they have the big TV screens on the side so people in the back can see it better, you know, if they're too far back, you know how they the setups. And the person talking eventually hit upon this point. He said, you know, there's something about screens that capture people's attention, and people will watch a video more than they'll watch real life.
Billy Sammons (27:09)
Yes, that's
Andrew Colsky (27:10)
And as he's saying that, I'm realizing he's 10 feet in front of me and I'm watching the screen. And I catch myself doing that all the time. And my point here
Billy Sammons (27:11)
right. That's funny. Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (27:20)
is that if you put up a 15 second video of you at Bob's taco truck, that is going
Billy Sammons (27:26)
Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (27:26)
to get much more attention and much more interest from people than if you put out a post that says, hey, I went and had some great tacos today in words. It's just not going to get the same attention. So.
Billy Sammons (27:34)
That's right, it's right No, it absolutely won't
Andrew Colsky (27:39)
Yeah, so I put a lot.
Billy Sammons (27:39)
Yeah, and then you know
I always tell people to like to make it even simpler just do it interview style because if
Andrew Colsky (27:45)
Mm-hmm.
Billy Sammons (27:46)
you walk up to a business owner and do like the who what where when how and don't make it any more complicated than that you can make it systematize it and Honestly, most business owners are so excited about talking about their business
that it doesn't take a whole lot. You throw some softball questions up there and then they do a lot of the talking because they're so excited about their taco truck or their big, whatever it is. And so it doesn't take much. And even the ones that are like scared to be on camera at first, 99 % of the time when they're done, they'd be like, that was way easier than I thought it was. Like, yeah, I threw a couple of questions your way. We recorded it like we were having a conversation and they'll ask to it again. Like, hey, can we do another one in like eight months? Cause I have this going on and I have this going on. Absolutely put it my calendar, follow up, do another one.
It's easy, so easy. And it's supposed to
Andrew Colsky (28:28)
Yeah, yeah.
Billy Sammons (28:28)
be easy. So if you're sitting there like, there's no way that works, that's too easy. Like, no, it's supposed to be easy. You have a business
Andrew Colsky (28:34)
Right.
Billy Sammons (28:34)
to run. Your marketing shouldn't take 10 hours or cost you $10,000 a month. It should be easy.
Andrew Colsky (28:39)
Yeah,
yeah. And the other piece about that is the studies show that, you know, people worry about, my gosh, I need to then go edit the video and then make it perfect. And
Billy Sammons (28:49)
No!
Andrew Colsky (28:50)
I got to worry. Don't make it perfect. People don't want perfect. Those
Billy Sammons (28:53)
Don't.
Andrew Colsky (28:53)
videos don't get watched. People want real people. If you stumble over a word, great, leave it in. Let them see
Billy Sammons (29:00)
It's fine, just ruined with it.
Andrew Colsky (29:01)
that you're real. So, you know, this is a great opportunity for me to put in a shameless plug.
for my new book. So I've taken
Billy Sammons (29:08)
Do it! Yes!
Andrew Colsky (29:10)
a lot of this stuff that we're talking about here in the psychology behind what's going on. And I had to put it together for myself. So I knew what was going on. And I said, you know what? Let me turn this into a book. So I created a book called Left of Trust. It's coming out in September of 2026. It's you can express interest now and we'll have it up for preorder soon. Just go to left of trust dot com and you'll be able to see more about the book. So there's my shameless plug, but I had to get in.
Billy Sammons (29:38)
That's We got to do a book exchange then. That's been my thing this year. I've been doing a lot of book exchanges. My book right there for those people that are like visually seeing this. But yeah, I'll send you a copy and send me a copy. I just got three in the mail yesterday from a couple of podcasts and people I had on recently. So we've been doing a lot of fun book exchanges. It's a blast. I love doing it. So we'll to do a book exchange.
Andrew Colsky (29:57)
What's the title of your book?
Billy Sammons (29:59)
It's more marketing than new currency. So basically it's, I tell it like a story. I learn through stories. And so basically it's the story,
It's a fictional version of what I went through. And so I made a new character and he went through the whole process. Obviously way faster than the 15 years it took me to kind of figure things out. He figured
Andrew Colsky (30:16)
Right.
Billy Sammons (30:17)
it out in like two months and you're like, it would be nice if I figured it in two months, but he just goes through the whole process of not getting any leads. He's trying to grow his business, runs out of leads and starts meeting business owners just like I did and the whole process. So it's the same concept and it has all the guides and the handouts in it too. So it's really a do it yourself-er. So it's kind of a fun little book, but we'll swap.
Once we're ready, man, we'll
Andrew Colsky (30:37)
Great,
Billy Sammons (30:38)
do a swap.
Andrew Colsky (30:39)
great, great. Yeah, so there's some more tips for the audience right there. know, putting out
Billy Sammons (30:44)
Yeah.
Andrew Colsky (30:44)
a book helps people understand more about your understanding of your business area. Doing a podcast, helping share information with people.
Billy Sammons (30:52)
That's right. Yep, it's a great
way.
Andrew Colsky (30:56)
Yeah, mean, because people are seeking the information and it's a lot easier
Billy Sammons (31:00)
Yes.
Andrew Colsky (31:01)
to watch or listen to a podcast than it is to try and find some black and white.
writing on a page somewhere.
Billy Sammons (31:08)
Yeah, so if you do podcasts, you can do podcasts with the community too. That works just as well as video commercials. If you're like, listen, I really wanna go audio, not a problem, but you have to make it mobile. Go to the local business owner and they do that because one, they're more comfortable in their own space and they'll talk more. Two, you won't get very many cancellations if you're going to the business. I was running into cancellation problems. I'm like, I'm just
Andrew Colsky (31:27)
Right, right.
Billy Sammons (31:28)
gonna come to you, man. We're just gonna do this. And so all you need is a Yeti mic that plugs into my computer and I record it off the computer and that's it.
Keep everything you do so simple, but you can do podcasts. You can do videos. I just find videos is better because like you said earlier, they see your face. And once they see your face and get to know you and what kind of person you are, it just better for your business to grow faster. But you can do podcasts and stuff too. There's a lot of options. Whatever your give is, just get into it. Be like, have fun with it, make it scalable. it's fun. Just have fun doing it. Remember, ice cream.
Andrew Colsky (32:01)
Great, great. Well,
exactly. So, Billy Sammons, we are out of time. We can go forever on this.
Billy Sammons (32:10)
Yeah, sorry, that's good. my goodness, I can nerd out all day long.
Andrew Colsky (32:15)
yeah, yeah. So I'm going to give you the opportunity to give us sort of the final word here.
Billy Sammons (32:21)
Yeah, yeah, so if you have you loved any of this stuff I mean I'm on socials and so forth to I'm sure Andrew a throat in there if you follow any of the content It is a lot of fun I have my own podcast as well where I bring on entrepreneurs and I'm gonna get Andrew on mine and then Go to the website. That's the best place. I know that's people did people don't don't tell people to go to your website That's so cliche, but it's got all the stuff on it and I'm not redoing everything yet But just go to live local war marketing comm and it's got
all kinds of different things on it. The five day challenge is a great way to try it out. It takes you through five days, like 10 minutes a day to see the referral system and on a light, a diet version, a light version. And if you go through the five days, you're like, that was really fun. By the end of this five days, you will be able to add somebody to your CRM, to your email list. And if you're like, that was cool, then there'll be other options. But I just want you to try the five day challenge. You know, take a test drive first to see if you like it. And then we can take it from there. But that's the best place.
Andrew Colsky (33:14)
Okay.
And give us the name of your podcast.
Billy Sammons (33:19)
Live Local War Marketing Podcast. It's not very, it's pretty straightforward. I'm not very clever. Live
Andrew Colsky (33:25)
Hahaha
Billy Sammons (33:26)
Local War Marketing Podcast. Yeah. And like I said, I'll have
Andrew Colsky (33:28)
Hey, the information is the important part.
Billy Sammons (33:31)
to hit you up. We'll to have Andrew on mine. We'll have to swap because it's fun having people. It's fun seeing how the tables get turned.
Andrew Colsky (33:38)
Yeah, yeah, happy to do it. Obviously
you and I both love talking about this topic so we could go on forever about it. But
Billy Sammons (33:43)
That was fun. days and days and days.
Andrew Colsky (33:46)
we are out of time so I want to thank all
Billy Sammons (33:49)
That's right.
Andrew Colsky (33:50)
of you for listening in today on the Be Picked podcast. Hopefully you're going to take away some great information that Billy has shared with you. Our goal is to help you build your business not in the short term but for the long term so that you grow
Billy Sammons (34:04)
Yes.
Andrew Colsky (34:04)
and prosper and hire more people and
Do good things. So join us, actually take a look at my website, www.bbe-pikked.com. You can learn about the book there and you can learn about our secret weapon, the credibility generator. I'm not going to say anymore. Go read about it. See you on another
Billy Sammons (34:26)
You
Andrew Colsky (34:26)
podcast. See you on Be Picked.

Andrew Colsky