Now a database is the primary tool of working by referral and a database is not a contact list. A database is a list of relationships and you're going to sort and qualify these by basically the quality of the relationship. So if you just get started, you'd start out with a list of you make a list of everybody you know, okay, you make a list of everyone you know, and you start exhausting your brain. And this is where we start people on the journey. Who do you know? Who's your family? Who's your friends? Previous colleagues from a different life, you know, all the people, you know, who your neighbors who do you play golf with who do you soccer with? Who do you go to church with people, you know, and what happens is one name tends to lead to another kind of like ripples on a pond. So we want to get started by just making the broadest list possible. Then you want to turn the names into relationships and the way you do that, like all relationships, you know, the way we spell love in our home is T I M E. You're going to invest your time, energy and money into these people. And so we're going to sort and qualify them into the following categories. And we'll talk about that in a second. You want to A B C and D's. And then you spend more time with the A's than you do with the D's. It's as simple as that. You're going to give more attention to the A's than you do the D's. And what what happens is by investing the time in your very best people, you get the biggest return on your investment. And so we want to turn these names into relationships. We want to go beyond the transaction. We want to create a dynamic, you know, in my real estate business, my top 20 clients, I could tell you not only the name of their spouse and their kids, I could tell you what they like. I could tell you what movies they like. I could tell you what books I could send them because I know they'd really read them. I could tell you not only what their favorite restaurant was, but I know particularly what dish they would like. I really knew my people. And that's why when I would acknowledge them and are sent them a little gift or so and so forth. And some generic thing, it was something personal over Christmas this year. You know, I bought my wife some fairly extravagant gifts in the past. She's not a very materialistic person, which makes me want to do it even more. But I bought her all the diamonds and perils. I bought her cars and houses and all kinds of things. At this year, I made her a little video and it was set to a beautiful little song. And I'm not going to tell you what it is because it's very personal. But there was a wonderful little song I found and I found pictures of her throughout the years. And I played it in front of the kids on Christmas Day. And it was one big boo hoo fest for me and the kids and for my bride. It was a personal touch to a personal relationship, but just to honor the woman I love the most and to honor her in front of our kids. And of course, they got to see her when she was young and pictures they hadn't seen and things like that. And it's it's the way you deepen relationships. It's invest that way time, energy and care. And when you do that with your customers, it changes the whole world. It changes the whole world. I'll give you a great example. There's a company in Ireland called Fairways and Fundays. A couple of years ago, I was going over to Ireland. I had a it was going with my kids and we wanted to do a golf and trip to Ireland. So I contacted these guys and they did a fantastic job, not only setting up the golf courses and the transportation. When we got to the hotel, they had, Hey, here's some things you're going to need for your golf. And then, Hey, Brian, we know you're coming back from Ireland. Here's a few treats you might have missed out on. And some of the most famous little chocolate bars and candies and things and cookies that any Irish ex-pat would know you'd be missing the most, you know, and they had them all sitting there for me. And over Christmas, they sent me a basket with similar type stuff that an immigrant would miss. And I actually shared some of it with our producer David Lally. And you know, he looked at the basket with not only did he help himself to it, but he was like, you know, made him homesick. What happened? Last day I reached out to these fellows about another trip I want to take. And then also a referral that I gave them to a group of guys through the NBA that I have a relationship with that want to organize NBA golf trips for the next few years. I gave them a great referral. I gave them a great referral because they turned me from being just a customer into a relationship. Brian Tracy said, approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not selling a product or service. Zig Ziglar said, you can have everything in life you want if you just help enough people get what they want. So that's what we want to do. And then with that database, we want to sort and qualify. Now I've taught on this more than anything else in my life and I'm here talking to you and it's hard for me to believe that people wouldn't know this or have been exposed to it. You have to sort and qualify your database. And basically it's built on the Pareto principle, right? So Vulfredo Pareto, Italian economist, figured out this 80 20 rule. He found out that 20% of the people in the church gave 80% of the money and did 80% of the serving that 20% of the depositors at a bank had 80% of the money that 20% of your staff will produce 80% of the work. And this principle holds true and everything. It's the same in your database. 20% of your database will be responsible for 80% of your work. What we tend to do is spend our time on the other 80% of people or ideas or marketing or lead gen that produce 20% of our business. I love people say, Brian, I love the referral stuff. But what's your take on AI? Brian, I love the referral stuff. But what are you doing for social media? Now look, we have all those strategies in place. But first things first, you got to take care of your database first. So let me walk you through it. Let me talk about your A plus customers. These are your best repeat customers or someone who sent you multiple referrals. So they're what would be called an advocate, what Ken Blanchard would call a raving fan. How many raving fans do you have in your business? Do you know them? Have you set them apart in your database? Those are the people I don't care how big your business is. I'm the chairman of the board of a company that has 22,000 customers. But let me tell you, I need to identify the people in my database who are my A plus clients. Your A clients are past clients are people who sent your referrals occasionally. You have B people. These are people who would refer you if they were asked and shown how. Now I'm going to say this to my own chagrin. Both co we've done such a great job in the last few years and we've grown and grown. We've gotten out of the habit of asking our own customers for referrals. So just so you can take time out here and say, I'm going to demonstrate it for you. But if you are in our coaching program and you've been blessed and your business has grown, just so you know, at the feeding company, we're never too busy for your referrals. So those of you who are members of the feeding company, as you go through your week and your month, if you come across someone who would definitely benefit from the coaching program that we offer, the resources that we have like to do at now campaign, please give us a call or call your coach with the name of the person who we could best follow up with and we'll take great care of them the way we take care to you. Now, that's a sincere request for referrals on behalf of Brian Befini and his company. That's also how to do this. That's how you go through your database and have a conversation with your best people. And what happens even with our company, because sometimes the painter forgets the paint his own house, we have a great business going, but we've forgotten lately to ask our own clients for our own referrals. And it happens happens to everybody. And it especially happens after coming after very big hot markets where you were doing your best just to keep up with the transaction. So I'm not too big a man to say, hey, I need to ask for referrals. Our company needs to do better asking for referrals. And hopefully right there it was a good example for you. See clients in your database would be a new addition to your database. So you don't really know who they are or what they are yet. You have your old clients. We call them the online clients, people you met through digital means. And then you have your D. So you really have ABCD is really where the traditional database was. And the D's are the people to be deleted from your database. They're people you don't want to do business with. They're the kind of people that when you see their number and they call and you kind of makes you bummed out. So let me just say this. One of the greatest things you can do in your business when you make a commitment to who you're not going to do business with. Maybe there's someone who doesn't treat you very well. Maybe they don't pay very well or on time. Maybe they're kind of negative nannies. And so whatever you need to do, ABCD your database and spend more of your time and more your resources. My A plus clients got to hear from me every month. These are the people I took for a lunch or a cup of coffee cup of tea in my case. These are the people I invested more my time in. So we want to build our database. We want to turn those names into relationships. And then we want to sort and qualify. And then I'll finish up with the three C's. Okay. And the three C's is once you sort and qualify that database, you have contact care and community. Okay. And you want to contact them, you know, sales is a contact sport. You have to contact people. You know, out of sight, out of mind. So you got to make it meaningful. And that's why with like our do it now campaigns, we provide 22,000 people with the resources every month to go market their business. That's what the do it now campaign is. And so what we do is we know the science behind us. We're trying to not only well our customer. We want to intrigue their customer and set up an opportunity for a phone call or visit behind us. You want to send out something in the mail every month. Male right now is having a resurgence. Why people's mail has shrunk as the online marketing has exploded. So we do mail. Then we do what's called an e-report. Our knack is that the e-reports coming from a trusted source. They recognize your name. There's a similarity in the design. So catches people's eye. They saw this in the mail and then they see the e-report and then has a little different contents, kind of like the next part. It's kind of like the mail might be the quick cuts podcast and the e-report adds the next piece. And then we have the infographics for social media. And then this year I've added me talking to our customers clients on their behalf or here's the script of me talking so you can do it yourself and record it yourself. So contact. We need to contact people and we need to do it consistently. And the consistency of the marketing bills trust. Even if people don't respond to us, the fact that you're being consistent every single month cultivate in your database, provide in something of value, information that's beneficial. That's how you contact people. It really builds trust. The care is where we add the personal touch and I've talked on these things many times. This is where you write the notes. This is where certainly in our business you pop by with a little gift. You know, I would pop by all the ladies in my database the week of Mother's Day, whether they were moms or not and delivered flowers to all the ladies in my database. It would take me a week at a good sized database. People in my office should be like, what are you doing? You're a successful person. Why don't you have these delivered? I go because I'm trying to build a relationship. I want to see their face. I want to connect with them. You want to add that personal touch, personal notes to us, pop and buy and see in people, connect them with people. And then you want to build a sense of community. You want to take your database and have your database interact with one another. And client parties are a great way to do this. You can do it on social. There's just a lot of ways to do this. And then you can do it one on one by breaking bread with people. You know, breakfast, lunch, coffee. Sometimes I have my best clients. Once a year I do a, I actually would bring my top clients to my home, bring in a chef for the night, have a spectacular night. Okay. So contact, care, community. That's the three C's. If you're doing that stuff, you're, you're racking it up. To finish it up here, we have this whole concept to do it now for your business. I really encourage you to check this out. If you're not familiar with it, you can go on the It's a Good Life website, but we have this fabulous system put together that's built around current market conditions, but bringing this whole work and by referral system to life. And it doesn't all do it for you. I mean, it lays a fantastic foundation, but we believe in a system called PHW, which stands for pure hard work. Okay. It's hard work to call people. It's hard work to go and start and qualify your database. It's hard work to go see people. It's hard work to go and produce little Popeye gifts and Popeye and see them and say hello, but to do it now campaign is really a fabulous tool. And if you're in a real estate and lending business specifically, there isn't a better tool in the marketplace right now for this market. We're having a huge response that I'd so highly recommend you go check that out. Here's what I can tell you. Behind me is a picture of my grandfather and my grandfather, Harry Bufini used to say, can you put your name to us? And if you worked in such a way, you could put your name to it. The people would refer us and keep us in business. And from five generations that worked for Bufini and company painting and decorators in Dublin, I came to the States. I had those same principles at a rough start and I've shared my story motorcycle accident. That's a debt. But I was able to apply those principles and then put kind of a hot marketing mindset to it. That's where I developed the three C's and I saw different things in the marketplace and I would use them and incorporate them. And I built a fantastic business of loyal people who referred me over and over again. And I felt like the family doctor in a small Midwestern town. I had a network of people, no matter what their problem was, they called me. They needed a roofer. They called me. They needed a landscaper. They called me. They called me for everything. You know, only good babysitters for our kids, Brian. I became that trusted advisor and then I took that system then to the marketplace and I've had the joy of seeing just tens of thousands of people apply the same system.