How to get 60% referral rates for a cohort-based community

As Program Director at On Deck and now founder of Next Careers, Anthony Nardini has helped 1000+ senior operators navigate career transitions. In this episode, he shares his playbook at Next Careers, where senior execs pay $2k to join a community that helps them land their next jobs — and 60% of them refer their most talented friends. With 700+ applications for 100 spots per cohort, his secret is extreme curation and high-touch service. This is a must-watch for anyone building high-end communities or cohort-based programs. If you enjoyed this episode, you should sign up for Beginner Maps to get the "magic sauce" of top creators like Carrie - https://beginnermaps.com/ Resources: • Curated Connections, the automated matchmaking platform that Anthony uses - https://curatedconnections.io/ • Next Careers - https://nextcareers.co/ • Anthony's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonynardini/ • Nityesh's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityeshaga/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 03:05 What's Next Careers 04:46 Creating a supportive environment 07:07 Onboarding and Core Values 08:34 Anthony's journey to Next 13:15 Selection Process and Criteria 16:54 Interview Logistics and Alumni Involvement 19:19 Structure of a 30-min interview 26:43 Having confidence in your offering 30:28 Volunteer program 35:24 8-week cohort to evergreen model 40:49 Connection and Mastermind Groups 41:00 Quick Asks Session 42:06 Structure of Practice Sessions 44:53 How to ensure Quality Feedback in breakouts 47:13 High Production Value Community 48:39 Big Asks Session Structure 52:26 Experimenting with Community Formats 56:27 Automations behind the scenes 01:02:49 Team Structure and Operations 01:05:14 Referral Strategies 01:09:10 Forwardable Emails and Referrals 01:12:15 Final Thoughts