Hey there, happy Friday!

Here’s a good one about how I’ve personally benefited from having a large network in the accounting space + one of the coolest apps I’ve tried in a while.

For a long time I wasn’t a huge fan of referrals. Mainly because I thought they were random or based on luck. Traditional firms mostly operate on referrals so I thought it must be “the old way of doing things.”

In the last few years I’ve tried Google ads, Meta ads, non-accounting networking events, cold email, etc. All of these things I found expensive and/or disappointing.

On social media I was really only getting responses and likes from other accountants. It felt like I was stuck in this bubble. They resonated, sure, but business owners, the people I actually wanted to reach, weren’t seeing it.

What I did enjoy was meeting accountants. At conferences. Over coffee. On Zoom calls.

We would compare notes, talk about clients, and genuinely have a good time.

Then… I noticed something… I was starting to get leads from those accountants I was meeting pretty regularly.

That’s when it clicked. Referrals aren’t random at all. They’re exponential.

One connection leads to another. And then another. Over time it compounds like interest. You’re increasing the surface area for luck with each connection.

It doesn’t just work for me as a firm owner, it works for anyone. If you’re out there meeting people, building your brand, and showing up consistently, you can really build something that’s consistent and substantial over time. PLUS, these are usually people I consider friends too, so it’s a win-win.

That’s the foundation of what I call a referral engine and it’s how I get 2-3 warm leads per week at Celerity.

Honestly, I fell into this because I needed two things: CPE and connection. Running a solo firm in the early days was lonely and I didn’t have all of the answers I needed.

The truth is, building your network up will take some effort. But it’s worth it.

Here are the things that have worked the best for me:

This really isn’t just about getting referrals, it’s about opening up the possibilities that having a good network can bring.

It’s serendipitous and it’s impossible to really know what doors you could be opening up each time.

For firm owners, referrals create consistency. They bring in better-fit clients, shorten sales cycles, and make the business less dependent on random luck. A strong referral engine feels like stability. Also, I’m noticing it’s also a great way to find potential hires too.

For team members, building connections is career leverage. The more people who know you, the more opportunities come your way. You become more valuable inside the firm, and you open doors for yourself outside of it.

The magic is in how it can compound. One coffee turns into three introductions. One LinkedIn post leads to someone sliding into your DMs. One quick chat at a conference can lead to a 60k ARR client.

The work you put into building visibility and relationships pays off way bigger than it looks at first. That’s why I keep coming back to these events, keep meeting people, and keep on building up this network.

So how do you get started with this right now?

Referrals aren’t completely random, they’re a pipeline you have to spend time building.

This works whether you own the firm or you’re building your career inside one. If you’re invisible, those opportunities pass you by. If you’re visible, those opportunities will find you.

So here’s the real question…

Are you fueling your referral engine, or just waiting for luck to show up?

Here’s an interesting one. Poke AI Assistant is a text message based AI assistant that connects directly to your email account. So basically it’s an AI agent with full context of email and calendar. Super powerful but it’s early days.

Here’s what I’ve found useful so far:

Here are the downsides:

If you try it, let’s talk. I think it’s genuinely the best out of the box AI tool I’ve used in a while. It’s genuinely useful day one.

Thanks for reading and have an amazing week!

Tailor

P.S. If you missed it, ChatGPT business can now share projects across your team! It’s huge for us so we can build client specific projects for tasks that anyone can use. More to come on that.