Why Word of Mouth Referrals Aren't Enough Anymore

What are you actually known for… and is it helping or hurting your business?

Are you trying to do too many things—and confusing your audience in the process?

What if narrowing your focus could actually bring you more opportunities, not fewer?

If this episode helps you rethink your marketing and positioning, be sure to follow the show and share it with a business owner who needs more clarity in their message.

Most entrepreneurs resist narrowing their focus. It feels risky. It feels limiting. And if we’re honest—it can feel like turning away opportunities.

In this episode, Kendra and Ed unpack why being known for one thing is actually the fastest way to grow your business. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, the real power comes from clarity—because clarity makes you memorable, referable, and easier to trust.

They also dive into the practical side of this: how to figure out what you’re already known for (even if you don’t realize it yet), how to spot patterns in your conversations, and why documenting your interactions can unlock insights you’ve been missing. This isn’t about guessing—it’s about paying attention and building simple systems that support your growth.

This episode will show you:

• How to become more memorable and referable in your business
•  A simple framework for discovering what you’re already known for
•  A strategy to identify patterns in client conversations and messaging
•  Why focusing on one thing actually expands your opportunities
•  How to build habits and systems that support long-term marketing success

If you’ve been trying to do all the things and still not seeing consistent results, this approach gives you a clearer, more focused path to growth.

About our guest

Ed Troxell is a strategic advisor who helps entrepreneurs simplify their business, clarify their message, and focus on what truly moves the needle. Starting his journey in tech support and web design, Ed evolved into a marketing and visibility expert, now known for helping clients identify what they should be known for—and how to leverage that for sustainable growth.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edtroxell/
Website: EdTroxell.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Kendra Corman. If you're a coach, consultant, or marketer, you know marketing is far from a perfect science. And that's why this show is called Imperfect Marketing. Join me and my guests as we explore how to grow your business with marketing tips and, of course, lessons learned along the way. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect

Welcome And Part Two Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Marketing. I'm your host, Kendra Corman, and I am really excited if you tuned in way back when, in February, like mid-February. Um, I had Ed on the podcast, and I'm looking to see the title of the episode. How do you build visit visibility when you hate being on camera? Which is a question a lot of people ask. We had so much fun talking, and there were so many other things that we wanted to get into. So we have a part two. Granted, it's a couple months later, but we still have a part two, and I'm really excited to welcome him back. Thank you so much for joining me again, Ed.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm excited for us to dive into part two. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

And I love what we're going to be talking about. So why don't you refresh everybody about um how you got started? Because you went from tech support to marketing and video guru.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Yes. Yeah. So that journey started way back in 2015, officially. I've always done this beforehand, but officially I went all out on entrepreneurship full-time in 2015, left my job at Apple and went in on this risk, right? We always think of entrepreneurship

Ed’s Path Into Marketing

SPEAKER_00 1:38

as a risk and started with tech support web design services, then of course went into marketing because you have to know how to market yourself if you're going to run a business, especially in today's climate. And so it's really, really important. You don't have to love marketing, you don't have to love sales, but those are two things that you have to be able to do in order to run a business and to sustain it. So that's where I started. And then over time has evolved into being what I'm known for today as a strategic advisor, helping support the different areas of someone's business and knowing what to focus on and more importantly, what not to focus on so that they can continue to show up, deliver, and engage with their audience. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

So I like that. And you recently, not too long ago, started a podcast, right? Known for something, which I love. Tell us a little bit about the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yeah. So I started the podcast. I've always uh been into having a live show. I started with a live show, uh Facebook and Instagram live, you know, and I've gone through different iterations and different podcasts. Um so I wanted something new this year. And it's taken a while to figure out what I what I wanted it to be, because I

Being Known For Something

SPEAKER_00 2:51

wanted it to be very intentional. And that's where known for something came up because it's the work that I do with my clients and helping them be known for something and making sure that it's still serving where they're at. And that's the most important question that we ask in each episode is what are you known for? And is it still serving you? Because once we dive into that work, we really get to understand who we are, what we do, and how we support others. And it also makes it easier for us to be referred to for business in the future.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I mean, you can really only be one thing in somebody's head, right? I mean, you're that go-to person for something, right? For you, it used to be tech support, right? Then it was video coach. Now it's strategic advisor, right? That switch can be take a little bit longer than you would like, ideally, right? But if you're known for that thing, it's amazing. A friend of mine who I've had on the show multiple times, and I need to have her back again, is Brenda Miller. She's the queen of LinkedIn in in my world. And but like, that's what she's known for. Well, people will reach out to her and say, Hey, Brenda, I know you do LinkedIn. Do you know someone who does X, Y, or Z in the marketing world? And sometimes she's like, Yes, me. Sometimes she's like, No, I don't do that. But yes, I have somebody for you in my network. And there's you actually get more business, not related to what you're known for, just because you're known for something, right? And they trust you for that thing. So, okay, sorry, that's me going off on my little tangent because I'm very excited about this topic. So talk to me about the struggles that you're seeing or how you're helping direct people because focusing is really, really in my world, is really, really hard to get people to do.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Yes, it is so hard. And even those listening right now are probably tensing up and like, oh my gosh, no, I can't just do bear with me, the one thing, right? That that's it's the power of one. So it's like, what's that one message, that one offer,

The Resistance To Focusing

SPEAKER_00 4:55

that one thing that you want to be known for? So that it is, as you mentioned, easier for people to remember you, but also to be able to start with you, right? They might not end with you in terms of you being able to provide that service, but they came to you. Therefore, you are known for something. And it's so important because word of mouth referrals is still the number one way to um have your marketing, right? But in today's climate, it is not as good as it used to be in terms of being able to get referrals constantly and it being able to sustain your business. A lot of businesses are struggling now. They started uh to pop up more in 2025, but now going into 2026 and further, it is part of the problem where they've just relied on word of mouth and referrals and haven't done much of anything else. Therefore, they haven't figured out what they're known for more publicly. And it makes it really hard for people to be proactive with that. So you'll have people doing networking events all the time. I mean, I do them uh as well. And so many people don't know to go to networking events with intentions, right? Setting those goals. We talked about goals in the first episode, being able to go in with some goals in mind, like who do you want to meet? Who would be a good referral for you? What are you gonna say that's specifically gonna hook them and remind them of you, right? So that it's more effective later when you're doing that follow-up and when you're getting those connections. So those are a couple things. And as you asked uh about the uh things that I'm seeing, a lot of people feel that resistance, that resistance of I can't just say one thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

I can't just I do all these other things too.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Yes, exactly. Exactly. It's so important for us to understand, because I've been there too, that you can feel that resistance. You want to push through that though, because once you get into that groove and you do narrow down, it widens up and you can go deeper and you can really hit the nail on the head. But you gotta be able to stick through that resistance piece in order to do that.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

The resistance is real. Like, don't get me wrong, when you're starting out, you just you need work to pay the bills, right? So I went out on my own a little bit earlier than you did, but not too much earlier, right? Um, quit the job and and started doing this full time. And I wasn't sure what I was gonna be known for. I didn't know what I wanted to be known for exactly. Like there was a little bit of trial and error to get there, right? And it was like, oh, do you do this? Yes. Do you do this? Why, yes, I do. Do you do that? And I'm like, uh-huh. Yep. Uh I can do it. If it'll pay my mortgage, I got you. Yes. Right. And I did things I didn't like. Um, it made it work. It made it a lot of work. It made, I wasn't always the happiest. The client wasn't always the happiest, right? I mean, I always delivered what I said I was going to and did a quality job, but it could have been a lot smoother and better if they had been with somebody else, because that wasn't what I did, right? That's not where where my zone of genius or whatever we want to call it was at. And that was a big, a big struggle. But I love how for you that it's been evolving. It's evolved over time as you found the needs of your clients changing, right? And your knowledge level and expertise changing, right? You were IT, tech support websites, things like that. And then you're like, oh, I need to market. Well, then you grew your business and you're like, well, I'm pretty good at the marketing stuff, right? And so you're able to see those holes where people were struggling and really help them get them to the next level. Um, and I think that that's just so, so, so important. Let me ask you this question. When people are starting out trying to figure out and narrowing this down, right? What would you say is like the first step to figuring out what they should be known for?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Such a good question. Document everything. And when I say document, I don't just mean, you know, like taking your notes. Uh that's obviously good, but uh record your calls, look at your messages, text messages, emails, uh, LinkedIn private messages, Instagram DMs. Like look at all those things and pay attention to what the conversation is telling you. This is super,

How To Find Your Pattern

SPEAKER_00 9:31

super important. And I know in the moment it might feel a little overwhelming. You're like, oh my gosh, I got to do all this this homework, Ed. No, it's your growth work and it's just planting the seed now so that when you do go to your email or your inbox on LinkedIn, your brain is gonna say, Oh, we need to look at this a little differently. And one way that you can do this is to, I like Google Docs. So just open up a new Google Doc, you know, label it whatever you want, and then just use that as your go-to document where you're copying and pasting your notes. Like this, somebody said this, somebody's referring to me as that. You know, if somebody's doing an introduction for, you know, hey, you need to meet Susie. Susie, I want you to meet Sally. Uh well, what did Susie say about Sally and vice versa, right? Like document those things. And then you can take a look at it as a whole later. But even in this process, you're you're doing something with your brain. You're putting in the reps. So it's going to start to know pattern, notice patterns. Then you're going to start to ask yourself, is that what it is? You know, as you mentioned, we we've gone through iterations as we've grown, as the business has grown. We've made note of what works for us, what lane we want to be in, and more importantly, what lanes we don't want to be in. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. And so it's really important to take this time to document and to educate yourself on really where you want to be and what you like doing. And you may not figure that out right away, and that's okay. It it takes time.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Okay. So one of the hardest things about what you said is to pay attention and see what's in these. So, and actually, before I go and ask you that question, let me step back. So you said Google Doc. I am not a Google Doc person. If you like to stay in the Google Doc or the Google universe, um, notebook LM is where I would put that stuff or a Claude Project, you know, drag and drop the stuff, get a conversation going, bookmark it, have it help summarize and take some of that weight off of you with those conversations, especially like the discovery calls and things like that, right? But okay, I'm busy, Ed. I'm really busy. I'm like, today is podcast recording day. You were like my fifth recording of the day. Um, I even did like a QA for my AI boot camp. I'm not gonna remember what we talked about in 10 minutes. Yep. So how do you how do you help people like do this step back? How do we stop, pause, and think about what those are and remind ourselves to remember to find out, okay, what did that person say about me? What was the introduction for and finding those patterns? So I think that's the hardest part.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yes. And actually, that's where having someone like me come in is the beneficial piece, right? I mean, that's really where it comes in because you have to have dedicated time with me for in this example, right? Like we are meeting to talk about that stuff. So having another human does help, but not everyone's gonna be ready for that. And that's okay. So, as you mentioned, being able to utilize AI tools to help support you with that in the meantime

Build A Simple Reflection Habit

SPEAKER_00 12:40

is huge. And in some cases, it's not gonna happen every day. I'm not expecting anybody to, you know, listen to this and be like, okay, well, now I got an hour each day added to my to-do list on looking at my conversations, of which I had a hundred of them today. That's not what I'm saying. But at the end of the day, maybe Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever day you want to pick, at the end of the day, you look at what are three conversations I had today? Maybe I had three texts, you know, and you can literally do this in less than five minutes. Max of 15, if you really are like, you know what, I'm feeling it today. I'm gonna go into AI and I'm just gonna throw a bunch of these conversations and pick through and really study it. Great. Set a timer for 15 minutes, you got this. But if you're like, I I have less than five minutes, Ed, I I don't know what to do. Pick one message, look for one theme, and put that in your notebook, wherever that may be, digital or uh physical, and see what that looks like. And if you're like me, I actually have it's kind of rolled into my process, but every Friday I have a check-in with myself. It sounds crazy, I know, but I have a Google form where I actually go through and do a check-in for how my week went. I have very specific questions in there with different um goals in mind so that I can pause and actually reflect on what happened that week so that I know what I should be working on for the following week.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I'd love that you have a Google form because there's a lot of people that say that they do some sort of weekly check-in and it changes every week, right? Based upon how much time they have, what happened that week, it goes all over the place, right? I mean, even for me, I use my full focus planner all the time and I don't always do the weekly wrap-up that I should be doing, even though I have it marked in my calendar. Sometimes I'm like, I'm just gonna get this stuff done and make sure that I'm set for the next week. But it's, I love the idea of the form because that's gonna hold you accountable to answering the same things over and over. And then it's gonna go into a sheet, right? Where you can analyze it, use Gemini, um, export it and put it into cloud.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Um, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Whatever you want to do with it and really help you to see that. Um, but very cool. And a friend of mine, again, we'll go back to Brenda. I I'm a volunteer um group of with her. She puts links in calendar entries to like to Google Docs and to, you know, different places so that it's handy. So you could always put a link to the form in your calendar invite or the Google Doc. Just I think it's about making it a habit. Even if we're working with someone like you, right? You'll be able to do this step back and ask more questions when we um, I don't have a better term for this, but when we half ass it, right? You'll be able to help us out with it. Um, but getting it down, I think, is is just half the battle.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Oh, a hundred percent. And in fact, that's what I do with my clients is I will actually do that weekly check-in with them to help build that repetition, that new habit. So that way it's easy for them, once our time has uh passed, for them to continue that. And it's really, really important about having systems like this in place to, like you said, hold yourself accountable and to also see that your work, your efforts are paying off. Because oftentimes we're looking for that instant gratification because we think it's supposed to happen immediately. We post something on Instagram or post something on LinkedIn or send an email to our list, and magically we're gonna get, you know, 500 people wanting to work with us. Sure, that can happen, but realistically, it's not the outcome that we're gonna get. So that's why it's important for us to have a system, document these things because we're putting out those intentions and we're gonna receive those as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

So just a little like piece of the intentions and the process and keeping things going. So one of my clients emailed me today, actually, almost right before the recording, that she's got over a 50% email open rate and four people downloaded her freebie. Like, this is huge, right? I mean, she's not looking for a hundred clients. If she got, you know, two new clients a month, that'd be huge because her services are, you know, a bigger investment. And that's good, right? But she's been doing the behaviors and getting the results. And I think that that's just so underrated. We give up so quickly. So let me ask you this question about um, is there a client that you've worked with or even you yourself that had like a big epiphany that was totally not what they expected? They thought they would be known for one thing and they're like, yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Well, I think that I have a few in mind that fit that profile. And it it's not that they were totally off the mark, right? Because we're all, we're all kind of finding our way and paving that path. It's just getting a better um handle on the story. So once we get better handle on our story and really what what we're about and what we do

Story Clarity And Real Results

SPEAKER_00 18:02

and what we want to be known for, that's when everything becomes so much easier. Your marketing becomes easier because you know who you're talking to, you know what you're talking about. Um, both I've had that experience both for myself, especially when I talk about the referral ceiling and all these things related to it. Um, and then I've had clients who have had that as well. You know, I had a winery who they just needed a little help with their story and tweaks with their marketing, and they had their best year in sales yet. And that's in a time when most wineries are struggling, right? And so it's things like that that really go a long way. Now, did that happen all within the first day or a couple of weeks? No, that happened over time, and that was us continuously to put in that rep repetition and be able to look at all the different things happening from social posts to email marketing to events and being able to have again that message and that story aligning so that every time they showed up, they delivered and they engaged and people understood and they kept them in mind.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

So good. And yeah, again, you shouldn't be surprised. I was dying to hear if someone had been shocked that they were known for something that they had no idea. That's why sometimes I'm like happy that I was my childhood was pre-social media, right? Um, don't want to be known for any of that stuff. This just so much great stuff there. You want to be known for something. Start with the habits. I love the idea of the Google form. I would encourage everybody to create some sort of form or survey so that when you're doing it, you're doing it like you said, with intention. Put the link in a recurring Asana task or the calendar invite where you are blocking your time. Whatever it takes to get it done, think about what that is and make it happen. Um, about 30 seconds into our conversation, I remembered why I had such an amazing conversation with Ed the last time. And I hope that you guys got a lot out of this too. Before I let him go, though, I do need to ask you the question that I ask all my guests that you've already answered once, but there's always an endless supply of these. This show is called Imperfect Marketing because marketing is anything but a perfect science. What has been your biggest marketing lesson learned?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

It'd be interesting to see if this is different from episode one, because I don't remember, so I'll just say it, but doing it messy. So, you know, launching the podcast, known for something. Again, I just needed that focal point, the theme of what it is. And then from there, it was good. I was like, that's great. I'm just gonna go with it. I was trying to think about in my

Do It Messy And Keep Going

SPEAKER_00 20:42

head like, should I have it be a live broadcast? Should I get all the bells and whistles? No, just show up and start recording episode one and just go from there. Then you get in that groove and then you can do whatever you want. But we're just gonna do it messy so that we can get the word out there and we can build the habit because that's when it becomes easier.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

All right. And it does match, more or less. The advice was to just show up, even if it's messy. Preset, sell your offers, and test market responses rather than perfecting everything behind the scenes, which I agree with 100%. This one is a tweak on that, right? It's, but again, still behind the scenes, it doesn't have to be perfect to work and be the right thing. So, so much great stuff, so much amazing content as always. Ed, thank you so much for your time. Be sure to check out his new podcast. We'll have a link to that in the show notes and of course how to connect with Ed if you're looking for more. And a link back to our part one of this episode about showing up on camera, even if you don't like how you look on it, which I think is really important for part of our authenticity as we move forward. But thank you again, Ed, for a great conversation and great tips. I look forward to implementing some of them myself. If you learned something while listening or watching to this episode, it would really help me out if you would rate and subscribe wherever you are.

Where To Find Ed And Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Thanks so much and have a great rest of your day.