Ft Myers Beach - Good Neigbor

EP# 223 Fostering Growth: Bill Utnage's Journey Through Referrals and Resilience

• "Cabo" Jim Schaller • Season 3 • Episode 223

Share episode

What if the key to your business's success isn't about finding new clients but nurturing the relationships with those who already trust you? In our latest episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, we welcome Bill Utnage, the mastermind behind Damascus Road Referral Systems. Bill shares his extraordinary journey from the Air Force to thriving as an entrepreneur committed to transforming service-based businesses through the power of referrals. With a background in chiropractic and real estate, Bill has cultivated a wealth of knowledge on building and sustaining client connections that many entrepreneurs could only dream of. He generously offers a treasure trove of advice on leveraging existing networks to generate more business opportunities.

Bill's story also serves as a testament to resilience. He recounts the harrowing days of the 2007 market collapse and the invaluable lesson learned on the importance of maintaining a robust client database. Through this experience, Bill uncovered the true power of relationships, which played a pivotal role in not just surviving but thriving in challenging times. His insights are not just theoretical but tested in the real world, offering a blueprint for entrepreneurs aiming to weather economic storms and emerge stronger. Tune in for an unforgettable conversation filled with wisdom, practical strategies, and a passion for fostering business growth through trust and connection.

Damascus Road Referral Systems
Bill Utnage
billutnage.com
FACEBOOK
LinkedIn

Ft Myers Beach-Good Neighbor

To Nominate Someone to be Featured

Or

To Subscribe to the Newsletter

CLICK HERE

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2:

Welcome Good Neighbors, episode number 223 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Bill Utnage from Damascus Road Referral Systems. Welcome.

Speaker 3:

Hey, jim. Well, happy new year is already into 2025. So, yeah, thanks for having me Excited to be here.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. We always like to introduce new people to our communities out here, and you are our latest person on the show, so why don't you share a little bit about what you do over at Damascus?

Speaker 3:

Road? Yeah, absolutely, thank you. I appreciate that Really. So primarily what I do is I help local service-based businesses so, for example, real estate, mortgage, insurance, financial services, anyone that's selling a service rather than selling a product and I teach them how to actually get more clients from the people that already know like and trust them from there to generate more referrals in their business.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and that's great. A lot of people need help nowadays you know people get into that industry, but how did you get involved in all this?

Speaker 3:

Oh hey, well, great question. So it all started back in. I'm going to go back to 1991. I left the Air Force in 1991.

Speaker 3:

I'd spent six years there and had an opportunity to go into business with a friend of mine who was a chiropractor and so ran, helped him run and we launched practices kind of across the country.

Speaker 3:

Had a consulting company that we worked with new doctors to kind of help them coming out of school to get better at being business people and to be able to run that. Sold that off in the end of 2004 and then 2005, went in to the real estate world, started a real estate business and ran that and then through all of that I was coaching and teaching people kind of what I had learned about building a system around connecting with the people that already know like and trust us with our clients and to build and generate more referrals in our business. And then sold my real estate business in 2021, moved down here to wonderful Southwest Florida where my wife and I live in Fort Myers, and really that was the birth of Damascus Road Referral Systems in May of 2021. I know that's a long answer to a short question, but the history of all of that is really kind of what built upon for me to now focus primarily on just helping those folks grow their businesses.

Speaker 2:

And then that's just it. You know, the journey is half the battle. You know, Absolutely, Talking about battles, what type of challenges have you faced in getting to where you are today?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think you know one of the things is you know as a you know as a business owner is that you know what I always look at is like I've learned more from. You know sometimes my challenges, sometimes you know the failures that I have from my successes and I go back and look at different parts of my life of turning points, and one of those I go back to 2007. And 2007 was the collapse of the housing market. It was also kind of the collapse of the stock market. It was a challenging time. Jim, you probably can remember that At that time you and I are probably in the similar generation around that.

Speaker 3:

But one of the things that really that I learned from that and I was running my real estate business and I only had been doing that for a couple of years at that point and we were coming off some of the greatest years in real estate. At that point in time we thought it was never going to get bad, it was always going to be great. And then you know what we know what happened is the market collapse and all of that, and you know it's it was. It was super challenging, but what I found through all of that was is really is how important my database of of my current clients, my network, how important that was to helping me and, at that time, our team to weather that storm and actually come out on the other side, in a sense, almost better, because so many people left the industry because of that and we were thank God we were able to withstand that part of it and to grow that bigger.

Speaker 3:

And during all of that, what I really understood was is that the power of relationships is really that. It was really that was the key thing inside of that, because that's what really helped our business continue on is the people that supported our business, the relationship that we had. You know we had developed, and now we're sitting here at 2025. And I don't believe that that has changed. I think people still want to do business with people they know, like and trust, and those relationships are what is so powerful and if we will, if we will foster those and have a system around doing that, we could build an amazing business. But that was a that was a really learning point to in my life of how important to invest in those relationships.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and I think people find the value in that. You know there is a lot of people that are searching for that human contact, you know, because a lot of what we do today is digital and they want to talk to a real person and deal with a real person, absolutely. So let's talk about myths or misconceptions surrounding what you do in general. As far as the coaching aspect, yeah, exactly, and there's several.

Speaker 3:

But one of the one of the ones that and I talk about this a lot with you know, with people is there's this kind of a misconception, you know, in your, especially in those that in the service based world is people will will say to me they're like oh well, bill, I get referrals and I don't really need a system to do that because people know me, they like me and they'll do business with me.

Speaker 3:

And to a certain degree that is true. But the thing of the biggest misconception is that just because they've done business with you doesn't necessarily mean they're going to do business with you again or they're going to refer you. Because, as you well know, jim, in the world, obviously you run a podcast and you're you're active in in everything is what's going on, especially in Southwest Florida, is we're bombarded up towards 5,000 marketing messages a day, right, and there's always someone vying for our attention. And the thing about it is is that if we're not staying in front of those people and letting them know you know what we Just getting them, you can change that to where they can be more consistent if you have a system around doing all of that. So really that's one of the biggest things that I have. When I talk with someone, they're like oh yeah, I get it, but we don't really sometimes get it anymore because, like you said, there's a lot of noise that we have in our world that is going after our attention as well.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and there's a lot of people out there that rely on word of mouth, and word of mouth can be great, you know, but then it can be bad as well too. You know, you make one person mad, they're going to tell 20 people you know, make one person happy, one or two, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you're exactly right. That is what we will say. Unfortunately, we'll tell more people about the things that didn't go well in our life versus the things that are going well, you know.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. You mentioned you weren't from Southwest Florida originally correct. That is correct. Where were you originally from?

Speaker 3:

So I'm originally I'm born, my dad was in the military, so I was born actually in California and so I've been from one coast to the other and then, you know, obviously serving in the military, I've lived in a lot of different places.

Speaker 2:

So what brought you to Southwest Florida?

Speaker 3:

Oh, jim, I'm looking out my window in my office and so the same reason you're probably here is that it's going to be 77 degrees today. We moved from Illinois where today, I think, the high is going to be around 12 or 13 degrees. So you know it was, you know. Just, you know really the weather. My wife and I, we love to scuba dive, we, we love being outside, all of those things, and so we had the opportunity to to be able to come down here and to do that, and so we, we absolutely love it.

Speaker 2:

No more snow shoveling, that's for sure, absolutely. So. You mentioned scuba diving, but you know, I know running a business can be very demanding your time. But when you get a free moment, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Speaker 3:

yeah, I mean, really that's it. We love being outside, we love we're one of the strange ones. We don't care about the seasons, we love the heat. Uh, we, you know. And so, uh, we love being on the beach. We or we're, we're. We love boating, like I said, scuba diving, we love, you know, we love that part of it. You know, just being being outside, being outdoors, is just is what we, what we really enjoy, and it's why we're able to, we're able to do that pretty much year round down here. So that's the greatness of of of being in Southwest Florida.

Speaker 2:

We don't get that cabin fever.

Speaker 3:

Exactly so. Is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about Damascus Road that maybe they're not familiar with? No-transcript, there's people that you've already you know, like and trust if you've been in business for very long that those people, if they were happy with your services, if, if you had a system in place and in doing, in connecting with people the right way and understanding too, um, you know how to, how to ask for those referrals in a way that doesn't feel weird or pushy or awkward of just how much easier that business can be because you're dealing with people that you know, that you're you're coming already, you know, um, you know pre-verified if you would from from someone that gets, sends you a referral, and so for me, I think is just, is that piece of it is, is like everything is, is having the right system in place, and if you do it can, it can be a definite game changer in your business.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. How would our listeners go about reaching out to you if they wanted to learn more or needed some help?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely you know, one of the best ways you can. You can find me on my website is at Bill Utenage and that's B-I-L-L-U-T-N-A-G-E, which is a crazy name dot com, and then you can go to. I'm on Facebook and I'm on LinkedIn as well. I put out a lot of free content, of training and all of those things on LinkedIn, youtube and a lot of all those normal social channels.

Speaker 2:

Very good, any last words for our listeners?

Speaker 3:

No, I think one. Jim, thank you for doing what you're doing, for being a good neighbor. I love the podcast, I love what you're doing here in Southwest Florida. And no, thank you for having given me the opportunity just to kind of share a little bit about who I am and what I do. And if you're a local service based business that could use more help in generating referrals, please look me up. I always love to have a conversation to see if it's a good fit.

Speaker 2:

Bill, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community soon.

Speaker 3:

My pleasure. Thank you, Jim.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEastero. com. That's gnpestero. com, or call 231-296-2621.