Contributed by Michael Roderick, a recent EO 360° podcast guest and the founder and CEO of Small Pond Enterprises, which helps coaches and consultants make their brands referable, their messaging memorable, and their ideas unforgettable. He’s also the cohost of the Access To Anyone podcast, exploring how you can get to know anyone you want to in business and in life using everything from the latest technology to the most time tested principles (including the Art of the Ask).

As someone who has spent a great deal of time studying the facets of referability, I have seen a lot of interesting things, but one thing that I noticed recently really got my attention.

I realized that there are actually specific types of people who influence the level of referability we have, and if we have a healthy mix of all three in our lives it can actually make being referred even easier.

I like to refer (ha ha) to these people as “referability partners”.