66. Do Your Genealogy

Previous chapters have gone a long way toward establishing the importance of your relationships to the success or failure of your career; now it is time to figure out who puts food on your table. Your clients and employers are the people who are the Santa to your Christmas, the quarter in your candy dispenser, and the banker in your real-life Monopoly game.

A couple years ago, I got into a deep conversation with one of the vice presidents in our agency. As we started discussing the history of our business and where our valuable referrals had come from, I grabbed a marker—as I often do—and headed to the dry erase board. I began to plot out the initial contacts we had in the early days of our business, and then I proceeded ...

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