Your Referral Rhythm
Your Referral Rhythm is a short weekly routine of five steps, the same every week: Prep, Follow up, Thank, Give and Reconnect. Your assistant fills each step from your calendar, your recorded meetings and your inbox, and your Daily Brief shows you the few things to do today. You pick how it hands them to you: Guided, one person at a time, or Scale, in batches.
The rhythm lives inside your Daily Brief, on your home page and in your morning email. There is no separate page to visit.
<!-- TODO screenshot: /help/referral-rhythm-guided-brief.png, the Guided brief with the rhythm line and step tags. -->The Five Steps
Where to find it: Sidebar → Home, under YOUR DAILY BRIEF. Click the line under the headline (for example "Week 2 of your rhythm · 5 of 11 done") to open the five steps. Click any step to read why it matters.
| Step | What you do | When |
|---|---|---|
| Prep | Read your assistant's notes before each meeting. | Before every meeting |
| Follow up | Send a note after each meeting, with your How We Can Help Each Other page. | Within a day of every meeting |
| Thank | Thank partners for referrals and introductions. | Within 2 days of a referral |
| Give | Ways to help: introduce partners to the people they need. | 1 introduction a week |
| Reconnect | Check in with partners who have gone quiet, with something new to give. | 2 check-ins a week |
Prep, Follow up and Thank happen when something happens: a meeting on your calendar, a meeting you recorded, a referral that arrives. Give and Reconnect are weekly targets you work toward.
Every row in your brief carries a small tag naming its step. Hover over the tag, or tab to it, to see what the step is and when it is due.
Why each step matters, in one line each: people refer the person who remembered what they said last time, referrals get promised in the day after a meeting, a quick thank-you is the cheapest way to earn the next referral, partners send work to people who send work to them, and relationships cool after about six weeks of quiet.
How Each Step Fills Itself
You never build the list yourself. Your assistant fills each step from what it already sees.
Prep
Prep comes from your connected calendar. A prep row shows up in your brief on the day of a meeting and the day before. Opening the prep counts it as done. If your assistant knows of a way you could help the person you are meeting, the notes end with it, so you can offer it in the room.
Follow Up
Follow up comes from recorded meetings only. Once a recording is processed, your assistant drafts the follow-up and it becomes a row. A meeting that is only on your calendar, with no recording, does not create a Follow up row. If you record nothing in a week, Follow up simply has nothing in it that week, and that never counts against you.
On Producer and up, the draft includes your How We Can Help Each Other page when there is something new on it for that partner, and your one-pager if they have never had it.
Thank
Thank comes from your inbox.
- Every referral you receive gets a Thank row. Referrals come first within Thank.
- Each introduction is checked on its own. If your reply in the introduction thread already thanked the person who introduced you, the item is marked done for you. It shows in your completed list with your assistant's name and "saw it", plus a line such as "Thanked in your reply on 10/6". Nothing is sent. Only the introductions you did not thank become rows. So if three people introduced you this week and you thanked two of them in your replies, you see one row.
When your assistant cannot tell for sure whether you said thanks, it shows the row. A spare row costs you a click. A missed thank-you costs a relationship.
Give
Give is about ways to help a partner. Your assistant lines up Give items in this order:
- A partner asked to meet someone on your How We Can Help Each Other page.
- An introduction you promised on a recorded call.
- A need a partner mentioned on a recorded call.
- A need your assistant learned about a partner from your email.
- A pair of partners your assistant thinks should know each other.
The first four are things someone asked for, so they show even after you have made your one introduction for the week. When nothing is waiting, your assistant suggests a pair as the week's Give item.
Reconnect
Reconnect comes from your Inner Circle and from partners who have gone quiet. Inner Circle partners who are due come first, then quiet partners. The weekly target is two check-ins. When a quiet partner has an open way you could help them, the Reconnect row becomes that introduction, which is the best reason there is to get back in touch. It counts for both steps once you send it.
Older Items Do Not Create To-Dos
A referral or introduction that reaches the app more than 48 hours after it happened does not create any rows. That covers your first inbox scan of older mail, a contact file import, logging a past introduction by hand, or forwarding an old email. It still counts toward your relationship with that partner, your Network Health, and the people your assistant suggests, but you are never asked to thank someone for a referral from last spring.
Your Daily Brief Shows Up to Five
Your brief shows up to five open items at a time. When you finish one, the next one slides into its place, so you always see up to five while there is work waiting. The count on the date line at the top of the page and the brief's headline always match.
The order is: what is due today, then one practice item for the day, then items due later this week that you can already do. Items you cannot act on yet, such as a follow-up for a meeting that has not happened, stay out of the list until they can be done.
When You Finish an Item
The row is checked off in place for a moment, with an Undo in case you clicked by mistake. Then it folds into the completed list at the bottom of the brief, and the next item takes its place.
The completed list sits in the band at the bottom of the brief, for example "Nice work: 4 done this week". Click it to open it. It holds everything you finished or dismissed this week, including the thank-yous your assistant saw you send, and it is the same on any device. Show all Alerts & Tasks on the right of that band opens everything else waiting for you.
When everything in today's brief is done, a green card says so. On Guided it reads "Done for today. Your next brief is ready at 8:30am."
The Morning Email
Your morning Daily Brief email shows the same items in the same order, with each step named and one rhythm line at the top.
Guided or Scale
Where to find it: The first time your brief appears, it asks "Tell me how you work, and I'll plan your daily routine." If you connected your email, you may see the same question earlier, in the Getting Set Up card while your assistant reads your inbox.
<!-- TODO screenshot: /help/referral-rhythm-chooser.png, the "Tell me how you work" chooser with the two cards. -->Each card has two buttons. This is me picks it. See how it works opens a side panel comparing the two before you choose. If you would rather not use the rhythm, Neither. Just show my Daily Brief. keeps your brief as a plain list.
- Guided: "I need a system, guide me." For when referrals bring in your clients but you have no process for them. Your assistant tells you what to do next, and why it works.
- Scale: "I have a system, I need it to scale." For when you know what to do and want help with your time. Your assistant does the tracking and batches the busywork.
Both use the same five steps. The choice only changes how your brief hands them to you.
| Guided | Scale | |
|---|---|---|
| A row in your brief | Thank Priya for the Devin Holloway referral · Draft a thank-you | Thank 3 partners for referrals · Review 3 · Send all |
| Your assistant's role | Your coach. Tells you what to do next, and why it works. | Your assistant. Does the tracking and drafting, and you approve. |
| Your daily list | Up to 5 actions, one person at a time. | Up to 5 batches, like "Thank 3 partners". Review them, or send all. |
| Your rhythm | The five steps, the same every week, with targets we set. | The same five steps, with your targets. |
| How you know it's working | A weekly streak, and "You're on rhythm for today." | Time saved, referrals in, and partners back in touch. |
| Mondays | A review with last week's score, then start the new week. | A short report in numbers. No score. |
| Best for | Referrals bring in your clients, but you have no process for them. | You know what to do and want help allocating your time. |
On Scale, a row with more than one item has Send all next to its main button. You can still open the batch and review each one first. Nothing is sent until you press a send button.
Not sure? Start on Guided. You can switch any time, and switching keeps everything you have done this week.
Your First Days
While your account is new, your brief fills any open slots with setup steps. Each one sets up a step of your rhythm, drops off once it is done, and never counts against you. Anything actually due always comes first, and you never see more than five rows. The setup steps, in order:
- Review the items your assistant found in your email.
- Set up your partner tiers and sort your partners into them.
- Make your one-pager, or upload your PDF, to send to partners and the people you meet. (Sets up Follow up.)
- Bring in your partners: connect your CRM, or import a CSV.
- Connect your calendar so your assistant preps you before every meeting. (Sets up Prep.)
- Pick your Inner Circle: the 10 partners you never want to lose touch with. (Sets up Reconnect.)
- Turn on recording for your next partner meeting. (Sets up Follow up.)
- Send your one-pager to someone you are meeting this week.
- Thank a partner for a referral that came in this week. (Sets up Thank.)
- Introduce two partners who should know each other. (Sets up Give.)
- Check your upcoming meetings with people not yet in your partners, under Upcoming With Potential Partners on Meetings.
- Get your assistant on your phone with the iOS app.
If you have no partners yet, bringing them in comes before sorting them into tiers.
<!-- TODO verify: the setup row wording above follows the approved plan (D17); confirm against the built rows before publishing. -->Streaks, Scores and Time Saved
The rhythm counts in weeks, Monday to Sunday, in your own time zone.
On rhythm for today means everything due in today's brief is done or dismissed. Items due later in the week do not count yet.
Your streak (Guided) is the number of weeks in a row you kept the rhythm. A week counts when every step that had something in it got at least one item done. A step with nothing in it that week is skipped, not missed: no meetings means no Prep, and that is fine. Missing a step that did have items starts the streak over.
Your weekly score (Guided) gives each step up to two points: one for doing at least one item, and one more for clearing all of it. For Give and Reconnect, clearing means meeting the weekly target. The score is out of only the steps that had items, so a quiet week with no meetings might read "4 of 4" rather than "4 of 10". A dismissed item counts as cleared.
Time saved (Scale) adds up the minutes your assistant saved you this week, for example by writing a thank-you you sent or a prep you read. Something you wrote yourself counts as one minute, because your assistant only kept track of it. Time saved appears once it reaches 10 minutes, and it starts over each Monday.
If your plan's monthly allowance runs out partway through a week, that never costs you a streak. Doing it yourself still counts. If you did not get to an item your plan could not produce, it is left out of the week's score.
Mondays and Sundays
On Mondays, the first time you open your home page, your brief opens with last week:
- Guided shows a review: your score, your streak, and "What your rhythm brought back", such as a referral from a partner you reconnected with. Click Start week to get to today's list.
- Scale shows a short report in numbers: items handled, referrals in, and time saved. No score.
On Sundays, the Sunday Game Plan email you already get opens with a short look back at your week, above the three tasks. It is sent Sunday afternoon, so anything you finish on Sunday evening shows up in Monday's review on your home page instead.
There is no extra weekly email. Your normal morning brief on Monday looks like any other day's.
<!-- TODO verify: the Monday review button labels ("Start week", "See today's brief") follow the design; confirm against the built card. -->Changing Your Rhythm
You set everything from your brief, in context. There is nothing to find in Settings.
Where to find it: Sidebar → Home, the three-dot menu at the right end of the YOUR DAILY BRIEF line.
- Hide rhythm turns the rhythm off. Your brief and your morning email go back to a plain list. Show rhythm turns it back on.
- Hide from sidebar removes the My Rhythm card from your sidebar. Show in sidebar brings it back.
- Switch to Scale or Switch to Guided changes your type straight away. This week's progress stays as it is.
- Choose how I work shows the chooser, if you have not picked yet.
Changes apply to your morning email too.
The type badge next to YOUR DAILY BRIEF (it reads Guided or Scale) opens How your rhythm works: the five steps, the side-by-side comparison, Switch to the other type, and a link to this article.
The My Rhythm Card
A My Rhythm card sits at the bottom of your sidebar on every page. It shows your five steps with a progress bar each, the week and your streak, and the next thing to do. Click the next item to go straight to it. The card's × hides it, with an Undo for a few seconds. Bring it back from the three-dot menu on your brief with Show in sidebar.
The card is hidden when the rhythm is off, when you have not picked a type, while the Monday review is open, and when the sidebar is collapsed or you are on a tablet.
<!-- TODO screenshot: /help/referral-rhythm-sidebar-card.png, the My Rhythm card at the bottom of the sidebar. -->Changing your own targets on Scale, or switching off a step you already handle, is on its way. Your targets start at the defaults: one introduction and two check-ins a week.
Network Health in the Header
Where to find it: The top bar of every page, on the right, before the color mode menu, the notification bell and your avatar.
Your Network Health reading sits in the header: a beating heart, Network Health, your score, the change this week, and a five-part meter. Hover over it, or tab to it, for a short card with your score out of 100 and your grade. Click it to open Pulse.
What you see on each plan:
| Connector | Producer and Rainmaker | |
|---|---|---|
| Score, grade, meter and weekly change | Yes | Yes |
| The 8-week trend line | No | Yes |
| The one thing holding your score back most | No | Yes |
| The link in the card | See what is behind it, with a Producer tag | What is behind it, on Pulse |
On smaller screens the header shows just the heart and the score.
<!-- TODO screenshot: /help/referral-rhythm-header-health.png, the header Network Health with its hover card. -->What Your Plan Includes
The rhythm, both types, the My Rhythm card, the Monday review and the Sunday look back are on every plan, including Connector. A few things change by plan:
- Connector gets the live brief with the rhythm on your home page every day. The morning email follows the Connector sample schedule.
- Drafts on Connector. Past your monthly allowance, a row still shows and opens the composer with the draft locked. Writing it yourself counts as done. The same goes for Reconnect notes and Give introductions.
- Prep on Connector covers 5 meetings a month. After that the row says so and opens the meeting instead.
- Follow up on Connector comes from your 2 recorded meetings a month.
- Send all on Scale comes with Producer. On Connector, a batch opens with its drafts locked.
- How We Can Help Each Other page on Follow up and Reconnect rows comes with Producer. On Connector, the steps work with a plain note and your one-pager, which is free on every plan.
Get More Out of Your Assistant
Each step is only as full as what your assistant can see:
- Connect your calendar so Prep has your meetings.
- Record your partner meetings so Follow up has something to follow up on, and so your assistant hears what partners need.
- Keep your email connected so Thank sees referrals and introductions as they arrive, and notices when you already said thanks.
- Pick your Inner Circle so Reconnect starts with the people who matter most.
- Send your How We Can Help Each Other page so partners can tell you who they want to meet. Those requests go to the top of Give.
On the iOS App
Where to find it: Bottom navigation → Briefing tab.
The rhythm shows on the web app and in your morning email. On your phone, the Briefing tab keeps its usual list, and you can always ask your assistant:
What's on my plate today?
The rhythm is built for a few minutes a day. Open your brief with your coffee, clear the first row, and let the rest fold away as you go.