Word of Mouth and Responsibility

When you want to make a simply decent choice, you ask people you know. When you want to make the best one, you go deep — you dig with your own hands, research, compare. Word of mouth isn’t really a decision tool. It’s a way to avoid deciding.

This spring we puffed up a bit with projects (we’ve already dried back down), and I thought about bringing in one more teammate. I did it the word-of-mouth way: asked friends to recommend someone.

The result… specific.

You can’t say a single bad thing about them, genuinely. And at the same time, that “specific” fit nudged and cracked the hiring funnel I’ve been building. I couldn’t clearly tell who fits what, and why.

And that’s when I remembered: people chose us the same way sometimes. Through word of mouth.

And something clicked.

A referral deal is easier than a cold “straight from the market” deal.

But the market is harsher. Competition is sharper. And paradoxically, that path often gives you more reliable LTV — which is painfully important when an agency is still learning to stand on its feet.

Word of mouth runs on a simple logic: “It helped me — it’ll help you.” In 80% of cases that’s true. In the other 20%, you end up paying for someone else’s mistakes, someone else’s context, someone else’s task — an experience that has nothing to do with your field.

The best choice is when you understand your task and search for a solution built for it — instead of chasing a universal recommendation like “my friend had their website done by this guy.”

And yes, that takes time.

It takes will.

But that’s the moment you stop being the person who gets advised — and become the person who chooses.

And of course, you want to be the one who gets chosen.

That’s why I’m building a very specifically designed website: so I can compete harder, and attract the people who don’t just want to avoid mistakes — they want 10× outcomes with a contractor who also goes all-in.

P.S.
For now, we’re still a team of three, not four.