Why I picked this up
I'm a huge Brian Buffini guy. I follow him religiously on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, I've seen him speak in person three times, and I've already read Work by Referral and another one of his books with Joe Niego. So when Ohh By The Way... came out, I picked it up immediately. Full disclosure: I'm biased. I think the guy is the real deal.
The immigrant mindset
The book opens with Buffini's story. He's an immigrant from Ireland who landed in the US with about $100, bought someone a beer, and was down to $93. That's it. That's the starting balance. He calls it the immigrant mindset — you have nothing, so you build everything. I don't need to romanticize that part; the numbers do it themselves. From $93 to running one of the biggest coaching and training companies in real estate is the whole argument for the rest of the book before he even makes it.
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Referrals are the only way I've seen this business survive
Here's where the book actually earned its shelf space for me. I own a real estate company, and I've watched enough people come and go to say this flatly: referrals are the only way you survive in this industry for any real length of time. A cold lead — an internet lead, someone you meet at a bar — doesn't know you and doesn't know anyone you've worked with. A referral is different because the person sending them to you is vouching for you. That's the entire mechanism, and it's the spine of the book.
The tactics: pop-bys, notes, and items of value
Buffini doesn't leave "work by referral" as a slogan. He gets specific about how you actually do it:
- Pop-bys — physically showing up to see past clients, no transaction attached.
- Notes — handwritten, personal, tied to something real happening in their life.
- Items of value — useful content on moving, financing, paying down a mortgage, or prepping a home to sell.
I can vouch for the notes specifically because I already do this. I wrote a client a note congratulating her on going into contract, and she wrote me back a beautiful email thanking me for the note and the Starbucks card I included. That's not a big gesture. It's five minutes and a stamp. But it's the kind of thing that makes someone think of you first when their friend mentions they're selling.
Say it out loud or it doesn't happen
The idea I took the most from is the simplest one: if you don't tell people you work by referral, they will never send you referrals. They don't know that's how you operate unless you say it. Buffini gives you the actual line — something like, "My business is based on referral. If you know anyone looking to buy or sell their home, I'd love if you put them in touch with me." Notice what that isn't. It's not "do you know anyone looking to sell?" It's a standing invitation. All they have to do is connect you by email and you take it from there. I've started saying a version of this out loud with clients instead of assuming they'll remember on their own, and it works because it removes the guesswork on their end.
Who should read it
If you're in real estate, or any relationship-driven business where trust gets passed from person to person, this is worth the afternoon it takes to read. It's not a deep operating manual — for that, go get his other book, Work by Referral, which goes further into the systems. But Ohh By The Way... is the right entry point: it gives you the mindset and the story before it hands you the tactics, and it'll have you writing your next note by the time you finish it.
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