The most trusted seat with the least room for conflicts
Chiefs of staff occupy a strange and powerful position. You run the operating cadence, prepare the board deck, sit in on almost every leadership meeting and often decide which vendor pitches reach the chief executive at all. You know the strategy before the leadership team does and the problems before the board hears about them. The role works only because your principal trusts you completely.
That trust shapes everything about referral work. A chief of staff's loyalty runs to the principal and the company, and confidentiality is the job itself. So the rules here are stricter than for most executives, not looser.
- Never refer anything into your own company, even a product it genuinely needs. Route it through procurement and decline the commission.
- Never use your principal's network, contacts, calendar or inbox to find referrals. Those relationships belong to your principal and the company.
- Never mention your principal or company by name in an introduction, or imply that they endorse anything.
- Never pass along anything from leadership meetings, board materials or vendor evaluations you saw because of your role.
- Vendors who pitched your company are your company's relationships, not prospects for you.
Ask your principal first, and in writing
Most employment agreements cover outside business activities, and many require written approval. For a chief of staff, even where approval is not strictly required, the conversation with your principal is the right first step. You will hear about it eventually anyway, and the relationship is worth more than any commission.
Keep the request short and specific: you would like to make occasional, disclosed referrals for a technology program among your own peers; you will never refer into the company, use its relationships or information, or let it take time from your role; and you are happy to share a periodic note of introductions. Ask whether there are companies, such as competitors, customers or partners, that you should avoid. Then get the answer in an email.
This is general information, not legal advice. If your agreement is unclear, an employment attorney can read the outside-activity and confidentiality clauses with you.
What your own network looks like
Chiefs of staff build networks quickly, and much of it is genuinely yours. Other chiefs of staff, who trade notes constantly in peer communities and ask each other which tools actually work. Former colleagues from consulting, banking or the military, where many chiefs of staff began. Business school classmates who now run teams or companies. People you met at conferences in your own capacity. Former principals, once you have moved on and any confidentiality obligations allow.
That network is also a career asset. Many chiefs of staff move on to operating or general management roles within a few years, and the relationships built in this seat follow them. Our free contacts.plus upgrade keeps your own relationship history in one place, entirely separate from your employer's systems, which is exactly where it should live.
What chiefs of staff get asked about
Peers ask chiefs of staff the questions their own principals keep asking them. How do we make the leadership team actually run on one system? Where should the AI budget go? Why do our customer relationships live in individual inboxes? Random Income connects the dots between brand partners, the businesses with offers, and the people who already know their buyers. The fits that come up most often:
- Relationships scattered across inboxes: contacts.plus Business gives a company a business presence, trusted referrals and a relationship CRM.
- A chief executive who wants an AI plan by next quarter: Consulting with Jeff Cline covers executive strategy on technology, predictive analytics and AI.
- Customer communication that stops after the sale: Smart Email from siimpler.com sends warm, opted-in email that nurtures, onboards and sells.
- Being invisible in AI answers: Quuik · Trusted GPT gets a business cited when buyers ask answer engines what to buy.
- A strategic project with no team: Fast Start takes an idea to a market-ready product, and the Big Idea at jeff-cline.com/idea lets owners see whether they qualify for a larger technology investment.
Two hours a week, on your own time
A chief of staff's calendar belongs to the role, so referral work happens on your own time and never on company devices or accounts. About two focused hours a week is enough, and many weeks will need less.
Note any peer conversation outside work in which a relationship, communication or AI problem came up. Once a week, from a personal address, send one or two short introductions with a disclosure line: you are a Random Income Strategic Partner and may be paid if they buy. Your back office shows every click, form and quote request on your referrals, so there is never a reason to chase anyone.
An opener that fits a peer chief of staff: Your principal keeps asking where the customer relationships live; have you looked at a relationship CRM built around referrals?
Terms for chiefs of staff
Strategic Partners are 1099 independent contractors, never employees, and accounts are held by individuals. Stack products pay 20% of retail on redline when a client buys fully online untouched, or 12% when an in-house Random Income rep works the deal, adjusted pro-rata to redline if we negotiate. contacts.plus purchases pay 20% when bought directly online and 12% when sold by an in-house Random Income rep. Recurring commissions last as long as the client keeps paying; refunds and chargebacks are deducted. Fast Start ($32,500 a month) and the Joint Venture build ($18,200 a month) pay your percentage only of the monthly SaaS fee collected. Business offers pay 50% of what the business pays us.
Payouts run on the 21st of the month after we are paid, once your balance reaches $500, with smaller balances carrying forward to the next payout cycle. You upload an ID and a W-9, and we issue a 1099-NEC. Once your principal has said yes, take the free test and become a Strategic Partner.