Are You Visible to Your Ideal Clients and Ideal JV Partners Online?

Many successful purpose-driven entrepreneurs are using social media, blogs, articles, webinars, and other online marketing tools to gather their community and share their message with their ideal clients.

Are you?

When I talk with coaches, authors, health practitioners, and speakers they often have one thing in common. 

They frequently express is that they don’t know how to authentically and effectively use social media or content marketing.  They get stuck and often have not seen the results that they would like.

That’s why I am joined Mike Rafati and 14 other experts to share my strategies on social media and content marketing. 

This summit was made for you and your service business and is all about helping you become more visible and attract your ideal clients and ideal JV partners online, and it is filled with heart-centered online marketing strategies and tactics, so you can get big results from your efforts and attract an endless flow of clients.

I talked about how to Grow Your Business and Boost Your Visibility Through Strategic Partnerships Using Social Media.  It is a fun topic for me, because I have met well over 85% of my strategic partners on social media. 

Here is a bit of what we discussed:

Grow Your Business and Boost Your Visibility Through Strategic Partnerships Using Social Media

You mentioned to me that social media helped you save your business. Care to share what you mean?

Sure! Let me give you a little background first. Back a number of years ago, I was really quite sick. So much so that I was told I would not see 2010 at the rate my body was shutting down. There is a great story and learning lessons in there about how I got to that point, but we don’t have time for that today,

In any event, one of my issues was that my adrenal system had stopped working. Think of it like being in your car with the emergency break on, your regular break on, shifted into reverse and the foot on the gas at the same time. Your engine would just burn out. That is what was happening to me.

If you are always in that response, your body and mind are taking a toll. At that time I was so bad that I did not have the energy to take care of anyone and my ability to learn new things had completely failed. My son was in second grade and he took care of me more than I took care of him.

My husband would come home from work and make dinner. My son would cut it up like you would for a toddler and then would come to the family room couch to help me eat because I did not have enough energy to make it to the family dinner table. It was humbling to say the least.

After one defining moment, I decided to put all excuses aside. It was up to me to be the change and I finally decided that I was 100% responsible for the outcomes I experienced in life.

“Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind.” ~ Author unknown

That was me when it came to my health. I was able to help my clients through major change, but could not figure it out for myself. I decided it was time for something new. I decided to hold myself accountable to the change that I wanted to see. I wanted to live not just merely exist or die! I wanted my life to MEAN something. I wanted to make a difference.

I could not do that in my current state.
Since my energy was next to nothing, I could no longer work they way I had in the past. Face-to-face networking meetings, conferences or getting on the stage and speaking were just not an option for me at that time.

Social media saved my business because I could get on my computer and meet people and interact with what ever energy I had at the time. Sometimes that was 5 minutes sometimes 15 and sometimes more. I’m grateful for that time because I have met some truly amazing people through that experience.

What does your business look like now? Who are your typical clients?

Thank you for asking! I help purpose-driven entrepreneurs bring their big visions to life with power, grace & ease. I work with extremely smart energetic entrepreneurs who are purpose driven and have the desire to do big things in the world. They are at a point in their business where they are moving very quickly, but they’d like to experience more growth without being in all of the details and getting caught up in bottlenecks. They have lots of ideas, but don’t have knowledge or the consistent systems to get them to their goal.

They have experienced fast results in their business but now find themselves in this painful place because the success that they’ve created has come back to hurt them. They are spending way more time in their business than they want to they are doing things they may not want to do in the name of success and they find that they've lost the freedom they were seeking when they became an entrepreneur.

My clients are typically the ones that are peddling the hardest but not getting the traction they need and want that will lead them to this freedom that they ultimately desire.

I'm on a mission now to teach as many entrepreneurs as I can to recognize where they are and be okay with that and put systems in their life so that they don't have to experience the pain of success but they can experience real freedom in their life. We quickly “de-stress their business”, leverage every ounce of their brilliance, and systematize their success, so that they can work less, impact more people and enjoy REAL freedom in business and life.

all the money they want, all the time they want, all the joy they want in the service of others.

Let’s start by making sure we are all on the same page because there are a lot of different ideas on this topic. What is a strategic partnering or joint venture?

Joint ventures are one form of strategic partnering that will allow you to

• Grow your business exposure.
• Fill up your programs fast.
• Double or triple your email list.
• Get your message out.
• Service clients even better than you can do on your own.

Simply stated, Joint Ventures, or JVs are a strategic alliances where two or more parties form a partnership to share markets, intellectual property, assets, knowledge and profits. Many solopreneurs think that JVs are out of their ability because they think about big mergers, but there are many ways that a solopreneur can form a long-term or short term joint venture that will significantly benefit their business.

JVs can be very complex, such as the merger that created Verizon Communications. Bell Atlantic acquired GTE on June 30, 2000 and changed its name to Verizon Communications Inc. It was among the largest mergers in United States business history. It was the result of a definitive merger agreement, dated July 27, 1998, between Bell Atlantic, based in New York City since the merger with NYNEX in 1996, and GTE, which was in the process of moving its headquarters from Stamford, Connecticut, to Irving, Texas.

But they can also be very simple and not require the change of your business entity type.

One example of a simple joint venture is this event. Mike is the coordinator of this joint venture. He has connected with other solopreneurs that he respects and is interviewing us. The end result is a product of shared intellectual property. We all support one another’s business by sharing information on this program with our respective lists. We all get broader exposure and profit is shared according to a simple agreement.

The distinguishing factor in this example that makes it a joint venture is that we are sharing our intellectual property and knowledge.

Joint Ventures can be for profit, but they don’t have to be. For example, you could identify 3 other business types that are complementary to your business and coordinate a free newsletter. You may choose to do this simply for the business exposure that combined communication would bring to your business.

I know that you have participated in a number of different types of joint ventures. Could you share your personal experience? What are some of the JVs that you have successfully participated in?

I’ve participated as the coordinating JV as well as the participating JV and have learned a lot of lessons over the years!

• Teleseminars and Telesummits
• List building campaigns
• Client services — eg marketing.

There is so much that you and your partners can do together to extend your reach. Share mailing lists. Link to each other's Web sites. And when you cosponsor an event, you can provide the sweat equity and let your partner provide the cash!

What things should our listeners think about when considering if joint ventures are right for their business?

There are a number of questions that you should consider when deciding if a joint venture is right for you.

What are my strengths and weaknesses?

What are the threats and opportunities in my target market and how can I partner to shore up the gaps?

For example, let’s say you are a marketing and branding expert, but you don’t provide public relations services. However, you know that a number of your clients need PR as a part of their full marketing strategy. You now have identified PR as a gap in your business. Next, you meet with some PR companies and find that they don’t offer the same marketing services that you offer. You agree to share referrals so that both firms can market “full service” marketing.

What are my values and who do I know that does business in a similar way?

Who are my competitors and are they better at generating revenues and reaching the marketplace than me? What do they have that I don’t?

Do I need to develop know-how which has already been developed by another company or individual?

Is there a logical business partner that could help me develop a vertical or horizontal market penetration?

Is there a company that has resources that are complementary to mine?

What areas am I willing to compromise and what areas of business delivery have to be my way?

How do I feel about combining resources? Do I like to lead by myself or am I fine sharing the pie?

Do I have access to the right resources to structure my joint venture and insure all aspects are duly covered?

Do I have access to successful solopreneurs that have done successful JVs who can share their experience with me?

Do I understand that going through the decision process entails sitting down and taking time to think through and write down a full-fledged joint business plan?

Do I already know of a person or a company that I see has a real interest in partnering? Have I discussed the possibility with that person?

Is my company in need of more credibility? Do I know a potential joint venture company that has the level of credibility that I am seeking?

Do I have the support I need to go through this type of change in my business life?

A joint venture is formed when you not only have an alliance but you come up with a strategy to find customers together. Where can you get creative?

Who are the right partners for your type of business? There are a number of ways to put together JVs. When you think out of the box and look at how you can create wins for your customer, wins for your partner and wins for you. The win-win-win situation, and thinking through how everyone can benefit is essential.

Try to discover all the alliance possibilities that exist for your business. You don’t have pursue all of them, but if you start with the possibilities it makes it easier to determine priority.
Start by listing:

• Who are at least 5 prospective partners
• What are 5 ways that the partnership would create a win-win-win
• What are 5 ways you could implement the JV?

You mentioned finding the right partners. Can you talk a little more about that? Is it always about the numbers on their list? (4 Myths)

Not every business can be your joint venture partner. Let’s talk about 4 myths that solopreneurs often get stuck believing.

Myth #1 — Big lists don’t always work. It is really important that you are connected to your community, your tribe, your readers, your customers and really understand what they want and then align who you partner with to that knowledge.

In order for a partnership to really rock and be not only powerful but also profitable, you and your JV partner should serve the same community, audience or tribe. In addition, your big picture message should also be aligned. When you make sure that happens, your communities will benefit from you coming together.

You can make sure of this by doing your research. Sign up for a potential partner’s ezine or listen to a teleseminar they put on or spend time reading their twitter stream. What is their energy and style? Does it match or complement yours? Do they have a lot of the same ideas or do those ideas coordinate with yours? You may even consider purchasing one of their products so that you can really speak to how they serve their market. Once you have a good idea of their message, who their audience is and their style, you are much better positioned to approach them.

The same holds true if they approach you!

Myth #2 — You are not well known enough and need a big list to get partners.

Partners promote because of alignment
1 – they like you — lead with this
2 – their tribe – who resonates with the people we are. who do we want to lead? deeply connect to who you are. you look for partners that are speaking to the same people. (mention Seth Goddin’s TRIBES)
3 – their business
So, find people you like who speak to the same group of people, their tribe and love to do business with them.
When you can clearly communicate the power of what you do, you have power.

Myth #3 — I have no one to partner with
Remove the lense!

• other leaders in your industry
• service providers (bookkeeers, video, deisgners, office autopilot)
• physical locations – find places that are already doing events
• ask – where does my audience go?
• your past clients
• people you also want to learn from

Search the web or ask your contacts if they know anyone. Start connecting one at a time to see what you can come up with. Give yourself permission to learn and grow with each conversation.

I’ve found many of my best JV partners by participating in conversations and building relationships on twitter.

3 levels of partnership

• your inner circle (networking clients colleagues)
• your outter circle – looked at all of your contacts from past years
• your dream team

secret – start with the low hanging fruit

Myth #4 — Dont have anything to offer
NO! Focus too much on the money
NO! Don’t focus enough on the money
NO! Ask for favors

5 hot buttons when talking to partners

• recognition
• exposure — email, on your stage, host a video of them, etc.
• connections
• experiences – private experiences
• money

Do you need formal legal agreements to participate in a joint venture?

While I know a number of solopreneurs that operate their business with verbal conversations and a handshake, I don’t recommend it. I know that many solopreneurs shy away from anything that involves legal garble, but creating win-win-win situations involves thinking through the possible outcomes and having a plan for how to handle them.

Time after time studies have shown that two people can be in the exact same conversation and interpret the outcomes differently or remember different details. By having key decisions in writing, you ensure that everyone is on the same page.

If you are in a simple joint venture, for example that newsletter that I mentioned earlier where no financial interactions are happening between clients, a one-pager outlining who is responsible for production, distribution and deadline dates may be all that you need.

However, when you start getting into agreements that involve your clients or exchange of money, it is always a good idea to have everything detailed out so that there is no misinterpretation.

For example, lets say that you are that marketer again that is partnering with the PR agency. Do you tell your client that part of the work is being done by someone else or not? For the sake of consistency, how much you choose to explain to your clients is something that you and your partner should agree to up front.

The more detailed the project and the more integrated the businesses, the more you should consider talking with a lawyer that understands partnerships and can walk you through potential pitfalls and considerations for what might go wrong. Addressing those things upfront builds a solid foundation for a successful partnership and allows smooth flow when those “what ifs” happen.

You have 11 Keys that have to be in place in order to partner with another business. Could you share what they are?

I’ve had to become pretty picky when it comes to Joint Ventures. Please read my criteria. If it sounds like a match, fill out the JV Request Form with a description of your project and how it addresses the following points:

Key #1: It's a Win-Win-Win

Understand that when you invite someone to be a part of their project, you are actually being considered as a part of their own project. There must be a win for you, a win for me, and a win for our shared audience. Your joint venture idea must be mutually beneficial to both of us. In other words, doing this project with you will help both of our business grow! It is not enough that I would get to promote your new product and get commissions. I would like to see some growth potential beyond just an affiliate check.

Key #2: You've Done Your Homework

An authentically successful joint venture is one where each partner is genuinely interested in the success of the other. Learn about me and my business before you approach me. Read my blog and check out my services and products.

Key #3: You Understand and Serve My Audience

My audience is heavily comprised of mission driven, heart-centered consultants, coaches, speakers, business and self help authors, as well as personal development experts. They’re smart, high-energy, positive, and looking for great results. They demand high quality, great value, a sincere message, and effective strategies they can put to use to improve their businesses.

Key #4: Responsive List/Audience

You have a responsive list of at least 2500. I enjoy being interviewed on the topics of my expertise,however time constraints force me to be highly selective. I look for a live audience of at least 100 people, or, if it's a pre-recorded interview, I need to know that my interview will reach at a thousand or more people. I may consider being interviewed for a smaller audience if the topic is unique and will allow me to develop a new product out of it.

Key #5: Provide Value to My Audience

Your offer is business related and provides high value to my audience. “Everyone could use this” isn’t a strong enough offer. Explain to me how this will benefit my audience of entrepreneurs looking to position themselves as experts and leverage their systems and processes.

Key 6: Our Values Match

I am mission driven. Tell me about the ripple effect of your offer and how it will positively impact other people’s lives and I’ll be very interested in talking with you. Tell me about the biggest benefit of partnering with you right at the top of your proposal.

Key #7: Social Media Saavy

You use social media and online marketing tools responsibly (not overly promotional, no spamming). You have a well matched following.

Key #8: High Quality Sales Materials

You must have a well-written web site copy for your product or program to partner with me. If you are not a “master” copywriter, I highly suggest hiring a professional copywriter to enhance your sales materials for your product. You must also have a professional looking web site before I can endorse your product. Remember, the only way for my clients and members to evaluate your company and your product is by what they see on your site.

Key #9: Out of the Box Brainstorming and Co-Creating

One of my favorite ways to partner with people is to co-create a product or a program. Your expertise, however; must complement mine otherwise I can simply create the product alone. If you’re interested in getting creative with me, I’m all ears. But please take into account the criteria above if you want to brainstorm a joint venture.

Key #10: New Ideas Are Welcome

As an entrepreneur at heart, I love the creation process. If you have a unique and interesting idea for aproduct, program, project or event, I would love to hear from you! Please note, I consider “stealing” someone else's idea the worst most unethical thing an entrepreneur can do. If your idea does not fit my business, I will never share it with anyone else without your permission.

Key #11: Must Have Leverage

My business model is unique to me and built entirely around my ideal lifestyle. Any joint ventures that will require extensive travel or time-consuming research, or simply don't have the financial leverage I am looking for, will not be appropriate for my business.

IMPORTANT NOTE IF YOU WANT ME TO BE PART OF YOUR EVENT OR LAUNCH
I can’t guarantee that I can send out emails to my list to promote your project. It will depend on the win-win-win potential and the availability on our mailing promotion calendar.

What steps can our listeners take to get started with strategic joint ventures?

I realize it can feel a bit awkward when you are trying to figure out how to get started with a joint venture. Here is a simple process you can follow.

1 – Start by having your ducks in a row. Other businesses like to partner with a business that has their processes under control. Have a juicy giveaway that you only use for joint venture partners – not your standard website giveaway. Have technology in place to take new subscribers. Affiliate programs set up so that your partner can easily promote what you are doing, etc. Depending on the type of partnership you are creating, this list could look different, but the point is to have your systems and processes figured out an working.

2 – Once you have your systems in place it is a matter of starting with a discussion. You will probably not know exactly how you want to partner together at the beginning. Once you get the other person on the phone or in a meeting, start by getting to know their business and their goals. Understand who do they serve and do your target markets match?

3 – Learn about what things their clients are hungry for. What do they want that the other person cannot provide and does that align with the services you offer?

4 – Ask a lot of questions about your potential partner’s needs and goals. How can you help them?

5 – Map out ideas as they come up. As you talk usually one idea will begin to stand out.

6 – Once you have the idea, plan out how to implement the concept. You can talk about timing, pricing, commission splits and who is responsible for each piece. Agree on next steps and who is responsible for each follow up and schedule a time to talk again.

7 – Follow up with notes from the call right away to review and make sure you both heard the same thing. Document the decisions you made, agreements, responsibilities and next steps.

Then give. Give Fast — The best thing to do is look for every opportunity to give fast and as often as possible. Talk and build relationships and have them ask how they can help you. Great JVs begin with a giving spirit and building relationships.
1- share their contacts
2- give referrals
3 – offer life/business solutions
4 – invite to special events
5 – share their content on social media

Edited to add interview conversation.