Booklet s and Beyond- Making More Money Online and Offline Today Session Two

Transcription

1 1 Booklet s and Beyond- Making More Money Online and Offline Today Session Two I'd like to welcome you. My name is Paulette Ensign: Tipsbooklets.com, San Diego California. Today we are exploring the second session of Booklets and Beyond- Making More Money Online and Offline Today. Today's session, the second of four sessions, is about partnering for profits and it's about expanding your reach, your creativity, and your bottom line by partnering on specific marketing campaigns while completely keeping your independence as a solopreneur, no matter what size client base, subscriber list, or community you have. So, today we're going to be discussing three things and the topics will be: Who can be ideal partners for your business, what to offer in a partnering arrangement, and how to design a good agreement in simple language. Those are the three things that we're going to be dealing with so that you can then move ahead and get your product out into the world in ways you haven't considered before. It is something that a lot of folks just never thought about, just never thought about at all. They thought that the only way to do it is to sell yourself, sell it by yourself, sell it for yourself, and in fact, that's a tough way to go. So, the very first thing that we want to consider is who can be ideal partners? And in the broad spectrum it is people who serve similar people or situations with something other than what you do. Now that can be fairly vague in the process of all of that, but when you stop to think about it, you may find that you'll get a flood of ideas so that, for instance, in my world, people who are serving consultants, coaches, speakers, and solopreneurs are very often folks who are going to be ideal partners in my world. New markets with someone who is an expert in an industry is another thing to consider. So that, for instance, where my work, again I'll use this just as a generic example here, my work can go to many, many, many different industries because taking your knowledge, whether you are an expert in holistic health, or whether you are an expert in construction marketing, or whether you're an expert in any other field, you've got knowledge to take to your people. The formats of what I personally provide in my business can easily fit right into many, many, many different markets. The challenge there sometimes, as some of you may have experienced, is finding the right niche. Any niche is not good enough. It needs to be the right niche. There are also ideal partners in what's now become a traditional internet marketing approach, where it's their list and your products and where you create relationships so that you can bring your product to a new list. And one of the things that can be an amazing grasp of the obvious that I'll just remind you about because I've had some recent firsthand experience of this is that cultures vary.

2 2 What I mean by that is that certain communities, or certain groups, or certain lists, or certain tribes, however you want to identify it, can seem like they are an ideal match for what you've got. And then, you end up taking a look at how they're responding and it's just not happening at all. The experience that I had recently that brought this to mind is that it seemed like the perfect, perfect, perfect match of this telecourse that you're on right now, that you're listening to It seemed like the perfect match for somebody's community and when a colleague, who I had already had some experience- we had worked together on another project, and where that audience was just perfect. It was completely what I described of consultants, solopreneurs, coaches, solo practitioners. We ended up having a substantial amount of activity, of clicks onto the link that that person did distribute and we didn't end up getting one registration out of it. Not one. So I contacted that person and I said, "You know, forgive me here, but I think we left a lot of money on the table and I can't figure out why." I said, "And we did have registrations from other places, so I 'm completely baffled." What she said back to me made so much sense then that it s certainly worth passing along to you now. And that is that she knows, from her well-established business, that her people take a very long time to buy. And even though I am not a stranger to her people, they had to have more exposure to what Paulette Ensign's business is doing these days to feel comfortable pulling out their credit card. She said she had other similar situations where, after a seemingly ridiculous period of time, all of a sudden the sales started to flow. So that's something to be aware of. We, on the flip side of it, had some really fascinating and rewarding and delightful experiences from someone who's taking this course right now, who has been a client of mine and who shared this information with a much, much smaller community who was very responsive. In fact several of you signed up for this course as a result of that. So, even though, and this has been an experience of mine for more than two decades, even though something seems logical and makes good sense, sometimes the reality just doesn't bare itself out that way. Be alerted to that and don't let it stop you as much as to realize that that is something that can happen, that cultures do vary And with internet marketing, as it's evolved, that's truer than ever. Another item is to think about is who else goes to your market with a different product or service than you do? And how can you, I don't want to say piggy-back onto them, as much as they've opened a door and what you're offering is similar enough and yet different enough? For instance somebody has an expertise in teaching people how to write a book. For me to come in and introduce another publication format makes a lot of sense. Makes a whole lot of sense. In a situation like that when you have a product or a service that seems to be

3 3 a modification, without stepping on anybody else's toes, you may find it's the perfect extension for them and for you. I am not someone who goes out to the marketplace to help people write books. Even though that could seem like it's very similar to booklets, there's enough differences that we each have our own niche in that regard. So when you are thinking about who can be an ideal partner, it's like any other relationship. Test something out at the outset that's small. A small project. A small set of experiences. A limited timeframe, something small, so that if you don't already have an experience of working with that person you can see what their work style is because again, no matter how brilliant a match it seems, if that person doesn't do what they agreed to do, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It will be a failure. If they do not follow up and do what they say they're going to do when they say they're going to do it that is going to doom the relationship. If that person makes life difficult for you in some way, if they make things more complicated or their communication style is more limited and abbreviated than what yours is or vice-versa where you may be very bottom- line and they tell you, instead of what time it is, how to make the watch. And then it drives both of you crazy because the work style and your communication style is so different. Those relationship issues show up no matter where you are, and in business it's not any different in that. One of the reasons why I set up a LinkedIn discussion group for an additional tool for you is so that you can start to get to know each other. You can decide, is this somebody I would like to explore doing some business with? Because yeah it seems like we've got a good match market wise, however I don't know the person yet and I'd really like to see if we get along. So that discussion group, I know that a bunch of you have already successfully signed up for it. A couple of you, I talked you through, we figured out that there was a glitch in Linked In for some reason. There's still five people who I've invited who have yet to actually be in there so if you want to, I encourage you to contact me. Let me know. I will talk you through it. There's a couple of people I know who do not have a LinkedIn profile. Certainly that's your choice, however, I am saying to you that you are missing some opportunities that are available to you at no cost and can expand your revenue. If those components are attractive enough to you, you may want to reconsider having a LinkedIn profile so that you can be included in that discussion group on Linked In. And I also want to encourage you to post questions, to post opportunities as you want to let people know about them. If you've got something that you're looking for a joint venture partner on, put that onto that LinkedIn discussion group so that at least it starts the conversation. There's no commitment for anybody to have to follow through beyond that.

4 4 But again, I just want to make the point that there is that opportunity there. And just so that I can help you take additional steps, I'd like to share with you some of the examples of people that are in this course that I see as potential connectors. We've got for the market of seniors and baby boomers; we've got somebody in the course who owns assisted living facilities and somebody else in the course who is a senior daily money manager. For marketing in general, we've got somebody in this course who is an expert in branding. We've got somebody else who has a business based on customer relations management systems marketing: where it's systems that will allow you to stay in touch with people. We've got somebody else from the course who has a lengthy background on LinkedIn. Another generalist in marketing. Another person who's an expert in networking and somebody who is a human resources professional. All those people in some way or another are dealing with marketing. I've got to believe that there are some cross-pollination possibilities there. Another major heading of people in this course are professional organizers, which that was my second career, so I'm intimately familiar with what that industry is about. Within this course we've got somebody who's a life coach. We've got somebody who's a specialist in chronic disorganization and those folks who deal with hoarding. We've got somebody else who has a professional organizing business that serves home and business clients. We've got somebody else who's a career and lifestyle expert where I can see organizing definitely playing a role in that and we've got somebody else who has done something about college education. So, those things can definitely be crossovers and ways to do joint ventures and to do all kinds of things. There's two more sections, one of which is about money and I already mentioned the senior daily money manager and we've got somebody whose expertise is about funding your college education. We've got a tax prep person: tax preparation. And we've got somebody who has already written a booklet about how to buy a house inexpensively. So various components about dealing with money really cross-pollinates amazingly on that one. And the last major heading I've got here is motivation. There's somebody who has a radio show in fact that is based on motivational stories, where that person interviews people as to what their life experiences have been and how they can motivate other people. We've got somebody on the course whose basis is on spirituality. As I mentioned, there's some life coaches, organizers, and HR professionals. So if you had a challenge connecting the dots, which sometimes happens if your mind is not wired that way, I respect and understand that. Then you may want to put something onto the discussion board saying, "This is who I am. This is what I've got. Anybody like to talk about doing a joint venture here?" I encourage and invite you to consider that at your earliest convenience so that you get the greatest benefit from the folks who have also said, "I'm ready to do something. I don't

5 5 know necessarily what it's going to look like," or "I thought I knew what it was going to look like but, you know, I just didn't have as much information as I have today." Now all of a sudden you've got a whole different point of view, a whole different perspective. With that, I want to open up the call for a few minutes to discuss this notion of who can be an ideal partner and any questions you'd like to pose or anything you'd like to say about, "Gee, you know, I really am interested in finding some folks to explore partnerships with. Not necessarily sign on the dotted line with anything, but to explore it. If you'd like to ask a question or make a statement, would you hit *6 and give us your first name and have at it. Sheila: Paulette, this is Sheila. Paulette: Hi Sheila. Sheila: Hi, I do have a really quick question. In context with this particular course, can you explain what the joint venture might look like? Paulette: Yes, I will and thank you for asking that question and that, by the way, is an example of when you throw jargon around and expect people to understand it because you've been living with that information forever. So, thank you for asking that. I just modeled what some of all of us may do at a different point in time. A joint venture is when two or more people make a decision to bring what they each have out to the marketplace and share in the revenue, share in the experience, share in the client list. There's a lot of thing that can be shared that you make a decision how much of that you want to share. Sometimes the money part of it is less important, which baffles my mind usually, because that's what's important to me, but in fact, sometimes people just really want to build their list. And that's a phrase you probably have heard around and aboutwhere folks want to expand to folks that they can reach so that they have the opportunity to sell them other things. There are other times when people really, truly are only in it to expand their reach and their bottom line. I'm going to give you more examples of that in the next section of today's course, but that is the thumbnail sketch of what a joint venture is. Hopefully that gave you enough of an answer for now. If not, let me know. Any other questions/comments anybody would like to raise about who can be an ideal partner? Eileen Strong: Hi Paulette, Eileen Strong here. Paulette: Yeah, Hi Eileen. Eileen: I am and I did understand joint venture and I'm so happy that that gal did bring that up because I think that was a very valid point and you handled it exceptionally well. Paulette: Thank you. Eileen: I'm serious, you really did. Two topics that I speak on. I'm very interested in joint venture approach. I am established with showing executives how to share their wisdom,

6 6 speak with clarity, credibility and confidence every time that they present. That is my number one topic and that's how I'm going to be creating these booklets that you are so intriguingly putting forth and the other topic I speak on is confidence and communication. How they go hand in hand. If you lack the confidence, you will lack the communication. And if you lack the communication skills, you many times lack the confidence. So they interact with each other. Paulette: Excellent. Thank you for letting us know what is of interest to you. I appreciate that. And that may have resonated with someone else on the live call or on the recording. And that was Eileen Strong who mentioned that and Eileen I think you're on the LinkedIn discussion group, maybe not. (Eileen: "Yes I am.") OK, great. Thank you very much for your kind words as well. Any other comments or questions that you would like to raise? And I'm going to respond to something Eileen said as well. Any other comments or questions right now though? Barbara: This is Barbara Eisele and I am one of the people you referred to as a life coach and of course that's a broad generic term and I just wanted to let people know that my niche is really for people who are going through needs or transitions in their life, be it divorce, a career that is either ending or they want to change, it can be baby boomers, but it's really people who want to step way out and beyond their comfort zones and I have a process that I have developed that's very, very effective. I'd be interested in talking to people about trying ventures and what they might see. Paulette: Terrific, terrific. And those of you who have so far talked about joint ventures, again I encourage you to post them on the LinkedIn group so that people can respond to you that way at their convenience and you can start to get to know each other better that way. Thank you Barbara. I think there was somebody else who was jumping in at the same time you were. Whoever that was, if you'd like to speak now, please go ahead. Georgia: This is Georgia. Paulette: Georgia, hi. Georgia: One of the things that is a result even of starting this course with you and I have worked most- delightedly with Paulette before, is to go back and look at the articles I have published on a variety of topics and see if there might be food for thought just from the articles themselves to preparing a booklet. So I make that suggestion for anyone else on the call who has written articles. Paulette: Excellent. Thank you so much. Yeah, you know I doubt there's anybody on the call who is lacking for content. That is rarely a challenge and sometimes it just takes scratching the surface a little bit and you realize you've got so much content that you don't even know what to do with it all or where to start. Thank you for raising that and thank you for your kind words as well. Any other comment or question right now before we move on about who can be an ideal partner?

7 7 OK. Easy, effortless, and enjoyable are words that I like to remind people that each of us appreciates, so it behooves us to put that out there as well, especially in joint venturing. Make it as easy, effortless, and enjoyable as possible for the other person to do business with you. And while it may seem like, again an amazing grasp of the obvious it's astounding how challenging some folks make it. So, take that on for your own if that fits. I'd like to move ahead now and give you some options as to what you can offer in a partnering arrangement. And some of these have been things that I've personally done. Some of them have been things I've seen colleagues and clients do and they've all worked to varying degrees. As Eileen was saying as far as communication is concerned, the clarity is really the key. At the front end of your relationship you can state clearly what it is you're looking for, what it is you're willing to do, what it is you bring to the party. That's the starting point because as you then move forward, inevitably you're going to unearth things that neither you nor your joint venture partner ever considered. Be open as well and it may be something that you can bring into that particular joint venture arrangement or it may be something that's separate from that. It may be another or different one. Be willing to say this is not a fit, like any relationship. And any relationship needs to have that exit strategy as well. Think about that on the front end while you're considering the other components. What to offer in a partnering arrangement? I have had a joint venture with somebody who is in the construction marketing field in the UK. Now talk about a niche. This is somebody who has been in the construction industry forever helping the construction industry market themselves. And this person had been on my mailing list, on my ezine, on my newsletter, my weekly newsletter list for many years. At one point, when he was ready, he contacted me and he said, "This is what I do. Do you think that you can help me?" and "Do you think that you'd be interested in a joint venture?" And I said, "Well, let's have a talk about it and see." That's an example of an established industry so far as the construction industry is concerned and very narrow of it being in the UK and of somebody who has spent their life knowing about the construction industry and knowing about how to market. And he was enamored of the idea of tips booklets because a lot of the marketing approaches that he was bringing to his clients were things that were not tips booklets. They were a lot of other ways. The arrangement that we decided was to split the profit. It was neat and clean and it lived for a certain period of time and then we both moved on to other things. That is a glowing example of somebody who had basically been a client of mine first. And I know that I listened to a lovely ten minute reordering the other day from somebody

8 8 in this class who was talking about partnering with clients. I appreciated hearing that recording and it was a reminder to me that that has happened in my world as well. You may have clients where you can approach them and where you've already got a relationship established and where you feel that they are somebody that you'd feel good about partnering with, where you feel the integrity would be there and everything else that would qualify them to be a good partner for you. You may want to approach them if what you have is a good fit and say, "I've been thinking about this. Are you interested?" The second example that I've got also turned out to be partnering with a client. Somebody who was a finalist several seasons ago on the reality show The Biggest Loser read about my work in a book called Speaking on the Side, went to my website, bought one of my products. I looked to see who this person was because I always like to know who people are and how I can best serve them. When I looked and saw that this person was an alumni of The Biggest Loser and I remembered watching that season, I picked the phone up and talked with the person and we now have a phenomenal joint venture going on where I am helping them take their content and turn it into actually a subscription based project where I will be receiving a piece of their revenue for a defined period of time. And that's a joint venture. I'm helping them to create their product line and for them to learn how to market it effectively and they are sharing the revenue with me. So that's another example of how a client relationship turned into a joint venture arrangement. The next example is one where I put the word out to colleagues of mine and I said, "Here's what I'm doing." and "Here's what I'm looking for if you have any introductions. This works well, by the way, for folks who are professional speakers. It works well for folks who are corporate clients and association clients where you have colleagues who are going places where they may not be able to either repeat their services, either too quickly or ever or where what you offer is complimentary to what they offer. For instance, if you are a professional speaker who does keynotes as Eileen mentioned and I know there are some other folks on the course who are also professional speakers where your topic or your style is one where this same group is not inclined to bring you back in successive years for their conference or when they're not inclined to bring you in for an offsite consulting situation more than once or things like that. However, you've got a colleague where you're very comfortable referring that person and in exchange an appropriate arrangement might be a finder fee, where they end up giving you a percentage of whatever their revenue from that was. And be clear as to where that arrangement starts or stops and is it a one-off situation or is it for the length of the client s relationship or is it to a certain dollar amount. I mean there's a lot of ways that you can and must create what your agreement is. And the agreement needs to be in writing so that you can look at it, each of you can look at it and say, "Yeah, this works but not totally," or "I like this, but I think we left that out." Things like that are really important. If you go the who, where, why, how, and when that will

9 9 be a good guide for you. I've also included in the guide that you'll be getting with this session an example of a Memorandum of Understanding which is literally that. It's a memorandum of understanding. This is what I understand. This is what you understand. If we don't have the same understanding, let's fix it now. I gave it to you as a fill-in-the-blank. One of the relationships that I created came from an introduction from somebody else and that really warranted a finder fee to the person who made the introduction. Same thing when I asked for introductions to associations whose members are my audience -- associations whose members are solopreneurs, consultants, coaches -- to bring to that association a co-authored sponsored tips booklet, where that benefits the sponsor, it benefits the association, it benefits the individual members, and it benefits the public. I have had introductions to associations where I was completely unknown, however, the person who made the introduction was known. That was a door opener and that was a finder fee. It s very typical to have co-authored books, booklets, telesummits. Those are joint ventures based on how you choose to design that. You can have co-authored books that have become very popular over the years and usually pretty high-priced for each person to participate in anywhere from people. They may each be paying $4000 to participate. I created about ten years ago the tips booklet version of that called "Collection of Experts" for much smaller amounts of time and money and those tips booklets I do joint ventures with people all the time where you bring that offer to your community and you get to play at no cost and you get all kinds of goodies including cash and other benefits from me. So if that's something that appeals to you, please do not be shy in letting me know you'd like to have that no-obligation conversation to see if it's a fit. You can look at CollectionofExperts.com, which is a page on my site. It explains all of that and shows you a complete example just so that you can feel a little more comfortable if you have not already participated in one or more of them. I know a few people on this course have already participated in a Collection of Experts and it may be time for you to decide you want to sponsor one, you want to host one. I'm happy to have that conversation as a joint venture and you'll more than make up for what the investment was in this course that you took with me today. Telesummits, it s not uncommon at all for folks to bring together anywhere from four to a dozen or more people who each deliver a session by phone or as a webinar and that's joint venturing as well. Another example, and Georgia you mentioned this- articles. You've published a lot of articles and you've got them ready for exchanging with other people in their newsletters or their blogs. That certainly can be a joint venture that is purely for the purpose of expanding reach and promoting and publicizing what your area of expertise is and that's a

10 10 no- cost situation. Typically in things like that each person has a resource box at the end of the article that gives their name and some contact information and maybe one sentence that is, forgive me, elevator speech, that does say a little bit about what you do. Exchange of articles in newsletters and blogs can be a joint venture in and of itself and sometimes that's a good way to start the relationship where it is, "Did that person send me the article when they said they would?" and "Did they send the size article that I said was my limit?" If you want 500 words and they sent you one with 6,000 words, that's pretty obvious that they weren't paying attention. Things like that do happen and that was not a stretch in sharing that with you. It's not necessary for both people in a joint venture to have big lists. Sometimes folks say, "Well if you don't have a list that's at least this size, I'm really not interested." The fact is, as I mentioned earlier with numbers, we have very different response levels with different sized groups. There was a smaller group that was much more responsive than a much larger well- established group was. It may be that you're bringing a big idea that's more important than bringing a big list. So keep that in mind as well. You may have strengths that you're bringing to a different audience. I have a colleague who has an audience and a product, but he doesn't have a vision. And when I realized that and I realized that his cash flow was different than what he would like I said, "Why don't we have lunch and talk about it?" I'm in the process of crafting a joint venture with him because I can see clearly what he's got right in front of him that he can't see and that he's not as wired for marketing as I am. However, he's got expertise that's very valuable to a lot of people. And I am encouraging him and we are now about to craft something that will be a joint venture where I will get a finder fee for each piece of business that he brings in based on the structure that we're doing. Sponsorship is the last thing on my list of what to offer in a partnering arrangement. Sponsorship partnering plus creating funding, I made mention of it when I talked about a co-authored booklet. With an association the partnering there has multiple partners. Ideally, the association will tap one of their corporate members to put up the funding to fund a co-authored booklet. They get lots of benefit out of reaching a market in a way they could not otherwise. The association will often lead with, "We don't have money." We take that reason away from them because all of a sudden there was money there they just hadn't thought about asking for. That's a partner. The association is a partner. The sponsor is a partner. The content contributors who are industry members become partners in this process and my company becomes a partner. So in that arrangement, there's four partners who each bring something unique that is helpful to the other three partners. Those are some of many of the ways that you can partner with people and associations and companies, some of which you've thought about and just haven't acted on yet. Some

11 11 of them you hadn't thought about at all. I could imagine, for instance, that the assistant living facilities owner and the senior daily money manager, you may have booklets (and I know one of you does already). You may have booklets that you simply want to exchange with each other where each other distributes what you've got. That could be an arrangement that suits you, or you may come up with something even more in depth so that the senior money manager ends up getting exposure to the residents and family decision makers of the assisted living facilities and the assisted living facilities becomes known to the folks who the daily money manager has reached to. So that's an example of real direct ways you can do that. I want to quickly move on to discussing what the partner agreement needs to have in it. I've alluded to it already. Then I'm going to open up the balance for questions and comments and suggestions that you have. In the partner agreement, the who, what, where, why, how, and when are the skeleton pieces that serve well in any writing that you do. And primarily, with the who, it s the people. Whether it's individuals, or companies, or associations, it's the people. And whether to make your agreement non-transferrable to heirs or anybody else is something to give thought to and something that sometimes gets overlooked. When you're making that agreement, you're thinking just about the person you're talking with about the deal. Keep in mind that if they become unwilling or unable, can they transfer what your agreement is? Maybe it doesn't matter to you or maybe it matters a whole lot. So the people, that's the "who." The "what": Specify the products and the people that are involved. Again, state whether it's non-transferrable or not. Whether it's a specific commission that you're sharing or percentage split, and of that, is it of the gross amount of money because that's another piece that can sometimes be overlooked. Usually, the cleanest, easiest thing to do is to base it on what the gross sale is, because after that it becomes really complicated and can tend to confuse some people. So that's the "what." Specifying the products, the people, whether it's non-transferrable, is it a commission or a percentage split, a specific dollar amount. Things like that need to be specified there. As to "where". Now, with everything, not everything, with so much being worldwide now, the issues of territory can be tricky because once you get onto the internet the territory is worldwide. However, there are definitely certain situations where it still is imperative that you define what the territory is. And along with that you may also define whether what you're bringing to the table can only be in a particular language or multiple languages and that's again something that you may not have considered, may not have had a reason to consider, may not have thought about it until I just said "languages" and you went, "Oh yeah, right." So the "where" is something that either may or may not be germane for you, however, if it is worldwide then say so. If it is within a particular region then that's the place to identify that.

12 12 The next one is "why." Why are you doing this joint venture? To joint venture compatible strengths and resources? To expand your reach and your bottom line? And you'll want to expand on that language, but that's the bullet points, the high points of that. It's to expand on compatible strengths and resources. To expand your reach and your bottom line is basically why you're doing the joint venture, whether it's an exchange of articles, or whether it's an exchange of services for cash, or whatever it is. By the way, with payment, it's crucial to include timeframes of when the payment is due and in what currency. Things like that and what method of payment. I pay affiliate commissions. My first choice is to pay them through Paypal and not everybody is on Paypal. Some people are gun shy about it or they would just prefer to get a paper check or they want a wire transfer. Those things are important when you're talking about the money part of it. "When" is another component of this. What's the term of your agreement? Is it renewable? What about an exit strategy? Are payments paid out after terminating the agreement? Some of that's pretty straight forward, that you'll find in many different agreements. And, again, I gave you the high points of that. There's more to that, but the timing of it really matters. When somebody says they will pay you their commissions on the fifteenth of the month or the closest business day, if it's not there by the sixteenth, unless they have a really important reason why, for me a red flag goes up. I don't want to have to chase somebody for something they agreed to do. Again, a good reason to test out the working relationship in ways that are small is so that you can see. And the last thing, "how". Who does and doesn't do what? Who has communication with whose market? When you want to break into, when you want to address a new market when you're looking to see who it is that has access to that market, that's the "how" and you'll state that right there, that the other person in your agreement has access to the construction industry in the UK and that is how you're planning to deliver what you do. Admittedly, those are definitely bullets for you to then expand and you'll see in the memorandum of understanding that that may or may not serve your purposes as a starting or finish line for an agreement. If you've got a template for an agreement that you like, then use that. You may want to embellish it in some way, however, it is vital that you have a written agreement. Years ago when I was brokering some organizing work to colleagues who I knew well who were personal friends, I always put every single one of those deals in writing and I'll tell you why. I never trusted my friend's wife and as crazy as that sounds, I just wanted to make sure my i's were dotted and t's were crossed and it's not like me to be suspicious. However, this person's wife just never gave me a good feeling and I thought to myself if the worst ever happened I wanted to be crystal clear in what out agreement was professionally. With things like that it's just easier to do it than to go "oops" after the fact.

13 13 We have talked today about who can be your ideal partners, what to offer in a partnering arrangement, and what a partner agreement can be like. I've shared with you a variety of examples, including an invitation to do joint venturing with me. On that note, I would like to open up the call for whatever questions, comments. I have a feeling I may have gotten your brains running into a little bit of an overdrive with possibilities. If I haven't hit your specific thing and it's just gnawing away at you, hit *6 and ask the question. Go for it. Eileen: Hi Paulette, Eileen Strong again. Paulette: OK, Eileen. Eileen: You sparked interest in a lot of things and I'm re-establishing a relationship that I have with a major, major company here that went into some financial disabilities. I'm trying to see how this booklet could make me re-establish myself within their presence and I guess I'm looking for input and insight on that and making it more clear because I did not make it clear on the agreement, I am now paying the price so what you had said raised a lot of red flags to me. Paulette: And Eileen, if it's OK with you, I'm going to share a comment, a suggestion that I gave you when you and I talked just before you signed up for this course. For anyone who is a professional speaker, when you have a booklet that is based on either keynote topics that you do or workshop topics that you do, it puts you into a very advantageous spot when you're talking with a decision- maker who says, "We don't have the money in the budget to bring you in as a speaker this year." At that point, you have the ability to give them an option and say, "I've got a booklet that can serve your people well with the information at a much lower price than bringing me in to speak this year. How about we look at that possibility? And, by the way, when you as the booklet author have multiple booklets, when you've got four booklets that are representing four keynotes or four workshops, that also allows you to give them choices that changes the whole conversation from, "Do you want to do this or not?" to "Which one of these is our starting point?" Eileen, I know you and I had talked about that and that that seemed to be something that was appealing to you. Does that help you get back in the door with this company that you just mentioned? Eileen: We'll find out. I liked your strategies. Paulette: Did I address what you asked? Eileen: Very much. Paulette: OK, thank you. Any other comments or questions or concerns you want clarity about? David: Hi, this is David.

14 14 Paulette: David, hi. David: I just wanted to ask about your thoughts on whether, if you're working with a new idea or concept, whether it's better to before you partner to work with it to put it out, get feedback, and refine it before you look for a partnership so you're bringing more to that partnership. Paulette: I love that question David. Thank you so much for asking it and the answer to that question is: it depends, and here's what it depends on. It depends on whether you tend to be somebody is most comfortable thinking that you will reach perfection or whether you are somebody more comfortable with a notion that once you take it to a partner, no matter how finished you think it was, your partner may very well say, " I like this, and I'd like it even more if..." And finish the sentence. So my thought to you, based on what you just asked, is I would encourage you to get as far as you can with it. Get as far as you can and then bring it to a potential partner and be open to what their response is. Some folks are going to say, "This is great the way it is, let's run with it." Others will say some variation of what I just offered you in the way of "It's really wonderful and I'd like it better if it had (fill in the blank)" Because over these years of doing booklets, I've got to tell you, I've heard just about everything. Where I thought it was a done deal, somebody else brought in an element that I just hadn't considered. I mean it just never crossed my mind at all. Does that help David? David: It does, thank you very much. Paulette: And thank you. What other questions, concerns comments? I hope you guys are going to jump at the idea of doing joint ventures with each other in some way because it really makes life, it just adds a dimension to life in a way that most of us who are solopreneurs just don't experience. Ricky: Hi this is Ricky, I got on the call a little bit late. Paulette: Glad you're here. Ricky: And we spoke about doing an invitation to some of the participants as being a guest on my radio program to be interviewed in New York City and so I want to extend that invitation as well. I mean, I don't guess that would be considered a joint venture. Paulette: Well, in a way, it kind of is because you get to see what they're doing and I know what you're up to right now in creating a product from the interviews. So in a way, it really could be considered a joint venture. I don't want to give more away because it's not mine to give but the fact is that Ricky and I talked about ways to help people get more exposure, including his radio show and beyond that. To that extent I would say that is a joint venture and thank you so much for that generous offer. Ricky interviewed me last week and I know he's interviewed at least one other person on this call which is the person who connected us. He s a very interesting interviewer. I encourage anyone who is inclined to want more publicity to connect with Ricky and schedule an interview. Ricky,

15 15 we need to get you onto the LinkedIn group so that you can also make that announcement there, too. Any other comments, questions... Lynn: I've got a question. Can you hear me? Paulette: Who's speaking right now? Lynn: This is Lynn O Shaughnessy. Paulette: Oh Lynn, oh good, I'm glad you got onto the call I was concerned. Lynn:...wrong button because I was waiting, you know, but anyway. One thing that I'm doing because I've kind of done everything, you know, I have a workshop, online course that I've had a few hundred people, participate in. I just started this year and I have a workbook which I've offered through my website for many years and I do speeches but I'm really wanting to expand beyond the people who always hang out at my website. So that's what I'm struggling with is, all right, how do you find the markets? To me, since I talked about how do you afford college, how do you find colleges, all that... prep firms, and maybe athletic recruiting firms who have the same kind of people who are showing up at my website. I'm kind of stuck. Beyond that, I'm like "hmmm I don't really know how to find markets beyond those two that keeps repeating in my brain. Paulette: Without knowing the content that you have, I'm a little bit flying without a parachute. Banks come to mind right away and other financial companies where they might give your course or your booklet as a promotional tool and then that leads whoever received the item from you back to what more that you've got. So that's what comes to mind first. And again, without really knowing in depth what your product line is, who you've been dealing with and what your content is, that's the fastest suggestion I can offer you. Lynn: Yeah, OK. Well that makes sense. Actually I've done some content for financial firms and I'm going to talk to Price-Waterhouse in about a week so that would be, I'm trying to figure out what to ask, and what we're going to talk about in terms of that. Paulette: Yeah, and talk to people as high up the decision- making ladder as you can and it may be accessing people through somebody you know first. That's always the best way. And if you don't know somebody who already is there, then ask for an introduction from somebody who will get you there. It may be that friends, family, colleagues, neighbors know a financial planner at a company that you want to access and, again, make sure that you go as high up the decision- making ladder, in the marketing department usually, as you can because otherwise it can be great delay. It can be great frustration. Can you tell I've been to that party? So, that's the best advice I can give you on those terms, OK? Lynn: Thanks!

16 16 Paulette: OK, my pleasure. We have time for one more question or comment. Who wants to have the last word? Going once, going twice... Sheila: Paulette, this is Sheila. Paulette: Yes, Sheila? Sheila: I do have a quick comment and a quick question. Paulette: Yes. Sheila: First of all, thank you so much for your comment about lists. Probably was the biggest most important thing. I think you know me pretty well. A list does not usually have a big agenda other than just sharing lists, but thank you for that comment. I thought it was really valuable. Also, I was wondering if you are going to talk later, another time, a little bit more about the Collection of Experts- being a sponsor or hosting one of them. Paulette: I want to make sure that this is something that I talk about individually with people whose interest is sparked, rather than take up valuable time that some folks could feel would be a sales pitch that I just don't want to get to. Sheila: That's great. That's fine. It was just something that perked up in my mind and then also another really quick thing is for Ricky, that was a great, beautiful offer and I was going to say if he's not on LinkedIn. how do we contact? Paulette: I have not asked permission from this group for me to distribute everybody's to each other, so that may be something for me to ask and I think I will send out a blind to everybody asking you if that is acceptable. You know, the whole purpose of setting up the LinkedIn discussion group was to streamline the process so that everybody could benefit from each other's conversation. In wanting to be respectful of each person's style and privacy and whatever, I'm kind of caught in the middle here. Sheila: That's perfectly great. Thank you, I appreciate that. I certainly appreciate your position in that and I'm sorry if I sort of opened a can of worms-but... Paulette: Oh no,no,no, I appreciate that completely, yeah, completely. OK my friends we will return again two weeks from today with the next session on this series and if you are listening to the recording of this, whether it is because you wanted to find out what you didn't hear because you weren't here, or because you wanted to make sure you kept learning about it, I encourage you either way. The next session is going to be about funding sources and we're going to be talking about creative offers for your clients, making more use of the real estate you've got in your products, and what I call the "crystal ball approach." Two weeks from today, we'll be dealing with funding sources and after that, about recurring product revenues. I can hardly wait to share this stuff with you. Thank you so much for your attention today and your interest. My name is Paulette Ensign, tipsbooklets.com Talk with you soon! Bye for now.