Collaboration isn’t just about sharing the load; it’s about multiplying success. In today’s episode, Juliet Clark interviews the owner of the “Million Dollar Rolodex,” Shannon Procise, about power partnerships. Discover how collaborations can set you up for success through shared visions, relationship-building, and more. They also touch on how strategic introductions, white labeling, and other strategies can skyrocket business growth and uncover a wealth of opportunities. So what are you waiting for? Stop struggling solo and start dominating together!

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Collaborate To Dominate: The Art Of Building Thriving Business Alliances

Shannon, I’m so excited to have you and share what we have to share in this episode.

Me too.

Shannon and I are going to talk in this episode. I’m going to start this out a little bit negative if you don’t mind. Shannon and I have both been in the digital space, working with coaches, authors, and speakers. One of the things that we got into early because it was a thing was joint ventures. I coached for a joint venture team. It didn’t work because people were at different levels and you didn’t know what to look for.

You can tell me a little bit about your experience but my experience was we got these big, dead lists. When you were going to work with someone, they would say, “How big is your list?” “It’s 10,000 people,” but we didn’t share that only five people were opening because we had this big, dead list. What was your experience with those joint ventures?

I read the book, and you’ve probably heard of this, How Ordinary People Make Extraordinary Income Online by Robert Allen. I was so excited about the possibility of joint ventures and affiliate marketing. I would think, “This is it. This is a great product.” I’ll spend all this time and all these resources, have my team market, and nothing. I have so many times where I’ve felt like it was such a good alignment. I’ll go, “Let me give it a year.”

Multiple Streams of Internet Income: How Ordinary People Make Extraordinary Money Online, 2nd Edition by Robert G. Allen

What I know is cost because I believe in investing in your business and getting mentors but it’s been painful. Other pieces are where people pivot without letting you know. I build something. We get in synergy and build something. All of a sudden, they make this major pivot. It cuts me off at the knees of like, “We were working great.” All of a sudden, they’re like, “We’re going to raise our prices on our product. We’re no longer going to offer this.” There have been some interesting things with joint ventures. Especially in the beginning, I focused on affiliate marketing. That one, I have to say, has been a lot of painful learning lessons.

Painful with the JDs too in the sense that a lot of these big people have this policy. You’ll get paid 90 days out and then that 90 days comes and goes. You’re all of a sudden chasing people down, which is uncomfortable. A lot of those conversations were uncomfortable for the person on the other end because they’d say, “I know you sold this but I had a bad month and I can’t pay you.” There was a lot of that too. I hate chasing people down.

I have another one that they came to me and they’re like, “You’re going to make so much money. Get me on your stage.” My average client is $35,000 so we went full board. I exposed them to my list and all of this stuff. They go, “We only pay you on the first thing.” It was like a $1,500 thing, Juliet.

Power Partnership

I had the same experience where the person sold me this. This is going to be the package. After I got my people to the event, I had to chase her down for the commission. On top of that, I was like, “This looks a little light,” because I knew which ones my clients bought. She said, “We pulled that piece out so you’re not going to get paid.” She sold my people $7,500 packages with a promise of 20%. She said, “All that stuff, I pulled it out. You’re not eligible now.” That was another real eye-opener. “I’m not doing business with you and sending people to your events anymore.” I hung true to that. She is a big player out there. Let’s get to the positive part. What Shannon and I transitioned to was a power partnership. Tell us a little bit about how you consider the power partnership. How does that look?

For me, it puts the relationship first. It’s aligning with somebody who has a shared vision of collaborating and understanding that the relationship is important and that we focus on both of our successes. We want to not only look at the bottom line but also ideas of helping grow, making introductions, and collaborating. I look at the partnership as having a partner, somebody on my advisory team, or somebody who cares about my success and I care about theirs. How do you describe it, Juliet?

Power Partner: The power partnership is about putting the relationship first and aligning with somebody who has a shared vision.

Relationship first. I love that I have a partner who is either on my level or a little bit higher. Most of my partners are on a little bit higher level. It’s not just about the relationship like, “Can you sell my stuff?” We keep in contact. We’re friends. We meet once a month. Sometimes, like you and I, we’re meeting weekly. I have someone who’s invested in my success to the point where they will look at my marketing materials and say, “Try this and that. I don’t like this.”

One of my other partners comes back to me and says, “I know you’re a copywriter but you suck at writing your copy. Here, I wrote this for you.” Everybody says writing their copy is hard. I love that relationship standpoint but I also love the relationship. I know everything about their families. I’ve been to their houses. I care about those people and what’s going on with them. That’s a little bit different than a joint venture like, “Here’s the link. Go sell my stuff.”

The thing that I love about the power partners, and I know one of the things we’re going to be showing people and some of what we’re going to be sharing, is how to make that strategic introduction. The opportunity for closing them is so much stronger because there’s that relationship built. It’s not just like, “Call this person.” This is a real strategic introduction. I’m familiar, Juliet, with what you do with books and bestseller campaigns and helping people build their platforms. I know enough to where by the time they get on the phone with you, they’re warmed up. They’re ready to go and learn more. Most of them are eager because I’ve spent time edifying you and all that you’ve done, even sharing stories of how you’ve helped other people.

For a little context there, what she’s talking about is the JV link. I send out an email and go, “My fabulous friend Shannon,” and most of the time, I don’t even know this person that I’m promoting, “Here’s the link to go to her webinar.” The way with power partnership is we make personal introductions. It’s text or email. It’s very personalized what we’re doing. I get a ton of text doing this, as well. It is personal.

I have vetted people before. I know their pricing structure and I find out, “Do you have the funds for this?” The last thing I want to do is send a broke person to my power partner to say, “I sent you something, Shannon.” That’s part of that personalization of what’s going on as well. It gives people this great warm, fuzzy feeling. She’s making a personal introduction for someone who can help me. I’m not out there in a sea of people trying to figure out who’s who and who’s real.

The other thing that I love about working with you, in particular as a power partner, is you also have a range of ways that you can help people. You have so many different ways so it expands the budget depending on where they’re at. It’s not one of, “It’s $10,000.” There are many different ways that you can help people. From the publishing standpoint, it’s no matter where they’re at, they’re at the napkin idea, “I want to write a book,” or they’re already done. One of the things that I love about you is it opens up those possibilities for me to be able to share what you’re doing in the world because of your avatar.

Unleash The Power

I love the reason we do that. This is something that our old friend from CEO Space, Catherine Bell, used to talk about all the time. The average millionaire has seven different streams of income. Think about that when you’re putting your partnership together. What is an extra income stream? “Can I resell their products as an income stream?” Putting all that together gives you those additional places. If you don’t have a big repertoire like I do, you have things that you can sell to other people that will help you get to that place as well. We have an upcoming event. Let’s talk a little bit about that. Not that we’re going to push this event on you, guys, but the first one’s always free. I’m like a drug dealer.

You give bonuses.

We don’t do the bonus stuff anymore. That’s an old funky.

We give them a gift.

Here we go. Remember how we used to close all the time? “Here’s my $2,000 package, and you get this and that.” The value is $47,000. They’re going to give it to me for two. How nice. We’re going to give you a gift. Let’s talk about that first event. How we’re going to introduce this to people? It’s important for people to understand what we’re doing here.

I’m so excited. It’s called Unleash the Power of Partnerships: Strategies for Building Thriving Alliances. It’s going to be held on April 30th, 2024 from 2:00 to 3:00 Eastern Standard Time. That’s a Tuesday.

Go ahead and share the gift. Let’s talk a little bit about what we’re going to talk about on there so people understand that we’re not just selling them something here.

We are going to be going through what is a power partnership so that people can decipher the difference between an affiliate and a partnership. We’re also going to talk about how to be ready. One of the things that we found is a lot of people want to do the power partnership but there are things that they need to get in order with their marketing and clarity on their landing page. There are key points and that’s part of it. I’m going to sneak in our bonus. Our gift is a checklist. We’re going to go through those items so that you’re clear on, “Am I ready? What do I need to do to get ready?” How about you, Juliet? What else are we going to be reviewing there?

It’s not only important for you to be ready to be a power partner but when you are talking to people about being a power partner, look at if they are ready. That’s one of the things that used to happen at the company that I coached all the time. We would have this high-level group with their funnels and messages. Everything was ready. We had all these people coming in the door who thought JVs are a fabulous thing but they weren’t ready at all.

The big juicy promise was that these little guys were going to get exposure for these big guys. The reality was these big guys were never going to look at these little guys because they weren’t ready. We’re going to spend some time looking to see not only whether you are ready and what you need to get ready but when you talk to a new partner, looking at their marketing materials and the way they speak to you, are they using the gold language? Are they using the language that your people speak?

I’ll tell you why this is important. Many years ago, I ran a campaign for one of my authors, who was a 6-figures in 6 months person. Think about that for a minute. I’m pushing this huge promo, “You’re going to make 6 figures in 6 months if you follow my routine.” Yet, my platform was you need to be out here at least a year in advance, getting your funnel and messaging ready. I went from this is a long vision to promoting somebody to a short vision. I had about twenty-five people drop off my list that day because that’s not what they signed up for and what they were looking for. It is important that you connect and make sure that everything’s in alignment.

Do you want to be friends with them? It’s the relationships versus somebody that’s going to put time into the relationship.

Can I share another negative story? This happened to both of us. We were part of an organization that promoted power partnerships. We both had the experience that someone on the other end didn’t understand what a power partnership was. She got on her calendar and talked to us. We never talked to her again. She would shoot out an email every month saying, “Can you sell this or that for me?” That wasn’t what this was all about. Yes, it’s the friend’s thing. I hate to say we’re going to get catty here. She was part of another event in that group. Every time she jumped on, I jumped off. I was like, “I don’t want to hear from her. She was annoying as hell.” Say something positive here. You’re always positive.

A couple of things are it is a time for community and collaboration. Those that collaborate are the ones that are going to excel and soar. Having this as your business model is so powerful because this is like making money while you’re sleeping. I believe I’ve always partnered with people. When you shared with me more of a laser focus, I spent 2023, instead of going out and getting one customer, I focused on how I find other power partners. What’s so cool is when you get in a relationship with a power partner, they’re sending you business. A lot of times, we may pay for advertising in hopes we get somebody.

What’s so cool about this is I pay for the advertising after the fact. Once I get the business in, I get the check-in and then I make the payment. It’s been such a beautiful way of doing business because you reach more people. This is something to take a look at, no matter what your business is. I know we’re talking to speakers, authors, and coaches. Every business should consider a power partner as a lane in their business. If you’re a big corporation, you should have somebody in charge of that division of power partners because this is something that will elevate what you do in the world.

Here are some of the benefits of it. Back in 2016, when I coached for that organization and switched from that big dead list into a power partnership, my referrals went from about 50% to 90% referral, which means that I can get a little lazy with my marketing. I’m paying for those leads after they have turned over. It makes it better. I don’t waste.

I used to waste so much on Facebook ads. You have to have a $2,000 spend and your guy is charging you $4,000 to do your ads. It wasn’t what it should have been. The clicks weren’t there. This way, you’ve got solid referrals that are bringing you into more business. If you’re good at selling, you can upsell as well. Talk a little bit about the white labeling we do. For both of us, it is a real boon, too. I have it with a couple of people that I work with.

I syndicate press releases to guarantee getting picked up on Business Insider, Fox, ABC, and NBC. What’s so great about this is that Juliet bundles this in her package. As an author and a coach, those logos can make such a difference in your business. This is something that Juliet can come in and market as hers. She shows up to one call when we do the interview. I love it because she’s there as their advocate. She knows them the best. From there, I do all the work.

As far as the white labeling, it allows anybody to come in and use the product. I even offer a power partner discount, which is different than an affiliate. I still have that affiliate model because a lot of people were used to the affiliate model. The power partner provides a great opportunity for them to benefit. I look at it, Juliet. You’re showing up on a call. I want you to make money by being here. It makes money so much easier. It’s a great thing. Do I do well on that?

You do well. Here’s the other thing it eliminates. We were talking about that JV where I shared your link. People bought. I chased you down. This takes care of all of that. When I resell her product, I pull my profit and affiliate out and I pay her the net. I got it that day. I don’t have to chase her down or look at it later. What I like most about it is that I have products that people can white label so they can sell them as well.

If we’re the primary on here with our client, we also come in as sort of that messaging warehouse. What happens a lot of times, and you’ve seen this all the time, is we’ll put a message together and then let our people book a podcast. All of a sudden, it’s the shiny object. It’s keeping that messaging static throughout their funnel and what they’re doing as well.

Power Partner Intensive

I love our relationship because we make the client center focused. I feel like they get the absolute best when we come in together. At least in the press release piece, it’s some of my best work when we do it together. I want to also share that our vision with this is to have a power partner intensive. I’m planting the seed here. Even if you read this episode months down the road, please reach out to Juliet because we are passionate about helping build stronger relationships and power partners. We are doing an intensive.

In the intensive that will be coming up, this is a four-week training course. We’re going to talk to you about getting ready to receive all of those pieces and how you become that ideal power partner. We’re going to do a marketing review. We’re going to look at what you have and how you improve it. At the end of the day, it’s about conversion. That’s the most important thing. Make it easy for your power partner and you to benefit. Your marketing and messaging have to be in line.

Power Partner: To make it easy for you and your power partner to benefit, your marketing and messaging have got to be in line.

We’re going to help you identify and start marketing to power partners and talk to them. We’re going to show you how to have that conversation with them and what to do and identify who are the key people to work with that will help you and be able to bundle. We’re going to show you how to review their marketing and funneling. That’s essential. You need to know if this is going to be good.

What a lot of people do is they’ll get excited about the big name of who the person is but when you look at their marketing, you’re not able to do it. We’re going to review whether you can white label your product and then how to make a good referral. Some of that stuff we reviewed in this episode but I wanted to share that with you. In this, there’s a whole book. You get a workbook, which is amazing. Juliet also does the magazine. She’s got the Breakthrough Author Magazine. When I saw the workbook, I was like, “This makes all of my intensives and training.”

I do design books.

I also love that we’ve come together and given them two opportunities. One is you’ll be able to take the course and work with us as a group, or you can get one-on-one coaching and meet with one of us every week throughout the whole process to get that little bit deeper dive. I’m so thrilled, Juliet, to do this with you because you embody the power partner thing. We’re going to make an impact on some businesses that join us.

I’m excited. If you haven’t met Shannon, she has Heartbeat Community of the Business Acceleration Community. She’s all about community. I’m a total introvert, I guess. I’m not big on building communities but she is good at it for a lot of our clients. We do a trial membership into her community so they can get some more support on that as well. Shannon, I’m looking forward to this. Where do people go over to jump on to the free webinar that we’re going to give that’s going to lead to the intensive?

It’s a little bit long. We probably need to do your strategy. Juliet, years ago, told me about this strategy. She said, “Don’t do those long addresses. Go buy a domain name and forward it.” I haven’t done it yet but it’s BusinessAccelerationClub.com/events/011de0.

You need to go get that. You are out. What are you doing? See, my partner doesn’t even listen to me.

I’ve got it on lots of other things.

I’m giving you a hard time. The webinar is on April 30th, 2024, 2:00 to 3:00 o’clock Eastern time. We’ll have all the times for the other time zones. An hour of your time is worth it to show up and see how you can improve all that. We see so many models out there. I’m going to bring up another benefit, if I may. There are networking models out there. Someone told me that they belong to a networking group that I abore. He said he’s quitting because they’re very tit-for-tat. They’re trying to do what we’re doing but it’s like, “I’m getting to know Shannon. I gave Shannon three leads. I follow up and go, ‘Shannon, where are my three leads?'”

This is a very karmic way to do things. One of the things that happens with these relationships is I’ll have a problem and put out to my power partners like, “Does anybody know what do they do?” I get solid advice back from one of our partners, Parshall. I have someone designing a quiz for the gold system. I got it from her. I put it out there. I’d like to do this on the notion. People came back with these suggestions, “Use this or that platform.” All of a sudden, I wanted to use notion. Parshall had this guy who’d done a great job with the workbooks. Now, he’s designing it for me where I want it to be designed. There’s more to it. It’s not just what I call a tit-for-tat exchange.

There’s so much karmic openness that happens with these. I’m always surprised when I have a problem when people come roaring in with suggestions. I have to explain to you. I learned this when I was in real estate. I went through a tough time. All of a sudden, my clients were showing up. Other agents and staff were saying, “Here, let me do this or that for you.” I was like, “Why are you doing this?” They’re like, “Do you have any idea how much you help people in the world?” I was like, “No.” It’s that thing where when you do it and you do it well, you don’t think about it. “Shannon owes me this or Tracy owes me that.” It’s a fabulous flow and exchange of ideas, help, and clients sometimes too.

Looking at the benefits beyond the bottom line, I love that part of it because there are so many ways. That strategy of getting a URL has been a game changer for me being on the radio. Imagine getting on the radio and going, “Go to ShannonProcise/.” There are so many benefits that we get when we partner with people who care.

I can’t wait for the event. It’s on April 30th, 2024, 2:00 to 3:00 Eastern Time. Come up and see what it’s all about. It’s an hour of your time. What do you have to lose? You’ll find that there are so many benefits to doing what we’re doing. For me, it has pushed my income up tremendously. I spend more of my time marketing and helping people instead of what’s my next marketing strategy. What do I have to do? It’s all me and working in my zone of genius instead of out with the things that I don’t want to do. Shannon, thank you so much for being on this episode.

Thank you so much for having me.

Important Links

• Shannon Procise
• How Ordinary People Make Extraordinary Income Online
• Unleash the Power of Partnerships, Strategies for Building Thriving Alliances
• Heartbeat Community

About Shannon Procise

Shannon Procise has successfully attained over $3.2M in FREE publicity and is notorious for being the owner of the “Million Dollar Rolodex” and teaching others how to do the same. She has trained and coached thousands of individuals in marketing, event production, business development, and personal growth. Shannon is the creator of a magnetic community – the Business Acceleration Network, where she guides businesses to build a successful enterprise while having fun and making lots of money.

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