The Power Of Other People

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED [00:00:00] Hey, Hey, Sue. Today we are carrying on with our theme for December of trends that I'm seeing for 20, 24 in the industry with my peers, with clients. And today I want to chat about collaboration's. Now collaborations are having a moment. Social media is at an old time low, so people are really looking for other ways of promoting their business. Upon my team, new and fancy collaborations is one of the most traditional methods of marketing. That we have used, it's tried and it's tested. And if you don't have some kind of collaboration strategy in your plan for 2024, I'm going to invite you to pick something that I mentioned today and give it a go. So let's talk about some examples of collaborations, just so we're all on the same page before I dive in. Collaborations are essentially opportunities for shared marketing. You're using the power of other people's audiences. And they are using the power of your audience. So the idea is that it's a win-win. So this can look like something like podcast interview. So a podcast interview with a guest is a collaboration. Both the interviewer and the guest are getting exposure to each other's audiences. The same for speaking, whether this is at an event, whether you do a workshop in someone's mastermind. Again, it's that win-win of you get visibility from speaking. They get content for their event or mastermind. Collaboration is also include things like joint venture campaigns. So maybe you do a joint venture webinar. Maybe you do a social media swap or social media. Co-lab. You know, you can invite someone to collaborate efficiently on an Instagram post. You'll see like more than one person's name. In Who the poster is, that's a really easy way to think about it. And the same way that this all seems new and fancy and it's traditional, the most traditional of collaborations it's things like guest posting, so creating blogs or writing articles in the media again, it's all, you're always looking for those situations where it's, win-win, you're creating content for [00:02:00] them. They're giving you exposure or visibility. And then we can start to think of, but broader things that maybe you don't think of as collaborations, but very definitely are things like affiliate partnerships. So where you're each promoting each other's products or you're promoting someone's product in exchange for commission. And then my final example of collaboration is really referrals. And this can work in one of two ways, kind of like an affiliate partnership. You could pay them. Commission or a fee for that referral, or you can simply be part of a little referral network with some of your peers. So they refer you and you refer them. And all of that lovely referral energy goes around and everybody wins in the longterm. So there were lots of ways for you to think about collaboration in your business. It doesn't have to be one specific way, no matter what anybody on the marketing into webs tells you. Okay. Essentially the collaboration and you're looking for you are working with somebody else. To share the marketing of something and both sides are winning. So those are some examples. Hopefully you're like, oh yes. Okay. I can see myself. Doing one of those in 2024, at least. So why are collaborations so powerful? Why have they stood the test of time and why are they having a moment right now? So collaborations. I mentioned that great for extending your visibility beyond your own network and beyond your own audience. So you get exposure to someone else's audience, remembering that they should also have exposure to your surgery. We having that nice. Win-win. You can also think of. Collaborations because they are that shared marketing. They can help you to reduce the time that you need to spend marketing. And they can help you reduce any costs that you have in marketing . And one of the things I think people miss about collaborations is what it does for you as a business owner. If you're collaborating with someone who has maybe different strengths than yours. You are in a situation to learn from them, to learn from their expertise, to watch them work in that zone of genius. And to [00:04:00] bring that back into your own business. And finally collaborations are great for that know like, and trust bump. So in a referral situation, this can kind of be obvious, right? We know that somebody else is saying, I recommend this person. So you have that like proxy trust. They've said, you trust me, I'm telling you, you can trust this person. But this happens with all collaborations. If someone is willing to share the spotlight with you, That automatically transfers some of the trust. That their audience has in them. On to you. Because. Whether it's true or not, it's assumed that you wouldn't share the spotlight with someone you don't trust. And when we take that speeding up of trust. And we take that shared marketing and expanded reach, and we put all of those together. They all come together to help us grow our business more quickly than we would've been able to do on our own. So we know what a collaboration is. We know why we're going to think about doing them in 20 to 24. Next day, something critical. You need to think about who you're collaborating with. So I just explained that when you're on stage, Whether that's virtual or a podcast or whatever it is. With somebody else, you are transferring some of your trust to that person. So you want to make sure that you find collaboration partners who align with you in terms of your values. So it means you don't simply accept any collaboration offer and you don't simply invite anybody to collaborate with you. This needs to be a strategic decision. And you need to be comfortable that if your people wanes and followed that person and bought from that person, you would not be horrified. And having somebody on as a podcast guest is not as strong as me doing an actual referral for someone. But I am saying, I think this person is worthy of being on my platform. So I am transferring trust. And so I'm particularly careful about who I'm invited onto the show. And you need to be the same with all of your collaboration partners. So let's think about [00:06:00] where we can find some. So let's say you've got something that you want to promote and you want to do this via collaboration. Where are these collaboration partners hiding out? So the first place to go for any kind of collaboration is your network. These are people who already know you, hopefully already like you, they understand your business, they align with your values and therefore it's much easier to pitch them that collaboration because they already know like, and trust you. And if you feel like you don't have enough collaboration partners in your current network, I really want to encourage you to go and start networking. Go and start building up that network. Having coffee chats with people you think might be potential collaborators. So that when you're ready, you have a really solid network to pull from. Don't wait for 20, 24 to start the build. Go and do that build now. The other place to find collaboration partners is social media like LinkedIn or Instagram or threads. Anywhere that you can see how somebody thinks, what they talk about, how their audience shows up. A lot of my podcast, guests have been invited onto the show because of something they said on social media. That sparked a conversation between us. So when you're looking for collaboration partners, Go to social media research people, but then start a conversation, build that relationship, add them into your network. So that when you're ready to collaborate there they are. And then you can even collaborate to find collaboration, partners, brain ask your network for referrals. Ask who would be a great fit for your event? Ask who would be an amazing guest for your podcast? When you join a networking event, tell people who you are looking to meet. their referral of you gives, you know, like and trust to start the conversation. Now let's say we're on the flip side and you want to be invited to more collaborations. So you want to speak on other people's. Stages or get on podcasts or. Be seen as a good JV webinar [00:08:00] partner. What do you need to do? So remember how I said collaborations all about that. Win-win so you have to look like you have value as a collaborator. And one of the easiest ways to do that is to have a really good track record. For collaborations that you do. Hey, you want to be seen as somebody who is great to collaborate with. And so how do we do that? The very baseline of this is do what you promise to do. If you go on a podcast episode and you agree to share it, share it. If you don't the next time somebody asks, if you're a great podcast guest that host might say no. Hey, that's an an example. Make sure that you are fulfilling your promises. Talk about your collaborations. So you don't just have to do the bare minimum of what was required. You can talk about that relationship. You can share their content. You can talk about them outside of the collaboration. And then don't just drop the ball after you've collaborated. You want to make sure that you are keeping in touch with your network, with people you have collaborated with. You want to make sure that you're top of mind. When an opportunity presents itself, you don't really that slimy person only slides into the DMS when you want something. You want to come from a place of good solid long-term relationships. I hadn't been, remember how I said, like you could go and research people on social media. You have to understand that people are doing that to you. So what is your thought leadership? What are you talking about that no one else is talking about how are you showing up in a different way from your peers to make you stand out Remember the key here is it always wants to be win-win. If you can give somebody else value first. You've shown that you have value to give and value is lacking a post sharing, a post talking about their content, replying commenting on their content. This doesn't have to be spammy, but when you love a piece of their content, talk about it, share it. People will notice that don't you love when someone does that for you? That's how you start to expand that [00:10:00] network, show people that you're bringing that value to them. Show that you have some thought leadership show that you're in it for the longterm. That you're about the, win-win not just what's in it for you. So we've talked about some examples of collaborations, why we should be doing collaborations, where to find collaboration partners. And the final piece I want to end with for you is how to get invited to collaborate again. Oftentimes we have this view of the collaboration. And then the collaboration ends. But actually remember your current collaborations or your best advertisement for future collaborations, with that individual person with their network. But also everybody. Who's watching your social media. So we're going to try and do a few things to make sure that we get invited again. Number one, we're going to exceed expectations. So yes, there's a baseline of what you need to share. Go above and beyond. Number two, you are going to be an excellent communicator. You were going to make sure that anyone that you're collaborating with is well-informed about what's happening. Any challenges. Any information that they might need in order to facilitate their side of the collaboration. Is available and it's available promptly. . Number three, we are going to make really sure that it is all about the relationship. Make sure you understand the rest of their business. I understand what they goals are so that you can show up to help those in the future. Number four. I want you to be proactive. There was nothing more stressful than being in the middle of something, especially in event. And having people ask basic questions that they've already been told. So number one, go and check your email. Number two, go and check your email. Number three, go and check your email. Make them really show that you've tried everything that's possible from your side. To solve the problem before asking for help. If you're needy and high maintenance and it's not justified. You're not going to get invited back. Number five. Try to be flexible. Not everything goes great. And having [00:12:00] somebody who understands that a ball maybe got dropped or something, didn't go quite as planned. Makes you an attractive option to have back. Number six, you can actually offer feedback. How was that collaboration for you? How did that feel? What could we do differently next time? Collaboration is just another business relationship you would ask your clients how you did. You ask your list, what they like, why would you not ask a collaborator? How they felt at wind? If you're able to take that constructive criticism. And suggest how you would do things differently. You can often repair something that if you just try to sweep it under the rug would mean you would never collaborate with this person again. And then the most important part. Of being invited back to collaborations and you'll have noticed this theme is throughout this entire episode is to stay in touch. You have to have a strategic networking plan. It's not okay to occasionally pop into someone's DMS. You have to make sure that you have a plan to show up regularly. To be liking their stuff or commenting on their stack to nurture that relationship. Yes. We all have those friends who we don't see for five years. And then it's like, no time has passed. That is usually built on years and years and years of friendship. In our online world, we do not have that base. Where we can vanish for five years and then just pop back up again. Especially with people we maybe haven't met in person. You have to actively show up. Ask for the coffee chat show up on their posts. Same name, DMS that are relevant to them. Not just DMS asking them to do something for you. So if collaboration is on your plan for 20, 24, and I really think it should be. I'm obviously a fan of it. I want you to ask yourself. Do you have the people in your network right now? If the answer is no. I want you to focus on building your network, go to networking events, form new relationships. [00:14:00] Honestly, one of the best questions to ask, you can do this on social media. You can do this. To your network, you can ask your email list. I love to ask people like, who should I know right now? Acuity, you know, that I should know. People love to introduce people. They love to feel that like warm glow of I've connected these two amazing people. together. Now, this only works. If people think that you're an amazing person to introduce right. If you do have the people in your network right now, I want you to ask yourself if they would be surprised by collaboration requests from you right now. If the answer is yes. I want you to focus on nurturing your network. Again, we're back to, how are you fostering that relationship? So if you have collaboration as part of your 2024 marketing strategy or visibility strategy. I want you to ask yourself how you're supporting that with your networking strategy.