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Course Module: 1. AAU Agency/Module 3 - The Client Module 24
Lesson: 21. Developing Partnerships
Duration: 10:08
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[00:00 -> 00:06] Alright, so in this video, I'm going to show you how you can increase the size of your business or
[00:06 -> 00:13] get new clients by using partnerships. Now, you may think, well, I don't really have any experience
[00:13 -> 00:19] and I just, you know, I don't know anybody in the industry, whatever it might be, it doesn't matter.
[00:19 -> 00:25] And I want to show you why. So here is a YouTube channel by a friend of mine named Joe Burnich.
[00:25 -> 00:32] Now you can see Joe has a company called Big West Marketing and he's got about, you know,
[00:32 -> 00:39] 8,500 subscribers on his YouTube channel. Well, I was just looking for ideas for content on,
[00:40 -> 00:44] you know, to market the business. Just some more things to put out there and I found one of Joe's
[00:44 -> 00:48] videos and I watched it and it was really great content. And I'm like, you know what, I'd like
[00:48 -> 00:56] to just reach out and see who this guy is because the reason why I wanted to reach out initially was
[00:57 -> 01:04] it's a lonely game when you're running a business by yourself. So it's super important to find somebody
[01:04 -> 01:10] that you can relate to, maybe talk things through. You know, I try to use a community for you guys
[01:10 -> 01:15] to do that as well. Reach out and find what other people are doing, talk to them, where they're
[01:15 -> 01:22] struggling, help each other. That is super huge. And that's honestly why I reached out to him.
[01:22 -> 01:27] I just wanted to talk to somebody else who had their own agency and to be honest with you,
[01:27 -> 01:34] at the time his business was doing Google ads. Okay, but I didn't care. He just looked like a nice
[01:34 -> 01:40] guy and I just wanted to reach out and talk and talk to him. So I went to his website and I sent an
[01:40 -> 01:45] email through the website. And about a couple days later, he responded back. And I said, hey,
[01:45 -> 01:52] I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm an agency owner like you. And I'm always looking for people,
[01:52 -> 01:58] you know, that have or in the same situation where we could maybe bounce ideas off of each other,
[01:58 -> 02:02] sit there, you know, tell, talk about things that maybe they're doing or maybe share some things I'm
[02:02 -> 02:08] doing, whatever it might be. I'm not looking for anything. I'm just reaching out trying to make a,
[02:08 -> 02:14] you know, trying to introduce myself. And that was it. Joe came right back. It's it.
[02:14 -> 02:18] Absolutely. You got time tomorrow or maybe it was even that day. And we hopped on a zoom call.
[02:18 -> 02:25] That was it. That was all it took. Now, there's one more thing I wanted to add here. Joe is the
[02:25 -> 02:31] only person I've ever reached out to this way. He was the first one I reached out to. And he's
[02:31 -> 02:37] the only one. So this is not something where I had to reach out to 100 people or 1000 people.
[02:37 -> 02:43] He is literally the first and only person I've ever reached out to. But the key point is I made
[02:43 -> 02:50] the first move and I reached out. Now, let me tell you exactly what happened after that. So Joe
[02:50 -> 02:57] started checking my content out and saw, Hey, you're really specializing in Google ads. And we're doing
[02:57 -> 03:06] ads, but honestly, we were not very good at it. So would you mind helping my staff? So I said,
[03:06 -> 03:10] absolutely. He's like, I'm happy to pay you, you know, work on hourly rate or something. And
[03:11 -> 03:16] so basically what I did was I went in and I helped the staff with some of the accounts. And then as
[03:16 -> 03:22] time went on, they decided because they were really good at SEO and they were doing a lot of
[03:22 -> 03:27] other things, they didn't want to do anything else anymore. So he said, Hey, how about you do the
[03:27 -> 03:33] Google ads for us? And I, my response to that was, I, you know, I have my own agency. So I don't have
[03:33 -> 03:37] to work with other people is like, no, no, don't get me wrong. I don't want you to actually go in
[03:37 -> 03:42] and do them for us. We'll keep the accounts that we have. But anything new that comes in,
[03:43 -> 03:49] we would like to refer to. And I was kind of blown away by that because he didn't ask for anything. And
[03:49 -> 03:56] I just said, done. But I don't expect anything for free. So anybody that you refer to me, I'm
[03:56 -> 04:03] going to give you 25% of everything I make off of them. And of course he was extremely happy by that.
[04:03 -> 04:09] But like I said, I don't expect anything for free. So what ended up happening was he would refer me
[04:09 -> 04:16] clients. I'd give him 25% of the setup fee. I would give him 25% of every fee that they pay me for as
[04:16 -> 04:22] long as they're our clients. And I, at the beginning of every month, I just look back at the clients he
[04:22 -> 04:27] sent me how much they paid me. And I send him a spreadsheet saying what the client was, how much
[04:27 -> 04:33] they paid me, how much your 25% is. And I send him the money by PayPal, the first of every month or
[04:33 -> 04:40] right around there. So let me show you just how powerful this can be by just reaching out. That was
[04:40 -> 04:45] all I did. I reached out and you might say, well, yeah, but you already had an agency. Doesn't matter.
[04:45 -> 04:50] Reach out to somebody who's doing something along the same lines that you are. Maybe somebody you think
[04:50 -> 04:57] is at the same level. Maybe it's a small business who's doing just SEO or web design. There's
[04:57 -> 05:02] different kind of agencies that you can reach out to. Someone could be an SEO agency, web design,
[05:02 -> 05:08] a social media agency, video marketing, SaaS or software as a service, which we have some training on
[05:08 -> 05:13] that as well, or content marketing agencies. And you can just go through and just YouTube those and
[05:13 -> 05:18] find some videos and maybe you can really kind of figure out where somebody's at in their business
[05:18 -> 05:24] just by watching what they've put out there lately. So since Joe and I started working together on
[05:24 -> 05:34] referring each other leads in 2020, Joe has sent me $59,000 worth of business. That's insane. Now
[05:34 -> 05:41] granted, I am paying him for those leads, but you can see he sent me 40 leads. Now we obviously don't
[05:41 -> 05:46] close all of those and it took a little while for us to figure out what the perfect type of client
[05:46 -> 05:53] was for me. So a lot of those leads that he sent me didn't necessarily pan out or turn into big money,
[05:53 -> 06:02] but over time we definitely dialed it in. Now fast track to 2021, I'm only taking on the perfect
[06:02 -> 06:07] new clients. They have to be absolutely in our wheelhouse for the exact type of client that we
[06:07 -> 06:12] want to work with before we'll take them on. So I've actually said we're really not taking any new
[06:12 -> 06:17] clients. And he's kind of in the same boat where he's not really even marketing his business. So he
[06:17 -> 06:22] doesn't have a lot of leads coming in and people asking for Google ads. But let me just show you
[06:22 -> 06:30] what's happened in 2021. And in 2021 so far, Joe has referred me $14,000 in business. But look at
[06:30 -> 06:41] how many leads, seven, that's literally over $2,000 per lead, which is insane. So overall,
[06:41 -> 06:48] in the last two years, Joe has sent me about $75,000 worth of business. And when you think about it,
[06:48 -> 06:53] that's three quarters of the way to your six figure agency. But guess what? I didn't have to do
[06:53 -> 06:58] anything to find these clients. I struck up a friendship and there's no template for it. I
[06:58 -> 07:04] struck up a friendship with somebody. We talked, we decided we wanted to work together. We don't
[07:04 -> 07:10] have any contract drawn out. There's no template I can give you guys for this. This is something
[07:10 -> 07:16] that I just reached out to somebody I admired. I liked what he did. I liked how he spoke.
[07:17 -> 07:21] And he seemed like a really nice guy and just seemed like somebody really easy to work with.
[07:21 -> 07:27] That's all it took. Now, could that have gone the other way? Absolutely. Could have gone sideways in a
[07:27 -> 07:33] hurry? Sure. But we didn't just strike up a conversation and say, Hey, want to work together,
[07:33 -> 07:37] because I didn't know how he worked. I didn't know anything about him. But since that time,
[07:37 -> 07:44] when I struck up that conversation with Joe, we literally speak every single week. So there's no
[07:44 -> 07:49] right or wrong way to do this. And obviously this is a long term play. But if you strike up the
[07:49 -> 07:54] right conversation with the right person and they really like you, it could be something where they
[07:54 -> 07:59] have leads sitting there and they just need somebody to fill them and it's easy money for them.
[07:59 -> 08:04] Right? If you give them 20 or 25% or maybe you give them 10%, whatever you decide,
[08:04 -> 08:09] I have no problem giving him 25%. And the reason why I give him that much is I don't have to go out
[08:09 -> 08:13] and search for these leads. They literally will call me up or send me an email and say,
[08:13 -> 08:18] Hey, I've got this guy over here, this gal over here that wants to talk about Google ads.
[08:18 -> 08:23] I kind of told them your story and they're very interested. So he kind of does some of the selling
[08:23 -> 08:30] for me at the beginning. I go in, I just close it. And you know, the rest is a way we go, so to speak.
[08:31 -> 08:36] But it's easy work for me. I don't have to go out and find those leads. And like I said,
[08:36 -> 08:41] it's a long term play. But if you strike up the right conversation with the right person and do
[08:41 -> 08:47] that reach out, you may end up finding a perfect partnership. But just be careful, right? Watch
[08:47 -> 08:51] yourself, make sure it's the right person that you want to work with, make sure it's terms that
[08:51 -> 08:57] you can live with. I know people that I've done business with in the past that right away, they're
[08:57 -> 09:03] like, I want 50%. And I'm like, no, that's okay. You know, just be willing to walk away
[09:03 -> 09:09] if it's not the right conversation. And also when striking up these conversations, it's not just
[09:09 -> 09:15] about the business, right? I can't tell you how many things I have learned from Joe and how many
[09:15 -> 09:22] things he's learned from me. Just because we have an agency doesn't mean we do business the same way.
[09:22 -> 09:29] And in fact, he has saved me. I can't even count how many thousands of dollars or, you know, time,
[09:29 -> 09:34] hundreds of hours of time in maybe taking my business in one direction and him saying, you know what,
[09:36 -> 09:42] you can do what you want. But here's what happened to me when I did that. And it's absolutely huge
[09:43 -> 09:48] because not only can I, you know, he does this all the time with me, he'll send me an email and say,
[09:48 -> 09:53] hey, can you hop on a call? I got a quick idea. I want to run by you. And I'll do the same thing for him.
[09:53 -> 10:00] So it's not just about money. It's about how we run our businesses. It's about best ways to do it.
[10:00 -> 10:05] And two heads are better than one. All right. So I hope that helps give you an idea of how I created
[10:05 -> 10:14] my partnership and how it works. And I'll see you in the next training.

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--- FULL TRANSCRIPT ---
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Alright, so in this video, I'm going to show you how you can increase the size of your business or get new clients by using partnerships. Now, you may think, well, I don't really have any experience and I just, you know, I don't know anybody in the industry, whatever it might be, it doesn't matter. And I want to show you why. So here is a YouTube channel by a friend of mine named Joe Burnich. Now you can see Joe has a company called Big West Marketing and he's got about, you know, 8,500 subscribers on his YouTube channel. Well, I was just looking for ideas for content on, you know, to market the business. Just some more things to put out there and I found one of Joe's videos and I watched it and it was really great content. And I'm like, you know what, I'd like to just reach out and see who this guy is because the reason why I wanted to reach out initially was it's a lonely game when you're running a business by yourself. So it's super important to find somebody that you can relate to, maybe talk things through. You know, I try to use a community for you guys to do that as well. Reach out and find what other people are doing, talk to them, where they're struggling, help each other. That is super huge. And that's honestly why I reached out to him. I just wanted to talk to somebody else who had their own agency and to be honest with you, at the time his business was doing Google ads. Okay, but I didn't care. He just looked like a nice guy and I just wanted to reach out and talk and talk to him. So I went to his website and I sent an email through the website. And about a couple days later, he responded back. And I said, hey, I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm an agency owner like you. And I'm always looking for people, you know, that have or in the same situation where we could maybe bounce ideas off of each other, sit there, you know, tell, talk about things that maybe they're doing or maybe share some things I'm doing, whatever it might be. I'm not looking for anything. I'm just reaching out trying to make a, you know, trying to introduce myself. And that was it. Joe came right back. It's it. Absolutely. You got time tomorrow or maybe it was even that day. And we hopped on a zoom call. That was it. That was all it took. Now, there's one more thing I wanted to add here. Joe is the only person I've ever reached out to this way. He was the first one I reached out to. And he's the only one. So this is not something where I had to reach out to 100 people or 1000 people. He is literally the first and only person I've ever reached out to. But the key point is I made the first move and I reached out. Now, let me tell you exactly what happened after that. So Joe started checking my content out and saw, Hey, you're really specializing in Google ads. And we're doing ads, but honestly, we were not very good at it. So would you mind helping my staff? So I said, absolutely. He's like, I'm happy to pay you, you know, work on hourly rate or something. And so basically what I did was I went in and I helped the staff with some of the accounts. And then as time went on, they decided because they were really good at SEO and they were doing a lot of other things, they didn't want to do anything else anymore. So he said, Hey, how about you do the Google ads for us? And I, my response to that was, I, you know, I have my own agency. So I don't have to work with other people is like, no, no, don't get me wrong. I don't want you to actually go in and do them for us. We'll keep the accounts that we have. But anything new that comes in, we would like to refer to. And I was kind of blown away by that because he didn't ask for anything. And I just said, done. But I don't expect anything for free. So anybody that you refer to me, I'm going to give you 25% of everything I make off of them. And of course he was extremely happy by that. But like I said, I don't expect anything for free. So what ended up happening was he would refer me clients. I'd give him 25% of the setup fee. I would give him 25% of every fee that they pay me for as long as they're our clients. And I, at the beginning of every month, I just look back at the clients he sent me how much they paid me. And I send him a spreadsheet saying what the client was, how much they paid me, how much your 25% is. And I send him the money by PayPal, the first of every month or right around there. So let me show you just how powerful this can be by just reaching out. That was all I did. I reached out and you might say, well, yeah, but you already had an agency. Doesn't matter. Reach out to somebody who's doing something along the same lines that you are. Maybe somebody you think is at the same level. Maybe it's a small business who's doing just SEO or web design. There's different kind of agencies that you can reach out to. Someone could be an SEO agency, web design, a social media agency, video marketing, SaaS or software as a service, which we have some training on that as well, or content marketing agencies. And you can just go through and just YouTube those and find some videos and maybe you can really kind of figure out where somebody's at in their business just by watching what they've put out there lately. So since Joe and I started working together on referring each other leads in 2020, Joe has sent me $59,000 worth of business. That's insane. Now granted, I am paying him for those leads, but you can see he sent me 40 leads. Now we obviously don't close all of those and it took a little while for us to figure out what the perfect type of client was for me. So a lot of those leads that he sent me didn't necessarily pan out or turn into big money, but over time we definitely dialed it in. Now fast track to 2021, I'm only taking on the perfect new clients. They have to be absolutely in our wheelhouse for the exact type of client that we want to work with before we'll take them on. So I've actually said we're really not taking any new clients. And he's kind of in the same boat where he's not really even marketing his business. So he doesn't have a lot of leads coming in and people asking for Google ads. But let me just show you what's happened in 2021. And in 2021 so far, Joe has referred me $14,000 in business. But look at how many leads, seven, that's literally over $2,000 per lead, which is insane. So overall, in the last two years, Joe has sent me about $75,000 worth of business. And when you think about it, that's three quarters of the way to your six figure agency. But guess what? I didn't have to do anything to find these clients. I struck up a friendship and there's no template for it. I struck up a friendship with somebody. We talked, we decided we wanted to work together. We don't have any contract drawn out. There's no template I can give you guys for this. This is something that I just reached out to somebody I admired. I liked what he did. I liked how he spoke. And he seemed like a really nice guy and just seemed like somebody really easy to work with. That's all it took. Now, could that have gone the other way? Absolutely. Could have gone sideways in a hurry? Sure. But we didn't just strike up a conversation and say, Hey, want to work together, because I didn't know how he worked. I didn't know anything about him. But since that time, when I struck up that conversation with Joe, we literally speak every single week. So there's no right or wrong way to do this. And obviously this is a long term play. But if you strike up the right conversation with the right person and they really like you, it could be something where they have leads sitting there and they just need somebody to fill them and it's easy money for them. Right? If you give them 20 or 25% or maybe you give them 10%, whatever you decide, I have no problem giving him 25%. And the reason why I give him that much is I don't have to go out and search for these leads. They literally will call me up or send me an email and say, Hey, I've got this guy over here, this gal over here that wants to talk about Google ads. I kind of told them your story and they're very interested. So he kind of does some of the selling for me at the beginning. I go in, I just close it. And you know, the rest is a way we go, so to speak. But it's easy work for me. I don't have to go out and find those leads. And like I said, it's a long term play. But if you strike up the right conversation with the right person and do that reach out, you may end up finding a perfect partnership. But just be careful, right? Watch yourself, make sure it's the right person that you want to work with, make sure it's terms that you can live with. I know people that I've done business with in the past that right away, they're like, I want 50%. And I'm like, no, that's okay. You know, just be willing to walk away if it's not the right conversation. And also when striking up these conversations, it's not just about the business, right? I can't tell you how many things I have learned from Joe and how many things he's learned from me. Just because we have an agency doesn't mean we do business the same way. And in fact, he has saved me. I can't even count how many thousands of dollars or, you know, time, hundreds of hours of time in maybe taking my business in one direction and him saying, you know what, you can do what you want. But here's what happened to me when I did that. And it's absolutely huge because not only can I, you know, he does this all the time with me, he'll send me an email and say, hey, can you hop on a call? I got a quick idea. I want to run by you. And I'll do the same thing for him. So it's not just about money. It's about how we run our businesses. It's about best ways to do it. And two heads are better than one. All right. So I hope that helps give you an idea of how I created my partnership and how it works. And I'll see you in the next training.

