Latest / Business & Marketing Strategies for Online Entrepreneurs | Email List & Leads Growth | Organic Strategies | Create Online Business Success! / Episode 118 - Grow Your List, Attract Clients & Get Known by Borrowing Other People's Platforms with Melanie Benson

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Episode 118 - Grow Your List, Attract Clients & Get Known by Borrowing Other People's Platforms with Melanie Benson · Business & Marketing Strategies for Online Entrepreneurs | Email List & Leads Growth | Organic Strategies | Create Online Business Success!

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you've ever thought.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: If I could just get in front of the right people, I know I could help them.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: The challenge isn't always your expertise.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's simply getting more eyeballs on your business.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is my friend Melanie Benson, and she's going to show us how to grow our lists, attract clients, and get known by strategically borrowing other people's platforms and audiences through collaboration.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: And trust me, this is a conversation every business owner needs to hear.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: Ready to grow your online business without losing your mind?
0:33
SPEAKER_00: You're in the right spot, my friend.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Create Your Online Business Success.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Tracy Beavers, and this show is all about practical strategies, creative ideas, and sanity-saving solutions that you can use right now.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Let's crank up the dial on your business growth and make it fun.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Let's create your online business success.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Before we start, I want you to think about this.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: What would happen to your business if tomorrow you were introduced to an audience of 500, 1,000, or even 10,000 people who were already looking for exactly what you offer?
1:07
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about today with my friend Melanie Benson.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: Melanie, welcome in.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: You've spent more than 20 years helping, you're so welcome.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: You've spent more than 20 years helping experts get known, get visible, turn that visibility into actual revenue, which is music to my ears.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to share a bit more about you and tell everybody about you, your work, and your top-ranked podcast.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for inviting me into your show.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I'm known I'm Melanie Benson.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm known as an authority amplifier.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: As you mentioned, I host a top 1% show called Amplify Your Success.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: I've been podcasting since the early days.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: This is like my third podcast.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: And um, what I do is I work with experts who have amazing talent.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: They have extraordinary brilliance.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: They are emerging as a thought leader, but they feel like a best kept secret.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: And I show them how to transform the message that they have, the work that they do in the world into what I call unignorable expertise.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: And part of that is thought leadership and really cultivating their voice.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: And part of it is really learning how to reach new audiences through really powerful strategies like collaboration.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: I love the unignorable word.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: I think that's an amazing word.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Unignorable.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: My audience loves the backstory of every guest.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: How did you become an entrepreneur?
2:34
SPEAKER_00: And why are you why did you decide to ride this roller coaster with the rest of us?
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I question my intelligence picking this profession.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: It is not for the weak at heart for sure.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: You you definitely have to work on the resilience.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I started my business in 2000.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: And at that time, I was working in the corporate marketplace in a Fortune 500 company.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: And I literally just felt like I was a round peg in a square hole.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: I didn't really feel like I knew how to like do something with my greater calling.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: I was starting to recognize I was probably built for something more than being uh on someone's corporate uh ladder trying to climb it.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: And I got exposed to coaching.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: Stephen Covey had started to facilitate leadership trainings in my organization.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: And one of my managers uh had a conversation with me one day that used to feel very different.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Like I used to feel like, oh, I'm never gonna get this right.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: And you know, just like it felt heavy.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: And the conversation we had was so profoundly different.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: I was very inspired by it.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: I felt empowered and I felt seen.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hold on, what are you doing?
3:45
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What do you mean?
3:46
SPEAKER_01: I said, something about this meeting today is dramatically different than every other meeting we've ever had.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: And I said, and I like what's happening right now.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I'm coaching you.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: I was like, boom, okay, I want to know what this is.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: This feels like something that I mean, it just lit me up in my soul, but it it kind of like started to click into it.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: Felt like my superpowers had a place that I could do what I was naturally designed to do.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: And there was a structure to it that started to make sense.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: So kind of sent me on my journey of learning how to do coaching, which led me to starting my own business.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: And now I'm here 26 some odd later, years later.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: And what's a little known fun fact about you that the my audience might not know?
4:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, there's probably a lot of things your audience doesn't know about me, but oh, I I think one of them is uh I am so on the fun side, I am a what I call a closet gourmet paleo chef.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: Um I um I pretend like I don't know how to cook, but actually I do, and I actually really love to cook when I was dating my husband.
4:54
SPEAKER_01: He um he, you know, it's like there's the whole conversation about like tell me about you and all that stuff.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: And I I kind of like played dumb.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know how to cook, right?
5:03
SPEAKER_01: But I did.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, whoa, holding back on the goods.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: So um, but and part of that was just because I didn't want somebody picking me because I was going to be the chef for their house, right?
5:12
SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, it really it it it's kind of where a lot of my creative energy goes that it doesn't get deployed through the business.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: It gives me an outlet, but it also is nourishing, healing, and it um is people really love when I take care of them in that way.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: And that's part of how I love on people is I like cooking for them.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: So that's the fun side.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: On the business side, one of the things that people may not know is I started my business thinking I was going to work with spiritual leaders to help them uh run more successful ministries.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: That lasted about a year, and then I was like, that's not really where I'm supposed to be.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: So but the fun, the fun fact is, you know, there's so many places in my history, and I'm sure you could say the same thing, where there were these little seeds of of something that was waking up.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I used to sell sales, I used to sell personal development training when I first got out of college.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: I failed miserably at it because I had no selling skills, but that seed of personal development stayed with me for a decade.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: And here I am, you know, in a form of that today.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it funny how where we start is not where we evolve to in these businesses?
6:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:29
SPEAKER_01: But all of it stacks to to layer in confidence, new learnings, what I don't want, what I do want.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's my big belief about business in general is oftentimes we have to do so many things that don't work or don't light us up or don't really turn out the way we imagine to lead us to clarity on what we do want, what is going to work, and where our superpowers are matching what our industry needs from us and what's sustainable.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's all a journey.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: It is so gosh, it is.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's talk about collabs.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, I love a great collab, and I know you do too.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Borrowing other people's audiences is such a powerful way to grow what to do what I teach, which is grow that visibility, grow that email list, bring in more leads.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so happy you're here to give us your expertise and discuss best practices when it comes to this strategy, because I think it's something that looks easy, but it's something we could stub our toe on real quickly if we're not careful.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: So when when we talk about borrowing other people's platforms, tell us what that means for you?
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And when you think about it being a powerful strategy, what makes it something that is so powerful, Melanie?
7:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think borrowing other people's platforms, stages, podcasts, um, you know, there's a lot of different forms that can take now with Substack Emerging.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can do really uh great collabs there.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: I I think the idea is that when you have a body of work, you have expertise, you have a message, it can take a really long time to build an audience to get your message in front of the right people.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: And that's a that's definitely a part of it, but it can slow down your path to making sales and attracting clients.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: And when we think about okay, how do I speed this up?
8:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one path is other people have already curated an audience of your potential buyers.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: And so bringing your message into those audiences can speed up that path.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Plus, when you've done a really, really good um job of picking the right people and you really understand what's aligned, you're building or so you're borrowing authority from your host.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: You're they're infusing credibility because they've hopefully vetted you, and now they're bringing their credibility to your the listeners uh or the audience.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: Right.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: And so I think it really does help you move faster to get your message in front of people who probably need and want what you do.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: Now you you asked kind of a double double layer question there, and that's so how do we do it in a way that's not really like stubbing our toes?
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Right.
9:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Tracy, I know you know this.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: Like I've been collaborating with people since like 2001, 2002.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: And I think there is a little bit of an art to it, but there's definitely a strategy.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: I call it being intentional.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I think where people kind of go awry is first of all, they don't really know what a collaboration means.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: True.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: A collaboration doesn't mean I'm bringing my wisdom to your audience.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: That's a speaking engagement, right?
9:41
SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a transaction, if you will.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: A collaboration means we're looking for ways to co-create value for each other's audiences.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: To lift each other up and to continue to find ways to add value to each other's businesses.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: I go into collaborations, not just for the one-time opportunity, but for multiple, compounding, always growing opportunities where we're constantly lifting each other up and adding value.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where a lot of people maybe don't get the full spectrum of what's possible and then end up feeling kind of short, short-sighted, or not short-sighted, but short, um, I guess it's short-circuited.
10:22
SPEAKER_01: They feel like the the opportunity doesn't really go where they're hoping it goes.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: And so if I'm following what you're saying, what you're talking about when it comes to collaboration um and and borrowing other people's platforms is is on the same plane that I'm on.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And that's why you and I get along so well, is that it's not a one-way street, I'm just looking to take from you and gain something, but it's more of a relationship and a um uh a true, I'm gonna bring value to your audience and I'm going to give and I'm going to share.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: And you are on the same page and wanting to do the same thing for me.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: So it's a deeper, in in from what I'm hearing you say, it's a deeper, um, it's a deeper relationship and a deeper, not transactions, not the right word, but you know what I'm saying, a deeper exchange than just doing a transactional thing.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love, I love that you're bringing transactions into it because I think um oftentimes people are looking for the fastest way to get to the new outcome.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: So they're looking at like, well, how do I borrow a hundred audiences this year?
11:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: But they're not really thinking about, well, how are we activating that law of reciprocity?
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: They're thinking about how do I get what I need?
11:38
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: And so I I'm a believer, yes, that does happen.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: And how do we think bigger?
11:43
SPEAKER_01: How do we how because in sales, there's the premise of uh the most expensive part of client acquisition is the uh recruitment and enrollment of the new client.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: But and and so the best way to be profitable is to make the client happy and keep them, keep them for a lifetime, right?
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Or as long as you can.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: And yet most people, most entrepreneurs spend an enormous amount of time trying to get more people constantly in acquisition.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, if we apply that same premise to our collaboration partners, going out and building a relationship and trying to deepen the connection and provide this opportunity to start collaborating is the most difficult part.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: That's it, takes months and years sometimes to build enough trust and rapport to open that door.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: Right.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: And even, you know, doing a simple exchange of visibility is the dating process.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: That's when we're, okay, does this person show up?
12:44
SPEAKER_01: Do they add value?
12:46
SPEAKER_01: Do they do I like doing things with them?
12:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: There's so much more potential beyond that first transaction.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: And that's where I think a lot of people they leave the full potential of that compounding effect of collaboration on the table.
13:02
SPEAKER_01: Because they just focus on the one thing they can do.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: It's that it's that statement of go deeper with fewer is what I'm visualizing as you're talking.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Instead of somebody going out there and snatching up as many numbers of collaborations as they can.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: It's more like, okay, take a step back, find out who resonates with you.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Do they resonate who resonates with you?
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Who do you like?
13:28
SPEAKER_00: Do they like you too?
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Do they trust you?
13:30
SPEAKER_00: And can you go deeper and collaborate more than one time throughout your relationship?
13:37
SPEAKER_00: And so it's kind of it also goes back to I was just thinking this week, I have two students who um in my student round on the live call on Tuesday, they didn't see what they had in front of them, meaning one of them has a Facebook group that has 3,000 people in it, and she's not talking actively to any of those people.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And another one has a Facebook group of 900, and the same thing is happening.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And what I pointed out to them was okay, you don't need to go get more leads.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: You don't have a leads problem.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: We need to go deeper with the people that are with us and work them through your pipeline before we try to go turn cartwheels, attracting more and more and more and more and more.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think people are shocked to find out my list size compared to my income.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I have a multi-six figure business.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: My email list is around 5,500 people.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: The healthy part of that is around 3,700.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: And my Facebook group has about 4,600 actively, they're not all actively engaged, about 50 to 60% of them are.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: But you don't have to have a, in other words, we don't have to have a huge number of collaborations in order to have great success with this, right?
14:49
unknown: Yeah.
15:30
unknown: Yeah.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is such a great principle because if I go back to the beginning, what really sparked my awareness of I I kind of accidentally fell into collaboration because I was in a mastermind with four really um aligned partners.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: We all did slightly different things for the same type of audience.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: And those four partners, we made millions of dollars with each other by solving the problems that the other person created and fitting into the puzzle, right?
16:00
SPEAKER_01: Like we all had a piece of the puzzle that that we complemented each other.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: I didn't need 200 partners.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: Now that's not to say that depending on your your model, you don't have layers.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Like sometimes you're gonna have just a one-time trans, you know, transmission with somebody.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: It's like we'll do a podcast episode, the other person does a podcast episode or invites them to speak somewhere.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: And that may be the completion of it.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: Right.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: But others, like I really believe that you need a core group of 10 to 20 people where you're constantly on each other's radar, opening new doors, saying, what else can we do?
16:34
SPEAKER_01: And so that starts to create that ripple effect into new partners and new audiences.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: So that you're not constantly having to go out and find new people.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: There's some people that go to work for you over and over, and some people will be new.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Tell us what the difference is between a strategic collaboration and a traditional affiliate promotion.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Because I do think some people that are listening or watching are thinking, well, I'm an affiliate for so-and-so, and they're an affiliate for me, and that's a collaboration.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And kind of it is, but there's a difference between that and what you're describing.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think so there's different terms that get used interchanged.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: So it gets a little muddy.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: But traditionally, affiliate marketing is I represent some or I sell someone's product or program to my audience.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: I use an affiliate link to make those referrals and I get paid a commission when I do.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you think about you have a product that you use, like a SaaS product, and you're an affiliate for them, you know, they're they're not necessarily promoting you, but you're getting paid when somebody buys that product through your referral commission or your referral link.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: So that's a that's a traditional affiliate.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: Now there's also the term joint venture, which is not really a traditional joint venture, but it is uh oftenly used to describe somebody who participates in a multi-tiered promotional campaign to fill someone's program.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: So that might look like um we're gonna do a Facebook Live series, and then you're gonna send three or four emails to different assets that help me warm up this audience, these warm leads that are coming to me.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to build trust and rapport because you're going to repeatedly talk about this campaign to your audience and bring them over to my very structured five-step conversion process.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: We all know what those are.
18:28
SPEAKER_01: We've all seen the emails come through.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: That is not necessarily a collaboration because that's a series of people, somewhere between 10, 20, sometimes 30 people, who are just following the structured promotional step for one person.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Effective, although I think that there's a bit of a diminishing return there.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: So a collaboration is I may do your affiliate program, I may do your joint venture, but I also know you're going to reciprocate and you're going to promote mine too.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: And it's more of a an exchange over time.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: And many of us were playing the long game.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: We're not like, you do this for me, you do this for I'll do this for you, and then it's over.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, um, what do you got going on next year?
19:14
SPEAKER_01: So I can promote you if you'll promote me this year.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: And it's just a it's an ecosystem that constantly is building and layering and feeding itself.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a really great um visual that you just gave us, that ecosystem.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: I can really picture that in my head.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: So um now you mentioned this just a little, just uh uh um for a minute, but didn't I want to dive a little bit deeper into it?
19:39
SPEAKER_00: I want to know an example of a collaboration that created a breakthrough in your business because you mentioned being in the mastermind with those three other people.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: Is there a can you think of a time when and what the collaboration was and how it went and just what happened with it?
19:55
SPEAKER_01: There's been a lot.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: Um I'll go back to one that was early on, and the conditions would look different today.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: But I had um one lady that we collaborated on and off over and over and over again.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: And it started with this is back in the day where we didn't even have Zoom calls, we didn't have podcasts, we did teleseminars.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: So she hosted me on a teleseminar.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: And my list literally doubled.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: And this was kind of in my starting days.
20:22
SPEAKER_01: So I I think I probably got somewhere uh around a thousand people that came in from that one transaction.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: And then I had her speak, well, actually, it started because I had her speak at an event that I hosted every month.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: And then she invited me to her telesceminar.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: And then um, and then she that went so well, she invited me to speak at her event, and then I invited her to speak again at another event I was doing, and then I introduced her to two other people who were looking for speakers, right?
20:51
SPEAKER_01: And then we kept going back and forth, bringing each other opportunities for over five years, six years.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: Then she introduced me to another group, and they invited me to speak for their organization.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: And that one, that one person opened the door to so many new speaking opportunities, client referrals, visibility opportunities that converted to leads and clients coming in the door.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: Like that one collaboration alone probably led to yeah, high six figures in like three years.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: So now let's take today.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend who we met in a in a community being in proximity to each other, and she invited me to be a guest on her podcast, and it went so well.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, this energy is really good.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: So I invited her to co-host back in our clubhouse days, uh, a clubhouse room with me on a on a topic.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: And then that was so much fun.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: Where when Clubhouse kind of expired, we're like, let's keep the magic going.
21:59
SPEAKER_01: And so we created a podcast together, and that went so well that she invited me to speak at her event, right?
22:05
SPEAKER_01: You can see, and yes, you know, the clients coming in, the referrals coming in.
22:09
SPEAKER_01: She has probably introduced me to seven to ten other event hosts and another 10 to 20 podcast hosts, and each of those has brought new leads and new clients in the door.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: So at a certain point, it's kind of hard to track it all, but you can see that that compounding effect is multiplying the reach of the visibility, borrowing the authority and credibility.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: That known factor opens up new doors, and then, you know, the attraction to the new.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: Who leads in clients kind of does the magic on its own.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: And the visual that I have right now, I'm such a visual person.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm a visual learner, but the visual I have right now, tell me if you can remember this.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: And I think I'm going to date myself.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Back when I was in corporate and they would give you a computer, there was a game on it that they could never get to come off of the computer.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And it was called Mindsweeper.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: And you had a little block of dots and you were just clicking on the dots, but you never knew the next click you had if it would clear out the whole screen and you would win, or if it would just clear out like five spaces, and then the next one might not clear off anything, but then the next one might clear off 10.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: And so what I try to impress upon my students and clients is you never know where your next connection is going to lead you.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And that's to me what makes it so exciting about networking and making connections and meeting other people.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: Because just like you're saying, you meet this one person, and before you know it, you have all these little avenues that you can tie back to them and that relationship.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: I love this analogy of Minesweeper.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: I never connected that um dot, but it's exactly what it is is you can't predict where it's going, but I can predict if you're not doing it, you're stagnating your growth.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: I call it growth.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: If you're not clicking on the button, you're not putting the growth fuel in, right?
24:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: And you have to let go a little bit, like being super attached to I need it to perform like this, because it can outperform everything.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: But the trick is if we just go back into a fundamental for a second, is really being intentional with who you are collaborating with.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know, I'm sure you've had these conversations with your clients and students, but sometimes people are like, Well, I tried, but it was a disaster, or I did all the work.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of reasons why people bump into collaboration, doesn't become their growth fuel.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: And part of that has to do with you're saying yes to people who aren't main really wired for collaboration.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: So they're more transactional and it's never really gonna go anywhere.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: And you're experimenting with that, or your audiences aren't aligned, and that one in itself, or maybe it's too overlapping.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: I have some collaboration partners.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: We love doing stuff together, but our audiences are so like our niche is so overlapping, and our audiences are so like they're so dialed into, like, oh, this is kind of the same thing.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't really go anywhere.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: So you just have to decide what's important to you about collaboration.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to reach new audiences and convert those audiences to sales, you got to have your system in place to make sure that you're set up so that it will expand and it will convert.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Well, that brings me to another question that I had for you.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I made some notes and wrote down some things that I wanted to be sure to ask you.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: So, what are a few things that the business owner needs to have in place before they start pursuing these opportunities so they have this success, the success that you're describing?
25:41
SPEAKER_01: Great question.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I uh if it's okay with you, I want to share a resource in a little bit on this because there's a I have a free resource that will help people with this.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: One of the things you have to have is you have to be known for something.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: That recognizable quality has a couple of different elements of uh importance.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: One, the partner has to say, Oh, you do you're well known for this, I'm well known for that.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: Here's the synergy.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: And if you haven't really claimed that and you're not really reinforcing that in your messaging, your branding, the mess, you know, the content you put out, then they might be a little confused about the fit inside their uh world.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: And so it's very easy to say, I don't get it, I don't know how to plug you in, or say, you're doing 17,000 things and I don't really know how my audience is going to respond to this.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: So I think that specific, recognizable clarity, this is who who I am, what I do, what I'm known for is super valuable.
26:43
SPEAKER_01: Also, if you want your collaborations and the visibility that's generated from it to convert, you've got to be clear what you're known for.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: Because that builds out your profit path that helps you establish your topic, right?
26:57
SPEAKER_01: And that's the piece that translates to the profit side of it.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Yes, for sure.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: There's a second thing that I think is really helpful, and this kind of goes more into what I call that collaboration X factor is you've got to be a good collaborator.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: Like, have you bumped into people who you're like, oh, it's just gonna be so good.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: We have synergy, we have complimentary topics, um, we have such a great audience like match, and then it just goes fizzles out.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: You ever have that?
27:31
SPEAKER_01: I have absolutely and I'm like, why didn't this go anywhere?
27:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that sometimes we have to remember that collaboration starts in our mindset and then it's followed by intention and action.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and and so your mindset is I co-create bigger, better, valuable opportunities with my partners.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to do this on my own.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: It's more fun when I'm creating with other people.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and if that's not your your your kind of your go-to, you then I I want to talk to you before you start collaborating because we got to figure out what you're collaborating around, right?
28:11
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, it gets a little messy when you're like, I want to collaborate, but I don't actually want to do anything.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: I just want them to do all the work.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's not a collaboration, yeah.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: That's a transaction.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to that, right?
28:24
SPEAKER_01: And and again, there's a place for that in the marketing world.
28:27
SPEAKER_01: You just don't want to label that a collaboration because that's not what it is.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: And then I think uh when you're a good collaboration partner, the action is how am I going to co-create the opportunity?
28:43
SPEAKER_01: There's visibility, there's supporting you know, whatever the events is you said yes to.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: Like if you're a guest on a podcast, share it.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: Yes, give it by all right.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: You know, don't just expect the host to do all the work.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: That's not a collaboration.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: That's you know, it's not, it's frustrating.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: That's a whole nother thing.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I know it's frustrating as a podcast host.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: As a guest, I you know, I follow that rule of um kind of like when you're a guest in someone's home.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: If you ever want to be invited back, you need to, you know, pick up after yourself, make your bed, or strip the bed if they want you to, put the towels in the lot, whatever it is, right?
29:25
SPEAKER_00: And I feel that way about uh being a podcast guest.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: When I am a podcast guest, I want to take um, and I teach my students and clients this so they can get the maximum visibility out of it, but I want to take a screenshot of the two of us on the recording day.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: And then I want to make a graphic and I want to put that on social media and say, I just had the most, the coolest interview.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: My friend Melanie Benson had me on her show.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: We talked about XYZ, and I can't wait for the episode to air.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, go follow Melanie's show.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again, Melanie, for the for the opportunity.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, that gets you and I both that extra layer of people going, oh, that's cool.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: And then it shows people that you've got a show and it shows people that I am in demand as a guest.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Then when it comes out, you're gonna promote it, obviously, as a podcast host.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: But then as a guest, I'm gonna wait a little bit until that fanfare has died down, and then I'm gonna come back up and promote it again so that we get way more juice out of the time that we spent together.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: But I just wish more guests would do stuff like that, I guess.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, yeah, it's so fun.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: It's a mindset, right?
30:31
SPEAKER_01: And and we could probably have a whole episode on that because both of us being hosts for as long as we have, we've certainly had people who are really gracious and show it up fully, and then people who didn't understand the value of what they do.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it's not just about what you're giving to the host in terms of um an exchange of value, it's also valuable for you because there are so many dormant leads in your audience that when they see this message that's being um activated through the host, that authority, that positioning, that conversation may be the very thing that converts them from a passive listener into a lead.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: I want to go back to one thing that you said before before we move on to my final questions.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: You mentioned that we need to be known for something and be an authority on our topic in in the online space.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: What I see happening, and I'm sure you do too, with my clients and students is I get asked all the time, well, how long is that gonna take?
31:31
SPEAKER_00: How long is that gonna take?
31:32
SPEAKER_00: And it it breaks my heart because I think that one of the things that really gets my goat in the online space is the marketing messaging around, oh, come in, put some content out there, speak on a few podcasts, you'll get known for something, people will buy your stuff and you can print money.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's not the way this works.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: It takes a while.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: And to me, it takes longer than people want it to or realize that it will.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: So, how would you answer that question if you had a client or a student that said, Well, Melanie, how long is that gonna take?
32:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, so it's it's a question that comes from a place of scarcity, in my opinion.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: And I and again, I want to like unpack that because I don't if if this is a question you keep asking yourself, I want to have some compassion for this, because I get you've probably tried a lot of things that aren't working fast enough.
32:22
SPEAKER_01: And so you're probably feeling frustrated and maybe a little defeated and thinking, okay, I don't know, can I afford to go this direction and have it take a while to get known?
32:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: There are things that do speed up the process, and it only works as fast as you're willing to be clear, consistent, and you are so deeply aligned with what you're selling that you can convert, right?
32:49
SPEAKER_01: And and so it when I work with people who say, Well, can we speed this up?
32:54
SPEAKER_01: My model is what I call the authority trifecta.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: First of all, you have to have an anchored, deeply clear thought leadership and voice in the market, and that has to be conveyed through your social media, through whatever your messaging platform is.
33:12
SPEAKER_01: You have to have a clear, consistent message.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: Right.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: And if you that has to be there no matter what else you do.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, you can borrow the audiences, like we're talking about through the collaborations.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: So powerful, such a great way to speed up the audience building.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't have the first part down, right, it's just noise.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: So that's why when I work with clients, we're going deep into their expertise, into their unique positioning, into cultivating a voice that's unignorable in the marketplace.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: Right now, you get those two pieces.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: You want to speed it up even more?
33:48
SPEAKER_01: Stop waiting for the invitations and start building your own platform.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: Right.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: Own the conversation you want to have, create the events, start the show, invite other people, build your own audience, build your own platform, and lead.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: That's what accelerates it, right?
34:09
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm just over here cheering you on, like say more, say more, because our I know the listeners need to hear this, but we have to go first.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: We have to do, we cannot sit back in our in our kitchens.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: I work in my kitchen and just wait for people to knock on my door and want to join my program.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: And so I love what you said because that's one of the reasons why I built the Facebook group that I have today, years ago, is because I couldn't find what I wanted.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, well, I'll just be a leader and I'll make the one I want.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: And all these years later, it's grown into this gorgeous community that I absolutely love.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: But I I just you just can't say that enough, Melanie.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: We've got to take the bull by the horns and and and be what we and create and do and be what we want to have.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: I and I I I think right now, if you want to stand out from a noisy world, yes, and you do something that sounds a lot like the competitors that you know are being seen in your world, there is no faster way to cut through the noise than to get clear about what your convictions are, what your message is, what like I have a whole messaging system I teach on this because right now you cannot afford to be invisible because you're simply part, you sound like everybody else.
35:31
SPEAKER_01: Part the waves, say the thing that needs to be say, get out there and get seen.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is not about posting more.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: Right.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: This is about precision.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I agree.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: That's where you and I are very much aligned.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: It's like I tell my um my audience all the time don't create more content just to create more content.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: It's got to have strategy behind it, or it's just like you said, it's noise.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: So um, okay, if somebody listening or watching on my YouTube channel only has 30 minutes this week to work on a collaboration, what is the first thing they need to do?
36:06
SPEAKER_01: Okay, step one.
36:08
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I want you to go take this collaboration assessment I'm gonna give you in a minute because this is gonna tell you exactly where you're strong and exactly where you're weak.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: That's the first thing.
36:19
SPEAKER_01: What have I got to work with?
36:20
SPEAKER_01: Do I have a clear message?
36:22
SPEAKER_01: Do I have uh a specific area of expertise?
36:25
SPEAKER_01: Is this um, do I have um like a clear profit path?
36:30
SPEAKER_01: Meaning if I am collaborating with somebody and they're going to promote my work, like is there an entry point and then steps to buying what I do?
36:40
SPEAKER_01: If not, you gotta anchor that first.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: Get the foundations and fundamentals in place.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: Then after you do that, now that's probably gonna be more than 30 minutes, but I want you to assess and then I want you to dream.
36:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I want you to think about 10 to 20 people who you believe share your audience, and it could be a show host, somebody who hosts events, somebody who you who you really admire and they you love the work they do.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're reading their sub stack and you're like, God, I love what this person puts out.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: I want you to put them on your dream list.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: Someday I want to collaborate with them.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: And every week you're gonna review that list and you're gonna ask yourself, what's one thing I could do to add value to them first?
37:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and get on their radar and start building that energy of reciprocity.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love the energy of reciprocity.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: I think generosity wins the day all the time.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Melanie, this has been amazing.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Okay, just for fun, last question.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: What would you tell your younger self about business growth?
37:53
SPEAKER_01: The younger self when I started my business, or the younger self when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be in the world?
37:58
SPEAKER_01: Either way.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
38:00
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell the seven-year-old version of me that used to host bake sales and put on Jerry Lewis telethons and had a paper route and was so creative and innovative and had zero idea what she was supposed to be when she grew up.
38:18
SPEAKER_01: Right.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: But she already was being it.
38:21
SPEAKER_01: Oh, she was already being the entrepreneur, the leader, the organizer, the activator of alliances, and to know there was someday going to be a way that that was going to show up and be her career.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's beautiful.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: I can see you doing that in my mind.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: I think that's so cute.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Melanie, where can everybody find you to connect with you?
38:44
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
38:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I I'm all over social media and Substack, growth fuel on Substack.
38:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I would also really inspire you to go and take my collaboration X Factor assessment.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have that.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: When we talk about good, go take it because that is going to give you so much clarity about where you should start and what to kind of shape, hone, optimize so that your collaborations can pay off.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: You just need to know what stage you're at and what next steps to take from that stage.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: Love that.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna have that in the show notes and remind everybody again your top ranked podcast.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: What's the show title?
39:23
SPEAKER_01: Amplify your success.
39:26
SPEAKER_01: You will find it on any platform soon to also be on my growth fuel Substack.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm new to Substack as well.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: I really think it's a cool platform.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm learning new things all about it all the time.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: So, Melanie, thank you so much.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna wind us up here.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: My friends, if you have questions about how to contact Melanie, check the show notes, take her assessment.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: I trust me when I say that making a connection with her is absolutely worth it.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: She is an amazing person, if you can't already tell by the generosity in her heart.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: And if you have questions about working with me, DM me or email me.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: Let's connect.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: I've got elite one-to-one coaching spots open, just a couple of those open this summer.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: I also just announced my summer VIP one-to-one coaching month, which is just a special one month where we would work together and a light version of my general uh deep dive one-to-one coaching.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: My one-to-one clients have shared with me that they're currently celebrating five-figure launches and monthly increases in income that they hadn't achieved alone.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: So I don't say that to brag.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: I say that to share to help you see the power of working with a coach.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: So let's get that income rolling the second half of this year.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: And if you're ready to grow your email list and attract consistent clients without having to rely on paid ads, sign up for my weekly newsletter.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna share practical visibility strategies, list building ideas, real world insights that you don't want to have to go Googling to find, and also some really silly stuff that I probably shouldn't tell you, but I'm gonna anyway.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: So go to tracybeavers.biz forward slash newsletter.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: And remember, I say this every single week.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to do this by yourself.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Being an entrepreneur is freaking hard.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: Melanie and I have already talked about that.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a roller coaster.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: Some days you think everything you've you've done is turned to gold.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: Other days you're like, am I completely alone in this?
41:16
SPEAKER_00: Am I ever going to have another client?
41:18
SPEAKER_00: And if you think you're alone, you're absolutely not.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: We all feel that way.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: So get into a community of support, connect with people like Melanie, connect with people like me, and let's collaborate and open some doors for each other.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to have a great balance of the week and weekend.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to remember when one of us rises, we all rise.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: So that is why we have got to keep cheering each other on.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: Melanie, thank you so much again for being here.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the invitation, and I look forward to connecting with you guys who are ready to collaborate.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for tuning in to create your online business success.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: I hope you found today's episode packed with actionable tips and inspiration.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: And listen, if you want to dive even deeper with me and connect with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs that totally get you and understand what you're building, then join us in my free Facebook group.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: You get to promote your offers anytime, network with other entrepreneurs just like you, and possibly find some lucrative collaboration.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: Just search for Be a Confident Entrepreneur, get visible, grow your email list and your income over in Facebook.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Or, if it's easier, just click the link in the show notes.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: We cannot wait to welcome you in.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: Let's stay connected so we can create your online business success together.