Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Win with Joint Ventures with Dov Gordon

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How to Win with Joint Ventures with Dov Gordon · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Biz Chat podcast today.
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  Hi there, and welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, small biz lady, your host, and I'm America's number one small business
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  expert.
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  Man, we have got a power packed episode for you today that we're gonna be diving into.
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  I have amazing guests and they always give us wonderful information.
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  So now it's time for me to introduce my next guest.
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  So let's introduce Mr.
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  Dove Gordon.
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  He is a master networker and marketing expert.
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  He's the founder of the Joint Venture Marketing Mastermind, JVMM for short, and I am a member
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  and it is a highly curated under the radar network of thought leader entrepreneurs who
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  promote, learn from and support each other.
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  And for more information, you can head over to his business website,
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  profitablerelationships.com.
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  Dove, welcome to the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
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  Thank you for having me, Melinda.
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  All right, Dove, tell us a little bit about your background.
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  How did JVMM get started or how did you just become this, like this master connector of
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  people?
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  Well, it started because I was married and I realized I needed to figure out how I'm going
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  to support the family.
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  So, you know, I realized that I had long had an interest in business, having discovered the
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  self help and business sections in the local library when I was 13.
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  So I was reading, but the, then when it came time to figure out what I could do when I'm
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  grown up, and I'd come across this idea of business coaching and I thought, that sounds
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  interesting.
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  I could probably do that.
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  And, so I took a course and they taught me all kinds of things about business coaching, but
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  what they didn't teach me was really like how to get clients And that's something that kind
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  of discovered the hard way.
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  Like, well, okay, it's not really true that you can be good at something.
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  You don't automatically get clients just because you're good at it.
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  You can have a genuine desire to help people.
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  It still doesn't mean they're going to recognize and appreciate it.
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  So I've found myself really stuck.
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  How do I, how do I get clients?
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  And I, I, at first I was looking to get consulting clients for larger companies.
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  You know, I mean, larger is relative, you know, from tens of millions to a couple hundred
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  million.
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  And I eventually started a CEO peer group for that range, but it was real tough, real tough.
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  I managed to get through to people, get them on the phone, even get meetings with them.
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  But it was just a really slow process.
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  Over time, I'd say the first seven years or so was probably like pushing a boulder uphill only
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  to watch it roll back down.
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  And but over time, I started to figure some things out.
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  I started to get a sense as to what you know, just get a sense of what I was missing and how
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  to do it.
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  I started learning from others.
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  I remember coming across you many years ago on Twitter.
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  You were like very, very visible everywhere back in the early days and probably beyond
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  that.
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  I like to think I still am, duh, but you know.
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  Yeah, probably.
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  I just, you know, I've shifted where my attention is to some degree.
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  So what was I going to say?
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  Over time I came to realize though that I figured out certain things that a lot of people
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  like me around the world would benefit from, which is people who are really good at what
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  they do and, have a lot to offer, but who, they're just not quite sure how to get clients
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  because there are a lot of people who are really good at what they do, but they don't
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  know how to talk about it in a way that gets clients or they, they haven't figured out a
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  simple process or simple plan that they could execute on a day to day basis that will
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  consistently bring in clients.
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  I'd started to figure a lot of that out.
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  And I decided that how am I going to reach these people?
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  Well, I want to build an email list, build an audience, primarily email list.
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  This is going back to the late two thousands, I believe, 02/2010.
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  So I figured I'd start my own little community of people I'd met online who were all selling
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  to a similar, similar audience and understood direct marketing.
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  And I reached out to people that I'd come across in different courses I'd taken or
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  whatever.
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  And we started with a handful of people and over the following years, just grew and grew.
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  We ended up with, close to 200 people.
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  And I realized at some point that I need, we had, I'd say about half were active, about half
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  were not.
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  I was running it for free for many years.
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  I realized I have to start charging something.
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  So I know who really wants to be there.
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  I was afraid of losing everything, like losing almost everybody going down to maybe 10 or 20
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  people.
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  But fortunately, we ended up with about 45 and continue to grow back well over 100, you know,
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  even almost back to where we used to be.
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  And that's been over the last handful of years.
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  So that's, you know, and that's where I just started to do joint ventures and we promote
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  each other, we learn from each other, we support each other and we help each other.
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  So that's my, that's the short version.
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  Okay.
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  If that's the short version, gosh, I hate to hear the long version.
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  Okay, listen.
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  So tell me
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  The long version.
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  All right.
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  I'll take you up.
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  Don't come, Jeremy.
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  You got jokes for me today.
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  Listen, one of the things I want to understand is what do you think the difference is between
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  a joint venture and a partnership collaboration?
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  Because I think sometimes people don't understand the difference.
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  Well, I mean, partner, they are, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably to some degree,
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  but you know, partnership could, would usually be more of an ownership in a business.
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  Joint venture is people each have their own business, but they collaborate in some way,
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  whether it's, you know, the most simple way is that let's say I have an audience of email and
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  social media and I tell them all about you.
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  I send them to tell them, go to this web, this page on your website, where they sign up for
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  your webinar or whatever you have end up on your list.
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  If they end up buying something from you, you'll send me a commission perhaps.
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  I mean, that's just to give the idea.
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  That's the simplest way, but we don't own each other's businesses.
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  We have our own business.
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  Right.
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  So what do you think are the key traits of an ideal joint venture partnership?
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  You're looking for people who have a similar audience who are selling something similar.
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  It could be directly competitive, enough, but it could also be complimentary.
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  The most important thing is that they have an audience that includes a high percentage of
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  people who are a good fit for your offer for whatever it is you're looking to sell.
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  That's number one.
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  Number two is looking for people who, are looking, you know, sometimes in joint ventures,
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  people are just looking to what can I get from the other people?
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  So you're looking for people who have a genuine interest in helping you or working with you and
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  giving and receiving, just, you know, benefiting or not just taking.
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  And you're looking for people who are going to follow through and do what they say.
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  So what are some red flags to look out for?
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  You know, somebody just out of the blue, you don't know approaches you for a joint venture.
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  What should you, you know, what kind of questions should you ask?
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  Well, mean, I'd want to know if you've done this before.
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  I'd want to know why me, like what led you to reach out?
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  I'd like to, I'll always have a conversation and you form certain opinions.
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  It really depends on how much, how big their ask is.
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  And if they're asking me to promote something that is of valuable to my audience, it's a good
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  fit, then that also makes difference.
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  I'd look at it first and make sure that it's a fit.
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  And at some point, if there isn't a huge risk, and this value in it for my audience, you give
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  it a shot.
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  Worst case is that they don't help you afterwards.
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  You learn from that, move on.
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  Right,
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  right.
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  Now, should you use joint venture agreements?
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  Like, you need, do you need paper between people to do this or is it like a gentleman's
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  agreement kind of like, I'm going to take you at your word that you're going to promote me in
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  a month when my program is coming up?
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  Well, this is the kind of thing that it's easy to overcomplicate when you're getting started.
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  And if you're getting started in this type of thing and there isn't a lot on the you know,
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  like you're not investing, you're not investing in designing and manufacturing, let's say a
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  joint product.
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  Right.
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  But you're then I don't think it's really necessary, but it is worthwhile to just write
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  out expectations in an email and say, Hey, I'm agreeing to do this for you.
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  You're agreeing to that for me.
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  Just, you know, reply and we make sure we're on the same page.
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  You know, something simple.
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  But I think that, you know, I remember when I was getting started, spent way too much
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  worrying about contracts and agreements and not enough about, you know, actually getting
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  clients.
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  Right.
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  So, so, so be careful not to overcomplicate.
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  So, but how should you handle a conflict or disagreement?
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  Like, has that ever happened in the JV?
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  Well, there have been a few.
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  Yeah.
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  And I always ask people to let me know when there's an issue.
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  I think the way to approach a conflict or disagreement is like any conflict or any
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  disagreement in life is like, Hey, this is my experience.
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  This is what I've heard from you and what I'm seeing from you as opposed to what I heard and
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  understood.
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  Am I missing something?
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  What's your side of the story?
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  Just share and try to listen.
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  The first thing you want to see is if you can eliminate misunderstandings or maybe, I mean
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  that if the problem was caused by misunderstanding, that could usually be
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  corrected.
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  If it turns out that the other person is, let's just say intentionally misunderstanding, well
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  then, I, if you can just walk away and never deal with them again and learn from learn from
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  that, how to avoid people in a similar situation, similar types of people, then that's
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  great.
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  If there was real damage, then you might have to pursue something else.
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  But, fortunately I haven't had that.
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  And then what advice would you give to a business owner who is hesitant?
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  Like that is like, I don't know if joint ventures are for me.
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  What would you say to that person?
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  Well, I mean, my question always is, is like, know, when people are, what should I do to
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  promote my business?
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  There's usually a few ideas or a few, few, there's a few things that you could do.
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  It could be this or that or that.
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  And joint ventures could be one of them.
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  And I think people should, should use a marketing tactic, which is really just the, you
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  know, the thing you do to grow your audience and generate leads.
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  People reaching out to you to find out about how they can buy from you or work from you that
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  you can enjoy getting really good at because there's so many different tactics available or
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  strategies as you might call them.
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  There's so many and it's, no one should ever think, Oh, I have to do this.
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  I have to do that.
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  You really should find something that you feel really good at that you can get excited about
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  and enjoy doing.
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  So if you don't like people, maybe focus on online ads, right?
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  You know, like deal with the numbers and the clicks and all that.
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  Wait a minute, wait a minute, If you don't like people, you are in trouble, right?
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  Cause you got to talk to your employees and you got to talk to the customers.
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  If you don't like people, baby, go get a job.
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  Like don't do this.
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  It's too hard.
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  That's true.
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  I agree.
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  That's true.
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  But if you're considering joint ventures, you've got to be willing to invest time in
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  conversations, building relationships, getting to know people, understanding what their real
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  interests are.
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  What are you trying to accomplish in your business?
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  And think to yourself, like really think, how can I help this other person?
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  Not just what can, here's what you could do for me.
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  I agree.
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  I agree.
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  All right, Dove, what is the best business advice you have ever been given?
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  The best business advice I've ever been given is probably to not overthink things and to just
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  act on the step that's in front of you.
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  And I still don't implement that as well as I should.
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  But the more I do it, the better things are.
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  Hey, that's it.
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  What Malcolm Gladwell talk about?
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  He talks about ten thousand hours to get to mastery.
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  So I think you and I both, we need to keep working on it, right?
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  Absolutely.
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  Doesn't make We're never Thank
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  you so much, Dove.
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  I really appreciate all of your great advice.
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  If you want to learn more about how to run a successful business, please head over to Small
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  Business Lady University, where we have lots of tools and tips and courses to help you move
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  your business much faster.
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  And if you're a woman or a Chica, I want to invite you to check out Small Business Lady
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  Academy.
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  It is our private exclusive membership site for women entrepreneurs.
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  We designed it with you in mind.
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  We have two pathways, How to Start and Ready to Grow.
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  So if that describes any of you, come holler at the Small Biz Lady.
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  Y'all know I have been doing this for a long time and I put all of my best information and
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  ebooks and trainings in this site.
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  Plus I coach people live once a month.
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  So I wanna make sure that you know that Small Biz Lady Academy is built for you.
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  If you're ready to make more money, you need to be in my community, honey, because that's all,
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  if it don't make money, it don't make no sense.
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  All right.
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  Thank you so much for being here for another episode of the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
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  And I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thank you so
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  podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for more fantastic
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  information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.