Building Joint Venture Relationships
Building relationships in your business is crucial, especially when you create alliances and develop quick relationships with other smart marketers who are living and thriving in the market right now -- and who can help you make more money. I know it may sound selfish, but they say that you're who you hang around with, and I believe that. I also believe that you have only so much time and energy; so my relationships, except for a few personal family ones, are all with people I'm also in business with. I've taken my business and mixed it with my friendships.
That's the essence of what all joint venturing is supposed to be about: people come together to do business together, so the revenue generated from that combination is much more that you would ever make on your own. In some cases, joint venture partners have cut me checks for millions of dollars. That's money we never would have earned without them -- and frankly, they earned a lot they wouldn't have without us. In many ways, it's a synergistic relationship.
In addition, this is a great way of strengthening your knowledge of the marketplace. Being an entrepreneur in general can be a lonely thing, because you're working ungodly numbers of hours sometimes, and you're working a lot harder than most people ever will. Even if it's not really like work because it's your hobby and your passion all rolled into one, you still need that human touch. There's a certain kinship we entrepreneurs have with each other, and we all need to hang around with more people who are moving in same direction we.
One big mistake I see a lot in this field, especially among Internet marketers, is that for some reason they want to isolate themselves; they want to live their whole lives behind the computer screen. I see too many people who aren't making any effort to build and maintain relationships with other people -- in fact, they're trying to avoid them.
One of the reasons they're attracted to Internet marketing is so they can shut out that part of their life. The Internet is anonymous. They're doing the whole Internet thing because they don't have to communicate with anybody, they don't have to talk with anybody -- and yet the true essence of building of business online is that sooner or later, some of those people you're avoiding are going to be the some of the most important people you communicate with. Unfortunately, they've never seen that kind of relationship blossom into something that puts money in their pockets. Ultimately, what happens is that these isolationists try to do everything by themselves. They're far too stubborn and independent, and too narrow-minded when it comes to sharing the kind of revenue that a good joint venturer shares with his or her partners.
In our business, the people who can help us make the most money are the ones we must place the most value on. The best joint venture relationships are those in which you continue to find ways to do business with the same people again and again. As you trust each other more, you're able to come up with ideas together that neither of you would have came up with on your own.
There's a knowledge share involved, too. If you learn something, you're not supposed to keep it to yourself. You're supposed to impart that wisdom to other people, whether you get any money for it or not. Then you train your friends to do the same for you. You try to find as many good people as you can, people who have the talents and abilities you most admire or lack within yourself, so you can create synergistic relationships. You try to take good care of the people who are taking good care of you; and when you do run into the occasional person who's not a long-term player, who is greedy and manipulative, who's trying to cheat you and rip you off -- well, you get rid of those people as fast as you can.
One of the reasons we've continued to do business with the same people year after year is that it's easy. Once you trust somebody and build up a certain amount of respect and friendship, why would you not want continue to find as many ways as possible to keep working with them? Once you've shared success with someone, it's only natural for you to sit down with them and say, "Okay, now what else can we do?"
And there's always something that you can do next, because part of the secret to getting rich in the opportunity market is that you're living in the world of the intangible now. The business is only limited by your imagination; and when you put a couple of people together who have an intimate knowledge of the marketplace -- or better still, four or five people -- the ideas are going to continue to get better and better.
All it takes is one good business opportunity to make you millions of dollars. So it helps to have people you can call on, who have done what you want to do, who have gone where you want to go, who have the experience and are interested in the same types of things. Their knowledge becomes yours, and vice versa. It's a synergistic relationship, as I mentioned earlier. The sum total is greater than the individual parts; what you create ends up being far greater than you could ever have done on your own.
Jim Rohn, the late motivational success coach, taught people that If you want to get rich, all you have to do is take a millionaire out for lunch. Admittedly, that's not so easy to do -- but it's a fact that most successful people want to share their experiences with others. Even if they're overworked and overscheduled, their hearts tend to be in the right place. They really do want to help you -- and of course a lot of them are doing seminars and workshops, and they produce a ton of books and programs sharing their greatest ideas. Part of that's because they want to make money; I won't lie to you about that! But part of it's also because they have a strong desire to extend a hand to up-and-coming people who are just getting started.
You have to realize that successful entrepreneurs can recognize that ambition in the new folks, because we all had it in the beginning too. When we meet somebody who's just getting started, who has the same look in their eyes that we had at one point, it just makes us want to reach out and help them.
That's what our mentor did for us when we first got started. And because he's a little older than us and had already been in the business for twenty years, when he met us he took us under his wing and really worked with us. Of course, he was trying to make money -- and we did end up paying him many thousands of dollars. But he also did it from a genuine desire on his part to help a couple of kids who were just as ambitious and hungry as he'd once been. I see so many seasoned veteran entrepreneurs who have the same desire, people who really want to help lift other people up.
I think our mentor also knew the value that these relationships could bring to him further down the road. He's a very sharp guy, and whoever said money and friendship don't mix -- well, those people never met him. Now, when you take a pre-existing friendship and try to build a business around it, that becomes a recipe for disaster more often than not. But when you start a brand new relationship with somebody in the same business you're in, and you find out they're a good person and they find out same about you and you do some business where you all make money together, it becomes fun. It really does become the essence of what all friendship is supposed to be -- and in some ways it's actually even better than most relationships, because most relationships aren't as cut-and-dried as a business relationship can be. In a good business relationship, you love your friends and they love you, but they're also trying to help you make money and you're doing the same for them. So it's clear and focused, whereas a relationship that's not based on business may not be.
Know through all the different alliances that we've built over the years, we've learned a lot of things that we never would have otherwise. These experiences have been essential to my growth as a marketer -- and there are plenty of similar relationships out there, just waiting for you to get involved with. You can join forces with people who are moving on the same path that you are, and my advice is find people who are super-talented and super-smart. Latch onto them and don't let them go.
It's pretty simple, really; it sounds like basic common sense. But I run into so many entrepreneurs who lack people skills. They're way too independent, stubborn, or greedy for their own good. They're trying to get as much as they can on every deal, rather than looking at the long term -- and they're very difficult to work with. So my advice is to be a lot less insular than you might otherwise be. Try joint ventures, but don't try to be greedy. Follow the golden rule.
You're not out there to take every dollar that comes in; you need to be flexible with your partners. You need to give and take, to be liberal and fair. Get this right, and it'll bring in huge amounts of money over the long term.
That's the essence of what all joint venturing is supposed to be about: people come together to do business together, so the revenue generated from that combination is much more that you would ever make on your own. In some cases, joint venture partners have cut me checks for millions of dollars. That's money we never would have earned without them -- and frankly, they earned a lot they wouldn't have without us. In many ways, it's a synergistic relationship.
In addition, this is a great way of strengthening your knowledge of the marketplace. Being an entrepreneur in general can be a lonely thing, because you're working ungodly numbers of hours sometimes, and you're working a lot harder than most people ever will. Even if it's not really like work because it's your hobby and your passion all rolled into one, you still need that human touch. There's a certain kinship we entrepreneurs have with each other, and we all need to hang around with more people who are moving in same direction we.
One big mistake I see a lot in this field, especially among Internet marketers, is that for some reason they want to isolate themselves; they want to live their whole lives behind the computer screen. I see too many people who aren't making any effort to build and maintain relationships with other people -- in fact, they're trying to avoid them.
One of the reasons they're attracted to Internet marketing is so they can shut out that part of their life. The Internet is anonymous. They're doing the whole Internet thing because they don't have to communicate with anybody, they don't have to talk with anybody -- and yet the true essence of building of business online is that sooner or later, some of those people you're avoiding are going to be the some of the most important people you communicate with. Unfortunately, they've never seen that kind of relationship blossom into something that puts money in their pockets. Ultimately, what happens is that these isolationists try to do everything by themselves. They're far too stubborn and independent, and too narrow-minded when it comes to sharing the kind of revenue that a good joint venturer shares with his or her partners.
In our business, the people who can help us make the most money are the ones we must place the most value on. The best joint venture relationships are those in which you continue to find ways to do business with the same people again and again. As you trust each other more, you're able to come up with ideas together that neither of you would have came up with on your own.
There's a knowledge share involved, too. If you learn something, you're not supposed to keep it to yourself. You're supposed to impart that wisdom to other people, whether you get any money for it or not. Then you train your friends to do the same for you. You try to find as many good people as you can, people who have the talents and abilities you most admire or lack within yourself, so you can create synergistic relationships. You try to take good care of the people who are taking good care of you; and when you do run into the occasional person who's not a long-term player, who is greedy and manipulative, who's trying to cheat you and rip you off -- well, you get rid of those people as fast as you can.
One of the reasons we've continued to do business with the same people year after year is that it's easy. Once you trust somebody and build up a certain amount of respect and friendship, why would you not want continue to find as many ways as possible to keep working with them? Once you've shared success with someone, it's only natural for you to sit down with them and say, "Okay, now what else can we do?"
And there's always something that you can do next, because part of the secret to getting rich in the opportunity market is that you're living in the world of the intangible now. The business is only limited by your imagination; and when you put a couple of people together who have an intimate knowledge of the marketplace -- or better still, four or five people -- the ideas are going to continue to get better and better.
All it takes is one good business opportunity to make you millions of dollars. So it helps to have people you can call on, who have done what you want to do, who have gone where you want to go, who have the experience and are interested in the same types of things. Their knowledge becomes yours, and vice versa. It's a synergistic relationship, as I mentioned earlier. The sum total is greater than the individual parts; what you create ends up being far greater than you could ever have done on your own.
Jim Rohn, the late motivational success coach, taught people that If you want to get rich, all you have to do is take a millionaire out for lunch. Admittedly, that's not so easy to do -- but it's a fact that most successful people want to share their experiences with others. Even if they're overworked and overscheduled, their hearts tend to be in the right place. They really do want to help you -- and of course a lot of them are doing seminars and workshops, and they produce a ton of books and programs sharing their greatest ideas. Part of that's because they want to make money; I won't lie to you about that! But part of it's also because they have a strong desire to extend a hand to up-and-coming people who are just getting started.
You have to realize that successful entrepreneurs can recognize that ambition in the new folks, because we all had it in the beginning too. When we meet somebody who's just getting started, who has the same look in their eyes that we had at one point, it just makes us want to reach out and help them.
That's what our mentor did for us when we first got started. And because he's a little older than us and had already been in the business for twenty years, when he met us he took us under his wing and really worked with us. Of course, he was trying to make money -- and we did end up paying him many thousands of dollars. But he also did it from a genuine desire on his part to help a couple of kids who were just as ambitious and hungry as he'd once been. I see so many seasoned veteran entrepreneurs who have the same desire, people who really want to help lift other people up.
I think our mentor also knew the value that these relationships could bring to him further down the road. He's a very sharp guy, and whoever said money and friendship don't mix -- well, those people never met him. Now, when you take a pre-existing friendship and try to build a business around it, that becomes a recipe for disaster more often than not. But when you start a brand new relationship with somebody in the same business you're in, and you find out they're a good person and they find out same about you and you do some business where you all make money together, it becomes fun. It really does become the essence of what all friendship is supposed to be -- and in some ways it's actually even better than most relationships, because most relationships aren't as cut-and-dried as a business relationship can be. In a good business relationship, you love your friends and they love you, but they're also trying to help you make money and you're doing the same for them. So it's clear and focused, whereas a relationship that's not based on business may not be.
Know through all the different alliances that we've built over the years, we've learned a lot of things that we never would have otherwise. These experiences have been essential to my growth as a marketer -- and there are plenty of similar relationships out there, just waiting for you to get involved with. You can join forces with people who are moving on the same path that you are, and my advice is find people who are super-talented and super-smart. Latch onto them and don't let them go.
It's pretty simple, really; it sounds like basic common sense. But I run into so many entrepreneurs who lack people skills. They're way too independent, stubborn, or greedy for their own good. They're trying to get as much as they can on every deal, rather than looking at the long term -- and they're very difficult to work with. So my advice is to be a lot less insular than you might otherwise be. Try joint ventures, but don't try to be greedy. Follow the golden rule.
You're not out there to take every dollar that comes in; you need to be flexible with your partners. You need to give and take, to be liberal and fair. Get this right, and it'll bring in huge amounts of money over the long term.
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