Partnership Strategies for Coaches & Online Entrepreneurs | Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid

00:00:00 Roberto Candelaria: All right, so the past few weeks we have been having conversations about partnerships, collaborations, what those could look like, how you can go out and do it. And today they want to have a conversation about what are really about the top five mistakes that people should avoid as a coach, as an online business owner when going out to create partnerships to create these.

00:00:22 Roberto Candelaria: Different types of collaborations. If you want a free guide on how to be able to do that, on how to get partnerships and collaborations as a coach, we’ve got a guide on the first seven steps to be able.

00:00:31 Roberto Candelaria: Do that head on over to robertocandelaria.com/get hyphen partnerships. That’s Roberto candelaria.com/get hyphen partnerships. And with that, let’s jump into today’s show.

00:00:01 Roberto Candelaria: All right, y’all. So listen, we’ve been having the conversation about partnerships, affiliates, JV’s, all different types of partnerships and collaborations that coaches and online business owners are going through. And one of the things that’s been coming up in my own coaching groups and our membership profitable Community Academy are some of the things that.

00:00:21 Roberto Candelaria: People.

00:00:22 Roberto Candelaria: Do or I should say don’t do that. Are really leading to some mistakes and so I know that last week we kind of talked about the timing of it. We’ve talked about different types of partnerships and collaborations. But today I want to share 5 mistakes that I see coaches and online entrepreneurs making that could really hinder them from either a.

00:00:42 Roberto Candelaria: Getting that partnership and collaboration or be really being able to leverage it and make the most of the opportunity that’s right in front of them.

00:00:53 Roberto Candelaria: So the very first one that we’re going talk about right now is this. It is a lack of clear objectives and this is so important for us as we go into a partnership into a collaboration to really have some clear goals, to have some clear objectives for what it.

00:01:13 Roberto Candelaria: Is that we actually want to be able to gain from this partnership from this collaboration and I say that this is necessary right because?

00:01:23 Roberto Candelaria: Is if you’re looking at, let’s say, podcast guesting opportunities as one of your types of partnerships and collaborations, well, you’re probably OK. I’m clear that I want to be a podcast guest. I’m clear that I would like to be able to have more people know my expertise and know what I do. I’m clear that maybe I have an opt in and that through that.

00:01:44 Roberto Candelaria: I can get more people to build and and build my e-mail list because of the value that we deliver with this optin and ultimately I’m clear that as people opt into this and we begin to nurture them through our e-mail marketing.

00:02:00 Roberto Candelaria: That hopefully we would be able to get a client from that and right. And so at the end of the day, it’s like, yes, I’m clear that there’s this podcast guessing opportunity, but we’re also clear that from a business perspective, the goal is to be able to build the e-mail list. And so as you step into partnerships, I want to invite you to be very clear about.

00:02:21 Roberto Candelaria: What is this goal that I have that I am actually moving towards and reaching towards this objective now #2?

00:02:29 Roberto Candelaria: Do is. I don’t know. I want to say failing to research, but I’m going to say spending enough time researching potential partnerships and collaborations and maybe another way to even say that is a little bit more of the partner vetting. It can be super exciting.

00:02:31 Roberto Candelaria: Gonna.

00:02:50 Roberto Candelaria: Then there’s a partnership opportunity right in front of you just to be like, Oh my gosh, I need to say yes, let’s go do this right now and we missed the opportunity sometimes to be able to say, OK.

00:03:02 Roberto Candelaria: Like.

00:03:03 Roberto Candelaria: What’s really going on here, right? Like if I align with this brand?

00:03:09 Roberto Candelaria: How does that work for them? How does that work for me? If I were to go do this affiliate offer, you know, we just recently sent an e-mail about thrive card about Liz Wilcox’s e-mail marketing membership. Are these things that if we’re affiliates of them, do they actually resonate with our community?

00:03:29 Roberto Candelaria: Do they resonate with our e-mail list? Are they things that our people need, or are we just like, Oh my gosh, like there’s some?

00:03:36 Roberto Candelaria: Money there. And so we want to make sure that when we go out and we actually do some research, do a little bit of vetting here, that we’re looking for people that have similar values, similar target audiences in some cases, but ultimately right. We’re looking for people. We’re looking for partnerships that help us add more value to the people that.

00:03:57 Roberto Candelaria: We already serve, while possibly bringing in more of those people.

00:04:03 Roberto Candelaria: Now mistake #3 and I made this one so much when I was getting started y’all like I can’t even tell you how.

00:04:10 Roberto Candelaria: Much I made this.

00:04:10 Roberto Candelaria: One. But it’s I just had.

00:04:14 Roberto Candelaria: A weak value proposition or a weak pitch and what I mean by this is that I had not necessarily learned the art of the pitch yet, and I was just like, Oh yeah, we should go do this thing. We have a few people over here and we got a few people on an e-mail list. And we do this little event. And those aren’t things that we really want to be able to do. We want to be able to create.

00:04:37 Roberto Candelaria: A clearly defined value proposition for potential partners for potential collaborators that lets them know, like, hey, here’s how you win by having us. This is everything that we bring to the.

00:04:52 Roberto Candelaria: Table and these are all of the you know the size of the e-mail list, the size of TikTok or social media or your podcast listeners. Whatever it is that you want to highlight that you’re highlighting in a very strong way, what it is that you bring to the table now you know we’ve got a partnership pitch deck. It’s one of the things that our students inside.

00:05:12 Roberto Candelaria: Profitable community have access to that actually shows them like, hey, if you’re reaching out for partnerships, for collaborations, for brand deals, this is a pitch deck sample that you should, you know, use potentially to get new partners.

00:05:28 Roberto Candelaria: And I will say this that like as you were doing this you.

00:05:32 Roberto Candelaria: Not only want to highlight how awesome you are and how awesome your brand is, but we want to be able to highlight right that there is a mutual gain here that there is mutual benefit here. Yeah, I’m reminded I just had a conversation last week. I think it was with Darren Adams from keep.

00:05:53 Roberto Candelaria: And you know, we’re working on a virtual summit. It’s going to be later this year and an in person event later this year. And Darren and I have an amazing relationship. We’ve been working with keep for many years now. And I just called Darren and I was like, hey.

00:06:08 Roberto Candelaria: Want to run something by you? I know it’s not our normal thing and we have an idea to be able to help more coaches and online business owners and wanted to share it with you because I know that these people are the ideal audience for keep and wanted to see what we might be able to come up with.

00:06:28 Roberto Candelaria: Based on our goals and the goals that keep has as well like are you open to that conversation and it was just an amazing conversation and y’all will see more about that here in the coming weeks. In the coming months. But that really goes into kind of like this 4th mistake that I see.

00:06:47 Roberto Candelaria: Is that so many people end up in a place of poor communication or communication breakdown, and I think that it’s so important that when we’re working with partners, right, I mean, we talk about this in relationships, right? We talk about this with our spouses, with somebody you’re dating. We talk about it. And with any relationship in our life.

00:07:08 Roberto Candelaria: But you know what is the importance of clear communication?

00:07:14 Roberto Candelaria: And I’ve seen so many times that miscommunication can completely make a partnership make a collaboration fall apart. Sometimes it can even break that partnership, per say, right. And so, just like I shared with Darren, I think it’s important to have clear conversation to have.

00:07:35 Roberto Candelaria: Consistent dialogue and to also know like when there’s some red flags coming up when we’re working with partners, when we’re working with JV’s, when we’re working with brand deals you know we know that the partners that we’re working with really want to be able to see a win.

00:07:52 Roberto Candelaria: For their company, but also our company, but also the people that we serve. And so we’ve kind of learned like, hey, there’s some red flags over here. Stranger Danger might not want to get near that.

00:08:04 Roberto Candelaria: But we have less of those now that we’ve built relationships with the individuals at these companies at these brands and so.

00:08:13 Roberto Candelaria: So.

00:08:13 Roberto Candelaria: One of the things I would say here in terms of ongoing communication and clear communication is ask these individuals that you’re speaking with that are either at brands or other small business owners, you know, ask them. One of my favorite questions, Jim Quick ever asked. We were in Las Vegas many years ago.

00:08:33 Roberto Candelaria: Sitting in Tony Shaw’s living room and I just remembered like they we had just finished a big meeting. It was Jim quick, Tony Shay, myself and a couple of other people there in the room. Alexis was there, and I just remember the meeting was over and Jim looks over at Tony.

00:08:53 Roberto Candelaria: And just says.

00:08:55 Roberto Candelaria: What makes this a win for you?

00:08:58 Roberto Candelaria: Now I want you to understand the deal was already done and Jim still asked that question. What makes this a win for you? And I think that that’s something that we can learn from and be able to ask our partners. It’s like what makes this a win for you? What is the best way that you actually like to receive?

00:09:19 Roberto Candelaria: Communication. So I tell people.

00:09:22 Roberto Candelaria: On our end, especially working with, you know, coaches online, business owner, service providers, if they try to send me a bunch of Facebook messages, I’m like y’all.

00:09:31 Roberto Candelaria: I don’t really do business in the inbox. The best way to communicate with me for stuff like that is with e-mail, because then I or my assistant can be able to see it and so share like find out like what is the best way to to communicate? Let people know the best way to communicate with you.

00:09:48 Roberto Candelaria: Be very clear on hey, like, what are the deadlines for this? What are the assets that I need so that I can help you succeed or this is what I would like from you and this is what I need from you to be able to make this partnership make this collaboration succeed and.

00:10:04 Roberto Candelaria: So y’all clear, consistent conversation. Man, you want to be able to do that, and then the fifth biggest one that I see here and it can kind of go two ways. But I’m just going to say that on one end, I actually what I want to say, it’s just like people forget about the fine.

00:10:25 Roberto Candelaria: Print I used to always say when we were working a lot with corporate sponsorship that the dollars are in the details and I really do believe that. And so I would say here like that the fifth one is just.

00:10:38 Roberto Candelaria: Kind of this complacency with agreements or this complacency with contracts and that so many people just overlook.00:10:50 Roberto Candelaria: The details and contractual agreements that are sent to them, and so I’m going to talk about this from both sides a little bit. So the very first one I must say is that if somebody sends you.

00:11:03 Roberto Candelaria: An agreement.

00:11:05 Roberto Candelaria: I really want to invite you to read that agreement. I’m not an attorney. I don’t play one on TV. I did not go to law school. I didn’t finish high school. Y’all, you’ve heard me say that before, so I’m definitely not an attorney. And as I’m not an attorney, one of the things I say is you don’t want to risk not having an agreement.

00:11:26 Roberto Candelaria: In place, there are so many things that a simple affiliate contract or collaboration agreement.

00:11:34 Roberto Candelaria: Can help protect you and your business and help you know, hey, this is when I need to like maybe call the attorney or get some legal advice on this.

00:11:45 Roberto Candelaria: And I say that this is key because by not having an agreement, people oftentimes don’t know well who’s getting what percentage and who’s getting it when and when do they get paid.

00:11:56 Roberto Candelaria: Out if somebody sends you an agreement, well, you want to be able to actually understand what it says. And then if you as a brand as a business owner are sending out your agreement to either a big brands or other small businesses just like you and me, then we want to make sure that.

00:12:16 Roberto Candelaria: The things that are in that clearly state. Hey, here’s what’s going on.

00:12:22 Roberto Candelaria: Here’s when it’s going on, here’s who’s agreeing to what and when. Here’s why we’re doing this. Here’s how it it makes it happen and understanding. Like who is responsible for what, when. And you know, I highly encourage people to contact a licensed legal professional to be able to make one of those.

00:12:45 Roberto Candelaria: Or like my attorney shahara, right. She’s got affiliate contracts and collaboration contracts. She’s the the right firms, her her.

00:12:54 Roberto Candelaria: Company. But if you just reach out, we can get you in touch with her to be able to say, hey, these are this is what’s actually going on in this partnership, this what’s actually going on in this collaboration. So people know so y’all, those are the five biggest mistakes that I see I want to.

00:13:13 Roberto Candelaria: Hope that they will keep you from being able to avoid one of those mistakes, and I’m curious like, what are some of the things that maybe you’ve seen that was like, ah, shouldn’t have done that, won’t do that?

00:13:26 Roberto Candelaria: Again, or something that maybe you’ve seen with someone else so, you know, send me an Instagram DM. Send me a message there. I’d love to hear your stories here to hear what’s working with you next week. We’ve got the podcast back. I’m going to talk a little bit about failure and overcoming failure when it comes to partnerships, collaborations to.

00:13:47 Roberto Candelaria: Business goals and so you can keep your business moving forward. So hope you have an awesome day and I’ll talk with.

00:13:54 Roberto Candelaria: You soon. Bye bye.