Power Partners- What Are They And Why Do You Need Them? [Ep. 193]

Michelle (: 00:00

Hello, hello. All right, I am super excited to talk about power partners today. And the reason why is because truly, I think this is one of the most underutilized. Well, I don't wanna say underutilized. I think you either utilize it or you don't, right? I think that's the thing. There are certain people that have amazing power partners.

in their business, especially in the online space or just small businesses, they have amazing power partners. And then there's other ones that are like, I don't have a clue what a power partner is. Right. And so I'm hoping that to bridge the gap a little bit, because you could call them whatever you want, power partners, strategic partners, collaborations. I call them power partners, really, because they are extremely powerful to the growth and expansion of your business. And so

For me, what is a power partner? To me, a power partner, I mean, I could look up the textbook definition, but a power partner is somebody who has very similar goals, right, in mind with their business or I mean, they don't have to be the exact same goals, but they have a very similar personality and they are two people that are working towards a very similar outcome.

Let's just say that like their goals and their reasons behind it might be different, but their outcome is the same. Their passion for helping others is very similar. It's very aligned. So it's two people that have a lot in alignment that serve a very similar audience and they are more powerful together. Right. And so think about, you know, who in your world is a power partner. And I want to give you a couple of examples.

and how you find them and how you approach it. Because I think for a lot of things and why people don't have power partners is simply an education. This is what I find a lot of in when I'm working one-on-one with clients and also in the 100 Coffee Chats Club, which by the way, shameless plug, if you haven't been there yet, why not? Actually one of the topics inside the 100 Coffee Chats Club. So just quickly.

Michelle (: 02:20

We, every week inside the 100 Coffee Chats Club, we change the topic in how we are networking because again, there's more to networking than dropping your I help statement and finding strategic collaborations and partners and power partners is a massive piece of networking. And so it is something that we talk about a lot inside of the 100 Coffee Chats Club. So your first cup is always on me. You've got nothing to lose. The link is in the show notes. Go register and show up Wednesdays at noon. All right.

Anyways, so what makes somebody a power partner and what makes you mutually beneficial to them? And so for example, let me give you an example of things that you would probably not think of. So typically the most strategic partners or collaborations that we hear of are people that serve a similar audience. So I have, for example, the

client of mine who is an attorney that does a lot of website policies, right? A power partner for her is web designers, right? Because when they're designing websites, they need privacy policy, they need terms of use, they need all of these. And so that's an amazing power strategic partner because she, the website client is getting the...

Client's in, she's building the website, she's telling them that they need these templates and that they need these policies, they don't know where to get the policies and oh by the way, I know somebody that has a template shop and here's how you can find them, right? Power partner. But thinking outside the box a little bit here is also in how can you bring somebody else in to amplify the service that you're providing. So

One, I had a great conversation the other day with another business coach. I mean, on the surface, we do very similar things. I have the hundred coffee chats club. She doesn't have any type of networking. She has a Facebook group, but she really doesn't want to get into networking. And so she has a couple of business coaching programs. This is actually happened to me with two different coaches right now. They all say like, I tell my clients all the time, you need to be networking, you need to be meeting people, you need to be having conversations, you need to be

Michelle (: 04:23

talking about your business, you need to be doing all of these things. But they both said like, I don't want to do it. I don't want to host networking events. I have no desire to be a power connector. Like this is not what I'm doing. This is not what I'm teaching them. This is not what I'm good at. The one is more on the marketing side and the other one's more on the strategic side. So they both said to me, like we are happy to pass every, you know, the clients off to the Honda coffee chats club because we think we know the importance of it and we know how powerful it is, but.

We don't want to do it and you already got it. You've already set it all up. So we're just going to send people to you. So again, they are great power partners and you might look at them as competition, but we have different offers. We have different services. We serve a different audience. Another power partner for me is somebody I just met who also does networking, right? She also hosts networking events, but her networking groups are exclusive to one per person.

She has, they're on like set time. She requires a commitment. She requires attendance. She has, it's a very different structure, but she also same thing. Like my, the people in my world are always it. Yes. The hundred coffee chats club constantly has new people in it, but I'm always telling everybody like this cannot be the only pond you're fishing in. You need to be going and talking to other people. You need to be in other networking groups. You need to be having other conversations. And so anytime I can meet.

I have an opportunity to refer them and say, Hey, here's another networking opportunity that I know is really good. And she vets the people and they're legit business owners and they're doing their thing. Right. Wonderful power partners. Same for her on the opposite side. If they want, maybe they want to meet with other people and they, they want to be in a group that is not mutually exclusive to one person. Right. So again, might look at it like competition, but it's really not. And so.

When you're looking at it from that perspective, we are mutually beneficial to each other, right? I can feed people to her networking group, she can feed people to mine. Same thing from a business coaching perspective. Yes, I do one-to-one business coaching, but in a very different way right now. And I'm kind of only taking on like very limited one-to-one clients because this, I'm working on building the 100 Coffee Chats Club. This is something, a big goal of mine and what I wanna do. And so right now it makes...

Michelle (: 06:49

perfect sense for me to work with other business coaches that have a audience of people that they're telling, hey, go listen, go talk to other people, but I don't have any place for you to do that. Right. And so this is a great opportunity. I actually just had somebody come as a guest from one of those referrals. So see, it's like, it's so powerful. But then there's other ways that you can serve your audience too is in what else, what other services

do your clients need and who are those people, right? So a couple examples are one of my clients does memberships, right, so she helps people grow their memberships or build a membership program. And so one of the power partners that I introduced her to was somebody, and I did this actually, I introduced this person to two different people. One does memberships, one does group programs.

So they both help set up the membership and or the group program, but they don't help with the marketing and the promotion of it. And so hooking them up and introducing them to a marketing strategist is a wonderful power partner because they don't wanna get into the marketing, but they know their clients need it. Again, it's no different than the business coach and the networking thing. And so one of them has a white labeled in where like when you work with her on the membership VIP strategy,

then you get a session with the marketing strategist built in. It's one fee, it's already built in, the cost is white labeled in, and the other one just passes a referral. Like, okay, here's the group program that you're, we're building the group program, next step is you need to market it and here's the person you need to talk to, right? And vice versa, somebody that has the...

marketing consultant, if she gets a client that's trying to market a group program, but it's all kind of wonky and it doesn't, there's not a lot of strategy behind it. Like the best marketing is only as good as the program is itself. Right? So she can say, Hey, I think you should go talk to this, you know, this person, she's an expert at helping you grow your group and then we can market it. Right? And so there's this mutually beneficial relationship where you can pass these referrals and you're working together. And ultimately it's a win, win.

Michelle (: 09:02

Right? The marketing strategist is winning. The group expert strategist is winning and the client, the client is winning. And that is the biggest key point to power partners is that the client is the one that wins because they trust you. And you know, by having all these power partners that they are going to get the best results. And that is a huge, massive win for them. Okay.

And so you could also look at it completely differently. They could not, you guys could not be really even doing business together. Um, another example is a client of mine posted that she had done a really big, she does like project management build outs for an interior designer and a bookkeeper that only works with interior designers emailed her and said,

Do you have a referral program? I'd love to be a partner for you because I do all this bookkeeping, but like their project management is all over the place and I work with them and they're my only clients. I'd love to see what that looks like. So the bookkeeper and there's very little chance that the project manager person, the one that does the build outs, there's not a good chance that she's going to be able to send.

bookkeeper that only specializes in interior designers, a lot of business, right? And sometimes that's okay, because the project manager, she does more than just interior designers, right? She just happened to do a big build out about it and posted about it, but it's not her only client. She's not completely niched into that. And so again,

The bookkeeper is looking at it like this would be an amazing power partner because my clients need this, right? It's about the win for the client. And when she can provide them this service or provide them this referral, their business is going to be more organized, which means they're going to make more profit, which is going to help her, you know, from a bookkeeping perspective, save them money on taxes or different things or whatever it is from that organization piece, right? So that is really.

Michelle (: 11:14

One of the things that you have to look at, okay, is that there's multiple different ways to have power partners in your business. It's not referral partners, right? Sometimes a power partner is not just a referral partner. It could be somebody you consult with on the back end, right? You could say like, your client can never even know that you speak to this person, right? It could just be somebody that you have in your back pocket that you consult with.

It could even be an accountability partner. It can be somebody that you strategize with. It could be a lot of different things. And I think that is one of the things that you need to look at is like, what are all the ways that I can have power partners in my business, right? And thinking about who those people were. So if you're gonna take action, here's your steps. Number one is making a list. Making a list of all the people, meaning the industries, not specific names. But like think about,

who would be all of your power partners? So if I'm thinking about my entire list, right, it would be other podcast hosts because I can do podcast tours. We could be mutually past, one of the things I'm seeing, I don't know if you guys listen to Amy Porterfield and Jenna Kutcher.

they are promoting each other's podcasts in the beginning of each episode. Like, Hey, by the way, if you haven't listened to Jenna Kutcher's episode, blah, she just did an episode on this. Like that's an amazing power partner relationship too. So like, even that like from a visibility perspective. So again, like industries, so you're looking at industry. So it's other podcasters. It would be other business coaches that don't get into networking, right? Or it can be mindset coaches because they're, they don't get into more of the strategic planning side.

It could be other networking groups, right? So all of the industries that could potentially be power partners for you. And then even thinking outside the box, okay, it could be bookkeepers like my CPA or my CFO could be an amazing power partner because they're seeing other businesses that could need some strategic planning, right? So making a list of all the industries. And then once you have that.

Michelle (: 13:24

then start making lists of the specific names of people that you already know that you could reach out to. Okay. So other people that host podcasts, I have one person on my mind right now as I'm recording this, um, letting him know that my podcast is back up and going. And I would love to see if he'd be interested in even just promoting each other's podcasts on an episode, right? That's a great one. So making the list of specific people that you know, in those industries, and then thinking about

why and how it could be mutually beneficial to each other. And then setting up the call to have that conversation. Again, a lot of times people are super open to these strategic collaborations. It just takes education. Most people just don't know. They're not thinking about it. And so if you are, then think about it and then present it to them and say, hey, I was thinking, I think we could really, really partner up on this. So something of that sort. So.

Be ready. Don't just reach out to them and be like, Hey, I think we could be power partners. No, here's how I think we could mutually benefit each other and or mutually benefit each other's clients. Right. Don't just set up all these random calls because that's the other thing is people go and like, Oh, Michelle, I have all these conversations and I'm not getting any collaborations or I'm not getting any. I'm not, I just don't know how I don't have any of these power partners you talk about. Right. Well, when's the last time you've actually approached with a solution?

not just a, oh, I think this would be really cool, but an actual solution or an actual idea, right? So you have to think outside the box. This is like a superpower of mine. I absolutely freaking love doing this. So, you know, hit me in the DMs if you need help with that. But anyway, so step one, make a list of the industry. Step two, make a list of the people you know. Step three, then start reaching out to them. And then step four, if you wanna take it a step further is when you're having.

coffee chats or you're having conversations with people and people ask you like is there somebody I can introduce you to or you know the conversation just say like here are the people that are great strategic partners for me or here are my power partners if you know any other podcast host that you think would be interested in doing an episode promo for each other I would love an introduction to that ask for the introduction

Michelle (: 15:44

Because again, it's one thing for me to tell people if I'm having a conversation or people hear that I might do that podcast promo on there, they might hear and go, oh my God, that's a great idea. But most people aren't thinking like, oh, I know somebody else that I think would love to do that. They just don't think to make the introduction. And it's not from a lack of caring. People are just busy and we all have our massive to-do lists. And so we're just, we get tied up in our own shit, right? Like we're just tied up and we don't think about it. So ask for that introduction.

hey, I'm looking for introductions to this. Do you know anybody in this field? Okay, I used to host strategic introduction power hours. They were so powerful because it's easy to be like, hey, I'm looking for an introduction to this person and everybody could just look through their list and be like, oh, hey, I know this person, this person, this person, that type of thing. So anyways, that's how you create power partnerships. It takes work.

It's not like it just comes naturally and super easy and it requires, you know, work from both people for it to be mutually exclusive, you know, mutually beneficial. Most of the time people, if people tell me it's one sided, it's because there's no plan in place, right? I have a lot of one sided. That's why I'm saying these are not referral partners. I am a powerhouse referral partner. If you and I have had a conversation, there's you're on my referral partner network. Like that's just the way it is. Like if somebody says on a call, Oh, Hey, I'm

struggling with this, I might say, hey, here's an introduction for you. Like I have a whiteboard in front of my keyboard where I immediately just write down like, oh, I need to introduce you to this person, right? That's not what I'm talking about. That's a referral partner, but I'm talking about true power partnerships where you're making those introductions, where you're having those conversations to be like, hey, how can we mutually benefit each other and how can we mutually benefit each other's clients? Okay, so go take action.

Make your list, do your reach out. This could count as part of your 30 minutes of reach out every single day. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's my 321 system, part of the lead generation done differently bundle. It's $49, but anyway, the link is, you know, whatever. If you don't know what I'm talking about. My 30 minutes, it's outreach, it's outreach, but power partnerships are such an incredible use of your time. They are an incredible use of your time.

Michelle (: 18:08

Um, so go take action and I want to know like, who are your power partners? Like I might pro there's a good chance I know them because I do a lot of coffee chats and I have a lot of conversations. So don't be afraid to DM me and say, Hey, Michelle, here's who I think would be a great power partner for me. Would you mind making an introduction for me? I'd be happy to do that. I do it all the time. I actually like, it's literally on my to-do list right now.

make introductions, make the introductions because that to me is such a powerful use of my time. So I do it every single week. So please, please do not hesitate to ask me to make an introduction for you. I guarantee you I know somebody I can introduce you to. All right, so go take action. I'll talk to you soon.