No Ads Needed: Kathryn Jones Lish on Mastering Joint Partnerships

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Speaker 2 What's up, everybody? It's Russell. Welcome back to The Selling Online or the Marketing Secrets of Podcast, depending on when you are listening to this.

Speaker 2 We just finished recording a really cool episode about one of my favorite things to talk about, yet one of the things that are probably the, I'd say, one of the least least used marketing tactics of today, and it's the marketing tactic that we use to grow ClickFunnels.

Speaker 2 A lot of people know we didn't buy any ads in ClickFunnels for the first two years.

Speaker 2 We grew our businesses, the business from zero to over $10 million a year completely through joint ventures and partnerships. And I'm lucky enough that this week we've got Catherine Jones Lish.

Speaker 2 No, Catherine.

Speaker 2 I almost just messed it up here in the office.

Speaker 2 It's been a long week going live every single day, but she's here and she's someone who is one of my favorite people to talk about joint ventures with and so we just finished a really cool conversation about that so if you want more traffic you want more sales you don't want to pay mark zuckerberg or dance on tick tock or anything but you want to get a lot of traffic into your offer selling your your products and services you're going to love this conversation about how to do joint ventures uh so with that so let's jump right into the podcast

Speaker 2 In the last decade, I went from being a startup entrepreneur to selling over a billion dollars of my own products and services online.

Speaker 2 This show is going to show you how to start, grow, and scale a business online. My name is Russell Dunson and welcome to the Marketing Secrets Podcast.

Speaker 2 All right, so I'm back right now with the second of our interviews today with Catherine Jones Lish. I almost keep forgetting to say the last name.
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 3 I worked really hard for that last name. I searched high and low.
The mountain dating apps. Let me have it, okay? Come on.

Speaker 2 She's Jones then. Just Catherine Lish.
That seems easier to say.

Speaker 3 I know, but here's the thing. I was Catherine Jones for too long, but I have to have it.

Speaker 2 It's true. And I used to always think Catherine Zita Jones.
That's how I never forget it.

Speaker 3 My nickname in in middle school was Zeta. So I'm telling you what, I'm open to it.

Speaker 2 I'm here today with Zita, and we're going to go deep into a new topic. No, we did a podcast interview a little bit ago.
So those of you listening to the podcast, it was our last episode probably.

Speaker 2 But this one, we're going to go on a different angle. We talked about selling sales funnels last time, which is one of the genius things you are a genius at.

Speaker 2 But the second thing I want to talk about is actually joint ventures and partnerships and things like that. And I wanted to talk about this for a couple of reasons.

Speaker 2 And I'll kind of caveat this right now just so you have some context to why this is fascinating my head right now.

Speaker 2 But when I got started in this business way back in the day we did not have facebook we did not have uh instagram we didn't have tick tock we didn't have any of the social platforms in fact um i remember when i was in college the very first social platform i was aware of was called friendster do you remember friendster i don't even know i don't know

Speaker 2 friendster and i remember people freaking out like you can go you can find friends you can connect and that was a big thing and then friend like everyone was blowing up as a huge viral sensation and then from there uh this new company came and disrupted it called myspace and everyone's like we're leaving friendster to go to my space and everyone's on my space Like, this is like where I got in the internet, right?

Speaker 2 And you couldn't buy ads on MySpace or Friendster. You could buy Google ads.
That was like the one thing. We were buying Google ads.

Speaker 2 There was this guy named Chris Carpenter who wrote a book called Google Cash. And it was insane.

Speaker 2 This is like, this insert my potato gun story here.

Speaker 2 Cause like you read Google Cash and it was basically like you go to Google and you buy an ad and you pay five cents a click and then you make you know a dollar over here and you could do affiliate offers or anything.

Speaker 2 So everybody who read that book got rich. It was like 100% success stories if you read that book.

Speaker 3 It was just like the perfect time, the perfect demand.

Speaker 2 The algorithms were, the prices were cheap, the algorithm worked.

Speaker 2 And so like you'd go to ClickBank, you'd find any offer, you'd pick it up, you go to Google, you buy dad, and you just, and it was just free money. And so everyone met, it was just crazy.

Speaker 2 I'm doing the potato guns, I'm new with everything. Like we're all doing that.
And it was insane. I was like, this, I'm the smartest person on the planet.
Like, I thought I was genius, right?

Speaker 2 And then it came the horrible Google slap, right? And it shifted. And all of a sudden, all the prices changed.
And

Speaker 2 at that point forward,

Speaker 2 advertising online just got hard. And most people I knew who were making a ton of money disappeared.
I never saw them again.

Speaker 2 And there's been these waves that have happened throughout, man, the 25 years I've been playing this game where, hope you make a bunch of money and then something changes and they all disappear.

Speaker 2 And then, and so I've been on this cycle for a long time.

Speaker 2 Anyway,

Speaker 2 so for me, like, because the Google Slap, I got so scared. Like, I started trying to figure out how else can I get traffic.
And we didn't have other places to buy ads from.

Speaker 2 So 100% of my traffic for the next decade and a half-ish came from joint ventures from partnerships.

Speaker 2 And we used to go to internet marketing events and when you go to these events, all the speakers, all we talked about were how to join ventures and partnerships.

Speaker 2 And that's what all the conversations were. There were no conversations on funnel building, no conversations on traffic or SEO or Facebook or anything.

Speaker 2 All we talked about were joint ventures and partnerships. And that's how we all got traffic back then.
And then what happened is this thing called Facebook came out and it got easier to get.

Speaker 2 Zuckerberg to send you traffic than to talk to somebody else and have to build an actual physical relationship and talk to people. And so everyone switched to Facebook ads and that became the thing.

Speaker 2 And then I saw the Facebook slaps have happened over the decades and same kind of thing.

Speaker 2 But what's fascinating is last year, so I have my inner circle and we have a, we have a $50,000 a year level, $150,000 a year level, $250,000 a year level.

Speaker 2 Everyone was in this room and I got up and I did a presentation on joint ventures. And

Speaker 2 of all the things, like in my mind, this is like a simple thing. And people's eyes were popping.
They were going nuts.

Speaker 2 People are like, wait a minute, you're saying we can get traffic and not have to pay Zuckerberg money. You're saying we can like, and I was like, this is so fascinating for me.

Speaker 2 Like for the first decade of my business, this is all we ever talked about. And no one talks about it now.
And so I want to have this conversation because

Speaker 2 I don't remember which funnel hacking, two funnel hacking lives ago, I had you come and speak on joint ventures.

Speaker 2 And of the 20 some odd years I've been doing joint ventures and teaching and talking about it, that was the best presentation I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 So I'm not just saying that to like, cause you're sitting here. I said that at the back of the room.
I was watching. I'm like, this is insane.
And it was amazing. So I want to talk about that.
Now,

Speaker 2 I'm going to, so this is the longest intro of a podcast.

Speaker 3 I'll take it. I mean, it's making me feel good about myself.
So keep going. What else do you have to say about me?

Speaker 3 That's the best speech you've ever heard. What else?

Speaker 2 And then,

Speaker 2 okay, and then again, when I, my first meeting you, like, watching you do your design hacking, that was the world. And all of a sudden, you started this campaign.

Speaker 2 And I remember it was such a good campaign. I was literally messaging them, like, what are you doing? And you were talking about this sunroom and this house you bought and these things.

Speaker 2 And like, you're changing everything. And I was like, I was so

Speaker 2 engaged in this launch that you were doing. I didn't know what it was.
And

Speaker 2 so I know that it became a lot of this joint venture thing. So I'd love for you to lead with like telling your sunroom story and the transition.

Speaker 2 And then let's dive into like the actual mechanics of these joint ventures, how we can get traffic and things like that for you.

Speaker 3 Yes. Okay.
Well, maybe I could say this because I don't know who's coming to this podcast.

Speaker 3 Like, I guess I think, well, just knowing you attract like very, very beginnings and you attract like the $250,000 a year people.

Speaker 3 And even the $250,000 a year people, like you said, they're like eyes are going big because they don't even know what a joint venture is.

Speaker 3 Cause sometimes you hear about it and it's like, oh, like, are you getting VC Monday? Are you like acquiring the whole thing? And, and, and the answer is no.

Speaker 3 Like, what a joint venture is, is you have one party that has a product and one party that has an audience, and you both agree to launch that together.

Speaker 3 So, ultimately, the person with the product pitches into that person's audience. And so, one person supplies product, one person supplies audience, and then you split a 50-50.
So,

Speaker 3 anyway, so, so, yeah, so how I got started with this was, like you said, like I had built this course all about how to design funnels, but I didn't have a way to get traffic to it when I first started.

Speaker 3 I'd only made 20 sales. I was living in my dorm room, literally in a shared room.

Speaker 3 I had like an IKEA bunk bed where you had like the bed on top and the desk underneath and like I would like try to face my camera so you couldn't see the top of the bed. Like that's where I was at.

Speaker 3 I'd made 20 sales and I was like just trying to figure it out and I

Speaker 3 anyway, and so I could like sell funnels, but I didn't know I was trying to learn how to sell a product still, you know, like for my own and the nuances of it all.

Speaker 3 Anyway, but and I knew that my funnel works when I got people to it, people were buying because I was good at funnels, but I was like, I don't have money for ads.

Speaker 3 Anyway, so long story short, I I was like, I got to figure out how to get traffic to this dang thing. Because if people get there, they're buying.

Speaker 3 But I was tired of, I was just like DMing people, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, I'm not, I don't want to like dance on social media.
I like don't, didn't know how to do that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 And honestly, nobody needs to see that. And then the next thing is I was like, SEO is really cool, but it takes too long.
Facebook ads are risky because it costs too much.

Speaker 3 And so like, though I like had money for my funnel building business, I was just like too afraid to like spend it on ads. Like I just, I was too scared.

Speaker 3 And so I was like, I got to figure out how to get traffic to this thing. I had heard about this concept called joint ventures.
And on paper, it's the sexiest thing in the world, right?

Speaker 3 Like, just find somebody with an audience and then just convince them to let you pitch your product to their group. And then they don't have to do any fulfillment.
It's great for them.

Speaker 3 And then you just split it 50-50.

Speaker 2 I'm like, and you have to pay. It's not like Facebook where you're gambling ahead of time.
Like, I'm going to give you the money and hopefully make sales. Like, it's a personal customer.

Speaker 3 If we make sales,

Speaker 2 and then you pay them a cut.

Speaker 3 It's so awesome. So $0 up for

Speaker 3 it. And then you only pay on the back end.
It is so sexy. And then it's like, yeah, let's do it.
And you're like, dot, dot, dot. Like, what, how? What do you mean? Right.

Speaker 3 And so, like, you go look at all the the advice and it's like, go, like, go to networking groups, develop relationships with people, blah, blah, blah, and like, very comfortable to my other store.

Speaker 3 I'm just like too impatient. I'm like,

Speaker 3 and I'm like, I don't even, what do you mean, make friends? Like, make friends and then what? Like, that doesn't seem very friendly to me.

Speaker 3 Like, I'm going to make friends with you so that, dot, dot, dot, you'll sell my product. Like, it felt a little bit like rich to me, right? And I was just like, I don't like that.

Speaker 3 But I, I could, I, I just like, I could see the math in it, right? Where I'm like, oh, I could,

Speaker 3 if I can just find, like, rather, like, I, like, the, the goal is always a million dollars, right? Make a million, make a million, make a million, right? So I sold 20 units of my $1,000 course.

Speaker 3 I was at $20,000. So I was like, okay, I could either sell a thousand people into this course and just like pick them off one by one.

Speaker 3 I was like, or if I just find like 10 people that let me pitch their group and I make 100 sales per that, you know, it just was like numbers to me. So I was like, I got to figure this out.

Speaker 3 Anyway, and so

Speaker 3 again, we'll go into the mechanics later, but long story short, I figured it out how to get people to say yes to me.

Speaker 3 And it was just the most amazing thing ever because I would go, I'd pitch into a group and it was a warm group, like people who trusted me because their group leader trusts me so they'd be like it's like like this selling online event like a lot of people don't know me from Adam but they're like because Russell says she's cool she's cool and then all of a sudden people are like she's the expert where they don't even know who I am and they're like Russell said right it was the same thing you go to any group Catherine's the best at this wobble and they're like I don't know her but he said so sure you know so you go in and I would literally just do my webinar to them and we'd pitch it and then we'd get people into our program and we would just track the people that came and we'd sell on the back end and it worked so well that I was like why would I spend money on ads So I just, and the beautiful thing about joint ventures is if they work once, they're gonna work again.

Speaker 3 Like, if that audience liked it one time, they'd work again.

Speaker 3 And if you set it up the right way, then what we would do is we'd just set up a joint venture so that every six months to a year, we're just like going back to the same groups, which is even more awesome because you convert typically higher and higher on the following ones because the success stories that you show in your pitch are just success stories from that group.

Speaker 3 So, like, hey, you don't believe me? No, I came here six months ago, and every single example I'm about to show you is from people in your group. Every single example, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 3 Anyway, so I loved it. It was awesome.

Speaker 3 and um but the reality is i was like never intending to turn it into a product which is seriously the same with funnel design is like so funny i just like run into a problem and i'm annoyed that everybody's answers take too long so i just like figure out a way to do it better and um anyway so i'm just doing this and i started having people ask me like it because it when you look at the advice online which is like you kind of need to schmooze people um a long time the the advice was like send people like gifts in the mail and then maybe you'll get their attention and maybe they'll talk to you and you know you're someone that gets a lot of gifts in the mail i don't get as many as you but like i literally got one two weeks ago or a week and a half ago and it was actually this really nice like picture of like Jesus and all the stuff which is like sweet because I love Jesus and I also am like I don't know who you are and I don't even know what you want to talk about like I mean what why like and so I'm like and it's like this like he looks like a middle-aged dude and I'm like I'm not gonna just like start a relationship with a middle-aged dude because yeah like I don't know you but like but if he would have sent me a pro like what how I'll hopefully we'll talk about today like hey this is my intention in contacting you this is why I think it'd be awesome I think we should partner together and I'm like I understand exactly who you're talking to the nature of the relationship why it's going to be so cool.

Speaker 3 Dude, yeah, let's do it. Anyway, but there's just so much false advice or just, I thought, ineffective advice on how to go about it.

Speaker 3 And so, anyway, people are like, how are you getting other people to do that?

Speaker 3 And that was, I think, a lot of the reason and why how I got your attention is because like a lot of people in your inner circle were promoting my thing.

Speaker 3 And so, so though we like didn't know each other when I did kind of like make my initial pitch to be like, hey, notice me, right? It wasn't like, who's this rando chick? I don't know.

Speaker 3 Maybe you can tell your story, but I don't think it was. And anyway, and so

Speaker 3 long story short, people are like, How do you do this? So I'm just telling them, telling them, telling them, and my system's OCD brain is like very methodical.

Speaker 3 And so they're like, oh my gosh, like this is amazing. So one friend would call another, and then another come on, and all of a sudden that's like, oh, I'm, I think I have a product here.

Speaker 3 And the thing that's so cool is I kind of fell in love with it because I love my initial, like my first big product took off with Sea of Design School, you know, and I love that because it can take,

Speaker 3 it can allow anybody genuinely to make money online. It's so fun.
And you make money online by helping other people make money. It's just like this beautiful guest that keeps giving.

Speaker 3 But I loved partnerships because there's just like this beautiful truth that you could do more together than you could do apart.

Speaker 3 And I just like, I, it was just like so meaningful for me to be like, oh my gosh, like because we decided to work together, there's a result that neither of us could do separately.

Speaker 3 And it was, it just like came alive to me. And so I loved like that concept on how to work with people, but I also didn't know, like,

Speaker 3 I don't know, I didn't know if it was just like, oh, I just had a good offer, or like, oh, maybe I was charismatic, like, I don't know.

Speaker 3 And so I started teaching other people, but I, for real, wanted to see if my framework would work for other people. So, enter this, this video you saw.

Speaker 3 So, my husband and I, we bought this house, and we, it's a 1955 house, and we loved it because the whole, like, the, the, the back thousand square feet of it.

Speaker 3 That makes it sound like it's a huge house. It's only a 2,000 square foot house, but half of it is glass.
And we were like, ah, we just like fell in love with this random house.

Speaker 3 We literally like, it is like in this like old cutie neighborhood.

Speaker 3 We were obsessed with our neighbors, but like, you know, and God's just like mind and heart, it was like, you were supposed to live here. And we like loved it.

Speaker 3 So we took it and we're like, it'll be so romantic. We'll like redo the house.
It, I, it was romantic and it was insane. It was insanity.
Like I, I, my husband's like, let's do this again.

Speaker 3 I was like, should we? I don't know. Maybe we can, but we can't live in it at the same time.
It was like too crazy.

Speaker 3 But, um, but so we have this house, but we finally finished the house and like we were living in shambles.

Speaker 3 Like we stripped everything down to the floorboards, like everything so when by the time we finally had a house like it was the most amazing you're like is this the most beautiful house that has ever lit like i'm just like i'll put up any mansion and you know when you like put something in it'd be so funny we'd like drive by like a huge house be like our house is better you know it's like so funny but anyway so we had the sunroom But again, because we like ripped it to shambles, like we had no furniture.

Speaker 3 Like, and we're both coming from apartments. So, we didn't have furniture anyway.
So, we had to like buy furniture to furnish the house.

Speaker 3 So, I was like, why don't I need to like prove that this joint venture concept is true. So, why don't we just leave our house open?

Speaker 3 Because it was just like, it's basically like 2,000 basically open square feet because we at least like knocked down every wall. And so it's kind of like an event center almost.

Speaker 3 I was like, why don't we just like have people pay to come here and I'll teach these concepts. And I decided to do it because I really wanted to see if it worked.

Speaker 3 So rather than people buying like, hey, come to my house one time, they would buy like three sessions. So they'd come

Speaker 3 month one, month three, and month five. And then I had a second group that came month two, four, six.
And so I'd be, so like in month one, I'd be like, okay, this is what you need to do. Go do it.

Speaker 3 And then month three, how did it go? And then, okay, go do this and that. And the whole purpose was to build an offer.
And then, can you actually go sell it via joint ventures?

Speaker 3 Anyway, and so we called them Sunroom Sessions. And like, and so this campaign that I like did was like, I'm burning everything to the ground.

Speaker 3 And so essentially, it was just like,

Speaker 3 like, we're like, I, I used to be the funnel girl. Now we're starting on this venture.

Speaker 3 And the reason why I still love funnels, but it was just like rolling, you know, like it was what it was. And you, uh,

Speaker 3 you know, in your soldiers calls to other things. So it was running.
Like, we actually had to have ads. We were doing joint ventures too, to it.
But, it was living its life and it was fine.

Speaker 3 It was like, it's ready to build the next step of the value ladder. Anyway, and so that's why I remember you messaged me.
You were like, Dope.

Speaker 3 You're like, Don't burn your message. He's like, You could sell this.
Like, you could sell, like, don't. And I was like, Don't worry.
I'm not selling. Like, I'm not doing that.

Speaker 3 I just remember you saying, Don't burn it down.

Speaker 2 Good hook, good story.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I was like, it's good. I got him.
I like messaging. That's awesome.
Anyway, so we did. We had people come.

Speaker 3 And I was telling you in the background, like, we intentionally invited any and everyone.

Speaker 3 I wanted to have like really established entrepreneurs and brand new entrepreneurs because I wanted to see where the framework broke.

Speaker 3 Because

Speaker 3 I just wanted to make sure if I was selling it, it worked.

Speaker 3 For me, I just like, I feel like I want to be really, really, really, really sure. Cause if I'm really, really sure, then I can go on and I can like pitch my face for days.

Speaker 3 But if I don't, then I feel like I'm like lying. You know, it's like it gets a little slimy.
So I had people come and it was awesome. It was so fun.

Speaker 3 First of all, I love doing events in my house because I just wake up and I didn't have any furniture. So it was like, okay, just come on in.
It was like fun. Like our kitchen wasn't even done yet.

Speaker 3 Like it was crazy. It was so fun that we we just catered food.
It was so great. But we just had people come and I was like, okay, step one, great.
Step two, great.

Speaker 3 And it was really, it was really fun because of the people that came, we had a hundred percent success rate for the people that did everything I said.

Speaker 3 And if you didn't, or you tried to improvise, or you tried to get crazy, they did not succeed. And so it was like, okay, great, works, love it.

Speaker 3 And anyway, but I think the reason it works is a lot of why all of my other principles work.

Speaker 3 Like my brain just like loves to find the patterns that work over and over and over and over and over and over again. And because when I can find it, then I'm like, oh, I can repeat it.

Speaker 3 And something about that makes myself feel calm. Like, I literally, like,

Speaker 3 I don't have one right now, but when I was in, when I was in college, I had a personal assistant and she'd like do everything for me. It was the best.
Her name was Maddie.

Speaker 3 And I would just make like a, so, I'd make a standard operating procedure for everything.

Speaker 3 I'd be like, okay, like every new season, I want, I need like six new, six new outfits, you know, just freshen up the wardrobe. And I'd be like, this is exactly what I want to look like.

Speaker 3 Here's who I want you to model. Do this.
Go, this is my sizes. Great, great, go.
And it was done. And then, like, every, every at the beginning of the week, every week, here's exactly how I want done.

Speaker 3 Great. Every like six months, this is what I want done on my car.
Great, done. And so it was just so nice.
It's just like, I know it's done. I know it's documented.
It's taken care of.

Speaker 3 For those of you being like, this girl's insane. Yes.
I know. Okay.
And sorry. It's just how my brain works.

Speaker 3 But anyway, and it's really interesting because I don't care if anybody else lives that way. I'm like, I shared a room all in college and I'm like, girl, your side of the room's messy.

Speaker 3 Could care less. And mine will be pristine, you know? But anyway, but for me in business, like if I can't understand the process, it gets like really overwhelming to me.

Speaker 3 So, for things like building funnels or dream ventures, like anything I want to sell, I really want to make sure that I know the process.

Speaker 3 And so, again, we had people come to the sunroom, we tested it out, like anything that didn't work, we ironed it out.

Speaker 3 And oftentimes, you know, like when you start to pitch things, you're like, oh, I said, I said the right thing, but you interpreted it the wrong way. So I need to say it a different way.

Speaker 3 And so, like, it was so fun. So, over those six sessions, we

Speaker 3 like ironed out how to teach it and how to say it and blah, blah, and then started teaching it to other people and

Speaker 3 having clients for other people. And

Speaker 3 anyway, it's been really, really fun to kind of learn like what's the best way to sell this and how does it work. But

Speaker 3 yeah, I'd love partnerships. It's amazing.
That's cool.

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Speaker 2 Before we get into like some of the frameworks and how the process works, two questions prior. So I'm gonna step back.

Speaker 2 So you said you did $20,000 in sales of your own course and then you started to join venture.

Speaker 2 Do you remember like the first one or one that was like a very impactful one that you did and what the numbers kind of look like?

Speaker 3 Well, I'll tell you my very first one and then I'll tell you my next one. Number one and number two were the best.

Speaker 3 The best because they taught me the most. The first one I did was with a girl named Lauren Golden, you know her.
And she,

Speaker 3 I, I actually, I actually did a masterclass in her group, and I didn't even pitch, but afterward, people liked the masterclass so much that I had like 10 to 15 people come and buy my program.

Speaker 3 And again, some of those first 20 sales. And so she messages me and she's like, hey, like, I want credit for this.
She's like, why don't we just do it again? But actually pitch.

Speaker 3 And I was like, girl, love it. But I was so frightened.
I had never done it before, but I was like, trying, I was like, I almost like, I was trying to do it. I was like, I'll do a masterclass.

Speaker 3 I'll do this. You know, I had like a 10-step plan.
And all of a sudden, I went from like steps two to 10 already. Cause she was like, Let's just skip the steps and go.

Speaker 3 Like, ah, so I didn't really know what I was doing. So, I was like, okay, um, but I'll give you 90%.

Speaker 3 Is that insane? I was like, I'll give you 90% and I'll keep 10 because I was just so afraid I was going to whiff it. And I was like, that way if I fail like she can't be mad at me, just baby cap.

Speaker 3 And I was so scared.

Speaker 3 So, I, and so she was like, 90? And I was like, yeah. And she was like, you want me to be like a good case study for you? And I was like, for sure, that's what I do.
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 And she was like, I mean, I don't care if you give me 90%. We have since renegotiated our contract.
I will say that. But

Speaker 3 anyway, so we pitch and I we ended up doing like, it was like 34, 35, 36 sales. And

Speaker 3 again, I kept mostly nothing of that because I gave it all away to her. But it was amazing where I was like, holy crap.

Speaker 3 Like I had just spent like six weeks, like really, like trying to like get those first 20 sales.

Speaker 3 And then because she said yes to me and I just like pitched 90 minutes in an afternoon and she had a warm group, then I just like made 36 sales. I was like, crap, this is awesome.

Speaker 3 So then I went to the next one, and

Speaker 3 maybe it wasn't the next one. There was a few on that, but the next one was with somebody also in your group named Doug Boughton.
And so we do it with him.

Speaker 3 And this time, because I'm always trying to learn and apply, I was like, okay, great.

Speaker 3 Like, I knew he had a group, and I was like, I wonder if this is when I introduced something called tiered bonuses, where I was almost like, I wonder if I can get the group to like sell for each other.

Speaker 3 So I go in, do the pitch, but then at the end, I was like, okay, great. Like,

Speaker 3 if

Speaker 3 50 people, or if 20 people buy, I'll unlock this bonus.

Speaker 3 if 50 people buy i'll unlock this bonus if 100 people buy then i'll unlock this bonus and it was just like a test because i was like you're i'm not pitching to a cold audience like i'm pitching to a tribe

Speaker 3 and um and so i like i wonder if i can leverage that to like get them dude it was i gotta show you screenshots it was crazy like they'd be like what number are we at and they'd be like so so get your butt in this program you've been talking about this for days like what's our number oh we're at 36 come on you guys like let's go and like the countdown happened and doug and i are like this is awesome and so like i literally was like man if i make like 50 cells again i'm like just starting at this i'm like a fifty thousand dollar launch in an afternoon that's like what most people make in a year i'm feeling good about that right and i paid zero dollars and i i would almost always do 50 50 split it just kind of felt like it's just a no-brainer like it just felt easy so i was like okay because then if i hit 50 it's 25 25 just again free money and um and then it was like amazing and all of a sudden like people are just like going and going and i just put the hundred out there like just to see i don't know but i'm like they're not gonna get it but whatever dude they did it we passed a hundred so we made 120 grand on that pitch.

Speaker 3 And I was just like, what just happened?

Speaker 3 And it was just like this idea of like, okay, like, I recognize the nature of this pitch as I'm pitching to a tribe, which is like one of the beautiful things also about a joint venture, right?

Speaker 3 Like, you're not, you're pitching to people that like each other, like, commonly united. And they just like kept tagging each other.
And they'd be like, we need seven more sales. We need six more.

Speaker 3 And like, literally, people are on, like, being like tagging people, like, figure, I'll give you a loan. Like, I was like, this is awesome.
This is amazing.

Speaker 3 So then that was the joint venture I was like this is the coolest thing and then the next I gotta tell you the third one too because then the next one I did one with a guy named Spencer Meekum you know him too and it was actually Spencer's idea I wish I was smart enough to come up with this where we pitched and it went so great we did 25 sales um 26 sales and um it went so great that he was like hey like um how fast did you say people get results and i was like uh i was like 15 to 20 hours and before they make their first sale he's like why don't you want to just like come back in a few weeks and just like show people that did it and i don't know maybe we make a few more sales sales.

Speaker 3 I was like, crap, dude, that's amazing. So I was like, yes.
So I just like go. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm just like screenshotting people's results.
We go back in.

Speaker 3 That bought from his that I bought from his group. Yeah.
So when I pitched in his group, those 26 people, we followed them. I took screenshots of all the results.

Speaker 3 I went back two weeks later into his group. And

Speaker 3 I was like, I'm just going to try this re-pitch thing. And it's so fun.
I'm telling you what, re-pitches are the most fun thing because you just get a brag.

Speaker 3 You just get to brag about like, everybody put in the chats how awesome is Susan, like blah, blah.

Speaker 3 And if, in the way that I structured my course, which I 10 out of 10 recommend, everybody do it this way, is I broke it up into like mini challenges that people could do.

Speaker 3 So when they did challenge one, they earned badge one. When they do challenge two, they earned badge two, which is awesome because my course had nine badges.

Speaker 3 And because I had nine badges, like if you think of a typical course, it's like, okay, great. You start at the beginning, and then at the end, you get a testimonial if they get the result.

Speaker 3 But because I had nine badges, there were nine different places where they were taking screenshots that they were making progress to the result.

Speaker 3 So I basically got nine testimonials per each person, if that makes sense. So,

Speaker 3 even if somebody like hadn't made a sale or hadn't like reached the end result in those 10 to 15 hours, let's say the only thing they did was badge number one, which was they signed a contract that said, like, come in, I would still use it because I'd be like, oh my gosh, like, uh, like, Jerry, he signed a contract.

Speaker 3 You guys, he started. Like, how many of you guys have like wanted to start something? You just don't, and you don't, and you don't, but like, look at Jerry.

Speaker 3 The man signed a contract, he's in the program, he's working hard.

Speaker 3 And, like, from a Jerry means the world to me, this hypothetical Jerry, but like Jerry, without the badge system, he'd be nothing to me. Like, he'd done nothing, right?

Speaker 3 But because you like set these many milestones, then all of a sudden, this like bragging session, you can brag about the people that made money.

Speaker 3 You can brag about the people that are three-quarters of the way through the program, halfway through the program, because they are earning different badges.

Speaker 3 So I would just go through and I would just be like, if we had those 26 people by, I just showed the progress of each of those 26 people. Some of them had made money.

Speaker 3 Some of them were on batch six, some were on batch four, some badge one, some badge seven, right? And I went through.

Speaker 3 and then at the end, like the transition into the repitch is basically just like, the only reason I could figure out why you wouldn't buy is because you thought it was too good to be true.

Speaker 3 So here are literally 26 people that purchased two weeks ago that are already getting results. So, what are you waiting for? Yeah, so do you want to come?

Speaker 3 And then, and so I'd be like, so I was talking with Spencer, and he had the crazy idea, we should open this thing back up.

Speaker 3 So, we decided to open it back up for one more, like three more days or whatever. And then I would just go through the entire stack over again.

Speaker 3 And the lowest we ever did was an additional 25% of sales. And with Spencer, we that we did 100.
So we made an additional 26 sales because we, it's like, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Speaker 3 And so I was just like,

Speaker 3 and so like, it's like, yes, like this concept, like you have an you have a product, you have an audience, and like finding the right one is magic.

Speaker 3 And then these other principles of leveraging the fact that you're pitching to a tribe through like tiered bonuses, through re-pitches, like made this concept of joint ventures just lethal for us.

Speaker 3 And anyway, so fun.

Speaker 2 Loved it. So cool.
All right. How many guys listening right now are excited about joint ventures? I wish I could see all your faces, but it gets me fired up.

Speaker 2 And I'll tell one story and then I want to jump into the process. But when we launched ClickFunnels, a lot of people don't know this.

Speaker 2 I didn't actually buy, I think it was almost two years in before we bought our first ad for ClickFunnels.

Speaker 3 Two years?

Speaker 2 It was 100% of the first years was all driven off the joint ventures. And so what our strategy was, is I would do a webinar with somebody and we'd pay them 40% commission.

Speaker 2 And then, but we had a two-tier affiliate program. So I would do the webinar with them.
And then I try to pay the person as fast as possible. So we do a webinar on Thursday.

Speaker 2 We close down Sunday at midnight. So Monday morning, I'm sending him a check for 40 grand or 50, whatever they just got, right? So here's the check.
Thanks so much for promoting.

Speaker 2 By the way, we have a two-tier affiliate program

Speaker 2 and we pay 10% on the second tier. So if you have any friends who would also like a big check like you just got, we'll give you 10% of all of them.
They're like, are you serious?

Speaker 2 And so all of a sudden they'd get. eight, 10, 12 people, they email out, hey, bro, I just run this webinar.
It crushed.

Speaker 2 I got 40 grand off it, you know, and they made most people, they all contact us back. Boom, we go.
And then I run the webinar to all five of their lists, right?

Speaker 2 And then that person got 10% from all their friends' lists, and they'd get 40%. I'd wire them the money, wire, wire, wire, ask them the same question, and boom.

Speaker 2 And I did, I think, I can't remember the numbers, I between 70 and 80 webinars live the first year of ClickFunnels off that.

Speaker 2 It started with me doing one webinar that turned into 80 webinars that took us from zero to over 10 figures in sales. And then year number two, we did the same thing, except for we ever greened them.

Speaker 2 And it was just, we would have the joint venture partner record an intro.

Speaker 2 and i took a recording of me that i'd already done the webinar a million times i knew it word for word and we would just edit the video put their bumper on it make an evergreen funnel for it and they would drive traffic and then they have evergreen funnel that now would sell the same thing and we just kept doing it and doing it and that was that's how we grew click funnels and two years in we're like we should probably buy some ads now we've done a webinar with everybody we've got a list at this point um so yeah it's all joint venture so i 100 agree that's like the best way to to do it but it's scary because

Speaker 2 How do you ask them like, hey, I want to be your friend. We promote my stuff.

Speaker 2 So I want to talk about your process because I think it's brilliant. And, um, yeah, I'm not sure exactly where you want to go with it.

Speaker 2 I'd love if you had a breakdown, what people should be looking at. If they're like, okay, I want to joint ventures, I want to grow and scale a company this way.
Like, what's the path?

Speaker 3 Yeah. Well, and here's what I learned.

Speaker 3 Yeah, as we go through this again, my like systems brain. So I was like, dang,

Speaker 3 how do you?

Speaker 3 Because it feels like, hey, why don't you let me come to your audience? So you spend a lot of time and money to build to pitch my product, but they'll give me money. And now they're in my ecosystem.

Speaker 3 It sounds like such a slimy, like terrible thing. So I was like, gosh, like, how do you do this? Right.

Speaker 3 and um and so what i realized is that um what i realized is that at the end of the day what my potential collaboration partner wants my potential drive venture partner wants is the same thing as me they want sales they want status right like let's say i partner with you right like we are partnering right now with the cell phones thing so what do i get i get sales right i actually get money the next thing i get is status because my name's now attached to yours so thank you for that great fives right the next thing i get is impact and impact is just helping people change their lives And then the next thing is time.

Speaker 3 Like I'm able to do more because we're partnering together. So more with less.
And so I was like, that's what I want. And I was like, they probably all want the same thing too.

Speaker 3 So I was like, so rather than me coming in and being like kind of needy and being like, wait, like, can I use your group? Like, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 3 I was like, can I, can I present this opportunity, this offer to them in a way where it's like, oh, if I say yes to Catherine, I'm also going to get sales. I'm also going to get status.

Speaker 3 I'm also going to get impact. And I'm also going to get my time back.
And so I started to think through like, well, what could that look like? And I I wasn't Russell Brunson.

Speaker 3 I'm still working my way to become Russell Brunson numbers. You could be Russell Brunson.
I know. You're like, you've been in the game for 25 years and I'm at number eight.

Speaker 3 So I'm like, I still got time. I still got time.
So watch out. But that being said,

Speaker 3 that being said, I was like, I was just a nobody, right? Like, nobody knew who I was. I was just, you know, had a thousand and twelve followers on Instagram.

Speaker 3 I don't even know how much more right now, but like, but I was like, how can I do it? So I was like, okay, let me like walk through again. I want sales, I want status, I want impact, and I want time.

Speaker 3 That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 Those are the four right down. Sales, status, status, impact, and time.
That's what they want, or that's what I want, and that's what they want too. That's what every business owner wants.

Speaker 3 So I was like, okay, how, let's start with sales. How can I provide them sales? And what I thought is I was like, okay.

Speaker 3 If I can come in and provide a complementary product, right? Not a competing product. Cause if I come in and I pitch something that's a competitor of theirs, I'm not giving them sales.

Speaker 3 I'm taking away customers. But can I find an audience where if I came in and pitched my product, I could actually extract more buyers from their lists.

Speaker 3 So, like, one example that I can give because people know your audience, right? Like, like you teach funnels, but you don't

Speaker 3 like dive deep into like, oh, here's a product on like how to do ads. You have traffic secrets, but you kind of teach like, here are the true principles, but like, you don't have a course on ads.

Speaker 3 You just like don't. And so, what, so when I came to funnel hiking live, I like went through and taught, like, here's the nuances of joint ventures.

Speaker 3 And so, because of that, right, more people might have come to this funnel event that maybe wouldn't have come because they were interested in traffic That they're like, Russell's not going to teach that, but he has a friend who's teaching that.

Speaker 3 So, I'm going to come now to Russell's event. So, like, I might go into a group, like, again, like yours, like, they teach funnels.
I'm not really going to buy Russell's funnel stuff. Like, I'm here.

Speaker 3 I don't know how I got here. I bought a freebie, but like, but I am interested in traffic.

Speaker 3 And so, somebody that you weren't monetizing before is now monetized because I'm offering the next step, right? Like, a complimentary product.

Speaker 3 And so, that gave a big clue to like, oh, these are the types of audiences that I want to try and partner with. People where they're typically step one and I'm step two.
So

Speaker 3 the product that I did the best with with joint ventures, right, was

Speaker 3 the first one that I did was just this funnel product, right?

Speaker 3 Funnel design. So I was like, okay, well,

Speaker 3 who's step one and if I'm step two? Like, who's a who's a group of people that need a funnel? So I was like, oh, anybody that does any kind of ads, right?

Speaker 3 Like, if they do Facebook ads, the ads need to go somewhere. They need to go to traffic.

Speaker 3 So I had a ton of success partnering with people that had gathered Facebook groups, email lists, blah, blah, blah, around this concept of Facebook ads.

Speaker 3 And I was like, oh, well, then what about YouTube ads? Oh, and then what about Google ads? Great. Like, like, all of a sudden, because like it makes total sense.

Speaker 3 Like, they don't teach funnels, but I am the next step. And so I wasn't competitive.
I was complementary. And so they were able to actually provide an amazing service to their audience.

Speaker 3 All the while they're making sales from something they would never make sales from because they're never going to make a product on funnels, right?

Speaker 3 And so all of a sudden I was like, dang, if I can go be complementary and just find audiences where I'm not competing with them, but they come first in the customer journey and I come next in the customer journey, then i will be able to bring sales because i can extract buyers that they wouldn't typically extract and that made like a ton of sense to people they were like oh no that makes sense my or like you know people have been asking for that yeah sure let's do it or like that makes sense that it's the next step and so then we come to the next the next tier of like okay that's how i can get them sales even though i'm a nobody because i offer a complimentary product i can extract buyers and then it's like okay great how can i give them status and uh there's two ways number one it's so crazy like if if you do bring in a complimentary product all of a sudden they're like the good guy.

Speaker 3 Like, thank you, Russell. Like, I, gosh, I've been needing help for this.
Like, thank you for having cool friends, you know? But then the other thing is I like to call having a breaking news method.

Speaker 3 So the reality is, like, with the CF Design School program that I had, there are a bajillion product courses out there teaching funnel design. They're just like R.
And that actually is a good thing.

Speaker 3 It means that the market wants it. But it's like, okay, how do I stand out? And so what I call it is a breaking news method.

Speaker 3 So how can I be so strikingly different from everybody else that I'm kind of breaking news?

Speaker 3 That it's like, oh, I'm not getting on the news because I'm a big name. I'm getting on the news because who, what, how are you so different, you know?

Speaker 3 And so what I would do, and when I developed my product, I was just like, okay, can I help people get this result of funnel design, right?

Speaker 3 In a way that just basically rejects all the things that everybody else says that they have to do. So other people are like, oh, you need coding.
You need Photoshop. You need graphic design skills.

Speaker 3 And what I said is, oh, you can get that same result without coding. without Photoshop, without graphic design skills.

Speaker 3 And so what happened is not only did I become breaking news, but I was able to get picked over other people because instantaneously they became irrelevant, my competitors.

Speaker 3 Because they're like, oh, you need these things. And I'm like, oh, no, there's not.
And here's proof.

Speaker 3 And so even though my competitor maybe had 10 years' experience with me and made way more money than me and made more big following than me, they were old news because they weren't breaking news.

Speaker 3 And so all of a sudden, it was of value for this no-name Catherine to come into their group to teach this new thing because it was this breaking news method, you know?

Speaker 3 So, um, so for a lot of people too, like, they even ask, like, how do you keep speaking on these big stages, blah, blah, blah. And like, you don't even have that big of a font.

Speaker 3 I'm like, breaking news method. Like, figure out, because the reality is, is, like, let's say Oprah also taught how to sell funnels, right? Or even do joint ventures or whatever.

Speaker 3 Like, if Oprah taught that and I taught that, and I, my method was like, oh, I'm like Oprah, just a little different. I mean, I would pick Oprah over me.
Oprah's Oprah, you know?

Speaker 3 But if Oprah's like, I help people sell funnels, but you have to go through graphic design college, or Catherine teaches funnels, but you don't have to do it, and you have to do coding in Photoshop too,

Speaker 3 I will get picked over Oprah for that particular skill set, right?

Speaker 2 Like, you think about you to call it breaking news method, but I know our world, I don't feel like people do this, but like when I got started, I was trying to figure out how to get on TV.

Speaker 2 Like, I want to get on Oprah, I wanted to get on

Speaker 2 Shark Take, all the different shows, whatever, back in the day. And so I hired a publicist and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 And you look at what a publicist does, and obviously you know this, but the publicist's job is to take the boring thing you do and figure out a cool spin on it.

Speaker 2 The news isn't going to care because the news stations, they all get 500 pitches a day.

Speaker 2 So it's like, like what's the breaking news what's the thing that's gonna be like ooh that'll that'll that would pop off on a headline at news tonight at five o'clock and that's how you know i had a really good publicist and got me a ton of shows because they just took the ordinary thing i did but figure out a way to spin it where it's like it was breaking news and all of a sudden like um like literally i was trying to get a whole bunch of news clips so i could start pitching uh a bigger news thing so she lined it up like every weekend i was on a local news station somewhere around the country i was just flying thing to thing and she's had different hooks that she was she was practicing or trying out there but that's the same thing here right like um i look at me at this point.

Speaker 2 Like, I, I mean, we get hundreds a month of people trying to joint ventures with me.

Speaker 2 And I get everything from boxes to packages to people showing up randomly at their office to emails to DMs to, you know, all the kind of stuff, right?

Speaker 2 And it's tough because it's like, same thing with publicists. They're getting 500 things and like, they got to build a show.
They need attention. How is what you're doing bringing that attention?

Speaker 2 Like, what's the hook? What's the story that's that's unique, you know?

Speaker 3 So I think looking at through that lens is like, yeah, you're pitching to a joint venture partner, but pretend like you're pitching the publisher the producer at the news station that's got to find out something tonight that's going to get people to flip the tv on click on the link whatever it is like what's that that thing so anyway yeah no i love it so like when we're trying to give them sales like the thing that you really want to nail down with your product is your like tangible result what's the result i provide people because if you can get really clear on that then you can very clearly show them like no you're here in the customer storyline and i'm here on the customer storyline like we're not competitors i'm actually like such a gift to your people right i'm the next step and then the next thing is get very clear on your you call it a vehicle right what's your new what's your breaking news method right how am i different from everybody else because that, because they might see like the first thing they're like, oh, you're right, you are the next step.

Speaker 3 But then what you don't want them to do is be like, I should get a funnel design person, but I'm not picking you, right? Like that's something you don't want.

Speaker 2 They introduced me the idea of I'm gonna pick you up.

Speaker 3 Yeah, I'm gonna go pick you.

Speaker 3 And so what you do is you also need to make sure you have a breaking news method and say, hey, not only do you need this, I'm exactly the girl you should pick, which then leads us to impact, right?

Speaker 3 So at this point, they might be considering, and I'll tell you too, like how you can actually tell them all these things. I almost like consider them like coins.

Speaker 3 Like you need to pay them a sales coin. You have to pay them the proper like compensation for getting access to their audience.

Speaker 3 So like like you pay them the sales coin by showing them where they fit in the storyline you pay them the status coin by having a breaking news method but then they also want to have impact right they want to make sure that they don't like bring someone into their group and it's a major dud right that's not going to help so how what do you need to have impact is you need to help people actually take action so I like to make sure that my breaking news method actually is like very step by step like this is what you need to do because if it's step by step people will take the steps and then also have case studies like this works for more than just me because people need to have faith that they actually can do it it's like not just like this one thing.

Speaker 3 And so then the final thing is time. And this I think is really important because I'll have like a lot of like service providers

Speaker 3 or coaches want to be like, oh, I want to do joint ventures. And there's like a million recipes of joint ventures that you can concoct up.

Speaker 3 But the reality is, is that the most profitable joint ventures are when you do it with a mass distributable product, right?

Speaker 3 Like if you have a course that you can sell infinite value, infinite amount of, because that's like very alluring to the partner.

Speaker 3 If you come in, you're like, oh, like I sell Facebook ads, but I have three openings for clients. They're like, well, then I cap it at three.
Like, I don't want to do that.

Speaker 3 But if you're like, oh, I sell Facebook ads, of course,

Speaker 3 and if we sell 4,000 units today or 26,000 units, all the better, right? Like nothing breaks. That's like really alluring.
And that's where we can pay them this time coin, right?

Speaker 3 Where you get more for,

Speaker 3 you do more with your time than you, then you're doing now more with your time with me than you could have before. And they don't have to fulfill.

Speaker 3 So kind of having those things in place, like you're very clear in your result, that can pay them with like sales because they understand how they fit in the storyline and the customer storyline getting very clear in your breaking news method that's how you should pick me instead of somebody else making sure you have a step-by-step method so that people actually get results and they are praised for bringing you in rather than like oh you like pitching on this product and catherine was a dud and then you make sure you have some sort of mass distributable product and i and i might add on there too making sure your sales pitch works it's really awkward if you come in and you pitch i've never had i haven't had a hand i can imagine right like

Speaker 3 because you sucked right like and and that's your fault like you should do the work necessary so whenever i tell people like oh like can i start join ventures i'm like do you have can you get people results and do you have a do you have a pitch that works and usually if you get to 20 sales you you got there like that's really all you need and i say 20 sales because that's when i started like your pitch is good enough that you got 20 people to say yes and they can go from there anyway so when you have those things then all of a sudden it's not like oh like can i like you know like uh what's it called mooch can i mooch off your audience to pitch my product it's like no like you'd actually kind of crazy to say no to me because i have a product that your people need.

Speaker 3 You're step one, I'm step two. And I'm better than everyone else at it or different, as you would say, right? Breaking news method.
I can help your people get results faster.

Speaker 3 I have a step-by-step method, which guarantees whatever, as much as I can, their success. And your earning value is infinite because it's mass distributable.

Speaker 3 Like, would you want to partner together on this? That's like a pretty alluring offer rather than like, hey, like, you want to be friends and maybe I can use your list and blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 3 Or like, I'm going to send you a million gifts. That's the other thing I don't like about gifts either.
I love gifts. If anyone wants to send me me a gift, I'm mad about it.

Speaker 3 But

Speaker 3 if you send someone gifts for the intention of partnering with them, it feels really transactional. Like, all of a sudden, you're like, oh, like, it almost feels like

Speaker 3 you own them something. Or like, oh, like, when are they going to come in with their big ask?

Speaker 3 You know, like, like, yeah, like, here it comes, and you're like, oh, like, that's not like how a fun relationship works.

Speaker 3 But again, like, that guy that sent me that Jesus stuff, if he would have been like, Catherine, you do this, I do this, I can extract more bias from your audience. Sales, done.

Speaker 3 And here's why I'm different from everybody else. Breaking news method.
I think we should partner together.

Speaker 3 Plus, case studies, here's all the people I've helped before do it because I have a step-by-step method. And I sell down a course so we can sell infinite amount of things.

Speaker 3 Would you want to move forward on this? All of a sudden, I'm like, hey, let's chat. That actually makes a lot of sense.
It's a very sexy offer.

Speaker 2 And then someone can at least say yes or no, too.

Speaker 3 Because they know what you're doing.

Speaker 3 I'm like, I like still haven't even said thank you, which is rude of me, but I like haven't even because I'm like, oh, I don't know what the conversation is going to be.

Speaker 2 Yeah, what's the intentions here?

Speaker 3 I don't know. Like, I don't know.
And, and again, I'm like very grateful. And if he's listening to this, I'm like very grateful for the gift.

Speaker 3 But the reason I haven't responded is because I don't know the intention of the gift. Like, I just don't know.
But that's what I love about this, like, step-by-step so often with joint ventures.

Speaker 3 People just like don't know how to approach it, which is why there's all this like really fluffy, I think, kind of fake advice because people don't actually know what to do, which is like, go to networking groups, make friends, do this, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 3 And the reality is

Speaker 3 you're always going to have better conversions with a warm audience. Always.

Speaker 3 Whether you're trying to sell a joint venture or sell a $17 e-book, like you're always going to to have better because they already trust you and like you.

Speaker 3 But the reality is, is that like, okay, well, then great. Like, how do we make that connection quickly so that then we can present an offer to them, right?

Speaker 3 Like, I think that so often it's like, oh, well, you need to be a network greeting group and you need to be friends with them for a year before you ask anything.

Speaker 3 Like, for me, warming them up is just like, oh, you want to be on my podcast?

Speaker 3 And then literally immediately after the podcast, if it makes sense for me to do a joint venture with them, I will pitch them on the idea right there. Why? Because what's a sale?

Speaker 3 Somebody's in pain and I have a remedy. So, hey, you have an audience that is in this pain.
You just told me on your podcast, you do this, I'm the next step. Like, did you know that I do that?

Speaker 3 Would you want to partner together on that? Let me tell you why I'm the best. I have a breaking news method.
I have step-by-step.

Speaker 3 We've helped clients do this, this, and this, and it's actually in a product. We do a 50-50 split on the back end.
Is that something you'd like to move forward on?

Speaker 3 Let them say yes or no to you, right? But I think, I think we just like build this whole thing up, partnerships, all this thing. And we're like, oh, we got to fly these people out.

Speaker 3 We got to schmooze them. We got to wind them and dine them.
And like, you know, there's so much status and ego, like the higher and higher up people get. And I get it.
Like, it's just what it is.

Speaker 3 And, and people do create barriers and all these different things. But what I love about partnerships and what I think like God was good to help me discover is they are so accessible to the beginner.

Speaker 3 They're so profitable for the advanced because they have huge lists. But man, people are sleeping on like, some of my best joint ventures were with people that had a Facebook group of 500 people.

Speaker 3 Because if somebody has a Facebook group of 500 people, those 500 people are like loyalists because they're, why are you following this no-name?

Speaker 3 It's because they like love, they're like one of the OGs, you know, foundation, which means they're even, I would, I would dare call them a hot audience rather than a warm.

Speaker 3 And so like my conversions would be crazy. So people are like, oh, well, I don't want to pick them.
They have a tiny group. I'm like, go to the tiny groups.

Speaker 3 Like, because I would just, you know, make like $10, $30, $50,000 just like, you know, like that. It's a 90-minute pitch.
So awesome. And so that's what I love about this concept.

Speaker 3 It's like, yes, the concepts still apply at like very, very high levels, levels, which again, like, we've had clients in the eight figures, nine figures, but the reality is that the framework works at the beginning, but you need to make sure that you can prove you have a tangible result,

Speaker 3 you're a breaking news method, you actually have case studies, you can prove that you've helped people step by step, and it's in mass distributable.

Speaker 3 And if you have those things, then you're, I call it like joint venture ready. And so, anyway, but I think it's really cool.

Speaker 3 And I think where people can go wrong sometimes is they try to approach a joint venture without being joint venture ready. They're just like, oh, well, no, you should, you should just do it.

Speaker 3 And it's like, prove my stuff. Why? Yeah.
Or even like a lot of like established entrepreneurs, like, like you, right? Or like whoever, like, they're like, no, like, I'm good. I'm good.

Speaker 3 So like, I'm just going to pitch. And so they try to do a joint venture with like a brand new product, but they've never pitched it before.
And I'm like, just prove it once.

Speaker 2 Waste that opportunity.

Speaker 3 Yes, because that's like.

Speaker 2 You may have one shot. Exactly.

Speaker 3 And because they're like, oh, the first time I'm pitching this is to a joint venture audience. And I kind of whiffed it.

Speaker 3 Then all of a sudden, like, like you said, like, if you can nail it for the first one, then you can get them to refer and then you can get them to refer.

Speaker 3 refer so i always like to like even if you're the best marketer in the world you right like practice it one time so you know and then you can make sure that you you nailed on the other ones yeah um so i'm curious for you just thinking about the the tangible side of like okay i understand the principles How do you actually message those people?

Speaker 2 Like, what are you doing? Because I start to feel like, am I sending an email? Am I showing up at their house? Like, what's the, like,

Speaker 2 how do you have that conversation? Like, what are some of the easy ways to do that?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's actually very simple. It's a two-step formula.
You want to hear it.

Speaker 3 Number one, get their attention number two present your coin i call them coins your sales coin status coin impact coin and time coin so what i like to do like to get their attention um i did this to you what did you do my attention you must i seriously did okay well and here's the thing that i have to point out you when i tell you what i did to get russell's attention people are going to be like that's so simple he must be getting hundreds of those a day let me ask you this how many people have sent you a funnel that looks like that or a request that looks like that all the pieces of yours are the multifaceted yeah Right.

Speaker 3 Yeah. Like, here's the thing.
Like, I think people think that they're like sending stuff like that all the time. And it's actually not that common.

Speaker 3 Like, people will send you gifts or all this stuff, but like a direct pitch like that, not as much. So, anyway, so what I did for Russell is I was like, okay, how do I get his attention?

Speaker 3 I'm like, what does this man love? Funnels, done. And what am I good at? Funnel design.
So I just built a funnel that said, hey, Russell, I made this video for you.

Speaker 3 And then in the video, what did I do? I was like, hey, here's the storyline. You're here.
I'm here. Your funnel hackers.

Speaker 2 Do you remember you're like, your funnel hackers are great, but they're missing out on one thing.

Speaker 3 They need funnel design yeah I was like your funnel hackers are in desperate need of funnel design I was even kind of bold I was like is that being rude I don't know but I meant it so sorry but here we are so it worked out great okay anyway so your funnel and I teach funnel design right so tangible result you're here I'm here I can extract these new buyers right and then the next thing I literally said in the video is and on the page was and I do it via no coding, no Photoshop, no graphic design skills.

Speaker 3 Here's my breaking news method. So yes, they need funnel design.
Here's why you should pick me. Then I said, I do it in a six-step science, step-by-step.
I showed case studies.

Speaker 3 Here's all the people I've helped before. I selled in a program called See of Design School.
And then I just direct asked, I would love to present this to your audience. We'll do

Speaker 3 a profit share from the sales that come from this. Great.
Do you want a partner? And so that's what I did to you. And

Speaker 3 here's what I want to point out: the reality is that you just have to get their attention and then present the coins. So some people are like, oh, I'm not good at funnels.
That's okay.

Speaker 3 Like, do it in a video. You could do it in a slide deck.
You can do it in a PDF.

Speaker 2 And you came, I mean, you joined

Speaker 2 2CCX and you were at an event and you brought a box that got me hooked to actually go watch the funnel.

Speaker 3 Yes, because he saw the funny. He was like, really cool, but I'm writing my traffic secrets book.
I'm a little busy. He's like, I'll follow up.

Speaker 3 So I'm like trying not to be creepy, you know, and I don't even know the rules to join ventures yet, right? Like, I'm just like trying. I don't even know.

Speaker 3 And so, like, one week passes, two weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks. I'm like, this dude's going to forget about me.
And I'd like sent like a few follow-up messages.

Speaker 3 You're just leaving me on red. It hurt.
I want you to know. But it's what it was the reality of the situation.
So I was in one of your coaching programs, but again, you like didn't know me.

Speaker 3 But so what I did, again, what's the framework? Get their attention, pay them the coins, right? So I was like, how can I get this dude's attention without being annoying, right?

Speaker 3 So what I did is I just like made a box. I put his, your face on it, and I put my face on it.
And then when it was just like so loud, it was like so colorful, whatever.

Speaker 3 I may try like sat in the first round and just like put the box up. So when you were on stage, you could see it.

Speaker 3 And then when you had a break, I just like walked the box up and I was like, hey, man, this is for you. And you were like, what the crap is this thing?

Speaker 3 But when you opened it up, it wasn't like some random gift. What was it? I like literally a QR code to a video that said, Russell, you're here in the story.
Like, you haven't followed up.

Speaker 3 And I literally just called it out to you. I was like, hey, like, it's been six weeks you left me on red.
I don't know how long is long, but you said you're going to follow up.

Speaker 3 But I, I mean, come on, man. So I was like, if this is too soon, sorry, but I'm good.
I'm talking to you. And I was just like normal about it, you know?

Speaker 3 And so, anyway, and I said, you're here in the storyline. I'm here.
Your funnel needs this. I need this.
This is my breaking news method. These are the results I've gotten.
And

Speaker 3 here's my product. I'd love to do a profit split from you.
And anyway, and so it's just like, get their attention, show them the coins, get their attention, show the coins.

Speaker 3 And it's really interesting because you try to go after someone like you, right? Like

Speaker 3 I call you like a tier A person, right? Like I'm going to, I'm going to need to go to a little bit more length to maybe get your attention.

Speaker 3 Whereas these joint venture groups or these Facebook groups have 500 people in them or a thousand or even 10,000. Oh my gosh, depending on like where you're at in business, it's all subjective.

Speaker 3 Are you ahead of me or behind me? Like who cares? But like a lot of people will see you and be like, oh my gosh, like Catherine's ahead of me in business.

Speaker 3 And so they're just like happy to receive a facebook message right like or if i just like go live like like hey so and so like i just saw your group it'd be amazing i have this crazy idea i think between what you do and i do there's like amazing room to collaborate i kind of have an idea for something really cool could i could i walk you through it that's my get their attention and then they're like yeah sure like let's chat i'm on a zoom what do i talk to on zoom storyline you're here i'm here here's my breaking news method here's this here's this so like so often it's like oh i have to do this whole shebang i have to do this whole fun i have to do something this whole video um and again for like people like you i had to get creative on how to get your attention.

Speaker 3 But again, we just sleep so often on these smaller groups or these mid-sized groups when they're just, they're customers gathered, ready to buy

Speaker 3 that just want, that just want them there.

Speaker 2 So I remember when I got started, I like.

Speaker 2 Because I first started learning about Joint Ventures, man, 20, whatever years ago. And I remember seeing the big names, right? So it's like Joe Vitale, Tony Robbins.
I had the name.

Speaker 2 So I made my list of these people. I remember I sent them all messages and like no one responded.
I was like devastated. I kept sending messages.
I'm like, why? And then I started getting angry.

Speaker 2 I'm like, these people think they're too good for me. Like, what's wrong? And like, don't they remember what it was like when they were, you know, I had all the attitude stuff that

Speaker 2 I had and stuff. And then I remember about the time there's this new guy that popped up.
His name is Mike Phil Same. And he had just done a little launch.
It wasn't huge, but he had, I saw him.

Speaker 2 He obviously had just sold something. Someone promoted it.
So he's a new guy. So I messaged him and he responded right back.
I'm like, this guy, he wrote me back. Like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 And then I was like, hey, Mike, I saw your product. I bought a copy.
It's so cool. And I was like, I have this product over here.
He looked at my he's like, that product's awesome.

Speaker 2 He's like, he's like, I just got a new list. Can I email it for you? I'm like, I didn't even ask him.
I'm like, yes, you know, and so he promoted it.

Speaker 2 And then when he promoted it, then we got on the phone. We're talking.
He's like, oh, have you met Gary Ambrose? And so he named three or four people. Like, no.
And so he introduced me.

Speaker 2 And it was like, we all were at this little level right here. And back then, all of us, you know, my list at the time was 217 people.
So it was tiny.

Speaker 3 217.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I still remember very specifically that number. And that's how big mine was.
And like, but we had, there's four or five of us, but we were all this level, right?

Speaker 2 And I remember we were talking like, yeah, I tried to get so and so. No one responded back, but we're all this level.

Speaker 2 So then we all started doing these little promos back and forth and what happens like all of us started like getting more successful and then like there's this next tier of people that like all of a sudden like one of us broke into that tier and then we introduced and all of a sudden we're all this tier and then the next year and eventually um tony robbins called me i didn't call him eventually joe vitality like because they kept see like they saw our group coming up and they're like oh these are the up-and-comers and they started reaching back down to to leverage our status um but it was it was it was understanding that and like i think for a lot of people it's like don't freak out if you can't get a hold of russell brunson like that's nothing like I have people all the time, like, I made a dream 100, Russell, but it's a dream one, and you're the only one.

Speaker 2 I'm like, you failed then.

Speaker 3 Yeah, you don't get it. You can't get to me.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Get the people down here that are one step above you and like start doing there. And then your list will go and your success and your influence and your status will grow.
And then it cuts.

Speaker 3 And I think too that, like, you bring up a really good point, I think, with your story of like growing and growing. Like, you, uh, like, people are like, oh, I made a list and it's you, right?

Speaker 3 It's like, you missed the point. Because I think how they're trying to use you is not the way we talked about.
They're trying to use you as like a silver bullet.

Speaker 3 Like, if Russell promotes my stuff, everything's free.

Speaker 3 And it's like, well, you haven't, you don't have the currency, the sales coin, the status coin, the impact coin, the time coin required to leverage Russell.

Speaker 3 So at that point, it becomes that like transactional, like, oh, I'm just going to mooch off of Russell, right?

Speaker 3 But when you are like, like, be where you're at. It's like so amazing.
Be where you're at and like, do, grow. And like, some people are like, well, I don't even know anybody with a Facebook group.

Speaker 3 Here's what I, here's what's like the most amazing thing. Like some, also my best pitches have been because I went live on somebody's personal profile page.
They didn't even have a group.

Speaker 3 Like, but they have an audience and you just go.

Speaker 3 So like, if you're just like trying to figure it out and start, like, these principles apply, the name of the game is you have a product and can you leverage somebody else's audience?

Speaker 3 And if they are complimentary, then it's a gift to that audience, you know? But yeah, I just, um, it was a, I think it was a gift for me. Like, I love too that you start with 217 people.

Speaker 3 Like, I just, I didn't know, nobody knew who I was. So I, I couldn't leverage status the way people leverage status.

Speaker 3 I couldn't leverage sales the way that people, I had to like really get smart about the marketing of it. To be like, why would somebody want to partner with little old me?

Speaker 3 And it's because the product I have and the way I deliver it is lethal. And that's what I think makes this game really accessible.

Speaker 3 Because if you really are an expert in your craft, like the way that we teach joint ventures and partnerships,

Speaker 3 what we like to say is that it allows the people that deserve the microphone to be on the stage.

Speaker 3 Because if you actually have a product that works, then you're going to be able to book these things and you're going to be able to to skip the line.

Speaker 3 But if you don't, I mean, I'm telling you what, you pitch a bad product. I mean, it dies fast because it's all in reputation, right?

Speaker 3 Anyway, so I love that.

Speaker 2 I want to add one more thing too that's interesting that I want people to also know: is like sometimes you're a lot, not sometimes, most of the time we pitch someone and they'll say no, or it's not going to work the way you want it.

Speaker 2 And you're actually a great example because you pitched me on promoting the webinar, and I've never promoted a webinar, right? And now we know each other, did we say six years, eight years?

Speaker 3 Which rude, Russell. I don't remember.

Speaker 2 Sorry.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but think about it.

Speaker 3 It's been a long time.

Speaker 2 And so, like, you made that pitch to me, and it didn't make sense for me to promote it, but I, I had a gap where I was like, but I know your skill set now, and I was like, I feel like I can lie, like, you'd actually be, you could serve my audience here, like, plug you in, and you were there, and that gave you status and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 I'm sure you made sales from that, but it wasn't directly, I didn't promote you, I just gave you a platform, and I think it's been four times now, right? Yeah,

Speaker 2 and then now six years later, we're working on a certification program.

Speaker 2 Uh, those who watched the sales pitch were like, we were on the phone back and forth, and all of a sudden it's like, what if we partnered together and we take your program, my program, you must again, like, and now we're doing whole promotion, which is technically promoting that.

Speaker 2 But it's put together. So,

Speaker 2 yeah, sometimes it takes a little while, but there's always other value that comes from it. It's not like they said no or it didn't work right now, the whole thing falls apart and you ditch them.

Speaker 2 It's like, stay connected. Like, Tony Robbins, I was working with him for a decade before he did the first thing that promoted, but, but he gave me, he gave me

Speaker 2 value. I got value throughout the relationship because I kept showing up, right? Like, he had me speak at Business Mastery in Fiji.
He had me do these things.

Speaker 2 And, like, you know, it wasn't what I asked for, but it was these other things. And And then eventually it was like, then it made more sense because we had trust and rapport.

Speaker 2 So it's also like, there's a short-term game. There's also a long game.
Just understanding, like, if you treat the relationships as relationships, more stuff can blossom and grow from it as well.

Speaker 3 Well, and I think there, like, truly is a strategy behind that, too. Like, um, when I spoke at Flundling, I kind of revealed, I call it the collaboration ladder, right?

Speaker 3 So it models your value ladder, but ultimately, like, the more audience exposure that you want.

Speaker 3 from somebody the more value you need to provide right so like um and so often so there's but there's other collaborations that you you can do right you can speak on each other's stages you can do a virtual event you can do a master class you can be on their podcast they can be on your podcast right and what's so crazy is that oftentimes people are like well if I can't do a joint venture then I don't want a relationship with them at all when in reality like you can leverage you can get sales and you can get status and you can get impact in time even if you don't directly pitch right like I did that mastermind with Lauren Golden the very first thing and I made 10 sales I didn't even pitch, but I was able to provide value.

Speaker 3 And so people were able to come back.

Speaker 3 And the thing that's most amazing is like, if you can get what I call on somebody's collaboration ladder, like if you can do a collaboration with them, even if it's them on your show, you're not even on their show, then all of a sudden you have a relationship with them.

Speaker 3 And what have you done? You've gotten their attention. And because you've gotten their attention, what can you then do? You can present to them other opportunities.

Speaker 3 And so you can either, you can just slowly climb the valley ladder. You can do, but like.
This thing is amazing is like you ended up,

Speaker 3 I asked for a joint venture and you didn't say joint venture. You said, hey, why don't you come speak at Funnel Hacking Live? I said, great.

Speaker 3 And since then, we've done like a ton of masterclasses together. I've been in your virtual events.
I've spoken at your in-person event multiple times. You've been on my show.

Speaker 3 We're now doing this together. Like,

Speaker 3 and again, I think that oftentimes we also only see like this game of Dream 100 or Dream Ventures as like, it's 100% or zero.

Speaker 3 When in reality, what we're trying to do, again, is leverage somebody's audience. And you can leverage somebody's audience to make sales.

Speaker 3 even without a direct pitch like this for example like people are going to listen to this and some people might go check on my instagram which might

Speaker 3 be

Speaker 3 at Catherine Jones-Lish, right? Like, but I, but I am being serious, right?

Speaker 3 Like, people are going to, and so people are like, oh, well, I'm not, what I'm not going to do is be, this hasn't been like a webinar, but I'm leveraging your audience, right?

Speaker 3 And if you come to mine, you're leveraging my audience. And anyway, so I do think that that is like seriously though, why I love this game.

Speaker 3 It's like so amazing that, like, what I've built can help you, even though your business is way bigger than mine.

Speaker 3 What I'm offering you right now is actually helping your business, and your business is helping my business. Like, it's just like so amazing that

Speaker 3 when you when you figure out how to pair the right people together,

Speaker 3 it kind of like

Speaker 3 it's like no respecter of persons. If you actually have a good product, for real have a good product, then you can infiltrate and it just becomes really, really fun.
Yeah. So

Speaker 3 excited. So glad to talk about that.
I'm not mad that you said no. I was actually, I cried.
I was so excited when you asked me to speak at the event.

Speaker 3 So me giving you SAS, there actually is no SAS whatsoever. I was only excited.

Speaker 2 Oh, man. Well, thanks for, thanks for, for first off being on the podcast.
Second off, being a Boise this whole week, hanging out, doing the

Speaker 2 sales funnel challenge, but also sharing the stuff on joint ventures. I think for my audience specifically, it's like everyone gets so tied into Facebook ads or their free,

Speaker 2 whatever the traffic sources. It's like, you know, when I wrote Traffic Seekers book, like the introduction was like, there's a storm coming and it happens all the time.

Speaker 2 Like platforms are de-platforming people.

Speaker 2 Accounts can shut down. And it's like, if everything, if I lost everything tomorrow, if everything disappeared, if I got all my social profiles shut down, everything like joint ventures, I'd be fine.

Speaker 2 Like, I would just like, okay, well, I've got a lot of people I've worked with over the last decade, two decades. Like, who am I going to call? I'd make a couple phone calls, I'd be back on top.

Speaker 3 And if you don't have people that you've worked with over the past decade, what do you do?

Speaker 2 Start.

Speaker 3 Start. And how do you do it? It's seriously so easy.
Just like, you don't have to start a full-blown podcast. Just start a show.

Speaker 3 Literally, just like name a show and go live on your personal profile page on Facebook. And then also,

Speaker 3 exactly. And then all of a sudden, you have a relationship with people.
You've gotten their attention. So then what do you do next? Hey, that was so awesome.

Speaker 3 I think between you, you do and I do have a great time. We'd be able to collaborate.

Speaker 3 Could I tell you what I'm thinking about? And all of a sudden you're like opening the doors to all these different things. And what it cost you was a 30-minute podcast episode.

Speaker 3 And now even if you don't have a Rolodex from decades, like I didn't, you can just start to play the game.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it's awesome. I love it.

Speaker 2 So cool. All right, everybody, if you're listening at home, wherever you are, it's time to do some joint ventures.
Yes. Add that in.

Speaker 2 Because if you're only relying on Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg means you've got one joint venture partner and he's not the nicest guy. He will shut you down without even thinking twice.

Speaker 2 So diversify your traffic, do your adventures, have some fun get to know cool people, and it'll make this whole business so much more fun as you can hang out with really cool people.

Speaker 3 So awesome. Love you.
Catherine,

Speaker 3 appreciate you. Bye.
Bye.

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