Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey Gorgeous! This is episode number 264. This Mr. JV Charles Byrd.

Charles Byrd [0:09]
Hi, this is Charles Byrd and you’re listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:17]
Well, I can’t wait for us to dive in. Charles has so many great things in store for you today, especially if you are looking for a wonderful way to grow your business fast. You can learn so much from Charles. He is Mr. Joint Venture. He’s a joint venture expert. He knows how to create lead flow, and he is a close engineer, also a productivity wizard and with his Power Tri-Factor, tools, workflows, and habits. He helps people to double their businesses. So you are in the right place if you’re looking for a way to learn about joint venture partnerships, if you’re looking for a way to understand how to best connect these influences with people you can partner up so that your business can grow fast. Charles has also been part of The Heart-Centered Lead Generation Summit and I just loved, loved his presentation, his teachings there, so I can’t wait to dive in and get more amazing content out of him so that he can help you to grow your business faster. Have fun. Don’t forget to take notes and enjoy this episode.

Christine Schlonski [1:31]
Well, I am so excited to have you on the show. Charles, welcome.

Charles Byrd [1:34]
Thank you so much pleasure to be here.

Christine Schlonski [1:37]
I love your topic. It’s so wonderful because I think people who are starting out in business oftentimes are not aware of the fact that there is actually nobody successful in business doing it all by themselves. And who is Mr. JV? So tell us a little bit why is it important to actually have the conversation around partnerships, joint venture partnerships, or maybe like, promoting each other?

Charles Byrd [2:10]
Well, it’s kind of a magical thing because when you develop strong relationships with entrepreneurs and peers and people way further along than you as well, you end up with this amazing group of people that have your back and you have their back. And really, it’s of strategic benefit, but you end up with these wonderful people in your lives plus you get free traffic. So I did a webinar last week that had 800 registrants that are 800 new people to the list two weeks before that. I did two back to back ones that added 4000 people to my list in four days and all those new leads and people that I’m able to nurture and build relationships with their they’re all free, not paying for Facebook ads or anything else. So there’s a whole array of benefits from doing this. But those would be some top-level ones.

Christine Schlonski [3:14]
Yeah, definitely. And I mean, these are really impressive numbers. Right. So just to get people to know like when I participated in some summit’s in the past, usually, you get something between like 20 or maybe 200 options. But your numbers are really, really impressive. So that means you have a partner up with the right people. And what I also have noticed is that sometimes people just get the idea of partnering up so they partner up with everybody who wants to partner up, which is not such a smart choice. Would you agree?

Charles Byrd [3:54]
Oh definitely. So when I first started out, and I created my first online course, and I knew that relationship building and joint ventures were going to be my foundational strategy. There’s this huge temptation to wanna like you’re saying partner with anyone who will. And it’s not the best recipe basically, whatever your niche or market that you serve, in my case, it’s lead generation and systems and relationship building those kinds of topics. You want to make sure that the partners you’re working with the audience that follows them follow them for the same general topic area that you’re a domain expert, and you want to make sure the messages complement each other.

Charles Byrd [4:41]
Just for kind of an obvious example, if I have a productivity course and someone else has an audience comprised of people looking at weight loss, they would never go to that person to learn about productivity. So could people on that list learn and better benefit from productivity? Of course, will they buy anything that’s sent to that kind of audience? No. So you, you want to make sure there’s very strong alignment for several, several reasons. For one, if it’s not aligned, the promotion will fail. And then it’s a waste of time for you and the partner and the audience. There’ll be a lot of OPT outs because they’re like, why am I getting this? I am not following this person to get this kind of advice. So it is very critical that we don’t go, we’ll just use the shotgun approach and see what happens. It doesn’t mean you can’t test with certain things you believe are probable, but it’s wise to keep things in alignment.

Christine Schlonski [5:52]
Yeah, so you should pay attention that the person you partner up with has the same audience that you try to target.

Charles Byrd [6:00]
Yes, absolutely.

Christine Schlonski [6:02]
Yeah, I think that’s really, really important. And I have experienced that in the past, like when people reach out. And you just say, well, it’s a good idea. Let’s just partner up. And then you realize all of a sudden you have people on your list that you can’t even serve or that you don’t want to serve or you don’t have anything for.

Charles Byrd [6:21]
Right?

Christine Schlonski [6:22]
It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. So like being smart about relationships, I think it is really crucial when you want to build a business that has a strong foundation.

Charles Byrd [6:34]
Yeah, there’s something I call the reciprocation trap, where many times people in the JV world believe that the only way they work is if one if both parties cross-promote each other. And sure that can happen and be a fit, but I highly recommend people don’t go into a conversation with that as their default. In fact, even quite high-level people in the JV world are one thing I, I taught one of my friends in particular, don’t start across a conversation with let’s cross-promote each other. You’re basically putting a fishhook in your lip for no reason. The way to engage in that conversation is to jump on a call and explore ways we can support each other. It’s a very different statement because maybe my product is perfect for your audience. It’s like a beautiful fit. And yours is terrible for mine. So why create a situation where it’s pretty clear when will fail instead, maybe I can say my audience won’t be perfect for your offer. But here’s two other partners that it would be great with. Let me introduce you to them.

Charles Byrd [7:45]
The point is there are hundreds of different ways to provide value other than just direct cross-promotion. And the way you get to understand that is by asking what people’s goals are, what they’re trying to accomplish, and then find ways to shortcut getting them the success thereafter. And frequently that’s done through an introduction could be a tool recommendation, it could be a twist on their model, or an upsell or anything like that. Or an event they should go to that’s covered with loads full of their ideal clients, maybe a seminar, a Facebook group, or a physical event. But simply by listening, you can connect the dots for other people and create a vast opportunity for both of you.

Christine Schlonski [8:34]
So your recommendation basically is just have an open conversation really trying to figure out how to support the other person but basically not approaching it from the viewpoint that each everybody has to promote the other person just being open that it might not be a fit and there are ways to create value.

Charles Byrd [8:57]
Absolutely. So most of the time As I work with and I booked two to six joint venture promotions per week, most partners never even asked me to promote them back. Because I’ve provided them value already in an array of other ways. That could be referrals for maybe a high ticket offer they have it could be other partners, it could be getting them on a stage somewhere or I’ve actually landed stages by helping someone get tickets to Burning Man. Like there are interesting ways you can go about providing people value and sometimes it’s great to do a cross-promo and it makes sense but it’s easy to get lured into thinking you have to do that when you don’t. So it’s good to just maintain the awareness of what your audience will actually respond to, and then kind of hold the line about that because there have been times I was like, Cool, let’s do it even though I didn’t think it would work. And then guess what, it doesn’t work and so it’s kind of a hollow feeling. So it’s kind of getting that awareness and then the confidence to say, Look, I’ll help you in these ways. If we do a cross-promo it, it’s gonna fail, and I’m not gonna do that.

Christine Schlonski [10:20]
Yeah, I totally get that. So you just mentioned Burning Man. And I know that you have been there eight times in a row. So just for not every listener knows what Burning Man is. So give us a little description of what it is. And like, how did you get that eight times in a row?

Charles Byrd [10:41]
Well, so for anyone who’s not aware of what Burning Man is, there’s this big flat plane of a desert in Nevada called Black Rock City and like it’s literally flat as could be. Nothing is out there and around 75,000 people come in from around the globe and build a city, like a full city for a week. And then the whole city disappears again. And it’s some of the most creative people on the planet. And it’s got its own cultural rules around it. As then, you know, be self-prepared, bring everything you need. Be creative, be like it’s a gifting culture where you can’t buy anything. And people frequently mistakenly think people are running around trading things. There’s, it’s just gifting. You come over to my camp. You want some food or a drink. Cool. So it’s a whole different culture where imagine 75,000 people, not one public trash can, and zero litter. Like it’s, it’s the closest you’ll get to living on a different planet.

Christine Schlonski [12:01]
Yeah, I was just going to say that that sounds like a different world. And it’s going on for one week. And that’s from all the pictures I have seen so far. It seems like a lot of fun too.

Charles Byrd [12:13]
Oh, it’s Disneyland for adults is how I put it. And some of the most creative, amazing artwork you’ll see anywhere. And anyway, yeah, so eight years in a row my wife goes with me, my brother and his wife and we invite different friends and like last year, I ran into Eben Pagan there. And that’s how our relationship started. And we’ve done an array of things since in fact three weeks ago, he featured me as his joint venture expert in his high ticket program. And, yeah, it’s a very, very fun place with open-minded creative people. And a lot of people have preconceived notions of what that event is and what it’s like. The fact is, whatever you’re passionate about, maybe it’s yoga and music or art and photography or red wine and like, whatever it is you’re into. It’s there. So it’s kind of a choose your own adventure.

Christine Schlonski [13:23]
Yeah. Cool. And that was just my next question, but you kind of answered it already. It’s probably also good for making really cool connections and a fun way. Meeting creative people, influential people might know that a lot of big names in the industry go. And that’s just a really cool way outside the normal, like conventions or seminars or whatever to just meet and get to know each other, to then be able to find strategic partnerships.

Charles Byrd [13:57]
Yeah, so I’ve never gone there with that intention, but just last year, I ran into several connections related to our industry and was working with a prospect with a huge website that was getting like 45,000 people there a month and but I wouldn’t go there particularly with that intention, although you can kind of be open to an array of cool outcomes from the people you meet there.

Christine Schlonski [14:31]
Yeah, well, I think my point was more like when you go and have fun, the right people kind of will connect and click, and then you will find ways to, to partner up together at a later point of view. Obviously, everybody goes there to have fun and enjoy and have a good time. But that’s also how you see how aligned you are with the other person. And where it kind of makes sense if it’s a mutual promotion of each other. Or if it’s just one way and you’ll find value that you can provide for that promotion.

Charles Byrd [15:06]
Yeah, it’s true. You’ve probably heard back a few years ago, Google would vet their executive teams if they could handle burning. So they would take them there and see, you know, how, how they fit in, in that kind of environment. And that was actually how they made some hiring decisions.

Christine Schlonski [15:31]
Wow, I didn’t know that. That’s interesting.

Charles Byrd [15:33]
Yeah, it’s quite interesting indeed. There’s a lot of Silicon Valley people there and but it’s highly international people come in from everywhere on the globe to it because there’s truly nothing else like it on Earth.

Christine Schlonski [15:50]
Yeah. So let’s look at someone who starts out who has not created that many connections and relationships. And who really wants to learn how to do this in a way that is aligned that is natural. I mean, you are so far along that journey, and you’ve created basically from scratch to now working with the top people in the world. So how can somebody that is just starting out or even just play this idea to build a business? How can they tap into that magic?

Charles Byrd [16:29]
Sure. And I love that question. It’s, it’s important and I found like, very early in, in my career as an entrepreneur, I figured out very quickly that relationships were going to be the most valuable thing and the truth is in life, relationships are the most valuable thing. So it’s a good skill set to develop. I always have been social and extroverted but I never went out of my way to develop a deep friend network like I had my friends. And then that was that. So my point in saying it is it’s a learned skill, I learned it. And now I teach it. And so just some simple things to do. So let’s say you’re an entrepreneur, you have a product in mind or it’s already out there, you understand who your market is, then let’s use online as an example I, I go to a lot of events, but I also actively connect with people online all the time. And some simple ways you can do this.

Charles Byrd [17:39]
For one, you start with the network you have, maybe you have your friend network, you maybe have clients or people you’ve worked within the past. And then there’s connecting with your ideal clients directly or arguably even better partners. Who already has big lists of your ideal audience? And so it’s figuring out where they hang out. Maybe they’re different Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups, or events, physical events. But let’s use a Facebook group as an example. Maybe there’s a product that’s popular in the industry, in our industry, something like ClickFunnels, there are Facebook groups with thousands of people who use that. Or there are different business leaders that run groups. So if, if you know that your ideal partner is in these groups, you can join these groups and see who the movers and shakers are. Who are the people getting traction, who are the people sharing really valuable content and is highly obvious? They’re proficient at what they’re doing. Those are people you can start interacting with start liking their posts, start replying back, ask questions, share things, and next thing you can do after that is shoot him a message say I liked your post about XYZ either share something of value with them they’re like some article or simply say, hey, I’d love to jump on a call and get to know you better explore ways we can work together.

Charles Byrd [19:19]
And another technique that works very well is to have something like a podcast to invite them to be on. It’s an amazing way to get people that feel like they’re perhaps outside of focus folks you could get direct access to but if you’re inviting them on a show, there’s basically been no one I ever invited on my show that didn’t come on. Because as you know, inviting so many people on your shows, we do shows all the time I’ve done I’ve done five this week, including Sirius XM Radio, like this is every day for people to do this. So it’s not out of the ordinary to be invited to a show. And it’s rare for people to even ask when will it be distributed and who’s getting it and all of that. So that gives you a chance to build rapport with them. And then a great technique is, as the interviews about to start, say, do you mind if we stay on for five or 10 minutes after and, and, you know, sync up more. And it really opens a wonderful opportunity to build a relationship and lineup joint ventures to

Christine Schlonski [20:35]
Yeah, and I mean, your unhide cells because you did such an amazing presentation for the Heart-Centered Lead Generation Summit, providing so much value to my audience that I thought, well, I have to feature you again, right. We have to have a different kind of conversation where at the summit, you taught you had a presentation, and now we’re diving into concepts that can actually help the heart-centered impact-driven entrepreneur who has struggled selling to partner up with amazing people that can support them on their journey. So that’s how that started. Right? And I think not everybody needs a podcast, but reaching out to be a podcast guest is also very, very powerful.

Charles Byrd [21:20]
Yeah, and one of the core methods that I use is, let’s say you get on a call. It’s asking a few key questions related to what their goals are. Who is their ideal client? What they’re super strong and you may know some of this just from building a relationship or following them online, but it’s actually really important. So let’s say I meet so I met a gentleman last week who is great at helping people launch their podcasts. So I learn about his expertise, his offers, who his ideal client is. And then as I’m bouncing between calls with other people, I’m always connecting the dots for other people and might well, for where you’re at with your goals, you know, who you should talk to, is Christine. And so by just listening to what people are trying to accomplish, you can connect them to resources or people that will help get them there. And you start building this whole network of friends, partners, referral partners, and it creates a tidal wave of goodwill that comes back to you. Because if you’re handing people their ideal clients over and over, you think they’re not going to want to help you out at some point. I mean, they can’t help themselves.

Christine Schlonski [22:54]
Yeah, yeah. And I would love to dive into this topic deeper. In our next episode. Because I have the opportunity to have another one. So I’m super excited about that. But I also want to thank you for the wonderful gift you’re bringing us, which will be in the show notes and the resource section. And you’re bringing us the mind map. Tell us what that is, and why do we need it?

Charles Byrd [23:19]
Sure. So I’ve mapped out the core elements of joint ventures from where you find partners to how you communicate with them, techniques for systematic follow up all of that. It’s laid out in a mind map that kind of shows how to do that. So it’s very high value and you may have a link you’re redirecting to I have it at mindmap.purejv.com and you can download that and gain a lot more understanding of some of the elements involved in joint ventures.

Christine Schlonski [23:57]
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, and I’m really looking forward to getting rid of all my other questions in the next episode.

Charles Byrd [24:05]
All right, well, thanks for having me on.

Christine Schlonski [24:07]
Thank you so much. Well, I hope you took a ton away, Gorgeous! Make sure you hop on over to christineschlonski.com and find the podcast tab and Episode 264. Here are all the show notes, the resources we have shared so that you have your mind map, there is a component of a successful joint venture partnership, all the links to Charles are there available for you so you can connect with him and his amazing work. And also, you have the opportunity to check out the Heart-Centered Lead Generation Summit experience, which will give you the experience like it would have been living for you to dive in to take notes and to get all the different ways how to generate leads in your business. So hop on over to christineschlonski.com find the podcast tab and have fun. I can’t wait to have you back on the next episode where Charles and I will talk about how you build your joint venture system. So make sure you show up, you tune in and in the meantime, have fun creating your joint ventures. And I am wishing you a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world. Bye for now.