More 2 Marketing

Susan
More to marketing. Welcome to more 2 marketing. Our podcast on marketing, product and everything in between. I’m your host, Susan and today I have a special guest. Our special guest is a huge expert in the space of partnerships. There’s also a number one best seller on Amazon. So I’d like to introduce to reeds. So Therese, as I just mentioned, has a best seller called swap. On Amazon, so do check that out. She’s an expert. Marketer partnership expert, keynote speaker and supporter of all small businesses. So welcome to Theresa.
Theresa
Thank you, Susan. Such a pleasure to be here and and hello to everybody listening.
Susan
Fantastic. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? More than what I’ve just shared?
Theresa
Of course. So like lots of women, I am. You know, I’m a mum. I’m a wife, I’m a sister. I’m a, you know, a daughter. And all of that becomes this beautiful tapestry of what I’ve become from my career, the support network I have, that allows me to. Have their professional life that I that I enjoy. So. So as you said, I love marketing. I love partnerships. I have been in marketing for more than 20 years, nearly 30. But you know and that’s showing my age, but definitely marketing was something that. When I studied it. It was also a creative discipline and when I first started out in marketing, you would have an idea and you would take it to your boss and your boss could just say I don’t like it. Now marketing has become a data driven discipline and with that data has incredible insights and opportunities. And one of those things that I was able to to see and capitalise on a long time ago was the power of actually working with another business. Who had the same customer as you and creating something that gave the customer an even better experience than if they dealt with the companies individually. So that’s what I love to do. And so as you said, I give me an opportunity, I will jump on stage and I will tell you I will tell you in my book. I will tell you in an in a one on one session I will and I have been a small business quite a few times. I started my first small business in my 20s and really kind of amped it up. So it we’re around the world in, in about 5 countries. And I I’ve sold that. I’ve started other ones. I’ve had other ones that have failed. And during that whole process, I’ve also been a mentor for women in business. So for about 16 years, I’ve helped other women, I guess, navigate that that path. So it’s something I feel really strongly about. I think the decision to start your own business is massive and. And small business owners are brave and nimble and you know fast and agile. And they are 100 good things. And so I want to be the person that supports those people to make the most commercial opportunity that give them. The you know the objectives that they want to meet, meet whether that is a business objective and financial or whether that is actually a personal objective from a lifestyle point of view for their family. So that’s that’s who I am in a nutshell.
Susan
I love it and I love the focus on collaboration. It’s just making everything better for everybody. I love that I love women situations.
Theresa
Absolutely.
Susan
So I would love to delve more into your topics of expertise. So about finding the right partnerships and collaborations, what steps should people start looking at and how do you? Go about that.
Theresa
Great. So when we think about partnerships, just to I just want to make it super clear. So just this is not a financial partnership as in someone taking equity in your company and and becoming an owner of your company. This is when we talk about and it’s got all these names. So it could be called a strategic. Marketing partnership. Sometimes it’s called a strategic alliance. Sometimes it’s called a a JV or a joint venture. Sometimes it’s called a brand collaborate. But essentially what it is is when two businesses, as I said come together and they create something like something that something is marketing, they create a marketing campaign or an asset that helps their mutual customer and in the process, they can both both companies. And gain and grow. So when we talk about how to find the right partnership, the first thing is about what your objective is. So if you are a new business and you might be in a a physical location, a geographical location that might be around brand awareness, it might be getting people to. Actually know that your doors are open and you. Whereas an E commerce company, it could be around putting, you know, pushing traffic to their site for a, you know, data driven company, it could be around creating content or even in terms of leadership. So you might be an accountant and you actually want to be known as the accountant. For your help. Small businesses use their equity to buy a premises or something like that. So So what is the opportunity that you can provide? And so when you’re looking for a partnership, the first thing you need to do is kind of really analyse like what? What are you trying to do? Is it about reach? So that’s getting people to know you exist. Is it about credibility which is getting people to know that you are a a leader or an expert or someone that they can trust and. And the third thing is, you know, it’s about differentiation. There are 1000 of all of us. There’s 1000 photographers, there’s 1000. Pizza shops, there’s 1000 accountants. You know, we all have. Businesses and roles that that lots of people do. So then from our customers, we want to stand out, we want to differentiate. We want to show how we can help our customer. So they’re attracted to us. So partnerships are also a way that you can differentiate from a business. It’s just like yours. And when we do differentiate, then what we find is that we can also be. Be more profitable? We can. We can stop fighting on the on the sense, you know, we can actually we if we’ve got a product then we can actually charge what we should be charging for it and not have to discount that product and discount ourselves or our service because we’ve established a reach we’ve gained some credibility. And we’ve gained some differentiation.
Susan
Yeah. I think one of the the biggest fears I would assume that would be for small businesses in particular is the time and cost involved. In going about looking for this right collaboration or partnership, because as you said, you don’t want to reduce your costs of what you sell your product for, but then they’re also looking at their actual P&L and the cost of doing business. Is it going to cost you money to actually go out and find these collaborations or partners?
Theresa
This is a really big thing for me, hence why I have a book called Marketing without money because it is. It is really about collaborations do not have to cost 1 cent. Now they’re not free in terms of what you are trading. If the assets that you have built in your business. So if you have a physical presence as in a store, a showroom, an office somewhere that people walk in the door, then an asset is your physical space. Who hasn’t got a physical space? For example, I’m working on a collaboration at the moment for two small businesses. They one is an artist, one has a furniture brand. The furniture brand is in a different state and wants to have this amazing evening for interior designers to come and see her product. The artist has a gallery and is doing amazing, beautiful work that’s actually going to appear on TV and media quite soon, and so his his star is rising. So I put the two together and said, why don’t you actually both collaborate in terms of you have a physical space that that the furniture company could use in, in your state, in your location. She has an amazing connection and database with interior designers. That’s not something that you have. And you would like to know a lot of interior designers to get them to know your artwork. And what this will cost you is a few bottles of champagne. You know, some cheese and veggies from Woolworths and you’re both in, so you’re both using your own assets. So the furniture company’s reputation, credibility with interior designers and her database. And the artist is using the physical location, the gallery space in that other state to create a campaign together where they’re both going to benefit and for the interior designer who attends, they get to not only see the new furniture. * But actually an an amazing emerging artist that they can then, you know, show and sell to their clients.
Susan
Well, that’s just sounds like a a a perfect type of collaboration where you think they’re so far removed. But as you said, they’ve got the same type of base that they’re wanting to connect with.
Theresa
Yes, and that’s a whole. The whole thing about collaboration. It is not how how similar you are in terms of or natural combination. So for example just say you know wine and cheese like Yep, OK wine and cheese, great, but it’s actually around who has the same. Mean audience who has the same customer as you, so you could be you could have a dance studio. You know so and that. So who are who is coming to a dance studio? Well, first of all, parents of children. Yeah. So who else is marketing to parents of children? It could be a tutoring service. It could be a clothing shop. It could be a hair lice salon. You know, it could be so it. If the collaboration is about your target.
Theresa
And what collectively you could create to actually help them to have a better experience.
Susan
Yeah.
Theresa
And so again like that could be, imagine if you’re you know like you’re a pool builder and then you actually collaborated with somebody who came and was able to clean the pool, test the water, then the customer is like, Oh my gosh, no, I don’t know what to do with the new pool. And and they say, well, this is this is a business that we love working with. They’ll keep your pool looking amazing. Over the custom.
Susan
You could even.
Theresa
Yeah, they’ve got a great decision.
Susan
You can even build on that as well, like the pool example. It can be OK we’ll put your pool in, but here’s a landscaper. We. Recommend solutely.
Theresa
At.
Susan
And as you said and then it could also be maybe somewhere that sells pool toys, so you could build that out even further then you’ve got shade cloth and I can see how that can really build out that it’s all one almost like an ecosystem where you all help each other.
Theresa
Absolutely. And they are the best partnerships when you’ve got multiple companies who come together. And my one of my favourite examples was when six companies, 6 very, very small companies as in single person businesses kind of came together and they created a competition the the customer that the winner won a $30,000 prize and what this was was six companies. Contributing. I’ll say a prize of $5000 in value, which was actually like a few hours with somebody you know or a, you know, or a plan or it, you know. And so these six businesses just to give you an idea, one was. Somebody who’d got the idea of a book out of your head and into a Word document. There was an accountability coach who actually kept you on track. There was a publisher who took your Word document and made it into a book. Yeah, there was a photographer who took a great headshot for you. So you could, you know, use it on your book and promote it. Move a printer who made that book into a paperback that you could physically hold, and there was a videographer who created a book trailer to sell your book. Now all of those six companies have the same target customer in terms of somebody who’s interested in publishing a book.
Susan
I’m beautiful.
Theresa
Yep, but none of them can pay. Exactly. And when you think about that, those six companies have now created a database. So they have a database that they can all use to talk to that customer about their individual service. But that was a competition that could have easily been, imagine if they did a weekend. Workshop like a. Physical play, where they all got together and for one weekend you came together and learn everything you needed to know, and maybe they took your photo for your headshot, and they created a little bit of video for you and and did all these things. So you walked away with a week from the weekend with and you know, and and then. Result or what if it was actually a digital collaboration where they were all creating articles, they were all, you know, interviewing each other on podcasts and actually creating written content. And we’re sharing social feeds and and actually coming together and creating a digital infrastructure. So. So your choice of word is perfect. In terms of. A great marketing collaboration is when you’re using everything in your toolbox, right? And it’s so that’s how it differs from an influencer. You know, so people probably have heard of, you know, influencer marketing, which is a brilliant, amazing lever that you can pull, but with an influencer, it is usually a person who has influence usually on one platform could be more, but that it is about. And that’s almost like a business. To a a. A person that goes out to their audience. When you do a brand to brand collaboration, that brand has a database. That brand might have a location that brand probably has procedures that brand has collateral. It has influence, they might be part of business groups, so. It is using. Everything in your toolbox that you know that you’ve built in your business. To work with another business who’s got the things that you. Yeah.
Susan
Exactly. And you’ve you’ve reminded me of this group called the Mark Alliance. It’s mostly based in the the, I believe the US region where specialists in their field are all part of this alliance. And you have to be at a certain reputation, specialty of field. All those kind of individual pieces to be part of that and then they all do share an influence with each other. And and make sure that they are contributing to the greater good of the Mark Alliance itself.
Theresa
Great. And there there’s local version not the same, but local versions like you’ve got things like BNI which is like a networking group and they used to actually refer each other. So you’re not actually getting trying to get business in that room. You’re showing all the businesses in that room. What you do. So then they talk to their. Customers, friends, family, acquaintances and say I know someone who should work with. So there and again I I love referral marketing in terms of that’s how most of us. Our customers usually come to us because we know stuff and they say like for example, I mean marketing. So they people come to me and they say, do you know someone who? Can build a. Website. Do you know someone who can do FA? Do you know someone who can do PR? Do you know an event organiser? So they ask me? For referrals or or companies that I think are good that they could engage. Beautiful referral, put, referral and partnership together in terms of how could I take that referral. So just say I’m always referring a PR agency and I love. I think they do great work. Amazing. So what if we leverage that? What if we leverage that? Referral partnership and we actually created content from it. So we created a little Series A a podcast series, A blog series, a YouTube series where we both talked about our specific you know, specialties. And actually release that and and what that is so. So I’m talking to a PR company at the moment. So what PR company is great at getting editorial getting you in the media? Yep. What I’m great at from a marketing point of view, cause I’ve worked with TV shows for decades is I’m very good at taking your 15 seconds of fame. And making it into a year of marketing. So together, if we work together, just say we had the same customer which we do, then I could say go to the PR company first, secure the media and then I will show you how to maximise that across all your assets on a long term basis. And so that the things that we could create, as I said, articles, podcasts, you know, videos, we could create a whole lot of things together. So it’s not just relying on me to say, I know someone. It’s the marketing, the content is giving us the ability to have always on marketing.
Susan
M. That’s always going back and just. Really emphasising the work that has been done in that 15 seconds of fame and really stretching it out like you said.
Theresa
Absolutely. I mean that’s you know that’s what marketing is right? Like if you marketing is not one message once on one platform and then we forget about it, marketing is reinforcing. I mean Google’s moment of truth talks about. You know 711 four, so 7 hours. People need to consume 7 hours of content across four different platforms with 11 different types of interactions in terms of medium. So they could read, watch, see click, do download something something. So 711 four. Is something that Google has come up with. But what that means is exactly what you’re saying. It is about. How do you? If I don’t see that programme that night and I or I blink or making a cup of tea and I miss that moment, then people assume, Oh my gosh, I’ve been on TV. My my websites going to. Melt down. No, no, no. You need to grab that. 15 seconds time and you need to milk it for into an article into a podcast into, you know, 5 tips into into all these different things that you can actually use over a long period of time to capitalise.
Susan
MHM.
Theresa
On that one great thing.
Susan
Exactly, exactly. And. And you’ve touched on a whole pile of different partnerships there, but can you actually talk to us about the types of partnerships themselves, just in a little bit more details, you’ve given loads of examples, let’s actually talk about, I suppose more the theory or you know what I mean about? The actual partnership.
Theresa
Absolutely, yeah. There’s three main types of partners.
Susan
Itself.
Theresa
So one is where you use your product or your service, so that could be where you’re doing Co branded activity. So is in a Nike and Tiffany have got together and they created Co branded products. So it has both brands on the product but a very simple. Example of. That is, you know when you might go to a event and you get a. Goodie Bag and it’s. Actually. Got a product what we do with a product or a service is we want to get it into the hands of our ideal customer for them to try it. So you could actually have samples or testers or trials or.
Susan
Mecca does that well, yeah.
Theresa
Exactly so. So first, first partnership is when who has got the customers that you would like to get acquire and so how could you collaborate using your physical product or service? The next one is when you use your knowledge or your IP. To create a digital collaboration. So this is particularly suited if you have. If you’re a professional. So if you are an interior designer, if you are an architect, if you are an accountant, if you’re a personal trainer. Now, so the thing that we do as a service and so that personal trainer might know the six week programme to get a better body after having a baby or how to recover from an injury or something like that. So that knowledge that they have they. Have in their discipline you could create a partnership with another company. So for example, with the personal trainer it could be actually with a nutrition company. Or a food company. So and again, what you’re what you’re trading, what you’re using leveraging is your knowledge or your IP to teach a customer something another person’s customer. So then they will know you like you trust you and come over and try to experience. Your service. And the last one is when I touched on before it’s where you use a physical, a physical location or a physical experience. So this is where we have trade shows. This might be a pop up in. So you might have a location. These are great if you’ve got like a retail store. So retail store might actually have an artist come in, or it might be you see, there’s like when you go and buy a bottle of wine and one of the vineyards is is in the wine shop and actually saying would you like to test our wine? Thing. So when you’ve got a physical location that people can walk into and they get to try and experience meet, you talk to you and create a memory from it.
Theresa
And obviously, memories are super powerful because we can we can test, we can try, we can talk. Amazing for E commerce companies, because sometimes E commerce companies, they have this beautiful, beautiful customer base. But then when they actually do a real life activation, then they’re like, oh, I got to make the owner. She’s so cool. Ohh. I feel really connected to this now. And. And I got to touch the product and see the quality and hear about it. And so there’s a there’s a bigger connection. More emotional. Yeah, an emotional connection. So they’re the three. So one you use your product or your service two, you need use your knowledge or your IP to create something digital. And the third one is you. When you create an in person experience. Yeah.
Susan
That trust ability. And I I personally have the three of them. I do love the last one. I do love to, to touch and feel myself.
Theresa
Absolutely. I think, and especially after COVID, I feel like that is the biggest one that can have the biggest impact because I think we are craving. That, that experience, that, that connection, I mean, great, amazing digital, so good, right. We’re all on digital. We’re all connecting, but there’s something more memorable, more powerful about doing it in person.
Susan
Exactly 100% agree. But what are your top tips for finding the right partner? So you’ve given us? Like I said, many examples, but what would be your best say two top tips that you’d give for someone who’s actually doing this for the first time and doesn’t even know where to start? Yeah, great.
Theresa
First one would be, as I said, you’re already referring people, right? Like you’ve already got somebody that you’re always talking about and it could be anything from a piece of software to a a service like a photographer that you always use someone that you always kind of naturally refer to. But it could be a coffee shop, it could be. So so the first thing I would say if you’re starting training wheels on would be look at the companies that you’re already referring to because you’ve already got their relationship. They know you exist. They know that they, they’ve got, they’ve got customers because you’ve been driving your customers. Into their store or service. And go and have a curious conversation with them and say, hey, you know, I love your business and I’m always referring customers to you. I really like to amp it up. I think that we should do something together. So we’re actually referring each other all the time, but it is, you know, it’s more definite. So instead of it being ad hoc. Verbal. Let’s actually create a like a page on my website where I’ve got your details or let’s create an afternoon or let’s create our webinar together. Something that is false.
Susan
Even in the article.
Theresa
Yeah, exactly. And it can. And as you say, if you’re on your training wheels, this can be so small. It could be why don’t I create an article for you to send out on your email and you create an article for me that I send out on. My email. Or you write something and I’ll post it on social. Could be super, super simple, so don’t you know don’t and and and I guess in terms of if. People are like ohh. That’s a bit. Scary contacting another business and asking them if they wanna work together. Well, think of it in time in terms of where the. Easy. Yes, like. If you were saying so with the furniture example, I know my that furniture company has leather furniture, a question that I always get asked is how do I like after my kids spill something on it? Or like how do I clean my leather? Furniture. And so they always refer this particular kind of, you know, like dry cleaner steam, cleaner person who can come out if it, if it’s like a big you know, a big accident. But what if you actually created an article on ohh my gosh, the red wine has gone over my new leather lounge. You know, what do I do?
Susan
Yeah.
Theresa
And so then that is helping the furniture company because they are showing you that you can troubleshoot if something happens and it’s promoting the other company who can actually fix that problem if you don’t want to. Fix it yourself. So just think of it in terms of that. Where’s the easy? Yes. What would be a really easy thing that you can do a really easy article, you know, share something that’s very low touch, but it helps both companies and the customer ultimately the customer.
Susan
I think the other thing for me in this example is the first time. You do it. You don’t have to give a discount. It’s an introduction to show who you are, what your business does, see how that performs. Then maybe in the future do another one where you might do a discount or a special offer or a meet and greet or wherever it might be. You don’t always have to give away value of your product.
Theresa
Absolutely not. I mean I I always try to never discount because. I think that’s an easy trigger. You can always offer a discount but but I think it for for partnerships, this is people love partnerships when brands come together and do something interesting chat, movies shareable because it has this brag value. I got this because it was a limited edition. I got this. I got to meet this person. I got to get someone sign book. I got to. And so it’s the brand value that has the value.
Susan
Exactly.
Theresa
I can save $2.00, but will I actually care about 2:20? You know, whatever. Whereas if I’ve got something that is bigger and better and more alluring and more brag worthy, then I I’m not. I don’t really care. You know that the discount doesn’t seem as. Attractive. So this is where. Again, it’s like, what could you do? Like what you know and and this is where we see the concept of marketing where we say why don’t we have a discovery call or would you like to actually spend some time with me or would you like yeah, would you like to me to get under the bonnet of your business and I can do this for you.
Susan
Have a coffee.
Theresa
So the the ability to have a, an expert or somebody who’s great at, you know, getting stains out or personal training or that photographer or whoever you are that that ability to share that expertise is has a huge perceived value. More so than saying I’ll give you 5%, you know.
Susan
Exactly. Yeah. And I I think that’s probably what I’m seeing a lot of small business maybe not doing it as well is they are just giving away value and not realising that there’s a value in itself in the partnership that I don’t have to give anything away yet.
Theresa
Yes. So I would say small business is truly believe that they don’t have anything to offer. That is, could not be further from the truth. So I’ve worked for very big, big, big global brands, big listed companies. And when so even think of, I’m just going on a tangent, think of Commonwealth Bank huge. You know I don’t know billion dollar company right like big big company, what do they have they have an innovation. Why do they have an Innova? Lab because they need to get small businesses to create different things to different markets to show agility. The, the, the great thing about being a big brand, obviously lots of money, lots of resources. The bad thing about being a very brand not nimble, you know it takes slow.
Susan
Very.
Theresa
Very, very. Slow. So when I have always worked with big businesses, I’ve worked to collaborate with smaller brands because. They get stuff done really fast. They see an opportunity, they wanna grab it with both hands. They’re hungry. They will work harder, jump higher, you know. And so the big brand has all of these assets, but what is transferable is the big brands get to borrow their innovation. Their spark, their enthusiasm and also small brands usually have a, you know, a figurehead, a leader. And that is incredibly alluring, because big brands sometimes are quite faithless, and so to actually put a small brand in front of their big brand and say, look at what our customers like. This is Bob, meet Bob. He’s one of our customers. This is what? And does then it makes them a lot more attractive. It makes them a lot more emotionally connectable.
Susan
So that relatability isn’t it.
Theresa
Absolutely. Because sometimes we see big businesses and they’re just so big and we just, you know, they’re just they’re just they’re a mountain. Yep. And so when we see them working with smaller businesses, then we’re like, wow, they really support small business. They’re really doing great things. Ohh. I like the story about how Bob uses your product and this is how he uses it. I’m a bit like Bob. I could be like Bob. Yep, and. And so it’s this beautiful connectivity.
Susan
Yep, no, that’s fantastic. Like I love that and that and that probably brings us perfectly into the next example of. What is what? Is a deal, and how do you go about these deals that you do when you’re working with your potential new partnership?
Theresa
Great. So a deal can be, as I said, a referral partner is a deal. I’ll talk about you. You talk about me not structured, not written down, not accountable. When we do a brand partnership, if there is. Is money being invested? So for example, if I was? I always talk about when 4 pillars, gin and go to skin care came together and they created the. New. Go to gin. So when you think about that, they would have had to invest it in the new label. You know, like they would have invested to actually come up with that product. Now when you do a partnership where there’s there’s money that needs to be invested. You should absolutely get legal advice. You should absolutely structure it because there you know there could be a lot of money lost there, you know. But when you’re when you’re doing, when you’re like the yoga studio in the coffee shop and you’re like, hey, why don’t you do a discount like a a voucher for a free coffee? And I’ll do a voucher for a free class and we’ll put it in each other’s location. Then I say that is like, that’s a Word document. That’s like a heads of agreement, that is. Something written on email or word that just kind of says here’s what we both are agree. To I am agreeing that every person that comes into. My coffee shop I. Will say hey, have you tried the new yoga studio? Give the voucher if you wanna try it and you’re all going to do this every time someone comes into the yoga studio, you’re going to say hey, did you love the class? Why don’t you don’t get a free coffee. And so you both agree. And then for example, then you could say. I agree to put you in my newsletter. Once you know for one time and I agree to do 2 posts and I agree. To do this. That is, that’s a Word document. That’s a. That’s a. That’s an agreement in principle. And when I say that you put it in a document. It’s it’s like. It’s like a handshake. It’s like it and it’s transparency, where deals go wrong is when people went ohh. I thought that you would do this and this and this, I thought. Or I assumed you meant this and this and this. And so that’s when people go. Ohh well.
Theresa
Like this went bad because I assume you were gonna do something and you didn’t do it. So the Word document is so everybody is knows what each other. Thing. And as I said, this is not any money changing hands. This is like I will, you know, I’ll give you a 200 word article and three pictures and you put them in your newsletter. And I say that I’m gonna get it to you by the end of August. So therefore it can be in your September newsletter. So everything’s mapped out. So then there’s no. There’s no transparency. It’s like ohh, I thought. I thought you meant the August newsletter. Ohh, you know? So the so when you do a deal. It is about what can I give? And what will I get back like. Yeah. So you have two parties and you’re saying I’ll put you in a newsletter? I’ll do the flyer. I’ll usual furniture in my trade show, you know, so the artists and the furniture. So just say they both did a trade show exhibition. So I’ll do this. This is what it’ll look like, and if anybody. I’ll give them the fire out. So it’s just communicated, so there’s no, there’s no way that you can assume anything and therefore get.
Susan
Upset, just remove removes all that ambiguity. It’s just this is what we’re getting black and white, and I I’d assume also because this is me now assuming that in this document, I’d also talk about trackability as well. So that you can know if it’s successful or not.
Theresa
For sure. So obviously you and I are marketers, this is like we we we live and die on. Data right like this is.
Susan
Exactly.
Theresa
Our like you know, so when we when we think about the coffee shop and things, obviously you’ve got a voucher you wanna make sure that you’re you’re actually when the voucher comes to you, you’re you’re you’re physically noting that somehow whether it’s through a QR code. With some other device. When we are doing a digital collaboration that we obviously have a unique code or link that we can use to see how many people are coming through to our website from that piece of content. The the reason that we want to do that more so than anything else is we could we could actually in our our deal we could say newsletter social media flyer and we could have three trackable codes and for example we could go geez that flyer generated 80% of our new business. But do you know what? Let’s double down on the Flyers. Let’s you know.
Susan
Yeah, Fredo rule.
Theresa
Exactly. So the trackability is 1. It’s about your ability to know what works and what doesn’t. And but a great partnership is when you go back and you share the results and say this is what happened, this is what happened. Because when you put a deal together and then you execute on that deal and you create an amazing.
Theresa
Let me. One you wanna go back to that partner and show them how clever they were for for partnering with you, show them, like, show them all the great things that happened from their one decision. Mm-hmm. And in that, I call that a success pack. And in that success pack, that’s almost like your case study to get the next partner.
Theresa
Because it shows that you were able to the ideation, you’re able to come up with the idea you’re able to deliver. You are able to track and demonstrate and therefore you have a learning and so you can then package that up with a bit of a case study, go to the next partner and say, hey, I just do this with the yoga studio or the account or the personal. Trainer or the pool? Builder and I would love to work with you. This is how we could do it. No money changing hands. We have a Word document with the deliverables. We use the assets that we’ve already got in our business and we give and we do all of this in the spirit of giving the customer the ultimate win.
Susan
Exactly. And because you’re reusing everything the small businesses don’t have to invest anywhere near as much time because they’ve already got most of it sitting there. It might be a couple of updates to. Maybe an end? Date or it could be just a URL change for a code or something like that, but it’s really minimum work once you start rolling this out to other partners.
Theresa
Absolutely. You could have a coupon that you did in Canva, and then you’re literally just changing as you said the link. So or the QR code, just a new link. You know, just a new QR code that you can do. Handle, but it so you can track it and it just you just go through Bitly or whatever just a way for you to track that and exactly as you said, it’s still. Got your colours? Your everything. You can just hit print and off you go. Of course then, if you have got something really simple like candour, you can drop your partner’s logo on that piece of collateral as well. And then as I said, that could be a digital that wouldn’t cost you 5 minutes of time on Canva and you’re done. Or it could be that you, you might actually. So this is where I’m saying sometimes it’s not free, and then you might decide that you want to print those Flyers to give to the yoga studio. Well, that’s not free. That costs a little bit of money, but it’s not a. It’s not a huge investment, you know, it’s a small investment and the money you’re not paying the yoga studio to give out your. Buyers, you’re doing a partnership. So they they do something for you. You do something for them.
Susan
Exactly. No, I love it now. Thank you so much for going through all these I do have. I will give you an opportunity first. Is there anything else you’d love to add about collaboration and partnership before I go to my final question?
Theresa
Look, as you can hear, I’m I could talk about this all day and all night, but I guess if I were to leave. Doing one piece of, you know advice, it would be just just start like just what’s the worst thing that can happen. You know, it’s it’s hard being a business owner by yourself. It is. It is way more fun working with people who know and love your customer as much as you do. And the the rewards are there. Again, just be really transparent. Really upfront. This is what I’m going to do. This what you’re going to do, but just start and just reach out to you as you said the the just the companies that you’re already dealing with that you’re already good friends with. So it’s a nice easy, yes.
Susan
Mm-hmm. And you’re off and running. Love it. Love it. Final question for you. If you were a brand, what brand would you be and why?
Theresa
Ohh what a great question. Ohh. The first thing that popped into my head was boost, so I’m going to say boost because that’s what I thought of, but I was thinking, am I Chanel? And I was.
Theresa
Thinking no, I’m way. Too daggy you could be both. Could be a collaboration between Booth and Chanel.
Susan
I’ve had someone that’s listed 5 so.
Theresa
Right. I think for me they’re a a a brand is something you feel it it’s way more than a logo. It’s 100 things that add up to the way a customer remembers you and. So I feel like. I feel like there’s I feel like like I really like goose juice in terms of they have this really great experience. It’s very individual, very customised get you what you want quickly, you know, I mean, I remember when Bruce first started and you know, and it was like $6 for like, you know, a smoothie. And that was that was like, more than 20 years ago, right? Not a lot of money. I mean, now I think it’s like $9 or $10, right?
Susan
A lot, yeah.
Theresa
So, but it was it was aspirational, but it was aspirational in terms of lifestyle. It was aspirational in terms of health, it was colourful, it was run by this fantastic woman. So I think for me that that the characteristics of that are are aspirational. For me, that is something that I would like to be seen as is, you know, as as nimble and bright and agile and you know a good price point.
Susan
Helping others help.
Theresa
Bring others exactly. So I’m gonna go with boost.
Susan
I love it. I love food.
Susan
Thank you so much, Theresa. I really, I really enjoyed today. We’ve learned so much, particularly when we’re going into partnerships and collaborations to analyse what we actually want to do first. So we understand the purpose of going back into reach, credibility and differentiation and then what type of partnership might work best. Depending on what we do, so if we got our product or service, maybe we could do something with those items themselves physically. If we’re more about our knowledge and IPS, we’re more service base. How can we bring that to life, maybe through teaching and the third option that we had to talk through was also the physical experience and making something magical and that tactile experience. And of course, this is all about experimentation. There doesn’t have to be a huge amount of costs involved in this. It’s about following the passion following who you naturally refer to already and just having a coffee to start with and seeing where that might go to. So thank you again so much. I really loved having you on here for anyone that wants to know more, the book will be in the link. So you have to check out swap. Swap is a #1 best seller on Amazon. But again, thank you so much for coming today.
Theresa
Ohh it’s been an absolute pleasure. I mean I think we we both kindred spirits in terms of we want we love marketing we we love Brandy. We want to see businesses succeed and stand out. So it has been an absolute pleasure. So thank you for the opportunity.
Susan
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