Viral Storytelling with The Story Lady, Ronda Del Boccio

You are an emerging hero with an important message or solution to share with the word.  Storytelling is your method of message delivery, whether you realize it or not.  Your story is profitable when you know how to leverage it to make money.

However, storytelling isn’t just about telling the story.  Getting your story out is not just about what you say or what you write.  It is also about forging relationships that will get OTHERS telling your story.

I’m going to share some strategies with you to get you started, and then I’ll tell you about the absolutely best JV SKILLS TEACHING product I have ever come across about joint ventures.  It WILL definitively get you on the right track from the very start.

Not everyone knows what a joint venture is, so please let me begin by briefly defining terms.

Maybe you’ve heard or seen the term JV.  That’s junior varsity in school, but in the business world it is a joint venture.

A JV is what happens when 2 or more people work together for mutual benefit. 

Say you have a book coming out and I have a bonus that readers of your book would love to have.  I include my gift valued at $67, let’s say, to your bonus gift page, and along with other gifts, you provide tremendous value to your readers and I grow my list.

Or say I am offering a class on building lasting relationships with your customers (which, incidentally, I do),  and you have a list of marketers and sales people who want to connect quickly with people and forge lasting relationships.  I would share the profits with you because you brought 200 people to a live call with me on which I shared some useful content and offered admission into the class.

Cool, isn’t it?

Those are just a couple of examples, and there are several kinds of joint venture relationships, but to get you started thinking, that will give you the idea.

So how to you form and nurture joint venture relationships?

The Care of Feeding of a JV Partner 

Research à Select à Build Relationship è Repeat

Research your niche.  Use Google, Alexa, Yahoo, and Amazon.com to find potential partners.  For example, you can see who reviews a book in your niche on amazon and research them to discern whether they are a good match for a JV. 

You can check out the Alexa ranking of the website of your potential JV and Google their name to find out.what they are doing and how respected they are.  Read their opt-in page, and even sign onto their list to be sure they’re a good fit. 

What is their overall approach to marketing, and is it compatible with yours?  Do they have products and services that are related but NOT the same as what you do?  (If they are a coach and you coach in the same area, they will be reluctant to turn business away from themselves, and who could blame them?)

 Select whom you are interested in forming a JV with. You will want more than one, but you can work with one at a time at first to get the knack of courting.  Once you select your first intended partner, make a personalized contact by email or better yet, by phone. 

 Let the person know that you are interested in a JV and be sure to be clear about what’s in it for them. Show them the money and show them that you are a professional business person (not a rank amateur).  You MUST personalize your contact.  A successful business person has no time for “junk” e-mail. Offer to send a free copy of the book/product. Show them the sales letter and conversion stats.

I have made successful ventures on a new product where the teleseminar we did was the inaugural kick-off event, but I had proven myself to the people sufficiently that they were willing to take the risk.  In other words, I was long past the “first date” and into a long-term relationship by the time I launched the unproven product, so my reputation and habits were well established.

 Offer a healthy commission on your product. The price will determine the margin in most cases. If you have a lowerinvestment item, such as a $47 ebook, you will want to give 50% commission.  If you have a higher investment item or service that requires a lot of your time, you will want to consider sharing about 35%. Also work out the payment method.  If the product is on ClickBank or a similar service, this is already settled.  For your own book, you could use PayPal,or you might use a service like ClickBank or PayDotCom.

Communicate openly and respect the JV’s time.  Remember that you are nurturing a relationship.  Do not expect them to take the lead in contacting you, especially if they are well established.  Cherish and maintain that relationship well, and you will build an honorable reputation and be of value to other JVs. 

Talk over the phone as much as possible, but never be a nuissance.  Give them your Skype or Messenger.  Be sure they know how to contact you anytime during the JV. Do not hide behind email.

 If you are colecting the money, pay quickly.  Write a personalized thank you note. Call them directly and say thank you. Ask if you may keep in touch and give them a call once in a while and open the invitation for them to call you or e-mail you.

Repeat…repeat…repeat!  One of the most important parts of JV  relationships is to work with more than one aprtner.  Start over and over again with someone else. Once you have started building your list, you can  do a list exchange with people of comparable-sized lists and work out more advanced ventures. 

 The fabulous training program I have come across is JV Seeker by Liz Tomey. I’m not easily impressed with products, because most of them are just a data dump.

JV Seeker is a true education in forming and nurturing joint venture relationships from someone who not only knows her stuff but can teach it to you.  Her workbook alone is worth far more than the small tax-deducatable investment in the program (currently only $47 - get this master class in JV before she realizes how ridiculously low that tuition is and raises it!)

Here’s what I love about this product.It’s not some hastily tossed together product on joint ventures.  Liz teaches you through videos, a workbook, audios, and a communityIt is step by step

Liz remembers that someone starting out needs to start with the basics and build on SKILLS (not just have information)

The workbook is outstanding, and the worksheets you can use to take notes about the people you want to joint venture with are worth the price of admission.

Liz shows you exactly how to land the “big fish” of your niche even if you’re a newbie.Liz explains things plainly.  She also has a sense of humor

.She has a powerful story about how she went from being a broke mom to a successful business woman through the power of joint ventures.  She started off as a little fish in the pond and hasn’t forgotten what it’s like to be wet behind the ears in business.

You have a powerful story to tell, and forging joint venture relationships is one of the most profitable ways to tell your story.  Please do yourself a tax-deductable favor and pick up JV Seeker.

Ronda Del Boccio, The Story Lady