Andy Hussong — A Repeatable Process To Land JV Deals

Welcome to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast with your hosts, Matt Wolf and Joe Fear.

All right, we're back for another episode of the Hustle and Flow Chart podcast. I'm Matt. I'm not Matt. I'm looking at Matt. I'm Joe Fear and I'm with my co host, Matt Wolf, across the table. And we're with Andy Hassong out of Indiana. Right, Andy?

That's right.

That's right.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, man. So Andy is an amazing connector, and that's how I think we met you at various parties over the years.

So, yeah, Andy is like the master business connector. He's the first guy we think of when it comes to making deals, joint venture deals, affiliate partners, kind of connecting us even to people to promote their products as affiliates, since that's a big part of our business. So that's what Andy's done for the last 1212 years or so.

Hopefully. If we could deconstruct.

We're looking at some live video here. Yeah. For you guys who are listening, we're actually doing some Facebook Live video at the same time, so I might have to do some tech while we're doing that. But yeah, so we're not going to edit this out of the podcast because we're cool. So, Andy. Yeah.

Yeah. So let's dig into it, Andy. Let's get your quick background. I don't want to go too deep on it. Maybe spend a couple minutes of how you got into the biz and kind of what you do.

Sure. Well, basically, for the last 12 plus years, I've been helping set up online joint ventures, primarily in the online marketing space, Internet marketing, make money online, E commerce, stuff like that. It really started back when I met a guy by the name of John Reese at a live event back in 2004. Actually, I met him in 2002 at a live event. We became friends, and then he asked me to become his affiliate manager in late 2004, right after the launch of Traffic Secrets, which is known as the Million Dollar Day or whatever. And I had helped a little bit during that launch, but I wasn't his actual affiliate manager at the time. And so for five years I helped him. And during that time, I kind of learned the ins and outs of what it takes to get someone's attention so they're interested in recommending your products as an affiliate. I learned ways not to do that by the way we were approached to promote their offers and so on. And so during that time, I gained that experience. And then once he decided to get out of teaching online or Internet marketing in late 2009. I started working with other clients to help with their launches and webinars and so on. And so I've just done a lot of that since that time as well. Done some training on that topic as well.

Yeah. And just so folks who are listening don't know who John Reese is back in the day. Yeah. Like you said, the million dollar launch. He was supposedly the first guy to ever hit a million dollars with what, an information marketing.

Like an Internet marketing product?

Yeah, an info product type product launch online. So that was. How many years ago was it?

Yeah, that was in. I think he launched it. It was in August of 2004. And he actually did that in one day just from doing an actual product launch, Jeff Walker style.

There you go. Yeah, so he was like, he just set the bar and it's kind of like what, the four minute mile, that whole thing? Yeah, it was like once, once he did it, everyone was like, wait a minute, it is possible. Make a million in a day.

Holy. Yep.

Amazing. Yeah. I didn't know that. That's how you kind of get started. Or at least that's where you worked with him for a long time. Got it. Okay. Well, cool. Yeah. So now you're obviously doing your own thing and you've done that for a long time, right? Yeah. And webinars are huge. So I guess what is. So what's your big superpower? I would say, is it. Is it making those connections or is it your amazing people skills?

What is it?

Well, you know, as you know, when you've done something for so long, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what that is sometimes. But for myself, I think it's really being able to tap into what makes people tick and really caring about them first and finding out what it is they're looking for. And based on that, then just providing them with guidance. When it comes to joint ventures and such, I guess the superpower would be to find out what a company's audience or the people on their list is really looking for, what resonates with them, and then potentially finding an offer or a webinar or something that would be a fit for them and then just matching them up. I think that's kind of my. I guess if you call it a superpower, it would be that kind of thing right there.

Got it. Yeah. And I think that's really good. And in terms of connectors, I guess. Have you ever done this outside of.

I'm trying to Think not only these business deals, but did you kind of start with just being a connector in general, like seeing an issue and then finding someone who can kind of solve the issue and connecting the two together.

You mean before all of this, setting up joint ventures? Yeah. You know, well, it's funny because I actually have always been what you would call, I guess, a people person. Always really cared, you know, about the other person. You know, probably just starting from my parents, the way they brought me up to, you know, do on. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. And studied psychology in college because I wanted to be a child psychologist. And. And heck, you know, I was always matchmaking back in the day, setting up friends with girls and vice versa.

Were you?

I was the nice guy. Yeah. Yeah, I was. I was odd man out back in my younger days. But okay, 20s, I figured that out. But anyway, that's all right. Well, late. I should say my late teens, but anyway, yeah, it's, you know, I think in the early days, it was all about just caring enough about other people to help them just make different types of connections, when I didn't even realize that there was an opportunity to do that as a career.

That is interesting. There's so many people out there who are brokers, and that's essentially what you are just for making these.

For now, it's kind of webinar and affiliate deals like this.

Yeah, that's part of what I do, for sure.

Interesting. Cool.

So we're. So this podcast, we're all about systems, processes, formulas, automation, that kind of stuff. Now, are there any sort of systems or processes or anything automated, anything like that that you do in your business that that helps the business keep cranking along but allows you to sort of step back on specific things?

Yeah, for sure. Well, you know, it wasn't until maybe about a year and a half ago that I really kind of dialed in what my process is, because I always did it through hustle, you know, just really, you know, knowing how to get the job done, just doing it. But what I did was I sat back and I put together kind of a plan of action just based on, you know, what I normally do. And I came up with an acronym. It's actually two acronyms that I'll just combine together. And the first one is partner, and which is appropriate for what we're talking about today, setting up partners to promote one another. The other acronym is power, P O W E R. And so you put that together, it's partner power, which sounds kind of hokey. Maybe. But if you can remember Partner Power as an acronym, this will really help you first of all to dial in kind of the overall process or overall mindset that you want to have when, when you're interested in bringing on JV partners and affiliates to promote your stuff, that will not only attract them to you, but also motivate them to continue taking action and really love being a part of your affiliate program, for instance.

Got it. Okay.

Yeah.

So you want to break that down?

Yeah, yeah. So the partner side, and that's just the partner side and the power side I'll get to in a second. But the partner side, what that stands for. And I'll let you guys, after I say what partner represents, I'll let you guys determine how much in depth you want me to go into.

Sure. Yeah. Cool.

But yeah, so this, it all comes down to these things. So the P stands for prepare and might think of it as prepare to persuade partners to promote. A lot of P's there. Right. Say that five times fast. So in the early stages you really want to just get prepared with all the ammo that you're going to have to have to convince these partners to even consider promoting you in the first place. And part of that preparation entails pinpointing your ideal JV partners, and I call them endorsed traffic partners. But we don't need to get into all that today. But the basic idea is that you just want to prepare. Make sure you've got all your ducks in a row before you even start reaching out to anybody.

Smart. Yeah. Don't just sling deals willy nilly. Actually think about what you're doing beforehand. Sure.

Yeah. It's really no different than when you're selling a product or if you're a coach and you're selling your coaching, you don't just throw up a webpage and say, here, come buy my product. Get prepared with all the details. Right.

Love it.

And so the next the A stands for approach and attract. So there are different ways you go about making sure that the way you reach out to people is done in such a fashion that it brings people on board or you know, at least initially engages them in a conversation and makes them take notice of what it is you have so that you don't scare them away. And you know, so one of the things I learned back in the day, I told you when I worked with John Reese during those times, people would reach out in such a way that make me think, man, you know, this guy only cares about himself. He doesn't even care what we're doing, even interested in. And so you want to reach out to them with that in mind, you know, really thinking about what is in it for the other person.

Got it. So it's your messaging. It's the way you even approach the deal. Yeah, yep, got it.

Absolutely. Yep. And then, so the. So that's the A in partner. The R in partner is for retain, and that's retain your first partners. So you get them locked into a promotion. Could be a product launch, could be a webinar or what have you. But. But what you want to do is just is get them to a point where, okay, they've. They've seen everything about your opportunity, and then you get them locked in to a specific date to start promoting your product or service. And. And so that's always the first step. And your first goal should only be to get that first partner. It's not to get a bunch of affiliates on board as fast as you can. Yeah, that's great. And of course, for a product launch, you want to have as many as you can, but your first goal, especially for webinars, is to focus on getting one solid partner on board, get them locked in, and then you're off to the races.

Got it. And then also retain them probably for more than one. Just, you know, just one deal.

But maybe.

Maybe it's a percentage or just a handful of deals.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And see, that's where the last half of this acronym comes into play.

All right, carry on.

Yeah, if you do these other things, you'll get. These people want to continue promoting for you. So the next thing is the T in partner is track. You want to track the progress and the results of the campaign that you run for that particular JV partner. Or maybe you've got two or three people promoting an offer or whatever, but you want to track the results of that. And then along the way, make sure you're congratulating them on the initial results they're getting, update them as the promotion's going on and so on, and then ultimately track the conversions of that promotion so that you can leverage those results to get more partners on board.

Got it? Yeah. Okay, cool. I like it so far.

All right, cool. Hopefully it keeps going that way.

Yeah, yeah.

So the next letter in partner is the N. And the word that you should remember for this is just nurture. You want to nurture the relationship you have with the initial partners that you're working with. And the first thing that you should do to make that happen is to pay them. Pay them quickly or at least on time. You know, make sure you're paying them when you say you're going to pay them. Because that's one of the big things that happens in our industry, unfortunately, is vendors get amnesia and they're all fired up about getting someone on board to promote their webinar or their launch or evergreen product. But then the payment doesn't come when it's supposed to.

Sure. You know, you can lose trust immediately.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's the easiest way to, you know, to really start nurturing that relationship. Because once you've paid them quickly, they know, hey, I can trust this guy. And wow, this, this promotion went well. What else do you have? And so that's how you start building the blocks, you know, the building blocks for them to want to continue promoting for you.

Got it. Right on.

Yeah. And then the next letter in the word partner is expand. And I'll just call it expand your reach or expand and scale. This is where, you know, you reach out to the rest of your potential partners on your list. And what I didn't get into, which, you know, like I said, I didn't want to get into too much depth on this podcast interview, but during the approach and attract portion, that's where you really want. Or actually, let me just go back to the very beginning. The prepare when I told you about pinpointing your ideal traffic partners, you want to brainstorm like your top 50 of the people that you know in your niche, people you've met at live events, people your masterminds with past customers and clients or current customers and clients and so on, and just really get down that list. But then you really only want to reach out to your first maybe 5 to 10 really high level contacts that are most likely to respond to you. And so those are the ones you're really trying to reach out to in the early stages to get the first partners on board that you can then leverage. And so then again, when you get down to the expand and scale, that's where you approach the rest of your list and really leverage the fact that, hey, we got so and so was on board, did X number of conversions. Here's a case study or testimonial from them that talks about what it was like to work with us and so on. And that's when really things start to get some momentum going. And I've got like, I think 12 bullet points listed here. I'm not going to go through ideas that gives you for expanding from this point, but that's the main thing to keep in mind when you get to this part in the process.

Got it. Okay. So it's kind of starting with that lowest hanging fruit almost, you know, with the first initial partners and then, and then obviously you can use those as social proof.

Totally. And you'd be surprised how many people I talk to who reach out to me and I will actually sell people on not using my services to go out and get JV partners for them until they've tapped into their low hanging fruit. You have no idea how many times I've mentioned the phrase low hanging fruit.

It's one of our favorite.

Yeah. And so many people will say, oh, I didn't even think about that, or I didn't think about this person. And one of the best things you can do, just as a little tip, is start thinking right now. If you've got a product like some kind of course or software that you're thinking of releasing and maybe you've been talking about it with your friends, your mastermind or whatever for a while. Think of the people who have told you, hey, whenever you let me know when you have that out, I'll promote that for you.

Yeah.

You know, you may have one or two people or even more that have said that to you already and those are the ones to get with right. Right now and say, look, you know, I've already, I've got this thing done. I'm going to have a webinar ready in a couple weeks. I'd love for you to consider sharing this with your audience and see what they say. So. So that's the best way to go about that.

Love it. All right, and then we have the R is the last one.

Yeah, the R. Yeah. And this is the fun one. This is related to the nurture part of things, but it's reward and recognize and so obviously you want to continue paying people on time and so on. But there are a lot of other things you can do just to give people kudos for a job well done. It could be somebody who made their first sale. You just, you know, call them out. Not call them out, but props in a, in an email you send to your affiliates. You can mention it on Facebook. You've got a Facebook group that's dedicated to your affiliates. You can put a post in there just recognizing some of your partners and so on and then just surprise them with bonuses and gifts from time to time, especially your top 10 partners or whatever, just out of the blue. Because, tell you what, a lot of people talk about how they want to get affiliates, and these are my affiliates and so on, but fickle. And they have all kinds of offers that they can promote, and they're getting contacted daily about the next launch or the next webinar or any kind of offer. And so you want to do things creatively to stay in front of them. The best thing you do is just make sure you're taking care of your people.

Now, is this where, like, leaderboards and things like that come into play as well?

Yeah, absolutely. Leaderboards during launches are powerful because of the fact, look, you're recognizing these people and eventually rewarding them when they place in the top 10 or whatever with a prize of some sort. One of the powerful things, too, is it's social proof. When they see the leaderboard, they see other people who are promoting this product like crazy. And there's a lot of bragging rights comes into play here because totally.

The ego thing.

Yeah, yeah, it's a total ego thing. A lot of times people care more about beating their buddy, you know, in that leaderboard than they do and even getting the prize.

Oh, it's so true, too.

You did some of this, man.

I used to promote launches a lot. We really don't promote launches very much anymore. We're more into promotion things that are evergreen. So if it works once, we could keep doing it. But we used to promote a lot of launches. And I'll tell you what, when I used to promote a lot of launches, I was more motivated by the leaderboard than the actual money I was making off the promotions.

That's funny.

That's why, after a while, prizes. I remember because we set some of these up and really, just giving out cash almost was better than saying, oh, you can win a car or. Or an iPhone or whatever, you know, even though. Even though those look cool.

Well, I mean, there would be times where we'd be promoting a launch, and I don't know what just happened, but something just popped up on my screen. So there'd been times we were promoting a launch, and, you know, I'd be on the top 10 leaderboard, and I would see, like, the name above me was. Was a Mike Phil Same. Or an Andy Jenkins or, you know, a name that somebody, like, kind of everybody in our industry recognizes. And I'm like, oh, I'm just one spot away from, like, Mike. Oh, I can do this. You know, and that really, really motivated me to try to, like, oust some of the top dogs from time to time.

That's hilarious. Well, you know, and by the way, guys, let me know if my audio sounds okay, you're good.

I know you're perfect.

Okay, good. So one thing related to that, just on the other end of things, as a. As someone who has been the kind of the guy behind the curtain creating those leaderboards for my clients during some bigger launches and such, it's a lot of fun to put those names down and think of little statements or little. I don't know, just little messages to put in those emails that would kind of tease them and push people to try to beat the guy ahead of them. And knowing that, you know, even though it's kind of silly that everyone knows it's coming, it still works. And.

What'S cool is behind the scenes, you may not even realize this, but, like, if you know, you've probably reached out to a vendor who you're promoting during a launch and ask, okay, so where am I at? How close am I to the next guy? Well, half the people on that leaderboard are doing the same thing. So everyone's, like, jockeying for position and trying to beat each other. And the affiliate managers on the other end of things, juggling these different conversations and egos and all that, and trying to say all the right things, push the right buttons to get people to keep on pushing. Just one more email. Just one more email.

Yeah, that's right.

Absolutely.

Matt actually just wrote a question here, and this is something that we kind of question often. I know it's the one you just wrote there. What are your thoughts on the launch model? Kind of like what you're describing here versus doing something evergreen where so, you know, we're something you could drive paid traffic to kind of maybe do a content, grow your own list as if it were your product, but you're promoting that product.

Yeah, it kind of just sprung out of the question. You know, the. What I was just talking about is, you know, Joe and I, we were big affiliates. That's sort of one of our main income streams is promoting affiliate products. But we prefer to focus on products that they're not shutting down anytime soon or they're not, you know, raising the price on us anytime soon. We like evergreen products that if we get a promotion that's working, we can just double down on that promotion and keep going with.

Seems like a lot of the people in the marketing world, the info world, the software world, they like to do these launches where they ramp it up and sell for a week and then turn it off. Just curious on your thoughts and pros and cons of each.

Sure. Just a quick question back to you do you mean pros and cons from the affiliate side or the vendor side? Who, who's always launching stuff, taking off the market, launching something new and so on?

I would say I'd love your thoughts on both because I've seen it from both sides. I've been involved in launches and we've been affiliates. In my head, I kind of know the pros and cons of each side. But I am curious on your thoughts.

Yeah, well, first of all, I think there's no right or wrong. I think there's a place for all of it. And it really depends on each company's personality and their goals. And so when it comes to a product launch, let's just say from the vendor side. And by the way, my audio keeps. I'm watching the input. It keeps rising as I talk.

You keep saying you're good.

It sounds fine on our end. So.

Okay, no worries.

So when it comes to doing the product launch from the vendor side, one of the biggest reasons for doing that is to, to make a big splash, get it out there in front of as many people as possible and create an instant business around that product. And it's a great way to go about it. And some of them do make the vendor a lot of money, but a lot of it's paid out in affiliate fees, copywriting fees, and just different types of.

Fees that have to go out. But it's more about building that instant business to get that product out there and then, you know, but what I don't like is, you know, taking the product off the market. I've. I've just always felt like you can create the scarcity and the sense of urgency without taking a product off the market that's supposedly so good that, you know, why would you take it? Take it down?

Yeah.

And I do understand that, you know, there's also something to be said for, you know, if it's software, maybe you only want to have X number of people in and to make sure you take care of them and have everything set up properly before you blow it up to more people. But a lot of times these products don't even get re released at all and so on. But from the affiliate side of things, I think that it's the same thing. You've got to promote things that you feel good about that you prefer promoting. And I think that if you can find something that's evergreen, something that has a longevity in terms of being able to promote this thing ongoing, I think it only makes sense to keep promoting something that keeps working so many of us try to end up stopping something that works.

Yeah, I find it fascinating because you look in the real world, I say with air quotes outside of the marketing info product SaaS World, you get outside of that and you look at, you know, bigger companies, they do launches all the time. Like you look at an iPhone, every year there's a new iPhone launch with a big build up to it and commercials and we're going to be doing this keynote presentation and there, there is that sort of buildup that you get with a launch. They launch it, they have a, you know, a shit ton of sales. All right, in the beginning. But then they don't just go and say, okay, we, we're turning it off now, so you better get it this week. You know. You know, you don't see that outside of our world. I always found it so fascinating that so many people would follow that sort of let's launch it and get as many sales as we can in a two week period and then turn it off and then nobody can have it again.

Right, exactly. And related to all that, what I think what I like is kind of a hybrid of what we're talking about and that is I love webinars. I love the whole live webinar type, I guess game, if you call it that just because it's more of a rolling launch. You know, you, you work one partner at a time. You know, a lot of times weekly you've got a new partner on board, that's right, sales, more customers work with another partner and look at it as a mini launch that you use. But you do usually end the sales at the end of a webinar promotion. But the truth is if people contact you after the promotion, promotion, say hey, can I still get in? Most people will let you in, of course. Yeah, right. But that's what I actually, I basically retired from helping with launches just because there's so much time and stress.

Stress, Yeah, I was going to say everything's last minute. This is where Matt and I's philosophy, because we came from doing launches. I, I kind of did a lot of work similar to you, not brokering, but behind the scenes, creating the webinar slides and the presentation flow for clients of all sorts. I'm sure a lot of people, you know, and yeah, it was so damn stressful. And then it allowed me to kind of see from behind the scenes. I know Matt, various businesses of his own. We're like, damn, it's just too stressful. Like business shouldn't be that hard to just constantly have to hustle, hustle, hustle this launch thing. And, and granted, yeah, you can make a lot of money, but there's a lot of expenses that way too.

Yeah.

And everybody seems to be needing things last minute in launches. I feel like a lot of people who do launches don't prepare far enough ahead of the launch. They need their JV manager to start rounding up people a week before they go live. They need that sales video three days. You get the data on it three days before that video is supposed to be live. And they're contacting their copywriter four days before it's supposed to be live. And it doesn't seem like a lot of these guys really do the necessary prep work. I feel like if you're gonna do a launch, the right way to do a launch is to spend three months preparing. So by the time the launch day comes, you're not stressed out. It was just kind of a three month process to kind of put all the pieces in place. But I don't feel like most people do it that way.

Right. Yeah. And that's what I found too. I mean, just so much you're juggling during a product launch. And you can, you know, they say that it doesn't really matter how much time you allow for anything because you're going to fill that time and be down to last minute. And it's the same thing with product launches. You could have six month window and still be just. Yeah. Slamming out that video. Video number one, always 10 minutes before it's to be released. Just get it up. Yeah. It's just crazy if you ask me.

Yeah. All right, so I'm going to recap just really fast and then I want to hit that power before we get too deep into this or too long. So the partner. I'm just going to recap really quick because I wrote them down. So the partner acronym I think is great because it seems like you can apply it to any kind of matchmaking, deal making things like that that you want to apply. It doesn't have to be what you're doing. And I just wanted to clarify that is you could do this when you're just making, even just trying to drum up clients, get referrals. It's a great way, it seems like, to really hone your focus in and then process, processize this whole thing. So, partner, I'm just going to recap really quick. So it's prepare is the P and then the A is approach attract the right people. You know, prepare is obviously prepare and then kind of Find that low hanging fruit and then go on. The R is retain, T is track in nurture, E expand and the last one R is reward and recognize. So I like it. Now let's hit up that power acronym and let's do it a little quick because I know we're, I think we're at.

Yeah, I'll do more. Yeah, this one will be a lot quicker. And the power acronym is really something to keep in mind if you want to have some type of an offer, whether it's via webinar or launch or an evergreen product that really is exciting for partners to promote something that is successful that people want to keep promoting. Or.

Let'S say you have a webinar and you want to get a bunch of people interested in promoting it, this is what is going to help you, you achieve that.

So this is like your offer almost to them.

Yeah.

Like it's that sexy shiny object that you're like, hey, this is what I got.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Okay.

Exactly. This is everything you want to have in place for that. So the partner was more of the overall mindset to have and just getting a partner's on board long term. And this is something, you know, for your specific offer.

Cool.

And so the P stands for proven product. The O stands for an offer that's irresistible. So just think about an irresistible offer.

Yep.

A W stands for a winning webinar or other type of sales vehicles that might be a vsl, could be a sales page, could be a launch, what, what have you. E stands for Endorsed Traffic Partners. So this, that's where you know, you, you bring on endorsed Traffic Partners or JV Partners to recommend your offer. And then you just repeat and scale after that. Repeat and scale. So it's really, you know, that power acronym is just really tightly focused on making sure you've got a product that's hot and an offer that is just completely irresistible. Like Todd Brown says, you want your offer to make people think they're nuts.

Totally.

Yep.

A no brainer, Something where it's like, I can't believe he's even doing this. I gotta take them up.

Yeah, yeah. Just by showing the value and.

Maybe stacking the bonuses, but also a really sweet no brainer, refund policy, guarantee, whatever, just all that stuff combined. I like it.

Yeah.

Cool.

And this seems like because what you're doing, it seems like you're distilling all of this knowledge that you've had over the years, all these different partners and offers because I mean someone like in your position, you've probably seen what works and what doesn't better than almost anyone. Just because you know the numbers inside and out from both sides, not only the vendor, but the actual affiliate. Like, so it's, it's pretty amazing. That's why those listening. Yeah. Definitely exercise the partner. That's great. But like, if you have a product of your own power, like that whole acronym, proven product, offer an irresistible one. Winning sales vehicle of some sort. Webinar sales page, vsl Endorse traffic partners. So get some good people who can drive traffic behind you who would be interested. Could be evergreen type people or launch and then repeat it. I think it's brilliant.

Yeah. I actually want to ask a couple questions on it. We're actually a little bit over time already, but you're our last call of the day, so we'll be all right. So bonus, here's my question about the sort of power acronym now, the W is winning webinar or a similar sales vehicle. How do you know if it's a winning sales vehicle? And my question's in reference to this. I'm not going to go to an affiliate and say, you've got to promote this, this one's a winner, without knowing myself that it's a winner. You know what I mean? So how would you first determine that it's a winner before. Before going and chasing up affiliates?

Sure. Well, first of all, before you even test it on your own, which might be kind of where you're headed with that and what I would recommend, which is testing it internally to your own audience first or with some paid traffic, what have you, the truth is you don't need to do that necessarily, and I can tell you why in a minute, but I'll make this short and sweet. The first thing you want to do. Yeah. Let's just say with webinars, for instance, is just following a proven process for creating your webinar in the first place. Something that's proven, like from Russell Brunson or there are other webinar experts. A friend of mine, Joel Irwe. Right now it's based off of Brunson's process, but he has something dialed in. Amy Porterfield, Jason Fladlin. Different people have proven strategies for creating a webinar that kicks butt. So if you just plug in the pieces of your offer and what you have to offer people into that webinar, then that's a good start. But to answer your question more directly, what I always recommend is if you've already got an email list.

To promote it to them first, start Doing the webinar internally, see how your people react to it. If you don't have a list, if you could pay for traffic, get some free Facebook ads going to get people to your sales vehicle, whether it's a webinar or whatever, that's great too. Now, you don't always have to do that. And that goes back to low hanging fruit. I can't tell you how many people. I would say probably 80%. I'm just guessing, but I'm saying about 80% of the people that I've helped get JV partners for their webinars never sent it to their list first and never paid for traffic to it first because they had just one person or more, but one person who was willing to give them a shot and believed in them enough to recommend that to their audience. On the one hand, you don't want people to be your guinea pig, to be the ones that you test your webinar on. But on the other hand, there are people in your network and your closest allies who would be willing to say, yeah, let me, let me see what you got here. Yeah, man, I would totally promote this to my audience. Let me get this out there. When do you want to do it? And so that's my answer to that.

I think that's good. Yeah, I think at the end of the day, test with the audiences that you can control. So maybe it's email, maybe it's these Facebook messenger bots. If you have subscribers there just even, maybe even your Facebook connections, there's a lot of ways that you could just promote to that. If you really don't have a list.

Or spend some money on cold traffic, I mean, obviously traffic, go into losing a little bit of money to test it so you can know your numbers.

Before getting a. Gary Vaynerchuk say, it's like if you're not spending at least 100 bucks to at least throw some eyeballs at a page to test an offer, 100 might not be enough, but at least get some feedback initially.

Right? Well, and also think about this. There are some people who just don't know how to do the Facebook ads, don't have the cash to do it, but they have the contacts, and so they'll make it sweeter for those contacts. Hey, look, I'll pay you 75% commission if you'll share this with your audience. And if you've got quite a bit of contacts, it's pretty, pretty simple to find one person that would do it for you. But obviously it's ideal if you're sending people to your own list first and do the paid traffic route.

So I think the last question, Andy, and this is always pretty standard, but I think we always learn a new book. But what's one book that you feel like is just the number one book on your bookshelf? Maybe it's one that you read every year.

Okay. Boy, it's hard. I got six listed here.

You can list off multiple if you want. We won't hold you to the 1.

Give me kind of a. Yeah, well.

I can tell you that the probably the most influential book for me in terms of what I do and what I think would help most people. It's kind of a boring one, I think, to mention because it's probably something people have mentioned before on your podcast, I don't know. But a book that I read quite a few years ago is how to Win Friends and Influence People.

Dale Carnegie. Yeah, that's a good one.

Yeah. And actually it's actually I typed out a quote that I was going to mention at the beginning of this. You know, kind of set the stage. But just if you don't mind me reading this, go for it. This is pretty powerful. On page 54 of that book, it says you can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. So I had that highlighted. I was flipping through the book this morning when I was preparing for this call, and I saw where I'd highlighted that probably 20 years ago. I've had this book forever, since I was like 22 or something. Wow, 46 now. So. But I found that highlighted and I thought, man, that's the whole basis behind what I do. And so for anyone listening to this, if you are looking to get JV partners on board, to get referrals, collaborate with people and so on, the more you go up to people at live events and just really authentically care about them and ask them about them and don't be thinking about what you're going to say next about you while they're talking and instead really listen to them. And while you're listening to them, you may think of something or someone who could help them get what they want and then let them know about that. And then that leads into deeper conversations and then potential deals down the road, even when you're not trying.

I think that's amazing.

Sorry, I missed that. I wasn't listening. Can you repeat it?

You were waiting to talk, were you? Huh? No. Like that's. It reminds Me of two things. First thing is something from Tim Ferriss podcast. Read in his book, though Tools of Titans is be first. Be the first one to initiate, like with a smile when you see someone, like in your neighborhood or even just on the street. And be first. First to maybe send a text message to someone you haven't talked to in years. And that just opens up so many doors. And then immediately they're like, oh, he's thinking of me. And it sounds simple, but then when you get in their head, you're like, oh, man, you got control. Not meaning in a bad way, but anything can happen. Yeah.

Well, I can give you just a really quick example here, if you don't mind. Make it 20 seconds or less. This morning I reached out to somebody. I won't say his name, but he's a marketing guy who's had some really serious health issues and has been going downhill. And I just reached out to him to see how he was and what I could do for him. And we got in a conversation which led to me introducing him to someone else who had been going through some similar issues. And now they're supposed to talk. And the other guy that was going through similar issues had beat his situation through healthy diet and some other things. And I just. Just wanted to help, you know, and that's it. I'm not trying to get a JV deal going or anything like that. That's how you want to treat people in every situation in life, but also in business. And most people, I won't say most, but a lot of people don't think of that.

Totally. Yeah.

They're in a business setting thinking.

Think about other people first. Even if it's just texting them a happy birthday, you know, not on Facebook, but on their phone. And then you break through clutter and then you're top of mind.

Yeah, Yep, absolutely. Because you never know where those. Those little bits of effort are going to lead.

Yeah, absolutely. So we do have one last question.

Where do you want to send people after listening to this episode? Where can people learn more about you? Where would you like them to go afterwards?

Sure. Well, yeah, I appreciate that. Well, at this point, my website is under construction and I'm actually still determining the branding of that. So what you could do if you wanted, I'll just give you. Yeah, just go to my Facebook profile if you'd like. You can do that. You can also go to a Facebook group that I started some time ago. It's called Decade of Deal Making. And the. The URL for that is decadeofdealmaking.com so that'll point you right to the Facebook group. You can add yourself and either myself or an admin will accept that and then reach out to me with any questions.

I like that idea. Yeah, hop to the group, because Facebook groups are amazing. And then you can network with more amazing people and people like Andy. Right on, Andy. Well, appreciate it, man.

Yeah, thanks so much for doing this.

And, yeah, yeah, we'll talk soon. And. And we'll. We'll make some deals. Let's go make some deals.

Awesome. Yeah, thanks, guys. Really appreciate it.

Thanks, man.

Hey, thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. Now, if you don't know already, myself and my partner, Joe Fear, every single week, we put together this killer weekly newsletter that's completely free. If you go to theweeklyprophet.com you can get on this weekly newsletter. And what we do with this newsletter is we scour the Internet. We read every piece of content, listen to blog posts, check out new software and tools, and we distill down the best of the best into a weekly newsletter and deliver it directly to your inbox every single week. So head over to theweeklyprophet.com and make sure you're signed up to receive that weekly newsletter. You're going to love it. Thanks so much again for listening to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. We'll see you in the next one.