31: Amplify Your Impact: Mastering Organic Collaborations with Meg Burrage

Hi, I'm Lydia. In 2020, I resigned from my corporate job and took a big leap of faith. I launched a business I had been dreaming about for a long time. I had so many questions when I first started and zero people on my email list. But I was committed to one thing. Taking massive imperfect action. Within 18 months, I had thousands of students in my courses and coaching programs and was able to retire my husband from his 30 year career to work with me. I'm still pinching myself that we get to run a six figure business while living a life we love. But the truth is this overnight success did not happen overnight. For more than two decades, I let imposter syndrome, fear of failure and perfectionism hold me back from my passions and purpose. What is it that you've been wanting to launch? In the Launch Perspective Podcast, we share the mindset and the step by step strategies that will help you launch and scale the online business of your dreams so you can live life with more freedom and impact. It's time for a new Perspective. Welcome to the show. Hi everybody, Lydia here. I would love to welcome you to today's podcast because I have a very special guest with me and if you're joining through the podcast, welcome to Launch Perspective. We're actually recording this episode live inside my Facebook community. So if you're here with me live, be sure to say hello in the comments. We'd love to chat with you and answer your questions at the end of our little chat today, so be sure to do that. And if you're listening on the podcast and not yet a part of our Facebook community, you can request to join@launchperspective.community so be sure to join us over there. It's an amazing group of entrepreneurs, course creators, coaches, we love sharing launch strategies and tech tips with all of you. So today my special guest is my wonderful friend, Meg Burridge. And a quick story about how I met Meg. Many of you know that I launched my business in March of 2020, two weeks before the Pandemic shut down the world. And one of the activities or events that Kajabi hosted during those first three months of Pandemic was something called a Kajabi Meetup. And this was a zoom meetup where Kajabi users could gather and share ideas. And that is where I met the amazing Meg Burridge. And I just remember the very first tip. Whatever the tip was that she shared, I was instantly connected with her. I was like, this is my person right here and we have known each other and been connected ever Since. So I'm thrilled to have her on the podcast. I want to tell you a little bit about her, and then I'm going to bring her on the screen. But Meg is an amazing Kajabi expert launch strategist. She just has so many gifts in helping people build an online business. And what we're chatting about today are collaborations, an opportunity for you to grow your online business organically in ways you may not have thought of. So let me go ahead and welcome Meg. Meg, I'm so thrilled that you're here with us today.

Hello, Lydia. Thank you so much for having me on. This is exciting. Your podcast intro is so good. Like, every time I listen to you, I think, geez, I've got to do better with my podcast. Lydia does this. So great. I'm going to go back and, like, rerecord mine now.

Well, it's just so much fun getting to introduce people and tell everybody where you are in the world, because we're not necessarily neighbors.

No, that is true. It's always difficult to meet the time zone that I'm in wherever I am, but I'm Australian for anybody who doesn't pick up the accent. And I am currently based in the Netherlands, so it's sort of last thing in the afternoon over here.

Exactly. But isn't it amazing how as online entrepreneurs, we can connect with people from all over the world? I love that aspect.

Thank goodness we can, because otherwise I would have no friends. I mean, I don't speak Dutch. I've been here for two years, and I haven't really met anyone. Without my online community, I'd be really feeling pretty isolated, I think.

I know so many of my friends are online as well, but don't you feel like you could pretty much end up anywhere in the world and you'd have a friend? Absolutely.

And best friends. I'm going on safari with some of my online friends in South Africa next month. It's super exciting. Who would have thought? Yeah.

Oh, that is so amazing. I think that's what's so awesome about our topic today. Because so many times when people launch an online business, they feel isolated. They feel so alone. And making those connections with peers and mentors and coaches and just people who are living the same life that you are makes such a difference. And it's one of the reasons why I love collaborations. Getting to connect with those people and work together. But I want to hear from you about this topic of collaborations, because I will tell you, when I first started my business, I underestimated the opportunities that were out there to grow my business organically. So will you share with everybody, like, what, what does collaboration even mean? And what are some of the things you've seen that have worked so well for people?

Yeah, I mean, I guess the, the way that I got started with collaboration in the first place is because, you know, like many people, I wanted to create an online course and then I just, you know, spent all this time putting together the content and then had really no one to tell about it. And I wasn' very good at Facebook ads. Like, if anybody ever finds me on a Facebook ad, I think it's a miracle because I'm always just like, you know, feeling around in the dark, just aiming and hoping that something sticks. But my Facebook ad skills are pretty much non existent. So for me, you know, it was really like, how can I find an audience? And collaborations came into play. And I think for a lot of people, you know, when they think about collaborations, a lot of people fall back to thinking that it's maybe just affiliate marketing or, or reciprocal type launches. You know, I'll promote your thing and then you'll promote my thing. But collaboration can, can be such a vast number of strategies. You know, for me, one of the first strategies that I used was a be the bonus strategy, which was where I'd put my course together. And then I got to the point where I was like, what am I going to include as program bonuses? Because I've already put like everything in the kitchen sink inside of this course and I've got nothing left. So it was like, well, should I start stripping out main inclusions and calling them bonuses? What I decided to do was just tap a few people on the shoulder and say, hey, I think your template could be amazing as a bonus in my program. Or, you know so much about SEO and I know nothing about SEO, so could you please come and run a masterclass and we'll call it a bonus? So, you know, I managed to fill out my first sales page with all of these partner bonuses and that has just worked brilliantly for the last few years, you know, because you're tapping in then to the collaborators audiences, you know, they're happy to spread the word about your program because their thing, whatever it is, is included in the program as a bonus. So they're getting paid for it. So that's just one of the ways that I have used it. But I think, you know, I see a lot of people these days with collaboration fall back on. You know, they come up with one strategy, one collaboration strategy that they're comfortable with, like I'm just going to go and speak on every summit and, or I'm just going to go and contribute to every single bundle, you know, and they get stuck. And I think, you know, it's really important with collaboration that it does have to be a win win. And I always try and approach conversations with potential collaborators as, you know, as flexibly as I can, you know, because I want to hear what it is that they want out of it. And then I think up the collaboration strategy that fits after the discussion rather than, you know, going in with like a laser focused, this is what we're going to do. So I think flexibility is key and creativity when it comes to collabs, I.

Think that is so smart that you said that. And I think you're right. I think a lot of times we don't extend an invitation to collaborate because we think we have to have all our ducks in a row first to invite someone to collaborate with us. Like they're going to want to know all these details that I may not have yet. And so we, we hold back from, in that conversation and that invitation when really it's the conversation that drives the collaboration. Right. I mean, yes, you have to have that conversation to say, you know, this is what I'm thinking. I'd love to partner with you. Tell me a little bit about who you serve and what you'd love to see to help grow your business. And I know exactly what you were talking about with those partnerships that you offered because, you know, I've been in your programs and when you see your sales page and you see all those bonuses on various topics from various expert, it's totally increases the value. Right. Of what you're offering. So it's a win win for you, it's a win win for your partners who are growing their audience and it's a win win for the people that you've shared those bonuses with. So what an amazing thing. Yeah.

And I think, you know, a lot of people think collaborations have to be revenue generating. I mean, obviously revenue generating is great, but you know, it's collaboration is often not about money and more about list growth. So there are certain strategies you can do with absolutely no audience, but they're going, it's going to grow your audience, grow your list and perhaps you're not going to make a gazillion bucks out of it, but at least you'll have, you know, this expanded list that you can nurture for the coming months.

And I think it also grows your confidence, right?

Absolutely.

When you're new and you're like, you know, I'm not even. I haven't really found my voice yet. I call it, you know, if I haven't really found my voice where I'm confidently speaking about a certain topic or a course I'm creating. But I now have an opportunity to talk to new people, a new audience, get their energy, get their feedback. It improves that confidence that you have. And now you're so much more ready when you are ready to launch. And I love that you said that. The list, building the confidence, the connections. Sometimes it's opportunities you won't even reap a benefit from, maybe right away, but it plants that seed, and you never know where that's going to lead. So I'm so glad that you shared that.

I think another benefit that a lot of people don't think about is how it just almost overnight increases your authority in the space. Like if you're on somebody's sales page as one of the bonuses, SEO. SEO expert. And, you know, or the template from Penny, for example, I mean, Penny's already an expert. But if. If you were like, you know, you had no audience and you didn't feel like you had any credibility or authority, if you can get yourself onto somebody's sales page and then there's like thousands of eyes on this sales page during a launch, then all of a sudden, you know, like, you must be really someone if you're on this page.

Authority. Yes.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, even just speaking in a summit, if you can get yourself onto a summit and there's some, like, big names speaking at the summit, and you're just like, I mean, the other day I was on a summit with Russell Brunson. It's like, wow, somebody invited me to be on a summit with Russell Brunson. You know, I almost, when. When I saw the email inviting me to speak at the summit, I just thought it was some, like, I don't know, spammy email that I should delete. But I was like, let me just open it and see what it's about. I thought, oh, this is. This is going to be great credibility.

I mean, and how amazing. And for those who maybe who don't know what a summit is, so. So when you're in a summit with someone, because I've been in a few summits and they're an amazing opportunity to connect with people. But will you tell everybody, like, what. What does a virtual summit even entail?

Yeah, so a summit is, you know, it's a collection of speakers. Someone will organize the virtual summit on a specific topic. So it might be on, you know, marketing strategies. That particular summit that I was on with Russell was a course launch summit and the summit before that was a Teach me how to Summit summit. So it could really be on anything at all that someone's taken the initiative to put a summit together and then they go out and they look for speakers for their summit. You know, usually it could be upwards of 20 summit speakers. And then as the speaker, if you're happy to do it, you've got to put together a presentation and it's due in by a certain date and you got to prepare all your slides and normally you'll also agree to promote the summit to your list. So it really is this big collaboration of all the summit speakers coming together and pushing the summit out to their audience. And then, you know, normally the summit is free, but after people opt in for the summit, then the next step is generally an All Access Summit pass, which could be priced at anything, usually under 100 bucks. And if you're the person who introduced that buyer, the All Access Pass buyer, into the summit in the first place, then you would receive an affiliate commission.

Isn't it amazing? So you get, it's such a win win for you because you're getting that exposure, you're getting the opportunity to speak to a new audience, but then you're, right now you're sharing the summit and also earning affiliate commission. So there's so many perks and benefits. And I have, like I said, I've been in a few summits, but I actually recently joined one that I found through you and your brand new collaboration station. So I found a summit on there, I submitted my application, I was accepted. I've already recorded my training and that's kicking off in June. And I found that all because of your new brainchild. So will you please tell everybody what Collaboration Station is? Because I think a lot of people think I'd love to be in a summit, I'd love to be in a bundle if they've seen bundles. But how do I find, find them? How do I find the people who do these sort of things? So will you maybe even share your screen and show us what this thing is all about?

Yeah, sure. And I mean, I think it came about because I, you know, when I looked back at the success of my own business, I sort of was able to pinpoint that's all because of collaboration. You know, it's been a relatively short space of time. I started my business in pretty much the beginning of 2019. And I was like, well, how did it. How did it succeed so quickly? And it really came down to the partnerships that I'd been able to create. And then I thought, well, why isn't there, like, a central place where people can easily find collaborations? Because right now it's like, you've got to be in a million Facebook groups, or you got to know the right people, or, you know, you've got to send all these cold pitch emails, listen to a million podcasts, try and find the gap outreach, like, all the things. And I just thought this could be, like, a whole lot easier if we just had a central spot for all these collaborations. So that is how Collaboration Station came about. I will share my screen, Lydia, and give you a quick look at what it is. Okay, so this is the Collaboration Station platform. So people can come over here and they can decide on the niche that they are looking for or. Or niche, I think, as a lot of you guys say, and then what kind of, you know, collaboration strategy they're interested in. But then in our Colab Calendar, we list all of the collaboration opportunities that we're finding out there in the market, in the various Facebook groups, you know, people just letting us know, and we come and put them over here on the calendar so that it's just one spot. I think I've got it here somewhere. So these are the ones that we've just put up this week. So, you know, things like bundles, various bundles on all different topics. Summits. We've got a couple of summits in here if people want to speak at a health and wellness summit or a wedding series summit. And we've got the application closing dates on them, so members can come along and see whether or not it fits with their strategy and then they can apply. Obviously, everybody on Collaboration Station gets a profile. So you can look, Lydia, there you are. So you can filter by, you know, what you're looking for. People will come up. If you click like on them, which looks like I've clicked like on you, then that will add them into your favorites list in the back end, and then you can dig in deeper and go and have a look at their listing. Who have we got here? Elsa. I pulled up Elsa before. So you can have a look at, you know, their audience size and their preferred platforms. What's their area of expertise? So you spend a little bit of time on here, sort of digging through to find out, you know, try and find the people that. That you feel aligned to. And, you know, do they have an affiliate program? If so, they Put their details, application links, all their social links, website, etc. But something that we are also very passionate about is curated connection. Like every time somebody joins Collaboration Station, wherein they're looking at the profile and making note of what they do and what they're looking for and just manually match people up. And, you know, there's so much outreach that goes on at our end, connecting people and telling them, hey, you should go and have a chat to this person, because this is what she does and this is what you're looking for. What else can I show you guys? That one is our collab calendar. Something that we've, you know, we've made sure is a really big part of Collaboration Station is the training. Oh, sorry, not the. The training. It's here, the training events. So we've got mixes, but then we've also got master classes. So a lot of the members have put their hands up and, you know, they've said that they're really good at something, which is true. So we've got Samantha coming in to run a masterclass on writing copy for affiliates. And we've got Dharma Ju that I'm sure a lot of you guys know. She's coming in to run a master class on putting together paid bundles. Courtney Elmer on podcast collaborations. Shari on virtual summits for those who want to learn more about getting involved in summits. And I've just added Liz Melville today. So she's coming in to run a, like a meta ads masterclass when you're getting busy with affiliate launching. And if you need a dose of inspiration, come and have a look at the collaboration case studies, because I have spent the last couple of weeks recording interviews with all sorts of industry experts, including the lovely Lydia, on their preferred collaboration strategy.

I love it. This is. This is amazing. I have so loved being a part of Collaboration State Station. I've had people reach out to me, I've gotten to reach out to other people. I love that you have training and opportunities for events because. Because just searching online for virtual events that you can join is so much harder than going to a place like you've created. It really is an amazing tool. And I was, you know, thinking, you know, a lot of times when people jump into a directory like this, yes, it's pretty simple to set up your profile and do all of those things, but you really also want to master the way to connect effectively. So what I love is that you have a very exciting challenge kicking off next week. So if you're listening to the podcast, of course it is possible that it will be behind us now in time, but hopefully you're hearing this in time to jump into the exciting challenge that you're doing next week. So I'm going to put the link up, but will you please tell everybody about the special challenge that's happening starting May 15th.

So the Abra Collabora four day challenge starts on May 15th, which is all around helping people actually get their first collaboration up and running. So, you know, one part of the challenge training will be to teach people about various collaboration strategies, but we actually want people taking action and connecting with each other to get these collabs up and running. On day one, we've got Nat McWilliams coming in, who is a masterful affiliate program creator. He has run affiliate programs for Stu McLaren, lots of other big name people, and taught over 300,000 people how to put together an affiliate program. So he's going to come in and chat about why you should consider an affiliate program in your business for your own offers. Then on day two, we've got what I'm calling mini Summit day. So over the last couple of weeks I've recorded a lot of interviews. I feel like I have been on Zoom all day for the last couple of weeks and we are going to deep dive into three of those interviews because I spoke with all these people on a different collaboration strategy and all those trainings interviews are available to listen to, but I'm not going to make you sit through all of them on day two. So I've picked three that we are going to dive into on day two to really, you know, really understand the strategy behind those three specific strategies. Then day three, we've got Pam Stevens coming in from the Step Up Network and she is coming to talk about what I call the boring bits, the legalities and protecting your IP when you get started with collaborations. And I just saw her presentation and it's amazing. And then on day four, we will put an actual roadmap in place for getting your collaborations up and running because, you know, you really need to like plan it in, otherwise it just doesn't happen. And then anybody who's participating in the challenge will also receive a free trial to collaboration stations so that you can play around with the platform during our training, get your profile set up, apply to some of those collaboration opportunities, the bundles and the summits that we have listed basically just get all the member benefits while the training is going on. So, yeah, we're excited. I think it's going to be great. I love the whole topic of collaboration so I'm very excited to be able to talk about this all week long.

It's going to be so much fun. I'm looking forward to it. And thanks so much for inviting me to share. We had a fun interview together.

We did. I'm gonna play it for you guys. I have to get you the link. It's really good. I just. Such a good energy, Lydia.

Well, that was a lot of fun and I'm just so excited for everybody. I mean it's what a blessing that you're offering this for free so anybody can jump in, learn more about collaborating effectively. So it's going to be so valuable obviously for everyone. And then for those who decide they want to join Collaboration Station, of course, that is where you'll be talking more about it as well, correct?

Absolutely. Yep. So we're going through our founding member launch right now. We've got sort of our first hundred members on there. So we'll be having crazy, never to be repeated offers during the challenge. And yeah, we're very excited. It's going to be fun. We're going to have a great time next week.

I love it. So we do have a few questions that came in. So someone is asking, do you have to register an account at Collaboration Station.

To check everything out so you can see some things? If you go over to the homepage, you'd be able to bring up the members and then you wouldn't be able to actually open the profile unless you've got an account. You'd be able to bring up the Colab calendar and see what opportunities are listed like the bundles and the summits, but you won't be able to click into them. So it's like first layer you can see, but second layer you do need to be a member. If you're joining us though for Abra Collabora next week, then you'll, you know, you'll have your trial membership and you'll be able to jump in. Something that I set up on the registration page is that, you know, if anybody is kind enough, if they would like to get their first collaboration underway and would be kind enough to share word about Avra Collabora training next week, that it actually unlocks a double duration trial which starts immediately. So you could all go and get started today if you wanted to.

Okay, that's awesome. And the challenge next week is being held inside a Facebook group as well. But people are asking what time daily.

It is at 12pm Eastern. So we've got training is 12 till 1, sorry, 1130 Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Eastern. And then we've got two networking sessions which are 130 till 230 Eastern on Tuesday and Wednesday. So the first networking session is breaking out into pairs. So it's what I call speed dating, where we get around as many people as possible so they actually get to have one on one conversations with people. And then the second networking event is deep diving into various strategies. So we'll have like pods and you can choose the collaboration strategy that you want to learn more about. And then we've got the guest experts coming in to facilitate those pods so you can move around to the strategies that are of interest.

Yes. And I'm so excited to be leading a pod on affiliate marketing. So if people have questions about that, I know many of you have participated in my affiliate marketing workshop, which you can learn more about@banishbusinessclutter.com Blueprint and I created that program because I just, like you saw the power of collaborations, I saw the power of affiliate marketing in a way that I didn't realize was possible when I first launched my business. So being an affiliate for others, having others be an affiliate for you are just two of many collaboration opportunities. And of course, like you've shared, there are so many other opportunities like that. So very, very exciting things. So I see a lot of people, you know, commenting in here on how helpful this was. They loved the tips and different things. I think they're really excited about the challenge next week and all that's going to happen there. But I'm excited too. Thank you so much for creating such an amazing place for entrepreneurs to collaborate with each other.

Oh, my pleasure. I'm just excited to see how it, you know, evolves over the next next 12 months. But yeah, it's great when you find something that you're just so passionate about that you could, you know, just work on it all day long.

I love it. Well, and thank you so much for taking the time to share with our audience today. Share with our podcast listeners. I can't wait to hear feedback on what collaborations they jump into when they're a part of the challenge and part of collaboration station. So thanks for joining me, Meg. It's always a pleasure hanging out with you.

Thank you, Lydia. And we'll see everyone over there next week.

Awesome. Well, thank you again for joining everyone and we will see you on the next live or on the next podcast. Have a great day everybody. Thanks so much for joining me today on the Launch Perspective podcast. Looking for more? Head over to launchperspective.com for show notes and quick links to the content and tools that we shared today. Want to stay up up to date on new podcast episodes or ask a question that I answer on the show? You can do this and more@launchperspective.com See you there.