297: Smart Strategies to Build Trustworthy Online Collaborations

Melissa Henault:

I'm starting with Marla. So we'll let you go first, my friend.

Marla:

Yeah. I was I my question was about connections. So I've been doing a lot of taking people into Zoom and meeting them and things like that, and we've talked both the burnout to all out group and folks that I'm meeting on LinkedIn. And my big question is, like, how do I vet if this person is for real? How do I know? Because in the virtual environment, I could make a whole website, I could say a bunch of things, and then not have the actual authority. That's kind of the downside of meeting someone in real life versus online. I'm thinking, like, brainstorming with folks, and then I'm like, in the end, I get offline and I sit back and I go, well, I don't know. How do I know? So Yeah. Thoughts on that?

Melissa Henault:

So it sounds like you're doing kind of a quality check on the connections, or is this like a quality check on people that you'd consider doing business with, or what are you sifting them out for?

Marla:

2 things. 1, the group of people that are all in this room that somehow we could collaborate on bringing a greater audience together through a mutual LinkedIn live or LinkedIn audio or some kind of newsletter article or something like that, like sharing. How do you say to someone, I don't know how good you are without because I don't want that to happen, and then all of a sudden my audience is, okay, what was that about? Do you know what I mean? And so Yep. There's that group. And then the second one is I'm really aiming for partnership, like, who is gonna give us lots of leads, other workplace wellness consultants or other people who deliver wellness services through you know, and who can give us, like, share networks, essentially. Mhmm. Yeah. And so I don't know their authority.

Marla:

I don't know the best way to vet it, and I still don't know how the best way to say it tactfully. Because I think about it, and then I'm like, that's not a very tactful way to think about it. How do I even say it in a way

Melissa Henault:

Yeah. So let's start with vetting out folks to put in front of your own audience. I'm a big fan of experiencing that person before I'm gonna risk putting them in front of my audience. For instance, inside this community, you will never get a guest speaker that I have not experienced myself. And same thing for my podcast. I'm just entering into a new mastermind, 2 new masterminds. And it can be really easy when we all first meet to be like, oh, let's like podcast swap. And I'm that asshole that, like, waits a couple months because I, like, wanna get to know the people in the group first and kinda really get to know their products and services because in the past, I've just, like, rapid action given out my, like, link to book for podcasts with people in my mastermind that I'm in.

Melissa Henault:

And then you get a couple that just aren't great on screen and don't interview well, then you feel bad being like, well, I'm not gonna produce that one. So even when you're sorting out the audience here in the burnout to all out community, what I would do is ask for some resources where you can experience them. So whether it's a podcast interview, one of the things I would do when I was getting started like you guys is one of the best things you can do is get yourself as a guest on some people's podcast where you're being asked questions and you're coming across as the authority. So people can see how you perform in the q and a scenario and how well your content. Because websites are 2 dimensional. So I ask for resources. Right? That's one of the best things you can do is get a podcast episode if they've been a guest. Do they have a book? Ask them what their best resource is where you can experience them.

Melissa Henault:

That's the word I like to use. It's like, how can I experience you before I put you in front of my audience? The other thing is, do they have a speaker sheet? All of you guys should create a speaker sheet. Right? Like, what are the key topics you could speak on? Where have you been featured and or how many lives have you touched? I have a speaker sheet that talks about 60,000 students have gone through my free master class. X number of students have gone through my coaching programs, and then I have direct links for certain podcasts that I've been on. And to really help each other out, give them a topic you wanna be interviewed on so that you know you'll perform well for them. I don't know if any of you guys know Lori Harder, but I'm gonna be on her podcast on Monday in her studio, and they ask, what are the questions you want us to ask you? So you can make sure they shine their best in front of your audience by asking them what they want you to ask that they know really well. Right? So that's another way to make sure they perform well in front of your audience. So that's the first thing.

Melissa Henault:

And then as far as collabs, I don't know that there's a scenario where it's a bad scenario that someone shares you with their network, whether they have a big network or a smaller network. I think when you're first getting started in that scenario, every crumb is a meal. Wherever you can get me in front of your audience, even if it's a small audience, is better than no audience and just your audience. Right? So the more you can collab with each other's networks early on, the more you're gonna be able to grow your network. Ideally, you wanna align with people who have overlapping ideal clients. But early on, I would be networking with and collaborating where you can, where there's overlapping networks even if they're not big. Does that make sense?

Marla:

network is larger. It's like: 1500

Marla:

Well, there has to be one call to action at the end. Right? So if it's too collaborative, then it will be like, go to Marla's site and do this, and then go to her site and do this. And so the the brainstorm we came up with was interviewing each other for one call to action at the end of I was interviewing her. So you're starting this new class happening in October. Everyone go sign up. So what do you think about that, like, doing 2 of them?

Melissa Henault:

Yeah. I think that's a great idea and then you get extra content. So I think that's a great idea if you've got the time. Right? The flip side of that is, like, what Chris and Laurie just did. I interviewed them from stage and they turned it into a podcast episode called he said she said, and then she'll produce it on her podcast. He'll produce it on his, and then the intros and outros are just brand specific for their businesses. You could do a LinkedIn live, and this depends on if you wanna do a little bit of editing, not to get too technical, but if you didn't wanna have to double interview, like, do 2 separate ones, you could do 1 and then record your own little intro to it in your own little outro, like, call to action and just patch it in and then rerun it through LinkedIn live as if it's live. All you have to do is push it through a broadcaster.

Melissa Henault:

Then you're not having to sit for 2 hours and you've just sat for 1, but the call to action at the end and the intro was just slightly different.

Marla:

We did talk with someone who does LinkedIn lives regularly and they were like, oh, we just prerecord them. We broadcast them like they're live and then we put them on YouTube directly after. Yeah. I was like, that's an interesting way of doing it because my life's very crazy and things get canceled sometimes. Yep.

Melissa Henault:

We do that all the time.

Marla:

Mhmm. Thank you.