258: How To Negotiate Collaborations Like a Pro

Melissa:

I'm gonna start with Darla. Is Darla here? There she is. Because she's first on the list, and she's got some questions around fees and coaching. Do you want me to read it out loud, or do you just wanna jump into your questions?

Darla:

Please. Because I don't remember exactly all I asked you.

Melissa:

Okay. Sure.

Darla:

So it says, how

Melissa:

do you determine program fees with other coaches and consultants? How do you and how did you and Colin work out the offer for the group? I'm getting asked to collaborate more with others in exchange for access to their audiences. I can offer our program at a reduced rate because of the free exposure. How did you map out how much to lower your program fee since I haven't qualified other audiences? How do you determine who you want to leverage? Okay. Great Great example. And then you've got, like, for example. Do you want me to walk through the the example as well that you have here? Sure. Sure. Okay.

Melissa:

So it says, for example, if I wanted to leverage a group I'm coaching to your program, how would could I market that to them? Is that just a referral fee? How do you structure some of those ancillary programs to get access to other audiences, or how do you set up, your pay structure when others bring people to your program? How did you go about mapping that out? Okay. So I feel like there's, like, a couple of layers of questions in here. So let's start with, Colin. How did you work out an offer for the group? So, and you guys may have heard Colin say this in the workshop, but, like, he doesn't like, many of us don't charge to publicly give value to audiences because it the value is in the exposure to the audience. Right? So part of it is it depends on who's asking you to speak. Right? So, so Colin and I didn't work anything out. As a matter of fact, he was just he was speaking at Chris Harder's mastermind, and it was the second time I'd heard him speak, and he had really profoundly impacted me. I'm always looking for speakers who could bring value to my audience.

Melissa:

At this point in my business, I also know the value of, like, the size of my audience, an audience that is ideal for people that I don't like, I I don't offer to pay people ever, unless they request, and then I'll make the decision whether I wanna pay them or not. Because, Colin got mass exposure to you guys. And you also have to be careful who you bring in and partner with, and this is just business 101. This is not scarcity mindset. This is protecting your business. You don't wanna bring in people who are who are coaching and doing similar things as you, whether they're more advanced, whether they're more, kind of preliminary. You you just have to be careful to create strategic alliances or partnerships with people who are in parallel swim lanes. Right? So I knew Colin could bring tremendous value to you guys with the sales strategy of telling stories.

Melissa:

But when you look at his portfolio and what he does, there's no, like, overlay mass competition of, like, leads. We're just we're just sharing audiences, growing our you know, growing growing the businesses. Right? So it was more of a I scratch your back, you scratch mine. He wanted me on his podcast to bring value to his audience. Right? So it ended up being a swap where he was like, oh, I would love for you to come to my podcast, and I was like, and I would love for you to come speak to my group. Right? And, he doesn't create so there was no money swapped. There was no payment. There was no kickback.

Melissa:

I didn't get anything for anything that anyone bought from him, and that's just in one scenario. Right? Like, he never does discounts. He will do affiliate kickbacks, but I didn't want them. I told him I'd rather him give it to our audience because my audience is already paid to be in my program. Right? Like, they're already just paid $6,000 to be in Build Grow Scale or they just paid $20,000 to be in the mastermind. I don't want them to feel like now they need to go invest this x amount of money and me get money off of it. Right? So that's in that's, like, the specific Colin example. Right? So it can vary vastly with who who you're collaborating with and who you're working with.

Melissa:

The flip side of that is getting my business started when I go back to my humble beginnings, I was getting in front of any and every group that I could get in front of. Like, it didn't matter. Like, back in my when I was marketing in the direct sales space, I would get in front of large groups and large teams, and I didn't know what was gonna come my way. And what I would do is create, like, a 20% discount if you enroll. Like, I would give a coupon code to facilitator who owned the audience.

Darla:

Mhmm.

Melissa:

And it I would offer that facilitator. I, like, can even either give this to your audience or I can give it to you. Right? Mhmm. So you give you give that you give the person who owns the network the choice. Would they rather pocket that money, or would they rather, would they rather give it to their audience? And I've seen people go both ways with that. So you can take that strategy as well. Where I've pay where I've paid people is also just kinda knowing just knowing what you're asking for and knowing that there's not the law of reciprocity. So for instance, with Stefanos, I didn't ask him to come out for free because I know his niche work, and I wasn't gonna be sharing it.

Melissa:

There wasn't there wasn't this law of reciprocity like there is with Colin and I. I was like, I will pay your flight. I will pay you $5,000. This is gonna be really valuable to my audience. Right? Got it. That's I didn't see a big two way street of, like, what he was gonna get out of it by showing up to you guys, because I know he's, like, 40 k to work with. Like, it's not gonna be a big lead generator for him to show up, but I knew how how profound it was gonna be for you guys, so I was willing to pay.

Darla:

Got it.

Melissa:

It totally depends on the relationship. Does that make sense?

Darla:

It does. And it helps me think of which lane I'm in and which way to go about thinking through that, without overthinking that. So no. That that helps me that helps me a lot. Thank you.

Melissa:

Yeah. And at this point, I have Ali vet out. Like, I used to get on anybody's podcast.

Darla:

Yeah.

Melissa:

Now it's like a super vet out of, like Yep. Like, time is money.

Darla:

Yeah.

Melissa:

And you again, every crumb is a meal when you're first getting started, and then you have to be strategic about where you're putting your time. And now pretty much

Darla:

side, that is exactly where I'm at. Yeah.

Melissa:

Where I

Darla:

was like before, sure, free exposure. And now it's it's so time consuming to do that that I wanna make sure it makes sense without negating what the access to that audience is. But it the the law of reciprocity is the way I need to be thinking about that. If there's if there's no law of reciprocity, then is that something I should be paid for, or is there another opportunity? So that helps me think through that, so that's great.

Melissa:

100%. And you know your hourly worth. Like, you know you're right. So Ali and I, we've been asked to come in and be guest speakers, and we'll like, I'll look at their audience and their network. And if it doesn't seem like there's that equal law of reciprocity, I'll have Ali respond with, well, it's gonna be $4,000. She'd love to work she'd love to come present. And, usually, they're like, okay. I thought you're gonna do this for free.

Melissa:

Right? And it's like Yeah. You quickly you can qualify your time.

Darla:

Right? Yep. Okay. Awesome.

Melissa:

Thank you. Yeah. Anything else? Any any follow-up before we move on?

Darla:

I think that's it. The biggest thing is just knowing as some of these opportunities are coming my way, what's the best way to leverage them without, you know, looking to get towards in the mouth, but also understanding it has to still make sense for me. It isn't Totally. Just about the exposure because I'm getting to and I know you've said this to me, but I'm getting to that capacity standpoint of I I can't do anything else right now until I change the whole model. And so trying to just leverage how I make that transition while still building in this capacity with my clients that I do have and having that revenue be there Yeah. While I'm transitioning and doing this other stuff. So no. That's perfect.

Darla:

Exactly what I needed.

Melissa:

Yeah. The last thing last thing I'll say on this, and this might sound ruthless, but I've definitely been in seasons. You guys have talked you've heard me talk about the little I self preservation all the way to expansion to the big I of impact. And there's there's moments when you're creating momentum in your business where you have to have some type of boundaries. And there for there for about a year and a half, my motto was, if it doesn't bring me joy, does not grow my bank account, it's not, I'm not doing it. Mhmm. Right? And so it was a decision. It was a ruthless decision that I had to make.

Melissa:

Right? Now, you know, as you come full circle and that we've you've got, you know, momentum and, you know, I'm not in the mat midst of, like, trying to lift up a business, I can be much more philanthropic with my time when I want to. Right. Right? But when you're first getting started, you gotta be careful. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Darla:

No. That that's perfect. And figuring out the best way to add value to other people of what you really know is gonna add value versus what they perceive is going to add value just because of what they may see on a highlight reel versus, am I really going to be able to help this audience? And that matters too because I think that also goes to your, reputation and your integrity whether it's paid or not of okay. Great. She came, but she didn't do anything for me.

Melissa:

Right. Well and that's the other thing I love about running free master classes, and you don't have to do them for 9 days like we do. But it's when you're getting inquiries like that, you can say, hey. I'm so glad you're interested. Here's something totally free that you guys can participate in. And at this point, many of you can do this too. It's like, if you're running some webinars or educational stuff, we've broken them down into podcast series as well. So they're really people think we're pulling it down in 9 days.

Melissa:

But if they are willing to, like, dig through my podcast, all 9 days are in my podcast. Right? So we can share that with people and say, hey. This would be of really high value to your audience or to your network or here, share this link and get your audience into this master class. It'll be tremendous value. I don't personally have time right now, but this is a great start. Right?

Darla:

Love it. Yep. Yep. Awesome.

Melissa:

Alright. Thank you.