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Full-Powered Partnerships Featuring Janine Warner

Well, we've come down the path to the part where it gets really juicing you get anticipate some of the rewards, but one of the rewards is visceral on these full, partnered, full powered partnerships and that's, when you work with people you just truly admire, I've known ah person journeyed warner for twenty years now, and she's taught me so much as as good partners do, but the thing I want to say is, I love the behavioral research, angela, where it says you, you never look more becoming than when you're talking about someone you truly admire and respect and that's one of the side benefits about partnerships, and so janine has really been a trailblazer, and so I've asked, you need to come in this camel parents, and like me, she prefers to talk about others in china spotlight mothers, but I'd like her to share with you the kind of partnership she's done to be able to make her offering more complex and valuable and the past she took to it, and then you can ask you some questions that may ...

come out of it that relate to what you're doing. So if janine is here, archer welcome hi, janine hikari andi, I would just love you to share with them one of your many partnerships, but the one that helped choose sort of create and build out your own agency that already is diverse and what it does and how you partner to create a specific service for others? Well, first of all, I have to say that you have taught me so much over the years about partnering and that I feel are cross consulting over the years the way you've taught me things and I have taught you things this is really the model I've based most of my other partnerships on ever since, so let me just start by thanking you for that thank you. I've been watching your class yesterday and today and I've seen you do lots of key notes for one hour, but getting so much from you in two days is really say she's doing it okay, so you invited me on to talk about one of the partnerships that I created recently where would you like me to start? I would like you to describe who you partnered with and why and the seminar you created as a result and how you think you're accomplishing something greater than you could on your own. Perfect. So I'm working with another creative live instructor named aaron manning and aaron manning as a photographer and author of photography teacher and and if you know me, you know that I'm all about the internet I'm a web designer web design teacher and I like to help people tell their stories online so there are lots of ways that I work with especially small businesses to help them but their businesses on the internet, and I've been fortunate to teach a number of classes here, a creative live because I recommended are erin manning also has done a classic creative live, and we started talking about what each of us teach, how we serve similar audiences in different ways, and how we could combine our experience to do something better together than either of us does alone. Kara, I thought it might be helpful to tell your audience some of how aaron and I met, connected and lead to thinking about doing this partnership together. Would that be a good way to go? Yes, that part, and then how you found the sweet spot and how it became one of a kind? Yes, great. Well, first, about aaron and I met in a very powerful way, and I think when you're in a business setting and somebody you admire and respect introduces you to somebody else that's always a great start, so she and I had the advantage of meeting because we're both authors for wiley publishing. We were both invited to book expo to do interviews in the booth that wily publishing and I know you like to be specific and memorable moments help things stand out today that erin and I were talking about web design and photography, respectively. Two of the other interviews that day were dr ruth and hugh hefner oh my and as you might imagine, they talked about very different topics it certainly gave us lots to talk about amongst herself a cz we watch them and really extraordinary dr ruth is somebody I truly admire not only because she wrote sex for dummies but for many other things that she's done and at the end of the day in this booth the marketing manager who introduced us and who aaron and I both admire turned to us and said, hey, do you want to come to dr ruth eightieth birthday party and the two of us just looked at each other like, is that a trick question? And we had an amazing chance to bond in this really exciting place so that was a great start to the possibility of working together and discovering all the things we have in common the way that we interacted with people and we could both see each other in a very public in a very professional setting. So that's a great way to study somebody you're thinking about working with how did they work with others? How are they respected by others? A man and I'm sure that's a criteria that you teach and support and I know I've learned from you at least in part so she and I built milk mutual respect starting with that but then, through a number of meetings, we had dinner together, we've been to each other's homes, if I'm going to go a ce faras partnering with somebody in a serious way, I like to see where they come from some of my partners or virtual and live in other parts of the world, but whenever possible, I'd like to actually get into their home, get into their office. You can learn so much about how someone works, how they present themselves in the world, what things, what objects matter to them. Those details really gave me a lot of insight into how aaron and I could work together. She is a beautiful home, she takes good care of her things, I could tell that she was likely to follow up and do what she said, so then we started recommending each other. She recommended me for a speaking engagement that went well for both of us. I recommended her for creative live, which is obviously a great thing for both of us, and now we're talking about creating, of course together that brings each of our strengths together, focused on the same audience in different ways that we teach perfect and what that course be about, so we're calling it the weekenders website, and the whole point of it is, but not everybody wants to spend all the time, equipment and money it takes to be a professional photographer, but a lot of small businesses do need enough photos enough video to illustrate a website. Similarly, I love to get into the depth and teach all the technical details next week. I'm teaching a class on html and css for people who I really want to get under the hood and completely customize their sites, but a lot of my audience are people who are very busy with their own businesses, their creative women professionals, a lot of solo entrepreneurs, a lot of very small businesses in my audience and also in erin's audience. So when we realized we had this shared audience of people who had very little time but wanted a very professional presentation on the internet, we realized that if she could teach the crash cars and photography whatever whatever camera you have the photo one on one get the beautiful photos that look professional, shoot that short video that makes your website really come to life, and then I could spend some time showing you how to optimize that image and get it easily on the web howto the best way to host your video and then pull it all together on a website, we could create a website program that in a weekend you could pull off and go back to that busy life you have on monday impressive and notice out concrete it is that is wonderful I will also say you're so impressive that you even upstaged your captivating cat in the background e the cyber cat always wins the cute award yes if we could I'd like to see what questions people might might have for you since what you're doing overlaps in some ways with what they're doing to any questions come to mind from the students here say hello to janine hi there hey nice to hear your voice I great to see you thank you for joining today now are you going are you going to throw chocolate through the screen you know if I could I would know that I love to throw chocolate I will be throwing tie up next week in my creative life class I promise I'm sure that has a lot of meaning I know what it's like hey sorry anybody who's watched my classes no that I throw chocolate its students when they answer questions well or come up with something creative it's a little weird it's just done that way do have a question though so renee yes well it seems to me like part of the way that a lot of these initial partnerships are made is through this a shared interest you know that is not necessarily like this sales special you're calling up blindly and saying I'd love to talk to you more I have this idea s o maybe you can both talk a little bit more about how you can get more exposure to being a speaker or being on a panel or, you know, getting a chance to meet other colleagues obviously can go to conferences but to really get a highlighted space you know? I mean I don't need to go teach a creative lie, of course, but you know something that would also him I maybe and when I got that's more times we're talking about the more full powered partnerships joining in the state where you build out from two to others and that dovetails with what you're asking because sometimes there's more opportunities for visibility as they had more partners on um and I'll be talking to about the becoming a media magnet later on as well. Are you planning on exploring any other partners down the line? Funny you might mention that car I think you know a great thing to add to that might be some of the things that you teach about how you present yourself, how you I haven't discussed this use your words so well to present your story, your business and I know that you coach lots of people who are very awkward it speaking into becoming very eloquent and that might be a really wonderful compliment to this one of the things that erin and I have talked about is that there might be a core two day course she teaches one day I teach another day, but then a whole package of products around it, the books, the starter kit and maybe related products from people like you and other coaches and other people who sir, of this audience so it's, kind of infinitely expandable. If you really think about it, I'm honored. And so what just came to mind when you and I am honored is going back to what renee was asking. We've also talked in the past, but we've been so busy with opportunity. She's, an extraordinary public speaker as well, is packaging it where there might be two or three people for conference that already exists, like an annual conference to say you have a pre conference program or let's have a story thread to your overall conference will offer things in sequence, and I have value added and weaken cross reference because we know each other and our little package could be underwritten by a sponsor of the association because they get visible it's not one time, but over time. So those are some of the ways that we explored in the past. I bet you have some other ideas. Well, there was one other thing I wanted to relate to the question from the audience there, which is how you kind of come up with these ideas, and whether you're pitching him, I don't think erin or I either of us, really pitched the other on the idea. I ultimately, I think I initiated the conversation, probably because I've spent more time with curry, but it really came out of her and I talking about what we do, what we're passionate about, who our favorite students are. So if she and I were both to say, some of our favorite students, and we teach lots of different kinds of people, but women, creative professionals, running their own small businesses is a niche that she and I really hone in on really enjoyed working with and really seemed to resonate with, because we're both women teachers in mostly male dominated teacher professions, so we really had to attract that audience. Yes, and you're doing like the triple mitch, three aspects to them that you're passionate about, and it's clear for several people on the internet of joined us, and for the people here, we don't like pitching, we don't like being sold to are doing showing, so you really resonate, you resonate with us on that button. Is there another question from a student here? Angela, how what you were just explaining about making a connection with somebody in common interests and whatnot, but what about potential partner that you see that's out there that you don't know that sort of you would have to cold call on how do you make that meeting happen? We think there's lots of ways to introduce yourself to people car is a pro it and how you approach people but I really think if you're going to partner with somebody seriously, you need to know them pretty well so you might reach out to somebody in a cold called the very simple, very minimal request I know car he was talking about starting safe and choosing something that's very low risk for both of you. So erin and I literally started by just cross referencing each other. I recommended her for something she recommended me for something we both delivered on that we both validated each other's recommendations that was really good evidence that if we tried something together we could count on each other and rely on each other, so there are lots of ways to partner there lots of ways to share resource is frankly, she and I started doing what curry and I started doing naturally from the start this cross consulting I've learned a lot about photography erin took my favorite photo of me ever taken by anybody and she literally came over put her own jean jacket over my shoulder is happy with make up and then took the photo because she's got that whole package I turned around and really spent a lot of time as she was redesigning her website talking through all of the different elements of that and when I did my course on redesigning websites I brought her in as a guest because she was a perfect example of what I teach harshly because she and I have been working together on the site even though she hired somebody else to build it so there are lots of different ways that she and I partnered gently and in small ways before we came to this bigger idea now we're going to co create something neither of us could quite create on her own that's a whole going to take a lot of time and energy to produce to package to market to deliver and you reminded me again of one of the best ways to vet somebody is the cross consulting and seen how helpful they are and if you make request do they follow up yeah so those air wise insights I want to see if I can squeeze in one more question if there is one here and there is yeah we were talking earlier you made a suggestion well maybe me partnering with like wealth management and unlikely partner right right for a scale yeah such market that you have for an upscale shopping experience um off the top of my head I don't know any of those I don't have coffee with those people that I know of so I think the question is relating to how do you really start to develop on organic relationship with someone that's not just in your circle or at some of the same types of events and things that you're out? I could give a techie digital suggestion yes please dio my was going that way myself one thing I tell people a lot when they're looking for pitching something to an editor looking for a partner looking for investment all the different reasons that we look for context that we don't know very well is to go someplace like lengthen look for them you can search by their name title business all kinds of different ways you can search, lengthen and then look and see if you have any friends in common because one of the most powerful ways to reach out to somebody you don't know very well is to go through somebody you d'oh so if you can find a commonality that always helps in making an introduction but also what curry was saying earlier and curry forgive me I've tried to pay attention to as much of the last day and a half of that in my own travels I logged in last night and watch the rebroadcast of most of it believes you're in the country it does help to be physically in the united states today yeah, but my point is you've been talking about following up with people on twitter building connections and I think a lot of us look at social media and think of it as a way to broadcast ourselves, but one of the most powerful things you're going to and social media is listen it's, just step back and listen. And so if there's somebody, you're thinking about reaching out to start reading their twitter feed religiously, look and see what they're saying on facebook, find out if they're out of the country. If you wanted to meet me and you would approach me a week and a half ago, I was in ukraine teaching journalists how to cover the riot it's going on in the plaza, that was not a good time to try and reach out to me about working together, but if you looked at my social media this week, you'd probably find out that I'm back in l a, and I'm probably going to be much more receptive to getting an email and as I'm leading up to my own creative life class next week, I'm thinking about creative live and then be a good time to retail and say, hey, I'm a creative life student and you see where I'm going with us? If you read what people who are active on social media or posting, you can learn a lot about who they are, when it might be best to approach them, and what kinds of things you might use in that initial introduction. That's very concrete that's very helpful. Would you mind telling us the name of the class coming up? Oh, you know what? You want to give you a chance to promote my own creative life. D'oh partner she's so good at that, isn't she? So I am delighted to say that on monday and tuesday I will be a creative, live teaching ht melons css, and if you've never gone either of these things before, you could start from zero with my class, I will take you from them. Most basics by the end of the second day will be editing the css and wordpress and more complicated sites, so we'll start with the very, very basics and a text editor will do a little bit with dreamweaver along the way, and we'll end up with a wordpress site where we're customizing the css and really tweaking the design to make in our own. It should be a soup to nuts two days, so if you want to go deeper with your web design.