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Strategic Partnerships

So let's move on to strategic partnerships this is going to be the shortest part there we go the shortest part of this application um because it's super simple there are people out there that you can partner with that will help you sell more and you help them sell more as well media outlets. So this thing that we just did kant content marketing are actually one form of strategic partnerships publishing a piece like that in parent magazine makes parent magazine one of your strategic partners but there's also ways that we can partner together as makers, artists, designers because and I'm sure that you guys saw this in the chat but there's probably a lot of overlap in the conversation that artists makers and designers see themselves as part of and so if you can identify what other designers what other makers are having similar conversations, what groups of customers air having similar conversations you khun partner together to grow the awareness of both of your businesses? That's the idea...

here if you remember back to the slide that I had that showed the customer journey and there it was a straight line like this and there were lots of points in that straight line and each of those points represented an opportunity for you to serve your customer with a particular products those also represent needs, desires, milestones, tasks, questions and there's a there's a great likelihood that someone else's customer journey is intersecting through that line as well. Alright and so part of your job with strategic partnerships is to understand the customer journeys that intersect where they intersect, why they intersect. Birthdays are a perfect place to start in terms of intersections. Because people don't just need gifts for birthdays. They need cakes for birthdays, they need party decorations. They need invitations so suddenly a cake baker, a gift giver apart, a decorations person and a stationary designer comm partner together to create a whole awareness campaign around around birthdays and the products that you have that pertain to birthdays that makes sense. Okay, so that's, what all of our goals are for me. In my business, I'm looking for other service providers who don't do think the same things that I d'oh but serve similar needs. So I just mentioned bridget with pr strategy. Bridget's customer journey totally overlaps with my customer journey. Her customers are coming to her with a needs for publicity and p r but they often haven't taken the time to make business models that really work for them they haven't taken the time to create a marketing plan or our automated marketing that really works for them. So a lot of times her customers khun b my customers and my customers could be her customers and we, you know, transfer people back and forth all the time we also have an opportunity to work together so she co teaches a program with me called ten thousand feet and that is a mastermind group coaching program and we really can get in there with people together and because we do it together ends up wave being way better than if someone took one of my classes and one of her classes on their own so that's an opportunity as well it's a huge value add to have that kind of relationship and that's why, you know even you know, say what you will about it. Some people love this. Some people hate this. But think about what targets done for individual designers back when I think it's pocket toe had their collaboration with target a couple years ago that was huge for them created a whole new awareness around that brand on, you know, the same thing happens with anthropology and was with west elm and all these companies that actually partner with designers and create a bigger awareness about them so your first question here is to list five designers whose products would also be interesting to your customers based on their needs or desires and the conversation that you're participating in list five designers whose products would also be interesting to your customers based on their needs or desires. Teo mentioned megan's jewelry earlier in terms of the content idea of the little black dress but if meghan found a independent designer who was making signature little black dresses il l bds then you know that would be a great strategic partner for her because not only are her a customer is going to be interested in little black necklaces but they're probably interested in little black dresses as well. Megan, can I go to you? What designers? I thought you were gonna help well no let's do it that way and give me one to start no, because when I first thought it was it was authors for illustrating but it was working together they illustrate their books but I'm also right or so then I wasn't sure if that fork I know I think that's perfect in that case let's not worry about the competitive nature of it okay, so on remember competition is an opportunity for collaboration I believe that's rule number three of the new economy all right great. So authors that's a perfect strategic partner for you you're their their readers have the desire to read more of their books they'd probably like to see those books with beautiful illustrations and you are a perfect partner for that let's think about the embroidery patterns for a minute. I know we've talked about perhaps the blind stitching as being a rhyme strategic partner for you uh would you like to tell us who's going to be selling an exclusive meghan eckman and gregory kit kit mod clock so mod cloth knows that their customers are interested not only in vintage looking clothing but in this conversation of women reclaiming these hobbies that they've long put down right? And so they saw an opportunity to bring your product on as a way to serve that market in a new way and now your product's going to be over I gotta mop cloth that's amazing, right? Okay. Thank you. So, um so for a bomb the other people in here okay? That's possible? Yeah, and then one of them is, uh this guy used to be roommates with and he used to make leather and he actually still does. His thing is skin on skins and he's just very like handy okay? And uh we've collaborated before and I really like that energy perfect and and because I do so many things I see like my native paintings and like I do needle pointing and I see that you and then like you know what the meditation and trying to understand, like the actual person that's like you and then like, um, my fashion, you know? And then and then I was thinking of laser cutting and, like, working on jewelry and stuff, and I think it would be really good with her, I don't know yeah, you've got lots of opportunities there. I think fashion is such a place that's always right for strategic partnership, not only in terms of collaboration, but certainly that, but also in terms of, you know, generally people design one thing that designed the dress or they designed the necklace or they designed the shoes, and so you take a shoe designer, a dress designer and a jewelry designer, and suddenly these people can all be strategic partners. And so, you know, if you've got the shoe designers audience and the dress designers audience and the jewelry designers audience and now all three are coming together on a collaboration, whether that's a block post or whether that's actually a collection you've now tripled the audience that's going to see your products that's huge. Um all right, so I want you to take one designer o r one person, one potential strategic partner that you wrote down and tell me what the unique what your product's unique value provides to their most valued customer all right so what unique value does your product bring to their most valued customer in other words, maybe what has that product designer not been able tio do for their customers how how have they not been able to serve their customers? So going back to the fashion idea the dress designer oh has only to this point made dresses she's not been able to meet her customers need for shoes so when she partners with a shoe designer the shoe designer is giving her the unique value of making her dresses look better because of the shoes that people are pairing with them and same thing with their customers her customers see her dresses in a new light because of the shoes that their pair of with because of that strategic partnership and and you have an idea attorney actually so actually one of the ones that I wrote down who is my friend jen from cupcake just give her a little shout out she makes crow shade hats for for babies through toddlers and I think through doubts too but we're actually already collaborating so like her like my turntable design she made these headphone this headphone hat that just matches perfectly we have last collaboration posted on our charity but I kind of want to push myself a little further as I look confused so the other two that I wrote down one is erica from cuttlefish press she does very whimsical very childlike illustration on dh then the other one is janey x y who does he's amazing plush little like creatures on dh and those are the ones where it's like completely different mediums than I work with but you know I kind of think like maybe erica could make like a little an apple caricature on and she can go on little adventures and that kind of be a way to collaborate and then the same thing in more of like a physical form with with the plush you know yeah so jen from cupcake what if she did a line of cupcake for anna apple invitations that were illustrations on you know kind of invitations that you could sell as part of your line but it would be a design collaboration oh, for cuttlefish okay, yeah, okay. Yeah, I know. Yeah, cupcake is the hat sorry. Andan what was the third one with the plush is janey x fly janey x y eso what if you did sort of like a line of kind of plush applicator one sees that again. We're sort of like a janey x y for anna apple collaborate something that like she's got this really cute like a few like woodland creature theme so did one with like a tree or like a little mushroom toadstool kind of thing to go along with her little like fox booth something where it's not like oh let me do the exact representation on a body suit of your thing but it's kind of like they play off together and we love that wait do we have any questions coming in because I think we should probably move on to business models pretty quickly but I'm open to questions we'll move on if we want we want to hear the best what you have yeah question this is we're doing this tomorrow but how do you manage the money part then with strategic partnerships, the goodwill and rights yeah, we're non kind of covering that tomorrow so let me just say that that's probably some place that you want to bring in professional help pot any time that you are doing sort of a joint venture collaboration like that one definitely you want have a partnership agreement that spells things out that doesn't necessarily mean it has to you have to go to a lawyer and have it figured out although I would generally recommend that sort of thing plus there's there's also online tools that you can use that help you draw up agreements like that. But the biggest piece of the puzzle is just having the hard conversation about, you know whats quote unquote fair how you're going to split up earnings like that on dh then actually write up an agreement so that you're both on the same page you both know what you're what you're getting yourselves into, I would say there's no hard and fast way to do it. You know, if someone's creating a one off invitation illustration, for example, you may pay a flat fee or you may paper like a percentage of sales. There could be all sorts of different ways to do it if you're just doing sort of like a collaboration where you're selling one thing and she's selling another thing, but your marketing it together, I would say there's there's probably no need, really for a for a money partnership agreement. It's just I expect you to do this piece of marketing, and I expect you to do that piece of marketing and, you know, we'll both benefit in this way. If yeah, so it's, just something you have to have a hard conversation about, and just and a lot of times they're not that hard, but just make sure you've got it hammered out. But that's a great question and get it in writing, okay? Yeah, really good questions.