what’s that believe nation welcome back
to another YouTube hangout we are back
answering your questions to help you
grow your business I have my good friend
Stephen Kelly CEO of Sage accounting
software that I use in my business and
today we’re going to talk about how to
market your business and grow through
strategic alliances Stephen welcome back
great to be back heaven always nice to
hang out with you I know you love
leading off with quotes and people love
hearing your quotes so kick us off what
do you got for us today we’ve got a few
on the kind of whole theme of
partnerships and what you know some
famous people and then a couple of guys
like myself quotes so first one teamwork
coming together is the beginning keeping
together is progress working together is
success Henry Ford and someone from our
industry Bill Gates amazing
philanthropist as well
Microsoft success has been based on
partnerships from the very very
beginning and then an amazing woman
Arianna Huffington having a partner
definitely allows you to take more risks
and then a few kind of indulge me
Stephen Kelly quotes so alone we can do
so little together we can do so much
reach out to your most impressive people
in your network if you don’t ask you
don’t get third and almost penultimate
one is shared purpose pick partners with
that purpose passion for a perfect
partnership and then a final one Evan I
think I’ll get the best till last
gopanna go further go faster I like it I
like it I like the addition of the
Stephen Kelly originals to now it’s a
we’re up in the game here on the quotes
on the hangers I feel like you got it
you got to tell their all to turn those
into Instagram and Twitter posts for you
you got your face on the side and the
quotes next to it I think that’s good it
could do well it’s good good talking
their partnership
yeah so we’re talking partnerships guys
watching live if you have a question put
it in the chat tag me out Evan
Carmichael says easy
see but before getting to the question
Stephen kind of your high-level thoughts
marketing partnerships how it’s
beneficial how long Swiss can go out and
do it what do you what do you think they
kick us off yeah I think um the reality
is when you start your business you got
your dreams you’ve got a big idea you
got to look at where are the gaps within
your business plan where the skills you
know whether you’re looking for
distribution you’re looking overseas
you’re looking for expertise you’re
looking for capital you’re looking for
market in any of these areas and then
where can you find the partnerships to
go faster go quicker and make a reality
and I think Evan and I probably have
partnered with a lot of companies in our
our lifetime and absolutely you know
what the Internet’s changed obviously is
the way we live but it’s also allowed
amazing velocity in forming new
partnerships and new ecosystems out
there that you can take advantage of and
you can exploit to deliver your dreams
and get your idea to market even quicker
yeah I love partnerships I think it’s
one of the fastest ways to grow your
business
it saved my first company I was making
$300 a month and I was gonna quit and
then I realized hey if I can just
partner with people who already have my
target audience instead of me selling to
a customer one at a time one at a time
one at a time
if I could hit somebody and then they
can hit a hundred people or a thousand
people at a time it can really explode
my business and that was the first big
deal I made was thirteen and a half
thousand dollars I say big deal because
I’m making three hundred bucks a month
so thirteen and a half thousand was was
a huge deal for me and more importantly
I had a partner to keep going and so
whenever you are trying to grow your
business advertising is one of the
hardest ways because you’re spending
lots of money you don’t know if you’re
gonna get a return and going door to
door and you know going to events and
calling on people can work but it’s
slope is it going one at a time but
using partners and is identifying people
who are already selling to your target
audience and finding a way to work with
them can be one of the fastest ways to
grow any kind of business as an
entrepreneur so let’s get to some of the
questions guys again tag me out Evan
Carmichael and we’ll go through them we
always have more questions in time so
let’s see how how we do today first up
is Mitchell Smith question for Stephen
what are some things that are being
automated that can help streamline your
alliances do you have any technology
suggestions to form partnerships yeah I
think you know we’re very heavily
involved in the whole world of
artificial intelligence machine learning
and also in terms of Technology and sort
of process automation so I think if
you’re in a business particularly a sort
of business consumer human-to-human
business there can be some partnerships
that you can engage in where
particularly things like social media
and artificial intelligence apply
together you can actually automate a lot
of the what was 10 years ago heavy
lifting and to Evans point is you can
just go so much faster now
so a good example of that is actually
you know in terms of marketing campaigns
there’s just loads of stuff we do where
we collaborate with people with shared
vision shared purpose both to get behind
missions that make sense and actually
for help our mutual respective
businesses and it can be you know
sometimes a commercial relationship but
often it can be an informal relationship
as well yeah I think I agree I think
technology makes it easier to identify
who the people are easy to go to social
media look at Twitter look at YouTube
look at Instagram look at the people who
are posting related things to you and
you want to get on their radar you know
if you want to sell something
entrepreneurs you want to know my
channel you want to know Stephen and
what he’s doing you know we can help
spread the word potentially for whatever
your product is and just by doing a
search or being engaged in the chat or
hitting us up on Twitter and Instagram
is a great way to get on somebody’s
radar I think and we can get moving to
the strategies and tactics of how to
approach Stephen as well I think just
going in and saying hey check out my
product
check out my company isn’t really going
to give you a lot of traction it’s first
thinking what you can give first being
involved you know like if you’re
retweeting all the stephen stuff and
you’re commenting on every video we do
here and you are involved in the
community when you hit up Stephen he’s
likely say oh I know that person and
you’re gonna get a response right for
people I get hit up all the time with
emails from people saying hey check out
my new app like I have no idea who you
are I’m not spending my
on your app but if it’s somebody who’s a
loyal part of this community I’m gonna
spend some time just to check it out
what advice you have Steven for when you
buy when you found somebody that you
think might be a good fit for you to
reach out and form that initial contact
yeah I think um you know we said this
before you should never feel any kind of
self-doubt if you’ve got a great idea I
think to Evans point you’ve got to live
in the shoes of the person the audience
and if that’s a partner what is it for
them that your idea or your product or
service could do to make them run fast
and then look more successful if you
work that out then reach out to them and
actually people like there’s a guy
amazing young entrepreneur over in the
UK called Jack Parsons got through me to
social media really compelling kind of
to liner on a DM I hooked up with him
met him and now we’re doing loads of
Jordan marketing together which is
fantastic and he’s just inspirational so
I think you know the reality is you can
use automation and technology but then
you’ve got to find what is the sweet
spot well you know what what is the
magic source and when you found that and
then you know have the honest
conversation tissa tea is so important
because when you’re in partnership you
have to be honest you kind of want a
relationship a few surprises or no
surprises and you you want to kind of
make sure there’s strong alignment
between your business idea and your
mission your growth plans and the
partner and the way to do that is
obviously just make sure you kind of go
in with your eyes wide open I said it’s
definitely worth having the conversation
around what is it what does it look like
in terms of what success look like you
know who does what in terms of the
partnership and and who provides the
value in terms of the whole sort of
value chain so Evan what’s your
experiences yeah I think for any company
who wants to reach out to influencers or
people who could potentially help market
their business I think it’s really
important that like Stephen was talking
about you have shared values and ensured
mission purpose I get hit up all the
time by companies that want to work with
me and it’s it’s like you guys have no
idea what I’m about you know they want
me to come on and just pitch their
product or
you know they’re just measuring hey how
many times we get sent me to sign up for
our newsletter and a lot of times the
content that they provide is is really
boring and really dry and not helpful to
my audience most most CEOs couldn’t
handle this kind of show that you’re
doing Stephen leicht I love working with
Stephen because he loves entrepreneurs
like it’s in his blood he loves doing it
there’s no PR team kind of watching over
and say you said this you need to say
that where I’ve invited other CEOs to
come on to do shows and they’re they’re
terrified to do it because of what they
might say wrong and so you know in
working with someone like me it’s
figuring out I care about entrepreneurs
too so like what is the mission of your
business and then finding people who are
aligned with that but they have a
different they have a different model
you’re selling X they’re selling Y is
there way you guys can work together do
you what what what kind of marketing
partnerships do you guys create at Sage
and and maybe what can the people watch
and learn from that Stephen yeah I think
we got some fantastic marketing
relationships with companies like you
know on one scale actually people at
Microsoft amazing partnerships with
Salesforce which is a brilliant company
and and also kind of product
partnerships and development
partnerships with some of these
companies so it does a strand kind of
and straddle many different elements of
what success looks like I think the
easiest thing though Evan is you started
with a marketing partnership if that
kind of makes sense and that’s aligned
it could drive a much more strategic
relationship right across the business
and ultimately right this put it out
there
I would advise I you know I did a lot of
startups for myself one of the things we
actively saw on the startups where we
had a consideration at some point in
time of an exit is the best way to get
bored you never want to sell a company
you always get bought but when you get
that inbound call the best thing to do
is have really strong partnerships
number one it’s quite likely if it’s a
bigger company they’ll be looking at how
do they actually scale up and if you’re
doing some fantastic work in terms of
grow
independently you might allow them to
see how they can accelerate through
acquisition of your company so I think
partnerships are absolutely an
imperative to go fast and go further and
go go bigger and grow quicker but also
you know strategically they’re a great
way to get you some options if you ever
want to consider an exit of your
business because you very often find and
I don’t know what the data would be
really interesting to know what the data
is
I would guess the data on acquisition
companies that Department is extremely
high extremely high because you know
again it means there’s no surprises
because they know you you know them they
know your product they know the people
the chemistry the values the alignment
it’s all there and you know that’s when
the chemistry and the magic happens so
at that point of potentially getting
bought out should you bring on your
partner as an equity partner and how do
you kind of reach that right how do you
make that maybe you start with one thing
and then they become an equity partner
and then but like how does that scale
work and and what’s the decision-making
tree that somebody should go through
yeah I think that is a great question
Evan and actually what I would encourage
all you guys out there all you
entrepreneurs is think creatively about
partnership you know definitely start
with almost like your idea your vision
and then do a bit of blue sky thinking
about who could be the players and it
may be some of the left-field players
that you actually connect with an
example when I was running the startup
that we actually launched on the Nasdaq
back in California it’s a while ago now
but we went to one of our and at the
time we didn’t really kind of thought
that pretty scary it was one of the big
Canadian telecoms companies a company
you won’t remember ever because you were
born after they kind of sort of went a
different direction
MCI okay yeah so MCI great company
really disruptive you know they wanted
to take on all the guys like AT&T and
all this sort of stuff um but they we
were pitching to them
around becoming a customer and then they
said wow we’ve got this some team who
look at making sort of seed investments
in company and then we kind of combined
a number of things and actually they
became an investor and then Wow they’ve
got such a great network they’ve got
tons of expertise we identified a couple
of executives we’d actually like to join
our board and this was like you know by
this time we were probably a 30-40
million dollar company and so still
relatively small-scale in the scheme of
things but we you know grow at a hundred
percent per annum and so so this
embryonic sort of customer where as a
sales prospect became an investor became
a board member and with them we also
which was really powerful creative sort
of joint go to market team so we had a
business plan where we train their
people and got them to market our
product so so again you know and I’ll be
honest when we started the relationship
we didn’t have all the pieces of the
Puddle worked out it sort of evolved you
know we got lucky but if you can think
about you know some who could you have
white label your product
who’s got the expertise that you might
like to become an equity investor
definitely think of partnerships very
wide-ranging and actually obviously it
saves a lot of time you know you don’t
want kind of marketing partners and then
different equity partners and then
different kind of white label partners
if you can have the same business as a
partner to you I definitely advocate
that because it just saves your time
managing these partnerships because
there is a cost of managing these guys
the other thing I’d say you know it’s
hashtag believe it’s Evans key message
you might kind of think these companies
you know what in financial services like
shaken Morgan or all these big companies
you kind of think wow how do you how do
you penetrate them most of these
companies have some sort of sort of
incubator funds or seed or business
development guys who are just looking
for really bright ideas so if you really
believe in your idea have no fear
there’s probably someone in one of these
big companies who could be
waiting for your call waiting for your
DM waiting for you to contact them but
again put yourself in their shoes and
make sure that you understand what is it
what is in it for the audience and if
you’re in the shoes of the potential
partner and you can create something
compelling for them you’ll always get
their attention I love it what one other
quick hack that I found is whenever I
formed a partnership we would do a joint
press release because again if you can
hit the media then that’s another way to
get lots of customers the media can
funnel you to getting your your face
your brand your your product in front of
a lot of people whenever I formed the
new joint venture partnership we would
do a joint press release and I would
take on the work of doing the press
release if they gave me their media list
and so every time I form a partnership
if I keep building my media list and
building my media list from my partner
so they did the work that did it to do
it initially and then that joint PR
always said to another big boost and it
was a hack to be able to build my list
up really quickly as well
hey I’m crazy idea one of the startups I
got involved in as an investor and I
helped help the guys a lot in the early
days we kind of agreed with the firt it
was a product idea but we arm agreed
with the first 10 customers we’d give
them access to buy an equity in the
company as well and it was one of these
businesses where you needed really
powerful fanatical customer references
and then you think about it you know the
customers using the product they’ve
actually exercised and some bought some
equity and they became raving fans and
that actually allowed the company in
that case it was growing up by three or
four hundred percent for the first three
or four years and it was all build off
that foundation of customers as partners
very much aligned objectives I love it
let’s get this in more questions so you
got a kind of feedback coming in Julie
insane everything sounds better when you
have a British voice I haven’t come
ideal things so I need to work on my
British accent listen the Canadian
accents good to Gillian come on love it
we love we love the Canadians I love
Justin Trudeau Oh
Emmanuel’s writing then how do you
determine rates when working with an
influencer that’s a great question so I
guess you’re talking about commercial
rates yeah if you want to work with an
influencer you want them to you want to
have some kind of relationship determine
what that’s worth
yeah you know what um so my start point
yeah Manuel I am guessing in the early
days of starting a business you know
treat the company’s money as if it’s
your own because it is gonna be your own
it’s gonna be a saving to life savings
you remortgage so therefore you want to
kind of make that money work as hard as
you can be so judicious my initial pitch
to a potential partner would be what
value could I apply so you know could I
give them a if then really like if there
are influencers where I want this
individual involved in my business for
three five years because they are
fundamental to the success of it and
they’re a big spokesperson they’ve got a
big following then I would say wow you
know how about you know single-digit
percentage of equity but I would
absolutely lock that down in terms of
time commitment you know share our voice
all those sort of things so it’s very
clear upfront what their commitment is
and what your commitments of them is now
if they say they won’t do it for equity
but if you get them excited about the
idea or the product and they really
believe in it most of the guys you’re
gonna touch in terms of influencers
probably will have made some money so
they’re much more interest in equity and
upside
rather than kind of paying the bills
every month now if you can’t do that
then there’s loads of places you can go
either on the internet or get access to
what’s kind of a fair rate commercially
but what I’ll say is the more you can
sort of pay them in kind through things
like equity where there’s skin in the
game
I’d always advocate that where you have
to use you know dollars or loonies as it
is in Canada then I think you’ve got a
you’ve got to make sure you get
absolutely work Ammar to get value from
and there’s places you know on the
internet you can there’s loads of
speaker lists if it’s speakers if it’s
influences if it’s like
on executive directors if it’s advisors
if it’s if it’s those sort of folks
there’s loads of kind of ultimately rate
car type information out there all you
can tap out to your network the other
thing I’d say is if you can’t find
someone who’s prepared to do something
kind of pro bono then again if you get
people excited about your ideas then
it’s amazing how much you might be able
to persuade them just to do one pitch or
one kind of whatever it’s something on
social media one endorsement and then
use that as a starter for ten say if it
works well then we could talk
commercially about what is what’s in it
so I’m just being you know as an
entrepreneur I just want to save every
dollar I can and put every dollar into
building the product or customers and
those sort of things and therefore I’m
we’re always looking for how can we
hustle to get what we want
but we’re hang on to the cash for the
for the equity idea is interesting how
do you mitigate the risk of I don’t want
a business partner even though they’re
only in singing single-digit percent
you’re giving up one to five percent of
the company what if the person is just
somebody who you don’t want to have you
know as you get to know them great they
have the audience but they are terrible
to deal with as a partner how do you how
do you overcome that how do you screen
them how do you make sure that you’re
bringing on the right partner in your
business because once you give up equity
it’s hard to get it back yeah I think
you know I think the important thing
evidence you said it earlier you’ve got
to change we talked about the values the
alignment is the chemistry right have we
got a sort of shared mission yeah
whenever you start your business I think
the first question you ask yourself is
why do people care that I exist why why
is my idea gonna change the world
why is my product gonna you know just
transform the experience to the customer
now if you get someone excited about the
Y the sense of purpose and they’ve got
the values the integrity the
authenticity then you should be pretty
good because I don’t think in this world
business people entrepreneurs change
their spots they are what they are they
have DNA and it’s all about success in
growth and generally you know
this isn’t always the case I’ve found
entrepreneurs to be pretty generous
people in terms of their time
particularly with younger people too
and they want other people to be
successful you know this idea that
everybody is kind of dog-eat-dog out
there I be honest I don’t I don’t see
that I know people kind of portray that
as you know sometimes entrepreneurs and
films and stuff but you know you see
that on Netflix but in real life it’s
very different so back to your question
if you make a mistake Evan I think then
you’ve got to have some you know if you
the way I’d do it with equity say we
agreed somethings like 1% I’ve
structured that over a two-year
relationship and I’ll do maybe first six
months in behalf of percent or whatever
and then you know drip-feed the rest of
it so there’s a kind of natural cliff
where you can say you know it’s not
working out or we’ve reached a stage of
the business it doesn’t make sense
anymore so really appreciate what you’ve
done on the first part of the journey
and the adventure and here’s your half a
percent equity and we’ve got to move on
now yeah I agree I think you know go to
meet them wherever they are like meet
them face to face have some dinner
together do something together to kind
of vibe off of them to make sure that
you want this to be a long-term
relationship good is it looks great on
paper I had this product you have this
audience everything looks great but when
you get into it you don’t know that it’s
gonna work out I think meeting them and
I think I definitely talk to a lawyer
and have a shotgun Clause built in so
that you could buy them out if if it’s
not working at you think get rid of them
it’s interesting option and it’s not one
is discussed that often so thank you for
bringing that up in terms we give an
equity away to to influencers I think at
the start there’s a lot of influencers
who do it just for the product so
whatever your whatever you’re selling a
lot of influences we’ll just do it
because somebody recognize them there’ll
be the lower scale ones and people don’t
have the big audiences the people who
already have big audiences usually
already have a standard fee if you want
to work with this person and you reach
up to them and say yes it’s gonna cost
this much they may give you a discounted
rate because they love your story or
they love the mission or they love you
or you you work out some equity deal or
something but the bigger guys usually
already have a
standard fee and just reaching out and
asking them what it is the smaller ones
you may be the first person to reach out
to them and so they may they may do it
just to be able to say I’ve done a brand
deal just just a good customer
testimonial right sometimes people will
do that now you’re working with smaller
audiences but if you do that repeatedly
over and over and over again you know
what you have right now is time you
don’t have money so if you have the time
then go out and spend the time to work
with the right the right people make
those connections so I would to the
Stevens Point I agree hustle hard try
not to spend dollars at the beginning on
that unless you absolutely have to and
find those smaller influencers who will
do it for free or do it for customer
testimonial or who you know might do it
for some equity in the business as you
grow a great question next up what do we
got Orion he’s worried about a big
company stealing his idea so he has this
great idea he takes it to big companies
do a marketing partnership and that
company then steals his idea what do we
what advice do we have Steve when you
work in a big company what advice do we
have for Orion yeah I think Iran I think
you’re right to be cautious especially
if you you know you got intellectual
property that’s you know amazing you
know the cure for cancer or something
like that it’s compelling
so obviously obvious things you can do
is go and see a lawyer hopefully a buddy
who’s not going to charge you anything
and they can come up with some sort of
IP type contract you know what we do is
embed it in a nondisclosure agreement so
you go and you go and give a you’ve got
a you got a tease the excitement haven’t
you so you want a pitch that doesn’t
give then what we call the crown jewels
away but just gives them enough to tease
them to say wow we really want to look
at this product great idea and then at
that point boom there’s got to be some
sort of non-disclosure I like the idea
of kind of non-disclosure as well
because it you know in as an
entrepreneur we used to talk about
hustling but also what’s really cool is
you want to create desire and you want
to create desire in the potential
partner how you do that is create a bit
of scarcity so a few too keen and you’re
all over
and you know you’re not kind of careful
about that they’ll think you’re
desperate and you never want to be
desperate you might be desperate I’ll be
honest when you get home on a Friday
night where you go back to your father
but you never want to give that illusion
that you’re desperate you’ve got to give
it like this is an expo define this is
the next Apple this is the hottest thing
and you’ve seen it now we’ve got to sign
this non-disclosure agreement and
actually I think on our website at this
business plan standard NDA’s all these
sort of things and within those there’s
a clause where they’re not out of steal
your ideas now bottom line is they do
you know ultimately your Nystrom you go
back to them so that’s my idea
stolen it let’s have a discussion about
some sort of settlement but you’re
almost certainly gonna go down a legal
track there and it’s gonna go to the
courts so I think that’s the best way
you protect yourself or on there and
then the other thing obviously back to
Evans point if you meet my over coffee
dinner you get a sense of whether
they’re high integrity people or not and
I would always advise you you know that
chemistry that DNA I know everybody who
watched our evans show has got super
high integrity so you don’t kind of want
to mix out there with lowlife you want
to you want to meet people who have that
authenticity that you have and you can
find that in a face to face and as well
just ask them questions like what
partnerships that they worked in the
past are and you know could you talk
through a couple of partners that they
work with and then do a reference call I
wouldn’t I wouldn’t do any kind of
reference in on social media or all kind
of emails and stuff because people will
tell you one thing when they write stuff
down but if you actually speak to them
and listen to their voice you’ll find
out well they’re the real deal and so
you know I think a lot of its chemistry
face to face there’s no better way or
pick up the phone you’ll hear it in
their voice and then check it out say
you know one of the partnerships in the
last three years number one that I’ve
gone really well for your business and
number two that didn’t work out because
I’d like to speak to both of them I like
it well Ryan is saying thanks to the
answer exclamation point Emmanuel has
the last question said what a great
answer thank you so much so
given some good value here I have some
thoughts but quickly you mentioned this
age website for tools and templates and
downloads where are people going to get
those business plans and legal
agreements yeah we’ll put out we’ll put
it up followed in the show we’ll put up
the link and stuff like that all that
stuff they’re effectively the safes or
the university for businesses got it
okay so guys in the description
afterwards it’s not in now but I’ll add
it below after I get the exact link and
you guys can check that out on the
replay I think for people who are trying
to make those partnerships if all you
have is an idea then you need to have
the IP protected yeah you need to have a
patent because if that’s all you can
bring is the idea then you need to have
it protected ideally though you’re
bringing more than just an idea you know
I have tons of ideas and how McDonald’s
can do better or how Microsoft can do
better doesn’t mean they’re gonna pay me
I’m sure you know they’ve thought of
those ideas too they just haven’t chosen
implemented you know the idea allow like
when you’re when you’re pitching ideas
to companies you don’t have to go into
the Nitty Gritty of how to do it
whatever idea you pinch Stephen for how
sage can be better chances are he’s
already thought about it
like if you’re saying hey hey sage you
get into BOTS right it’s like it’s not
that Stephen has never heard of BOTS
it’s probably already has some kind of
strategy around BOTS right so that idea
alone isn’t enough it’s the execution
like are you the person to come on board
and really help explode the bot business
at Sage right and so you can have a
high-level conversation without them
stealing your idea because the idea loan
is not enough they want to see that like
you are the company you are the person
who’s going to come in and help us
actually grow this thing and so you
think your idea is great and if it’s
only idea you need a patent it and it’s
not patentable chances are they thought
about it and you need to bring more than
that execution customer base momentum I
love that hey I’ll do an unashamed in
commercial now Evan okay women the first
company to launch a bar on an accounting
engine so again we’ll put a link up
about this friend peg and you can have
our facebook Messenger as a friend or
slack where you can have and use of the
use of safe bot I think we’ve got I
don’t know we need a really soft launch
it must have almost a thousand users out
there now so it’s just gone gone viral
yeah and
like all the big is this great and and
sage is ahead of the curve and you know
Stephen Kelly is the visionary CEO
leading the ship and you know so AI you
know it’s like sage is gonna be in AI at
some point don’t just email Steven and
say I have this great ai idea for sage
you know just because you see a company
not doing it right now it doesn’t mean
that they haven’t thought about it and
they’re not working on some plans to do
it so the idea loan is not enough it’s
the actual execution of that idea cuz
these big companies you may think they
stole your idea but chances are they’ve
already had like 30 different business
proposals already around that idea you
just wasn’t good enough to rise to the
top I love that end and if we get the
link for the bots we’ll share it in the
description for the replay people as
well right um great Dante is writing in
to talk about how do big franchises big
companies companies made movies like
Superman and Star Wars did they use
partnerships to get to where they are or
how do they how do you build a big
company through partnerships what advice
do you have yeah you know I think all
big companies you see all the stuff
happening about Fox at the moment you
see all the stuff about Time Warner and
then you see all the new disruptors like
the Netflix and the guys the reality is
all of these businesses of develop on
ships especially in that industry and
that industry is is absolutely kind of
totally endemic around like subcontract
relationships very very few people even
though you know those big companies mi
have thousands of people work from but
they probably have tens of thousands
like of subcontract relationships where
they have camera crews all these sort of
things that they call in they outsource
all the catering or all these sort of
things so they’ll be forming
partnerships as they grow the other
thing that is inevitable I kind of think
once you get off the ground with your
business and you grow and you’re
successful the other thing you want to
do is probably partner with companies
that you might look to acquire and I
don’t know many big companies that
haven’t done a series of acquisitions
and typically those acquisitions
obviously have got to fit with the
strategy got to make sense in terms of
financial returns and and got to allow
you to grow faster and achieve you know
your your adventure quicker so I
in question down don is really spot on
most companies go through a cycle as
they go you know startup they’re
hustlers they grow they go through that
sort of scale up phase and and as part
of that they’re forming partners all the
time on their marketing relationships
maybe even sales associates maybe even
white label product all these sort of
different relationships and invariably
they’ll look at some time with some of
those partners actually does it make
sense to continue to partner or shall we
buy that company and when we talk about
this internally all the time it’s a big
company we say it should we build or buy
you know and that’s a decision we make
normally there’s a really short business
plan to say what are the build options
what are the buy options and normally
the most compelling reason why would buy
is velocity speed and just get it done
quickly yeah time to market yes that’s
how I sold my first company right it’s
like they could buy my company and get
there faster and have the customers and
have the technology or they could do it
themselves in a year but they’re missing
out on the velocity to get it so it’s a
fantastic way to sell your company I
think every big company started as a
small company I started with an
entrepreneur vision and an idea and if
you love Superman and you love Star Wars
I go back and look at the story of how
they they built up like don’t look at
Star Wars now is this huge company look
at how they started look at how George
Lucas got us he thought Star Wars was
too stupid of an idea like too crazy too
wild an idea to ever have commercial
success but he created because he loved
sci-fi and he had to create this world
he never expected it to do well but he
just did it out of a passion project and
it exploded you look at sage sage was
started by like one guy and I think I’ve
ever got the storm right I think the
name sage comes from there was a meeting
in the pub and there was like sage on
the wall and that’s how they named the
guys all right
yes sir back in this is back in the day
what 1981 there’s a place in the
northeast of England called Hugh castle
and the people from there are called
pejoratives from Newcastle and they and
they’re like top people saw that the
waves they saw the DFM really fantastic
high integrity really down-to-earth
and there was two guys at a university
who wanted to have an idea of building
an accounting application and then there
was a guy I can’t a study tour of the UM
university from NASA and kind of this
space scientist and he and these guys
got together in a pub they came up with
this idea and literally the legend is
that they were kind of thinking of a
name they’re all engineers and they’re
all kind of visionaries they weren’t
really marketing guys never saying what
should we call it what should we call it
you know we’ve got to come up with a
really cool name and then just one of
them looked up on the wall and there was
all these kind of hopes and there was
what we can’t call it time we can’t call
it parsley we’ll call it sage parsley
that would have been amazing
so that’s where it all came from and you
know the brand the green is was
generated and created back in the 80s
and actually I met an amazing
entrepreneur he started his business 20
years ago and he said you know first
product I put on you know an
old-fashioned kind of Microsoft 386 time
machine was sage to run my accounts and
collect my cash and then when I got
seven employees I used Sage payroll so
it’s just a may a an you know what we
try and do ever it is and even back then
is just solve a massive business problem
for entrepreneurs that they can just
focus on their business and not worry
about collecting they cash pay a you
know IRS returns all that sort of stuff
they just can really focus on what they
laugh which is their dreams and their
business I love it so here’s a great
example you got this company that’s a
huge company now you know 13,000 plus
employees and billions in revenue and it
started in a pub and they looked at the
wall and that’s how they came up with
their name right like any company that
you love and respect and look up to look
at their founding story and look how
they get started because there’s clues
that you can follow like success leaves
Clues and by studying those people’s
some of the people I have behind me on
my wall like why are they there
I studied their success and it helps me
in my business and so if you love Star
Wars or Superman whoever it is I look at
the foundation story and how they built
it up and that could be a blueprint for
you to go off and have more success I
haven’t just
another idea if you’ve got guys I don’t
know John if you’re working in a film
studio sunny I would always advise a
great way to start an entrepreneur is do
some moonlighting continue to work for
your employer and then you know
weekend’s evenings and stuff like that
build build the business plan build the
idea build the business and for a while
probably doing in parallel so the
interesting thing you could think of and
I’ve found some come actually Wow look
at Marc Benioff I started Salesforce Li
1999-2000 so he’s 17 years ago and
they’re about an eight billion dollar
company now we’re at a twenty percent
amazing company but he agreed with the
the founder and the chief executive of
our Oracle that he’d cut him some slack
and give him some time to go and start
his new idea while he was still paid and
employed by Oracle so there’s loads of
ways you know we’re talking about
partnership that’s a partnership that
allows you to get going and it gives you
also cash coming in to the household to
pay the bills and probably fund your
business as well so if you can do that
and you’re part of a sort of film
business then that’s a great idea and
you might find that you could even pitch
to your existing company some great
business ideas and you might find you
your existing company might even you
know put some cash into your business
it’s definitely worth you ask it’s a
great piece of advice even just dropped
on you guys I think it’s also beneficial
that if you’re in the industry it helps
keep your motivation higher to keep
going you know it can be hard to find
the time after hours if you’re stuck at
some job that you hate and you know you
have other responsibilities those kids
health all that other stuff if you’re
working some job at Walmart it’s hard to
come home and work on your craft every
night you have to do it but it’s hard
where if you’re working in the industry
you’re getting ideas around people who
have a buzz and a vibe and you’re
constantly thinking about new things for
your company you’re more excited when
you go home as well so a hundred percent
agree with Stephen
the reason to get a job is to learn to
be in an environment where you’re
learning and growing and hopefully give
you motivation to go off and do your own
thing and and again you know never I
kind of thing one of them
– tank belief if you believe in yourself
you back yourself
have no fear have no fear because one of
the amazing executives in sage a woman
came to me and she’s actually gonna be
starting their own business she’s still
gonna stay working for us probably she
was talking about maybe in two years
time should kind of go down to two or
three days a week and maybe eventually
be you know her idea as a business and
she’ll leave eh but she pitched it to me
and I said well weren’t you gonna pitch
it to a few guys around the business and
they’ll help you refine your idea so you
know I think a lot of big companies
really want to encourage
entrepreneurship and if they’ve got
bright brilliant people like you and
people like you Don you could get out
there and say you know I want to pitch
this idea what do you think of it
actually what it means is I’m going to
start it – Evans point could I kind of
form a little team a focus group
workshop whatever to test the idea and
prototype the idea and then when you
eventually leave they might kind of cut
you some slack and give you a glide path
where you go down to three days a week
and then when the idea is kind of a real
business and it’s working you go
full-time on your idea so there’s a lot
of different ways that you can partner
probably with your existing employer and
I think around that I’d encourage you to
be very creative and as long as it’s not
a competitive idea you know I I don’t
understand why any employer wouldn’t
encourage their their colleagues to go
and do amazing things of
entrepreneurship I love it I just
noticed you’ve got this this brooch or
this pin happening here what’s that for
hey this is it this is um coming up for
Patriots day so you know over
particularly obvious in Europe or the
u.s. everybody sort of remembers at this
time
coming up on the 11th of the 11th at 11
o’clock okay folks remember and
obviously this symbolizes the the
poppies in the Flanders field yeah we’re
history students remember the first
world war ii world war and i kind of
think this symbolizes all the people who
gave their lives on every side of the
conflict and who left loved ones behind
and and went for for their countries i
love that we have that too it’s we call
it remembrance
our poppies aren’t as intricate as those
but I get I mean it also fits well into
sages mission of helping veterans I know
it’s a big it what you’re trying to do
as well so I love it
Michael is asking how do we tell people
our story when we’re trying to form
partnerships how do I introduce people
how do I introduce people to my business
with my story so we want to form these
marketing partnerships how important
this story and how to wait how do we get
that across to a partner hey Mike what a
great question
I love that do you know what and we lose
sight of this so often as entrepeneurs
when you’ve got an idea you get so much
in like the bowels of the idea the II
lose sight of telling your story I think
every amazing entrepreneur is a
storyteller and your idea is the genesis
of an adventure for customers all over
the world and and so therefore what I’d
say Michael is it is worth perfecting
your story and testing it with your
friends to see what really lands and and
they find compelling and when you’ve got
that and it always starts with the y-you
know what is the sense of purpose what
is the mission that your product or idea
is going to change and transform and why
is that so compelling and then once
you’ve understood that then you can sort
of do the traditional stuff of the value
proposition and you look at who’s the
audience you look at what’s the value
you know does it save time does it give
them more money does it help them grow
faster does it save hassle does it help
their ego make them feel good like
luxury goods so there’s a kind of
there’s a kind of rule of thumb back to
your question of there’s a whole matrix
you go through and you can read books by
crossing the chasm which every more they
define these how to build a value prop
and then you’ve got to answer the
questions like why is it different from
the competition what’s the value but
start with what is the wine what what’s
the wine what’s the sense of purpose and
then build that into a compelling story
be a storyteller and then you know I
think once you’ve you’ve got curiosity
and you’ve got excitement from
the potential partner then the next
stage is maybe a non-disclosure
agreement if you’re worried about IP if
you’re not then you’re probably into
what we talked about last time we’re
doing some sort of business plan jointly
with a partner to say does this make
sense
you know don’t boil the ocean just
saying what does it look like does the
chemistry work what’s the market
opportunity how we gonna get a mark here
and let’s say what are the first 90 day
goals
what’s the first 30 day goals and then
you know crate velocity in the business
and go for it I’m smiling because I
don’t boil the ocean I’ve never heard
that expression before I wanted
violations you want to move is the
velocity and quality our witness Limpy
NSYNC I love that I love that yeah I
mean I agree I storytelling super
important such as an entrepreneur that’s
how you win that’s how you stand out
against the bigger competitors like why
is someone gonna buy from you or work
with you instead of a trusted brand name
who’s been around forever it’s because
they like to you they know you your
story like they feel your commitment
they you know your one word your mission
your path you know the why that Stephen
was talking about that’s how you stand
out I think a lot of entrepreneurs try
to look super professional and corporate
because they’re trying to model what the
big companies are doing and it doesn’t
mean you have to be unprofessional but
it’s understanding that you’re single
bigs advantage is your commitment and
your passion your wife your business and
that has to come out if I look at your
website and it looks like some big
company that I know the big company I
don’t know you I’m not gonna pick you
and so having your story so practicing
it over and over again like Stephen said
it should be something that excites you
every time you tell it because if you
rehearse it and it comes out monotone
and FLAC you’re never gonna win so it’s
got to be exciting for you something
that you want to you know tell your kids
and your grandkids and I would also say
put that up on your website so that when
people are hitting your site they see
the wide they understand what you’re
doing and ideally make a video I get
that a lot of people are afraid of video
and it’s nerve-racking you don’t have to
be the most charismatic person to just
tap into your passion and explain why
you’re doing this like if you have an
auto detailing shop and you have this
video just talking about how much you
care about auto detailing and what it
means to you and your your your mother
got you into this business and you treat
every car like your mom’s
are like you don’t have to be a Steve
Jobs so you’ll just say that really
eloquently you don’t need to have the
Stephen Kelly British accent to leave a
nail it right like just show your
passion tell us your why and that will
it will just make people feel like they
know you and they connect with you and
they want to do business with you
so think I think your store is a huge
advantage as an entrepreneur yeah the
other famine you know two things you
said I think um it’s so easy as an
entrepreneur just to get into like
what’s the features features features
don’t do that think about what what’s
the bigger purpose how does this change
people’s life you know what would be the
benefits of this you know and if it
doesn’t give them time back saving money
or help them grow faster or give them
boost in their ego they can feel better
or reduce hassle you’re probably going
to struggle to appeal to them so think
about what is it in terms of that
compelling value proposition and then
simplify simplify simplify tell as a
story and then test it on your buddies
you know test it on your work colleagues
test it on your friends who are who know
the industry or go and network with
other people who know that industry and
then what Evan said Wow today I think
this is in the case for 18 months and
it’s gonna continue definitely from the
next 18 months the power of this you
don’t have to have fancy film girls all
all of the stuff we go on social media
it’s just done on my iPhone we film it
post it done and the power of video is
to tell stories is so compelling and if
you’ve got your product what better way
than show you your product in a video
Wow even better if you get a customer to
show it and say how it’s blown their
minds and changed their worlds
it’s just compelling everybody you know
wants that excitement compelling and the
way you can do it through video kind of
leaves all the other traditional kind of
needs behind nothing guy yeah get get
into video it cost nothing everybody can
do it and just if you’ve got the right
idea and you’ve got the right product
it’s a fantastic way to present the
story I love it
well we’re already at the top of the
hour we’ve covered a lot of topics here
Stephen how do you want to wrap
all of this up the final message from
mr. Stephen Kelly on marketing tips
strategic alliances Acronis what do you
got yeah you know up is some always with
partnerships explore the V surprise the
unexpected so who woulda guessed what
three years ago everyone we didn’t know
each other I’d say we got a great
partnership we we have a common purpose
we’ve got great chemistry we believe in
the same things we believe in
entrepreneurship and we we serve all you
guys so my big message is obviously
evidence taught you this from day one
hashtag believe get your idea think
about who could be out there to help
your idea or product get to market
quicker and scale and maybe even go
global so you could you know be the next
Google or one of those covers have big
dreams and then dream big through
partnerships because if you do that
you’ll go faster you’ll go further and
you’ll actually be way more successful
and good luck with your adventure
however we’re getting so many thinking
messages thank stephen hashtag believe
hashtag honor heroes so another
resonance with you thank you for doing
this super helpful informative steven
thank you again for your time today
thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed it t need to believe
and whatever your one word is and we’ll
see you soon
great job Aaron
to another YouTube hangout we are back
answering your questions to help you
grow your business I have my good friend
Stephen Kelly CEO of Sage accounting
software that I use in my business and
today we’re going to talk about how to
market your business and grow through
strategic alliances Stephen welcome back
great to be back heaven always nice to
hang out with you I know you love
leading off with quotes and people love
hearing your quotes so kick us off what
do you got for us today we’ve got a few
on the kind of whole theme of
partnerships and what you know some
famous people and then a couple of guys
like myself quotes so first one teamwork
coming together is the beginning keeping
together is progress working together is
success Henry Ford and someone from our
industry Bill Gates amazing
philanthropist as well
Microsoft success has been based on
partnerships from the very very
beginning and then an amazing woman
Arianna Huffington having a partner
definitely allows you to take more risks
and then a few kind of indulge me
Stephen Kelly quotes so alone we can do
so little together we can do so much
reach out to your most impressive people
in your network if you don’t ask you
don’t get third and almost penultimate
one is shared purpose pick partners with
that purpose passion for a perfect
partnership and then a final one Evan I
think I’ll get the best till last
gopanna go further go faster I like it I
like it I like the addition of the
Stephen Kelly originals to now it’s a
we’re up in the game here on the quotes
on the hangers I feel like you got it
you got to tell their all to turn those
into Instagram and Twitter posts for you
you got your face on the side and the
quotes next to it I think that’s good it
could do well it’s good good talking
their partnership
yeah so we’re talking partnerships guys
watching live if you have a question put
it in the chat tag me out Evan
Carmichael says easy
see but before getting to the question
Stephen kind of your high-level thoughts
marketing partnerships how it’s
beneficial how long Swiss can go out and
do it what do you what do you think they
kick us off yeah I think um the reality
is when you start your business you got
your dreams you’ve got a big idea you
got to look at where are the gaps within
your business plan where the skills you
know whether you’re looking for
distribution you’re looking overseas
you’re looking for expertise you’re
looking for capital you’re looking for
market in any of these areas and then
where can you find the partnerships to
go faster go quicker and make a reality
and I think Evan and I probably have
partnered with a lot of companies in our
our lifetime and absolutely you know
what the Internet’s changed obviously is
the way we live but it’s also allowed
amazing velocity in forming new
partnerships and new ecosystems out
there that you can take advantage of and
you can exploit to deliver your dreams
and get your idea to market even quicker
yeah I love partnerships I think it’s
one of the fastest ways to grow your
business
it saved my first company I was making
$300 a month and I was gonna quit and
then I realized hey if I can just
partner with people who already have my
target audience instead of me selling to
a customer one at a time one at a time
one at a time
if I could hit somebody and then they
can hit a hundred people or a thousand
people at a time it can really explode
my business and that was the first big
deal I made was thirteen and a half
thousand dollars I say big deal because
I’m making three hundred bucks a month
so thirteen and a half thousand was was
a huge deal for me and more importantly
I had a partner to keep going and so
whenever you are trying to grow your
business advertising is one of the
hardest ways because you’re spending
lots of money you don’t know if you’re
gonna get a return and going door to
door and you know going to events and
calling on people can work but it’s
slope is it going one at a time but
using partners and is identifying people
who are already selling to your target
audience and finding a way to work with
them can be one of the fastest ways to
grow any kind of business as an
entrepreneur so let’s get to some of the
questions guys again tag me out Evan
Carmichael and we’ll go through them we
always have more questions in time so
let’s see how how we do today first up
is Mitchell Smith question for Stephen
what are some things that are being
automated that can help streamline your
alliances do you have any technology
suggestions to form partnerships yeah I
think you know we’re very heavily
involved in the whole world of
artificial intelligence machine learning
and also in terms of Technology and sort
of process automation so I think if
you’re in a business particularly a sort
of business consumer human-to-human
business there can be some partnerships
that you can engage in where
particularly things like social media
and artificial intelligence apply
together you can actually automate a lot
of the what was 10 years ago heavy
lifting and to Evans point is you can
just go so much faster now
so a good example of that is actually
you know in terms of marketing campaigns
there’s just loads of stuff we do where
we collaborate with people with shared
vision shared purpose both to get behind
missions that make sense and actually
for help our mutual respective
businesses and it can be you know
sometimes a commercial relationship but
often it can be an informal relationship
as well yeah I think I agree I think
technology makes it easier to identify
who the people are easy to go to social
media look at Twitter look at YouTube
look at Instagram look at the people who
are posting related things to you and
you want to get on their radar you know
if you want to sell something
entrepreneurs you want to know my
channel you want to know Stephen and
what he’s doing you know we can help
spread the word potentially for whatever
your product is and just by doing a
search or being engaged in the chat or
hitting us up on Twitter and Instagram
is a great way to get on somebody’s
radar I think and we can get moving to
the strategies and tactics of how to
approach Stephen as well I think just
going in and saying hey check out my
product
check out my company isn’t really going
to give you a lot of traction it’s first
thinking what you can give first being
involved you know like if you’re
retweeting all the stephen stuff and
you’re commenting on every video we do
here and you are involved in the
community when you hit up Stephen he’s
likely say oh I know that person and
you’re gonna get a response right for
people I get hit up all the time with
emails from people saying hey check out
my new app like I have no idea who you
are I’m not spending my
on your app but if it’s somebody who’s a
loyal part of this community I’m gonna
spend some time just to check it out
what advice you have Steven for when you
buy when you found somebody that you
think might be a good fit for you to
reach out and form that initial contact
yeah I think um you know we said this
before you should never feel any kind of
self-doubt if you’ve got a great idea I
think to Evans point you’ve got to live
in the shoes of the person the audience
and if that’s a partner what is it for
them that your idea or your product or
service could do to make them run fast
and then look more successful if you
work that out then reach out to them and
actually people like there’s a guy
amazing young entrepreneur over in the
UK called Jack Parsons got through me to
social media really compelling kind of
to liner on a DM I hooked up with him
met him and now we’re doing loads of
Jordan marketing together which is
fantastic and he’s just inspirational so
I think you know the reality is you can
use automation and technology but then
you’ve got to find what is the sweet
spot well you know what what is the
magic source and when you found that and
then you know have the honest
conversation tissa tea is so important
because when you’re in partnership you
have to be honest you kind of want a
relationship a few surprises or no
surprises and you you want to kind of
make sure there’s strong alignment
between your business idea and your
mission your growth plans and the
partner and the way to do that is
obviously just make sure you kind of go
in with your eyes wide open I said it’s
definitely worth having the conversation
around what is it what does it look like
in terms of what success look like you
know who does what in terms of the
partnership and and who provides the
value in terms of the whole sort of
value chain so Evan what’s your
experiences yeah I think for any company
who wants to reach out to influencers or
people who could potentially help market
their business I think it’s really
important that like Stephen was talking
about you have shared values and ensured
mission purpose I get hit up all the
time by companies that want to work with
me and it’s it’s like you guys have no
idea what I’m about you know they want
me to come on and just pitch their
product or
you know they’re just measuring hey how
many times we get sent me to sign up for
our newsletter and a lot of times the
content that they provide is is really
boring and really dry and not helpful to
my audience most most CEOs couldn’t
handle this kind of show that you’re
doing Stephen leicht I love working with
Stephen because he loves entrepreneurs
like it’s in his blood he loves doing it
there’s no PR team kind of watching over
and say you said this you need to say
that where I’ve invited other CEOs to
come on to do shows and they’re they’re
terrified to do it because of what they
might say wrong and so you know in
working with someone like me it’s
figuring out I care about entrepreneurs
too so like what is the mission of your
business and then finding people who are
aligned with that but they have a
different they have a different model
you’re selling X they’re selling Y is
there way you guys can work together do
you what what what kind of marketing
partnerships do you guys create at Sage
and and maybe what can the people watch
and learn from that Stephen yeah I think
we got some fantastic marketing
relationships with companies like you
know on one scale actually people at
Microsoft amazing partnerships with
Salesforce which is a brilliant company
and and also kind of product
partnerships and development
partnerships with some of these
companies so it does a strand kind of
and straddle many different elements of
what success looks like I think the
easiest thing though Evan is you started
with a marketing partnership if that
kind of makes sense and that’s aligned
it could drive a much more strategic
relationship right across the business
and ultimately right this put it out
there
I would advise I you know I did a lot of
startups for myself one of the things we
actively saw on the startups where we
had a consideration at some point in
time of an exit is the best way to get
bored you never want to sell a company
you always get bought but when you get
that inbound call the best thing to do
is have really strong partnerships
number one it’s quite likely if it’s a
bigger company they’ll be looking at how
do they actually scale up and if you’re
doing some fantastic work in terms of
grow
independently you might allow them to
see how they can accelerate through
acquisition of your company so I think
partnerships are absolutely an
imperative to go fast and go further and
go go bigger and grow quicker but also
you know strategically they’re a great
way to get you some options if you ever
want to consider an exit of your
business because you very often find and
I don’t know what the data would be
really interesting to know what the data
is
I would guess the data on acquisition
companies that Department is extremely
high extremely high because you know
again it means there’s no surprises
because they know you you know them they
know your product they know the people
the chemistry the values the alignment
it’s all there and you know that’s when
the chemistry and the magic happens so
at that point of potentially getting
bought out should you bring on your
partner as an equity partner and how do
you kind of reach that right how do you
make that maybe you start with one thing
and then they become an equity partner
and then but like how does that scale
work and and what’s the decision-making
tree that somebody should go through
yeah I think that is a great question
Evan and actually what I would encourage
all you guys out there all you
entrepreneurs is think creatively about
partnership you know definitely start
with almost like your idea your vision
and then do a bit of blue sky thinking
about who could be the players and it
may be some of the left-field players
that you actually connect with an
example when I was running the startup
that we actually launched on the Nasdaq
back in California it’s a while ago now
but we went to one of our and at the
time we didn’t really kind of thought
that pretty scary it was one of the big
Canadian telecoms companies a company
you won’t remember ever because you were
born after they kind of sort of went a
different direction
MCI okay yeah so MCI great company
really disruptive you know they wanted
to take on all the guys like AT&T and
all this sort of stuff um but they we
were pitching to them
around becoming a customer and then they
said wow we’ve got this some team who
look at making sort of seed investments
in company and then we kind of combined
a number of things and actually they
became an investor and then Wow they’ve
got such a great network they’ve got
tons of expertise we identified a couple
of executives we’d actually like to join
our board and this was like you know by
this time we were probably a 30-40
million dollar company and so still
relatively small-scale in the scheme of
things but we you know grow at a hundred
percent per annum and so so this
embryonic sort of customer where as a
sales prospect became an investor became
a board member and with them we also
which was really powerful creative sort
of joint go to market team so we had a
business plan where we train their
people and got them to market our
product so so again you know and I’ll be
honest when we started the relationship
we didn’t have all the pieces of the
Puddle worked out it sort of evolved you
know we got lucky but if you can think
about you know some who could you have
white label your product
who’s got the expertise that you might
like to become an equity investor
definitely think of partnerships very
wide-ranging and actually obviously it
saves a lot of time you know you don’t
want kind of marketing partners and then
different equity partners and then
different kind of white label partners
if you can have the same business as a
partner to you I definitely advocate
that because it just saves your time
managing these partnerships because
there is a cost of managing these guys
the other thing I’d say you know it’s
hashtag believe it’s Evans key message
you might kind of think these companies
you know what in financial services like
shaken Morgan or all these big companies
you kind of think wow how do you how do
you penetrate them most of these
companies have some sort of sort of
incubator funds or seed or business
development guys who are just looking
for really bright ideas so if you really
believe in your idea have no fear
there’s probably someone in one of these
big companies who could be
waiting for your call waiting for your
DM waiting for you to contact them but
again put yourself in their shoes and
make sure that you understand what is it
what is in it for the audience and if
you’re in the shoes of the potential
partner and you can create something
compelling for them you’ll always get
their attention I love it what one other
quick hack that I found is whenever I
formed a partnership we would do a joint
press release because again if you can
hit the media then that’s another way to
get lots of customers the media can
funnel you to getting your your face
your brand your your product in front of
a lot of people whenever I formed the
new joint venture partnership we would
do a joint press release and I would
take on the work of doing the press
release if they gave me their media list
and so every time I form a partnership
if I keep building my media list and
building my media list from my partner
so they did the work that did it to do
it initially and then that joint PR
always said to another big boost and it
was a hack to be able to build my list
up really quickly as well
hey I’m crazy idea one of the startups I
got involved in as an investor and I
helped help the guys a lot in the early
days we kind of agreed with the firt it
was a product idea but we arm agreed
with the first 10 customers we’d give
them access to buy an equity in the
company as well and it was one of these
businesses where you needed really
powerful fanatical customer references
and then you think about it you know the
customers using the product they’ve
actually exercised and some bought some
equity and they became raving fans and
that actually allowed the company in
that case it was growing up by three or
four hundred percent for the first three
or four years and it was all build off
that foundation of customers as partners
very much aligned objectives I love it
let’s get this in more questions so you
got a kind of feedback coming in Julie
insane everything sounds better when you
have a British voice I haven’t come
ideal things so I need to work on my
British accent listen the Canadian
accents good to Gillian come on love it
we love we love the Canadians I love
Justin Trudeau Oh
Emmanuel’s writing then how do you
determine rates when working with an
influencer that’s a great question so I
guess you’re talking about commercial
rates yeah if you want to work with an
influencer you want them to you want to
have some kind of relationship determine
what that’s worth
yeah you know what um so my start point
yeah Manuel I am guessing in the early
days of starting a business you know
treat the company’s money as if it’s
your own because it is gonna be your own
it’s gonna be a saving to life savings
you remortgage so therefore you want to
kind of make that money work as hard as
you can be so judicious my initial pitch
to a potential partner would be what
value could I apply so you know could I
give them a if then really like if there
are influencers where I want this
individual involved in my business for
three five years because they are
fundamental to the success of it and
they’re a big spokesperson they’ve got a
big following then I would say wow you
know how about you know single-digit
percentage of equity but I would
absolutely lock that down in terms of
time commitment you know share our voice
all those sort of things so it’s very
clear upfront what their commitment is
and what your commitments of them is now
if they say they won’t do it for equity
but if you get them excited about the
idea or the product and they really
believe in it most of the guys you’re
gonna touch in terms of influencers
probably will have made some money so
they’re much more interest in equity and
upside
rather than kind of paying the bills
every month now if you can’t do that
then there’s loads of places you can go
either on the internet or get access to
what’s kind of a fair rate commercially
but what I’ll say is the more you can
sort of pay them in kind through things
like equity where there’s skin in the
game
I’d always advocate that where you have
to use you know dollars or loonies as it
is in Canada then I think you’ve got a
you’ve got to make sure you get
absolutely work Ammar to get value from
and there’s places you know on the
internet you can there’s loads of
speaker lists if it’s speakers if it’s
influences if it’s like
on executive directors if it’s advisors
if it’s if it’s those sort of folks
there’s loads of kind of ultimately rate
car type information out there all you
can tap out to your network the other
thing I’d say is if you can’t find
someone who’s prepared to do something
kind of pro bono then again if you get
people excited about your ideas then
it’s amazing how much you might be able
to persuade them just to do one pitch or
one kind of whatever it’s something on
social media one endorsement and then
use that as a starter for ten say if it
works well then we could talk
commercially about what is what’s in it
so I’m just being you know as an
entrepreneur I just want to save every
dollar I can and put every dollar into
building the product or customers and
those sort of things and therefore I’m
we’re always looking for how can we
hustle to get what we want
but we’re hang on to the cash for the
for the equity idea is interesting how
do you mitigate the risk of I don’t want
a business partner even though they’re
only in singing single-digit percent
you’re giving up one to five percent of
the company what if the person is just
somebody who you don’t want to have you
know as you get to know them great they
have the audience but they are terrible
to deal with as a partner how do you how
do you overcome that how do you screen
them how do you make sure that you’re
bringing on the right partner in your
business because once you give up equity
it’s hard to get it back yeah I think
you know I think the important thing
evidence you said it earlier you’ve got
to change we talked about the values the
alignment is the chemistry right have we
got a sort of shared mission yeah
whenever you start your business I think
the first question you ask yourself is
why do people care that I exist why why
is my idea gonna change the world
why is my product gonna you know just
transform the experience to the customer
now if you get someone excited about the
Y the sense of purpose and they’ve got
the values the integrity the
authenticity then you should be pretty
good because I don’t think in this world
business people entrepreneurs change
their spots they are what they are they
have DNA and it’s all about success in
growth and generally you know
this isn’t always the case I’ve found
entrepreneurs to be pretty generous
people in terms of their time
particularly with younger people too
and they want other people to be
successful you know this idea that
everybody is kind of dog-eat-dog out
there I be honest I don’t I don’t see
that I know people kind of portray that
as you know sometimes entrepreneurs and
films and stuff but you know you see
that on Netflix but in real life it’s
very different so back to your question
if you make a mistake Evan I think then
you’ve got to have some you know if you
the way I’d do it with equity say we
agreed somethings like 1% I’ve
structured that over a two-year
relationship and I’ll do maybe first six
months in behalf of percent or whatever
and then you know drip-feed the rest of
it so there’s a kind of natural cliff
where you can say you know it’s not
working out or we’ve reached a stage of
the business it doesn’t make sense
anymore so really appreciate what you’ve
done on the first part of the journey
and the adventure and here’s your half a
percent equity and we’ve got to move on
now yeah I agree I think you know go to
meet them wherever they are like meet
them face to face have some dinner
together do something together to kind
of vibe off of them to make sure that
you want this to be a long-term
relationship good is it looks great on
paper I had this product you have this
audience everything looks great but when
you get into it you don’t know that it’s
gonna work out I think meeting them and
I think I definitely talk to a lawyer
and have a shotgun Clause built in so
that you could buy them out if if it’s
not working at you think get rid of them
it’s interesting option and it’s not one
is discussed that often so thank you for
bringing that up in terms we give an
equity away to to influencers I think at
the start there’s a lot of influencers
who do it just for the product so
whatever your whatever you’re selling a
lot of influences we’ll just do it
because somebody recognize them there’ll
be the lower scale ones and people don’t
have the big audiences the people who
already have big audiences usually
already have a standard fee if you want
to work with this person and you reach
up to them and say yes it’s gonna cost
this much they may give you a discounted
rate because they love your story or
they love the mission or they love you
or you you work out some equity deal or
something but the bigger guys usually
already have a
standard fee and just reaching out and
asking them what it is the smaller ones
you may be the first person to reach out
to them and so they may they may do it
just to be able to say I’ve done a brand
deal just just a good customer
testimonial right sometimes people will
do that now you’re working with smaller
audiences but if you do that repeatedly
over and over and over again you know
what you have right now is time you
don’t have money so if you have the time
then go out and spend the time to work
with the right the right people make
those connections so I would to the
Stevens Point I agree hustle hard try
not to spend dollars at the beginning on
that unless you absolutely have to and
find those smaller influencers who will
do it for free or do it for customer
testimonial or who you know might do it
for some equity in the business as you
grow a great question next up what do we
got Orion he’s worried about a big
company stealing his idea so he has this
great idea he takes it to big companies
do a marketing partnership and that
company then steals his idea what do we
what advice do we have Steve when you
work in a big company what advice do we
have for Orion yeah I think Iran I think
you’re right to be cautious especially
if you you know you got intellectual
property that’s you know amazing you
know the cure for cancer or something
like that it’s compelling
so obviously obvious things you can do
is go and see a lawyer hopefully a buddy
who’s not going to charge you anything
and they can come up with some sort of
IP type contract you know what we do is
embed it in a nondisclosure agreement so
you go and you go and give a you’ve got
a you got a tease the excitement haven’t
you so you want a pitch that doesn’t
give then what we call the crown jewels
away but just gives them enough to tease
them to say wow we really want to look
at this product great idea and then at
that point boom there’s got to be some
sort of non-disclosure I like the idea
of kind of non-disclosure as well
because it you know in as an
entrepreneur we used to talk about
hustling but also what’s really cool is
you want to create desire and you want
to create desire in the potential
partner how you do that is create a bit
of scarcity so a few too keen and you’re
all over
and you know you’re not kind of careful
about that they’ll think you’re
desperate and you never want to be
desperate you might be desperate I’ll be
honest when you get home on a Friday
night where you go back to your father
but you never want to give that illusion
that you’re desperate you’ve got to give
it like this is an expo define this is
the next Apple this is the hottest thing
and you’ve seen it now we’ve got to sign
this non-disclosure agreement and
actually I think on our website at this
business plan standard NDA’s all these
sort of things and within those there’s
a clause where they’re not out of steal
your ideas now bottom line is they do
you know ultimately your Nystrom you go
back to them so that’s my idea
stolen it let’s have a discussion about
some sort of settlement but you’re
almost certainly gonna go down a legal
track there and it’s gonna go to the
courts so I think that’s the best way
you protect yourself or on there and
then the other thing obviously back to
Evans point if you meet my over coffee
dinner you get a sense of whether
they’re high integrity people or not and
I would always advise you you know that
chemistry that DNA I know everybody who
watched our evans show has got super
high integrity so you don’t kind of want
to mix out there with lowlife you want
to you want to meet people who have that
authenticity that you have and you can
find that in a face to face and as well
just ask them questions like what
partnerships that they worked in the
past are and you know could you talk
through a couple of partners that they
work with and then do a reference call I
wouldn’t I wouldn’t do any kind of
reference in on social media or all kind
of emails and stuff because people will
tell you one thing when they write stuff
down but if you actually speak to them
and listen to their voice you’ll find
out well they’re the real deal and so
you know I think a lot of its chemistry
face to face there’s no better way or
pick up the phone you’ll hear it in
their voice and then check it out say
you know one of the partnerships in the
last three years number one that I’ve
gone really well for your business and
number two that didn’t work out because
I’d like to speak to both of them I like
it well Ryan is saying thanks to the
answer exclamation point Emmanuel has
the last question said what a great
answer thank you so much so
given some good value here I have some
thoughts but quickly you mentioned this
age website for tools and templates and
downloads where are people going to get
those business plans and legal
agreements yeah we’ll put out we’ll put
it up followed in the show we’ll put up
the link and stuff like that all that
stuff they’re effectively the safes or
the university for businesses got it
okay so guys in the description
afterwards it’s not in now but I’ll add
it below after I get the exact link and
you guys can check that out on the
replay I think for people who are trying
to make those partnerships if all you
have is an idea then you need to have
the IP protected yeah you need to have a
patent because if that’s all you can
bring is the idea then you need to have
it protected ideally though you’re
bringing more than just an idea you know
I have tons of ideas and how McDonald’s
can do better or how Microsoft can do
better doesn’t mean they’re gonna pay me
I’m sure you know they’ve thought of
those ideas too they just haven’t chosen
implemented you know the idea allow like
when you’re when you’re pitching ideas
to companies you don’t have to go into
the Nitty Gritty of how to do it
whatever idea you pinch Stephen for how
sage can be better chances are he’s
already thought about it
like if you’re saying hey hey sage you
get into BOTS right it’s like it’s not
that Stephen has never heard of BOTS
it’s probably already has some kind of
strategy around BOTS right so that idea
alone isn’t enough it’s the execution
like are you the person to come on board
and really help explode the bot business
at Sage right and so you can have a
high-level conversation without them
stealing your idea because the idea loan
is not enough they want to see that like
you are the company you are the person
who’s going to come in and help us
actually grow this thing and so you
think your idea is great and if it’s
only idea you need a patent it and it’s
not patentable chances are they thought
about it and you need to bring more than
that execution customer base momentum I
love that hey I’ll do an unashamed in
commercial now Evan okay women the first
company to launch a bar on an accounting
engine so again we’ll put a link up
about this friend peg and you can have
our facebook Messenger as a friend or
slack where you can have and use of the
use of safe bot I think we’ve got I
don’t know we need a really soft launch
it must have almost a thousand users out
there now so it’s just gone gone viral
yeah and
like all the big is this great and and
sage is ahead of the curve and you know
Stephen Kelly is the visionary CEO
leading the ship and you know so AI you
know it’s like sage is gonna be in AI at
some point don’t just email Steven and
say I have this great ai idea for sage
you know just because you see a company
not doing it right now it doesn’t mean
that they haven’t thought about it and
they’re not working on some plans to do
it so the idea loan is not enough it’s
the actual execution of that idea cuz
these big companies you may think they
stole your idea but chances are they’ve
already had like 30 different business
proposals already around that idea you
just wasn’t good enough to rise to the
top I love that end and if we get the
link for the bots we’ll share it in the
description for the replay people as
well right um great Dante is writing in
to talk about how do big franchises big
companies companies made movies like
Superman and Star Wars did they use
partnerships to get to where they are or
how do they how do you build a big
company through partnerships what advice
do you have yeah you know I think all
big companies you see all the stuff
happening about Fox at the moment you
see all the stuff about Time Warner and
then you see all the new disruptors like
the Netflix and the guys the reality is
all of these businesses of develop on
ships especially in that industry and
that industry is is absolutely kind of
totally endemic around like subcontract
relationships very very few people even
though you know those big companies mi
have thousands of people work from but
they probably have tens of thousands
like of subcontract relationships where
they have camera crews all these sort of
things that they call in they outsource
all the catering or all these sort of
things so they’ll be forming
partnerships as they grow the other
thing that is inevitable I kind of think
once you get off the ground with your
business and you grow and you’re
successful the other thing you want to
do is probably partner with companies
that you might look to acquire and I
don’t know many big companies that
haven’t done a series of acquisitions
and typically those acquisitions
obviously have got to fit with the
strategy got to make sense in terms of
financial returns and and got to allow
you to grow faster and achieve you know
your your adventure quicker so I
in question down don is really spot on
most companies go through a cycle as
they go you know startup they’re
hustlers they grow they go through that
sort of scale up phase and and as part
of that they’re forming partners all the
time on their marketing relationships
maybe even sales associates maybe even
white label product all these sort of
different relationships and invariably
they’ll look at some time with some of
those partners actually does it make
sense to continue to partner or shall we
buy that company and when we talk about
this internally all the time it’s a big
company we say it should we build or buy
you know and that’s a decision we make
normally there’s a really short business
plan to say what are the build options
what are the buy options and normally
the most compelling reason why would buy
is velocity speed and just get it done
quickly yeah time to market yes that’s
how I sold my first company right it’s
like they could buy my company and get
there faster and have the customers and
have the technology or they could do it
themselves in a year but they’re missing
out on the velocity to get it so it’s a
fantastic way to sell your company I
think every big company started as a
small company I started with an
entrepreneur vision and an idea and if
you love Superman and you love Star Wars
I go back and look at the story of how
they they built up like don’t look at
Star Wars now is this huge company look
at how they started look at how George
Lucas got us he thought Star Wars was
too stupid of an idea like too crazy too
wild an idea to ever have commercial
success but he created because he loved
sci-fi and he had to create this world
he never expected it to do well but he
just did it out of a passion project and
it exploded you look at sage sage was
started by like one guy and I think I’ve
ever got the storm right I think the
name sage comes from there was a meeting
in the pub and there was like sage on
the wall and that’s how they named the
guys all right
yes sir back in this is back in the day
what 1981 there’s a place in the
northeast of England called Hugh castle
and the people from there are called
pejoratives from Newcastle and they and
they’re like top people saw that the
waves they saw the DFM really fantastic
high integrity really down-to-earth
and there was two guys at a university
who wanted to have an idea of building
an accounting application and then there
was a guy I can’t a study tour of the UM
university from NASA and kind of this
space scientist and he and these guys
got together in a pub they came up with
this idea and literally the legend is
that they were kind of thinking of a
name they’re all engineers and they’re
all kind of visionaries they weren’t
really marketing guys never saying what
should we call it what should we call it
you know we’ve got to come up with a
really cool name and then just one of
them looked up on the wall and there was
all these kind of hopes and there was
what we can’t call it time we can’t call
it parsley we’ll call it sage parsley
that would have been amazing
so that’s where it all came from and you
know the brand the green is was
generated and created back in the 80s
and actually I met an amazing
entrepreneur he started his business 20
years ago and he said you know first
product I put on you know an
old-fashioned kind of Microsoft 386 time
machine was sage to run my accounts and
collect my cash and then when I got
seven employees I used Sage payroll so
it’s just a may a an you know what we
try and do ever it is and even back then
is just solve a massive business problem
for entrepreneurs that they can just
focus on their business and not worry
about collecting they cash pay a you
know IRS returns all that sort of stuff
they just can really focus on what they
laugh which is their dreams and their
business I love it so here’s a great
example you got this company that’s a
huge company now you know 13,000 plus
employees and billions in revenue and it
started in a pub and they looked at the
wall and that’s how they came up with
their name right like any company that
you love and respect and look up to look
at their founding story and look how
they get started because there’s clues
that you can follow like success leaves
Clues and by studying those people’s
some of the people I have behind me on
my wall like why are they there
I studied their success and it helps me
in my business and so if you love Star
Wars or Superman whoever it is I look at
the foundation story and how they built
it up and that could be a blueprint for
you to go off and have more success I
haven’t just
another idea if you’ve got guys I don’t
know John if you’re working in a film
studio sunny I would always advise a
great way to start an entrepreneur is do
some moonlighting continue to work for
your employer and then you know
weekend’s evenings and stuff like that
build build the business plan build the
idea build the business and for a while
probably doing in parallel so the
interesting thing you could think of and
I’ve found some come actually Wow look
at Marc Benioff I started Salesforce Li
1999-2000 so he’s 17 years ago and
they’re about an eight billion dollar
company now we’re at a twenty percent
amazing company but he agreed with the
the founder and the chief executive of
our Oracle that he’d cut him some slack
and give him some time to go and start
his new idea while he was still paid and
employed by Oracle so there’s loads of
ways you know we’re talking about
partnership that’s a partnership that
allows you to get going and it gives you
also cash coming in to the household to
pay the bills and probably fund your
business as well so if you can do that
and you’re part of a sort of film
business then that’s a great idea and
you might find that you could even pitch
to your existing company some great
business ideas and you might find you
your existing company might even you
know put some cash into your business
it’s definitely worth you ask it’s a
great piece of advice even just dropped
on you guys I think it’s also beneficial
that if you’re in the industry it helps
keep your motivation higher to keep
going you know it can be hard to find
the time after hours if you’re stuck at
some job that you hate and you know you
have other responsibilities those kids
health all that other stuff if you’re
working some job at Walmart it’s hard to
come home and work on your craft every
night you have to do it but it’s hard
where if you’re working in the industry
you’re getting ideas around people who
have a buzz and a vibe and you’re
constantly thinking about new things for
your company you’re more excited when
you go home as well so a hundred percent
agree with Stephen
the reason to get a job is to learn to
be in an environment where you’re
learning and growing and hopefully give
you motivation to go off and do your own
thing and and again you know never I
kind of thing one of them
– tank belief if you believe in yourself
you back yourself
have no fear have no fear because one of
the amazing executives in sage a woman
came to me and she’s actually gonna be
starting their own business she’s still
gonna stay working for us probably she
was talking about maybe in two years
time should kind of go down to two or
three days a week and maybe eventually
be you know her idea as a business and
she’ll leave eh but she pitched it to me
and I said well weren’t you gonna pitch
it to a few guys around the business and
they’ll help you refine your idea so you
know I think a lot of big companies
really want to encourage
entrepreneurship and if they’ve got
bright brilliant people like you and
people like you Don you could get out
there and say you know I want to pitch
this idea what do you think of it
actually what it means is I’m going to
start it – Evans point could I kind of
form a little team a focus group
workshop whatever to test the idea and
prototype the idea and then when you
eventually leave they might kind of cut
you some slack and give you a glide path
where you go down to three days a week
and then when the idea is kind of a real
business and it’s working you go
full-time on your idea so there’s a lot
of different ways that you can partner
probably with your existing employer and
I think around that I’d encourage you to
be very creative and as long as it’s not
a competitive idea you know I I don’t
understand why any employer wouldn’t
encourage their their colleagues to go
and do amazing things of
entrepreneurship I love it I just
noticed you’ve got this this brooch or
this pin happening here what’s that for
hey this is it this is um coming up for
Patriots day so you know over
particularly obvious in Europe or the
u.s. everybody sort of remembers at this
time
coming up on the 11th of the 11th at 11
o’clock okay folks remember and
obviously this symbolizes the the
poppies in the Flanders field yeah we’re
history students remember the first
world war ii world war and i kind of
think this symbolizes all the people who
gave their lives on every side of the
conflict and who left loved ones behind
and and went for for their countries i
love that we have that too it’s we call
it remembrance
our poppies aren’t as intricate as those
but I get I mean it also fits well into
sages mission of helping veterans I know
it’s a big it what you’re trying to do
as well so I love it
Michael is asking how do we tell people
our story when we’re trying to form
partnerships how do I introduce people
how do I introduce people to my business
with my story so we want to form these
marketing partnerships how important
this story and how to wait how do we get
that across to a partner hey Mike what a
great question
I love that do you know what and we lose
sight of this so often as entrepeneurs
when you’ve got an idea you get so much
in like the bowels of the idea the II
lose sight of telling your story I think
every amazing entrepreneur is a
storyteller and your idea is the genesis
of an adventure for customers all over
the world and and so therefore what I’d
say Michael is it is worth perfecting
your story and testing it with your
friends to see what really lands and and
they find compelling and when you’ve got
that and it always starts with the y-you
know what is the sense of purpose what
is the mission that your product or idea
is going to change and transform and why
is that so compelling and then once
you’ve understood that then you can sort
of do the traditional stuff of the value
proposition and you look at who’s the
audience you look at what’s the value
you know does it save time does it give
them more money does it help them grow
faster does it save hassle does it help
their ego make them feel good like
luxury goods so there’s a kind of
there’s a kind of rule of thumb back to
your question of there’s a whole matrix
you go through and you can read books by
crossing the chasm which every more they
define these how to build a value prop
and then you’ve got to answer the
questions like why is it different from
the competition what’s the value but
start with what is the wine what what’s
the wine what’s the sense of purpose and
then build that into a compelling story
be a storyteller and then you know I
think once you’ve you’ve got curiosity
and you’ve got excitement from
the potential partner then the next
stage is maybe a non-disclosure
agreement if you’re worried about IP if
you’re not then you’re probably into
what we talked about last time we’re
doing some sort of business plan jointly
with a partner to say does this make
sense
you know don’t boil the ocean just
saying what does it look like does the
chemistry work what’s the market
opportunity how we gonna get a mark here
and let’s say what are the first 90 day
goals
what’s the first 30 day goals and then
you know crate velocity in the business
and go for it I’m smiling because I
don’t boil the ocean I’ve never heard
that expression before I wanted
violations you want to move is the
velocity and quality our witness Limpy
NSYNC I love that I love that yeah I
mean I agree I storytelling super
important such as an entrepreneur that’s
how you win that’s how you stand out
against the bigger competitors like why
is someone gonna buy from you or work
with you instead of a trusted brand name
who’s been around forever it’s because
they like to you they know you your
story like they feel your commitment
they you know your one word your mission
your path you know the why that Stephen
was talking about that’s how you stand
out I think a lot of entrepreneurs try
to look super professional and corporate
because they’re trying to model what the
big companies are doing and it doesn’t
mean you have to be unprofessional but
it’s understanding that you’re single
bigs advantage is your commitment and
your passion your wife your business and
that has to come out if I look at your
website and it looks like some big
company that I know the big company I
don’t know you I’m not gonna pick you
and so having your story so practicing
it over and over again like Stephen said
it should be something that excites you
every time you tell it because if you
rehearse it and it comes out monotone
and FLAC you’re never gonna win so it’s
got to be exciting for you something
that you want to you know tell your kids
and your grandkids and I would also say
put that up on your website so that when
people are hitting your site they see
the wide they understand what you’re
doing and ideally make a video I get
that a lot of people are afraid of video
and it’s nerve-racking you don’t have to
be the most charismatic person to just
tap into your passion and explain why
you’re doing this like if you have an
auto detailing shop and you have this
video just talking about how much you
care about auto detailing and what it
means to you and your your your mother
got you into this business and you treat
every car like your mom’s
are like you don’t have to be a Steve
Jobs so you’ll just say that really
eloquently you don’t need to have the
Stephen Kelly British accent to leave a
nail it right like just show your
passion tell us your why and that will
it will just make people feel like they
know you and they connect with you and
they want to do business with you
so think I think your store is a huge
advantage as an entrepreneur yeah the
other famine you know two things you
said I think um it’s so easy as an
entrepreneur just to get into like
what’s the features features features
don’t do that think about what what’s
the bigger purpose how does this change
people’s life you know what would be the
benefits of this you know and if it
doesn’t give them time back saving money
or help them grow faster or give them
boost in their ego they can feel better
or reduce hassle you’re probably going
to struggle to appeal to them so think
about what is it in terms of that
compelling value proposition and then
simplify simplify simplify tell as a
story and then test it on your buddies
you know test it on your work colleagues
test it on your friends who are who know
the industry or go and network with
other people who know that industry and
then what Evan said Wow today I think
this is in the case for 18 months and
it’s gonna continue definitely from the
next 18 months the power of this you
don’t have to have fancy film girls all
all of the stuff we go on social media
it’s just done on my iPhone we film it
post it done and the power of video is
to tell stories is so compelling and if
you’ve got your product what better way
than show you your product in a video
Wow even better if you get a customer to
show it and say how it’s blown their
minds and changed their worlds
it’s just compelling everybody you know
wants that excitement compelling and the
way you can do it through video kind of
leaves all the other traditional kind of
needs behind nothing guy yeah get get
into video it cost nothing everybody can
do it and just if you’ve got the right
idea and you’ve got the right product
it’s a fantastic way to present the
story I love it
well we’re already at the top of the
hour we’ve covered a lot of topics here
Stephen how do you want to wrap
all of this up the final message from
mr. Stephen Kelly on marketing tips
strategic alliances Acronis what do you
got yeah you know up is some always with
partnerships explore the V surprise the
unexpected so who woulda guessed what
three years ago everyone we didn’t know
each other I’d say we got a great
partnership we we have a common purpose
we’ve got great chemistry we believe in
the same things we believe in
entrepreneurship and we we serve all you
guys so my big message is obviously
evidence taught you this from day one
hashtag believe get your idea think
about who could be out there to help
your idea or product get to market
quicker and scale and maybe even go
global so you could you know be the next
Google or one of those covers have big
dreams and then dream big through
partnerships because if you do that
you’ll go faster you’ll go further and
you’ll actually be way more successful
and good luck with your adventure
however we’re getting so many thinking
messages thank stephen hashtag believe
hashtag honor heroes so another
resonance with you thank you for doing
this super helpful informative steven
thank you again for your time today
thank you guys so much for watching I
hope you enjoyed it t need to believe
and whatever your one word is and we’ll
see you soon
great job Aaron
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