List Vampires

I love partnerships, JVs, affiliate programs. I've had all of them. I have all of them right now, and I think they can help your business more than just about anything else, but I want you to be careful about one certain type of joint venture that you're going to be offered as soon as you start getting attention.

It's with a high level of disdain and even disgust that I talk about list vampires. Here's the issue that I want to help you with and just give you a forewarning that as soon as you start building a list of any kind, of consequence that has a good avatar. When we were in real estate, we had a list of ... We started getting this types of calls when we had about 5,000 people on our list, but as it got bigger and bigger, we always got calls from people that I call list vampires.

They are the most challenging JV partner out there, and it will be somebody who contacts you out of the blue and wants to help you monetize your list and do a partnership with you. When you hear that, I want you to just be cautious. Here's why. We all go to the same conferences, and I'll be speaking at Click Funnels this year again thanks to Russell Brunson. I can't wait. It is the best event of the year. If you haven't yet, go to clickfunnels.com and buy your ticket because it will sell out. I spoke three years ago, then I missed a year, and I spoke last year, and I'm speaking this year. I missed a year because the tickets actually sold out, and I couldn't get one. I couldn't find one anywhere, so I missed a year. Don't do that. When you go to Click Funnels, here's what will happen. A lot of people will be talking about JVs and partnerships and using other people's lists. In the right context with the right partner, that can be incredible.

Cadey and I have made tens of millions of dollars through partnerships and affiliates and JVs, and we've made other people tens of millions of dollars through partnerships, affiliates and JVs. When you do them right, they can just be incredible, but here's the issue. If you get contacted by someone who has specifically starts talking about monetizing your list and you don't know who they are, be cautious. Slow down and do some research on them, because here's what a list vampire usually is going to show up like. They have a broad, broad business opportunity for something very generic. It's like, "We show anyone how to buy tax liens," or, "We show anyone how to make money through business partnerships," "We show anyone how to buy property, no money down," "We show anyone ..." They always have kind of an anyone proposition, or they say that they really work a lot with the type of person you work with. You want to be cautious because here's what those types of companies do.

I hate to call people out, but I also don't want you to be taken advantage of, because here's what they sell. They sell volume, and they have very low adoption of their products. They sell hope and dream products, and they'll have you send emails out to your list and they'll get on a webinar with your list, or they'll do a pre-recorded webinar, and what will happen is they'll sell a broad range product with a very low adoption rate, and they don't really care about the outcomes. They care about the sale or getting an even bigger sale. Typically it's some type of biz opportunity. It's like a bizopp product or business opportunity product, and it's broad and targeted at multiple avatars. What these people do is they make a living out of just going out and burning other people's lists. Because you will email your list and they'll have some split with you that sounds really good.

Sometimes they come usually with a 50/50 split of everything that they sell, but sometimes they'll even go 60/40 in your favor because what they're doing is they have teams of people out there just finding people like you with a list, and they get it out to another list and another list and another list. What will happen is it will be a good webinar. They are going to be able to sell your list because they got third party approval of your introduction, and then here's what happens most of the time. They will have contracts that are incredibly strong against the purchaser. They won't have money-back guarantees. They'll have really challenging customer service. When you do this, you end up in a situation where now part of your list is mad at you. As soon as the complaints start rolling in, they're on to the next one. They're working with somebody else.

They're good for about the first 30 days, and then when the return period or when the warranty period or whatever it is that comes up that they need to get passed, it's really hard to get back in touch with them. I wanted you to be careful because these types of companies will call out to any company that starts building a list. One of the things I recommend is it doesn't matter what type of business you have, whether it's a restaurant or an information products business, or it's a retail brick and mortar, or you're a coach or consultant or an expert of any kind or a speaker, you have to build your list. You have to have that contact list. It's worth a fortune because you can sell that to that list over and over. You build trust with them. They get closer and closer with you. You let them know who you are.

When you let your list in, when the people on your list understand who you are and what you stand for and they believe in you, then that list is worth a fortune. If you go out with one of these companies and that list believes that they have your endorsement and they buy from them and they're burned, it's going to burn you. Thankfully, Cadey and I have never jumped into one of these. We almost did one time, and they were talking to a friend of ours and they said, "Hey, wait. You really need to look into that company." We did, and we pulled back. There wasn't even a ton of complaints. There was enough, so we pulled back. If you get into a situation where you do this ... I've had friends who didn't understand it, have done it, and they've told some horror stories of people not getting product, people not getting access codes, not being able to get a hold of customer service. They go to the Better Business Bureau, and the company is already rated an F.

Be really cautious who you JV and partner with. Make sure it's someone who you know, or is someone you know knows. You got a good reference on them or two or three. You know other people who have made money with them, who their list has been treated the right way. You trust the person. It's not just somebody who came up with an opportunity for you. Because what these guys are doing is counting on one out of 10 entrepreneurs is going to need money or need something or fall for the pitch. They're selling you because you're going to sell your list on them just with the introduction. Be careful about list vampires. They are brutal. They will hurt your relationship with your customers. They will hurt your relationship with the people who haven't bought from you yet. Do the due diligence on your JVs, and they can make you millions. It's one of the biggest pieces of leverage that Cadey and I have ever used through our businesses.

JVs, affiliates, partnerships, endorsements have changed our lives, so I don't want you to back away from all of them. I just want you to be cautious who you partner with, and what you'll see is that it will go a lot better when you think about who you're doing business with and you know them, and you've checked references. I don't to see you end up burning your list and burning the trust. If you haven't yet, you should go to Free Momentum Book, and get a copy of the Entrepreneurial Personality Type. Here's what I've been told by most people who read it. It explained themselves to themselves better than anyone else had, and a lot of the time for the first time anyone had ever explained them in any way that they related to. Go to freemomentumbook.com, get a copy of the Entrepreneurial Personality Type. It will tell you more about yourself than anyone ever has, and show you how to understand yourself better, stop limiting behavior, and create unlimited momentum. Freemomentumbook.com.