If you're at zero, then it means you have no audience or money. But, let’s reverse what we need an audience or money for.
- ->We want a way to get customers. (I'll cover what I'd do in a minute)
So if we assume community is the product.
The niche is the flavor.
We just need people to buy it.
So, how do you get exposure to lots of people, without already having people follow you OR having money to go buy ads?
You either: 1) make content and wait 2) find someone who has already made the content , built the audience, and already done the waiting for you.
This way, you can get the benefit of having built an audience for five years. Except, you do it in a week.
And here’s the crazy thing. This is probably the easiest way to move forward faster in life. You get other people’s time spent at a discount. I mean - fundamentally that's what we buy when we spend money. We buy other people’s time.
So within the context of Skool, you give up a percentage of your future earnings, to trade for not having to spend years making the content and building the audience. A great trade.
But here’s the cool part. You can do that trade as many times as you want.
Ex: Takes someone 5 years to build their audience. You ask for 20% to start and manage the entire community. They need to just do 1 Q&A call per week. You organize another call per week with another relevant expert from the space. Bonus: they upload an exclusive course inside.
If they say yes, you get the benefits of 20% of 5 years. It’s like gaining a year of life.
But once you do a great job for that person, you can go and ask for 30% from the next 5 year person, and get another 1.5 years. And, again, you can do this over and over.
Steps to actually do the partner model:
- If you don't already have one, create a profile on social media that has a verification badge (pay the $10 or whatever). Make enough posts that you don't look like a weirdo (call it 20). If you already have these things, move to step 2. The $10 you pay for 5x+ better open and response rates - think - less time to hit your goal and find a partner. And if someone wants to partner with you, this is about the cheapest legitimacy I can think of. Besides, no one wants to partner with someone they think cant afford the $10. Fair? no. True? yes.
- If you know any influencers (10k to 100k), reach out to them and see if they're interested. If you don't move onto the next step.
- Ask your friends if they know any influencers of any size. Ask for an intro. Actually f*cking ask. Dont be a pansy. You can even cut them in on your side of the deal if they make the intro and it works out. If you're too afraid to ask your friends, or they don't know any, move onto the next step.
- Send a message to 25 (or whatever the limit is) for influencers with LESS THAN 100k followers but have real (not purchased) engagement. Ideally, start with people you actually already follow. If you've already interacted, awesome. If not, send some version of the message below.
- “Long time fan, first time messenger. I own a company the partners with influencers to start paid online communities that THEY own. Based on your following, it looks like you could generate anywhere from $2000 to $20,000 per month in recurring income. Here’s screenshots of people who started using the platform this month alone. (leaderboard). You get the majority of the profits. We do a majority of the work. Would you be up for a 15min call for me to walk you through what it would look like?"
- If you get a call, prep for the g*damn call. Have some slides and look like youre actually trying to win their business. People judge based on how legit you are. A great way to overcome this is PREPARATION and PREWORK. You're not gonna get a ton of calls in the beginning, so make them count.
- Repeat until you start having calls (think 25 messages/day/ platform). Bonus points if you already follow this influencer and have interacted with them in some way. This will usually take 4hours ish per day. REMINDER: You only need ONE to make enough money to quit whatever you're doing. You dont need 100 customers. You just need ONE influencer/partner.
- And don't get greedy on the first deal. Learn the ropes. Get paid. Then, as you have a track record, you can leverage that to do another deal for a higher percentage or with a bigger influencer. Pro Tip: If you have the choice go for a smaller % of a biger influencer rather than a larger % of a smaller influencer. Bigger influencers gro faster and you’ll still probably make more. Extra pro tip: go for narrow/niche influencer rather than mass market. They have higher affinity with their audience and can charge higher prices (you make more with less).
- Actually do this. And you don't need money or a reputation to make this model work.
- If you don't suck at sales, consider charging a small deposit like $2000 to make sure they follow through. Tell them that it'll come out of your side once money starts coming in. But if you're afraid, then just do your best to them to follow through.
This is what I would actually do if i wanted to make as much as possible as fast as I could. It also gets you out of trying to “figure out your niche” which so many seem to struggle with.
Your niche can be “i’ll help you build a Skool community about whatever you want”
Partner with someone who already has an audience and you get the benefits of having one yourself.
PS - This is the exact same move we did with Skool. I act as my own influencer for the company. We both did this because its smart and creates leverage for both of us. I don't have the time to build a product. They don't want to go build an audience. We both win by combining forces. And so will you.
UPDATE FROM QUESTIONS: How do we split the money? You sign an agreement to split the money that comes in. Then you, the Skool group owner, collect payouts to your bank account. After collecting, you wire the % cut to the partner. You can give them a percentage of topline, or you can split the profits. I'd recommend giving a percentage of topline so you don't have to get into accounting. This can also be a selling point that they make money no matter what and is up to you to maintain the margins.