In 2010, my business was just taking root to grow in a much bigger way. My book, Bye-Bye Boring Bio, was earning fans and helping me get a lot of media interviews. And I was looking for ways to make a much bigger impact. I was doing lots of speaking at local community events, writing my ezine and blog, and writing a column for the local business journal. Things were moving right along in a “base hit” kind of way, but I had “telesummit envy” and didn’t know quite how to break through and find my way in.
One day, I got an email from a friend of a friend who told me about Christine Kloser’s Transformational Author Experience. It was a telesummit that brought leading experts together to guide authors to learn essential “how to” information to get their books out of their imaginations and onto paper to hopefully make a big impact in the world. I just KNEW people in my community would want to know about it. The friend said Christine was looking for prizes to offer to aspiring authors to create excitement for her event.
So, what did I do? I told my friend that I would be happy to offer prizes of Bye-Bye Boring Bio for her contestants. And then I asked the next important question. I said, “AND would it help if I promoted this event to my tribe?”
This friend didn’t know the reach of my influence, and Christine Kloser didn’t even know my name at the time. In a “what the heck” kind of way, I think they decided to send the partner promotional packet my way and see what might happen by saying YES to my offer to promote TAE in 2010.
If you’ve never done a big online event like this, what I can tell you is that the event hosts pay close attention to how quickly the opt ins flow when their various partners mail for them. And they can FEEL when there is a flurry of new activity if a partner’s list is responding. It is a bit like sitting at a slot machine in Las Vegas.
So, one day leading up to her 2010 TAE event, I sent out a heart-felt message to my community that I thought it would be a good idea for them to participate. The message landed. I got a private email from Christine asking if I had mailed for her that day. I said, “Yes!” The sheer number of new subscribers she was welcoming in short order turned her head. At that moment, I think she had a good feeling that inviting me to play with her in service to her big event was a good decision.
What I was thinking at the time was that I KNEW a perfect partnership over a long period of time was possible, and I was going to do whatever I could do to support her success to swing the door wide open for a deeper conversation when the timing was right.
So here is what I did. When the 2010 TAE event was over and I had a sense that Christine might have recovered from all the excitement and 
activity and sales, I sent a VIP package in the mail to her with a copy of Bye-Bye Boring Bio and an invitation to read it to determine if there might be additional ways I could be of service to her or her tribe. There was a hand-written note within the package to invite a relationship.
Well, a few weeks later, I got an email from Christine that said, “I took Bye-Bye Boring Bio to bed with me last night, and I stayed up half the night reading it. I wrote a new draft of my bio as a result of it. Would you take a look?”
“Yes, of course,” I replied. And I asked a few questions and made a few suggestions to see about making a good effort EVEN more true and compelling for Christine.
A day or two later, she sent an ezine out to her entire tribe to share her new updated story and received love notes and encouragement from her community, and I felt an enormous feeling of pride around that.
Well, what happened next? She invited me to SPEAK for her 2011 TAE telesummit, and that is when things started getting interesting. She does dozens of interviews with world-class experts for this event so we arranged a date to PRE-RECORD our interview. It was going to air on a Friday in May, which was a day I was on the phone with a client and my computer screen was turned OFF.
When the client call was over, I turned my computer ON and couldn’t believe what I found. There were 800 opt in subscribers from Christine’s list who had opted in to receive the first chapter of Bye-Bye Boring Bio as a gift within the last several hours! And quite a few of those opt in subscribers decided to purchase my book and a whole lot more. It was a perfect match of expertise, solutions, and people to create the ultimate win-win-win.
As luck and timing would have it, Christine and I were both invited to a VIP Joint Venture Summit in 2011 and met in person for the first time. It was a beautiful friendship right from the start. She invited me to speak for TAE in 2012 and 2013. I have since welcomed hundreds of new fans and followers of my work, and hundreds of those people have since become clients of my books, trainings, and Get Known to Get Paid private mentoring.
So the moral of the story is to be open to “YES AND …” as the perfect answer to the invitation you have been hoping to come you way, and to go the extra mile when asked. This has paid off time and time again for me, and it will pay off for you, too. It kind of reminds me of that song from “Frozen” — Love is an open door.
Great “business marriages” are everywhere if you are just open to seeing them and nurturing them along.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGaxbH2t9Ik&feature=kp
Note: The Transformational Author Experience is the “premier” virtual training for authors, reaching more than 35,000 authors to date. This curriculum-based program ensures students learn everything they need to know – from best-selling authors, publishing and marketing experts, and transformational leaders… including you! General registration is free. And invite the aspiring authors in your network to join you. TAE always delivers the goods as you will soon experience. That crowd pleasing and list building “Bye Bye Boring Bio” interview I gave in 2011 is among the juicy replays you will gain access to, so tune in and refresh your learning to make your story the best it can be. Here’s the link to claim your place at the Transformational Author Experience 2014 that opened its doors just moments ago — See you there!
