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The only reason for you to have a partner is because they either have money or skills that you

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do not have. Welcome to the game where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more

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per customer, and how to keep them longer in the many failures and lessons we have learned

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along the way. I hope you enjoy and subscribe. What's going on everyone? I have been known as the

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partnership killer. And so what I want to share to you with you today is something that comes up on,

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I mean, every week on coaching calls with younger entrepreneurs, younger business owners,

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not even younger, just other business owners, who aren't doing as much and who want more.

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And the question is, usually one of two things. First is, you know, what should our roles be

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within our partnership? And then two, what do you think of partnerships in general? And so what I

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want to do is share with you a couple of hard, hard, hard, earned lessons that I have. And so

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first, right off the bat, I think I counted, I have nine failed partnerships. And so I just want

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to say right, right before we even get going, I could be the problem with the partnerships, right?

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If you have that many failed partnerships, then it's probably you, you were the common theme. So

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I will say that first and foremost upfront, that being said, I think the reason that many of those

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partnerships fell and they all happened, you know, almost concurrently. I just did a partnership

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after partnership after partnership because I heard it's like, you got to find good partners.

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But what I didn't understand was how it actually needed to be structured and how it worked. And so

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there's a few pieces of that. The first is, if you were just starting out, I think that for the

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most part, it's better to not have partners. And that is because usually it's like you and a buddy

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and you're like, hey, we like hanging out, we should go into business together. When really you're

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doing that for the emotional need to be satisfied to have somebody to talk to and share the experience

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with, but not because it's a good business decision. And the only reason for you to have a partner

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is because they either have money or skills that you do not have. That is it. So the only reason,

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money or skills, that's it. And so if you both are entrepreneurial people and you're both, you know,

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love selling, you love marketing, you're very promotion oriented, which many entrepreneurs are,

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right? If that's you, then if they're that way too, then one of you is not required and you have

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to really face that. And so that's the first one. The second thing is that those jump into bed to be

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other partnerships don't have step number two, which is you don't have a contract, you don't have

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terms, you don't have an agreement. And the reason is because you're so afraid of like messing up the

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vibe, we don't operate that way, you will when it gets fucked up at the end. But I'm telling you

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right now, I now, even when I have somebody who approaches me and says, hey, like, will you take

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a percentage of my company? Can you coach me through this, blah, blah, blah? I say, let's go through

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the lawyers first, all right? Because the thing is is you get to see how this person acts under stress

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because it is stressful because inherently, you're going to disagree on things. And so this is the

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perfect, like perfect time for you to go kind of get a simulation of that. Well, it's like, well,

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what happens if you don't want to work and I want to work? What happens if you leave? What happens

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if I don't want to do this anymore? Like, you have to go through all the scenarios and get a good

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lawyer. And you should really have two that represent you. If you don't have the money for that,

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then get somebody to just counsel you on, you know, you can Google a standard partnership agreement,

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their templates for free online. And you can pay one lawyer for one hour of time to at least say,

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these are the things you should look for now, you know, decide amongst yourselves. And so you can

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represent yourself in your partnership, you know, agreement, but you have to have the agreement

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and you have to spell it out in clear terms. Because if you don't have that, it's like, it's the bedrock

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of good communication and expectations, right? Like, otherwise, usually, like most relationships,

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partnerships end because of unmet and unspoken expectations. Like, why thought you're going to do this?

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It's like, well, I didn't know, but no one even says that because I can't communicate. So first is,

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you probably shouldn't just jump together with somebody because they, they're just like you.

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If you are going to do that, then you should make sure that you have contracts in place. And then

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finally, what I want to do is kind of explain to you what the three main roles, roles that exist

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in a business are, okay? Three, the three pillars, all right? I want to have to see if I have a tripod

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here. All right, here we go. Here's my tripod, all right? So there's three pillars to every business,

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all right? The first is acquisition, which is the rainmaker or somebody who's going to bring in

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business. So that's marketing and sales, all right, acquisition, the money getter, all right?

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The second of these is the product, which is what you are actually selling. It's the fulfillment,

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it's the service, it's the widget, it's the whatever, somebody who knows how to deliver it, all right?

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And then third, you have the operations, which is everything else that has to happen in the company,

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paying payroll, paying taxes, making sure legal and contracts and IT and, you know, finance and

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all like, you know, you're accounting, all of that stuff, HR has to happen, right? And so these

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are the three legs of every business. Now, they're not necessarily equally weighted and that's

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an important point, right? Like a lot of times there are good operators that you can get for

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significantly less and many times not even equity because they're more of them, right? Now,

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rainmaking, being able to bring in business is a very highly valued skill in the marketplace.

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On the flip side, having the thing, the product that you're going to sell is also very valuable.

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Now, this is why skill stacking is so important. If you can have multiple of these skills,

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then you have two or all three of the legs, right? Now, your, these are the roles that have to

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exist. It doesn't mean you have to be partners with these people, but you have to have all three

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of these things for your business to stand up. And so for example, within the company, I'll walk

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through my roles within each of the companies that I own. And so the first is gym launch, right?

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So in gym launch, I am both the acquisition and the product, right? Or that was my founding role

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within the company. Layla, my wife, runs, ran all the operations, so everything else. So like I

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said, IT, billing, legal, finance, HR, all of that stuff that had to happen, she took care of, right?

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Super important. But because of that, we had all three legs of the stool and we're able to build a

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business, right? If you're missing one of the legs, it's not going to work, right? And this is

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where this is really dangerous is like a lot of the marketing people that are in this world are

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really good promoters. They can get people in, they can sell them, but then they have no fulfillment.

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They have no thing, right? And then they have no one who's organized. And so everything, like you

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send emails in, you try and get help and they don't respond. It's because they just don't have

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the other piece. I don't think it's because they're bad intention. I think you just don't have the skill.

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Hey guys, love that you're listening to the podcast. If you ever want to have the video version

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of this, which usually has more effects, more visuals, more graphs, you know, drawn out stuff,

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sometimes it can help hit the brain centers in different ways. You can check my YouTube channel.

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It's absolutely free to check that out if that's what you are into. And if not, keep enjoying the show.

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And so you have to have all three. And so if you're going to bring someone in,

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you need them to have one of those things, right? Now you can start a business and own all of it

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and just make sure that you fill the roles with those people. But as you're thinking through it,

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those roles, so if you're going to bring partners in in the beginning, you want to be clear about

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what it is that they're bringing to the table. Now if they're, if they're one of those three,

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right, then that's a clearly defined role. And then at that point, that's what you can lay out

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in your agreement. And then you can argue about or, you know, negotiate whatever equity if you're

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doing this in the beginning. But if you've already started at that point, then you can look at the

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three legs of the stool and see where, where am I lacking, right? And so for most of you guys who

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are listening, most people follow me are on the, are like the promotion side. So they like the acquisition

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side. Then what you need to do is find a strong operator, all right? And depending on what you're

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selling, if you know the thing that you're selling, then you can basically be product and acquisition

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and have a strong second to help you fulfill on those things and basically don't go to gym, right?

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And, you know, get fire taxes and all the other stuff. And so when I'm thinking about partnerships

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and when I have, you know, younger guys were coming in many, many times after having discussions

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with me and then talking to them each other, they realized that they had the exact same role,

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they liked the same things. And one of them is not necessary. And so they oftentimes split. And

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that's not a bad thing, right? It's better to recognize an error early than to recognize an error

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late. All right? And so you may be in one of these partnerships where you're like, we got to both

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do the same thing. We kind of just overlap on everything. It's like, yeah, that's just two people

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working the same thing. And so it's not like, you don't want to just be like, oh, there, here's

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all this work. I'll do half you do half. That's not a good partnership. You have to figure out what

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are the things we're, I am good at. What are the things you are good at? And then we draw a line on

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the board and everything on that side you own and everything on this side I own and I'm responsible

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for it because everyone's responsible for everything. No one's responsible for anything, right? And

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then nothing's going to get done. And then you can never know who to blame. And someday you're like,

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well, he takes out the trash or awesome. I take out the trash and we just kind of, we're just like,

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kind of get it done type of stupid. There's no, there's no big business that works. All right? And so

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if even if you are small, you need to start thinking big to become big, right? So you got to do the

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actions before you get the results. You have to have the beliefs before you get the outcomes

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of a bigger business to become a bigger business. And the reason most businesses stay small is because

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they think small and they act small. So they stay that way because the outcome of what they're

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doing is the result of the actions they're making which are small, right? And so right now if you're

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in a partnership, if you don't have a partnership and you're thinking about starting a business,

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I would definitely try and just acquire the skills myself, get going. And then the first hire I'm

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going to have is going to be a strong operational second. All right? It's the first thing I'm going to

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do. If you are in a partnership, you need to put all the activities that you do on a board. I do

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this when I do consulting stuff, but all the activities that happen in the business on a board.

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If you don't know what it is, you do a time study which means you write down every 15 minutes

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what you do in a week, right? Because you probably don't know because you've scattered all over the

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place. So if you write it all down and you both bring it to each other and you put it on a white

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board or put it on a board, then what you can do is say, okay, these are all the things, these are

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all the activities that happen in our business. Let's divide these out and say who owns these.

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All right? And then that's the very beginning of an organization because you are becoming

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organized. You are creating roles and responsibilities. You are creating specialization of skills which

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is what move humanity forward. Specialization is a good thing, right? And so at the very beginning,

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you get all of it on there and you can divide it out and you can divide it based on the skills of

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the person. If you both have the same skills, then either you decide, okay, well, I'm going to

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become a specialist in this and you're going to become a specialist in this or we shouldn't be doing

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this business together and you should do a business that's just like mine or or something else

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and you should become and you should be that role for that company and you should find a second

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just like I will. All right? And oftentimes if you can at least think that way, then you don't lose,

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you don't liquidate the most valuable thing in the whole world which is your equity. All right?

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Because if your thing actually does grow, if your business actually does grow, then the biggest

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delusion of how much money you're going to make is that first decision when you started when you

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just decided to just right off the bat to give half of everything away. All right? And I've made

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this mistake nine times and it took me and I haven't had it a partner in four years and I've

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made all of the money in my life post partners. And so there's also other factors you want to look

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at too, like what kind of working schedule do you have? How much vacation time do you want to have?

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Are you going to work weekends? Do you work late at night? Do you work in the mornings? Do you

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expect each other to be responsive? Like there's all these little things that you need to make sure

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you dial in because if you don't, it's just going to cost trouble later and it may be hard

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conversations for you now, but believe me, it'll be much harder later when the expectations are not

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being met and now you have money involved. All right? So anyways, these are the things I think

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through when I'm looking at partners and partnerships and why oftentimes I do break up many partners

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because they don't start them for the same for the right reasons. And so I hope to find this

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valuable. If you have a partner, talk to them about it, show them this video and keeping amazing

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and lots of love. Oh, total bonus. I have noticed that works really well so many times is married

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couples. Married couples starting business together, they already have usually differences and

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skills and different dynamics. And so that usually works well. Usually one of them is the more

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go-getter hunter killer, right? You know, the acquisition side and the other person's usually

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the more organized, more stable, you know, more even headed, like does all the ops in the back,

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the back end stuff, right? And so even just thinking about front end and back end is a good way to start

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and that's why I love having married couples in general because they almost always are successful

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if they can just donate those skills and they usually already have even, even without speaking,

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they already unknowingly have made a lot of these specializations. This is why a lot of times

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they're more successful. They also have the interpersonal, emotional, sounding board to bounce

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things off of and also release some of the stress that inevitably comes when you're running a

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business. So anyways, hope you enjoyed the video. Hope you found this valuable. You know, share it

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with your partner or potential partners and see you in the next video. Bye!