Within this article I want to discuss strategies on how to build relationships with your mentors and possibly future joint venture partners. If you want to be able to eventually work with and learn from these world-class mentors, building a relationship with them is key. What I am going to discuss with you are very easy and cheap - they will cost you nothing - ways to build those relationships with your mentors.



Firstly, this is the clincher. Make sure you write it down in capital letters in bright red marker. Participate. That is the word you have to write down. When given the opportunity, participate.

I could have been a fly on the wall when I first started, nobody knew who I was. It was at the John Childers' Million Dollar Speaker Training where John taught me a key lesson in business. He said, "It's not what you know or who you know. It's who knows you."

My whole point here is get known. Your mentors and possible future joint venture partners will give you all kinds of opportunity to 'participate' so take advantage of it.

This is what I'm talking about. If there are questions in their emails, or they ask for feedback on their projects, give it to them. Give the feedback, ask questions, participate as much as you can. If you participate on a regular basis, the more likely it is that they will get to know you. That is the end result we are looking for.

This is another one, and so many people underestimate this: Provide testimonials. And I'm not talking about "normal" testimonials either. I'm saying make these testimonials the best testimonials you have ever given, and then send them a picture that they can use.

Even if they don't ask for one, give it. So many times I've done this and it ended up on their website, even though they never asked me for one! Alex Mandossian taught me this strategy.

When I first got started in this business, every single website I seemed to go to, Alex Mandossian was there giving a testimonial. Do you know how effective that strategy was for him?

Later I found out that he was getting all kinds of leads sent to his website and to his business through the use of putting up testimonials on other people's websites. You've got to learn to give really good testimonials. Even give them when they are not asked for.

You have to give testimonials that are specific and relevant to the material you are talking about.

A quick example of a good testimonial could be heard from a gentleman who was one of the winners of a testimonials contest for a recent teleseminar of mine. What was so good about it was that he made sure he included his name, where he was calling from and gave a specific benefit that he received from the teleseminar.

This is a very easy way to get your testimonials onto other people's websites. When you send a picture along with it there is a good chance they will post a link to your website as well, which is only going to help you generate traffic, giving you all sorts of benefits.

Not only is it benefiting your website in the long run, it is also another way to develop relationships with your mentors/future joint venture partners.

Here's the next tip: Forums - participate in them as well. There are forums on just about every kinda of industry, in fact, many people have their own forum.

Whether you're in that market or whether you're not, I want you to seek out forums that you can participate in and give lots of content, tips, resources, anything in these forums. Get yourself known.

Another to do is read people's newsletters and look at them to find any important and personal insights and details.

Here's some things you should constantly look for. Any birthdays, whether it be the specific person who writes the newsletter or their wife, husband or even their kids. Look for birth dates and then send them cards or a happy birthday E-mail, or perhaps even an audio postcards.

Use these important dates to build up your relationship with them. Any dates from their anniversary to product launch dates are all things you should be looking for and making a note of.

Always look to offer help to your mentors or future joint venture partners. You wouldn't believe the response that you will get when you ask somebody if there's anything that you can do to help them in their business.

Or, let's say for example, that you know that there's something coming up in their business, like a product launch or a seminar or anything of that nature, and you ask to help with something specific, they're going to know that you've been paying attention to their business, and they'll be surprised, number one. Number two, you're going to stand out in their minds later on down the road.

What I've done in the past is I've sent information to my mentors that I thought would be of value to them. It is just another way to develop good relationships with these people. The tips and strategies I'm talking about are not difficult to do, but people rarely do them.

Anything I come across and think it would be of value to them, I send it their way. Articles that they could extract from, website links, resources online. Even off-line tools and newspaper clippings work. All I do is shoot them an e-mail saying, "Hey, I think this might be of value to you."

One thing to keep in mind though is NEVER send links that include affiliate links or something like that. Only send information that would be of value to them and their business.

Making a quick buck should not be your focus - it should only be on building a relationship and providing them value. If you have other intentions they will see right through you and you will ruin any chance of building a long-term relationship.

I've used all these strategies and you can too, which will then allow you to leverage those efforts to building great relationships with all of your mentors and future joint venture partners. For me it has resulted in all kinds of projects with different people. If you focus on just building a foundation with individuals it is amazing what can come of it.