Attract Fans & Money: Train Others to Teach Your Stuff

Like to bring more joy to your marriage? Want to increase your income by training others to lead groups, based on your expertise? Learn how from someone who’s successful at both.

In this interview hear how Susan Page is training therapists and marriage educators to lead “Spiritual Partnership Support Groups”  - an approach she advocates in her newest book, Why Talking is Not Enough: Eight Loving Actions That Will Transform Your Marriage.

To attract more trainers she spoke at the Smart Marriages conference. (Hint: as an author, you get more invitations to speak where you’ll meet more of your ideal customers.)

People who wish to lead the groups can get an extensive training manual. In leading the groups (or coaching), they becomes more informed, loyal fans of Susan and her book.  What a profitable, life-affirming way to work with others, eh? Page is a natural at partnering with groups to build a constituency for her books in ways that enable the groups to better serve its members.

For example, to spur sales of her first book, If I’m So Wonderful, Why Am I Still Single, this former minister launched her own book tour. She collaborated with churches around the U.S. to offer an evening seminar for their singles, packaging the book as part of the offering.  Participating churches gained a fresh way to attract new members and serve current ones.  Page created what all authors desire – a channel for quantity sales of her book while building a loyal community of readers for her subsequent titles.

Saddleback Church’s Rick Warren attracts mega book sales and a large, active constituency with a cellular and a B2B approach (business to business), providing his peer pastors with sample sermons and church programs. Page, too, recognized the power of B2B . With her books “relationship expert” Page “sells” to the church staff, providing a benefit they can offer two niche “end users” – congregants who are singles and couples.

Each time you offer your constituency fresh value through partnerships you spiral up in ability to attract more credible partners.  That’s why Bono approached Warren, for example, to join the “ONE campaign” to end poverty. And Warren’s church is hosting a rare program in which he’ll interview both presidential candidates.

You, too, could reach out to the club, civic group or other member-based organization that serves your kind of readers and/or clients. With each new value-building partnership it becomes easier for you to recruit other organizations to cross-refer, co-create or otherwise collaborate on services, events and products that benefit all partners - and the people served by them.

As Page did, you can start with a first constituency-building partnership. For example, I introduced a store designer to a ghostwriter who’s writing a book for him on how to create the storefront that pulls more people in off the streets. When the book comes out at the end of 2009, he is partnering with local chambers of commerce and business journals to present a seminar to members and readers in their communities.

To promote these seminars-as-book events, the store designer will provide his local partners with customizable promotional templates for print and online invitations. The partners cover his travel costs and profit from the seminar fees they charge.

And they buy the books in bulk from the publisher. You could adapt this approach to your kind of expertise to increase your credibility and in your profession or industry, perhaps becoming the favorite subject matter expert to your key media. Contact me if you’d like an ebook on SmartPartnering.

Start now to grow your constituency. In this interview hear Susan’s proven relationship-building insights for your life and your work. As Fred Small said, “”Susan Page is like the Buddha channeled by Ann Landers!”