011: The Most Underused Marketing Strategy to Add TODAY with Laura Sprinkle

Kate Kordsmeier 0:00

Welcome, it's Episode 11 of the Success with Soul podcast and I'm your host Kate Kordsmeier. Today I brought on one of my new but amazing friends Laura Sprinkle. Laura I met in February, she and I are both in a mastermind together. And before our in person retreat, I looked up Laura's website to just get to know all of my fellow mastermind ladies. And I just have to share the first thing that I read with you guys because I feel like right away I just connected with her so much she says we help heart centered entrepreneurs launch their ideas into the world and find success being themselves totally radical and underestimated we No, no more burnout and trying to do all the things let's focus instead on what your personal sweet spot is so that you can make more money with more ease and more Netflix. Heck yes, who does doesn't want that. So Laura sprinkle is an affiliate launch strategist for online course creators and coaches who want to take their product launches to the next level with the help of affiliate partners. So she has an affiliate concierge service, she offers bespoke affiliate solutions and she's worked with some big freakin names like Amy Porterfield, Selena Sue, and Todd Herman. Laura also has an incredible course herself that you can take called rock your affiliate program, which I highly recommend, and we've got linked in the show notes. But in this interview today, Laura is peeling back the curtain of her own course and sharing with us some incredible tips. She's talking about the four rings of recruitment and how to find partners to promote your stuff, and the four phases of affiliate programs in general and how to get your affiliates to actually care and share about your program. So let's dive into today's episode. sewed if you have a course or a product or a service and you have been considering partnerships to help you make more money and get more sales, I highly recommend you take a listen. You're listening to the Success with Soul podcast with Kate Kordsmeier x journalist turned CEO of a multi six figure blog and online business. But it wasn't that long ago that Kate was a struggling entrepreneur who lacked confidence, clarity, and let's be honest money. But all those failures, experiments and lessons learned helped Kate create a thriving business that impacts thousands and brings freedom, flexibility and fulfillment to her life. If you're ready to do the same and make something happen with holistic, soulful, step by step strategies from Kate and other experts, you're in the right place. Here's your host writer, educator, Mom, recovering perfection. a bookworm and sushi connoisseur Kate Kordsmeier

Laura Sprinkle Welcome, welcome.

Laura Sprinkle 3:07

Yay. Thank you. Hi.

Kate Kordsmeier 3:11

So glad you're here. I'm Laura and I have if you guys haven't noticed, I have a lot of amazing women in my mastermind and a lot of them are coming on the show. So Laura is one of them. And so excited for you to be here. Laura, I know you have an incredible resume and website and just are a wealth of knowledge, especially when it comes to affiliate marketing and partnerships, so super pumped to get into it.

Laura Sprinkle 3:39

I'm so excited. Thank you so much for having me. And yes, we do have the best mastermind ever.

Kate Kordsmeier 3:45

Yeah, seriously, if you guys have not considered doing a mastermind before, I think Laura and I can both safely say we would highly recommend it. It's been one of the best best decisions I've ever made and the best money I've ever made. Even though a lot of money and I was a little scared upfront to actually invest it, and then, you know, after the first in person retreat, it was like, Oh, yeah, that was a no brainer that was worth the entire like, Oh, yeah, I agree.

Laura Sprinkle 4:16

Like I wouldn't even need more. I mean I want more. But yeah.

Kate Kordsmeier 4:20

Yeah. Okay, so we were writing the outline for this episode, and we're looking at your website. We love it. You have so many just like golden nuggets on it. But one thing your website says that really caught my attention is, you say at one point, I deleted my entire business and started from scratch on a whim of intuition and tripled my business within two months. I need to know, how did you do this?

What's the story? This sounds interesting.

Laura Sprinkle 4:51

That's hilarious. Yeah, so I actually studied to be a health coach. Back Well, I guess seven years ago. Now. And I didn't, I never wanted to work in corporate and I was like, I have this health coach certificate that I didn't go get it to be a health coach. I bought it because I was just interested in holistic health for myself and healing my gut. And I was like, I'm just gonna go for it. So I had a business and I had a program called she's got guts, I wrote a book called, she's got guts, and it's going really well. And it's so funny that you're in the health space as well. And then really realized, I don't really care what other people eat. Like it's not a passion of mine to teach. I really learned it for myself. And I felt complete with that part of my business and life. And it felt really scary. I think I I sat on the decision for about six months. And I was on this boat in the Atlantic Ocean Actually, I was on this boat and I was just sobbing because I read this email from somebody who was so passionate about their business, like it was a sales email, and they were just super lit up and happy. And I just started crying because I was like, I am not connected to what I'm doing at all. And I just decided right then and there, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop it, I'm gonna do something else. I don't know what it's going to be. I don't know what it's going to be called. I don't know what I'm going to sell. But I need to do something different. And so I emailed my list, which was probably was only about 400 people at the time. And I just said, I don't know if I can swear on here. Yeah, go for it. Okay, cool. I was just like, I don't give a shit what you eat. Like I literally said that in the email. And I just told the story. I just spoke from the heart about that I was doing this new business. I was in the middle of doing a summit at the time. So virtual summit and I spoke with all the speakers. I have people like Kate Northrup, who is our mastermind leader, Nisha Moodley and just a bunch of amazing folks who are We're kind of in the health space as well. And I just told them, I'm changing my business. It's gonna be more marketing focused, and soulful. And they were like, I'm still on board. So I move forward with it. And within three months, I had a list of over 1000 people. So I had no, I had about 800 people. So I doubled my list. And then I actually started selling website design packages. And I had tripled my business within a couple of months. So tripled my monthly revenues.

Kate Kordsmeier 7:33

Wow, that's so amazing. So do you have a background in web design?

Laura Sprinkle 7:38

Not at all totally. So

Kate Kordsmeier 7:41

Wow, that's awesome. Well, experience is the best teacher that just seemed like such a random pivot when you said that I was expecting you to say that that's when you started your affiliate marketing business right

Laura Sprinkle 7:52

now and then yes, shifted since then. So whenever I tell people this story, I feel like they get they can read this. sigh of relief, knowing that like they can evolve and change their business multiple times. And yeah, that took me about another year to work in launches, and then another year after that to work specifically with affiliate marketing and affiliate management. Okay,

Kate Kordsmeier 8:18

yeah. But that is such a beautiful message. And I think one of the most incredible parts of a being your own boss and having an online business in particular, because it's much easier to pivot an online business than like a brick and mortar.

Laura Sprinkle 8:33

Yes.

Kate Kordsmeier 8:34

Where you have all this money tied up and physical space and physical goods and all of that, but, yeah, people, you know, we have so many students in the six figure blog Academy that are always like, I think sometimes it's like, they take it too seriously. And I'm a perfectionist too. So I get that it's, you know, you want everything to be perfect, but I'm like, nothing has to be forever. Just start and see how it goes. And then pay If you need to, like it's actually pretty easy to do. It's scary to do especially built something that's working because you're like, well, it's working. Why should I? You know, but I love that you've done it multiple times now and each time you found success and kind of followed your heart to the next thing and now now here you are. So, Laura. Now, I should ask you to like, what do you consider your job title to be if you

Laura Sprinkle 9:39

Yes, so now I train companies on how to grow their business using partnerships and specifically using an affiliate program. So how to recruit partners how to activate partners amplify their sales, and then appreciate them so that they come back for more. So I've got a full training system. Run your affiliate program and I developed it by working behind the scenes, being an affiliate manager for some of the top leaders in online space as well as some smaller niche companies. And

Kate Kordsmeier 10:16

can we say some of the names that you've worked?

Laura Sprinkle 10:19

Definitely Yes. So I've created the partner programs with Selena Sue Todd Herman and Amy Porterfield.

Kate Kordsmeier 10:26

Oh, I think I've heard of a couple of y'all only some of the biggest names in this industry. So yeah, that you know your shit basically what I'm trying to prove here and I'm so excited to dig into this with you because selfishly you know, we have six FBA and we have an affiliate program and, and we've been trying to figure out how to improve it. I guess it's not bad. We're in like a decent spot. Because you told me sound amazing. So Just props to you for even just going for it because that's people are afraid to really start an affiliate program. And so I just commend you for just going for it. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I've always been a little I like to say fearless, not reckless, just why not? Let's give it a try. What's the worst that can happen kind of mentality? So for anybody listening, that's like, wait, what the heck are you talking about affiliate program? Can you give us just like a quick primer on what does this mean even?

Laura Sprinkle 11:33

Yeah, for sure. So I mean, I like to think of it as you know, if you're talking to your friends about going to the movies, and one of them recommends a specific movie, like you're way more likely to go see the movie that they recommended, rather than just like, you know, Eeny meeny, miney, mowing it. And the same thing can happen with your business, whether you have a service or a product or you know, the majority of my clients and people that I trained how Have a digital course. And so you are enabling people to spread the word about your product. So like six FBA, people can share it if they believe that their audience could benefit from it or their friends or colleagues. So you will provide them with an affiliate link, they will share that link out and if anybody purchases then they will receive a commission on that sale. So it's a really win win win for everybody. I like to call it quadruple win because it's a win for you. It's a win for your team. So that, you know, they kind of take the pressure off the team from on the marketing side. And it's just more fun for the team as well. It's a win for the partners and then it's a win for the students that learn about something that they might not have. Yeah, absolutely.

Kate Kordsmeier 12:48

So so far, to give listeners some background, we've had kind of four ish launches, three, really and then like a black friday promotion. affiliates, and we had over 50% of our sales each time basically came from our affiliates. And I just want to acknowledge a point here because a lot of people if we give a 50% commission to our affiliates, I should say, which I'm pretty sure is like industry standard, right?

Laura Sprinkle 13:17

And digital courses. Yeah, I've seen some people do 40%. But yeah, 50% is pretty standard.

Kate Kordsmeier 13:23

Okay. So then I've, you know, I hear from friends and other peers, and they're like, man, so you're willing to give 50% of the payment you were going to get away. But you have to remember that 99% of the time, these are sales you would not have gotten otherwise. And so

Laura Sprinkle 13:43

yeah, it's less than the full amount, but I would have gotten zero without them. So giving away a portion of it makes so much sense. And you have to look at that bigger picture. Exactly. And it's scalable that way too. So if you were in the service space, Then I would say between 10 and 20% is great because you have those hard costs associated with your time with delivering the product. But if you have a digital course, like you have a much bigger margins to work with. The other thing I love to kind of talk about with affiliate marketing and partnerships, is the fact that it's this third lead generation engine that most people are ignoring. So you've got your organic, so people talk about content marketing, and growing your list that way, we will talk about paid traffic. But this partnerships area is really under tapped because you don't need to go create a ton of content in order to get that started. You also don't need to pay up front like you do with advertising. Like you're only paying on a sale. You're not paying them to spread the word.

Kate Kordsmeier 14:48

So right. You're only paying when it works.

Unknown Speaker 14:51

Yeah, exactly.

Kate Kordsmeier 14:55

Yeah. And so talk a little bit more about that because I know you know, you You obviously believe partnerships are like the thing to focus on to create wealth and freedom. So why are partnerships so great, other than some of the things we've already just mentioned?

Laura Sprinkle 15:11

Yeah, I mean, I really, this, I can go real deep with this right now. So I'll start deep. But then I can talk a little bit more about the strategy behind it. But, you know, especially in this online space that we're in, and especially in the times that we're in, literally, in this moment, as we're recording this episode, with everybody, you know, pretty much confined to their homes. Like there's something so powerful about connection and collaboration. And I think that it's this paradigm shift to think about business in a way that is more supportive to one another and collaborative with that partnership. And saying, Here, we're going to do this together, rather than like, I'm going to win everything. I'm going to keep all the money for myself. I'm going to have to do everything myself. I have to create all the content. I have to find all Elisa had to make all the sales. Like that stresses me out. Whereas I think if I'm like, hey, Kate, like you have a beautiful audience, I have a beautiful audience. We both have these amazing products. Like, let's share the wealth around. Let's talk each other out. Like it's just this really collaborative effort. And I just think it's so so beautiful. So I don't know if that really answers the question at all. Yeah, is that

Unknown Speaker 16:29

just so much? Yeah, absolutely.

Kate Kordsmeier 16:31

I mean, exactly, like you said, at all times. But particularly, you know, recording recording this episode in mid March and Coronavirus is alive and well, and we are quarantined. And creating those connections is so important right now. But even if that weren't the case, I think you're right and it's there's so much benefit to partnering and I'm such a fan of the like community over competition mindset and A lot of times it's like, you know, okay, yeah, I'm not going to be an affiliate for somebody who has a program that's just like mine. But I can partner up with other people and be affiliates for their programs that are complimentary to my programs. And then it's like, I don't even have to create my own product to make money from something. It's like, I'm not an expert in this, but Laura is so I'm gonna promote her program and vice versa. And yeah, I think it is very under tapped. And I know you said that a lot of people are scared to get started with an affiliate program. So why do you think that is and what are some things people should consider before creating an affiliate program?

Laura Sprinkle 17:42

Yeah, that's a great question. And so a big piece that I found around the mindset blocks for creating a partner program are really opening payments. A lot of stuff we're working on in the mastermind, to be honest, it's opening up to ask for and receive Help, like if you want to grow your business, and you want to grow it with partnerships, which I clearly would highly recommend. And the more that you can cultivate that ability to ask for and receive help, the better off, you're going to do. So I'll even speak from experience. So I have a program that teaches people how to create affiliate programs. It's very meta. And I have people coming to me asking to partner with me, and I'll be honest, it's a little bit awkward for me even to be like, Oh, sure, like let me go create the links and I haven't actually gone out and sought partners yet. So I'll actually turn it back to you. What has been you know your your thought process like did you have any qualms or any like hesitations before asking your first partner to get on board?

Kate Kordsmeier 18:55

Good question. I didn't really I think because I've been an affiliate and not so much for other online courses. But more for you know, Rutan rebel is holistic wellness blog and we have hundreds of partners that I'm an affiliate for so so used to working in this space that now even though I was on the other side of it as the brand and looking for affiliates, it still felt pretty natural to me. And we started it. I had so we did a beta test for the first month of six FBI when we launched it. And I had 10 people that paid to be a part of the beta test that were just like fans and want, you know, aspiring bloggers. And then I also just gave it to my a couple friends and family for free that were in this space are interested in starting a blog or something. So it wasn't just like, Oh, my mom took it, you know? Well, after the beta program, I just asked anybody, I just sent an email to that list of, you know, 20 people and just said, if you'd like to be an affiliate, we're setting up a program, here's how it could look. And most everybody on that list was like, Yeah, why not? Now, a lot of people didn't actually end up doing anything. It didn't cost me anything either for them to not do the work. And each launch thereafter, we've tweaked our program, we've added more features we've, you know, created leaderboards, and we'll get into all of the kind of strategy that you can do. But we've learned something from each one. And I guess to answer the original question, like I didn't really have any qualms. Especially because we just used the built in affiliate program that was part of the platform our course was on. So it was super easy, and the tech part wasn't too complicated. Now we've grown and we've switched and we use a different like Check out system that has a more robust affiliate program or affiliate capabilities, I guess. And that's already given us not headaches, but just like, oh, how do we do this? Yeah, no, there's some of that now that we didn't start there. But I think one thing that a lot of people probably are wondering, and now we're even wondering, as we've grown a little bit is like, how do we even find affiliates? Because one thing for us specifically is that a lot of our affiliates are students from the course which is great because they have first hand experience and can really talk about what the course has done for them. But their audience isn't our target market. And so we're now going okay, so we have a couple like green beauty bloggers that are affiliates and they actually do really well as affiliates but their audiences People that are interested in green beauty, not people that are interested in starting a blog. So now we're trying to figure out well, how do we get affiliates that their market is our target market as well? Exactly.

Laura Sprinkle 22:14

Yeah. So I definitely want to get into recruitment in a moment. And I also just want to point out something that you said. So if people are listening, and you are a little bit nervous about starting an affiliate program, go be an affiliate for somebody else. That is exactly what Kate just said that she did a lot of, and that will really help you understand why it's so powerful for the people that are coming on board to your partner program, because if you think, Oh, I'm asking them to do me a favor. That's not a good energetic way to go into the relationship. And it's just not true. Like you can make a lot of money by being an affiliate and you don't have to deliver the product program service. So I think again, it's a really big win win, and I think It's a great way to kind of overcome some of that, that fear about getting partners on board and also just learn what it's like to be part of a program so you can get ideas for your own. Yeah, for sure.

Kate Kordsmeier 23:17

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Laura Sprinkle 24:32

And so for recruitment, I actually teach something called the rings of recruitment. So it is where you there's four different rings when it comes to the rings of recruitment, and you're going to make a list of people that you know, in each of them. I usually have my little slide when I'm talking about this, so hopefully I don't forget anything. So there's four things that make a great affiliate partner. So number one, they are awesome. People are brands that you would want to be aligned with no matter what, like that needs to be a given, please do not, you know, right people done on your list that you're like, Hmm, I don't, you know, I wouldn't want to be like seeing publicly with this person or with this brand. But you know, they can make, they can make me a lot of money, like that's going to come back and bite you in the bum. So that's number one. Number two is that they need to know you and know your product and know that it gets results for people. Number three, is they need to know that it's going to get results for their audience. So they need to know that they have audience members or friends, colleagues that can benefit from it.

Kate Kordsmeier 25:46

So that's kind of speaking to the point that I was saying of like, some of our affiliates don't really have that third piece.

Laura Sprinkle 25:54

Well, and they could, like you said they're doing well so maybe it is friends or colleagues that are Purchasing.

Kate Kordsmeier 26:01

Yeah. Not that they don't have anyone in their audience, but it's a smaller percentage versus finding somebody whose entire audience is more aligned with what we do. Yeah,

Laura Sprinkle 26:15

exactly. So I butchered the rings a little bit there, I think. But the Oh, and then the last one is like they're just already on board. They're already asking you about it. So those are the people that you always want to start out with. So they're probably students of the program. So I think it's great that that's where you start it like that first ring. They know, they know you they know your program, they know it gets results, and they know people that it can get results for. So they have all four of those things. And they're probably already asking you or they're it's a super easy ask you just send them an email or a text and you're like, Hey, want to promote and they look at their calendar and they decide if it makes sense or not. Right. So the second ring, is they need to just learn the fact that they have an audience. That is It is right for or they need to learn more about what you're doing and the results that you're getting for people. So you can meet people at events, you can make a list. I actually want to go back to your point that you said about complimentary or adjacent businesses. So a lot of people I think, too, they do one of two things. So one, they just make a list of like big names that they've heard in the world. So I've seen a lot of people's recruitment lists, and I will just name a name, which is Amy Porterfield, like everybody in their mom wants Amy Porterfield to promote for them. And that is because I mean, she's amazing, and she's a great partner. However, if you just put those kinds of people on your list, it's really not going to be in alignment. Like there's no there's not a clear path. I think you're just gonna waste a lot of time dreaming in that direction and not saying that it could never happen like it definitely could but I think you need to focus on the other rings first and create those relationships

Kate Kordsmeier 28:11

if you're a smaller name yourself totally. Yeah, like Amy Porterfield well now she knows who I am sort of because that you know, it was even with that it's like I'm not gonna approach her to be an affiliate because she has no idea who I am. I haven't established myself as enough of a expert in a name and my space and Same goes for lots of other big names like that. But I wanted to clarify this point of yours because that one, I think it was the ring number two, you said that they need to know you and your product. And what if you're reaching out to somebody that doesn't Are you giving them access to your product for free Are you like telling them the results that People have gotten or are you just not approaching strangers?

Laura Sprinkle 29:05

Yeah, that's such a great question. So to clarify, obviously, it's better if they know your product. So they have those personal stories, like you mentioned, because I do think, Okay, I have two things to say here. So one is yes, having partners that their audience is completely aligned with yours can be really wonderful. And at the same time, having partners that just believe in your program, so much like I wouldn't discount those people, either those students that are just going to go to that and they're just going to reach out to all their personal colleagues and be like, you need to take this because personal outreach is so key. So you definitely want to mix of those people like I wouldn't discount the ones that you have in those students either for anybody listening, as well. So that's the first one then the second one is, the second point is I would not reach out to strangers. I Actually, I would cultivate the relationship first. So your first point of connection should have nothing to do with your partner program. Now, I know like people send pitches, I get pitches all the time for podcasts for different things. I think that if you really want your partner program to stand out, though, because everybody's doing that, if you go above and beyond, and you don't make it about your partner program at first, like people are going to, you're just gonna have such better success rates with it. So the first time you reach out, it's you're thinking through how can I help this person like what are they passionate about? What are they interested in? So again, you're giving before you're asking, and I learned this actually from Selena Sue, so she was my original client in this whole space of launching and especially affiliate launching, and she's just a master at partnerships and relationships. So it's reaching out, you know, do they have a podcast, then and you listen to the episode and you thought it was amazing. So you share it on social. And so you're already giving them kind of like free free traffic. Do they have a book launch coming out? And so you're going to support them, you're going to do a bulk buy of their book, do they? You know, right now, are they having a tough time with this work from home? So you send them some tips? I don't know. I'm kind of thinking, thinking and we with this Coronavirus thing. It doesn't have to be monetary support. It doesn't have to be even sharing their content support. But especially for the medium to bigger names. Like it is going to really set you apart if you can cultivate that relationship first, before you make an ask. And then once you have that relationship, you can start sharing the results that your students are getting, they're going to start seeing that as well.

Kate Kordsmeier 31:58

Okay, that's super helpful. Love the gift before you ask. And then let's say you started cultivating that relationship, but they're still not a customer of yours. So do you recommend giving your product whatever it is? If it's an online course or you have a physical product or a service? Do you give that to them for free? Or do you ask them to buy it? Or how do you get them to know your product?

Laura Sprinkle 32:24

Yeah, that's a great question. And this comes down a little bit to

there's not a fast rule necessarily. I will say that for my clients, we have given away products to people that were like, you know, this person is has a good sized list. We really think that they're going to move the needle. However, I can say with 99% certainty that when you give your product away, like that person is not going and taking your course like they made around it. For a minute, but without that investment in it, they're probably not going and taking it and implementing. So there's so not necessarily going to have, you know, all the stories to tell. So what we've done as well so that people do get an idea of the program as you can do like a tour. So like a 30 minute mini training, and you can give them a tour of behind the scenes of your course so that they can get to know it a little better. You can share custom O'Neill's I mean, you definitely can gift the course for sure. There's not, you know, I wouldn't gift it to everybody. I just think that discounts your course, at the same time, and might encourage people to apply for your affiliate program who just want to get your course for free. Which,

Kate Kordsmeier 33:46

yeah,

Laura Sprinkle 33:49

right. Yeah, we've kind

Kate Kordsmeier 33:50

of done it on a case by case basis. So we've reached out to somebody and invited them to be an affiliate then we will give them free course access. But if somebody that we don't know and you know, obviously isn't a student reaches out to us and asks to be an affiliate, the first thing we do is like, we have this application process now. So on the application, I mean, it's really simple and short, but it basically just asked, you know, what's the size of your list? Who's your audience? What's your social media following? Like, what platforms would you be promoting this on? Like, what's your strategy? And there have been people where we've said, I'm sorry, like, you're not a fit for the program right now? Because it was clear that they were just trying to get free access.

Laura Sprinkle 34:37

Yes, totally. Right. Or another rule I would always have in place is that people are not allowed to sign up for your program using their own affiliate link. Because again, that's another way that people try to just get discounts on things.

Kate Kordsmeier 34:55

Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't I didn't even consider that being possible. ability but yeah, that's very true. Yeah. Okay,

Laura Sprinkle 35:05

that's hilarious.

Kate Kordsmeier 35:07

Yeah, people are. I was gonna say cheap, but let's put a positive spin on it.

Laura Sprinkle 35:12

People are creative. People are very creative now. I mean, props to you. Seriously. I'm always like when I'm about to buy something, I'm like, I don't know. Third love coupon like, sir. Yeah, exactly.

Kate Kordsmeier 35:27

Okay, so we talked a little about a little bit about recruitment. Now, once you get people to say, Yes, I want to be an affiliate and they sign up and that you give them all the links and they're all ready to go. This is another thing that we've run into is like,

Unknown Speaker 35:41

some of them

Kate Kordsmeier 35:43

go all out. They do all the things that we suggest, and they perform really well and they can make thousands of dollars with just sending like one email out. Mm hmm. And some people don't do anything even though we've had have all these incentives in place? And, you know, we communicate a time and there's huge earning potential. So how do you get your affiliates to really care about being an affiliate?

Laura Sprinkle 36:14

Yeah, so great question. And actually, so yeah, so there's four phases that I go through for every partner program. Now, obviously, you have to have your baseline, which you talked about, you know, a little bit, which is the tech piece. So once you've got your tech in place, and once you've got your assets in place, so by assets, we'll all talk a little bit about that in a second, actually. So once you've got your core partner program and place, then you're constantly just rotating through these four phases. So the first phase is attraction, and I call it attraction instead of recruitment, because I really do believe that the more that you can cultivate those relationships, you're just going to attract people to your partner program rather than like needing to go and like pound down people's stores and be like, hey, promote my stuff. So you're constantly working on those relationships and bringing them in on the rings, right? Like you always want people to be going from ring four, turn three turn tutoring one. The next phase after that, so you think like, Oh, my job is done, they've signed up to be a partner, they have a link. All good. Now there's still three other phases. So this is activation. And so activation is the phase that most partner programs are missing. They will kind of have the third phase which talk about in a moment, but activation is where you have a training for your partner's it is where you're hopping on a strategy call with them. And the goal with the training, obviously, is to teach them so teach them about the different assets that you've created. teach them about the where they can find their links, teach them about the different swipe the messaging, you can talk about case studies of partners or case studies of students. Ideally both and all that. But the piece that you also want to do is the strategy session. And that is where you are learning from them. So you're listening rather than talking and you're listening to what are their ideas? What do they really want to do with this partner program? Did they just sign up because they know one person who wants to promote? In that case, you can just mark them down as one projected sale and kind of not give them so much of your energy? Are they the person that is going to go all in and then you're going to be following up with them, you're going to be supporting them however you can. So you really want to be listening as well as talking in this activation phase. And depending on how much in advance so if you're doing a launch, depending on how much in advance, you know, you can get really in depth with this whole activation and also if you do have a partner that drops out like it doesn't matter if someone signs up six months ahead of time, three months, one day, there will still always be someone that goes to you always. So don't feel bad about it.

It's part of the process if

you can get that number down, or that percentage down for sure, with the activation and the training and the strategy in the follow up. But there will always be someone because plans change, right? Like the world is in crisis right now. And people can be in crisis at different points in their life to on the third phase is amplification. So when I said that most people do have some form of amplification, this is during the actual launch. So you have contests and prizes, and you have leaderboards and you're keeping things fun, and people are already doing things so you're just amplifying whatever they're doing. This is really where you want to be able to pivot and support people. So we're in I'm going to launch right now actually with a client. And we're in amplification. And we've really had to pivot with everything going on with the Coronavirus. So you really want to be, you know, nimble in the amplification period. And the last piece is also super important. And that's appreciation. And when you do appreciation properly, so you pay people on time, you are very communicative. You, you know, create your nurture sequence. That way you can get partners back on board, because as they say, obviously, a current customer is easy, you know, it's easier to have a current customer purchase again and go find a new customer. And the same is true for your partner program.

Kate Kordsmeier 40:46

Right. Yeah, I mean, those affiliates that have earned good money with us are obviously way more likely to continue promoting. Then those who haven't even though a lot of times, it's those who haven't haven't actually promoted. It's like, well, that's why you didn't actually do the work. But yeah, yeah. I love that. Okay, so tell us a little bit about what like a leaderboard looks like. We do this for six FBI, but for anybody that's not familiar with this type of strategy and like how to do contests and stuff to further incentivize your affiliates.

Laura Sprinkle 41:25

Yeah. So there are a ton of different kinds of contests and prizes you can do. And the whole point of them is twofold. So one, it's so it's superduper fun. And people really want to jump in and get on board. Also, it sparks that competitive nature within people. Now, also, I will just say, I've had plenty of people. This is especially true when it comes to like niche companies. So I work with somebody who teaches authors, artists, nonprofit nonprofits, so different niches and those kinds of niches always say to me You know, our community doesn't like competition. They really like collaboration. And yeah, I mean, this whole thing isn't talking about collaboration and I get it. At the same time, people's competitive spirits will come out on the leaderboard. They love it, even if they say they don't come out. So actually, one of our mastermind sisters is a partner for a client right now. And she just commented cuz she just got in the top five on the leaderboard, and I like to kind of play the game with the leaderboard. And I'm like, hey, like, I see you jumping up on the leaderboard. She was like, I wasn't paying attention to this, but then you got me excited.

Kate Kordsmeier 42:43

Now she's hooked in like, Oh, yeah, as an affiliate. I can definitely vouch for that. Because we've been affiliates for other programs. And sometimes it's like, you know, you think, oh, I don't even have a chance and getting on this or whatever. And then sometimes we see our name creep up and we go, Oh, my God. Wait a minute. If we just sold two more, we could make an extra thousand dollars or whatever it might be. Yeah, it definitely incentivizes me.

Laura Sprinkle 43:10

Yeah. Oh, for sure. And I'm like, I seriously am the least competitive person. But I know, for myself too, like, everybody thinks that they aren't. And then they see their name on the leaderboard, and they get super pumped. So like, some people

Kate Kordsmeier 43:25

maybe are competitive, they want to be number one to be number one, and like, I'm not competitive in that way, but I am motivated by money. And so if I see that I'm on the leaderboard and have this potential to earn this prize. Yeah. And that's, that's what's gonna get my attention. Totally.

Laura Sprinkle 43:44

Yeah, I think. Okay, so let's get Yeah, let's get into some of the types of contests and prizes. So you could have contests so leaderboard is you're just calculating either how many leads or how many sales people have and then you're just ranking them so the person with the most leads is number one second most is number two, etc. So you could do a leads leaderboard. So that's how many people have opted in to the, you know, whatever freebie is going on. It's a video series, webinar checklist, anything like that. And then you can have a sales leaderboard as well. I would recommend doing both. You can make these just overall you can make them very specific, you could make them like a jumpstart contest. So you could have a contest. It's like, Okay, the first 24 hours, who has the most leads is going to win a prize. You could also do for those people that are like, oh, but you know, I'm competing against someone with a huge audience. What we usually do is a creativity contest. So we'll do like a creative video contest. And obviously, that's very subjective subjective. Is that the right one? Yeah. So like we just pick whatever we think is the most creative story you can do. Wild cards. So we've done something where every sale that was made in a specific time period counted toward a raffle. And then we picked, you know, randomly picked from that. So obviously, the more sales you made, the more chances you had. But I would always recommend having those leaderboard you know, prizes, because Have you ever been on sales and then you didn't get chosen for the raffle? Like that would be kind of silly. Right?

Kate Kordsmeier 45:25

prizes like, Is it just cash or what do you recommend? Yeah,

Laura Sprinkle 45:30

great question. So cash is always people love cash. At the same time, the most coveted prizes I've ever seen are actually in person experiences. So again, going back to people love connection. And so I'll tell you exactly what it is so Selena Sue is impacting millions program one of the prizes that partners can win is an in person mastermind retreat until noon. Mexico, people go wild for it. And it's brilliant for a number of reasons. So it's, it's brilliant because people are excited about it, and they want to hit that sale mark. Oh, actually, that reminds me of the other contest type that I really like as well. So I love the leaderboard. I also love ladder prizes. So ladder prizes mean that anybody can win it, you just have to hit a certain number of sales. Okay, so at two sales, you want access to the course, at 10 sales, you win a launch debrief, you know, those are just some some ideas.

Kate Kordsmeier 46:36

Oh, I see. So it's not like one winner. It's just whenever you hit these milestones, you get this prize. Exactly.

Laura Sprinkle 46:43

Yeah. So let's

open it up. And the cool thing is, once you do launches multiple times, you'll start to see, let's say that you have I'm making stuff up here, but let's say you have 10 partners that got between eight and nine sales. You're like Okay, I'm going to have a prize at the 10 sale mark, because I want them to just work that much harder to get

that the 42 sale mark, okay, these nails there's

so you can come up with those ladders that way. And so in Pearson experiences cash, people love book bundles, people love anything that accelerates their business forward. So if you maybe like you do a consulting session with them on their blog, and how they could monetize it better. Again, access to your program. Those are all good ideas.

Kate Kordsmeier 47:41

I think like the in person experience sounds awesome, especially if your affiliates aren't just like your friends because they're gonna get access to you that way.

Laura Sprinkle 47:51

Oh, that's variance I wanted to say to. The other great thing is it's a great way to nurture partners after so we have It sold her lunches I was in March, we have the the event in December. So it's kind of that point where they're going to be re upping to become partners for the next launch. So it works really well to nurture them as well. brilliant, brilliant. Okay.

Kate Kordsmeier 48:16

So what are some steps that you recommend affiliates take to boost their income? So we try you know, you talked about doing strategy sessions with your affiliates and trainings and getting them acquainted with how your program works. What are some unique ideas like I've listened to this one episode of Amy Porterfield podcast about creating Facebook pop up groups that affiliates would do in order to increase their sales for your program? No.

Laura Sprinkle 48:49

Sorry, those episodes Jillson. Yeah,

Kate Kordsmeier 48:53

yeah, exactly. Or, you know, I've seen obviously like, I've purchased other people's programs through somebody else. In particular, like Marie Forleo is B school. There's tons of affiliates for that. But I'm going to purchase through Kate Northrup, for example, because she's created her own bonuses for people who use her link. So what are some ideas like that, that helps affiliates boost their conversions?

Laura Sprinkle 49:20

Yeah, so definitely having a bonus is superduper important. And and, and with that I would have as part of your training and as part of your strategy sessions and activation plan, support to help affiliates come up with their bonuses. And when you're helping them come up with their bonuses. It's kind of along the same lines as we were talking about with prizes, because people so actually, there's this framework from this launch strategist and also my good friend Ron Reich. And he talks about bonuses for you know yourself to offer for your programs. As well as for affiliates to offer when they're promoting something. And so it's access acceleration, augmentation and implementation. So a good bonus like if Kate Northrup we're going to be a partner for Marie Forleo are not going to be she has been for many years, you know, she can offer a call with her and Mike Now, I know she doesn't offer that. But that would be really juicy and valuable. Before we get all over that. It could be augmenting the course with a course that Kate has, so she could offer the money love course, which I believe she has offered acceleration. So I know that actually for B school, she offered these like 20 minute summaries of Marie's modules, so that people could accelerate their results and go through the program faster and really pay attention to the 20% that was going to get them 80% of the results with the school and then implementation so it could be you know, sexual Were we all going to get work done together? It could be templates, it could be anything like that. So I would offer your partners I know we're getting like super meta with us, but I would offer your partner's training and strategy and support on creating their bonuses that are going to support your program. So, apologies is six fBf is your program. Va? Success VA. Okay, hopefully I know I'm saying this wrong. You know, so you would come up with Okay, what are some things that partners could add to success VA to make this even better? And then you would teach them that and brainstorm with them. So it always brainstorm with bonuses with them. The other thing is, I would do some kind of messaging or storytelling with them. So you'll go through your launch sequence. So do you do a webinar I'm assuming for your lunch? Yeah. Mm hmm. So So I would go through your the messaging to get people onto the webinar. And I would break that down and come up with story prompts that your partners can use to input their own stories to make their invitations to the webinar different from yours, first of all, and second of all more powerful and on brand for them.

Kate Kordsmeier 52:21

Yeah, I love that. I saw somebody actually recently in a Facebook group I men complaining that they got the same email from two different people promoting a course which of course, I was like, Well, you know, it's swipe copy, and the chances that you're on multiple lists like that are pretty slim, but it doesn't look great when you say the exact same thing as somebody else. Exactly. Yeah, first swipe. I love having swipe, but then I also love having a lot of prompts, how to customize it. Yeah, that's a really good idea. And that's something we do swipe copy, to just give people you know, make it as easy as possible for affiliates just like just send this email. Look, we've already written it for you. But I think we could do better about giving them prompts of how to tweak it, so that it's unique to them. Taking a quick break from regular programming to talk about something super important. Do you know what your number one most valuable asset is if you have any type of online business, or really a business of any kind, if you guessed your email list, then you are one smart cookie. It's the only way to communicate directly with your audience when you want to in a way that you own and control. Unlike social media and other platforms that rely on some ever changing impossible to figure out algorithm to connect with your people. After trying multiple email service providers over the years, hands down My favorite is Active Campaign. It's by far the most robust system I've ever used and provides a ton of functionality in terms of segmenting automation and analytics. They have incredible customer service. And if you already have an email list somewhere else, they even offer a free Migration Service that is super helpful. Even if you don't need a lot of their features right now and you're just starting off, you can kick it off with their super affordable light plan, which is only $9 a month if you have under 500 subscribers. Plus with our special link, you'll get a free 30 day free trial to check it out for yourself. No strings attached, simply go to successwithsoul.co/email to start your free trial today.

What kind of team do you feel like you need to have in place for this business model like how much time is involved to do this? Well, and can you do it yourself? Do you recommend hiring an affiliate manager?

Laura Sprinkle 55:07

Yeah, that's a great question. I would never recommend doing it yourself, like by yourself, because as you know, a launch in and of itself is a lot of work. And already, you're probably going to want a VA on board. If you're, if you're anywhere, you know, between the 25 to $50,000 mark with their launches, like I would hope that you'd have a VA becoming on board because that's going to be a lot of moving pieces. So your first time around with the with a partner program, I would have a VA do some of this stuff because you know, it's a double launch because you're going to be launching and having your own marketing going out and you're going to be having the partner also promoting unless you're just focusing on partner promotion, and you're not doing your own internal launch at the same time. That's always an option as well.

Kate Kordsmeier 55:57

Okay, so that might be the case. If your course program is evergreen. So I want to know how. So we just went into evergreen with our six figure blog Academy. And trying to explain this to affiliates and how it works has been kind of complicated. So what what practices do you change for evergreen versus live launch models? And when it comes to working with partners?

Laura Sprinkle 56:22

That's a great question. And I would say two things there. So one is I always recommend that people who have evergreen programs actually try to implement a version of having a launch so that you could do a leaderboard or some kind of a contest. So for example, Amy Porterfield has list builders society which is an evergreen, it's always open and people can always buy it. And so what we did with Allison, her partnerships manager, is she did like a March Madness. So quarterly, they're going to be doing these very specific challenges are not challenges, but leaderboards and contests. to rally their partners because it's a lot easier to have, you know, a lot of momentum and excitement when you create, you know, these experiences where you have a contest or leaderboard. So in the online space, I would recommend quarterly, or like an online course space. If you have a physical product, anybody listening, then you actually have a great advantage in this because you could do seasonal things, right? Like holidays, you could have some kind of judgment around Mother's Day. I mean, there's just so many different cool things that you could do with partners around. I mean, I suppose you could in the courtroom as well, like maybe Friday, for example. And the other piece of it is actually something that we were talking about when I interviewed you for my podcast. Think about the Evergreen SEO type ways that your partners can promote you. So I would suggest that they have a blog posts about you, is there a podcast? Can they do a video series or review so you want them getting like their own evergreen system up and running. Also, another client actually ran a live launch with just that that one partner, so you could do like a JV, you know, webinars, that partner and then they can turn that on evergreen for themselves. So they create passive income by promoting you. So

Kate Kordsmeier 58:22

that's a good idea. Yeah, we were just, I was just talking with one of my affiliate partners yesterday and two of them actually, and they're in the same similar space. And they were and they're good friends. So they were like, Oh, we should do a webinar where we promote Kate's course. But it's like the two of us talking and sharing our stories and our tips for our people. And then it would lead into Kate's course. And I'm like, yeah, that's a brilliant idea. And especially if then they came up with some kind of funnel to get their people into their webinars so that they could be earning thousands of dollars a month. From a one time setup, so for affiliates, I know it's totally going to depend based on each individual's like evergreen funnel and how it works. But for example, for ours, you can't just go to the sales page and buy the course, whenever you want. You have to opt in to a webinar or email list where you get invited to our webinar. But basically, the webinar is like the gatekeeper for our funnel. So we're trying to some of our affiliates are asking like, well, what should I be promoting now? Because if I'm just promoting the course, you know, they're going to get taken to a waitlist page. But should they be promoting the webinar? What do you have any advice there for evergreen launches with affiliates?

Laura Sprinkle 59:49

Yeah, so I would say that they definitely need to be promoting the webinar and that's just going to be more helpful for you anyway, because the likelihood that there Just gonna sell somebody right on the course, especially at that price point is pretty low, like they need that warm up here. That's why you have the gatekeeper in place. So yeah, definitely want. And this is across the board for any partner program like you want to have free things that people can be promoting, rather than direct to sale and direct product. But what you could do and what I would do for you is I would have your partners be promoting the webinar. And then even though it's evergreen, and it's not a launch where you have this like dedicated effort, I would have your team send them the leads that come through for the webinar so that they can follow up.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:00:38

Oh, that's a good idea.

Laura Sprinkle 1:00:40

Like that's why I despise which is a strong word, but I despise affiliate systems that don't track leads like I want to be able to send leads lists out like that's the most powerful thing you can do with your affiliate program is send people leads list because they want to know what their hot leads are great to follow up like that. Last thing, my list was something that they're not interested in. But I can do a targeted outreach, personal or otherwise to people that are actually interested.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:01:10

Yeah. So okay, on that note, then that makes me want to ask you what Affiliate Software do you recommend?

Laura Sprinkle 1:01:16

Yeah. So this depends a little bit on what kind of things you're selling. My what I personally use, and I personally love access ally. And that's what my course is actually built through as well. It integrates with most email service providers, most of my clients use Infusionsoft. And I'd actually ask you, what do you use? kajabi? Is that correct?

Kate Kordsmeier 1:01:39

So my course is with kajabi. But we actually use Sam cart, because their affiliate system is much more robust than kajabi is like kajabi. You can even control the length of the cookie window, which seems crazy. So we use Sam cart and there is a way to track leads, but it's very complicated. You can always do it for everything. And so that that has been my one complaint with that. And I know Infusionsoft I was thinking, and maybe I maybe this isn't right. I thought Infusionsoft was like an email service provider with a CRM.

Laura Sprinkle 1:02:18

Oh Infusionsoft has everything like you can everything with payments, you can track partners, you can it's very robust and I would not recommend that people go to that just for the affiliate tracking. Yeah, so

Kate Kordsmeier 1:02:34

you like access ally for affiliate tracking.

Laura Sprinkle 1:02:37

I do like access ally. Okay. Now it might be doubling up on things because it is a you know, it is a plugin that you can also have a membership. The great thing about access ally as well with your partner program is you could have a really beautiful partner portal that we're actually working on creating a template for so that we'll be able to support people in that way because access is you know, you could the the downside of having The options in being able to build anything is that you have to build some rapport right right out of the box. So we're working on that.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:03:07

Yeah. Okay, that's good to know. I'm gonna look into that, though because yeah, the lead the lead tracking is seems so key and it's amazing to me that a lot of these affiliate software's don't have that capability, even as an affiliate for other products like on rune rebel we, a lot of our affiliates won't even tell us who purchased or who, who the leads are or anything like that. And, like so now I don't know who to follow up with to say, hey, do you need to restock or you know, how'd you like this product? I'd love to get your feedback like what can I help you with or something there's no follow up involved because they keep all the leads to themselves.

Laura Sprinkle 1:03:52

Right. And I think it's such an online courses I don't know about in the blogging space, probably not. But an online course is one of the great options is that I can give someone a bonus for signing up through me. And it provides an extra incentive for them to purchase. Like, if I were a partner with you, I'd be like, and when you sign up for, you know, her blogging course, I'm also going to give to you this other thing. And so I need to know who to gift up to. Yeah, yeah, you could do as well. And I have had clients do this. It depends on how many partners you have. But if you do have, you know, a specific number of partners if you only onboard a certain number of partners per month, so you're not doing it all at once, then you could create, you know, custom. It doesn't totally cost them like it could be a template but a landing page that's specifically for that partner and it tags people as well. So you're it's more manual. But yeah, if you had a goal of getting, you know, one new partner to 10 new partners a month, it wouldn't be that much work to set up.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:04:54

Right? Right. That is a good idea to And along those lines. It just brought up a question for me, I've noticed that some programs like Marie Forleo is B school, they have a very strict policy of who they even accept as an affiliate. What's the benefit to them to not just like taking anybody who wants to be an affiliate?

Laura Sprinkle 1:05:19

Yeah, that's a great question. Aaron zoo, something I've been repeating a lot this week. So two things, actually. So one is, I really encourage everybody, whether you're being the partner or whether you're asking people to partner with you. The question that I want you to think about before you think about the money, and the benefits in that way is is this person or is this company brand aligned with my values? Yes, and it sounds like this, this like, super fluffy thing to say. And like, trust me, I'm, I'm super fucking fluffy. But the same time. It's also way more strategic because if they're not aligned, you're going to either attract crappy students to your program. Or you're going to send people that are going to be really unhappy with somebody else's product, because they're not aligned. So if like, if your brands aren't aligned, then your customers aren't going to be aligned with them. And it's going to be a nightmare seriously. So I would say that is number one. And that's also why you want to have some kind of a gate system application for your program. So first of all, its values. It's not even about the numbers. It could be about the numbers, but honestly, I've seen partners, like the more heart and soul that a partner has for your program, or product or service, like the more they're gonna be able to sell. Right? The numbers always, always kind depends on what phase you're at. But anyway, so there's that piece of it. The other piece of it is, partners aren't easy. Like I have made a full time job. Some partners, you know, in my full time, I mean, during the laundry, I would do 16 to 20 hour days, so partners are not easy. So the more partners you have on board, the more work it is. So you want to make sure that you're pouring your energy into the people that are going to be right. For your partner. Yeah.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:07:13

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I didn't even think about it from the, from the perspective of like, if you have an affiliate who has a totally different philosophy from your business, and they send somebody to your course, that person is more likely to share the affiliates philosophy than yours. And then even if they end up buying, like you said, they may be really unhappy with the way you do things. Because Yeah, so different. So that that is really interesting. So, but you bring up another good point, too, of like, what should people look for? Maybe On the flip side, if when you're pitched an affiliate Or a partner program to join? What should you be looking for to decide if it's a good fit? So, you know, if if I came to you and said, do you want to be an affiliate for the six figure blogger Academy? What are the things you would look at to decide if it's the right fit for you?

Laura Sprinkle 1:09:14

Yeah, that's a great question. So first and foremost is the values for me, and like, what do I want to be associated with your brand? I think everybody should be thinking about this, too. So the brand alignment there. The second piece is what is our relationship? I think we already talked about this on the episode, but I'm very anti cold pitching. So what kind of relationship do we already have? Do I know? You do I know, the six figure block. I mean, do I know that it's getting your students results. And then lastly, I want to make sure that I actually have people in my audience that it would serve, you know, it wouldn't really make sense for me and actually, I'll give you a very specific example. So I actually be in the health space as well and I was partnered with a company That made high quality supplements. And it made a lot of sense because all of my clients and students were asking me what probiotics to use. And so I was like, here use this company. But right now I left and now I'm doing affiliate management, it would be really weird for me to be like, go take these probiotics, right? They're gonna program like, no, it doesn't mean like, I would need to make sure that, you know, my customers are actually going to get good value out of it. So I would say those and then once those things are taken care of, then oftentimes it will come down to like brass tacks, like, do I have space in my calendar? Are the lunch dates going to work for me? You know, are the assets in place like you know how easier you're going to make this on me? That kind of thing? Right.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:10:48

Yeah. I love that. And just to make a note to that, unlike the probiotic, no, which is true, but I will say we have a couple affiliates who their audience on paper is not our target market, right, the blog Academy. But what they have found, and the reason that they decided to be affiliates is even though their blogs are about green beauty, which has nothing to do with making money blogging, they get asked from their audience all the time, I want to start a green beauty blog. What advice do you have for me? How did you get started? So they knew what we have this market even though it's not like, what our main topic is we have we know that people are interested in this in our audience. And so it did make sense for them to promote it, even though it was different from their normal content.

Laura Sprinkle 1:11:45

Sorry, they were students first correct.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:11:47

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I think listening to your people is just super important. And and then you know it and then if they did promote it once and they heard back from a lot of their people. Like, why are you talking to me about this? You know, I'm not interested, just tell me what lipstick to wear, then then they might say, okay, we're not gonna we're not gonna do this again. But that wasn't the response that they got. So just a note on that. Yeah, thank you so much, Lord. This has been so eye opening, giving me so many good ideas. And I know everyone listening as well. We're just going to end with our quick lightning round of questions. So one word, you know what first thing that comes to your mind? Don't overthink it? What's your favorite way to make time for self care while running your own business?

Laura Sprinkle 1:12:40

My favorite way to make time for self care is walking my daughter to daycare. Ah, I'm so

Kate Kordsmeier 1:12:48

jealous. You can do that.

Laura Sprinkle 1:12:51

A mile away and when? Yeah, I've already started for this year. Well, I mean, I live in Maine. So it's been still cold, but I've been doing it. Yeah. So you

Kate Kordsmeier 1:13:00

That's awesome. What's one tool or strategy that you use to help you with time management?

Laura Sprinkle 1:13:07

I just Google Calendar 100. Yeah, it's not on the Google Calendar. I forget about it immediately.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:13:14

Totally. Yeah, me too. Sometimes I even forget when it's on my calendar. What's the most powerful business or mindset book? You've read just one that you reference again and again. Hmm.

Laura Sprinkle 1:13:29

Well, what's funny is the book that came to me but I mean, I literally just read it. So that's probably why I'm thinking of it but I'm going to share it anyway which is untamed by Glennon Doyle. Everybody needs to read this book.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:13:41

Seriously, I was even just telling my I'm reading it right now to I'm about three quarters of the way done, loving it underlining the entire book. I told my husband I'm like, I guess it is kind of meant for women, but I really think you should at least read a few chapters, like there's a few chapters that I feel like you would get off lot out of

Laura Sprinkle 1:14:00

Oh yeah, I like highlight it screenshot already had discussions with the guy and seeing like I'm like waiting to talk about this whole book.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:14:09

Yeah, it's so good. It's so good. What is one of your favorite quotes or mantras or affirmations?

Laura Sprinkle 1:14:16

I am going to quote myself which is weird, but it's the first thing that came to mind and it's lightning round, which is to say that life is an experiment anyway, so you might as well just try things out.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:14:30

I love that so much so much. Okay, last question. What does Success with Soul mean to

Laura Sprinkle 1:14:38

Success with Soul to me really means appreciating the journey. Like I don't think that there is this destination of success like Success with Soul is how do I feel moment to moment and not that I have to feel good every moment but just being in my life and in being with what is

Kate Kordsmeier 1:14:59

Oh, I love that. That's so beautiful. I definitely need to remind myself of that more often because it can be easy to get caught up in the like, once I'm here I'll be happy hmm

Laura Sprinkle 1:15:10

oh yeah, no I think I mean I have to catch myself on that all the time.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:15:14

Yeah, for sure. Okay, well thank you so much Laura. Just let everybody know where they can find you.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:20

Yeah, come on, check everything out over at LauraSprinkle.com. I also have a gift for you which is a little Get Started kit if you are interested in starting your partner program so you can get that for free at LauraSprinkle.com/Kate.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:15:35

Yay. I love it. Awesome. Thank you again so much. It was

so fun to chat with you.

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