Partnerships On Purpose

Why fighting your business's natural summer slowdown backfires — and the calendar system Marie and Anne-Marie use instead.

Every business has a rhythm, whether you plan for it or not. In this episode, Marie and Anne-Marie talk through the seasonal ebbs and flows they've noticed across five-plus years of working together — from the quiet of summer to the slowdown between mid-December and mid-January — and why pushing against those natural lulls almost always backfires.

They walk through the corporate-style business-planning process they bring into their own work and their clients' work: starting to plan in summer, ramping up in September, and having a full marketing, partnership, and sponsorship calendar finalized by October. Marie and Anne-Marie also get specific about how they “layer” calendars — marketing, partnerships, personal time off, and national holidays — so nothing gets scheduled at the wrong moment.

The conversation turns to partnerships specifically: why asking a partner to promote a launch two weeks out almost never works, how to track your top partners' recurring launch dates, and the right way to open the conversation with partners at the start of a new year instead of scrambling weeks before an event.

It's a candid, practical look at giving yourself permission to work with your business's rhythm instead of against it — without ever stepping away from the work.

You don't need more partnerships — you need the right assets in place first. Here's exactly what to build before you launch.

Before you pitch a single partner or swap a single email list, there's a foundation you need to build — and most coaches and consultants skip it entirely. In Episode 13 of Partnerships on Purpose, Marie and Anne-Marie walk you through the complete partnership asset portfolio: the systems, documents, and processes that make referral partnerships scalable, sustainable, and actually profitable.

From setting up your affiliate program to understanding the difference between a partnership page and a JV kit, this episode is packed with the operational details that most podcasts never talk about. Marie and Anne-Marie share exactly how they run their own program — including how they prospect partners using Airtable, how they systematize outreach with templates, and why deal tracking is the difference between a thriving partnership program and a chaotic one.

You'll also hear why you can't skip the business prerequisites (target market, converting offer, promotional calendar) — and what happens when people try. Anne-Marie shares a story about clients who came in ready for partnerships but had no funnel, no target market, and no plan to promote partners. The momentum never built. This episode is your roadmap to make sure that doesn't happen to you.

Whether you're just starting to think about partnerships or you're ready to build out a full JV program, this episode will help you identify exactly where you are and what to put in place next. Subscribe to Partnerships on Purpose and visit powerfulonlinepartnerships.com to learn more.

Stop reacting. Start partnering with intention. Marie & Anne-Marie share the exact tools to end spray-and-pray outreach for good.

Are you scrambling to find partners every time your numbers dip or an event is on the horizon? In this episode of Partnerships on Purpose, Marie and Anne-Marie tackle one of the most common — and most damaging — patterns they see in the coaching and consulting world: reactive partnership outreach.

They walk through exactly what this looks like (hint: it's the frantic wave of invites that goes out the week before a launch), why it fails to convert, and how it quietly erodes the trust and reputation you've worked hard to build. More importantly, they share the practical tools they use with their own clients to create calm, strategic partnership programs that compound over time.

You'll learn how to build and use a Decision Matrix that takes the emotion out of partner vetting, why your CRM is the most underused asset in your partnership strategy, and how to develop a Top 20 list of proven partners you can activate before you ever need to go searching. Marie and Anne-Marie also discuss when — and how — to hand partnership conversations off to a team member without losing quality or consistency.

Whether you're a coach, consultant, or service-based business owner, this episode gives you the mindset shift and the systems to move from reactive to intentional — and build partnerships that actually work.

Stop saying yes to every invite. Marie & Anne-Marie teach you how to vet networking rooms and protect your most valuable asset: your time.

You don't have to attend every networking event you're invited to — and in fact, you probably shouldn't. In this episode of Partnerships on Purpose, Marie and Anne-Marie pull back the curtain on how they decide which rooms are worth their time, which ones get a polite no, and how they consistently show up to the events that actually generate referral partnerships.

Anne-Marie walks through her exact process for evaluating cold invitations: researching the host on LinkedIn, looking at photos from past events to see who was in the room, checking for mutual connections, and assessing whether the audience aligns with her business. Cold invites almost always get a no. Warm referrals get a conversation — and then a list of qualifying questions.

Marie and Anne-Marie also talk about the importance of knowing your ask before you walk into any networking room. If you don't know what you need from a referral partner, you'll either be invisible in the room or leave with nothing actionable. They also caution against the "fly on the wall" mindset — showing up to a curated networking event just to observe is a missed opportunity and disrespects the host's investment in the room.

Whether you're evaluating a virtual event, a hybrid conference, or an in-person mastermind, this episode gives you a clear, strategic framework to decide where your time belongs — and the permission to say no to everywhere else.

Affiliates promote you. Partners grow with you. Marie & Anne-Marie break down the difference — and why tracking everything changes the game.

Are "affiliate" and "partner" the same thing in your business? Not quite — and in this episode, Marie and Anne-Marie break down exactly why that distinction matters if you want to build a sustainable, revenue-generating referral program.

Marie and Anne-Marie walk through the core difference between affiliates (one-way promotions with a commission) and strategic partners (two-way relationships where both parties actively promote each other). They also dig into why tracking is the non-negotiable foundation of any partnership program — because without data, you're flying blind.

You'll learn about the top affiliate platforms (JVZoo, ClickBank, PartnerStack, GHL, Thrive Cart), how to use UTM links to track any URL, and how Marie and Anne-Marie use debrief calls to review data together and make partnerships stronger over time. Including a real example of a high-performing partner who had zero tracking in place.

Whether you're just starting your affiliate program or ready to take your partnership strategy to the next level, this episode gives you a clear, actionable framework for building something that lasts.

Your camera, energy & setup are speaking before you do — here's how to make sure they're saying the right things.

In this episode of Partnerships on Purpose, Marie and Anne-Marie tackle one of the most overlooked aspects of referral marketing: how you actually show up on virtual partnership calls. Before a single word of strategy gets discussed, your camera angle, your background, your energy, and your smile are already making an impression — and that impression determines whether someone trusts you enough to promote you to their audience.

Marie and Anne-Marie walk through what it looks like to be genuinely present on a partnership call — camera on, background sorted, lighting decent, and energy dialed in. They get candid about the cringe-worthy things they've seen: people calling in from their cars, from their beds, from the sofa with their camera tilted at the ceiling. And they explain why, in relationship-driven marketing, none of this is small stuff.

The episode also explores the energy exchange that happens in every partnership conversation — how one person's vibe affects the other's, and why showing up with a smile can shift the entire trajectory of a call. Anne-Marie shares a quote from a personal branding expert she spoke with: how you dress and present yourself from the shoulders up affects your confidence, your conduct, and the flow of everything that follows.

If you want warm, pre-vetted referrals landing in your inbox, it starts with showing up like you mean it. This episode is your low-lift, high-impact guide to doing just that. Tune in, take notes, and then go fix your camera angle.

Great partnerships are built on trust, but they also need clear expectations and legal protection behind the scenes. 

In this episode of Partnerships on Purpose, Marie and Anne-Marie sit down with business attorney Valerie Del Grosso to unpack the legal realities of collaborations, joint ventures, and online partnerships.

Valerie shares why many entrepreneurs overcomplicate partnerships too early, when simpler and more flexible agreements are often the smarter approach. The conversation explores common mistakes business owners make when collaborating, including unclear expectations, money handling, ownership of content, shared responsibilities, and what happens when a partnership no longer works.

They also dive into practical ways to protect your business without creating unnecessary complexity. From lightweight agreements to honest upfront conversations, Valerie explains how thoughtful legal foundations can actually strengthen relationships instead of making them feel restrictive. 

This episode is a valuable listen for coaches, consultants, and online business owners who want to build partnerships that are both strategic and sustainable.

Your marketing presence is your partner's first impression of you. Sarah Gemmell explains why it makes or breaks the deal.

You vet potential partners. You check their website, scroll their Instagram, read their content. So does everyone who's considering partnering with you. In this episode, Marie and Anne-Marie welcome marketing consultant Sarah Gemmell, who has worked with over 1,200 businesses, to talk about why a strong digital presence isn't just a buyer-facing asset. It's the foundation that makes partnerships possible.

Sarah brings a psychology-based lens to a conversation that's usually just about tactics. She unpacks why coaches and consultants who wait until they're ready to grow before building their visibility are already behind, why referrals and partnerships alone can never create a scalable business, and how the two strategies, marketing and partnerships, are meant to work in tandem.

The conversation also gets into networking culture: the transactional commission-breath approach on one end, and the overly relationship-focused friend zone on the other. Sarah has built her reputation as the Queen of Networking by finding the space in between, and she shares exactly how she does it.

Plus: how Sarah categorizes her own partnerships by energy and commitment, why she spent nearly a year vetting a partner before launching a paid offer together, and the low-lift partnership format she keeps returning to because it grows both audiences without burning anyone out.

Still on a call you knew was wrong 5 minutes in? Here's how to exit gracefully — and why it protects your business.

Not every partnership call goes the way you planned — even when you've done the vetting. In this episode, Marie shares a real story from her week: a contact who looked great on LinkedIn, insisted the booking form question about "all decision-makers" was removed, then spent the first five minutes grilling her on why partnerships don't work. Marie was done at the ten-minute mark. And she has zero regrets.

Marie and Anne-Marie unpack what the red flags actually looked like before the call even started, why they cap first meetings at 30 minutes, and what to do when you're sitting on a call that clearly isn't going anywhere. Anne-Marie shares her go-to wrap-up move — letting the other person speak first, identifying the fit within 10 minutes, and closing with an offer to make introductions and reconnect in three to six months.

The bigger message in this episode: protecting your time is protecting your audience. When you enter a partnership, your name and reputation go with it. Staying on a call you know isn't right — or worse, agreeing to follow up when you have no intention of doing so — does no one any favors. Honesty is the foundation that makes partnerships work long-term.

If you've ever felt stuck on a call you didn't want to be on, or struggled to end a conversation cleanly without burning the bridge, this episode gives you the exact language and the full permission to do it.

What if the key to stronger, long-term partnerships isn’t what happens before or during the collaboration but what happens after?

In this episode, we reveal our “secret sauce” that we’ve used for years to build lasting, high-performing partnerships: the debrief call. We break down why most people skip this step, how it impacts your results, and how simple post-partnership conversations can unlock better alignment, stronger relationships, and a more successful future collaborations.

We also dive into the importance of tracking data, asking the right questions, and using insights to improve your strategy over time. If you want to stop guessing what works and start building partnerships that consistently grow your business, this episode is a must-listen.