[0:01] Vanessa: Buddy, let me know if you can hear me. Vanessa here. Thursday, February 5th, I'm setting up my screen so you probably can't see anything yet but hopefully you can hear me. Set up a slideshow and choose my screen.

[0:21] I'm just letting a few more folks roll in. I know we're waiting on, I think Sherry's gonna hang out with me today and maybe Tom. I hope everybody's doing well staying warm. Okay, Reggie can hear me, awesome. Hey Reggie, I emailed you back, a very cool real-life idea. I love that, love it. All good here in winter wonderland. You know, I'm pretty bummed. I didn't get good snow. I really wanted to see my little tiny dogs frolicking like all the Facebook and Instagram videos, but we just got ice and wind. It was funny, the deck froze over and the wind was blowing them.

[1:03] They couldn't get good traction, and so they kind of blew around like they were on an ice skating rink. It was dangerous, and I started carrying them out into the yard, but it was cute. It was cute. It's gonna be 38 in Minnesota today, which is t-shirt weather this time of year, Guy. My goodness. In your flip-flops like Sean V from our Canadian friend would walk around in flip-flops in the snow. Okay. Wild, wild.

[1:31] Well, what we're going to talk about today, we have formalized the agent association partnership process. So we've been talking so much about the power of two and rolling out that large reach, easy scale, and co-opted, borrowed authority of working with partnerships. So today we're gonna drill down on what your role is in that relationship and what Illusional's role is and what we can do to support you with them to help them be as successful as possible.

[2:08] So as always, as we go through, if you have any questions about anything I'm talking about, please pop in. I'm watching the, okay, so I don't see—okay, Sherry's here. Hey, okay, you came in as I was trying to—I was trying to give you a promotion, Sherry, but I see you're already here. All right, so Sherry can see all of our questions. She can help me in chat if it comes up, and Sherry, please jump in at any time if you have anything to add, little color, little flavor to our presentation.

[2:38] All right, so first screen up: agent association partnership process, your complete guide to building successful association partnerships. And let me situate this so I can see—I can drive the slides and we're off. All right.

🔥 Agent Association Partnership Process

[3:04] So we're going to guide you through the complete journey. So from start to finish establishing, establishing your relationship, making the connection, but then also managing that partnership so it doesn't go stale, it doesn't stagnate, they don't lose their excitement.

[3:22] So step one is finding and qualifying the right associations. We're going to go through navigating the onboarding process for that association and how we're going to launch a true partnership successfully so we can lean on each other. We've got methods that work, and the association has marketing methods that work. Let's integrate those and grow revenue for you and your partners. Obviously, the end goal is making those final sales. We've got six stages to partnership success.

📌 Six Stages to Partnership Success

[3:59] So obviously, it starts with the initial contact: you reaching out to an association, getting their attention and qualifying them with the standard, basically checklist of questions that we go through in the original training in the Small Business Advantage modules, the working with associations, qualifying them, their ability to generate non-dues revenue. How can we get them paid to incentivize them to make this partnership? Remember, there are ways—some folks can't take direct payments for marketing or this kind of partnership, but they can take a sponsorship or a donation in a bulk amount. Like we can work with them to make sure it is compliant for them to receive this compensation. So making sure that they are qualified to do so is a broad topic, right?

[4:58] So we've got the sales and onboarding, which is communicating to them the commitment, I guess you can say, and us, the Ilusional team, onboarding them as a referral agent and getting them their links. So the association then signs themselves up for service, and implementation and launch. So how do we get them started, right? The communication of, okay, here's your sales page. This is your link that you have to share. Here are your marketing materials, and that flows into the marketing and ongoing support. They give us imagery. We can put their logo on flyers. We will provide ongoing support for their marketing efforts, and six: finances and growth. Getting them paid, setting up an ACH system to get their account in our ACH system so that we can pay them, be that in the form of a donation or support or commission, whatever is compliant with them. And then scaling that up. How do we keep growing for success month over month over month?

[6:10] Thank you, Sherry, I see you answering questions in there for me. Right? So first, making the connection.

📌 Making the Connection

[6:17] Your first conversation with an association sets the foundation for everything that follows, right? So what you want to do is you want to touch base, trigger their interest, like get them excited, but also gauge it. Are they a good fit for partnership? If they aren't excited, if you, and you're not able to get over that hump, right, a good partnership is going to be enthusiastic consent, excitement, participation, etc., right? You don't want to begrudgingly get, you know what, fine, just yes, leave me alone, right? So we need to make sure that your time is spent in fruitful endeavors, shall we say, rather than chasing a dead end, right? One no, that doesn't necessarily mean it's an absolute, but a fast firm does not allow you to go on to the next opportunity, so gauging interest is important.

[7:18] Will association sign-ups be via a written agreement spelling out all the details? Reggie, yes, we do have an agent agreement. Once—we'll go through it—but yes, we have an agent agreement.

📌 What You Must Learn in the First Conversation

[7:30] Okay, what you must learn in the first conversation: So in this, as you're gauging interest when you're in the conversation, when you've gotten to either the key decision maker or someone with a level of clout that they can answer these questions and have the pull—their ability to receive revenue from the partnership, right? Again, not being able to take a commission is not a deal breaker, but open up that conversation. We can work around it. So remember, a no is not a dead end on this question. And will they actively market the platform to their members?

[8:03] Again, this goes back to, we don't want to find, yes, leave me alone. We want to absolutely, yes, we've got a newsletter, we've got a website, we've got a bulletin board, we've got, etc., etc., etc. We've got meetings we can talk about, we've got meetings that you can present to. Those channels—if they A, have them and B, are willing to use them for the partnership.

[8:27] Okay, so you want to lock in your exclusive partnership rights. Okay, so this means once they agree that they want to work with you, you need to let us know that they've made that agreement. Right, so again, inside the Small Business Advantage training, the agent, I'm sorry, association training module has this form, so after you go through the association training there's a form to basically put dibs on an association. It's you communicating to Illusional that you've established this relationship, you've had those first couple of questions, they've expressed interest, and if someone else were to speak to someone else in this organization, we now have record that you were there first.

[9:18] So it protects your relationship from competition, and in that exclusive partnership, we will honor your partnership if it comes in first, right? So again, this is Module 3, Part 2, available to all active agents inside the Small Business Advantage. Okay, protect your territory and then ensure you're the exclusive agent for this association.

📌 Tailoring Your Sales Approach

[9:49] Okay, so we want to tailor your sales approach. So when you're talking to associations, everyone is unique. We are currently working with a landscaping organization, and for example, we also have a religious organization, a group of a kind of a fraternity of churches. We talk to them differently. We market for them differently. The imagery, the vernacular, the lexicon, and the way we talk, the way we present, it's different. And so you wouldn't talk to a roofer the same way you talk to a plumber the same way you talk to, right, you know what I mean? So the same goes for associations.

[10:28] So customize your approach based on the association's specific needs, culture, and member demographics. And so you might ask, how do I know? Here, when you're tailoring your sales approach, it does take research. Like look into it, right? Go to their website. What's important to them? What causes do they support, contribute to? What are their goals? What are their mission statements? What are their core values? You can lock in to that so when you speak to them, you're meeting them where they are, you're speaking their language, and when they hear your knowledgeable, specific conversation with them about how this can benefit them, that gives you authority and they feel connected already to the proposition.

[11:22] So take that little extra step—just learn about who you're talking to as a general association, not specifically the person—it really can take a lot of the edge off difficult conversations, right?

📌 Business Health Membership Requirement

[11:39] So the one non-negotiable requirement is a Business Health membership is essential for every partner. So Business Health membership—there is an administrative fee that is tied to an association signing up, and this is a relatively new development, and it is because we rolled out the ability to sign up individuals. So there's some technical stuff behind the scenes that doesn't really matter, but what it is, there is an expense. It is very nominal, but inside the association agreement, there is now a link to an association administrative service fee that is $39.95 per month. It is the same as a Business Health membership expense, and this allows us to support associations enrolling individual members that are not business owners, right?

[12:29] So this is inside the agreement. It's explained inside the agreement, and it is just a simple administration fee. It is just set up as a subscription, and it does execute. And that is not—it's not required for reserving the exclusive agreement between you and the association, but in order for us to take the final step to launch their sales page, enroll them as an agent, set up their ability to enroll individuals and start developing their marketing materials, et cetera, for them, at that point, there is the $39.95 per month administrative membership expense, right?

[13:19] This enables individual member sales, covers the monthly administration fee for Illusional to manage the association's house account, and ensures the association has firsthand experience with the platform, et cetera, et cetera.

📌 Closing Support

[13:30] All right, so we have your back. So closing an association can have its challenges, right? You are making the initial contact, you're gauging the interest, you're explaining the benefits, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but when it comes down to actually closing the deal, getting the association agreement, the contract signed, we will be with you. If you need a joint call, if you need a Zoom, as you probably have all heard us excitedly talk about, our leaders of the company will hop on a plane. They're ready to fly to Nebraska. Now, it wasn't in the middle of winter. I don't know if they'd go to Minnesota this week, Guy. But definitely we could do a Zoom call.

[14:20] The exciting flip side of that is the times we have been willing to show up and sell with you, for you, the deals have closed without ever needing our intervention. Those deals where we were ready to buy plane tickets went through and closed, and everybody signed without—they honestly were like, you know, we don't even need—you've given us everything we need. So while we are there for you, the people who get it, get it, and it hasn't even been needed.

📌 Making It Official with Paperwork

[14:53] All right, so then we make it official with paperwork. So once the association agrees to partner, we formalize. Email me, vanessa@illusional.com. You will at that point have been in communication with Tim and leadership regarding the status of the association. There's generally a lot of back and forth when we're getting closer to actually formalizing the deal. So we've probably already been in touch, but if you get it to the finish line and they're ready to sign that contract and all you've done is lock it in with him, you can always email me and I will work with him. We will get that contract out. The contract does outline their three dollars per life commission, the $39.95 per month association admin fee, etc. All of that is—nothing that would scare anyone off, but it does give them protection and it does also give us protection as well.

[15:51] Okay, so we do execute all of this through PandaDoc. So what I need from you when we're ready for the contract is the contact's name, the representative email address, phone number, basically what details are going into that agreement and the person who is signing the agreement—and they have to go to their email and they have to be a valid representative. So I need that information. It goes through PandaDoc. I can track it and make sure that it's viewed and executed. The link to the $39.95 is in that contract. That's not published or pushed out any other way, and then all parties receive a version. Once executed, it's all in real time, and then we will notify you that they have executed the contract, and then we move forward to setting up their sales page, agent link, payment receipt method, etc.

[17:10] Reggie, okay, is asking a good question: With the administrative fee, can that cover a membership? So the answer is no, because members have to be tied to their email address, right? The house account, the administrative fee, covers a house account that is not tied to an individual person. What if that person were to leave the association, right? What if the leadership of the association were to change? Having that association fee be separate from an actual membership is why it's referred to as an administrative fee and it's not a membership. It's not a HealthSense membership, it's not a BusinessSense membership.

[17:58] Okay, behind the scenes for your understanding, it does create a house account. It also covers some other expenses, but for an association member, right, or representative of the association, we do—we absolutely recommend that they use the product. They become their own first customer, the same advice we advise you guys. But no, the actual functionality of a BusinessSense account is not covered with that $39.95 administrative fee. Possible for the admin fee to drop off after securing a certain number of membership seats? I will raise that to leadership. We can definitely talk about it. At this time, it is an ongoing standard, but I know we drop with a thousand members—we drop your $197 a month—so that absolutely is something that I think they would be open to considering. I will broach the topic. For those already signed up, is the admin fee required, grandfathered in? Donald, excellent question. I'll have to take that to leadership, have to take it to leadership, but I will ask. I will pose the question.

📌 What the Association Receives

[19:02] What the association receives: So once the agreement is executed and payment is confirmed, the association gains immediate access to partnership tools. Immediate—it's a process. I have to physically do these things. We register them as an agent, which creates the tracking link exactly like what you've got. The sales page is the sales page. They get their own link. It ties to you as the agent referrer, right? You've recruited this association, you referred to the association. Still in progress, for your education—like the agent, I'm sorry, the associations can still see all of their deals, just like you can. We are still developing you seeing the association's deals. In the interim, we will communicate with you, even if it just means that we give you a spreadsheet every week, right? You will be able to know the lives that the association recruits.

[19:52] Okay, so yeah, they get their custom referral link, they get their back-end dashboard where they can see all of their lives, their leads, their recruits, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And they get the BusinessSense account, the house account, which allows them to offer individuals under them as the business.

📌 Preparing for a Successful Launch

[20:17] All right, so prepare for a successful launch. So when you're getting ready to help the association, that's now, right? They've already signed up. So now we're not talking about you launching an association. We're talking about the association launching to their members. You understanding everything that's involved allows you to be the primary contact for this association. We don't take over the relationship with the association. They don't start coming directly to us for everything. There may be some direct communication, but you will always be the primary, and we will always position you as their point of contact.

[21:02] Right, so if they have questions, they go to you. They are your association, right? So you can talk to them about marketing, and then I will help you fulfill that, right? So if they want their logo, if they have certain verbiage, if they have imagery they want on a flyer, they can produce their own, absolutely. Many of these associations already have a marketing department that—they already know what they want to do. If they want help, absolutely, you and I will work together to build that marketing package, right? And so you, the association, Illusional development and marketing teams work collaboratively. Our tech team will get them set up so that they have a dashboard, so they have their referral link.

[21:49] I will have a side quest note right here and tell you—Sherry, thank you so much for implementing—and just this week, all of you will see in your back office, we now have traffic tracking on your links. You can see how many hits, how many visits you are generating through your agent referral affiliate link and how many unique visitors. You can also see a breakdown of when those hits happened, right? So you can rate your—basically like your successful days, what worked, et cetera. And yeah, Alita, we're very excited about it. And to come on our wish list, feature list, is the ability to break out that data into hits today, hits yesterday, hits this week, hits this month, hits this specific date range, et cetera, et cetera. So we are still, you know, never stop improving. You know what I like to say.

[22:54] But yes, now you can see hits on your link. So, will it track each of our domains? Yes, Thomas, these are your links, traffic on your link only, not the webpage as a whole. And Kenneth had a question that I could answer. So he says, how is the new ability for them to sign up individuals different from what they had before?

[23:16] So Kenneth, the difference is, for instance, if you bought the product, you bought BusinessSense, and we only created the ability for a business. Really, the product is—especially if you came to last week's meeting—the product was built around the business and for the business owner. And so what we've done now is allow just individual families to purchase outside of the business. Individual families can get the HealthSense product where businesses get the BusinessSense product. And when a business purchases the BusinessSense product, they have—if you recall or if you've seen the videos or if you have the product yourself—you are required to go to the employee management dashboard because, right, if you think about it in theory and in actual as we built the product, right, a business owner should have employees.

[24:12] So with the BusinessSense product, in order for the business owner to get BusinessSense, right, and add his employees, right, adding members—there's a button that says enroll member and then the complete enrollment button in the employee dashboard—the whole business and his employees get the product, whether it's HealthSense for the employee or BusinessSense for the business owner. But with an individual, right, in the individual form now, just an individual that does not have a business but has a family, right, can buy it for himself and his family. He will only get HealthSense because he doesn't have a business, right? Only businesses should go to the business form, and employees and families should use the individual form.

[24:58] So I hope that answers your question. I just wanted to make sure it's clear. It's something I couldn't write—I could. Yeah, the ability for individuals to sign up and remove all of that, like a good point, administrator dashboard. Yeah, it is so clean and so wonderful. So Sherry, thank you so much for making that just seamless. You know, because if I'm just—if I'm just a regular Joe at an association, right? I'm a landscaper, and, you know, I don't have all that hubbub, right? It's just—it's just me out there, and I don't have employees, and I don't want to do all that HR admin, yada, yada, yada. I just want my $39.95 to go and get me my benefits package. Being able to just pay and get a link and I'm in is a game changer, right? We love it. Let me see.

[25:54] A solo entrepreneur with a family would still get the BusinessSense, Alita. If they bought it as a business account, they would get BusinessSense. If they bought an individual, they will get HealthSense. So on the Illusional.com page, we have a chart that breaks down business versus individual. Okay, so they can see which one they want. And let me be clear, they cost the same, right? So if it is an entrepreneur, if someone's a business, and they want those business features, absolutely, they should get the business package. Yes, it costs them no difference. It's—it doesn't matter. It's just a more complicated process for them, and you can prepare them for that.

[26:44] Sherry made amazing training on how to go through signing up as a business, the onboarding process. We had a great training last week on BusinessSense account features and what all they get as a BusinessSense owner. So you have all the tools at your disposal to fully understand how a business can sign up, the business dashboard setup. It is more complicated, and you can compare the two accounts to see if the juice is worth that squeeze, right? The slightly more complicated onboarding process, right, for the same price versus the individual. Totally up to you, but you can steer solo entrepreneurs versus family members in that direction, and you can help them make the best decision for them.

[27:33] And then if they are in business, if they do choose the business owner path, you can help them—we recommend that you do—help them do the onboarding process in case they have any trouble, right? Yes, Jay, I think that's a business name, not yours, I see. The individual option is grayed out and not clickable at this time on the primary page. That is accurate. We are doing some back-end updates. We did roll that out a couple of weeks ago. Right now it is not clickable, but that's a technical issue that we are resolving. But thanks for—yes, thanks for letting us know.

[28:15] So if they do a business and then they add family as employees, I understand the extra process. Okay, if they buy a BusinessSense, their family is still covered, not as employees. They are their only employees. They don't have to add employees, but because they got a BusinessSense account, they do have to log in and then sync their account. I won't get into the training, the technical stuff right here, Alina. Go through the training inside the members area, and that will show you what we mean. But no, you do not have to pay more for family members as employees. They are covered in the BusinessSense account. Gotcha. Okay. Good. Good. Good. Yes. Oh, yes. Perfect. Perfect. Okay.

📌 Setting Expectations with All Stakeholders

[29:05] So setting expectations with all stakeholders. We want to make sure everyone is aligned and ready for the launch. So once they've signed their contract, we're going to do a complete walkthrough. We're going to have a meeting with them, right? So we're going to—they've signed their contract. Now we're going to do the onboarding. We're getting ready for the launch. You, myself, Tom, Tim, Brian, Sherry, right? All of our stakeholders, all of us, we're all going to have a meeting. We're gonna walk through the process. We're gonna confirm expectations for all parties. Let them ask any questions. We're gonna do an overview of the available marketing support. We're gonna show them the sales page, show them how everything works. We're going to train them on the product. We're gonna train them on the dashboard. So they're not going in blind. But yes, you are participating in this. We're gonna discuss the next steps, and we're gonna plan for engaging with early adopters.

[29:50] And early adopters really mean their first five or 10 folks, right? Not necessarily waiting to start enrolling folks on like a big, mega nationwide launch, right? Pick your 10 folks that work with you in the office or the chairs of the association, et cetera. Let's get them onboarded. Let's get them their own BusinessSense accounts or their own individual HealthSense accounts so that they are familiar, right? Because a familiar salesperson, someone who knows their product—and that's what these guys are, make no mistake, they're little sales guys—with them being able to say, I'm not only the Hair Club for Men president, I'm also a member. For them to say, yes, I use Illusional services. I have my account. I've been through the process. I've contacted a doctor, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[30:45] Incredibly powerful testimony to the other members, but also they are able to answer questions and not stumble around or put somebody off, which puts a bad taste in their mouth. Oh, well, you know, let me let you talk to Donald, or let me tell you to go to Illusional Support, right? If they're able to help, they are going to get more sales. That's the same message that we gave you when you signed up to be agents. If you have your own account and you're familiar and you've played around and you've talked to doctors, like you are able to talk to these associations or these businesses directly about your experience, and you're being able to have an authority, informed answer and a strong testimony that it is as good as we say it is, right?

📌 Early Adopters Are Your Secret Weapon

[31:36] Early adopters are your secret weapon. Thomas, no, we can't change the pricing. Everything's all set up. Everything is $39.95. One's an administrative fee and then one's an additional account. That's the only difference, right? Okay, early adopters are your secret weapon. Like I was just saying, getting those first 10 or 15 folks—demonstrates what successful implementation looks like. Provide valuable feedback before full-scale launch. Do these folks—did they have trouble? Do they have a question? Is there something we can do to help them understand things better? Are there things we should address specifically in their marketing for their specific group based on these folks' feedback?

[32:13] Like, oh, when I was signing up, this gave me trouble because of, or when I was deciding on if I wanted to sign up, this is what helped me make the decision to join. Let's work that into the marketing, right? So that valuable feedback, that back and forth, we really want that. Help resolve any technical issues. We want to have—we want their experience to be as seamless and positive as possible so that they give a strong testimony. So we really, really white glove, take care of these folks. And it builds momentum and credibility with the association. For 10 or 15 people to be able to stand up and say, I'm doing it, it's big. So when we set all of that up, we really put a strong emphasis on those early adopters.

📌 Technical Refinement Phase

[33:00] The technical refinement phase—so basically, this is intense training, right? We test with the early adopters, we help them sign up. We talk to them about their experience, and if there are any problems, of course we help solve them. And that's not just with the dashboard, the Illusional dashboard. We want to make sure that they can see their traffic tracking. The expectation—it's also making sure that they are comfortable with their BusinessSense or HealthSense accounts on the back end. Making sure that they know all the features. They know how to connect with a doctor. They know where to go for prescription discounts. They know how to get discounts on shopping, restaurants, etc. We want to make sure that they are well educated and well versed on all the benefits and features and that they're not experiencing any technical difficulties.

[33:56] Because if they are frustrated, they're not going to advocate for the product, right? So we want to make sure that that is smooth sailing. And also this gives us a chance to prove how great a job we do taking care of people. So it's kind of, you know, slipping in a little self-brag, right? Like, look, this is how we take care of you. This is how we take care of our people. You're having this great experience. You can trust us with your members.

[34:30] So we're empowering them with their dashboard. We'll walk through. I kind of jumped ahead on this one, right? So we want them to understand the difference between leads and deals. We do explain how we follow up with the leads, right? We don't represent ourselves as being them, right? We are not the association, right? We are Illusional. We work with the association, but we do leverage that relationship in the conversation so that those leads know, like, yeah, they gave us their name and email, but the authority of the endorsement from the association isn't lost. They're not getting a cold call just from Illusional. We know when we call them that they are a lead from the association, right? So we go over that.

[35:18] Support is—we've got Sherry, the dev team, we can fix the tech stuff, ensure the association feels confident managing their partnership tools, right?

📌 Amplifying Success Through Marketing

[35:28] Amplifying success through marketing. We take the feedback from the early adopters. We're tracking our messaging effectiveness, right? If we have customized their marketing materials, we're using their logos, we're using their words, and they are taking it out to the streets for their members. We're watching their link clicks, right? Okay, they got a thousand link clicks and three people signed up. All right, let's look at that. Let's have a conversation. What's failing? Where are we dropping the ball? What can we do differently? How can we help? This provides the association with the tools they need. We're not just sending them out and saying, okay, wing it, right? They are free to do their own marketing, but if they need or want our support, we are actively participating in that.

[36:24] As they enroll, not just the early adopters, but with additional members, we would like you to stay in contact with them and gather feedback. Member experiences are where we can get testimonials. This is going to roll into future marketing efforts. Track which messages resonated with different segments. This is information they need to give you if they're running their marketing, right? If you're running the marketing for them, then you'll know this. Create targeted messaging for various member types. Do they have ideas for segmentation? Right, do they know that this segment of their membership are business owners and these are individuals? Are we targeting these guys as singles? These guys have families, et cetera, et cetera.

[37:08] And we provide the association with proven promotional tools and strategies. So we work alongside that feedback to be creative to help them market more successfully. But again, you're our bridge, right? You're having these relationship conversations to help us help them improve.

📌 You're the Primary Point of Contact

[37:27] So you're the primary point of contact. You own the relationship with the association, not us. So you'll handle all the requests and concerns. If they want to—yes, of course, if they want to meet with us, they have concerns, etc., you facilitate that, and then we all meet together. But you are conducting these regular check-ins. What's working, what's not? Do you have feedback, suggestions? What can we do to support, et cetera? And then you bring that back to us, and we will help adjust the marketing, produce email campaigns or flyers or graphics, whatever they think. If they need help and they are giving direction, you are bringing that to us and we're working together.

[38:11] So this is gonna maintain, build really, and then maintain a strong, meaningful partnership through consistent engagement. It's not set and forget it. It's not a rotisserie chicken. We have to keep checking in as we go. And you're not alone in that, but you are the primary contact, and we will be responsive with you. Any questions?

[38:37] Yes, Randy, I'll get these slides into the members area for sure. Okay, so if we have an individual who wants to sign up for the monthly membership, what should we advise the prospects to do since the individual link is not working right now? Alfred, if they want to buy, remind them the price is the same for a BusinessSense account. The BusinessSense account has all of the features of an individual plus more. It's just a slightly more complicated sign-up process. I would say, let's sign you up as a BusinessSense account. I'll help you, and then you just go through the signup process with them. Or you can wait. But I would say strike while the iron's hot and simply onboard them through.

[39:22] And remember, the business, that's the onboarding process—that's what we've been training you on for the past six months. That's the same. It's just we made the individual easier, and it's currently not available. So you should know how to do the business onboarding, and if this individual needs help, you're there to help them, right? So I would say don't have them wait. Just let them know that for the slightly more complicated onboarding process, they're getting a lot more features. It's definitely a more robust account.

📌 Celebrating Revenue & Expanding Success

[39:52] All right, so celebrating revenue, expanding success. What—that's—whatever—this is what we're all going for, right? Getting to the paychecks. So the revenue flow—the commissions flow to the association within 30 days. So this is how payment works. I know a couple of folks reached out to me at the end of January or mid-January and said, hey, I haven't gotten my January commission yet. And that's because we pay on the 15th and the 31st on a 30-day delay. So if your commission is earned by an account paying between January 1st and January 15th, you will receive that commission by February 15th, okay? And then commissions paid January 16th through January 31st, you get paid the last day of February. Does that make sense?

[40:58] So Donald, you were looking for yours, and you said I hadn't gotten paid in January. I'm sorry if I'm gonna spill your business, but your commission was earned when the accounts paid, but the accounts paid at the end of December, right? So you were owed the end of January, right? So it's just timing on that. So the same applies for the associations, okay? So if their members purchase their account and pay between February 1st and February 15th, they're gonna get paid by March 15th. But they will get paid twice a month because it is broken up the first half of the month and the last half of the month. All right. Okay.

[41:40] So revenue creates momentum, enthusiasm, right? You get one deal, you get excited. You get 10 deals, the money starts rolling. That's what we want. We want to build that momentum. And as we get those deals, we talk to the early adopters, we talk to the folks that buy after them. That's where we get the referrals, the testimonials, etc. And again, this is specific to the association, which we can roll into their marketing. Your fellow member is using this service, right? That's powerful. And the partnership becomes a model for future associations. You can take the success of your first association to another association and say, look at what I did for XYZ. I can do it for you, right?

[42:08] Commissions are sent to the association via ACH within 30 days. Yes, I set this up and I run it. I know we've got—I mean, you guys know I talk all the time about having to go back and say, oh, such and such, I'm trying to pay you, I need you to set up your ACH. We do this with the association onboarding process. So we'll have them on the call. You know, these associations—they're not affiliate marketers. They're not online marketers, right? This is all new to them. So we make sure that that is set up and the W-9s are all filled out, etc., so that when their commissions come up, there is no delay.

[43:06] So when that happens, remember, you're also going to be receiving a commission on their deal, so you're gonna know it's happening, right? So when it happens, make sure you connect with them, congratulate them, encourage them. Don't ever hesitate to brag about what you were able to do for somebody, especially in a business relationship. You know, if you were doing local marketing and you were selling lead generation and you got a small business 10 new customers, if you got a dentist 10 new patients, you would definitely send them a success report, right? Like, these are the results of what I've done for you. This is how much money I helped you make. You know, let's stay excited about this. Let's keep working together.

[43:49] These touch points strengthen your relationship and motivate ongoing engagement. You don't want them to get passive, placated. Oh, you know, this was great. You know, this was an interesting thing to do this month, right? You want them reinforcing it and keep pushing it, keep promoting it.

[44:08] Ask them for referrals to similar associations. A lot of associations have a community of associations, right? Request some testimonials for their marketing. Featuring the association as a case study is a great idea. Again, this can take it for your marketing to other associations, so not only testimonies of the individual folks buying the Illusional accounts, right, but get testimonials, referrals from the leaders about how this helped their association, right? So both are helpful. Use them as a reference for prospective clients. Make sure that they endorse you. If such and such from this neighboring or non-competing, whatever association called you, would you be willing to share your experience? You know, and that's what, you know, having those powerful, positive relationships get powerful.

[45:05] Okay, Alfred. Okay, so let's take that private question, send it to me privately and I'll answer privately, but like not here. You can send me a ticket or a message.

📌 Keys to Long-Term Partnership Success

[45:17] Okay, the keys to long-term partnership success. Everything we've talked about, it works together holistically. Doing half of this and letting the other half falter, you're not squeezing all the juice out of that orange, right? So don't waste your time with an unqualified lead. Don't waste your time talking to folks with general, nonspecific messaging. Collaborate with us for implementation, right? You've got lots of resources. Myself, Sherry, Tom, Tim, Brian, we are all very invested in your success with these associations. Work with us, right?

[46:05] Actively involve yourself with the early adopters. Make sure the association understands—getting those first 10 or 15 folks before they dump everything into a big full marketing campaign really can make a difference, not only in their ability to market successfully with testimonies and endorsements, but getting them to really understand the process will make things so much smoother once they do go live and large, right?

[46:38] Regular communication and relationship management, bragging on your own success with them, keeping them updated, keeping them apprised, checking in—what's working, what's not? Getting the testimonies from them, getting the endorsements from them, staying front of mind so they, you know, they don't go on to the next shiny thing. They remember how excited they were about this as a non-dues revenue generator. And celebrating wins maintains the momentum. Once we get them excited, get them going, we want to keep them there. Like I said, not the next shiny thing.

📌 Common Mistakes to Avoid

[47:20] Okay, so common mistakes. Where have folks kind of fumbled the ball a little bit that we—and we've learned from them, right? Rushing through a qualification without knowing the two key things. Can we figure out a way to get the money, and are they going to enthusiastically support the partnership, right? You can spend too much time, too much energy that could be better spent somewhere else chasing an enthusiastic maybe, right?

[47:53] Failing to secure the assignment form early—getting them that micro-agreement, right, that they wanna work with you and getting that on the books with us. If you whet their whistle and then kind of like fall off the map from them and someone else talks to them and they get to benefit from you introducing it and then they pull them over the finish line, if you haven't secured your relationship with the initial forms, then the other agent's gonna be the one who locks that in.

[48:32] All right, so leaving the association to navigate implementation alone. We do an amount of onboarding, right? We give them their sales—we create their sales page, their agent link, and their marketing materials. But we give that to you. If you just send it to them and say, here you go, good luck, without maintaining being the relationship owner—they might really take it and run with it. They could be marketing experts. They could be super great at that. They might not need you at all. But your involvement 99 times out of a hundred is really going to help keep them on track. And missing the opportunities to celebrate commission payments—lots of folks either assume that people get excited about getting their money and assume that they're getting the credit, right? Oh, they know it came from me. They know I'm the—and for the—behind all of the success.

[49:27] It's never a bad idea to just communicate, reinforce that you are the keystone in this, right? And you are a valuable asset to them, and it keeps the relationship moving.

📌 Resources & Support Available

[49:47] So we're here to help you, right? Our job is to help you be more successful. So, you know, me and you know Sherry. Tim is the tip-top of the association ladder, right? So he's the final records keeper, etc. And you've got all of the training inside Small Business Advantage. So not just Module 3 forms and training materials, right? Remember, you've got all of the walkthrough demos that Sherry has done for you that are incredible, not just from the agent perspective, but also from the customer's perspective.

[50:21] Last week, we had an incredible in-depth presentation from our partner provider that went through not just telehealth, but every single amazing benefit that the BusinessSense account has. If you have not watched last week's call, please, I implore you. It was fantastic. A little side note update on that—we are producing a video, essentially the same messaging, but that was presented to you as agents. The audience of that presentation was the agents. We're going to redo it with that same wonderful woman, Deb, but this perspective is going to be speaking to BusinessSense account owners.

[51:08] It's going to be delivered inside their BusinessSense dashboard—I'm sorry, the Illusional Business Owner dashboard—as well as emailed to them as a real reinforcement of all the value they get for that $39.95 per month for every Illusional account, but also subtle training on how to do everything. Once you've done the, you know, the initial Illusional setup, the technical stuff, but once you log into Illusional.BusinessSense, how do you get to a doctor? How do you find a therapist? How do you get to your discounts? How do you get your legal help? How do you request, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera?

[51:48] So all of that's gonna be provided to business and account owners. We will make one for HealthSense for individuals. We will be using that same format to produce marketing videos highlighting the benefits—much shorter, two-and-a-half-minute or a 30-second version and a two-and-a-half-minute version that you can use on social media. So all of that is in the works.

[52:16] Will we be able to share it with associations or business prospects? Randy, yes, these videos will absolutely be able to be shared with associations. Absolutely, definitely, yes. Perfect, perfect.

📌 Typical Partnership Timeline

[52:28] All right, so the perfect partnership—I'm sorry, typical partnership timeline. Everybody moves at their own pace, we know. But let's expect 60 days, right? Do we want it to go faster? Of course, everybody does. Let's be realistic though, right? So we're gonna have initial contact for the first one or two weeks. If that goes faster, that speeds everything up. The sales process and agreement could take another two weeks. Getting them to go from, oh, that's interesting, to I am ready to sign a piece of paper and pay $39.95 per month, right? Like that could take a minute. Again, we're just being reasonable. We're just managing expectations.

[53:08] The next two weeks are the most exciting. So like they've committed, they've got their association link. The early adopters—now I do expect for this to take about two weeks for them to pick 10 or 15 folks, get them onboarded, have them have their first doctor's appointment, right? Have them use the system, have them do the shopping rewards, have them get a prescription discount. They're probably not gonna—I guess the legal stuff is for a business owner, so they probably didn't do that. But you know what I mean, like get them in there, get their feedback. Let's get some testimonials. Let's get some referrals, right? Let's get some quotes so that then we can go—and then at the six-to-eight-week, let's do a full launch with growth, fully customized imagery, graphics, logo, association name, using these testimonies from the early adopters.

[54:05] So Wendy says, we don't send them an agreement to sign. You guys do. That is absolutely correct. We manage it through PandaDoc. You have to let us know when they're ready to sign, and there is information that I need from you to make sure it's going to the right person. But I do craft the personalized contract association agreement. I send it to the representative that you tell me has the authority to lock this in, and then they sign it electronically so they have a copy and we have a copy, and I let you know that it's executed.

📌 Measuring Success

[54:43] All right, so how do we measure success? How do we know what we're doing is working and communicate it? So we're gonna track them. We will need you to help get these figures, right? They know how many members they have. Let's set a goal of percent of members enrolled, and let's increase it every month, okay? Stakeholder engagement, leadership, promotion of activity. Are they participating? We want them to meet or exceed their commitments to how they're going to be promoted. If they say we're willing to put it in the newsletter once a month, put it on our website and talk about it at one meeting per month, let's make sure that's happening. And if they're getting good results, we can go up from there, right?

[55:34] Revenue velocity, rate of commission growth. Are they making the money that they expected to make? What can we do? We want to consistently trend upwards. It's Illusional's job to take great care of these customers so that they don't fall off and we keep going up.

[55:58] So we're gonna work together to make sure—it's way easier to retain happy customers than churning and always trying to find new ones. And number of new partner leads, interests from peers—are they helping you find new associations, right? Did they endorse you? Were you able to leverage this relationship one way or another, either from a direct referral or from getting testimony, having a case study, et cetera? Are you able to be more successful with additional associations because of your relationship with this one?

📌 Scaling Your Association Portfolio

[56:35] All right, so you wanna scale your association portfolio. We started off by saying it's the power of two. Get successful with one, be twice as successful with two, right? But you don't have to stop at two. We want to standardize your onboarding. Once you know what works, keep doing it. I know we're running low on time, so I'm gonna—I'll go a little faster. You guys slow me down if you want me to. Schedule quarterly reviews. Talk to your people. Make sure that they are staying happy. Eventually, you won't have to talk to them every week, right? But like make sure you stay in touch and that everyone is progressing towards the success that they want to have so that they don't stop endorsing, promoting, et cetera. They're getting new members. You want to stay in front of your mind. As long as they keep endorsing, that actually helps with retention. So you wanna stay close with them.

[57:28] Identify the super connectors. Who is referring best to you? Let's put our energy where it's the most effective. Automate reporting so you can use the dashboard to quickly generate performance updates. Everything we are building in the dashboard, we are able to—or it is native in our design to be able to export into a CSV for reporting, to help you report. I call it bragging. You can just call it reporting on your success.

[57:54] Are there any dollar benefits for associations referring to another association that signs up? Thomas, not in a functionality that we've developed. If you want to incentivize your folks for referring, you can, but there is not a downline so that you get a commission off the association. The association refers to another association, they get a downline commission. No, no, we only go one level down, right? You have an association, you both get a commission on leads. It's lateral. So I shouldn't say one level down—it's lateral. You both get a commission on a lead an association generates. If you want to devise an incentive for them to help you connect with other associations, that's completely private between you and them.

📌 Your Next Steps

[58:43] All right, so your next steps. All right, so read the full partnership process document in detail. I will be sharing a formal document, not a slide deck, but an outline for you in the members area. You can just review it, right? Select your top three association prospects to target this week, right? This is just taking action. What three associations do you want to talk to? Schedule your first contact, calls or meetings. Get on the books with them. Try to get past the gatekeeper. Try to get to somebody who can make a decision. You don't have to get an absolute yes, contract signed, but gauge the engagement. Remember, the first two qualifying questions are, can we make sure that you can get paid on this one way or another? And are you willing to promote it, right?

[59:29] Not just—you don't want a soft maybe. You want an enthusiastic yes, right? And reach out to Vanessa if you have specific sales support. If you need something to help connect with an association, I will help you. This is before the association gets their own marketing materials. If you need help connecting with a specific association, if you want to show them a flyer with their logo on it, right, as an example of what we can do for them, those kinds of things, I will help you so you don't go empty-handed.

[59:58] Guy, I'm glad you like it. He says, this has been awesome. Does everybody agree? Helpful training.

📌 Questions & Resources

[1:00:07] All right, questions and resources. You know, me and Sherry—all of our platinum agents have us in Slack, unbridled access to us 24/7, it feels like. We have our weekly calls right here every Thursday, and we have a Facebook group, and we have all the training inside the members area. So it starts now. You've got the roadmap, you've got the tools, and you've got the team behind you, right? And I love this. Every great partnership begins with a single conversation. It's true. It's true. You got to start—you got to start with a conversation, and I hope I've given you what you need to have the pathway, right, the road to take, and you can reach out today.

[1:00:49] All right. It is 12 o'clock. I've taken up a full hour. Maybe I started a minute late. I did wait for folks to sign on, so real quick, any questions? I will stay and do Q&A, but for everybody else that has to run, go to lunch, take a meeting, et cetera, that is the—not criteria—curriculum. That's the planned curriculum for today, but I will stay and do Q&A. But everybody else, if you've got to run, I've said everything I plan to say.

[1:01:27] No questions? Wow, we must have been really thorough. Sherry, are you good? Is there anything you wanted to add? Or did I miss any questions along the way?

[1:01:36] Nope, I'm good. Anybody having an issue with the process—I mean, really feel free to ping me. I can schedule a meeting with you. I want everyone to be comfortable. And I'm not talking about the association process. I'm talking about the purchasing process and business versus individual, the portal, et cetera.

[1:01:58] Vanessa: Yeah, Sherry, I mean, you're just fantastic. I mean, above and beyond every single time anybody's had a question. The real tricky points that I have to say, and remind everybody, you have an agent account at Illusional.site where you can track your sales. When you make an Illusional membership, that has to be through a different email address. And when you are doing the two different things, either logging in to look at agent sales stuff or logging in to manage your BusinessSense account, remember the different emails, okay? You cannot see your sales as an agent if you're logged in as a BusinessSense member, and you can't see your BusinessSense dashboard if you're logged in as an agent.

[1:02:51] So please remember your different emails. That is, honestly, 90% of the questions that we get. And different passwords, right? Different passwords. Keep those straight. I wish it was more seamless, I do. And it's on our list, but we have other things that will make you more money that we're working on first, rather than being able to have a single account that does both things. So right now, keep your emails separate.

[1:03:21] Thomas asks, slides available when? So the replay—this will be rendered and published inside the members area within 24 hours. I will provide the support team with these slides and the agent association partnership procedure document with those slides. That will all be published together by this time tomorrow.

[1:03:42] All right, Sherry, thank you so much for hanging out with me. Always a pleasure. Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you all for your time. I'll see you in the Facebook group, see you in support. Have a great week. We'll talk to you later. Bye.

[1:03:57] Bye.