Choosing the Right Business Partner: Protect Your Growth and Avoid Costly Mistakes

Welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast. I'm Kelly Resendez.

I'm Mandy McAllister.

And we are joining you solo today. You got this, powerful duo here to share some inspiration and tips with you on really scaling your business. And what we wanna dig into today is really partnerships and how you can leverage partnerships Mandy also probably face some incredible challenges if you choose the wrong ones. So, Mandy, I'm gonna let you start because you've got some stories, girl. Like, tell me a little bit about what you've learned about partnering with the right people.

Right. You you either win or you learn. Right? And I I've learned. I've done I I feel like though I a lot of the reason I've gone further faster is because of partnership. The opportunity to work on things with people who are better at stuff than me in a lane that I'm not great at, that I like and trust and really believe in their abilities, like that is, you know, first and foremost, a reason that I've gone further faster. So I don't want to start out by hating, partnerships because there is so much upside. That being said, I I have had experiences where, you know, people have painted themselves as experts. Because I think in the Milo world of real estate, Kelly, this might come as a surprise to Your or people listening, that there's a lot of people who call themselves experts that might not have done the thing, you know? And, and that is a really kind of tenuous spot to be in. So when you are presented with an expert, how, how do you really, you know, underwrite that person, the good, the bad, and the Kelly? Talking to more people than just they give you as, resources to to figure out things that they've done. Try to figure out, you know, the ask those people for referrals. You you've heard these things before, but I've also, I think one big thing that I wanna point out is I, I was in a position, call it Life years ago or so, where someone who was a quote unquote much bigger real estate investor than me asked me to go in on a 150 unit apartment complex in the suburbs of Chicago. Punchline, we actually lost that to A Rod. A Alex Rod, were you guys the baseball player, was the one who won that out, but that's, an aside. In order to do that, I realized, wait, I need to do something smaller with you. So I was going to be the lender on a property. I wired the funds, and six weeks go by, eight weeks go by. That bigger, much smarter than me real estate investor in quotes had cashed that $110,000 check and never bought the properties that we were supposed to buy. So things that I learned in that partnership were, you know, you gotta do a background search. If I would have done a simple Google search on this guy, I would have realized that he was a creep. Right? So, you know, you I I think that especially as women, we, we look to people who are doing bigger things than us as experts, and we think that they have all of the answers Mandy we just kind of, you know, give them the ability to steer the ship when you're the one that needs to remain responsible. And it should not be something that's, looked down upon to be asking questions in a partnership to, you know, move something forward. So background searches, ask harder questions, do your own due diligence before getting into a partnership, and figure out if you actually need a partner. Because I see a lot of women in GoBundance that take on partners just because they are scared to do a thing. You know? That is a very expensive way, to grow into something is to to give away 50% of growth. Kelly, tell me about some of your learning experiences in partnership.

Oh, I'd like you. I definitely have had my fair share of partnerships that didn't go the right direction. And when I look back on what I could have done differently, you know, I used to make decisions very quickly and on my own, and I only trusted my own intuition, which I think is powerful. Right? It is Power, like, that feeling that we get of trust or respect. Maybe we even know them from being in business, but what I've really changed that to is I use, you know, a triangle effect to make decisions now. So not only do I leverage my own feeling Mandy intuition that gut of what I should do, I also am gonna dig into the data Mandy the research. You know, a pro form a is only as good as the paper that it's written on, unless you really challenge and go do your due diligence on the numbers yourself. And then the third, leg of that triangle is really seeking advisement from other experts. So you're my underwriting queen. You're the person that I would come to and really just share that pro Your a, share what I'm looking at, and have you kinda test it too. And I didn't do background checks before. That's something that, you know, I think anybody that's looking to get into a partnership personally or professionally should be doing. You never know what's in somebody's, you know, rear view mirror, and it's important to know because oftentimes people don't change their spots. Other things that I've really looked at, and and you hit this on the head, is asking myself, do I really need a partner Mandy what is the reason why? And being a partner in so many businesses now today, when I look at it, there are definitely superpowers that we all bring to the table, but you need to understand them clearly and see who's doing what. Because if you've got two visionaries, but you don't have an operator Your the right person that you're gonna bring in to do that, or you're both visionaries and neither one of you like dealing with finances, I mean, that can cause a challenge. It doesn't mean that you can't resource that out, but you need to know the areas of expertise that you both bring to the table and and really be able to know that it's got all of the pieces to the puzzle that are necessary to either invest wisely or to partner wisely in a in a growing and scaling business.

I I feel like us getting an assignment of all duties on the table is so incredibly important. When I had a a deal that I was a a partner in was going south, it's it was largely going south because there were so many things that the other thought they were supposed to be handling. So I call this the index card game. Right? So we sat down Mandy we wrote on an index card every item that needed to happen to run that business. Right? It could be interfacing with guests. It could be making sure rooms are cleans. It could be ordering supplies. Whatever no matter how minute that detail was, we laid it out, and we said, is this something you handle? Is this something I Mandy? Or is this something that we're hiring someone to handle? And we just we need to make sure that everything has a bucket. And lots of times Women I've recommended this as an idea in partnerships, that that is an easy way. If you feel like you're the partner that is doing all the things, if you were the kid in in the the group assignments that you ended up writing the whole paper yourself because you were gonna get the a, right, you will make it clear to your partners that you were the one doing all of those things in that index card game that I was talking about.

So powerful. And when you think about it, Life, we need to know who we wanna be in a business. We, you know, that that's so important. Life, who do I wanna be Mandy what do I wanna do? And then how do we report on it? So that's another area of focus that I think a lot of people don't know how to inspect what their partner's doing. So I'm gonna give you a perfect example. I have some real estate investors that I've known since 1998. They ran a extremely profitable business that was amazing for twenty years. Twenty before one of the partners, whether it's mental illness, something, you know, got a hold of him. He went sideways, and there was no inspection. And so the partner that took for granted that all of the t's were being crossed and the i's were being crossed has now led to one of the largest FBI investigations in the state of California for fraud. And the partner that didn't do anything wrong is sucked into the bankruptcy, is sucked into the whole situation simply because he didn't inspect. Like, what we expect, we have to inspect, Even with partnerships that are long standing. So, you know, many of us get into partnerships with people that we have close personal relationships with, not only business. And so this level of trust that we might have, because I've known this person for thirty years, doesn't mean life circumstances don't suddenly change. Somebody's going through a divorce. Somebody's going through a financial challenge on their own. They might start making decisions that they wouldn't have made twenty years ago. And so we wanna make sure when we're running a business, when we're managing a portfolio of investments, whatever it might be, that we never get away from still looking at the data. The data doesn't Life. And the great thing is AI can be your copilot.

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You know, most of us don't have the resources to hire a chief of staff. Right? Well, when you think about Life we're running a business together, if we had a chief of staff that was independent of what you're doing and what I'm doing Mandy is inspecting and looking at the data and doing it, well, now I can have a chief of staff that's AI driven. You know, there's so many opportunities where you can catch these partnerships that are starting to turn a little sideways.

Yeah. I always say that whenever you have a problem, the easiest way to solve it is to put truth to the problem. There's nothing more truthful than numbers. I think that really having an eye on the numbers Mandy that you hit it on the head, Kell, that that trust is everything in partnership. That guy, like, that that got roped into that, he trusted that partner, and now he is convicted of fraud, you know, and he did not nothing of the sort. So you need to understand who you are hitching your what star you are hitching your wagon to. And I honestly, in my heart of hearts, I know that I'm a sweet little Midwestern farmer's daughter, but in my heart of hearts, I don't think Ponzi schemes start out thinking they're gonna be a Ponzi scheme. I think they get in over their schemes. Even that dude who's a total creep that stole a $110 Your me that has done it to a number of people, you know, like, I don't think he did it on purpose to start. I think he just built a lifestyle that was way too far past him, and that was the only way he saw to keep up with it. But I I wanna point out one more thing that as I grow in this world of entrepreneurship Mandy that it's just trusting your own judgment. The the whole goal of the reps that you're doing are to figure out how to trust your own judgment. The people I work with in in multifamily acquisition is that's why we underwrite so many damn deals so that you know what Your looking at Mandy then you trust. It's like the you know, I always say that when you finally find the deal that works, like, you you're gonna be like the dog who caught the car. Yeah. So You know? You're not gonna know what to do if you caught the car. But if you trust your judgment that you got there, then you're gonna be able to, know what to do and be willing to move forward. And my spidey senses, you know, this is something that's new to me, Kel. Like, usually, if a a big name came to me and said, hey. I need your help. Like, oh, you're some big name. You're some big deal. And then they say something that my spidey senses get, you know, turn turn askew by, like, wow. The thing you said I know is it's not accurate. That is not the rule as I know it to be true. That is a reason for you to listen and to not move forward. Yeah.

So let's switch gears just a little bit. We talked about partnerships and how important it is to run a background check. Really ask yourself the question, do I need a partner? Why do I need a partner? Ensure that you have alignment on who's doing what. Let's talk a little bit about, like, affiliate networking opportunities as well because I think a lot of businesses that are looking to scale have missed the boat on it. And I know at GoBundance Women and in Minerva, my women's femtech company, we leverage these relationships, these other communities of people to go further, faster together. So what's your experience been on that?

You know, it's another place you gotta inspect what you expect. You know, if if I'm making recommend this is a thing that I do. This is a toxic Mandy trait. I get real excited about stuff, Kelly. And when I have a good experience with something, I'm like, oh, you gotta meet you. And I I don't necessarily have a track record to be making that recommendation. If you have some sort of an affiliate, if you're getting an affiliate referral from from someone, you wanna make sure that they have some sort of, you know, longer standing relationship. How many deals? If I'm recommending a, a syndicator to you, have I done deals with them? Have I have I placed how long have I seen them in process? Have I looked at their underwriting to understand if their assumptions are something that makes sense? If we are recommending a website provider, how many websites have we created with them? I I want you to dig, has that been a relationship? And it's on me as the person who's voicing that to go then follow-up with the people who take my recommendation and see, is that guy calling you back? How was he performing? And, it's on my integrity to not move forward with that relationship if it's not working. What's your two cents on that? Yeah. Well, number one number one, I truly believe

that when we leverage the power of these external groups or partnerships, that you can definitely be able to move the needle farther and reduce Your customer acquisition cost. Right? They already have a relationship with them, and it's something that they're gonna be able to, you know, support your business. But things that I've learned, number one, have clear guidance on how to cross refer one another. So that's number one, have clear guidance on how you're going to monetize whatever transaction there is Life there's a monetary aspect. And then number three, have a long term nurture plan. Because what I see, people will talk about, you know, supporting one another, but then there's no follow-up steps. They don't book webinars in one another's communities. They aren't doing social media posts. They're not really, you know, engaging long term. And so you've just taken all that time to nurture this relationship, and then it doesn't go anywhere. And so you wanna make sure that you're really solid in what you give them. You know, I've been involved in certain deals where they're great. They give me what I should post on social media. We give our affiliate partners in Minerva exactly what they should be sending to their email list Your if we're gonna cohost a webinar or anything like that, and it's calendared. Right? Like, hey. We're gonna do this once a month, so it's calendared. Like, for example, Women's Council of Realtors is a perfect example. It's a huge network of real estate agents across the nation. We supply them with video and content, and it's calendered so that we don't we don't have to wait for them to come to us. They don't want a partner that they're having to follow-up with. They want a partner that's proactive in giving resources to their community. So that's another big thing that I've learned about it.

You gotta make it easy to do business with you. And I I think so much about you know, it's all what we learned in kindergarten. Right? Like, you you be kind Mandy you do the things you say you're gonna do. Right? And one way to make sure you're doing the things you say you're gonna do is to get it on the damn McAllister. Because I I that's kinda how I live my life. If it doesn't make my calendar, it ain't gonna happen. You know, that's why the workout is on the calendar. That's a date with myself that I do not miss.

Yes. Absolutely. So I think the last thing that we are gonna talk about today is really the value of peer mentorship. You know, we talk to women that are running businesses. We actually have had some conversations recently with women who really leverage mentorship, somebody that's done what they want to do more. But we also know that as women, we struggle with asking for help. So how have you found mentors and engaged with them so that you can get the most out of those relationships?

You know, I one thing, you and I both have played in boys' clubs our whole lives, and now we get to be these leaders of a a women's organization. I I cannot, I believe I discounted the value of Life you see it, you can be it. Like, yeah, sure. That guy sold a 9 figure business. The lady we just got off the phone with, the woman just sold a 9 figure business. Right? I I think that if someone who looks like you it's just a terrible thing about the human psyche. You know? Like, if if someone who looks like you did that thing, it seems more approachable. So are you in a room that is you know, you can fully identify with? I I think I think it's so important in in my coming up in in multifamily and all the other things that I wanted to do. You know, I've hired mentors before. I definitely think that there's a a way that, you know, I I chose to pay to go further faster to, to lock arms with people. You can absolutely do that in a way that is not paid. It's gonna take a hell of a lot longer in, in many cases. But I, if you are going about something Mandy I've been asked to mentor a number of people in the past, if they show up and they're like, oh, we you know, I just wanna help. I just want let me know what to do. Well, you have given me another job. I had this one lady come up to me and say, I am excellent at website optimization. I am a pro at, you know, looking at social media to make sure that it converts to sales. That is amazing. You can help me in a way that really is very clear to me, and now I want to help you buy a quad flex Mandy house hack. You know? So if you are looking for mentorship and you're a younger person especially, what skills do you have that you can directly lend to that person that you want to mentor you so that they you haven't given them another job to try to figure out how you can help? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. Well, number one, I'm gonna be honest with you. I really struggled

in asking for help in the early parts of my career. Like, I was, I was raised to be very independent to you know, like, I had to have it all together Mandy until I really saw the value. And some of my first mentors, whether they didn't even know they were mentoring me. Right? They were the Zig Ziglar events, the Brian Buffini events, the Tony Robbins events, etcetera. And so mentors can come in different forms, but I've also realized that I need to be very intentional about the the the mentors that I have in my life. So people like Jeff Hoffman, cofounder of Priceline, is an adviser of mine. And so I you know, we regularly meet. He gives me feedback on certain things, but I go into those meetings with the same thoughtfulness that I would a board meeting. Because these are people, if they've gone someplace that you haven't been before, the last thing that you wanna do is show up unprepared. You wanna show up with a list of questions and things that you wanna talk about so that you can make the most out of your time Mandy not be in a situation where you're just catching up complaining. Like, you really wanna go a little bit deeper, faster with them because that's where it's gonna make the biggest difference in the growth of what your company is. So, you know, I think today, we've covered a lot of things, like power partnerships, the things that we could watch out for, you know, some of the things that you've really shared today that I think everyone needs to to hear is that you should do background checks. You should you should do more due diligence than what you probably are doing and underwrite these partnerships the same way that you would a deal going into on your own.

The couple things that I that you said that I wrote down and underlined, this trust. And but, like, that is the cornerstone of all partnerships. That's that is the cornerstone of business partnerships, of romantic partnerships, of all of the things. So, you know, really listen to your spidey senses. And I love the idea of going into a meeting with a mentor or an advisor with an agenda so that you are really showing, a, that I am on top of myself, but, b, we are accomplishing all of those things that need to happen to move forward.

Yeah. Well, thank you all for joining us on this Power Up Your Life podcast brought to you by GoBundance Women. If you're interested in powering up your business, we have all sorts of resources for you at power up your life now dot com. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode.

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