180. What We Learned About Creating Partnership Programs with Laura Sprinkle
Partnerships Based In Values
Many of us are familiar with affiliate partnership programs and how they can help market our businesses and grow our audiences.
And partner programs can be an appealing way to bring your offer to a wider range of people without having to engage in social media advertising or other marketing methods that aren’t in alignment with your values.
But advice about building an affiliate program can be disingenuous, making it sound overly easy or even exploitative.
Laura Sprinkle interviews Erica and India about the development of the Pause on the Play® Community, why they chose to have a partner program rather than focus on traditional marketing, how they designed a values-driven affiliate program, and what they’ve learned in the process.
Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to learn:
Why Erica and India developed Pause on the Play® as a podcast and a community
How their affiliate program built off of the organic sharing they already had in order to form partnerships based on values and equity
Common practices and misconceptions for affiliate programs that Erica and India wanted to disrupt
How the program reinforces reciprocal relationships of giving and receiving
Empowering Partnerships
Laura Sprinkle (she/her) is an affiliate partnerships strategist who specializes in working with digital course creators. Her strategies have helped everyone from seven-figure industry leaders to budding entrepreneurs garner more than $30 million in partner revenues. Laura’s unique approach to partnerships involves creating high-touch relationships, empowering clients like Amy Porterfield, Todd Herman, and Selena Soo to bring as much fun to the process as possible. Her expertise has been featured in Forbes and top-rated business podcasts.
Conversations That Impact Action
On the Pause on the Play® podcast, India says that one of the primary motivations for creating the Pause on the Play® Community was to bring business owners and brands together to reconsider their normals in their businesses and lives.
“And part of that is also supporting them in moving from implicit to explicit values and evolving the way that they show up for themselves and for others, so that they can grow their influence.”
Erica adds that creating a community was also intended to allow people to “openly, vulnerably, and transparently connect with one another [and] to be in conversation.”
Those conversations shape and impact the actions that members then take in support of their values and each other, how they show up, and how they take up space.
India says prior to creating the podcast and the Community, her private conversations with Erica made it clear that even for two people who share aspects of their identities, their normals and lived experiences are still different.
Those conversations provided opportunities for both India and Erica to share, learn, and explore, which evolved into the podcast, and then the Community.
“The Community, to me, just really provided an opportunity for all of us to do that together.”
Laura asks why India and Erica chose to collaborate on Pause on the Play® rather than pursue separate projects.
Erica says it made sense to pursue the podcast and the Community in partnership with India, not only because of their longstanding friendship, but because “we have always had a shared level of what we wanted to deliver to people and values and ethics and standards.”
With Erica’s experience in coaching, consulting, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and India’s experience in marketing, branding, and visibility, working together, “just fit together in a way that nothing was being left behind. And to do it separately almost felt like doing a disservice to it.”
India adds that working together also allows each of them to focus on their strengths and areas of excellence. And she says that having a partner makes it easier to share about the Community, because she can share about the amazing membership, and she can also praise Erica as a leader and co-founder more readily than she might do for herself, and vice versa for Erica.
“I can brag about all the amazing things that are Erica Courdae, and you’re able to do the same.”
Laura agrees that, “It's so much easier, in so many, instances to really promote and love on another person, rather than bragging on ourselves.”
Transparency and Imperfect Allyship®
Erica says that one of the best things she has witnessed in members of the Community is their level of transparency about themselves and their journeys, and their willingness to support each other.
“There’s so much value in that spirit of support and openness in sharing and a willingness to be transparent, about not only business, but even life things.”
India adds that it has also been wonderful to witness people who may tend towards shyness or introversion be open and willing to share within the Community, and how that has impacted their work and their lives.
Erica says that the way that the Community has embraced the value of Imperfect Allyship® has also been an amazing experience.
“I think that our community has just done such a stellar job of being in action imperfectly, and not waiting for this imaginary moment to do something…to not let fear be the reason why they don’t.”
And that cornerstone value has spread into the way members consider how, where, and with whom they spend their money, how they use their platform and privileges, and how they show up and take up space, and the language they use, etc.
It, “has just been this humbling experience to know that something we created has had such a far-reaching impact and has just integrated itself into so many things.”
India adds that embracing Imperfect Allyship® and imperfect action has also extended to the way members show up for, witness, and support each others’ imperfections.
“That’s been really beautiful to witness them supporting each other in that kind of way.”
Growing the Community
Erica says that the podcast is often the way new people are introduced to the Community and its values, whether people are listening or reading the articles that are written with accessibility in mind.
“For us, it’s really important for people to have access, and so that kind of has set the stage for people to know, oh, well, you’re already kind of showing your values.”
India says they’ve also received support and shares from members, and particularly members who have been guests on the podcast.
For growing membership, she says, “We’ve experimented with quite a bit of things, but what stayed consistent has been organic sharing and amplifying humans and ideas and concepts, and their willingness to share what they’re taking in from us and our brand as well.”
She says they have experimented in a very limited way with paid social media advertising, but it both didn’t get results, and was misaligned with the values of the business because of the way ads use demographic targeting.
It’s “completely misaligned with our business to go in and say that we want people who make this much money, at this age range, and what is that implying about these people that we honestly know nothing about?”
Laura adds that it’s interesting how when she and her clients stray a bit outside their values to try a marketing method, it often doesn’t actually work.
India agrees and says they tried social media ads because they wanted to increase the reach for a free event that was open to the public, “And for us, it was very clearly like, this is potentially where the people who may benefit most from this free event are…But even then, I think sometimes your gut tells you want you need to know…[So] let’s continue to put our energy in what really feels true to us, which is investing in the people.”
A Values-Aligned Partnership Program
Erica says that for her, one of the primary reasons she was interested in creating an affiliate program was because it was Laura’s training in particular. She trusted that Laura’s ethics and values were in alignment with the Community and Erica also trusted that within Laura’s training, she would be able to figure out how to build an affiliate program that felt good and supported the Community’s goals.
India says that she was interested in developing an affiliate program based on her experiences as an influencer and working with influencers, and practices she has witnessed in the field.
“I wanted to be disruptive. I wanted to change how people think about affiliate partnerships…If we’re gonna do one, this is our opportunity to do that.”
Knowing that they didn’t want to feed the racist algorithms of social media platforms with paid advertising, India says that developing affiliate partnerships was a way to invest in people.
“And it’s not just the other humans, but it’s also looking at the financial equity that is possible with that. So when we are investing in our partners who are happy to spread the word anyway about our programs, but we are also allowing them to financially gain from that, there’s the potential there to literally redistribute wealth.”
Erica says another aspect of influencer marketing they wanted to disrupt was the pervasive messaging about how affiliate marketing is easy money.
“I don’t care how simple you make it, partnerships require work. And there’s this lie that there’s no work involved, and you just sit back and let the money roll in…When you approach making money and partnerships by starting off with all you have to do is [fill in the blank], and you didn’t include values, you know you already fucked up.”
Laura adds that in a recent conversation she was part of where people were discussing their favorite clients being, “the ones who are willing to put in the work. And so if we advertise like it doesn't take any work, and then you expect clients to come in who are willing to put in the work, it just doesn't add up.”
India says that one of the things that drew her to Laura’s Rock Your Affiliate Program, was the way that Laura emphasizes that affiliate partnerships should be a win for everyone involved–the brand, the partner, and the end user, consumer, or client.
One of the ways Erica and India have designed the Community’s affiliate program to make it a win for everyone is to not have a minimum requirement for how often partners need to promote or mention the brand.
India says, “Acknowledging that our space does require some emotional labor and that there's beautiful things on the other side of that labor, also means acknowledging that…some of these topics also require a certain level of vulnerability in your visibility. And that's not necessarily for everyone to talk about all the time.”
Erica adds that they also leave their affiliate cart open all the time so that there is never a false sense of urgency, and they also don’t have templated language for partners to copy and paste.
“We found that we preferred for people to lead a little bit more with what their experience has been, how they have navigated the types of things that are happening in the space, the conversations, Imperfect Allyship®, but really having that humanity show up in your copy.”
Rather than providing copy, India says they provide content prompts for their partners, “So it’s not leaving them on their own to figure it out, but it’s also not putting any potential pressure of, this is how this email was written and now your email needs to look like this too.”
They also do not use bonuses with their partners. “Instead of doing things like that, we have just surprised them with a gift here or there when it feels aligned, when we know it’s somethat that they may enjoy or appreciate.”
Giving and Receiving
Erica says that relationship building has been one of the primary benefits of instituting an affiliate program.
“People are choosing to talk about something that they’ve found benefit in with other people that they think can benefit from it, and we can then thank them by them being able to receive their affiliate revenue…I think it’s opened up a completely different way of really thinking about and bringing new people in.”
India says that having a partner program works for her because she likes giving. “It’s something I’ve always been called to do, especially when it’s linking people together and getting the conversation going. Having a partner program, honestly, gives me a sustainable way to keep that giving going without having to individually do something every time.”
Erica adds that the partnership program makes giving and receiving reciprocal between them and their affiliates. “All of us at some point are giving, and at some point all of us are receiving.”
Laura notes that asking for and receiving help and support is a tricky spot for her and for a lot of others.
Erica agrees and says, “Having a partner program will try to push through every boundary that you think that you have around giving and receiving and asking and support…And it’s really up to you on where you let things expand and where you are honest with yourself in acknowledging that this is pushing up [against] a boundary that I’m holding because this is in alignment with my values, [so] how else can I shift? Which is still pushing you somewhere because it’s making you think outside the box.”
Taking the Program Forward
Erica says that going forward with their program, they would love to get back to live and in-person events that their partners could frame their sharing around. She’d like to be able to do another Dropping the Veil event, and India says she would love to do DC museum tours with partners and members who are in the area.
India says as she has been reflecting on where there are barriers to receiving in her life and work, and they are also considering shifting their partner program from invitation-only to allowing people to apply to be partners.
Erica says they don’t want to have an open call for affiliates for the sake of getting numbers because relationship building and being values-aligned is so important for them. But she also acknowledges that, “If we are putting barriers on what we can receive because we are deciding that your values are not aligned when we haven’t truly evaluated that from an open enough space, that’s not okay.”
She says for someone who is committed to Imperfect Allyship® and is willing to show up as a work in progress, that is values-aligned to allow them to be a part of the program.
“In order to open that up to more people that fall into that space, we have to allow those that maybe we don’t currently know as well to be able to apply. And then we can decide if this feels like a good decision or not.”
India says they also have to consider whether having a barrier to entry to be a partner is also a barrier for the Community itself to be available to more people.
“It’s not just the impact on the partner themselves, or even us, but also the work that is being done in the space is impacting the world and creating more access, evolving culture to a place that I think we can all be happier with.”
Practices for Checking In
Laura asks Erica and India if they have specific practices that help each of them check in with themselves about what is a boundary based in values and what is a boundary based in holding themselves back.
Erica says that she and India both use Human Design as a means of checking in and getting to the root of those kinds of questions. Erica also relies on a variety of practices, including meditation, tarot, and paying attention to her energy and somatics.
India says that she’ll often have Erica ask her yes or no questions and allow herself to respond “with a bodily answer inside of me before my mouth does.”
Erica adds that even just taking a moment to pause and recenter, which she acknowledges is a privilege, is a powerful way of clearing the noise so you can evaluate the situation you’re in. “You have this moment of being able to evaluate what’s actually happening here versus what I’m told.”
Four Wins
Erica and India flip the final question back to Laura, to share an action she’d like the audience to take.
Laura returns to the idea she teaches that partner programs should be a win for everyone and elaborates that the first win is the business owner, the second win is the partner, the third win is the new client or customer, and the fourth win is the world.
“And that ripple effect that we can only create by getting these important offers out into the world and getting the right people in them to do the hard work of dismantling systems of oppression and creating the world that we wish to see.”
Ready to Dive Deeper?
We often discuss integrating our personal values into our businesses. We’ve been conditioned to show up to work as our “professional” self and leave our personal beliefs behind. But the truth is, values inform every area of our life, so why try to compartmentalize?
Each month in Pause on the Play® The Community we explore one specific way to make your values more explicit. Our curated connections and learning experiences provide a space where you can ask questions, challenge assumptions, and process current events in real time.
Members get access to monthly curations, workshops, live Q&As, community discussion, and our full library of evergreen resources and replays.
Learn more at pauseontheplay.com/community