With Mark Porteous, a Joint Venture Strategist, Affiliate Concierge, and co-founder of the Soul Affiliate Alliance and the Joint Venture Directory, is known as “The Soul Connector.” Mark is a #1 Best-Selling author of three books – Soulful Leadership; A Spiritual Path to Health, Wealth and Love, Inspired Living; Super Powers for Health, Love, and Business, and Soulful Leadership; Tools for a New Way of Being.

Mark connects people to who they are at a soul level, why they are here, and the individuals who can help them THRIVE in their Divine Purpose. Transformational Leaders and Inspired Influencers seek Mark’s expertise to expand their reach by developing soulful collaborations and alliances, leveraging their knowledge to make a greater impact in the world while enjoying more freedom, ease, and flow in their own lives.

Join us for this insightful conversation where Mark shares insights on due diligence for partnerships and aligning with the right people. Discover the importance of aligning business partnerships with personal mission and intuition, as Mark unveils the secrets to building long-term partnerships for sustainable business growth. Mark’s profound understanding of the soulful aspects of business relationships will undoubtedly inspire and guide you on your journey to creating meaningful, impactful connections in both your professional and personal life.

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Takeaways & quotes you don’t want to miss from this episode:

• How to build authentic relationships in business.
• The importance of aligning intentions and addressing underlying issues for successful joint ventures.
• Aligning business partnerships with personal mission and intuition.
• Why is discernment important in decision-making?
• How can you be a great business partner?

“There are so many opportunities all around us to partner… it’s not about the quantity of partners that you have, it is all about quality. It’s much better to have a few that are really aligned.”

-Mark Porteous

Check out these highlights:

• 10:40 What is the biggest challenge that Mark has encountered around legal stuff?
• 12:08 How do we shift our mindset around what is possible in the joint venture world if we’ve already been burned?
• 23:41 The step-by-step system in doing the Joint Venture.
• 32:08 DISCERNment process stands for…
• 46:13 Mark shares his vision for humanity.

How to get in touch with Mark on Social Media:

You can also contact Mark by visiting his website here, at Joint Venture Directory or at Soul Affiliate Alliance

Special gift to the listeners: Get access to Soulful Leadership Roadmap here.

Imperfect Show Notes

We are happy to offer these imperfect show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who prefer reading over listening. While we would love to offer more polished show notes, we are currently offering an automated transcription (which likely includes errors, but hopefully will still deliver great value), below:

GGGB Intro  00:00

Here’s what you get on today’s episode of Guts, Grit and Great Business®…

Mark Porteous  00:04

We build relationships by being the kind of person that we want to be in relationship with, we want to be the kind of partner that we want to partner with. We want to communicate well, we want to look for hidden emails and be able to respond to those things, other little stuff and we want to be real. That’s the starting point of it is we want to be authentic and whoever your authentic self is, can attract other people who are just like you, whatever that might be. So part of being a great partner is doing the work yourself to know who you are, and who you serve, and how you serve them and having really clear boundaries on here’s what I can offer. And here’s what I would like to have in return so people know how to show up and support you.

GGGB Intro  00:48

The adventure of entrepreneurship and building a life and business you love, preferably at the same time is not for the faint of heart. That’s why Heather Pearce Campbell is bringing you a dose of guts, grit and great business stories that will inspire and motivate you to create what you want in your business and life. Welcome to the Guts, Grit and Great Business® podcast where endurance is required. Now, here’s your host, The Legal Website Warrior®, Heather Pearce Campbell.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:17

Alrighty, welcome. I am Heather Pearce Campbell, The Legal Website Warrior®. I’m an attorney and legal coach, serving online information entrepreneurs throughout the US and the world. Welcome to another episode of Guts, Grit and Great Business®. I am super excited to have my friend Mark Porteous here with us today. Welcome, Mark.

Mark Porteous  01:44

Hello, Heather. I’m so excited to be here with you.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:47

Oh, we’re gonna have so much fun. Thank you. Yes, we were just saying we get to end there. I get to end my Friday with this. I don’t know about you. But I will be ending my work day with this conversation. And I was also teasing Mark a little bit because Mark and I met this would have been 2017. The year that my daughter was born in the winter like February-March whenever Jay Forset held his geology event in Calgary. And I was like at nine months pregnant and flew up in the middle of a major snowstorm in Calgary we ended up having to rent a big pickup truck to be able to drive around. We were supposed to have like some regular little car. Anyways, that was when we met. And so it’s been a hot minute. And then we were both laughing about how easy it is to have emails get lost in cyberspace. Because I was like, okay, Mark, I was getting pretty close to having to beg to get you to come on the show. Like, I never saw any emails. So you know, little glimpse into the back end of life sometimes. But it’s okay, I’m so excited to have you here. The time obviously, is perfect. And I’m just so excited for people to get to know you a little bit here about your work. I immediately became a fan of you. And I can’t even really remember. Were you doing the same stuff in 2017? You’ve probably…

Mark Porteous  03:17

When we met, it was again at a joint venture event. And then yeah, it’s partnering on that. And so yeah, I’ve been doing really joint venture stuff since 2013. 10 years.

Heather Pearce Campbell  03:26

Okay, 10 years. Yeah. And you’ve helped other people do joint venture stuff, and you’ve showed up and supported their events. And so, yes, that is the context in which we met. For those of you that don’t know Mark, Mark Porteous is known as the soul connector and I love that title so much. He is a Joint Venture Strategist, Affiliate Concierge and co-founder of the Soul Affiliate Alliance, and the Joint Venture Directory. He is a #1 Best-Selling author of three books – Soulful Leadership; A Spiritual Path to Health, Wealth and Love, Inspired Living; Super Powers for Health, Love, and Business, and Soulful Leadership; Tools for a New Way of Being. Sorry if I switch those together. That was a lot of words for books, but amazing.

Mark Porteous  04:17

Free books with a lot of words each, yes. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  04:19

But I love it! All good words. I’m laughing. My friend sent me there is a comedian and I think I’m totally going to screw up his last name. I think it’s like Nate Brigante. Or he has an interesting last name. He has the funniest skit about books. He’s like, books, there’s just so many words. Well, words just so much. Anyways, I’m laughing like yeah, that feels that way. Sometimes we just need a break from all the words but these are all good words. I did not know you’d written three books. So this is news to me and I love being surprised. Mark also connects people to who they are at a soul level, why they are here, and the individuals who can help them THRIVE in their Divine Purpose. Transformational Leaders and Inspired Influencers seek Mark’s expertise to expand their reach by developing soulful collaborations and alliances, leveraging their knowledge to make a greater impact in the world while enjoying more freedom, ease, and flow in their own lives. Mark, I am so happy to have you here.

Mark Porteous  05:24

Heather, I love to hear you say that I’m like, Oh my gosh, I love that. I love that I get to do that.

Heather Pearce Campbell  05:36

So nice. Just to hear you read a lot of good words in that bio. I’m just gonna say some of my favorite words in there, right?

Mark Porteous  05:44

Since soul a lot. And that when you said earlier, like, are we doing the same thing. So when we met, it was around Joint Ventures, and we’ll talk about that piece. But the soul piece is always been a core part of me. But it hasn’t been a part of my branding until after we met in 2018. My mentor and teacher Alan Davidson, who was an evolutionary mystic meditation teacher, to be a world class Joint Venture Launch Strategist and Manager. He was one of Jeff Walker’s very first students in his very first program. And he kind of dubbed me the soul connector at a Margaret Lynch event that he was helping to manage. And he got this download and called me and said, Mark, you’re the soul connector, you connect people to who they are at a soul level, you connect them to why they’re here, their sole purpose, and you connect them to their soul tribe. And so that branding is really what has developed in using joint ventures, because that, to me, is kind of the distinction. One, it’s not just about business, it’s about living our lives and alignment and creating alignment and all the things but what I found was that a lot of times when we’re creating partnerships, if you don’t have the connected to who you are first, it can create a bit of a wobble when you try to create partnerships. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  06:58

Oh, it’s so good. What you just said, I think that like one of my first questions I wanted to ask is like, how does the world of JVs get a bad name? Right? Because you’re doing it? Yes. How does it like? Because I think, you know, from the standpoint of inviting people into a new conversation around joint ventures, I think there are folks out there who’ve tried it, who have a bad taste in their mouth who thought like, No, I don’t really think like I talked to somebody the other day, whose work I love, whose work really needs to be out into the world. And you know what he said? He said, Yeah, I don’t think that I can do collaborations, like I just don’t think it’s for me. And it was because he had so many weird experiences of people trying to control his work, control the messaging around the work, like in the context of that collaboration. So I think there’s a lot of people who think like, oh, well, that concept is nice, but it’s not really for me, what have you seen in the JV world? And clearly, I’m sure it’s like, one of the reasons you do it differently. 

Mark Porteous  08:14

It is. And what you brought up is, I think, a more beautiful and unique example of somebody just wanting to keep their content pure and keeping ownership of it. And even publishing, like a lot of people think that they want to publish through a big publisher, and then they realize that then they have no control over their content, say, Oh, maybe I should self publish and all the different things. But I think, for me, one of the especially coming from a spiritual place and coming from a mission driven, that most of the people that I work with the biggest challenge that they have is that it seems very transactional. And it seems very, yeah, not connected. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  08:51

Like tit for tat you do this, I’ll do this, and it needs to be the same or that needs to have equal value or whatever. I got very tired of those conversations in the first year of attempting jayvees.

Mark Porteous  09:05

Hmm, yeah, absolutely. And it’s fine to be able to measure things and everything else. But that’s like the end of the conversation, not the beginning of the conversation.

Heather Pearce Campbell  09:14

I love that. End of the conversation, not the beginning. 

Mark Porteous  09:18

Yeah, there’s a lot that was what I really found the most, was that the biggest challenge and that I was having is that there’s a lot of noise out there, just like in any kind of marketing. And just like you said, you get a bad experience. Some people don’t want to market. One of the big challenges I heard the other day was somebody who they don’t want to be a part of a giveaway, because they don’t want to mail to their list and I’m like you’re only giving them stuff that is all that you’re a giveaway. It’s your giveaway, you get to pick out all the people that are in it and she was worried about the reciprocation of all the other pieces, but I shared a story with me about how when I was a kid in high school, that there’s this girl that I liked, and rather than asking her out, I just kept trying to be like the best guy and after a few months, she started dating this other guy. And I was like, what happened? I didn’t even know his name until a week ago. And she goes, he asked me out you never did, I didn’t think you’d liked me, I thought we were just friends. And this is something that happens with marketing where people are like afraid to market at all. And so they keep the list. But so there’s people that have had bad experiences with marketing. And so they don’t want to market there are people that have had bad experiences with selling, so they don’t want to sell. And so these kind of had bad words and joint ventures, people have had that experience in either where people haven’t delivered or they just haven’t had the experience. And a lot of it actually comes to our conversation, because you’d asked me in advance, what is the biggest challenge that I’ve had around legal stuff, and it is around agreements, like having a clear intention. And in my process that I use with clients, it’s making sure that everybody has aligned intent, that’s one of the pieces of the process. Because is it you can have different intentions, as long as they’re aligned, one person might want to sell stuff, one might want to add list, one might just want to add value. And you can all work together, as long as you all know what each other’s intent is, and they’re all aligned.

Heather Pearce Campbell  11:04

I mean, there’s so much in there. First of all, you highlighted for us, really the complexity of joint ventures from the standpoint that so much is showing up to the table that’s kind of in the background, right? You may not know somebody had really bad experience in sales, so they’re afraid of sales, or you’re bringing all of this weird energy around marketing that you haven’t addressed yourself, or you have trust issues, because of who knows your family or previous business experiences, right? All of this stuff is at the table in the context of…

Mark Porteous  11:39

Every partnership that you’ve had, like, you might have even tried to host an event together, and the other person didn’t pull their end of the wait, you know, and then you’re like, I’m never gonna host another event with another person again.

Heather Pearce Campbell  11:51

Right? And I know people listen to your brain like, ouch, like I’ve had that happen, or I tried that, like they can relate to it. So how do we shift our mindset around? What is possible in the joint venture world if we’ve already been burned?

Mark Porteous  12:06

That’s really good question. And I guess the way you do anything, is the way you do everything with their answers a much bigger question around relationships. And so how do we build relationships, and we build relationships by being the kind of person that we want to be in relationship with. So we want to be the kind of partner that we want to partner with, we want to communicate well, we want to look for hidden emails and be able to respond to those things or other little stuff. And we want to be real, that’s the starting point of it is we want to be authentic, and whoever your authentic self is, can attract other people who are just like you, whatever that might be. So part of being a great partner is doing the work yourself to know who you are, and who you serve, and how you serve them. And having really clear boundaries on here’s what I can offer. And here’s what I would like to have in return. So people know how to show up and support you.

Heather Pearce Campbell  13:02

So good. And I was hoping you would say that, like you have to do the work on yourself first and show up in the right way, with the right energy to create the right kind of outcome. Right. And it’s so interesting, because even in and I’ve participated in just some awesome communities, I remember one really poignant example, one time of this woman who was attempting to create some joint venture scenarios, and when I say joint venture, like they were minor ones, meaning like, you know, would you share my event with your list, not like a big, you know, co-produced event kind of a thing, like smaller ones, right. And then she also had a referral program. And it was so interesting, because we attended a mastermind together. And so we all felt like we knew quite a bit about the folks who were in this group. And, of course, we all wanted to support each other. And she ended up really struggling repeatedly with, and then she would, you know, come to the table and shared in the context of the group of like, I like what am I doing wrong, because these are not going well for me. Right. But once people began sharing more openly, what she ended up realizing is she had all of these expectations that she didn’t voice that she did not clarify before the thing happened. And so she would end up being so offended, but nobody knew she had this expectation around a certain thing, right? And it really was about her showing up differently, communicating more clearly making the ask in the way that she needed to make it versus assuming people knew what she wanted. Right? So I remember just thinking like, oh, this will be a really important lesson for her and could really help. Did you just hear my dog? Yeah, keepin it real folks. I know. We’ll see, oh my gosh, I love dogs. The show totally well, I joke because we’re always keeping it real over here. It gets great, great business where our personal lives and our business lives are not distinct, right? This all blends together, which is why the topics we cover on this show our personal growth, business marketing. So like, we cover the nuts and bolts of business and what it takes to develop as a human. Right. So anyways, this conversation, go ahead…

Mark Porteous  13:04

I want to share something really quick. The dog started just right time, because, as you’re sharing that story, I was thinking about how her ask, and being really clear on that, because a lot of times people are vague on their request, figuring out Oh, hey, can you promote me, and it’s like, Sure. And then they’re like, Oh, you didn’t do all the rest of the things that I was expecting you to do. And it’s because they’re afraid that if they’re too clear on it, then there will be something in it that they don’t want, which is really when that’s when you can address it. That’s the idea of having these clear agreements. But the idea of having an ask, and I talked about this with my clients a lot is you really have to work your ass muscles all the time, you have to define your ask muscles, you have to really, and get used to using them. Because I think a lot of people are afraid that asking something means that then they owe somebody else something. But really, you’re asking for people that are aligned with you to help share what you’re passionate about. And they’re doing it because they’re passionate. You want me on the show, because we’re aligned and passionate, not because either of us are trying to do each other a favor asking for anything in return. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  16:31

Yes. Well, and yes, I mean, like double exclamation points to what you just said that, when these are done, right, it’s a win for both, right? Like somebody has maybe served their own audience in a new way, because they brought in this other person, or they’ve expanded their clients awareness in a way that will help them do more deep or meaningful work themselves. You know, whatever it is, there’s so many bigger, more creative, more holistic ways to look at how we create these joint ventures that can be real win wins. And I think so often people are limited at the outset. And so they don’t make a genuine ask or they don’t make an ask that is, like you said, clear enough for people to really understand does this work for me.

Mark Porteous  17:22

And that’s kind of the next piece of it is once you have this clarity is a very big part. For me, it’s not just win, win, but win win win. And this is something that you do really well, just on this show, is the very first concern for you the very first filter is, is this person going to add value to my audience? It’s not about is it gonna add value to you, Heather? Or am I gonna have network or anything else? Does this bring value to my audience? So that’s the first one. And then it’s like, oh, and how is this going to help my guests, you know, is this going to be a value add for my guests where they get benefit from for me? Of course, these are the people I want to speak to. And then of course, you also have to get value out of it. If you’re doing this just for me and just for your audience, and not for you, you’re gonna get depleted and not going to be passionate about it, all the things, you need something out of it, you need a win win win for great JV partner.

Heather Pearce Campbell  18:12

Oh, it’s so good. And I think it’s really important to look at each of those aspects and be really honest, right with ourselves. Because I agree, one of the great joys I have out of this podcast is just the personal connection that I get to have with my guests. Right, full stop. Even if the benefits ended there. For me, I’m happy. The other stuff is just icing, right? But the reality is absolutely. When I launched the podcast, of course, I want it to be a mega win for listeners, folks that I’m already serving who are already in my community or connected to my community with amazing conversations that help them even just think differently around one part of their life or business. And I think in part, it’s because I think of how often my life has been changed by just getting one next right piece of information integrated in the right way in my life. I mean, it’s such a good example. The other day, I was taking a big trip and my sister was like, You should go get an infusion. She’s been doing infusions, we both have been in adrenal fatigue. And so we’re trying to like really nurture our physical health, you know, back up to levels that make us happy. She was like, You should go try this. And so I went to my naturopath and asked her and she was like, I don’t do them, but I’ll make a recommendation. And I got referred to this one doctor, who once I met with him, he spent an hour and a half with me went like through a substantial portion of my medical history. And I could just tell like, this is a person who knows what he’s doing. And he retired. He was retiring the next month. Alright, so I got this one meeting with him. I got the infusion but there was one super valuable piece that I got from him that I really think will change the course of my health. He said, from everything you’ve told me, I can tell that you still are not digesting and breaking down and fully absorbing protein, I can tell that. And so here’s what you need to do, right and add basically this one capsule of digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid back in the middle of my meals. And I thought I had worked through that piece historically, no, turns out, it’s still there. And so a massive takeaway like, the infusion aside was like this kind of fork in the road of like, now I’m doing this and even in a month since it’s dramatically changed the course of my healing. So this is what I mean by like, one piece of information at the right time, making a profound difference in our life, right. So all of this is to say, in this conversation, even if listeners get one takeaway, that they can go practice work on or whatever, I’m so happy. I’m so happy for them. They get to know you. I’m elated for you, we get to send people your right way, right. But it is like the podcast is a great example of that win win win scenario that you’ve described. I love it. And I think that people don’t go deep enough into that conversation at the outset of potential joint ventures to often like fully understand how this is going to go and then somebody gets let down or somebody doesn’t perform because somebody had the wrong expectations, right. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  21:36

All right, let’s pause for a moment and hear from today’s sponsor. Are you an entrepreneur who is on track to make a million or more in revenue this year in your business? If so, your business is likely facing a host of legal issues that are right for support. And if you are like so many of my clients at this level, you are likely tired of taking unnecessary risks and a DIY approach to legal support in your business. You’re ready to tackle the mess of legal documents, six legal gaps that you have. You want to take care of your IP, your clients, your business, and avoid unnecessary conflict and risk in the process. If this is you, and beyond just being an entrepreneur, you are a catalyst and are committed to your mission and your impact in the world. I invite you to get in touch. You could be a fit for my catalyst club, a small business legal support program that I designed for my high level clients. Just like you, you can find out more at legalwebsitewarrior.com. Just click on the Work with Me tab to learn more about the catalyst club and other ways that I support my clients, a fabulous group of world changing entrepreneurs, I might add, you’ve done the initial legwork in your business. And now you want to soar. And you know that you can only go as high and as far as your legal foundation lets you go. So get in touch today, hop over to legalwebsitewarrior.com, click on the Work with Me tab. And if you have any questions, get in touch through the Contact link on my site, I look forward to connecting it would be a joy to support you on your path.

Heather Pearce Campbell  23:19

I’d love to know so that we all can be looking like ooh, what is the piece that I’m going to be working on next? Do you have a framework or step-by-step system? How do you walk your clients and your people through this when you’re because there’s a lot to get to know right in like as far as how to do the joint venture scenarios the right way?

Mark Porteous  23:40

Yeah, absolutely. There’s a lot of different pieces that we would different parts of the process that we walk people through first finding out what stage of business they’re in. Now, a lot of people think that if they just get more visibility, if I just get on the right podcast, that’s what I need. And then if I get enough podcasts or, but they don’t have a call to action that they can serve people on the other end of it. And so, you know, they have a $3 program. And they’re just trying to get as many podcasts as alternative program. That’s not a long term solution. So you really want to have like your case studies, instead of first I talked about like kind of the three essential things that you have to have to be JV ready to start partnering with other people. The first thing you have to have is an offer, you’d have to have something that transforms somebody’s life in some way. And you don’t have to have a proven thing depending on where you are in your business. But you have to know what the offer is. And ideally, to have other people share it. You want to have a proof of concept. You want to have case studies of people that have had the transformation that you’d promise. And then if you’re in a financial situation with somebody, so people are promoting that, just want to know that you can sell that thing that might provide great service, but that you get in front of the audience and it doesn’t convert because you can’t communicate that value or for whatever other reason. So those are the two first things in the offer, you want to have the case studies and conversions. The second thing, you want to have the systems structures that are all the team in place to help deliver that. Because if you don’t have the team in place, you’re still doing all those things, you’re not really gonna be able to perform at the highest level. And there are ways that you can partner all the way through depending on where you are in your business. But ideally, these are the things that you want to develop. The third piece is what we call reciprocity, you want to have a way that you can give to your partner. And part of that is having some type of platform, like a podcast, or a YouTube channel or an email list where you can communicate with people, a large Facebook group, it’s something where you can position your audience in front of them. There are other ways if you can’t give visibility, you can give help to generate money, or you can give your services there’s other ways to give reciprocity, but you have to have a real clear what you can do for them. So that it’s not all about you. That’s kind of the starting point is having those those basic things, and then understanding what is your systems and all of that. And so again, it’s different for everybody. But that’s kind of the starting point. And then before people go into having an agreement, we want to go through what I call the discern process of making sure that somebody is really an aligned match before you go further. And so one of the things like I said, to me, it’s all about building relationships. And the way you do anything, is the way you do everything. And in the relationships, it’s the same thing, if you think about somebody, you’re out at a party, and this guy is you can tell he just wants to hook up. It’s like every girl in the room is gonna be repelled by him. And if that guy is just confident, and he’s not looking for anything else, he’s more intriguing. And it’s the same thing with a partner where you’re just trying to be like, Oh, here’s what I got to sell, can you promote me and people are like, ah, you know, and so yeah, so you really want to be doing your due diligence, before you hop into any kind of a relationship. And the decision process is just a thing that I used to make sure that everything is aligned. You’re, like I said, aligned intent, that the network’s all the different pieces. So that again, it’s not just about the outcome, but the relationship, that you’re really looking for long term relationships rather than transactional partners.

Heather Pearce Campbell  27:24

Yes, I love to focus on alignment, because I think we get that wrong a lot by just not focusing enough time and attention on that at the start. But also the focus on building long term relationships. I know that for me, one of my greatest joys is like like this getting to show up and connect with somebody like you who I’ve known now for, you know, how many years over six years, right? And those relationships are really meaningful. And I think it can be too easy for some people to really focus on like, you know, maximizing a transaction versus really, authentically going into building a long term relationship of genuine support. 

Mark Porteous  28:11

Absolutely. I think that is the biggest miss. And one of the things that causes grief. And again, it’s just about setting up that clear intention. And when everybody’s in I think I wrote this down earlier, that I think a lot of people have hidden agendas. And if you’re just very clear upfront, like this is what I’m looking for. And just like in relationships, if you have a hidden agenda, it’s gonna come out eventually, and it’s gonna ruin the relationship. And so why not just go into it? Fully transparent?

Heather Pearce Campbell  28:40

Yes, yes. Well, and I love that you have a process that is an acronym, but is the word discern, I will say before we went live like it’s such a good word discern and discernment like it because it really is about making the right best decisions for us, whether in life or in business, and it requires discernment. Do you want to walk us a little bit through that decision process? Or even just give us a couple highlights? Because I think the other thing that can happen, if somebody shows up is having these kinds of conversations and is thinking like, Oh, I really like this person. I want this to work out. But they’re like ignoring a red flag or two about actual alignment. And they have a hard time addressing it.

Mark Porteous  29:25

Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I will share the entire process. I’ll make sure that everybody can access that and they can look through it in detail. But the way you’re asking it’s actually a much bigger and more important questions. It’s not again, just about our joint venture partnerships, but about everything that we do in life. And discernment is the primary tool that makes everything in our life go well or have challenges. I really believe and there’s a process that I teach in human development that I I call the alignment process where you’re really aligning with who you are at soul level. And then with any choice that you’re making, simply saying this is in my highest and best good. And if it is that serves my husband’s mission, you feel that you know that. And that’s a yes. And if it’s not, then it’s a no, and having that boundary and only making choices that serve your mission, serve your highest good for everything that you do, if you’re not sure, make that statement and have a way of using your body’s intuition or whatever else it is, but having some form of discernment, and usually your gut, most people, you know, whatever your intuition is, trusting your intuition is basically the short answer whatever form that comes in. That’s the first thing is trust your intuition, you’re getting red flags, look into those red flags more deeply. With anything, like I said, with any decision that you have, and then the second piece is that to take action, so when you are using your discernment process, when you get those red flags, and then you do it anyway, like how many times you’ve said, Oh, my God, I knew I shouldn’t have done that, or I should have done that. Yeah, go ahead, go with the intuition. But the first part of the decision process due diligence, and that’s that part of that said before you start dating, you know, it’s a good idea to what do you call that when you start searching that people?

Heather Pearce Campbell  31:26

Right, doing like, just like a background search, almost like a review of who they are? How they show up online? Absolutely.

Mark Porteous  31:34

Yeah. Yeah. It’s funny. My wife does that very well. She goes belly in such as throughout Africa with those actual word for people who, like.

Heather Pearce Campbell  31:42

Is it like, it’s not like trolling? But it’s kind of like checking somebody out in the background. Right? Yes.

Mark Porteous  31:50

Exactly. Everybody else is securing their shows, right? Although we’re talking about but doing the due diligence to actually look people up and to see what other people are saying about them and everything else. Before you’re getting involved. In finding out one, do they really kind of serve what you need. So the first one D is due diligence. And then the I is intent alignment, like I was saying before, making sure that you’re really both clear on what you want to get out of that. The S is actually I’m just gonna pull it up.

Heather Pearce Campbell  32:25

Perfect.

Mark Porteous  32:26

Like I said, I want to make sure I don’t know the best way to make sure everybody has it. But we can give a link or whatever else, ebook where everybody will have the discernment process to check out.

Heather Pearce Campbell  32:37

Oh, I love that. Now, we can absolutely do that. So I will put a plug right now if you’re listening, and you’re like, I need to find that. We will put a link to that at the show notes page, which is legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Look for Mark’s episode, Mark Porteous, and we will have whatever link you want us to share, Mark. And I will of course mentioned this again at the end. But don’t forget about this, folks, because this will be an awesome tool for you to like, look at and walk through and ask yourself, Where are you maybe already doing some of this? Well, where do you need some help? Or to go deeper? Because I know that connecting with the right people it’s not so much of life is not what you know, it’s who you know, solutions are in the people. Like we don’t have to have all the information ourself. Our solutions are in other people, we just need to build really good networks and connections with the right people.

Mark Porteous  33:36

Yes, absolutely. And so I’m gonna read them off real quick of just what they are doing. Due diligence, Intent alignment, Strategic fit, that you want to make sure that obviously they’re a good fit, compatibility, which is different than the strategic fit. It’s that more the values and that it’s somebody that you want to hang out with and play with expertise assessment, can they really deliver? You know, there are a lot of legal experts out there, but do I want all of them speaking to my audience? And do they really? Do they have the expertise that they need? Are they fresh out of the school risk assessment would be the next one, making sure that this is a big thing about reputation. Don’t want to get into a partnership with Google that we’re going to ruin your reputation? And then the last one is the Network Analysis, like how is their network a fit for you and your programs?

Heather Pearce Campbell  34:30

Oh, it’s so good. And of course, the legal part of my mind loves that you have a risk assessment built into your step because I think so often in life generally, because we are emotional decision makers, we can see what we want to see. And we don’t always see the parts that we need to see. And having that balanced approach of like, how could this go right? And how could it go wrong? To help you spot those things and people often don’t? I mean, some of my clients have made unfortunate choices from the standpoint of who they’ve aligned with in building a business or co-creating a program. And not only does it lead to breakdowns in the relationship, it can lead to real legal risk in your life like the ripple effect can be much bigger than what you think it is. And that is why this alignment thing is a big conversation. It’s like it has way more potential impact than people realize.

Mark Porteous  35:34

Absolutely. And in that risk assessment, that is its legal, financial and reputation. And there they go piece of it is such an important part. Because when you when you go into a partnership, there are so many legal ramifications of responsibility for somebody else’s behavior. And of course, you can say that well, much more than I know about that.

Heather Pearce Campbell  35:54

Well, when you read all the terrible disclaimers, and it feels like run on lingo language and, you know, I have to laugh and be like, yeah, do you guys know why this is all there? It’s because this stuff happens. And these chunks of language evolve over time, because of the types of risks that show up in these scenarios, right? It’s not just generally out of the blue, because somebody wants to overdraft something right. And anyways, it…

Mark Porteous  36:29

How many things that we miss, like you just mentioned, disclaimers, and my partner and I are talking about all the disclaimers, we’re missing, because we are sending these things out all the time. Not saying that, yes, we’re getting paid for them to they may not be able to perform the way that they say that they are we’re not endorsing them. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  36:45

Referral disclaimers, right? We should have affiliate disclaimers, referral, disclaimers, promoting, or on your website, if you’ve got a business, which, you know, I am in a obviously a different business. But I have a heavy element of providing referrals to not only people I connect with, but to my clients, right. And I can’t be responsible for outcomes, like I’m doing it in an attempt to further serve them, because I know they need certain support, or they’re looking for a certain thing in their business. But yeah, it’s really important because that connection, like it brings risk into your business. And especially if you have a business based around some of those, you know, affiliate scenarios, joint venture scenarios, marketing scenarios, right? It is true. So it’s also why when I teach people about setting up affiliate programs, doing what you’ve talked about, like know their business, put eyeballs, on the businesses of people that you want to bring into your program or your business, because how they treat their business says a lot about how they might treat yours. Right? How they deal with their clients says a lot about how they might treat yours.

Mark Porteous  38:01

That is so true. You’re absolutely right.

Heather Pearce Campbell  38:03

And so many people launch an affiliate program and they’re like, we open the doors like, here’s your free signup link, and there’s no vetting, there’s no meeting face to face. There’s no you know, it’s don’t get me started on the legal risks of that. But it’s the same mindfulness, right. It’s the same mindfulness that I want people to have that you are displaying through this process. Thank you for your acknowledgement. Totally, totally. Well, it’s really important that people slow down to think about how to do this stuff the right way, you know, business can move fast, small business can move very fast. I think people look for fun opportunities, and they jump and then it’s like later, they’re realizing like, Oh, oops, should have slowed down a little bit. So this will just help them help us all be more mindful about creating the right scenarios for ourselves.

Mark Porteous  38:57

And I love that you really highlight the word discern because it is so important, because there are so many opportunities all around us to partner. And that is exactly it’s not about the quantity of partners that you have, it is all about quality, it’s much better to have a few that are really aligned. Because it isn’t the headaches, isn’t the good stuff. It is all the good and none of the bad. It’s much better to go slow and do it with the right pack than try to get a whole bunch or and get burned out or even say oh, now I’m not going to do it at all anymore, but just have those really good relationships. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  39:30

Yes. Oh, I love that. Yes, build slow and strong versus fast and wild and controllable. From the standpoint of who you partner with, right? There’s certain things that we get to control in our business and certain things we don’t. So, Mark, I know that there’s so much more like I’m in my mind. I’m thinking, you know, when people intersect with you, are they already aware of for example, their sole purpose their sole mission or is that part of the work that you do is helping people get to that point of being more clear even about that element.

Mark Porteous  40:04

I’m so glad you asked that, because you brought up earlier the books, the two books behind me are two of them. And then I was also in someone else’s collaboration book. These are also collaboration books, I had another book of my own the human experience. But I like to highlight these because they highlight me being the soul connector. Part of what I do, again, is about connecting to who you are a soul level, connecting to your soul purpose and connecting to your soul tribe. And the way that I do that is finding people who specialize in each of those things. So while I do have processes that I do to help clients in connecting to who they are so level, I have experts that that’s really all they do that they do deep soul work, they do intuition work, and there’s people that can help you, whatever your different personalities. So it’s not just one person, I have lots of different partners that do that. Same thing with your funnel, like you’re connecting to your sole purpose. It’s really about like, how do you monetize your mission? What is the strategy? What are the systems and all that look like? Well, I have other people who specialize in building out funnels and marketing and design. And so the joy is that I get to just connect people to the people that can provide the service, more than specifically helping them identify with their souls. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  41:22

Well I love it, it highlights one of the beautiful things that you do really well, which is bringing people together in community. I know you run both the Joint Venture Directory and I just participated in one of your meetings a couple of weeks ago, which was super fun to not only see, like, how it’s run, but who is there and just the wide variety of depth and talent that is in that group. And then your Soul Affiliate Alliance, right. So you have multiple ways that you bring groups of these brilliant, really mission driven soul based people together there anything you want to share, because I know you also have some fun things coming up in that regard, right? 

Mark Porteous  42:02

Yeah, so those two businesses are with my partner’s, my wife, Renee and I run the Soul Affiliate Alliance, we have a mastermind called Meta Mind. And we have an annual event in February in Orlando called the Soulful Leadership Retreat. And to me, the Soulful Leadership Retreat is my personal soul self expression, like this is my annual bloom of being able to do what I do, which is connect people. So it’s not about me, it’s about me having an annual party when I was in high school, they used to call me Mark Porteous.

Heather Pearce Campbell  42:37

That’s such a great story.

Mark Porteous  42:40

Now they call, my clients call me, my partner us now have these parties where everybody gets to come together so that having the so called Leadership Retreat is like, I get to do it with my wife, which is so fun, and like our clients are all part of the container for those three days, so it mixes spirituality and business, which is really what I love doing. So I’m super excited about that. And it was from that event in 2020, that David Ricklin joined our Meta Mind. And at the end of 2020, we launched our Joint Venture Directory. And by the end of the first year, we had about 400 members now we made 800. Now we have 1400 members and two years. And that is a bigger umbrella where it’s not as highly curated. But it’s all people that are in the personal development industry that wants to collaborate and work together in all different. They might be in different places on their customer journey or where they are in their business, where like the Meta Mind is more for people who are kind of very clear on their sole purpose, and are helping others to deliver and monetize on theirs.

Heather Pearce Campbell  43:50

I love that well. And if you’re listening and Mark, we will share whatever links you want to share, including about some of the groups that you know you have facilitated building and running. They sound amazing. And I know you bring amazing people together. So we will be sure to share those and anything else you want to share at the show notes page. So folks, if you’re listening pop over, check out legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast, go to Mark Porteous’ episode. I love that story. Mark Porteous and then Mark, first of all, a couple of questions for you. Before we wrap up, where do you like to show up online? And do you like for people to connect with you?

Mark Porteous  44:36

Funny question. Yes.

Heather Pearce Campbell  44:39

The reason I asked it that way is because I have had people on the show that don’t they’re like no and I need to respect that too. Because right, we all have to be so clear on our boundaries. And some people are like, No, you should not connect with me on social media because I don’t really do social media. So go here instead, right?

Mark Porteous  44:57

And I’ve always been wherever anybody is on on social media, mostly I’m on Facebook. I’ve got both our public group, my personal I do a lot of stuff with my personal page. And LinkedIn. Obviously, it’s a it’s meant for business and to connect, there’s easy.

Heather Pearce Campbell  45:12

Totally, totally. So we will share those links. What final thought or take away? And I think you like so you already mentioned the book. Is there anything else you wanted to mention as far as a gift to the audience or whatever? I want to make sure I don’t skip over anything, either.

Mark Porteous  45:28

Yes, because there was just one real quick thing to mention, which is the JV Directory, we have these networking calls every two weeks, we’ll put those links in there as well. So people will have access to come and check out one of our networking events anytime they want.

Heather Pearce Campbell  45:41

Perfect. And if you’re listening, I highly recommend that you pop over and do that. Like I said, Mark cultivates a really wonderful, lovely, vibrant group of humans. And you’ll I know, without a doubt, you’ll enjoy yourself. Okay, Mark, final question is what what either a thought it could be even an action step or takeaway would you like to leave our listeners with today?

Mark Porteous  46:07

Actually just popped in and I wanted to kind of share my vision for humanity. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  46:12

Oh, I love that. 

Mark Porteous  46:13

I have a vision where all humans recognize themselves and others as divine beings, and live in alignment with that knowing. And I share that because I want everyone listening to know that they are a divine being and that they do have purpose, just who they are. They don’t have to do anything differently. Just keep showing up and be more of who you are. And you’ll be living your purpose just like that. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  46:38

Oh, I have total goosebumps. I love that, that was the full tingles down the spine, like showing up just who you are. I love that so much. Mark, I adore you. I’m so glad that we were able to finally connect. I’m so excited for people to get to hear from you today. Thank you so much for being here.

Mark Porteous  46:57

Thank you, Heather, and thank you enough just for my time. But for doing this for your audience. And for all the other people that have been here. I really appreciate your dedication to your mission.

Heather Pearce Campbell  47:07

Oh, I love it. Well, when I some people have probably heard the origin story of the podcast. But it did a couple things. Because one, I was really committed to keeping people on their path that, you know, it takes a lot of endurance and perseverance to really build a business that helps you thrive and that serves your customers in the right way or your clients and, and COVID was coming. And I thought nobody’s talking about what this is going to do to small businesses, right. So there was that purpose of just wanting to keep people on their path and on their mission to build what it is they’re here to build. And also, selfishly, I love connecting with people. And I just thought this is a way to put some structure around something that I’m already doing, and using these conversations to serve people in a bigger way. So I really appreciate you being a part of that. And super excited for people to hear this episode.

Mark Porteous  48:02

There’s a third purpose that I know about you personally, which is about being a great mom. And that integrated lifestyle of having integration is a big part of my business as well. We don’t have balance, because there’s different things at different times. But we have integration and this allows you to do that as well. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  48:19

I love that. I love that word integration because balance. I think on any given day of the week balance can feel hard. The way I think about balance is like over the course of a week have I achieved balance right over the course of a week or a month, did I get a certain amount of personal time or you know, or time with my spouse or you know, time doing what I want to in my business and from day to day does it look balanced? Probably not. So I do love that word integration that feels a little more like ah, that’s, that’s inviting. Anyways, thank you so much, Mark.

Mark Porteous  49:01

Thank you, Heather. Appreciate you.

GGGB Outro  49:03

Thank you for joining us today on the Guts, Grit and Great Business® podcast. We hope that we’ve added a little fuel to your tank, some coffee to your cup and pep in your step to keep you moving forward in your own great adventures. For key takeaways, links to any resources mentioned in today’s show and more, see the show notes which can be found at www.legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and if you enjoyed today’s conversation, please give us some stars and a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast so others will find us too. Keep up the great work you are doing in the world and we’ll see you next week.