Did you notice? I changed my blog.

It actually goes deeper than that. I’m reorganizing Bridgeport Communications and blogging is going to be a stronger focus.

So I thought I’d take this opportunity to open my new blog with a tribute to the people who have changed my life, my joint venture partners…my friends.

In 2003, I met my first joint venture partner, who would quickly turn into a trusted friend and business partner.

Edwin Ryan was the first business partner I started working with. At the time, the story was unique, but as you’ll see in a moment it’s a recurring theme.

I opened an email from a guy in the Philippines, that said,

Good morning Terry,

My name is Edwin Ryan. I’ve watching you develop The Business Professional over the past few months and I like what you’re doing. Would you like me to help you with your marketing?

Sincerely,
Edwin Ryan

Up until that point, I had been flying solo, working on my own. I didn’t consider working with a partner, but this seemed like a novel idea. So I wrote him back and asked him to tell me what he had in mind.

The next morning, I got another email from Edwin with some ideas of what he thought we could do together. I liked his ideas and we worked out a small agreement based on his performance.

Within a couple weeks, it was obvious he knew what he was doing and I offered to make him a full partner in the business instead of just a glorified affiliate. Our partnership has been very fruitful.

Edwin is an honest, trustworthy gentleman with a flair for coming up with ideas that seem to always take The Business Professional to new heights. Without Edwin, The Business Professional wouldn’t be half the business it is today.

So my first thank you is to my first business partner and life long friend, Edwin Ryan. Thank you Edwin for being such an inspiration to me and such a valued friend. Your friendship is golden.

We’ll be revisiting The Business Professional in just a moment, but I want to keep my joint venture friendships in the order they happened.

My second heartfelt tribute is to Richard Butler. Richard and I met in a similar fashion to the way Edwin and I met. I was reading my email one morning and I found an email that said,

Hi Terry,

I just read your email you sent out on goal setting and I wondered if you’d like to take it a step further. I’d be interested in talking to you about it, if you have a few minutes.

Richard

At the time, Richard was one of my subscribers and I always love getting feedback from my subscribers. So I wrote him back and said, “Sure, let’s talk.”

To make a long story short, Richard and I are on the same wavelength. In fact we often share a brain. LOL. When we are on skype we often type the same question at the same time, or blurt out the same crazy thing simultaneously.

After chatting for a while, Richard said, “I have this idea I want to run past you. I’m thinking of doing a marketing calendar that teaches people to do something each day to build their business. What do you think?”

At first, I thought it sounds interesting, but not sure it’s something I want to tackle right now. Then I slept on the idea and the next morning I couldn’t wait to contact Richard. I knew I had to work on this project with him. So the next few days we played around with ideas and Your Marketing Journal was born.

Over the course of a year, Richard and I have become great friends. Richard’s openness and honest way of dealing with people has been a driving force in propelling our business interests. I’ve learned a lot from Richard and I look forward to a lifetime friendship that’s as motivating as it is fun. Thanks Richard for being a great friend and business partner.

My next joint venture friendship started out as an outsourcing project that quickly grew into a friendship and a business partnership.

As Edwin and I diligently worked on The Business Professional, it became apparent that we needed a third person to help pick up the slack. Edwin contacted a high school buddy, Nathaniel Dasco, and we started training him to take over the administrative roll for the company.

After a couple of weeks working with Nathaniel, it became incredibly obvious that his talents far surpassed the work he was doing. He is a conscientious, detail-oriented person who compliments Edwin and my style of being all over the board.

Nathaniel helped pull Edwin and I into a more organized roll and inspired me to push myself harder to make sure I had my part of the business taken care of in order to make his job as structured as possible.

After two months of working with Nathaniel, his dedication and devotion to quality work, his extraordinary work ethic and his friendly style inspired me to sit down with Edwin and discuss his future with The Business Professional.

Edwin and I agreed that Nathaniel should be a partner. So we brought him in as a full partner in the company. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve made. Nathaniel has become more than a joint venture partner, he’s become a valued and trusted friend.

Thanks Nathaniel, for the amazing work you’ve already done with The Business Professional and for the future achievements we’re going to make together.

And my most recent joint venture friendship is with a gentleman I only met a couple months ago at Rober Puddy’s Focus conference in Coventry in the UK. On the second day of the conference, I met Tahir Shah.

Tahir approached me and said, I’ve got something I’d like to show you confidentially if you’ve got a few minutes. If someone on the street walked up to me and said that, I’d run the other way. LOL. But since we were all in networking mode, it was an exciting proposition, not scary Plus, Tahir has really cool hair. LOL.

Ok, in all seriousness, Tahir showed me a project he was working on that is going to shake up the internet marketing community. I’ve heard other people say that and then come out with a thin little ebook about the death of something that really didn’t change anything, but this is totally different. In fact, it has ramifications that far surpass the IM community.

To make a long story short, we started working together the day I got back to my office. We regularly talk for at least an hour a day and have come up with a business platform for this project that exceeds any other project I’ve worked on. And please don’t write to me asking what it is. It will be released in January 2008 and is tightly under wraps until then. We’ll be releasing a teaser video at Imocent very shortly, but that’s as far as we’re going with a hint for now.

But more importantly than the project, Tahir and I have become great, great friends. Tahir’s focus and mindset is only outdone by his exceedingly high business ethic and talent for strategic thinking and impementation.

Tahir’s sense of humour mirrors my own, which makes it a pleasure to work side by side with him. Many of our conversations are highlighted with gales of laughter.

Tahir brings a new way of thinking into my life. I am motivated by his strong opinions and his willingness to say what’s on his mind and not just go with the flow. Tahir sets the standards instead of following along in someone else’s dog and pony show. I admire Tahir for his business wisdom and insight and I’m honoured to call him a friend.

And I’d be remiss, if I didn’t thank my twin, Kevin Lewis for his friendship, his kindness and his inspiration. I say he’s my twin, because Kevin and I live parallel lives. When we first met, we drove the same make of car, our kids are the same ages, we’re both interested in the paranormal, and the list keeps going and going.

Kevin and I are finally starting to work on our first joint venture together which I’m really looking forward to. Kevin’s been a true friend for years and his positive outlook on life inspires me to keep my positive outlook on life. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful friendship with such an outstanding human being. Thanks Kevin for being my twin. I look forward to turning BrandingYour.com into a mammoth success.

I guess my main point that I’d like to drive home is, joint ventures can be more than simple business arrangements. They can lead to something much more valuable than making sales. They can lead to a friendship that can last a lifetime.

I want to thank all of you for being a part of my life and inspiring me to reach new heights.

And for you sitting there reading this post, I hope our paths will cross sometime in the future as well.

Talk again soon.

Enjoy your day!

Terry
 

Tags: edwin ryan, joint ventures, kevin lewis, nathaniel dasco, richard butler, tahir shah, terry telford

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 at 10:52 pm and is filed under joint ventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.