An Authority Partner Map is a one-page scorecard that helps you decide who to collaborate with. You rate each possible partner from 1 to 5 on audience fit, trust transfer, promotion willingness, topic alignment and referral potential. Then you give most of your time to the top scorers through a planned 90-day campaign of interviews, one shared event and follow-up you can track.
I'm writing this for the coach, therapist or expert-led service owner who already does good work and already gets asked to collaborate. You get podcast invites, summit invitations and "let's swap audiences" messages. A few of those turned into clients. Most turned into a pleasant hour and a replay link nobody watched.
The map gives you a calm, repeatable way to say yes to the right people and "not right now" to everyone else. It also ties every yes to something you can measure afterward.
Key Takeaways
- Score every possible partner on the same five factors before you agree to anything, so the decision no longer depends on who asked most recently.
- Match the type of collaboration to the score. Partners with high trust and high promotion get your summit or co-hosted workshop, and strong referral partners get a slower relationship built over months.
- Go first with your best partners by interviewing them, featuring them or sharing their work, because that generosity is what starts most lasting partnerships.
- Give every partner a unique link and a CRM source tag so you can see who brought registrants, conversations and clients.
- Rescore the map at the end of each 90-day campaign using what actually happened, and keep your strongest dozen or so partners close.
Why Good Coaches Say Yes To The Wrong Collaborations
Most collaboration decisions get made on the spot. Someone kind asks, there's a gap in the calendar, and saying no feels rude. So you say yes.
The trouble shows up weeks later. The audience turns out to be people who'd never buy your offer. The partner who said they'd "definitely share it" never sends an email. Or the session goes well, but afterward you can't tell which new subscribers came from that partner, so you can't follow up in a way that fits them.
Partnerships are also uneven. On the Virtual Summit Strategies podcast, Jeff Sands, who has run eight virtual summits, said that five or six speakers usually bring in 80 to 85% of a summit's leads. He now thinks about speakers in terms of "return on leads." You don't need to be that blunt with people you like. But it helps to know that a handful of the right partners will do more for you than a long list of polite ones.
The Five Scores On Your Authority Partner Map
Score each person from 1 to 5 on each factor. The highest possible total is 25.
| Factor | What You're Asking | Scores a 5 When | Scores a 1 When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audience fit | Does their audience include people who would buy my offer? | Their followers are your buyers, at the stage where they need you | The audience is big but the wrong people |
| Trust transfer | How warmly will they introduce me? | They'll personally email or introduce you as someone they rate | You'd be one name in a long list nobody reads |
| Promotion willingness | Will they actually share? | They've promoted past collaborations and agree to specifics | You get a vague "I'll share it if I can" |
| Topic alignment | Does my topic follow naturally from theirs? | Your work is the obvious next step after theirs | You'd have to stretch to connect the two |
| Referral potential | Do they meet my clients before or after I do? | They regularly meet people who need you | Once the event ends, your paths don't cross |
Three of these are fairly easy to judge from the outside. The other two take a bit more care.
Judge Promotion Willingness By What They've Done Before
Ask what they've promoted in the past year. Did they email their list for the last summit they spoke on? Do they run a podcast that features guests' offers? If they've done it before, they'll probably do it again.
How you ask matters too. Jay Fiset, talking about joint ventures on the same podcast, pointed out that conditions like "your list has to be 5,000" sound like "if you qualify to feed my machine, we should talk," and that approach doesn't get you far. He describes good joint ventures as a game of "I'll go first." Sophia Clark found that speakers became much keener to share once she framed the summit as a partnership and showed them how much their own audience would get out of it.
Referral Potential Lasts Longer Than Any Single Event
Jay Fiset also talks about upstream and downstream partners. Upstream partners meet your ideal clients before you do and send them your way. Downstream partners are the people you send clients to once your work is done. For example, a divorce coach's upstream partners might include family lawyers and mediators, and the downstream ones might be financial planners. Someone with a 5 here is worth keeping close even if they never promote an event.
Building Your Map In One Afternoon
You don't need software for the first version. A spreadsheet with seven columns works fine: name, the five scores and a total.
- List 20 to 30 names. Start with podcast hosts who've interviewed you, people you've spoken alongside, peers in nearby specialties and anyone who's sent you a client. If the list is thin, Speaker Connections, our free Zoom networking event, meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month, and usually 70 to 110 speakers and hosts attend. The EventRaptor speaker directory also lists more than 3,800 speakers who want to be invited to events.
- Score everyone quickly. Go with your gut. Where you're guessing, add a question mark next to the number.
- Check your guesses with a short conversation. Ask who they serve, what they've promoted lately and what they're planning this year. Twenty minutes usually tells you enough.
- Sort people into groups. Use the totals, then adjust using judgment.
Here's how I'd sort them:
- Anchor partners (20 to 25): your best candidates for a co-hosted workshop or a featured summit slot.
- Stage partners (15 to 19): good audience fit and topic alignment, lighter on promotion. Perfect for podcast interviews and summit sessions.
- Referral partners: anyone with a 4 or 5 on referral potential, whatever their total.
- Not right now (under 15): stay friendly and check again next quarter.
For example, a career coach for mid-career teachers might score an education podcast host 5 on audience fit, 4 on trust transfer, 3 on promotion, 5 on topic alignment and 2 on referral potential, for a total of 19. That's a strong stage partner. A guest spot comes first, and a summit invitation can follow if the interview goes well.
That's hypothetical, but Jon Schumacher's approach is real and worth copying. He told the podcast he keeps a spreadsheet of partners and regularly asks how he can support them. He reckons that if you can find a dozen to 20 really good partners, you'll get new eyes on your work every year.
Matching Each Partner To The Right Kind Of Collaboration
Every format asks something different of a partner. So once you've scored someone, choose the collaboration that suits their profile.
| Collaboration | Best For | Your Ask | What To Track |
|---|---|---|---|
| Podcast interview | Stage partners with strong audience fit | A useful conversation and one clear next step for listeners | A unique link and a source tag for that show |
| Summit speaker | Anchor and stage partners | A session plus a specific promotion commitment | Promoter link, leaderboard position, registrants by partner |
| Co-hosted workshop | Anchor partners only | Shared teaching and an email to both lists | Registrants and booked calls by partner |
| Referral partnership | High referral potential | Regular check-ins and a clear description of who to send you | A referral source tag on every new contact |
| Collaborative giveaway | Good audience fit, little time to spare | One gift and a shared promotion window | Opt-ins by contributor |
Podcast swaps are often the easiest place to begin, and they're worth setting up properly. This guide on turning a podcast guest swap into a client attraction partnership shows how to add a partner page and topic-based follow-up so the episode keeps working long after it airs.
A 90-Day Authority Campaign Built From Your Map
The map tells you who. The 90-day plan gives each partnership a job and a place on the calendar.
Days 1 To 30 Are For Testing Your Message And Warming Up Your Anchors
Book guest spots with your highest-scoring stage partners. Use them to find out which stories and hooks get the strongest response, the way a podcast guest sprint does, before you put a bigger event behind your message.
At the same time, go first with your anchor partners. Interview them on your podcast or a live stream, share something they've made, or send them a client who's a better fit for them. Jon Schumacher's advice for people without many connections yet is to "become the reporter": interview people, build relationships through that content and keep track of them.
Days 31 To 60 Are For Building One Shared Stage
Pick one format: a small summit with your anchor and stage partners, or a co-hosted workshop with one or two anchors. Send each invited partner a clear one-page brief. This piece on writing a summit one sheet that gets the right speakers to say yes covers what to put on it.
Once you have a stage, partners start coming to you. When I ran my second summit in January 2021, it had 37 speakers, and more than half of them approached me. My first summit, eight weeks after I started my coaching business, had 27 speakers and was built in two weeks. I don't recommend that timeline. Give yourself the full month.
Days 61 To 90 Are For Running It, Following Up And Rescoring
Run the event, then follow up with each group according to where they came from and what they cared about. In my experience, a good follow-up process might turn 10 to 15% of summit registrants and attendees into clients. That's my experience, not a promise. And with no follow-up at all, the number is usually close to zero.
Then open the spreadsheet again. Replace your guessed scores with what happened. Who promoted? Whose audience booked calls? Some partners will move up and some will drop to "not right now," and your next campaign starts from much better information.
Tracking Which Partners Actually Brought You Clients
Tracking comes down to two things. Each partner gets their own link, and every contact who comes through that link gets a source tag in your CRM. Add a topic tag when you know what drew someone in. Three months later you can see that one podcast host sent you 40 subscribers and two clients while a bigger name sent 200 subscribers and none, and your next round of invitations gets much easier to decide.
Partners can grow a list faster than you'd think. More than 5,000 people on the EventRaptor list came from other speakers promoting our summits.
This is where EventRaptor takes a lot of manual work off your plate. Speakers apply, sign their agreements and upload their materials through the EventRaptor virtual summit platform. Every speaker or partner gets a unique promoter link, and there's a leaderboard they can see, so nobody has to email you asking how they're doing. You can export a promoter performance report at any time. Registrants sync to GoHighLevel/CRMRaptor with tags, including which promoter sent them, so follow-up by source can start the day someone registers. If a giveaway suits a partner better, the giveaway tools handle contributor applications, gifts and a contributor leaderboard in the same way.
To be clear about the limits, EventRaptor tells you who registered and through whom. It doesn't track what attendees do during a session. And the sales conversations themselves live in your CRM and your calendar.
If you'd rather not run any of this yourself, the done-for-you team can produce the whole summit for you: speaker outreach, pages, reminders, promoter links and the CRM connection. Your job is to teach, host and make the offer. Jennie and I have hosted 13 summits of our own and over 40 summits for clients, and the partner logistics are usually the part hosts are happiest to hand over. If you're working out what to keep and what to delegate, this guide on deciding what your team should own in a client attraction campaign breaks it down.
A Note For Therapists And Healing Practitioners
The map works especially well for building professional referral relationships. Scoring other practitioners in nearby specialties on referral potential and topic alignment gives you a respectful, organized way to grow the network your practice already depends on.
A few guardrails apply. Keep any summit or workshop content educational, and make it clear that it isn't therapy. Check your licensing board's advertising rules before you co-promote, especially anything about endorsements or referral arrangements. Never use client stories or testimonials. And keep CRM tags limited to the referral source and the topic someone asked about, with no clinical information.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is An Authority Partner For A Coach?
An authority partner is someone whose audience already trusts them and overlaps with the people you serve. When they introduce you, through a podcast interview, a summit session or a referral, some of that trust passes to you. The best ones also promote what they agree to and keep meeting people who need your help.
How Many Collaboration Partners Does A Coach Need?
Fewer than most people expect. Summit host Jon Schumacher has said that a dozen to 20 really good partners is enough to put new eyes on your work every year. Start with the top five or six on your map and build from there.
How Can I Tell Whether A Summit Speaker Will Actually Promote?
Look at past behavior. Ask what they've promoted recently and whether they emailed their list for the last event they spoke on. Agree on a specific commitment up front, then give them a unique promoter link and a visible leaderboard so their effort is easy to see.
Should I Partner With Someone Who Has A Bigger Audience In A Different Niche?
Usually only if their audience includes a meaningful number of your buyers. A big audience that scores low on audience fit and topic alignment tends to bring subscribers who never book a call. A smaller partner whose audience matches yours closely will often bring better conversations.
Can Therapists Use Summits And Podcast Collaborations To Grow A Practice?
Yes, as long as the content stays educational and follows your licensing board's advertising rules. Collaborations let you teach alongside respected peers, which builds visibility and professional referrals. Keep client stories out of all promotion, and keep your CRM records free of clinical details.
Your Next Step
Block out one afternoon this week, list 25 names and score them on the five factors. You'll probably find three or four anchor partners you've been neglecting and a couple of collaborations you can politely let go.
Once your scores are in, we can help you turn them into a real campaign. Bring your map, or just your top five names, and Book your Client Attraction Planning Call. We'll work out whether a summit, a co-hosted workshop or a round of podcast interviews makes the most sense for your next 90 days, and what the follow-up should look like.