At a high level, there are only a few ways to really grow a business.
You can Pay (Ads). You can Push (Outbound). You can Pull (Inbound).
But there is a fourth lever.
It is the most neglected and overlooked growth lever in business, yet it holds the highest leverage.
Partnerships.
This is my favorite lever.
I don't view this as a magic wand.
But when you compare the four levers side-by-side, partnerships win on pure potency.
Here is the reality:
If you stop Paid, results stop.
If you stop Outbound, results stop.
Inbound compounds, but it is slow, volatile, and uncertain (especially with the rise of AI search).
Partnerships, however, offer compounding consistency. They’re the fuel and the oil of your growth engine.
The tools might change but the foundations of a winning partnership philosophy will never stop working.
Because they’re built on relationships.
So ask, “Who has access to my dream customers?”
Now connect with them. That is the formula.
Simple. Not easy.
When you recruit a high-value partner, you unlock what I call a "Trust Transfer."
This does three things the other channels simply cannot:
Paid, Inbound, and Outbound are friendly.
But they aren’t family.
They don't help each other the way Partnerships do.
The Nuance: I am not advocating you do Partnerships alone. In fact, I usually only work with customers who have some foundation of all three.
The Proof: Look at Dickie and Cole at Ship 30 for 30. They already had the foundation: great ads, social proof, and an outbound team. I designed and plugged a partnership funnel into their existing ecosystem. This works incredibly well for b2b creators selling high-ticket offers.
The Results: Ship 30 has driven over six figures in partner revenue in just 3 months.
That is the power of Partnerships.
You have likely gone far on your tricycle of growth.
Let’s add partnerships and race into the next year with a new Ferrari partnership growth engine.
Keep stacking 🧱
TG