Excel Your Small Business; Collaborate with the Competition
It’s totally in our nature to want to win, I get it. We want to be the best, we want to take the cake, have it, and eat it too. Well, the truth is—you DON’Thave to push others down to get what you want. In fact, you GET to use their success to help YOUR success, and it’s not a hate crime.
Listening to the Tim Farriss Podcastyesterday was enlightening, he talked about one-man businesses that were MILLIONdollar producing gigs. How did they do it? Well, they learned how to delegate, prioritize, outsource, etc. tons of good things, but what stuck out to ME is that it never really was a ONEperson business. Ideas, strategies, implementation, goals, tools… all of these things have been ironed out WAY before your time, and it’s IN YOUR POWER to utilize them. These Million dollar producers learned a lot from Tim’s book The Four Hour Work Week. Where will you learn YOUR best practices? Well, books are definitely a great start but MORE importantly, your TRIBE.
If you have the mentality that you are willing to SHARE everything, all of those beautiful tricks you’ve learned along the way (through trial & error, podcasts, books, friends, seminars, etc.) and you keep them to yourself, you’re truly going to miss out on one of life’s greatest gifts:
C O L L A B O R A T I O N !
From tech start ups to creatives the word “collab” is thrown around on the daily. Why?Because it’s unwavering in it’s necessity within a working, thriving community. If you want to grow, how will you learn? Others want to grow. How will they learn?
This brings me to my FIRST point.
S H A R I N G
S E C R E T S
With 150 hours of podcasts under my belt, I felt like I was always being told the wrong thing. Not that they were bad resources or anything but I’d take vigorous notes on these “findings” and come out with nothing useful. I’d listen to one on How To Get Instagram Followers and then go to that Podcaster’s insta and they had 10.2K followers and 40 likes on photos. It just wasn’t adding up right! I’d try out a skincare product pitched by an influencer and I would see no change! I just felt like I was constantly being lied to, pitched to, sold to, and never had the chance to just know THE TRUTH.
Side note: this is partly why my “first” year of blogging has been all about what I ACTUALLY USE and less about random products I’ve been mailed for free. I think every single product should be given ample use before pitched. But that’s just me.
Anywho. If you’re going to hear secrets, you have to TELLsecrets. Tell your audience the truth.Tell your audience not only what they want to hear, but what they don’t want to hear as well. Tell them your real, raw, unadulterated story and then maybe, maybe, just maybe! You’ll get across to them and a build truly valuable community.
S U P P O R T
I’m going to use my blogger friend Rachel as my example in this blog, just because we JUST met and obvi she’s the gorg friend in my post here. So, Rachel and I met about a year ago. She’d been blogging for a couple of years and I was just starting. I thought it was really important to start connecting with other influencers to help me get a move on it. It’s funny, we talk briefly about “life”, relationships, etc. and then we really (without trying) get right into business. We talk about EVERYTHING BLOG. I’ve showed her sales pitches. She’s showed me giveaway hacks. I’ve showed her editing hacks. She’s showed me photo hacks. The list goes ON AND ON, guys, really. This stuff isn’t anything we couldn’t (if we really dug) find somewhere online (I’m sure it’s out there), but when you have an intimate conversation with someone about what is working and what is NOT, it really drives it home. There is just something about learning business in a friendship capacity that really helps you feel like you can move the needle. If you want to build a business of any kind, you need support. Like, do you really want to be a one-man-million-dollar-business?
M O T I V A T I O N
So, this leads me to something even more critical. Once, in a sales training, I was asked “what would you rather have, discipline or motivation.” I, (always thinking of why they even asked a question and what answer they probably want to hear) said discipline. You need it to get shit done even when you aren’t motivated. I still believe that it is SOtrue, you need to put systems and processes in place that will help you get the job done even when you’re not “feeling” like it. BUT, what about others. What can others do, in your “collaborative” community… to help MOTIVATE YOU?
One thing I think is RAGINGLY(yes I made up that word) important is that you constantly talk it out. Tell others about your wins(not braggy, but just like, real). Tell them about your failures. Tell them about how you did something and how you definitely won’t do THAT again. Be open. I’ve seen incredibly talented introverts BREAK OUT and DO WELLby stepping outside of their comfort zone and communicating with others.
How can you motivate others to collaborate with you in conversation, not necessarily in work!?
Reach out. Go out. Speak out. Ask questions. Be brave.
C R I T I C I S M
Okay, woah.Let’s not forget the big C word. Criticism. I don’t want to say much, but here’s the thing. You’ve got to ASK about what others think about your body of work, your writing, your sales pitch, your everything. Get feedback. I remember chatting with my friend Maddie on the phone about how taking professional photos all the time was getting draining and I was confused how people always “liked” the photos I took with my iphone better anyways. She laughed, “I could’ve told you that!,” she said jokingly. How did I miss this?How did I miss this big thing? I instantly started following her advice, she said “Chels, they just find that selfie more relatable,” and I took what she said and ran with it. A combination of sticking to a color scheme and brand… this was really a huge push that led me in the right direction with my blog trajectory. I didn’t have to have “top level photos” all the time. Sometimes, the camera on my phone is just fine.
At the end of the day, you need to be open to “the ask.”
Ask for advice.
Ask someone to lunch to show you how they do it.
Ask your favorite success story to coffee.
Ask. Ask. Ask, and you shall receive.
Well, that’s enough for today folks, I hope you found these things useful in your journey, whatever it may be!
Xox
OH, and let me tell you about my FAVORITE things from this shoot. I almost forgot ;)
+This CupcakeRose is literally SO good for the price (under $10). I am definitely going to stock up on it for Summer.
+The skirtis MY FAVE from Good American (best investment of the year so far).
+ My extensions areZabic Stylehouse. Love them.
+ My lipstick is a combo of Mac's Be Silly& Chanel Rogue Allure Velvet.
+ This is a little sneak peek at the FIRST part of my new apartment... and my most favorite part! The ROOFTOP. It looks over both the west hills and downtown's backside. Kind of almost a 360 view!
+ The slippersare Chinese Laundry and although they get HOT when it's HOT, they're perfect for the cooler days here in Portland since I'm like a NEVER-TURN-ON-THE-HEAT kind of person.
+ All photos done by the lovely @RachelCossette with @RachelCossettePhoto. Check out her blog The Things She Likes, here!
