Episode 155: Do You See Other Businesses as Collaborators or Competition?
In this quick tip episode, Fiona talks about the possibility of seeing other businesses or brands as collaborators instead of competition. Whether it happens or not in real life, Fiona encourages small business owners to shift one’s mindset to see the good in what other businesses do and how the possibility of working together can be beneficial to your business as well.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Collaborating with other businesses
Competition vs Collaboration
Fiona’s personal experience
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Hello, and welcome to episode 155 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. Can you believe we are almost into December 2021? Oh my goodness, where has this year gone? But then also, especially if you've been in lockdown for most of it, like me, it's also felt like 10 years as well like the last two years. My goodness, they felt like two decades. I don't know if that's just me. Maybe it's just me. But yeah, how have you felt in the last two years? And what are you thinking about 2022?
So today, it is a quick tip episode. And before I get stuck in, I just wanted to mention two things. One is I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the land and which I'm lucky enough to record this podcast. I love watching the land change over the seasons. And as we come into summer, I'm in a very bushfire zone area. And this is traditional land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and I pay my respects to their Elders past present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated. And yeah, it is coming into bushfire season. And that is always a little scary for people like me who live in very bushfire zone areas. But it also makes me reflect on oh, gosh, I don't want to go on a rant, but just how much knowledge and wisdom we have in our First Nations people that is not being used and utilized to the full extent and acknowledged and respected the way that it should be. Because, you know, I look out at this beautiful bushland around me and, and know that, you know, for 10s of 1000s of years, the First Nations people looked after the land and worked the land and paid back to the land and did certain backburning and all sorts of other things to create the best possible ecosystem for our land and for our country. And it always makes me reflect at this time of year, that we just have so much ancient wisdom at our fingertips. And I wish that the Australian Government would be using it more. And really working side by side with the knowledge and wisdom that comes from our First Nations people.
And the second thing that I wanted to mention is that I know a lot of people kind of looking at the summer holidays here in the southern hemisphere where I am. And they may have a bit more time on their hands, maybe they don't, maybe you're in retail, and it's crazy busy. But if you are somebody who does have a little bit more time on your hand, and you're thinking about, you know, maybe investing in a course, or kind of getting to grips more on your marketing, or your money or your systems, or maybe you want to start a podcast next year, and you're kind of like you know what, over the summer break, I'm going to really sit down and plan that out. I just want to let you know that we have a whole lot of courses available at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop.
Now you might want to buy one for yourself, but we're coming into gifting season. So you may also want to buy one for a biz friend. We also have a gift card available. So if you are like I want to buy them something I know they you know, listened to Fiona's podcast, or maybe they've read the book, Passion, Purpose Profit, and you wanted to get them something but you're not sure what we also have gift cards available at the shop. And again, that is just mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop.
Alright, today is a quick tip episode. So let's get into it.
So today, I wanted to talk about something or just sort of ask you to consider a question, which is really the tip. And that is when I look at other people in my industry. So other businesses, brands people, do I see them as collaborators? Or do I see them as competition? And I just want to ask that question again. Really, really let it sit with you and be super honest. I mean, you don't necessarily have to say the answer out loud, you can just think it. Do I look at other people in my industry as competitors or as collaborators?
Now, that is something that comes up quite a bit when I work with people 1:1 in group coaching, just generally people that have gone through a course and/or people just send DMs just at @mydailybusinesscoach on Instagram. And it's something I think that comes up, particularly in the early stages of business, when we don't know exactly where we're going. Maybe we launched something and it didn't sell the way that we'd hoped that it sell. And we can easily see somebody else's sort of highlight reel specially on social media. And we can see and imagine that everything in their business is just working really well. And we can easily see them as competition.
And we can have this sort of scarcity mindset that oh my gosh, you know, they've got this client, I wanted that client or they've got somebody in this industry and I wish I had that or maybe they launched this new product and it seems to have sold so well based on you know what they're saying about it on social media. And we quickly kind of cut ourselves off from the opportunity to see them as a collaborator. Now, something that I asked my clients to do is to think about some of the brands that they would see in the kind of competitor analysis, which is something that most people, businesses will do at the start, when they're creating their business plan or looking at their strategy is to do a competitor analysis, who else is out there in the market? How are we going to be different, how we're going to be better, all that sort of stuff.
But one of the things I'll ask them to think about is, okay, let's list out, you know, five, three, top of your competitors, the biggest people that are kind of you see, as a real competition to your business or your brand. And I'll then ask them, How could you collaborate with that person, or business or brand?
And you can see the shift in like, Well, I wouldn't want to collaborate with them, you know, we've only got this small pool of people, and we're both picking from it. But when you really stop and think, How can I collaborate, rather than seeing them as competition, you start seeing all the things that they're doing really well, and the things that you're doing well, and then things that potentially you could merge and do even better as joint forces.
Now, this is not to say that you're necessarily going to go and collaborate with your competition. But it's to get your mindset to shift into what's possible, rather than, you know, oh, my gosh, this is not possible because they're taking everyone or they're selling a product exactly what I want to be selling. And so it may seem like such a simple thing. But I would urge you that if you are finding yourself getting caught up, really focusing on your competitors, rather than your own business, or kind of going down a shame spiral, when you go on Instagram, for example, and thinking, Oh, my God, everyone else just has it figured out and I don't, before 2022 starts, I would really suggest that you take some time, even half an hour, 20 minutes, get a journal out, and literally write down a couple of your people or brands that you think are in the same space as you serving the same sort of audience, and then come up with three or four ways you could collaborate with each of those competitors. And so it could be maybe we could do a, you know, Instagram Live where we teach people something, maybe we could come together and do a zoom call for people, maybe we could collaborate on a super cool product. Maybe we could, you know, both create an awesome product with a percentage of which goes to X or Y charity that we're both interested in, say, for example, if you are both in the female fashion, or you know, fashion for people who are women or identify as women, then maybe you collaborate on a really cool t shirt that, you know, then the proceeds of which go to a great charity that supports domestic violence survivors, or, you know, something else like that.
And suddenly, the mood will shift your mind will shift from being really closed, and oh, my gosh, everyone sort of out to get me in this scarcity mindset, to this sort of abundance of like, wow, what would be possible if we work together, and we bought broke both of our audiences together? How would that feel? I know, I've done that in the past with other business coaches.
I've had business coaches on the podcast, and sometimes and I've worked with business coaches. I work with a few at the moment. And, you know, it's something that I've definitely had people question, oh, my God, you're their business coach really? Aren't you scared that they're just gonna steal everything that you're doing?
I'm like, no, because there's enough to go around. Firstly, we have so many people in the world who need you know, coaches, but also we have different ways of doing things. I have my way of doing it, they have their way of doing it. And I'm helping them grow their business and in turn, they can help other people grow their businesses as well. So yeah, definitely something that I've definitely had to work on at times. But I would say that pretty much now I really do view people in a collaboration kind of lens before oh my gosh, they're my competition. They're stealing everything from me. I often talk about Natasha Ace, who is you know, one of my greatest business friends and friends. And she is a business coach and we pretty much talk every single week and um, you know, if I find something really great, I send it to her. Likewise, we have shared resources, we have shared staff, we you know, have very similar business models. And we just have complete trust with one another and we collaborate quite often and I love that.
I love that I have somebody who does the same job as me, because they just get it they really really understand so many of the kind of challenges that come up. And you know, my business is is better for having Natasha as part of it. And on that note, if you're a psychologist or you work in the health space and you're looking for a business coach definitely check out Natasha ace, she runs Private Practice Alliance and we'll link to that in the show notes.
But yeah, that is it for today's quick tip episode. really asking yourself the question of when I look at people in my industry or other brands and or industry? Am I instantly seeing them as competition? Or could I put the collaborator lens on and see what's possible even if it never actually goes anywhere outside of your journal, just allowing yourself to put that in it really stops you from feeling bad about oh, I'm there doing this I'm not doing that. And it really started to kind of open up your mind to what's possible an give you a much more abundance mindset rather than scarcity.
So that is it. For today's quick tip episode all the links including a link to my good friend Natasha Ace's business Private Practice Alliance, can be found at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/155. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
