Networking and Joint Ventures: Why You Should Ignore Your Competition

Something that many coaches, healers and other helping professionals have a hard time wrapping their mind around is the fact that there really is no competition. There just isn't. I don't have any and I don't think about it.

Let me explain what I mean…

I'm not a horse race person, but I've seen one or two. All the horses wear blinders. They are little flaps that go beside their eyes. They do that because the minute a horse looks at the horse beside them, it slows down.

In this same way you must run your own race in business. There are a lot of people who are overwhelmed, under-performing, under-implementing, and not doing what they need to do to grow their business because they are so engrossed in all of the newsletters and ezines and emails that are coming through their inbox making them feel "less than" magnificent.

Stop basing your value and your success on what's coming into your inbox. Shut it down, put it in a filter, and go build your business. Go run your own race. Go tell people about your story, share your message, and share your movement.

The minute you begin to compare yourself to others, or you look to others for validation, it will slow you down and the phone will stop ringing.

People always want to know how to start with nothing and go to a booming business with multiple programs and affiliates. People want to know how to get traffic to their site and more people in the door.

The answer that no one wants to hear is that there is no magic pill! The way to build a successful, sustainable business is to start talking to one person, and then you talk to two people, and then you talk to those people about how they can talk to someone.

It's the same basic process whether your focus is online or offline. About 90% of the work I do is virtual, but when you're getting started, consider using what you have in your immediate vicinity. Look to your town or your community. Regardless of where your business is or whether it is primarily online or offline, your approach must be based around connecting with more and more people.

I had a private client once who said, "How do you get joint ventures and affiliate partners?" I said to her, "The same way you make friends."

Approach affiliate opportunities and joint ventures the same way you live your life. Just reach out to people. When you find yourself saying, "Gosh, there's something about that person that resonates for me," connect with them.

So many people try to put more mystery into this than there needs to be. Although it isn't complicated, you do have to put the connection time in. Nothing gets built offline or online unless you take the time, the energy, and the commitment to make connection after connection after connection.

The wonderful quote, "Be more interested than interesting" is relevant to this. The worst thing in the world is to do when making connections or partaking in any kind of marketing activities like social media is to say something like, "Hi, I'm Suzanne! Buy my stuff!" Nobody cares!

You must walk into a business networking, marketing, or social media situation the same way you walk into a real party. Introduce yourself, talk with people, ask people about commonalities.

Walk into every room (or virtual event, or social media) like it's your party. What would you do if it were your party? You would thank people for coming. You would ask them how they are. You would see what you could do for them. You would be more interested than interesting.