Barb Patterson (01:08)
Hi everyone. Welcome. This is Barb. Today I'm going to talk about collaboration as a path to growth and impact, personal growth, as well as business growth. You know, throughout my adult life and whether I was doing my own thing or working inside of a business, a company, I have always loved collaboration. You know, and when I started my business 15 years ago, this one here, I

was very excited to have my own thing. I had come out of a large global structure and organization and was looking forward to just leading my own thing and seeing where it could go. So I wasn't necessarily looking for a business partner and a collaborator at that level, but as I moved throughout my business and met different people and got inspired,

and something felt really alive or obvious, then I absolutely took advantage of collaboration as a way to add more offering, more insight, more value, more finances into my company. And I wanted to talk about them in kind of different ways. know, often I think,

when I work with a lot of different practitioners or consultants or coaches, they will look at collaboration in a way sort of like what's in it for me. They look and think the best way to do it is to collaborate with somebody who has a bigger audience than you or is going to get you exposed to a whole new set of people. And while those things can be really valuable and helpful, I think they limit.

possibilities as well. I mean, for sure, I've been invited to those kind of virtual summits where I'm getting introduced to a new audience and giving a talk. And I love those opportunities. And I think that's great. But the most impactful collaborations I've done over the last 15 years in particular in my business have been the ones that came up organically, naturally.

and fit the season I was in in my business. So for instance, when I was first starting my business and I came across the understanding of the three principles and really got impacted personally by it and wanted to bring it into my work with leaders and organizations, I already had 25 plus years of coaching and working one-on-one.

working with teams and executives. So I had a lot of experience I was bringing to the table, but my toolbox was full of a lot of models and techniques and working with people and their history and their past. And for those of you that have immersed yourself in the teachings of Sydney Banks, you...

you understand what I, when I say that this offered something that felt really valuable, meaningful and deep, but it didn't have a formula or a five step process to follow in a conversation. And so I also had like some conditioning to meet. And by that, I mean, I wondered if this would fit inside of a business. I had,

you know, so many years of experience inside and having been an executive that part of what had to happen was I had to get over everything I thought I knew about what was appropriate in business and what would work and what wouldn't. But anyway, over the first year of my business, first couple of years, I had an opportunity where I met some incredible teachers that had been working inside of businesses teaching this for many years.

So I wanted to find a way to keep learning from them. Now I signed up ⁓ and I got mentors, which was really valuable. But I also wanted to see them doing the actual work, like looking at it when they're in the room with the group of leaders or working one-on-one with executives. What did that look like inside of a business? Now,

I've seen people do this and from my own experience having mentored coaches for many years prior to this, I realized that a lot of people will offer to help. Like they'll say things like, hey, if you ever need anyone, I'd be happy to be a fly on the wall or hey, if you ever need an assistant, I'd love to come and watch. And

Well, I understand the spirit of that. It's not really proactive. It's kind of a passive stance and it puts the burden on the person, the mentor or the person out there doing the work to find a place for you. So

while I understand the spirit of it, doesn't really get people the kind of opportunities I think we hope for. So how do I actually get inside the company with them? what I did, what worked really well for me is I sold.

I sold and offered those people, those individuals to come in and work with me. So they got paid. I brought them in on some of my bigger opportunities and they co-taught with me. And they didn't have to be the one out there trying to make it happen.

I was doing the rain making, the selling, but knew that if I got it, they would be ready and willing to step in. So that piece, and I did that, probably three, four times in the first couple years of my business, and it worked really well. And

doing that accelerated my confidence and my learning and being able to observe the way they taught, being able to co-create with them and collaborate in between sessions, talking about what I think was going on, what they thought. It was just invaluable.

kind of a great win all the way around for me and for them. So that piece around collaboration is if you are wanting to learn from someone, how could you be the lead in that? What could you do to facilitate making those things happen? I'll also just say that I've had a couple of people that I've been mentoring over the last 15 years who work inside of a company.

and brought me in to work with their teams or their leaders. So, I worked with them in putting together a proposal. And while they weren't co-teaching because it was inside their company, I use them very significantly as part of the internal buy-in and support and follow-up. And in a few cases,

when it made sense, we co-taught together. those are just some potential different ways to think about how to grow your own experience, your confidence, step into a lane maybe that you aren't familiar with, but you've been excited about, or if you're just new in your coaching and you'd love more time to see the work being done. I also brought in a few people

for one-on-one intensives. And so some of those mentors, I gave them the full fee for the intensive that the client paid, but I sat in with it and it was a part of the setup. The client knew I was gonna be there And that was another great way to see the depth of work that can happen inside of an intensive. So those are just some ideas and ways to think about it.

Now, the second area that I have just loved and has played a much bigger role for a longer period of time in my business is allowing those potential partnerships to emerge via the relationships I'm building, via the natural inspiration that can come when you're out there connecting with people.

And early in my business, maybe after a couple of years, is when I started collaborating, some of you may know Rohini Ross. And that really came up again, naturally she and I were having a conversation Rohini also had a very long-term successful business in client work and therapy and counseling, but she was transitioning to coaching.

And so she and I started talking about maybe we could do something together. And that just felt so exciting. So we created a 30 day program called the Engage Space and we had so much fun. And what was great about it, it was stretching both of us. It was a new format for both of us. We had to each make about 16 videos a piece.

it was gonna be this video plus live weekly webinars and it was just a fun format. And that was phenomenal, that experience. Like I think, you know, we supported each other through our, all the cringe moments when you're filming yourself that many times. We brainstormed the...

flow and topics and what each video would be about And so it was really a true partnership on every level. And for both of us, just, in addition to, having impact and people really embracing the program, which felt amazing, I think for us,

personally in our business, it took us down an avenue that opened up new doors of our own creativity and what was possible. And then from there, we led a four-month mastermind together, and we did that for a couple years. I want to say we did like six to eight masterminds. I can't remember exactly. But that collaboration, in addition to, again, kind of boosting our own potential and capability and creativity, it

created really strong income streams for both of us. So that was really nice. And then people got a sense of us and we both grew our audiences through that connection. And again, we were in similar places. So it was not a situation of, one of us coming to the table with a wider or bigger audience than the other, but we both grew our impact, our global audience.

as a result of it. The next piece that I wanna talk about is this stage at which we then also knew when it was time to end. So I have had a business partnership where ⁓ I was working with George and Linda Pransky and we co-created a mentoring program and the professional training together.

And then after about five years, I could feel myself that it was time for me to put my energy, my energy was wanting to go in other directions, but George and Linda, based on where they are, who they are, were staying in the practitioner development piece at that time.

But we were able to gracefully step away from that collaboration and it served us. The same is true when Rohini and I, there became a natural point where it just made sense. Rohini was, Angus came into the business, they were starting to do more and more couples work.

They really wanted to put their energy there, which I was very excited for them. And then I was doing more around business and creating these summits and these live events. And so it was a natural, time for us to move into different directions. And by paying attention to that, by honoring what's alive, what's real, what's aligned,

in every situation have been able to handle and navigate collaborations

Then throughout my business, I've had opportunities where I created my own mastermind group. And these are colleagues and friends, and we've been doing this for over a mastermind now for over 10 years. And we were all just at a place in our own business where we wanted to do something together. So we did an online event together, and we did a workshop in person together. And it was just in the spirit of fun and being able to teach.

highlight each other and support each other and that turned out to also be a really great way to have impact. The coming of our abilities together really offered a unique experience for people and to this day I still get comments about those events that we did together. So sometimes the collaboration is about

helping you step into a new expression, helping you reach out, not having to do it alone. think Rohini and I gave each other some courage with George and Linda, that collaboration as they've spoken about it, while they came with a depth of understanding in the teachings of Sidney Banks and the principals,

I had been mentoring and doing train the trainers and coaching people for many years. So there was this really nice partnership that happened

So when you think about collaboration, sometimes it might be just as a way to get courage. Like there's something you wanna try and you know somebody else that'd be into that and do it together and you have the courage and the creative input together and you get to step out and try it. Other people it might be because coming together makes you better.

the coming together makes it an even greater offer. And as I said originally, sometimes the collaboration is about, I want to learn, but how do I take the lead on that? So it's a value for both of us.

What I would love or if you like the idea of collaboration or you're in a newer stage and just having a partner in crime, a partner in co-creation would be valuable to you. I encourage you to think about it. Who out there would you love to work with and why?

years ago, there was a coach that I met on one of my programs that I was a student of. And we just both had an interest in women in leadership. So we did a couple of in-person events together and ⁓ it was fun. That ended up not going anywhere beyond that. But what I know for both of us, it

brought some energy, it brought some new faces and more confidence. I have another example where I was living in Portland, Oregon and wanted to build a presence there. I didn't really know anybody and Anna Debenham was there and she was starting the Inside Alliance as a nonprofit. so we decided we would try a community event.

we did that for a few months and then we stopped it, because it just didn't turn out the way we thought. It just, wasn't what we thought it would be. And so we let it go. So again, I'm sharing all these different examples and ways to think about it to help you broaden your own mind about what collaboration might offer you and how it can help you.

grow personally, professionally, grow your business, try new things without being attached, look for what's alive in yourself and other people, but you can keep it simple. The other thing I would say,

At the start, be really clear with the intent. Like what's the intent of the collaboration? What's the expectation? So everything from, enrolling it to doing the backend organization of it, to the promotion pieces, to the teaching and the follow-up, be really clear, talk through all of that ahead of time

Don't assume you're on the same page in any of that.

So finally, the other partnership that I can't help but talk about is the partnership of Ila and I. we started out by just, hey, you want to do something together? Yes, let's try that. And we did a program together and we really enjoyed it. And then this partnership around the podcast and the practitioners path and

We have an academy coming up in the fall and free webinars and half-day immersions Saying yes to that initial, yeah, let's do something together has really led to a deepening of a partnership and a potential that I think has surprised us both in all the best ways. it's personally

evolving me and I know Isla as well, but then it's also allowing us to really leverage the depth and the breadth of what we both bring to the table. The depth of work we do, the different audiences, all the years that we both bring of the personal and spiritual and professional development arenas. So,

this partnership, while we still both have autonomy and do things separately, this partnership is growing into something that has so much life and is allowing us to step into the next chapter of our work with excitement and deep impact as our goal and our hope always. So I want to encourage you to

Allow collaboration to come into your consciousness as a potential way to develop yourself, to build confidence, to try new things, to step into an area that maybe it would just be more fun to have someone do it together. You know, that first program that Rohini and I did,

I had been thinking about this idea for a while by myself, but couldn't really get it off the ground couldn't get it past an idea in my head, but Rohini and I saying, let's do this together, just added so much life and energy to it.

in the same way that Isla and I saying yes to something and then really listening deeply to each other and to ourselves started to realize that, there's something bigger here available to us if it feels alive and aligned, which it does. Okay, I think I've talked about it enough. I hope I've brought in potential for you, what might be possible for you around collaboration.

to see how could you use it to improve yourself, your teaching, your impact? How could you use it to step out into new ways and have more fun and try something that's alive and helps you move into your fullest expression in your work with others and in your business? Okay, as always, thank you for listening. I'm so glad you're here.