Is Competitiveness the Answer in Business?
“I WISH THAT MORE WOMEN REALIZED THAT HELPING ANOTHER WOMAN WIN, CHEERING HER ON, PRAYING FOR HER, OR SHARING A RESOURCE WITH HER DOES NOT TAKE AWAY FROM THE BLESSINGS COMING TO THEM. IN FACT, THE MORE YOU GIVE, THE MORE YOU RECEIVE. EMPOWERING WOMEN DOESN’T COME FROM SELFISHNESS BUT RATHER FROM SELFLESSNESS.”
I’ve been dreaming about having my own business for about 2 years now. I never thought I would want to be my own boss or take on the stress and anxiety of running the show, but I knew that I wanted to help other women and I knew that they need my help to realize they deserve to live a healthy, fulfilling and happy life! It’s been very slow going for me, but this year, I decided my word of the year was going to be steadfast and no matter how long it took me, or how slow my business grew, I was going to keep trudging forward. I’ve hit a ton of road bumps in my personal life this year that would easily have derailed me in years past, but this year, I pulled on my big girl panties and tapped into the power of my tribe.
I think that it is incredibly important for pregnant and postpartum women to build a tribe, a community, a village around them for support. (After all, it does take a village!) To me, this is so important that I wrote about it in my book, The New Mom’s Revival Guide. Not only that, but women often need the support of multiple care providers, because you never know which one will help you or which one may be able to direct you to the right person to get you feeling normal again! I inadvertently have been networking by reaching out and building friendships in my community, and these friendships have turned into an amazing community of women who support each other, not only as moms but also as business owners.
As a competitive athlete growing up, it’s hard for me to not feel competitive in a lot of areas of my life, but I have realized over this year that there are plenty of women/clients that need help and when we aren’t fighting over whether or not they are using our services or someone else’s, we are more able to find that client the help they need and get them feeling better, faster. We also have more time to give our undivided attention to the clients we do have.
I was recently reading an article on Forbes.com about The Power of the Pack. Study after study shows that women in particular benefit from community over competition. So how do you build this community or network of like-minded women beside you who will help you rise in your leadership role? Some of the advice from experts in the Forbes article:
Take the “work” out of networking. Networking is really just building relationships, sharing experiences and getting to know your peers. Put yourself in situations where you can learn and grow with other women. When you learn and grow together, get to know each other and each other’s passions, you start to organically build a tribe of women you know and trust. Then you can refer clients to them and vice versa.
Prioritize relationship building. Relationship building takes nurturing, but we don’t do business with business cards and huge organizations, we do business with people. Treat your network as you would any other friend or family member in your life. They deserve that and so do you! Otherwise, you just end up with a pile of business cards instead of a trusted peer. When you build a relationship and truly get to know someone, it is EASY to refer people to them confidently because you are aware of their passion and you know they will take care of your people!
Amplify other women. Supporting and cheering on the other women in your life doesn’t take the attention away from you. It shows that you can be a team player and life isn’t just about you. For me, if I see a patient that I know someone in my network could help, I am going to sing that other provider’s praises and tell my patient that 2 pairs of eyes are better than 1 and both of our goals are to help this patient feel normal again.
So find your squad, but don’t just find them! Nurture them. Build them up, and they will do the same for you. Support them, but also tap into them for their knowledge, expertise, and talents! It’s already hard enough out there with everything we all have going on, good days and bad. Find people who have done it before you who can lead you, people that are in the trenches with you, and people who you can inspire behind you. Because rising up in life is so much more fun with someone to cheer you on and celebrate you when you achieve those goals! Teach your daughters this lesson early, I know I’ll be teaching mine, that way she won’t feel so alone and will always feel supported, even in her craziest dreams and goals.
