Building Powerful Partnerships Through Radical Collaboration and Communication with Meghann Conter

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Marketing Media & Money podcast. Really excited to be here with you today because we're going to be talking today about pretty much the way I built my business. And so I really love being able to share this because people ask me all the time. So Patti, like, What's the secret to your success. And today, that's what we're going to talk about. And I'm going to bring in somebody who was absolute expert on this. And so this conversation should be pretty darn good, and there'll be a lot of gold share. So make sure you have a pen and paper. So let me tell you a little bit about our guest, so making conscious of force in women's leadership and entrepreneurship. With a unique blend of French and marketing expertise. She spent her early career elevating women owned businesses from six to seven figures, mastering the art of standing out in saturated male dominated fields. What's her secret weapon, a mix of performance, our intuition, knowledge, and edutainment. Making business growth not just educational, but irresistibly fun. As the founder of the Dames and international network for high achieving women. Meghann has cultivated a community that thrives on connection, surpassing revenue goals and fostering deep meaningful collaborations. Her mission is to celebrate and connect women business owners and leaders creating a global space where laughter learning and growth converge. She's a Colorado native with 18 years of marketing savvy. Mhegann is a champion of connection turning her vision into reality for women aiming for the C suite or the seven figure mark, and demonstrating that anything is achievable with fearless radical collaboration, Umer and heart so Meghann, thanks so much for being here with me today.

Meghann Conter,: Patty I'm so ecstatic to be on this show. You are a legend, and the show is legendary. So I'm excited to be participating in it with you.

Oh, thank you so much. That's so sweet. So I have to tell you, you know, I think a lot of times in the networking world or out in the business world, people talk about networking, some people love it. Some people are still doing it old school, right? Some people just haven't quite gotten on the bandwagon yet, of what really works, right? And even when people talk about collaboration, sometimes don't think they really get it right, either. You know, they don't really understand it. And so you hear a lot of stories about oh, yes, I did that it didn't really work, for me is how I built my business, I wouldn't be where I am today, if I didn't really understand the power of connection and collaboration. But what I really love about you, and why I want to do to be the person to talk about this is I really love radical collaboration. And I think that's really important. And one of the things when we really dive into it is that I love about you is not just that you teach it, you're an example of it, the dames is all about it. But that you really understand that it should be done differently, depending upon what stage you are in your business. Right, you know, and so we're going to talk about that too. But before we get started, let's just dive into this. So for some here, they may be thinking, well, what's the difference between collaboration and radical collaboration? So can you define what radical collaboration means in the context of high achieving women in business and why it's crucial for their success.

Meghann Conter,: So basically, when you throw radical on the front of a word, it means that in my view, that you are someone who believes in abundance, and who believes that the world has plenty, there's plenty of clients out there for all of us. And you've gotten past those initial stages of business where you just quite frankly, haven't had that many clients or you haven't had that much experience to really see what kinds of clients do I love working with, and where's my area of expertise, or my specialty, those that's necessary, that stage of business is necessary for anyone. And at those stages, what we tend to be doing is a lot less collaborating and a lot more receiving, or, you know, it really just is difficult to be a mutually beneficial experience at those earlier stages. When you get to six figures, seven figures and eight figures, the game changes and even in the micro niches within those revenue ranges, the things that you use collaboration for change and the reasons that you are able to give in a collaborative relationship change as well. So basically, in short, radical collaboration means you believe in an abundant world you believe that there's plenty of business to go around. You know what your specialty is, your niches your lane is, you know what everyone else's specialty and lane and industry is or what their expertise is, and you are not afraid to give referrals you're not afraid to give strategies, you're not afraid to mastermind with people and give away keys to the kingdom because you know that In doing so, it's going to create a radical reciprocity for you and your business in some way, shape or form, probably with somebody else.

And no, I think a lot of times people think that when you're collaborating, you are sharing your abundance, like, you know, God gave us your talents, and he didn't give them to you to keep in your literature. Right, you know. So, I always like to say, it probably isn't tit for tat right, you know, it probably won't come back that way. That's sort of not I mean, sometimes it does. And when it does, it's really nice. But in the beginning, I don't think it always does. So Megan, what would you say are some of the tangible and intangible outcomes and benefits that women business owners can expect from engaging in effective and radical collaboration?

Meghann Conter,: So what I want to talk about if we can is to look at what are the different reasons for collaborating, because then that helps sort of outline and understand what the potential results are? Is that okay with you? Absolutely. So if you can really look at a lot of times collaborations in the names, we call these people with whom we collaborate, we call them our power partners. And the reason for that you will hear oftentimes people are referring to their collaborative partners as as strategic partners, or as referral partners. And while I agree that that is those are both functions of your power partners, they are just one function of many possibilities. So that's why we call it power partners. So in these relationships, there are a lot of different outputs that can occur based on why you're partnering. And it also is definitely dependent upon where you are in your business, as well as some attributes of your personality. So when you are thinking about your power partners, they could be there because you are at a stage where you need to problem solve. And perhaps someone who's a power partner of yours has already solved that problem in their business. And they can give you some of the shortcuts or the keys to the kingdom as are to really get past those problems and solve them faster and with more joy, quite honestly. So you don't need that all the while shortening that learning curve. That's right. So you don't have to fall into so many pits before you actually pick yourself back up. Another reason could be doing something that I often find women find difficult to do or don't do very well, which is celebrating their wins. When you believe in abundance. When you are at those stages of business where you know that not only you succeed, but others around you succeed when you collaborate, we find time and we intentionally create time for each other in our power of partnerships to celebrate the wins. Because otherwise we find ourselves not either complaining or only always focusing on the problems, or we just don't celebrate what we've actually accomplished. And that is a that's not a cool place to be really, it doesn't help you feel very good. And it also is a barrier to gratitude in your own world. So if you can have power partners with whom you can celebrate, that's only going to magnetize the relationship and make it even better. Another one would be masterminding or ideating. So some people and we'll talk a little bit about the personality aspect, but some collaborations work best as masterminds. So maybe we're on the same level, maybe we are both running seven figure businesses and they're in similar industries or the exact same industry. Maybe we even have a business model that's almost identical. When we believe in abundance. And when we come from a space of there's plenty of business to go around. And we find a likeness in someone else. And we start masterminding on the challenges that we're facing, we open up our minds to so many more ideas and solutions. And our experiences are entirely different. Not to mention, no two businesses are ever alike. So in this space of abundance, when you really have done the work to look deep inside at your business and say, here's our core differentiators. Here's what truly sets us apart from our from everybody else, but also from my collaborative partners. So that when we sit down to mastermind, we're able to have that basis for really creating generative ideas that are mutually beneficial, based on our companies. And based on what it is that we're working on. You can also mastermind with people who aren't in the same industry, but who are just have that ideation as a top strength or as a power. And that's their gift. So perhaps we're going to use this as an example, even though it's not true. Perhaps I'm great at ideating and Patti, that's not her zone of genius. That's not her favorite thing to do. Does that mean that we can't collaborate? Absolutely not. Because I might be able to ideate and give Pat based on ideas, and she might be able to help me by connecting me to the right kinds of power partners that I need for referrals. Or Patti might be able to help me by doing what she's doing here and interviewing me today. And introducing me to a network that way. So when we look at these collaborations don't don't think of them as well. If I you know, I need to mastermind with other people who are great at masterminding it doesn't have to be, you know, parallel. And then lastly, and this is the thing that people look at as typically number one, for why we would collaborate with others, but I put it down on the farthest on the list, because I believe that it takes time and commitment with our power partners to get to know each other and know each other's businesses really well before we start cross promoting for each other, for cross referring business to each other. Oftentimes, earlier stage of business people in earlier stages of business, jump into these collaborative relationships saying, coming from a little bit of a I need leads perspective. And that's what leads groups are for, and there's nothing wrong with leads groups, and that's perfect for that perspective. But if it's not the purpose and the sole purpose of the organization, it can start feeling like you're just trying to pitch the other person. And collaborative relationships are not I'm trying to sell you my stuff. They are I'm telling you who my best clients are, and who how I help them how I create results for them. And then perhaps as we get to know each other, and you tell me the same, maybe now we're at the point where we have a shared mutual audience, or we have come in and come across potential referrals for each other, and we can actually make those exchange of referrals. So all of those reasons for power partnering or collaborating, create the results that are commensurate with them. Obvious like problem solving is to get past those challenges celebrating is to continue to set goals and achieve them and be proud of what we're achieving masterminding is to ideate and really think with two mines, which are better than one or multiple mines and start a mastermind group, or DMS powerpod. Like we have collaborations of which I didn't mention, actually, another output could be, let's say that you both serve the corporate market. And you and your collaborative partner do something very similar, but not overlapping. And yet, it's something that goes one fluidly into the next and you just have a an energy that jives with that person. If the two of you can go into a corporation, you can provide a much better solution for that company than just one person based on your areas of expertise that just flow one right into the other. So those collaborations that can come together in so many different ways, where you're basically enlarging your footprint, and you're enlarging the difference that you're making in a company or in an individual. Those are other collaborations that can be formed as a service almost.

I actually really love that because one of the things that I have found, and really this podcast is a perfect example. People say to me all the time, so Patti, your marketing media money podcast, like you actually let marketing people come on it. I'm like, Well, of course I do. Because why would somebody listen to a podcast, I was about marketing media money. If I didn't have other marketing people, I want a different perspective. I want to know people, it's like, oh, well, that's just a different way of looking at I'm serving my audience, right. So I'd love that. But one of the things that I really love about the power partners, and one of the things, I love to collaborate with people who are in the same industry as me or overlap with me, but one of the things that I feel you mentioned a lot of them but one of the things that I really love to just kind of add to that is when you overlap with somebody, sometimes here's what you're doing. And then you know, you're masterminding decide to come up with a new idea. It's really great, because sometimes what you want to do is you want to move into a new market. Right? You know, and this is, you know, maybe always serve baby boomers. And now you're like, oh, I want to go to, you know, Gen Z or whatever, right? You know, well, how great if you built a relationship with somebody who already serves them, whether them just giving you tips or doing some introductions or kind of telling you submit balls or, or whatever. I really love it, because it's a great way to really get good insights when you're switching up markets, which is something that we pivot and do a lot. So I feel that is a really good way to be able to do that. What do you

Meghann Conter,: Definitely, definitely and you know, at the same token, we can talk about the stages of business and the importance of understanding that in a minute, but I I really do feel like when I was earlier on in business And I was trying to serve everyone, I was a sub six figures. And I, you know, I had a really hard time deciding that I was going to niche in, and I was avoiding it, avoiding it. And so I would say, you know, I work with women business owners, and then I would get a little bit more specific in professional services. And then I would get a little bit more specific, that are growing from high six to seven figures, the more specific I got, the easier it was to get clients. But at the same time, the more nebulous I was, or the larger the audience that I worked with, the more that I tried to be the solution for everyone. And I see that often, when I decided to really get clearer and clearer when I was running my marketing consulting business. That was when my business doubled very easily, because I said, this is my lane, I work in this lane with this market in this capacity, there are some people who need to work with an agency doing a very similar thing than what I do. And so I had partnerships of all different kinds of collaborations with different marketing agencies, I had different subcontractors who were going to do various jobs on redoing websites and writing copy and all of these things. But I, as soon as I was able to say, I don't work with male owned companies, I don't work with companies that are larger than 2 million in revenue. And I don't work with companies that are smaller than 500,000 in revenue. And I started saying, finding those who did and who had specialty and I mean, specialty in working with those size of companies, the client potentials would come to me and instead of, instead of me thinking, I had to take all the business that ever came to me, I started referring them out. And I watched my business expand, because everybody knew that I was the expert in my niche and working with the kinds of clients that I worked with. And no longer did, I have to feel like I was spreading myself too thin, doing too many things, because I knew where my sweet spot was. And it made it so that my ideal clients became more and more and more omnipresent. I kept having better and better ideal clients fits. Because I know were specific. And I referred out to those who are in the like, on the lane in the lane next to me.

Well, even in that example that you just shared, I mean, it's almost got built in referrals, because if you are in this lane from 500,000, to this, and the ones that came to you before that, if you partnered with people that you need to specialize, well, they should get them from 250 to 500. Correct, right. And then they're bringing them back to you right around and stuff. And so, literally, I have always said, you know that when you're thinking about who your best collaboration partners are, we'll look at who all the people who are your ideal clients, what would they need before you and what was actually after you because those are really like some of the places that I think, almost are low hanging fruit in reality, right, you know, yeah, really being able to do that. So now that you told us a little bit about, you know, the attributes and the tangible and never what would you say, are some of the common reasons, but it's always good to know what not to do, as well as it is to know what to do. Right, you know, what would you say are some of the common reasons why collaborations have failed? And how can business leaders proactively address and prevent these issues?

Meghann Conter,: Yes. So a couple of those things. Let's talk about the stages of business that we're in because a lot of times we are mismatched with a collaborative partner, and or we don't really spend time thinking about what our expectations are of our collaborations. Because maybe we don't know. And we haven't really thought about that. So if we can think about things strategically, and you look at it, and within the games, this is sort of our buckets that we put people in. So we in the games are six, seven and eight figure business owners. So you'll hear me speak about the numbers in that regard. But you can kind of put the companies that are brand new, up until about 250,000 in revenue, roughly speaking, at that quarter of a million dollar mark, a lot of times you're starting to add a team, you're starting to clarify or get even more clear on your processes, you're starting to have a little bit different of a way of managing your finances at that 250 K mark. So previous to that those who are in the earlier growth stages of business, they tend or maybe that's a professional who's in a business development role for a large organization. They tend to like to form these long term power partnerships in order to cross promote their best bonuses collaborate to create new offerings so that they can get a bigger footprint with their power partners cross refer business, and then sometimes the, toward the 250. K mark, you start really thinking about people who mastermind and problem solve the asks of your power partners at these stages of business tend to be to send prospects your way, or some kind of way for them to experience your work or to experience you. So these are tendencies, right? It does not mean that this is a blanket approach across the board. But it helps to compartmentalize and start to think. So then you've got bucket b, which is those who are running companies, again, 250, K and above. And it starts getting even more and more specific when you get into seven and eight figures. However, at this stage, you're looking at those who are really in a scaling or stability stage. And they're really focused on things at this stage of employee retention, they're looking at next level finances, they are scaling their companies, they hire, you know, at the case of bigger six, hire six figures, and into seven and eighth, their teams are getting much larger. And they're really having to look at budgeting and forecasting in a very different way. So you are going to be looking at relationships, these long term power partner collaborative relationships in order to mastermind with your thought partners. In a think tank type setting. You are looking to connect with like valued women at similar stages of business or career so that you can share industry knowledge, so that you can help each other through different trials and tribulations and things like scaling, adding employees going into next level finances and processes, etc. you are solving problems together and celebrating successes. Because we often hear from these Danes that it's they're lonely at the top. And they feel like nobody understands the problems that they're having to solve by not only providing for themselves and their families, but their teams sell selves and families, and also run a business. And so those problems start to come out. And it really helps to have someone who gets you because they're at that same stage too. And to really just be able to say, Hey, this is what I'm going through who have you ever dealt with this before? And to help one another solve those issues? You might at this stage seven and eight figures start thinking about how am I going to really celebrate my wins a lot more and how am I going to attain more enjoyment in my career and my business, I've gotten past all those things of really trying to solidify the standards of business, HR, finance, marketing, sales, etc. Now I can start saving some of my brainpower for really having more enjoyment in things. So at this asks between these collaborative partners at this level, tend to be things like help achieving specific goals or thinking of different ways to achieve these goals and connections to open certain doors in their in their careers, masterminding or experience sharing so that they can cut down on trial and error. And of course, the think tanking with your peers. So to really understand where those different people are, when you are thinking about collaborating with someone, it can help to collaborate with someone who's at your same revenue level, or above. And of course, if they're above, then it's making sure that a bit of a mentor mentee relationship is what both people both parties want. So communicating those goals up front. And the expectations of the partnership is what is the number one way to keep the partnership from failing, when you don't actually communicate what it is that you're in this for and what you think you are great at or what you think that you want to be doing in this collaboration. And you don't communicate the expectations of what is it that you're going to do? What is it that I'm going to do and you don't track the results and discuss what's working and what's not. That's when collaborations tend to fail.

I really agree with that. I feel like also too, at that stage, because I think about where I am. And I think a lot of the things are, yeah, because you're raising the family, whatever the reasons are a long time you're thinking about, you know, like, revenue goals. Right, you know, but I think that at some point in time, like I know, for me that I stopped thinking not to say that I don't have revenue goals, but I think at some point it becomes more about making a difference, right, you know, and we start thinking about philanthropy, legacy and those things and so when you are collaborating or masterminding or whatever with them Those are some of the things that I think it's really important to get some ideas like how do I start a nonprofit? Like, what would I, you know, how would I do some of these things that you're not really thinking about when you're making, you know, 75,000? Or you're still, you know, trying to think about saving for the down payment on your house, right, you know, or whatever the case may be right? Those are a little bit different. So, I do think that is really important, not that we can't serve them, by me in a mutually beneficial, you know, collaboration, you know, that's a little bit different. Because, right, that's more about mentoring, which I absolutely love. So, based on all those things, which I really love, what would you say would be some examples of how you would build trust and mutual respect in those collaborative relationships to ensure that they're long term like, what are some of the best practices really there so that both parties achieve their goals

Meghann Conter,: So I think that this is where it really truly depends on the personality of people, first and foremost. So Patti knows that in the dames, we have an archetype system that we've created for power partnerships. So there's, that follows the standard archetypal model of the four different archetypes and you take the quiz and you figure out what's your top type of collaborator, you know, how do you power partner best, and not that it always follows this to suit but a lot of times, it really does show that certain personalities are great for problem solving. Other personalities are great for celebrating wins. Others are great at masterminding and ideating and get a lot of joy and a lot of energy from that. Others that drains some others are phenomenal at creating those collaborative programs or products together that can sort of capitalize on both both entrepreneurs strengths, or both leaders strengths, and other personalities or really more of the stages of business. But other personalities are great at cross promoting, or even thinking about, Oh, this is a great referral for you, and I'm going to connect you. So understanding what your personality is. And then finding out what the personality is of the other person is an easier way to find that trust inherent right up front. And once you know a little bit more about that personality type and how it relates to how you power partner, you can start thinking about where are my pitfalls? Or where are the things that I tend to fall short in? And where are the things that I excel at. So again, when we're starting out the relationship, and Patti and I meet and I can say, Patti, I'm excellent at ideating and masterminding. I'm terrible at tracking results. But I know that we should really track our results in our Power Partnership, we should discuss what are our goals for our collaboration, and then we should revisit those every once in a while. So those are some of like the strategic ways of doing things. But from a formulaic standpoint, I feel that there is a right way to build a long term relationship which starts with just like dating, you're courting someone and you're getting to know each other. And you're determining within your first meeting whether or not you even Jive together, there are some personalities that are like oil and water. And no matter how hard you try, it's not going to be an easy collaboration. You don't have to collaborate with every single person you meet. You wouldn't be an effective collaborator, if you did. And in my philosophy and the way that I've always looked at this, we have power partnerships or collaborations at different degrees. Some of those are what I would call my a power partners, some are my B's, and some are my C's. A's just mean that like we are so Uber clear on what it is that we both want from this, we're meeting our expectations, we're able to regularly meet each other's goals and needs in our collaborative relationship be would be we do that sometimes sometimes it's a little hit or miss and see would be an opportunity for us to really like gel hasn't happened yet. But I want you to stay in my sphere and I want to stay in touch with you. Because something anything could change, my target market could change, your business model could change. And so we have these relationships that are at varying degrees or varying levels of efficacy and efficiency. Hopefully I didn't diverge too much on that one because I went

I think it is really, it's really important. I remember when I took the archetype. I mean I most people that are probably listening I mean you probably some type of Myers Briggs, you know Strength Finders desk, whatever as the case may be, but I have to say, when I took it, like I knew what I was like, before I even get it like I really, you know, it just kind of validated what I already knew. But what it did that was a little bit different. That I really think is so interesting is I think that a lot of times now, I don't know, how many people are listening at ever said this. But if I had $1, for every time I said, Oh, I wish I could clone myself. Like if I could just have another body, like I would get so much done. Right. And so I know some of you out there know that you have said that, right? But I think that what ended up happening that I really realized, and I think I knew it, but it just really brought it home to me is that we tend to like to be around people who are just like us, right? You know, we want to be around people who are just like us. But then what happens is, things don't always get done, right? You know, and so I know that I'm a creator, and I love to create. And I can sit there come up with like the best marketing ideas and make you a million dollars that come out with all them. But then it's like, Okay, now let's make that happen. Like, I don't want to be the one in the back of the website doing it. i That's not my strength. That's not what I want to do, I'd be bored out of my mind. So when I found this out, I really realized that I needed a T on a Monday. And I realized that that's why sometimes my projects get didn't get finished as quickly as I wanted them to. So having this really simple quiz. And asking that question was really funny, because I just had a call before we recorded this. And it was the first question I asked, knowing that up front, changed it in this sense for me, so I'd only speak for me. But what I thought about it as as we were having the conversation, knowing what archetype she was, if you were thinking about a collaboration, if she was just like me, then maybe I would think, Oh, well, we could probably collaborate on this, this and this. If she was on the other side of that, I'd be like, Oh, well, she would be a great person to collaborate and on this, because her strength is mine. So I really feel like that was super simplistic. And it's really kind of funny, because I think, in a lot of things, we've always known that. But yet, we're kind of thinking, Oh, well, I want somebody who's just like me, which is fun when you're sitting around having a glass of wine, and you're ideating and you're just kind of thick it is it is fun to have somebody who thinks just like you and all that. Because, you know, obviously it's I mean, it's good business, but maybe not as much fun if you're having the best wine or whatever. If somebody says, Well, that won't work, because that wouldn't work because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, in that moment, I don't want to hear that. Right. Right. So I want to hear that in my team meeting. Right, but not bad, right? So I feel like that really was powerful for me, it kind of really kind of helped fill the gaps, which that was a long way of actually asking my next question, which really is that? How are some of the ways like that's one way but how would you say in radical collaboration are some of the ways you've seen people effectively manage diverse teams, to ensure that all the voices are heard and valued? Because of all the different personalities? Right?

Meghann Conter,: So specifically, how teams have been able to manage having diverse personalities?

It's, I think that can be really tough. Right? You know, I

Meghann Conter,: It's funny, because as you were talking, I was thinking of how power partnerships are very similar, like building your network of power partnerships, or collaborators, radically collaborating is very similar to building your team. And we tend to in the world of building a team, we tend to hire people that look sound act, get enthusiastic or not just like us, because we want to with that nature of wanting to clone ourselves happens at TED, especially to women, at many stages for a long time, until we realize, like you have, oh gosh, I have way too many people that are just like me. And so no wonder, like, we have so many great ideas. But then we don't have these people who are on the back end of they've already we've already completed this program. And now we're going to look at the effectiveness of it. We're going to look at all the numbers and all the data, we're going to analyze all that. And then that way, when we come back to doing it again, or changing it at all, we're looking at the data. Gosh, I don't have anyone on my team to do that. So really, it matters to understand, I think, when you're hiring people, what their personalities are, and there are ways to ask questions in interviews to find out. Is this person more like the data and analysis type person who's going to look at the numbers and look at the past data and use that to inform future decisions. It's like your bill then your power partner team, it's the same thing when you're building these radical collaborations. If you always are surrounding yourself by the other ID aiders, all you're going to have as more ideas as if you need any more ideas with your 15 People who are helping you ideate right. But if you surround yourself with other personalities, who are much more of the different example of the, in the, in the dames archetypes, the Shima, who is the visionary Trailblazer, she's figured out how to systematize stuff, she's figured out how to delegate that stuff. She has a team that is like, plug in and play. And she knows exactly where every person is in the in the full blown hierarchy of their chart. And that's how she leads her team because she's like, I know where my position is. And so you if you're someone who is much more of a heartfelt connector, or who's just wanting to make sure that you connect deeply with everyone, and that you, you make great connections and introductions for other people being able to partner with or collaborate with someone who's a visionary Trailblazer, you're going to learn a lot from each other. That's the other aspect, not only from a collaborative perspective, but approaching your team as collaborative partners, and saying, We got to have all of these areas, all the areas of the body, having the muscles built, we don't want to just have super strong biceps, and then tweaked legs, we've got to really be working on the entire system. That was examples.

That's the human part of you. I really love that. Yeah, I really got that early on, when in an organization that I belong to, they gave us accountability partners, and my accountability partner, she was a systems person all the way and we were like, we're like actually best friends now. I was like, I mean, literally, it's so funny. She and I we meet every Monday and you know, we kind of talked about she's like all about Okay, so what are you working on? And like, you know, and sometimes she'll say something like, Well, what's your this? Or what's the process for that? Or whatever, or all say, You know what, I need to do this with Tanya? Like, What's the process like? Well, we put together a process because like, I'd have to, or, or one time she showed up with this flowchart. I'll never forget it, she had all this like flowchart and I said to her, I said, you want like, flowcharts look like they look like this colored circles. And I got Yes, it, you know, whatever that would want it to look like now like these, though, you know, whenever, but yet she comes to me and says she has all this whole big thing. And then stipple Patti, how am I going to market that? And like, is that gonna make any money. So it has always worked for us really? Well. So I really did learn that and understand that. But one of the things that you just said like, even as a marketing, like, you know, we need data, we need to know, we need to know behaviors. And I understand that I need to know it, I just don't want to be the one doing it. For sure. somebody on my team that can get it and then come report it to me and share it with me. I don't want to be the person doing it right, I want to doing what I do best, which is being with the people, which is kind of my gift and what I love. So I think that really, so it says I love and I really hope everybody got the part where she actually took the radical collaboration and who's on your team, and really drew a correlation to those two things. Because maybe hadn't thought of that before or that really kind of might have filled the gap or kind of you're having an aha moment, because that was really a golden nugget right there. So that was really beautiful. So thank you so much.

Meghann Conter,: Yeah, there's one thing that I wanted to say because you had asked examples of of radical collaborations that have worked. And what I think is the key here is knowing your own strengths. Like Patti mentioned, you can take all the strengths finder, all the Enneagram, all the fires, brakes, wealth dynamics, influence ecology, you could take all of the tests under the sun. But if you don't apply them to yourself, then they're worthless. They're just pieces of paper. So those who are the most effective collaborators that I've seen, the whole concept of Know thyself, is at the forefront. They know what their strengths are, they know what their limitations are. And they know what it looks like to ask for help, or they need it in a way that is going to be generative for the other person. And also give the other person the option to say yes or no to help the hermit. And the other thing is, you know, once you learn what your strengths are, and like Patty mentioned, when you're on a call with someone and you learn what their strengths are, or you have a tool like the archetype quiz, where you can at least understand at a high level. Now you can start to say, I think that your personality is energized by creating spreadsheets and keeping track of these things. Is that true for you? And that person is going to be like, Wow, how did you know that? And or they're going to say actually, that's not my favorite way. But I like to use a Trello board and I like to Keep track of it this way and but you start learning how that other person works and operates and what they're ignited by, I am constantly astounded by the people that I'll get on a call with the power partners who are like, I created a whole spreadsheet for this. And then you could just see they're beaming from ear to ear, they're so happy to have this spreadsheet and have it, you know, ticked in certain colors. And it's, it's got graphs and they had so much joy creating that thing where it took them 20 minutes, whereas that would have taken me 17 hours, and I would have been curled up in a ball crying. And then I could come to the table having created 17 videos for the collaboration that we're working on, and I'm so jazzed, and they would have been like, that would have taken me five years. And I'm like, it took me like, you know, two hours. So it's really understanding yourself and understanding those collaborative partners. And creating those realistic expectations of what you're going to do together. And being conversational with each other being relational with each other, just like in a marriage, once you get to know each other, and then you start the courting phase and the dating phase, and then you eventually get married. The work doesn't stop Patty's as successful as you successful 26 plus year marriage, not because she is the same and her husband's the same as they were when they first got married? No, it's because they constantly look at what's most important to each of them individually, and what's of utmost importance to them as a as a collaborative or radically collaborative partnership. And having raised six kids in their life, you know, and so it's the funny thing about this is, it's so simple, because it's relating, it's how people relate to one another. But then it gets so complicated, because we think that it's different between us and our friends or us in our team or us in our husbands or, or wives or us. It's just relating, and it's how do I want to be treated? What do I want to accomplish? How do you want to be treated? What do you want to accomplish? And how do we come together to make this as easy and fun and enjoyable as possible? For each

I think that's so true. And I think it's also when you recognize that it's easier to value, what they're really into the table, even though it's not your strength, because now all of a sudden, all of a sudden, you see oh, wow, that that's so valuable, because I couldn't have done it. And I loved when we shared that part. Because I have to tell you, once I really got into this, I finally talked my husband into like I already knew, but I finally talked my husband into doing some of the personality thing. Yeah. And it was really funny because, you know, I'm kind of spontaneous, and you know, creative and all this kind of stuff. My husband is like, here's two things that don't just tell you everything about him. One, he takes his vitamins before bed, he takes them at night before bed, and I'll go get mine. And he's like, what, we're not going to bed yet. I'm like, Well, we are in about 15 minutes, he goes That's not before bed, like he literally has to take them before he goes to bed now 15 minutes before, and he has a process for how he does his lunch to get ready for work. And if I asked him to do some of that in between that and he like looks at me like oh my gosh, you just messed up my process. Right? You know, where I should have worked for me, I can just go with the flow and whatever. But once I recognize that things that annoy you about someone or whatever, all of a sudden you just understand as part of who they are. And you can do so much more accepting and value them for their differences, even though they're not like you and that's totally okay. Right, you know, so

Meghann Conter,: This is why I say business growth is an inside job for every single CEO. Because the more we learn about ourselves, and those we relate to, the better we are in our businesses, and the more our business can grow and flourish with us being in that seat of exquisite self mastery. And that it just came out and and really also radical acceptance of the other people and who they are and what makes them light up and understanding that we're not all the same, thank goodness because it would be a really boring world, for sure. And one other thing to really just to nail in here about the success of relationships in collaboration and radical, radical collaboration or failure is to let go of the old stories, as women specifically this is this is a tip of if you're finding that you're having a hard time collaborating or finding the right collaborative partners, chances are there's some kind of story or belief that you have about yourself or others that you're holding on to probably from middle school, probably from elementary school that you got on the park, you know on the playground and you brought with you into your adult years, and that's running the show And so it's our job to let go of those old stories decide what we want to believe going forward, that there's plenty of business to go around, that most women are truly collaborative, they are not Catty, they're not, you know, insulting, they are not XYZ, that most women have best interest in mind of each other. And that there is this possibility. There are so many possibilities. But my favorite outcome, by far of collaborative radical collaboration is my business besties. I have, most of my best girlfriends and girlfriends at this stage of my life are new friends, they're, you know, friends that I've met in the last 10 to 12 years in business. And we started out as power partners, we started out getting to know each other. And we really formed a long term relationship of mutual admiration, mutual respect, helping each other out in every way we could, because it was easy for us, because we found somebody that we really enjoyed spending time with and who really just gets us because they're a business owner, too. And that business bestie outcome is extremely possible, when we come at it from this open, armed, abundant, understanding that there are infinite possibilities that can come from these relationships. And you don't need 100 Power partners that are your business besties. But what if you had fives? And what if you had a better life? Because of it?

What if you have 518? Three B team and two on the CT? You know, they I mean? That's really, that's really all you need? I have to say, Megan, I really appreciate you coming in and breaking this down. I really think that the people who are listening are thinking, wow, I never quite thought of collaboration exactly that way. That's why it's radical collaboration, right? You know, ugly, but because you are so generous with your information and abundance, you actually bought a really super awesome gift. So tell everybody that gift about how to network like a million dollar business owners zoom a little bit about?

Meghann Conter,: Yes, yes, yes. So this is a PDF download that you can get? And do you want me to tell them where you can, but the button will be below. But if you watch them, it'll be below. So you can always go to the dames.co forward slash download. But here, it's a free PDF for you to really understand what is your unique networking strategy, how you should identify the correct kinds of connections, who could be your best collaborative power partners for the results that you're looking for. And also getting the checklist that is really curated for you to manage effective one on ones, so that when you begin to get to know these power partners, you maximize those calls that you do, from the very first call through every call that you have from then on. So you'll get all of that in this one PDF,

Which I think is wonderful. Because you know, it's really nice when you listen to somebody and you're thinking to yourself, oh, wow, that makes so much sense. Oh, I just love that. And oh, that really resonates with me. But it's really nice. When you can get something that will help you to implement it. They can take what you heard and be like, Okay, that's really, really great. How do I break that down and implement it? Right? You know, so that's really great. So thank you so much for that gift for them. Yeah, thank you so much for taking time to be here with me today. And most of all, thank you so much for the time that we have spent talking about how we are going to collaborate. So

Meghann Conter,: Yes our data viewer has the same view. And thank you for living in your subject matter expertise always and for demonstrating what it looks like to be a great radical collaborator.

Thank you so much. And to my audience, thank you so much for being here with us today. Thank you for tuning in. And I know that you really enjoyed our episode. Absolutely sure. And if you did, please like, subscribe and review the podcast on whatever your favorite listening platform is. And if you're not already a subscriber to the marketing media Money Magazine, I invite you to get your free lifetime subscription to that by going to M three Digital mag.com. And until next week. I hope you have a phenomenal week. Make sure you go check out the Dane stock. Oh, I think that everything she said today, I am a partner to the dates. And I love it. And I'd love to invite you to be a part of it too. Until next week. Thank you so much. Thank you again, Meghann. It has been fabulous.

Meghann Conter,: Thank you, Patty