A candle never looses any of it’s light by lighting another candle

How many of us can literally related to this phrase? I have definitely, on many occasions, used a candle to light other candles around the house. Isn’t it just easier and more practical than using several matchsticks for each candle. Not only is it a waste of a whole box of matchsticks but also saves your finger from getting burnt. And if you don’t related to this, how about the adage, ‘A rising tide lifts all ships’. Next time you are at a harbor check out the boats in the water. When a big wave or a surge comes through, all the ships rise up.

Community is truly a beautiful thing. But I get it. Finding the right community – a group of people to help you, listen to you, support you and cheer you on is hard. A lot of us are of the mindset that competition is bad. We feel that the businesses and people who are our competitions are somehow out to get us, take away our clients and watch from the sidelines as we fail. That is far from the truth.In fact one of the questions I asked all the guests on Season 02 of the podcast was around competition, how saturated was their industry or market space and how do they deal with competition in their scope of work. And you know what nearly each one of them said. They said that competition was not something they worry about. In fact guests like Freya Dowson and Liz Schaffer talked about how they routinely reach out to peers in their industry and meet up to not only socialize but also help each other out. CulturallyOurs very own, Hannah Beasley, talked about how she too connects with other graphic designer and collaborates on projects to help build a sense of community even though all her work is done virtually. Making friends in your industry might be hard initially but it is not impossible.

There is great power in numbers and together we can achieve so much more. One thing that a lot of us don’t realize is that there is more than enough work to go around and behind every business, especially a small business, is an actual person – a human being just trying to fulfill their wildest dreams. Not products or machines or services, but people. And guess what, people want to belong, want to connect and want to form friendships – in life and in business.

Join me on this bonus episode of CulturallyOurs as we look at some tactical and practical ways you too can choose to build community over competition in business.

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