In this collaborative episode, Tanya Fox, Owner of Fox Talks Business, shares the lessons she has learned the hard way–trying to do it all on her own–and how she helps entrepreneurs rekindle their passion through effective collaboration. If you’re a few years into your business and you’re burned out, and you find yourself asking, “What was I thinking starting this organization?” then you won’t want to miss this episode!
You will discover:
– How to structure a collaboration for success BEFORE you start
– The real reason for collaboration
– Who collaboration can help the most
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And here with us today is yet another high demand coach in the one and only Tanya Fox who is an entrepreneur who has succeeded and failed over the past 26 years. She has owned a variety of businesses, including retail service and franchises. Tanya knows the best way to remember something is to have a good time while learning it, and this is why she brings stories and lots of laughter to each engagement. She loves teaching and speaking about collaboration and business strategy on stage with clients and in her weekly podcast, she helps entrepreneurs find passion, collaborate and grow profit and fall in love with their business. Again. She’s also got a brand new book out called how to collaborate, a small business guide to increase profits, build relationships and stop doing it all by yourself. Well, Tanya, welcome to the show. I’m glad to have you here. I want to start out of the gate, kind of 101, here. What does collaboration actually look like? What does that mean?
Tanya Fox
So, I mean, you can look up tons of definitions, but the one that I like to say, it’s really two people coming together for their own benefit that’s really tearing it all away. You know, a lot of people will give an answer of you know, you know you’re doing it for the other person, but let’s be honest, we all want to grow when we’re working with each other. So it’s finding somebody else who has a skill that either you need or don’t want to do, and finding a way to share those with each other so that you can both grow and hopefully make profit out of it. That’s why we’re all here. Let’s be honest.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that, and I love tying it to some of the downstream effects. We’ll get to that here in a moment. One of the things that I’ve found, particularly in the small business world, is there’s this temptation toward isolation, and one of the paths to that is, well, it’s just faster if I do it myself, right? It’s just faster if I might not be the best person in the world of that, but I can get it done and it’ll be fine. What would you say to someone who’s sitting there thinking, why collaborate when it’s quicker to just do it myself?
Tanya Fox
The truth is, it isn’t quicker to do it yourself. We all think it is, but when you take that task, you’re not doing something else that is more beneficial to you. So to use something really simple, for example, I absolutely hate filing. I do not like doing it. I don’t enjoy it. So I collaborate with other people, either on my team, who really love doing it, and let them have their happiness in it. Because what happens is it kind of causes me to go into a different modality. I’m upset about it. I don’t like doing it. I put it off. I procrastinate. So really, at the end of the day, it ends up sort of taking you longer to do that task. That would be easier if I just did it by myself. But like you were saying, the other real big problem to it is that you cause yourself to spiral into isolation because you just end up feeling like you have the best answers, or it is always all on me, and it’s not fun to run a business that way, and you can’t get ahead doing that. I’ve tried it. I’ve tried it in new numerous businesses. It does not work. You cannot get ahead alone. So, and it’s more fun when you have somebody else that you can, you know, kibitz with, or go through the good times and the bad times with.
Scott Ritzheimer
Wow. So as you’re looking for folks to kind of bring into the circle, if you will. Are there different types of collaborators? Do people approach it different ways? Is there anything that we should be paying attention to from that perspective?
Tanya Fox
Usually, like, I say, anybody can collaborate with anybody. There’s always a way to sort of make it work, even if it’s your direct competitor. We see that a lot in Coke and Pepsi. You know, they are rivals, considered rivals in the world, but we see them constantly working together. So there really isn’t anybody that you can’t work with. But when starting out, the easiest thing to do is to make a just a simple list of all of the things you love doing, what you know, what rejuvenates you, what kind of sparks you up, and the stuff that you don’t really like doing in your business. And then when you’re looking for people, find somebody who loves doing one of those things that are on your list that you’re like, you know what? I’d rather not touch, that those are the easiest ones to start off with, because hopefully one of your skills on your I love to do this will be on there. I don’t love to do this side, and I redo that list every year, so that if somebody all of a sudden comes around and they’re like, Oh, I absolutely, you know, love filing. To use my previous example, I’ll be like, we need to talk.
Scott Ritzheimer
So I can hear some folks just kind of thinking, asking themselves, like, that’s fine. I can understand how in a team environment, that would be really effective. And, you know, yay for teams. But I work. Myself, I’m a solopreneur. How do they collaborate when they’re the only employee?
Tanya Fox
So this can help you. You know, collaboration can really help you the most when you are sort of wearing all of the hats right now. Because when you start out in business, let’s be honest, usually we are right. We’re the frontline person, we’re the CEO, we’re that cashier, where, you know, we’re kind of everything along the way. So really, you thinking about, how is it that I can, you know, get the word out, we always want to, you know, more people to find us, so that could be as just going to other people who are, you know, in the same type of industry as you and saying, you know, can we work together? You know, can this be a referral collaboration? You know, say you’re a bookkeeper, you know, go to Accounts and say, you know, I have space for new clients. Would you be willing to, you know, refer me. You can do different deals. You could do different discounts. That is kind of the easiest way to get out there without having to sit there and spend tons of money on all of this stuff. I’ve done it with advertising as well. I’ve gone to other businesses and said, Hey, would you be interested in kind of doing a sell, a sale together, or combining our products if you’re a consultant or a coach, but maybe you don’t deal with social media. Find somebody who’s a social media coach that you love and say, Hey, would you like to team up together to offer a full, rounded package? So those are just a few of the ways that you can, you know, kind of offer more than what you actually do by collaborating with other people.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. So let’s see someone’s bought in they’re working with other folks. Doesn’t always work well, right? Sometimes there’s some hiccups. There’s problems that happen, maybe not even sometimes, there’s always hiccups. But what have you found some folks do some of the most common ways that folks will either consciously or even unconsciously undermine the effectiveness of their collaboration.
Tanya Fox
So typically, what I find is, again, that personality of I will just take it all on and not, you know, I always say, sit down and do clear, defined roles of everybody who’s in the collaboration and what they need to do, and then allow them space to do that. We always go, you know, well, I would have had that done yesterday. That’s fine to reach out, and that communication is going to be key to go, Hey, how is this going? Are you working on this? Do you need some help with this? And understanding that not everybody is going to work just as you do, but having that communication and always asking the question, how is it working for you? How are you liking this? What are you seeing? What are you witnessing as we’re going through this? So that you can tweak and it is 100% always okay to go, This isn’t working. Let’s end this now, before we’re going and I still to this day, have those where we try something that is outlandish, that we’re like, oh my god, this is going to be amazing. And a month in, we’re like, this is not going how we thought it, and it’s okay to, you know, scale back and go, Okay, we’re gonna stop here. We’re gonna stop now. Before we dig this hole any deeper, let’s reassess and decide, do we want to do something else, or should we move on?
Scott Ritzheimer
One of the challenges that that presents is, if you’re working by yourself, the there is no real perceivable gap between what we think is the right way and our way, right? You know, right? It doesn’t mean that it’s always the right way, but that the gap between what we think is the right way and our way doesn’t exist. Well, as soon as you add someone else to that equation, it, it complicates it significantly, because they they’re inherently going to do a lot of things a different way, and we have to be able to kind of slice between what is the right way, right it has to meet these criteria to succeed, versus what is our way. How do you help folks to distinguish the difference between those two?
Tanya Fox
So it’s really sitting down and having really good conversations before you ever start working together, creating those timelines and then biting your tongue. Because, for example, I like getting everything done way ahead of time. I like to have it done sitting ready to go. My husband is a person who loves the 11th hour like he would. It’s amazing what that man can get done in an hour. But so being in that kind of relationship has allowed me to sort of sit back and go, Okay, I have to be okay with letting them figure this out on their own. So if that is something though, that you don’t like, you’re like, oh my god, that would give me so much anxiety. Then make sure you find somebody who has that similar I need to get stuff done way before, ahead of the due date, and make sure that’s the type of person that you’re working with, so that you don’t run into those or be honest and say, Hey, I’m not. An 11th hour person, like, I get really, really anxious about this. Could we keep the communication open, just so I know what you’re working on, being honest with that really helps both of you not to sort of come to heads or you be upset, and the other person going, I got it done. You know? What’s the problem? So I think it’s you really have to sit down and come to terms with what are you willing to accept and what are you willing to go? Okay, I’m gonna let them work how they need, need to work, because sometimes that’s where the beauty of the collaboration is, is you get to experience the way someone else does stuff. And I found a lot of tricks and just things that I start doing in my business, just by observing the different ways that other people work.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. So one of the things that really struck me as I was getting ready for this episode was this kind of dual nature of you spend a lot of time helping founders, in particular, rekindle their passion. Right? How tie that together with collaboration for us, because those seem like they’re different worlds. Where did those intersect? And how is it that you pull it all together?
Tanya Fox
I think for me, it was because I was there, I started a business, and I was very wide eyed about it, and, of course, loved it. And, you know, three years in, I kind of hit that, that status where you’re like, is this it? Is this the relationship? Like, do I really want to do this forever? And so I was trying to find different ways that I could fall in love and get that initial feeling of the relationship back again. Right the beginning, spark back, honeymoon phase. I wanted it back. And so I started diving into doing collaborations to sort of figure out, what are my superpowers, like, what are those things that people really want from me? And so when I started going out and asking people, like, hey, you know, I’m really kind of, like bored in the business, like, is, do you have any ideas of stuff that we could you know that we could do, or maybe events or promotions that we could do? And working with those other people got them excited to do something new in their business, and got me to see what other people were excited about with me that I was like, Oh my gosh, I totally forgot that, because it comes so easy to me, I totally forgot that would be interesting to somebody else. So now I do it all the time. I have people kind of walk through my businesses, whether, and you don’t have to have a retail store for that, right? It’s just come through. See all the stuff I do, and I pay attention. Where do they get why? Wide Eyed. Where are they like, Oh, I love that idea. And then that’s what I latched on to. And then that helps me to kind of go, Oh, I’m really excited about this again, right? Because as soon as somebody else gets excited about something you do, it’s easy, that spark all of a sudden, ignites where you’re like, I forgot how fun that was, or I forgot how exciting that was to teach somebody that I forgot what it’s like to have that client or that customer’s eyes just light up and the light bulb to go off for them. So collaboration really helps you to kind of start sparking and flicking those light switch back on, which helps you to move forward in your business. Because when you’re excited, you want to do more things.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. I love that. Tanya, there’s a question I like to ask them. I guess I’m gonna fire it your way here, what would you say is that, excuse me, what is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Tanya Fox
I think that for me, I would say that every single person out there is creative, and we all think outside of the box. You know, we hear it all of the time, and a lot of people who come to me say, you know, I’m not creative. It’s just not in me. I’m not artistic. I just don’t have those things. And the truth is, we are all already doing it. We’re just not paying attention to it. So look around your house or your office, of where you’re at and just look for things that you’re using that are not their intended purposes. So, do you have a drinking glass that you are putting pens into that’s thinking outside of the box? You know? Are you using a sheet as a curtain? You know? Bring me back to my college days, that’s thinking outside of the box. We all think it has to be this, you know, huge, monumental thing, and it’s all of these little things just looking around your environment and thinking, What can I use that for? You know, beside its intended purposes, look how many things a tree is used for. You know, these are all thinking outside of the box. So we can all do it. And the more you practice, the easier it becomes. It’s like building a muscle, and you’ll start to see it everywhere. All of a sudden it jumps out at you, and you’re like, oh, that’s different. That’s not its intended purposes. And it becomes kind of a little bit of a game that you can see how much stuff, how many, how often you actually do this.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. There’s some folks listening to this, and you’ve given them hope. Haven’t had in a while. They want to go deeper on how to collaborate. They want to find that spark again. First I was working we get a copy of your book and and then also, where can folks find more about the work that you do?
Tanya Fox
So you can find my book on Amazon in Barnes and Nobles and a lot of the bookstores. So just to google how to collaborate by Tanya Fox. You can also find it by going to my website, which is foxtalksbusiness.com and there you can find the book. You can find our podcast, all of the different programs that we have running tons of free resources on there and as well, social media. Just read out if you have a question or you want some ideas, those we always offer for free because they help to ignite and spark us as well.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. I love it. Well. Tanya, thanks so much for being here today. Just a privilege and honor having you on the show. And for those of you watching and listening today, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Tanya Fox
Tanya Fox is an entrepreneur who has succeeded and failed over the past 26 years. She has owned a variety of businesses, including retail, service, and franchise. Tanya knows the best way to remember something is to have a good time while learning it. This is why she brings stories and lots of laughter to each engagement. She loves teaching and speaking about collaborations and business strategy on stage, with clients, and on her weekly podcast. She helps entrepreneurs find passion, collaborate, grow profit, & fall in love with their business again.
Want to learn more about Tanya Fox’s work at Fox Talks Business? Check out her website at https://www.foxtalksbusiness.com/ and get a copy of her book, How to Collaborate: A small business guide to increase profits, build relationships, and stop doing it all by yourself, at https://amzn.to/4hylzUv
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