Ep98 Priscilla McKinney - Competition Is Killing Your Business. Start Collaborating for Massive Success

00:00:00:04 - 00:00:05:23
Jason Croft
Today, the show strategy plus action equals collaboration instead of competition.

00:00:06:23 - 00:00:11:17
Jason Croft
Great coaches and consultants like you have the ability to change people's

00:00:11:17 - 00:00:18:29
Jason Croft
lives and transform entire organizations, and your impact can often go far beyond the clients you work with.

00:00:19:18 - 00:00:20:10
Jason Croft
One of the reasons

00:00:20:13 - 00:00:24:26
Jason Croft
I love working with coaches and consultants is because of that ripple effect.

00:00:24:26 - 00:00:34:03
Jason Croft
This show is here to highlight your expertise and empower you with resources and new ideas to grow your business. Welcome to Strategy and Action.

00:00:35:06 - 00:00:59:13
Jason Croft
Priscilla McKinney is on the show today. And my goodness, we have a just fantastic conversation. You are going to absolutely love it. I know I say that a lot, but I'm telling you, get out of pen and paper. I jump in coaches, consultants, especially those working in the B2B space we dig in with. So many just amazing ideas, but also specifically just for your business.

00:00:59:13 - 00:01:32:00
Jason Croft
Priscilla brings this great insight around how to truly collaborate with you know, those around you, people who you think of as competitors, and these this three step framework that she has in you watch the episode to to get it. it's just it's just fantastic. And it really is imperative that all three of those aspects of collaboration are there to make this complete win.

00:01:32:00 - 00:02:03:24
Jason Croft
And, you know, just make the whole thing success. Well, and we dig into this, you know, idea of letting go of, you know, the competition mindset. And we hear that conversation a lot right around. You need to be an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset. And that's absolutely plays into this. But then we get into the the tactics of it and the the strategies behind it and how to truly pull this off and some of the subtleties that are involved that really make the whole thing work.

00:02:04:01 - 00:02:38:28
Jason Croft
You know, this idea of letting go of competition and embracing collaboration or, you know, solving problems within your organization or for the organization and with collaboration, you know, working together as a team or working with other companies to reach a bigger goal. It sounds like an obvious approach, honestly. Just a this this thought and this idea of like, oh yeah, there probably is good and yet so few of today's businesses are truly embracing it.

00:02:39:01 - 00:03:10:00
Jason Croft
You know, we have the version of even in a solo preneur or a coach level of, you know, this, this kind of false collaboration where which is, hey, yeah, let's work together. Meaning, you know, I want your audience or, or it's a collaboration that is based in I. I couldn't do this on my own. I better find someone to help in neither one of those, or are coming from a place of strength of where you should operate from.

00:03:10:02 - 00:03:35:29
Jason Croft
With this idea of collaboration. And so as as Priscilla breaks these down for us and frameworks in a way to think about all of this, it's just gonna help you skyrocket your business. When you go into this, you'll have so many new ideas specifically that she's giving you this episode, but also a way to think about your business specifically and how you could apply the same principles.

00:03:35:29 - 00:03:49:24
Jason Croft
the whole idea for this show, came about because of Priscilla's book collaboration is the new competition, and I just love this core concept of it. And that's what, you know, prompted this

00:03:49:24 - 00:03:58:13
Jason Croft
And Priscilla and her book were even on my radar because of the great Andrew McKinney, who is a past guest friend from my Dallas days. And and still to this day.

00:03:58:13 - 00:04:10:10
Jason Croft
he recommends somebody like, I'm going to meet you, I want to have a conversation. And once again, it did not disappoint. It just this was a phenomenal episode with Priscilla.

00:04:10:13 - 00:04:11:16
Jason Croft
All right, let's jump in.

00:04:18:27 - 00:04:27:02
Priscilla McKinney
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. And as a, you know, a fellow podcast host, I'm just going to sit back and make you do all the work. Jason, thanks for having me.

00:04:27:02 - 00:04:49:11
Jason Croft
yeah. Glad to do it and I and I know that that feeling. Well it's awesome when you can just, kick back. It's it's it's it's fantastic. The the. Speaking of fantastic Andrew McKinney, just for the audience. Say no relation. but Andrew McKinney, who past guest on this show. Amazing connection from my Dallas days, introduced the two of us.

00:04:49:11 - 00:04:58:24
Jason Croft
I'm so glad he did and has has absolutely raved about you. And when Andrew says, hey, you should have a conversation with someone, I just say yes.

00:04:59:02 - 00:05:21:05
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, I say no relation, but it's not because I don't want to be connected to him. You said it's a great connector. but people do often make assumptions because we do pal around at conferences and we often are on LinkedIn, especially commenting on commenting on each other's posts and really doing one better for each other.

00:05:21:05 - 00:05:25:07
Priscilla McKinney
So he is a fantastic connection and I'm so glad he put us together.

00:05:25:17 - 00:05:47:08
Jason Croft
Oh, yeah. I am too. And this is this is awesome. There's so many different aspects that we could go with this conversation that, you know, and I want to dig into several of them. That is your expertise from market research and insights in the B2B world. But I really got intrigued with your book collaboration is the new competition.

00:05:47:10 - 00:06:08:12
Jason Croft
And this that core concept that I believe in so much. And we here talked around quite a bit. And yet the amount of people and companies as a whole, especially actually embracing this idea, is very few.

00:06:08:25 - 00:06:09:19
Priscilla McKinney
Write.

00:06:37:00 - 00:06:42:12
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah. Right, right.

00:07:01:01 - 00:07:20:13
Priscilla McKinney
Okay, let's talk about our own local geography. And for me, I would kind of refer to that as the soup you're swimming in, right? Well, this is very localized geography. And that soup, in my opinion, is that everybody is time poor. Ain't nobody got time for that. And we can just, you know, put that on top of everything for sure.

00:07:20:15 - 00:07:40:05
Priscilla McKinney
Everybody is in some kind of a crunch mode. Everybody is being pressed. They're being asked to do more with less. And you know, Covid then came in and just kick that up a couple of notches. And now this one goes to 11 and we're all just kind of scrambling. And I would offer to that kind of if we look at that as a geography, this is the super swimming.

00:07:40:05 - 00:08:08:18
Priscilla McKinney
And I would say that there is good news and there's bad news. And the good news is you can't go it alone. And the bad news is you can't go it alone. And so, you know how if you're an optimist, you might say one first or pessimist the other way around. But the point is, I want people to quit seeing this problem that we have of being pressed and not being able to get traction on our brands or our personal influence, whatever it is.

00:08:08:21 - 00:08:22:06
Priscilla McKinney
we can't do it alone. And so we must collaborate. But unfortunately, so many people have done things in the name of collaboration that were actually not collaboration. And that's where my book comes in.

00:08:44:29 - 00:09:07:07
Priscilla McKinney
Right. Well, I want to I'll give you kind of two sets of examples. One is the example of like let me give you a framework that will work because you and I have many examples from boards we've been on or groups we've been forced to be in, dumb committees. And I could go on and on. Right. These are not collaboration, but they get billed as collaboration.

00:09:07:09 - 00:09:26:23
Priscilla McKinney
In my book. I specifically explain the framework for a collaboration. It's simple. You don't even have to read the book in order to get this. So maybe get a pencil out and write this down. But the first thing that is necessary for an actual collaboration to take place is that everybody involved has to have something to win and something to lose.

00:09:26:25 - 00:09:49:04
Priscilla McKinney
And this is where the first thing gets problematic, is that many times people reach out to you, Jason, you have a podcast I want to collaborate with you, which means I want you to do all the work, get me on your brand and amplify my voice. And what do they have to lose? Nothing. Right? And so that already sets things up.

00:09:49:04 - 00:10:09:12
Priscilla McKinney
Not for a collaboration, but you do get someone a favor and that's great. Jason, go do people favors, but don't call it collaboration. And the second thing is that people involved with you have to be willing to show their agendas. No hidden cards, put them on the table. What am I going to get out of this? What are you going to get out of this?

00:10:09:12 - 00:10:26:28
Priscilla McKinney
And here you and I are collaborating. I'm a podcast host. You're a podcast host. You should then be able to be on my podcast. Right. And we should be able to say, hey, Jason, I'm reaching out to you. Yes, Andrew put us together, but honestly, I'm trying to amplify my voice. I want to get my book out there.

00:10:26:28 - 00:10:44:00
Priscilla McKinney
Can you help me with that? And when I am honest and I put that out there, then you create a better podcast episode, right? So then we talk about who is your audience and how can I help them. You know, do that and then likewise. Hey, if you were to come on my show, what is that going to look like?

00:10:44:00 - 00:11:03:06
Priscilla McKinney
Let me tell you about my idea. Let's let's really collaborate so that it can be good. You can get your agenda done and I can get my agenda done. Right. So the last.

00:11:03:09 - 00:11:07:20
Jason Croft
Yeah. I have.

00:11:20:17 - 00:11:40:24
Priscilla McKinney
Well, that's the thing you mentioned. That's just like when things get cloaked with weird professionalism or with weird. Oh, I'm going to do you a favor. You know, it's like, really? That doesn't sound like an actual fair to me, because that's not what I need. And so then we start having these weird feelings around it. And if anybody's that on LinkedIn recently, there's a lot of weird feelings out there, right?

00:11:40:26 - 00:11:45:18
Priscilla McKinney
Because people aren't being honest. They're not showing their agendas. Right?

00:12:37:09 - 00:12:40:02
Jason Croft
Right.

00:12:40:05 - 00:12:57:22
Priscilla McKinney
Right. And, And then another thing that gets added to that is that for salespeople who really do need to go out and ask, hey, I need a meeting, or I would like to know something about your business, you know, like, would you be interested in this? Unfortunately, what it does is it pile. Shame on that. Whereas salespeople listen, we're all feeding our kids.

00:12:57:22 - 00:13:21:04
Priscilla McKinney
We're all putting our kids through college. We're all wanting to go on a vacation world. Whatever it is that you have in mind, there's no shame in that game. And so when people aren't willing to share their agendas, that shame creeps in. And all of that weirdness, like, just completely undoes, you know, all of the relationship. And that's where people feel like, you know, they were reached out to with one particular tone, and then they got what I call the pitch slap.

00:13:21:06 - 00:13:37:10
Priscilla McKinney
Now I'm just going to pitch you. But that was my intention all along. I really wasn't curious about these questions. I just was basically assigning you homework in order to have a conversation with me in which I could bitch slap you. You know, it's like those LinkedIn, you know, ones that say, tell me what the most pressing issue is facing.

00:13:37:10 - 00:13:43:29
Priscilla McKinney
Link the little bird marketing today. I'm like, no, I don't know. You.

00:13:44:00 - 00:14:04:28
Jason Croft
It's such a. Yeah. There's such a nuance in the answer to most of it. For everyone out there going. Okay, well, then what do I do? That salesperson that person trying to get on shows us, like, we'll start with putting all this stuff down, all the tactics, all the things down and just be a human and even showing up as a human.

00:14:05:00 - 00:14:30:03
Jason Croft
You're because all of this is going on. People are going to still have their walls up. They're going to think you're you've got an agenda. But the more you just keep coming at it with, hey, I'm legitimately interested in you. What you got going on? Absolutely. And the potential to work together, but I don't even know yet and just keep coming from from that place.

00:14:30:05 - 00:14:35:09
Jason Croft
You're going to win nine times out of ten. If just if you just on the side of humanness.

00:14:35:16 - 00:14:54:02
Priscilla McKinney
Right. Well, case in point. This is why you and I are together is because I lead with a lot of giving during Covid, nobody had money to spend. And so I just went out and did as much as I could, you know, for as many people as I could, to the degree that I could do it and it it's just it was just like, go out and try and help, you know.

00:14:54:02 - 00:15:12:10
Priscilla McKinney
And that brought me to a real connection with Andrew McKinney. And you find your people. Those people keep helping you find the people. So when you do get honest like that, you start finding yourself in these groups. But the last thing I would say, so there's three things in this framework for it to be, true collaboration.

00:15:12:10 - 00:15:33:11
Priscilla McKinney
And the last one is that everyone involved has to have a desire to win. And by a desire, I mean like some energy to put into it. They really are invested in not only you winning, but but them winning as well. Like you, it's verve, it's drive, it's energy. It's interesting. You know interesting thoughts are just being present.

00:15:33:17 - 00:15:37:00
Priscilla McKinney
That is so missing in so many relationships.

00:15:37:14 - 00:15:58:22
Jason Croft
That's great. Yeah. Being. It's great if, like. Yeah, I could win. Like, if you just hit the first two. Yeah, I could win something. But if you don't hit that third, I. I care so much about this outcome and winning in this way. Yeah. That's that's all the difference. And I'm sure we've, you know all experienced those two.

00:15:58:24 - 00:16:20:09
Jason Croft
I mean I recently had a, you know a potential collaboration. And there was I stopped it just from I didn't have number three dialed in and I didn't even know why. And I reached out and was like, I really apologize. I'm not there with this. I have a feeling I'm going to be I'm not there, so I don't want to limp along.

00:16:20:11 - 00:16:22:04
Jason Croft
Yeah, I love that.

00:16:22:08 - 00:16:42:00
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah. So to me, that's kind of the what you ask. Like the geography that's a super swimming and that we're all so time poor and yet we have very large remits that we need to get done. And that is the same for an individual coach who is like, oh my gosh, I, how do I expand my reach to a global company I might work for?

00:16:42:00 - 00:17:00:02
Priscilla McKinney
And saying, yeah, you know, we're a global company. But the reality is, is that these small companies are nimble and disrupting things. And so they also need to reach out and collaborate and have, an effort that is much larger. So no one is immune to this need for collaboration.

00:17:00:01 - 00:17:14:02
Jason Croft
Let's speak to those folks who are in that competition mindset a little bit. You know, that that were certainly the book addresses and that you're, you know, like get out of this competition mindset, but they hey, it's the business down the street.

00:17:14:02 - 00:17:37:06
Jason Croft
It's that coach online who you know, man, they're taking my exact they're got my exact clients. You know all the all all the way to that big global company who is certainly thinking, you know, Nike is not going to collaborate with Adidas. Right. It's just not going to happen today. You know, again, the way we're going, who knows.

00:17:37:13 - 00:17:58:21
Jason Croft
But we have seen some big massive collaborations that aren't necessarily, you know, Coke and Pepsi, but they are two industry giants who you wouldn't think would collaborate. And they're going together. So so how do we kind of start to shift that mindset to get out of that scarcity competition mindset?

00:17:58:21 - 00:18:14:14
Priscilla McKinney
There are a lot of good examples of big brands doing serious collaborations. And to be honest, is as collaborative and as in your face as Nike is. I would not put it past them to actually reach out to Adidas and do this, so that I be here for it all.

00:18:14:21 - 00:18:34:03
Priscilla McKinney
But we see it in the big brand landscape where I don't see think we see it enough is in the one off person and in the small companies. And the reality is that there's so much it's so much easier to do it at that stage of the game. And so it is really a crying shame that more people don't do it.

00:18:34:05 - 00:18:58:20
Priscilla McKinney
But you asked, how do we get those people who are not collaborative, you know, or not collaborate then at least now to consider it? And I would say, I don't know that I can get someone completely over the hump. I can only get someone who actually has an abundance mindset to learn the tactics that it takes, and the good frameworks that will keep them sound as they do it.

00:18:58:20 - 00:19:17:02
Priscilla McKinney
I don't think I can change the person who has this mindset of scarcity and someone is taking my client. If I win, then you lose this win lose by binary view of the world. I don't know, I could shake that out of someone, but if they could get loose of that, then I could help them.

00:19:56:26 - 00:20:22:13
Priscilla McKinney
And I have to say, I need to remind people that collaboration. It does not mean giving away trade secrets. So let's kind of go back to this. Nike, Adidas piece. It doesn't mean they're opening the books up for each other. It doesn't mean they're giving away their competitive advantage. It means for a particular campaign or for a particular time, they could come together for a particular purpose where there can be a win win.

00:20:22:16 - 00:20:46:14
Priscilla McKinney
And so it doesn't mean that these collaborations have to be either number one long term, or that they have to be absolute embellishment. They can actually be a very light connection for a very specific purpose. And they're not giving away trade secrets. None of us can. We shouldn't. We probably find a lot of, you know, documents that we can't do that.

00:20:46:19 - 00:20:48:28
Priscilla McKinney
So that's not what I'm asking for.

00:20:48:29 - 00:20:53:06
Jason Croft
Yeah. Oh, I love that. I think we're designing something amazing for Nike Adidas here.

00:20:54:20 - 00:20:56:23
Priscilla McKinney
You're welcome.

00:21:22:00 - 00:21:22:24
Jason Croft
Yeah.

00:21:22:27 - 00:21:41:14
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah, I love that. So let's break that down, though for the people I think are not taking advantage of it. So let's talk specifically to your audience of these individual coaches. You know this I was just at a CEO summit and someone in the circle said, you know, it's lonely at the top. And I thought, that's interesting.

00:21:41:14 - 00:22:01:06
Priscilla McKinney
I just had a guest on my podcast the week before, and he and I were having a conversation about this, and he said to me, you know, Priscilla, that old adage, it's lonely at the top. That's a choice. And I could not agree more. And that was Sean Neeson. So, you know, shout out to him. But I totally agree with that.

00:22:01:09 - 00:22:20:23
Priscilla McKinney
If you are an individual coach and you are thinking, how do I get a bigger reach? How do I get ahead? First of all, there's no shame in trying to grow your business. Be a sales person, be a selling president, be aggressive in the market. Really think about where you where you best serve people and then just absolutely expand on that.

00:22:20:23 - 00:22:42:17
Priscilla McKinney
That is the heart of business. And you can do it with heart, but you will toil and do it with heart all by yourself for very meager output in less, you open yourself up to the idea of collaboration and so I would say to an individual coach is they wouldn't look at a particular person like say, look at Priscilla, okay, she's a CEO, she needs coaching.

00:22:42:19 - 00:23:07:13
Priscilla McKinney
Okay. Well, if someone else gets Priscilla up, then I lose. No. If for someone else puts Priscilla, maybe it's a different way of looking at it. Maybe I could align myself with that person. And Priscilla and who else? Who else needs to be in the circle? How can I think about more, more and more win win win and not this idea of scarcity and not the idea of competition, but the idea of collaboration.

00:24:30:26 - 00:24:47:09
Priscilla McKinney
So let's think about that. You just had this interesting little nugget, this interesting idea. And so then I would say, well, how do you go about finding all the people who have been coached by Tony Robbins? Well, guess what? They all follow him on LinkedIn. So you already know the watering hole. You know where they are, right? So this is about like changing a mindset.

00:24:47:09 - 00:25:17:28
Priscilla McKinney
And this is what this book offers to you. It walks you step by step, literally. It's short book and I just don't go fluff on anything else. This is what you need to know. Throw in a few jokes and then move us all along to the next thing. But it is about expanding your mindset. Okay, so for example, if you came together with three of your colleagues and you all wanted to grow your business, but you identified where you could leverage it is by growing, you know, people who are interested in Tony Robbins or at one time were interested in Tony Robbins.

00:25:18:04 - 00:25:37:16
Priscilla McKinney
Could be your people. Okay, problem. Let's go on LinkedIn. Let's look at all those followers and let's get a group of instead of one person, let's get a group of eight of us together and say, hey, Jason, who from this group who follows this, who are you already connected to? Like one, one degree of separation, right? Who are you already connected to?

00:25:37:18 - 00:25:59:15
Priscilla McKinney
and then maybe as an eight person team, we are connected to so many more than just one person. Well, what is the message that we could all put together? Hey, we're a consortium of eight different coaches. Jason specializes in this. So and so specialize in this, this, this, this. We work well with people who have been in the Tony Robbins way and we're reaching out with blah, blah, blah.

00:25:59:22 - 00:26:24:03
Priscilla McKinney
If you would like a talk, a conversation with two of us, please let us know which two and we'll connect with you. Okay. Well, this is a very laid out, very clear plan. Not oh, we'd love to help you. If you need coaching. Now, this is so specific. And this is where we get not only the shame in selling out, but we also get the vague, stupid vagueness that I can't stand anymore.

00:26:24:05 - 00:26:41:12
Priscilla McKinney
What is it that you want someone to do? What is the value that you are offering? And so if the eight of you can come together and offer that very succinctly to someone, I might look at that and be like, well, you know, I don't need coaching about eating and I don't need coaching about, you know, growth tactics in the Midwest.

00:26:41:12 - 00:27:04:20
Priscilla McKinney
But I would need some podcast growth help. And I also might need some mindset, like some growth mindset too. Okay. That's two people on the list. Now I know what to do. And now you all have put your efforts together and for less effort per person are reaching a much bigger audience. This is a total win, right? So I just made that one up on the fly.

00:27:04:22 - 00:27:07:20
Priscilla McKinney
But there are a million ways to skin that cat.

00:27:42:01 - 00:27:43:03
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah.

00:27:50:13 - 00:28:09:18
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah, absolutely. And that's that's a really good way of, like, kind of what you're mentioning is like a content pod, right? So let's say I have seven other people, and we all agree we're going to spend 45 minutes per month helping each other out some way. I've done this a million different times. So I create a meeting. Look we're going to spend 45 minutes helping each other.

00:28:09:18 - 00:28:29:00
Priscilla McKinney
We're going to spend 45 minutes talking to each other. That's it. I'm only asking for an hour and a half commitment for the whole ding thing month. Right. And so this is where it just gets clear. And you can be running so many small, different collaborations all over your work life and personal life that just absolutely expand your region.

00:28:29:02 - 00:28:47:18
Priscilla McKinney
Absolutely. Make your your goals like they're exponential. Now you can you can actually set much bigger goals. So for example, we could say, hey, we're going to meet the first Tuesday of every month and it's going to be 45 minutes. We're in a round robin. Everybody gets five minutes to talk about what they want me to do for them.

00:28:47:20 - 00:29:06:12
Priscilla McKinney
I'm going to write three of those things down in this month. I will, I promise I will spend 45 minutes. I'll do the three things. I'll spend 15 minutes on each person. Boom. See you next month. Like, everybody makes everything so complicated. This creating an LLC, like you said, you know, let's let's agree what this is and you know, all of this structure over it.

00:29:06:15 - 00:29:11:13
Priscilla McKinney
Just try the collaboration. Just go right for the collaboration and see if it works.

00:29:57:03 - 00:29:59:01
Jason Croft
Yeah.

00:29:59:04 - 00:30:02:10
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah.

00:30:02:13 - 00:30:19:08
Priscilla McKinney
Well, and then you have to say let's go back to the collaboration framework. Right. So if I'm going to do that, those eight people, I'm only going to pick people who have something to lose and something to gain. So if they're just kind of in it. Well, let me see how it works. No. You're out. Right. Then the next thing is showing their cards the specificity.

00:30:19:08 - 00:30:35:04
Priscilla McKinney
We got that nailed. But then the third thing is they have to have a desire to win. They have to have the verve. They have to have some electricity around them. They have to have some energy. Right. And so if you get those three things in alignment, no matter what kind of collaboration it is, you're going to win.

00:30:35:04 - 00:31:01:21
Priscilla McKinney
But I have a lot of ideas in the book about what this looks like for small businesses, what it looks like for large businesses, what it looks like for individuals. But I'll tell you a fun one that anybody can use that I did and I do all the time. But when I first started and I literally was just a nobody in the middle of the Midwest, I was heading to London to speak at a conference, and I was so excited to do that, but I really didn't have the money to be doing that.

00:31:01:21 - 00:31:24:21
Priscilla McKinney
This had this had to work. I had to get something else out of it besides just this conference. And so what I did was I looked through my network of the highest level professionals I knew, and I had to know them like a met them somewhere. I actually could ask for a favor. And I didn't look necessarily for people who owed me a favor.

00:31:24:21 - 00:31:37:23
Priscilla McKinney
Sometimes you got to start somewhere, right? So I tell in the book about the story, I said I was going to London, I'm going to be speaking, but I'm going to stay the week and a really want to meet as many people as I can. And this is what I said. I'm like, who do you know in London?

00:31:37:23 - 00:31:57:13
Priscilla McKinney
Who would like me? You know, me. Like, who would think, oh, that was fun. That was great time. And would you introduce me? And I will promise you three things. Number one, I will not take more than an hour of their time. Number two, whatever they decide breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, whatever it is, I will pay. I promise you, I will pick up the tab.

00:31:57:15 - 00:32:22:21
Priscilla McKinney
And number three, I will not try to sell them anything. And if you think of somebody in your network who is in London who fits that bill, will you please introduce me personally? I was so busy that week. I made relationships that still to this day I work with very strongly. I have made millions of dollars off of these relationships, and I have provided a lot of value to these people.

00:32:22:21 - 00:32:42:07
Priscilla McKinney
They become close friends, some of them, and then some of them didn't work. Some of them were upward and just maybe just didn't quite go. But guess what? I was only with them for an hour and I paid and I didn't sell them anything. So I fulfilled my agreement. But that was one of my original collaborations that just absolutely blew my business up.

00:33:19:01 - 00:33:34:08
Priscilla McKinney
No. I was so busy going to the next appointment for drinks. I mean, I, I went to drinks at the Ritz. I took people to dinner at the Savoy. I went to the Goring. I mean, you name it. If it was on, like, the top of the top, you know, there was even a, you know, what's his name?

00:33:34:08 - 00:33:57:17
Priscilla McKinney
Oliver. They're not those restaurants anymore, but 11. But who was it? Yeah. Jimmy. All right. Yeah. So I went to all those restaurants. So listen, I did not have a bad time. And here's the thing is, the business does not have to be a bad time. It doesn't have to be a grind. And if you think about collaboration and set it up in a way that is interesting to you and fun for you, then that's exactly what you're going to manifest, right?

00:33:57:23 - 00:34:18:28
Priscilla McKinney
And I'll give you even more specificity for your listeners who are all coaches. So the way you can do that is let's say you get four coaches and you guys are on, you know, two different coasts and, you know, maybe two in the middle. Okay. Well, great. Then Priscilla, who's near Kansas City is going to have an event and I'm going to help her by going through all my Kansas City people and get her there.

00:34:18:28 - 00:34:37:00
Priscilla McKinney
But guess what? Next month I'm doing one in Portland, and I'm going to ask Priscilla to give me all of her contacts in Portland and by her own influence, get them there. Right. And so you look at that and you break up and you say, everybody use your influence, not just for me, but then it'll be my turn, and I will use my influence for you.

00:34:37:00 - 00:34:41:27
Priscilla McKinney
And it's such a simple setup, and I don't understand why people fail to do it all the time.

00:36:01:01 - 00:36:22:12
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah. So let me start in a weird way, but we'll get to exactly this, this question that you're asking. So a lot of people come to me because I'm a marketing firm. I have this great idea, and everybody thinks it's a great idea. And then I ask a little bit about it. And basically one thing I ask is, who did you ask if this was a great idea and what did you ask?

00:36:22:12 - 00:36:40:07
Priscilla McKinney
Right. And what I find oftentimes as people kind of set up, you know, growth or business ideas or any kind of strategy is it often they're asking the wrong person and they are asking the wrong question. Right. So, for example, I have a great idea for business. Well, let me talk to my sister about it. Well guess what?

00:36:40:07 - 00:37:00:24
Priscilla McKinney
My sister is very role is intended to be supportive of me. Right. And so this is her primary role in life. And so her response is going to be that's a great idea Priscilla. You're full of great ideas. You're so wonderful. Right? So I have asked the wrong person. secondly, I'd say, do you think it's a great idea?

00:37:00:24 - 00:37:23:14
Priscilla McKinney
Well, of course she thinks it's a great idea. Now, if I had asked the right question, which would have been, would you invest $100,000 in this? Now she's going to carefully consider whether or not this is a good idea. Right. And so we asked the wrong people and we asked the wrong question. So let's take that idea, like everybody that resonates with people, like everybody's had like this great business idea.

00:37:23:14 - 00:37:45:06
Priscilla McKinney
Right. And you've been kicking it around with your spouse, you know, so, you know, then even with coaches, if you think about it, should I go out on my own? Should I leave my corporate job? Your husband's going to be like, yeah, you can do it. I love you, babe. You know? But maybe you should call someone else and ask them a different question and say, you know, if if you were going to lose your pension, would you do it?

00:37:54:11 - 00:38:17:03
Priscilla McKinney
Okay. Yeah. And how much would you pay me for that? Right. you know, so it is an interesting it is an interesting, start to the puzzle, but then there's more to it. And I talk about this in the book a little bit more for companies or for larger, more complex issues, how we get collaboration. But it is about that simple two questions at the beginning.

00:38:17:03 - 00:38:40:01
Priscilla McKinney
And I find with large collaborations on complex issues, we rarely get the right people in the room. Right? So let's think about maybe an or maybe a municipality wanting to solve the homeless problem in their area. Well, when was the last time was an actual homeless person in that collaboration? Someone who has something to gain and something to lose.

00:38:40:03 - 00:38:58:18
Priscilla McKinney
Someone who is willing to put their cards on the table, and someone who has a desire to win. Okay, that's such a simple concept there. But if you take that and extrapolate that to everything else, we don't often have the right people in the room. And then there's other layers I talk about in the book about parity and equity.

00:38:58:20 - 00:39:18:05
Priscilla McKinney
You know, so it's it's not just about getting diversity on, on in the group, which I'm all for. I love it, you know, as a Hispanic female, you know, the owner, I'd love to see more diversity in the boardroom etcetera and whatnot. But just getting a lot of diversity in the room is not going to solve the problem either.

00:39:18:07 - 00:39:39:03
Priscilla McKinney
There has to be also equity in the room where who is invested here, who stands to lose and who stands to gain and who has a voice. And I talk a little bit on the last issue, which is hierarchy. Just for example, as a CEO, I mean, in my business, I walk in a room, everybody shuts up and I start talking.

00:39:39:05 - 00:39:58:05
Priscilla McKinney
That is a hierarchy that is not going to work if we are going to solve a very complex problem. I'm not saying get rid of hierarchy. They should defer to me if I make a decision, but they should not be deferring to me. When we are in a scenario where we are trying to collaborate on a larger issue.

00:39:58:05 - 00:40:12:05
Priscilla McKinney
And so go back to that homeless situation, and if we look at that and say, well, at what point is this person going to have a voice in the meeting? Are they going to be the last person to be able to comment? Or is there

00:40:12:05 - 00:40:14:15
Priscilla McKinney
or is there voice going to be heard in the room?

00:40:14:22 - 00:40:30:25
Priscilla McKinney
Well, probably in that situation, because if we don't think about hierarchy, the leader of that organization is going to start the conversation. And that will push us down a particular road that probably will not solve this complex problem that we have not been able to solve as of yet.

00:40:30:25 - 00:40:47:01
Jason Croft
the only way you get past that is really getting specific again, in terms of, hey, this is a Monday morning meeting. State of the Union company. Yes, CEO walks in. Priscilla's like, hey, I need to let you guys know what's happening.

00:40:47:05 - 00:41:24:17
Jason Croft
Here's what I need from you. Here's what I'm need from you. Wednesday afternoon we are having a collaboration to figure out this aspect moving forward, and that comes both from being specific on how that's run. But no matter how specific and the words you use and how many times you say it, hey, everyone's voice is heard, it's not going to be as effective until a month down the road, two months down the road of you walking your talk of actually, hey, someone you know in accounting, he came up with an idea.

00:41:24:17 - 00:41:41:13
Jason Croft
And here's what we did with that, right. It wasn't even their job. And now it's, you know, at the forefront of an ad campaign or whatever that is, and to then believe it. And then those meetings get more and more truly collaborative. Then you just you get gold by the end of it.

00:41:41:29 - 00:42:11:29
Priscilla McKinney
Absolutely. And you know, I serve the market research industry. Maybe about 6,070% of my work is in that industry. And what I find really ironic about that industry is that it's all designed in order to listen and give voice to the consumer so that they can pivot more, you know, more precisely for more profit. That's what the whole market research industry is set up to do.

00:42:12:01 - 00:42:21:26
Priscilla McKinney
And yet we do not really understand in our own organizations how we are not giving voice to the very thing that would help us make the best decision.

00:42:23:19 - 00:42:49:29
Jason Croft
Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. It's like, how do we turn those exact tables? How do we bring that? Maybe that's the a whole new industry of being really specific. Is. Is that internal? you know, market research, as it were, or in those insights, too? Yeah, it's a whole methodology, but also just that mindset to do it and have those insights, I love that.

00:42:49:29 - 00:43:04:03
Jason Croft
So who who are you helping right now with little bird marketing? specifically there. and then, of course, I want to make sure that we send people to this book as a step one in so many ways.

00:43:04:08 - 00:43:20:25
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah. Well, what I'm doing right now with a lot of my clients, and we. We like to say that all of our clients are a part of our flock here at Little Bird Marketing. And so we have this certain. What? Just a little something extra by working with us. And that is that we look for collaborative opportunities for our clients.

00:43:20:25 - 00:43:51:19
Priscilla McKinney
So, what is the age old problem in business getting sales, right? And what is a traditional approach to doing that? We go to conferences. That traditional approach is so expensive. I'm not saying not go to them. I love speaking at them. I think there's something really special that happens when we get face to face with people, and it is really important, but what we help companies do is understand if you are going to spend that kind of money at a conference, what are we going to do?

00:43:51:21 - 00:44:15:12
Priscilla McKinney
How can we expand the win, get a win win, win, win, win, win win? Maybe? How can we bring more companies together and do a collaborative approach? And we do some things that are pretty complex, but we do some things that are pretty simple, like even throwing a private dinner party before an event starts where I have people who are not direct competitors, but maybe they overlap in interesting ways.

00:44:15:14 - 00:44:35:00
Priscilla McKinney
and they are both going out after similar people in the industry. Well guess what? Somebody, you know, one of my clients wants this head of insights at Procter and Gamble at the dinner. So does this person. But this person wants it for market research. This person wants it for language translation. Well great. Why do we have to have two parties?

00:44:35:03 - 00:45:02:22
Priscilla McKinney
You know, let's all pay less money. Let's get more focused and let's invite those 40 people to a dinner. And that means that instead of having a $15,000 bill, maybe three of my clients have a $5,000 bill for the night, and everybody gets to have that beautiful time together. And so we've been able to arrange really fun, and high and professional events where people come and again, we don't sell to them during that event.

00:45:03:00 - 00:45:21:20
Priscilla McKinney
We lead with just a networking type of situation and we build rapport. And that is what people need to do in order to go into the conference season and have these established relationships and be able to connect with people a little bit more personally and make good than on the investment for growth.

00:45:21:20 - 00:45:37:04
Jason Croft
It's like all the good things about that conference aspect, right? That, you know, your ideal folks are in one spot. but yeah, just just pivot this way. Just think about this approach this way and yeah, that get those unique aspects.

00:45:37:10 - 00:46:06:03
Jason Croft
I that's been my world for years. And you hear this the event side of things and so many trade shows and all of that. You know being a part of that and it it is baffling. The money spent certainly. but also to just be next to, you know, have your booth, your ten by ten or whatever it is next to all the other people you're hoping and you're just like, I hope someone comes, but like in, in my mind just goes like, oh my gosh, exactly what you're talking about.

00:46:06:03 - 00:46:26:25
Jason Croft
That's like, you know, have a have a video crew, have a show that is, you know, the conference, right? And you bring people by, hey, I'd love to interview you on the show. You bring, you know, have this team that's wandering. Have them come by. Hey. Yeah, just come by the booth. Like all these things that you could so easily and uniquely do to get people again just to have that first

00:46:28:02 - 00:46:35:29
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah.

00:46:36:02 - 00:46:54:00
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah. Oh, my gosh, you you just sparked this amazing idea. So, for example, as a podcaster, you you mentioned, like, you want to have more clients who want to have their podcasts and how to distribute, how to amplify it, how to get it produced, how to do all these things right. This is, you know, things you know how to do.

00:46:54:03 - 00:47:17:26
Priscilla McKinney
You need that. That's where your back is itching right now, right? You need that scratch. Well, somebody at a booth needs people to walk into the booth. Who's going to say no to being on a podcast? Not many people. Few. Of course. There's always outliers. We don't care about outliers. Right. And so if you think about that, why don't you tag team with somebody who wants to get traffic in their booth, and you want to get more people who are more interested in podcasting?

00:47:18:00 - 00:47:32:04
Priscilla McKinney
And who says to you at the end of being interviewed, you know, my company keeps wanting to start a podcast. Can I talk with you? Because that's what's going to happen naturally, right? And so you look at that and say, well, this is what I need, and this is what they need. Let's put that together and that can happen.

00:47:32:08 - 00:47:41:00
Priscilla McKinney
One, two but if you think much bigger that can happen 123456 and it's with the same principles.

00:47:41:00 - 00:48:09:12
Jason Croft
And you can take that approach with a company who's exhibiting there at a trade show. You can take that approach with the actual event itself. Have that, you know, be have. Hey, here's a free booth to interview people in the name of this client. You know, this client, this event, this is something we're adding. Hey, if you exhibit or if you get the VIP pass, you get an interview on the show and it's that's it's the same dynamic.

00:48:09:12 - 00:48:11:23
Jason Croft
Then just expanded, you know.

00:48:11:22 - 00:48:15:05
Jason Croft
give us some action to take to get into your world

00:48:15:28 - 00:48:18:01
Jason Croft
Okay.

00:48:26:06 - 00:48:43:29
Priscilla McKinney
Yeah. Yeah. Well, first of all, I'd say please embrace the hashtag. Always be helping. Think about how you can help. If you're going to reach out to me, how can you help me? Because if you if you reach out to me like that, I'm immediately going to respond in kind. I really believe that, you know, love and help and positivity reciprocate.

00:48:43:29 - 00:49:00:28
Priscilla McKinney
So having said that, it's really easy to engage with me because my book is only five bucks on Kindle, so I think you could afford it. so go out on Kindle if these things are of any value to you. I will say, you know, I had a publisher come to me and say, oh yeah, we'd love to take your book, but you're going to need to make it twice as long.

00:49:00:29 - 00:49:18:29
Priscilla McKinney
To which I said, and our conversations over, I made it exactly as long as I made my point, because that is what drives me nuts about business books, where it just goes, you know, flowery and flowery. No, I got right down to business. The book is in two sections. The first part is about the framework for collaboration, like why collaboration and how collaboration.

00:49:19:01 - 00:49:37:06
Priscilla McKinney
And then the second half is what I call anchors, which are seven anchors that you can just have at the ready there at all. Really, that make you say, how am I not approaching this? Right? Why is this not collaborative? Why is this not going anywhere? And you could say, will this anchor work? Let me think about it under that, that framework.

00:49:37:06 - 00:49:57:07
Priscilla McKinney
No, that's not going to help me. Will this anchor oh my gosh, this just help me expand my mind and see this problem differently. So it's broken up in those two sections. So absolutely, you know go out on Amazon and look up collaboration is the new competition. I would love for you to read the book. You can also check out a little bit more about the book at Priscilla mckinney.com.

00:49:57:14 - 00:50:21:06
Priscilla McKinney
And of course, I'd love to be a speaker at your next event. I'd love to talk about that, but I have tons of resources for marketing and strategy over at Little Bird marketing.com/resources. They are all giveaways freebies. I do not go harass you when you download them. if they're for you and you know that you want to work with us, you'll reach out to us.

00:50:22:11 - 00:50:39:07
Jason Croft
Beautiful. Priscilla, thank you so much for being on. This has been an absolute blast. I'm. My mind is just head in the right direction. I just love it. it's sparking in the right way, and I'm sitting there going through my head. It was like, oh, wow, I could collaborate with this. This way, this way, this way. I, I love it.

00:50:39:07 - 00:50:40:17
Jason Croft
Thank you so much for being on.

00:50:40:23 - 00:51:07:19
Priscilla McKinney
Well, you have to know if you're a listener right now and you have love, Jason. Show. One way that you can collaborate in lead with helping is go out and give him a review. Because this is how business works. This is all of the effort that he puts towards giving you this free insight, and giving a vignette into other expertise, from his guests is just go out and do the simple thing, which is doing someone a favor, give him a review, or tell somebody about the show.

00:51:07:22 - 00:51:10:00
Priscilla McKinney
Seriously, it will reciprocate to you.

00:51:10:19 - 00:51:14:13
Jason Croft
I appreciate that so much. And we'll see you all next time.

00:51:16:13 - 00:51:30:21
Jason Croft
Thanks so much for tuning in and being a part of this show. If you want to help creating authority, building video content, or even a client generating show of your own, go to media Leeds CO dot com and let's connect.

00:51:30:24 - 00:51:34:11
Jason Croft
I'll talk to you soon on the next strategy and action.

00:51:41:21 - 00:51:42:23
Jason Croft
This show is powered

00:51:42:23 - 00:51:48:27
Jason Croft
by media leads to get your next great podcast produced. Go to media leads, COCOM.