Your competitors can teach you a lot about business…

Early 2003, it was 7:30 am, and I had just walked into a room full of complete strangers.

You see, the world of business networking was completely new to me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I had just been told that if I wanted to find clients THIS was where I should be.

Since it was my first time, I didn’t know what to expect. But I was still surprised to see Joey, who owned a competing web design company mingling and chatting with other people in the room.

I felt like I was invading his turf and didn’t know if I should be there.  But then I heard the advice of my dad whisper in my head, “if you show up to a networking meeting and your competitors aren't there, there’s probably no business for you in that room.” 

He was there. I was in the right place.

At the end of the meeting, I decided to introduce myself to Joey, and at least be on friendly terms with him.  

I approached him and said, “Hey, if you ever need anything, or want to collaborate on a project, I’m here and it would be great to get to know you.”

To my shock and horror, here was his response:

“You know, MIKE, I don’t really like the idea of working with my competitors.”

WOAH.

He could have just said, “Okay, that sounds nice,” but no, he had to say exactly what I was fearing. I didn’t know what to say.

Since that day, I’ve thought a lot about that interaction, and here’s what I’ve come to realize…

There is a TON of business in this world. There is more opportunity than I will ever be able to handle on my own. By thinking this way, some would describe me as abundance-minded.

There are others in the world that are scarcity-minded. They think that there is not enough business to go around and fear their competition.  

That day, Joey was clearly in the second group.

Now, I’m not sure what Joey is up to these days, but he taught me a lot about business and I’m grateful for that.

The point is, to love your competitors.  

We can learn so much from people in our own industry. Sometimes it is because of conflict and other times it’s because of collaboration.   

It’s this spirit of collaboration that is why Agency Coach even exists and why I want to remind you that it’s your final chance to jump in on our 5-Day Challenge, Agency War Plan because we’re starting.   

Choose abundance by joining me and some of your fellow agency owners to collaborate and build bigger businesses together.   Find the details with access to live sessions and the replay recordings at agencywarplan.com