Partnerships are our my business love.
Language. My background. Before I started my own business, has I worked in marketing and Partnerships and I witnessed the power of a tailored partnership to really grow a business on an exponential level, just to put a little bit of context. So Brian collaborations are up to 25 times less expensive than digital advertising. So carefully, curated partnership can actually project. You so much further. Forward, I worked in businesses. That didn't have an advertising budget, they had a Partnerships.
Budget, welcome back to the purpose, affect the podcast about purpose-driven businesses, and what we can learn about solving some of the world's biggest problems from the woman who are solving them, I am Elena Kersey, and I am on a mission to learn how we can, build better work, stronger communities, a healthier Planet. If you believe there's a better world out there waiting for us, then this podcast is for Are you? They say that if you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together, partnership and collaboration is key to making impact. But I also think it's what will make your business, grow faster with less money, no matter where you want to get to, you need to bring people along for the ride. So that's why I wanted to speak to Abby, Pantano a community, architect and business, Matchmaker for impact businesses. Abby, left a career in marketing and Partnerships in the low. Luxury and consumer brand sector because she believes in custodianship that we are only custodians of the land and the communities we live in, and it's Our obligation to safeguard these for the generations coming after us. So, she wanted to be part of the solution in protecting these her journey to founding impact collab, a digital Community for impact, businesses has had its bumps as old business Journeys, do and I think that no matter where you are in your journey to creating impact, Abby stories will Tonight, they will also remind you that failure is a good thing. It's part of the road to success. As Abby says, it's the first Pancake out of the pan. It's never the best but you need to get the slightly Brown, weird misshapen one out in order to get the good ones out. And the good ones certainly have come out for a be impact. Collab is growing in Australia, New Zealand and Asia pack, and we will be expanding into North America next year. But you should really hear these lessons straight from Abby. So let us get to our chat with a be pain, Tano Community architect and founder of impact collab. But before we do, I am going to pour myself a hug in a mug with a cup of tea bird tea. I love T-bird tea and not just because the packaging is absolutely beautiful. Although it is or because the t is organic and comes in biodegradable, tea bags, although it does, but because I love the way, T-bird tease founder, Ashley cotrell uses her, To support other businesses doing, good. Ashley partners with Brands and not-for-profits, doing good for people and Planet because she believes that, this is how you build sustainable businesses and I couldn't agree more. So if you want delicious healthy beautifully, packaged T that makes impact you can get 20% off using the code hug and a mug. 20, I would recommend the earl grey and orange. It's my favorite.
It's interesting. This concept, Around custodianship, you know, the original custodians of the land. And I think about growing up with my family, this was something that was really instilled in my family. We grew up in the mountains, and we lived right at the base of the national park and it was in still very early and on and us that if you see like an item of rubbish, if you see something that's been dropped on the ground, that it's your responsibility to pick it up and that's something that's kind of fed right through. I was born in New Mexico, just to give you context was born in Mexico. I was raised in New Zealand. And then I essentially came to Australia when I was 21 to work in marketing and Partnerships, and I was working with like, the cool fun Brands. You know, it's like a Sunglass Hut working with these amazingly glittery Brands and then I went into lifestyle products, but I think there was this one piece that was like, I was getting to travel around the world. I was managing amazing teams. I loved being part of a big group but I felt like there was definitely a misalignment in terms of like, particularly with my last business roles like I am just creating future landfill here. It feels like and the Catalyst for me was actually I learned to dive my husband's got his rescue diver certification. We went to Thailand, and I was getting my Patty certification got for the first dive, that's all good and then the second dive something changes and I find that I am spending about half the time looking at the fish and then the other type half, I am spending looking at these pieces of plastic, floating through the water. It's like these Mystic Little jellyfish, and so I am like swimming after them, grabbing the piece of plastic, tuck it into my wetsuit. Look at a fish. Oh, there's another one swim after it took into my wetsuit. And I think it was again, it was an unconscious thing, but I was like, oh well, you know, it's your responsibility. It's go out and grab it. And I get back on the boat. And my legs are like, bulging with plastic life holding and I like, and I flipped my wetsuit inside out and pull it out. And it's just as the diving into Pictures it looking at me like who what is this woman doing? And but it just was this point where I was like I just I can't do this anymore. I was like I am ultimately contributing to this and I think is that whole piece of going? You know the things that you accept you're ultimately promoting to an extent. So I was like no I am ready to step in and be part of that solution. So I came back, and I was fortunate to have a great relationship with my bosses and I said she would down to three days a week and then The two days a week. I created a side hustle which was selling these wheat stem drinking straws to okay bars and cafes and restaurants and, you know, something that was like so little. But it was like a journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a single sip, you know, it's like was that your tagline right? So my business was called the next tip I love them and it was my product was the raw straw. And oh my God, it gets better and better. Better all of the times. I know it's probably I was like, yeah, I was frothing on this product. So I, of course jumped in, you know, headfirst but a million units, got some massive Partners on board and then the pandemic hit and as a pain to make hit, if I am honest, I think I was kind of looking for an exit. I didn't want to be selling a commodity product. I was selling to businesses that ultimately Find to get the lowest price. They didn't really care about the story that much. And because I was one of the first people to find this product. I offer also paid way too much for it, so it when it came to the pandemic. Owen, no way. This is a nice thing to be able to blame for wrapping up this. The other thing that I noticed setting up my side hustle, I went from again, being part of working in a business which is its own Community, its own ecosystem, you know? And so you all work together in tandem to achieve a common goal to suddenly being on my own and I had to do everything and I felt like asking for help was a sign of weakness, I got really isolated, I got overwhelmed and you know, that feeling of, you know, when you get so overwhelmed and you have got so many things to do, you take a nap. Yeah. So wrapping a lot at that time and it was actually crossing paths with someone who from the outset, what In my competitor and I she was selling the same product and I had, I had actually wanted to reach out to it earlier and I had another co-founder at the time, and he was like, she runs her race be run hours, we don't cross paths, let her do her thing, and then she had end up reaching out to me. And had said, I actually need help. I have got straw stuck in customs and I need to get this order out. Can you help me? I said, yeah, sure. Sounds good. Do you want to go for a coffee? And, so I met up with her and it was like that was the Catalyst to where I was like, there are people who are just like me who I can collaborate with, and she's suddenly she was telling me all these stories. I was like, I couldn't like I really resonate with and something. I felt so much less alone and you know my network, my immediate friends aren't entrepreneurs. My family is all worked in healthcare. I didn't have entrepreneurship running in my family and so yeah. Finding someone who is like me. I was like Oh this is, this is something special and there was one thing I noticed with her is that while I had more years of experience in big business under my belt, I guess I had, like, ticked a little boxes where I was like, I should be successful. But why am I not? And when I looked at what she was doing, and she was kind of, on this trajectory, she was Outsourcing, what she didn't love, and she was joining communities. Those were like two of the main things. I saw that I wasn't doing what she was doing, and I was like, Okay. Yeah, I went on this journey, then to go and find my community. She was working in likely, she went to the hospitality industry, and I was like, I think I want to go and double somewhere else and I just couldn't, I couldn't find the people that I resonated with. I feel like I felt silly turning up and saying I sell straws, but I mean even then social Enterprise the concepts. Social Enterprise was still early. I don't even think I had a word for that. Then I just new that I was so value-driven and Purpose Driven. That I could see past a really simple basic product, because I knew my greater goal was something so much bigger than that, and it was only once I was next to the water. Cool. And I spoke to someone else who is incredibly purpose-driven going, you know, I have seen this lack in the world around a certain area and I want to build a business around her addressing it, and I am you know, I have so much love and respect for not-for-profits. You go out there, that is a hard work, the Grassroots movement, there is a superpower and be able to go. I can make money. I can self-fund the Grassroots movements that I really believe in. I love talking with not-for-profits and supporting them, but social Enterprise social impact. Founders are, they're my people.
Yeah, so then how did the seeds start to come together for the impact collab?
Yeah. So essentially covid happened. I finish it with straws. I was then made redundant from my role with my marketing role which is great. Nice little leaving. Package, and I was like, this is my next step to be like move forward where you go to do next. And yeah, since I had like all these people who I would sort of collected, like, Pokemon cards and was like, you know, how can we collaborate, how can we share ideas, the lockdowns eased, I want to say around July, we opened our doors for the smallest room around that period and then like our larger space which is likely event space opened in December. So by then, Things are like it Rollin, and so I just kept on, finding my people and saying, come in, let us go work together. Let us meet. Yeah, it really started to snowball from there. Then we had the second lockdown. Then I think there was that mindset of going, this ethical, for me to be going into a co-working space, should I be collaborating? There's just so much that was kind of playing into those Dynamics, but the beauty of it was, I knew that I wanted to create a community around impact that Businesses and I didn't really know what the different catalysts are opportunities, to be able to interact and, and in essence play, I love, I love the word play with each other on how we grow, our businesses and learn. And so through that second lockdown, I ended up creating a digital Community membership, which was just through me having conversations going with. You feel like you're missing right now and really just throwing things at the wall and seeing what stuck and The interesting one as well because during that period we thought we knew what we wanted but sometimes then we would get it and go. Oh it turns out that wasn't what I wanted. Yeah, I actually need this. And so was this like, consistent failure back-to-back? It just felt like I always loved about the, you know, the movie Up. Yeah. By Disney. And there's the little boy scout. He's like, I could help you cross. The street know, I could help you cross. The yard know, I could help you cross your porch. It's like, well, I gotta have you crossed something. And I could just resonated so much of that little boy being like just I was like the scout leader and the grouping like we're gonna do this. We're gonna get through it. We're going to connect with each other. Yeah. And from there really working on the foundations of connection and then like learning from each other and design a community. Is this as if it's a puzzle, it's not about me? I am just kind of creating the table for the puzzle to sit. It's up to each person to play that different role to create the larger picture. Yeah. And so It's now I actually end up selling my shares in the co-working space at the end of last year and moved impact Club into it's a digital Community membership, which has an in-person option for those who are in Sydney, gadigal land to meet up, but then the digital Community membership. I have got members who are across Australia and New Zealand. South East Asia. I have got one person who is over in Toronto, but heavily focused currently on the southern hemisphere, but the northern hemisphere This fear is in the works, I have had some interest, and so I have set a cap of 150 in this area based on dunbar's. Number, not sure. If you're familiar with dunbar's.
Number. Yeah why don't you go into that a little bit?
Yes. Oh it's based on this concept of that we can only know 150 people authentically before was actually based on tribes before. I try was just blind her apart and so it's really around creating this unit where we can come together and support and I have decided As an ecosystem. So when people come in, I understand what their niches in terms of what they offer, if their service provider and if there's too many people overlapping in one area, we put a cap on that. And then bringing in Social Enterprises who can then access that support and get mentorship hours and, and access to courses, and things like that, that are hosted by our members.
So how do you design the pods? Can anyone join up until that number 150? And then you split Lit up a pod based on not just numbers of people but also not replicating businesses or skill sets. Is that how it works? Yes.
So currently there are certain some areas which are now full the marketing and storytelling spaces where the first to film. And so essentially how it works is its an interview process where I sit down and have a chat. Understand are you the right fit is just going to be the right space for you and what are you hoping I guess. What are you seeking from a community? Understanding the work that people are within and if there is a gap within the community, then it will be a matter of then bringing them into the fold. It's really about designing, a collaboration of a competition mindset. Yeah, and that's where we Thrive.
Hmm, you said something interesting, earlier, you were talking about how the early stages of the impact collab, where? Like, I think you said a series of failures, what are your beliefs around failure? Because This is something that I find very interesting. When I talk to different Founders, some definitely have a failure, as a learning experience mindset. And some also struggle, a lot with, with failure. And what they think. That means many people equate something in their business, not working as some kind of personal reflection on themselves. So, I was wondering what things were like for you during that process and How you think about failure? It's interesting, when that period was it was a shock to my system and I think about how if it hadn't been for the lockdown and going, oh my gosh. Are we ever going to be able to open this co-working space? I need to find an alternate way of making this work. I wonder how much I would have folded. I mean, certainly like I had this straw business, which I would equate to, I guess. Quote-unquote a failure. I kind of called it my.
Yeah. And then I after that, I was about to build a puzzle business because I got a logo. I got all of these days. I mean, me and a million. Other people were creating puzzle businesses and there were other business ideas that I would have which fell through. And I remember, there was one point when I was like, what am I doing? I just feel like, I feel like an idiot. Every time I go to my friends and say I have got a new business and then it's not there. And then it feels like, I am just not seeing things through. I will leave my husband had shared over. It was Post where it was just talking about. All of the biggest, Founders have had several failures, like field, businesses up until that point. And there's actually a lot of VC firms that won't invest unless you failed before because there's so much that you learn from being able to go in there. And that whole piece of fail, fast, learn fast, the quicker, you can get comfortable with failing. The faster you are at growing and I still have those self-limiting beliefs where I hold myself back because I don't want to put myself out there, and I am worried If This falls apart and I would give everything that maybe I wasn't enough, but I think it's the recognition that your product actually, isn't your product? It's you. That's your product, you know, this fear around competitors taking your idea. Ultimately. No one can replicate the way that you think. And so just being open to innovate and keep on changing and this community is an ever-evolving thing to and for me to understand, where do we sit? Within that market right now, it started because I just wanted to find like-minded humans, who would cheer me on? Who would be in my corner? Who helped me make from making really silly mistakes. That would hold me back or potentially, put me off every building a business because they were such big mistakes, that someone actually has navigated before. But, it's now it's growing into something of its own. And I think I knew that my pillar was communicating connection. I was like, as long as that there and purpose. I was like, I can keep adapting. Shifting and it always shapes shifts and changes and if you're not willing to shape shift and change, you're going to be left behind. So yeah, you have to get comfortable with it. It's a super power to be able to do it and I think that women in particular, we are much more adverse to this concept of failure. I think about the, you know, going into a bar and, you know, a guy goes in and hits on 10 women and gets one. Yes, and goes. I got it. Yes, that's success. I know, whereas I still remember one time, I went to a barn. I was like that, guys. Q, I am gonna do it. Do you want to dance videos? Like, no, not today. And I still remember that moment. I was I am gonna go 619, and I am still holding on to this, so it's like, I think for women and particularly, we certainly need to be able to find more opportunities to quickly just fail. There was actually one. There's one thing that I heard about where this guy was like, every place that you go to ask for 10% Disco, No matter what, you're buying always ask for 10% discount. And chances are sometimes you will get it and sometimes you won't, but just being able to put yourself out there and just constantly, like, can I get that go to McDonald's? Can I just can't? And if you, like, why can't I be like no, it's just why not, you know, and that it ends up becoming this, like exposure therapy to be in like, well, you know why.
Not Goosebumps are forming all over my body, like the idea of walking into a McDonald's, not that they.
Tend to go there and asking them for a 10%.
Discount is like no, we have standardized price.
Across the world. You gotta have a discount but let us talk.
About partnership strategy. It's a commonality people who are building impact businesses, often start because they're driven by a mission, and they don't have any money. And this often starts as a side project or a side hustle and somehow grows into a business, but It's really difficult to grow any kind of business when you have first of all, limited money and also limited time if you're spending your time working in paid employment as well. So how can we use like Partnerships effectively to try and grow or create more impact? I sometimes think there is a value in using your Partnerships to go, to go deeper in an issue rather than, than wider. Yeah, absolutely. So Partnerships are our my business love language. My background before I started my own business, has I worked in marketing and Partnerships and I witnessed the power of a tailored partnership to really grow a business on an exponential level, just to put a little bit of context. So Brian collaborations are up to 25 times less expensive than digital advertising. So carefully, curated partnership can actually project you so.
Further forward, I worked in businesses that didn't have an advertising budget. They had a Partnerships budget, it was a matter of finding the right, the right businesses to be able to collaborate with to achieve a common outcome and I guess in terms of reasons to collaborate, there's a couple of key ones. So, first one is around reach. They share the same Target. Customer you share the same Target customer, so it means that combined. You actually can increase the amount of reach you have got. You can do it around positioning, if you're currently charging a Certain amount. But you want to be able to charge more finding a business that is more premium than you that you can collaborate with can help you actually raise up your what you're charging because people are.
Perceiving you as a higher quality or.
High-caliber brand. The other reason could be around Innovation. So if you like know what, I think I have got this product that maybe I want to bring to Market but I just don't know. I don't even know where to get started. You can actually work with someone else who's designed that product already and say hey how about we come together? Let us innovate together and create a super product. One thing that I have really discovered for me as well is knowing that my superpower is actually the fact that I don't know everything and I don't want to be a jack-of-all-trades, I want to be you know a master of my area and then recognize what am I willing to do? What am I not willing to do and who's currently doing that in the.
Market? I can collaborate.
With. And a lot of times I found that I am probably doing something that they're like, actually, I don't want To do that either. So how about we team up? So a great example of this is I knew that my skills that runs around Community supporting different members, doing check into building infrastructure, around a supportive and collaborative Community. There was another impact that Community. Been Buddha are now partnering with that setup, advisory boards training programs, they go coaching as well. Coach matchmaking. I knew that was an important part of the entrepreneur experience, but I Have the capacity as one person to be able to deliver on that. I end up going through that program myself. I got to know the founders. Well, one thing that I loved is we actually went for, we went for a drink and for lunch before we did anything real. Okay. Let us just get to know each other. Yeah. And I think we only talked about business maybe in the last five minutes, but the first 25 was really about getting a gauge on. Who is this person? And is this something that we might want to explore? So that's a really good opportunity to be able to come together on. Your individual superpowers. And so that was actually the first man in the second meeting, we had a whiteboard, we had. I laugh, because we had like, eight cups around us, or it's like, we had our tea. We had our coffee. We have water. We Beckford Morty and just a massive white board, and we drew up on the Whiteboard, what are the things that I am great? At where things, you are great at, where do the gaps exist? And how can we make this work? And just because you can actually create a product read like in this specific setting, I won't be doing any work like that. Yes. And so that's going to be your.
And if you end up wanting to dabble outside, it's just about having really clear communication along the way. So each party is aware and also building up a mou, a memorandum of understanding have one page document, write down. This is what I am going to do. This is what you're going to do. This is the length of time and make sure that you have just got that. And I am very happy to share a template with you later if you want to have that to downloadable.
Resource. Because that was.
One of the greatest resources, As I had, when building Partnerships was to have a document where it's like, what do we agree is, is the ideal partnership and that could be a working document, but you have something that you can have back to. If you one day, have a meeting where everyone gets really excited and suddenly it goes down this Meandering path and you go. Why am I feeling a bit funny about this? You can come and go. Oh, yeah. That's right. We have this in place. And so, that's a really, really valuable piece. So, back to the reasons to collaborate. So you have got reach, you have got positioning Innovation, if you want to test something, test out your Market, see if you Got maybe a customer base and go. Hey we're going to try bringing in this kind of product and if it resonates well.
You can look at whether or not you want to bring something like that along as well. And.
The other pieces around adding value, you can end up creating Partnerships where you actually create this like super product where because the best of the best are delivering those parts, you end up creating an ecosystem, really, your customers are going to drive loyalty, they're going to get heaps more value and the cost of actually executing that has been reduced greatly. Because you have already got someone who's doing that on the day to day. So those are some of the reasons to collaborate and I like to kind of go into the different types of collaborations that you can go into. So, one of them is around content, so if you end up writing to co-author a blog post, this is another great example, you know, it's a podcast.
And bringing people in to have a.
Conversation, that's kind of bringing the two different ideas and the thought, leadership into one space. Yeah. I am you can collaborate on a product. So, what I have done with Anna bamboo do well. Her advisory boards. And her coaching programs have the impact, collab Community membership is actually built into their product, or I am really trying to bring.
Word, collab to life is where I am actually meeting with heads of impact who are delivering on events that are delivering on education. They are delivering on extra support and going. Hey how about we? Bring everyone into this pot, so they can collaborate and learn from each other and create Partnerships. And you can do what you're best at and I can just continue to.
Support at that level. Also, for example, One.
Roof, a chameleon part of they partnered with metal gifts, which metl e, and so they work with survivors of domestic violence, who are making products. And so, all of their welcome packs, you actually get a box from metal so that was a benefit or a metal. Can get more.
Consistent consistency of.
Income. They're actually supporting a group that one roof would love to support. And it means one roofs, not spending this time trying to make impact on the ground, when it's not there. Zone of Genius.
Do you have any examples maybe of members within the impact collab who through their membership to the community have created some really amazing Partnerships?
Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite ones was we had I run cowork days every now and then, and we like to go around during that day and share, who we are, what we do.
Who we can help in any help that we're looking for? So it's a give and.
Take and one of the members Is just into spoke up and said I am really feeling upset about these. Refugees are being.
Brought off man and Manus.
Island, they're essentially they have been on the island for seven years are coming over for two weeks, and then they expected to find a job right off. They have got so much. They have got to work through in terms of the trauma. She has, I think I want to run an event, and so I actually had someone who is an event manager going. Hey, I would love to be able to help you with that event. So what happening was they end up creating this event and?
because they had someone who had a background in.
Events, I was able to go from like just into his like I would love if I could raise $500 that raising six thousand dollars and then because they had that process built, they were then able to, they're like, let us apply for a grant. Let us make this scale this up to the.
Next level. Then we had another member who was like, I actually work in.
Grads. I love to be able to give you some advice then what they end up doing is pulling together a tender pitch that for a grant, and they got funding from City of Sydney to run a series of three events. So it meant that the organizers, the person who donated her time for a Events. Everyone got paid. I got paid for their work and a fair wage, and then they also got to increase their impact as they end up running those three the series of three events which was incredible. Oh there was another one where so Tiff who runs the social story which is a social media agency which communicates impact effectively. And she partnered up with the millennial crisis which is another Community who was looking to support, Who are wanting to create more impactful. Jobs, she ended up bringing on Theresa from careers for purpose to come on board, and they end up.
Running a panel event where they could talk about how to build a career on purpose. The other thing that I love.
About collaborations is when you're working by yourself, sometimes you can be the most lenient boss. Yeah. So I have this great idea and you just never get around to doing it. One example of this was I knew I wanted.
To run. These connect with on. So I was like.
An hour online you fill in your partnership profile. You a week before the event, you can see everyone who's joining and you express an interest in who you want to.
Connect with on that call. And then on the.
Call, I actually put you into tailored rooms with those people or if you haven't made.
A request. I know about your business, so I can put you into rooms. I have .
Been to something similar, which was an impact of it, and I was like, I could do this and I know how valuable it is.
Couldn't call my finger out to get it done. And then I had someone who Patricia from Patricia Castillo, who runs a coaching program for impact LED found has. She's incredible. And she was working with spark festival and said, hey, I want to do something for Spock Festival. I am not really sure what, but I want to think it might be a resume our networking. And so we actually came together and I said, this is an idea. I have been thinking of, she was bringing a different idea. It was so much. Much more fun to be able to bring something like that to life. And also have accountability where someone's? Yeah, we said okay, we're meeting up next week. We're going to get these different things done and delivering something together as well. I definitely believe in Partnerships when it comes to events because they can be such a beast. And also if you can partner with other businesses on events and go, hey I will bring five people, you bring five people even just to fill up a room. It takes the stress off, but that was, I mean, that was a great event in met, help me. You know, I call it getting the first Pancake out of this pan. You know, like, was a bit Brown. Yeah, it's like not the prettiest, but it's edible, but, you know, you just had to get the first one out in the SEC. I feel like no matter what I do that first Pancake is always just not great but you know it's edible and so it kind of talking.
Around that piece around Innovation and testing something.
I now run that event every four to six weeks. It's one of my favorite events for just myself and for my community. Unity is well and I don't I maybe I eventually would have gotten up and running, but the Imposter syndrome and me was going. What if I give it my all? And what if I fail and what if nobody turns up or what if it's terrible and just having an extra person to.
Can we collaborate and keep each other accountable? And because of those events, I was able to increase my reach. I was able to establish myself as a thought leader, and as a go-to for connection, and Only thing I really gave was my time and my expertise to be able to deliver that.
I want to talk a little bit more about the thought. Leadership, you have built, because you have made a huge impact in creating a brand around yourself, and particularly when it comes to impact driven businesses and the community, that's required to build them. But you have very little digital presence.
So, how did you, how did you do this? Because.
Crave, all of that digital content to build thought leadership. I ship takes a lot of time and energy, you know? And I also have an extremely long list of all of the pieces of content that I need to create for building thought leadership, but you, you seem to have been able to have done it without that. So I would love to hear some of your tips on how you have done that?
Yeah, sure. I mean, I probably my greatest gift is. I do love a chat and No, supper opportunities like this are incredible. I have spoken and done Keynotes it. Some other industry events, and I have really just shown up as much as possible within other communities, and with other thought, leaders to have meaningful conversations. So, part of it has really been about me, inserting myself firmly into the center of, I like that. It's like, they can't really, they can't really avoid me. And I, and it's interesting, though. Because, you know, every time I go to an event that I am not hosting, you wouldn't think if I get such severe social anxiety and I go, I just don't know if I have got if I can do this. And I think part of the reason why I was like, I love to run my events as because I create all the things that I wish were there. When I came to an event, I make sure that every person has.
Greeted at the front door, I make sure that.
They do the introductions to.
Someone else so I can have a buddy. And the other.
Thing that I really like to do is and I remember when I Had my first business, and I was just getting started and a couple of key pieces. Made key people made introductions for me to other people in the industry. I just appreciate appreciated. So immensely, I knew that when the opportunity came that I built up my network, I would make any referral that I could sort of any connection that I could. So I end up creating a business.
And I you know, joke about my titles Community Architects but also community. A Matchmaker. Yeah. And so, I have also spent the last three years, really building up Goodwill within the impact community and within the business Community, any way that I can help. I will it's not with an expectation of anything in return, but I do know that. No, you put out good energy and good, intentions, and it's kind of like putting out fairy dust eventually, it will kind of swirl on back.
If you go out with the intention of getting quick app, Outcomes. It's going to be a frustrating process but it's just, you know, just once a week. What's one? Nice thing you can do week for another founder within the impact space. Yeah. And it's amazing how that good will come.
Back. Yes, I was reading something recently about it was just a series of tips for people starting businesses and one of the tips that was in there said, you know, don't underestimate the power of your network because your first lie. Lead or your first sale, will come from somewhere in your community, but it will not be where you expect it to come from. So sprinkling them fairy.
Important, and it will come back to you eventually.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that we're only as strong as our, you know our weakest eyes and so bringing others Along on that Journey. It means that you know, it's like a wave from one of us, goes up, all of us will go up particularly the impact space. Again coming to that piece around interconnectedness, and we do need to move out of the space of operating as a silo. And.
Talk to you much, we're going to give away all of our Trade Secrets. There's actually plenty of money in the kitty out there. We need to move into an abundance mindset and being able to share our winds and share opportunities means that there's just so much more that's going to open up for.
Us. I am sure Founders, particularly impact found Ders come to you for advice often. What do you tell them when they ask you about how to get started on their Journey?
So usually I will direct me to go through an incubator first to be able to work on the foundation's know that your North Star is embedded but you actually need to be able to build the business away. Anybody could build a business. So going into I actually recommend going into those the That are for any type of business. Because, you know, that same level of likely, and mean money, making machine, kind of mentality is embedded. The other piece, is finding a mentor, is a really big one in terms of like just kind of skimming through any of the challenges that you might that might hold you back or might get really expensive. You know, a coach is another good option as well. So there's again two different ones somewhere you'd like I just need to get into like the next stage and somewhere you're like okay just help me refine this and certainly I mean I can't say it enough. What a difference it is to come into a community and yeah and be able to connect with others who have walked the path before. It makes it a lot less scary and going from this like mindset of oh my gosh I lost five thousand dollars last month and so it goes I lost 100,000. I was my first month that's nothing and you go get it just perspective, right? You know it feels For it to you. It feels like it's a mountain. But actually, for other people, it's a molehill and, you know, kind of people were like, that is a molehill. Don't let this hold you back. This is how we can adapt to move forward and just have your cheerleaders in the corner. It's a game changer.
Yeah. No, I mean I think in all cases having your cheerleaders in your corner helps and particularly if you're starting a business because it's scary. Most people who are doing it, particularly the impact space are doing it, not because they wanted to start a Business necessarily, but because they couldn't see any other way to make the impact that they were wanting to make. So, can you tell me what's next for impact collab and how people could potentially join the community?
Yeah, sure. What's next is a should probably build my website? I was chatting up. We have fortnightly cowork day instantly and last week, we were working and one of my members went, Abby, you I have to pull it together but the committee has been growing based on invitation application or referral. Okay, I have quite enjoyed that up until this point, but I do want to be able to open up for more Founders, who are feeling lonely, feeling isolated and like they want to connect with the people of walk that path before to be able to come into the fold, if you are interested in having a discovery check because that is the only way to come in and to have a conversation with me because it's all about finding the right fit and making sure. And I have connections with so many other communities, not everyone's right for us but I have other people that I can send you on to is to follow us on Instagram which is at the impact collab and in there you will see the link tree. You can book a discovery called with me and yeah. One of my favorite things is to just have 30 minutes of hearing about what people are working on and putting them in the right direction. The role I play is run community matchmakers, so Love to be able to connect people up. So yeah. The Next Step around if you wanted to understand more obviously, right now, the Crux of our community exists in the southern hemisphere. I have done that based on time zones. I am a really strong believer and I don't do things during lunch times, like learning sessions 31 Chimes, I don't do sessions dirt in the evenings or early morning, I believe in focusing on like the core of the day, I don't do things on weekends. I design something the way I wanted to be able to in charge of the Mm, you're going. This is a business, ultimately it's passion, but it's a business for me. And I want to be able to spend my evenings and weekends going on Bush walks and hang out with my dogs and hang out with my husband from reading. So, so that's why I focused on the southern hemisphere. However, northern hemisphere is in. The works, I will be planning to travel around the Northern Hemisphere next year and the, and the year, after to start building up that core. So, if you're interested in being part of a founding, as in to be a founding member, For the northern hemisphere of the impact collab, and really help with shaping with that experience. Looks like, then definitely reach out to me. I would love to have a chat, and I would just love to meet you in general.
Thank you so much. Abby, thank you for this chat, sharing your learnings and I think also being really honest about what were the really tricky moments? It's been super helpful. I think to, a lot of people out there who are either building impact businesses or thinking about starting them And how to go about that.
My pleasure. My pleasure, thank you so much for having me.
Such a great chat. I love Abby's honesty but also her humor in telling this story, she talks about play in the importance of play and I really think she lives it. So I admire that next week we are talking about communicating sustainability with Communications expert Helen Neil and guess what collaboration and knowledge sharing her big part of the takeaways here. R2. I would love to hear who you'd like to hear from next on the purpose of effect, send me or even better. Connect me to amazing woman building purpose, LED businesses. You can DM me on Instagram or you can send me an email. All of the ways to contact me are in the show notes and you will hear from me again next week. Bye.