Episode 123: How To Leverage Collabs and Partnerships to Grow Your Visibility w/Danielle Wiebe
In this episode, I sit down with Danielle Wiebe, founder of Business Babes Collective, to uncover the secrets behind successful collaborations and partnerships in the small business world.
Key Insights:
The Power of Collaboration: Collaboration offers exponential benefits, spanning from hosting events to participating in pop-ups, allowing me to tap into new audiences and expand brand exposure.
Exploring Collaboration Types: I explore various collaboration types, from virtual and in-person events to influencer marketing and sponsorships, to diversify my partnerships and opportunities.
Starting Small: Starting small with pop-up events or collaborative photoshoots helps me test the waters and build confidence as I venture into collaborations.
Finding Win-Win Opportunities: Identifying businesses with complementary offerings enables me to pitch collaborative opportunities that offer mutual benefits such as visibility and foot traffic.
Navigating Venue Partnerships: Navigating venue partnerships involves creating win-win scenarios where all parties benefit, emphasizing the importance of mutual success.
Measuring Collaboration Success: Measuring collaboration success can be challenging, but tracking affiliate codes, discount codes, or specific links provides valuable insights into effectiveness.
Embracing Abundance Mentality: Embracing an abundance mentality is essential in the world of collaborations, recognizing the transformative power of community building and partnership.
If you're eager to dive deeper into the world of collaborations and unlock the full potential of your business, I highly recommend checking out Business Babes Collective and connecting with Danielle. She's a wealth of knowledge and a beacon of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere.
And remember, Small Business Heroes, collaboration isn't just a strategy; it's a mindset shift that opens doors to limitless opportunities. So let's embrace the power of collaboration and watch our businesses soar!
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Transcript
[00:00:00] What's up, small business heroes. Have you ever thought about hosting a summit or an event or a pop up? This episode is for you. I'm so excited to have my new friend, Danielle Wiebe on the podcast. She is an incredible human. I can tell she's a very kind soul and she's all about empowering entrepreneurs through the power of win win collaborations.
and building community. She's also the founder of Business Based Collective, and we're going to talk more about that, but let's welcome Danielle to the show. Hi. Hi, thank you so much for having me, Gloria. So I love what you're doing because I think a lot of people either get overwhelmed when they think summit, they feel like they don't have the money when you say the word event or they feel like it's too time consuming.
So like from the beginning, why do you want to concentrate on events and summits and these things that maybe seem like there's a lot of barriers to make it a successful thing? Um, So I think the reason why specifically collaborations work so well is when we talk about summits, when we talk about online events, in person events, when we talk about popping up, let's say in a store or different things, it's all collaborative.
So the reason that I love [00:01:00] collaborations is because When you are your own solo business owner, right, you have your own network, whether that be your email list, your social media, wherever, you know, your ideal customers are finding out about your product or your service, and then they're going to purchase.
And so one of the best ways I believe to grow that is to get in front of new audiences. And of course you can do that through PR. And then you can also do that through things like collaborations and a lot of crossover as well. And so when I talk about hosting events for your business and doing collaborations, the power of that is that you get 2x or 10x or more, your exposure depending on how many people are involved in that collaboration.
And so you're getting in front of new audiences. And so I always talk about finding other entrepreneurs, other business owners or other brands that you really align with. And then figuring out how you can work together to promote each other's businesses and collaborate together to see exponential results in your business.
Well, I think we're all here to [00:02:00] create, and I think the whole point of us being here, especially as entrepreneurs is to co create. So I love your platform and your ethos because. You know, there's that quote that says together we can accomplish more than we ever could alone. So yes, this whole thing is really resonating with me.
Now, when you talk about collabs, can you define for us what kind of collabs do you mean? Digital and person paid collabs, free collabs. Can you just break down all the buckets of possible collabs that have worked for founders? Such a good question. So yeah, when we talk about collaborations, there are so many different ways that you can collaborate with other entrepreneurs.
The main collaborations that I have seen success with our events. Now, when I say events that can be both virtual events. and also in person events. So it's like events kind of transitions into either in person or virtual and then also value for value collaborations where it's not paid but you are providing value and the other person is also providing value and so you're creating.
value together. And then there's also paid collaborations where, you know, maybe you're paying someone to [00:03:00] do a partnership or a lot of people are familiar with influencer marketing, that kind of thing. Or, you know, it could be you paying to get your brand in front of another audience. Maybe sponsoring an event or being at a pop up or that kind of thing as well.
And so again, there's lots of different types of niche collaborations inside of those buckets. So we can definitely dive more into that. And what are some examples of those things? But I would say that when I think of collaborations, I think of, you know, events in one category, I think of value for value and then paid collaborations.
Ooh, let's just say I make a beauty bar like a soap and I've been selling really well at farmer's markets. Facebook ads are not working for me. What do you recommend for someone who's just starting out making a physical product? What kind of collapse should they go for that's going to give them the highest ROI?
I think that the best thing that you can do is to look at other brands or other businesses that are somewhat within your niche, but maybe have complimentary products or even services. Right? So you think of [00:04:00] other businesses, it could even be like a spa or it could be even an online community that focuses on wellness.
Like it could really be anything or another product that's complimentary. Like maybe it's a natural makeup. brand, or maybe it's like a sustainable clothing company or something similar, and then look at what opportunities do you have to cross promote one another's businesses? So one of my favorite ways that I see entrepreneurs kind of testing out this idea of collaboration would be to host either a pop up event together collaboratively, or do something like a collaborative photoshoot.
It does take some planning. It doesn't take some organizing. So in my opinion, it's a really great way to kind of get your feet wet in this idea of collaborations. If you're not ready to, you know, host this like large event or do something virtually, maybe together. Let's say, for example, you want to do a pop up, find a venue where it would make sense to have your products in.
So let's. say that's a clothing store or a spa and [00:05:00] then pitch this idea of getting your brand as a pop up and maybe like find three other brands or five other brands that would be aligned that would also be a good fit. And then what you would do is everyone would promote that one pop up or that one event.
So you're pulling from everyone's audience. And so then you're getting your brand and you're getting your business in front of multiple different audiences. within one event. And the nice thing about that, it's also, I think a lot of people have this fear. I know when I started my business, I was so scared of this.
I'm like, if I host an event or if I do something, is no one going to show up? Like you have that fear of like, am I going to be the only one there? Am I going to have to force like my mom and my sister to show up? Right? And so I think what this does is it takes the pressure off and that, Hey, if everyone could get five people to show up and at least you're getting your brand in front of you.
You know, 20, 25, 50 new faces when you do like a collaborative opportunity like that. So that's just like [00:06:00] one example of what you could do as a, as a small business. So let's break that down a little bit. That's in person pop up, which we all love. I think the reason why we like the word pop ups is because it sounds like it's kind of exclusive and it's not going to be around forever.
So are you saying that the pop up is more likely to happen if you can get multiple people instead of just you going directly one to one with the venue? You can say, I have. And then what about like a who pays for things? Like, let's get into the nitty gritty. Who's paying for the venue? Who's paying for the drinks?
Like, what is the burden of the venue? Are they going to help promote too? Yeah, such a good question. I love this. Okay. So you could definitely go ahead and pitch yourself. Hey, I want to pop up at your location and that's totally fine. You can totally do that. The reason why I'm saying to get three to five other people to also come in on this is because one, it's like the shared network effect, which we.
Kind of talked about before where everyone's going to be promoting it. And there's also more value for either the store or the spa, wherever you're popping up. Cause you're saying like, we're going to all share it to our [00:07:00] own networks. And so it's promoting their business as well. And then when it comes to actual, like what's going to happen at that pop up, cause you could do something super simple where you don't necessarily have.
have the drinks and the food and like all that kind of stuff. It could be a day pop up and yeah, maybe you're serving tea or something like that. And then you could have it be a very small budgeted thing. And maybe you're just providing that as a host, for example, or you share, like you said, the burden of the cost of everything with everyone involved.
Or if you want to do more of like a evening event and you want to make it a little more classy, then you can basically pitch the people that are going to be involved to say like, Hey, let's All pitch in X amount, let's say 100 or 200 and this is what we're going to have at the event and that amount that we're all putting forward is going to go to cover the expenses.
So there's lots of different ways that you can do it. You can do it really simple and for lack of a better word, like scrappy, where it's more we're popping up in the middle of the day, people are just coming to shop these brands or you can do more of a VIP event. And it [00:08:00] also, I think really depends on your brand because what experience are you creating with the brand that you have.
And you probably know your customers the best. What kind of experience are they going to want to have? And what do you want to provide for them? And then thinking about it, reverse engineering that to make it a good fit. Oh, it sounds so fun, but I'm going to get back to the specifics. Cause I'm all about like peeling away the layers.
So you said that it creates a win win if we can get more people to pop up at one place, then we get the venue for free. Is that true? That means that it's a successful collab or. Yeah, so the reason why I love the idea of pitching another business, for example, like a clothing store or a spa for this specific example is because what are they also wanting?
They're also wanting new customers and new clients. I'll actually go back to when I was first starting my business. My first pop up that I did, I had been in business for a little while and I wanted to bring some entrepreneurs together to network and connect. And so what I did was I thought about, okay, where would be a good spot?
where they would actually [00:09:00] want a group of 20 or 30 women entrepreneurs in their space. I thought, okay, let me look for a store that might be a good fit for this. So I was walking down Robson street, which is a shopping street in Vancouver. And I came across this little pop up and it was a clothing store and they were popped up for the season.
So it was like holiday season. And so I walked in, I went to the front and I said, Hey, I have been running these little pop up events for entrepreneurs. I was wondering if you'd be interested in hosting an event for us. And I bring in 20 or 30 people into the space and she's like, yes, you can, because you know, the clothing store itself, they're looking for more people to know about their space to have new people coming in.
And it was after hours, so they wouldn't normally be open, but I was going to bring in a bunch of women into this space. face to be exposed to their brand. And so it was a win win. And so that's what I always share to people within my community is think about if you're looking to host an event again, if it's a pop up or you're looking to [00:10:00] do a collaboration where you can get in front of someone else's audience.
or multiple different people's audience. How can you make it a win for everyone? And so that's what we did. And so that is kind of the example that I'm sharing about how can you create a win for that business. So if you're going to rent out a room, there's no real opportunity for that necessarily. So you have to be creative with where you're going to host like a pop up like that.
Yeah, I love that. So I have so many ideas now about my local stores on my street that I should ask. And is it a red flag if let's say the venue is like, well, you actually have to pay us or do a rev share. So tell us about the red flags. If someone is pitching a pop up for the first time. So I think you really just need to be honest with yourself and your own business.
Are you willing to put a budget forward for something like this? If you're bootstrapping and you're like, no, I really just want this opportunity to be a win win collaboration. You will find opportunities that are win win and you will find those people that [00:11:00] see the vision, that see the opportunity there and that are willing to host something like that.
And so I always talk about this as well for my community is not everyone is going to align with the idea that you have for a collaboration and that's okay. It's finding the right type of opportunities and the right businesses that really understand the value of what you would be creating within that collaboration.
So when I went into that pop up and I met Jigme, who is the founder, we actually became. Super fast friends. She's like, why wouldn't I want 20 to 30 new women who are new to my brand pop up in my space? That's brilliant. Of course I would want that. But you know, I could have gone into another store and they would have been like, like you said, Oh, well yeah, you would have to pay us if you would want to pop up or do something like that.
So it's really just finding the opportunities that are aligned. It's finding the people and the businesses that would be aligned with. that. And so if you are looking for that, there are so many opportunities to collaborate. I think it just takes putting yourself out [00:12:00] there. I think it can be really scary.
Like I wasn't sure, you know, I could have walked in there and, and her just look at me and be like, no, we're not hosting this. But I think it just kind of takes being brave and pitching and seeing what happens. And if nothing else, getting the practice of that, I think will serve you in lots of different areas of your business.
Yeah. I mean, obviously we're all here for the cold pitch and that's why we have the podcast. So if I can recap what you said, are you saying that it's always better to create a win win where you can find a win win and maybe you don't have to pay for the venue? Yeah. I think it really depends on the situation.
So like now, for example, we host. larger events. And so we've done full day conferences and different things where we'll have like up to 200 people there. So for that, we are paying for things like the venue or the food or different things like that, because it's more about the experience that our attendees are having and we're charging for tickets and things like that.
So you really have to figure out like, what is the. Purpose. And what is the [00:13:00] idea for what you're creating? And then, you know, I always tell people like map out your budget if you have one for something that you're doing. And then if you don't have a budget, then you just kind of have to get creative, right?
The more bootstrapped your businesses, the more creative you just have to be with Those opportunities that could be win win. So when we were first getting started and we literally had zero budget, I actually never knew that hosting these pop up events was going to turn into the business that I have today.
It was more like a something on the side that I was doing for fun to network myself. And so I would just ask people, I met someone who did catering and I'm like, Hey, we're doing these little pop up events. Would you be interested in being a sponsor? And you know, this is what it would look like. Cause we had started a meetup group, we started an email and social media.
So I'm like, you know, we'll promote you to our community. We'll let you have that time to talk at the beginning of the event to showcase, you know, your catering company and that kind of thing. So it was creating multiple opportunities for people who are partnering with us to have the benefit of getting [00:14:00] in front of.
The community that we were building. And so I think you have to kind of look at that for your own business and think, what can I provide? And sometimes to get started, it's not necessarily that promotion, but maybe it is that, Hey, I'm doing all the work on this end. You get to participate in this. And be a part of it, not having to do all the work, but you're participating and maybe contributing something to that.
And we're all going to win from the experience. So I think it's just getting creative with it and really figuring out, do you have a budget? Do you not have a budget? What's the purpose of it? Is it to get in front of new customers or clients? Is it to actually make a profit out of the event itself or the pop up that you're doing, are you going to charge tickets for it or is it free?
So it's really figuring out what the goal is and then reverse engineering it from there. Yeah, I love how you gave so many examples of non monetary ways to collaborate. So you said, we can give them visibility, we can give them foot traffic. Maybe it's giving them a shout out if you have a platform. Are there any other creative ways that don't involve money?
Maybe it could be a digital collab where we can create a win win without having to, you [00:15:00] know, pay for that, a collaboration. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's so many other opportunities to collaborate. If someone's like, I'm not going to do like an in person pop up or thing like that. You know, there's so many opportunities for businesses to cross promote.
So whether that looks like showcasing your product and another person's product together as creating some sort of a bundle, I absolutely love when people do. surprise little gifts, whether it be a gift card or a sample of your product, whether it be like a sale that they're doing and then someone else contribute something to that.
So I know I've seen so many different businesses do this where maybe they have business that they really admire that would be like a really good. there'd be a lot of crossover with their customer base. And if that business is doing, let's say a big sale, then they would put either a gift card or even like a sample of their product as like a surprise in that box.
And then that's an easy way to get your brand in front of a lot of new customers or vice versa, asking another brand [00:16:00] to do that for you. Or maybe you can do it for each other. Right? So they have. A sample and or gift card in the products that you're shipping out and vice versa. Can do this through email list, swap opportunities.
You can do this through social media collaborations. Yeah, there's just endless ways that you can cross promote. And I love the opportunities. That's like multiple businesses involved, but if you're just getting started with your first collaboration, sometimes it's easier to just like work one on one with someone and try that out.
See if you like it and then kind of build from there. And what have you found has been the most successful class where it maybe doesn't involve giving away free products, because as we know, product owners have very thin margins and even a discount is eating away at their bottom line. So what have you found that is like a very high ROI leverage activity and they can get in front of more audience?
Would you say it's more of the digital collabs versus the in person? Yeah. And I think testing it out too, because I love the idea of featuring different products or services. [00:17:00] for your community and then someone else doing that to their community and basically cross referencing like, Hey, maybe you have a skincare brand, but you're going to then share your favorite makeup brand in your newsletter.
Right. And they do the same for your product in theirs. This could also be on social media. I know like giveaways are kind of almost controversial these days. Some people like really believe in giveaways. Some people don't. But there's a really big brand that was founded in Vancouver called Smart Sweets.
And they did so many collaborations that way where they did multiple giveaways with aligned brands and they did them over social media and they grew their community so big because they kept collaborating. I would say like it was almost every week that they were collaborating with a new brand, doing some kind of promotion or some kind of giveaway over social.
And it just created so much excitement and buzz around their brand. So you really have to figure out what works for you and what works for your brand or your strategy. Something that I really like the idea of [00:18:00] is, and I know there's so many ways now to automate it, but you know, like back in the day when we would do different giveaways or things like that we would message specifically one to one message every single person who actually entered the giveaway.
Cause a lot of people forget that people that are entering your giveaway are interested in what you have to offer. So if you are going to do something like that, like message everyone that entered, regardless of whether they won and offer them something, maybe it is like a digital, something that doesn't cost you a lot of money, but something that's like a thank you for entering this giveaway.
And so what we would do specifically for our events is we would create a. promo code for them. And we'd say, Hey, I know you entered to win two free tickets to our event. We already did choose the winner, but we would love to offer you 10 off. If you would still like to join us, we'd love to see you there.
And the amount of people that we actually had convert into customers from that was huge. So there's lots of different ways that you can leverage it. And I always say like, you know, do the collaboration, but know that I guess the ripple effects of it could be [00:19:00] larger than you think. Just from what putting your brand in front of a new audience.
can do. And I'm sure you probably see that in maybe PR all the time too. Yeah. It's really a compounding thing. So everyone's so interested in data and how do I measure it? So obviously it's hard to know what that customer journey is, but are there ways that we can measure the effectiveness of a collab?
Yeah. Lots of different ways that you can, again, there's always going to be that, Oh, you never knew that someone on the person's email list is going to be, you know, your biggest buyer. Maybe they like work for a company that's then going to buy it. Like you just never know where that could lead. However, if you can create.
different affiliate codes, or even just like discount code. If you're not able to do affiliate codes with your business, different discount codes or affiliate codes, where, when you do that promotion with another brand, you can track it on the backend that way. The most accurate way to do that would be to actually have a specific link so that you can actually see the clicks to your website.
Cause sometimes. Someone clicks and [00:20:00] doesn't buy right away, but then they buy like two weeks later. You might think that they just found you either on Google or on Instagram, but maybe they found you from that other brand that you did the collaboration with, you know, two weeks ago or even a month ago. So that is kind of, I would say, one of the Best ways to track it.
Yeah, that's so good. And I think now with ads being so expensive and social media, like we need to come up with way more creative ways to get in front of our audience. And I think collabs in addition to PR are so key for this. So I definitely have so many things for my business too, that I'm thinking of creating that's more than just make a post or, you know, do something.
Yeah. Where do you think this whole collab, whether it's digital, whether it's events, whether it's summits, where do you think it's headed in 2024? Do you have anything that you think is changing this year? Any predictions? I think that people are just more open to it. Kind of like what you just said. I think a lot of people are tired and I think also people want that real connection.
And so, I don't know, I always. Let's talk about the fact that like building connections and [00:21:00] building community is one thing that often gets kind of put to the back burner of like, Oh yeah, I should be connecting with people or building those relationships, but it kind of gets put to the back burner because we're like, I can't actually track the ROI of like a relationship, for example.
But I think a lot of us are missing that community. And so I think collaborations creates a way that we can work together. Like you said at the beginning of the episode, we can do so much more and create so much more impact when we work together. And so I think that people are just more open to it now because they're craving that connection and they're craving that community.
And I always talk about as well on my podcast at this idea that we need to really. think of our businesses and the opportunities that are out there with an abundance mentality rather than scarcity. I think that's one of the most vital things that you can kind of learn for your business is if you can open yourself up to collaborations rather than, Oh, I'm worried that someone's going to buy their product instead of [00:22:00] mine, or, you know, I'm going to lose a client to someone else.
because we have, you know, similar things that we do, then you're really just going to be limiting your growth, I think at the end of the day. So when you can be open to those opportunities, I think more people are seeing and you see some of the biggest brands and businesses that do collaborate and that do work together and they're promoting each other's things, even though sometimes you're like, Oh, wow, their businesses are actually pretty similar.
It's amazing that they're like collaborating in that way. And so I think. Just recognizing that collaborations and building those relationships are things that are going to help you grow your business so much more sustainably as well, because when things don't go as planned or, you know, you're having a challenging time in your business, it's those relationships that you can lean on and ask for help, but you don't want to be asking for help to someone that you don't really know.
Right. So building those connections and those relationships so that when you are going through a challenging time, you can say like, Hey, I need some support. I need some help. I don't know what to do. And [00:23:00] even just having those people that you can connect with and be transparent with is super powerful.
Ooh, I love this because. This is something that's very close to my heart, this journey of scarcity, you know, like being raised as a daughter of a immigrant, a single mom. I have such a close relationship with scarcity. It has taken over me in many ways and has limited my growth and leadership. And I think, like you said, so much of the beauty and the profound growth that comes often are those intangibles, the things that you can't put dollars and cents to, it's the way you grow as a leader, it's the way that you.
Soften into the present moment. It's a way that you trust. And I think those are the things that people don't talk about. It's very much like, well, what is the immediate ROI? And that's a really beautiful reminder for all of us to realign ourselves and to be open and receptive to the gifts and blessings that are maybe not tangible, but are leaps and bounds, you know, much better than, than just numbers on a piece of paper.
So, yeah. So good. So how can people find you? How can people connect with you and learn all about you? Yeah. So you can find, we have a podcast called Business Babes [00:24:00] Collective. You can find us there. And also if you're interested to learn more about collaborations, we have a free workshop. So you can just go to businessbabescollective.
com slash Collaborate and you can get access to that there and come find me on Instagram. We're just at business babes co. So just connect and ask me any questions to you. I'm a total open book. I have people ask me questions all the time around, like I'm hosting this event. Like, what do I do? And I'm happy to just like, share my.
experience because we've been doing it for eight years, nine years, whether it be collaborations or events. There's so many moving parts. And so I understand that sometimes it's challenging. So feel free to come over there and I'm, I'm hanging out there. Thank you for that. That's so generous and kind. Of course.
Thank you so much for having me on Gloria. I really appreciate it. This was wonderful. If you're listening out there and you feel like you have this energy of constriction, Or you feel like there's scarcity creeping up because of everywhere. May this episode reorientate you. May this episode make you feel like you can trust and that there's always so much more abundance when we do [00:25:00] collaborate and give, and instead of being in our own little corners of the world.
So thank you so much for that reminder, Danielle. And, uh, yeah, listen, rate. review. And if you know any small business owners who could benefit from this episode, please share it with them. Thank you. Hey, small business hero. Did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York times, Marie Claire, pop sugar, and so many more, even if you're not yet launched or if you don't have any connection, that's right.
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