Ep. 8: "How collaboration beats competing any day" with Dana Corey

Episode 8: "How collaboration beats competing any day" with Dana Corey

 

In this episode, Executive Coach, Dana Corey discusses how her business is different in connecting with other business owners and with other executives. We dive deep into what sets her business apart from the rest, what she believes hinders growth or causes plateaus, her candor as her strength, and how she sparked a new way of networking for fellow entrepreneurs.

 

 

What her business is about

 

 

02:13 Most of my clients are established, they've been in business anywhere from 3-10 years, and they've gotten there on their own wherewithal, their own wit, their own grit, their own determination. But they always hit a place where everything that they thought to do, everything that they knew to do, everything that had worked in the past stops working. And that's when I come in and I help them, give them a different perspective and get them over that hump.

 

 

Common plateaus that people experience

 

 

05:10 Most business owners think that the way to get from here to wherever they're going is a shift in doing. It’s a shame that people think that the words that you use are the answer to selling. It's like a doing-ness problem. But the truth is that "doing", whatever it is that you think that you have to do, is only 10 percent of the issue. The real issue is in your head. 

 

 

Candor as her strength

 

 

08:17 Being nice is a kiss of death. Being kind is one thing, and being kind is really fundamentally important to being human. But being nice is walking a line trying not to take a stand one way or the other so people will like you. And that doesn't produce results of any kind, personally or professionally. 

 

10:10 Part of it has to do with being willing to stand in our own powerful experience of being human and feeling confident that in the end, however it is that we get it across... that it really is better for everyone involved and really standing in our personal sense of leadership and leading with integrity and kindness but truthfulness. 

 

Nourish Dinners

 

 

13:19 I am somebody who is deeply committed to having real relationships with people, real friendships with people. And so I started Nourish Dinners as a way to create that kind of atmosphere for business owners where we get together for dinner, we don't talk about business but everybody in the room owns a business, and owns a successful business. And so there's this foundation upon which we stand where we understand each other, we get each other, we get what we've been through in a way that we don't have to talk about it, and instead we get very personal. 

 

16:40 I've always felt really strongly that when you break bread with somebody else, it immediately forges a connection and an opening that you can create any really deep relationships through. It's the act of breaking bread together that creates this atmosphere. 

 

 

Dana’s piece of advice

 

 

22:07 Remember that you have a singular point of view. And that takes you far, but only so far. And that there comes a time when you are going to want a mentor, or a coach, or somebody else who has a different life experience but a lot to offer. And use their eyes to help you see the next place to go, because from where we are standing we only see what we see. And if you invite somebody else to come in and use their eyes as a guide to see the things that you can't see, you will go much much farther.

 

 

Best advice given to her

 

 

23:08 Sandra Yancy of E Women Network once said, "In order to build a business- a big business, you wanna always ask yourself, ‘What are the things that only I can do, and what are the things that I'm doing that somebody else could do?’". Because in each of our businesses, there are the things that only we can bring to that business and oftentimes, we get distracted by all of the stuff that has to get done so the time that we alot to doing our magic gets smaller and smaller. 

 

Next Nourish Dinners - October 29, 2019, Portland

To join, connect through the Nourish Dinners page on her website,

Or send a message through her Facebook page.