Transcript: Nicole Mahoney: [00:00:00] My point of view on collaboration is that people take it for granted. They don't think a lot about it. People say, yeah, I collaborate. You know, you and I have talked, I mean, you and I have actually collaborated on campaigns and projects for clients. But we don't pay a whole lot of attention to what makes a collaboration work and what might get in the way of making it work. Adam Stoker: [00:00:21] Hello, everyone and welcome to another episode of the Destination Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Stoker. Really, really fun show for you guys today. And I've got a guest that we've had in the past, really excited to have her back. Her name is Nicole Mahoney. She is the CEO of Break The Ice Media. She hosts the Amazing podcast Destination on the left, and she also just got done writing a book and I'm really excited to talk to her about that today. It's called Stronger Together, building world-changing business collaborations. And so we're going to talk about a lot of that today. But Nicole thanks for joining me today. Nicole Mahoney: [00:00:57] Oh, I'm so happy to be here Adam. Thanks for having me back and I hope we can make this fun. I mean, I think collaboration is fun. Adam Stoker: [00:01:04] Absolutely. And you know, Nicole, that's one of the things that I really admired about you early on when I first started my show is I reached out to you and said, hey, let's do kind of a cross-collaboration with episodes together. And of course, because of your attitude on collaboration, you jumped right in. And I really appreciated that. And I'd love to have maybe for the audience that maybe hasn't heard your previous episode or isn't familiar with your story, maybe if you could give us just your background and what led you to where you are today. Nicole Mahoney: [00:01:38] All right, I'd love to. I have an entrepreneurial background. So I was raised by an entrepreneur. I grew up in a family-owned business, not in travel and tourism, which is the space I play in now. But I grew up in a retail family-owned business. We sold car electronics and cell phones and loud car stereos. And first got my taste of what it was like to host an event, through that experience, my father's store, we put on a car stereo competition way back in the day. And so that kind of gave me my first view of what it meant to attract visitors to a destination and to create an experience, and also to collaborate because my father was really good at collaborating with other businesses within the plaza and within the community where we were located. And I really saw what it meant to collaborate and how coming together, you know, you could accomplish so much more together than you could on your own. So that's where my kind of bug your passion for both business, entrepreneurship and collaboration kind of started. Along my path, I've owned several businesses, but the most recent one being Break The Ice Media, which I've now owned for 15 years. And since I owned or started that company, probably about two or three years in, we decided we really needed to niche our business and focus on the travel tourism, and hospitality sector. So that is the only sector that we serve. That's the space that we play in. And through our experience, serving our clients through Break The Ice, we just saw collaboration after collaboration after collaboration and how well the travel tourism and hospitality industry collaborates. And so because of that, we really started to focus in on at both with my podcast and then eventually with research that we commissioned to really study it and to find out what makes collaborations work. Adam Stoker: [00:03:28] Great. And so as another agency owner, you know, you and I have plenty of things that we could commiserate, brainstorm on, all kinds of things, right? But I want to know kind of what led you, you said that your most recent business is Break The Ice, what was it that led you to start an agency? I know that you ultimately decided to go the tourism route. I want to get even higher up that and understand a little bit about what led you to go the agency route, because it's not for everyone, right? Not everybody has the stomach for it. But those that do, it's really rewarding. So I'm curious what led you there? Nicole Mahoney: [00:03:28] Yes. Great question. Well, right before I launched Break The Ice, I was actually doing freelance work. And my background because of that car stereo competition, really, I fell in love with event planning. So my background was in event planning, public relations. I have a degree in marketing. And prior to starting to Break The Ice, like I said, I was doing freelance work, and I had come to a point where I could only do so much by myself and I knew I needed to launch into a bigger business. And so my first idea was to launch a business where we did PR, event planning, and social media, because it was right around the time that Facebook was coming on online. And I saw Facebook is a great way to amplify the other efforts, the other things I was doing for my clients. So that's really where I started, and I started focusing on small businesses because I believe that small businesses are really the heartbeat of a community. And so I thought I will literally wanted to help those Main Street businesses in my own community, be better business owners and better marketers. And as you know, Adam from owning a business, it's a journey and the path and you learn things along the way. And then you, you know, you kind of pivot and respond to what's happening in the marketplace. And so we've come a long way since those early beginnings and that first idea that I had, but really the soul of it is my passion for small business and then my expertise in marketing, public relations, and entrepreneurship. Adam Stoker: [00:05:22] Great. Well, obviously, you know, it was a good decision if you've been doing it for 15 years, and your agency continues to grow. I'm curious, some of your favorite campaigns that you've worked on along the way. And of course, it's hard to pick a favorite child, right? You don't want to, you got lots of clients that you love. And I definitely, when I say favorite campaign, I definitely don't want you to say favorite client because that would get you in a little bit of trouble. But let's talk about your favorite campaigns that you've been able to be a part of. Nicole Mahoney: [00:05:22] Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm actually going to take this in a little different direction there. There's a couple of things that really stand out in my career where you go, wow, that was really cool, like that was a really awesome time, right? That was just an awesome experience. What we were delivering or building was just very cool. And the first is before I ever started my company, the one job I had outside of the family business and outside of working for myself, was working for a company who was in charge of building an AAA baseball stadium in downtown Rochester, New York, which is where I live and where I grew up. And so that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life to see a baseball stadium come from, you know, just this empty field, you know, from that first shovel of dirt, because I coordinate the press event that, you know, was the groundbreaking press event all the way through to a full stadium, 15,000 people, and you know, concerts and baseball and soccer being played there. So that, that's one that really stands out in my mind and I talk about it in the book too. It’s another example of collaboration. But then fast forward here, you and I are talking the end of January real close to February 2nd, which is Groundhog's Day. And one of the campaigns that we got to work on through Break The Ice was for visit Syracuse and it was called the official home of Winter. And what Syracuse wanted to do was really build up their shoulder season. They really wanted to, they were constantly winning awards for having the most snow in Winter in upstate New York. And so they wanted to take winter and turn it into something that was an attractor rather than a detractor. Adam Stoker: [00:07:20] Yeah. Nicole Mahoney: [00:07:21] And so we came up with a campaign, it was a fully integrated campaign that was centered around this idea of a character named Winter, and how nobody wanted Winter. Everybody you know couldn't wait till Winter went away. They liked every other season better. And so we had a video series that kind of developed this character. But then we actually had an actor that was Winter. Syracuse welcomed Winter. We did a huge press event to welcome Winter into Syracuse. Winter marched in the Saint Patrick's Day parade. Well, one of the things we did is we took Winter and a contingency of us all dressed and visit Syracuse swag to Punxsutawney Pennsylvania for Groundhog’s Day. And the reason why we went was to rally for six more weeks of winter. So we were there cheering Winter on and wanting six more weeks and chanting. And it was an amazing experience. I never knew. I wanted to go to Punxsutawney for Groundhog's Day, but it is quite the experience and not quite the event to be part of. But then we were also able to get the attention of the weather channel and a bunch of other national and international outlets that were there covering Groundhog's Day that then covered this crazy guy named Winter and this community named from upstate New York as part of it. And so, it was just a really fun campaign. They had a lot of legs to it. It was very creative. And we had experiences that we didn't know we ever wanted to have, frankly. Adam Stoker: [00:08:46] What a brilliant campaign. I love that story and I love that you even, you know, got picked up by the Weather Channel and all that stuff. I'm curious how long ago that was? Nicole Mahoney: [00:08:56] That was 2018. I could have the year off by one. It was right around 2018. Adam Stoker: [00:09:01] Great. And so that was in more of the kind of social media era. And so you probably had a lot of virality on social media to that as well, didn't you? Nicole Mahoney: [00:09:11] Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there was a social component. There was a blog and content development, component video. We did activations both local activations and activations like Groundhog's Day because part of the challenge too about winter in that particular community is the people who live there also don't like winter. So we needed to get the people in Syracuse to embrace winter also, to be the ambassadors for that season, and you know, to invite their friends and family to come visit. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun. Adam Stoker: [00:09:40] Oh, I bet the client was just thrilled. Nicole Mahoney: [00:09:42] They were, it was a great, great project. Adam Stoker: [00:09:44] Oh, congrats. What a fun project. Let's dive in and talk about your book. So I've got it right here. It's Stronger Together. And Nicole, I haven't had a chance to go all the way through it. But the concept and you and I discussed the concept that you, that kind of led you to create it. It's this idea that when we collaborate, we can do so much more than we can on our own. I'd love to have you maybe take us back on what made you decide of all the topics that you could write a book on, why was collaboration so important? And then what was the journey like of actually getting a book from idea to publication? Adam Stoker: [00:10:21] So as far as collaboration goes, my point of view on collaboration is that people take it for granted. They don't think a lot about it. You say that people say, yeah, I collaborate, you know. You and I have talked, I mean, you and I have actually collaborated on campaigns and projects for clients. But we don't pay a whole lot of attention to what makes the collaboration work and what you know, what might get in the way of making it work. And I really wanted to find out what does make collaborations successful. And why do some, you know, struggle to find success? And so I started to research that basically through my podcast, I would ask my guests, you know, to give me an example of a collaboration that had worked for them. Specifically, I was exploring the idea of what I call coopetition, where perceived competitors come together to create something better together than they can on their own. And then I would ask my guests, what made them succeed and why did they think they were successful? And in the early days when I first launched my podcast, which was in 2016, I used to also ask my guests to share an example of a collaboration that didn't go well. And the interesting thing Adam was, I think only two guests ever, ever wanted to answer that question. They never wanted to say anything about a collaboration that didn't go well because they didn't want to badmouth, you know, a partner, maybe that, or something that didn't work for them. So I quickly took that question out. But I've found other ways to get at the answer to that, not through the podcast, that's really through the research. But what I did over a period of, you know, since 2016, asking my guests what makes collaboration successful? I actually came up with three, what I'm calling is or what it is, is the 3 Cs Framework for Collaboration. And there are basically three key ingredients to making a successful collaboration. And that's from my guests telling me this, over 300 plus episodes. But then also we tested it when we did the research. And so the 3 Cs are communication, commonality and commitment. And if a collaboration has those three things in order, then they'll be much more likely to be successful. Adam Stoker: [00:12:25] Maybe tell me about those 3, expound on those 3 Cs of collaboration. Why is communication, commonality, and commitment so important? Nicole Mahoney: [00:12:33] Sure. So communication is actually the number one response that I get when I ask my guests on my podcast, what makes their collaboration so successful. And you know, they'll talk about communication in many different ways. The way I summarize it is, we need to have a communication upfront to align on what the goal of the project is? What our roles are? What the expectations are? How we're dividing up the project itself. If it's, you know, resource-based, is it financial, is it time spent? Just getting all of those things clarified in the beginning is hugely important to making a collaboration successful. And then the second thing is commonality. And the commonality piece actually relates to finding the common ground, finding what you have in common with the collaboration. And it doesn't have to be necessarily, you have kind of the same goal or a common goal, but it doesn't necessarily have to be exactly the same thing that each party or every party is getting out of it. But you find kind of that common ground that draws all of the parties in. And as long as you can identify that and find the commonality, you'll be set up for a successful partnership. Adam Stoker: [00:13:41] Yeah, let me ask you a quick question on commonality if that's okay because you're kind of sparking some questions here. But with the commonality aspect, you mentioned that it doesn't have to be like commonality of desire to outcome, right? Where you don't have to necessarily both want the exact same thing from the collaboration. So is do you start at the commonality and make sure that everybody understands what it is that's bringing this collaboration together first and then build objectives from there? Or I guess this commonality concept is interesting because I'm wondering, is that the foundation on when to select successful collaboration -is built, or I guess, where do you start? Nicole Mahoney: [00:14:22] Yeah. So the best example I have of this that I think can really kind of illustrate the point is a story that I know I shared with you in our pre-interview chat, but a story about the Poconos in Pennsylvania, and I had had Brian Bussey from visit Poconos on my show. And he told me a story about needing to pick up the Route 80, which is basically the gateway into the Poconos, into the destination. So it's the highway that brings all of the visitors into the destination. And apparently, there was a pretty big litter problem on this highway. And so his DMO or CVB decided they really wanted to kind of shine a light on the problem and try to start to solve the problem. But what they found was they could do a marketing campaign about keeping the Poconos clean. But in order to actually clean up Route 80, they needed to find a partner that had the authority to clean up the roads because you can't just as Joe's Citizen, go out and pick up the highway. So he did find the Adopt A Highway Corporation, and they formed a collaboration and they put together a Pick Up the Poconos Day. Well, then they wanted to see this collaboration continue to succeed. And so they tried to find other partners. And essentially what they did is they ended up finding the Local United Way, who partnered with them because the Local United Way had a homeless program where they were basically looking for places for these people who are on the brink of homelessness to work for a day rate to help them get back on their feet. And so here you have a problem that the Visitors Association has identified, right, as maybe a destination problem, but then you also have the United Way and the problem they're trying to solve is homelessness. So we're connecting the dots between homelessness and you know, a litter problem. But when they come together, ultimately, those two outcomes created this really amazing collaboration. And that goes on to this day and has become very strong and has actually kind of snowballed throughout the whole state from what I understand. Adam Stoker: [00:16:24] I think that is an interesting illustration because what that educated me on is that if you understand the outcomes that each organization wants, you can find the commonality which is where the collaboration can take place. Nicole Mahoney: [00:16:39] Yes. Adam Stoker: [00:16:40] And so I actually don't think based on my question earlier that that commonality is the place to start. Outcomes is the place to start, and then the commonality is what actually facilitates the collaboration. I don't know. That's just me trying to think about it and apply it in my view. But that was a light bulb for me. Nicole Mahoney: [00:16:58] I mean, I love that. So what I try to do with my book, with the research, with all the information that we put out on collaboration, is really just to give folks a different way to think about it. And to understand when you open up your mind to possibilities, you never know, like you'll find some more opportunities than if you're closed off to the possibility that there's a partner out there that can help you, you know, solve whatever it is you're trying to solve. And so I love that example of the Poconos because they're two completely different organizations. You would never think that those two outcomes or those two goals that they had would ever, you know, come together in a partnership, but it made perfect sense for them to come together in a partnership. Adam Stoker: [00:17:36] Absolutely. I love that. Well, tell me about commitment, Nicole. I interrupted you before you got to the Third C. Nicole Mahoney: [00:17:42] Yeah, so commitment is so important because we all know and we saw it during the pandemic, that if you're committed to something, you will see it through and you will succeed. But if you don't have commitment to it, then, you know, when resources get strapped or your focus gets pulled in another direction, you're quick to drop that. So the collaborations that we've seen that have been successful have had committed partners all the way around, no matter what. And that way, you know, if there is an obstacle that comes up or if something like a pandemic gets thrown into the mix, the collaboration continues because the parties are committed to seeing it through. And I like to use the example actually of a volunteer firefighter. So if you think about a volunteer firefighter, when you, you know, if you become a volunteer firefighter, you're joining a cause, you're joining other people who are like-minded who have the same goal of, you know, putting out fires and they're all committed. And you assume that all of your fellow firefighters are committed. But now imagine if there is a burning building and you know, you run into that burning building to put out a fire and once you get in there, you realize, oh my fellow firefighters, they weren't as committed as I was and you're standing there by yourself. I mean, just think about it. You would think twice about running into the burning building in the first place if you knew that, you know, your fellow firefighters weren't as committed. So that's the point. If you're committed, you're all going to work together to work through whatever obstacle comes up. Adam Stoker: [00:19:12] I like that. That's a great analogy too, because you don’t want to be the firefighter alone in the burning building and you got to make sure your collaborators have the commitment. I'm curious though because in our previous discussion, Nicole, you said that through your research, you identified three different types of collaborators. I'd love if you and maybe I, you know, I don't want you to give away the whole book here either. But I thought it was a really fascinating discussion, of there are three separate types of collaborators. And if I understood correctly, you kind of need to know not only which type you are, but also the people you're engaging with, which type of collaborators they are. Nicole Mahoney: [00:19:48] Oh Yeah, absolutely. And this is a fun part. I love this part of the research that we got back. And that is, there are three different types of attitudes about collaboration. And the three types are Promoter, Doubter and Protector. And what our research found, I'm going to tell you about each type in a second, but one of the cool things that we found in the research is that collaborations, almost 99% of the folks that we surveyed for the research collaborate, and over 50% of them say they collaborate a lot. And so what that said to us is that you are likely to have at least two of these personality types in a collaboration if not all three. And so all three of them do work together and can make a collaboration successful. And it's really understanding what you bring to the table and then what they bring to the table. So for example, the promoter is exactly what it sounds like. They're super excited, you know. They promote collaboration all the time. They're ready to jump in with 2 feet. They believe that collaboration is, you know, the best way for them to get ahead. And if you ask them to collaborate, they're all in. The Doubter doesn't mind collaborating, but they think it's kind of hard, and they think that collaboration not only is hard, but that the Promoters make it out to be a lot more than it really is. Like it's not all it's cracked up to be. But they will do it. But what happens with the Doubters is they're the critical thinkers, they're the ones that are asking the hard questions at the table when you're trying to get it off the ground. And you might think that they're putting a wall up or that they don't want to participate. But really what they're there to do is to help with that communication piece, you know, is to help, really identify where the roadblocks might be or to make sure that we're on the same page. And so they're going to ask those hard questions. And then the third types are the Protectors and the Protectors are all about collaboration. But they believe they have some kind of proprietary information that is, you know, gives them a competitive edge. So they're not going to put all of their cards on the table. And what they'll do though is they'll help also in the beginning of a collaboration, is to set up the expectations, what is going to be part of the collaboration, what is not? So there's this clear definition of exactly what we're working on. So they bring in important element to it as well. So you've got the Promoters, the Doubters and the Protectors. And basically what we found is in collaborations about a third each. So it's a third of the people we surveyed were Promoters, a third Doubters and a third Protectors, which really says you've got at least two or three of these types in every collaboration. Adam Stoker: [00:22:24] Yeah, I think that's really interesting. And it's funny because I would say based on my past experience, I usually approach a collaboration as a Promoter like, hey, let's make this happen everything's going to be great, you know. And I've found that if I don't have a Doubter or I'm sorry, what was the third one again? Nicole Mahoney: [00:22:43] The Protector. Adam Stoker: [00:22:44] The Protector. If I don't have one of those two on the other side of the collaboration. I actually could set it up to fail because I'm almost two rose-colored glasses, miss a couple of things along the way and then there are unmet expectations on the other side. Nicole Mahoney: [00:22:59] Exactly. And I'm with you, Adam, I'm the promoter all the way. And so we do need those other ones to balance us out. Adam Stoker: [00:23:06] Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned that there's going to be an assessment tool where we can actually understand what kind of collaborator we are, and opportunities for collaboration. Is that a fair description? Nicole Mahoney: [00:23:17] Yeah, so I'll give you a link for the show notes on our website. We have a complete collaborators tool kit that you can download and it's at Breaktheicemedia.com\collaborate. And I'll give you that link. And basically what we've developed, are a couple of different tools. One is a guide to being a better collaborator. So it talks about the three types and then it gives you strategies that you can use for yourself that you can use when you're interacting with the different types. And so it just gives you some more things to think about. Another tool that we have developed is something called the Sweet Spot Filter. And the Sweet Spot Filter is really just a way to evaluate a collaboration. And we used the research to develop a scoring system basically that in the research, we've identified several benefits to collaboration. And so we put them into a scoring system and you can look at that and say, you know, is this collaboration delivering on this benefit, this benefit, that benefit and kind of score it, to give, you know, just to give yourself a way to think about it. Especially for promoters like us. We need something to look at, you know, that we can quantify what we're doing and it asks you the questions. So also it'll ask you the question and then you'll be like, oh yeah, let me make sure we check that box. So it helps you set up a stronger collaboration that way. And then the third tool that we have is an assessment, as you mentioned. And this is really a tool for assessing how you use collaboration strategically within your business or organization. So it really, that came from the second study that we did where we wanted to look at how people were operationalizing collaboration. And from the responses that we got to that study, we've developed this assessment. It's just really a way for, you know, to give you more things to think about. A way to kind of identify areas, where you might want to just be more, more strategic about how you're using collaborations. Adam Stoker: [00:25:07] Got it. I'm excited to see those tools come out and even to use them because I think it's much needed. I want to ask you a little bit more of a big-picture question here. And it might not be a super easy one, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts. If you had to define in the tourism industry, specifically kind of the state of collaboration, and you know, maybe how are we are doing, and what are opportunities for improvement? What maybe are we missing, as pertains to collaboration? What are your thoughts there? Nicole Mahoney: [00:25:37] Well, first of all, I think it's prevalent in our industry. It really is everywhere. And I call it collaboration. I think collaboration is more of a strategic way to think about it. But a lot of people will talk about partnerships. And I've been asking people lately if you know, for the difference between partnership and collaboration. And some people think of them differently, a lot of people think of collaboration and partnership as kind of one and the same. But I've actually, since the pandemic ended and have been seeing a lot more talk about collaboration and about partnership. I think the pandemic really taught us that we need each other in so many ways. And it broke down a lot of those silos. And I do believe that the tourism industry can actually lead the way on how best to collaborate and can teach, you know, other sectors of the economy, how they can also benefit from collaboration. Adam, real quick, I've got to mention this report that just came out from McKenzie. Adam Stoker: [00:26:32] Yeah. Nicole Mahoney: [00:26:33] And I can give you a link for any listeners who are geeky about data, but it's a collaboration barometer that they just did. And it specifically talks about, they have different sectors and they're talking more about geopolitical. I think health care was one. And I'm not going to get them all because literally just came out and I just scanned through it. But what they're talking about is how countries across the world really need to collaborate. And what they talk about in this report is how you can be competing and competitive in certain ways, and still cooperate in other areas. And so what they're talking about is how you can, these countries can be competitive with each other on ideology or whatever it might be. But then they can also cooperate on some of the big issues like climate change, like health, you know, the health of our people. Adam Stoker: [00:27:22] Free trade, all that kind of stuff, right? Nicole Mahoney: [00:27:24] All of those kinds of things, exactly. And so I just find it really interesting that this report just came out and I just read it. So I'm just trying to think through, I believe there's a role here for travel and tourism. It doesn't talk about travel and tourism, of course, at all. And I believe that we're leading the way in terms of how collaborations really can work. And how we can break down silos, and how we can be competitors and still co-operate and collaborate. And so I think we're going to see just a lot more of this coming in the future. Adam Stoker: [00:27:52] You know, I think because destinations are defined by different characteristics than visitors decide. And what I mean by that is, you know, a municipality may have specific geographical boundaries that visitor doesn't see when they're planning their trip, right? They say, oh, I want to go here, here and here and they don't realize that there are three different DMOs that are crossed during that time. Because of that, I think the market demands a level of collaboration, destinations. And destinations that aren't willing to collaborate with their surrounding partners or even, I actually saw recently, you know, this may not be a great example we'll see. But there's a destination in Georgia that has a mountain with red rocks in it. And I looked at the picture and I was like serious if I didn't know, if somebody hadn't said this is a post from a destination in Georgia, I would have thought it was Bryce Canyon or even a canyon nearby. But what I was sitting there thinking is what if they did like a co-branded campaign that's like come see both sides of the country where you can see these rock formations, you know. I thought it could have been an interesting opportunity for collaboration. And I think that's a very rudimentary example, that honestly I didn't put much thought into it, just popped into my head while we're having this conversation. But I think there so many opportunities, but because we look at the confines of our geographical limitations or our geographical definition, we kind of miss a lot of those opportunities for collaboration. Nicole Mahoney: [00:29:26] Absolutely. And I think that's a perfect example. Because I love, you know, I love to take it down to something as simple as that, because a destination in Georgia might not think of collaborating with a destination in Utah. But there could be a place for that. I see this a lot too in the international market. When you see, you know, bigger regions, if you will collaborate together to attract international visitors who will experience more of the US maybe in one trip, than say a than a domestic traveler may. But yeah, being able to kind of break down those preconceived ideas and those boundaries of geography. And frankly, of our funding models. Adam Stoker: [00:30:02] Yeah. Nicole Mahoney: [00:30:02] Which can confine us. But you're right because of the nature of how visitors travel naturally in the tourism industry, we are forced to collaborate and think more creatively in that way. And I think that's a good thing. And I think we have a lot to teach other industries and other sectors of our communities and of the world frankly. Adam Stoker: [00:30:21] I love it. So Nicole, if we were going to boil it down to a primary takeaway from our discussion today, if people remember nothing else, what would you like them to take away from? Nicole Mahoney: [00:30:31] Well, I would love for people just to think about collaboration in a different way. I love it when I talk to people. I just had a call yesterday from someone who I asked to review my book, who's not in the travel and tourism industry. And he puts on a program for MBA students at a local college. And he wants me to come speak to them because he said, you know, when I owned my business, he had a manufacturing business. All I wanted to do was take out the competition. All I wanted to do. And he said, and you know, what happened is I would end up doing deals that weren't profitable just so I could win the business over my competition. And he's like, once I read your book, I started to think so much differently about competition. And how, you know, you can collaborate, and you can cooperate, and you can do so much more. And so he's invited me to come speak to these MBA students on that. So that just excites me. Adam Stoker: [00:31:23] Yeah. Nicole Mahoney: [00:31:24] Just think about collaboration in a different way. And you know, mull these ideas around and hopefully you'll see a new opportunity. Adam Stoker: [00:31:31] That's so great. So where can people find your book, Nicole? Nicole Mahoney: [00:31:34] You can find it on Amazon. You can also find out about it at my website Nicolemahoney.com. And you can learn all about our collaboration, and research at my agency website, which is Breaktheicemedia.com. Adam Stoker: [00:31:47] Great. And everybody, I bought it for those of you that don't have the video component of this. I'm showing it right now on the screen. It's, Stronger Together by Nicole Mahoney. I hope that you will all go order a copy. I think it'll be really, really helpful as we continue to learn how to collaborate. Nicole, thank you so much for spending some time with us today and sharing the principles that I think are so important that you put into your book. Nicole Mahoney: [00:32:08] Thanks, Adam. This has been fun. Adam Stoker: [00:32:10] Absolutely. And thanks everybody for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, please don't forget to leave us a rating or a review. It helps us continue to bring you amazing guests like Nicole. Thanks, everybody and have a great week. [End of transcript]
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