Around here at LBC, there’s no such thing as a competitor.

The dictionary definition for competitor is: competitor is a person, business, team, or organization that competes against you or your company. If somebody is trying to beat you in a race, that person is your competitor.

Hear that kind of aggressive tone?

The words against, and beat for example.

While having “competitors” is a constant in every single business (if there’s not more than one person doing the same thing, it’s probably not even a viable business idea so they’re there for everyone…), doesn’t have to be aggressive or dramatic.

It’s healthy to be competitive to some degree, but you can also push each other to be better from being on the same side.

At the time of this recording, we’re in the middle of a free challenge, called The Get Referrals Challenge.

The training I gave today, touched on having someone you could consider a competitor, as part of your referral network.

When I was getting ready to go live on Facebook, the first post in my feed was actually one of our membership members posting in a group we’re both in.

It’s a DJ group. He’s a DJ. He was asking for a DJ brother or sister who is just starting out to reach out to him about a last minute gig for this weekend.

Now, I can only speculate about why he was asking for someone just starting out.

My guess is that someone he knows needed an assistant, or maybe it was a specific type of event, I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter.

What matters is, was he worried about passing business on to someone else?

Was he worried that they might “beat” him out of a future booking so he better not let them get any experience or at least help them get any experience?

Nope. And he’s better for it too.

I always say you have to give what you want to get what you want.

Don’t you think that connection he would certainly make will remember that and refer their clients to him too when the time comes? Of course they will.

You get what you give. It’s the whole karma thing you know?

I’ll tell you what I was teaching about this in the challenge, and maybe you’re in it and heard it already the first time, it’s worth saying and hearing again, maybe even a million times.

Make sure you have a good relationship, even partnership, with someone who does the same thing as you.

They could seriously be one of your biggest referrers.

They understand.

And it’s impressive!

When a potential client who isn’t going to book with you for whatever reason, (maybe you’re already booked, maybe you’re off that date, maybe you don’t do exactly what they need, etc…) finds out that they can’t work with you but you’re willing to refer to someone they see as your competitor, it’s truly impressive.

They might even refer people to you JUST BECAUSE OF THAT!

Here’s my hot tip, if that happens, keep nurturing that relationship too.

Maybe even send them a little handwritten thank you note, thanking them for reaching out and wishing them well for whatever it was that they needed you for.

I promise you it will come back to you in all the good ways.

Do you wish you could fill your calendar faster and easier?

It's always easy to do on your own, so I’ve created a free challenge for you, where we’ll walk through it together.

The challenge starts on September 21, when you sign up right now you’ll get an action item that will have you starting with the right foundation!

Just go to www.letsbookclients.com/referralschallenge to sign up today!