Buckle up! We are spilling our secrets on how collaborations have been a game-changer in our Wild Play business and how they can be for you too!
Ever wondered what makes a partnership thrive?
Let us share our experience in business partnerships and what we'd do differently if we were starting a new business today.
Full Show notes can be found here:
https://www.raisingwildlings.com.au/blog/unlocking-the-power-of-wild-business-partnerships-with-nicki-farrell-and-vicci-oliver
Other ways we can help you:
Buckle up! We are spilling our secrets on how collaborations have been a game-changer in our Wild Play business and how they can be for you too!
Ever wondered what makes a partnership thrive?
Let us share our experience in business partnerships and what we'd do differently if we were starting a new business today.
Full Show notes can be found here:
https://www.raisingwildlings.com.au/blog/unlocking-the-power-of-wild-business-partnerships-with-nicki-farrell-and-vicci-oliver
Other ways we can help you:
Collaboration over competition. We swear by it, we live by it, and today we're going to convince you about the power of partnerships and how they strengthen your business and your community.
Nicki Farrell:We'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we record today the Kabi, Kabi and Gabi Gabi people. We recognise their continued connection to the land and waters of this beautiful place. We recognise Aboriginal people as the original custodians of this land and acknowledge that they have never ceded sovereignty. We respect all Gabi Gabi elders, ancestors and emerging elders and all First Nations people listening today.
Vicci Oliver:Welcome to Raising Wildlings, a podcast about parenting, alternative education and stepping into the wilderness, however that looks with your family.
Nicki Farrell:Each week, we'll be interviewing experts that truly inspire us to answer your parenting and education questions. We'll also be sharing stories from some incredible families that took the leap and are taking the road less travelled.
Vicci Oliver:Wear your hosts, vicki and Nikki from Wildlings Forest School, pop in your headphones, settle in and join us on this next adventure.
Nicki Farrell:Hello and welcome to the Raising Wildlings podcast. Wear your hosts, Nikki Farrell and Vicki Oliver. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with the current cohort of the Refinery Creative Program and we were a part of that five years ago all about partnerships, and we got so inspired about it that we thought we'd record an entire podcast on it. Vick, what do we love about partnerships? They've been a huge part of our growth and our journey as Wildlings, but what do you love about them in particular?
Vicci Oliver:I love the fact that we know we're not experts on anything. We're not that we're not experts on anything, but it's sharing the fact that there are so many amazing individuals out there and pooling our resources together to create something for our community. They're such a highlight and they just bring so much variety and diversity to what we're good at, and bringing that together with other people is just such a fantastic and inspired way of working, and I think that we just know so many amazing people. It's so fun to work alongside other people.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, oh gosh. I think what I love is exactly that. It's the fun, but it's also the fact we kind of get to handpick who we want to collaborate and partner with so we can be like, oh, I really want to do, I want to learn that weaving technique, and we go, all right, let's run a weaving session or a program or an event or whatever it is, and we meet the person and they're generally so like minded and similar in that they're inspired by nature and children and art and the skills that we learn from these people has just been so wonderful for us personally, yet alone our business.
Vicci Oliver:And to be part of their community as well, because oftentimes we're following along on their journey and we're seeing what they're contributing to our community and to online spaces and and to be actually part of that in real life is super exciting.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, and again, touching on that building community together, I think you just realized that you're not alone and I think again, if you work on your own or from home, partnerships are so good for your sanity.
Vicci Oliver:And sometimes that's enough.
Nicki Farrell:That's enough reason to do. It doesn't need to be any other benefit other than the social aspect of partnering with somebody else.
Vicci Oliver:But if we were to come at it from a business perspective and I think it's a really good point that you make that, if you do work on your own, when you do partner with people, you share responsibility and bringing something to life. And there's something that that burden that I'm not going to lie comes with the responsibility of creating spaces and events and whatever it is that you're creating programs meeting expectations yeah.
Vicci Oliver:And it means that you're, you're shouldering that alongside someone else and you can work to each other's strengths and problems off together because, as they say, to minds a better than one so, or more sometimes, because partnerships really do involve a lot more than one or two people.
Nicki Farrell:You know, I just had a brain spark fart why we haven't even thought about talking about our own partnership in this podcast. That's true. What made us that's? If you might have we quickly cover that, because I think no a lot of people are really interested in, in how we work and how it started and what I don't know. We've covered that in many episodes so I don't feel like we need to cover how we met. But we probably went into this a bit naively, do you think, looking back now into our partnership?
Vicci Oliver:I actually I find it. I look back at that time and I actually don't remember what I was thinking at the time. I just felt I knew that we didn't go into it with a really big commitment it was just sort of like we have the time in the space to to see what happens. Everything was very organic and it just happened very easily. It probably helped that you and I share a brain, yeah seriously.
Nicki Farrell:We were at a pub the other weekend, which is all of the same things. It's ridiculous.
Vicci Oliver:Two bodies, one brain, and that helps. It just makes it easy to know that for the most part, if I'm thinking something, you're thinking the same thing, so that one B2. Yeah, for us it just means that we do share that responsibility, and I don't think there's been a time where one of us haven't been able to step up when the other one of us has not been able to no, and I think you've nailed the beauty of partnership there, and that's it.
Nicki Farrell:We are always able to step up or back off when we need to. And even though we may have the same brain in so many other ways, we actually have different skill sets. I do not have the mathematical brain whatsoever. Actually, vicky could do all of my jobs no worries at all. So it's really just Vicky. What is the uniform? This?
Vicci Oliver:is not true. Oh my goodness. But it's that is not that, no, we have complementary skill sets. I think that we both can step in. I think I'm not afraid to say that both of us can step into those roles yeah, if we had to. We have preferences of what we prefer to do and not to do.
Nicki Farrell:And I probably shy away from the maths more than you shy away from anything else.
Vicci Oliver:And I don't think that I think, if you're being honest, you would be able to do it. It's just that you don't have to, I totally would. Yeah, I can do it and I enjoy that side of things for the most part, and it's the same with, like, the networking and the. You know, showing up is not something that I love. I can do it. Yeah, and you will always put your hand up.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, see, we're great complement to each other.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, which is why partnerships and collaborations are so great.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, I just want to quickly there again say I will anecdotally say that I have seen more female female partnerships work. And again, gender is a spectrum. But and make that of that what you will. Yeah, you know, in my circle the female partnerships tend to work better. And also, just a heads up if you go into business with your own life partner, really think about that. Is all I say about that too.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, you really have to have some crystal clear communication and boundaries, yeah, yeah. And a lot of people figure that out and maintain the relationship and don't maintain the business relationship. I know that's happened with people as well, and I think that that's a good call to make.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, I mean, actually it started really loosely and it was just the nature playgroup and then we decided to start the co-op. So there was still no real investment financially or company structure wise. And then when we decided we wanted to start the fire school, that's when we got some advice I can't remember who gave us the advice, but I'm so glad they did about actually setting up as a company from the beginning because, that's made things a whole lot easier for us.
Vicci Oliver:So I think no. I remember now we did go to see an accountant and ask them and they gave us the advice, saying that if we set up as a company, there's the legal protections for us, for our homes and our families, yeah. Which we knew was the right way to go about things, because we went into a riskier sort of business.
Nicki Farrell:And we were very new in friendship. We had kicked off a something whatever you want to call it within six months of knowing each other.
Vicci Oliver:So yeah, I think we're both naive in that. I think that we've. We were just lucky that it worked out for us this time around.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, yeah, well, we say luck, but I think we have good intuition around people too. Yeah, I'll tell myself that anyway. Yeah, all right. So, moving on to partnerships that are less business partnerships and more on to collaborations or project partnerships, let's talk about, first of all, if your business is perhaps geographically restricted.
Nicki Farrell:For us, when we first started and we were only running on the Sunshine Coast, we were really geographically restricted to our audience because our services were so restricted. So when we started, I guess, being approached by partners and we were looking for partners, we were trying to, I guess, create a win-win situation in many different ways. Sometimes that was building a database, so building our emailing list, or maybe that was just cross-pollinating by holding a workshop at I don't know where did we? I can't remember. There was a place we ran really early, we did a pop-up at a festival somewhere and we were able to kind of cross-pollinate on our socials. I think it's really important, if you're local, to think about the kinds of people that might have similar audiences to who your target market is. So what are some of the who are some of the people we've worked with?
Vicci Oliver:It's so funny because we've worked with so many people, we were able to sit down and think about who like because there have been so many. We should be so amazing. But right at the very start we've we did some great partnerships with our local libraries. So we ran some free workshops in each of the libraries in our council area which we weren't paid for, but we got advertising out onto the whole of the library's mailing list and when we did our sessions we had a really juicy offering for people to sign up to our mailing list and get on board with what we were doing. So that was a really great collaboration, really great feedback and that ability to have that face-to-face conversation with people about what we do and to show them that we had that breadth of knowledge and understanding of what we do as well, so cementing our ideas on forest schooling and nature playing, which I think was really important for people to see us doing that.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, I remember leaving those workshops going oh, that was a lot of work and I don't know that it was worth the effort. But then slowly those bookings kind of trickled in and you know what we had? Years later people come and actually people that have done our courses have said you know, I first met you at the library when you were first starting oh gosh, like because you can't really measure the metrics on things like that you don't know what kind of impact you've had on people, but we obviously did and it was worth it in the long run. So it is a longer game, some of these partnerships as well.
Vicci Oliver:That's right, because it's really important to remember that you need around nine points of contact before someone will purchase from you to trust you enough. So partnering with reputable partners like the library is a really great way to hit a broad audience and to be that contact point for people to see you out in the big wide world. Yeah, absolutely.
Nicki Farrell:So here in Australia, you absolutely could and should no matter what industry you're in, but particularly in nature play, approach your local council and try and partner with them however you can. We have great partnerships with many of them just because we work on their land, on the land. But we've had great partnerships from Horizon Art Festival to Enviro Fest Even the refinery when we were in with that as participants. We've then gone on to work with them, even recently in the Loose Parts project. They are now another partner in that. So there's three of us in this partnership that we're working with.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, and Nikki, and also when it came to the council, we did, we had a partnership with them in regards to the thousand play streets.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, with play Australia we did that big neighborhood street activation, which those kind of projects really Light me up, and they can look. I'll be honest, they can be a bit more work because you're dealing with big corporations that have a lot of red tape and a lot of a lot of different stakeholders that you're needing to please. But the results were just either. Results were fabulous and my heart was just full. But again, the advertising and getting known in those circles like play Australia that we are play advocates was really important for us I guess that was the hard part about it as well is because we're pushing the limits of what people know to be like the way that we interact with children and the way that children are allowed to interact with the world.
Vicci Oliver:It was actually investigating those barriers. That was part of the project. As well as that, how hard is it for us to have a neighborhood party and to get off the street?
Nicki Farrell:And so we then had to take the data that we had against our own council, who we love and work with, and say, yeah, this is not, this is not working for neighborhoods and what can we do about it? Again, if you bring these partnerships and I think this is really important always bringing them back to your business's purpose and mission and values, so we could go yes, this was a lot of work. Yes, you know, we've had to have some not even uncomfortable conversation, because that was the entire idea behind that pilot project, but we're doing it because it's bigger than us. It's bigger than just a dollar on the table. It is meeting our mission and our values of goals of getting more children outside. So, if ever in doubt, ask that question does it meet our mission?
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, and that's what advocacy is sometimes. It requires hard work and it requires us to come up against things that are difficult, difficult conversations or working logistics, because you know that's the whole point of nature. Play is about coming up against the red tape, and why is it become so hard for children? Why is why we need to advocate as well? So it's a it's a really great tool in showing the world the benefits.
Nicki Farrell:And I also just got just remembered the Landsboro Street activation project as well. You know, there's just so many of these little things where we're building community but we're trying to better and we're trying to better it for children. So that's what I think I love most about partnerships.
Vicci Oliver:One of our most successful partnerships that we've had, one that I love so much is with the Woodford Folk Festival. We've been working for years now and what I absolutely love about that partnership is it's the space, it's the vibe of us being able to provide something that is so desperately needed because they have a fantastic Children's Festival. But having children and going to Woodford means that someone's needs not being met.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, it's exhausting.
Vicci Oliver:It's exhausting because you're either at the children's festival and then you're having to drag along your children to what you want to see, or you're missing out, or you're having to tag team. So what we help provide for the festival now is an opportunity for people to drop their children off for a significant amount of time so that they can go catch a gig or go to a workshop, and the children are getting what we believe is such a fantastic experience of being out in nature with people who are really passionate about supporting them in that. So I really love that partnership that we've built with them, and they have been such great advocates of us as well.
Nicki Farrell:And we try and get involved in festivals not just now that we are not so geographically isolated or restricted, I should say. So we're part of the Ipswich little big kids day out and things like that, and we do bring loose parts to those, and we're currently working on a potential Brisbane library activation and things like that. So it's super exciting because, again, it helps us reach. It makes our programs more accessible as well.
Vicci Oliver:Accessible yeah.
Nicki Farrell:And affordable, because many of these festivals because they're paying for our time. That means we don't need to charge them for their tickets, so and they're already going to be at the festival for other reasons. So you look at our big mission again. It's to get more children, give them more access to nature and risky activities with risk, like hand tools and loose parts, and they can. People that generally can't afford it may be able to afford it with these people. So I think that's really important.
Nicki Farrell:On that, though, with Woodford and other places, the win-win as well is that we cross-pollinate on social media, so we attract like-minded families on each other's social media, and I know that's part of their marketing strategy as well as ours, and it's okay to talk about it. In fact, you should talk about it with your partners and you should also get it written down. How many posts do you expect to have in this collaboration? Is there going to be marketing in the newsletter? How often in the newsletter? How much is this partnership going to bring in or cost or whatever it's going to be? Will I have to provide paid ads and make sure it's written down? If it's not in a contract, at least get it down in writing an email so you can go back and if there's any disputes. We've been really lucky so far, but we've also worked with a bunch of professionals that have really mentored us.
Vicci Oliver:This whole time. Yeah, and I mean I guess the learning for us sometimes is that we have learnt, you know, I guess you could call it the hard way, but it just meant that we've had to concede something because we didn't ask the question, or we've had to do a few things that we didn't think were required because we didn't ask the question or we didn't know that it was required, and that's okay. We're like you know, that's part of learning and understanding how these things work.
Nicki Farrell:And being in business and owning that, taking responsibility for it and fixing it.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, that's all part of it, and having that open dialogue and being able to communicate. You know that understanding and going. Look it's fine, just like for next time.
Nicki Farrell:We'll just make a contract.
Vicci Oliver:We'll just make a contract, outline it really clearly, so that we know what each of our obligations are.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, another really great one and unexpected particularly for Nature Play, I think are the local malls. So people like Stocklands and the like often will most holidays will run activities in their malls and they're always looking for new activities and new partnerships. Because, again, they're trying to cross pollinate their mailing lists and generally because it's they're trying to attract parents into the mall with their children, they're trying to get activities there for the kids. So really make sure when you're there, if you can some and again this might be in your obligations you want to ask can I get a copy of that mailing list as well? And then you want to make sure that you have a juicy offer there, that people have signed up for this ticket and if not, which is fine, they may have a privacy agreement with that. That's not a problem.
Vicci Oliver:Then then you need to make sure that you've got a juicy offering there that people will want to sign up for, yeah, and you want to make sure it's in within your values as well what you're providing, because sometimes I'll ask you for a really watered down version of what you provide and that may not sit right with you either, but I think that's a good point to make.
Nicki Farrell:And then of course, your local companies and your big corporations. So one of our longest partnerships and we spoke about this before has been with Sun Central and the Metropolitan, and this partnership originated after our time at the refinery creative program. Sun Central, with a major partner for the program because they're the developers of the new sunshine yeah, sunshine Coast City Center. We have, since the refinery, pretty much other than COVID runner loose parts holiday program with them as part of their city activation Most holidays. That's again one of my favorite programs because it's meeting those accessibility values of ours. And we can do that because Sun Central subsidize the ticket price, because they pay us to be there. So then we only pass on a small fee to our families.
Nicki Farrell:So when I went back to do the chat with the refinery, bron, who is the stakeholder that we deal with and work with, she said to the cohort and this was really a good reminder for me is that most people that I work with and continue to work with pitched to me and I think we were probably not one of those or we probably got in a conversation or got drawn into that project somehow originally. But don't be afraid to pitch that old quote. You don't know unless you ask. And just don't be afraid of the rejection, because the more you ask, the more yeses you'll get.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, and it's not always a no, it's a not right now. Even when we started this partnership, we were talking about doing a tool library. Yeah, it was a really cool thing to explore and to look at how other people have done that Still want a tool library here.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, and that idea is still. It's not it hasn't disappeared, it's just that it hasn't come to life just yet. There was probably some things that you know didn't work out for now, but those ideas still circulate and there's still a fantastic opportunity, should we be ready to take that to the next step and pitch it again, which I think is a really cool thing to remember. It's not always, no, it's just maybe not right now.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, don't take that rejection personally. It's often people, especially even with this partnership with Sun Central. Often the projects are really end of financial year based. You know they've got a certain budget for each quarter and if it's not fitting that quarter then it's too bad, we have to wait for the next quarter. So again, it's not a no, it's a not now. Again, there's always reasons behind people's nose as well, and often it's time or budget Awesome.
Vicci Oliver:And then there's other venues like that you could approach as well and start talking to when you're out and about. So many times we've talked with our team that I've just been chatting to this local cafe or it's just at this community centre, or just happened to be down at the zoo and I was got talking to someone.
Nicki Farrell:I was chatting to someone at under eight's day and they want to have us next year.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, exactly so you know. Think about your local farms and your botanic gardens and the local festivals, market venues even how can you get your name out there? There's so many avenues of places where you can partner with them because it's so mutually beneficial. And remember, when you're partnering with them, it's all about reciprocity. So how is it that you're both going to benefit in that partnership?
Nicki Farrell:Absolutely Now. One of our most fun collaborations and this is years ago now, so it's actually probably fairly in the early days is when we were, you know, pretty new, didn't have a heap of money to spend on photography. So we put a call out to a bunch of our favourite local kids clothing, cutlery products yeah, any kids products here on the Sunshine Coast, most of them and a local photographer and asked if we could all collaborate together on this and then we would all cross pollinate across each other. So again, a really good thing to think of is it's not competition, it's collaboration. It's a big motto that we have here and we did and it was really, really fun. There's still some of my favourite photos. We don't use them a lot, but there's still some of my favourite photos because it was such a magical photo shoot.
Vicci Oliver:It was so fun, and that was a birthday party one.
Vicci Oliver:So if you are curious, jump on our website and have a look at our birthday party section. We just had so much fun because it was like a big family gathering of all of us that had some sort of service or product based business to do with children, and then our children being there to support and be the face of it, and it was just. It was like having a big party for all of our kids and we just bought together all of our services and our great ideas. It was so beautiful.
Nicki Farrell:It was so nice to be in that creative bubble of all these. And again, a lot of them were micro businesses as well, so they were working on their own. They were saying it's so nice to be here with other people.
Nicki Farrell:So, yeah, that's a really great one as well. On the flip side of that, Don't expect all photographers to work for free. So if you get a no again, it's just because they either don't need that for their brand right now or the project might not work with them right now. But don't be offended because they do. A lot of photographers get asked to do free work a lot of the time and they also need to put food on the table.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, which is why you could put that. You know, rather than approaching photographers to do the work, you could put the shout out. Is there any photographers who would love to be part of the collaboration? Because, as many service based businesses will say, you can't feed your family on exposure. Yes, exactly, exposure doesn't pay the bills. So if there is someone who provides a service and you expect them to do that for free as part of a partnership, just remember that, and no is a perfectly acceptable answer If they're not getting enough out of it for them.
Vicci Oliver:And so you have to be able to do that as well.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, now, so all of those are really for if you're geographically restricted, they're probably the best kind of partnership ships you might want to pursue, but if you're not geographically restricted, then the world's your oyster. So you could look into brand affiliation and product recommendations and product collaborations. You can approach businesses from all over the globe and collaborate in downloadables, trainings, live videos, graphics, songs, like. You're really only limited by your imagination.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, one of the best things that we've ever done when it comes to collaborations and finding new ways of working with people and beyond the scope of Southeast Queensland is podcast.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah.
Vicci Oliver:As we've been able to chat with incredible change makers from all over the world, people that we align up in our values. We have often similar audiences, sometimes we don't. We may have completely different audiences, but with very similar interests. And so we get to introduce each other to each other's worlds, which is so, so amazing.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, and other, some other cool ones. We've seen merchandise that you know just. There's no reason we couldn't partner with a wonderful artist for, say, our Wildlings t-shirts or Facebook or Instagram. Lives are a really great way as well. If you get someone to sign up to your, to the training, you then get the emails as well, and it's not just about emails but from a business point of view, yeah, it is, I mean it's work because emails are one of the yeah, totally, but it's one of the only methods of marketing and the best direct marketing that we have as small business owners.
Nicki Farrell:That frickin Mark Zuckerberg can't mess with, you know, he can't mess with the algorithm of our direct emails. So, yeah, I would say, as a business, you need to really prioritize getting people on your mailing list over building your social media following.
Vicci Oliver:That's right, and another really great way to find partners is through grants.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah.
Vicci Oliver:So when you are applying for them, you need to be able to show the scope of whatever projects you're applying for or that the grant will be covering, and that's that's a really great way to bring artists or singers or, you know, first Nations guests or survival experts. Yeah, we are videographers that we have. It's a real pleasure to be able to bring work to people that you love in on a project, so like when we've had a couple of grants and we've had our favorite videographers and photographers come down artists and a Mara yeah.
Vicci Oliver:It just makes me feel so happy that we have been able to support them financially in their skillset and at the same time, as you know, doing whatever it is that we're doing through that great project, create these wonderful events that we couldn't pull off on our own. Yeah, sustaining the type of economy and the type of people that we believe in?
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, that green circle, absolutely yeah. Now, when it comes to partnerships, it's super important to talk about pricing, and our number one tip there is to always, always, value yourself and make sure you are getting paid if it's not also a win-win. So we'll caveat that because you need to think about what else you might be getting out of that partnership. So, are you getting access to that database or mailing list that we were just saying is so important, or will you be getting lots of cross-pollination across your social media posts? Will they be sending out emails with links to your website or products? But sometimes it's worth taking a hit on the upfront price if you're gaining something, and I would say the biggest something is that email list. They're just again can't say enough how invaluable they are as business owners. They're probably up there as currency, I would say.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, that's right, because value means many different things. It can be cash in the bank, it can be mailing list, it can be exposure, and I think there is a spectrum of whether that's acceptable to you in your particular situation, for your business, because sometimes exposure is important and other times food on the table through cash like having cash in the hand is actually what you need and you can't be dedicating time to something that doesn't actually bring in a fiscal reward.
Nicki Farrell:And, ironically, the bigger you get, the easier it is to partner, because you end, the more, I guess, flexible you can be on those because you have got food on the table, whereas in startup, when you probably need the most exposure, is also when you need the most cash flows.
Vicci Oliver:So you just need to take them one offer at a time and don't be afraid to say no, that's exactly right, and we've got some other hot tips that we'd love to share with you, because it's so new on this and there's so many great things about chips that we really want to share, and, whilst we really 100% fully believe in consent sort of what we're talking about before when it comes to partnership, no doesn't always mean no, and sometimes you've just got to keep pursuing and finding the right person, and our Brisbane partner, amanda, is the perfect example of that tenacious spirit.
Nicki Farrell:And if you haven't listened to our podcast with her, have a look. Amanda England she's our Brisbane manager and business partner, so it was a great episode.
Vicci Oliver:Yeah, so it is important to follow up in a way that is kind and not too forceful, tenacious, yeah and just and trying to find the right person because, it can be as simple as finding a different person to talk to.
Nicki Farrell:Yeah, and other times it is just digging in and asking, and asking and asking until you get down to that nitty gritty, the one barrier, that wasn't written anywhere on a piece of paper, and someone finally says it out loud like oh, you weren't allowed to come here. We've said no because you were bringing shovels. Oh yes. We just won't bring shovels. Okay, we may now partner. All right, here we go. Yes.
Vicci Oliver:That's right being curious and asking the right questions.
Nicki Farrell:Now we're going to totally contradict ourselves here and also say that saying no to partnerships as is probably as important as saying yes.
Nicki Farrell:So if your audience is misaligned and getting all hippie-dippy on you, if it doesn't feel right, if it feels a bit itch, if it doesn't feel like a win-win, if you've got too much on your plate, it's okay to say no. And if a brand you're associated with does something that goes against your values and we have had this before with our actual biggest client at the time you're allowed to drop the partnership because again, you have to do business that sit within your values or people won't trust you anymore. They won't believe your word. So it's really important to know that it's not always set. I mean, you might have a contract retract that is or isn't set in stone, but you are allowed to move partnerships as well. So it is important to have contracts in place for these things and making sure that everything's in writing before commencing your partnerships. If it doesn't feel right, just don't do it. No and just a flat no is a perfectly acceptable answer.
Vicci Oliver:And then I guess what's just come to mind for me here is that make sure you know what your values are.
Nicki Farrell:Yes.
Vicci Oliver:So get real clarity on what it is. You will and will not accept what your boundaries are as a business and person. What kinds of social justice issues are very important to you that you just won't partner with people who don't align with those? That's really, really important.
Nicki Farrell:So that's it Go forth and partner, get creative, get inspired, go and get friendly. It can really be as simple as just sliding into someone's DM, or it can be as complicated as a joint grant application and pitches to corporate company, but it's one thing we really love doing at Wildlings and so far it's been nothing but beneficial to us and our wonderful partners and our business. So good luck.
Vicci Oliver:And until next time stay wild.