Collaboration—what a beautiful, intimidating, inspiring, frightening thing. Sharing your ideas and secrets with others and asking to hear theirs can be scary—especially in an industry that’s extremely competitive. But, if there’s one thing my years as a wedding planner taught me it’s that you are always better off with others than you are alone. Our jobs as planners and small business owners are demanding—physically, mentally, emotionally—and we simply can’t go at it alone. So, we’re truly excited to explore the theme of collaboration with you this month, because it’s something we all can use more of in our hectic, beautiful, wild lives.
As planners, we tend to be perfectionists who love control, and, at first glance, collaboration can feel like something that takes that control from us and spreads it among others—something most of us aren’t so comfortable with. But, I love today’s quote because it reminds us that collaboration isn’t some big, scary monster that’s here to sabotage your hard work. Collaboration isn’t attending dreaded conferences or delegating tasks to people we don’t have tons of faith in. Collaboration is simply an openness to learning. A willingness to admit that we don’t know everything and, taking it even further, that everyone we ever meet knows something we don’t. Think about that for a moment—it’s undoubtedly true, yet so often we brush others off when they are talking, tune out when we should tune in, pass people by based upon a quick judgement we’ve made. We clutch control with white knuckles, afraid that everything will fall apart if we simply open our palm (and invite others to open theirs).
So, this month we’re challenging you to download today’s wallpaper and allow this quote to help you tune into an easier, more natural, more intuitive form of collaboration every chance you get. Be willing to talk to others about that big wedding you’re planning, be willing to listen to those you’ve not before listened to, be willing to share your ideas with those who could use your help. Be willing to learn in any way, shape or form—event-related or not. Because when you do, you’ll begin to understand how beautiful collaboration can be—and how, by simply sharing with others, we can elevate our work to an entirely new level. So cheers, planners, to your best year yet in collaboration!
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