Season 2, Episode 1: Can you be friends after a business breakup?
When coaching someone through Yoke and Abundance, one of Alisha’s starting points is to figure out whether someone’s “yoke” is one that’s chosen and feels right, or if it is one that’s ill-fitting and needs change. Part of Alisha’s coaching aims to find the right “yoke” or tool for that person’s life, career, and goals. The second half of her business name, “abundance,” is about love and knowing that you are more than enough. Alisha encourages others to live and grow from a place of abundance, not fear.
Guest Alisha Wielfaert is the founder and owner of Yoke and Abundance, a leadership, life and creativity coaching business. Yoke and Abundance hosts individual and group coaching sessions, along with workshops and retreats, and has recently launched a new podcast! Host Jordan Lacenski is the founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Brandboss Creative, and co-founder of SheWolf Collaborative.
Host: Jordan Lacenski
Guest: Alisha Wielfaert
Show Notes:
4:20 - “You can have a business breakup and still be friends” – Alisha and Jordan talk about working together, and then deciding not working together, and all of it being okay.
6:29 “We don’t want to do what other people are doing, so how do we do that?” – Some background on Jordan’s work on growing and expanding the SheWolf Collaborative network, and how Alisha became part of the collaborative.
8:52 - “It’s really important I think, whether you’re an individual or business, to know your mission and your vision and your core values.” – Discussion of how these aspects are important in business, branding, and growth, and how to pivot direction when things don’t work.
12:15 “Is there a place at the table for everybody?” – Jordan and Alisha talk about helping women, especially those in business, to create a supportive and encouraging collaborative. They also acknowledge striving to be intentional about making that support accessible and inclusive to a diverse range of women.
13:25 - “I’m singlemindedly focused these days on business, and so my life is my business which means my friends are my business too. So, when you realize that you’re going to have to take a step back from that, saying that we need to divorce these things, that’s really scary.” – Alisha tells Jordan her perspective of approaching the discussion of separating their businesses, how to talk about conflicts of interest, and how to move forward positively.
16:45 - “I would say yes, share your ideas and then I would also say, sometimes, having paperwork behind that is a good idea.” – Jordan and Alisha discuss how to operate and share ideas in an open forum community, how to support fellow entrepreneurs and not be competitive, how to accept and respect that ideas have been shared in an open space, and how to create and manage expectations.
25:30 - “If we aren’t able to have eff-ing hard conversations then we’re not going to be able to do those things and help elevate one another in the spirit of ‘coop-ertition”.” – Alisha and Jordan reflect on how important honesty and transparency is in having business and friendship conversations. Even if their businesses are competing in a way, they can still find ways to support and promote each other.
32:52 - “There is no such thing as easy income, it doesn’t exist.” – We dive into the balance between encouraging and uplifting each other as women in business, but also being realistic and able to have difficult, but truthful, conversations.
39:15 - “The most difficult thing about it is you can talk something to death but know that problems are going to arise.” – Alisha’s advice if someone were to ask her opinion about joining or starting a collaborative organization, especially if they’re setting up a partnership with a friend.
40:39 – “When you’re considering a business partnership, you should consider it just as much as you consider who you think you want to marry.” – Jordan shares a key piece of wisdom and how to go about choosing a good business partner.
Links:
Yoke and Abundance: https://www.yokeandabundance.com
She Wolf Collaborative: https://shewolf.co
Brandboss Creative: https://www.brandbosscreative.com/
Also mentioned:
Mighty Networks: https://www.mightynetworks.com/
Mobilize: https://www.mobilize.io/
Quotes:
“There are going to be a lot of things that require additional conversations, but it’s about how you approach those conversations. Do you approach it from a place of love and abundance, or do you approach it from a place of fear and lack and not enough?” – Alisha Wielfaert
“It doesn’t matter if someone’s already done it, nobody else is going to do it like you… In business, be smart, trust your gut, but also don’t not do the thing that you want to do just because someone else has done it before. Nobody else will do it like you.” – Alisha Wielfaert