It’s NOT All About You: How Collaboration is Changing the Industry

June 21, 2012 Posted by The BVB Team

Tweet

What everybody REALLY wants to know is, what’s working right now?

• How are programs filling up at lightning speed?
• How do the experts keep cranking out best-seller after best-seller?
• How the heck did they get 50,000 ENGAGED Facebook fans?

Take that 6-figure year you just had, and make it a 7.

What would it be worth it to you to know… the ACTUAL steps the experts are taking?

Our founder, Max Simon, has decided to take a bold step forward to create a cutting-edge platform that solves this problem for you by delivering fresh content, day after day, straight from the mouths of the highest-caliber industry leaders.

These are strategies you won’t find anywhere else. These are the secrets only told behind closed doors. This is the information that is truly on the cutting edge.

And talk about saving you time. You no longer have to spend hours trying to figure out what is REALLY working in online business and marketing… Max and the Big Vision Business Team will be bringing you the BEST of the best, and putting it all in one place. Everyone featured on this site has a proven track record of extraordinary accomplishment.

Here’s our first raw and real “What’s Working Now” interview… with our beloved founder Max Simon himself.

BVB: What inspired you to start “What’s Working Now?” There are MILLIONS of online marketing and business websites… what’s so special about this one?

Max: Well, one of the things I noticed was happening in our industry was that more and more individuals were entering the internet space, the world of business training space, and telling you that they had the answers nobody else had.

I call that “the guru space.” And despite the fact that I have been very successful there, and have generated millions of dollars, it was also feeling lonely to me. I was noticing many areas where I didn’t have the right answers, or all the answers, or enough answers.

On top of that, I had an intense desire for more collaboration, and to create a scalable business that wasn’t exclusively about me.

BVB: Not all about you? So where do you go with that?

Max: I thought long and hard about all of these deep intentions and desires, and came up with a radical new concept called “What’s Working Now.”

The driving intention is that THIS WEBSITE will highlight all of the amazing leaders, trainers, and experts who are doing the MOST innovative things in business and marketing today.

Every day, our site will feature deep-dive trainings and interviews that give you the real-deal, behind-the-scenes, “holy-smokes I can’t believe they revealed that” access to the wisdom, knowledge, and secrets that are causing mega huge results in the world.

BVB: Come on Max, how do you get industry leaders to just TELL you their secrets?

Max: Well, It’s truly a win for everybody, including them. We have tens of thousands of readers. It’s high quality exposure.

It’s good for our tribe, because now we will be delivering this really amazing wisdom and knowledge to help them grow their business.

It’s good for us, because it makes our business the source of the most cutting edge wisdom out there.

BVB: Are people actually coming on board and saying yes? I mean, you’re talking about featuring an expert EVERY single day?

Max: I am really excited to announce that just about every great leader we’ve approached has said YES. Amazing global players like Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Mark Victor Hansen, David Neagle, Bo Eason, Mary Morrissey, Suzanne Evans and so many more that we love and respect. It’s crazy… they hear about the concept and just say “Yes!”

BVB: Okay, so… let’s get to the real nuts and bolts. How did you actually make this happen?

Max:  First, we decided to re-brand the site so it had a nice blend of spirit & business, power and presence. But that’s a tricky blend because one can be very in your face (business) and the other energy can be extremely subtle (spirituality).

Truthfully, it took lots of discussions, lots of dialogue with our designer, and many revisions. Sometimes I don’t think people realize how long it really takes to get things right. But we committed to putting in the time.

The second thing we did was to make this really easy on our experts so that it was almost impossible to say no. That’s when we actually took the leap to hire a new writer & publisher to focus 100% of their energy just on this one strategy.

That way we could approach people and say “not only is this a great way for huge exposure but it will only take 20 minutes of your time.“ 

When you want to take it to the next level, sometimes it means expanding the inner resources of the team. Don’t be afraid to do that.

The third important thing we did is that we spent a few weeks experimenting with lots of different “styles” for these articles including having people write their own, doing interviews, and creating mini-reviews.

It was super important to us that our site continued to have a special tone and voice to it. But that’s tricky when publishing other people. Though our style will likely still evolve, we decided to start by doing back and forth interviews so that both the experts and Big Vision Business could have their own voice… which I think turned out pretty nice.

BVB: I get that this is a win for the leaders, your team, and the readers. But really, why put yourself through all this when you were already doing so well? There MUST be some personal motivation here… We want to hear the truth, what is Max Simon getting out of this?

Max: It’s giving me permission, power and willingness to approach anyone to be a part of this… which feels really good. Because I genuinely feel like we are providing such a great opportunity to showcase them. Seriously, I feel like I have the confidence to go after the biggest names in the world right now.

So that’s been a huge WIN for me. And also, by doing this particular model, it also allows me to step outside of being the only one to create content.

I am no longer solely responsible for generating great information and wisdom all the time, because now we’re setting up a system, and a structure that consistently produce mind-blowing information that will keep people engaged in our world.

BVB: This is a serious shift in focus for your site, for your tribe… I KNOW you must have faced challenges, struggles… spill it!

Max: Switching from making everything about me to collaborating and highlighting other people has been a stretch for me. Just about every day for at least a month, I asked myself: “are you sure this is a good idea?” Because in this industry, the more you seem like you have all the answers, the more successful the business usually is.

But intuitively, this continued to feel like the right direction. It actually felt like a bigger game to begin highlighting other people. So the fact that I didn’t let my own ego sabotage this process feels like a big win for me. And hopefully, it works out for our business too.

BVB: Anything you want to share with the BVB Tribe to help them implement this strategy in their business?

Max: You may be hungry to collaborate, and if this is true, ask yourself how might you benefit by creating a portal that highlights and showcases the people you most respect and admire? Then get really clear on how it will benefit them too.

This strategy is not nearly as complicated as most people make it. But it does require you to create something that people genuinely want to be a part of. Something unique, something fresh.

Also, it can feel really scary to take a risk and try something new… especially when you can’t see exactly where it’s going. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. This desire for more collaboration and bigger impact has been stirring in me for a long time.

And I’ll bet there is something like this bubbling inside of you. If so, be willing to go for it. Give it a shot. In my eyes, it’s much better to take a big chance and fail than it is to waste your whole life feeling like you could have done better.

BVB: True. There are so many ways to collaborate. I see a lot of powerful stuff happening on Facebook, YouTube, in the Blogosphere. Things people can do today, to stretch out of their comfort zones, to realize that sharing the stage doesn’t make you less important, that actually, it’s expansive.

Thanks for your time Max. It was valuable…

And now TRIBE, here’s what we want YOU to do:

First, we hope you really enjoyed this first post and the brand new site. Do you?

If you’re not already a part of the Big Vision Business Facebook Tribe… head on over and “LIKE” us there… it’s an amazing place to connect with other great people who are up to big things. Could be the first powerful step in your next collaboration!

Plus we post content there you won’t find anywhere else!

If you liked today’s “What’s Working Now” post, SHARE IT!

Be the first of your friends to spread the word about the platform that will rock the industry.

And finally, here’s what we want to know from you.

Do you like this idea of collaborating? What do you think of the new portal? What would you LOVE to see here that would just make you so excited?

Since this entire project is all about you, please share your comments below.