How To Build Winning RELATIONSHIPS in Startups
Interview Series for The PROJECT Framework
The PROJECT Framework is a workshop format, crafted to convert your ideas into thriving projects, either as an entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial journey.
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Today, with Galina Bankova, we talk about RELATIONSHIPS in business context. Galina has more than ten years of experience as an entrepreneur, mentor and speaker. She has a natural gift for understanding human potential and transformation. In the last five years, she is successfully building two startups: Do Work You Love and The Matchmakers.
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Raya: What does ‘relationship’ mean to you?
Galina: The simple translation of the word ‘relationship’ means connecting two or more people or subjects or things. And for me, the relationship has three levels. The foundation is the relationship that every person has to themselves.
Do you know yourself? Do you know what you’re good at? Do you know what you like? Do you know your strengths? Do you know your purpose? Do you take care of yourself?
After figuring these questions out, you can go to the second level, which is building relationships with other people. And then after mastering the second level, the third level is the highest art and a huge pleasure for many people that I know, including the matchmakers, and this is enabling second and the third party to connect, no matter if it’s people or organizations.
Relationships enrich our lives. We can’t stop having them no matter what we do. Nevertheless, we can decide what kind of relationships we want to have, how many, and what kind of qualities they should have. Such an approach is pretty much related to the legacy that we want to leave.
Raya: You believe in the potential of people more than anybody else. How do you think relationships help in enhancing our potential to grow?
Galina: Especially nowadays during those difficult times of Coronavirus pandemic where the offline meetings are almost impossible, so many people notice how much they miss the personal relationships to people and social interaction.
Many people, at least in my bubble out of people, are very well educated and having a good life. But they spend too much time in their heads. They try to figure out everything on their own. They try to manage everything without asking questions or talking about problems. I see it even more now during Coronavurus times that when people interact; when they use the relationships that they have, they come alive. They start glowing. They start smiling. They start thinking in the best way they can imagine. They start being in a flow.
When we are really alive, when we are in flow: thinking, being inspired, helping others, allowing others to help us, sharing experiences; these lead to creating memories, which subsequently leads to creating beautiful things together.
We don’t notice it, but it leads to us topping up our potential and growth.
Raya: How can we improve our relationship with ourselves?
Galina: I love the topic! First, observe your feelings and thoughts. Pay attention to how you wake up. What kind of thoughts and feelings you have when you wake up, what kind of wishes? Maybe take some notes. I love journaling, and a lot of my customers and friends use that method to continue observing during the day.
Free up some space to reduce the noise and to gain some time for yourself. And after a while, a week or two, maybe you can see patterns. For example, if you see that talking with an inspiring person makes you feel comfortable and confident, then, of course, you should do more of it.
Start an MVP. Talk to people. Just do the things that you want to do. Solve the problems that you always wanted to solve on a tiny scale, in small steps. Don’t go for the significant result or the perfect concept; just solve the problem. And then, the people for whom you solved it will help you do business out of it.
Raya: Let’s give future founders some tips and some encouragement on how relationships can help. How can relationships help us start?
Galina: A couple of years ago, I believed that relationships are all you need to start a business. Now I would say that if the first level, the level of relationship to yourself is stable enough, then you don’t need to spend additional time on thinking about the others.
Think twice about the kind of people that you want to work with and work for.
Make sure that you believe in similar or compatible things, and focus on giving first. Talk about the kind of relationship that you want to have like. A couple of people that I know have on their websites a section about who are the people that they want to work with and for. I find this approach incredible. On top, it saves time.
Raya: Do you think it’s a good thing or a bad thing to include personal relationships in a business environment?
Galina: If you have to decide on doing it or not doing it, you should do it, but be very clear about what two of you expect. Talk about your culture of working together. Talk about your expectations. Talk about what you don’t like about working together. Communicate a lot, and then it might work.
Raya: What are your projects right now? What are you busy with at the moment?
Galina: I’m not prepared for this question, but I’ll answer it because I love challenges. Many many many years ago at the beginning of my startup career or experience in the startup ecosystem, I asked myself:
If there are accelerators and incubators for startups, where are all the incubators and accelerators for human beings? Why can’t we apply those methods to accelerate people, and to make a person better & happier, no matter what they do?
and I must admit, sometimes I’m kind of frustrated by all the venture capitalists and all the institutions out there supporting startups, even if I’m thankful for all the measurements in helping startups.
So, I’m now working on creating Galina’s Accelerator.
Raya: Galina’s Accelerator sounds extremely exciting, and I cannot wait to record another interview, a very detailed one, especially on that topic.
Raya: To sum up, what would be your advice to future founders? What relationships should they start activating as of today to make their idea work?
Galina: In terms of networking in general, you start building your network before you need it, so don’t miss a chance. Use every opportunity you have to make people better, happier to make their lives easier. And start paying attention to who are the people that you want to have in your life in terms of partners, customers but also suppliers. And, of course, do the work like MVP and so on everything that you have to do in business terms.
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If you have any questions for Galina, connect with her.
If you want to sharpen your idea with The PROJECT Framework, contact me.
If you want to watch our conversation, follow @smartset.group on YouTube.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
