If you’ve seen any of my social media accounts you’ll see I’m “friends” with lots of other video producers, and follow many video production companies. Following a competitor to pick up tips, monitor success (or failure) is quite common in any business. But here’s the thing: some of those producers are really good friends and instead of competing, we collaborate.
Take Rene Wells of Apus Media. 
We are both women, both producers, both own production companies and have some of the same type of clients. But Alejo and Apus are different. Our ideal client types are different, the types of videos we produce are different and the mission of our companies is different. Yes, we can be competitors.
Yet Rene and I are much better when we work together. We met at a networking event full of potential clients and hit it off immediately. We never even thought about competing for those clients. We are good friends, I refer to her when I know a client will be a better fit for Apus, and she does the same for me. At the same time we celebrate each others victories, big and small, and commiserate on the bad days. She listens when I need a sounding board, I like to think I help her work out whatever issues she’s having too. Since we do the same type of work we understand the same language, we talk the same way and that’s important in any relationship. We handle issues in our own way, sometimes those ways work for the other. And when one way doesn’t work at all – well, the other benefits from that as well.
We have never worked on a project together; we may one day but so far that right project hasn’t happened. And that’s ok, We may even compete for projects in the future. That’s ok too.
But it’s in our collaboration that we are so very successful – professionally and personally.
