Building a game you can win, with Jackie and Cassie Collier

"And you're seeing stuff that you would never see as sisters or as best friends. Like you just wouldn't see that stuff. So it's not like you didn't even notice it before, but it's like, it's such an intimate relationship in ways that. If you're, if you don't have a partnership like this, you really don't know."

I always love talking to other sisters who happen to be business partners. I think it is a very specific relationship that few people understand and when you get to talk to someone else in that same position - it is so validating! While I wouldn’t change it for the world - my partnership with Dana has been one of the hardest, funnest, most natural, and confounding parts of my life - and I am sure she would say the same, and every time we talk to another sister it’s the same story!

I think you go into these sister business relationships thinking that you are on the same wavelength - you know each other's backstory, understand what makes them tick, and have seen them through good and bad times, you even know how they react when they are stressed - on paper it seems like the ideal situation! You know what you are “buying,” so to speak, before you commit. But, mix some hard times, finances, family dynamics, assumptions, and a little judgment and what seemed so easy becomes so much more complicated - and emotional!

It’s a whole different level of stress, in my opinion. You don’t want to do something in the business that is going to lose you your best friend and you don’t want to do something as family that is going to impair your business making decisions and it feels, sometimes, like you can’t escape each other. If you let it, stories can start to build in your head and resentment can set in. You lose sight of who you know your sister is and why you want to do business and life with her in the first place.

This is a hard place to find yourself in and it takes a level of commitment, humility, and honesty to get to the other side of those feelings, but when you are sisters - there is no other option! And this is what I love about those sister business partnerships - it makes you a better version of yourself! You are so committed to both sides of your relationship it makes you bring your best self all-the-time. 

It is a constant exercise in reflection, communication, honesty, and humility and this is definitely an advantage in building a profitable and tenacious business. And I think that is the secret sauce - the advantage that other businesses don’t get to experience and it makes me proud to be part of this exclusive club! Cheers to Sisters in Business!

XOXO, 

Courtney