Yesterday we did a post on instagram, shining a little light on the concept we always talk about: friends supporting friends (supporting friends).
We recently found a thesis expressing the same ethos - Shine Theory.
The term coined by Aminatou Sow & Ann Freidman talks about this concept as a long term investment in helping others be their best self and in return getting their help being your best self.
"Would we be better as collaborators than as competitors?"
We know our answer is YES.
“Shine Theory is recognising that true confidence is infectious, and if someone is tearing you down or targeting you as competition, it’s often because they are lacking in confidence or support themselves. It’s a practice of cultivating a spirit of genuine happiness and excitement when your friends are doing well, and being there for them when they aren’t.”
Over the past two years POP Canberra has celebrated Canberra & region, striving to champion local shopping. The quality and quantity of amazing local artists, makers, producers and small businesses in Canberra has given us a true confidence in what we are doing.
We only want to get bigger and better!
When we win, our community wins.
When someone in our community is winning, we all are winning too.
POP encourages our community to stock with other retail stores, sell through their own online store, market stores and to actively seek out opportunities and success. We want to support our community and our friends to be their best self. This ties back into ‘the cycle of small business’ that we touched on a few weeks ago. Extrapolating this theory further than a cycle, we contribute to a larger ecosystem of retail, design, manufacture and craft/arts organisations.
As we say this, our intention is driving our actions.
We are working hard to cultivate a culture; a spirit of genuine happiness and excitement for what we do at POP.
How do we actually do this?
- We are a small, young, passionate team who all started as a part of this community
- We are creating ideas, developing our brand and pushing the envelope
- We are making something we want to be a part of. We are learning about people in our community, what excites them and learning how to help each other
- We pay everyone as quickly as possible and fairly for their work, no under table deals and absolutely no free work for exposure. We don’t support an economy that doesn’t value artists and makers
- Remaining true to our pop-up spirit, keeping spontaneous and fun, hosting events, workshops and a place for community
- We are seeking out and dreaming up collaborations and opportunities for makers and friends
- We are creating authentic content, working on how to innovate the development engagement of this content
- Keeping an awareness of the physical location we are situated in, appreciating the context of the place we are in. We understand the importance of the physicality, culture, history and future of our home
Small business is hard but you get as much out as you put in. If we all work together we can create a stronger, more resilient, thriving community with a positive and respected cultural value in Canberra.
The other side of celebrating success is supporting each other through difficult times. This can be hard if you see someone doing well and you aren’t. If we cultivate a community of support, then during difficult times we can support one another. We believe in holding ourselves and others accountable, setting standards and speaking up when something doesn’t feel right. Often when others don’t want to share in a community and help you succeed they are driven by fear and jealousy. We don’t want to compete with one another. We want to help each other. We set our own standards and believe that if everyone does this we can all rise above the negativity of trying to do better than one another and therefore we can all succeed together.
These aren’t buzz words, marketing slogans or quick fixes. Competition is ingrained in our society and particularity when money is involved. Maybe we can all say no to that? Why can’t we create good things, celebrate each other and help one another do well? We believe in sharing success, cultivating respect, learning and fun. When you shop or share with POP, you’re contributing to this.
We are stronger together and together we can be stronger.
Applications to stock with POP are always open on our website.
If you have a project or want to collaborate with POP, lets chat: creativeenagagement@