He Was Afraid to Share Bad News With His Business Partners — Until One Insight Changed Everything

On the worst day of his professional life, as his business seemed to be crumbling around him, Lynnwood Bibbens told his team: “Give me 30 minutes.”

He retreated to a quiet room. He closed his eyes and reflected on his career. Then he returned to his team and said, “We’re going to find out two things really quickly. Number one, we’re going to find out if our partners value us. And number two, once we find out how valuable they think we really are, we have an opportunity to dream about what we want to be.”

Bibbens is the founder and CEO of ReachTV, which is now America’s largest travel TV network. It broadcasts onto screens in more than 2,400 airport gates, over 950 venues, and 500,000 hotels, reaching 54 million people a month. This crisis in question was COVID, when all travel was shut down — forcing Bibbens to ask his partners, like airport vendors and retailers, to waive the fees they charge to show his programming. (He pays them to host his screens and then monetizes the content through subscriptions and advertising, like a TV network would.) They agreed, allowing ReachTV to continue operating and growing.

Related: A Successful Partnership Hinges on Careful Planning and Execution. Here Are 7 Things You Need to Ensure Partnership Success.

Why was this Bibbens’ first move? Because after building and exiting multiple businesses, he’d learned this: When things go wrong, many founders hide from their partners and clients — afraid to shake anyone’s confidence. But Bibbens believes you should run toward your partners. “Tell them what you need,” he says. “Then ask, ‘What are you able to do? Or what advice would you give me?'”

Bibbens discovered this tactic early in his career, during his first major crisis. He was a partner at a struggling mail-order company, and his colleagues wanted to close the business. Bibbens thought it could be saved, so he asked an old college professor for advice.

“Call your largest supplier,” the professor had suggested. They’d be invested in the company’s success, because its failure would be their headache.

So Bibbens made the call. “We’re thinking of taking some outside investment, or even selling,” he told the supplier. The supplier rushed over to work out a deal to buy the business.

That was an eye-opener for Bibbens. “Founders don’t realize how much value they have,” Bibbens says. “From the outside, people might find you way more valuable than you value yourself.”

This isn’t just true in times of calamity, Bibbens says. It’s also true in times of growth. “In five of the companies that I’ve exited, we sold to my biggest suppliers,” Bibbens says. “It becomes an easy sell. My biggest supplier goes, ‘You’re so valuable to me, and we can continue to grow.'”

Related: Want to Grow Your Business? Here’s Why You Need Strategic Partnerships to Succeed.

It’s why Bibbens is always checking in with his partners, looking for ways to strengthen relationships. “I’m asking, ‘How can we make this even better? What are your needs?'” he says.

He offers an example: ReachTV does a lot of work with HMSHost, a major food-service provider in airports. A few years ago, Bibbens was catching up with a few people there, and they said they were trying to organize a live cooking competition in Chicago’s O’Hare airport — but they didn’t have a lot of event or production expertise.

Bibbens perked up. “We’re a media company; that’s what we do!” he told them. Then he offered to help — ultimately booking many of the participants for the event, including the lead from Hamilton in Chicago.

The lesson is simple, Bibbens says: Your partnerships aren’t just partnerships; they’re the beginning of multifaceted relationships. Your partner today could be saving you, buying you, or growing with you tomorrow. So treat them that way. “We are in this together,” he says. “Think about that person next to you as somebody you’re pulling for.”