Taking the Leap into Collaboration

Today, I want to explore my thinking around my recent collaboration, why I prioritised it, how I put it into action and what I hope to achieve with it. I don’t have all the answers, but I can tell you what I figured out, what I did to get the results I have managed so far, and what I intend to do in the immediate future.

Why?

For 2024, I decided that I wanted to find one or two businesses or business people I could collaborate with. There were a couple of reasons I wanted to do this. I know I will work harder and more diligently for someone else than for myself.

I also realised that if I could find the right business to partner with, there would be some synergy that would benefit both of us. I was unsure of what that synergy might be, but I was confident that I could figure it out when I found it.

Preparation

I first spent time determining what business might best make a good partner. Fortunately, I didn’t really have to look far. I have worked with startup accelerators, author services, government departments, and professional speakers.

Because I had most recently done some training for people who helped authors to write and publish their book I decided to start there.

Approach

Through networking I found a number of emails of people who had a business that helps authors or people who want to be authors. So, I started contacting them by email. I simply asked to catch up for a chat. I booked a time to catch up on Zoom. I booked these calls with about half a dozen of these service providers. The majority of them were based in Canada.

When we caught up, I shared three things with them:

1. My mission - to help people to take the message of what they really want to do to their audience. (which incidentally fits quite nicely with their mission of helping their clients write their book).
   

2. My thesis - I believe that AI content will flood the internet and that most of the current courses, lead magnets, and other content will be devalued to the point of having no value at all. So that the value going forward will be in more personal service, a move from Do It Yourself (DIY) to Done With You (DWY) and Done For You (DFY).
   

3. My reason for this conversation - I don’t have a plan, and I don’t have anything to sell. I just want to talk and see if there is any way we could work together.

I have to admit I was surprised at how well this worked.

Explaining who I was and that I don’t really have an agenda other than trying to find people I would work with lowered defensiveness and made for interesting conversations. A few people said they would consider how we could work together.

Then, one person I spoke to sparked.

We brainstormed a new aspect of her business. Immediately making the decision to work together.

I signed a contract this week. My services add something to her offer that will enable her to close more deals. I benefit from her existing marketing model.

Building from Here

This is uncharted territory for me.

I know I have to make things as easy as possible for my new business partner and our mutual clients. This means creating some collateral to share with her clients to help sell the offer.

It also means creating some systems around the service I will provide to our clients.

This also means that until I get this nailed down, I will cease hunting for more collaborations… for now.

Lessons Learned

Authenticity matters. Don’t pretend to be someone you are not; don’t pretend to have a business or project that is more than what it really is. But above all, take action when you have a plan, no matter how incomplete.

Also, as a shameless plug, check out the Auther workshop if you or anyone you know wants to write a non-fiction book.

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section where I dive into a famous (or not so famous) quote and explore how this can apply to the Compelling Communicator.

I love this quote. Do all you can do today because tomorrow is not guaranteed. But this doesn’t mean you should live entirely for the moment because there are some things that should be striven for as if you had all the time in the world.

Gandhi talks about learning, but I believe that includes your purpose because you are learning whenever you are striving for a greater purpose, whether that is a cause, a business or an organisation you are part of.

Life without the learning of things feels empty. For a long time, martial arts was my focus for learning. But I have always had many things I ‘played’ with to learn.

In fact, on Friday, I followed my curiosity and spent several hours animating a short video excerpt of our latest podcast. It is not something that will make a huge difference in my life. But it was satisfying, and I was pleased with the result and what I learned. And it opens up some options in the future that I would never have considered if I hadn’t followed my curiosity.

So this is my biggest takeaway from this quote:

If you are despondent, find your curiosity and follow it for a while without considering reward or outcome. Follow your curiosity for its own sake. When you let go of outcomes and expectations, you will be surprised at how free you feel.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

I have a couple of significant Instructional Design jobs that I need to master this week.

Recreationally:

If I can find the time, I want to find a couple of short humorous clips from The Chris and Sam Podcast and animate them to release on Instagram & Facebook.

What I am watching:

This weekend, I ended up on a bit of a recent events ‘documentary’ kick and watched several of the videos on YouTube made by RealLifeLore.