“Why don’t we also…?”

The extra step sounds simple enough. It’s two words. It’s high leverage. People think it’ll bring a ton more value to the process. And it will!

Except, of course, if you can’t make that step happen.

“Get published.”

“Pitch publications.”

“Meet influencers.”

Even if there’s an opportunity to work together, things stall. At best, collaborations take time to develop and cultivate; at worst, they stall and the thing you were making gets shelved. I’ve seen clients literally pitch an entire complete article to an industry publication, and the publication accepts the draft, and then they sit on it for months… and counting. It was worth a shot, and at some point, they’ll need to publish it.

That simple extra step was too much. The work got stuck, when there were plenty of chances for it not to.

Keeping things simple might mean missed opportunity; it also means creative sovereignty. You don’t need the extra leverage anyway. Just put it out there. Let the collaborators approach you, and make sure they’re highly motivated to work with you and to set the work up to succeed.

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