Easy Ways to Collaborate With Other Creators (As an Absolute Beginner)

In this episode of Hey, Let’s Collab, I’m breaking down 10 simple ways to start collaborating with other creators, even if you’re brand new, starting from zero, or don’t feel ready yet. I walk you through the simple foundation you need before you start, how to find aligned collaboration opportunities, and the different types of creator partnerships that can help you grow your audience, build your email list, and create momentum in your business. From showing up in online communities to guest podcasting, email swaps, bundles, and summits, this episode is all about helping you take your first step into collaboration with confidence.

Tune in to hear more on:

• The four simple things you need in place before you start collaborating
• How to identify your audience and find aligned creators in parallel niches
• Why online communities are one of the easiest places to land your first collaboration
• 10 beginner-friendly collaboration types, from affiliate partnerships to guest posts, podcast interviews, email swaps, bundles, and summits
• How to start growing your email list through collaborations, even if you do not have one yet
• Why you do not need a website, a big audience, or a polished offer to begin building profitable partnerships

Collaborations do not need to be complicated to be powerful. This is your reminder that you can start with what you have, use your expertise right now, and begin building relationships that grow your audience and your business over time. Tune in to discover which collaboration opportunities are the best fit for where you are right now, then grab the Collab Starter Kit at heyletscollab.com to start putting your own collaboration plan into action.

Links:
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Collab Starter Kit: https://heyletscollab.com/kit
Blog: Blog - Hey, Let's Collab
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Pinterest: Hey Let's Collab

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Hey, it's Nadalie and welcome to the Hey Let's Collab Podcast. This is a podcast about how successful creators grow through collaboration. Every episode, we unpack one specific partnership from the first pitch to the final result. This gives you the full blueprint on how to collaborate with confidence and grow your business through aligned connections. Ready to get started? You'll love this week's collaboration. Looking for super simple ways to collaborate with other online creators, even if you've never done it before, if you don't feel ready enough, and you're literally starting from zero, this is the episode for you. And I want you to know that no matter where you are in your creator journey, you can start collaborating right now. There are no requirements, right? You don't need to have an email list, a bunch of followers, a whole bunch of content. You don't need to have any experience at all. And you don't need to cold pitch anyone either. You can get started right as you are. I first want to break down for you what exactly a creator collaboration is. It's essentially two or more online creators coming together by showing up in each other's audiences. That collaboration could be two ways, like I show up for your audience, you show up for mine, or one way, because maybe you don't have an audience yet, and that's totally fine. I didn't have an audience at all when I started collaborating, and you don't need one either. The great part about collaborations, especially creator ones, is that you get to just show up in someone else's community, shine, and walk away with the rewards. And the rewards are usually audience growth and even income. Okay, so if that sounds good to you, I want to share with you four essential steps that you need to first have in place. And don't worry, it's super simple. And then I'm gonna break down the 10 types of collaborations that you can do right now with no experience. Your first step is to know what you offer. And don't worry, it doesn't need to be packaged in a pretty bow with a website, a landing page, a sales page. No, none of that. You just need to know what expertise you have to offer, what advice, right? So, for example, are you interested in helping new moms or online business owners, right? And I'm I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit because the second step is to know who your audience is. But knowing what you offer and who your audience is is so tied together, right? So, what's your expertise? What are you offering and who are you helping? And in what way, right? And it doesn't need to be set up or ready to sell, it's just having an idea of where your expertise lies. Because when it comes to collaborating with other creators, you're stepping into the spotlight and offering something. And typically it's just your advice, right? So just have a little bit of an idea of who that is. And when it comes to knowing who your audience is, don't worry, you don't need any intense demographic or psychographic data. I don't want to know, like, oh, they live in this city, they're this age. It's great if you know that. But oftentimes, if we're just getting started in our businesses, we're not entirely clear on exactly who that audience is, but you should have some idea. For example, are they new moms or moms of toddlers? Are they women who are too busy to exercise? Are they online business owners that need help with branding? It can be as simple as that. So have an idea of what you offer and who you help. An important distinction to keep in mind here is whether you're helping businesses or consumers. Are you B2B or B2C? This just basically means are you targeting other online creators and business owners or everyday consumers? And this distinction is helpful for our next step of knowing who your aligned creators are. Who are you going to collaborate with? Because most creators are either catering to businesses or consumers. So you just want to make sure that anyone who you connect with for collaborations actually has the audience you're looking to reach, right? There's no point in you starting a collaboration with someone whose audience is consumers when what you're really looking for is to connect with other businesses. Okay, so just have that in mind when we're moving towards your fourth step. And the fourth step is simple. You just need to have an online presence somewhere. And no, I am not saying you need to go build a website or a blog. No, just as simple as having a social media account somewhere that says who you are and who you help. So that could be an Instagram account, a TikTok account, maybe your YouTube threads, something that just says who you are and who you help. Okay, so this is going to just give you that little ounce of credibility that you need when you are connecting with potential partners because they're gonna look you up. They're gonna want at least a link to somewhere. And trust me, that link does not have to be to a website, it just needs to be a place where people can connect with you. Because when we're collaborating, the goal here is to build momentum, at least start gaining momentum. And through your collaborations, you wanna be able to send these potential new audiences that you'll be building through collaborations somewhere to connect directly with you. So when we're talking about finding aligned connections, because you know who your audience is, you can start brainstorming ideas of who has already collected members of that audience. So, for example, when I am growing my Pinterest marketing business, I partner with other creators in parallel industries. So, for example, I'm not gonna reach out to other Pinterest marketing experts, but I will connect with email marketing experts, SEO experts, people who teach others how to create online digital products, those types of businesses, because I know their audience is also interested in Pinterest marketing. So it's time for you also to brainstorm who those potential partners could be. So, for example, if you're a fitness coach, you could reach out to nutritionists, right? It's similar parallel industries where you could have potential members of the same audience. See how that works? Okay, so I know that the idea of pitching or reaching out to potential partners, it can be scary and intimidating, right? Like, what do you say? How do you even find these people? Don't worry. There is a shortcut to finding collaborations and it's joining Facebook groups. I yes, I know I'm dating myself. It's a little bit of a millennial thing, but Facebook groups are where other online creators and business owners are right now. There are so many Facebook groups that are literally dedicated to the types of collaborations I'm about to break down for you. So the best place for you to get started, the easy way, no pitching required, is to actually just go on Facebook, click on groups, and start searching for all of those online communities. So, for example, if you're interested in doing podcasts, search groups for podcasts. If you're interested in doing email swaps, you can search groups for that. And I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about what a bundle and an email swap is. So, how about we dive into the 10 easy types of collaborations you can start doing right now, even if you've never collaborated before? And this list is a little bit in order of super, super easy to a little bit more involved. So let's start at the beginning. And I should let you know that if you want a more detailed guide on these 10 types of collaborations, you want to head to hayletscollab.com and grab the collab starter kit. Inside of it, I go into detail about these 10 types of collaborations. So if that's the type of resource you're looking for, so the place to find it is over on my site at hayletscollab.com forward slash Kate K-I-T. All right, so let's dive in. So the first type of collaboration that you can do, which has the least requirements, is to just show up in online communities. So remember those Facebook groups I was just talking about two seconds ago? Great. Have you started searching for them, joining them? That's the first place you want to go to start collaborating. And it could honestly be as easy as replying to someone's question or keeping an eye out for posts where it's like looking for guests for my insert thing here. So when you show up in online communities, this enables you to become eventually their go-to expert. So inside of these communities, and you can even find ones that are dedicated to your audience type. So, for example, if you are looking to find digital nomads, there are so many Facebook groups dedicated to the digital nomad community. So by joining those communities, you're able to show up by answering questions, by engaging, you become their go-to expert on whatever it is your area of expertise is in. And okay, if you're anti-Meta and you're like not into Facebook, don't worry. You can do the same on other platforms. So whether we're talking about showing up on Reddit boards, you can show up on Threads. Threads is really popping off right now as the place to become the go-to expert in something. And I even hear people are lending clients, making new connections, finding collaboration opportunities. So literally just choose the platform. It could even be Instagram if you need it to be, okay? But my top recommendation has been Facebook. I would also put up with that Reddit and also threads. Okay, so those are a few options for you where you can find those online communities that you can just show up as you are and start answering questions. This is what happens. When you keep showing up, eventually people will even start tagging you. The creator of that community could even invite you to do an official collaboration. This also helps you to get a little bit more clear on what your expertise is, what you offer, and it will also help you to get clear, clearer on who your audience is. Okay, so the first one is showing up in online communities. The second type of collaboration is an affiliate or product review. So maybe you don't know what affiliate marketing is. Essentially, someone has a product or a service, and you are promoting that either in your personal life or on your online communities, your own platforms, and you get a commission. That's the basics of it. It could be anything from an online course to recommending an eyeliner. So for this, you are going to get started with thinking about the products or services that you already use that would be of interest to your ideal audience. So you can go check if these products and services have affiliate programs that you can join. You can also reach out to them and just ask, hey, I really enjoy your product or your service. I would love to share it with my community. Do you have a referral or an affiliate program? The this works best if what you're recommending is something that you actually use and love. Because here's the thing: everyone can tell when you're not being genuine about something. Okay, so you can get started with affiliate marketing and product reviews. And when you start posting these online, so whether it's just on your Instagram, for example, other creators could reach out to you. And I also want to encourage you to not just think about big businesses, I want you to think about small creators as well, other online creators who have created whether it's a service or a product that you have used and have learned from. So if there was another creator, for example, who had a course or did a YouTube series on something that was helpful to you, reach out to them and ask if you can become an affiliate or a refer partner. So two down, let's keep going. Okay, so up next is a roundup post contribution. So a roundup post is when a creator or a publication gets quotes from a whole bunch of other creators or experts, right? Essentially, they ask a question or they want to know about a certain experience. You provide your two cents, and typically you also get a link, right? So it could be anything. Like literally, they could be asking for best Thanksgiving recipes that picky eaters love, right? And you're gonna provide your advice and get a tip. You can find Roundup post opportunities in, sorry to say it again, Facebook groups are a great place for this. There are a whole bunch of groups that are literally just dedicated to Roundup posts. You could also take this to another level by checking out Haro, help a reporter out. They post stories where they're looking for certain types of experts to share their expertise. And this is another great way for you to start collaborating. It's not just big publications on there. I've even posted my roundup posts on Haro in the past to find experts to contribute. So you can do the same. You can also post your own roundup posts. But I know we're just keeping it simple. Being the participant is way less lift than being the host. But if you want to take on doing a roundup post, finding people to contribute in those same groups and on harrow is an easy way to do it. Okay, so our fourth type of collaboration is called a skill or service swap. And it could be as simple as hey, you're really great at branding and I'm great at SEO. How about we help each other? Yeah, great. Guess what? You have just successfully done a swap. So essentially, with a swab, you're showing up in your zone of genius for someone else, and they are doing the same for you. For these types of collaborations, I encourage you just to start with your friends or people you already have some type of relationship with online because it's more likely to be a yes, right? They know who you are, they trust you, maybe they know what your skills or your work is. So if you have a skill or service you can provide, offer it to someone in exchange for something that they are an expert at. So, yes, it's like bartering. No money is exchanged. Instead, you exchange your expertise. And what's great is this is also an opportunity for you to get a review or testimonial and also to provide one for that person. And then you could even promote their product and services, and they can do the same for you, whether or not you have that now, or that's something you want to launch later. This opens the door. So I recently did this type of swap with another online creator. We swapped a sponsorship spot for my bundle in exchange for her giving me a business mastermind session. So I literally was just like, hey girl, crazy idea, but how about you help me with this and I give you some business exposure? And she said, yes. So don't overthink it. Start with who you know and just suggest it. All right. Okay, so the fifth type of easy collab you can do is a guest post. So this is a little bit more than a roundup contribution where you're gonna write a full-on article or blog post. Typically, these blog posts are around a thousand or more words. And it's like a whole feature on someone else's site, right? So maybe there is an online creator, a blogger, someone who runs a site that you admire, you have some connection with, your audience is already their audience. You see how we're doing that? And you're gonna reach out and pitch yourself for an article. Even better, use those same groups to find people who are looking for guest post contributions, right? So even on my own blog, I have a page that's like, hey, I'm looking for guest posts, these are the topics I'm interested in, here's how long it needs to be, fill out this form. And many other bloggers and sites also have those types of forms where you just plug in your information, pitch your idea, and wait to hear back. All right, so you can use that as an opportunity. Or if you started with a roundup contribution and you get accepted, that could lead to a whole full feature for you on someone else's site. So this is great for you if you like to write, and it will also end up with a backlink, which is essentially a link from one person's website to yours. And this is okay if you don't have a website yet. You're gonna use that online presence that you established somewhere for your bio because these articles will typically include your bio, which will also talk about what you offer, who your audience is. You see how it's all connected? Okay, so guest posting is also an option for you. All right, we are halfway through our list of simple ways that you can start collaborating. And remember, if you want all of this in detail, you want to head to heyletscollab.com forward slash kit K-I-T and grab the collab starter kit. In there, I break down all 10 types of collaborations, what you need to know, what the benefits are, what the requirements are. There's little checklists, I tell you how to find those opportunities, I go into detail. Okay, so number six is a live collaboration. So with a live collaboration, this one's pretty low lift. You are just showing up on camera live for someone else's audience. So this can be as simple as an Instagram live, right? Or showing up on a YouTube live, or showing up live in someone's Facebook group or their community. You're gonna show up and teach something or do a little interview. Honestly, interviews are the easiest way because typically they'll just send you their list of questions ahead of time so you can just mentally prepare, especially if you're a little nervous and you've never done this before. I really do remember the first time I did a Facebook Live. I was so nervous. And what's great is that this actually came from a guest posting opportunity. I had someone reach out to me and ask if I would write an article about goal setting for their blog. And then she invited me to do a whole workshop on how to set goals. And yeah, I was so nervous. But the best part about going live is that yes, it can feel intimidating and scary, but once you do it, you gain a little bit of confidence and you're able to get more comfortable and more comfortable and more comfortable. And I will say that when it's someone else's community, it's a lot easier to show up because I don't know if you're like me in the sense that the pressure or not the pressure, maybe the word I'm looking for here is the responsibility, right? So someone has invited you to show up on this day at this time, and you can't keep pushing it off. But when you need to show up for your own community, you can come up with 10 million reasons why, oh, I'm not ready yet. This is not the right time. And oftentimes when you're going live in someone else's community, you're not alone. It's way less nerve wracking to show up with someone who's guiding you, helping you to. Provide that expertise to show up and shine because they're asking you questions, they're engaging, you don't have to worry about the tech. Usually they're just like click this link at this time and you're good to go. Okay. So for live collaborations, the best way is to just find those opportunities through some of those Facebook groups that I have mentioned. There are many that are called find a guest. Some of them are for podcasts, others are for communities. So once you start joining like a couple of these groups, the platform is going to start recommending other ones to you as well. So that's a great way for you to go about it. Okay. So just go live in someone else's community. Let them worry about the tech. Okay. So I just mentioned this, but podcasting is the next easy way for you to start collaborating. Yes, podcasting is a form of creator collaboration in its finest, as far as I'm concerned, as this is a podcast. And I launched this entire brand on the backbone of podcast interviews. Before I recorded this episode or even built the website, I did 20 interviews where I got into all the details about collaborations. Okay. I wanted to know where this brand was heading. I wanted to know what to talk about. And honestly, this list of 10 collaborations that I'm sharing with you right now was built from my reflections on those conversations, which you'll hear in the upcoming episodes of this podcast. So it's all full circle. But don't worry, you don't need to go do 20 interviews or launch your own podcast. Just show up on other people's podcasts. Let them handle the tech and all of the worries that come along with it. Okay. So you want to head to, once again, there are Facebook groups, there are even websites that are all about finding podcast guests. Some are free, some are paid. So just hop into your favorite search engine and search for podcasting opportunities, and you will definitely find them. But once again, there are so many free communities that are dedicated to finding podcast guests. And for this, you will need to know once again what your expertise is, who you help, and having that one link where people can connect with you is definitely going to be helpful because they're going to want to share that in their show notes or and the show notes is the bit of text that accompanies it's the description of the podcast episode. Many podcasters will also have blog posts or even they'll post that video on YouTube and socials. So you want to be able to share somewhere. But if anyone's listening, they can connect with you. All right. So podcasting, it's great. And for some people, depending who the host is, it might not even be on video. So if video is not for you, podcasting could be a great opportunity. But Real Talks, most podcasts now are also very much video as well. Like, hi. All right, friends, we are almost at the end of the list. Okay, so the next one is email contribution or an email swap. So this is kind of like guest posting, but in someone's email inbox. And you don't really have to write as many words. So when you're doing an email contribution, you're essentially writing a newsletter for someone else's audience. It's like a IG takeover, but you're taking over their email, not their Instagram account. So for this swap idea, you would find those creators who have, once again, an aligned community, and you would ask if, hey, can I write a newsletter or contribute a freebie? So if you have created a free opt-in, which is a gift, this could be anything from a checklist, maybe even a printable, nothing too crazy. This is an opportunity for you to offer it to someone else. So when doing an email swap, you are providing a newsletter and they are providing one to you. And yes, this could also be one way if you don't have your own email list as yet. Don't worry. You could also do that freebie swap where you provide the freebie, they share it with their audience, and then you're able to grow your email list. But don't worry if you're like, wait, um, what's a freebie? I don't have one yet. Don't stress out. I've got an episode coming up down the line for you that's all about how to create this collaboration ready freebie. So you definitely want to keep listening to the podcast. Hit subscribe. Don't miss that episode. Okay, so we're almost at the bottom of our list. And the last two are probably the types of collaborations that you've heard about before. I've mentioned them in my intro episode. And this is your time where you're able to show up in a big way. Because if you contribute to a bundle that's number nine, or a summit that's number 10, you have the benefit of not only showing up in someone else's community, but you're showing up with a whole bunch of other creators in that person's community and building together. I just hosted my Creator Collab bundle, and we had over 60 contributors who invited their audience to be part of this bundle, and we had over 2,000 signups. Okay. So how that trickles down and benefits you as a creator is that doing a bundle is when you offer a free resource of some sort. So it's either that freebie or that product. So depending on the bundle, typically the product should be valued at around $9 or more. That's the common dollar amount that I've seen, between nine and a hundred dollars. It's something you would typically sell. So maybe it's a course, templates, some type of tool like a GPT, something, something like that, which you usually sell, but you're gonna offer it for free inside the bundle. And some bundles are also paid as well, where if someone wants access to the bundle, they'll pay one amount and they'll get access to all the products inside instead of having to pay individually. So that's the benefit of a bundle. Then they sign up and claim all the products that they want inside of that bundle. And this is how you're able to grow your email list. So a good bundle will get you, you know, at least a hundred signups to your email list. I've been in bundles that have brought me more than a hundred. The bundle I hosted is doing that for my contributors as well. So not all bundles are created even or equally, but the only way to know is to try and to sign up and join other people's bundles. So, joining bundles, you know what I'm gonna say? Yes, head to those same online communities that I've mentioned previously. There are several that are dedicated to bundles alone. So just hit that search bar and you will be able to find them. And honestly, every day people are posting opportunities in there. The key here is to only sign up for the ones that are relevant to your ideal audience. Some bundles are B2B, others are B2C. Okay, so just choose the bundle that's relevant to you because the closer your product, your contribution is in alignment with the topic of that bundle, the more subscribers you're going to get. I've seen this as myself, as a participant, and I've also seen this on the back end of my own bundle. The resources that get the most clicks and signups are more closely aligned with the focus of the bundle. So keep that in mind, okay? And finally, it's summits, speaking at summit, okay? I would definitely not recommend hosting a summit as the first collaboration you would do. It is a lot more work than you could possibly imagine. So don't start there. But hey, let the host carry the burden on this one. When it comes to summits, most are pre-recorded trainings, and we're thinking, honestly, common ones I've seen right now are between 15 and 20 minutes. Others are interview style, which could be the lowest lift. You just show up, they've got a pre-list of questions. Sometimes you are the one who provides the questions. So you already know the question and the answer. You show up, you record, you offer a freebie. That's how you grow your email list. And when the event goes live, you promote it. So the one little asterisk here is that you might need to have an existing audience of some size. Some summits and bundles will have a minimum requirement. Others don't. So, for example, for my summits that I've run in the past and for my bundle, I didn't state a specific minimum. I do believe in giving opportunities to other creators who don't have thousands of email subscribers because we all started at zero. So I like to find that balance between having the contributors with the large audience and then having the ones that have a smaller audience as well. So don't be dissuade if you're like, I don't have thousands of subscribers, nobody's gonna want me in my sub in a summit or a bundle. That is just not true. Okay. The reason the thing that's gonna get you a yes is if your topic that you're speaking on is relevant to the topic of the summit. That's what's going to get you a yes. So, same advice as bundles. Make sure it's aligned, show up, sparkle in your expertise, and that's what's going to make you stand out in that event and send people to your email list, right? And that's how you start growing through summits and bundles. So, as I mentioned, this is exactly what worked for me. I gained over 10,000 subscribers over a handful of years just by showing up in bundles and summits and hosting my webinars with partners. That's how I grew my audience. And you can too. And trust me, the easiest way is to let someone else handle the logistics and the hosting. Just be the one who shows up because that way you can focus on really figuring out what is your offer, who is your audience. And in all the free time that you have, you can slowly build that presence. So maybe you just started that threads account or you just started an IG account, then you have more time to just create a couple posts. And this just helps your legitimacy and your credibility so that when someone does see you or read your words, when you pop up in someone else's audience and they click that link to come find you, they're gonna be like, oh my gosh, yes, this is the help I need. Follow or sign up and subscribe. All right, so speaking of subscribing, if you found this episode helpful, I hope you will hit subscribe on this podcast. If there were any topics that I mentioned where you're like, okay, I need to learn more about that. Don't worry. In the upcoming episodes, we are diving deep into all of it. I've got interviews with collaboration experts who have used all types of collaborations to grow their email list and their income, and we are getting into the details, right? We'll be going over everything from what was the pitch to what were the results. We dive deep into those details. So be sure to hit subscribe, click the buttons, and stay tuned to our next episode. Thanks for tuning in to Hey Let's Collab. If you're looking to kickstart your collaboration game and land that dream partnership, check out Hey Let's Collab.com and download the free collab scripts to get started.