I’ve been a full-time creator for 5+ years, and this is what I wish I had known sooner:
You can do it all alone. But if you want to go far (and enjoy the ride), you need the right people by your side.
As creators, we often start out solo.
We write, build, and experiment all by ourselves.
We wear all the hats: writer, marketer, salesperson, creative mind, designer, coach, and much more.
That’s exactly how I started my creator journey back in 2018: I wrote on Medium, shared my journey, and built an audience by showing up consistently.
But monetizing that audience?
Launching products?
Building a business that’d stand the test of time?
That didn’t happen until I started collaborating.
I won’t deny that starting to collaborate was easy for me, because my fiancé
had created his first digital products years ago and was my first collaboration partner.Our first project together was a video course.
He had deep experience with course creation, but no audience—I had the audience but no product. When we teamed up, we were able to combine our strengths.
Looking back, I know I couldn’t have built those first courses without him. His systems, structure, and tech knowledge gave me the momentum I needed. And together, we started a business that’s now impacting thousands of creators.
In early 2024, Jari Roomer officially joined our team.
What started as a simple affiliate partnership evolved into something much bigger after we moved to Substack.
Today, we run the entire publication and business as a 3-person team.
What made this partnership work so well from the start was alignment: in values, goals, and how we want to live our lives.
We’re all ambitious, but we prioritize freedom, flexibility, and mental clarity.
None of us wants to scale at the cost of our health or sanity. And that shared foundation has helped us build trust and momentum that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
Today, the three of us run
together, a Substack publication, business, and community for creators who want to grow with intention. And one of the most important lessons we keep coming back to is this:Collaboration is a superpower. Especially for multidimensional creators.
When you have a wide range of ideas, passions, and interests, it’s easy to feel pulled in too many directions.
But collaboration gives you space to focus on what you’re great at, while trusting someone else to carry a different part of the load.
It also forces you to level up.
When I commit to a partner, I show up differently. I take deadlines more seriously. I hold myself to a higher standard.
That mindset has helped us grow
faster than we could’ve done solo.We each have clearly defined roles and areas of ownership. So instead of moving linearly, we move in parallel. And that’s allowed us to ship more, test more, and help more people, without burning out.
But our teamwork at
is only the tip of the iceberg because we constantly run collaborative projects with other creators to grow our audience and impact.For instance, every time we launch a new product, we offer an affiliate program that allows our partners to promote our free or paid offers and earn a commission.
However, we're also always on the lookout for partners to host events for our private community or conduct live streams and interviews for our audience.
While these are the simpler and obvious ways to collaborate, we also think outside of the box. For example, we co-created and launched an entire book called 10k Secrets earlier this year, a joint project with over ten other writers.
3 Lessons I’ve Learned About Collaboration the Hard Way
1. Listen to your gut.
The most important lesson I’ve learned about collaborations is that they only work when the relationship feels right. If you dread a meeting, second-guess every conversation, or feel drained after working together, it’s a sign to quit sooner rather than later. You don’t need a logical reason to walk away. Your energy is the best filter.
2. Track outcomes, even when there’s trust.
Trust is a beautiful starting point for a collaboration, but it shouldn’t be the only system. During our 10k Secrets collaboration, we didn’t track results, which led to missed opportunities. Ever since, we’ve learned to set clear expectations and track performance where possible, not to micromanage, but to make sure the partnership is mutually beneficial.
3. Collaboration isn’t one-size-fits-all.
There are endless ways to collaborate, and the “best” one depends on your goals, strengths, and business model. You might start with something simple, like a guest post or newsletter swap. Or you might go all-in with a shared product, publication, or business. Magic happens when you tailor the partnership to work for everyone involved.
And that’s the beauty and challenge of collaboration: it stretches you.
You’re forced to rethink your blind spots.
To get outside your usual routines.
And to communicate more effectively than you would if you were doing it all yourself.
You also stay more inspired by being surrounded by people doing exciting things, no matter if it’s a co-founder, a guest post partner, or someone you're launching with.
At
, we genuinely believe there is no competition in the creator space.Every creator is either a potential partner or simply not relevant to our business. We’re not worried about someone “stealing” our audience. We’re too busy baking a bigger pie together with people who are fun to work with and committed to making the world a better place.
If you’re a multidimensional creator and collaboration feels exciting but also overwhelming, here’s how to get started:
3 Types of Collaborations (Based on Risk & Commitment)
1. Low-Commitment, Low-Risk
Guest posts
Newsletter swaps
Interview exchanges (written, audio, or video)
Cross-promotions of lead magnets
Great if: You’re just starting out or want to test the waters with someone new.
2. Medium-Commitment, Medium-Risk
Affiliate launches
Joint free workshops or webinars
Shared challenges or sprints
Great if: You want to launch something bigger but don’t want to go all-in just yet.
3. High-Commitment, High-Reward
Co-creating a product
Shared Substack publications
Multi-author book projects
Long-term business partnerships
Great if: You’ve already built trust and alignment with your partner and want to scale something together.
No matter your current stage, I promise that there’s a collaboration model that can match your energy and ambition.
And the best part is that every time you say yes to the right partner, you open the door to more momentum, growth, and joy in the process.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “I’d love to collaborate, but I don’t know where to start,” my recommendation is to start small.
Comment on someone’s post.
Reach out with a kind DM.
Offer to promote their lead magnet or invite them on your podcast.
And if you want to collaborate with us at
, just send me a private message here on Substack.We’re always looking to work with aligned creators who care about their audience and want to build something meaningful together!
Collaboration > Competition 🤝 Love the spirit of the post. Collaborating with other creators has been, and continues to be, a source of fuel and joy for me on this platform ✨
Awesome advice, Sinem!
Good advice. Thank you!