How to Avoid Collaboration Burnout

It seems like we’re hearing how important collaboration is for businesses every day. Heck, we even preach collaboration in our own tribe and community a lot. But it also seems like we don’t hear anything about taking collaboration breaks. Or more importantly, how to avoid a collaboration burnout.

It’s so easy to fall down what we call the “collaboration rabbit hole”. You put some feelers out there to work with others (maybe it’s for giveaways, guest posting, or a joint webinar) and you find people you love. Then you find some more. Then you find yourself saying “yes” to #AllTheCollabs and it feels great!

Until it isn’t. 

We know the collaboration burnout all too well. Earlier this year we put it out into the universe that we’d love to collaborate more (to meet more creatives and to get in front of other people’s audiences). And, boy, did it happen. 

Next thing we knew we were co-hosting webinars, co-creating courses, hosting giveaways, and so much more. 

And then the burnout came. And I’m not talking about just the burnout we felt, but the burnout our audience felt.

This is the important piece.

Sure, we were tired of working with extra people (figuring out schedules and emailing back and forth can get tiresome), but our audience was aslo tired of seeing new faces.

They missed us.

The numbers of people signing up for things and then actually showing up started to decline. 

We realized that nobody could get in front of our audience and give them what they truly loved like we could. Nobody else would give the kitchen sink, be as energetic, or put our unique spin on topics like we could. 

So we took a collaboration break. We shut it down. We looked in and found what we could provide. We took months off from collaboration and it felt so good.

After a few months of no collaboration we decided to give it another go. We had found another creative who we thought our audience would love. 

But, after the collaboration ran its course we realized we felt the same as we had months before. It just took one collaboration to put us back in the feeling of burnout. What was wrong? 

We realized maybe we needed to take a harder look not at who we were saying yes to (because all the creatives we’ve worked with have been amazing), but maybe we should pay more attention to what we were saying yes to.

• Was our audience asking for it?

• Was it something they could benefit from?

• Was it something we couldn’t teach or offer?

It seems that if the answer is “yes” to all of those questions then everyone could benefit. Not only would there probably be higher sales for whatever we were co-offering, but we wouldn’t feel so quite inauthentic about the process. 

So, perhaps you’re in this same position. Maybe you’ve been approached by some creatives to work on something together and you might be a little hesitant.

Maybe you can’t quite put your finger on what the issue is, but if you ask yourself the questions above about the collaboration you might get some clarity.

Maybe you’re saying “yes” to the collaboration because that’s what you feel like you should do. Instead, ask yourself if it’s the right move for your audience. 

Because at the end of the day, if we’re just focused on providing our audience top-notch material that they actually need then we’re doing the right thing. 

We want you to collaborate. We know how powerful working with other creatives can be for your business. We still stand by collaboration. But maybe before you get too deep in it you can create a process to insure that it will be the best for you brand. 

Don’t be afraid to say “no, thanks” to the next collaboration that comes your way. Your audience might just thank you for it.