How to double your impact and expand your reach. Plus: What's trending and who to follow now

Two great creators are better than one, wouldn’t you think? That’s certainly true of the partnerships I’ve seen between creators who’ve joined forces on the platform to host events, produce videos, and share their expertise in co written posts. They’re adding greater value to their community and at the same time gaining exposure to a larger audience.?

With all the potential benefits of teaming up: double the knowledge, twice the value add, greater exposure and engagement, why wouldn’t everyone try it? For one thing, finding and making those connections takes time, effort and sometimes courage. Collaborations are great when there’s a pairing of creators with the right mix of complementary skills and expertise, and that isn’t always so simple to find. But usually the benefits outweigh the obstacles. It’s exciting to see successful collaborations. So this week I set out to highlight some examples and talk to creators who’ve worked together to boost their content and expand their professional horizons.

Sabbatical researcher, advocate, and author, DJ DiDonna and Audrey Pe , a Stanford University student and founder of WiTech (Women in Tech), recently teamed up for a LinkedIn audio event called The Power of Gap Years. DJ, a former social fintech entrepreneur, has more recently been spending his time exploring and promoting the concept of intentional time off in the modern career. That has led him to embark on his own initiative, the Sabbatical Project, to research the benefits of taking extended time off from routine work.

DJ originally met Audrey at an event and the two started talking about the gap year she had taken to build WiTech. They saw an opportunity to make others as passionate about the topic as they were. Audrey told me: “I didn't know many other people that chose to go on gap years. DJ and I both shared that experience and I immediately wanted to work with him in further promoting the idea of taking a year to work on a project before university.” What Audrey learned from this experience as well as others is not to be afraid of reaching out. She said, “Some of my favorite collaborations have come out from cold messaging people that I admire on LinkedIn.”

Some collaborations are beneficial but brief, like Audrey and DJ’s. And others start with an idea and grow beyond what was initially imagined.

That has been the experience for Gina Greenlee , an organizational development, project management, communications and training professional and Margaret H. Greenberg, MAPP1, PCC , an executive coach and positive psychology practitioner. In 1999, Gina tapped Margaret to facilitate a planning session at a company where Gina was head of strategic planning. That work relationship led to a friendship that’s lasted for over two decades, but one particular phone call that Margaret made to Gina in 2020 initiated a conversation that was the start of a meaningful collaboration. I asked Gina and Margaret to tell me how that partnership came about and where it has led them. Here is what they told me:

Gina: “On May 26, 2020, the day after the murder of George Floyd, Margaret reached out to me to ask how I was doing. Margaret, a White woman, was horrified by the murder and felt that as a Black woman, I might be having a hard time, if not harder time with it. Even though we had been friends for more than two decades, we hadn't much talked about the differences in our racial identities and the lived experience that flows from them until Margaret's call.?

“I shared stories of some of my struggles with being a Black woman in the US - racial profiling among them. Margaret suggested I write about my experiences, but I was done talking about race because when I had done so in the past I was effectively told to "get over it." That's when Margaret suggested we write something together, in an attempt to model the conversations and engagement that we were not seeing in society. We decided to launch a public conversation and a personal journey of discovery on the LinkedIn platform. We had both been prolific on LinkedIn and engaged regularly. Also, because it is a business platform, it seemed like the perfect place to have the conversation about race and racism in the workplace.”?

On Juneteenth, 2020, Margaret and Gina launched their series of conversations about race on LinkedIn called, Race in America: The Workplace is the Perfect Place to Discuss the Undiscussables. After part six of that series, Gina suggested that they go more in depth on the topic. That idea has since become The Business of Race, a book the pair co authored that was published in August 2021. I wanted to take a deeper dive into this conversation about their experience of collaborating on these projects. Here is more of what they shared:

Creating can be a lonely business. How have you worked together to double up on your voice??

Gina: “Margaret is in the habit of always collaborating. It's in her cells. So lonely isn't an issue for her. Neither is it for me. In fact, I’ve previously authored 17 books. The Business of Race, book #18 is my first collaboration. As an only child and card-carrying introvert, I’m very happy creating solo. That said, we amplified our voice.”?

What happened when you started working together??

Gina: “Like any new endeavor, we had to experiment our way to our collaborative sweet spot. Margaret has co authored a book previously so she had a blueprint for it. Yet, I am a different person from Margaret's Profit from the Positive coauthor, and The Business of Race Is a very different book. And topically, a deeply personal, emotionally and existentially challenging topic. So that previous blueprint of Margaret's had practical application to The Business of Race collaboration only to an extent.?

“The reality is that like any pair of people who come together for a common goal, we had to find our own way through the lens of our unique personalities and strengths. It helped that we already had a longstanding friendship. So what we knew about each other's personal tendencies did inform how those tendencies express themselves in a collaborative business endeavor.?

“A concrete example of how that organic discovery journeyed its way to the sweet spot we continue to cultivate and deepen today is this: Margaret is a strong people person, supremely extroverted. I am gregarious but introverted (they are not mutually exclusive). My go-to comfort is with research, writing, design, thinking. So as we began our writing journey, I organically gravitated toward researching and reading books and applying scholarly models to support our theses. Margaret organically launched a Google survey (and posted it on LinkedIn), and said, ‘we need to interview people’ and then did it, and then reached out to her expansive network for beta readers as the manuscript was developing. I literally read scores of books and hundreds of articles. We played to our strengths and our passions.”?

Margaret: “In the early stages of writing The Business of Race, LinkedIn also served as a reliable tool to vet business professionals we sought to interview and researchers we wanted to cite their work. Later, when we moved into the feedback phase, LinkedIn served as the source for many of the early readers of our manuscript. In addition to our existing LI network, we messaged a diverse group of senior leaders (2nd+3rd level connections), who we thought would be interested in our approach to DEI. In a private message we explained the premise of The Business of Race and offered a digital version for their review. Four professionals, in particular, wrote glowing endorsements which were chosen for the book's back jacket and interior pages. Without LinkedIn we would not have been able to expand our network as quickly as we did, especially given the lack of in-person networking due to the pandemic.”

How have you benefited from your collaboration?

Gina: “I have learned, and continue to learn a lot from Margaret's superlative business acumen that stems, in part, from her being a business owner for more than 25 years. Margaret learned a lot from me about how to deepen her writing craft.”?

What do you think makes for a successful partnership?

Gina: “Authenticity, compassion, positivity, playing to strengths, having each other's backs.”?

Can you offer others advice on how to engage and make connections on the platform that can develop into opportunities to collaborate - and how to make a collaboration work?

Gina: “Engage authentically on LinkedIn. Don't engage to get something or to sell something. When we first began our six-part blog series: ‘Discussing the Undiscussables: The Workplace is the Perfect Place to Discuss Race and Racism,’ we only knew that we wanted to make public our own conversation about race in a way we were not seeing — constructive. That's all we knew. We had not considered at that point that we'd write a book. And we didn't have anything to sell or promote… That's how our engagement and connection to other business professionals on the platform grew. Now we have a book. And formed an LLC so we have a legally credible business partnership. So rather than engage solely as individuals, we now have our joint LinkedIn TBOR page which is now the primary platform from which we are continuing the conversation begun in 2020.”?

LinkedIn’s creator managers, who consistently work with creators to help amplify their voices, know the value of collaborations like DJ and Audrey’s and Margaret and Gina’s. Here are some of their tips for finding and developing those partnerships:?

Geri Silver : “Collaborations start in the comments section. If you discover a creator you'd love to collaborate with, strike up an initial connection by engaging thoughtfully with their content. This will give them an idea of who you are and what you bring to the table before you invite them to collaborate!”

Dani Markovits : “Find ways to add value before reaching out for a potential collab.”

Trish Lindo : “Don't be afraid to have a conversation with another creator who has a different area of expertise. It's in our differences you find the most in common which can lead to not only collabs such as LinkedIn Live or Audio events...but also business partnerships that could last a lifetime.”

Kelly-Jo Potts : “Follow/Connect with creators you'd like to collab with or admire their content/work - as Trish says, doesn't have to be in the same area of expertise, but engaging with their content and following their work/creator journey can help foster those relationships that can lead to collab opportunities? - be it through events, products, projects, speaking engagements, etc. you name it!”

Victoria Taylor : “I think the best collaborations I've seen always emphasize each other's strengths and look for areas to compliment. If you're a great newsletter writer, and you find another creator who's an accomplished interviewer, think of what you can do together! Or if you're a podcaster and another creator is an illustrator, look for ways to play to your strengths - the combination of both of your skills with an illustrated podcast guide could be stronger than either element on their own.”

? Miranda Head : “Don't forget to tag creators who inspire you. If you are eyeing a certain creator on LinkedIn who you look up to or want to work with, offer up a post about how you learned from them and what they've created that inspires you. If you are hopping on a trend or love the way a creator posted about a topic that interests you, feel free to continue the momentum and post yourself - just make sure you are mentioning the creator in your post via tagging. It might catch the attention of your favorite creator and open the doors for a collab!”

Upcoming Audio Events

August 15

• Ask the VC's anything about investing and raising capital in Web3, hosted by Zack Deris Deris
• Giving Feedback that Sticks: Monday Motivation with LinkedIn Learning, hosted by Lisa Earle McLeod

August 18

• AMA With Linkedln Creator Team Leads, hosted by Jake Poses

?? Is there a future for the four-year degree? As college tuition costs continue to rise, experts say that student loan forgiveness won’t be enough to keep students from reassessing the true value of a four-year degree and opting for other options.

?? Family run grocery takes customers’ lead during economic downturn To help their shoppers cut costs, a supermarket chain in Pennsylvania is monitoring their customers’ buying habits to adjust prices and add more affordable products.

?? Expected to trend: True to form, the summer has flown by and it’s time to start thinking about getting ready for #BackToSchool preparations. Use this hashtag to share some of your best back to school tips with other working parents.

Each week, I’ll highlight creators who are initiating meaningful conversations on LinkedIn. These members use a variety of tools — from live video to polls — to nurture their audience. See if any of their actions work for you or engage with them directly by leaving a comment and sharing your insights.

1. John Lustyan , the founder of strategy firm illum , does a great job explaining the business of entertainment. In this post, the media exec pours cold water on the narrative that Disney+ is overtaking Netflix.

2. ?In this post, Matt Margolis Head of Community at Lawtrades lists the three things he always asks for when looking for a law firm that would be a good fit.?

3. Using the trending hashtag #MondayMotivation, Sayali Rai , founder at FinCocktail, who says she can find almost anything if it's on Google, shares these hacks to use the search engine efficiently.?

4. As a guest on the Unlocking Africa Podcast, CEO and founder at Movemeback Charles Sekwalor discusses economic and social growth in Africa as outlined in this post.

5. Recruiter and career services expert Adam Karpiak often shares insights and tips to help job seekers. In this post, he offers a reminder to define yourself by who you are, not by the job you do.??