Strategies for teacher collaboration come in many forms. From working together on a blog post to creating a summit or professional development opportunity to sharing each other's info on social media. In the book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, talks about a win/win situation. We’ve heard about it our entire lives, right? Habit 4 of 7 in his book focuses on thinking win/win in everything you do. It is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration.

Now let’s talk about what win/win isn’t. 

Getting paid for your services is not a win/win situation nor is it a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration. Getting paid for collaborating could be part of the negotiations. But it isn’t what makes teacher collaboration strategies a win/win for us. Everything that you do with a person inside of a collaboration should mutually benefit both of you. 

This could look different at certain stages in your business. For instance, when you are just getting started, working with someone who already has a firm foundation and allowing them to share your work for free could be a huge mutually beneficial relationship. Here’s why: You are getting the exposure that the other person has worked years to create, their audience trusts them so that means they instantly trust you.  But Kayse I’m giving away stuff for free? That isn’t winning. Well, not if you view it from that perspective. In fact, I see this totally differently here. I think you’re giving away immense value in return to people to know, like, and trust you instantly. Where else in the world can you find that? 

Step 1: Make sure the collaboration is with a good human. 

Teacher bashing is literally everywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the TpT conference, having drinks with a teacher business bestie, flying to attend another teacher conference, or just searching online. I hate to say it so point-blank, but people are ruthless and if it involves money – they can be downright ugly. 

Last week I mentioned a few different lessons I learned while creating this company and I want to just retouch a few of those. 

Always trust your gut – if it feels wrong – RUN! 

Don’t wait until the last minute or the last hour to make a decision to get out. Your name is the only thing that you can take with you to the grave. Your reputation. The way you made people feel. If you associate yourself with someone for a collaboration and find out later they are not a good human, that will leave a lasting impression on you. Heck, it may even leave a lasting impression on your company for affiliating yourself with them. That’s why I make sure if I collaborate with anyone these days – we’ve checked all the boxes, we’ve watched their social channels, we’ve chatted win/win, we’ve read our promise and commitment to our people. 

This goes something like this: we are in no way affiliated with a negative mass exodus of teachers from the classroom. We believe in teachers and we believe in their freedom. That means whatever that looks like to them, we stand behind it. We do not accept any negativity on the backs of our teachers. 

Step 2: Get some form of a written agreement. 

People are people and that means we change our minds, we have preconceived notions, we assume, we forget. That’s why verbal agreements just don’t stand up when it comes to a collaboration. 

If you are looking for where to get started in the legal agreement realm when it comes to contracts and teacher collaborations you can check out Brittany Ratelle. She is the founder of Creative Contracts and offers a multitude of lawyer-drafted templates to help you ditch the overwhelm. You can even use the code CEOTEACHER at checkout for 15% off.

“When you shift your attitude to see the successes of others as proof that there is an opportunity for you to also achieve greatness, you are fueled to continue forward.”― Natalie Franke, Built to Belong: Discovering the Power of Community Over Competition

Step 3: Set a realistic time frame

Rome wasn’t built in a day and honey neither were you. You know I love fast and furious action more than anyone, but let’s get real. Slow and Steady wins the race. You know I have talked about Allie, and how she helps me see the big picture. You think 1 year is slow but it really isn’t. If you want a big splash and a killer partnership – someone shouldn’t rush you into completing it in 2 weeks. 

Get good with your calendar, and plan out your life. Say no when you need to, and plan when you need to. Be flexible but also be structured. For example, our podcast calendar for interviews is already full for 2022 and it’s April BUT…and that’s a big but. 

I’ve got some bucket-list guests that are always on the top of the sheet as a “if they respond I WILL DO ANYTHING AND MOVE ANYTHING TO INTERVIEW THEM.” And y’all it’s happening. 

Step 4: Build hype

No one is going to be excited about your thing if you aren’t excited about your thing. So make sure the teacher collaboration benefits both parties. This way you are mutually excited to promote and hype up the content. If the hype falls flat, it becomes more difficult to feel like the collaboration was a success. 

One way to build hype is to involve your audience. Whether your social media followers or your email list, or just word of mouth friends, and family. These types of teacher collaboration ideas are mutually beneficial to you and your audience. If they help you hype up a product or service, you can offer a thank you in return. 

“Choosing to be for people rather than against them changes everything. It impacts the way we view ourselves and others. It changes our focus and shifts our trajectory. It creates opportunities for all of us to rise together.”― Natalie Franke, Built to Belong: Discovering the Power of Community Over Competition

Step 5: Go all in

Like our CEO Teacher® Collaboration of Kayla Durkin and Sydney Lafrenz. Kayla and Sydney are both members of the CEO Teacher® Programs and have a similar niche of supporting new teachers and those on their way to becoming teachers. But, they bring different things to the table and decided to partner together to create the College 2 Classroom Success Summit. A virtual conference for teachers entering the field to get the tools and strategies they need to be successful from the start!

They said, “In July of 2021, we hosted our first ever College2Classroom Success Summit, and it was more incredible than we could have ever imagined! We had over 100 teachers from all over the country come together virtually for a day filled with learning, laughter, and so much encouragement. Our hearts were so full at the end of the day and we knew it couldn’t stop there!”

They held a Winter Summit at the end of 2021 and are now planning their 2022 summit! We love to see how they’ve collaborated to help new teachers and grow their businesses and audiences.

CEO Teacher® in Training 

Did you know all you have to do to become a CEO Teacher® in training is leave a podcast review and question? Simply leave your question at the end of your review. (If you already left a review, just hit the “leave a review” button and yours will come up to edit.) When you leave your question about creating a teacher business, or the life of a CEO teacher® I will answer your question at the end of a podcast episode. Then all you have to do to get your questions answered is tune in to the weekly podcast!

It’s really that simple.

Leave me a comment if you have already submitted your question!

Here are a few more articles that may help you as you navigate successful strategies for teacher collaboration...

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Teacher Collaboration to Promote Student Success

Teacher Collaborations and Partnerships