You can't be strategic about collaborations if you don't have a strategy to be strategic against. You need a plan of your own to measure every incoming ask against. Goals for the quarter. A content thread you're actually committed to. Offers you're warming people up to buy. A clear picture of who you want more of on your list and what you want them to do when they get there.

Because a collaboration is not a strategy just because your face was on someone else’s screen.

And if you have ever said yes to something that looked amazing on paper but did absolutely nothing useful for your business afterward, you already know this.