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.

Here’s the interesting part: I’ve had collaborations in that exact space work beautifully.
I even run a whole summit steeped in that world.

Why did hers flop while mine thrived?
Not because one of us is better. Not because one of us is “more clear.”