The Level #132

< 6 min

Happy Saturday —

Grabbing coffee and thinking about reach this week. Specifically, the fastest way to grow it that almost nobody uses on purpose.

Here's something most people in your space get backwards.

They look at the other experts, the other founders doing work like theirs. And they see competition.

Someone to out-post.
Out-rank. Out-run.

I want to offer you a different read.

The people who already have the audience you want to reach are not your competition. They are your single most underused growth strategy.

Expert Insight of the Week

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
– African proverb

Partner marketing is the "go far" part.

It is how you borrow trust you have not built yet, reach real humans who have never heard your name and do it without spending a dollar on ads or grinding out another year of content alone.

This Week’s Shift: From Competitors → Collaborators

This shift is not tactical. It is a mindset move.

Scarcity says there is only so much attention, only so much audience, only so much room. And someone else having it means less for you.

Abundance says the pie only gets bigger.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

When you stop guarding your little corner and start pulling other good people up the ladder with you, your reach compounds. Theirs does too. That is the whole game.

So how do you actually do this on purpose, instead of saying yes to whatever random opportunity happens to land in your inbox?

Start by building your ecosystem.

Make a list of every founder, expert, brand or company whose audience overlaps with yours. Do not filter yet. Just build the list.

Then sort that list into three tiers.

Tier one is your dream partners. Bigger audiences, real credibility, aligned values. These get your best effort. A co-hosted webinar. A real campaign. The good stuff.

Tier two is your peers. Similar size, similar stage. Lighter lift, still very much worth it.

Tier three is the up-and-comers. Smaller audiences, newer to the space. Low risk, which makes them perfect for testing something you have never tried before. If a new format works with a tier three partner, you now have a proven playbook to walk into a tier one with.

Now, before you say yes to anyone, you need criteria.

Because the biggest name in your space is worthless to you if their audience is not your audience.

Five things I would not collaborate without:

1. Aligned audience. Same ICP, or it does not matter how big they are.
2. Shared values. Their reputation becomes your reputation the second you stand next to them.
3. Quality content. If you are going to share their work, it has to be work you are proud to share.
4. Professional operation. You do not want to be chasing someone for a deadline at 11pm the night before.
5. Reliable communication. They show up. They reply. They do not ghost you the week of the event.

Then pick how you actually want to work together.

Co-hosted workshops and live events. Newsletter swaps and expert features. Bundled offers. LinkedIn or Instagram lives. Joint challenges. The list is long.

You do not do all of it.

You pick the two or three things you genuinely enjoy, and you do those really, really well.

That last part matters more than it sounds. Do not agree to a blog swap because it showed up on a list somewhere if you hate writing blogs. Pick the collaborations that feel like fun, not homework. Those are the ones you will actually keep doing and the ones that keep working long after a one-off would have fizzled.

What This Looks Like in Real Life

Picture the simplest version.

You and one aligned partner. One co-hosted workshop. One Zoom registration link, so people sign up in a single place and you both get to follow up.

You promote it to your list. They promote it to theirs.

For an hour, their audience watches you be the expert you already are.

Some of them had never heard your name that morning.

By the afternoon, they are on your email list.

That is reach you did not have to grind a year of content to earn.

And the best part. Once you and that partner land on a format that works, you can run it again. And again. And again.

That shit compounds.

Here's your next step

Open a doc.

1. Write down five people or brands whose audience overlaps with yours. 

2. Sort them into your three tiers. 

3. Then pick the ONE you would most want to do something with and the ONE collaboration format you would actually enjoy.

That is your first warm outreach. Not a cold pitch to a stranger. 
A specific, genuine ask to someone you have done your homework on, who already serves the people you are here to help.

Why This Matters

Here is the part that goes deeper than reach.

Your most direct competitor is not the other expert in your space.

It is your own inaction.

It is the version of you that keeps building alone because asking feels vulnerable, or because some quiet part of you still believes there is not enough room.

There is room.

The people doing work like yours are not the reason your audience is small. They are the fastest way to make it bigger, if you are willing to stop competing and start collaborating.

You build an audience you own. They build theirs. Everybody rises.

That is not soft. That is strategy.

Hit reply and tell me the ONE person you are going to reach out to. I read every single one, and everything comes back to my personal inbox.

To building it together,

 - Amanda

P.S. If the thing standing between you and your next level is sales conversations, not reach, the Summer Sales Accelerator kicks off June 17. Eight weeks, capped at 24 people, money-back guarantee. → Apply to the Summer Sales Accelerator 💜

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