Beyond the Pitch: How to Share Your Work Without Selling Your Soul

When educators help educators, the approach matters as much as the message.

I found myself staring at a blank email draft last week, cursor blinking mockingly at me. The task seemed simple enough: reach out to principals in my district about resources that could genuinely help their teachers. But something felt off.

The email I'd written sounded... professional. Polished. Like every other promotional message that lands in their already-overflowing inboxes. It had all the right elements—clear value proposition, strong call-to-action, compelling subject line. But it didn't sound like me.

More importantly, it didn't reflect the very principles I've spent three decades building my leadership on: authentic relationships, genuine service, and meeting people where they are.

The Educator's Dilemma

Here's the thing we don't talk about enough in education circles: those of us who create resources, write books, or offer professional development face a unique tension. We're educators first, which means we're wired to serve, not sell. We believe in collaboration over competition, relationship over revenue, substance over strategy.

Yet if we want our work to reach the teachers and leaders who need it most, we have to put ourselves out there. We have to promote. We have to—gulp—market ourselves.

The challenge is doing it in a way that honors both our values and our audience's intelligence.

When Your Approach Mirrors Your Philosophy

As I wrestled with that email, I realized something important: how I share my work should reflect the same principles that guide my work itself. If I believe in relationship-first leadership, then my outreach should prioritize relationship-building over transaction-driving. If I value authentic conversation over superficial compliance, then my communication should sound like me talking to a colleague, not a vendor pitching a client.

So I scrapped the polished email and started over. This time, I wrote like I was talking to a fellow principal over coffee, sharing something that might genuinely help. I led with understanding their challenges, not highlighting my solutions. I offered value before asking for anything. I acknowledged that they know me—they don't need my credentials repeated; they need to know why I think this particular resource might serve their specific context.

The difference was night and day.

The Relationship Test

Here's a simple way to evaluate whether your promotional approach aligns with your educational values: Would you share this resource the same way if you weren't the one who created it?

If you discovered a book, toolkit, or strategy that genuinely helped teachers in your building, how would you tell your colleague about it? You'd probably:

• Start with why you think it would help them specifically

• Share what you've seen it do in practice

• Offer to let them try it before committing to anything

• Make it clear there's no pressure—just genuine care for their success

That's exactly how we should approach sharing our own work.

Leading with Value, Not Volume

One of the biggest mistakes I see educators make when promoting their resources is leading with everything they offer instead of the one thing that might matter most to that specific person. We're so eager to show the full scope of our work that we overwhelm rather than serve.

When I reach out to principals, I don't start with our entire website ecosystem. I start with one conversation from one book that might spark meaningful discussion in one context they're facing. If that serves them well, they'll naturally want to know what else might help. If it doesn't resonate, no amount of additional resources will change that.

The Long Game of Authentic Outreach

The most sustainable way to share your work is the same way you build any meaningful relationship: slowly, authentically, and with genuine investment in the other person's success.

This means:

• Start with your existing network. The principals, teachers, and leaders who already know and trust you are your best advocates. They'll share your work authentically because they've experienced your character firsthand.

• Engage before you pitch. Join the conversations your audience is already having. Share insights, ask questions, offer support. Build relationship equity before making any asks.

• Make it about them, not you. Your outreach should focus on their challenges, their context, their success. Your resources are simply tools that might help them achieve what they're already working toward.

When Promotion Becomes Service

The most powerful shift happens when you stop thinking about promoting your work and start thinking about serving your people. Instead of "How do I get more people to buy my book?" ask "How do I get this resource to the teachers who need it most?" Instead of "How do I grow my platform?" ask "How do I support the educators who are already doing incredible work?"

This isn't just about feeling better about yourself (though that's a nice side effect). It's about effectiveness. Educators can spot authentic intention from a mile away. We've all been in enough meetings where someone was clearly more interested in covering their agenda than serving our students. We know the difference between genuine support and performative positioning.

The Ripple Effect

When you approach sharing your work as an extension of your educational values rather than a departure from them, something beautiful happens. The people who engage with your resources become advocates, not just customers. They share your work because it genuinely helped them, not because you asked them to. They adapt your tools to their context and make them better. They become part of your mission rather than targets for your marketing.

This is how education gets better—not through slick promotional campaigns, but through educators helping educators, one authentic connection at a time.

Your Next Email

So the next time you're staring at that blank email, wondering how to share your work without compromising your values, remember this: write like you're talking to a colleague who matters to you. Lead with their needs, not your offerings. Share from a place of service, not sales. Trust that if your work has value, and if you share it with authentic intention, it will find the people who need it most.

After all, we're educators. Building relationships and serving others isn't just what we do—it's who we are.

What's your experience with sharing your work authentically? Have you found ways to promote resources that align with your educational values? I'd love to continue this conversation—because when educators help educators, we all get better at the work that matters most.