Sponsor Magnet: Attract, Price, & Execute Dream Partnerships

Ever send a pitch, follow up once, and then just... stare at your inbox wondering if you blew it? In this episode, Justin breaks down five specific follow-up approaches you can use when a brand goes quiet after your pitch — so you can stop second-guessing yourself and start getting responses. Why "just circling back" is killing your follow-ups (and what to say instead) The channel-switching trick...

Two travel creators landed Google through LinkedIn — with fewer than 1,300 followers. Juliana and Martine are a husband-and-wife travel creator duo who turned every brand campaign they complete into a public portfolio piece. In this episode, they break down exactly how they use LinkedIn to get on the radar of marketers at major brands — and why follower count has nothing to do with it. Why posting...

You have a 700,000-person newsletter and almost zero sponsorship revenue. That's exactly what's happening at footballguys.com — and it's one of the biggest opportunities I've ever seen. Why reactive sponsorship strategies keep you stuck working with the wrong brands How to build a dream brand list that actually serves your audience The psychographic survey trick that turns a pitch into a no-braine...

Learn how to use a book to build your brand: https://www.creatorwizard.com/lulu Thanks to Lulu for sponsoring this episode! Brands like Nestlé, Unilever, and General Motors are spending millions on creator partnerships right now - but most creators have no idea how those decisions actually get made. Today, I’m talking with Gabe Gordon, CEO of Reach Agency, about… Who really controls the short list...

Brand deals feeling slower and more unpredictable lately? You're not imagining it… and there are 5 specific reasons it's happening (plus what to actually do about each one). Why AI slop pitches are killing your cold outreach (and the video pitch fix) How niche creators are weathering this market while generalists get hit hardest The macro forces (tariffs, budget freezes, layoffs) tanking brand mar...

31 ways to make a brand absolutely hate your guts…and how to avoid every single one of them. Including: Why ignoring a brand's goals during negotiation kills your chances at repeat deals The production and revision mistakes that make your contact look terrible to their boss Post-campaign reporting errors that cost your contact their promotion Why ghosting after the deal is the fastest way to end a...

Most creators walk past potential sponsors at conferences and do nothing. Or they walk up and say "hey I have a podcast, you should sponsor me." Both are wrong. In this video, I'm walking the floor at Google Cloud Next and showing you exactly how I use AI to generate walk-up briefs for sponsor booths in real time — so you always know what to say before you open your mouth. How to turn a photo of a...

Most creators think sponsors care about their download numbers. They're wrong. I went booth-to-booth at a 30,000-person event and asked sponsors directly: why do you shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for this? What I got back was a masterclass in how brands actually think about ROI, and it should completely change how you pitch. Why sophisticated brands filter out irrelevant leads even wh...

Google flew me out to Google Cloud Next and I made a mistake on day one that still bothers me. Here's what went wrong, what I learned, and the exact playbook for turning brand trips into long-term partnerships. Here's what we cover: Why being even 4 minutes late can set the wrong tone with a brand (and how to avoid it) The real-time posting mistake that kills your chances of getting reshared by th...

Five brands sponsored a conference most people have never heard of, and it revealed exactly where sponsorship money is hiding right now. I stumbled onto this at the Minnesota Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (yes, really) while watching my mom get honored for 50 years as a dietitian. What I saw on that sponsorship slide changed how I think about niche authority, and then I turned around and ran...

I lost $10,000 on Sponsor Games this year. And I'd do it again. After fumbling the sponsorship strategy at Year 1, I made it a mission to fix everything—the pitching, the pricing, the activations, and how deeply brands were integrated into the event. Here's exactly what changed, what worked, and what I'm still figuring out. Here's what we cover: Why requiring physical presence from sponsors is non...

I've never sponsored someone else's event before… so when George pitched me on putting $2,000 behind his live creator intensive in the UK, I took a leap. George put together a full post-campaign report and walked me through it live, so we could both see what worked, what didn't, and what we'd do differently next time. Here's what we cover: How to create a post-campaign report for a sponsor Why you...

Arnov and Julian manage everything for one of YouTube's biggest learning channels, Dr. Justin Sun. One year ago, brand deals were an afterthought. Now? They've 10x'd their sponsorship revenue, landed a deal that generated a 20x ROI for the brand, and turned a one-off partnership into an ongoing multi-platform relationship. Here's exactly how they did it. Here's what we cover: Why hopping on a disc...

Apply for sponsorship coaching: https://www.wizardsguild.com You're not imagining it. Here's exactly why it's happening and what to do about it: Why follower count is no longer a proxy for influence — and what brands actually care about now How the explosion of creator supply is turning you into a commodity (and how to escape it) The pricing mistake that's quietly killing your deal flow How to get...

Apply for sponsorship coaching: https://wizardsguild.com More followers. More brand inquiries. Same rates. If that's you, the problem isn't your audience… it's the way you're pricing yourself. Here's exactly how to fix it. Today, I’ll discuss: Why asking friends what to charge is keeping you stuck under an invisible ceiling The price anchor trap that makes brands push back when you try to raise ra...

Howie Chan has 100K+ followers on LinkedIn, a newsletter, and a podcast — and he's barely made $10K from sponsorships all year. The problem isn't his audience. It's the story he's been telling himself about what sponsors actually want from him. Here's what we cover: Why brands almost never ask for "results" — and how the fear of being asked is silently killing your outreach How to use your audienc...

Stop hackers from stealing your accounts with Bitdefender Security for Creators. Claim your 30-day free trial today: https://go.creatorwizard.com/bitdefender-pod-q425 Thanks to Bitdefender for sponsoring this episode! Mark Horvath built Invisible People into a million-subscriber nonprofit media publisher covering homelessness—and landed deals with Ford, Pepsi, and Ritz Crackers. Then COVID killed...

Can you imagine landing $24K in sponsorships in a single week?! Today, I’m talking with a newsletter operator named Marketing Max who spills the tea: Why sending 12 newsletters a week (not 1-2) is the real secret to sponsorship revenue His Typeform trick that turns new subscribers into inbound advertiser leads on day one How to sell guaranteed CPC instead of "billboard" ads … and why it crushes yo...

Apply for sponsorship coaching: https://go.creatorwizard.com/ytcoaching Secure a last-minute ticket to Sponsor Games (Mar 15-18): https://www.sponsorgames.com/ I’m $20K in the red on my upcoming live event, Sponsor Games, and you're about to watch me pitch a brand deal in real time to close the gap. This episode pulls back the curtain on a real negotiation with Haley Janicek, Head of Creator Commu...

What does it actually take to grow a B2B creator partnerships program from zero to 44x revenue in under a year? Alex from Perspective breaks down exactly how they did it — and what most creators are getting completely wrong when pitching B2B brands. Here's what we cover: Why small YouTube channels (think 2,000 views per video) can outperform massive audiences for B2B brands The hybrid deal structu...

What happens when a creator who's 5x'd their revenue goals decides their spouse should quit their stable job to sell sponsorships full-time? Jenny Wood left Google after 18 years to launch her book "Wild Courage" and build a business around keynote speaking and coaching. Revenue is crushing it. Her husband Jon still has a 9-to-5. And now they're sitting in their kitchen at night, staring at a pro/...

Watch what happens when I flip the script and become the sponsor instead of the coach. George Blackman pitches me on sponsoring his UK creator event, and we negotiate a deal live—complete with budget discussions, package options, and real-time pivots. Here's what we cover: Why 15 high-quality leads beat 1,000 random eyeballs for sponsorship coaching The "sole sponsor" question every event organize...

In this episode, our guest Matt breaks down how his company experienced explosive revenue growth during the COVID pandemic by capitalizing on shifting stock market trends and investor behavior. What started as a $7M business quickly scaled to $25M in just two years, fueled by timely positioning around breakout stocks like GameStop and AMC, smart business strategy, and a surge in advertising sales....

I built a live negotiation simulator and put creators in the hot seat. Watch them tackle real objections—discount demands, equity offers, ROI concerns, event requirements - with 60 seconds on the clock. Here's what we covered: Why clarifying questions beat defensive responses when brands challenge your pricing The "can I get back to you" line that stops aggressive discount negotiations cold How to...

Could you handle 22 brand deals in one month? In this conversation, Logan Nathanson reveals how he delegates 80% of his email workload to virtual assistants, why he's shifting brands toward whitelisting budgets instead of flat fees, and the uncomfortable truth about when champagne problems turn into actual problems. Here's what we cover: How to train VAs to handle brand negotiations without screwi...