Sponsor Magnet: Attract, Price, & Execute Dream Partnerships

Get 25% off your first year of Sponsor Mole (annual plans) with code POD25: https://www.sponsormole.com Who do you pitch, what do you say, and which brands would even want to sponsor you? I walk you through Sponsor Mole, the software I built to answer all three of these questions and take the busywork out of landing brand deals. How to find the actual decision-maker at a brand in seconds Pitch ang...

Want help landing bigger brand deals? See if you qualify for a free sponsorship strategy session with my team. Apply here: https://wizardsguild.com/qualify Lew Smith spent 26 years in IT, squeezing content creation into early mornings, nights, and weekends. Then one brand deal, $6,000 a month for 12 months, gave him the green light to type his resignation letter. How a networking group Lew almost...

Charlotte turned a free event invite into a paid, multi-thousand dollar brand partnership — and she did it with one email. In this episode, my client Charlotte (travel & aviation creator) breaks down exactly how she turns "free trip" offers from tourism boards, airlines, and embassies into real paid deals, why she still says yes to some unpaid opportunities, and the LinkedIn strategy that's made h...

What happens when a creator who's built an 18-year business decides to sell it — sponsors, audience, and all? Pat Flynn just sold Smart Passive Income to Liz Wilcox, and in this episode, we get into the real anxieties, the sponsor conversations nobody talks about, and how Liz plans to reset the entire sponsorship strategy for SPI. Why Pat turned down multiple 8-figure offers before finally saying...

What happens when a B2B consultant who's never called himself a "creator" ends up with his face on a banner seen by over a million people? Jay Acunzo breaks down how he turned cold, cobbled-together sponsor arrangements into a systematic revenue engine — without ever sending a rate sheet. Why Jay refuses to call himself a YouTuber, podcaster, or newsletter writer — and how he still built a sponsor...

There's a new reason brands are paying creators, and it has nothing to do with follower count. Kaleigh Moore, an AI search strategist who works with B2B brands, breaks down how AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) works, and how you can pitch it to land bigger sponsorship deals. Why AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are now citing creators the same way they'd cite a magazine or news outlet The 3-4 word...

Ever wondered what it's actually like to run a creator business with your spouse? I sat down with my wife (and OG YouTuber) April to break down every step of doing sponsorships together — the pros, the friction, and everything in between. Why April trusted me completely with the business side of sponsorships from day one The exact 8-step "Sponsorship Wheel" we use for every deal — pitching to publ...

Turn your book idea into reality with Lulu Publishing. Start publishing for free today: https://creatorwizard.com/lulu Thanks to Lulu for sponsoring this episode! Every creator pitches brands the same three things: awareness, repurposing, conversion. In this episode, I break down a fourth angle almost nobody uses — churn — and show you exactly how to turn it into a pitch that gets read instead of...

"I don't get a lot of brand deals because I refuse to dance on TikTok." Justin hears this excuse constantly, so he's putting it to bed with Bill Flitter's story — a 20-year advertising vet who landed a massive sponsorship for his youth sports startup in just two emails and two weeks. Why a complete outsider to "selling" sponsorships closed a deal faster than most seasoned creators The moment a spo...

What happens when a $6,000/month brand deal falls apart at the finish line? I'm walking you through the entire Perplexity partnership from the very first LinkedIn DM to the moment it collapsed — including the actual proposal, real pricing, and every package I put together. The exact video pitch I sent instead of just replying to their DM (and why it worked) How I structured a 4-tier proposal rangi...

How Elizabeth turned 4,000 Instagram followers into $10,000 in sponsorships in under two months — without a big platform, a media kit, or any sponsorship experience before meeting Justin. Why year one and year two of her live event barely broke even (and what changed in year three) The "marketing consultant mindset" that separates creators who keep sponsors from creators who lose them Why 30-35 co...

Learn how to use a book to build your brand: https://www.creatorwizard.com/lulu Thanks to Lulu for sponsoring this episode! Ever wonder what goes into planning a live event where attendees walk away with actual brand deals? In this behind-the-scenes team call, Justin sits down with his event producer Sarah and coaching program director Bianca to plan Sponsor Games 2027 — and get real about what wo...

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...