John Willis will be the first to tell you he's not a big YouTuber.

He's a filmmaker and photographer in the UK with just under 5,000 subscribers. His videos pull anywhere from a couple thousand to 20,000+ views. 

By every assumption creators tend to make about brand deals, John was "too small." And for a while, he believed it too.

Today, he has a long-term partnership with one of his dream brands (kicked off by a single deal worth over $10,000) plus thousands of dollars in free gear on top. 

Here's how he got there.

From "No Thanks" to Knowing Better

John started making content about 3 years ago for 2 reasons: 

• To raise awareness for his filmmaking and photography business

• To review camera gear he was already obsessed with as a self-proclaimed “tech nerd”

But the offers that trickled in early on were… not it.

Small companies would drop into his inbox offering a $20 or $50 product in exchange for 4 or 5 videos. And as someone who knew cameras inside and out, John could tell that 90% of what was being pitched to him wasn't worth his time.

"I didn't really know how to respond to them anyway. So I would just respond saying no thanks, I'm not interested… because I didn't really know how else to do it."

John wasn't landing deals with any substance. He wasn't even sure what a real deal was supposed to look like.

Betting on Himself

John had been following Justin Moore's (Creator Wizard) content for a while, watching his livestreams and trainings on finding contacts, pitching, and negotiating. What struck him most was the sheer depth of what Justin had achieved: years as a creator, working with some of the biggest names in the space, and personally landing $5M+ in brand deals.

He clearly knew the craft. 

In September of last year, he joined Justin’s final live cohort of Brand Deal Wizard (*Note: no longer available as a standalone purchase - included with coaching). 

More than purchasing a course, John saw the investment in Brand Deal Wizard as an investment in his entire creator career. 

"I knew that no matter how I took this course, it was something I'd have access to for my entire YouTube career, my entire business career… something that would help me throughout my entire career."

The Eye-Opener

At the beginning of the cohort, John came in thinking he understood how brand deals worked. A brand drops into your inbox, tells you what they want, and you say yes or no.

But to his surprise, that turned out to be a tiny sliver of the picture.

John learned how to find brand representatives and reach out to them directly (something he'd never even considered before). 

He learned the whole negotiation process: 

• how to pivot when a brand pushes back

• how to generate different sponsor offers

• how to price himself accurately 

What surprised John the most was the concept of making content for the brand, not just for his own YouTube channel. 

Instead of only pitching a video for his own audience, John realized he could offer to produce a batch of assets the brand could use across their own marketing. Send the camera, make a pile of content, and hand it over for their socials and promotion. It was a completely different (and far more valuable) way to show up for a brand.

Usage rights. 

Exclusivity. 

Deliverables tied to the brand’s goals (newsletter integrations, shorts, long-form, 30-second sponsor segments, etc). 

There were SO many different money-moving levers John didn’t know existed. 

And through Creator Wizard, he didn't have to figure any of it out from scratch. Every step came with templates, calculators, and downloadable resources he could return to again and again.

"[Justin] just makes everything so idiot-proof and easy to understand. And it makes it so possible for you to negotiate the perfect deal."

The Message on the Beach

One thing Justin said stuck with John:

If you want to land your dream brand, start making content about their products (for free) and hope they notice.

So John did exactly that. 

He picked camera brands he'd love to work with and started making videos about their gear, following the FOCUS principle Justin teaches:

Follow 

One 

Course 

Until 

Successful. 

Some of those videos performed really well. Then similar brands started sliding into his inbox.

And then, while he was on vacation (sitting on the beach with his wife and kids!) an email landed from one of his dream brands.

His first thought was that it HAD to be spam.

But it wasn't. 

His dream camera brand had just launched a new product, they'd seen his recent videos, they loved his content, and they wanted to send him the product to review.

"Now if this would've happened before Justin's course, my reaction would've been, 'Oh my God, that's amazing, yes, send me everything, I'll make as many videos as you want. But this time I put the phone down.'"

The Leap of Faith

Much like Justin's training taught him, John didn't fire off an excited yes. He composed himself, went back to his course materials, and crafted a response.

He told the brand they were welcome to send the gear, but review content would be sponsored, and reusing it would require an investment. He asked what they were looking for and what the goals of their campaign were.

Their reply floored him. 

They came back praising the professionalism of his response, and then they shared their budget. After some negotiation, John landed a deal worth nearly $10,000, on top of the free gear. 

And it wasn't a one-off either. 

This deal turned into an ongoing partnership with a brand he'd only ever dreamed of working with.

"My gut instinct was to think, 'I'm being greedy, this is a dream offer, I should just accept it before it falls through.' But I trusted the process. I trusted the training. And it worked."

The negotiation was the hardest part. Everything in him wanted to grab the first offer. But he held his ground, and it paid off.

The Ripple Effect

That single deal changed John's trajectory.

At the start of the year, he had one or two small deals limping along. Over the following months, things ramped up dramatically, partly from his own outreach, and partly from new brands reaching out after seeing the work he'd done for others.

Now he blocks out time in his calendar specifically to find brand contacts and pitch them across email and LinkedIn. And he has active negotiations where he's comfortable holding firm, even walking away when a deal isn't worth his time.

That willingness to walk is brand new for him.

"Previously I would've just taken everything thrown at me and had so much work to do for not that much money."

John's advice for small creators

1. Reach out. Don’t wait for inbound deals. 

The single highest-ROI move for John was learning to proactively find and contact brands, rather than sitting back waiting for offers to land.

Now he treats outreach as a scheduled, deliberate part of his week. Combine that with making content aimed at your dream brands, and you cover every base.

2. Know your worth (and be willing to walk)

The other thing John learned from Creator Wizard is that saying “no” is ok.

If a brand offers $200 for a few videos, you're often better off walking away than accepting and resenting it later, especially when they start piling on demands beyond what you agreed to. Knowing what a good deal looks like protects your time and your sanity.

"The biggest thing I learned was knowing your worth and not being afraid to say no to deals… even ones you'd consider a dream brand."

For John, whose time away from his family carries a cost, that clarity is everything.

3. Your CRAFT has value too

John used to believe you needed 30,000 to 50,000 subscribers before any brand would take you seriously.

That assumption was wrong.