Liz had 2,000 to 5,000 YouTube subscribers when she made a free tutorial about Scribe.

No sponsorship. No payment. Just a video about software she genuinely loved.

Two years later, she turned that same video into a paid sponsorship deal—by literally copying and pasting frameworks from my book.

Today, I'm going to show you exactly how she did it. The discovery call she insisted on having. The email negotiation where she used my exact language. Her actual proposal and the pricing strategy that worked.

This is one of those conversations where I just sat back and let someone who actually did the thing explain how they did it.

The Free Content That Became a Foot in the Door

"When I had the YouTube channel, I was thinking, okay, how am I going to monetize this?" Liz explained. "Sponsorships is like the big discussion."

She loved Scribe. Used it all the time. But thought they were too big to partner with.

"I was a pretty small creator," she said. "When you're at that subscriber stage, there's really not a lot of sponsorship deals out there. And if there are, they're really small."

So she made the video anyway.

"I'm kind of thinking, okay, I want to talk about some of my favorite software. Maybe down the road I could partner with them, maybe. But putting out some content, I know I would get views at least."

Here's what she was really doing (even if she didn't realize it): showing the brand exactly how she'd pitch their product if it was a paid deal.

"At least I'll show, hey, this is how I would pitch this product if I were to do a sponsorship deal."

Two years later, Scribe started an affiliate program. She got an email about it.

"I thought, okay, this is my moment. I'm going to pitch them."

The Pitch That Started Everything

She didn't just reply saying "sign me up for your affiliate program."

She asked: "Are you interested in doing any content or any sponsorship type content?"

They had never worked with creators before. Or they'd just started. It was very new.

"They were relying on me to tell them what to do," Liz said. "And luckily I had read your book and so I was like, okay, this is my moment to really try out some of the strategies."

She literally had my book sitting on her desk during the negotiation. Tabs everywhere. Two pages she kept going back to:

1. The campaign goals page (awareness, repurposing, conversion) 2. The packages page

"I always forget they need something out of this," she explained. "You get in your head, you're like, 'Oh, what am I getting out of it?' But you have to remember they're partnering with you. They need to get something."

The Discovery Call She Refused to Skip

Most creators would have just sent the proposal and hoped for the best.

Not Liz.

"I pushed for the phone call because I've gotten burned in the past."

She told me about an early sponsorship deal where everything happened over email. No call. No meeting. Things got crisscrossed.

"I ended up filming the video before I actually had them agree to the script or even meeting with them. Then they wanted to go a different direction. It was this whole mess."

She almost got out of the contract. They ended up posting it anyway. It left such a sour taste that she made a rule:

"Every sponsorship deal moving forward, I'm going to meet with them and we're going to have a relationship. I won't work with anyone who won't get on a virtual call with me."

The call itself? She described it perfectly:

"It's almost like an interview. They're sniffing you out. You're sniffing them out. They're trying to see if they see any red flags. I'm like, 'Are you cool enough to work with me?' And they're like, 'Are you cool enough to work with me?'"

Was she nervous?

"A little but not really because I love Scribe. They're like one of my favorite software. I'm fangirling already."

And here's the kicker: "I had already onboarded them at Intel. I think I was one of their first enterprise clients. So I had already had a relationship with a bunch of people at Scribe."

See how powerful that is? She wasn't just some random creator pitching them. She was already a customer. Already a fan. Already had relationships inside the company.

The Proposal That Actually Worked

Liz sent a PDF proposal. Here's what she included:

Page 1: Channel Overview

• Subscriber count

• Content focus (business software and books)

• Audience demographics (age, gender)

• Similar channels for comparison

• Device types

"I always use the same color as the brand," she said. "I'm trying to envision—I want them to envision me in their colors. I want them to think of me more as integrated with them."

She even used Scribe's hashing pattern in the design.

"I'm very detailed," she laughed.

Page 2: Three Packages

This is where she literally copied my framework.

Package 1: Integration (60-90 seconds)

• Pre-approved script

• Placement within first half of video

Package 2: Integration + Dedicated Video

• Everything from Package 1

• Plus 10-minute dedicated video

• Paid usage rights

"I had never heard of paid usage and I read your book and I'm like, 'What is paid usage?' So I threw that in there."

She used my calculator from the book to figure out pricing.

"Sometimes you calculate it and you're like, 'I'm not going to charge three grand for that' or 'That's too little' or 'That's too much.' You kind of have to give it a sniff test."

Package 3: The Premium Option

(She had a third tier for additional options)

The Impostor Syndrome That Almost Held Her Back

Here's where it gets real.

"I only have 16,000 subscribers," Liz said. "So I'm not going to be able to break into thousands of dollars for sponsorships."

I pushed back on that. "What makes you think you can't charge multiple thousands of dollars?"

Her answer was brutally honest:

"It's because of the amount of rejections. I've gotten to the proposal stage a few times. And I've had people start with $150. Okay? $150. I mean, I can't even pay my editor for $150."

She continued: "They're all kind of there. They're starting at 150 and then you're trying to get to 500 and then trying to get to a thousand is like the hardest."

This is what happens when you're in that in-between stage. Not tiny. Not huge. Just... somewhere in the middle where brands don't know how to value you yet.

"16,000 subscribers is a large channel but it's also small. It's in that in-between where you're like—and that's where the impostor syndrome comes from. I've never been able to get higher than like a thousand on some of these deals."

The Email Negotiation Where She Copy-Pasted My Book

After sending the proposal, they went back and forth on price.

Liz drew a line in the sand:

"Look, this is the absolute lowest I could go."

"Sometimes you have to just put a boundary up," she explained. "Either you work with me or you don't at this point because I have to pay my editor."

Then she dropped this (and admitted she stole it straight from my book):

"I try to partner with very few brands. It's a core part of my business. Less than 72 hours response time on concepts and scripts. Meetings to review performance."

"I literally just stole it straight from your book," she laughed.

The brand replied: "That works. We'll do that."

They agreed to 50% upfront, 50% upon completion.

Why the Negotiation Was Harder Than It Should Have Been

Here's something most creators don't realize:

The person Liz was negotiating with was the affiliate marketing manager.

Affiliate marketing is often a brand's first foray into partnerships. They're not used to paying flat fees. They're used to paying commissions.

"They hadn't really done that many creator deals," Liz said. "They were just starting their affiliate program, just starting working with creators. I don't think they were looking to invest like this crazy amount. A couple hundred bucks is like, 'Oh okay, that's not bad.'"

But when you get to thousands? "This is like real money. They have to go get budget. They have to go get approval."

So Liz was essentially teaching them how to work with creators.

"I was trying to work with them in like, how does one work with a creator? And try to make it a really nice experience so they expand their program down the road."

The Integration That Actually Made Sense

When it came time to create the content, Liz didn't just shoehorn Scribe into some random video.

"I had already done a full tutorial on them. So I knew I wanted to do something different—an integration where it would be a different topic and then it would be integrated inside."

She was thinking about side hustles: "Oh, this is perfect because when I do consulting, I always make Scribe pages and then I send them out. That is a perfect transition because it's something I actually use. I'm not just talking about software that maybe I open once in a blue moon. I use that software all the time."

And here's the professional move: She sent the full script before filming.

"I got burned once in a sponsorship deal. So before I film anything, I'm like, 'Here's the script. This is it word for word. I might change minute things, but this is the bulk. So if you don't like it, you better tell me now before I start filming.'"

The Partnership That Keeps Going

The deal is done. Video is published. Payment received.

Most creators would move on.

Not Liz.

"We still email back and forth. Even though the sponsorship deal is done, you can still continue the relationship."

Just recently, the brand reached out: "Hey, do you know of any conferences like creator conferences for next year?"

Liz sent them a list: Craft + Commerce, Sponsor Games, and a few others.

She even shared an example of another brand (NA10) that flew her out for a panel event: "Here was the LinkedIn post. This is what they did. You could copy what they're doing."

"It truly is a partnership where we're just talking about different things in the creator space and they get to benefit from it and then I get to also have this potentially long-term partner."

The Real Lessons

Here's what Liz's story teaches us:

1. Free content can be your foot in the door That video from two years ago showed Scribe exactly how she'd promote them. When the opportunity came, she had proof.

2. Always insist on a discovery call Email negotiations go sideways. Calls build relationships. Relationships close deals.

3. You can literally copy frameworks that work Liz had my book tabbed and referenced during the entire process. She wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel. She used what worked.

4. Your subscriber count doesn't matter as much as you think Yes, Liz struggled with impostor syndrome. But she still closed the deal. Because she brought value beyond just numbers.

5. Draw boundaries "This is the absolute lowest I could go." Sometimes you have to be willing to walk away.

6. The relationship doesn't end when the campaign does Liz is still exchanging ideas with Scribe. That's how you build long-term partnerships.

The Truth About Getting Started

Liz works full-time at Intel as a data scientist. YouTube is her side hustle. She funds her channel with consulting work so she doesn't have to chase every sponsorship.

"If I forced myself to only work with sponsorships, I think I could probably put more into it and try to negotiate harder and land better deals."

But here's what I love: She's doing it anyway. Learning. Improving. Getting better with each deal.

"I think I'm going to get better over time," she said. "Just getting those rates higher."

That's the mindset. Not "I can't because I only have 16K subscribers." But "I'm getting better and my rates will go up."

Ready to copy the same frameworks Liz used? Grab my book Sponsor Magnet where I break down the exact packages, pricing calculators, and negotiation scripts that have closed 550+ deals. Or join us in Wizard's Guild where we help you implement this stuff in real time.