You're Not Too Small for Brand Deals. You're Just Pitching Wrong.

The first brand that reached out to my wife didn't offer money.

They offered free makeup. And we were in our early twenties, living in a studio apartment, and a box of free skincare products felt like winning the lottery. So she made the video. Then another. Then another. For years, this was the arrangement — free stuff in exchange for content that was driving real sales to brands who were watching comments like "I just went to the store and got this because of you."

It wasn't until I started taking MBA classes at night and sat with that math that I said: honey, you're getting the short end of the stick here.

She asked the next brand if they had a budget. They said yes — $700 a month for two videos.

Mind blown. That was a huge chunk of our rent. And we immediately thought: how do we find ten more brands just like this?

That question became my entire career.

The Myth of the Minimum Threshold

Here's what stops most creators before they even start: some brand — one brand — told them they needed 10,000 followers to be considered. And from that single data point, they concluded that's what every brand thinks, and they stopped trying.

That is not how this works.

Yes, some brands have thresholds. But in my experience running hundreds of deals myself and thousands through my agency, those brands are the minority. The vast majority of companies — especially smaller and mid-size ones — don't have hard minimums. They have goals. And if you can help them accomplish those goals, the size of your audience becomes a secondary consideration.

The other thing most creators miss: the more niche your content, the less audience you actually need. A podcaster getting 400 downloads per episode from lab technicians and biotech professionals is worth more to a medical device company than a lifestyle influencer with 200,000 general followers. It's not about size. It's about who's listening.

What to Pitch When You're Small

The sponsorship continuum is the framework that unlocks this. Here's how it works:

When you're just starting out with a small audience, pitching a brand on "let me talk about you on my show" is a losing move. They'll look at your numbers and pass. So don't pitch that. Do a comprehensive audit of their social presence instead. Do they have a podcast? A YouTube channel? Are they posting on social media? Does the content look good or does it look like it was made in 2014?

Then go to them and say: "I love your brand, but I think you could be telling your story in a more compelling way. I'd love to create content for you on autopilot — content you can repurpose on your platforms, use for paid advertising, put on your website. Here's my podcast — that's my portfolio."

You're not asking them to bet on your reach. You're offering to solve a content problem they already have. That's a fundamentally different conversation, and it gets fundamentally different responses.

As your audience grows, you layer in syndicating that content on your platforms. When you're getting tens of thousands of views or listens, then the pitch shifts to reach. But there's no magic number where the permission to start is granted. The pitch just evolves.

The Live Coaching Moment

One of the best parts of this conversation was the host putting me on the spot in real time about her fitness podcast — a show she started as a personal journal of getting in shape for the first time in her 40s, which had grown into something with genuine emotional impact. She was getting DMs from listeners saying because of you, I came to the gym today. She wanted a title sponsor to generate revenue that would free up time to keep spreading the message.

So I pushed back a little. I said: before we figure out who to pitch, let's get clear on what a sponsor actually does for you. Because the way in which we design a sponsorship strategy totally changes depending on what your goals are — and those goals won't be what a brand cares about in your pitch.

Then I went somewhere she didn't expect.

Instead of "here's how to land an integration deal," I asked: have you considered pitching a brand on creating a podcast they sponsor as their own? Not buying your show — more like a licensing arrangement where they become the exclusive presenting sponsor, they get rights to repurpose the content in their marketing, and you own the show but it's branded "powered by [Brand]." You're still the host. It still goes on your platforms. But now a fitness or lifestyle brand targeting women over 40 has a podcast they didn't have to build — and you have a recurring revenue stream.

Her response: that sounds perfect. Then: wait, does that mean they own it?

No. You own it. You just license certain rights to them for a defined period — maybe 12 months. You can specify exactly what they get: paid advertising rights only, or organic repurposing only, or both. At the end of the term, you renegotiate or part ways. It's a completely customizable arrangement, and it's one most podcasters never think to offer.

Why "I Love Your Product" Is an Instant Delete

The most common mistake in outreach is leading with how much you love the brand. It feels authentic. It feels genuine. And from the brand's perspective, it's completely useless information.

Brands don't have random piles of money waiting for creators who love them. They have budgets already allocated to specific business objectives. Your entire job in any outreach is to connect your pitch to those objectives — which means you have to figure out what those objectives are before you write a single word.

So instead of sitting in a room making a list of brands you personally use, involve your audience in the process. Survey them. Ask what's keeping them up at night, what problems they're having, what brands and products they're already using and loving. Then take that data — actual signals from actual humans — and let it build your pitch list.

Here's a concrete example from that coaching session. What if 35% of her fitness podcast listeners turned out to be stay-at-home moms who homeschool? Suddenly there's a pitch to an education tool like ABCmouse: "35% of my audience are homeschooling parents. Here's a survey proving it. I'd love to help you reach them."

That pitch lands completely differently than "I think my audience would like you." One is a guess. The other is data. And you know which one gets a response.

The Three Goals Every Brand Has (And Why Yours Doesn't Matter)

When I was on that podcast call with the host talking through her event sponsorship strategy, I described what I call the ARC framework to the prospective sponsor — three possible goals any brand might have when working with a creator:

Awareness — spreading the word about a launch, a new market, a new feature. The metrics are views, impressions, engagement. These are squishy, hard to hold you accountable to, and that works in your favor as a negotiator.

Repurposing — getting content assets to use in paid ads, on their website, in their marketing materials. They're paying for the creative, not the distribution.

Conversion — driving measurable outcomes: sales, trial signups, app downloads.

What struck me in that call was that the brand had been working with creators for 15 years and no one had ever laid this out for them this clearly. They immediately said repurposing and conversion both sound great — and we had a real conversation instead of a transaction.

A lot of creators assume sophisticated brands have all of this figured out. They don't. You might be the first person who's ever asked them what they're actually trying to accomplish. That question alone can make you stand out.

Sponsorships Aren't Just for "Influencers"

One thing I genuinely wish more people understood: this is not only for people with big social followings. If you have a newsletter, a podcast, a private community, a course, an in-person event — anywhere you've built influence over a body of people — you can get that sponsored.

Authors with 30,000-person email lists who have never thought to use them for brand partnerships. Event organizers who don't realize their attendee list is valuable inventory. Coaches with private communities full of decision-makers in a specific industry.

The framework works across all of it. You're simply giving a brand the privilege of getting in front of people they'd otherwise have to pay Facebook or Instagram to reach. When you frame it that way, the whole "is it okay for me to ask for money" question answers itself.

The War of Art (And What It Has to Do With Pitching Brands)

The host surprised me near the end of the conversation by asking me to talk about The War of Art by Steven Pressfield — I'd mentioned it as a book that resonates deeply with me.

Pressfield's central idea is that there's a force he calls Resistance — the friction that shows up every time you try to do something meaningful. It's the inner voice saying who am I to ask for $5,000? It's the hesitation before sending the pitch. It's the willingness to accept free products because it's easier than having the money conversation.

His answer to Resistance is blunt: sit down and do the work. Professionals don't wait to feel ready. They show up, even when the cursor is blinking and nothing's coming, and they push through.

Writing Sponsor Magnet was the single hardest test of this for me. I had a two-hour writing block every morning, a physical hourglass I'd flip over, and days where I had no idea what I was going to say. The resistance was loud. But I sat down. And the book got written.

The thing I'd tell my younger self, and the thing I'd say to any creator afraid to send that pitch: everyone experiences this. The impostor syndrome, the fear that they'll say no and think less of you — it's universal. Knowing that doesn't make it go away, but it makes it less paralyzing.

And for what it's worth: if they say no, it's not no. It's not yet. I've had brands come back two years later, under new leadership, at a different company, at a different stage of their budget cycle. The relationship doesn't end with a rejection. It starts there.

If you want the full framework — from finding the right contact at a brand, to structuring proposals, to writing the post-campaign report that turns one deal into a long-term partnership — it's all in Sponsor Magnet. And if you want coaching support while you work through your actual deals, Wizard's Guild is where we do that.

What's the resistance that's been stopping you from sending your first pitch?