Elizabeth Henson met me in February. By the time her in-person event wrapped up a few weeks later, she hadn't sent a single cold pitch — and she'd made more money from sponsorships than any event she'd ever run.

That's not a coincidence. That's what happens when you stop pitching wrong.

Elizabeth runs the Messy Success Podcast and hosts events for small business owners and creators in the Hampton Roads area. She's not a mega-influencer. She doesn't have a massive global following. What she has is a tight, real community — and for years, she was underselling it completely.

I sat down with her on her podcast to break down exactly what changed. This one is for anyone who's been told "you're too small" by a brand, or who's ever stood in front of a sponsor with your hand out like Oliver Twist.

The Flodesk Pitch That Never Landed (And Why)

Elizabeth had been trying to get Flodesk to sponsor her event. She uses the tool, loves it, talks about it constantly. Seemed like an obvious fit.

They passed.

Then she learned about surveying your audience — one of the frameworks I teach in Sponsor Magnet — and something clicked.

"I realized if I can show that I have 500 Flodesk users on my email list — many of whom are my affiliates — and I'm watching some of them drift to other tools, I can go to Flodesk with a totally different angle. Not 'I'm having an event with 60 creators.' But 'I have 500 of your customers. Let's build a retention campaign together.'"

She looked at me like she'd just figured out a magic trick.

She kind of had.

Here's the thing: brands don't have random piles of money sitting around waiting for people to pitch them. But they do have budget already allocated to specific campaigns — retention, feature education, acquisition. If you can position yourself as a conduit for one of those existing priorities, you're not asking for a favor. You're solving a business problem.

That's a completely different conversation.

The ROPE Method, Live

Elizabeth asked me to show, not tell. So we did a live pitch exercise on-air using Novo, the small business banking platform.

I pulled up their website while we were recording. Looked above the fold. Found their events section. Noticed they hadn't hosted a webinar since August 2025.

That's the pitch.

The R in ROPE is Relevance — you tie your pitch to something the brand is already doing or has done before. In this case: "Hey, you ran this webinar eighteen months ago. It looks like you've stopped. I think my audience would love this. Can we rerun it together?"

The O is Organic — you link to content you've already published that shows your audience has existing affinity for the topic. If you don't have that episode yet? Make it before you pitch. It serves your audience and gives you the proof point you need.

The P is Proof — you show how you've helped other brands achieve results. What did your last sponsor get out of working with you?

The E is Easy to Execute — you give them something specific to react to. Not "I'd love to find a way to collaborate." But "I'd love to run five host-read ads over the next six weeks promoting a joint webinar with your team. Are you free Thursday at 10am to talk?"

See the difference? They don't have to schedule a "pick your brain" call to figure out what working with you even looks like. You've done the thinking for them. All they have to do is say yes or no.

And if they say no? You learn something. "We're actually not doing webinars anymore — we're focused on in-person events."

"Oh interesting. I run in-person events. Tell me more."

The door doesn't close. It opens somewhere else.

When the Affiliate Objection Comes Up

Almost every small creator has heard this one: "We already have an affiliate program."

Here's what that actually means from the brand's side. They want the dream scenario — give you free access to their product, you talk about it, zero cash out the door. When that doesn't drive enough quality output, they graduate to affiliates. Pay on performance. Still limited financial risk.

But here's what they give up with affiliates: control.

When you're just an affiliate, they can't review your content before it goes live. If you mispronounce the product name or misrepresent a new feature, that's their brand on the line — and they have no recourse.

When you work with them as a proper sponsor on a flat or hybrid deal, they get creative input. They can say "change that line." They can give you feedback on a draft ad read before it goes out. That's worth something to a brand running a high-stakes campaign.

The line I use when brands push the affiliate play:

"Out of curiosity — do your affiliates grant you the rights to repurpose their content for paid advertising? That's something I specialize in. Want to see a few investment options for what that might look like?"

Watch them reconsider.

Sometimes You Have to Walk Away

Elizabeth told me about a sponsor from her first event — someone who negotiated her down to include affiliate commission in the deal instead of a full flat fee. The sponsor didn't go all-in. Didn't participate. Didn't see results.

Contrast that with the sponsor who paid the flat rate: sat with attendees, engaged fully, walked away with conversions.

This is what I call creator malpractice — closing a deal with a brand when you know, based on their expectations, that you can't get them the outcome they're looking for. Maybe their goal is 20 paid account signups from your 60-person event. That's not a realistic expectation. The right move isn't to take the money anyway. It's to say:

"I don't think the event is the right fit for your goal. But let's talk about a newsletter campaign instead."

You might lose that one deal. But you protect the relationship, your reputation, and your sanity. And honestly? You sleep better.

This is the long-term mindset that separates creators who build real sponsor relationships from those who burn through them one event at a time.

The Part Nobody Talks About: The Landing Page

I pushed back on Elizabeth on one thing, and I want to share it here because I see this mistake constantly.

She said something like: "I can get you appointments booked. But conversions — isn't that the brand's responsibility?"

No. It's not. And here's why.

Think about the last time you clicked on an Instagram ad, hit a landing page, and bounced. Maybe the page was confusing. Maybe the offer wasn't clear. Maybe it just felt off.

That's the exact same calculus your audience goes through when you send them to a sponsor's link.

Your job — as a consultant, which is what you are — is to counsel the brand on how to improve that landing page. You know your audience. You know what language resonates with them. If their generic "try us free for 30 days" page is going to lose people, tell them. Help them build something better. A custom landing page. A short video where you explain why you use the product. A testimonial front and center.

Conversions go up. They hire you again. Everybody wins.

This is the mindset shift that changes everything: you're not just a creator with an audience. You're a marketing partner with real insight into a specific group of people. Act like it.

The Intro Elizabeth Didn't Know She Was Supposed to Send Me

Here's a story I shared live that I think lands harder than almost anything else I teach.

I sponsored Elizabeth's event. Sent books, showed up in the room, the whole thing. And I genuinely wanted to support her — she's been a huge advocate for this work.

But if I'm being honest about ROI? My metric is coaching enrollments. That's what moves the needle for my business.

Elizabeth told me after the event that there were five or six attendees she had sidebar conversations with — people who asked about sponsorships, who seemed like they were ready for the next level. She hand-delivered one of them a copy of Sponsor Magnet separately because the person couldn't make the event.

She just didn't think to make formal introductions.

That's the thing. If she had done five personal double-opt-in email intros — "Hey, I know you're thinking about sponsorships. Can I introduce you to Justin? He runs a coaching program called Wizard's Guild and I think it could change things for you" — that would have been the moment I said yes to sponsoring her next three events without blinking.

It's not in the contract. It's not in the deliverables. It's the thing you do because you actually care about the sponsor getting a return. And that's what makes sponsors come back.

Small Doesn't Mean Small Opportunity

The other thing I want to leave you with: stop disqualifying yourself because of your size.

Elizabeth works with local businesses in Hampton Roads. She has an SMS list that's hyper-local. She throws an in-person event with 60 people in a room.

And a company like Novo would pay real money to reach those 60 people — because they're exactly the kind of small business owners who need smarter banking, and Elizabeth has their trust in a way no Meta ad ever will.

There's a newsletter I know called Scentsy Scoop. It's a Cincinnati-based media company covering local events and businesses. They have 30,000–40,000 Cincinnati residents on their list. National tours, regional brands, local businesses — they're buying that audience. Because that's inventory. That's media.

You might be the only game in town for the audience you have. The question is: are you charging for it?

If you're still figuring out how to position yourself, how to pitch, how to stop leaving money on the table — pick up Sponsor Magnet. It's the manual I wish we'd had when April and I were doing this the hard way back in 2010.

And if you're ready to go deeper with actual coaching, Wizard's Guild is where that happens.

One last thing: we do an in-person event called Sponsor Games where you actually role-play your pitches, negotiate live, and practice the skills that make the difference. Elizabeth won a sponsorship there. She'll tell you it's different from anything else out there.

What would happen if you stopped pitching wrong? What would your business look like in six months if you got this right?

That's the question worth sitting with.