Sara had $10,000 burning a hole in her pocket.

Her job? Spend it on creator partnerships for Senja (affiliate), a testimonial platform. Should be easy, right? Brands are supposed to have all the leverage. Creators are supposed to be desperate for deals.

Except Sara couldn't get anyone to take her money.

"I have never had such a hard time spending money," she told me. "It's like pulling teeth to get responses from creators."

She'd joke with her team: "Just take our money."

But here's the thing—Sara isn't some clueless brand manager throwing cash around randomly. She's been a creator herself. A solopreneur. She knows how this game works from both sides.

And what she learned in her first 90 days on the brand side? It completely flipped the script on how most creators think about sponsorships.

The August Problem

Sara's struggle started with timing. August. Apparently, everyone takes August off.

Every creator she reached out to gave the same response: "I don't do sponsorships in August."

No reasoning. No negotiation. Just a flat "talk to you in Q4 maybe."

These weren't tiny accounts either. Sara was targeting creators with 10K+ audiences. People with real email lists, not just Instagram followers. People who, theoretically, should have been interested in easy money.

But they weren't.

The Lightning in a Bottle Moment

Here's why Sara was so desperate to replicate August's success:

One creator with a 15,000-person email list ran a 5-day email sequence for Senja. The result? 72 new customers. 50% converted to paid.

That's not just good. That's nuclear.

So Sara's entire August strategy became: find more creators with strong email audiences and run the same play. Simple enough, right?

Except 90% of the creators she reached out to were already Senja affiliates. They knew the product. They'd made affiliate income. Some had made between $500 and $3,000 promoting Senja organically.

This should have been a no-brainer.

But they still said no.

Why Affiliates Make Better Sponsored Partners

Here's the insight most creators miss: brands turn to their affiliate pool first when they have budget for paid campaigns.

Think about that. You're worried that if you promote a brand as an affiliate, they'll never pay you a flat fee. But Sara's telling you the opposite is true—being an affiliate is exactly why brands want to sponsor you.

"We've made the majority of our revenue from our affiliates," Sara explained. "It's almost a no-brainer to touch on them first because they're tied in at the next level beyond just being a customer."

Senja even lets affiliates say the brand "sponsors" their content, even when they're just earning commission. It removes the stigma. And when Senja has actual paid campaign budget? They go to the people who already know and love the product.

The creator who generated 72 customers? She talked about Senja often. Her audience was warmed up. That's the difference between a campaign that converts at 50% and one that barely moves the needle.

When Great Creators Fail (And What Sara Learned)

Sara ran nine sponsorships in August. Most didn't come close to that first success.

One creator with 6,000 subscribers ran the exact same 5-day sequence. Three signups. That's it.

Same format. Same offer. Wildly different results.

So Sara started digging into the content itself. What was different?

The winning creator showed transformation. Emotion. Real connection. The underperforming one was tactical. Informative, sure. But it didn't hit the same way.

"Let's find people who show more emotion in their content," Sara decided. "Who are more connected."

But she also realized something else: the best-performing creator had been talking about Senja for months. Her audience already trusted the recommendation. The other creator? First time mentioning it.

Sara's new strategy: warm audiences up first. Run a workshop or webinar. Get the creator talking about Senja in some capacity. Then do a paid conversion campaign down the line.

Context matters. Depth matters. You can't just drop a promo into a cold audience and expect magic.

What Sara Wants to See in a Pitch

After 90 days of trying to spend money, here's what gets Sara's attention:

1. You're actually using the platform.

"We get pitched often by people who do not use the platform, have no interest in using the tool," Sara said. "We're not going to sponsor you if you're using one of our competitors."

Senja now offers concierge onboarding for creators. Sara personally migrates your testimonials, builds your widgets, brands everything to your site, and audits your sales pages. They do all the work so you can spend 90-180 days seeing if it actually helps your conversions.

Then? Partnership conversation.

But you need to live and breathe the tool first. No generic "get testimonials from your students" content. Show that you understand the power of what you're promoting.

2. You come with ideas.

When Sara pitched me for a partnership, she didn't ask what I wanted to do. She told me what had worked with another creator and suggested we try a similar approach.

That made saying yes easy. I could instantly see how to model it for my audience. I use Senja to get sponsor testimonials, so I adapted the framework for that angle.

Brands don't always have ideas. When you bring a concrete plan based on proven results, you remove friction. Sara locked in our partnership on Wednesday. Content went out Monday. Fast turnaround happens when the framework is clear.

3. You're thinking long-term, not transactional.

"We'd rather work with five creators all year who know and love us than give out a hundred sponsorships just because," Sara explained.

The creators who get renewed? They're not just running an email sequence. They're integrating Senja into their course. Building modules about collecting testimonials. Making the brand part of their ongoing story.

That's what catches Sara's attention. Not "pay me to send one email." But "here's how I'm going to weave this into my ecosystem for the next six months."

The Conversion That Didn't Hit (And Why It Didn't Matter)

Full transparency: my campaign with Senja underperformed.

We were hoping for better conversion numbers. I looked at the data and realized we'd missed a key objection—creators are nervous to ask brands for testimonials because they worry the brand isn't happy with their performance.

So I wrote a third email (unprompted, unpaid) addressing that fear head-on.

But here's what Sara said about the underperformance: "The data really didn't matter because I see us working together long-term on various things."

We've known each other for five years. I'm an affiliate. I use the product. She trusts the caliber of work I do. One campaign's numbers don't define the relationship.

That's the shift. Brands aren't just looking for instant ROI. They're looking for partners who understand their product, have warm audiences, and think beyond the next campaign.

What This Means for You

If you're sitting on an affiliate relationship with a brand you love, you're closer to a paid sponsorship than you think.

Here's what to do:

Start talking about them consistently. Don't wait for a paid deal. Warm your audience up now. Share how you use the tool. Show results. Build trust around the recommendation.

Bring ideas when you pitch. Don't ask "would you sponsor me?" Ask "I saw this campaign worked well for you—here's how I'd adapt it for my audience."

Think integration, not transaction. How can you make this brand part of your ecosystem? A workshop? A module in your course? Ongoing mentions across multiple formats?

Use the damn product. Brands can smell inauthenticity. If you're not a genuine user, don't pitch. Find products you actually believe in.

And if you're worried about being "just an affiliate," flip that script. Being an affiliate is your audition for the paid deal. Show them you can convert. Show them you understand their value prop. Show them your audience is warm.

That's when brands like Sara come knocking with money they're trying to spend.

Want to learn how to build long-term sponsorship relationships that actually convert? Join creators inside Wizard's Guild who are doing exactly that—turning affiliate relationships into five-figure partnerships without begging for budget.