Elizabeth had 4,000 followers on Instagram. That was her biggest platform.

Two months later, she'd closed close to $10,000 in sponsorships for her annual live event in Virginia Beach.

Here's the thing — this wasn't her first year running the event. It was her third. And the first two years? She barely broke even.

So what changed? She met me at a mastermind in Minneapolis, got a copy of Sponsor Magnet, heard about Sponsor Games, and — last minute — decided to book a ticket and go. She binged the podcast on the drive there.

That's it. That's the whole "secret."

Year One Was Just Luck

Elizabeth will tell you straight up: her first year doing sponsorships for her event was beginner's luck. She landed two sponsors, one of which turned into a long-term relationship that's still paying off today.

But here's what I noticed when she told me this story — she didn't know why it worked. She just knew it did. And that's a dangerous place to be, because you can't repeat what you don't understand.

Year one, the event basically broke even. A $300 deficit, to be exact.

Year Two Was Worse — and That's Where the Real Lesson Was

You'd think year two would be easier. She had a track record now. A sponsor relationship already in motion.

Instead, year two nearly tanked. She pitched somewhere between 30 and 35 cold companies — brands that had zero context on who she was.

Zero converted.

Zero.

The two sponsors she did land that year were people already in her orbit. Business friends. An easy yes because trust already existed.

Here's the uncomfortable truth Elizabeth had to sit with: reaching your existing network isn't the same skill as landing sponsors who've never heard of you. Most creators never learn the second skill. They just keep networking in their same circle and wondering why growth stalls.

The Deal That Taught Her Everything

One of her year-two sponsors negotiated a lower cash amount upfront in exchange for affiliate commission on event sales. Sounded reasonable at the time.

They didn't get the conversions they hoped for.

Elizabeth watched a different sponsor — one who fully immersed themselves in the event, sat in on breakout sessions, took notes, hung out with attendees — build so much organic trust that people were practically begging to buy their product by the end of the weekend.

The affiliate-commission sponsor? They showed up, spoke, did their one-on-one appointments, and left. Nine appointments booked. Zero sales.

What would you do with that information? Elizabeth's first instinct was to blame the brand: "I gave them the people. It's not my job to make the sale."

There it is. That's the mindset that keeps creators capped at "fine" instead of profitable.

The Marketing Consultant Shift

Real quickly — this is one of the core shifts we teach inside Wizard's Guild, our sponsorship coaching program. Most creators think their job ends the moment they deliver views or leads. The creators who land bigger deals — and keep them — treat the brand like a client, not a checkbox. They're looking at the landing page. They're thinking about the actual conversion path. It's not just delivery.

Elizabeth admitted she was scared to overstep. She didn't want to tell a "big company" how to run their marketing. But here's what she realized in hindsight: she didn't need to give them marketing advice. She needed to give them audience advice — "here's what my people respond to, here's how they engage." That's not overstepping. That's the entire value of working with a creator in the first place.

Screw what's normal. Strive to be abnormal. Normal is delivering the leads and walking away. Abnormal is making sure those leads actually convert.

Year Three: Everything Clicked

By year three, the sponsorship packages Elizabeth had already built — three tiers, ranging from a speaking-slot package down to a "give what you can" swag-bag option — were dialed in enough that people could self-select easily.

The event costs $10,000 to $12,000 to run every year, consistently. In year one and year two, sponsorships barely covered that number. In year three, sponsorships alone covered the entire cost of the event — which meant, for the first time, Elizabeth got to keep the ticket revenue instead of using it to cover expenses.

That's the difference between an event that's a lead generator and an event that's actually profitable.

And it gets better: her live event pulled in $40,000 in program sales in a single day — something she'd never come close to before.

What She'd Tell You If You Think You're Too Small

Here's what I noticed in Elizabeth's story that I want you to sit with: she has 4,000 followers on her biggest platform. That's it.

"It's not about my platform at all," she told me. "It's about knowing and understanding what the brand needs and wants and how I can help them get there — regardless of the size of my audience."

That's not a platitude. That's the actual math behind $10,000 in sponsorships from a business coach in Virginia Beach who doesn't even consider herself a full-time content creator.

The Language She Didn't Have Before

One of the sharpest things Elizabeth picked up wasn't a script or a pitch template — it was a completely different way of framing value.

Instead of pitching a brand on conversions, she started pitching on retention: "I know 30 of your users are going to be in the room at this event. I'm noticing some of them are starting to leave. Let's partner on a retention campaign."

That's language she flat-out didn't have a year earlier. Before, she was just showing up with her own stats and hoping a brand cared. Now she's speaking directly to their goals, based on their data.

What would that shift do to your next pitch email?

Getting 65 People to Actually Read the Book

Elizabeth got 65 copies of Sponsor Magnet into her community's hands through her event sponsorship with me. And she's already thinking two steps ahead — planning to survey her community in six months to see how many finished it, then bringing that stat back to future sponsors as proof of engagement.

That's the marketing-consultant mindset in action. She's not waiting for a brand to ask for data. She's building the case before they even know they need it.

The Hard Part Was Never the Event

Elizabeth said something that stuck with me: putting on the event itself was never her fear. Give her the people, and she'll deliver an experience. Her fear was filling the room — 50 people, a number she'd never hit before in a single launch or campaign.

She did everything. Promo videos. One-on-one outreach. Giving away tickets. Some of her sponsorship money even went toward getting local high school students into the room through an entrepreneurship program.

It worked. She filled the room, closed $40,000 in program sales, and walked away completely blindsided by how profitable the whole thing turned out to be.

What's Next

Elizabeth's already looking at the number and asking the obvious question: what if she doubles it? What if next year is $20,000 in sponsorships instead of $10,000?

She's got the proof of concept now. She's got the language. She's got the packages already built. The only thing left is bigger brands and more room to grow.

So here's my question for you: if a business coach with 4,000 followers and zero sponsorship experience two years ago can build a $10,000 sponsorship deal in under two months — what's actually stopping you?

Want to build a sponsorship strategy that doesn't rely on luck? Grab a copy of Sponsor Magnet and learn the exact framework Elizabeth used to go from "please just let us break even" to profitable in one year. And if you want direct, one-on-one help building your own pitch, packages, and pipeline, Wizard's Guild is where we do that work together.