614: The Hidden Rules of Brand Deals That Influencers Never Talk About

00:00
Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. Now in this episode, Tony and I share our experiences and everything we know about doing brand deals as an influencer. But before we begin, I wanted to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com. And if you sell physical products online, this is the event that you should be at. Unlike most events that are filled with high-level fluff and inspirational stories,

00:27
Seller Summit is all about tactical step-by-step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches, people who are running their own e-commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers, and scaling real businesses. No corporate execs, no consultants. Also, I hate large events, so I intentionally keep it small and intimate. We cap attendance at around 200 people, so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room.

00:53
We’ve sold out every single year for the past nine years, and I expect this year to be no different. It’s happening April 21st to 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and if you’re doing over $250K or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for high-level sellers. Right now, tickets are the cheapest they’re ever gonna be, so if you want in, go over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Now, on to the show.

01:24
Welcome back to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast. Today, we’re going to be talking about how to make good decisions as an influencer when it comes to brand deals, affiliate deals and sponsorship deals. So I have a funny story speaking of influencers. OK, so I consider us sort of the OG of influencers because we’ve been doing this for so long. And the influencer space has really changed in the last 15 years.

01:53
I don’t know if you think that, I think it’s vastly different than it was when we got started. Well, I feel like when we started, it was all about blogging and articles and tweets and Twitter parties. Remember those? Yeah. But I think now um anybody with a phone can can basically become an influencer. Right. I felt like before to be an influencer, you had to

02:20
set up a WordPress site, you had to start creating content. It wasn’t as simple as just starting and making TikToks. And uh this weekend I came across two different influencers that I thought it was so interesting. So I was out with my oldest in like a tea room and this couple walks in and like, know how like these days you can uh tell when someone’s an influencer as soon as you see them?

02:45
Of course, because they have their phones out and they’re taking pictures. And they roll in and they get it. They get a good like a good table. And she immediately changes her shoes right into these like stiletto white boots. So she walks in and like, I don’t know, tennis shoes and then changes her shoes. And then the next thing you know, they’re right behind me. So I couldn’t see a lot of them. But the next thing you know, every single thing is being recorded. They’re like.

03:09
The guy is like moving around for the angles and, you know, all this stuff. And I just thought, wow, like things have changed from like back when I remember I did a craft deal with like the cheese company and they wanted me to throw a party and they sent me all this cheese or like it was coupons to get specific cheeses and the whole party had. So I had to like invite my whole family over and like to make like cheese sandwiches and.

03:37
I mean, it was great because like we like cheese and I also got paid for it. But I think about like like this whole production, I had to like basically create a television show for Kraft. But like today, this girl is just like rolling into the tea room with her cell phone and doing a brand deal. So I just it just feels very different than it did back in the day, which makes me sound like an old person. But I am. You know, what’s funny about that is uh you have to have kind of like no shame. Yeah. So recently I was invited to uh

04:08
to meet Roger Federer at the Labor Cup. And I was the only one there actually. What? Who was the, I wasn’t the only one there period, but I was the only one who was there to like film stuff, right? Oh. And create content. And so I felt really weird about busting out like a phone. was, in fact, I was the only one who did it. Yeah. And I felt really self-conscious about it, especially since.

04:33
Like I had to bust out a phone in a group setting when Roger was literally a foot away. It just felt awkward, right? Cause yeah. Yeah. And so I actually didn’t end up speaking in that one, but you know, I did have a little one-on-one time, but I don’t know how these people can just walk into like a place full on. It’s like not the way I was raised, let’s say, you know, just be like the center of attention.

04:55
Bust out of. Oh, yeah. This couple at the tea room was like, you know, he was like laying on the floor to get the right egg. Like it was it was like class. looked like a meme of influencers. uh But I’m also thinking at the same time I met that same, you know, same weekend, I met another couple who uh started a TikTok channel talking about dating for the first time after you’re 30 years old. So she didn’t start dating until she turned like 30 and she started making TikToks about it. And it went viral.

05:24
She ended up on like the Drew Barrymore show, like all this stuff. Super unassuming, right? Like we ran into them kind of, they didn’t have a menu. So like we shared our menu and then we ended up chatting or whatever. But the crazy thing about her is she was like, you would have never thought she was an influencer, right? Because she, you know, there was no phone out, there was nothing. And then apparently she went so viral, she actually went on the Drew Barrymore show. Right? To talk about dating and everything else and.

05:51
Apparently Drew Barrymore is a very nice person in person. um But yeah, it’s like these two sides of things, right? You’ve got the one girl who’s literally taking up half the restaurant to take her photos, and then this girl who you just happen to bump into. um She paid for the trip that they were on with her TikTok money. So yeah, it’s a different world. There’s this Asian guy I follow, and he is documenting all of his dates on the date.

06:22
And he actually used the girl in the middle. guess he has it. You know, he asked for permission or whatnot. Yeah. But then he asked her for like her first impressions and he gives his first impression. It’s like weird. Like, how do you have a date like that? Yeah. I mean, you got to kind of like agree to it, I guess. But so I think I think we I think I’ve told the story before of my first very first blog payment and influencer opportunity was through Weight Watchers. um

06:51
Did I tell you this story? I don’t think so. Maybe you have. don’t remember. Which I thought was kind of funny at the time because I definitely wasn’t like a Weight Watchers candidate, but they like reached out to me and I was like, I have enough. Like it was like the first and I think everybody who is an influencer of any kind has this moment. Right. And we saw it with our friend Kevin a couple of weeks ago where he said, I’m getting companies are reaching out to me. What do I do? Right.

07:14
So Weight Watchers sent me an email and of course the very first email you get from a brand it feels like, know, Santa’s real, you know? And they wanted me to blog about their new line of little Debbie type snacks but they were Weight Watcher friendly. And I was like, yes, absolutely. Do I eat little Debbie snacks? Absolutely not. Do I like anything that’s sugar free? Not really. um So they sent me their version of Twinkies which I also do not like.

07:44
to like, and that was my payment was like a box of Twinkies. Oh, that was your payment? Yes. I mean, this is like 2008. So, you know, but I just remember thinking it was the absolute coolest thing ever that I got like a free box of Twinkies that I had no intention of eating in exchange for a blog post. Now we often hear of influencers who are asking for five thousand dollars just to post about a restaurant or mention something, and they don’t even have that many followers. Right. They’re not.

08:13
these huge, I mean, I had a huge following when I was doing this and I like posting for Twinkies. But I think, I think when you get that first email, when you realize that people are interested in working with you, it’s very hard to be neutral in your decision making, especially in the beginning, because you’re so excited about an opportunity. And what that leads to often is the next thing I know, I’m now posting for Twinkies and

08:43
That’s not, know, Twinkies, as much as I tried, they don’t take that for rent or groceries. You know. What’s funny for me is I think I didn’t get all this attention till much later. Right. already had the store. already had the course and all that stuff. And it was only after that did companies start approaching me. So I already had like uh a different attitude towards it. And you know me like I.

09:12
I’m like, I don’t want to talk about that. Like I usually don’t respond, but sometimes like the person is just so annoying where they email like every single day for like a month. And I’m like, Hey, look, uh, you know, I, I don’t want to, I don’t want to promote it. Yeah. Well, for me, at least it’s the time that it takes to promote something meaning like I had one, I have to like the tool.

09:40
Two, I have to be able to stand behind it, but just even trying it actually takes time, at least in my space. a good job. Yeah, I actually have to try it in the store, right? Yeah. And use the tool. So your situation is different because your stuff doesn’t require as much prep, right? Right. Well, I mean, the craft party took me all week to plan that thing. You had to do a craft party. That’s true, you had to do a craft party. But yeah, and I think so it’s interesting that in your perspective, you say it’s about the time.

10:10
I mean, I know that’s not the only reason that you have. There’s other reasons too. We can talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. But for me, the time was definitely a factor because this was, you know, back when, you know, Pinterest was up and coming and, all those platforms were new. And so it went from just writing a blog post to like three Pinterest images and they wanted, you know, something for Instagram. And then you’re like, OK, well, this just got a lot more difficult, right? Because it’s not just taking photos for the blog, which

10:37
horizontal, certain perspectives. Now I’ve got to come up with Pinterest ideas. Now I’ve got to come up with Instagram. And so for me, that’s when I thought about how much time it would take, it was often related to what they wanted. I know for you, you get a lot of requests to make videos. And so I think that comes into play if a company comes to you and says, hey, I need you to make a video or talk about the product.

11:02
It’s not just about learning the product. It’s also like, okay, well, if I have to make a video, you’ve got to have someone edit the video or you have to edit it yourself. That takes time. There’s a difference between short form and long form. You know, it’s lot easier. If they just want you to pull out your phone and make a short form video, that’s not that difficult. I mean, time-wise. But if they want a long form video, you’re talking about several hours worth of work. Because not only do you have to film it, you have to script it. You have to make sure that it makes sense for the product.

11:30
And so I think a lot of times people, I know from the brand side, they’re like, but we’re giving them XYZ or, you we’re giving them an affiliate. It’s like, yeah, but the content creator is having to do all this production as well as they’re the ones that built the audience to begin with that the brand typically doesn’t have, which is why they want to work with the influencer. My biggest fear generally is tanking the channel. Yes. So you have to write the script is the hardest part, actually. Not the editing, not any of that stuff.

12:00
At least not for me now, because I have an editor. The hard part is coming up with content that’s interesting about the company that people will actually want to watch and perhaps use. Because you want to do a good job. Because if you don’t do a good job, not only do you disappoint the company, but you also tank your channel. If you have one really bad video, it’s probably not going to tank your YouTube channel, but it will actually reduce the reach of the subsequent videos is what I’ve noticed.

12:28
Which I think is really important to think about, especially if you are someone who generates the majority of their income from a specific channel. So if you’re making, you know, most of your money from YouTube or TikTok and then you work with a brand and it causes your reach on any platform to diminish, you know, that could impact you for months, you know, post post video. So I think that’s important. My biggest fear wasn’t that I would tank the channel was that the backlash from people.

12:58
Oh, for the Weight Watchers or just in general, like that was always my, you know, the time and that kind of stuff, because you get to the point to where brands will just pay you. They don’t care. They want they want, you know, when you become a hot commodity like the brand, the price usually don’t blink at the price. And then you’re like, oh, I should have gone higher. Right. But my worry was always I don’t want to lose, which is similar to taking the channel. I didn’t want to lose subscribers, followers, you know, because I

13:28
was talking about something that was maybe not aligned with my brand. And I was actually talking to a friend last week and she has a very conservative audience, right? And this was back when she was getting started and she got an offer to get a sponsored email from the people that produced that movie, The Shack. I don’t know if you remember that movie. So it was kind of billed as like a Christian movie, but there were a lot of people that didn’t think it was that at all, right? And so,

13:57
ah My friend was like, oh Christian movie sure. I’ll promote that my audience will love it. Well There were thousands of unsubscribes from that email because it was like, you know so that’s the other thing is like you have to kind of do a little digging about the brand because I’ve seen this too were like bloggers and content creators work with a brand and then you know, something comes out like they dump pollution in the ocean or

14:20
You know, they they have some formaldehyde in their baby milk. don’t know whatever it is. Like Nestle had a big crisis several years ago and they had like done a lot of sponsored stuff and content creators got a huge pushback from their readers because it was like, how could you support this company because they do X, Y, Z? And um so there’s a lot of components to it. This happened to a mutual friend of ours like a decade ago. He decided to take on a sponsor of payday loans.

14:48
Oh, and you know, payday loans are, I mean, they’re predatory. Yes. Yeah. And so he got so much backlash about that. And then I don’t want to say it ruined his reputation, but it probably ruined his credibility a little bit. Yeah. You when it comes to recommendations. So you always want to be careful about about that. But, know, on the other hand, you can’t always do the research like Tom Brady and the FTX thing. I guess he could have done a little more due diligence. I don’t know about that.

15:16
What was that? FTX. didn’t hear about that. This happened like two years ago. No. The whole the biggest crypto thing was just one big gigantic Ponzi scheme. OK, I did not know that. But they paid all these celebrities to endorse it like millions and millions of dollars. Yeah. Yeah. So. I mean, and that’s the hard part, right? Like you can’t vet everything and vet everybody. But and I think that also comes down to what kind of content creator you are. So for you, um

15:46
you’re known as like a resource, right? People trust you and you have a bias, right? You’ve said you’re biased, right? I like inexpensive tools that don’t charge you on a recurring basis. I want things that don’t break, right? Simplicity over complexity. So, you know, people follow you because you present those types of ideas. So if you then go against that, right, if you come out and endorse some plugin that’s $5,000 a month, then, you you’re like, would never, you could never do that.

16:15
with the audience you have. However, there’s also this. I wouldn’t have any problems endorsing it. You would never use a five thousand dollar a month. Correct. That’s correct. Yes. But like I said, if I’m using it. Yes. Yes. And we’ve talked about like certain things that we do pay for, you know, like because it’s so valuable. But there’s other content creators that are more of like the watch me try stuff out. And so for them, they have a little more leeway because they’re not really basing anything on

16:45
Credibility. It’s like uh the Barstool sports guy who tries all the pizzas. I can’t think of his name. He’s like super famous, but like he can talk about whatever pizza shop he wants to because it’s basically he’s just trying it. He doesn’t have like a bias on trying. has a bias on what he likes. So I think there’s a lot of things you got to look out for when you are getting these pitches because there’s so many things that can build your brand with it or take away from your brand. Yeah, I generally do not.

17:15
try to do sponsorship deals. Yeah. For a variety of reasons also. And in case you guys are listening to this and you do, you know, get asked to on a sponsorship deal, just keep in mind that a lot of times just money is just not worth it. uh Mainly because there’s always going to be two sides, right? There’s the type of content that you want to make that you know is going to do all with your audience. And then there’s the type of content that the company wants.

17:45
which might not align with yours. And it’s just navigating that fine line, going back and forth, getting your content approved before you post. It just ends up being a lot of time depending on what the company is. I’ve worked with companies before where they’re like, hey, we trust you. You know your audience the best. We just want you to hit these three points somewhere in the video and we’re all good. But then on the other end of the spectrum, some companies will literally want you to read a script.

18:12
Right, which you know, that’s not going to do well with your audience. And so I think that’s the next decision you have to make. Right. Is are you willing to how much scripting are you willing to let the company do? I would say the answer is as little as possible. Yeah, I would say work when you are talking with a brand or a company, work from an outline and basically keep it at the outline level. And I always used to like to ask, like, are there any specific competitors or buzzwords that I should not say?

18:42
Right. Right. Because every company, especially the big ones, have one competing brands, but then two like things that they don’t want said. Right. And I remember I was with I was doing something with like Frito Lay or Proctor again, one of the big companies. Right. And there was like a phrase that they didn’t want associated with their brand that I think had been associated with it. It was it wasn’t a bad word or anything. It was just something. And I remember like I was like, yeah, well.

19:08
Everyone says it, so it’s hard not to try to work that in, but I get why they didn’t want to be branded that way. But I think that step too is that you don’t, you have to control the editing. And that’s really tough, because you’ve had some issues where you were like, I’m just gonna walk away from the deal.

19:27
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19:56
just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show. Well, I can tell this story. I won’t mention any company names, but I remember, so this company wanted me to just do a dedicated YouTube video about their company. And so I came up with this really creative way where my audience would just love the content and then using that particular tool.

20:25
And so I drafted up a script and then we went back and forth for probably three weeks, which again is like an insane amount of time for me. Like shouldn’t take that long, but we finally got it approved and they gave me the go ahead to film. And so I filmed it and then I showed it to them, you know, and it was, it was way beyond their schedule. Like they had wanted to publish this thing like a couple of weeks ago.

20:52
But because of all the back and forth and whatnot and the changes they wanted to make, it just took a lot longer. But anyway, so I sent them the filmed version, which was pretty much verbatim on the script that we agreed to. And they were like, okay, uh change a plan. I want you to double the length of the video. There’s already 15 minutes. They wanted to make a 30 minute video. And I’m like, I cannot do that. Even if you were to pay me double,

21:21
I could not create another 15 minutes worth of content about this particular tool or whatever. And they hadn’t paid me or anything at this point. I’d already filmed everything. It’s already been edited and whatnot. And like the 11th hour, they decide it needs to be double. I got pissed. I said, hey, I’m never gonna work with you guys again and I will make sure my community doesn’t work with you guys again. And then that was that. I ended up…

21:49
Publishing the video though, I won’t tell you which one it is, but it actually ended up making like over $5,000 in just AdSense revenue. So it wasn’t like a total loss, but that just completely soured me. And this is probably an extreme case. Most companies aren’t gonna do that and not compensate you anything at all and do that, but it does happen. Yeah. And that’s where I think two things to learn from that. One, the bigger the brand, the more of this you’re gonna deal with.

22:20
Right. The more control they want, the more well, we have to run it through legal. I remember when Jim and I worked on our financial or stuff. It was like like everything has stayed in legal for months. You know, we would be talking to a company and, we would have agreed on everything and they’re like, OK, we just need to send it to legal. And it’s like, well, then we’re not doing anything. Right. You just you know, if it to legal in a big company, you’ll never know about it again. So and that’s why I think if you’re an influencer to working with some of those smaller companies is actually ideal.

22:50
because typically with some of those smaller brands, they don’t have the audience that you have. So they’re excited just to have a much bigger reach. And I think they’re still new enough to respect, they don’t have a legal department, right? So as long as you’re not saying anything that’s horribly offensive or off-brand, they’re probably gonna let you have a much more creative control over the process. And I think that makes for better content anyway, and I wish bigger brands would understand that.

23:19
But I think that’s if you’re just getting started, the smaller companies are actually much better to, you know, sort of get your feet wet if this is how you want to earn extra money. And you can like you can earn a lot of money doing content, you know, paid content. It’s pretty nuts. um mean, on the flip side, the risks are greater, too. Yes. I’m always terrified if I’m working with a really small company because I don’t know how it’s run. Right. Like.

23:47
I don’t know if they’re gonna be around. I don’t know if they’re doing some shady stuff in the back. So for me at least, I almost rather work with a larger company, even with the headaches. Do you feel that way? I would probably feel that way now. When I was just getting started though, I worked with lot of small businesses just because it was an opportunity and it was money and I felt like I could…

24:12
I don’t know. It felt like you were kind of building the brand as you went because they weren’t that far along. But you’re right. You never know what’s going to happen. You might not get paid. And that’s the other thing, I think, if you are working with a brand that is a small business, it doesn’t have a legal team. Because if you’re working with a big company, you’re going to get a contract or at least something that you agree to with payment terms and things like that. First of all, read the contract.

24:37
I’m always amazed how people don’t read a contract and then sign it like understand what the payment terms are I would say and you know a lot of big companies you won’t get this but if it does involve creating creating like video especially long-form video I would ask for half up front, know, or at least some sort of I do that now actually because of like think about what happened to you Obviously you were able to use that video and it it worked out But can you imagine spending, you know five hours on something and then not being able to use it at all and not getting a payment?

25:07
You definitely don’t want to be in that bucket. Yeah, actually, these days uh you should always just type in the contract into Chachi BT and say, hey, what are the important stipulations I need to be aware of here? I actually made that mistake. uh This was many years ago before the pandemic. I signed on a deal where I didn’t realize it was net 90. Oh, yes. Yes, a lot of them are, too. Yeah, which means I didn’t get paid until three months later.

25:35
I kind of forgot about that deal now actually because I don’t even remember if I got paid. It’s a long time ago, but when it drags out that long, you don’t even remember. The other thing to think about with the deals is definitely negotiate on the payment terms. And that’s one thing that you can negotiate on. With a huge company, that’s how their accounting system works. You probably won’t get anywhere, but any midsize or smaller company,

26:02
You can, you you might not be able to get a little more money from them, but you might be able to get paid quicker. So you might be able to get 30 day or something like that once, you know, because they still have to process something through their whatever system they’re using. But I think there’s lots of negotiating points, right? Length of video content, where else are you putting it, right? Are you gonna share it on your other channels? Are you gonna have short form to go with it? uh Is it gonna go, you’re gonna embed the video in an article? Like, and for each thing that you do,

26:31
That’s more money. So you have to understand that there’s making a video price or in the old days writing a blog post price, but then the more they want from that, the more they want you to promote it. That doesn’t come for free. You have to then that cost them additional because once again, it’s your time that you need to be compensated for. Yeah, what I just don’t like is the back and forth. Yeah. Right. Like I would almost I actually pretty much don’t work with

27:01
I don’t want to say any company, but hardly any company that gives me a script. I always say up front, hey, I’m just going to do it. You just give me your points. I’ll make sure they’re in there, but you have to give me creative freedom for the video. And of course, it’s different. Maybe in the beginning for my first one, I might have been willing to do more, but you just kind of learn your lessons over the years on what’s worth it to you and what is not. Yeah. And I will say that sometimes

27:29
And I think you may be I don’t know the deals of your uh tennis thing. But I always say, you need to make sure you get paid. But sometimes the experience is payment enough. ah I know when I did a lot with Disney, I don’t think Disney, don’t think I got paid for anything I ever did with Disney. But I got lots of Disney tickets, lots of events, lots of fast passes, lots of, you know, like Disney does like the Mickey Halloween party and the Christmas party, which are additional.

27:58
It’s not just enough to pay $200 for a day at Disney, then you have to pay another $75 to go to the Halloween show. So for me, that was worth the time, right? Because my kids are little, they love Disney. So even though I wasn’t getting paid to go to Disney, I wasn’t paying to go to Disney. So there was a trade-off. And there are probably things that everybody has where there’s a trade-off that it’s worth it to you. And so I would say, don’t be afraid to do some of those things if it’s something that you really want.

28:27
ah Now don’t do it all the time because I think that’s where the influencers then get it gets problematic is that all they’re doing is showing up at events, but they don’t actually get paid for anything and eventually you’ll just have a lot of swag But you won’t you know, you’re not making that’s not advancing your business as far as on a monetary level the other thing you want to consider and maybe this is like later on maybe this is just me, I don’t know, but Having a sponsorship deal always disrupts my flow

28:56
Like I got a schedule where I do things every single week. But then if all of a sudden I got to, there’s all this back and forth and I have to film extra content for this and I have to just negotiate all this stuff, that like totally throws off my game. So for example, like last week for that, I had to think about scripting for these videos I was making for the tennis thing. And then as a result, I couldn’t work on this bumblebee feature.

29:26
or I couldn’t work. And this was just things I didn’t take into account because I had already kind of said yes, because I was excited about it. in retrospect, if I had to fly to do this, I actually probably wouldn’t have done it. Really? Yeah. If I had to fly, I probably wouldn’t have done it, but it was local. Yeah. Which I think is a good way to start too, if you get invited. The local events are great. And it’s also a good way, I don’t know, you said you were the only influencer there, but.

29:55
Typically, there’s more than one influencer at these types of events. So it’s actually a good networking opportunity too, to meet other people in your community that are doing the same thing. You’re like, no, there’s some not networking. You know, I met some really nice people there actually. I actually liked everyone I met. I stuck my foot in my mouth. met some really nice people like all tennis pros? No, no, no. He’s so kind.

30:23
Carlos, he’s just a lovely, lovely human. I stuck my foot in my mouth. There’s one guy I was talking to and I didn’t know he was a crypto company. he just casually asked me, what do you think about this and such and such crypto? I’m like, hey, to be honest with you, I’m not into crypto at all. After the whole NFT thing and the FTX, I’m just done with it. And then it just so happens he was really high up at this

30:52
crypto company that just went public. I was like, I said more than that. I don’t remember what I said. Crypto sucks. But I said, I’m not against crypto, but right now, for me, the sentiment is bad on crypto, although I do own a little bit of crypto. Now you own more after the meeting? No. So another point that I think, and this is where

31:22
I feel like some influencers do a great job with this, and I don’t think you actually do, but you get to a point where you don’t need to do this, and I think you’re at that point. When you start doing these influencer programs or opportunities, you need to document the results. So you need to have, whether it’s a spreadsheet, whether it’s on the back end of something, website, so that when you get approached by other companies, you basically have, uh

31:50
it gives you better negotiating power when a company comes to you and let’s just say, oh, I want you to make a video and we’re gonna pay you $1,000. And you can go back and say, well, my rate’s $5,000 and here’s why. Here’s three videos that I’ve done. Here’s the reach, here’s the click through rate on the link, here’s the, this one has 100 comments, it’s got 100,000 views. If you have a catalog and so you’re not like searching for that and that will actually streamline a lot of your process and deals.

32:18
is that you’re not like every time someone reaches out to you, you’re like, oh, let me find these things and like show them and send them. It’s like, no, you can just send them to like a static web page, a page of links, whatever, however you want to set it up. don’t think there’s, you know, I don’t think you need to need to spend a lot of time on it, but make sure you’re tracking your previous posts and pieces of content, because that’s a really good way to negotiate with companies. That is actually a great point. Like if I wanted to do this and I I wanted to get sponsorship deals.

32:47
I would put together a media kit and I did this for my podcast at one point actually. I said it was the ranking, I actually had all the downloads on a nice graph and then I had all the demographics broken down of who my listeners were. If I wanted to do this for YouTube, I would have exactly what you said, all the demographics for my channel. I’d probably have it in real time, just like a feed. uh

33:12
and then number of views and all that stuff. And then I would have all of my previous videos that I’ve done for companies. And some of these videos have over 100,000 views. I don’t know if I’d put my price list down though. I probably wouldn’t. your price? No. Yeah, I probably wouldn’t. Because it depends for me whether I want to do it or not. If it’s something I don’t want to do, I usually. $20,000. I usually give a high price. But sometimes on a blue moon, they’ll take it.

33:41
And then it’s the moral dilemma of right. Then you’re like, now I’ve got to do it. Yeah. No, I mean, I’ve seen I’ve seen people put their prices on there. And I think that’s it depends on where this falls in your revenue streams. If this is something that like this is your primary revenue stream, you probably want to have a pretty comprehensive media kit for people, you know, because you’re going to want to be sent. You’re going to want to be pitching people, not just waiting to get pitched.

34:09
I think too, as you grow, as your channel grows, as your views, subscribers, whatever it is, you have more leverage. So when you’re just starting out, you don’t have a lot of leverage. And sometimes you, I don’t wanna say you have to take dirty deals, but sometimes you have to do things that maybe, I would not go against ethically or morally, but you’re like, this is kind of a pain in the butt, but I need to get some social proof out there.

34:36
The bigger you get though, the more you can either up your price, say no, set limits on things, be more in control of the situation. And that really just comes with a growing audience and success. So the more you can show success, the more you can charge and let people know. The other thing you can do is ask them for an affiliate cut on top of getting paid. That’s true. I actually don’t usually do that.

35:03
Although it’s happened naturally, like I was already an affiliate, right? Yeah. And I asked, can I use my affiliate link in there? Yeah. Always ask because I know a lot of people. In fact, it happened to me. uh I was long time ago. It was uh another blogger who had created some sort of like household workbook or organizational. I don’t know. was some organizational product. And I didn’t know her that well. Like we weren’t in the same circles, but she reached out and she had an affiliate program like for her products, like through WordPress.

35:33
And so, and she asked if I would, I don’t know if it was right, I think it was right at post, or she could guess post or something, right? And there was money changed hands, it wasn’t a lot, couple hundred dollars. And I used my affiliate link in the post, right, because it’s on my website. And I probably sold 50 to 100 of these units, right, from this content. And the content actually, it’s still popular on my site. I don’t even know if she still has the product anymore, because I had to like remove the links.

36:02
But she emailed me like six months later and was furious that I had used, I think when she was like checking her affiliate stuff and I had like made money from selling the product. And I was like, but you sold a lot of products. Like, and these are now people that are your customers. And she was like, well, you need to take it, you know, out of the, I was like, I’ll take the post down. Like we didn’t have an agreement, but then the post got a lot of traffic. So I had to keep it up.

36:30
But that’s something that you need to talk about like in the beginning of the negotiations, right? Because there are some brands that do not want you to do that. I think that’s dumb as coming from the brand side. Because, you know, that’s also a great way to track how well someone does for you. I mean, a lot of views are nice, but if no one’s clicking, if no one’s going and visiting their website or, you know, converting for them, then it doesn’t really matter. ah

36:58
what you can do. So as a brand, I think it’s something smart to do from the brand side because it gives you really great tracking into what the influencer is really doing for you. I’m glad we’re talking about this, actually, because uh even though I don’t want to do a lot of these, I think I should just put together a media kit. Yes. Maybe not publicly. No. So that when someone asks and it’s something that I want to do, I can just slip them this thing. Yeah. Right? I have not Definitely streamlines. Yeah. And then also kind of stops the back and forth.

37:27
If you’re too expensive, then they just move on. uh And coming from the brand side, because I worked on the brand side for a long time, the more organized you are as an influencer, the more likely they want to work with you. Yeah, I think I agree with that too, right? Because I’m actually really hard to work with. I’m not even joking. I actually you are. uh

37:54
There’s this person that always contacts me and I’ve done one deal with this person in the past a while ago, but they keep reaching out because I guess they’re part of an agency or something. And I think I was just chatting with this person the other day and they’re like, you’re really hard to get a hold of and you’re really hard to work with. I’m like, it’s because I don’t like doing these. I responded once and they’re like, oh my God, he responded. Like red lights going on at the office.

38:20
Yeah, message from Steve Chu. Well, what I said was like, if you’re more selective about what you send me instead of sending me every deal, I’m much more likely to respond. Yeah. Like if you say something like, hey, I noticed you’ve talked about this in the past on your channel, and I think this tool would actually be something you would talk about, then, you know, I would probably respond to every one. But like every little tool they’re asking me to sponsor, I’m just not going to. That’s just noise at that point. Yeah. And yeah, I definitely think on the brand side, you have to

38:50
If you want to be successful, you have to send a personal outreach, whether it’s a DM, an email. I don’t think it really matters. But you can’t just, hey, you want to hear about our newest XYZ, blah, blah, blah. Here’s a link. That doesn’t work. And these people, on the other side, the influencers are getting hundreds of messages a day uh from brands wanting to work with them. You have to stand out. And one of the ways you stand out is being more personal in your communication from day one. um

39:18
You know how I want to end this, Tony? I just want to say, I think everyone should be creating content or documenting everything. I feel like with AI taking over jobs, there’s just this report I read on the breakdown of jobs that AI is taking and like how people are hiring less. I think the way to stand out is by just documenting something, your work, whatever it is, because you’re not going to get hired if you’re the, I mean, if you’re the best, obviously, but if you’re just really good at what you do, it’s

39:48
It’s usually like the loudest person that gets the job or gets the opportunity, you know, the one who puts themselves out there. And I was just chatting with a buddy of mine yesterday. His son has all these deals now with clothing companies because he just walked on TikTok and just kind of talked about what he was wearing that day. You know what mean? He just, was very consistent every single day is like, Hey, I got this top on like, I like this and whatnot. And then lo and behold, you know,

40:17
Brands just started reaching out, giving him clothing, paying him for just wearing his clothing. And he’s a kid. He’s a college kid. Yeah. Right. So some of us had to work in restaurants in college to make it through. Now kids are getting paid to wear wear free clothes. I know. That’s what I’m thinking. But I think it shows it’s open to anybody. Anybody can be doing this. I mean, I don’t want to I don’t I never encourage people to put their kids on video little kids, but like

40:46
There’s that one little kid, he’s not a little kid anymore, but like remember he would like open toys. Oh, yeah. Remember him? I his parents like. parents. Yeah. And so that’s why I’m saying like I don’t I’m not endorsing putting your kid, especially like a nine year old. But even your like college kids, aged kids like anybody can do this. Anybody can pick up a phone and start making video content and documenting whatever they’re doing and get opportunities and possibly create an entire business.

41:15
And then here’s the other thing I just wanted to say, um just in case some people listening out there are kind of like me, like I would never document what I’m wearing. I’m like, hey, colored t-shirt. No, but I think any sort of content that just demonstrates your knowledge, it doesn’t have to be like what you’ve eaten or whatnot. those are the type, that type of content is not stuff that I would make. But anything that’s related to documenting something that you’ve done, something you’re proud of, something that you know,

41:44
You know, even if millions of people already know it, just by putting yourself out there saying that you know this actually elevates you in the eyes of everyone else. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Before you book your first brand deal, make sure you understand what you’re getting into. For more information and resources, go to mywifequitherjob.com slash 614. Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com. If you want to hang out in person,

42:13
in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs, and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to SellersSummit.com. And if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to my wife, QuitHerJob.com, and sign up for my free six-day mini course. Just type in your email, and I’ll send the course right away via email.