[00:01] with hundreds of brands and have made over $500,000 from brand collaborations. So, I thought I would take today's video to share with you the seven biggest lessons that I've learned from doing brand collabs over the past 7 years.
[00:15] We'll be talking about how to get on brands' radars, ways that you could get paid even more with your content, best practices for pitching, relationship building, and so much more. As always, timestamps are below. Use them if you
[00:28] need them, and let's jump in. Lesson one, your profile is your portfolio. If radar, you need to be treating your social media profile like it is your resume or your portfolio. What I mean by that is if you were applying to a job,
[00:44] let's say you want to be a barista at a coffee shop, and your resume has a bunch of unrelated skills experience, right? It's like, "Oh, I've ran a marathon. Oh, and I also was a social media manager for this one
[00:58] company, and I also used to do drivers ed, or I was like I guess I was a teacher." Like, if you just list a bunch of like unrelated things to the job that you're applying for, the odds of you getting hired are pretty low. That's
[01:11] kind of the same thing with making sure your profile is your resume, is your personal brand. So, that's actually one of the reasons why like niching down or having some sort of niche is actually helpful and a superpower because it
[01:24] brings in a bunch of brand deals. Is it clear in your bio who you are, the type of creator you are, the content you create, who you create for? When you look at all of the content that you're creating, is there consistency in how
[01:39] often you're showing up, and also in the topics that you're posting about? If you have an account where you posted consistently for like a month last year, and then you posted for 2 weeks, and then you took a 3-month break, and then
[01:53] you posted for 2 months and took a a break, and you're just kind of posting and ghosting, posting and ghosting, that consistency is important to brands, and they might not be as invested with a creator that isn't as reliable as a
[02:05] consistently for a year. And by consistency, I just mean if you post twice a week for a whole year, that shows a brand that you're committed more than like five times a week for 2 months. You want brands to be able to
[02:19] envision working with you and their content, their product in your content. When you treat your profile as a resume or portfolio, it's going to help brands picture what collab content could look like when they work with you. This also
[02:34] already working with brands. Like if you have products that you genuinely love right now or brands you genuinely love right now, I recommend creating videos like once a week integrating those things into your organic content and tag
[02:49] great way to build relationships organically with the brands that you already love. Which for me has led to brand collabs down the line. When you do all these things of like picking a niche, posting consistently, integrating
[03:02] products and brands into your content, this actually increases your visibility this actually increases your visibility and discoverability on brand search platforms. So when brands want to work with content creators, they are usually
[03:14] using like a third-party tool or search platform to find content creators. So if you're posting about your favorite espresso machine and you're using the word espresso machine in your caption or on the text on the screen or in a
[03:28] hashtag, brands can actually find your content and want to work with you. So what can you do now to get on brands' radar? Like I said, try to create one post per week or every other week. Treat it as if it were a brand collaboration
[03:42] that you genuinely love into your organic content now. Also, if you haven't already, you can add your email to your bio on Instagram or TikTok. This is a great strategy to help brands not only discover you through search
[03:56] platforms easier, but also get in contact with you because most brands they're on their desktop and the little like email button on Instagram doesn't show on desktop. So, if you don't have your email easily accessible, it might
[04:09] if they want to reach out via email. Lesson number two is every collab is different and should be treated and charged that way. No two collabs are the
[04:21] same. I don't think I have ever charged the same exact price for any two collaborations. I usually charge something different depending on what people talk about having rate cards and sending out rate cards and I personally
[04:35] sending out rate cards and I personally don't use one. We have like my base rate that my manager knows and I know and then usually, depending on whatever is being asked, we'll add on to that base rate. So, what are some of these things
[04:48] that we would charge extra for? Well, when a brand first reaches out, before much information as possible, as much detail about the partnership. So, we ask what sort of deliverables they want, the timeline that they want everything done
[05:02] by, the usage rights that they want on the content. Are they asking for me to do exclusivity? Once you know all of the information up front, then you're able to properly calculate what the partnership will look like and then send
[05:16] that rate to a brand. To touch on different like terminology, deliverables pieces of content that a brand wants from you like one reel or two reels, stories or a reel reposted to here, you know, that it's the deliverables, what
[05:31] you'll be creating. Usage rights is who owns the content after you create it. If the brand wants ownership, they typically have to pay to get ownership typically have to pay to get ownership for your content. Exclusivity just means
[05:44] is the brand asking you to not work with any of their competitors. We have had a collaboration where the exclusivity list was huge, and because of that, we had to charge a lot more because the brand was asking for us to basically not accept
[06:00] any collaborations for like 3 months because it was such a large list of base rate. Your base rate is like the minimum that you charge, where then is like added to your base rate. I've actually done a full deep dive videos
[06:17] for how you can calculate how much to charge. So, if you want to learn what your price would be for a collaboration on Instagram or on TikTok or on YouTube, platforms. So, I have a video that teaches you how to set rates for
[06:31] Instagram, how to set rates for TikTok, how to set rates for YouTube. So, you can actually go watch those videos after this. But yeah, there are so many things people don't really talk about a lot, and that's why every single
[06:45] mentioned a few, but there's so much raw footage. Some might want you to create a reel, but they want you to repost it to your other platforms. Extra charge. Another might want you to create
[06:58] one reel, but they want you to export and create it in multiple formats. Extra charge. Another thing that I've been seeing brands ask for a lot more often lately actually is adding a comment to DM automation to your reels, which could
[07:14] be an extra charge. So, before with collabs, when you post a reel for a brand, the call to action in that reel would typically be like, "Check out the link in my bio." or "Go to said brand's website." But now, brands are actually
[07:27] asking you to set up a DM automation, and they're willing to pay more for that if you're able to do it. So, now, the call to action in your video is like, "Comment bananas, and I'll send you the link to XYZ." and then boom shakalaka,
[07:43] ManyChat would automatically reply and send the follower a DM with the exact link that the brand wants to direct them to. The interesting thing too that I've noticed about this is that my brand partnerships that have the comment to DM
[07:58] automation set up actually perform better than the ones that don't. And the you're getting more engagement on a post, the algorithm will push that post
[08:11] to more people. So, not only do I have a specific comment call to action that gets people commenting on the video, but I also have an automation set up so that anyone who comments the keyword, they'll automatically get a reply from me. So,
[08:25] as you can see in this reel here, this is what I have set up. People comment the keyword, I automatically reply. That kind of builds that snowball effect of engagement, and this collaboration ended up performing really well. For me, I
[08:37] have all of these DM automations set up with ManyChat. I've been using them since 2022 because it helps me create reliable systems behind my own content. So, like once I hit publish, ManyChat can handle the follow-up by replying to
[08:52] comments, DMs, story replies, guiding people to the right resources, answering common questions, and showing them exactly where to enroll in my courses. Not only am I using them for collabs, but also like to direct my audience to
[09:07] every area of my business because creating or a digital product or a freebie is just the beginning. Growing your products as a creator into a real business takes consistency, visibility, and systems that don't depend on you
[09:22] being online every second of the day to send a link to someone or reply to a DM. So, ideally you focus on creating the content that builds the trust while ManyChat helps make sure that the conversation doesn't stop when you log
[09:37] off. In case you didn't already know, ManyChat is an official Meta business partner, so it's actually built specifically to work with Meta platforms. If you wanted to try ManyChat Pro for free for 30 days, you can use
[09:51] the link in the description below with the code Modern Millie, and you can start your free trial today. And of course, a huge thank you to ManyChat for sponsoring this video. All right, let's move on to lesson three. Another way you
[10:04] can get in front of brands is utilizing third-party platforms. Lesson three is like, don't over underestimate Yeah, don't underestimate those third-party know, there are third-party platforms that are literally influencer campaign
[10:21] platforms. They were created for creators and influencers to sign up, make profiles, and then brands list their campaign opportunities for creators to apply to, and then you could get brand deals on these platforms. And
[10:35] platforms is because they just don't know which ones are true, which ones are know which ones are true, which ones are real, if there's scams, and I can say my real, if there's scams, and I can say my first handful of free and paid brand
[10:48] collaborations came from using a third-party platform. They're basically third-party platform. They're basically like LinkedIn or Indeed, but for content creators to start doing brand deals, get PR, and get paid. This is a list of some
[11:03] recommend. My personal favorite has been Aspire IQ. I mention them every single because for my journey when I was getting started, that was the main one that I was using and getting consistent deals from. So, that one is my personal
[11:19] new so far, be sure to give this video a thumbs up because that just tells yourself would find this video helpful, and it'll help YouTube push it to the right people. And if you learned two new things by the end of this video,
[11:31] consider subscribing since it's a simple way you can support my channel and it content like this for you every single week. And when I was looking at my analytics the other day, I think it said like 60 to 80% of viewers were not
[11:45] handful of my videos, just double check that subscribe button. Make sure you're that subscribe button. Make sure you're subscribed. Lesson four, there is power in saying no. First, I want to talk about a time that I said yes and was a
[11:59] sellout and wish [clears throat] I never said yes. And then I'll talk about a time that I said no and it was worth it. One of the very first ever paid collaborations that I ever did was with a brand that I never used. It was even a
[12:13] product that I was like, I don't even know if I would use this product. I'll just expose myself right now cuz this was a long time ago, y'all. This was like 2018. It was a skinny tea. I know, it was like a detox tea. Ugh, I know.
[12:27] But I was on one of these third-party platforms and I saw it and I was like, I'll apply to it because it says paid and I want to get paid as a creator and they're like, "Oh my gosh, we love what you do. We'd love to pay you." I think
[12:40] it was like $500 too and I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot of money." In my gut, I was like, "I have to post about this. I don't know if I want to post about this." But it was money, so I said yes. And oh my gosh, I still cringe
[12:53] because during the collaboration process, it ended up being so strict. They didn't want me to have any creative freedom. They told me exactly how I should pose, what the picture should
[13:05] There was no creative freedom. They didn't let me be me. It was just like didn't let me be me. It was just like this ad posed. Just not great and the whole partnership, it didn't feel authentic. I felt like a sellout. So,
[13:19] it's not worth saying yes if your gut says no. Usually your gut is telling you something. There's also a time where a brand that I genuinely love, they sent an offer. And they're like, "We'd love to launch this thing with you and work
[13:33] with you on this campaign." And it was a campaign I was actually really excited about. I love the brand, still love the brand to this day, and I was excited "Yes, this is a campaign I truly stand by." But but but but, this is where the
[13:46] butt came in. They had sent the list of everything that I needed to do. I think it was like four to six YouTube videos in 1 month. I need to write 30 emails and schedule those out. I think it was maybe like 15 short-form videos in a
[14:01] bunch of work. They're like, "We want to exposure, and it's going to be great for your brand you with us." And then like was like, "That's like what I charge for one
[14:15] YouTube integration, and you want me to do like six YouTube videos, 30 emails, dozens of short-form videos, posting, marketing this, stories, repurposing."
[14:27] And it hurt to say no. It hurt to say no. I thought about it for days, and I just like I could not do it. Not only for myself, but also my team. I think that was the biggest thing that made me say no, knowing the amount of work and
[14:41] rushed feeling and energy that my team would have to experience for this thing, knowing I wouldn't have the money to like pay them because the budget was so out of pocket. I was like, "I can't I can't put my team through that stress.
[14:55] This is not worth it." So, I said no, and they ended up moving on with another creator, which is totally fine. But because I said no, we actually had another brand reach out a few days later. They wanted to partner on another
[15:09] campaign, and all I had to do was make like two reels, and they were paying like four times the amount of the other offer. And I was like, "Wow, when one door closes, another one opens." You got to listen to your gut because you never
[15:24] know when you stand up for yourself and what you know your value is, the universe is like, yes, I believe that is your value, too, and let me prove it to you by sending you this offer instead. And so, that was like a really great
[15:38] confirming moment where I was like, okay, there is power in no and understanding your value is so important as a content creator. Lesson five, pitching can feel like a full-time job. There's so many lessons that I've
[15:52] learned from pitching because I have sent hundreds and hundreds of pitches to brands over the past few years. And what I've learned, I guess I'll just like bullet point a few things that I've learned from pitching. I feel like for
[16:04] every 10 pitches you send, you might get one response. And that response doesn't mean it's a yes, either. Like, the brand might be replying to say no. Pitching is not for the faint of heart. You cannot take getting ghosted or being not
[16:21] replied to or getting a no, you can't take it personally. Now, I will say, just because you send a pitch, that doesn't mean the game is over, baby, okay? A lesson I've learned with pitching is following up with pitches
[16:34] converts to yeses a lot more than just being like, oh, well, they didn't reply. starting out, there was a brand I really wanted to work with. I sent him a pitch, and I was like, you know what, I'm going to send a follow up. I sent a follow up
[16:49] like two weeks later, nothing, crickets. So, I waited, another two weeks go by and I'm like, I'm sending another follow up. On my third follow up, they replied was like, yay! So, following up actually converted
[17:03] to partnerships for me a lot more than just like sending a pitch. And also, not actually interested in this. So, following up was powerful. Another thing that I've learned with pitching is pitching is not really for landing brand
[17:17] going to pitch and I'm going to land a paid brand collaboration." I found that's not really what it's for. Pitching is for making connections. It's for planting seeds so that in the future, if a brand has a campaign that
[17:31] they're looking for creators for, you are at the forefront of their mind. their eyes and let them know that you exist. Let them know that you're open for business, okay? It's not to land a brand deal right then and there. So, I
[17:46] of people have with pitching. If you are going to pitch, I've found that pitching with a specific idea in mind converts better than just like, "Hey, love your brand, want to work with you." For example, if I'm doing like a full office
[18:00] makeover, I'm going to pitch to a brand that matches the office makeover. I'm going to say, "This is the pieces of content I'm working on. This is what I I'm interested in. Would love to get in alignment on what your goals are for
[18:14] this quarter and help you promote those goals. If you're open to partnering with me on this, da da da da." When you pitch with a specific idea, also I've noticed the first relationship that you build is usually like a trade for post, where
[18:27] they're like, "Yeah, we'd love to send you this in exchange for posts." And if you do great at nurturing that relationship, the brand could come back with you. We want to pay you for this upcoming campaign or we'd love to have
[18:40] you back, XYZ." So, if you need help with like writing your pitches and you want to start pitching to brands, I have completely free pitch email templates that you can download. I'll link them down below. Lesson number six, working
[18:53] with brands is more about building relationships with people than it is about working with a cool brand. I kind of touched on this in the last lesson well and you're nurturing that connection, that could lead to a second
[19:06] partnership. But really what I've found is the most successful partnerships that is the most successful partnerships that I've had are not only successful because I love the brand or because my audience loves the brand or because it's such a
[19:20] good fit with my niche. Like, yes, I could have one-off partnerships with a brand where it's extremely successful, but really the power of brand collaborations is building a personal connection with the person you're in
[19:33] contact with and showing them that you care about them as a person, too. Treating them like a human and letting them see the human side of you, too. I know that sounds like very vague, but for example, there's a few brands that I
[19:46] can think of right now that I have worked with for a couple of months, some for a couple of years, and the reason those partnerships work so well is because I love the people that we're working with. I know their names. Like,
[19:59] I know them by name. I know this gal. I've sent thank you cards to this person. I've sent holiday cards to this You know, like, there's a personal connection. And so, when you take the time to treat the person behind the
[20:13] screen as a person, I think that's what makes the partnerships so special and what makes the brands come back for more, which of course helps with income genuinely love and they're like, "Hey, we want to sign a 12-month contract with
[20:27] you." That's like 12 months of locked-in income and that's a big deal. But, you don't get those just by being a cool influencer and having cool content. You get those because of who you are when you're emailing the person. Lesson
[20:41] you're emailing the person. Lesson seven. The brand collab process is a business. My first few collabs that I did, I was so focused on just like, I make good content that the relationship building wasn't there and also the
[20:56] professionalism wasn't there. I didn't really see the brand as like a client of mine or like I didn't see it as like I was being hired for a service, but brand collaborations are like it's its own ecosystem, and brands expect you as a
[21:13] ecosystem, and brands expect you as a creator to bring professionalism to the table when you're working with them. They expect you to be on time with deliverables. They expect professionalism, and even if they're not
[21:26] expecting it, they want it because when you're on top of your game, yes, it's the relationship building with the person, but also when they see that you are organized and being professional and treating this seriously as a business,
[21:39] you're on time with your deliverables, you're giving them clear communication. it." and then never message them again until 2 weeks later you're like, "Here's the edited video." You know, they want communication like, "Hey, I'm working on
[21:52] day. Do you want to see it before? Cool, I plan to film on this day. Is that okay? Hey, I just filmed. I'm going to work on the edit. The edit's going to be done by this date." Like, they want to be in the know, and when you treat the
[22:04] whole brand collaboration process from beginning to end as a business, as you delivering a service, and you're doing it with communication and professionalism, it just like up-levels the whole experience for you and for the
[22:16] brand. I've also noticed the more collaborations that you layer in, the more important it is to have a system in place and to treat it like a business. Like, this year I hired a brand partnerships director. I have my collab
[22:31] partnerships director. I have my collab manager, and this is the person who is negotiating the deals for me. So, they are the ones that's like talking before the contract is signed, making sure we're getting paid our worth, reading
[22:44] through the contract and making sure I'm not like being used or taken advantage of. So, I have my collab manager that does that, gets the price set, signs the contract. Once the contract is signed, now we send it over to my brand
[22:56] partnerships director, and that person oversees all the moving pieces of content. For example, June. June we had 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12, maybe 12
[23:08] different collabs or pieces of content that we had to be churning over, filming, editing, scripting, researching, posting, all the things for. And the more collabs that you do, the more you need to have a system in
[23:21] place to organize them. So, if you're interested at all in the collaboration process and how we organize it beginning to end, how we run collabs as a business, just let me know. Maybe that could be like a part two to this video
[23:34] you will. Or if you have any other questions about brand collaborations in comments below. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you in the next watching. I will see you in the next one. Follow your joy. Bye.