Accidentally Influential

Adrian had 3,000 subscribers on YouTube and 25,000 followers on TikTok. He charged more for YouTube. Every brand said yes immediately, which he now knows means he undercharged.

Eighteen months later YouTube is his single largest income stream.

Our guest Adrian Vonarx is a print on demand educator and longtime listener of this show, and this conversation is genuinely one of the most tactical we've recorded. If you've been sitting on YouTube thinking you need a big channel before brands will pay you, this episode dismantles that.

Also, fair warning, Kate cries a little. Adrian tells the story of a Google Meet the two of them had in December 2024 that changed the entire trajectory of his business.

What We Cover:

• Adrian's 30-day TikTok challenge and why his first 30 videos being terrible was the whole point
• How five years of print on demand turned into an education business almost by accident
• Why the giving economy means you have to serve before you earn, and how that produces brand deals as a byproduct
• The DM Adrian sent Kate offering to pay for her time, the 90-minute call that followed, and what it changed
• Why Adrian had never renegotiated a single brand rate before that conversation, and what happened when he did
• How he pitched YouTube to three existing TikTok brand partners and got three yeses
• Why brands paid him more for 1,500 YouTube views than for 5,000 TikTok views
• The three YouTube sponsorship deal structures: mid-roll ads, dedicated videos, and integrations
• Why integrations are his favorite and how leading with value before the pitch changes the comment section entirely
• How Adrian stacks three to four aligned sponsors into a single YouTube video and why no brand has ever objected
• How to price a YouTube sponsorship when you have no benchmark, and Adrian's honest admission that he threw out a number and every brand said yes
• Kate's pushback: why letting the brand name the number first costs you, and when to set the anchor yourself
• Why YouTube content has a longer shelf life, lower click friction, and better link tracking than short form, and why brands pay for that
• The TikTokification of YouTube and why average views now matter more than subscriber count
• The metrics Adrian actually sends brands: average views per video, engagement rate, average watch time, and audience geography
• Why a 10-minute YouTube video is really just ten TikToks stacked, and how to repurpose your best performing short form into long form
• Why you should commit to mastery of one platform before adding another
• The guerrilla tactic Adrian used to land deals: integrate a brand for free, then show them the performance

Episodes Referenced:

• Episode 5, Season 1: What You Should Charge, the 4R Pricing Framework
• Season 2 Episode 7: How to Renegotiate Your Brand Deal Rates
• Season 2 Episode 13: How to Respond When a Brand Asks What Are Your Rates
• Season 2 Episode 4: How to Make a Media Kit That Gets Brand Deals

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

Four words from a brand: what are your rates? It's one of the most mishandled emails in the entire creator economy. And how you respond determines whether you land the deal at your value or fumble it before the negotiation even starts.

Here's what most creators miss: that first email IS the negotiation. Whoever puts the first number down anchors everything that follows. Every counteroffer, every package discussion, everything that feels "fair" gets measured against that first number. Brands are handing you that anchor for free when they ask for your rates. This episode is about what to do with it.

We're covering the five most common ways creators fumble this email, then teaching you the Anchor Method: our four-step process for responding in a way that positions you as a strategic partner and sets the entire negotiation up in your favor. Built on negotiation science, including lessons from Never Split the Difference, plus our own years of brand deal experience on both the creator and agency side.

What We Cover:

• Why your first response to "what are your rates?" is the start of a negotiation, not a formality
• The psychology of anchoring: why the first number named controls everything that comes after it
• Kate's negotiation origin story, from buying her first car alone at 21 to landing screaming deals on brand partnerships
• Fumble 1: Sending a naked rate card. Why "here's my media kit, let me know what you think" reduces you to a price tag and invites ghosting
• Fumble 2: Justifying your rate with effort. Brands don't care how long the video took. They're buying the outcome, not your hours
• Fumble 3: Anchoring by follower count. Why "I have X followers so I charge X" is outdated and what brands weigh instead
• Fumble 4: Answering with "what's your budget?" Why it signals you'll adapt to whatever they'll pay, and the scope questions to ask instead
• Fumble 5: The preemptive retreat. Why "but I'm open to whatever works for your budget" undoes your anchor the moment you set it
• Why holding your number without softening it feels so uncomfortable, especially for women, and the CEO reframe that fixes it
• The Anchor Method Step 1: Position before price. Build context with your engagement rate, audience overlap, and a piece of content that proves the fit
• Tea's real inbound story: the video she posted the day before a brand reached out, and how it became her anchor
• Step 2: Anchor with a bolstering range. Why the top of your range should feel like a stretch and the bottom should be your true floor
• Step 3: Attach your range to a defined package. Why brands rarely know what they need, and why a single video is almost never the right offer
• Step 4: Close with momentum. Killing "let me know if that works" energy and replacing it with timeline questions that keep the deal moving
• Kate's real story of closing the loop with a brand that went quiet, and why hearing no beats an open tab in your brain

Your Challenge: Write your Anchor Method response template before you need it. Go to Episode 5 for the 4R Framework if you haven't calculated your rates. Map your range for one video, three videos, and ad rights. Add your scope questions. Save it. The next time a brand asks what your rates are, you'll respond prepared instead of panicked.

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 5 Season 1: What You Should Charge, the 4R Pricing Framework
• Ep 7 Season 1: The LEVEL Framework, the levers to pull when adjusting rates and packages mid-negotiation
• Season 2 Episode 11: How to Create Brand Deal Content That Gets Results, understanding brand goals before you price
• S2E8: 5 Content Creator Business Mistakes Keeping You Broke, the CEO vs. creator mindset

Book Recommendation: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

59% of beginner creators are not monetizing their content. And for a lot of them, it's not because the opportunities aren't there. It's because of a quiet fear that taking money will make them a sellout.

This episode was inspired by a real conversation Kate had with a creator friend who's seven months in, getting good inbound offers, and wrestling with the guilt of accepting them. So we're having that conversation with all of you. Where the guilt comes from, why it exists, what selling out really means, and the four-question test we use to know whether a brand deal protects our audience's trust or trades it away.

We also share real numbers, including Kate's $34,000 brand deal month and Tea's $42K month, because talking openly about money is half the reason this podcast exists.

What We Cover:

• Where creator money guilt comes from: the shift from trading time for a salary to being paid for outcomes, trust, and years of platform building
• Why a $2,000 payment for a 30-second video is not payment for 30 seconds of work
• Kate's honest story about crossing $30K in one month and realizing it was more than a full year of her teaching salary
• Tea's experience pitching big numbers while part of her brain still asked "who do you think you are?"
• Why talking about creator income with friends outside this world feels so uncomfortable, and why the silence makes it worse
• Kate's highest brand deal month: $34,218 in October 2025, and why neither of us is special for hitting numbers like that
• The difference between monetizing and selling out: monetizing is getting paid for who you already are, selling out is changing who you are to get paid
• Tea's confession: the hairbrush TikTok Shop deal she took early on that made $5K and taught her where her line is
• The game: selling out or monetizing? Three scenarios to test your instincts
• The four-question alignment test: Would I recommend this if they weren't paying me? Does it solve a problem for my audience? Would my audience be surprised? Am I excited about the partnership or just the paycheck?
• Why demoing a tool before accepting an inbound is non-negotiable
• The AI PowerPoint deal Tea turned down this week even though the money was good
• Why saying yes to misaligned money costs you the thing brands are paying for in the first place: trust
• Playing the long game: how both of us have done years of brand deals while our audiences still trust our recommendations

Your Gut Check: Next time an offer lands in your inbox, run it through the four questions before you look at the number. If it passes all four, take the money without guilt. That's not selling out. That's a business.

Episodes Referenced:

• S2E1 and S2E2: the brand-ready content and profile foundations this framework builds on
• Ep 10: Creator confidence crisis / undercharging mindset
• Season 2 Episode 11: How to Create Brand Deal Content That Gets Results, the GOAL framework
• Ep 5 Season 1: What You Should Charge, the 4R Pricing Framework

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

When a brand pays you for a video, they are not buying the video. They're buying an outcome. The video is just the vehicle that gets them there.

This is a whiteboard episode. Get your notebook out, because we're teaching you our GOAL framework: the four-step process we use to understand what a brand wants from a partnership, build a content strategy around it, deliver the results, and adapt when something stops working. This is the difference between creators who get one-off deals and creators who build careers.

What We Cover:

• The mindset shift from selling videos to selling outcomes, and why it separates brand partners from content vendors
• G: Goal. The questions to ask a brand before you ever sign a contract, including how they measure success and what outcome would make the campaign a win
• Why Tea turned down a conversion-focused deal after realizing her audience wasn't even problem-aware yet, and how to run that same check on your own audience
• The second round of goal questions to ask after the contract is signed, before you write a single script
• O: Outline. How to build your content strategy using top, middle, and bottom of funnel thinking
• What top of funnel content looks like: content someone would watch whether or not they care about the brand
• Why middle of funnel content will never get massive reach, and why that has to be aligned with the brand's success metrics before you start
• Why dropping a coupon code in the middle of a reach-focused video is a strategy misalignment, and the on-screen text alternative Kate uses instead
• A: Apply. The layers beyond the video itself: engagement drivers, ManyChat activations, free resources, and email capture
• Kate's ManyChat setup that sent viewers straight to the exact product feature she demoed in the video
• The full-funnel brand partnership Tea is running right now, including a free resource, an email list built into the package, and an upsell on the back end
• L: Level Up. You are paid to get results, not to make videos. What to do when the content that worked a year ago stops working
• Why testing new content styles on your own page first means you're never experimenting on a brand's dime
• The one question that instantly positions you as a strategic partner: "What would a knockout partnership look like for you from a performance standpoint?"

Your Challenge: Pick one brand partnership you're in right now or about to start. Do you know the goal? Is it awareness, education, or conversion? How is the brand measuring success? If you don't know, go ask this week. The answer will probably surprise you.

Episodes Referenced:

• S2E10: Stop using AI like this if you're a content creator
• S2E1 and S2E2: the brand-ready content and profile foundations this framework builds on
• Ep 13 Season 1: Why Retainers Are the Secret to Scalable Creator Income, because delivering results is how retainers happen
• Ep 5 Season 1: What You Should Charge, the 4R Pricing Framework

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

Show Notes:

We run a creator agency. We source creators for brand campaigns every week. And we can tell, every single time, when someone handed their script to ChatGPT instead of showing up themselves.

It's not subtle. And it's costing creators deals they should have landed.

In this episode we're getting honest about AI. Not whether to use it, because we both use it every day. But where it's actively working against you. As creators who have built audiences of nearly 300K combined, and as agency owners who sit on the other side of the sourcing table, we see this from both angles. The creator who sounds like themselves wins. Every time. The creator who sounds like a well-organized language model? We move on.

This is the episode the AI productivity hacks crowd doesn't want you to hear.

What We Cover:

• Why content engagement is dropping at the same time AI-generated content is exploding, and why that's probably not a coincidence
• What we spot in the first five seconds that tells us a script was written by AI
• Why AI pulls the median of everything on the internet and why that makes it the enemy of standout content
• The 3 things you should never outsource to AI: your personality, your real stories, and your actual opinions
• What happened when a creator we hired for an agency campaign delivered an AI script instead of themselves, and how that ended
• Why 52% of consumers are already less engaged by AI content and 71% trust a brand less when they detect it
• The right way to use AI in your creator business: brainstorming, organization, feedback, research, without letting it replace the one thing brands are actually paying for, which is you
• Kate's 200-idea content brainstorm hack that keeps her human while using AI as the starting gun, not the finish line
• Tea's voice note method for staying authentic while still using AI to structure and organize
• How to ask AI for a confidence interval so you know when it's making things up
• Your challenge: read your last AI-assisted piece of content out loud and ask what YOU actually added to it

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 22: What Brands Are Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands
• Season 2 Episode 3: How to Build a Community That Attracts Brand Deals ft. Mackenzie Heflin, on why authentic storytelling is your single biggest competitive advantage

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

Show Notes:

72% of creator pitches never get a response. Most people assume that means rejection. It usually doesn't.

This is our second deep dive into the brand side of brand partnerships — and this time we're hearing from someone who has personally worked with over 300 creators and spent more than $3 million on creator collaborations. Yuliia Maryniak leads influencer marketing and partnerships at Kittl, the AI-powered design platform based in Berlin, and she brings a deeply data-driven approach to everything she does.

If you've ever sent a pitch and heard nothing back, wondered what actually makes a brand say yes, or wanted real insight into how an influencer marketing manager thinks — this episode is for you.

What We Cover:

• Yuliia's path to building a profitable influencer marketing engine from scratch
• What actually happens to a pitch once it lands in a brand's inbox
• Why most pitches get ignored — and why it's usually not personal
• What brands are actually looking for that has nothing to do with follower count
• How a data-driven brand evaluates creators before ever responding
• The difference between a pitch that gets ghosted and one that gets a reply
• What makes Yuliia remember a creator long after a single campaign ends
• How Kittl as a design platform evaluates creator fit and alignment
• The European vs. US influencer marketing landscape — what's different, what's the same
• Communication and professionalism as the real differentiator brands are watching for

Find Yuliia & Kittl: Kittl: kittl.com

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 22: What Brands Are Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands
• Episode 4: The Obvious YES Pitch — the 5C Framework for pitching brands like a partner
• S2E4: How to Make a Media Kit That Gets Brand Deals

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

Your content is great, but you're stuck thinking like a creator instead of a business owner.

In this episode Kate and Tea break down the 5 biggest mistakes keeping content creators from making real, predictable money — pulled directly from what they're seeing while sourcing creators for their own agency. If you've been posting consistently and still aren't landing the partnerships or rates you want, one of these five is probably the reason.

What We Cover:

• Mistake 1: Not having your business basics set up — why an LLC isn't just for "real businesses," and why creators with one get noticed differently by brands and agencies
• Mistake 2: Guessing on your rates — why pricing based on confidence, fear, or a random TikTok video is costing you money and credibility
• Why "it takes me a long time to edit" is not a justification a brand will ever accept
• Mistake 3: Making it hard for brands to pay you — the email-in-bio problem, broken links, and why DMs are not a real contact strategy
• Mistake 4: The two extremes of readiness — waiting to feel "legitimate enough" vs. expecting opportunities before doing the work
• Mistake 5: Thinking deal-to-deal instead of relationship-to-relationship — why CEO creators play the long game with retainers, referrals, and repeat partnerships
• Why operating as a business changes how brands and agencies perceive you before a single word is exchanged
• The single accountability action to take this week to shift from creator mode to CEO mode

Your Challenge: Pick one of these five mistakes where you know you're operating like a creator instead of a CEO. Spend the next seven days fixing it — start your LLC, build your media kit, fix your bio, or follow up with a brand you haven't talked to in a while.

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 5: What You Should Actually Charge — the 4R Pricing Framework, our most downloaded episode
• S2E4: How to Make a Media Kit That Gets Brand Deals
• S2E7: How to Renegotiate Your Brand Deal Rates
• Ep 13: Why Retainers Are the Secret to Scalable Creator Income
• Ep 22: What Brands Are Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands

More From Us:

• Start your LLC with Tailor Brands — our affiliate link is always in the show notes
• Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
• Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

Creators who negotiate their rates earn on average 40% more than creators who don't. Kate hadn't renegotiated with one of her longest-standing brand partners in over a year. This episode is what happened next.

This is a live one. We're walking through Kate's actual renegotiation process in real time — the data she pulled, how she structured the email, what she asked for, and the mindset it takes to send it without adding "no worries if not" at the end.

If you have a retainer client, a recurring brand deal, or a rate that hasn't moved in a while — this episode is your sign.

What We Cover:

• Why renegotiating a long-term brand deal feels scarier than it should — and why brands almost never walk away over it
• How Kate went from a healthy renegotiation cadence to accidentally going a full year without revisiting her rates
• Why retainer partnerships are the easiest ones to forget to renegotiate (and the most important ones to review)
• Step 1: Know your before and after — how to pull a snapshot of your stats from when you last negotiated vs. right now
• Step 2: Translate data into brand value — engagement rate, affiliate revenue, follower growth, and what each one actually says to a brand
• Step 3: Make a specific ask — why ranges and soft language kill your negotiation before it starts
• The real data Kate used: 84% follower growth, a maintained engagement rate, and nearly $200K in attributed affiliate revenue
• How to structure the renegotiation email — what to open with, how to present data, and exactly how to close
• Why your number should feel a little scary — and why that's actually the right signal
• The mindset trap: how approaching a renegotiation from scarcity or desperation kills it before it starts
• Tea's story: when having the data wasn't enough because the energy was wrong
• When NOT to renegotiate: too soon, stagnant performance, shaky relationship, or any state of financial desperation

The 3-Step Renegotiation Framework:

1. Pull your before and after data — stats from last negotiation vs. now
2. Translate the data into brand value — what does it mean for their ROI, not yours
3. Make a specific ask — one number, fully justified, no soft landings

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 7: The LEVEL Framework — how to negotiate an inbound offer (the foundation before this episode)
• Ep 13: Why Retainers Are the Secret to Scalable Creator Income — why this conversation matters most for retainer clients
• Ep 5: What You Should Actually Charge — the 4R Pricing Framework for building your base rate

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

Every article on the internet will tell you gifted collabs are a great starting point. We're here to tell you that depends entirely on who you are and what you're building — and for most education-based content creators, the answer is more complicated than "just say yes."

This is a quick one but it will make you think twice before you hit accept on that next inbound.

What We Cover:

• What a gifted collab actually is — and why it is not the same as PR
• Why brands love gifted collabs so much (hint: it has everything to do with them and almost nothing to do with you)
• The tax reality nobody tells you: gifted product counts as taxable income even if you never see a dollar
• FTC rules for gifted collabs — why "it's just free product" is still legally an ad that requires disclosure
• Why a page full of gifted collabs signals to brands that you're not worth paying — and actively works against landing paid partnerships
• Your personal brand as real estate: why every post is a decision about what gets to live there
• The difference between a gifted collab and PR — and why that line matters for your business
• The one scenario where a gifted collab might make sense for an EDUcreator
• Why anchoring yourself at free makes it nearly impossible to negotiate your way to paid later
• How to decline a gifted collab without burning the relationship
• How to try to flip a gifted collab into a paid opportunity
• The 3-question framework for deciding whether to say yes or no

The 3-Question Framework:

1. Would I be talking about this brand in my content anyway?
2. Is this building toward something paid?
3. What is this replacing in my personal brand real estate?

Your Homework: Go to your page right now. Count your last 20 posts. How many are gifted or sponsored? What percentage is that? If a dream brand landed on your page today — is there even room for them?

Episodes Referenced:

• S2E1: You're Already Doing This for Free — the 5 types of content brands pay for that you're probably already creating, and why you don't need gifted collabs to build a portfolio
• Ep 5: What You Should Actually Charge — how to know when your content is worth more than free product
• Ep 11: The Confidence Crisis — saying no from abundance not scarcity

More From Us:

• • Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
  • Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.

Tea got an inbound from a LEGIT agency. Established brand. Green flag email. $700 for zero extra work on a video she posted two and a half years ago. She almost said yes.

Then she read the contract.

In this episode Kate reads Tea's real brand deal contract out loud — clause by clause — and breaks down every red flag hiding inside language that was designed to be confusing on purpose. This isn't legal advice. This is two business owners who have signed enough contracts to know when something is trying to take advantage of you.

If you've ever felt pressure to sign fast, gotten excited about easy money, or had a gut feeling that something was off — this episode is for you.

What We Cover:

• How a viral video Tea posted two and a half years ago led to a brand inbound in 2025 — and why your old content still matters
• Why fast-moving brands can be a red flag before you even open the contract
• Red Flag 1: Broad usage rights — what "in perpetuity" actually means and why it should make you stop reading immediately
• Why ad rights should always be sold in 30-day increments and never signed away forever
• The math on what perpetual usage rights would have actually cost this brand if Tea had charged correctly
• Red Flag 2: Extensive editing rights — how brands can slice, dice, and reframe your content into something you never said
• Red Flag 3: Persona rights — how a brand can legally use your name, likeness, voice, and social media handles for whatever they want
• The AI likeness risk that makes persona rights scarier than ever in 2025
• Red Flag 4: Delayed payment terms — what's standard, what's a stretch, and what's a no
• Red Flag 5: Total waiver of creative control — the clause that essentially says "we can do whatever we want and you have no say"
• Why saying no to a bad contract protects the entire creator industry — not just you
• When to negotiate vs. when to walk away entirely
• The 5 questions to ask yourself before signing any brand deal contract
• Why the only thing this contract had going for it was the payment terms

Your Challenge: Before you sign your next contract ask yourself: Does this align with my long-term goals? Am I comfortable with the usage? Are they hoping I know less than I do? Is the compensation proportional? Would I regret this later?

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 11: The Confidence Crisis — the mindset episode on scarcity thinking and saying no from a place of abundance
• Ep 5: What You Should Actually Charge — the 4R Pricing Framework including how to price ad rights
• Ep 16: Legal Gaps with Alyssa from Legal Doer — going deeper on creator contracts and legal protection
• Ep 7: How to Turn a $500 Offer Into a $2K+ Package — the LEVEL Framework for negotiating

More From Us:

• Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
• Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

A Note From Our Sponsor: We talk a lot on this show about treating your content creation like a business — and that means setting yourself up with the right foundation. When Tea and I made Not An Influencer Creator Agency official, we used Tailor Brands to form our LLC. The process was genuinely simple — we filed from our laptops in under an hour, tracked our filing status right inside the Tailor dashboard, and had everything we needed to keep moving. Tailor also offers additional services like EIN setup, business bank accounts, and a finance manager to track your income and expenses as you grow. Search "Tailor Business Builder" to get started today.