Accidentally Influential

A media kit won't land you a brand deal by itself. But not having one — or having the wrong things in it — will definitely cost you deals you should have gotten.

This is Season 2 Episode 4 of Accidentally Influential, and this one has been a long time coming. We've mentioned media kits in episode four, episode five, episode 27, and basically every time we've talked about pitching brands. Today we're actually breaking it down — what goes in, what to leave out, and the free tool that builds yours in ten minutes.

What We Cover:

• What a media kit actually is and what job it's doing for you when you send it
• Why brands spend less than 30 seconds scanning yours — and how to build it so the right things land immediately
• The 7 elements every creator media kit needs (in the exact order a brand will look for them)
• Element 1: Who you are and who you serve — the one statement that does all the heavy lifting
• Element 2: Your engagement rate, average views, and follower count — why engagement rate is the number brands actually care about
• Element 3: Audience demographics — why this is what brands are really buying when they partner with you
• Element 4: Content examples — why your most viral video is probably not the right choice here
• Element 5: Past brand partnerships and case studies — and the question you should be asking every brand you've worked with
• Element 6: Your rates — why the research says including them gets you more deals, not fewer
• Element 7: How to reach you — yes, this still needs to be said

What NOT to include in your media kit (including the life story nobody asked for)

• Why you should never make up numbers — and why brands will find out if you do
• Beacons — the free tool that builds your media kit automatically and updates it every week without you touching it
• Your challenge: have a media kit done by next Monday

Your Homework: Go to beacons.ai, connect your platforms, and let it pull your stats. Fill in your bio in one sentence. Done. You have a media kit. DM us the link when it's ready.

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 22: What Brands Are Actually Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands — Noam confirmed Beacons is a tool brands actually recognize and appreciate
• Ep 5: What You Should Actually Charge — the 4R Pricing Framework for figuring out your rates
• S2E1: You're Already Doing This for Free — where to find content examples to include in your kit
• Ep 25: Is Your Profile Brand Ready? — the 5-point checklist that complements this episode

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.

Followers are vanity. Community is currency. And nobody teaches that better than today's guest.

Mackenzie Heflin is a storytelling specialist and content coach who went from losing her entire business overnight — her Facebook group got hacked and deleted at seven months pregnant — to rebuilding from scratch, going viral 27 days into a new storytelling strategy, and working with over 200 clients one-on-one, including Ariana Grande's photographer.

In this episode we get into why storytelling is the most underrated strategy for EDUcreators who want to land brand deals — and how to write pitch emails, build community trust, and attract inbounds by just showing up as yourself.

What We Cover:

• Mackenzie's origin story — how losing everything led to building something better
• Why she posted 5-7 times a day for four months before anything clicked (and what that means for you if you're early)
• The mindset shift from chasing followers to building a community — and why it changes everything
• Why TikTok is the greatest gift for educational content creators who don't want to perform
• How storytelling content strategy leads to better brand deal inbounds — organically
• The difference between a sponsored post that feels like an ad and one that feels like a story (and what brands are actually noticing)
• How to write a pitch email that sounds human — not like ChatGPT wrote it
• Why saying no to misaligned brand deals protects your community and your rates
• The structure Mackenzie teaches for brand-ready storytelling content
• The biggest storytelling mistake creators make in 2026 (spoiler: it involves production value)
• Why authority-based content is the unlock for creators who don't trust themselves yet
• Rapid fire: storytelling vs strategy, the content that changed her business, and the biggest mistake she sees

Find Mackenzie: TikTok, Instagram & Threads: @mackenzie_heflin

Episodes Referenced:

• S2E1: You're Already Doing This for Free — the unpaid brand work hiding in your content
• S2E2: Is Your Profile Brand Ready? — the 5-point checklist
• Ep 22: What Brands Are Actually Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands
• Ep 4: The Obvious YES Pitch — the 5C Framework for pitching brands like a partner

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.

If you've been posting consistently and still haven't landed a brand deal, your content might not be the problem. Your profile might be.

This is Season 2, Episode 2 of Accidentally Influential — and this season is a full curriculum. Every episode builds on the last. If you haven't listened to Season 2 Episode 1 yet, start there — then come back here.

Today we're walking you through our 5-point Brand Ready Page Checklist: the exact things a brand looks at when they land on your profile and decide whether to reach out. Not your follower count. Not your aesthetics. These five things.

What We Cover:

• How brands actually review your page before they decide to reach out — and what they're really looking for
• Why follower count is one of the last things brands care about (and what they look at instead)
• Check 1: Niche clarity — can a brand tell within seconds who you're talking to and why they'd want to be there?
• Check 2: Natural brand fit — are there visible gaps in your content where a brand could naturally live?
• Check 3: Evidence of movement — are people in your community actually taking action on your content, or just watching?
• Check 4: Consistency — what your posting cadence tells a brand about whether you're a reliable partner
• Check 5: Reachability — the embarrassingly simple thing that's blocking more brand deals than anything else (Kate's origin story)
• The red flags that kill brand deals even when your content is good — mismatched past partnerships, undisclosed ads, and fake engagement
• Why FTC disclosure isn't just a legal requirement — it's a trust signal that brands are actively looking for
• Your challenge: run your own page through all 5 checks before you close this episode

Your Homework: Pull up your page right now. Cover your username and bio. Can a total stranger tell within the first few seconds what you talk about and who you talk to? If not — that's where you start.

Episodes Referenced:

• S2E1: You're Probably Already Doing This for Free — the unpaid brand work hiding in your content
• Ep 22: What Brands Are Actually Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands — the brand-side perspective that informs this entire checklist
• Ep 25: How to Grow on TikTok as a Business Owner ft. Sarah Weiss — the live 4R pricing exercise we reference

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.

You're Already Doing Brand Deal Work for Free (Here's How to Get Paid for It)

Welcome to Season 2 of Accidentally Influential. We're calling this season Land It — because every episode this season is built around one goal: helping you land your first and ongoing paid brand partnerships.

And we're starting with the episode we wish existed before we ever landed our first deal.

Here's the thing nobody tells you: you are probably already creating content that brands would pay for. Right now. Without knowing it. You're just not getting paid for it yet. This episode is about changing that — not by overhauling your content strategy, not by becoming someone you're not, but by learning to look at what you're already doing through a completely different lens.

This is not an influencer thing. It never was.

What We Cover:

• Why EDUcreators and online educators have been conditioned to think brand deals aren't for them — and why that assumption is costing them money
• The 5 types of unpaid brand work creators are already doing (and how to start getting paid for each one)
• Type 1: The direct tool mention — why casually name-dropping a product is already brand deal content
• Type 2: The comparison or opinion moment — how contrasting two options creates the exact space a brand wants to live in
• Type 3: The problem you're naming — how pain point content is silently building a pitch for a brand that solves it
• Type 4: The process that needs a solution — why tutorial-style content is the most valuable real estate for brand partnerships
• Type 5: The lifestyle or workflow reveal — how showing your day, your bag, your run, your desk is brand deal content hiding in plain sight
• How to start looking at your content through a brand's eyes — without changing a single thing about how you create
• Why your email needs to be in your bio (Kate learned this the hard way)
• & Homework so ya'll can take the steps to LAND IT this season.

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 20: Your first brand deal blueprint PART 1
• Ep 21: Your first brand deal blueprint PART 2
• Ep 5: What You Should Actually Charge — the 4R Pricing Framework
• Ep 4: The Obvious YES Pitch — how to pitch brands like a strategic partner

More From Us:

• Tailor Brands: the EASIEST way to legitimize your creator business, form your LLC, and build a business hub to make that side of earning an income SIMPLE.
• Join the Creator Club waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
• Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

Season 2 of Accidentally Influential is here — and we're calling it: Land It.

Season 1 was the wake-up call. Season 2 is the plan.

If you're an educator, course creator, coach, or digital product seller who's been building an audience and wondering how to monetize it beyond your own offers — this season was made for you. Because brand deals aren't just for lifestyle influencers with half a million followers. They're for you. And this season, we're showing you exactly how to land them.

Hosted by Tea and Kate — two content creators who've built nearly 500,000 followers and secured over $700,000 in brand partnerships — Accidentally Influential is the podcast that teaches EDUcreators how to pitch brands, price their content, negotiate paid partnerships, and build brand deals into a real, consistent income stream.

Season 2 covers everything: how to make your page brand-ready, how to build a media kit that actually gets responses, how to pitch brands and get replies, how to price yourself using our 4R Pricing Framework, how to negotiate without losing the deal, and how to turn one-off partnerships into long-term retainers.

New episodes every Monday. If you're ready to stop leaving money on the table — follow the show and start with Episode 1.

Topics covered: brand deals, how to get brand deals, brand partnerships for creators, how to pitch brands, content creator monetization, sponsored content, influencer marketing, how to make money as a content creator, micro influencer brand deals, paid partnerships, how to land brand deals with a small following, course creator monetization, digital products, EDUcreator, creator economy

If your videos aren't stopping the scroll, this episode is for you.

We brought on Sarah Weiss — speech therapist turned TikTok content and marketing expert, creator of Online Business Talk, and the woman we're officially crowning the Hook Queen — to break down exactly how educational content creators and online business owners can use TikTok to grow, sell, and attract brand deals without ever chasing virality.

Sarah has been on TikTok since 2021, built an audience of 77K on her business account, and accidentally built a second income stream through brand partnerships on her personal account — all by showing up as herself.

BONUSSSSSS → We also walked Sarah live through our 4R Pricing Framework to show her exactly what she could be charging for brand deals on her TikTok page. Spoiler: the floor for a single video will surprise you :p

What We Cover:

• Why you need to stop starting your videos with "hey guys, happy Saturday" — and what to do instead
• The two hook formulas that work every single time for educational content creators
• Why TikTok is a search engine now — and how to use that to get discovered
• Sarah's content structure: hook, call to action, juice (and why most creators get this backwards)
• Why you don't need to go viral — you need to reach the right people
• How TikTok and Instagram work together like an old married couple
• Why "asking your audience a question" counts as a call to action
• How Sarah accidentally built a second income stream through brand partnerships on her personal account
• The live 4R Pricing Framework walkthrough — we priced Sarah's brand deal value in real time
• Why ManyChat would be a dream brand deal for Sarah (and why alignment matters more than follower count)
• What brands are looking for in educational content creators right now
• TikTok Shop: worth it for EDUcreators or overhyped? Sarah gives her honest take

Episodes Referenced:

• Ep 5: What You Should Actually Charge — the full 4R Pricing Framework we walked through live
• Ep 4:The Obvious YES Pitch — how to pitch brands like a strategic partner
• Ep 8: Affiliate Income the Right Way — on using affiliates strategically before going after paid deals

Find Sarah: TikTok & Instagram: @onbrandbysarah. Check out Online Business Tok here!

More From Us:

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

We're pulling back the curtain on every income stream we've built through content creation — from brand deals and affiliate income to UGC, digital products, and consulting. This is the episode we wish existed when we were starting out.

Fair warning: Kate got her tax return the day before we recorded this and it sent us both into a spiral. In the best way.

This is also episode 24, which means we've officially recorded more than three times the number of episodes most podcasts ever make. So if you've been here since the beginning — thank you. Now let's talk about money.

What We Cover:

• Why content creation is a skill — and one of the most valuable ones you can have in 2026
• Brand deals: what Kate and Tea's current deal landscape looks like, including a very suspicious shared inbound that may or may not be the same brand
• Affiliate income: what it's actually worth (Kate shares her real 2026 numbers), when it makes sense, and why it should never be your primary income stream
• UGC: why it's the most natural extension for creators who already have a personal brand — and how NAICA is now building out creator networks for brands
• Digital products: how to know when you're ready, why starting with an MVP beats building the perfect product, and why $299 for a six-week coaching program is something we've all done and will never do again
• Consulting and freelancing: how your content creation skills translate directly into paid client work — from social media strategy to email funnels — and why you already know more than you think
• Why every skill you're building right now is transferable in more directions than you can imagine

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.

Episodes Referenced:

• Episode 23: UGC, Retainer Clients & How to Make $130K/Year as a Content Creator ft. Leslie of Evolushein — the UGC deep dive we mention throughout
• Episode 8: Affiliate Income the Right Way — on using affiliates strategically to get on a brand's radar
• Episode 15: Instagram Content Brands Actually Want ft. Mya Nichol

More From Us:

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

Want More Episodes Like This? → Episode 13: Why Retainers Are the Secret to Scalable Creator Income → Episodes 20 & 21: Your First Brand Deal Blueprint — the full 4-step system → Episode 9: Year in Review — real numbers from both of our businesses

We brought on Leslie of Evolushein — UGC creator, creative director, and creator coach — because she has figured out something most creators never do: how to turn content creation into a predictable, scalable business with retainer clients, UGC income, and $130K+ in recurring revenue every year.

If you've been wondering how to become a UGC creator, how to land your first client, or how to stop trading one-off brand deals for actual consistent income — this is the episode.

What We Cover:

• What UGC actually is in 2025 and why brands are paying more for it than ever
• How Leslie was doing UGC before it had a name — and what she learned from it
• Why you don't need a big following to make money as a content creator
• The exact signs that tell you you're ready to start pitching brands
• How to use the Facebook Ads Library to find your first UGC clients (this tip alone is worth the listen)
• How to build a UGC portfolio from scratch using products you already own
• The pricing difference between brand partnership content on your page vs. UGC content — and why both belong in your business
• Why perpetual usage rights make sense for UGC but not for brand partnerships
• How Leslie turned one 8-video-a-month UGC retainer into a $130K+ per year creative director role
• Why retainer clients are the only way to build predictable income as a creator
• How to position yourself as a creative strategist — not just a creator — to command higher rates and longer partnerships
• The mental health case for UGC (this one hits different)

Your Action Step: Go to the Facebook Ads Library right now. Search a brand you want to work with, set the filter to "All Ads," and look at what's been running for 30+ days. That's your UGC brief. Build your portfolio around what's already working.

Where to Find Leslie:

→ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/evolushenfreelancing/

→ PAID CONTENT CREATOR ACADEMY: https://evolushencreatives.clickfunnels.com/order-form3

Referenced:

• Tailor Brands: the EASIEST way to legitimize your creator business, form your LLC, and build a business hub to make that side of earning an income SIMPLE.
• Episode 13: Why Retainers Are the Secret to Scalable Creator Income
• Episode 8: Affiliate Income the Right Way — on using affiliates strategically to get on a brand's radar

More From Us:

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

Want More Episodes Like This? →

• Episode 14:: How Honest Content Builds Loyal Fans ft. Ryan from Side Hustle Review
• Episode 15: Instagram Content Brands Actually Want ft. Mya Nichol
• Episode 22: What Brands Are Actually Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands

div]:bg-bg-000/50 [&_pre>div]:border-0.5 [&_pre>div]:border-border-400 [&_.ignore-pre-bg>div]:bg-transparent [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8"> _*]:min-w-0 gap-3 standard-markdown">

We've talked a lot on this podcast about how to pitch brands, how to price yourself, and how to show up like a partner. This episode? We went straight to the source.

Noam Giras is the Head of Media Partnerships at Tailor Brands — with seven years of experience and hundreds of influencer deals under her belt. She's also one of the influencer managers Kate and Tea personally work with, which made this conversation as real as it gets. If you've ever wondered why a brand ghosted your pitch, what actually makes a creator stand out, or what brands wish creators understood — this one's for you.

What We Cover:

• How Tailor Brands sources creators (hint: it's a lot more organic than you think)
• What brands actually look at first when a pitch lands in their inbox — and it's not your media kit
• The one thing Noam looks at before anything else when evaluating a creator
• Why a personal connection to the brand in your pitch email matters more than a perfect PDF
• What makes a brand delete a pitch without responding
• Why a "no" from a brand is almost never about you — and how timing plays a bigger role than creators realize
• How joining a brand's affiliate program can get you noticed and lead to paid partnerships
• The metric Noam actually looks at first when evaluating creators (it's not engagement rate)
• Why communication is the single biggest green flag for long-term partnerships — and the biggest ick when it's missing
• What brands wish creators understood about budgets and campaign timing
• Why treating your content creation like a business (LLC, invoices, contracts) changes how brands see you
• The difference between a creator who gets called back and one who doesn't

Episodes Referenced:

• Episode 8: Affiliate Income the Right Way — on using affiliates strategically to get on a brand's radar
• Episode 12: What Happens After the Yes — building the communication system that makes brands want to work with you again
• Episode 4: The Obvious YES Pitch — the 5C Framework Noam's tips plug directly into
• Episodes 20 & 21: The First Brand Deal Blueprint — the full system this episode builds on

Links:

• Tailor Brands: the EASIEST way to legitimize your creator business, form your LLC, and build a business hub to make that side of earning an income SIMPLE.
• Tailor Brands Affiliate Program: https://www.tailorbrands.com/affiliates
• Join the Creator Club waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands
• Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

Want More Episodes Like This?

→ Episode 3: Brand Deals That Don't Suck — green flags to look for before you say yes

→ Episode 14:: How Honest Content Builds Loyal Fans ft. Ryan from Side Hustle Review

→ Episode 15: Instagram Content Brands Actually Want ft. Mya Nichol

If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, go back to last week's episode first — this won't make sense without it.

This is the conclusion of our First Brand Deal Blueprint: a four-step system for landing your first paid brand partnership as an EDUcreator. In part one we covered creating content brands would actually pay for and getting crystal clear on who your audience is. Now we're getting into the part most creators never figure out — how to use data to prove your value, and how to pitch in a way that positions you as a strategic partner, not a creator asking for a favor.

The Full Blueprint (Across Both Episodes):

• Step 1: Post content a brand would actually pay for
• Step 2: Know who your content is actually for
• Step 3: Prove your value with data brands understand
• Step 4: Pitch like a partner, not a creator asking for a chance

What We Cover in This Episode (Steps 3 & 4):

• Why brands evaluate creators completely differently than creators evaluate themselves
• Why engagement rate is the baseline metric that actually moves the needle with brands — and how to calculate it
• The difference between quality engagement and noise (and why brands can tell the difference)
• Why saves and shares signal something to brands that likes and views never will
• How to build a value narrative — not just a list of metrics — that gives brands context for why you're worth paying
• Why follower count is the last thing you should lead with in a pitch
• Beacons as a free tool to pull your media kit and engagement data without a spreadsheet
• The "happy to be here" energy that kills brand deals before they start
• What brands are actually asking when they evaluate a pitch: audience fit, execution reliability, and whether you make their job easier
• How to structure a pitch around why you, why now, and what it looks like to work with you
• Your action steps: identifying five aligned brands and writing your first pitch using your own data

Your Homework After This Episode: Pull data from your last 3-5 best performing organic posts. Calculate engagement rate, note the quality of engagement, and write one sentence per post explaining what it did well and why that would matter to a brand. Then identify five brands that naturally fit your content world and draft your first pitch.

Go Deeper — Episodes Referenced:

• Episode 2: Hot Audience > Huge Audience — how to calculate your engagement rate
• Episode 5: What You Should Actually Charge — how your data directly connects to your rates using the 4R Framework
• Episode 12: What Happens After the Yes — how to deliver like a pro once a brand says yes
• Episode 13: Why Retainers Are the Secret to Scalable Creator Income — turning one deal into ongoing income
• Episode 22: The Brand Side — we bring on a brand partner to show you exactly how brands evaluate creators

More From Us:

• Join the Creator Club Waitlist — coaching, templates, rate calculators, and direct help pitching brands. Built for EDUcreators ready to get paid.
• Follow us on IG & TikTok: @notaninfluencerco

Want More Episodes Like This?

→ Episode 4: The Obvious YES Pitch — the 5C Framework for pitching brands

→ Episode 7: How to Turn a $500 Offer Into a $2K+ Package

→ Episode 3: Brand Deals That Don't Suck — green flags to look for in a partnership