Bret Shuford 0:00
Welcome back, my friend. So one of the first things people want to learn from working with me is how do you get brand deals and sponsorships, especially if you have a significantly small following, maybe you haven't grown. But you know, being an influencer, working and promoting products and brands is something you want to do in the future. And here's the truth I talked about this so much in the creative visibility programme is, your audience needs to be not trained, but they need to be used to doing the things that you want them to do if you want them to in the future, you want to get big brand deals, your audience needs to be used to clicking on things they need to be used to going to the link in your bio. And the more you have things to do that also, the more you can create content using brands and products and services. The more you create content and tag those brands, the more they're going to start to recognise you and potentially hire you to be an influencer. Now you can always pitch I teach you how to pitch in the programme pitching to brands is something that I think most people don't actually think they can do. And no matter the size of your following brands will work with people if your audience is engaged enough because they have a marketing budget and by you creating really good content for them. That saves them from having to do a photo shoot or a video shoot themselves. So it's a win win, right? So but I found really cool. And what I love doing when I first started out in creating content as an influencer, especially on Broadway husbands is there lots of third party services that brands and product companies they hire to find influencers and it costs nothing for you. One of my first accounts was with a company called Aspire IQ. Now I'm going to put a list of all of these for you to download in the show notes below. But all the companies I use that I now I just got to speak on a pride panel for one of them called quotient. There are third parties that these companies hire to seek out influencers to create content, you can register with these websites, you can pitch yourself, you can apply for brand deals or you can apply for campaigns, advertising campaigns for these companies, they will send you free product in exchange for you doing that. That's how we started, we got all kinds of really cool like Father's Day, Mother's Day gifts, we didn't get paid to create that content. But by getting those gifts, we were able to create beautiful content for them that they would then share on their account tag us which would get exposure to their audience. And we would gain more followers from that. So it's always a good idea. If you're somebody who wants to be an influencer wants to be somebody who grows their audience, you want to gain more followers, we want to get more visibility more exposure out there. So don't be shy in promoting products and brands that you already love. Now, that doesn't mean you just like slap up something a photo, you want to make content that they would be willing to share. That means you need to improve your photo taking skills, you need to improve your reels or you need to know how to create video and make it quality you want this stuff to be things the brands are willing to use or share with their audience. It's the same thing if you're making a real promoting your own brand your own content, you want it to be the highest level quality that you can do. Notice I didn't say the highest level quality that exists ever in the universe. You want it to be the highest level quality that you can do. And you're always going to be striving to improve that quality because that's what we are right as an artist as a creative. We're always striving to improve, hopefully don't settle. I talked about the Tony Awards on Tuesday's episode, but there was a speech where the writer of The Strange Loop said don't settle, don't settle, always be striving and the same is true when it comes to becoming an influencer. So all you have to do and most of these websites are free is go to a website like Aspire IQ, check out some of the links that I put down in the downloadable document and see if you can just set up an account link it to your Instagram, your YouTube or Tik Tok, whichever platform you primarily are on and start to apply for campaigns start to create the content that you want people to hire you for by doing that you build a portfolio and you can then create a media deck a media kit where you can say I partnered with these brands, even though they didn't pay you you did create content on their behalf. It counts as a partnership. And I'll tell you right now, so full transparency, probably husband's we started that account in 2018. Okay, and in 2018 We were living in Charleston, we were kind of struggling to be honest. We thought one thing was going to happen. We thought we were going to really be raking in some money and the opposite happened. We were We're struggling. So I started this Instagram account. And I started using these platforms to get brand deals. There was a couple of weeks where we got food sponsorships, and that food that us when our bank account was at zero, I'm not even kidding. And I made content to pay for that food. That was the exchange. I love making content, right? If you don't love making content, what are you doing? Listen, this podcast. But if you don't love making content, maybe you need to learn to love and maybe there's some skills here that you need to learn to advance. Maybe you need to get take a photo course. Or maybe you need to sign up for the credit visibility programme. I do give you like some snippets of how I create content.
But when we started on Bravo, husbands, we started announcing we were having a baby, my goal was to get free diapers. Silly. I was like, how do we get our Instagram to a place where we can get free diapers? Well, since our Instagram has grown, I have not paid for even during this formula shortage, we have not paid for a single drop of formula. We have not paid for a single diaper. It's all been gifted through partnerships through these brands. And that has saved us so much money. So it is even though you're not getting paid in your bank account, it is money in your life, it is an energy exchange. And these aren't just like any janky companies or companies I would stand behind I love Hello Bello. I absolutely love every single thing that they represent what they stand for the owners are Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard. I mean, it's totally aligned with Bobby husband's and me. And I love Bobby formula. It is a female owned company that is really doing a lot to advocate for a better systems for parents. And the formula is amazing. It's like top notch that would not have happened if I hadn't started by creating content in this way. So I want you to start thinking, okay, what are the products I currently use? What are the things I love, don't get too big, right? If you're like, I love Starbucks. Starbucks is a huge company. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't tag them. But maybe you love you know, a certain journal company or a pen. But that you write with can you create some beautiful content that intrigues your audience that talks about how much you love the product that gets them to click in your stories and tag that company and maybe even pitch yourself in the DNS, Hey, I've been using your product for years and I'd love to partner with you that your challenge to help you increase your visibility. Remember, you can't do it alone by using other brands accounts by using other content creators and partnering with them and collaborating with them. That's how you start to really gained visibility to get you to the place you want to go to grow your following and grow your business. I hope you found this helpful. I can't wait to see how some of you use this and I will see you in the next episode.
