BusinessEntrepreneurshipMarketing

Accidentally Influential

Kate Robb and Teanna Scot

Accidentally Influential is the show for EDUcreators, experts, and business owners who never set out to be "influencers"… but built influence anyway.

Hosted by Kate Robb and Teanna Scot, we've grown a 479K+ audience and landed over half a million in brand deals; now we're pulling back the curtain on how YOU can turn your authority into income.

From sponsorship strategy to creator psychology, this is your no-fluff guide to building a creator business that stacks ontop of what you're already doing. You might've become accidentally influential… but what you do with it now? That part is intentional.

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S2 · E21
Today · 25 min
Do You Need an Influencer Manager? The 6 Jobs They Do (And How to Do Them Yourself)
We made over 1 million in brand deals and neither of us has ever hired a manager. Managers take 15 to 25% of every deal, and for educational creators specifically, we think there's a strong case for keeping that money and learning the job yourself. This episode breaks down the six things a manager does, why we've chosen not to outsource any of them, and how to build the systems to manage your own brand deals without losing your mind. What We Cover: Why management makes sense for celebrity-style endorsement deals and less sense for educational creators What you lose when a middleman sits between you and the brand Why the brands you choose are a reflection of you, and why that decision shouldn't be outsourced The commission question: whether deals you sourced yourself still get a cut Job 1: Finding deals, inbound and outbound Job 2: Calculating your base rate before any brand conversation Job 3: Negotiating, and the myth that managers keep it from getting personal Job 4: Contracting. Not writing them. Reading them. Why brand-side managers often don't know what's in their own contracts Job 5: Project management, from Notion to an Apple Note Job 6: Getting paid, and the contract language that delays it What a $13,500 one-off deal cost Kate in hours Why retainers cut the admin load in half What to do if you decide to hire a manager anyway Your Challenge: Pick the one job you're avoiding most. Build the system this week. Episodes Referenced: Episode 4, Season 1: The Obvious YES Pitch Episode 5, Season 1: What You Should Charge Episode 7, Season 1: The LEVEL Framework Season 2 Episode 5: Brand Deal Contract Red Flags Season 2 Episode 9: What Brands Look For Before They Say Yes ft. Yulia Storozhuk Season 2 Episode 18: Money Systems for Creators Join the Creator Club Waitlist Follow us: @notaninfluencerco
S2 · E21
September 14 · 25 min
Brand Deal Negotiation in Real Time: What We Did When the Offer Started Falling Through
We got a deal to what we thought was the finish line. Waiting on the contract. Then it started falling apart. This is a real brand deal negotiation happening behind the scenes right now. We can't share the brand or the numbers, but we're walking you through every step: the initial offer, our counter, the six-month pause they proposed, the restructured deal that came back, and the call that changed everything. And you should know this isn't just us. Industry reporting shows brands across the market pausing deals, declining to negotiate, and asking for more scope at lower pay. If it's happening to you, you're not doing anything wrong. What We Cover: Redlining every line of the initial pitch before expressing interest Doing real math on usage rights, name and likeness, and funnel strategy before countering Pitching a number that felt uncomfortable and why the math made it obvious The six-month pause offer and why we said no The future promise: the negotiation tactic you should recognize when you see it Negotiate scope, not rate: how we restructured the deal to fit their budget The contract that came back with money missing Having a moment, then asking for a call The questions beginner-us would have been afraid to ask Why influencer managers aren't the opposing team A verbal yes is not a deal Learning to see your work inside a brand's full marketing system Book Mentioned: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss Episodes Referenced: Episode 22: What Brands Are Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands Season 2 Episode 9: What Brands Look For Before They Say Yes ft. Yulia Storozhuk of Kittl Season 2 Episode 13: How to Respond When a Brand Asks What Are Your Rates Season 2 Episode 7: How to Renegotiate Your Brand Deal Rates Join the Creator Club Waitlist Follow us: @notaninfluencerco
S2 · E20
September 7 · 29 min
How to Get Brands to Reach Out to You Without Pitching (Your Inbound Game Plan)
We spend a lot of time teaching you how to pitch. This episode is the other side: how to set things up so brands come to you. Inbound is the highest-margin path in the creator economy, because when a brand reaches out, you're the target instead of one applicant in a pile. Neither of us has actively sought out a new brand partnership in a while, and this is why. What We Cover: How brands actually find creators, from two people who now source creators for their own agency Why your influencer manager is just a person scrolling, and what that means for your strategy The folder of creators we've saved with nothing to offer them yet Why tagging brands in organic content is a strategy, not free labor Kate's HelloFresh video that turned into an inbound months later The types of content that attract brands, including leaving an intentional brand-shaped gap Why your page should demonstrate top, middle, and bottom of funnel ability Keywords: why your bio and captions have to be searchable, with a before-and-after example Why hashtags still matter in 2026 for creator sourcing Why you need a lane before you earn the freedom to broaden Make it easy: why Kate has 998 unread TikTok message requests and one of them was from a head of marketing Why your media kit should already exist before anyone asks Reply fast: the 24-hour window that closes more deals Where Kate and Tea differ on response speed and what to take from each Playing the long game, the Toyota story, and using affiliate programs as an entry point Your Challenge: Part one, run a findability audit on your page. Part two, pick one dream brand and mention them organically this week. No pitch. Just start. Episodes Referenced: Episode 22: What Brands Are Looking For ft. Noam Giras of Tailor Brands Season 2 Episode 1: You're Already Doing This for Free Season 2 Episode 2: Is Your Profile Brand Ready? Season 2 Episode 4: How to Make a Media Kit That Gets Brand Deals Episode 8, Season 1: Affiliate Income the Right Way Join the Creator Club Waitlist Follow us: @notaninfluencerco
S2 · E19
August 31 · 24 min
The Good Good x Callaway Ad: What Creators Should Learn From It
We don't do gossip. But something happened in the creator space this month big enough that skipping it would be a disservice. Good Good Golf, a creator-led brand with four million followers across platforms, released a co-branded ad with Callaway depicting a man shoving a woman to the ground. Callaway ended a three-year partnership. Good Good lost a PGA Tour title sponsorship. Retailers pulled merchandise. Callaway's CEO confirmed his company approved the ad before it posted. We're not naming the creators. We are talking about what every creator should take from it. What We Cover: What actually happened, and where the fallout stands now Why "they were just actors" misses the point entirely How every brand you work with becomes part of your personal brand, permanently What happens if a brand keeps running an ad you no longer want your face on Why brand approval is not protection for your reputation Creative freedom means creative responsibility, and what that means when you're driving the concept The reputational risk you can't control: the brand we worked with for three years that collapsed and took our credibility with it Short-sightedness at a smaller scale: what to do when a brand asks you to bash a competitor you've worked with Why the gut feeling of resistance is worth listening to How to push back on a creative brief before you're locked into a contract Why this matters even more for UGC creators Your challenge: write down your lines now, before money is involved Episodes Referenced: S2E12: How to monetize content without losing your audience trust S2E5: Brand deal contract red flags you MUST know Ep 3: Brand deals that don't suck / green flags Join the Creator Club Waitlist Follow us: @notaninfluencerco If you want more current creator news takes like this, let us know.
S2 · E17
August 24 · 31 min
Content Creator Burnout: How to Stay Consistent Without Quitting (Set Your BAM)
52% of creators have experienced burnout because of their careers. Nearly 2 in 5 have thought about quitting entirely. Most consistency advice assumes your life stays the same every week, and it doesn't. Today we're talking about your BAM: your bare ass minimum. The floor you commit to no matter what season you're in. Kate has been in BAM mode for two weeks and breaks down exactly what hers looks like right now. What We Cover: What a BAM is and where the concept came from (shoutout to Grace) The two failure modes creators default to without one: treating every week like a peak week, or all-or-nothing cycling Why your BAM is a business decision, not a self-care decision How consistency shows up when a brand evaluates your page Why retainer partnerships make a BAM non-negotiable Question 1: What can you sustain in your absolute worst week? Question 2: What's the least that keeps your page alive? Kate's exact current BAM, including what she's dropped entirely Question 3: What can you batch or systematize? Why the tasks you dread almost always take less time than you think Question 4: What are you giving yourself permission not to do? Why guilt about not working is worse than either working or resting The trap: your BAM is a tent, not a house How to recognize your cues for shifting in and out of BAM mode Why what you see on other creators' pages tells you nothing about what's happening behind them Your Challenge: Answer the four questions. Write down your BAM. Then write down the cue that tells you it's time to shift back out. Episodes Referenced: S2E2: Is your profile brand ready? Ep 13: Retainers Join the Creator Club Waitlist Follow us: @notaninfluencerco
S2 · E16
August 17 · 27 min
5 Ways to Make More Money From Every Brand Deal (Without Landing More Partnerships)
Most creators think making more money means landing more brand deals. It doesn't. 61% of creators leave 20 to 30% on the table through underpricing, which means the fastest path to more revenue is charging correctly for the deals you already have. Five things you're probably giving away for free. Grab a notebook. What We Cover: Ad rights: what they are, why 20 to 50% of your base rate per month is standard, and why they often out-earn the original video fee The Instagram problem: why you can't set an ad rights expiration, and how Kate caught brands running past the window twice Why the creator team and the paid media team at a brand rarely talk, and what to do about it Exclusivity: why 25 to 100% premium is standard and how broad category exclusivity can quietly cost you thousands Why exclusivity is often buried in the contract and never mentioned in the email Packages over single videos, and why one video can't deliver what most brands are asking for The funnel package Tea pitched that turned into a bigger renegotiation Affiliate income as a cherry on top, and how to read affiliate-only inbounds critically Kate's 16% conversion rate that turned an affiliate link into a paid partnership Charging for your expertise: why strategy calls, performance analysis, and access to your resources are consulting, not courtesy Your challenge: audit your last deal and count what you gave away Episodes Referenced: Episode 5, Season 1: What You Should Charge Episode 7, Season 1: The LEVEL Framework Episode 16, Season 1: Legal Gaps ft. Alyssa from Legal Doer Episode 8, Season 1: Affiliate Income the Right Way Join the Creator Club Waitlist Follow us: @notaninfluencerco
S2 · E15
August 10 · 20 min
Why You're Not Getting Brand Deals (3 Mistakes to Fix This Week)
You're pitching. You're posting. You're doing what everyone told you to do. And still: nothing. Short, sassy, slightly-calling-you-out episode. Three specific things killing your chances of landing brand partnerships, pulled straight from the DMs we get from creators who say they're following all the advice and still hearing crickets. It's almost always one of these three. What We Cover: Killer 1: Making your pitch all about you, and what brands are actually buying instead The pitch style Tea used early on that never got a response, and why she now sees it daily in her own agency inbox Killer 2: When your page doesn't back up your pitch, and what a brand sees when they can't tell who your audience is How Kate folds lifestyle content into a side hustle niche without diluting it Vacuum Gate: the $500 brand deal Tea took that had nothing to do with print on demand Killer 3: Fumbling the rate conversation, and the two ways creators blow it Why "what are your rates?" is rarely a question about one video Your challenge: fix one of the three this week Episodes Referenced: Ep 4: The Obvious YES Pitch S2E2: Is your profile brand ready? S2E13: How to respond to "what's your rates!?" Ep 5: Pricing / 4R 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.
S2 · E14
August 3 · 1 hr
How to Get YouTube Sponsorships With a Small Channel ft. Adrian Vonarx
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.
S2 · E11
July 27 · 35 min
How to Respond When a Brand Asks "What Are Your Rates?" (The Anchor Method)
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.
S2 · E8
July 19 · 37 min
How to Monetize Your Content Without Losing Your Audience's Trust
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.
S2 · E11
July 13 · 30 min
Brand Deal Content Strategy: How to Deliver Results Brands Pay For (Our GOAL Framework)
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.
S2 · E10
July 6 · 37 min
Stop using AI like this if you're a content creators (It's Killing your chance of landing brand deals)
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.
S2 · E9
June 29 · 1 hr
The Brand Side of Brand Deals, Part 2: What It Takes to Land a Creator Partnership ft. Yuliia Maryniak of Kittl
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.
S2 · E8
June 22 · 32 min
5 Content Creator Business Mistakes Keeping You Broke (LLC, Rates, and More)
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.
S2 · E7
June 15 · 37 min
How to Renegotiate Your Brand Deal Rates (Real Example + 3-Step Framework)
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: Pull your before and after data — stats from last negotiation vs. now Translate the data into brand value — what does it mean for their ROI, not yours 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.
S2 · E6
June 14 · 27 min
Should You Accept Gifted Collabs? The Truth EDUcreators Need to Hear
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: Would I be talking about this brand in my content anyway? Is this building toward something paid? 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.
S2 · E5
June 1 · 34 min
Why I said "HELL NO" to this brand deal: Brand Deal Contract Red Flags Every Creator Must Know
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.
S1 · E4
May 25 · 37 min
How to Make a Media Kit That Gets Brand Deals (What to Include and What to Leave Out)
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.
S2 · E3
May 18 · 42 min
How to Build a Community That Attracts Brand Deals Using Storytelling ft. Mackenzie Heflin
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.
S2 · E2
May 11 · 38 min
Is Your Profile Brand Ready? The 5-Point Checklist to Attract Brand Deals as a Content Creator
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.

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