Latest / Influencer Confidential / 7 Red Flags For Influencer and UGC Brand Deals 🚩🚩🚩 | WATCH OUT! #237

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7 Red Flags For Influencer and UGC Brand Deals 🚩🚩🚩 | WATCH OUT! #237 · Influencer Confidential

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
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  Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
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  Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
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  Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the current Well,
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  Speaker 1: let's jump in. If you are a UGC creator or
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  Speaker 1: an influencer that wants to work with brands, I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to cover some red flags that you should be aware
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  Speaker 1: of before you get into any sort of partnership with
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  Speaker 1: the brand. Now, you may or may not know this,
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  Speaker 1: depending on when you've joined our channel here, but I
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  Speaker 1: actually work on the brand side. I come to this
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  Speaker 1: channel with years and years of experience of putting influencer
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  Speaker 1: campaigns together paying UGC creators, And let me tell you,
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  Speaker 1: I have seen just being in this industry the shady
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  Speaker 1: things that go on, and I think this is going
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  Speaker 1: to save you guys a lot of stress in the future. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the first big, huge red flag, whether it's an influencer
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  Speaker 1: job or UGC job, is the brand not wanting to
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  Speaker 1: have a contry. I know, contracts seem really scary for creators.
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  Speaker 1: It's like this thing that we don't know because it's
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  Speaker 1: like a lot of language and all of that. But
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  Speaker 1: here's the thing. The contract actually protects you. It actually
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  Speaker 1: ensures you get paid on time. It's actually meant to
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  Speaker 1: support both parties in it. Right. So a brand that
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  Speaker 1: comes to the door and does not provide you a
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  Speaker 1: contract or is not open to signing one that you provide,
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  Speaker 1: I would say literally run, don't walk, like run fast
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  Speaker 1: away because this is just on chartered murky territory. I
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of creators who would be like, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: well whatever, I'm just gonna go ahead and do it.
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  Speaker 1: Enter at your own risk because you very well may
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  Speaker 1: not get paid. Also, even if you are given a contract,
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  Speaker 1: I can't state this enough. You need to double triple whatever,
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  Speaker 1: check it because even when you agree upon things, I've
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  Speaker 1: seen creators show me contracts or the brand has like
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  Speaker 1: snuck something in last minute and changed it up. So
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  Speaker 1: that's something that as a business owner, you you're gonna
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  Speaker 1: have to do your due diligence. The contract is going
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  Speaker 1: to outline the usage of your content. You know, you
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  Speaker 1: don't want to sign anything in perpetuity. You want to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that again, this is your business. You go
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  Speaker 1: in and read it thoroughly before signing anything as well.
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  Speaker 1: Another big red flag is if the brand is offering
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  Speaker 1: to pay you in terms of product. This is just
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  Speaker 1: a no go. We are in twenty twenty five, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the influencer industry is skyrocketing. Over eighty five percent of
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  Speaker 1: brands are using influencer marketing. They know they need to pay.
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  Speaker 1: This is not you know back in the day when
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  Speaker 1: we were like doing trade. They know they need to pay,
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  Speaker 1: and they're expecting to pay. There should not be a
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  Speaker 1: world where you're doing stuff for trade or for free.
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  Speaker 1: This is a big red flag. It also shows that
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  Speaker 1: the brand is probably not very experienced in their influencer
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  Speaker 1: marketing or UGC campaigns, and it's something that I would
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  Speaker 1: definitely again be aware of. I've seen really shady tactics
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  Speaker 1: where brands actually ask the creator to pay for the
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  Speaker 1: product upfront. That also should not happen. I've seen brands say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I know, you just have to pay for shipping fees,
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  Speaker 1: and the shipping fees are like twenty seven dollars. Again,
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  Speaker 1: that is also something that is super super shady and
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  Speaker 1: not typical of a brand deal. Again, being on the
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  Speaker 1: brand side, I would never ask a creator to pay
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  Speaker 1: for anything. The only time that I've seen this happen
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  Speaker 1: is if the brand is like Overseas and they asked
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  Speaker 1: a creator like this girl was doing a kitcat campaign
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  Speaker 1: and she had to go buy a Kitcat. Another creator
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  Speaker 1: went to Sephora and bought like a Sephora product because
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  Speaker 1: by the time they shifted to her Overseas it was
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  Speaker 1: going to be like the whole thing. Those are the
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  Speaker 1: only sort of times I've seen that. Now, if you
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  Speaker 1: do find that brands are coming to you asking you
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  Speaker 1: for free stuff or trying to pay you in product,
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  Speaker 1: make sure you come to my next free life training
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  Speaker 1: because I'm going to be reading a pitch hot loud
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  Speaker 1: that actually shares with you what you should be saying
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  Speaker 1: in this circumstance to pivot it from a free job
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  Speaker 1: to a paid job. My trainings are live, they are free,
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  Speaker 1: and they are so much fun. So make sure you come.
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  Speaker 1: I will leave the link below. Another red flag. You're
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  Speaker 1: gonna want to make sure. First of all, if you
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  Speaker 1: don't know the company, like that's already like okay, you're
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  Speaker 1: not expected to know every single one, but go on
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  Speaker 1: their website, like look at their email right, like this,
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  Speaker 1: one girl sent us an email on the brand was
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  Speaker 1: like brand name seven six XYZ two. I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: it just fell off, right. So it's part of your
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  Speaker 1: job as a creator when you are getting these inbound
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  Speaker 1: pitches to go through the website and the emails of
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  Speaker 1: these brands and if it feels funky or doesn't feel right,
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  Speaker 1: trust your intuition on this. When I talk about these
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  Speaker 1: sort of shady brands, also their emails. If there's lots
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  Speaker 1: of grammatical errors or like misspelling spaces that are weird,
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  Speaker 1: this should give you a sign that this is probably
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  Speaker 1: a spam and it's not like an actual brand deal.
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  Speaker 1: So be aware if any sort of grammatical errors as well. Now,
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  Speaker 1: something not enough creators do and they should be doing,
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  Speaker 1: is actually researching these brands and looking up their reviews.
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  Speaker 1: You want to be in business with brands that also
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  Speaker 1: have good reputations online. Imagine there's a brand that you
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  Speaker 1: want to work with, you don't research them, and they
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  Speaker 1: have like this horrible reputation. Everyone hates them, the product
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  Speaker 1: is horrible, Like you didn't know this, and now you
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  Speaker 1: signed a contract and you have to work with them.
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  Speaker 1: That could have been all prevented is if you did
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  Speaker 1: your research on these brands, because again, if the brand
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  Speaker 1: has a bad reputation online, this should also act as
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  Speaker 1: a red flag for you to not want to work
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  Speaker 1: with them or engage in that side of you know,
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  Speaker 1: in any sort of working relationship with them. Maybe there's
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  Speaker 1: bad product reviews rather and see that they've have negative
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  Speaker 1: press on them or unethical work practices. That stuff will
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  Speaker 1: follow you, like you, especially the influencers in the room,
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  Speaker 1: like your name will continue to grow. And if you
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  Speaker 1: work with a brand that has like unethical work practices
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  Speaker 1: and that's part of your portfolio, it stays with you too.
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  Speaker 1: So it's just not worth it. Obviously, these are things
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  Speaker 1: that you can't always know, but a lot of times
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  Speaker 1: if you do a quick research on the brand, you'll
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  Speaker 1: be able to see a little bit more information about them. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this red flag I'm about to share is like kind
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  Speaker 1: of funky because it's probably means you're already like working
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  Speaker 1: with them, but like if they're really slow to respond,
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking weeks on weeks, this will be a sign
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  Speaker 1: the type of brand partner they are going to be
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  Speaker 1: and it is going to be frustrating and it probably
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  Speaker 1: means you should be charging more. I cannot tell you
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  Speaker 1: the amount of times that creator will get a brand
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  Speaker 1: deal and then they'll be like, oh my god, they
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  Speaker 1: literally take like fifteen days to respond to an email.
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  Speaker 1: It is a red flag because you don't want to
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  Speaker 1: work with brands like this. It is going to cause
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  Speaker 1: you so much stress. I've seen this again time and
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  Speaker 1: time again where creator will be like in some sort
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  Speaker 1: of like it feels like you're just pulling teeth. And
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  Speaker 1: if they're really slow to respond on emails, they're probably
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  Speaker 1: slow to pay you as well. Think about just like
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  Speaker 1: the approval process, like getting the content approved and like
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  Speaker 1: having to post it. Like their delays will affect your business,
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  Speaker 1: and they're inevitably linked them delaying on anything also delays
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  Speaker 1: with you. So the red flag I'm about to share
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  Speaker 1: is interesting. I have it here as my notes. It's
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  Speaker 1: like any brand that's really really vague, but I'll give
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  Speaker 1: you a story to like kind of wrap it up.
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  Speaker 1: So this girl in my inner circle membership showed up
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  Speaker 1: and she was working with a really big jewelry brand,
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  Speaker 1: one that we all know, and she said that like
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  Speaker 1: the brand was like very much like yeah, whatever you
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  Speaker 1: want to do, like what do you think? What do
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  Speaker 1: you think? And the more she realized in conversation, she's like,
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  Speaker 1: this brand knows nothing of what they're doing, Like they
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  Speaker 1: have no idea. And she's so funny because she's like,
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  Speaker 1: I'm just starting, like I don't really know what I'm doing,
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  Speaker 1: but they definitely don't know what they're doing. And I
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  Speaker 1: think again, when you see that her brand is vague
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  Speaker 1: or just like kind of aloof, and you're working with
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  Speaker 1: them and they don't really feel like they know what
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  Speaker 1: they're doing, this could be difficult because there's no real
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  Speaker 1: clear expectation and it also leaves you wondering like is
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  Speaker 1: it me or is it them? I literally just had
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  Speaker 1: this happen right now to a client and she was
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  Speaker 1: just telling us all about it, and the partnership never
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  Speaker 1: ended up going through and it was just this big
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  Speaker 1: old mess and disaster and it caused a bad taste
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  Speaker 1: in her mouth. So if you find this brand partner
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  Speaker 1: is just all over the place, I don't know, I
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  Speaker 1: think twice before even trying to carry out a proper
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  Speaker 1: business partnership with them now a lot of times when
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  Speaker 1: creators are facing these sort of challenging situations, I always
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  Speaker 1: tell the creators in my pitch program this is where
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  Speaker 1: you become the boss. You need to reel it in
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  Speaker 1: and really take control of the situation, and that requires
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  Speaker 1: a level of clarity and confidence when talking to brands.
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  Speaker 1: If again, if you are a creator that wants to
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  Speaker 1: be actively working on the brand deal side through UGC
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  Speaker 1: brand deals or influencer brand deals, that's what we do
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  Speaker 1: here at Sidewalker Daily. I'm going to leave a link
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  Speaker 1: to our signature Pitching to Brand's master Course. This is
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: our tried and true program here at Sidewalker. It is
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: our best seller and it works. It is a results
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  Speaker 1: driven class that is all about helping creators, you know,
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  Speaker 1: take control of their brand partnerships by putting them in
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the arena and getting them pitching and getting the work done. So,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: if this is something that you're interested in, if you
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  Speaker 1: want to start actually monetizing on the brand deal side,
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  Speaker 1: I will leave a link below to our Pitching to
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  Speaker 1: Brand's master course so that you can face these situations
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  Speaker 1: set up with uncertainty, but with confidence. Now, another red
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  Speaker 1: flag that is also a red flag for brands from
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  Speaker 1: creators are templates. I always tell creators don't send a
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  Speaker 1: template to a brand, they're going to think you're shape. Well,
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  Speaker 1: if a brand sends you a template, doesn't it also
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  Speaker 1: kind of make you feel like they don't even know
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  Speaker 1: who you are. They didn't personalize it, like they copy
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  Speaker 1: and pasted it, and it kind of just takes away
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  Speaker 1: from the personalization. I'm not saying that it's not okay
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  Speaker 1: for a brand to use a template, because that just
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  Speaker 1: means they're reaching out to like hundreds of people probably
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  Speaker 1: and you're just one of the many, which again is fine,
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  Speaker 1: but something that you need to consider versus if a
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  Speaker 1: brand like reaches out to you and like makes it special,
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  Speaker 1: it feels a little bit different. And I tell creators
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  Speaker 1: that too. Y'all make sure you guys don't send those templates.
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  Speaker 1: Make sure you guys write it out and make it
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  Speaker 1: personal because that's what's going to help you stand out
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  Speaker 1: from the crowd. Remember, the biggest way you can kind
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  Speaker 1: of like just get through all these red flags is
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  Speaker 1: taking control of your own destiny and pitching, putting yourself
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  Speaker 1: out there, going after it, not just settling for what
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  Speaker 1: comes to you, but being actively present in this pace
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  Speaker 1: of your business. You know, brand deals make a round
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  Speaker 1: seventy percent of a creator's income. It is the most
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  Speaker 1: important thing that you should be focusing on. So therefore, again,
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  Speaker 1: if you find that these brands are coming to you
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  Speaker 1: and they look walk, take control. Go after them yourself. Now,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: if you made it to the end, you're in luck,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: because I'm going to give you a free gift. I
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: had a free little worksheet for you. It is the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: before you pitch checklist to make sure that you're all
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: organized to get that checklist ready before you send those
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  Speaker 1: pitches out. So if that's something you're interested in, I
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: will leave a link below so you can download that
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and have access to all the free resources we have
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: here at Sidewalker Daily to help you in your creator journey.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, make
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, and subscribe to our show and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: visit Sidewalkerdaily dot com for more resources on all things
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: influencer marketing and social media. Until next time,