Amanda NorthcuttFounder & CEO | Keynote Speaker, LevelUp · B2B sales as a solo is HARD. I’ve got you. I help consultants & coaches sell high-ticket services comfortably & confidently, while enjoying consistent, predictable revenue | Founder & CEO | Speaker |

Be Bold: How to Ask Brands About Their Budget & Set Expectations

11 Feb 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:57

In this segment of the YouTube video, the speaker recounts a personal anecdote about encouraging a fellow creator to directly ask a brand about its collaboration budget. Initially skeptical, the creator asked, and the brand agreed to pay $700 per month for six months in exchange for inclusion in two videos each month. The story illustrates how creators often undervalue their work, assuming brands won’t pay them, and highlights the existence of income streams that are not tied to traditional W‑2, time‑for‑money models. The speaker uses this example to advise creators to be bold, ask about budgets, and set clear expectations with brands.

Chapters

And I would read all these comments on April's videos where it was like, thank you so much. I just went to their website and bought it. Or I just went to Target and picked this thing up. I never heard about this brand. And I just kept thinking, I was like, I kind of feel like we're getting the short end of the stick here. Like a $30 hair curler. I don't just don't feel like, you know, this is a fair trade. And so I said, the next time a brand reaches out to you, ask if they have a budget to collaborate with you. She said, there's no way that a brand would ever be willing to pay me money. I was like, come on, just try. So the next, the next brand that reached out, sure enough, she said, hey, do you have a budget to collaborate? And she's— and the brand said, sure, if you can include us in 2 videos a month, we will pay you $700 a month for 6 months. And we were like, what? Like, this was— you got, you got to remember, like, we were— we had only ever thought that this kind of W-2 incomes, you know, you, you, you work for your time and that's how you make your money. This was the very first time where it was like, wow, there's like ways to make money in the world that are not tied to your time.