I got rejected by a brand (lost $20k)

Last week, I got this rejection email from a brand's agency.‍

Sucks.

I still get bummed when sponsorships don't work out but this one was especially sucky since the package they were considering was $20K, lol.

Lots of people flex their "wins" on social media but I actually think you can learn waaaaay more from fails (which no one ever shares).

So, let's get messy, shall we?

The agency's first email

A few interesting things about this...

• The brand is interested in activating on multiple platforms

• The exact # of deliverables isn't defined (important)

• They wanna set up a call to chat everything through

Now, a lot of creators would respond to this email and say something along the lines of...

"Here's my media kit. How much you gonna pay me?"

(ok fine more like..."what's your budget?")

Which is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you should do in this situation.

‍I know, I know.

That's what every other social media coach tells you to do, right?

And normally, I'd agree.

However, what I actually said was...

"Sounds great! Let's hop on a Zoom!"

You heard me...I hopped on a call with the agency without even knowing the budget.

Three reasons:

• It's soooo much easier to establish rapport face-to-face (and brands will pay more money to influencers that they like)

• The "ask" seemed quite large/amorphous and there were major gaps that are simple to clarify on a call (exactly how many posts, usage rights, exclusivity, etc.)

• This was a large agency, not the brand (which almost always means healthy budgets)

So, I took the call and it went awesome.

Got all the answers I needed, pulled some packages together and...hit send.

Wanna know what they said in response? (it wasn't "no.")

Well...stay tuned for Part 2 next week!