The Ultimate Blog Podcast - From Pitch to Partnership: Navigating Brand Deals with Bree Pair

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

On this episode of the Ultimate Blog Podcast, we’re thrilled to welcome Bree Pair – podcast host, blogger supporter, and founder of Thrive. Bree is a coach for content creators, founder of Thrive, and host of the Thrive Podcast. We dove into one of the biggest topics bloggers are curious about but often struggle with: brand deals. If you’ve ever wondered about what to charge, how to get started working with brands, or the red flags of brand deals to avoid, tune in to this one!☀️Get the Summer Startup Checklist🎧 Listen to Bree Pair’s Thrive Podcast🔗Start your blog today→ Join The Ultimate Blog Roadmap🔗Click here and check out the show notes for this episode!Do you love this podcast? Say thanks by leaving a positive review and/or rating! 

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. This podcast is the podcast we wish we had when we started blogging. I'm Amy Reinicki. And I'm Jennifer Draper. Our episodes dive deep into how to monetize your blog, sharing unique insights and practical tips. We bring you in-depth interviews with successful bloggers and experts who offer valuable, actionable advice.

Our mission is to educate, support, inspire, and empower you in your blogging business. Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. We are thrilled to have Brie Payer with us today from Thrive. We actually just got done recording an episode with her for her podcast. And I know that when you guys listen to this one, you're going to want to head over to her podcast and listen to the one that we do. It'll be out on Thursday.

So Brie, welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Hello, friends. I love recording podcasts. We were just talking about this and getting to do it back to back with you guys is so much fun. Yes. I love when it works out this way, that you can serve one another's communities and do it on the same day and you're just vibing together. So Brie, you also support bloggers, which we love having people here who are very aligned

in that way. And so can you tell everybody what you do and how you serve them? Yeah, so I we have a podcast, the Thrive Podcast for Content Creators. And we have a couple of group coaching programs, and of course, a bunch of resources and different things. And we actually just like throw a fun fact in there, maybe, you know, always those fun things that make people memorable is we used to run a conference for bloggers back in the day. Maybe some of your blogger, your people are listening that may have come, I don't know, but it was down in Texas and we ran it for five years up until COVID. What was it?

And it's called Thrive. Oh, it was a Thrive conference for bloggers. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was a Thrive conference for bloggers. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was really like a boutique size. We kept it at like 120 people and it was so much fun. And so I feel like, you know, I say that because that just shows like the root of who I am of everything that I do.

And this stems from, you know, for getting rolled up and going therapisty, it goes back to childhood, right? Always does of like needing community and needing connection. And I feel like as bloggers, as content creators, that's still so important, right? We are, you know, by ourselves creating this content. Usually, not all of us have an awesome duo like you guys, right? And, you know, having other people is so important, right? Jennifer, I imagine like once you brought on Amy, it was like a huge game changer. You didn't feel like as alone anymore.

Yeah. It's just so important, isn't it? Yeah. And so that's like the root of everything that I do is wanting to create spaces where people are like, Oh, I'm not the only one. Oh, I'm not the only one. Whether it's like doing this or having this problem or even having success like, yeah, I can cheer along with other people. And so that's really, you know, what I've taken and run with, you know, from beyond the conference to bringing everything online, through our programs, through our Facebook group, email list, everything is just resources that, yes, help you and are supportive and educational, but also a lot of moments in between that are like, oh, yeah, I'm not the only one doing this. Mm-hmm. I love the community. It means so much to you.

It means so much to us too. And we really do believe that nobody should blog alone. It's a lonely place if you're going to try. And just having, I think this industry as a whole is just really special in that way that we really can have these open, honest conversations about what it looks like, how it looks different for people and why that's okay. We talk about that more on Breeze. So I really hope you guys go over there and listen to that episode on Thursday because we kind of dive into that a little bit too. Just like how it can look different for you, how being a content creator looks different. But the

reason that we wanted to bring you here today was to kind of dive into this conversation about working with brands and having an open and honest conversation about that because I think it is really important and you really do kind of lean very heavily on helping content creators make more money. Like that is your vibe, that is your go and we love that. And so let's kind of dive in there. Why do you think it is that so many bloggers, when they decide that they want to work with brands, why do you think that they are under charging or maybe they don't know what to charge? What is the disconnect there? Well, going back to the whole thing of community and everything is that within this industry,

like community and everything is that within this industry, it's we're so unique from everyone else, right? So with a normal nine to five job, so let's say you're a nurse or you're an engineer, right? You can go and even just Google like, hey, what is the average salary for this position in my area? You can look on Glassdoor, there's so many resources that are like, hey, you can expect to be paid this amount to this amount. We don't have that. I don't know if you

guys curse or anything, but it's FYPM, but it's F*** you pay me. And there is that site. But aside from that, there's not really anything where people are saying, this is what I'm getting paid. And even within that, it's like this huge range of, oh, I accepted free product for this. And you're like, why did you do that? You've got like this massive following. Or I accepted it for $5,000. And I'm like, whoa, you guys need to talk to each other,

right? And that's, I feel like the biggest thing is there's, there's not this confidence that we can hold onto because there's not anything we can search for that, yes, 100% you should be charging between this and this. And that leads to everybody undercharging, right? Because again, I love how these episodes are tying in together. And in our conversation we just had on my podcast that comes out on Thursday. We talked about mindset Yeah, and that's one of those things is like who am I to charge this amount?

Like who am I to do that? Right like having that confidence ourselves. I'm not the expert yet. Like I don't have enough Followers or I I haven't been posting long enough for doing this long enough, right? There's all these things that creep in and cause this doubt. And when you pair that with not having an industry standard that is visible for everyone, it just leads to people undercharging and being taken advantage of, unfortunately, by these brands. And what we see happen all too often is when so many people are undercharging. Yes, we have some people that are getting massive wins and that are getting paid what they deserve. But as a whole, when you look at the stats,

we are consistently being underpaid and consistently not trying to charge enough. Okay, so I wanna ask you this because I just listened to another episode on your podcast and hopefully you can remember the number. But I was going to say there's one with Emma where we talk about stats. Yes.

So tell everybody what that is. How many billion? Oh, of what the industry is worth? Billions upon billions. Hold on. Let me share some stats with you because it is truly mind blowing and will, you know, you talk about it being my go is to help people make more money. I love that you're framed it that way. I've never framed it that way, but it's true. Like

I, cause I see numbers like this. I see the potential. I see what people are being charged and charged and it lights a fire under me. So as a whole, the creator economy is still, it is still growing. We have not hit a ceiling and it is now projected to represent a $250 billion market. Let's repeat that, Brie. Can you say that number? 250 B-I-L-L-I-O-N, N not million billion with a B. And ladies and gentlemen, this is why we do not accept free product for. Can we get some clapping like an audience applause? Because they have the funds.

Oh, 100%. Yeah. And if they don't, you can find somebody who you align with, who is authentic to your brand, who does and who will give you the compensation that you deserve for the work that you are putting in. Your free product will not pay your house payment. No, because here's the other thing. 10%, only 10%.

So with that number in mind, right? 250 billion, only 10% of content creators are earning $100,000 or more a year. That's it. And 48% of all influencers are making less than 15,000 a year. Like there is a huge gap, a huge issue here where, yes, brands are taking advantage, but they're taking advantage. This is what I always tell people is I'm like, I have first hand experience with this. So part of it is we're undercharging because of the lack of clarity and of a lack of we thrive have put together a pricing guide, but we're doing everything we can to get that in as many hands as possible. I'm not a corporation. You know, I only have finite resources to do so. That's why I love coming on podcasts like this and talking about

it. Because then I'm like, yeah, you guys go and download this. Look at it for yourselves. Look at the numbers that we did the research on and talk to actual creators to get those numbers. We didn't just pull these out of thin air. That's another problem is there are when you Google it, like, what should I charge? There's 20 million different random calculators out there that are all going to spit out a different number. And oftentimes, it's too low. I think that is the big thing is that people don't know what to charge. They don't know what to charge. So, Brie, you have created a pricing guide. We will put that in our show notes.

Can you just say what that link is for them so they can go to it? Yeah, drivetogether.blogslashpricing. Okay. I think that that's the biggest thing that we hear in our community is, what do I charge? Yeah. Like, I don't know what to charge,

like, am I charging enough? Right. And I do think you have to err on the side of like throw a number out there to begin and you have to kind of see what people buy and don't you're going to hear no. You're going to hear no and that is very common that is a part of the process. Don't be afraid of the no. Just keep asking. Like and it doesn't mean no forever. It could mean so many different variables. So there's so many layers to this. You have to remember that there is a human just like us,

usually a woman, on the other side of that email that we're pitching. That tends to be who we end up sending these pitches to. And she is over there, bust in her booty, doing this corporate job. Hopefully she loves her job, but she is trying to make more money, trying to impress her boss, all the things, right? And she has deadlines. She has, you know, finite amount of resources. And so it may be that it is just not a good fit for the campaign. It may be that she's inundated and is full right now and can't take any more.

So no doesn't mean we always take a no as, oh, I'm not enough. Oh, I'm not good enough. It may be that she's inundated and is full right now and can't take any more. So no doesn't mean we always take a no as, oh, I'm not enough. Oh, I'm not good enough. My content's not good enough. I need to get more followers. I need to do X, Y, Z better. And that's not always the case.

So one thing that I love to come back with is that, is okay, totally understand. Thank you for replying to me. Is there a time that I could follow up later to see if there is a better fit for us? Yes. Yes. And even if they don't respond, still follow up in three months.

Still reach back out. No doesn't mean no forever. The other thing that I want to make sure everybody knows is that I've been on the other side where I went in as a contractor and worked with a brand to help clean up their program for working with content creators, bloggers, influencers, all of the things. And for a period of time there, I was the one managing their inbox and managing their

entire system. And number one, I got inundated with emails. It was constant. It was as soon as I would clean the inbox, I would inundated with emails. It was constant. It was as soon as I would clean the inbox, I would refresh two hours later and I would have a hundred new emails. So this is why I stress the importance of follow-up because the ones that followed up with me

in a really great way, I always remembered them. And I was like, oh yeah, I need to get back to her because I do actually wanna work with her. I feel like she's really dedicated and like obviously really to her because I do actually want to work with her. I feel like she's really dedicated and like obviously really wants this gig. And so I want to work with her. And sometimes that was three or four follow-ups but I would still like email her back.

So follow-up is important. The other thing is you have to ask for money because I was given a budget. All of these brands, they have a budget but if you come to me and tell me that you just want the product, I have also an obligation to the brand to where if you don't ask me for money

and you're telling me that you're gonna do these amount of posts for the product, awesome, let's do it. Wow. Yep. Yeah. That makes sense. I'm not able to just automatically be like, yeah, and I'll send you $500. Yeah.

Right? Because then I'm like, OK, cool. Well, now I still have that extra $500. Maybe I can put it towards a $3,000 campaign for somebody. Yeah. You have to ask for money. So how do you recommend doing that? Can we kind of back that up just a little bit?

We just had somebody in our community ask this specific question. She has reached out to multiple affiliate partners. She's reached out to like the LTK and she's getting just crickets. No one is replying to her. So when somebody is and like she her Instagram following is growing, her blog traffic is growing. So she's what I would call like at that micro level, probably like she is on the up and up and she's busting her tail. Yeah. What would you tell her? Like, how do you know what brands to reach out to? Where do you find that contact info? Should you find like an influencer agency or where do you kind of recommend for people if let's say they haven't ever worked with a brand and they're not getting anything in their inbox, what do you say to those people? How do they start? You know, it's interesting. There's a couple different ways that you can approach it. So one would be you could go to like an influencer network like an Aspire IQ or something where they have brand deals and brands that they work with to kind of be that middleman between

you and the brand. And they'll have different campaigns that you can apply to. That's one way to get your feet wet. Often you are paid less than what you're worth. So if you really feel like I need a boost of confidence, I need to go do a gig for 200 to $500, something like that, go and do it. Please only do one. Right? Like then like know your worth Look at the pricing guide and be like, ooh, I'm being undercharged or underpaid The other thing though, like a couple of things that you mentioned like the LTK and the Amazon or different things like that The thing is when you are going to go work with brands Oftentimes when we start out the first thing that we think of is like these really massive names, right?

Oh, I want to work with Target or I want to work with, you know, Sephora or blah, blah, blah. And it's, I'm not telling you that that's not possible and that's not in your future, but you only going after those big ones is doing you a disservice. Instead, I want you to go to the store and I want you to look at all the names of the brands that are on the shelves. Who are those stores actually supplying? What are those names? And then you're going to come back with another list. And so it's like, yes, an end goal could be to work with one of those massive box stores. You want to work with Home Depot. Amazing. That's great. But like go work with Ryobi for now. Go work with these plants and these different gardeners that have their stuff in the store.

So that's like the biggest thing is like, you know, make sure you know kind of like who you're pitching. And you know, you're going to get lost in the shuffle with just like, oh, target and reach out to me, right. And you can get down on yourself and everything. The other thing is, you know, and I know we're kind of have this to hit on a little bit later, but I feel like it's it goes along with this is, you know, finding brand contacts is one of the biggest pain points. And I'm actively trying to figure out some type of solution for this right now. It's very hard, but I have a couple of things. One is a tool called Hunter IO.

And it is, I think it was kind of built for like PR type of things, but what you can do is you can go in there and you can do a couple of free searches and then of course you need to pay after a certain amount of searches, but you can do a couple of free searches, and then of course you need to pay after a certain amount of searches. But you can search for a brand, and it will generate emails for you from that brand. And so then what you kind of need to do is go and cross-check and look for ones that

say marketing or social media or influencers, like those kind of key words. Even PR is a good one. So that's one place that you can look. The other one is on LinkedIn. And LinkedIn is, I'm glad it's becoming more popular again. Like I feel like I don't know what happened, but who started to get it popular again, but it's starting again. And so people are becoming more active over there. And so if you're able to go and make connections with the people that work there on LinkedIn, and I'm not saying to go and just connect with them

and immediately send them a pitch or be like, hey, what's your email? I wanna pitch you. No, go make meaningful connections. And with all of this and with pitching brands, it can start to feel a little overwhelming if we're not careful and it can become a full-time job. And so it's really important to time block this.

Put it into your calendar. Like I'm going to spend one hour once a week or two hours once a week or what I do on my calendars, I'm like, okay, I'm going to spend one hour making connections and talking to people. And so I'll, whether that's on LinkedIn or whether that's like following up an email and like, you know, tapping in with people that I have connections with, I do that. And then I have another set of time that's usually a little bit longer, more like two hours to send really meaningful pitches.

And that way it's like, okay, max of three hours every week if I can, if I can hit that every single week, I'm golden. If I can't, like I can't, right? Cause we all have, you know, a very limited amount of time. But if you can do that even a couple of times a month, I just like going that extra step is going to help so much both with finding the right connections, making those connections

with people. That's something I love to do. And then the last idea that I have for, you know, connecting with other brands is go to events, go to like even looking up local events, right? I'm hitting on gardening a lot lately, but it's because it's spring and that's all I want to be doing right now is like if I'm not podcasting, I'm outside with dirt under my nails. So like if that is your jam and you're like, I really want to connect with other brands. Think about like, yes, you can be like, oh, I want to go to a blogging conference or I want to go to a social media conference. Amazing. Yeah, there's going to be brands there that you can connect with. But what about like your local like home and garden expo? Right? Like is Ryobi there is

home? I can't think of brand names. Ryobi is the only one I can think of right now. But there's going to be brands there that are sponsoring the event and they're going to send their reps that you can go connect with. And by you going to that event, it's not like going to the home and garden show is like all creators that are going there, right? No, it's your normal average everyday human that is not online 24-7 like we are. So you're going to stand out when you go and have that conversation with the brand there. And they're going to be like, oh, you're a content creator?

You're a blogger? Amazing. Yeah, let's connect. Send me an email. So look at different things that are going on in your area too, because that human connection is massive. Like whenever I get to connect with a brand in person, nine times out of 10, we will figure out some way to work together. Yeah, it creates that authenticity that can be missing from just sending a cold email to somebody that you've never met or talked to.

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So many great tips and things that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of. And so I think what's clear is this isn't like an overnight process. It's going to take some time. It's going to take some nurturing of these relationships. But I think that one thing people might wonder about is, okay, when I actually take that step and I'm actually going to pitch myself, is there like a specific phrase I can use to stand out? Like how do I word this so that my email doesn't get lost in? The hundreds of emails that this person might be getting what can I do to show my value?

And what can I do to stand out from from the crowds of people trying to get these brand deals? Oh That is such a great question. I'm actually even gonna pull up some copy for you guys I didn't have this in there. And I'm like, you know what, let me pull from what I've got here. The very first thing is subject lines. Spend some time on your subject line. Don't just quickly type something out without thinking about it. Think through your subject line. If it's something like, could we be a perfect fit for your next campaign? Excited to collaborate. Here's an idea for the brand name, right?

Something that's going to just stand out a little bit. And then, I mean, there's a couple of different ways that you can approach it. One thing that I like to kind of acknowledge right away whenever I'm sitting pitches is because of experience, I'm like, I know your inbox is full of pitches, so I'll get right to the point. I'd love to collaborate with you on this and put your brand in front of an engaged audience who's already primed to love what you offer. That is just like the very first paragraph that you're like, you met me where I'm at and you're telling me that you have an audience that is already ready to

Hear about this product. Okay, let me keep reading right? Those are the first two things right is that like subject line and then that very first thing like acknowledging where they're at Don't just like immediately dive into oh Let me tell you about myself in this long-winded story and here's 20 different ideas for what we could do together Right. You have to remember like remember Brie being inundated with emails Working for that brand where it was like I cannot escape this inbox. How am I going to get anything done? so Be quick be to the point and meet me where I'm at because you have to remember

I say this all the time and it's something I repeat is that you have to remember, I say this all the time and it's something I repeat, is that you have to remember that there is a human being just like me and you on the other side of that inbox. And my goal is always to make their life easier and give them a win whenever we work together. Like I want to be their best case study. I want to give them the results. I don't want to just land a deal where

I write a blog post or post a reel for them and then go on my merry way. No, I want this to be a win for both parties because then I want this to be a long partnership. How we get out of it being, you know, Jennifer, you're like, it's a process and all this. And it's, yes, but how we take it and eventually move from it being this process that is constant until we retire, nobody wants to do that, right? When we think of it in that terms, it's, oh, absolutely not. But when you can think of it as like, I'm laying the foundation and the groundwork for long-term meaningful connections

and long-term relationships. So not only with that brand, right? You want a long-term relationship with the brands that you're pitching. But then also, there is a turnover rate for people in marketing, for people in creative, for people that are on the other side of that email that we're pitching. And you don't know where that person is going next. And if you have a great relationship with them, it doesn't have to be a personal relationship, but a great working relationship. And if you become Instagram besties after, amazing. But what you want to do is have a relationship to where when they go to the next company,

they remember you and are like, I have the perfect person for this job. It feels like that's where LinkedIn can really, really tie back in here. company, they remember you and are like, I have the perfect person for this job. Yeah. It feels like that's where LinkedIn can really, really tie back in here is that if they're on LinkedIn, if I'm on LinkedIn and we start to have this relationship for working together with this one brand, you're still going to be connected to them when they go to the next brand. And hopefully you'll be able to stay top of mind from that perspective. And I know we started talking about LinkedIn

a little bit. Can you talk about it just a little bit more? Because we've toyed around with this idea. We've had some people come on and talk about it. But I think working in this way as a blogger with LinkedIn, it probably connects and clicks a little bit more and makes more sense. It's not like we're trying to reach somebody who wants to read my food blog. It's more of a professional aspect. So can you talk about what your LinkedIn profile should look like? Yeah, so that was where I was very reluctant to get over

to LinkedIn until I had a conversation with somebody else, and she changed my mind. And I was like, OK, I've been thinking about LinkedIn in the wrong way. I'm like, why do I need to be on LinkedIn? I'm not looking for a corporate job. Like, I don't, my audience isn't, that was always the thing. I was like, my audience isn't even really over there.

What am I doing? But one thing I am trying to do is actually since LinkedIn is having a resurgence, I don't know, but yes, connect with other content creators over there and make it like a fun networking place. But then also, yeah, I touched on, you know, connecting to those people that work for the brands. And when it comes to what you're posting, it's yeah, if you have an achievement or if you have a win, my friend Emma, she is a contributing writer for Forbes, and she put me in one of

her articles. So absolutely, I'm sharing one of those things. But I can also share, hey, you know, like I had this incredible conversation with Amy and Jennifer about working with brands. Do I want to hear what you guys think about this, right? And start a conversation over there about this. And that's something that like my friends that and connections that work for brands might be interested in hearing about, might want to chime in on and share their perspective and then also other content creators in the industry. So you have to think of, you know, your audience is like, unless you're in something more businessy or techy, or right, your audience is most likely not on LinkedIn, but you have an audience of maybe other content creators and brands

that are there. And so what type of content do you want them to see? And it can be like, you could share a blog post in a meaningful way if it's like maybe celebrating a win or celebrating like this blog post is my top featured one. And it always surprises me and excites me every time I see it pop up on Google Analytics. And I just wanted to share this one with you guys, right? There's ways that you can share your content and almost humble brag, right, on yourself on LinkedIn, but then also thinking of having those conversations. So that's

kind of like where you can kind of like brainstorm what to post. But aside from that, when you're connecting with brands, so I mentioned don't just go and like connect with somebody and then immediately pitch them or immediately be like what's your email so I can send you a pitch, right? Instead have a few touch points with that person. So this is where it's kind of tricky because not everybody is posting on LinkedIn consistently right now. So it's going to be hit or miss. But if you do find those people that are a little bit more active on LinkedIn, go and

engage with them. Go and like their posts, go and leave meaningful comments. Like actually be a human being and show that you're like, I'm actually caring about this, right? I'm not seeing this as a transaction. And again, it kind of goes back to that mindset of I want this to be a long term thing, right? Yes, of course, I want the transaction of I want them to work with me, I want them to pay me to collaborate together. But also, I want this to be long term. I want to work with this person for a longer period of time. And you also never know who's looking

from the outside, outside of just that one person, right? Who their connections are that are seeing your comments on their posts, or who they're even going and getting, you know, happy hour with later that afternoon and be like, you know, this person, like she's really sweet. Her content's great, but it's just not a good fit. Maybe you should reach out to her. I think just the networking piece of it is important and that yes, we are online content creators, but don't forget about that personal piece too. Because like you said, you might be connecting with somebody just online, but you don't know who

they know. Right. And who they know. Yeah, you know, and so think about that. Like, that. Like that's why communication is so important is, and honestly, just being kind and generous and, you know, open and all that with anybody that you're meeting, whether it's somebody who's commenting on a blog post or responding to an email, but you just never know who they know and what opportunity could lie ahead and that. So I think just creating those really strong foundations is an important part of it. And another reason why we just feel like having a community, and I know that you are a big person with that too, like it's just so important to be part of a blogging community.

Because it isn't just about who you know, and you don't have to blog alone, but it's also about who you surround yourself with and gaining ideas, gaining new people that they can connect with and things like that. I love what you've shared about brands. One thing I was gonna say earlier was, we get asked the question often,

well, why not just stay on like LTK or Amazon or whatever, you know, is there a benefit to like working with like an affiliate manager or something like that? I prefer creating those relationships with the affiliate managers. And I think that that's something that can be very personal to each blogger. But you touched on that. And so I wanted to highlight it just you don't know where that person is going to go. And so when you build that relationship,

like you have a person, like I know I am contacting Angie directly and we're gonna talk specifically about her brand and what she's doing and all of it. I, for instance, this is something that, I don't know, I was just really impressed by. I'm an affiliate for a brand and I also helped one of my best friends start a nonprofit last year. And we are hosting our first golf, well, when this airs, we will have already hosted it. But we were like

looking for something to put in the swag bags. And so I reached out to that brand because I haven't established, I haven't established relationship with them and said, do you ever do anything like this? And they sent us like 145 packets of electrolytes for us to put into the swag bags. That's amazing. It was so amazing. It's just ingredients, Carla and Carl.

I'm gonna give her a plug because I just- Oh, I love them. Oh my God, their stuff is so good. Yes, but I think that that is so important. It proved to me that community spirit and I want people to want to share. And like it made me as an affiliate that she was the first person I thought of because she's taken such great care of us over the years. And so just think about that relationship that you're building when you are working

like with an affiliate manager. Amazon does not care about you as much and you are going to make less. I'm just going to say it. It doesn't mean that Amazon can't be a viable option, but you're going to make pennies on the dollar to what you could make when you're working specifically with a brand. In my experience, I'll say in my experience, you will make more working directly with a brand than you would like just killing it on Amazon associates. Not saying that you can't use Amazon links. I know a lot of people do.

You can make a killing doing it, but you know, that's another thing too is like, I talked about retiring and like doing this for a long term. Like nothing is super easy. It's a business at the end of the day, but you have to choose your heart. And so where do you want to spend your energy? Where do you want to spend your time? If you're killing on Amazon and the affiliate links keep doing it. I'm never going to tell somebody to stop an income stream, but explore something else, see what you can make happen so that way you have options. Right? Like you never know what is going to happen in this crazy world, right? Like look at what we saw with COVID where Amazon literally slashed their affiliates.

They slashed it down to like 1% of earnings. Insane. They didn't need to do that. They didn't need to do that. When a lot of the affiliate programs will pay 10, 15, 20, we have one that pays 50% affiliate. That's amazing. Insane. And you didn't see them cutting it. So that's a whole other tangent. But it comes down to smart business too. And these are all of these

things that most of us did not go to business school for. And most of us do not have all this training to think about all these different variables. But we have to put our CEO hat on and we have to smartly think about these things. Yeah, that's a great segue, Bri, into our last question. What are some red flags that we should be looking at as content creators when we're considering working with brands? What are some red flags that you're like, get up and out of there, girlfriend.

Don't do it. You know, if other people are complaining about it, which this is where it's good to be in community, those are initial red flags. Just kind of watch for, ask about, right? Hey, you worked with this brand. What was your experience like? There's no harm in asking that, right?

You can go and you can find that just by searching on social media or searching for such and such brand with blogs, right? So there's kind of like one way you can go and do it, but then, you know, honestly, when it comes down to red flags with brands, the one thing I always tell people to pay attention to is read your contracts.

Read them thoroughly because they are constantly trying to sneak in extra things. Every single time they are trying to sneak in rights to your images, to your videos, to your content, and they are wanting to own it. They are wanting to be able to whitelist it without your permission and without paying you more. There are a lot of variables that they are trying to sneak in and get away with because people aren't reading their contracts or aren't knowing that I can push back on this. That's the thing, right? Like I think there's a lot of fear that, and I

know there is because I just had it last week on one of our coaching calls where she's, I shouldn't accept this, right? And I'm like, absolutely not. Like you need to go and push back and that is okay. You do not have to sign this contract. You have every single right to go back and be like, this is great. I'm really excited to work with you guys. I redlined a couple of items. These were not in our agreements for pay. This is something either this is something I do not do as a content creator. And so I need it removed completely before I can sign it.

Or this is something that I am able to do, but these are the terms and this is how much it costs. Yeah. You are a business. You are not just this random employee that they can push around. You're a business. And so you can go back. So read your contracts very thoroughly.

Talk to other people in your community. That's something that we do is like, somebody will ask me like, hey, Bri, can you look at this contract for me? Absolutely. Send it over. I want to make sure that they're not taking advantage of you. So ask around, ask, ask other friends if you're not feeling certain about something, but read your contracts and you have every right.

It is normal to email back and to ask for changes to be made to the contract. And if they won't, you don't have to sign it. Yeah. You don't have to settle. No. Don't sacrifice what feels good in your business because you're afraid of losing a deal. Let's rewind to the beginning of the podcast when Bree shared with us that this is a $250 billion industry at this point. Somebody will pay you.

Yep. It's okay. point, somebody will pay you. Yep. It's okay. Lots of people will pay you. Yeah. It's not that this is not the be all end all. It's not going to be your one and only opportunity. No. But that authenticity and the transparency with that brand is really important.

And if you don't feel comfortable reading the contract and you don't have somebody who, who will Berkeley sweet apple is a fantastic attorney who works with content creators, we send all of our members there, we have recommended Berkeley for years, she's been on the podcast multiple times, so she is a great resource for somebody who can help you write contracts too, if that's something that you need to do. But just knowing that I think it's just really important too that there are people out there legally who will also support you in that if that is just not your wheelhouse. So this has been such a great conversation. I'm so glad that you came on. Brie, can you please tell people where they can connect

with you? Yes. I always look at me second guessing myself. I'm like, I hope I didn't come off too strong, but you can tell like I'm just so passionate about this topic. I could talk about it every single day. So I love it. I'm so glad I am really. I don't, I love that you're passionate about it because I think, I think that people and bloggers especially need to hear you can do this. Like if this is Like if this is a revenue stream that you want to pursue, you can. Whether you're just getting started or whether you've been blogging for years, there is money to be made here. And so believe in yourself and there are ways to find out what you don't currently know.

So everybody started as a beginner. Everybody had their first brand deal. Like if you haven't had yours yet, you will, but you just got to know like where to go, you know, to learn more about it. Absolutely. Yeah. So you guys go download the pricing guide. It's 100% free. Please share it with friends because like I said, like I'm just trying to get this in as many hands as possible to create more transparency and to raise the rate that everybody is charging. So that's thrivet dot blog slash pricing.

And then yeah, you can see everything else over there on our website, but also like you're listening to a podcast now head over and subscribe to ours, the thrive podcast for content creators. Amy and Jennifer will be over there this Thursday with me, um, talking about mindset and so much that ties into what we just talked about. So it's a great segue into that conversation. Awesome. Thanks for joining us today.

Thanks for having me. Thank you, Bri. Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. If you'd like to learn more about building your blog, visit theultimateblogpodcast.com backslash newsletter to get signed up for our email newsletter. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to share it with a friend, subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in today and we'll see you

next time.