The Proffitt Podcast
Are you thinking about starting a podcast? Launching a YouTube channel? Repurposing your old blog content into something fresh? Hi, I'm Krystal - host of "The Proffitt Podcast." And I'm happy to say you've come to the right place!
Business owners and content creators dream of building a platform where they can connect deeply with their audience, and marketing feels easy. But I also know what it's like to feel confused and overwhelmed.
Join us weekly as we strip down those processes and remove all the overwhelm with new tips, simple strategies, and great conversations with creators like you. Tune in to hear how I help creators start, launch, and market their content confidently. The motto here is, "We all have to start somewhere."
The Proffitt Podcast
How to Find Podcast Sponsors & Other Money Making Opportunities
Ready to unlock the secrets of making it big in the creator economy? Join us as we unpack the journey of Justin Moore, a sponsorship coach and founder of Creator Wizard.
Graced with the wisdom of a seasoned professional, we'll explore Justin's eight-year experience in the creative field, where he's made a whopping $4 million working with brands. We'll cover everything from finding your niche to navigating sponsorships and even turning failures into stepping stones.
As we dive into the world of content creation, we'll shed light on the counterintuitive truth that choosing a specific niche can actually broaden your horizons. Hear Justin's story of transitioning from a newbie creator to earning a handsome compensation from a skincare brand for his wife's YouTube channel. Discover how you, too, can effectively monetize your influence and engage with your audience in a meaningful way.
Finally, we'll open the doors to a golden future by setting a clear vision for your creative journey. Reflecting on his own experiences, Justin will share how investing in a mastermind completely revolutionized his view of his business, prompting him to aim for the stars.
We'll also jump into strategies for advocating for yourself, forming brand partnerships, and setting the right price for your worth. So, sit back, tune in, and allow us to guide you on this exciting path to unlocking the full potential of your creativity.
Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)
Looking for a podcast community that supports you on your journey? Check out Podcasters Connect today.
Okay, my sweet, sweet podcast friends, I am so excited that the day has finally come Like it is here. I have been sitting on this gold mine of an interview for what feels like years. It hasn't really been that long in all reality. I think it's been a few weeks, maybe, you know, not quite two months, but I recorded this and I just kept thinking I need to clear my entire calendar, I need to get this to them immediately. As soon as I recorded it, and I'm glad that I didn't do that, because I have some actual real world results to share with you that have come from this interview and the person behind the mic. So I'm so happy to introduce you to Justin Moore. So Justin is actually a sponsorship coach and the founder of the Creator Wizard. I've actually mentioned him a few times on the podcast since we originally met.
Krystal Proffitt:So I met Justin at the ConvertKit conference so Craft Commerce earlier this year in Boise, idaho, and I was enthralled I don't know that's like the adjective that was coming to mind right now, but I was so taken back by his energy to help creators. I went down a rabbit hole on his YouTube channel, which I know you're going to do the same Once you meet him today, you're absolutely going to do the same, because he's energetic and the dude knows his stuff. He knows his stuff Between him and his wife, april. They've been full-time creators for over eight years and have personally made over $4 million working with brands yeah, they're kind of a big deal and he also ran an influencer marketing agency for over seven years that has helped other creators earn an additional $3 million, and I feel like this stat is probably outdated at this point, because he's helped me make some money and I'm like, hmm, justin, we need to have another conversation so we can add some of those numbers. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not making millions behind the scenes, but he's helped me make some money and I just I cannot wait for you to hear all the things that he has to share. So let's get right to it.
Krystal Proffitt:Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we All right Profit Podcast listeners? We have an extra special guest today because we have shared a dance floor. We need to start there today. So we have shared a dance floor. I don't know that I could say that about any of my other guests, so this is super special. So welcome to the show, justin. Happy to have you.
Justin Moore:I'm excited to be here and you know. The other reason that it's extra special is I've got a sound board. I don't think you knew that was coming, but anytime we drop some gems I might bust that out, maybe some jokes. I've got some things coming that I don't think you're quite ready for.
Krystal Proffitt:It's just full of surprises. It's kind of like when you busted out the worm at Craft Commerce. This is the dance floor that we speak of, and it was. I mean, it was fantastic. It was so, yes, everything.
Justin Moore:Was it the best caterpillar you ever saw? And yeah, and because the answer is yes, what would you rate it out of? A 10?.
Krystal Proffitt:Oh, that's a really good question. You know, I at my age and I have slight back problems too I'm like there's physically no way that I would be able to do that. So I'm going to give you a 10 out of 10, because it's just physically not possible for me. It was so impressive.
Justin Moore:I must say I am the right old age of 37 now and I was hurting a little bit afterwards because I haven't done it in a few years. But it's like I'm known for that Every wedding, everything I busted out at least once so. But yeah, it was fun, it's just muscle memory.
Krystal Proffitt:You were like it's music. It has to happen. Yes, it was.
Justin Moore:And I mean, when you saw that happen, you're like I have to have this dude on the podcast, like there's no, of course. That was the selling point. That was the selling point. I knew it, I knew it.
Krystal Proffitt:No, actually you blew my mind. So I you are brand new to me. As of this year. I had not heard about you.
Krystal Proffitt:I didn't know exactly who you were, and this is really important because I like to share the behind the scenes for our audience, like I share all the details and the actual journeys that we go on as creators of content, but also consumers of content, because I want to get the audience thinking that mindset of well, what do I think about whenever I'm ready to buy a product, or what do I think about when I'm tempted to go follow someone on Instagram or watch their YouTube or listen to their podcast.
Krystal Proffitt:And so for you specifically, I learned about you by watching your keynote at Craft and Commerce, which was awesome. I actually took so many pictures that I eventually was like Justin, here's all the pictures that took a view on stage. But I took one specifically that I wanted to talk about today, and it was all about finding your niche. Now we're going to talk about sponsorships today and you know money, mindset and even some fun things that we have coming up, but when I saw this slide about finding your niche, I was like this is what my audience needs, because there's a great mix of beginners and middle of the road and some seasoned pros. But if someone's listening right now and they're like Crystal, you're going to talk about sponsorships, but I don't even necessarily know how I'm talking to you. Like, what would you say to them?
Justin Moore:I think the biggest concern that a lot of creators earlier on in their journey have around picking a niche or a lane or something like that, is that it's going to, number one, limit their potential audience size but also limit their potential opportunities because they think, okay, well, if I'm in this like really really narrow niche, like who's going to like? Are there really people out there who are, like you know, trying to? They're, they have celiac disease and they want to find gluten free recipes but they're also on a budget and if you have more like boxes you check off, am I really going to be that podcaster who, like is so narrow that I can't, you know, I limit my potential reach and I think it's this very contradictory or this, this like, like, not obvious thing, but like do you want to be the one of 10,000 or one of 100,000 generic food blogger or do you want to be the big fish in a small pond? Essentially right, it's your.
Justin Moore:Yeah, there may be a handful of other people who are speaking to that gluten free, celiac lifestyle audience, but who do you think those gluten free brands are going to go to? Who do you think you know when, when, when you know a busy mom or busy dad of a family is trying to figure out how to, you know, create recipes for their whole family that are also delicious and gluten free? Who are they're going to purchase? You know their checklist, you know it's going to be the person that is like speaking specifically to them, and so I think it's like it's not obvious, but it really in my experience and again, I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of creators across all sorts of different niches and platforms and all that stuff and you know almost every, almost every single scenario, the people who are kind of at the top of their game they all have some thing that you could be like oh, this is what they focus on. Like, look at me, I'm a sponsorship coach, right, and how much more niche can you get? And I know I'm going to preempt some of you who might be listening or watching, who are saying, yeah, but there's all these like lifestyle creators or vloggers and they like talk about a lot of things and it's like those are the exception, right, those are the people who and oftentimes actually, if you go back and dig into their history, they actually didn't start that way. They started in like a very narrow area and they developed this kind of core, passionate audience of that topic, and then they started branching out. And so I think it's this misnomer to look at all the top people you know the top like you know general generalist creators out there and be like, well, look at them, they're doing it and it's like, yeah, but you don't realize where they came from. And so I think it's a tough pill to swallow but it's the right one.
Krystal Proffitt:I'm so glad that that's where the conversation went, because you started in makeup technically, so can you tell a little bit about your backstory. We are like, hey God, Crystal, let's not, we don't want that to be the clip that goes out to the world, but tell us about you getting your start into content creation and your creator journey.
Justin Moore:Yeah, so to clarify, I do not wear makeup, but my wife does, and so that is how I actually got my start. So, honestly, I owe everything to her, because I was not doing this prior. I was in medical devices and it was actually my wife, april, who started her first YouTube channel in 2009, way back in the day before. Like, being a creator, being an influencer, was a thing back in the day before there was a partner program on YouTube. Most people don't remember that, like back in the day, you could not make money on YouTube. There was no revenue share with AdSense or anything like that, and so we were like, kind of we like to think of ourselves as kind of the like OG creators. There's this like crew of us. Like you know, it was not that many people back in the day, like it was a very small community, especially people who are, you know, who are kind of in the beauty space, and then we started vlogging, and so we got a trial by fire experience of being a creator in the early days. Again, it wasn't called creator like YouTuber, that's, everyone was YouTubers. It was not, like you know, it wasn't this creator, influencer that didn't even exist yet. And so what happened for us is that, like, brands started reaching out, initially offering free stuff, right, and so my wife was thrilled because beauty products are expensive Hair tools, curling irons, like you know, this type of thing. And so she was like, yes, this is amazing, right, and it's like, again, didn't really think that this could be a moneymaker, right, because that wasn't no one around us, no one we knew, no one was really making money, right, it was very much a hobby. And so this was in 2009, again, and so we started getting free stuff for the first you know, two, three years.
Justin Moore:And then, around 2012, a Korean skincare company or Korean like online store that sold a bunch of different products, reach out to my wife and said, hey, well, actually we'd be interested in compensating you, like paying you every month for, let's say, three, six months to make a video including our products, talk about our brand. And my wife came to me and again, I was still in medical advice. She's like, uh, like this brand's actually offering to pay me money, like, can you help with this? And so by that time, I was actually in business school at the time, and so I was like here I am, mr MBA, like, I can, I can figure this out. Like let me read this contract. Of course I had no idea what I was doing and like I remember we roped in our, our family lawyer who like helped us with our like trusts and wills and like all that family planning stuff. And she was like what is this? What are you doing on the internet? Like what is this? This is a bizarre contract, you know this type of thing. And so, but again, like we had no idea what we were doing and so, you know, we ultimately like this was crazy.
Justin Moore:Our first deal with that, with that brand, was a six month deal and they paid my wife $700 a month for six months and that blew our mind. Like it was a lot of money. It's still a lot of money Like that, like it was. I'll never forget that we were because at the time again, we were like just out of college, you know, a couple of years out of college. Um, we my wife was a preschool teacher. Again, I was like kind of my first job, like in medical devices, and so we weren't making a ton of money and so, like this was like like utilities, groceries, like that was how we translated it in the early days. It was like this is crazy. And so immediately our, our, our thoughts was like whoa, this is a thing like what, if we could get 10 brands, you know, to like pay us this every month? Like this is amazing. And so we went down this really quick um rabbit hole of like okay, brand sponsorships like this is this could very quickly like rival the YouTube AdSense earning, at the time when we were starting to make money there. So, um, you know, we just started, the gears started turning for us. We started, um, you know, kind of planning like what would it take for us to grow this really big? Eventually, we, you know, over over the course of several years, um, I quit my, you know, she quit her full time job and then, two years later, I quit my full time job.
Justin Moore:Um, at the same time, I started, um, basically, like the story is that things were going really well and the planner in me, I'm always like this is going well now, but what if it all comes crashing down? What if people stop watching? What if we don't get as many deals as we're getting right now? And so I was like how can I figure out how to kind of diversify our income at this point? And so I was like you know, at this time we've done quite a few sponsorships and I think we're pretty good at it. Like they keep coming back to us, we're getting VP customers. What if I created basically like an agency to help bring deals to other creators and basically take a cut for managing the logistics of the campaign? And so that's what I did.
Justin Moore:I called up a bunch of our friends in the early days and I was like hey, I don't want to, I'm not like proposing to manage you. This is going to be not exclusive, but can I put you in a deck and bring you business if a brand like wants to work with you? And they're like sure, right, it was like, of course, like it's like a win-win, like who wouldn't want that right? And so that's what I did. I like 30 of our like friends on YouTube at the time. I like put them in a deck and I like my angle was that all of the people in our kind of roster were family friendly.
Justin Moore:Our agency was called Trending Family, and so it was actually a really timely pitch at that time in the 2015, 2016 time, because I don't know if you remember, on YouTube at those times, the like brand safety was like a huge issue because all these brands were getting embroiled, their ads were running against like really like, like hateful content and all this stuff, and all these advertisers were pulling out.
Justin Moore:And so I was out here in the marketplace being like I only work with people who are family friendly, they're not swearing in their content, and so basically, advertisers were like lining up to work with us and so it was like, very quickly, it was like shooting fish in a barrel was amazing, right, and I was like this is working right.
Justin Moore:And so very quickly I got this education of like the other side of it is. Like you know, here we were getting a bunch of deals personally, but now I'm in the boardrooms with like these big brands and these big agencies and now we're talking like several hundred thousand dollars, million dollars, on like this big campaign with 50, a hundred creators, what's the strategy and like all this stuff. And so I just learned, over seven years running the agency, this, really doing thousands of deals with other creators, millions of dollars, that it's just like a whole different ball game when it comes to doing that. And so those were my two experience sets, and I'll take a pause here, cause I know that was a lot and see if you have any heavy questions there, cause really that all everything that happens here led to what I'm doing now, which is the sponsorship coaching.
Krystal Proffitt:Yeah, no, I love having the context of your journey, because I think there's so many times and this is what I really like to do with guests that come onto the show is reminding the audience that what you're doing today is not what you started out doing. So I mean, you just heard the entire Genesis from 2009 to what you're doing today, and it is. I mean, you couldn't even put them in the same categories, not even remotely close to what it is. But you go back to. It's the experience, it's the expertise, it's the baptism by fire is what we would call it in the South right, it's the getting in there, getting your hands dirty, having your own experiences and then turning around and sharing that journey, and you're using that on your content. Your YouTube channel oh my gosh, go run to Justin's YouTube channel, like it's going to be linked in the show notes. It is a wealth of knowledge.
Krystal Proffitt:Your newsletter, like all the things that you're creating today are so valuable and I see, man, this is fancy, it's all put together so nicely.
Krystal Proffitt:But I like to hear the story of we didn't know what we were doing and we were just trying something, and I'm sure it was like stuff that your wife really enjoyed. It was like because I hear you like, oh my gosh, like beauty products are crazy expensive. But I love that. It was just like let's try this out, let's give it a shot, and there was no real expectation of what it is today, of we have to make money, because so many people and I'd love for you to talk about this is so many people want to start a podcast and the immediate first question isn't how can I create something I love? I need to create this and make money tomorrow. And I'm like back up a second. So what would you say to someone that has that mentality of just getting started and they have that expectation from either someone told them or just ignorance to the entire creator economy of that's not necessarily how it works.
Justin Moore:Well, it's a really great point because, like you said, early on 10 years ago, even five, six years ago, like monetizing was not the first thing that most folks thought of when they got into the game. Like, for us it definitely wasn't because you couldn't right, but for the next generation who's coming up now, especially on platforms like TikTok and so on, it's so much less stigmatized, it's so much more normalized to monetize your influence and your audience way earlier in the journey than it was for creators of the previous generation. I don't, like you know, I think a lot of like OG creators like have this kind of get off my lawn attitude when it comes to this type of thing. Like back in the day I, when I got into it, I was just in it for a pure hobby and all this stuff, and so I do think that, like I get that, but that I also do think that it actually is a good thing, like it's a good thing that there's so many more tools for people these days to monetize than there ever was you know, even five, you know six years ago and so I actually think it's a really positive trend. However, the thing that I think is really important to, even though the tools are there, if you don't put the work in to illustrate to your audience how you can be valuable to them, then it's going to be very challenging and you're going to spin your wheels a lot. If you know, you have a podcast for a month or two and then all of a sudden you're like hey, by the way, I've got some. You know, you want to hire me as your coach or you want to buy a course for me, this type of thing, and so I think that a lot of people's like horror stories or really kind of they get jaded about the whole process is that they really try to, you know, act on that way too quickly before they've really been able to establish that connection with their audience. I mean, look, for example, when I started doing the sponsorship coaching, can we talk about failure for second crystal, because I'm really glad you brought that up. Okay, because the story of how Creator Wizard was born is one of failure and I talked about this in my keynote, which was that my agency actually crashed and burned.
Justin Moore:This agency I just shared where I ran for seven years, right when COVID hit like at the height. I had multiple full-time employees, like our payroll at the height of it was like 50K a month. So imagine, like there's like crazy right. And so we were. You know we were. Things seemed like they were going well, we had all these deals in the pipeline and all of a sudden, then COVID hit and everything crashed and burned. Like you know, all the deals that we were relying on didn't come through. You know, I had to lay off all my employees, which was literally the lowest point of my life. It was awful, I loved working with the people that I did and so here I was in this like really, really low place where, you know, yeah, we had had lots of success personally, but this big initiative that I had, you know, the agency that I tried to launch to help diversify our income as creators, the thing I spent seven years trying to do or, at that time, five years when COVID happened it didn't work out and that was such a blow to not only my ego, but a blow to like the future.
Justin Moore:I thought that this was going to be the future, like it would allow us to slow down on social media, you know, which was like our primary revenue stream still, and so it was really really again, it was like the lowest point, like mostly, and professionally. And so, speaking to this whole idea of how all of your experiences color your journey, I was in this, like this nadir of my life, and I was like you know this whole dichotomy that I just described around being a creator doing all these deals, but also having seen the other side of it, you know, and being in the conversations with these big brands, like that's actually kind of interesting, right, and I see a lot of mistakes that creators are making when they interact with brands or when, because I've been on the receiving end of these emails from creators where they're super unprofessional and, you know, really rude and all that stuff to us Like maybe let me make a few YouTube videos like kind of teaching people like this is how you should like draft an email to a brand, this is how you should behave on a phone call, this is how you should pitch a brand, this is how you can negotiate, right. And so I created these videos with no expectation, zero. I was like this is just scratching a creative itch, like I just I got to this has to exist. I need this to be out there if I can help anyone.
Justin Moore:And so for the first, literally year of of creating this content, helping creators. You literally could not pay me. There was no way. I didn't do coaching, I didn't have a course, I didn't have anything, and and I think that that went so far to build kind of credibility and illustrate to people that I'm really truly their advocate here, and it really was more of a pull approach than a push approach. I wasn't pushing stuff on my audience. It was like people all of a sudden came in my DMs. They came in my emails like hey, can you coach me? Hey, can I don't have a manager, can you like look at this contract for me? I like I don't, I need your help, you know so. So very much. I think that there is this reciprocation that happens when you spend a bunch of time devoting yourself to serving and then people start to feel this void that like, oh, I want to do something in return, I want to purchase something from them, or I want to like buy their time or like want to do something.
Krystal Proffitt:And I think that that only happens with time 100% agree, and that's one of the things that I think is so important to people listening. So I mean, what I heard you say is you got to have value. You have to establish that trust, that no like interest factor, like however you want to call it, but it's like you have to know that this person isn't just trying to sell you snake oil, right, or like whatever they're trying to do, and you can only do that by consistently showing up and adding value. So 100% agree on that. But I love that you had this creative itch, because I love this so much and this is why I'm so drawn to other creators because you get it. I get it. Like, when you say that, I'm like oh, that's why I like.
Krystal Proffitt:I immediately thought about a video that popped into my head that was like it did not perform well, no one cared about it, but I had so much fun, I had so much fun created it, so I don't even care.
Krystal Proffitt:So we totally see eye to eye on that and I love that you said about you know you have to have this established relationship with your audience, but also you have to have some of those reps under your belts before brands can take you seriously Because, honestly, I didn't take myself seriously. So can we talk about that for a second? It's like it takes this muscle of like I can show up on video, I can sound confident on video, and not this like uh, should I look at the camera, should I look over here, am I looking at the lens or do I look at the screen, like it's? There's so many awkward things that happen in the first like beginning journey of being a creator that you have to stumble through and figure out. But I think it's so important that we create things just because we truly are so passionate about it, and I want to touch on this real fast and then we can get into some like fun like Justin's going to coach me live on the air guys. So this is pretty fun.
Krystal Proffitt:Before we get there. I want to talk about your commitment, because I love this so much. So you have this commitment to help creators and you have a goal that I believe is so incredible, so can you talk about that for a second?
Justin Moore:Of course. So, um, let's talk about, uh like, educating yourself and, uh, always being a student of your craft. Um, I was in a mastermind. Okay, I spent $10,000 is the most amount of money that I ever. I spent it. I put it on my credit card. This is the single most expensive thing I've ever. It was like, oh, am I really going to do this? Right, but it was a. It was a.
Justin Moore:It was a mastermind, for course creators to help them basically take their program to the next level, and I really felt at that time, um, I had had a couple cohorts in my program under my belt and I felt as though, um, that I really wanted to like invest in myself, right, and so one of the exercises as part of being in this program early on was they brought this expert in to help, uh, everyone in there hone in on their North Star, their vision. Basically, it was a visioning exercise, um, and what it encouraged you to do was think way far out, like we're not, we're talking 10 years out, 20 years out, something like that. Um, like what is the impact that you want to have? And like that was an exercise I've never really done before. I've always been kind of living in the moment and I've always been so tickled by like, oh, I make 500 bucks a year, a thousand bucks a year. It's like it's, it's. It has never been. I've I, I, I, I help these people Like they got their first brand deal, like that. That was what was awesome to me, right. But this exercise really forced me to think, like, what is the impact that I want to have? And so what came out of that process was, um, my vision is that I want to help creators, big and small land, a million sponsorships by 2032. So in nine years from from the date of this recording.
Justin Moore:And the reason that that this fires me up so much is that there's a couple, a couple reasons. Number one is that there's a very specific reason why I made it a million sponsorships and not a million creators because it's way more fulfilling to me to help one creator get a hundred sponsorships than it is to get a hundred creators one. Because my whole thing is that I want to help people create a sustainable livelihood doing this Right, and so the word choices really matter, like the specifics of the goal really really matter. The other reason that it matters is that if my goal was to help a million creators, I would make my course 50 bucks or a hundred bucks, because the goal would be scale at that point. Um, but from the beginning, my goal has always been I want to help an intimate group cohort of people. My cohort's been capped at 50 creators. When I do the live ones, they're capped at 50 creators each time, um, and so again, it's like very, very intentionally and so, um like, to me these things matter.
Justin Moore:The other like reason it matters is that I think that and a lot of folks listening or watching may have felt this set at some point in their creator journey is that you may tend to look at other people who are succeeding on social media. You look at their views, you look at their metrics. They're getting these great opportunities, the great partnerships, and it doesn't feel great. Sometimes it's either as FOMO, or you feel like you suck, or you're like, compared to them, there's no way you'll ever get to their level. Um, because I've been there, I like at various points throughout my journey. I have absolutely been there and even like recently, even as recently as a couple of years ago, and it's like man, I'll never be able to get to there Like these people are having like million dollar years or, like you know, $10,000 a month or whatever the metric is in your niche or whatever.
Justin Moore:Um, and creating this really long vision helped slow everything way down for me, because I realized, like this, I'm in this for a long or the long haul. It does not matter, like, whether my post gets a hundred likes or 10 likes on a day to day basis, like whether my views you know, my YouTube videos get 500 views or 5,000. It really doesn't matter. What matters is how I'm helping people on a day to day basis, and as long as I'm marching along to this really long term goal that I have. Um, that gave me so much peace and allowed me to double back down on the, the creativity and the love for the, for the service and the craft, because, like, at the end of the day, that's what gets me out of bed every day is is helping people right, and so, um, I'm just such a big fan of, like figuring out what is that North Star for you and your business, because it can really help inform um both your content and your business strategy.
Krystal Proffitt:I, I, just I love this so much, like, okay, do you have a mic drop sound effect?
Justin Moore:I don't. But how about? I'll do this, but I have a buzzer. I use the buzzer on my podcast, but that's not quite right, so I don't. I don't know what to do. I need. I need something else.
Krystal Proffitt:We look at the explosion like what goes like just blowing everybody's mind.
Justin Moore:I need an explosion. That's a great one, actually, yeah.
Krystal Proffitt:Because that was so good and I love this, and that's another thing. I think that I'm I'm really drawn to heart centered creators and educators and teachers, because you can feel it right away.
Krystal Proffitt:I can like I can spot people a mile away, like 20 miles away, like around the globe, when they're just like give me your money, that's all I'm after Just give me some money and then we can part ways and that is it and I have felt it from the beginning that you have this big hearted creator mentality that is trying to not only rise up individual creators but the entire creator economy altogether, because it is something where people can make a big impact, make a full time income and be able to, like, have incredible experiences Like I won't get into all the details. You all go check out Justin, like they've talked about, they had their honeymoon paid for, they had, you know, these crazy cruises, they've gone on all these like really fun things that you've had, and it all goes back to that Genesis moment of exploring your creativity and putting something out and just trying. So I love that so much, but I'm going to leave this.
Justin Moore:Thank you, thank you, that's very kind of you. I appreciate that Honestly. Thank you, that's very, very kind of you to say.
Krystal Proffitt:Yeah, for sure, and I mean I'm okay. So full disclosure I joined Justin's program as of today.
Justin Moore:Here we go, here we go, here we go. I was like I literally saw the I have like a zap set up into like my thing. I like I'm going to get a purchase and I was like wait a minute, crystal, like I know, crystal. I was like so excited, exactly. I was like, wow, she's really doing her research for this podcast, like my goodness, Okay.
Krystal Proffitt:So it's so funny because you know, as of us recording this, like, of course, things will be different, you know, when you're listening to this, but, as of us recording this, Justin had opened up a new live cohort and ever since craft, craft and commerce, I've been opening your emails, reading what you're doing, looking at all the YouTube stuff, and then I realized who I am in the sponsorship scenario of everything.
Krystal Proffitt:I'm someone who I have done a few sponsored deals when people have reached out to me that are specific to the podcast industry and I have just been like someone wants to give me money and there hasn't been any like hey, this is actually what my time is worth, or my entire audience, because they asked for one specific thing and I didn't know, oh, I could include newsletters and YouTube video and like all these other pieces of it. So that's kind of where I am in my journey is looking at all the opportunities and the pieces of my network that I just haven't even explored. We're not even talking about like well, let's think off the wall and you know creative ideas. I'm talking about just what is available to me in front of me today. So do you have any tips on someone that just I kind of feel like I'm stumbling through this. It's like a new, the next chapter of my journey. I've been creating for several years and now I'm looking at how can I make a bigger impact and really connect into those sponsorship networks.
Justin Moore:Love to hear it. So, first and foremost, like I want to acknowledge you for having this self awareness there, because this is a really common thing like to get so starstruck when, especially like big name brands or big name companies like land in your inbox. And you're like me, really Are you, because that's how we were, that's totally how we were. We were just like they seriously is, and especially, it was like doesn't matter if they were pay, wanted to pay us, it was free stuff. Yeah, oh, free stuff, thank you. Yes, free, free access to your software. Yes, please, I'll tell everyone about it, right.
Justin Moore:And so it's like because because here's the other thing, the reason I think that it feels that way is that it feels validating, right, like like all this work that I put in publishing, engaging with my audience, all this, I'm finally getting recognized, I'm finally getting on the radar, and so it just kind of like floats away from your brain that like wait a minute.
Justin Moore:Like I can still feel it could still feel validating, but at the same time, I need to, just like I need to, like you know, tamper down. I can still be excited about it, but I still need to make sure that I'm advocating for myself and advocating for my worth, and that's a really hard thing to do in the beginning, especially with the first few deals, and I totally acknowledge that, and so I wanted to mention that piece. The first thing, when it comes specifically to your business, the first thing I like to do, whenever people book me on calls or my course or whatever is like do an analysis, do a survey of all the different ways in which you are both serving your audience but also how you may be able to serve prospective partners. And so I'd love to hear from you, like tell me all the different, what are all the different content platforms, content formats? You've got the podcast YouTube channel, like maybe you have a newsletter, like what are the different things that you got going on?
Krystal Proffitt:Yeah, so for me, the largest right Cause we always like to start with the most impre I'm the star student. This is exactly who I was in school. I was like, let me be the A student. So on YouTube, it's this where I have the biggest platform, and then I'm connected in Instagram.
Justin Moore:How many subscribers so like, just so we get some numbers here Like 7,000 right now on YouTube, and then on Instagram 24, 2500,.
Krystal Proffitt:It's not a ton. And then email subscribers. Stop uh, uh, uh, uh no don't say not a ton, mindset, mindset.
Justin Moore:Not okay. Not okay, you could remove that from your language. All right, restart, restart, go ahead. That's what I'm starting.
Krystal Proffitt:That's what I'm starting on my Instagram influence.
Justin Moore:Yep.
Krystal Proffitt:And then a newsletter. I have a weekly newsletter that I'm sending out. I also publish for my podcast, so this is where things get a little weird and a little cause. I don't have sponsorship in my mind for one podcast. I have two podcasts. One's a daily show. It's five minutes or less, and then I have this show, which I publish consistently once a week, and then I also take the content from here and publish it on my website as a blog post, so it kind of serves multi-purpose.
Justin Moore:So, yeah, okay, all right. When these sponsors or these brands that you did work with reached out to you, initially, I mean they were inbound, it wasn't something you pitched.
Krystal Proffitt:Correct. And they were actually as part of, like, I'm one of their creators, so I was an affiliate for them in some capacity. And then they said hey, you already promote us, then let's work together to create some video content for our YouTube channel. So that's really what it was.
Justin Moore:Okay, so like learning moment right here for anyone like who just caught that a lot of people think like I don't want to be an affiliate, I don't want to make 20%, 30% commission or whatever, I'm not going to do that you just heard right here Crystal was able to get a deal because that's how the relationship started A lot of brands. I think this is a really interesting learning moment, which is that a lot of brands will go to their pool of affiliates first to try to source partners for some of these flat compensation type partnerships, because they already know that these people are built in brand advocates. They've already they know the brand cold. They don't need to educate them this type of thing. And so there is value in the beginning, when you're very early on in your journey, from being affiliates and getting some repetitions and that type of thing and being able, like the easiest one in my mind is just become an Amazon associate. Become an Amazon affiliate Like that's a very easy way.
Justin Moore:If you sell any, if you talk about anything tangible at all and that that could potentially be sold on Amazon, that could start to be the seedlings of you illustrating to future partners that you have influence right that you people. Actually, when you say, hey, I love this thing, and people go out and buy it like that, could, you can use that as like an indicator that you could potentially be a good partner for them. So I just didn't want to mention that because I think that that's really important thing to know. And so tell me more about the dynamics of the deal. So they reach out to you. They said, hey, you know, make some content to live on our platform. It sounds like, and we're gonna get the usage rights to like do that. So it didn't go live on your platform.
Krystal Proffitt:So one of them went live on my platform and it was a one time hey, create this, to create this video for us. They were kind of dictating this is what they wanted to launch this video around the new year, when people want to start podcasts. So it was very podcast heavy focused. It was on my platform. And then for the other instance, it was for another brand and it was multiple videos released over time and that's the only one that I actually had a contract and I know I'm like oh, I've been, I've been diving into the program and I'm like so many lessons learned already, but that's the first one I didn't even have.
Krystal Proffitt:there was no contract, it was a. I don't even know if it was an email agreement, it could have been a. I mean, they paid me, everything turned out great, and I still work with this brand.
Justin Moore:It was like a smoke signal, like carrier pigeon, like it was. It was crazy, so it was definitely good of it about it.
Krystal Proffitt:Like, now that I look back I'm like I don't even know if there's a paper trail to that thing even happening. But it happened, I was compensated for it. But I mean, lesson learned, holy moly. There was not really a lot discussed about deliverables or expectations outside of this is what we want. Can you do it? Sure, you're paying me up. Sure, let's. Yeah, let's make it happen.
Justin Moore:So Right. So the reason that I like dissecting deals that you've already done is because you know, obviously you know analyzing things in hindsight when you're, you know, going through, for example, my program and learning, you know lessons learned, contracts, et cetera, like you know, that's all good and well, but there is other things about what I just heard that I think are, you know, potentially really important things to realize about how you can pitch them down the line in the future. So one thing that I heard which I think is pretty interesting is that one of the reasons why they wanted to partner with you is because they need content. Mm, hmm, it's not just about, you know, getting in front of your audience. It's that they, for some reason maybe they either didn't have anyone internally who could generate content on their marketing team, or they didn't want to outsource that competency to an agency or a freelance videographer or, you know, a photographer or whatever, whatever type of brand it is. They decided that, like OK, we're going to go tap into our pool of affiliates, like this is the way in which we're going to get content right, and so I think that this is a really important note, which is that the next thing you should have done right after that partnership ended would have been like hey, I can create a steady flow of content for you every month. We will turn this into a ongoing thing. Every month, I will give you content for your YouTube channel. I'll give you cuts of it so that you can repost it on your Instagram. You know, I'll create 15 second versions of this that you can run for paid advertising, right.
Justin Moore:And so it's like it starts all of a sudden realize that like wow, brands actually they don't have it all figured out Like I can actually help them do things. They don't have to hire a full-time employee for this, I can be a freelancer. There's a lot of advantages for this type of relationship, and so what I teach creators a lot is like read between the lines. When a brand is asking you to do something, it doesn't just mean it's just this. It's like fixed and like this is the only thing they ever want you to do. It's like you should read between the lines and be like OK, if they want to be to do this, chances are they might want me to do this other thing too, and so I should just shoot my shot and see what they say.
Krystal Proffitt:Yeah, yeah, I love that so much, especially in looking back at those, because these really happened in 2021. So it's been quite a while since I've like had time to reflect on it and how everything happened. And if I were to go back in time and really evaluate how one validating you like hit right on it, I was like they want to pay me. I'm validated. Oh my gosh, this is going to change my life. They're like all those things went through my head, but now, having some distance from it, I can see so clearly that one I was paid underpaid.
Krystal Proffitt:So so much on the second deal that I did. It was not worth the time that I put into it. So I'd be so curious to hear like the deliverables. In looking at what I do today and how much I delivered for them, it was like the expectations of so many videos over so much time and then come to find out there's other creators within that same network that were getting paid for 5X that amount that I got paid, and so it was like I don't feel good about that. So is there?
Justin Moore:got you.
Krystal Proffitt:So it's kind of two parts to that. To my question is does that happen often? And to is there a? Is there a way to, I guess, kind of reframe working with a brand that maybe you didn't have a great experience with in the past Maybe it was one specific manager or someone that that person has turned over? There's a new person, there's a new sheriff in town, and you should reach back out to them 100%.
Justin Moore:So, to speak to the first point around, is this common, you know, for certain creators in the same campaign to get compensated wildly differently? And the answer is 100%. So I'm going to put on my agency hat for a second here, having run that for many years. How it happens, I'm going to give you the behind the scenes here. Okay, so a big brand will come to my agency either either it's the brand directly, or it's a very large brand's agency, like their media agency, it's called or PR agency, someone who's like on retainer for this brand handling a lot of different things for them. And this agency over here, or the brand, says we want to work with influencers. We believe that influencer marketing is an important tactic for us generally, and so they will then reach out to our agency because we are purpose built to do that function. So they say hey, you know we help with the brand with a lot of other things, but like this one thing we're not really good at like it seems like you're the expert there, so we want to hire you, we want to subcontract you to handle this campaign for us.
Justin Moore:What oftentimes happens is that they will send us what's called an RFP, which is a request for proposal. And so what that means is that our agency has to enter the octagon with a bunch of other agencies to compete for the budget, and so it doesn't mean that we are going to like automatically win the deal. There may be 10 other quote quote influencer marketing agencies who are also submitting proposals, and it's like who does the best, like you know, dog and pony show to win the deal. And so what oftentimes happens is that the brand will say, okay, we want to spend 500 K, 100 K, million dollars, whatever it is 50 K. And so give us a proposal of like what's the platform strategy? What platforms should we be activating on? What types of creators? Give us a short list of like potential partners that you think might be a good fit for us, and so we everyone puts together a deck, basically, and then the brand if you make it past the, you know, if you ultimately win the deal, then let's say we won the deal for 100 K as an agency and we had a short list of creators that they wanted to potentially work with. That's when we're going to do the outreach to you. And so there's this thing that there's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes that I don't think creators realize that happen way before the brand or the agency reaches out to you and you may be in decks that you don't even know about, right, where this agency you know.
Justin Moore:What we always sought to do was was do some soft vetting first, because the last thing that we wanted is, like put you, put crystal, in a deck, the brand gets really excited about working with you and they're like give you the green light. And then we reach out and your crystals like I don't want to work with that brand, I hate them, they suck. And so then we have to go back to the brand and be like oh yeah, I know we said that crystal is excited, but I changed, you know, not going to happen, right, and so so we always strove to like try and get some softer, softer, you know, buy in first, but but basically, you know, let's say we won the deal, we have a hundred K to play with and we're going to work with, let's say, 10 creators. We have the same scope of work for everyone. Everyone's going to do two YouTube videos and two Instagram posts and you know you get usage rights for paid media and you get exclusivity for 30 days. Whatever it is that everyone's kind of has a has a unified, you know, scope of work usually, and so then we're going to reach out and every creator you could have all, let's say all 10 of those creators are have 50,000 followers, whatever.
Justin Moore:Everyone's going to charge differently because there's no standardized like pricing right, and and so part of the agency's job is to Tetris the budget together. So you come in here and this person comes in at 10,000, this person comes in at 1000, this person comes in at 5000, right. And so their job is to just, like, kind of Franken, sign this program together to a point where they can just go back to the brand and be like we locked in everyone, we got the, you know, we were able to make it work under budget, and so the agency has really no incentive for you to be like I know you told me at your quotes 1000, but you should really charge 5000, right. There's no real incentive for them to do that because they'll be able to save that budget for other, bringing in other, you know, creators into the program. Essentially right.
Justin Moore:And so this is part of the reason why I felt so driven to help creators advocate for themselves, because there's there's no one else advocating for creators, like you know, because the economics don't make sense for anyone to really tell you like hey, you should charge more, right, and so I think that that's like a answering your first question. Yes, it absolutely happens, and that's why you do need to educate yourself around this space. The second thing is how can you figure out, just even directionally, like how to understand your worth and like how to how much you should charge, and all this stuff too it's we could probably do a whole podcast episode on pricing. For sure, in fact, like one huge module of my program is all about pricing and negotiating. But really, at the end of the day, there's two main suggestions that I have when it comes to like tactically, how you can understand like numbers right. The first one is when you're on a, when you're in a conversation with a brand and they're telling you about their objectives and they're telling you what they want you to do, and you have no idea how much to charge, you can say something very simple which is like hey, look, this is all like very exciting. I'm definitely interested in this. I would love to go back and put together a proposal for you of how I would love to bring this campaign to life.
Justin Moore:Typically, what I like to do is put together a couple of different tiers to give you a sense of what's possible. Do you have a sense brand? Do you brand have a sense of what those three budget tiers should be? And then you shut up like what's what's feasible for you, for you from a budget perspective? You say what are those three tiers, and then you shut up, you don't say anything, you lean into the silence.
Justin Moore:It's going to be very scary and imposter syndrome inducing, but one of two things is going to happen. They're either going to say something. They're going to say, oh, one, two, three, k, or five, 10, 15 K, or 50, 100, 150 K, whatever it is, and you're going to learn a couple of things. You're going to learn if they say five, 10, 15 K or something like that, you're probably going to spend a lot more work on that proposal than you would, the person who's saying like two, three, 400. That's number one.
Justin Moore:The second thing is that by giving them packages, you're also going to give them the opportunity to learn about other parts of your business, how you can serve them right, because they may have reached out about the podcast or the YouTube channel or the whatever it is, and then it takes you putting the packages together to be like, by the way, I have this newsletter with 5000 people of your exact persona on there. I really believe that we should include that as part of this partnership. And they're like oh, we didn't even know you had the newsletter right, and so, like, that's a really, really big reason that you always, always, always want to be providing packages whenever a brand reaches out. So that's one scenario. Is they're going to tell you something right?
Justin Moore:And in my experience I've done this over hundreds and hundreds of conversations and deals Brands are going to tell you about 75% of the time, at least in my experience is they're going to tell you something right. 25% of the time, they're going to throw it back to you. They're going to be like we don't know, we've never done this. You tell us right. It's like. It's like who says it's like who. You know this old negotiation adage like whoever says the first number loses, basically right, and and? So in that scenario, I have a very unscientific suggestion. Are you ready for this, crystal?
Krystal Proffitt:Yes it is.
Justin Moore:It is what is your hell yeah number? Okay, and meaning meaning, when you send over packages one, two, three to them, or one, two, three, four, five, whatever it is, package one if they ultimately chose package one, which was the lowest investment amount, and they'd be like, okay, we're going to go with package one, you say, hell yeah, let's do this, I'm excited about this. If they choose package one, you do not want to say, oh God, I have to do this. Now I'm going to resent this because I was hoping they would pick package three or package five or whatever it is. And so again, in those like very unscientific situations where you don't really know, you don't have a directional sense of, like, what their budget appetite is, you just have to pick a number that you'd be excited about. And there's a lot of other like details about kind of the art and science of pricing, but this is, I think, think, can be helpful.
Krystal Proffitt:Yeah, and again, I love how, on your YouTube channel, you have coaching sessions that you put up of previous clients and students that you've gone through. So I highly recommend anybody that's listening. And they're like, I still like pricing just feels like this whole like Wild West of just throw something out there. But no, there's actually a formula. Justin has formulas, you have templates, which is honestly why, you know, in looking at your program, I told myself and I know myself well enough I was like I could figure this out, like I'm smart, I'm savvy, I can do all the things. But I also know that I don't want to sit down and watch hours and hours and hours of YouTube where I'm like Did I do this and then do, oh no, I gotta go back and do that. So let me go back and find this video and let me go find it, like I just wanted a crystal. This is where you are today. Here's where you're going and I mean I'm just so excited to go on this journey. So, and I've made this commitment, so you're ready for this.
Justin Moore:Justin, I haven't told you this yet For anybody that's listening, you're hearing it live.
Krystal Proffitt:I'm gonna be one of your next success stories. I'm putting it out into the universe. I'm gonna be part of the million sponsorships that happen.
Justin Moore:Oh my gosh, I am so I know it because you're speaking into existence and I can't wait for you to come. You're gonna DM me and you're gonna be like Justin, I just got a five figure deal and you're not even gonna believe it. I can't wait for that.
Krystal Proffitt:That's gonna be so incredible and I like we could just talk about so many other nuances of sponsorships. But everybody go get on Justin's newsletter. Okay, this is another piece that I wanted to tell you is I got on your newsletter just because I wanted to see the sponsorship deals. I didn't even, to be fair, I didn't really know you. Okay, so don't be offended when I say this. I didn't really even care what Justin was saying in his newsletters. I was like I wanna see how sponsorships work. But then I started reading it and I was like his videos on YouTube are edited so fun, like if you thought this was fun today.
Krystal Proffitt:Go watch his actual edited videos where he's got the sound effects he's got like all the things. Go check it out and we're gonna have a link to check out if Justin has one of his cohorts happening with the brand creator wizard program, because it is brand deal wizard.
Justin Moore:I said it wrong Brand deal wizard, brand deal wizard, you've got it, you know. Thank you Again. You're so kind. I promise I'm not paying her to say this, guys. Like, she is like yeah, yeah, she's gonna be an affiliate soon, hopefully.
Justin Moore:But I wanna real quickly touch on something you said at the very beginning, which was, like you didn't know me right, like before Craft Commerce, that conference, you had no idea who I was, and I think that this is a really, really important lesson for everyone listening, which is that you may feel as though you've been saying the same thing over and over and everyone's heard your message and they've seen your pitch and they see, they know what you're doing and your whole shtick and all this stuff too. But that is so false. Like there are so many people in this world, whatever niche you're in, there are so many. There's so much potential. If you think that, oh, it's so saturated on social media now, there's no way I could ever stand out. Anything like that. Like that is complete and utter garbage. Like there is a room, there's a lane for everyone If you have a unique perspective. In fact, I actually have the keynote. I actually shared the keynote that I did on stage at that conference on my YouTube channel. I actually think it's an unlisted video. I mean I need to publish it.
Justin Moore:But I talked about this, this fact of like if you have a perspective, if you have kind of a spiky point of view about something, there's always gonna be an opportunity for you. And so if there's any takeaway that you have from this conversation, I really hope it's one of optimism, it's one of like. There is a path for everyone here. The creator economy. There's billions and billions of dollars being spent each year, year over year. It's like growing in this space, whether it's brand partnerships or opportunities directly to, like, you know, get more customers or leads or whatever. There's so, so much opportunity. And so if anyone is here listening and you're pessimistic and you've got your arms crossed and you're one of those get off my lawn type people, please like, hear me Like this this is I'm speaking directly to you that there is opportunity for each and every one of you. I really, truly believe that.
Krystal Proffitt:Oh my gosh, Like I am so appreciative of all the wisdom that you have shared here today and the sound effects. I mean we couldn't.
Justin Moore:Okay, here we go, here we go. We couldn't have done it without the sound effects. Yeah.
Krystal Proffitt:But, I want to wrap up today with I have three rapid fire questions that I ask all of my guests. So are you, are you up for that? Are you ready?
Justin Moore:I'm ready, let's do this. I'm an open book.
Krystal Proffitt:Okay. So the first one is what piece of advice would you give to a brand new podcaster?
Justin Moore:Brand new podcaster is you got to have video with your podcast? I truly believe that I started my podcast in earnest only six months ago, or back in the end of January, and it was a video first show, a video first podcast, because I believe, like you know, all of the tools and opportunities that are, you know, being made available to help with discovery of your podcast on YouTube and Spotify and now TikTok I saw you could there's like going to be able to import your RSS feed, like there's so many opportunities for a content format that historically has been so difficult to grow. There's no discoverability and very little discoverability in podcasts, and so I'm super bullish and excited about the prospect of growth on some of these social media platforms that there is with podcasting, and so that would be like. My main piece of advice is like, just if you have a fear of being on camera, like get over it.
Krystal Proffitt:Get over it, make it happen. Okay, that's a great one. Okay, so this one's a two-part question what is the dream podcast you would love to be on and who is your dream podcast guest?
Justin Moore:Oh man, this is good. Okay, so it's probably the same person for both answers. So, amy Porterfield, like she has really influenced my journey. In fact I got the chance to meet her at Craft Commerce and like she was at like there was like a speaker's dinner and I got to. Actually I was so nervous, crystal, I was like shaking. I was like am I really gonna go up to her? But I went up to her. I had to tell her like I was.
Justin Moore:I went up to her. She was at like another table talking with like the big wings or whatever, and I went up and I was like Amy, like you know, I just wanted to tell you like how much impact you had on my journey. I can't even I blacked out, I don't even remember what I said, and I was like but she was so gracious, she like stood up and she was like so thoughtful and listening and like she was so kind and like I have all like being on her show one day, like cause I got learned so much from her and take so much information from her, everything she's built over the years, and so being on her show, as well as having her on my show and helping her kind of take her sponsorship game to the next level would be a dream.
Krystal Proffitt:Oh my gosh, we're putting it out into the universe. It's going to happen.
Justin Moore:It will happen.
Krystal Proffitt:Online marketing made easy. Justin is coming for you. It's gonna happen.
Justin Moore:Yes, yes.
Krystal Proffitt:The last question I have for you is do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
Justin Moore:100%, like I am a perfectionist and it's been a skill that I've had to unlearn. Because, again, going back to the vision, going back to the large North Star, if I am the person me responding to all 31,000 people on my newsletter who are emailing me back every time I send out an email cause I get hundreds and hundreds of emails now is a funny thing when you ask people to hey, hit, reply to this email and tell me blah, blah, blah.
Justin Moore:People actually do and it's like, oh, wow, you multiply that by thousands of people, right? And so it's like, for a long time I took pride in that Like it has to be me, that's why people are joining my course and they follow me and it's gotta be me, right. And so I was very much a perfectionist in that sense, and so it really took a sense of humility of me to realize, okay, there's a graceful way to be able to have other people whether it's a VA or other people on my team step in and being like hey, thank you so much for the email. Like here's resources, this type of thing.
Justin Moore:People aren't necessarily always like needing an answer directly from me. Like sometimes it's okay if they like hear back from someone else and they'll get equally as excited about that. And so a lot of it, my perfectionism, and like the way in which I want to serve people, I do have to like check myself sometimes and realize like, hey, I can still do that in a way that's still, you know, aligned with my personal like integrity and all that stuff too. And so that attitude has been one of evolution and learning for me over the last like year, I would say, to take me into the next chapter.
Krystal Proffitt:That's awesome, and I think that having that release gives you the ability to serve more people, too, and help you go towards that vision, so that's incredible.
Justin Moore:I mean like that thing you said around the creative fire, where it's like you make a piece of content even if it doesn't perform well, you're like I don't care. That was a may, I love it Like. I find so like real quick. I know we're ending, but like I made a big change in my business like about a month ago, because I hired a second in command basically, and it's I, she, her name is Dee.
Justin Moore:She was one of my students actually, if you can believe it, in an early cohort of the course and she was like a superstar and so I hired her about two years ago to help, kind of freelance, like help with the community and like help with office hours and like stuff. But she just I kept giving her more and more stuff because she's amazing, and I finally was like, okay, there's all, there's so many moving pieces in my business now. I've got the newsletter, the YouTube, all these sponsorships, I've got the courses. There's like so much and I just I can't do it all. I had a VA and I even couldn't do it all, and so I was like I need someone to kind of keep the lights on.
Justin Moore:And so about a month ago literally about a month ago, I promoted Dee to be the director of operations and community, and so she, now her purview, is like running everything, keep the lights on, and like I'm going to be over here in this like cave, like just doing my zone of genius, my special sauce of like making this content, doing these coaching calls, and like having a you know, like that's thought leadership, speaking, writing, like those are the things that are like really going to move the needle for this big mission right, and so that's a big. That's the next chapter for me, I would say, is like learning to be that person and not be in the weeds as much, and so it's like it's scary but it's exciting, I would say.
Krystal Proffitt:That's so awesome and I love that you're stepping into, I mean, what you obviously are so good at, and I feel like I mean you're born to be a creator. I mean like, just call it what it is, like you're born to be doing all of this, so just until everybody, where they can learn more about you and learn about your program too, and see if it's available when this episode goes live.
Justin Moore:Yeah, I appreciate that. So it's creatorwizardcom slash join. That's the free newsletter and, as Crystal mentioned, like you it's I send it out every week, actually multiple times a week, where the main draw is, like, even if you don't give a crap about who I am, I'm going to send you paid sponsorship opportunities. Okay, so if you don't, you don't want to learn anything, I'm going to send you. I'm going to be like, hey, click this link and this brand's going to pay you. Like, if that's, if you really want low hanging fruit here, that's why you want to sign up creatorwizardcom slash join. And then, honestly, to your point, I don't even ever plug the course. Like I really don't. I'd like you know, I don't care if you ever pay me, if you want to be on the newsletter, if you want to watch my videos. I, 99% of people are never going to pay me and I don't care. Like, really, truly, that's how I believe, and if you, if you really want to find out more, you'll stumble down the rabbit hole and find the course.
Krystal Proffitt:And then you'll end up like me, where I'm like Justin just take my money and tell me what to do.
Justin Moore:That's how we ended up here today. Yeah, it's like it's the, it's the anti sales pitch, probably to my detriment.
Krystal Proffitt:Exactly, exactly. No, it's fantastic. I appreciate all the wisdom that you shared here today because I know you just blew like so many people's minds and they're going to be listening to this over and over again and saying, okay, I need the mindset coaching and I need to make this happen for sponsorships, for their content. So thank you so much for everything you shared.
Justin Moore:Thanks so much again for having me.
Krystal Proffitt:I told you he was going to be fantastic and he did not disappoint. And it was so funny because I did not tell him right, I didn't prep him before he started talking and then like tell me hey, by the way, I bought your program and I've been like totally nerding out on all the things that you've been doing. But when we recorded this I was I was in the middle of getting pitched about the sponsorship deals. And it's funny because I've gone back and watched some of his old YouTube videos and where he's talking about, people get pitched all the time and it's just how they approach working with that brand or what it can be like to really be a professional like show up as a professional creator and treat these brands with a respect and with a professionalism that not everyone is willing to do, and you can make all the difference in the world. So since I worked with Justin, I've gone on to make over five grand with sponsorships in a short period of time.
Krystal Proffitt:Yes, $5,000 of additional revenue that I had not projected. I didn't. I didn't even think about sponsorship this year because I kept telling myself like I'm not really ready. I don't have millions of followers, I don't have, you know the coveted 10,000 people on Instagram following me, or you know a 20,000 like subscriber YouTube channel or even like 10,000 people on my email list. So I kept having all of this negative self-talk. That's like I'm not big enough. Who am I Like all the imposter syndrome that we all talk about. We all experience will just and help me overcome that and I can see what I'm worth and I know what I can ask for when it comes to a sponsorship and I have the confidence to say no if someone's not willing to pay it, because I have had these other brands that have paid me exactly what I'm worth and I just can't wait to pitch more.
Krystal Proffitt:These were these pitches came to me. I didn't even pitch these brands and this is what Justin teaches. He teaches you how to pitch brands, how to follow up. I mean, he has a whole process. That is just. It blew my mind when I devoured his program, I think in a weekend weekend. I was just it's so good, it is so, so good. So I'm a proud alumni of the Brandale Wizard program and it was incredible. And he actually has a free masterclass that I want you to go check out. So it's called how to craft a sponsorship pitch no brand will ignore. I want you to go to crystalprofitcom forward slash sponsorship to check it out. I am I'm a proud affiliate of this program now because, like I said, I paid for it and I immediately got my money back and then some because I was able to land like two deals back to back that came to me. These came to my inboxes and I was able to make some money off of them. So go check them out.
Krystal Proffitt:Y'all been asking me about sponsorships. I haven't known, like who to talk to, who to send you to Justin's the. He's the man, he's the guy. Go, like you're going to fall in love with him. His personality, he is someone that I trust his opinion and he is going to treat you so well and take care of you. So, again, go to crystalprofitcom forward slash sponsorship site.
Krystal Proffitt:Up for his free training, learn from him. Go to his YouTube channel, check him out and listen to all the cool brands that he's worked with and all the cool people that he's been able to help. But I am just so grateful. So, justin, if you're listening, thank you again so much for how much value you added to this podcast, to this audience, because it blew my mind and I know it will blow so many people's mind that are listening to this today. So thank you so much again, justin, but that's all I have for you. So if this is your first time tuning in what an incredible episode to listen in on. Make sure that you hit that follow or subscribe button wherever you're listening and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.
