Creator tax and wealth advisor | Fiduciary | Enrolled Agent | Founder of Render Financial | Posts ≠ investment advice
Joined December 2009
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5 more reasons creators might be a red flag to brands (and what to do instead):
5) Withholding metrics
Please for the love of sushi, provide a link to the video/post right after it's published. A few days later send metrics to them without being asked.
Pro tip: If you include a short snippet about why you enjoyed working with the brand and are honest about what went wrong (if it flopped), how it could be improved for the next one, etc. they will love you forever.
Attributing return on investment for creator campaigns is extremely difficult. Any piece of insight helps them justify what we all know: creator campaigns work, even if they aren't easily measured.
The average career of a successful creator lasts 5-8 years.
By this point, 60-90% of creators are burnt out and consider quitting.
That means you have, on average, 3-5 years of peak earnings before plateau, slowdown, and/or burnout.
What I hate seeing is a rise, decline, large liabilities, and no financial stability.
Financially plan accordingly.
1) Tax Hygiene / Planning
- Have you reviewed the full range of retirement accounts available to you?
Most have deadlines e.g. Solo 401(k)s need to be set up by Dec 31 to contribute for 2026
- Any charitable donations you want to make this year?
- Are your books clean? (Makes tax time way less stressful)
- Are you maximizing deductions?
- Any gear/equipment worth buying this year vs. waiting?
- Time to move from an LLC to an S Corp?
2) Revenue Generation
The next few weeks are the best window to lock in sponsorships for Q4 and Q1.
- What % of this year’s income came from AdSense, sponsorships, products, affiliates, etc.? What do you want that mix to look like next year?
- Reach out to brands (and build a relevant list if you don’t have one)
- Push for multi-month or multi-video deals to smooth income and avoid a dry Q1
- Build cash reserves for the first half of 2027
An example of authentic affiliate marketing and how creators can more effectively implement it into their content.
4b) The flip side to requirements:
If there are requests that don't feel natural, say so! Have a conversation. "I see here you would like to point out X, Y, and Z of your product. Based on my experience and audience relationship, it would be more natural if we showcase these features by doing A, B, C."
Sometimes requirements are written by product people who are removed from the reality of what actually works with creator campaigns. Show them how it can be improved, that you're on the same team, and they will thank you for it.
Become an advocate for their goals.
Btw, you should want it to be a success because that's how you get ongoing deals, not just one-offs.
5) Constantly ripping other brands or people on socials, i.e. rage rants.
You can say what you want on socials. Just realize there are certain risks many brands are unwilling to incur.
If you have a history of ripping the brands you've *willingly* worked with in the past, there's a good chance I wouldn't take that risk as the brand.
This isn't complicated, just be a good human.
3) Timid in the sale.
If you're new to brand deals, it can be intimidating to be on a call with them. The tendency in those moments is to either way oversell (you sound desperate), or way undersell (maybe the brand rep made the wrong call?).
I would encourage you: relax.
They wanted to talk to you. You're "in the room". They want to work with you, so be confident you can make a great contribution to their campaign.
4a) Missed requirements.
Of the list, this is the one that would most quickly cause me to never work with a creator again.
You have one shot at this one.
If the campaign brief has certain legal disclosures, include them *exactly* as they want (they probably came from legal).
If you so much as even suggest that you are willing to not abide by FTC disclosures, I would run as fast and far away from that creator as possible. (The stories I could tell are wild)
1) Lack of response.
If a brand emails you about a campaign and it takes two weeks to hear back from you, that opportunity might be over already. And even if it isn't, they may decide not to move forward with you because they need to move quickly (and they don't think you can now).
The number of times I emailed creators, ready to deploy cash, and received very late responses, would astound you. Want to sell your inventory?
Check your email every day.
2) Unwilling to schedule a call.
This is case-by-case. Some agencies and brands only work via email. However, some will want to get on a video call with you. If you're unwilling to spend 30 minutes getting to know the person you're working with, that's a red flag. Why so elusive?
If you don't have 30 min for a call about a business deal, will you invest adequate time into the campaign?
Pro tip: Even if the brand doesn't initiate a call, you can always request one. We're not all robots yet, and the best way to build an ongoing relationship with a brand for future deals is to actually get to know them.
Show you want an ongoing relationship, and you may just get one.
The next 3 weeks is the best window for creators to lock in Q4 brand deals.
Avoiding a few red flags 🚩🚩🚩 will increase your success in landing deals more easily.
I worked on the brand side for years prior to starting my firm.
Here are 5 red flags to avoid:
I'm a big fan of affiliate marketing as a revenue source for creators.
Very high potential revenue, low ongoing effort.
Great time of year to add it to your revenue stack.
Currently working on a 6 Week Bootcamp on Affiliate Marketing for our awesome Creator Academy Members for Nov 9th!
This is actually the prefect season to take YouTube Shopping and Amazon Influencer Programs seriously and make extra commissions and bounties!
Also setting up every green affiliate content for January where people constantly buy new items!
awesomecreatoracademy.com/jo…
We’re going to be doing the 6 week bootcamp during our Tuesday sessions and we meet every Tuesday and Thursday (except holidays).
With the 6 Week Bootcamp we’re going to building a complete system for Affiliate Sales for creators to earn beyond Adsense from YouTube Shopping and Amazon but also across TikTok and Instagram content (especially if they are a lifestyle brand).