How I Got My First Brand Deal as a Personal Finance Creator

When I started my firm, I planned to get clients through content & eventually follow a similar path to Brittney Castro's influencer model.

Knowing that I needed to get my reps in, I published the first video in summer 2020 (two weeks after launch):

Following the firm's "welcome" video, I started writing blogs & using them as scripts to record a video version (seen above with Financial Advisor vs Robo Advisor).

Once the video was published, I'd go back & embed it within the blog to help with SEO & reader experience.

I kept up with a weekly blog+video combo for several months until I started feeling overwhelmed by trying to do too much..

Because at the same time, I was also trying to make TikToks about the stock market at the McDonald's drive-thru:

And publishing a weekly video series that ended up lasting a year and a half (which also got featured in Investor's Business Daily):

It was A LOT of video. I was also posting & distributing them regularly to Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

It felt like I was doing everything I could to get my name out there.

And after some time, I started getting closer to the "paid influencer" spot I had dreamed of a just couple years prior.

In early 2022, someone who I'd been following for a while reached out via DM and asked if I wanted to make short financial education videos for their brand:

19 months after publishing the first video.

I replied back, went out to New York, met up with Jaimin for lunch (the founder of the company), and we discussed what the relationship would look like.

(If you love Mexican food & street tacos, try this place next time you go)

When I got back home, we got the details ironed out & my goal was accomplished:

I'm not sure that I can disclose the exact amount paid, but it was a round number more than $50 & less than $150/per video.

The nice thing: while getting paid to make videos for their brand, I could also post them under my own account - essentially putting me in a position to get paid for what I was already doing

Eventually, the arrangement ended once all the necessary videos had been recorded  - but I can't describe the confidence that came from someone else seeing value in what I was doing.

🎡 TL;DR
- Posted 50+ videos in a year (while focusing on quality & improvement)
- Shared them to social (increasing my surface area of luck)
- Was asked via DM to create videos for a financial brand