Chapter 1

1. The Lucrative Business of Being You

“The ceiling is short, the field may be long, but the game is wide open!”

—Dude Perfect

Do you understand how much power you have at this very moment?

Micro influencers hold all the power with brands today. According to an influencer marketing report conducted by Collabstr, the influencer market went from $9.7 billion in 2020 to $13.8 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $15 billion by the end of 2022. It grew by 42 percent in only one year. Why? Because it’s just smart business. Eighty percent of consumers have purchased a product or service recommended to them by an influencer they follow. My guess is, you don’t have to look far to find someone who falls in that category.

Sponcon emerged as a viable business model in the last decade. Ordinary people with engaged online communities are being paid by large corporations—think Nike, Best Buy, and Banana Republic—to promote their products and services. So, it’s no surprise that brands have nearly doubled the amount they spend on the creators they activate for their advertising campaigns in the last two years. As this book goes to print, 55 percent of companies have a dedicated budget for content marketing, and nearly four of five allocate funds strictly to influencer marketing.

That trend is growing too. Sixty-six percent of brands are set to increase influencer marketing spend in the next twelve months. Eighty-seven percent use Instagram as their primary advertising avenue. And, according to research conducted by Shopify: “By 2023, brands will spend $4.62 billion per year on influencer marketing…a 25 percent increase between 2021 and 2023.”

I am blasting you with stats on purpose. You have to get how massive the business opportunity is right now for you. There has never been a better time to earn a living sharing and teaching others about a topic you love. No question. So please don’t go thinking, I can’t make six figures by showing people how to knit headbands. The odder the niche, the better that might be. I know uncles who are raking in partnership dough because they post pictures of their cute nieces and nephews. From the most odd, to the most random, to the most standard of well-known niches, it all works. Any niche can earn you a living if there is an audience that appreciates it. It is a strange, exciting time for creative entrepreneurial people.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of Americans who choose self-employment over a corporate position also continues to rise by 7.46 percent each year. Many of these very intelligent people will build personal brands where they get paid to publish. Around 52 percent of them see influencer marketing as a viable career option. Their professional aspiration will be to become full-time content creators.

Since I work with influencers of all kinds, I would bet that the numbers represented by the stats are lower than they are in reality. They should be drastically higher. The reason they aren’t is because 68 percent of micro influencers don’t believe their work is sufficiently recognized and valued. They aren’t running their platforms as a full-time business (though they could). They aren’t pitching the right brands, landing deals, or being paid what they are worth. It’s also why, despite there being millions of micro influencers, the most significant challenge reported by brands is finding them.

Now imagine you slot your stunning portfolio in the mix. It showcases your niche, the platforms you’re passionate about monetizing, the engaged community you have, your creative ability, and the metrics to back it up. You show it to the brand representatives who are sorting through the piles trying to find unicorn micro influencers—savvy social media professionals who offer them strategic exposure and sales. With the strategies you learn in this book, it will be easy for the decision makers to partner with you.

Simply not knowing industry facts keeps most micro influencers from running their dream businesses. It is time for you to be paid what you’re worth, and that, my friend, is always more than you think. There are plenty of brands out there who will honor, respect, and value your hard work.

Ultimately, building a successful, sustainable influencer career is a five-step formula. Here is what you need to do (and will learn in this book):

1. Follow the damn rules!
2. Understand the reward system.
3. Get clear on YBA (yourself, your brand, and your audience).
4. Continuously create valuable content.
5. Pitch, negotiate, deliver.

First, there are some basics you need to know about the industry and how Instagram works. So we’ll start there.

I realize that some people reading this might know aspects of what I am about to tell you already in these first few chapters. If you do, great. Let what you learn be a reminder. But I also have to encourage everyone who is reading this not to skip any of the chapters—even if you think you’re ahead of the game and ready to pitch brands. If you’re like most of the influencers I work with, you have likely missed critical nuances of the foundational work you have to do to build a sustainable influencer career.

Stay with me. Approach every aspect of this book with an open mind even if you think, Been there, done that. You can always further optimize your foundation. Plus, social media is always changing, so if you’ve been there, done that a few months ago, things have likely changed. Read everything even if you think it’s too basic.

We’ll start with you having a complete understanding of the landscape of the influencer industry. You will quickly discover how much power you already have—and why it’s more than what the mega and macro influencers with sixty thousand or more followers possess.

The Spectrum of Influence: Mega, Macro, Micro, Nano

In the world of influencers, there are four types:

1. Mega influencers
2. Macro influencers
3. Micro influencers
4. Nano influencers

Let me break it down for you.

Mega Influencers

Mega influencers have one million followers or more. They are the celebrities—the Kylie Jenners, Gary Vees, and Shawn Mendeses of the world. People follow them because they see them in movies or TV, hear them on podcasts, or read about them in magazines. Naturally, due to their widespread fame, they attract a mixed audience with a massive variation in demographics and topics of interest. But it might surprise you to know that mega influencers have massive reach but the least amount of trust.

These people very rarely have a niche, so their relationships with their followers are more distant than the other types of influencers. They are broad personalities with many followers who don’t often have relationships with their fellow community members. To their followers, they are characters or the “untouchables.” People follow them because their lives are aspirational, not because they seem like actual relatable humans or their friends. There is no sense of community in their social media sphere. Oftentimes, mega influencers approach social media with a “look at me” mentality versus a perspective of “here we are together.”

If you ever get sucked into a daydream by the ego aspect of yourself and think, I wish I had the same level of influence as MrBeast, that might not be to your advantage. When it comes to brand partnerships, reach isn’t as important as an active community. So, that must mean the macro influencers have more power, right? Well, kind of.

Macro Influencers

Macro influencers are famous within a niche and have anywhere from one hundred thousand to one million followers. Think of them as mini celebrities. Reality TV stars fit the criteria. For instance, take a former bachelor contestant, Rachael Kirkconnell @rachaelkirkconnell, of ABC’s show The Bachelor who won the guy prize at the end. She is certainly not as well known as Jake Paul but her content is very high quality. As I was writing this book, she posted a sponsored video about her love of Highline Wellness CBD products so she’s definitely earning a decent living as a macro influencer.

Think of macro influencers as semi-untouchable. They don’t engage as much with their audience as the influencers with fewer followers because they feel they don’t have to. But they do make an effort. Similar to mega influencers, macro influencers have an invisible line between them and their community that communicates, You follow me, so you’re a follower, and I’m an influencer. Most macro influencers land enough brand deals to earn a handsome living that’s easily over six figures annually.

Macro influencers can further be broken down into midtier macro influencers with 20,000–100,000 followers. The midtier macros fit the same profile. Certainly with macros, there’s a lesser sense of community than what you would find with a...