Brand deals are not just for influencers anymore.

More founders, executives, investors, consultants, and business people are getting paid to work with brands.

Why?

Because there's very little more powerful than a person's reputation and the trust they have built with an audience.

A company can buy impressions, ads, and leads.

Trust is much harder to buy.

That's why more B2B companies are working with creators and business people who already have the attention of the people they want to reach.

Steven Bartlett is a good example.

He is an entrepreneur, investor, and business owner, yet his audience has also become a major commercial asset. He works with companies including Spotify, LinkedIn, and Adobe.

Sahil Bloom runs investment and holding companies while also selling sponsorships to brands through his newsletter, which now reaches more than 800,000 readers.

You see the same model across people like Ali Abdaal, Scott Galloway, Justin Welsh and many other business creators.

They have businesses → and they have audiences.

Creator marketing has moved from an experimental channel into a meaningful part of marketing budgets. CreatorIQ describes it as a central part of modern marketing strategies.

LinkedIn is also going all in on creator marketing. They’re launching a Creator Marketplace to help companies and creators meet.

Your audience needs to know what you stand for and why they should listen to you.

Follower count alone is becoming less important. Sprout Social's 2026 research found only 17% of consumers check follower count before deciding whether to engage with a creator. Relevance and content matter more.

The easier it is to understand your audience, the easier it is for a brand to understand why they should work with you.

If you consistently talk about sales, leadership, AI, HR, finance, or entrepreneurship, there are companies trying to reach exactly those people.

Visitors land and leave, and "looks fine to me" isn't a diagnosis. SureThing audits SEO, speed, mobile, and messaging against the page, then ranks the fixes by impact.

See the Audit

Make a list of companies that make sense for your audience.

Then approach them with an actual idea.

Show them what you could create and why their product belongs in the conversation.

Do not just send your follower count.

Show:

Brands are buying access to trust and attention.

Negotiate.

Know what you're selling:

Once you have built an audience, you have built an asset.

Hope you found this helpful.

Until next time,
Hanna

PS. If you haven't built an audience yet, you should. I can help.