Brand Building Through Change & Raising $300k+ in Sponsorships

Success is great until it keeps you stuck. Here’s one way I helped a client avoid being pigeonholed by his previous successful experience, pivot into a new business, and raise over $300k in sponsorships for a future podcast launch. 

I worked with a client who had an established global reputation.

It was a super niche and polarizing nonprofit.

He wanted to do something new without either ignoring, forgetting, or trading on his past successful tenure.

From volunteer of a local initiative to the president of a global movement. 

Shared stages and time with significant world leaders. 

Keynote speaker around the globe. 

All of these are authority boosters, even if he wanted to pivot into a new field.

Notice I shared nothing about the organization he worked for. 

We separated out what he did from who he did it for. Your experience is more than your employer or title. It's yours, not theirs. Own it. 

Brainstorm all the cool things you’ve done over your career. 

The first step was clarity on the past. Next is clarity on what he wanted for the future. 

Controversial topics, but from a gracious winsome perspective. 

Leadership development.

Bringing together differing groups.

It was obvious that his next career was going to take on a broader challenge. 

He could do it because he broke the invisible ceiling of reputation. 

He was so well known in one area for so long that he could now start to speak to more issues he cared about.

Patience pays off.

He has the heart of a teacher. But was spending his days helping nonprofits transition to online events with COVID lockdowns. 

His knowledge of tech, his passion for issues, and his desire for something new lent themselves to launching a podcast.

The monetization strategy for podcasts is pretty simple: 

Sponsorships

Affiliates

Selling your own products, courses, or coaching

He’s doing all of these, but there was one clear winner for the first domino to fall, given his background. 

We looked at his list of New Topics of Interest. 

Then we asked, “Who have you connected with from ABC organization in the past that also cares about these topics?”

Within 10 minutes, he listed more than 10 heavy-hitting organizations.

This is the part most people want to get to but skip over the prep work. 

These organizations all had high-level personnel who

• knew

liked

trusted

my client.

He wasn’t cold DMing or pitching people to death. These were “Let me pop out & make a quick call” contacts. 

He built up his reputation as a high-quality friend over more than a decade of professional leadership. 

Sometimes brand building is just being good & a good guy or gal. 

Nothing fancy or complicated. 

2 Sponsored Ads per episode

1 Sponsorship shoutout per episode

Same week inclusion in an email to the list.

Speak at 1 event for each organization a year (they pay for travel and accommodations) 

Within 2 weeks of this plan he already secured verbal commitments of over $100,000 just on the idea of him launching a podcast someday. 

Now he’s over $300,000 and still hasn’t officially launched. 

Now let me state the obvious.

This guy is a stud. He had a solid reputation, and his success is all his. I’m not sharing this to take any credit for what he’s achieved. 

I share this only to show that even he needed some help to see his way forward.

If you need some help with 

your brand

your strategy

or your content, 

and you think I can help you, I’d love to talk with you.