Influencer Confidential

Hosted by Sidewalker Daily

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345

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Welcome to Influencer Confidential, a podcast brought to you by Sidewalker Daily. In this podcast, we are dedicated to creating transparency in the Influencer Industry and showing what it takes to succeed in this new world. Sidewalker Daily is a consulting agency that works on both sides of the influencer industry. On one hand, Sidewalker Daily consults for brands and public relations firms on their influencer marketing initiatives and social media strategy and on the other, the company works with influencers and creators to help them build sustainable businesses online. Sidewalker Daily's unique position in the industry bridges the gap between brands and creators, to ensure every partnership is a win-win. Sidewalker has worked on campaigns for Jetsetter (A Tripadvisor Company), Four Seasons and the Costa Rica Tourism Board, to name a few. In this podcast, expect to learn about all things working with brands, being an influencer, influencer marketing, media kits, pitching to brands and much more! Meet Your Host, Nina Zadeh - Co-founder, Nina received her MBA in marketing from Fordham University and has a B.A. in Communications and Economics from Boston College.

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October 22, 202612 min

I Managed Brand Budgets. Here's What Creators Get Wrong #314

Ever wonder what REALLY happens after you pitch a brand? As someone who has spent years on the brand side managing influencer marketing budgets, reviewing Creator pitches, and hiring Influencers for paid brand partnerships, I know exactly what goes into deciding which Creators get hired and which ones don't. In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of the influencer marketing industry to share what brands, marketing teams, and PR agencies are actually thinking when they receive your pitch. We're breaking down what brands look for in Content Creators, how they evaluate your media kit and content strategy, what influences their decisions, and why some Creators land brand deals while others struggle to get a response, so you can better position your content creator business for success. Whether you're a UGC Creator, Influencer, or Content Creator trying to land more paid brand deals, understanding the brand's perspective can help you improve your pitching strategy, stand out to decision-makers, and position yourself for more brand partnerships. Subscribe for weekly creator strategy breakdowns, and let me know in the comments if you have been curious why a brand said no. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s6OEULOXIdw

October 15, 202618 min

Trying to Get Brand Deals? Brands Want THIS Content #313

Want to land more brand deals? One of the best ways to stand out to brands is to create the types of content they’re actually looking for. As someone who has spent years on the brand side hiring Creators for everything from UGC campaigns to influencer partnerships, I know there are certain content styles that can immediately make a Creator stand out. In this episode, I’m breaking down 14 types of content brands are looking for and why they can make such a difference in your content strategy and creator business. Whether you’re a UGC Creator, influencer, or content creator trying to get more paid brand deals, you’ll learn what brands are paying attention to, the content formats that can make you a stronger partner, and how to position your content to attract more brand partnerships. If you’ve been wondering how to get brand deals, what content brands want from Creators, or how to make your social media more brand-ready, this episode is for you. Let’s get into it! 💰 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Cuk7Nl9q0LY

October 8, 202643 min

How-to-Make-Money-on-Amazon-in-2026-|-Amazon-Secrets-with-Kathleen-Kobel

You Can Follow Kathleen Here: Masterclass - How I Earn $10K+ Every Month by Creating Simple Video Content for Amazon : https://kathleenkobel.com/masterclass Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenkobel/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kathleenkobel Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/663758048939978 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.eberhardt.kobel/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-eberhardt-kobel-6a1b97b0 Website: https://kathleenkobel.com/ Don’t miss Kathleen's LIVE Amazon training where I (Nina) will be co-hosting on Wednesday, October 14th! Learn how to start making money on Amazon using the content you’re already creating. This training will NOT be recorded, so make sure you register now to save your spot! Register for free: https://kathleenkobel.com/swd/ In this episode, I’m sitting down with Kathleen Kobel—an absolute powerhouse in the Amazon space. With over 17 years of experience in ecommerce, Kathleen has helped more than 1,000 brands successfully launch and scale on Amazon, working with companies like CKG Brands, Dream Pairs, Songmics, and Backyard Discovery. She’s also the founder of Influence & Earn, where she teaches creators how to turn their content into real, sustainable income streams —without burning out. What I love most about Kathleen is that she doesn’t just teach this… she lives it. As an active Amazon Influencer herself, she truly understands how shoppers behave on the platform and how creators can tap into that to build something incredibly powerful. In our conversation, we’re diving into one of the most requested topics from my community: the Amazon Influencer Program. We start from the very basics—what it is, how it works, and why it’s so different from anything else in the creator space—and then begin to unpack the real opportunity behind it. If you’ve been curious about new ways to monetize, build passive income, or expand beyond brand deals, this episode is going to shift the way you think about what’s possible… without giving away all the secrets just yet. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KS1YzDMccII

October 1, 202610 min

How to Land Holiday Brand Deals as a Creator #312

If you want to land holiday brand deals, your pitch needs to reach brands while they’re still planning their campaigns. 🎓 Learn how to land paid brand deals, no matter your follower count: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ Holiday campaigns take time to plan, approve, create, and publish. If you’re only starting to pitch when the holiday rush is here, you may have missed the window. In this episode, Nina from Sidewalker Daily will walk you through how we’d approach holiday brand partnerships from the brand side: when to start reaching out, how to build a list around your content, and what to put in a pitch so it feels like an opportunity instead of another “I’d love to collaborate” email. We’ll also get into showing your vision and following up when you don’t hear back. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hDM-W8L1EJc

September 24, 202614 min

How to Get Paid Travel UGC Deals With Hotels & Travel Brands #311

Travel UGC is different from creating content for a typical product brand. In this episode, Nina from Sidewalker Daily shares what travel brands actually need from UGC creators and how to make your pitch more valuable, even without a large following. You’ll learn how to research the ads hotels and tourism boards are already running, spot timely opportunities, build a travel-specific UGC portfolio, and pitch content ideas based on experiences guests genuinely care about. Nina also explains why usage rights, licensing, and seasonality can make a major difference when negotiating paid travel partnerships. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8TiBLDDvZv4

September 17, 202610 min

Creator Contract Red Flags You NEED to Know Before Signing #310

Most creators check the rate and deliverables before signing an influencer contract, but some of the most important terms are buried elsewhere. Using Hayden Panettiere’s experience with Neutrogena as a starting point, Nina from Sidewalker Daily breaks down four clauses creators should examine carefully: morality clauses, content usage rights, exclusivity, and one-sided terms. You’ll learn what questions to ask, how these provisions could affect your creator business, and why the immediate paycheck is not the only thing worth considering. Subscribe for practical advice on brand deals, creator pricing, pitching, and building a profitable creator business. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/q9pQ9DwC81U

September 10, 20269 min

New Substack Features Every Creator Should Know #309

Substack is becoming much more than a newsletter platform. In this episode, I’m sharing some of the new Substack features we’re most excited about at Sidewalker Daily, including native sponsorships, Creator Kits, subscriber perks, QR codes, and Substack Live. I’ll take you inside our dashboard to show you how these tools work, where to find them, and how creators can use them to make money on Substack while giving paid subscribers more reasons to stick around. If you’re building a newsletter, growing a community, or looking for new creator monetization opportunities, these updates are worth paying attention to. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pcZKuKZ50nI

September 3, 202613 min

How to Save 10+ Hours a Week as a Content Creator #308

Being a content creator or influencer means wearing ALL the hats. Creating content, pitching brands, answering emails, researching opportunities, posting across platforms... the list never ends. But working hard doesn't mean you need to waste hours on tasks that could be batched, automated, or streamlined. In this episode, I'm sharing the time-saving strategies that I use at Sidewalker Daily, along with the productivity tips creators in our community are using to make their workflows more efficient. We're talking about everything from finding brand opportunities without hours of research and building a pitch template that actually works to batching your outreach, creating a content idea bank, repurposing content, automating emails, limiting distractions, and using accountability to actually get things DONE. The goal isn't to work less. It's to stop wasting your time on things you don't need to be doing manually. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OHDkAMk58SE

August 27, 202610 min

The Brands I'd Pitch Right Now! #307

If you’re serious about making money as a content creator, stop blindly pitching brands and start looking for companies that are actively hiring creators and already have a budget. In this episode, Nina from Sidewalker Daily breaks down real paid brand deals and UGC opportunities we found for The Paid Creator, including a paid pet creator campaign, a $10,000 Destination Ann Arbor tourism campaign, a Just Dance casting for creators ages 50–70, and a $3,500 Home Chef opportunity for food creators. These opportunities are also proof that you don’t have to limit yourself to brands perfectly aligned with your niche. There are paid creator opportunities across travel, beauty, wellness, fashion, food, lifestyle, parenting, pets, UGC and more. The key is finding opportunities where your content, audience, experience or perspective makes sense for the campaign. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LRs41m4Of2Q

August 20, 202610 min

Advice I'd Give You If I Wasn't Afraid to Hurt Your Feelings #306

After 10+ years in the creator economy, working on both the brand side and with creators inside the Sidewalker Daily community, there are a few things I wish more content creators were willing to hear. Sometimes you're not actually stuck. You're avoiding the uncomfortable thing you already know you need to do. Maybe you've taken all the courses but haven't implemented what you've learned. Maybe you're blaming the algorithm instead of asking whether your content is actually worth watching or sharing. Maybe you're consuming way more content than you're creating. Or maybe you're waiting for your dream brand partnership to magically land in your inbox instead of introducing yourself and pitching the brand. In this episode, I'm sharing some big sister advice for creators that I might normally soften a little. We're talking about getting out of the learning trap, creating better content, letting go of other people's approval, taking accountability for your creator business, and actually taking action toward the opportunities you want. Because learning is great, manifesting is great, and planning is great. But eventually, you have to do the uncomfortable work. 💻 Free Brand Deals Training: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/brand-deals-training/ 🤩 Ready To Level Up? Speak with Our Success Manager: https://calendly.com/sidewalkerdailyteam/discovery 👉 Book A Call: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/coaching-influencers-creators/ 🌟 Best-Selling Pitching to Brands Mastercourse: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/ptbm/ 🎁 Free Gift For Influencers & Creators: https://sidewalkerdaily.com/influencer-business-resources/ 🛒 Shop our Amazon Store 🛒: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidewalkerdaily ⚡️Paid Creator Opportunities: https://thepaidcreator.substack.com/ This episode can also been seen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zCJ9q5UulPk