Brand deals — the chain

Thirteen steps. You already have all of them. What follows is the order, with the source of each piece named, because the sequence is the part nobody hands you.

1Before anyone has heard of you

1. The niche → who you approach. (Module 0B) Not a category — the sentence you wrote from your own daily brand list. It tells you which brands to contact and why they should care, and it is the reason you can write the specific true line in step 3.

2. The portfolio → the thing you link to. (Module 5.5) One page, three real pieces, honestly labelled. This is what the whole of Module 4 was arguing for: proof of the work, which you own, rather than proof of the result, which you don't.

You need this before step 3, not after. A pitch with no link is a pitch asking someone to imagine.

2Getting the conversation

3. The outreach script → the message. (Module 0A kit) Five situations, five structures. The cold one, for a brand from your own list, where paragraph one is a specific true thing only you could write.

4. The tracker → the follow-up. (Module 0A kit) Log it as you send it. One follow-up, a week later. Most of the work at this stage is arithmetic on volume, and you cannot do arithmetic on memory.

5. The six scoping questions → before you quote. (Module 0A §2, and script 3) They reply. Do not quote yet. Deliverables, where it runs, for how long, in which markets, exclusivity, revisions and sign-off, timing and payment terms.

This is the single highest-leverage moment in the chain, and step 6 is why.

3Pricing it

6. The rate calculator → the quote. (Module 0A kit) Base from your band — $50–150 starting out, $350–500+ experienced, the market research this guide uses throughout — then the levers: rights, exclusivity, volume, rush, add-ons.

Itemise it when you send it. Module 0A §2's whole argument lives here: you're selling the work and the rights, and the rights line only gets paid for if the client can see it. Bury it in one number and you've given it away.

7. The contract → close it. (Module 0A kit) Fill the brackets. Don't reword the clauses. Schedule A is the calculator's output, which is why both use the same four line items.

4Doing the work

8. Form BV-01 → onboard them. (Module 3) Fill it in before you write anything. Brand identity, audience, guardrails, deliverable specifics.

Doing this unprompted, before the first draft, is also a sales move. Module 4 §3 makes the point: a filled-in guardrails intake for their brand, done before you were asked, tells a prospect more about working with you than a finished video would.

9. The Project → load the context. (Module 3 §5) Intake and experience file into the knowledge base, project instructions set. Ten minutes, once per client, and it is what stops you re-reading an email thread six weeks later.

10. Template + script-from-intake → make it. (Module 2) Pick the format. Fill the brief from the intake. Ten hooks, keep one.

11. claim-guard → check it. (Module 2 skills) Before it goes to the client. Every time, including the last one on a Friday.

5After

12. The provenance record → what you keep. (Module 4 §2) The brief, all the takes, what you changed by hand, which version they approved, the check report. Written as you go, because none of it can be reconstructed.

13. Update the portfolio → back to step 2. (Module 5.5) And this is the shape of the thing: step 13 feeds step 2. The chain is a loop. Every delivered job makes the next pitch stronger, but only if you actually go back and add it.

Most people don't. That is the single most common place this breaks.

6What the chain is actually doing

Three things, and they're worth naming because they explain why the order matters.

It front-loads the scoping. Steps 5 and 6 happen before any work. Almost every bad job in this trade is a job that was priced before it was understood.

It moves the brand's rules out of your head. Step 8 happens once; steps 10 and 11 read from it forever. Module 3's argument was that a guardrail in your head expires — this is where that pays.

It produces the next pitch as a by-product. Step 12 costs about a minute per piece and step 13 turns it into portfolio material. You are being paid to build your own proof. That only works if you file as you go.

7Getting booked twice

The first job is sales. The second is operations, and it comes from three unglamorous things:

• You did what the contract said, on the date it said.
• They didn't have to explain their brand twice. Step 8 and 9 are what buy this, and clients notice it more than they notice good hooks.
• Nothing you sent them created a problem. Step 11.

Notice that none of those is the video was brilliant. Brilliant helps. Being easy to work with is what gets the second email, and the chain above is mostly a machine for being easy to work with.

On retainers

The natural end state of repeat work is a standing arrangement — an agreed number of deliverables per month at an agreed rate. Worth knowing it exists and worth asking about after a few successful jobs.

Two honest cautions, both directional rather than researched: price it against the volume, not the security, because a retainer that discounts heavily for predictability is a pay cut you agreed to. And write the scope down, because an unbounded monthly arrangement expands.

8The realistic first three months

Not a promise — Module 4 was clear that we can't show you proof of your results, because that evidence belongs to your clients. This is a shape, not a forecast.

• Weeks 1–2: portfolio built, three BV-01s filled from brands you use, five pitches sent and logged.
• Weeks 3–4: follow-ups. Most get nothing. A reply or two.
• Month 2: one scoping conversation, one quote, possibly one job. Deliver it through steps 8–12.
• Month 3: that job is in the portfolio, and the second pitch round has something the first didn't.

If nothing lands, the fix is almost always volume or niche, not craft. The tracker tells you which — that's what it's for, and it's the reason step 4 isn't optional.