Tap into your unique experiences: Justin gained experience negotiating deals with his wife’s April YouTube channel. As an agency owner, he did deals on behalf of the brands. Working both sides of sponsor deals led him to realize his content tilt, and Creator Wizard was born.
It’s OK to fail to find your success: Justin adjusted his offerings to address his audience’s interests and achieve his business revenue goals. For example, instead of multiple courses, he combined them under a single offering.
Strategically add revenue streams: In 2025, Justin will publish a book, Sponsor Magnet, and launch a three-day event, Sponsor Games.

The Story of Justin Moore

Fresh out of UCLA, Justin Moore landed a job working at a medical devices company. However, shortly after, the computer science major questioned if he wanted to do that for the rest of his life.

“I very quickly was like, ‘No, I need to have some side hustle. I need to do something to keep my brain working because I can’t see myself in a cubicle for the rest of my life,” he recalls.

Among his most successful side hustles – and what prompted an aha moment – was working as a freelance art broker. He looked for Californian impressionists at auctions and flea markets. He saw an opportunity to buy local artwork and sell it globally.

At one auction, Justin won a bidding war for a sculpture by Erte for $2.8K (his credit card limit was $3K). After he got into the car and belted the sculpture in the seat, he looked at April, his wife, and asked, “What the hell did I just do?”

Six days after listing the item on eBay, the highest bid was $1K, and Justin started to get worried. But by the end of the auction, the sculpture had sold for $7.8K, and Justin knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

The art side hustle generated $50K over two years, but Justin recognized that the business couldn’t scale, so he returned to school for a master’s in business administration.

First taste as a content entrepreneur

His wife April was the first content entrepreneur in the family. With Justin’s encouragement, she launched a YouTube channel to share her passion for makeup, cosmetics, and skincare. At first, brands sent her free products.

However, Justin saw the comments on her videos and recognized that April provided more value than product visibility to the brands. “I really felt that they should be compensating her. I asked her that the next time a brand reaches out, ask if they will pay you or what kind of budget they have for collaborating,” he says.

She did, the brand said yes, and the first deal – a six-month contract – was struck. Every month, she published two videos featuring the brand for $700 a month.

Two years after starting the YouTube channel, April quit her full-time job to become a full-time content entrepreneur. Justin continued to help while working his full-time job. For Justin to leave his traditional job, the channel needed to earn consistent revenue to replace his six-figure salary plus $10K a month. They achieved that in 2014.

Starting an agency

Justin knew that they had stumbled onto something. In addition to the YouTube channel, he and April had started a family-friendly vlog. Their audience grew, but Justin knew popularity could be fleeting.

In 2015, Justin saw an opportunity to create an agency representing family-friendly creators. He hired employees, focusing on building relationships with brands and helping creators secure partnerships.

Soon, the agency pulled in multiple six-figure partnerships. Still, it also experienced fierce competition from venture capital firms jumping into the space and new platforms and services for content entrepreneurs. To stay relevant, the agency hired developers to create its own platform and went into debt to the tune of 100K.

Pivoting to a new entrepreneurial path

In 2020, the pandemic led Justin to lay off his team at the thriving agency with clients in the hard-hit retail, hospitality, and travel industries. “It felt like I was letting everyone down – my team, my family. I didn’t know what the next chapter was going to be,” he says.

With $100,000 in debt and no clear path forward, Justin hit rock bottom. He thought about his unique perspective. He began to think about the thousands of interactions he had witnessed or been a part of from both sides of sponsorship negotiations.

And Creator Wizard was born.

It was a side hustle to his agency at work at first. He published valuable content to grow an audience before he started to monetize it.

Early on, people emailed to ask for help or his opinion on a deal. These creators weren’t big enough to have a manager but were big enough to land larger deals. He helped them realize deals two to three times better.

“It felt good to be useful and help people gain. It is cliched to say, but it gave me purpose after some dark times in my life,” Justin says.

Creator Wizard takes shape

Justin created content about everything it takes to be a creator for his YouTube channel and his newsletter. A follower sent a message: “Hey! When you make YouTube videos about sponsorships – those are the best. Stop talking about everything else.”

Justin listened to that person and others who said they wanted more sponsorship content. He spent the next two years doing a full-court press on content around sponsorships. He even hired a content strategist to help him establish a plan.

Justin’s first attempt at monetization was one-on-one coaching. He promoted the availability of two six-week packages on Instagram for $1.5K each and sold them instantly. He added cohort-based courses under the Brand Deal Wizard name with three to five people in the first offering.

Over time, Justin adjusted pricing and delivery to find the right balance to serve his audience and generate sustainable revenue. He remained cautious about hiring. “I was traumatized by the (agency’s) layoffs, so I moved slowly,” he explains.

Evolving the business model

As Creator Wizard grew, Justin faced a challenge with the cohort course model – it only generated revenue three times during the year. He saw a gap in his offerings for newly interested creators and launched an evergreen course, Gifted to Paid, to help students move from free gifts from brands to paid partnerships.

Recently, Justin combined his courses into a single on-demand offering ($1,497) under the Brand Deal Wizard name.

He also operates the Wizard’s Guild coaching program. Group coaching ($297 a month or $3K per year) includes a forum for questions answered by a sponsorship coach on Justin’s team and other community members. Private coaching ($1K a month or $10K a year) includes a private chat room with one-on-one support from coaches.

Justin uses the newsletter, which started at the debut of Creator Wizard, as a direct line to his audience. He publishes sponsorship opportunities, advice on negotiating deals, and calls to action for his paid offerings. Open rates hover between 40% and 45%.

Justin still uses YouTube to educate his audience and drive leads to the newsletter and offerings. He hosts the biweekly Creator Debates podcast on his YouTube channel.

His latest project is a book, Sponsor Magnet, which will help creators understand the business side of brand sponsorships with actionable advice and real-world examples. “I want to demystify sponsorships and give creators the tools to thrive,” the Tilt Publishing author says. Pre-orders are being sold now, and the book will debut in January.

This March, Justin will host his first in-person event – Sponsor Games. Over three days, participants can learn the intricacies of negotiating sponsorship deals and compete in the Sponsor Tank for cash and creator gear packages.

Advice for content entrepreneurs

Among Justin’s advice for creators building content businesses:

Resist the desire to quit your 9-to-5 job immediately, and don’t burn bridges. It takes at least six to 12 months to build an audience before you can monetize it.
Invest in your audience. Justin spent the first year building the audience and establishing trust through his expertise and the value he provided. “Your audience needs to see that you’re in it for them, not for the money.”
Pivot quickly. What you think may help you achieve your business goals may not work. Be willing to pivot and see change as an opportunity for growth. Being transparent about these changes with your audience and the struggles you encounter builds trust.

Ready to start your book adventure? Tilt Publishing is ready to help.

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