I'll close the month with the smallest big moment I have. it was thirty seconds long. a scroll. a video of a girl my age, in a bedroom that looked like mine, saying she'd made real money that month on her phone. I'd seen a hundred videos like it. I'd felt the flicker of "must be nice" and scrolled past a hundred times, and filed the feeling under things other people get to do. this time a different sentence showed up. three words. why not me. that's the whole story. there's no dramatic scene after it. I didn't cry or make a vision board. I sat there and, for the first time, instead of "must be nice," I thought "why not me," and I couldn't un-think it. I stayed up that night figuring out how the thing worked. I sent pitches the next morning, badly. everything I have came from that swap. not from talent, not a lucky break, not some resource other people don't have. from trading two words. "must be nice" became "why not me," and the whole trajectory bent. I'm telling you this small because it IS small. that's the point I want you to leave the month with. the decision that changes your life is almost never big or cinematic. it's a quiet swap in a sentence you tell yourself, on an ordinary night, that nobody witnesses. you've felt the flicker reading these all month. the "must be nice." you know the one. so. why not you. actually answer it.

I’m so excited to share that I just landed my first UGC gig! 🎉 Getting that first "yes" felt amazing, and it reminded me that consistency really does pay off. There were times I wondered if I was doing enough, but I kept improving my portfolio, learning from feedback, and continuing to put myself out there. If you're still waiting for your first gig, don't give up. Keep creating content, keep reaching out to brands, and keep refining your portfolio. Every application and every piece of content is helping you improve, even if you don't see results right away. One thing that helped me was staying consistent instead of chasing perfection. Brands want creators who show up and keep creating. I'd love to hear from everyone: - Have you landed your first UGC gig yet? - If yes, what's the biggest lesson you learned? - If not, what's the biggest challenge that's holding you back right now? Let's celebrate each other's wins and help each other grow. Drop your experience or your questions below I’d love to support you however I can! 💙

I get it. genuinely. I'm going to say the empathetic part first, because it's true, and then the hard part, because you need both. I get that it's scary. I get that pitching feels like begging. I get that hitting send on a video of yourself talking to a phone feels insane the first hundred times. I get that you have a job, or school, or kids, or all three, and the energy left at the end of the day is basically nothing. I get that the fear of it not working is so heavy that not starting feels safer. I was there. it's all real and I won't pretend it isn't. now the hard part. none of that is going to change on its own. the fear doesn't leave before you start. the time doesn't appear. the confidence doesn't arrive in the mail one day so you can finally begin. every condition you're waiting for is a condition that only shows up AFTER you move, never before. so the choice isn't start when it feels manageable. the choice is start while it's still scary and hard and inconvenient, or don't. those are the only two real options. the third one you're hoping for, where it gets easier first and then you begin, doesn't exist. I'm not going to tell you it's okay to wait. it isn't, if you actually want this. the empathy is real. so is the deadline you're pretending you don't have. start scared. it's the only way anyone ever has.

if you're sending pitches to the "contact us" email on a brand's website, I found your problem. you're pitching a graveyard. that inbox, the info@ or hello@ one, is checked by a customer service rep or nobody. your pitch dies there with 400 "where's my order" emails. you're not pitching a brand, you're pitching a shared inbox with no power to hire you. you need one specific person: the founder at a small brand, or the marketing or social manager at a bigger one. here's how I find them in about four minutes. first, LinkedIn. search the brand name, look for the title founder, marketing manager, social media manager, or growth. now you have a name. second, the email. most company emails follow a pattern, [email protected] or [email protected]. use a free email verifier to confirm the guess before you send. third, if you can't find the email, DM the founder on instagram. small brand founders read their own DMs. some of the best deals start with "hey, I noticed something about your ads, mind if I share?" fourth backup: reply to their email newsletter. those go to a real person's inbox, and almost nobody replies to newsletters, so you stand out. same pitch, different door. most creators aren't getting rejected. they're knocking on a door with nobody behind it. find the person, not the inbox.

I'm going to describe you for a second. tell me how close I get. it's late. you're in bed. you're watching another creator's video about how she makes money doing UGC, and you feel two things at once: "I could do that" and "but not me." you've felt this exact combination probably fifty times now. you have a note somewhere in your phone. maybe a few brand names. maybe a half-written pitch. maybe a list of content ideas. you started it weeks ago, feeling motivated. you haven't sent anything. you've watched more than enough to start. you know more than the girls actually making money knew when they began. the information isn't the problem, and part of you knows that, which is why the videos have started to feel a little bad to watch. like eating when you're not hungry. what's actually happening is you've made learning about it a substitute for doing it. it gives you the feeling of progress with none of the risk of rejection. you get to feel like you're moving without ever being told no. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad. I did the same thing for months, watching, saving, researching, while my life stayed still. so here's the challenge. close this email and send one pitch before you watch another video about pitching. one. today. break the loop where consuming feels like doing. I described you because someone had to. now go make the description wrong.