u/strawberryugc

when i started UGC, i was way too excited to work with brands (as every creator would be). one struggling brand reached out to me, actually i reached out to them through email which they eventually accpeted. i said yes immediately after hearing out about my earning. we had a deal. brand deal = success in my head 💀 No contract. Vague payment. Too many revisions. Red flags everywhere but I obvi chose to ignore them because I just wanted the so-called opportunity.

I filmed, edited, delivered everything…
then what? i got Ghosted 😭 and my payment was way less than it was decided.
Biggest lesson of the year: not every brand collab is a good collab.
Now if the payment terms are weird or there’s no clear agreement, it’s an immediate side eye from me lol.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who learned this the hard way?

Had a call with a brand last week. Lovely people, solid product, decent engagement on their ads. Then I sent my rate card and got the classic:

"We love your content but our budget is really tight right now."
Cool. I checked their Facebook Ad Library out of curiosity. They're running 14 active ads. Some have been live for 3+ months, which in ad world means they're performing.
So the money is there. It's just not for the person making the content that feeds the machine.
I'm not even mad about it anymore. I just find it genuinely fascinating how "we don't have budget for creators" has become the default response even at brands doing serious revenue. The ads don't shoot themselves. Someone made those. Probably for less than they were worth.
If you're newer to UGC and a brand tells you they have no budget, check their ad library before you discount your rate. You might be surprised what you find.
Not saying every brand is lying like bootstrapped small businesses are a real thing and I'll happily work with them differently. But a scaled DTC brand crying poor to a creator? Come on.

Rant over. Thanks for reading lmao 

Sorry not sorry but someone had to say it.

Every other day there's a new "UGC mentor" on TikTok telling you they made $10k in their first month and for just $499 they'll show you how. But if you actually dig into their work… the portfolio is thin, the brand deals are sus, and half of them quit creating after 3 months because it wasn't working.
Now they've found something that DOES make money which is basically selling the dream to beginners who don't know better yet.
Not saying all coaches are scammy. There are genuinely people out there who've done the work, have receipts, and actually help people level up. But they're not the ones with a new "limited spots available" story up every week.
Red flags I've noticed:
- Their portfolio is older than 2022 or basically nonexistent
- They can't name actual brands they've worked with
- The whole pitch is income claims, not skill building
- They went from "new UGC creator" to "UGC coach" in like 4 months
If you're new and thinking about investing in a course or coaching, just be careful! A lot of what's being sold you can genuinely find for free in communities like this one. or am I being too harsh? Legit curious if people have had good experiences with coaches too.

I've been building my UGC portfolio for a few months now and I feel like I'm doing everything "right" like i have a decent portfolio, rate card ready, sending outreach emails but it's mostly crickets.

I got one small paid deal last month which felt huge but I have no idea if I just got lucky or if something I did actually worked.
For people who broke through early on, I'm curious:
- Was it cold outreach, a platform like Billo/Insense/Veel/UGC Shop, or did a brand come to you?
- How many pitches did you send before something stuck?
- Did you lower your rates to get that first one, or hold firm?
- Anything you'd do differently?

Feels like everyone talks about scaling to 10k/month but nobody talks about what the first $200-$500 deal actually looked like. Would love to hear real stories from this community.

what are some of the worst briefs you've gotten? like what did brands offer that made you go "what did i do wrong? why am i suffering like this?" lol

been seeing alot of Veel and Masterhooks in this sub lately. Checked their pages n looks pretty legit as well. js wanna know ppls experience w it before i sign up for it.