After 56 Deals And Hiring A Team, Tabitha Brown Realized She’d Low-Balled Herself — ‘I Could Have Been Making More Money’
Tabitha Brown has become one of today’s top social media personalities. Her influence has led her to secure numerous deals and partnerships including Target, but her negotiation prowess was something learned through trial and error.
Brown’s authenticity is what landed her a first-of-its-kind deal with the company, as previously reported by AfroTech. She became the first person to do four exclusive collections across Target. The deal gave Brown the opportunity to create her own line of limited-time-only clothing and accessories, swimwear, home and office products, as well as food and kitchenware.
She has had a growing streak of wins. However, she wasn’t always in the know about how to navigate the influencer industry. During an interview with “Earn Your Leisure,” Brown opened up about her initial struggle trying to properly negotiate her first brand partnership.
As previously shared by AfroTech, Brown’s rise to fame was her reaction video to Whole Foods’ TTLA sandwich, which raked in a million views in a week on Facebook. The social media attention had Whole Foods knocking on Brown’s door.
After her friends who were well-versed in the influencer space declined to give her guidance and those in her team had no insight, she had to take matters into her own hands.
“I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna just go as big as I can and ask for a crazy amount of money and see what they say,'” Brown told “Earn Your Leisure.” “And they were like, ‘Hmm, we can’t give it to you at once, but what if we break it up and you do a couple of other things throughout the year for us?’ And I was like, ‘Okay.'”
She continued, “I didn’t know. I didn’t even have an attorney at this time.”
After her own experimenting, Brown brought her friend, producer Stephen Love, on board as her manager to help out. Together, they gradually started learning how to negotiate and not accept lowball offers.
“When they said ‘Yes’ too quick, we was like, ‘Oh, we know we was too low,'” Brown said. “So on the next deal, we was like, ‘Go higher and see what they say.’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ Oh, we still too low. That’s how we kinda learned over the years.”
Over the course of two years, the duo closed around 56 deals. Although Brown and Love still work together, she brought on more people to support her as her brand grew.
“Now, of course, I have a team,” Brown said. “And then really learned that we was real low. I could have been making more money.”
