Core
curriculum.

Understand what brands want from a partnership, from reaching new customers to growing sales or building loyalty. Learn to connect an opportunity to a business goal, wherever you sit at the table.

Follow the six stages: idea, partner match, terms, signature, delivery and renewal. Know what needs to happen before moving to the next step.

Get comfortable with 30 terms you’ll hear in the business, including activation, exclusivity, IP and pricing benchmarks. Understand what they mean and when they matter, with a glossary you can return to.

Explore Erik’s approach to building value for both sides. See how a partnership connects the brand’s goals with what a partner can offer, and what makes the relationship worth continuing.

Explore careers inside brands, income from rights and experiences, and agency work. Understand how salaries, rights fees, service fees and agreed commissions relate to your role.

Identify which team could fund the opportunity: marketing, sales or another business unit. Connect the proposal to that team’s goals, whether you work inside or outside the brand.

Recognize the value in your audience, content, rights or experiences. Identify what you can offer and what needs permission before it goes into a deal.

Find the people who back the idea, control the budget and authorize the agreement. Understand the roles of brand managers, CMOs, VPs and presidents so you know whose support to secure.

Understand how agencies and independent dealmakers find partners, shape offers and move agreements forward. Define the work behind an introduction and how it can be paid.

Identify who reviews, recommends, approves or could block the proposal. Separate these responsibilities so you know whose support your deal needs.

Learn how to ask who owns the decision and what approval requires. Recognize when your contact can move the deal forward and when you need someone else in the conversation.

Understand budget planning and spending windows. Decide when to make the ask, follow up or prepare for the next funding cycle.

Map the route from brand manager or partnership lead to the relevant CMO, VP or president. Confirm who approves spending and who can sign for this deal.

Identify the creative, media, PR and social teams around the brand. Work out who could support your proposal and what they need to see.

Confirm who controls the budget, rights and promised work. Identify missing permissions before either side commits to delivery.

Check which spaces, experiences and commercial rights the partner controls. Spot existing agreements that could restrict the offer before taking it to a brand.

Follow Erik’s Wrigley sequence: brand first, support for the idea, then the partner. Use the case to decide the right order for your own approach.

Study Bad Bunny × Corona and Wrigley × the Mexican Football Federation with Erik. Trace the people and approvals involved on the way to signing.

Build an offer from content, experiences, services and intellectual property (IP), such as names, images and music. Understand what you can include, what needs permission and how cash or in-kind contributions fit.

Separate publishing content from permission to use it in advertising. Explain how each use affects the offer and its price.

Look beyond audience size to understand who the brand wants to reach. Use location, interests and engagement to explain the fit and support your proposal with relevant evidence.

Use comparable deals and industry reports to understand pricing. Learn how rights, reach, duration and partnership level affect value, and recognize the difference between an estimated price and a confirmed one.

Set your minimum, opening price and a higher target you can justify. Know what each includes before discussing a smaller budget.

Turn the brand’s goals into a clear brief. Separate essential elements from optional extras so potential partners can build a relevant offer.

Turn your notes into a list of activities, content and permissions with a guided prompt. Check every item and flag anything that still needs approval.

Separate confirmed prices from estimates and unresolved approvals. Explain how your agency fee or commission fits into the total deal.

Explore partnerships across sports, entertainment and media. Identify the rights, customer benefits and delivery work behind the campaign, then see what that means for an offer of your own.

Build a clear picture of a potential partner before the first conversation. Learn which sources to trust, what the evidence supports and which questions are still worth asking.

Work backward from the launch or event date. Allow time for approvals, contracts and production to decide when conversations need to start.

Read partnership reports to see which brands are active, where they invest and what they buy. Use category and market patterns to identify opportunities worth a closer look.

Research its advertising, media, PR and social agencies. Identify how your idea could fit their work and who could help you move forward.

Spot unmet audience needs and opportunities within a brand’s existing partnerships. Test the fit against available rights, reputation and delivery capacity before putting your name behind the idea.

Check whom the agency represents, what it handles and how it gets paid. Prepare questions that establish its role in your deal.

Use AI to organize research, compare potential partners and prepare better questions. Learn how to check sources and claims so your recommendation holds up in the room.

Turn your research into one clear reason to connect. Explain how the opportunity could help the brand and what you still need to confirm.

See how findings from recent partnership reports can shape your approach. Turn a useful market insight into a relevant conversation for the brand, rights holder or agency.

Review your profile and work through a potential partner’s eyes. Make your experience easy to understand and consistent with your introduction.

Explain whom you help, what you do and why it matters to this opportunity. Practice an introduction someone else could confidently pass along.

Choose relevant work, results or a clearly labeled practice case. Describe your contribution accurately, even if you’re new to partnerships.

Use your experience in retail, sports, food, entertainment or another field. Identify familiar audiences and businesses where you could spot a relevant partnership.

Put public research, AI and a contact tracker or CRM to work. Build a simple system for finding opportunities, preparing outreach and following up, with tools you can use as you get started.

Write a message with a clear reason to connect and a specific next step. Practice the same approach in person and decide when to follow up.

State your company’s goals, budget status and approval process. Give potential partners enough information to decide whether to continue the conversation.

Make clear whom you represent, what you can offer and what still needs permission. Help the brand understand the opportunity from the first conversation.

Clarify whom you represent, what you will do and how you will be paid. Put responsibilities and fee arrangements in writing early.

Learn the questions that uncover the brand’s goals, audience, budget and expectations. Agree how success will be assessed so your proposal answers the brief from the beginning.

Find the connection between the brand’s goals and the audience’s interests. Use that insight to explain why your proposed partnership makes sense.

Show why the partnership deserves a place in the budget. Compare its audience, benefits and full cost with other options, and build a recommendation the brand can take into an internal conversation.

Turn your research into a story that makes the opportunity easy to see. Connect the business goal, audience insight and creative idea with evidence that gives your proposal credibility.

Explore how partnerships become content, customer benefits and live experiences. Use AI to visualize your concept, then build an activation plan with the people, permissions and full budget needed to deliver it.

Turn the proposal into a recommendation for finance, legal and purchasing. Make the expected benefits, full cost, responsibilities and unresolved questions easy to evaluate.

Translate your audience, content or experience into something the brand can use. Learn to explain how your offer serves its customers or business, with examples beyond talent and festivals.

Explain the opportunity in terms each partner understands. Keep scope, costs and commitments consistent, with confirmed points and open questions clearly separated.

See a proposal through the buyer’s eyes. Compare the story, audience fit, rights, cost and delivery plan so you can strengthen your own pitch and recognize an offer worth pursuing.

Choose a realistic outcome, such as feedback, budget confirmation or agreement on next steps. Prepare the questions you need answered to get there.

Listen for concerns, questions and missing information. Check what people mean before treating enthusiasm as approval or silence as rejection.

Present enough to start a useful discussion. Practice listening and adjusting your proposal while keeping the meeting’s purpose clear.

Find out what is holding the decision back when price, timing or results become a concern. Practice responses with AI and learn when to offer evidence, adjust the proposal or ask another question.

Question audience claims, delivery plans and costs. Ask for evidence that helps you judge whether the partnership fits your company’s goals.

Explain what the price includes when a brand asks for a discount or extra work. Evaluate what would change before offering a concession.

Confirm the brand’s interest, budget and approval route before introducing a partner. Describe what is agreed and what remains to be explored.

Guide a meeting with several teams and competing priorities. Clarify responsibilities, summarize agreements and make your own role clear.

Write a follow-up that captures decisions, open questions, owners and dates. Give everyone a specific action to move the deal forward.

Distinguish a discussion, a proposal and a binding agreement. Identify what needs clarification before work starts or money is committed.

Understand rights, exclusivity, territory, duration, payment and approvals. See how each term changes the value or work involved, and recognize the questions to bring to legal review.

Define the competitors, products, locations and time periods covered. Weigh its value to the brand against opportunities the rights holder would give up.

Set clear reviewers, response times and revision rules for content and designs. Check whether the approval process fits the delivery schedule.

Map who invoices whom, when payments fall due and what triggers them. Understand how deposits, milestones and cancellation terms affect delivery.

Identify legal review, purchasing, supplier setup and insurance requirements. Communicate them early so both sides can prepare for the remaining steps.

Learn what to offer when the other side wants more. Weigh scope, usage and exclusivity before discounting, prepare alternatives and set limits you can stand behind.

Clarify responsibilities, fees and commissions. Check how payment, cancellation and renewal terms affect your compensation before the agreement is signed.

Bring the final scope, price, permissions and payment terms into agreement. Confirm approvals and authorized signers, then prepare a clear handoff so everyone knows what happens after the signature.

Use the first 72 hours to confirm owners, deadlines and priorities. Organize the agreement, files, contacts and payment requirements for the delivery team.

Measure performance against the goals you agreed on. Understand ROI and other success measures, distinguish visibility from business results and explain what the available evidence can support.

Collect approved content, photos, performance data and delivery records. Keep dates and sources attached so reporting starts with evidence you can trace.

Document the gap and explain its impact. Consider a replacement benefit, revised timing or another agreed remedy. Confirm the other side’s approval before changing the promised work.

Use the Madison Square Garden case to practice responding to disruption. Check commitments, assign immediate actions and identify who can authorize the response.

Compare results with agreed goals and explain gaps. Use AI to organize verified data, then check calculations and conclusions before presenting the report.

Track approvals, revisions and additional work. Identify changes to scope and agree on cost or timing before taking them on.

Use results and partner feedback to make the next conversation count. Learn when to recommend renewal, improve the offer or move on, with lessons from publicly documented partnership extensions.

Track exclusivity, deadlines and promised work across your partnerships. Check for conflicts before accepting another opportunity.

Estimate the time, people and resources each deal requires. Identify where you need help and how many partnerships you can realistically manage.

Weigh income against costs, time and responsibilities. Consider dependence on one partner when deciding which opportunity to pursue next.

Review partnerships together to spot overlap, gaps and competing priorities. Decide which relationships to continue, adjust or end.

Plan how to work with several brands over time. Match new opportunities to your capacity and the commitments you have already made.

Estimate the cost of finding, negotiating and supporting a deal. Assess how fees, commissions, payment timing and extra help affect your business.

Bring together your research, proposal, price and delivery plan. Explain why the partnership makes sense, support your decisions and use feedback to strengthen the offer.

Use feedback to revise your final proposal. Identify what is ready, what needs more research and the next action you will take.