Sponsorships are like unicorns or leprechauns, talked about often but they don’t actually exist. There is only dollars and cents, the bottom line and ROI (that means return on investment).

I make a living creating videos for companies. Most of the videos involve me doing really fun stuff. It’s a great job and perfectly understandable that I get emails, mostly from young people, asking misguidedly how they can get companies to pay for their adventures. The emails usually read something like;

‘We have been planning this trip for 3 years… dreams… inspire…etc.— how do we get a company like Nike to sponsor us?’

My response is usually harsh. Offended at the suggestion that a career that’s taken more than a decade to create could be summed up for others to emulate with a single email.

That’s not fair. It’s a wonderful dream of a career and I can’t blame others for wanting to pursue something similar. I can say with confidence that there is no defined path to such a career. Maybe explaining the path I took could be helpful, this is that.