Module 1: Know Your Value: Then Name Your Price

Welcome to Module 1. You’re about to launch your business, and that’s exciting. But before you can cash those endorsement paychecks, you need to do a little research.

Don’t skip these steps, even if you’ve been performing live reads and endorsement ads for decades. You probably aren’t capitalizing on your talent and influence. Reorienting your focus to know your value and establish a price is a critical reset.

Most radio personalities who aren’t earning serious endorsement income fall into one of two categories.

The first category: You don’t have any endorsement deals yet and aren’t sure how to start.

The second: You have some deals, but they’re structured wrong, priced too low, or going to the wrong clients. You sense it, but haven’t had a framework for fixing it.

Both situations have the same root cause. It’s a lack of clarity about what you bring to the endorsement table. Gain that clarity, and you can discover your value.

This module helps you establish a clear vision. You may not get your structure right immediately (building it takes time), but you’ll have the foundation to grow toward a sustainable business model that compounds.

Before you pitch a single client, negotiate a single deal, or discuss rates, you need to know what you’re selling. This goes deeper than an “I have a great relationship with my audience” way that sounds right but doesn’t hold up in a negotiation. This is a documented, defensible structure that supports a conversation about what you’re worth.

Take your time with it. The work here is the foundation for everything else in this Playbook.

Before Starting This Module

Watch The Module Introduction by clicking on the link above.
Read Introduction to Endorsements: The Mopst Underused Income Stream In Radio
Read The Power of Endorsement Ads: You Were an Influencer Before Influencers Were a Thing

If you’ve already read them, a quick skim before proceeding is worth the ten minutes. The concepts are the vocabulary this module works in.

Now watch this video to prepare for the first step in Module 1.

Step 1: The Career Stage Assessment

Before any strategy makes sense, you need to know your starting point.

The three career stages in this Playbook (the Credibility Build, the Portfolio Build, and the Premium Position), have different priorities, rate structures, and “next moves.” Working a Stage 3 strategy from a Stage 1 position can be frustrating. Working a Stage 1 strategy from a Stage 3 position leaves money on the table.

This step establishes your starting point.

What to Do

Open the Endorsement Pricing Calculator (Tab 3: Career Stage Guide) and study the characteristics of each stage carefully. Then ask yourself (without wishful thinking) which stage reflects where you are right now.

The question isn’t which stage you’d like to be in. Which stage is supported by the evidence in front of you? The characteristics for each stage are descriptions of reality. Match yourself to the evidence, not the ambition.

Guidance

A few honest questions that help most personalities locate themselves accurately:

On documented results: Can you point to specific, measurable outcomes from endorsement campaigns you’ve run — calls generated, client renewals, audience response you’ve tracked? If yes, you have the beginning of a Stage 2 foundation. If no, you’re in Stage 1 regardless of how long you’ve been on the air.

On deal structure: Are your current endorsement deals on per-airing structures, or retainers? Have you ever negotiated a talent fee rather than accepted what was offered? If you’ve been taking whatever comes through without a formal rate structure, that’s Stage 1 behavior regardless of market size.

On demand: Are you turning down endorsement opportunities because your roster is full, or are you actively seeking more? Excess demand is a Stage 3 signal. Looking for more is Stage 1 or 2.

On your internal reputation: Do the AEs in your building actively bring you endorsement opportunities, or are you largely invisible to the sales team? Strong internal relationships and active deal flow suggest Stage 2. Building those relationships is Stage 1 work.

Most personalities who have been on the air for years but haven’t treated endorsements as a serious business will find themselves in Stage 1. That’s not a criticism, it’s a useful diagnosis. Stage 1 with the right strategy produces Stage 2 outcomes. Stage 1 without a strategy produces more of what you’ve already got.

Deliverable

Write down your career stage and the three pieces of evidence that support that assessment. This written assessment becomes your baseline. You’ll refer back to it at every renewal and every rate conversation to measure how far you’ve moved.

Step 2: How Much Influence Do You Have? The Influence Audit

Ratings measure reach. This step measures influence, the quality of your audience relationship, which is the asset behind every endorsement you’ll do.

The difference matters because a personality with a 6 share and a fiercely loyal audience often has more endorsement power than a personality with a 10 share whose audience would barely notice if they were replaced. Understanding where you fall on that spectrum tells you what you’re selling when you walk into an endorsement conversation.

What to Do

Work through the following questions in writing. Don’t answer them in your head. Write the answers down. The act of writing forces specificity, turning this from a feelings exercise into useful business intelligence.

Audience response indicators:

When you ask listeners to do something on the air — call, text, post, show up somewhere — do they do it? How consistently?
Have you ever had a listener tell you they tried something because you recommended it?
When you mention a local business organically on the air, do you get a response? Has the business ever reached out because of it?
Do listeners follow you off-platform — on social media, on a podcast, anywhere beyond the signal?

Trust indicators:

Do listeners defend you when someone criticizes you online or publicly?
Do they notice when you’re gone? Do you get “welcome back” messages after time off?
Have advertisers ever specifically requested you — by name — rather than just “morning show endorsement?”

Credibility indicators:

What are you known for beyond your show? Does your audience understand what you care about, believe in, and stand for?
Which categories would your audience immediately accept as natural for you to endorse?
What categories would surprise them — or worse, disappoint them?

Guidance

There are no scores here, and there is no pass/fail threshold. The output is self-knowledge, a picture of the relationship you’ve built with your audience and what it can reasonably support in the endorsement marketplace.

The personalities who consistently overestimate their influence confuse listenership with loyalty. Listeners tune in to your station, your format, your time slot. Fans tune in to you. Endorsements work on fans. Be honest about which one you have, and in what proportion.

If the answers to the questions above are mostly uncertain or thin, that’s important information. It doesn’t mean endorsements aren’t available. It means Module 2 (the internal relationship work and the first deal strategy) is where the leverage is right now. You can’t command premium rates until you have the audience relationship to justify it.

Deliverable

A written Influence Audit summary of two to three paragraphs describing your audience relationship, what it can support in the endorsement marketplace, and where it needs to develop. Keep this document. Update it every six months. The distance between where it starts and where it goes is the story of your endorsement career development.

Now watch this video to prepare for the next step in Module 1.

Step 3: Your Brand Is Already Built. Now Write It Down: The Personal Brand Statement

Every endorsement decision flows from a clear sense of your personal brand. Without that clarity, you make reactive decisions. With it, you make strategic ones.

This step produces the document that guides every endorsement conversation you’ll ever have.

What to Do:

Answer the following questions in writing. Be specific. Vague brand statements (“I’m authentic and relatable”) are useless. Specific ones (“I’m known as the morning show host who’s obsessively passionate about food, fitness, and anything that makes Dallas a better city to live in”) are the foundation of your strategy.

Your identity:

What are you known for beyond your show format? What does your audience understand you to genuinely care about?
What do you talk about on the air that generates the most authentic response — the topics that light you up and that listeners feel?
What would your most loyal listeners say about you if someone asked them to describe you to a friend?

Your categories:

What product and service categories fit so naturally with who you are that endorsing them would feel like a conversation, not a performance?
What categories would your audience immediately accept?
What categories would feel wrong, either because they conflict with your values or because they don’t fit the picture your audience has of you?

Your standards:

What will you never endorse, regardless of the money? (Write this down specifically. It becomes your non-negotiable list.)
What does a client have to demonstrate before you’re willing to put your name on their business?
What’s the minimum commitment you require from an endorsement client? (See the Paul Harvey discussion in the “Should You Endorse This Advertiser? article.)

Your differentiator:

What makes your endorsement different from the personality in the next time slot?
Why should an advertiser specifically want you rather than just “a radio ad”.

Guidance:

This document is not for clients. It’s not a media kit or a pitch document. It’s a written record of who you are commercially that you can refer back to when a deal arrives, and the pressure to say yes is real.

The most common reason personalities accept the wrong clients is that they haven’t thought through their standards in advance. In the moment, with an AE pressing and a fee on the table, it’s very difficult to construct a principled objection from scratch. It’s much easier to say “that doesn’t meet my criteria” when the criteria are written down, and you know exactly what they are.

Write this document now, before any specific deal is on the table. Revisit and refine it after each major endorsement decision. After two years of active endorsement work it will be one of the most valuable documents in your professional life.

Deliverable:

A written Personal Brand Statement — one to two pages covering your identity, your natural categories, your non-negotiables, and your differentiator. This document lives in your files permanently and gets updated as your brand evolves.

Step 4: The Endorsement Income Gap Calculator

This step makes the opportunity concrete.

What to Do:

Open the Endorsement Pricing Calculator (Tab 1: Current Income Tracker).

First, document your current endorsement activity:

Enter every active endorsement client
Enter the actual deal structure for each (retainer, per-airing, hybrid)
Enter the actual rates and airing frequency
Let the calculator show you your current estimated annual endorsement income

Then move to Tab 2: Rate Increase Modeler. Using the portfolio-wide modeling section, explore what your income looks like if:

You converted retainer deals to per-airing structures at a reasonable market rate
You raised existing rates by 15%, 20%, and 25% at the next renewal
You added one well-structured new deal at your target rate

Guidance:

For personalities who currently have no endorsement deals, use the New Deal Income Projector in Tab 2 to model what a single well-structured first deal would add to your annual income. Enter conservative numbers (modest airings, a realistic rate for your market and career stage). The point isn’t to produce an exciting projection. It’s to make the opportunity tangible and specific.

For personalities who have deals but have never modeled what better-structured versions of those same deals would be worth, this step is often the most eye-opening part of the entire module. The gap between what current deals are generating and what properly structured deals at appropriate rates would generate is frequently significant. That gap is the business case for everything that follows in this Playbook.

Save your calculator with your actual numbers. You’ll update it at the start of every module and at every major deal milestone. It becomes the running financial record of your endorsement business.

Deliverable:

A completed and saved Endorsement Pricing Calculator with your actual current deal data entered and at least one “what if” scenario modeled. Screenshot or note the difference between the current annual endorsement income and the conservative projection at improved rates. That number is your motivation for Module 2.

One final check: Watch this video to make sure you’re ready for Module 2:

Before Moving On to Module 2

Do not move to Module 2 until you have all four of these in hand:

Written Career Stage Assessment with supporting evidence
Written Influence Audit summary
Written Personal Brand Statement
Completed Endorsement Pricing Calculator with actual deal data and at least one modeled scenario

Module 2 builds on the foundation this module lays. Without the Personal Brand Statement, the endorsement criteria in Module 2 have no anchor. Without the Career Stage Assessment, the rate structure decisions in Module 2 have no context. Without the Income Gap Calculator, the internal relationship work in Module 2 has no urgency.

Do the work. Then move on.