HyperX was never one of those “brand reached out and sent a box” stories. It started with a signal, not a shipment. They followed me back on TikTok when they had around 1.1M followers and I was sitting around 40K. That sounds small compared to them, but it told me something important: the content was getting seen by the right people, not just random viewers. A follow back from a brand account at that size is basically them bookmarking you without saying it out loud.

At the time I was already using the Pulsefire Haste. That matters because it was not a forced integration or a paid script. It was just part of what I actually used, which made it easy to show naturally on camera. When you are already using a product, you do not have to perform fake excitement. You can talk like a normal person, show how it fits into your setup, and keep the video moving like any other post. That is what makes people trust it.

The part most people miss is the timeline. The follow back was early, but the actual monetization did not come until like 1 to 2 years later. That gap is the whole lesson. Brands watch for a long time. They want to see if you keep posting, if your content stays consistent, if you avoid doing dumb stuff, and if your audience keeps responding. A lot of creators treat a follow back like a trophy. The smarter move is treating it like a pipeline that only pays if you keep showing up.

When HyperX finally gave me an affiliate link, it was basically them saying, “Cool, prove it converts.” Affiliate is different than sponsorship because it forces honesty. If the content does not drive clicks and sales, nothing happens. You cannot hide behind “the brand loved it.” You either make commission or you do not. I made some commission off it, which is why this still belongs in my portfolio. It was proof that the audience trusted my recommendation enough to actually buy, not just watch.

This is why I like telling the HyperX story even though it is not the flashiest one. It shows how brand relationships really work when you are not already huge. You get on the radar, you stay consistent, and you let time do its thing. No free product, no fancy campaign deck, just a product I genuinely used, a brand that quietly kept eyes on my page, and a link that turned my normal content into actual money. That is a real partnership, even if it does not look like one from the outside.