The fastest way into CNBC Make It is not your company. It is your numbers. A founder who pitches a product launch, a funding round or a new hire to CNBC Make It is pitching the wrong brand. A founder who can honestly write “I quit a $140,000 job, lived on $3,200 a month for two years, and now pay myself $90,000 from a business that does $1.1 million in revenue” (an invented example) is pitching a CNBC Make It story before anyone has written a word.
CNBC Make It is the personal finance and careers brand of CNBC. It writes for people trying to earn more, spend smarter, change careers, start businesses and retire on their own terms. Its readers want to see how other people actually did it, in dollars. Brands and founders who understand that get covered. Those who do not keep sending press releases into an inbox that does not run on press releases.
This guide covers what CNBC Make It publishes, what its editors look for, how to shape your story, and a short template to send. If you want to know how to get featured on CNBC Make It, the short version is this: lead with a person, prove it with numbers, and leave the product for the last line of your bio.
What CNBC Make It publishes
CNBC Make It covers money, work, careers, entrepreneurship and success, across articles, video and social media. Several story types repeat often enough that you can plan around them.
The first is the money profile. A person’s real income, spending, savings and debt, broken down line by line, often with a video. Its long-running Millennial Money video series is the best known example of the format: real people opening their budgets on camera.
The second is the career move. Someone switched fields, negotiated a raise, left a corporate job, or built a side hustle into a full-time income, and explains how, with numbers.
The third is the business origin story. How a founder started a company, what it cost, how long before it made money, and what the founder pays themself. The emphasis is on the person and the decisions, not the product.
The fourth is expert advice. Researchers, psychologists, economists and career coaches explain a finding or a method, often in a first-person op-ed format.
The fifth is the trend story, built on data: how many workers are doing something, what it costs, how attitudes are shifting.
All five formats share one trait: a reader finishes the piece knowing something specific they could copy. The money profile shows exact line items. The career move names the salary before and after. The origin story gives the startup cost and the month the business turned a profit. When you plan how to get featured on CNBC Make It, ask which of the five formats your story fits, then check that it delivers that copyable detail. A story that fits no format, or fits one without the detail, is not ready.
Notice what is missing from that list: product launches, partnerships and executive hires. Those belong in trade outlets and on CNBC’s business news side, not in Make It.
The Numbers-Out-Loud Test
Before you pitch, run what we call the Numbers-Out-Loud Test. Read your pitch’s first sentence aloud to a friend outside your industry. If they cannot repeat back at least two specific dollar figures or percentages after hearing it once, the pitch is not ready.
Compare two openings, both invented for illustration. “Acme helps busy professionals manage their finances with an innovative app.” Nobody can repeat a number from that. “I paid off $68,000 in student loans in 31 months on a teacher’s salary, and the spreadsheet I built to do it became a company with 40,000 users.” Anyone can repeat three numbers from that, and a reporter can see the headline.
The test works because CNBC Make It stories are built on specifics. Headlines in the brand’s style often lead with an age, an income, a dollar amount or a time frame. If your story does not have those numbers, it does not have a CNBC Make It headline.
The test also filters out the wrong stories. If the only numbers you can share are company metrics like user counts and funding, and nothing about your own money or decisions, the story may belong in a startup trade publication instead.
How to shape your story
Start with the person, not the company. Even if your goal is to raise awareness of a business, the story CNBC Make It tells will be about a human decision with stakes. Who took the risk? What did it cost them? What did they give up? What happened next?
Then decide what you are willing to share. CNBC Make It readers expect transparency. In money profiles, that can mean salary, rent, debt, savings and spending categories. In business stories, it can mean revenue, profit, what the founder pays themself and how much they invested at the start. You do not have to share everything, but vague numbers like “six figures” or “significant growth” weaken a pitch. Decide your limits before the first call, not during it.
Next, gather proof. Editors will ask how they can verify what you say. Have documentation ready: pay stubs or tax summaries for income claims, loan statements for debt payoff stories, revenue reports for business claims. You will not publish these, but a reporter may ask to see them.
Finally, find the turn. Every good CNBC Make It story has a moment where the person made a choice. The day you quit. The month you realized your spending did not match your goals. The conversation that led to a raise. Put that moment near the top of your pitch.
Who to pitch
CNBC Make It has reporters and editors who focus on different areas, such as personal finance, careers and work, and entrepreneurship. Read the last month of stories, note the bylines on the ones closest to yours, and pitch the person whose recent work fits best.
Do not blast the whole staff. Editors share pitches internally, and the same pitch landing in five inboxes signals that you did not read anyone’s work.
Timing helps. Money stories spike around tax season, the new year, back-to-school costs and holiday spending. Career stories spike around raise and review season and big jobs reports. If your story fits a seasonal theme, pitch four to six weeks ahead.
A six-line pitch template
Keep the email to six lines, plus a signature.
Line one, the subject: the person and the numbers, such as “Teacher paid off $68K in loans in 31 months, then turned the method into a company.”
Line two: the story in one sentence, with at least two numbers.
Line three: the turn, the single moment that changed things.
Line four: what you will share, stated plainly, such as “I can share my full budget, loan statements and current salary, and I’m comfortable on camera.”
Line five: why now, such as a seasonal hook, a trend, or a news event.
Line six: a one-line bio and a direct phone number.
Attach nothing. Link to one page that shows you are real, such as a LinkedIn profile or a company About page.
Mistakes that kill CNBC Make It pitches
Pitching the brand instead of the person is the most common. The second is hiding the numbers behind “happy to discuss on a call.” Editors decide from the email. If the numbers are not in it, there is no call.
The third is exaggeration. A rounded-up revenue number or a debt payoff that skips the help from a family member will come out in fact-checking, and the story will die, often along with your relationship with that editor. Tell the whole version, including the parts that make you look less like a self-made hero. Those parts often make the story better.
The fourth is pitching a story that only works as an ad. If every number points back to why readers should buy your product, it is not a story.
The expert route
Not everyone has a personal money story they want to tell. If you are a financial planner, a career coach, an economist, a psychologist or a researcher, there is a second way in: become a source CNBC Make It reporters call when they need an explanation.
The approach is different from a story pitch. Reporters writing about a new jobs report, a shift in how people save, or a study on workplace burnout need someone who can explain what it means in plain language, quickly. The best expert sources do three things well. They answer the actual question in the first sentence. They give a concrete example or number the reporter can use. And they are available on the reporter’s timeline, which is often the same day.
Build a short expert note you can send when news breaks in your area: two or three sentences of analysis, one quotable line, your credentials, and your availability. Send it only to reporters who cover that topic, and only when you have something specific to add.
Researchers have an extra option. If you have published a study with findings that apply to everyday money or work decisions, a first-person explainer can work well, since the brand runs expert commentary. Lead with the finding and what a reader should do differently because of it. Keep academic hedging to a sentence, and put the method in a link.
Over time, a reliable expert becomes a repeat source. Each quote adds to a public record that shows up when people search your name, and that AI assistants draw on when someone asks who to trust on your topic.
What happens after a yes
Expect an interview of 30 to 60 minutes and follow-up questions by email. For video, expect a crew or a remote setup, and possibly a request to film your home or workspace. Expect fact-checking on every number.
Once the story runs, share it, but do not over-brand it. The most valuable effect of a CNBC Make It feature is often long-term: it ranks in search for your name, it gives AI assistants a credible source when someone asks about you, and it becomes the link you send to prospects, investors and future reporters.
Every answer to how to get featured on CNBC Make It comes back to the same standard. Look at how the Millennial Money series works: one person, one budget, every number on the table. Build your pitch to that standard and you have something CNBC Make It can use.