Unlock the secrets to building a lucrative career in the creator economy with insights from Frank, CMO of FOAP, in our latest podcast episode. Frank delves into the heart of the creator economy, sharing uplifting success stories of international creators who've escalated their earnings through their creative expressions on FOAP. We navigate the intricacies of forming high-efficiency creator teams and dissect the distinction between influencers and content creators, offering guidance to anyone looking to establish a foothold in brand marketing.
As we converse with Frank, you'll discover the importance of adaptability, networking, and mentorship within the fast-paced creator industry. Learn how established creators are eager to share their blueprints to success and why collaborations with brands could be your key to refining your craft. This episode is a treasure trove of resources for creator education, keeping you ahead of the curve on trends and effective content strategies. If you're passionate about content creation or seeking inspiration to take the leap into this dynamic field, Frank's wisdom is a beacon, illuminating the path to realizing your creative potential.
Our candid discussion with Frank culminates with a forward-looking analysis of the creator economy's future challenges. We reflect on the necessity of a unified support system for creators and ponder over the sustainability of the creator economy. This episode isn't just about the mechanics of content creation; it's about finding joy and fulfillment in your work, understanding the importance of cultural engagement, and unleashing the power of content that resonates. Join us for a conversation that's not only informative but explores the profound impact of personal philosophy on career longevity and satisfaction.
Thank You for Listening!
Unlock the secrets to building a lucrative career in the creator economy with insights from Frank, CMO of FOAP, in our latest podcast episode. Frank delves into the heart of the creator economy, sharing uplifting success stories of international creators who've escalated their earnings through their creative expressions on FOAP. We navigate the intricacies of forming high-efficiency creator teams and dissect the distinction between influencers and content creators, offering guidance to anyone looking to establish a foothold in brand marketing.
As we converse with Frank, you'll discover the importance of adaptability, networking, and mentorship within the fast-paced creator industry. Learn how established creators are eager to share their blueprints to success and why collaborations with brands could be your key to refining your craft. This episode is a treasure trove of resources for creator education, keeping you ahead of the curve on trends and effective content strategies. If you're passionate about content creation or seeking inspiration to take the leap into this dynamic field, Frank's wisdom is a beacon, illuminating the path to realizing your creative potential.
Our candid discussion with Frank culminates with a forward-looking analysis of the creator economy's future challenges. We reflect on the necessity of a unified support system for creators and ponder over the sustainability of the creator economy. This episode isn't just about the mechanics of content creation; it's about finding joy and fulfillment in your work, understanding the importance of cultural engagement, and unleashing the power of content that resonates. Join us for a conversation that's not only informative but explores the profound impact of personal philosophy on career longevity and satisfaction.
Thank You for Listening!
all this ready for you. I was like this is stupid. I'm gonna get him in there if we can. Let's go like that right back to it. So where were we? You were telling us all how great it is to be a world leader of creator proportions that no one has ever seen before. You invented the creator economy, would you say? That's a stretch no, no, no industry started in your basement absolutely not.
Speaker 2:No, I think where we left off was I was talking about um, because we're in we have creators all over the world. What things that I really like is that I get to see um creators who don't make a lot of money or who are in economies or countries that in general, they're not having large salaries, so when they make $500 or $600 or $200, I mean it means the world to them. I mean we had one creator that actually sold 70 photos and made a few thousand dollars and he's just like this is my salary for six months. It was so, so nice that what we're doing is actually helping people move economically from, let's say, one level to the next level, and that I find super, super interesting, particularly those people who aren't in big jobs and making big salaries. And if they can earn that extra money or become one of our bigger creators, then that's absolutely fantastic. I love seeing those kinds of cases that we do.
Speaker 1:Who's our? Just to be clear for all the people that may not know who our is for you who makes? People, money.
Speaker 2:So I work for a company called folk on their CMO over there and what I tried to do is I help people actually and the who are the creators that are on this platform. So this career platform has 4.5 million creators in 200 different countries, and what we try to do is we try to find gigs, assignments for creators that are working with big brands around the world.
Speaker 1:Is this the right FOAP?
Speaker 2:FOAPcom.
Speaker 1:I think I found it.
Speaker 2:It's not too difficult to find. That's us, that's you and that's one of our creators. She's amazing.
Speaker 1:Who are we looking at here?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I don't remember her name at the moment, but she's done work for Doc Martens and there's a few other brands that she's worked with. We've worked with Herbal Essences in the past. We've worked with all kinds of brands.
Speaker 1:This is wild. If you were gonna, if you're gonna, tell me to go to one place that is your favorite part of the phope brand online, where would we click or go to like get the?
Speaker 2:essence of it I think you can. I mean just watching that first page, but there's also a video on one of the pages there. And then what? Just for the sheer masses of it, I always look at cases, just because you'll go into cases and you'll see all the different brands and the different missions that we've run. So if you go down there yeah, exactly there you'll see some of the brands that we've worked with and then you'll see a whole bunch of different cases that were there or different missions that we've run. Sometimes we do hidden missions where you don't know which brand is going to be there, and then sometimes we'll do bigger brands and you can see in those categories up at the top finance, beauty, automotive If you click on any one of those, you'll start seeing the different types of brands by those categories. So we did a lot of work for bank of america I saw that as I flashed through.
Speaker 1:I'm actually like oh, bank of america is like obviously kind of a big player and they got somebody biting this dude's nose. I gotta see this one. This is the one. I want to see what is going on be a sample of what it is oh god, what am I getting into? Frank, what so? What I'm at? No, what are the boundaries of people that you represent and work with? Do you stop at hardcore porn like what is? What is the creator?
Speaker 2:there's no hardcore porn, there's no feet, there's no unusual content that we put out publicly, but it doesn't stop a person from uploading it, and our curators come to us all the time and say, hey, this week was a really crazy week of people uploading some weird-ass stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would think so.
Speaker 2:We sort that out. We have an AI program that keeps that from going up onto the platform and what you're looking at is mostly our photography content platform and what you're looking at is mostly our photography content. But in the last year most of what we've worked moved into is uh, video, so doing large scale ugc content almost anywhere in the world you just spoke to like 5 000 people that I consider close friends, that's.
Speaker 1:That's. The funny thing is, I've just worked so hard to network since I I got in the industry that when you say that I'm like there's 20 people in the immediate vicinity, in arm's reach, that would die if they heard that they're like okay, take me to the life rank, take, take me to the place where we can make more money with our ugc content. I know a guy who like defines himself with those words. I'm still new to it, but I know so many people that really want to make it happen. And video is kind of like where most of the people I know play um, but photography obviously built it. What are you looking for with vids? Because, uh, I know like early when we talked, which was a while ago now, it was pretty tiktok focused. Is it still tiktok focused?
Speaker 2:what you are looking at? No, not necessarily. I mean we do a lot with tiktok, but we do a lot with meta. We do a lot with google shorts. So those, those are the three things that we play in. But if somebody needs something for Snap, we'll put that together for them. So we work with all of the short form platforms.
Speaker 2:So anything that a creator is doing is going to be relevant for us. The question is is just finding the right match between a brand and then the creator himself. So even creators have been helping us, let's say, even bring in bigger brands. So they may have worked with a brand in the past and they'll say, hey, listen, I've worked with L'Oreal. Let me introduce you to the guys at L'Oreal and then you can then see if you can get more business from L'Oreal or from whatever brand that they've worked with, and then have them as the creator on that particular project or have them as one of the creators on that particular project that comes in. So I mean we try to build a relationship as much as possible with good creators that are doing good work for the brands that we're working with.
Speaker 1:That's wild and I hope that they do the same. Still still. How many millions of dollars do you figure you earn? People like me or people like we're talking about, Like millions and millions?
Speaker 2:I mean this is like an X trillion dollar business worldwide. You're talking trillions of dollars. I mean you have people who are making in a month $45,000 on just one platform. They're a really really good creator.
Speaker 1:Okay. So before I get too excited in the crowd, so I'm in a crowd. Let's say there's 10 million people. Let's use a really large number of people. Let's say there's 10 million people that you got packed into the biggest stadium you could ever imagine. Like we're just packed into an. Insanely. It's like Taylor Swift and Beyonce and Kanye all got over their beef and had a concert and we managed to get 10 fucking million people to this concert concert. And we managed to get 10 fucking million people to this concert. Like how many of them in a crowd of 10 million could be the kind of person that makes 45k a month off of one source platform like one one platform.
Speaker 2:Thank you how many have three?
Speaker 1:million. Three, three and ten million. Yeah, all right, it's like hitting the lottery.
Speaker 2:I mean, this is exactly what we were saying about before is that there's such a high supply of creators that are out there right now. Everyone wants to be one, but there's only a real few that know how to make a business out of it and know how to hustle, and people think that everything's going to just come to them, but in reality, you have to go to all of these platforms, be in all of their programs. You have to work with different agencies that are helping you find jobs. It's not as easy as you think it is to be a creator. It's a business that you're running plus your creator on top of it, so you have to be a Jack of all trades to really make money in in this industry.
Speaker 2:Yo, it's or do you think it's easier? Sorry?
Speaker 2:go ahead no or you have to have a real specialty that's in demand and there are some people that just have a certain way of cutting their work and that is their style and you find that a few people, like a few brands, will actually just love that stuff and then they're going to invest in that kind of style that this guy kind of created and that's fantastic. But you also have to understand that not everyone's going to have 3 million followers and be an influencer and then you're a creator and then a creator is not going to be earning necessarily as much as an influencer is doing.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting distinction. I see what you did there Interesting. I never thought about it as two separate things. I always thought that one, that they were one in the same in my head. But tell me you could be one.
Speaker 2:You could be one and not the other and you can be both of them. I mean and and people define it differently. I mean, usually, if you're an influencer, brands are coming to you because of the reach that you have, the following that you have. You have 2 million people, you have 50,000 people. You got 10,000 of the right people. I want to have you deliver my message to those people content for brands and then getting paid for that work without having to distribute that and share it with all of the people that you're uh, that are following you, and you may not even have a good following. You may have like 200 people following you and most of them are your relatives, so posting to them is not going to be important for a brand, but you can provide them with the content that they love right, right, right, right, it's knowing your crowd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's 100%. I mean short program I've been on, but accelerated program, and that is it's hard to understand until you've been around and tried to make enough content be successful, because, really, the push for me early on has just, in my own case, has been pushing to make content that was interesting to me, and obviously that last part is where I continue to go wrong over and over again. So, as soon as you've retooled it a little bit, with some assistance and guidance and from people that do kind of show you that you can get through on the creator side, but it's tough. I would think, though, out of 10 people, less 10 million, out of 10 people, if I had to hire 10 for a project like I need one influencer and nine creators, like if I'm building a band and that's what you did, right how many influencers do you build based on that?
Speaker 1:How do you build like a successful creator team?
Speaker 1:Because that's kind of your specialty and probably the thing of all the stuff you've ever told me, frank, the thing that I am most fascinated by and I want to hear about you outside of work, but the thing that I'm most fascinated by is that you build high efficiency creative teams, and that is such a unique quality to have been successful in, because many people have tried in different iterations and very few people have been successful, and probably only five or six people have ever been successful with micro or small creators. So I would say that your experience in building creative teams that can be successful is probably, like of all the stuff that I and I only know the surface, but it's got to be one of the most intriguing things about what you know versus what I see as the future of the creator industry and what I think you've already established is going to be the future of the creator industry as a team. So how the hell do you put together a high efficiency creator team? Is it all influencers? Because they got more followers.
Speaker 2:I mean it really depends. I mean right now I'm not working much in the influencer space. However, I mean I ran Samsung's social media in 27 countries for a while, so I am familiar with that space and kind of doing that for a little bit. But I mean right now I mean you build a team based on what you want to get out of it. Are you working in cosmetics and then you're going to be hiring some people who are really interested in cosmetics to do your work and then you try to find the right people to do that and slowly you get to know those people and those people become more and more interested in what you're doing.
Speaker 2:You mentioned crowd and you have a crowd around you and it's very interesting that you say that is because we try to build crowds on our platform of people who are interested in a particular brand.
Speaker 2:And then when we're crowdsourcing, or we're talking to those creators or we're looking for the creators who have done well on that in that crowd and did great stuff for a particular brand, and then they slowly become more important to a brand and they become a smaller crowd of really excellent creators and then you start to go and have your go-to people that are just really fantastic. But even when you have your go-to people, you're always refreshing new creators coming in because, again, times change, people change, the needs of a brand may change, so you're constantly refreshing a new creator pool coming in, but still recognizing those people that are doing fantastic work. And then they're the ones that are getting more projects. The better you are at understanding what your client needs and the platforms that you're on, the better, the more likely that you're going to be chosen for a project, and that's, I think, the most important thing is that making you sure that you're in that top of mind scale for people who are distributing projects the way you ended.
Speaker 1:That just validated so much of my time in the past three years. Thank you, I'm just gonna put that on repeat for my wife. She's the only one. No, I knew what I was doing, I just didn't do it. Perfect, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:No, that's I agree.
Speaker 1:I think it's the key is networking, making friends. There's a lot of people like you that want to help a lot of creators. So to not take advantage but to not reach out to creators who you aspire to be like whether it's your industry side or your influencer side is like. There's so many people, I think, in our industry at large whether it's creator, influencer that are so willing to give you the entire deck of cards on how to succeed and, uh, like that's. That's what's different about it over here. That's why I want to stay in this part of the world. I just think it's a better crowd.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think creators are very interesting people. They're people who want to succeed and, like you said, they're willing to tell you how they did things. This is the way I did it. This is the program I use. This is how I met these people. These are some people that you might want to talk to.
Speaker 2:Yes, they can be competitive when they get in these high levels and they get these big projects, but in reality, they're about these individual relationships and they're technically probably never really going to be competing for the same project ever. So people are very helpful and certainly with the people that I work with at Fope, I mean they're extremely helpful to creators when they get a piece of content that's coming in and they'll say, hey, listen, you might want to think about it this way or that way, or you haven't used these types of things that a client is really liking or will go. Oh my God, that's so fantastic. Give that a try and see how that looks. And that's when you start to see people upping their games is when they're working with brands and partners that are making them even go further than they have before, and some creators will really enjoy that learning process.
Speaker 2:Some creators have their own way of doing things and it may not be for them, those types of cooperations, but they really do help the whole industry grow, as everyone's working together to make it better. And the better that the industry becomes, the more budget comes into it. The more effective that the creators are on the platforms that they're working with, the more money that they're going to make, and it becomes a a a circle where everything is getting better and better and better and better a virtuous circle.
Speaker 1:Some people call that oh, please, let's make that happen. Let's make it happen fast. How does the center of the virtuous circle taste better than the outside? Or by nature of it being a virtuous circle, it all tastes great. If it's a donut, sorry, I must be hungry.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say all of it's pretty good and no matter how you look at it I mean, when you're in that kind of a circle, it's there. But I mean you have to have the right the, the right talent, the right vision in order to do that. Some people just will be like you call them up and they're like, oh sorry, uh, I'm not available, and that that's perfectly fine. But if you do that 10 times and someone says that they're not available, you go okay and then you're not going to get a call anymore. So these are also some of the things that you look at and going.
Speaker 2:You know, when you know that a creator is good and you know that they're hustling, these are the guys that you turn to and say, hey, dude, you have ideas that we love and that we wouldn't have thought of ourselves, and this is why we come to you. And that's fantastic, because that's what motivates my team to reach out to creators, because they get it and they know what to do and they don't have to do 10 rounds of reshooting. This is something that becomes more and more important for creators to understand, otherwise they're going to have to work a whole lot harder I mean, if they shoot something.
Speaker 2:If they shoot something and it's done in 30 minutes and it's perfect and it's exactly what a client wanted, then that's great. But then if a client comes back and said you didn't understand what I was talking about and then you have to go and shoot it like six more times, the everyone's going to get frustrated.
Speaker 1:Who's mentoring the best out there to that point that's something I tried to find really early on is like the companies, I guess more like who's teaching. I know I've I followed creator now a lot, um, and that they got bought out by vidIQ and that. But Creator Now was Zach Harnover and Kate Ward who are part of like Air Rack and Mr Beast they're like exterior circles of Jimmy's circles, I think, and and they just sold. But they they did a really good job. I felt like of trying to educate creators in like a university type of setting with challenges and things of that nature, but I have learned that there's many out there. Do you have any recommendations for people who might want?
Speaker 2:to get into it. I don't fact that. I mean, if you're paying attention to meta, you're paying attention to snap and Google and to tick tock and they all have their academies out there. They'll start telling you what trends are going on. They'll tell you what's good and what's not.
Speaker 2:The reality is also that if you just scan your social media and you kind of know what's good and what's not good, I mean you see the things that are out there and you just go, okay, that one made sense, that one made no sense at all, what the hell?
Speaker 2:And then you look at the ones that are doing things for brands and then you can see, okay, this was a branded something. And you can see that this is good and pay attention to what are some of the brand sites like Campaign, adweek and that sort of highlight that. And then I would follow literally follow some of the key CMOs around the world and see what things that they're highlighting in their own feeds. I mean Pepsi is really fantastic at highlighting some of the stuff that they're highlighting in their own feeds. I mean Pepsi is really fantastic at highlighting some of the stuff that they do, and what they did for Super Bowl was fantastic and a good majority of that was UGC and how some of the creators actually created more content for them than they would have had with, let's say, a 30 super bowl spot. It was a completely different strategy and they it worked for them really, really well that's the way to do it, I think 100 is.
Speaker 1:You don't have to give up on the big dreams, but just turn it inside out once in a while. You know like, especially now, like you said, like we all have a have a two thousand dollar phone I mean a bare minimum, a six hundred dollar phone in our pocket, and most of that money is in AI tech now and in camera tech and in audio tech.
Speaker 1:And if you really break down what that means for the creator industry. In my opinion, the cell phone is like the cell phone has, like just transformed a lot of things, but now, with the quality of products that are accessible, like you said, and even with some of the tools that help creators sort of cheat the system a little bit if you know how to manipulate with, like AI and keywords, I'm finding it's a good time to be a creator, so I do feel good about that. It's like it is interesting to figure out where the hell's the money going to come from as a regular creator and I hear that everywhere I go, whether it's a podcasting group, whether it's a a group of like my OTT friends over the top with you screen everybody's concerned about it, about how to make money and how to pay for the content.
Speaker 1:They just want to make content that's authentic to them. They just want to make content that fits their brand. They have this great vision and they had all these aspirations and then they get there and there's like no leadership to tell them how to get through it. Sometimes, you know forget health insurance?
Speaker 2:there's not even like a trainer yeah, I mean, that's it. There's no real organization there in terms of the payment. There is one girl I met at one of the conferences that I went to and her company was just fucking just pay me and that was Lindsay, lindsay, lindsay yeah, that's, yeah, I think that's her and she's just like, just fucking pay me.
Speaker 2:And because, I mean, creators are also depending on the companies you work with. There's also that, that question on who you're working with. Who's going to pay you? Is it a small company that is reaching out to you to do something and then all of a sudden they don't have the money to pay? Or are you working with Meta, who's got a Reels program or one of their agencies? Yeah, and it's also a question on learning a business. A creator is running their own business. Yeah, learning a business A creator is running their own business, and if you can't run a business, then you have to figure out how to actually handle the whole thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is. Yeah, I knew as soon as you said it. I'm like there's only one of those rolling around the interwebs and she's quite well known in our circle, so she hangs out with the big dogs these days, I think. I think she's with them with night, I don't know. I'm always interested to see who isn't like a mutual connection On LinkedIn. It fascinates me Like Phil Ranta is friends with everybody. Do you know Phil?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't met with Phil, so if there's anyone you want to introduce me to, I'm happy to chat with them. Like no, I haven't met with Phil, so if there's anyone you want to introduce me to, I'm happy to chat with them. I met a wonderful woman the other day. That was for the Jamie Gutfield, I think Her last name. I don't know, jamie, but she's really amazing. She knows the industry. She was working at Whaler, she was working in a few other big companies and she's really all about helping companies navigate through this UGC world and this creator economy and how do they best utilize their overall resources with all of this opportunity that's in front of them.
Speaker 1:That is 100% my life. That is how I feel every day. Every day, frank. I feel like I have the whole world at my fingertips. I feel like I have discovered an absolute dog of a business idea. And then you told me you did it 15 years ago. So I'm like, shoot, I gotta reconsider some things. But I've, uh, I have mulled over, but ever since found it, I've just been fascinated by it. So I'm very, I feel very grateful. I know we've been chatting or trying to chat for a while. I'm very grateful for all the work you've done in the creator economy. It's absolutely fascinating to talk to you about it because I've just, like you, address literally every person's first concern when they enter this world of economy, whether it's creator economy, whether it's job economy out of college or out of high school. Like your work literally solves the first problem, which is financial safety at some level.
Speaker 2:So it's really it's a credit, I wouldn't go that far.
Speaker 1:I mean literally tell me but you tell me, frank, I'm going to embarrass you for a second. You've been in the industry for a long time and the industry's not that old man, so I just want to thank you from like all the creators that are trying to make a buck.
Speaker 2:Man, yeah but I mean you know, you have to understand that I, I created that company back in the 2000, early 2000s. Then I was working for big agencies. So I in my my foray into the creative world and creator economy has only been in the last three years. Prior to that I was big agency, big marketing, blue chip companies. So yeah, I can't take any credit for the creator economy and even the company I'm at now. I'm not a founder, so I'm literally working there and I love it, I'm enjoying it, it's fantastic. But I mean I didn't create the company.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love the idea what company are you going to create?
Speaker 1:That's what I want to know. What's Frank's company? Because you're a rock star man you're. You're a fucking rock star. I gotta tell you, like, in addition to that, like you just have the personality to be a like you want the the fun conversations, and I love that about talking to you, but it's also like it's a quality that some people got and some people don't. Some people want it, some people don't want it, and you are, uh, the kind of person that people follow for sure sure.
Speaker 2:Thank you, that's kind. No, I think my company in the creator economy. If I can't create a company that actually builds a machine that teleports you somewhere, then I would go about and I would be working on. How do we centralize a lot of the things in the creator economy, particularly in the US? How do creators get insurance? How do creators put away for retirement? What kind of an organization can help creators with some of the basic tools that they need in order to create? Where do we give them those discounts on products that everyone who's a member of the organization ends up getting 25% off of cameras or off of micing equipment? These are the things that are going to help the creator economy and I think there's a huge opening for for that, and whoever can play within that space and do it right has three million creators waiting to jump into it. Foreign, I think you are muted.
Speaker 1:I'm told that's better. Sometimes I get so excited when I hear shit like that it's better to be real I just also believe in it. I believe that it's a way out for people and so I believe super strongly. So when I hear that there is actually a future for people and I think that that's just gets me so stoked um, because I mean, right now there's there's a huge, a huge future in the creator economy.
Speaker 2:Now the question is will it last? Will it not last? Is it a bubble? Is it not a bubble? I don't think anybody can really predict that. And you're going to see a lot of people going in and out of the creator economy over time and just like you see people who are doing Uber every now and then and then don't do it for a long time, then go back to it and then it's going to be one of those things. That and what will be.
Speaker 2:Here's an interesting what will be. Here's an interesting what will be the aging out of the creator economy. So this is great. You are a creator, you're 22 years old, you're doing some amazing stuff over there. But, okay, when you turn 50, are you going to be doing the same stuff that you did? How do you plan your career as a creator? And that is also a big question. Nobody can predict where the future is going to go, but I mean, you have to understand that a 50 year old TikToker probably is not going to be in vogue in 20 years like it is now it will be interesting because I think facebook still what's that?
Speaker 2:I said big theoretical questions here. Oh yeah, I know what is the universe gonna be like in 50 years. Dude I, I spend a lot of time thinking about that.
Speaker 1:I I need to think about it. I feel like I spend all my time thinking about 10 to 11 years from now. It's like literally where I place myself every day. For for like six months I wrote 10 years. I took today's date and I added 11 years to it, just consistently, just to force myself, because I felt like it's it moved so fast that I wanted to push myself to try, even if I didn't answer it right. You know, that's not the point.
Speaker 2:Tell me about it. It moves fast. I'm old as shit man. I think retirement is closer to me than my next job.
Speaker 1:Yo, you probably, though, like that's the thing is like what, how, when do you stop working if it's not your baby? And that's always been my problem is I like I don't stick with things that aren't my baby very long, and if I have to leave them, you know, like the last place I worked in nine to five was my baby. I joined as a startup, so I get to go back there and be a king whenever I want to, because I built it and I love that feeling of building a empire a little bit, but it's not for everybody.
Speaker 2:You know it's a stressful stressful journey and the thing is, whenever you're doing your own thing, your income level is erratic it goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down, it disappears, it comes back wildly make a lot of money. So that's that's also a big thing. You have to get learned. You learn to be uncertain about what's going to happen next, and a lot of people want certainty, and if you're working in the creator economy, you can't work with certain, because you are an entrepreneur, you're an individual business person, and there's so much uncertainty. You may have a client that you're working with for two years and then, all of a sudden, they take a change in strategy, or your look and feel is not right, or you accidentally posted something that was super offensive and they just cut you right off. Boom, that's it. You got to be careful, I mean, and how you run your business, and then thinking about not only about the buck you're going to make today, but the buck you're going to make 10 years from now.
Speaker 2:Although in reality. If you asked me what I was doing in 10 years time, 10 years ago, I would have never predicted what I'm doing now.
Speaker 1:Ain't that the truth? Though I would say, yeah, that that is the truth. I would say, a lot of my career I've done pretty good at it. Like I get it. I just get an opportunity and I start building a plan because I'm a I'm a planner. But that's how you have to crawl up. I guess, what do you do when you're not working? Frank, because I could talk to you for days. I want you to ask me questions next, cause you've been so kind and I don't know what kind of time you got, so I want to turn the mic over to you.
Speaker 2:So I mean, for me, I love, I love traveling and I love different cultures. I've lived in 10 different countries now. I really really like that. I like going out in the sun, super simple things. Put me near water, put me near a beach and put me in a hammock I'm happy, I'm super happy. Yeah, so for me, that's my life. And traveling, seeing family yeah, nothing too much more. I I don't have particular hobbies. Um, if you send me out to a spa or you get me on a bike or get me to go swimming, anything with water, it seems to be working very well, all right. Sunshine and water yeah, that's all right. That's our lesson, and I'm not an Aquarius, so I don't understand the water thing. I'm actually a fire sign.
Speaker 1:What is that? I know a little bit enough about it to know my own, but not much else. I'm a Gemini.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's kind of me as well. I know I'm a Sagittarius and that's about it.
Speaker 1:What does?
Speaker 2:that mean about you. I'm a.
Speaker 1:Sagittarius, and that's about it. What does that mean about you? Because from my own reading of myself, uh, people get very scared of me and they start having a lot of questions when they realize when my birthday is. And then they typically start.
Speaker 2:Is there a tourist, a cancer or a Scorpio?
Speaker 1:No me, no I'm a. Gemini.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fine. That's another dual sign people tell me I have six, six of me's I've heard as many as three you got multiple personalities.
Speaker 1:It depends on the day a moment to stay in mind. The playlist I'm listening to. I give you whatever you want.
Speaker 2:No, that's great. I don't take too much into astrology, but I do fall back on it just to make conversation or if it plays very well into something.
Speaker 1:Use it. A lot of people love to talk about it, so it's interesting to see what conclusions they draw about society based on it. As much as anything. To me, it's like fascinating that people would draw such a broad brush conclusion based on an otherwise like very tiny shred of evidence and correlation is like fascinating how easy it is to fuck with people, and I think that astrology is one of the more interesting inventions that was given to us and not monetized. So in some ways I appreciate that they haven't really made much money on that scam, but it definitely is a cool one, I think.
Speaker 2:It depends on who you are. There are some people that are making tons of money off of it, not based off of real talent, not based off of anything, not based off of anything. But I mean some people believe in it and then, because some people believe in it, some people make money off of it. The world goes around on how you can make money yeah, my shoulder there, away from my blurs.
Speaker 1:My guys, they didn't make any money. Do you ever notice that picture that I always have in the background? I carry that shit everywhere I go. The black and white one, yeah, the one right over my shoulder you can make out his face by a hair right now. Oh, you're on your cell phone.
Speaker 2:Here's the embarrassing moment. Nope, you're blurred in the background.
Speaker 1:That's all right. It's Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. And sometimes they pop in over my shoulder and I'm like damn, that is such a. I don't know why I put it there. I just feel like it helps separate people out of my life. That don't, I don't.
Speaker 1:It's like, if you know who that is and you stay on the call with me, we're going to be all right.
Speaker 1:Ok, we'll be good, we'll be good. I meant I brought that up a little bit on point because I wanted to tell you I want to work with that industry more. But the industry that is African-American culture I found fascinating within the creator industry because it does feel like so much of it's founded in culture, what we share online and through social media. So I've been really inspired by so many people that don't look anything like me. So it's just another reason that I really appreciate the work that creators do, because they were like early examples of influencers. You know like they. They didn't hold a political office, they didn't really do anything the right way, they didn't follow rules a ton, and they just went around the world and like held big events and made everything about them to make it about something bigger, and there's like something pretty fascinating about that road and what I like about like in the creator economy and like with the creators I work with and they're from all over the world.
Speaker 2:I mean literally from all over the world. We work for people from like indonesia, the philippines, the Hungary, czech Republic, brazil, ghana, south Africa, egypt, saudi Arabia, so you get this flair of seeing how people approach a creative problem and to see the kind of work that they get out of it. I think it's amazing. And we have people like very in the States, like from the Latin American community, from the Black community, from the Native American community, and just you'll get different takes and different perspectives on sometimes the exact same brief and you look at it going, wow, I would never have thought of that, I would have never have thought that. And that's why having really diverse like creators together or having a crowd of diversity, really ends up bringing better ideas to the table. Um, that you would never think about. Uh, so I I really love the idea of having these groups from all over the place. And then I love my with my job. I really love I talked to Mexico this morning, I'm talking to California now.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow I'll be talking to Hungary, poland and the UK, and it's fascinating, and the next day I'm gonna have a call with someone from japan. So it's it's really what you call. Wow, how can you really? I couldn't have planned this crap if I I really was planning my career. You're gonna be a global somebody doing this and that. No, it just doesn't. You don't plan it. You try to do the foundation for it, and then a lot of career planning comes down to luck, hard work, planning and a little bit of luck.
Speaker 1:In my case it's a lot I feel like sometimes. What would you coach me up on, because I feel like I often just love to sit and I want you to teach me what you know. Frank, like, let's flip the script. And what would you tell somebody if they were me? How would you coach?
Speaker 2:me. If they were you, I'd be like, okay, listen, what is your network? Look like, what do you? What are the people around you? Who are they? Not that they're going to be the people that make you money, but can you learn a lot from all of those people? Then can you, in your communication to them, kind of figure out a way to monetize that knowledge that you're getting from people in terms of what you're doing? And constantly go out there and meet people, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet.
Speaker 2:But, on the other hand, start thinking about what is core to you. Can you actually see value in the things that you believe in? Do you think other people see that value as well? And then is there some kind of a business that you can create around something that you love? Now that becomes a question. You're great at interviewing.
Speaker 2:Are you going to become a presenter in the creator economy for some of these bigger conferences of these bigger conferences?
Speaker 2:Are you going to become a go-to platform for creators to highlight themselves and charge a fee for that, because you have such a big audience that comes in and you're meeting a creator or somebody each month and you can monetize these things in different ways based on the talent that you have. It's just a question on what is a good fit, and that comes down to talking to people and they'll be telling you what is good, what's not good about you. I mean, we talk quite easily right here and yeah, so what you're doing, you could be somebody that takes that talent of really making someone feel at ease into a smaller business or a part of a business. Again, we don't know each other so well, but you kind of, over time, you'll get to know what you're really, really good at and then you start feeling, okay, who's willing to pay for some of these things? And as you try to become like more within the creator economy, what is that niche that you're gonna carve out? What is your ownership there?
Speaker 1:I do. I think I it down. Can I tell you who I think they are? I think I have two crowds. I think I finally can answer that question pretty easy for the first time in my career. I think one crowd is the like people like you and your, your peers, like, those are my people. That's my crowd on LinkedIn, like almost every single person that follows me is a creator, industry person, like a business person. So when I create on LinkedIn, I'm creating for them. It's about how to help other people, it's about money, it's about creating. But then when I'm a creator first, because that's my business hat, when I'm a creator first it's for the culture, it's all cultural content. So I think that those are my areas to play in.
Speaker 1:So I've thought about the interview thing and then I've thought about, like how do I collect journalists who are freelance journalists to make it not just a me thing? Um, because I know, like you need creators too. So then I think about my role as like how could I help, how could there be a community holding tank of sorts or like a farm team for like what you all do? Because that does seem to be the gap sometimes, whether it's with you or whether it's with other bigger creators who I've talked with. I am at and where some of the upper echelons are at, which is kind of scary because I'm pretty new at it, but like there seems to be kind of a void of talent. So in my head it's like I would love in my head to facilitate talent between those groups, because that's my crowds already.
Speaker 1:So in some ways it's like then how do I monetize it? And it's like, well, shoot, there's a million ways. So you might look at brand deals. I would much rather look at consulting work to make more of my money. So I've been trying to lean a little bit more into project work. So Rob Dyrdek's venture capital president hit me up the other day, which was super random. So if you need some skateboard, content.
Speaker 2:I now have a dope contact for you. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1:So I don't know where to make money on it. Though it's to your question, I think it's probably going to come from getting a job in the industry. That's pretty much what I've come down to. Is that probably my best bet in some days is to try to find a job with creators who will either give me like an internship position or a low paying position to just be a really underpaid, very creative person, just to get my foot in the door because I don't require much money. It's like I don't need to be paid very much to do the shit that I love to do. So sometimes I find it a bit of a conflict because I really want it so bad that I won't ask for money.
Speaker 2:Well, you have to understand your own value. I mean, when you you get your understand where you are and what you're doing is valuable to somebody else. And you, you, you can do that for a little while in order to get your your feet wet and to in order to get your feet wet and in order to get projects, but eventually, like she said, just fucking, just pay me, and you're going to have to find.
Speaker 2:PRing creators and having these interviews with creators that are in their staple, where you're not only trying to help sell their talent but you're also helping the organization that your work highlight that talent. So that could be something within an organization, but it's going to have to be a bigger organization because otherwise they don't have the budget to do those things. Like literally, if I had budget, I'd say, okay, I'm going to set you up with 20 creators a week. I want you to interview these 20 creators and then put together a highlight reel of the questions that you've been asking them with the themes that have come out. Yeah, and that I think for me would be fantastic, because then that gets a bunch of content going out. It highlights the creators themselves. Brands get to see that these creators are real people with real talent I have a person for you.
Speaker 1:That's the only thing you need. Oh my god, frank, I have somebody that you need to meet then. Her name is, like I said oh my god, she's gonna love you. She desperately needs just any guidance and support. But she interviews Hollywood stars. So in terms of her SEO and why she is not an absolute superstar with her YouTube page is beyond me. She talks to the biggest movie stars with premieres that are coming out next week routinely and it's like why isn't her like? To me she's a brand, a brand gold, because she already has the keywords. A brand, a brand gold, because she already has the keywords. She can already deliver on it. Because she's going to tell you that she's going to speak to an absolute boss from the ghostbusters movie that's about to drop, and then the first thing you see is the dude who you recognize from the original ghostbusters and the one who's in the new one, and you're like what is this girl doing, struggling in our economy right now, when she is hooking up with Ghostbusters people for interviews?
Speaker 2:I mean with those type of contacts and that type of content. I mean she should be making some money. I mean her YouTube channel should be making her something.
Speaker 1:She doesn't have it figured out, so I offered to help her. I'm like yo, I'm about to be desperate for projects, so I just want to work on some more passion projects. If I'm only going to do a few side projects like you need to be one of them before I leave this world, because it just frustrates me so much. She's got like maybe 300 subscribers on her youtube page and that's all it is, and she, but she's been a freelancer interviewing top-notch stars.
Speaker 1:She's been freelancing for like six years as a journalist for cultural magazines and getting shorts like under five minute clips. It's actually perfect for a short form, because I don't think I've seen much of Shanique's work over five minutes, except for a couple of docs that she did for herself. But she she's a trained journalist so she does good shit and she does it the right way and that's how she gets contacts. But yeah, she rolls up. She's had ludicrous on a couple times. She frank frank shanique, my friend, who I want to meet so bad but I want her to be a rock star so bad. She talked to fucking george foreman in person and has that shit on her youtube and like George.
Speaker 1:Foreman is a transcendent talent.
Speaker 2:I mean, this is what you call a girl that's got. She is got guts, she's proactive and she's got no inhibitions. So you just listen, I'm going to figure out a way to make this happen. Boom, she goes to all the festivals, all the festivals.
Speaker 1:She does all the things.
Speaker 2:And yet every time I hit her up I'm like gonna be, is she gonna go to the con festival this year?
Speaker 1:I'd have. I don't know, I have to hit her up. I think she messaged me yesterday to catch up. She's right now to, truthfully, right now, she's trying to buy a computer. She can't make her content right now as good as she needs to because she doesn't even have a computer. So she's like borrowing one from her aunt and I'm like, but why, um, it makes me so upset. I appreciate you indulging me for like one more minute, is this okay?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, then I'm gonna have to disappear, but I mean, do connect me with her yeah, yeah ludicrous.
Speaker 1:Uh, earth, wind and fire. Steph curry, uh, george foreman, jazzy jeff, uh ludicrous again, queen latifah. When she put out queen latifah, I'm like why is this girl not getting paid again? Tyler perry, why is this girl not getting paid? Why does this girl own her content and is not good? Because I think because she's contractor, she's gotten a little, a little fucked on her return. But I actually think that that's kind of the gold for a person like you potentially is. I think she owns, at least at least in part, all her content. Mary J Blige, and that's just her, her, her stock edited content. That's not what she's doing at festivals live with people, doesn't that seem?
Speaker 2:wrong. It just yeah and it just seems like even the way she can even refigure her content into these things. But I mean, the first thing that she's got to do is get up her followings in order to make money on the platforms. So I mean, instead of having 300 people, she needs to have 50,000 people following her. And then she's got to actually have something that drops. That's just boom, and it's got to be in a format that people are going to follow, so she can even take some of her crafted content, overdo it with her picture and just gone. Well, when I sat and I was talking to this one up here, I mean, you can make it tiktoky or whatever, and she's got all the footage, she owns all the content and she's just gotta do it. How many followers does she have up on there?
Speaker 1:109, 109 correct in this. This particular video that we have pulled up right here has 34 views. Man, this is this is the gap that I want to fill in the economy, because I found some tools to help that are low input. And if you already have good shit, like she does, I think she is an absolute rock star, because this video has 34 views, which means she only can go up from there. She got Steph Curry in a video. Come on.
Speaker 2:I mean, basically, she's got her family, she's got you and her family on there.
Speaker 1:I know, bro, I feel that way. That's truly how I feel as a fan of hers is like nobody notices what she's doing, so I appreciate even a little bit of advice. It's like nobody notices what she's doing, so I appreciate even a little bit of advice.
Speaker 2:But I'll definitely connect you with Shanique because she's just at a place where I feel like every creative has to make tough choices and it would be such a shame for her to leave this kind of career behind, yeah, I mean, and she's just got to develop a format that's just going to mess with people and like in a good way, because, okay, what she does here it's nice, um, but I mean, you have to search for that and if you have no following you're not going to get any visibility. So she's got to figure out how to get a following, first and then, but with those names, she should bloody well do it that's so, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So, um, truthfully, I think where I want to start my journey, like as a more serious business person, is on cases like this, where it's like if I could help her even a little bit, I feel like that will come back to me at some point, I hope, but also like it's just such a worthy cause because when it just irritates me that she can't afford a computer, you know, like that's just, I mean this is a.
Speaker 2:This is you got to be a talent manager here for her and say, hey, listen, let's look at your business, how do we do that? And then you take a commission off of things in the future, like a certain percentage, uh, and that might help get her. Or you start getting her into these places that have like, that allows you to do creative things in a creative format. Yeah, these are some ideas for her, but if she wants to go down that influencer trail, she's got to build up that following. She wants to go down that influencer trail, she's got to build up that following. She wants to go down the creator trail, she's got to find those places that are actually creating content. That's needed, george.
Speaker 1:So when you watch this back you'll be able to scan it. So that's I. Just when I have a friend like that, this is what I do, is so anytime I record, I go live. I just drop these things in to try to draw people over. But like this is good for me too. I figured to have george foreman on my videos is like not bad. So in my head I'm like, yeah, like girl should have it. All this was in person with him.
Speaker 2:That's the cool part I mean that that's fantastic and and she's out in la, so I assume that she's in atlanta. I think right now atlanta. Oh okay, she's out in LA, so I assume that she's in Atlanta.
Speaker 1:I think Atlanta, oh, ok. She's trying to make it work in Atlanta but she travels everywhere because I think her contractor companies must pay her just enough that she gets herself to every festival and does all the things all over the country. She'll go anywhere you need her to go, is the short answer. She's that. She's that dedicated to what she does where you need her to go is the short answer.
Speaker 2:She's that, she's that dedicated to what she does. So there's, uh, I mean, this is a. It would be an expensive thing for her and probably not something she wants to do. But, like I was saying, con has a new creator pass going on and uh, yeah, she, she can meet other creators at tiktoka, at all of these places Are you talking, vidcon?
Speaker 1:What Are you talking, vidcon?
Speaker 2:No, the Cannes Lions Festival for Creativity in France, c-a-n-n-e-s. It's the gold standard of advertising in the world. It's like the, the, the Emmy awards All right.
Speaker 1:Can you spell it for us one more time, por favor?
Speaker 2:C A N N E S Lions international festival of creativity.
Speaker 1:So I know the name, canis, but I didn't know all the rest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, usually con is the film festival, but a few weeks after they do the film festival they do the con line festival of creativity and that is where all of your advertising industry, advertising agencies, marketers go every year. This is like the biggest event annually and people are all famous people are there. They'll have a huge concert. Yeah, it's super exciting, it's super busy. There's so many things going on in parallel it's kind of hard to really focus. But as a creator, she doesn't actually have to get a festival pass. I mean you can go and be around the festival and get into some things that are not actually the award ceremonies.
Speaker 1:She's probably getting this press maybe.
Speaker 2:If she's a press and she can get press accreditation, then that's fantastic. I'll be her photographer.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, okay, she has that. That's fantastic, I'll be her photographer. Oh wow, okay. Yeah, no, I'm I'm pretty positive she would have. She's done it long enough and she's been every single thing that. It would really surprise me if she didn't have what it took to get into those places, because she gets into all of them, you know like she just selfies with them and moves on with their life and I'm like, but girl, you need a computer, ask them for a site Like you ask them for a little help.
Speaker 2:But I mean, if she wants to, if she wants to talk about that um con and how to get there, what's going on I've been going there for years so I can always give her some tips on that on. I've been going there for years so I can always give her some tips on that. But in general, more than happy to even have a three-way conference call with the two of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would love it. I will set that up. I will facilitate that with Shanique. She'll be excited. I'm excited for her. I've been following her since really day one in my creator journey and ever since I started she really inspires me because, even though she doesn't have the following, she doesn't have the money, she doesn't like no, it seems like nobody really knows who she is, but she gets the interviews with the people, and so it's always really inspired me, her journey. So, um, I really am grateful, um, that you'd even talk with her, because she's just like that person that needs to be gone, like go do great things she needs to be famous.
Speaker 2:She's the one that needs to be famous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's the same one. So what else is on your mind before we wrap up? Frank, I've had a great time. I talked to you for days and for weeks and months, but what is on your heart and on your mind?
Speaker 2:I mean really on your heart and on your mind. I mean really I just try to lead a happy, smiley, positive life as much as possible. I don't really try to bog myself down with too much and, yeah, who's the next person that I can help? It sometimes goes through my mind. So, yes, I want my, I want this business to do well, I want to meet great people, I want to travel the world, but I kind of leave life as a day to day. So I'm not too.
Speaker 2:I don't have a lot of big needs. I think it was in Buddhism. They're saying if you get to the point where you really don't feel you have to need anything or want anything, then you're in a good spot. And I think that's kind of where I am now. Yes, I still have aspirations. I still want to do a lot of things, but each day I take little steps towards it and you know you're not going to get from A to Z in one jump. So you just do a little thing.
Speaker 2:One email here, a little conversation there. You see where it goes. So, my friend, it has been absolutely fantastic. I love talking to you and I think we should do this more because there's so many things. I want to pick your brain about Tools in the creator economy. What are people using? What are you using? Yeah, what are you hearing back from creators? So let's do this again sometime and definitely let's set up a time with your friend and see how we can help her out. Definitely, let's set up a time with your friend and see how we can help her out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I have some ideas to share. Your way, frank, you know I do, but I always always I plan too much and I appreciate your advice on taking it one day at a time. I'm going to try really hard this week, but you really do inspire people to want to keep going. So I appreciate you giving me ideas for big dreams, for creative things, and for your time and for your effort and getting through all the tech issues we had today.
Speaker 1:It is almost a little wild because we really don't know anything about each other, but yet these conversations have just been so easy since moment one and I don't want to forget that we had good people in our life to get us here, to shout out to all of the leaders and mentors and people that gave us an extra minute when the other people didn't.
Speaker 2:That's true, and I think this is really important is that when somebody approaches you about something, you can easily give 30 minutes of your time to help somebody out. And that's what I don't think a lot of people pay attention to in terms of being, yeah, karma can be a bitch, but karma can be absolutely fantastic. You put a lot of good out in the world. It eventually comes back, and one of my things that I think is that whatever you're doing, giving it out in the world and you don't expect it from that person to give it back necessarily. If something comes back that way, that's good. But in reality, you have to look at just you've done something good, something good is going to happen to you. So, on that note, I'm going to say a big, big thank you and it's been a good fun. And uh, yeah, maybe two people will see this in the future, or 5,000, or 10,000.
Speaker 1:It's going to be a million. Is there anything I need to edit out before I make this portion at least go out? I'll I have to do a little background on the zoom, but I mean edit what you want out of it. I'm going to let it fly, man. I'm going to let it fly and I'll send it to you. How about it?
Speaker 2:Okay, sounds good. You let me know if anyone actually says hello, they will I promise you I'm going to promise you 10K views on YouTube.
Speaker 1:I'll see you later, Frank. Take care Okay.
Speaker 2:Take good care Ciao.
Speaker 1:Ciao. Oh, that was Frank, everybody. So Frank let himself back in. Frank, what are you doing? You double clicked my mouse, I got him again. I got him again. Y'all can't see this, but behind the scenes, frank let himself in as I let him in, and that means that he got popping back in and out of the backstage area. So shout out to Frank for hanging out. I don't like to do editing, so I'm going to do my little promo of how you can do this with me or how you can meet Frank. Of course, scan the code if you're watching this. Meet Frank. He's a great guy.
Speaker 1:If you needed anything other than this message, then maybe it's not for you, but he's a super cool, amazing human who's got a lot to offer. If you're into the same things, I am, same with Shanique, who we talked about at length today, shout out to Shanique. This is one of her cooler interviews. Just as a regular human, let alone as a journalist, to get an interview with George Foreman, I would think would be pretty near the top, but she's talked to a lot of really amazing people. This is not because it was in person To lit with any of the legends that she has sat with. She sat with Ludacris. She sat with a lot of people, but George Foreman has really transcended sports and business and culture. He's really just transcended a lot more than most other humans.
Speaker 1:So shout out to Shanique for landing the big interviews. Can't wait to connect her with Frank. But Frank is with FOAP. So shout out to Frank at FOAP, but specifically at FOAPcom. Check it out. That little scan code will take you to their website and it'll show you who we just talked to and then from there you can explore what they're up to. So go ahead and credential Frank, ask him who he is, but also reach out to him and see how he can help you. If you're a creator, reach out and follow Shanique. He can help you. If you're a creator, reach out and follow Shanique. Scan this. It's going to take you to her conversation with George Foreman. He made grills like George Foreman grills and he was a boxer.
Speaker 1:I know you're interested. This is my website. I appreciate you checking it out. That means a hell of a lot to me if you did. Thank you. This is the people that make a lot of what I do possible, so they sponsor a pretty good chunk of what I make content last month. So I'm really grateful for you screen. They're a sponsor, but they're also something I use and pay for and I can tell you all about it. If you click on that button and find you're interested, it's not going to tell you to buy something but, more importantly, just if you're interested in what they're doing at you screen and you might be if you're watching this so check it out. Shout out to Elizabeth Leba protecting my piece.
Speaker 1:It's a book I need to get back into. I took a little time off um, it's been wild in my head so I had to kind of get my own things under control. But elizabeth liba is a book. I'm a couple chapters into taking it one bite at a time. Frank talked a little bit about that. It's a heavy book to read because I make it heavy and I want it to be heavy. I just want to absorb it page for page and it's a really good one. So check it out. Protecting my peace by elizabeth liba.
Speaker 1:Get a job in the creator economy if if you're watching this you want a job in the creator economy. We talked so much about it today. That's uh, wife laura. So this is my life partner. I've been with this person for fears almost. Um, it would mean the world to me isn't her music. Or check out her instagram. That's her deal. Um, she's good at skateboarding, good at. She's got a lot of cool things going on.
Speaker 1:That's Laura Magore on Spotify and Apple. This is Neek on Spotify and Apple Neek G N-E-E-K-G. Neek G is from Milwaukee, hung out in Tennessee in college for a little while and now is out here in Southern California and he is a rapper Milwaukee style rapper, I guess I don't know. I feel like people often pick up the region they're living in and that's kind of stylistically, I think, a little Tennessee in there too. But as he moved out here, I think he's starting to feel a little more Cali vibe. So check out Neek G as he releases new music. Laura's releasing new music every probably six weeks. Right now she's been putting out a new original. Neek is going to be on that schedule soon, but he can drop you a verse anytime you need it.
Speaker 1:Exposure is a women's benefit event, so specifically domestic violence is where they focused originally, but it's much more broad of a mission now than that. I think that that's the core of it is to support awareness and recovery and a community and a safe space, but they also do events and competitions and give a lot of stuff away and teach people how to skateboard so that's very cool. Check out Exposure, skate and Knight Artists that's just somebody I look up to. They make the most money. So when you're talking about money in the creator economy, you're talking about Knight Media. So check out the people who are Knight Media artists. So if you're going to aspire to anyone like, if you want to be an influencer, a creator, a podcaster, fill in the blank here. If you want to be a person that makes money doing shit like this, uh, aspire to be the best or learn from the best, and that's the people at night media. Laura I mentioned. She surfs and sings. That's her again.
Speaker 1:Fuzzy logic that's some of the best work I've ever done in terms of my media and that's a show about concerns of creators. It's literally what I focus everything on as creators. That's what we talked about with Frank for an hour and a half. That's what we talked about in Fuzzy Logic for an hour times, 13 episodes. That's what I talked about with Brief every fucking day for a year. It's what I've talked about every day for the past three years really is the creator economy, the creator industry, the concept of it and how it's going to look in the future. So Fuzzy Logic is some stuff I was doing early on and I think it at least speaks to my vision for what I want to do. So check out Fuzzy Logic as a cool concept. It's supposed to be a talk show, like podcasty talk show, so could have used better everything, but I had a lot of fun doing it.
Speaker 1:That's my cousin, meredith Marsh. She teaches a lot of YouTube people how to do great stuff with video and audio quality. Her message is so straightforward on how she's going to help you. So if you're sick of dealing with like overly complicated YouTube messaging, meredith has a variety of shorts that will help and then also has a huge catalog of longer stuff as well. So not only will you like a few of her shorts right out of the gate, but Meredith has an archive that's deeper than mine and that's saying something. I have a lot of shit archived, but Meredith Moe is what I called her growing up. That's my cousin and she's a YouTube influencer and obviously an inspiration in that way. This is something I need to hook up with on how everyone adds during this stuff. So check out this.
Speaker 1:What this could mean for your brand, I think would be the comment there If you want to meet, like you did with me today. You hung out for potentially 10 minutes or an hour or six hours, who knows how long you were here on my stuff, but any time you spent here I am really really fucking grateful. Frank is so nice to me. He has treated me super well since he met me. I'm really a nobody in the whole world, I feel quite often, but people like to spend time with me and Frank has been so generous to teach me and to guide me and to mentor me, and now to do it a little bit publicly. So I can't say enough about what it means to do that.
Speaker 1:But I also want to explain to you the power of doing your own content, the power of interviewing your own people, the power of having conversations that you lead and guide and facilitate, rather than you always being on the interview end. So, even if you're a famous person that likes to talk about yourself, get yourself your own podcast, get yourself your own show and let me help. Come on, meet with me like Frank did today. Let's see if we got some chemistry offline. Let's see if we got some chemistry online. If we have chemistry online, maybe it leads to a thing Like maybe Frank and I do a show together. We just get along so well on air. So that's kind of the end goal.
Speaker 1:If I ever had an end goal is to just make a bunch of cool talk shows with people to inspire. In the short term, I want to help other people, I want to connect other people, and when I meet someone that can really spread the wealth as much as Frank can, of course, really want to do what I can to help his cause out and talk about him a lot. So check out Frank at Fope. I mean, that's his whole world, is what he does. This guy ran for president. That's a true person I met and I spent a lot of time with.
Speaker 1:He wouldn't do an interview with me, so I told him I had to stop working for him, because this is what I fucking do. This is, I interview people. Um, so it's part of my life. I'm when. I want to interview you. So if you want to be Frank today, then do that. If you want to be George, right, these are people I look up to. There's not very many that I'd look really high up to, but you got to see a bunch of them in this scroller, so be grateful that I fucking share that for free. I'm just kidding. It's been a heck of a day. I got to get back to the real world, but I certainly appreciate the time that you spent spending here with me and Frank today. I don't want to ruin his name over and over again because that's how I feel like I'm going to do it, but we really should. Frank David Carvalho I've really I'm sure I've asked him like 14 times. I'm so embarrassed that's why I did it, but that's who we talked to today is Frank. So if you, if you need to, you know, become a badass creator to become a badass creator, if you want to join me and ask me who I know, I'll tell you a couple people like Shanique and like Frank, but I probably know somebody else that could maybe be able to help you or contribute to your cause. So it would be a great honor really to meet you.
Speaker 1:I do like to do recorded stuff. I do like to do lives. I do like to make our content public. It keeps it more transparent and it keeps it more profitable for me to be honest with you and I enjoy it more. So it's better all the way around. If we're going to do some work together, let's make some money on it. It's kind of how I look at it. So I don't have to charge anything and so you don't have to charge me anything, ideally and that way we can hopefully create create a great relationship, like we did with Frank today.
Speaker 1:Frank is a very influential man in a very influential industry, in the industry that is called influencer. So to hang out with a CMO of a top influencer company in the era of the influencer is truly an honor. So I love just hearing him talk, I love to stoke his fire, I love to get him excited about him because I think that he is a him. Obviously, I misinterpret his history sometimes, but because I really feel like anybody who's been making creators money for the past few years is really at the very fucking beginning of it. So he doesn't think he's a founder of making creators money, but he really is. So he may not have been the founder of his company, but he is the founder of many, many of us being able to survive with a little bit more side cash in our pocket and maybe even a full-time hustle in some cases, so it just can't be understated what the value is of the time and the effort and the shares of a man like Frank.
Speaker 1:So please go back and re-listen to it. I'll try to cut this into as many useful shorts as possible. You're listening to the full version, which is only available at creatorstreamapp. Youtube and everywhere else will have a cut-up version, but this will be available right after I hit the stop button today and get it downloaded. And I really appreciate being here on behalf of Frank and I, who spent a bunch of time together with you today. Have a great day. He said so many smart things and I just I hope that you can go make money in the creator economy, go to popecom and find Frank and meet Frank and check out creatorstreamapp, and everything else is great after that. You know what I'm saying, see ya.