Rob Balasabas Explains How to Build a $100K+ Creator Business Without Going Viral

Meet Rob Balasabas, Head of Partnerships and Community at Uscreen, as he breaks down where the creator economy is heading, what actually makes a creator business sustainable, and why community, recurring revenue, and real connection matter more than chasing views.

If you’ve ever wondered how creators can turn content into a real business, whether small creators can actually make meaningful income, or why some creators with huge audiences still struggle to monetize, this conversation is packed with practical insights on what actually works.

In this episode, Rob shares his journey through the creator economy, from working in digital marketing and online courses to roles at Thinkific, TubeBuddy, and now Uscreen. We talk about how the industry has evolved, what creators misunderstand about success, and why there is no single formula for growth on YouTube.

Rob also explains why collaborations are one of the most underrated growth strategies, how creators should think about outreach, and why building an email list matters so much if you want long-term sustainability. We also dive into community building, subscription businesses, recurring revenue, and why owning your audience is one of the smartest things a creator can do.

We also discuss burnout, creator business models, hiring your first team members, outsourcing editing, and how AI is changing the way creators work while making authentic human connection even more valuable.

Rob Balasabas is the Head of Partnerships and Community at Uscreen, where he works closely with creators, partners, and businesses to help grow sustainable membership-based creator brands.

Whether you’re a creator, entrepreneur, or trying to build a real business around your content, this episode is for you.

Learn more about Rob:
Uscreen: https://www.uscreen.tv
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@robertbalasabas
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbalasabas/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbalasabas/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Most people think building a creator business is all about views, brand deals, and going viral. Rob Balabasa shows there's a much deeper game behind it. In this episode, he breaks down how creators actually build sustainable businesses, why owning your audience matters more than chasing algorithms, and how memberships and recurring revenue are changing the creator economy. Awesome. So, Rob, thank you so much for being here and joining us. For people actually discovering your work for the first time, how would you describe what you do today and who are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah, well, Vitor, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure and honor to be on the podcast with you guys. Yeah, my name is Rob Balisabas. So my day-to-day is uh, you know, as head of partnerships at UScreen, it's really working with our creators that use our platform as well as uh different brand partners and industry partners as well. And so really just connecting the dots between the folks that are using our platform and the folks that are helping our creators, our customers, um build their business as well, you know, on our on our technology.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

And you're currently the head of creator partnerships and community at UScreen. What does that role actually look like day to day?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, it's very different. I mean, every day is a little bit different than the than the next uh than the previous, and you know, so um, you know, some days I'm on the road at different events and conferences. I was just recently at South by Southwest, and then you know, later this year we're gonna be going to all the you know creator YouTube video marketing type of events like Vid Summit and VidCon and also Can Lions, like there's a lot of different events that we um head out to. Um, some days I'm working directly with some of our partners on sponsorships or overseeing our affiliate program or working with other team members that are helping onboard and launch um new customers. So, you know, it's all it's all very different. Um, I would say again, the through line is um really working with the people that are using our platform and the people that are helping our platform grow their businesses.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

How did you get where you are today? Because um I I I'm assuming it's a long process to get to being the head of creator partnership. Uh what was it like for you in the beginning? How did you start?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah, I mean honestly, um I got into the industry I would say almost 10 years ago. I was working, I was working at a digital agency and you know, building WordPress sites, um doing SEO and backlinks and running paid ads for different small um businesses mostly through a digital agency that I was working at here in Vancouver where I'm based. And then I got a call from a friend of mine who started um he started at a company uh that was doing online courses, and this was around 2015, 2016 Vitor, and I was like, what are online courses? You know, like I I mean I'm I didn't know people took courses online. I mean, I knew that there were some like college courses that maybe you could consume online and things like that, but what are online courses? And so I learned I joined the company very shortly after that, and um the platform was called ThinkIphic, and so they did online courses for um you know uh like influencers and authors and coaches, and this was a whole new world to me that this even existed, um, that that people were making money in this way, and so I was there for about four or five years. I was on the marketing team, and then I was a social media manager and community manager, and eventually I was on the partnerships team. Um, and so you know, about four or five years into that role, the company grew from about 20 people to I think over 200 people by the time that I was that I had left. Uh, five years later, and we had grown, we had moved, we had moved to like a new office downtown, and it was it was a really exciting time, it was a crazy journey with that company. Um, and then I was um I was then approached by a company that was based in the US, uh worked remotely, um, that had a YouTube software, so it was a tool that was used by uh YouTubers to you know analyze their videos and you know A-B test thumbnails and titles and um you know do bulk actions on their videos on YouTube, and it was called TubeBuddy. Um, and so we were a team of about 10 or 12, and we were serving millions of channels on YouTube, and I was the partnership manager there. I was brought on to help grow their affiliate program and things like that. Um, and that was during COVID. So, you know, as you know, during COVID a lot of YouTube channels really exploded, like they just grew like crazy, right? Um, you know, because people were consuming more YouTube, they were doing more things online. Um, and so the company just continued to grow during COVID, um, during the two years that I was there. And actually, the the company itself was then acquired by a bigger company during that time, about one year into it. And so we joined this company called Branded Entertainment Network, and it was actually um the primary shareholder was Bill Gates. So um, pretty cool fun fact that I could say that I worked for Bill Gates at one point in my life, and so he was running, we were operating still as um sort of an independent company within the larger uh parent company. Um, but yeah, two years into that, I then was approached. I made some, you know, made a really good friend in a guy named PJ Tai, um, and he was the founder of UScreen, where I currently work now. Um, and we had a conversation about joining the team, and he wanted to again uh grow the partnership program, their affiliate program. Um, you know, and it was, you know, after looking at the company and the opportunity with memberships for creators, it was a no-brainer for me. That's kind of where things were going, and we continue to see that grow now. So I've been here almost five years, VTOR, and um just enjoying it, you know, seeing creators own their revenue and you know, just really build their community and sustainable recurring revenue that they control. Um, it's been a beautiful thing to be a part of.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

What is what was the process for you actually learning about the algorithm? Because as you said, when you started like in the creator economy, you didn't know much about it. What was it like back then? Like, did a lot of things change from when you started?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah, a lot of things change. I think every day something changes on YouTube, and so yeah, the closer you are to YouTube, the more that you realize that man, nothing is ever the same. Every day there's something new, there's a lot of mystery around the algorithm. Um, you know, you talk to two different people that have YouTube channels, you'll get two different answers on um how they approach YouTube. You know, does titles matter? Does titles not matter? Thumbnails, you know, do you do short videos or long form? You know, um you know, all of those things. How do you do keywords? Does that matter? You know, there's so many things happening, and then you incorporate things like live streaming, um, and then also the way that you build your business as a YouTuber, as a content creator. I mean, everybody has a different approach and strategy. Um, you know, for me it was just like beautiful to see, I think, TubeBuddy during that two years that I was there. Every day we were looking at YouTube channels and talking to creators. That's sort of my crash course in learning about YouTube. Um, and I just came to respect that there was really no one way to build a YouTube channel. Um, some people care about the algorithm a lot, some people don't. Um, you know, but you could clearly see that there's just more than one way, and so now, even now, like we're just talking to different creators all the time. Some creators have you know big channels that they just kind of that's all they do. Some creators have teams, some creators work with you know companies like VidPros with the editing, and you know, it's a it's a really cool thing to see that it's just like there's so many ways to success um when it comes to it. But to answer your question, the algorithm, I think the main way that I really learned and the way that I just like to operate myself is just to do it myself. And so actually, when I joined TubeBuddy, I knew that I was gonna be working with a lot of YouTubers, and so I actually just created my own channel. So I created a YouTube channel for myself, and I started just you know putting myself in their shoes and understanding how to you know uh do live streams and edit videos and film vlogs and you know optimize for keywords and things like that, and um yeah, and I was able to just continue. I actually found that I enjoyed it, and so I just continued building the channel, and so I mean now it's not a huge channel, but it's got 12,000 or so subscribers, and it's just been aside from yes, growing a channel, I've been able to understand how a creator thinks by you know being my creator myself. Um, I think that's just the best way to learn.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Is there any approach from all your experience that you've noticed is vital that works the most? Works the most.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Uh I would say collaborations, you know. Um, whether you're a small channel, just starting, collaborating, and you know, doing interviews similar to this, actually, using tools like this, um, you know, and doing interviews, I think has been one of the ways that if I was to start over again, I would do it this way. I would interview people that were already well known, that already had audiences, not just to, you know, sort of piggyback their success or their audience, but also just to learn from them and treat it as a way for me to learn from the person I'm interviewing. Um, you know, sort of like a free coaching call in a way. Um, and then that becomes the best content, you know, and asking questions that that I really care about, not just you know, thinking about questions and you know putting it on a list, but like really things that I want to learn from that person because ultimately the people that are gonna subscribe to you are probably similar to you as well in your stage and your journey of your business or growth or life or whatever it is, and um they're gonna be curious about the same things as you are, and so you're almost just like a speaker for them on their behalf when you're interviewing other people, and so I think that's the best way to grow. If I was to do it again, and even if you have larger channels, if you notice some of the biggest channels out there, VTor, they're doing collaborations as well, you know. And so um the beautiful thing that I have learned is that especially if you're watching this, you're you have a smaller channel, or you feel like you're just starting out, or don't be afraid to you know reach out to those bigger creators. Uh, because I found when I did it, um, those larger creators that I was like, oh man, who knows? Maybe they'll say yes. They tend to say yes, they tend to be very generous with their time to give back, you know, and so it's it's been a pleasure to hear that.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

It's been my experience lately, if I'm being honest, and it is so weird how people are willing in this industry to say yes, because I was like, We're starting this new channel with zero subs, and then I'm approaching people with over a million subs. Like, are they even gonna respond to my email? And surprisingly, they did. And I was talking to Daniel about this, and one thing that I noticed that is a mistake that a lot of people make is not crafting crafting like a proper email message. So a lot of people do just like skip your email and then don't don't even read it through because you just like copy it from chat GPT. So, do you have any like technique or approach for anyone who wants to start doing outreach so they can actually get more responses?

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yeah, yeah. I mean, everything that Daniel probably shared, he's great at it. Uh, what I would probably suggest is if you have the ability to go beyond text messages, like if you can send a voice message, a voice note, you can do that on Instagram. And then, even better, is if you can even send a quick video. So, if you're reaching out on Instagram, like use the video function, you know, and just say, hey, like Vitor, love what you're doing, respect everything you built. Would love to have you join me on my podcast and kind of you know, basically say what you're gonna write to them anyway. Um, that will go a long way, you know, because yeah, I mean they might be getting a lot of messages and yours will stand out. And you know, if you're authentic and genuine about the way that you're asking, then you know it's hard to say no. You know, it's hard to say no when you see somebody's face.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

I mean, in my experience, if they say no, at least they're gonna give you advice, they're gonna talk to you, they're not really gonna ignore you. If you're you just have to show that you're genuine, you're just not like an AI bot in any way.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And I mean, if they say no, that's fine, it's all good. You're not gonna get a yes every single time. So don't be afraid of the no. Um but at least now they know you, Vitor. You know, a year from now you could reach out again and say, hey, remember me, look at our podcast now. And yeah, you know, we've had we've had Daniel and so and so and so and so and so and so. Um, you know, if you'd reconsider, you know, we're you're you know, we're booking for the next you know quarter of interviews, so never hurts. Never hurts.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Yeah, I just recently I actually sent a message to one of the biggest creators I know. She she has one of the biggest podcasts ever, and I messaged her on Instagram and she didn't respond, but then after that she started watching all my stories on Instagram. And I was like, that's how you do it. That's that's how you put yourself on the radar, and that's how it works. Uh, from when you started in 2015, I'm assuming uh the industry was not as big as it is now. Like we didn't know where social media I remember that we didn't know where this was going. Did you have any idea how major this industry would become? Because in a way, I feel like social media now it's kind of mainstream, it's kind of mixed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah, yeah. I think I heard back then it was like, you know, Gary V or one of these guys that were really influential was like, you know, social media is not gonna be social media, it's just gonna be the internet. That's just where we're gonna spend our time, you know. Like, I mean, even now, I don't really spend that much time on Google or browsing. I tend to spend a lot of time on social, you know, on LinkedIn or Instagram or whatever it may be or the different apps that I'm into. Um, yeah, but looking back in 2015, honestly, yeah, I mean, I don't I'm not gonna lie, I don't I didn't realize it was gonna be like this, you know. Obviously, everybody is on social, but now I mean social media and creating content has become so easy, thanks to even like services like you guys, you know, editing is like this thing that like is such a blocker for a lot of people. Like I remember people saying, like, I can't I can't be a YouTuber, I I don't know how to edit, or I don't have time to edit. And um now it's so easy, you know. Work with uh you know vid pros and um you know that becomes like a non-issue, right? Now you can just create content, send it to you guys, you guys take care of it, and then and then the creator will upload. Um yeah, so you know, and I feel like in some degree, like it's just kind of starting still, like it's still early. Like there's people out there that are just starting to create content today, and you know, a year from now, they'll be just fine, they'll do great, they'll have success. And so it's not even too late. So even now it's a little bit still early days. Um, you know, and also just thinking of the life cycle Vitor of a content creator, content creators they can't keep creating content forever, and so there's always gonna be there's always gonna be yes, there's creators that are doing really well, but some of them will stop creating content. Um because you know, not that they're leaving the business, but now they've sort of like matured and you know, they're launching products. Um you know, their their attention has shifted, they still use content for their business, but they're not you know in front of videos anymore. You know, maybe they have other team members making the videos and things like that. Um, and so yeah, I think it's just gonna continue to evolve this way, you know, the way that you look at um consuming, like the consumer market, you know, like the the shelves on the stores, all of these products, they're all like a lot of them are coming from creators, right? Like Mr. Beast and Prime and Festivals and all of these things, and not just like not just like food and stuff like that, but like even like physical products and beauty products and household products, you know, things like that. All of those things are like, you know, creators are either taking a stake in those business or they're launching their own physical products to sort of be a competitor for traditional products and and brands. Um, and so I think this just becomes more and more. And so the social media aspect of it becomes the best way to market and distribute your products. Um, and so we're just gonna see more of that, you know, even like media, you know, like people aren't watching as many movies at theaters because they're watching it on YouTube or Netflix, or you know, like even these creators are now podcasts are on Netflix, and so it's just it's just taking over everything, like which in a way is kind of like what you guys are doing at USCreen, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:27

You're actually jumping on that idea of streaming. Like, can you talk a little bit more about that and what you guys do?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yeah, yeah. So what we do at USCreen is essentially we build your own Netflix, right? Your own like subscription uh apps, your own membership apps on the web, on mobile apps, on TV apps, and um allows the creator to build a recurring revenue that they can just rely on, that they know is gonna come in every single month. They don't have to rely on brand deals and you know, they can really focus on their community. Um yeah, and so we are helping creators build apps, and so now they have, you know, again, talking about store shelves, physical store shelves at stores, having more creator brands on the store shelves. Same thing now. Creators are now taking up space on your phone with their own apps, their own icon. Um, and so that's really that's really what we do. We help creators just have their own controlled, white-labeled um membership apps so that they can just focus on the on the business that they're already growing, that they own. They have first-party data, they can connect to their creators without having to rely on algorithms. Um, yeah, and so it's it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful business. We don't want to replace, we're not trying to replace YouTube or Instagram or any of those. Those are great platforms to be discovered and to, you know, find people that are interested in your content. Um, we're simply the monetization part of their business.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Did you always see creators as entrepreneurs when you first started, or did something shift now? Do you think now it's like more it's more relevant and more important for creators to start their own business?

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah, I think um I think some entrepreneurs now are becoming creators. They're not. I think maybe in the early days it was more of that creative, um, like more of a creative person that decides, I'm gonna make videos. And then, oh my channel grows. Okay, I need to now run a business. I need to find a way to make money from creating content. Whereas now I think it's more there's still that, but I think now there's also a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs first, that have adopted becoming a creator. You know, if you look at LinkedIn, there's a lot of founders and CEOs that are not really creators at heart. You know, they didn't want to become people that when they grow up they're gonna make videos, but they understand that people consume content this way, and this is how you build brand, um, you know, a personal brand. Um, you don't want to be a company that is faceless, you know, it's just like I don't know who works here. Like, you know, when somebody thinks of uh VidPros, they think of Vitor. You know, I can put a face to the brand. Um, and so I think that's what people are looking for. And so I think now, yes, there's still creators that maybe are not entrepreneurs, they don't have that skill, and not not against them, but just like that's just not how they're built. And so as they grow, they will either not do well on the business side, or because they're gonna try and run it themselves, or they'll uh find a partner or uh a CEO to hire to take care of the business side, and then there's the CEOs or business-minded person that um kind of wants to be a creator, and so they'll they'll learn that trade and they'll learn those skills. Um so yeah, so I think it's it's great.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

There's both now. What is a mistake that people do early on in their when they're starting their their business in this industry, and also how can you make it sustainable if you were to give advice?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah, yeah. So the f the mistake, I think a lot of people make the mistake of looking at other creators um and you know, sort of wanting to be exactly like them and do exactly what they do. It's really difficult. Um, you know, like I want to make the hey that hey, Vitor's video did really well. I'm gonna do the exact video, you know. I'm gonna or I'm gonna like make a similar video, or you know, and just like doing the thing. Oh, I heard Vitor. Um Started you know selling merch. Okay, I'm gonna do that too. You know, instead of just like copying and following the trend, I think that's a big mistake. Um, it's really difficult to emulate somebody's exact blueprint. I think you take an inspiration from other people and then you apply it to your situation, your audience. Um, yeah, and so I think that's really important. Um, sorry, what was your your second question, Vitor?

SPEAKER_00 22:26

It was just how can you actually make it sustainable in this industry? Because it's something that you you talk a lot about, right? About a sustainable creator career.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Yeah, yeah. Um, well, I mean, you have to build your own products, you have to control the products that you're selling, whether it's a service, whether it's you know, something that's away from the algorithm. If you have a business that's built on algorithms only, in terms of you know, getting views, and you know, like for example, if you just have a business as a creator where you are doing brand deals, it's gonna be really difficult. You you might wake up someday and the brand deals aren't not there, um, or the views are not, you know, the algorithms um have changed their minds, and um you have uh you're left with nothing. I mean, you're left with a really, really poor business, right? Um limited. I think the main thing, yeah, yeah. I think the main thing is like the fundamentals of a business is you want to own your audience and you want to own your products. You don't want to be selling somebody's products, right? I mean, always, you know. Um, you know, you look at like Costco, like Costco has its own products, but they also sell other other companies' products as a reseller. You want to have your own products and you want to have an email list, right? These are things that are sustainable that whatever you do, um, if you lose your YouTube channel, then you have an email list. You can start over again. You know, you have access to the people that are following you. Um, and again, yeah, you have your own products. So whether that's digital products, physical products, service that you offer, like you want to make sure that you own those things. So, you know, as early as you can, start building an email list as a creator, even if you're just starting today, you're creating an Instagram account or a YouTube channel. Um, create something that people will want in exchange for um giving you their email address. Whether it's free doesn't matter. Um, but you want to start building an email list so you can, you know, really build that first party data.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

One thing that I see happening a lot is creators like burning out after a few years. So, for you, what actually separates those creators from people that actually have long-term businesses? Like, what is the key to be successful?

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Yeah, I mean, take the time off. I think that's really important. Take the time off. Don't work every day of the week, have a day off where you're resting. I mean, you know, it's hard to tell an entrepreneur that's like really heads down and focused, but it's the best thing you can do for yourself. I mean, I've done the I've done that where like you're working seven days a week and it you're just in that season, and you know, your body will tell you that it's like you can't go anymore any further, or you know, you start like it just doesn't it it will show up in your in your life in some way that's like negative. Um, and so you have to take that day off at least once a day. Um once a week at least. Um, you know, take that time off once a year to do something different and change your scenery. You don't have to go and have like this, you know, um luxurious vacation, but like you want to get away from like your everyday. Um, it's also great to be inspired that way to like see something from a different point of view, different angle. Um, and then have some people around you that are your community, so not the community that you're serving, not your audience, um, but um your peers. So other people that are maybe in the same season, same stage as you, building a business or building, you know, your you know, a creator business, or just people that you can trust that is not somebody that you're serving, but somebody that you're at least like um at level stage with. Um that you can really share some of these things. You know, building a business is not easy, um, and there's gonna be tough days, and you gotta have somebody that you talk to, that you have an outlet about, you know, whether that's your partner in life or um a really good friend or a mentor or somebody. Um but yeah, those are the things that will, I think, keep you at least like the basics, you know, to uh make sure that you are operating, you know, well for the long run.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Are there trends on how creators are monetizing their audiences that you see that it's working really well right now? Like specific niches that are more profitable, for example?

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Yeah, oh man. Niches is hard. I I see niches that are profitable in every niche. Uh the ones that you expect, like fitness and e-learning and um entertainment. Um, and then you see the super niche ones, like you know, like crafts, um, horseback riding. I mean, there's so many jump ropes. I mean, there's so many different niches out there. So I think you can be successful in any niche, I think. Um I've just seen them all, like there's somebody successful in everything. Um, and there's competition everywhere as well. So you can be successful in any niche, but also expect that there's always gonna be competition unless you invent something that's super like original. There's already somebody that's either thought of it or has started it or in that space. Um, you know, and so but the beautiful thing again is that it's a big world out there and there's lots of there's space for everyone somewhere, as long as you are like being real and authentic and um thinking about connecting with the people that you're serving. Um, you know, like even you know, when I was a two buddy, there was a lot of I was talking, we were partners with a lot of people that were um YouTube strategists, you know, and they're all friends, you know. And we talked to Nick Niman and Roberto Blake and Daryl Eves and Vanessa Lau, and they're all friends. They're all like they just get along, they don't see each other as competition, they actually like do a lot of collaborations together. Um, and so yeah, I mean I think there's you know, we we we work with a lot of people that are in fitness and Pilates, and they're all friends. They have a WhatsApp group together, like they're they're all friends, you know. They're not they're not um they're not threatened um by somebody else because they understand that there's um lots of business to be had.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Nick has been on the show actually, and he is the most important thing. He's the greatest guy. Yeah, yeah. And uh what do you think about subscription businesses? Because uh in my mind, now it's it's it's the best option because it's in a way recurring revenue, right? So, what's your take on this? And what should creators consider first if they're thinking about creating some sort of membership?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Yeah, that's good. That's a good question. I mean, I'm biased. I love subscription businesses, that's what we do here at UScreen. Um, I mean, similar to you guys, you guys have a recurring business model, right? At VidPros. I think, regardless of what you know, subscription or not, I think a business that has recurring predictable revenue, it can't be beat. There's no other model out there that can be, you know, the only alternative is you're selling products one at a time, right? And um those are okay to start, I think. You know, I you gotta start somewhere, you gotta, you gotta, but um, you know, the recurring like the recurring model is just like unbeatable. Like, hey, as long as I serve my audience today, I will they will be here to next month, you know, like and the month after that. And I can now like okay, so if I have revenue coming in and expected, A, I can make decisions for my business and invest in my business knowing that I can plan ahead. Like, okay, six months from now, we still have revenue, you know, as long as and we probably have more revenue because if I'm doing my job right, I'm marketing, then I will also not have not just have like the people that are my customers today, next month, but I'll also have new customers next month and the month after that. And so it just like becomes a snowball effect, right? It just keeps on growing. Um, two, if you are thinking as an entrepreneur, you're earlier, Vittor, you're saying thinking as an entrepreneur, then recurring revenue is really good for your valuation as a business. If you want to ever sell your business, somebody's gonna invest in you, they'll say, like, okay, well, what's your revenue? Well, it's my revenue is you know fifty thousand dollars a month, you know, as a creator. Okay, but how about next month? Oh, the same, maybe more, maybe sixty thousand or fifty-five or fifty-one thousand. And so now like your valuation grows, right? Because you have recurring revenue. Um and then if it's a digital, if it's a digital subscription, not like a there's also physical subscription businesses, but if it's a digital subscription business, the margins just continue to grow. Because it's like your cost is kind of the same. If you have other than bandwidth and you know, maybe fees to the platform, whatever it is, but your cost for like maintaining, let's say, a hundred members versus a thousand members is usually very similar. Like, you're not gonna spend that much more, but you're gonna make so much more money as you grow, your margins to kind of stay the same. We have customers that have thousands, I mean, like tens and thousands of members, and they run it with three people, you know. And I mean, it's a good business to have. Um, you know, so yeah, I mean that's my thoughts. I mean, I think, yeah, it's that do you think AI is helpful when it comes to that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's a whole nother topic for sure. But yeah, I think AI and agentic AI and um, you know, cloud and like all of these, you know, I think it is super helpful um to help uh automate a lot of the work. Um yeah, there's there's there's some areas of memberships that is just hard to do to replicate or or replace with AI right now because a lot of people are paying for memberships because of access to the thought leader, and so it's really hard to replicate that presence of showing up and that authenticity, but a lot of the supporting work and task around it for sure can be. Um, you know, AI is helpful for that, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

There is this stigma that you need to have like X amount of subscribers to start making money on social media. Uh, do you think you can make money with, let's say, less than 5,000 subscribers? And from your experience, do you have clients that they don't have a lot of subscribers, but they were able to build like a massive business from it?

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have um, yeah, we have a lot of customers that have smaller audiences compared, you know, they don't have hundreds and thousands or millions for sure, but again, it's recurring revenue. Um, and so they don't need, I mean, we have customers with like two or three hundred paying subscribers, and each subscriber is paying, you know, $25-30 a month. And so you do the math, it's a pretty good business, right? You know, times 12 months a year that people are paying, it's a pretty good business. Um, and so you know, we say that most from our data, most of the um creators that we work with, data shows that it's about one to five percent of their public subscribers, you know, on YouTube or Instagram, um, tend to pay for the paid subscription. And so if you do the math, you know, somebody has 5,000 or 10,000 subscribers, you know, then they're able to get okay, a hundred members, right? Whatever that may be, you know, 20, 30, 50 members that are paying, you know, $30, $40, $50 a month. We have some memberships that are $99 or more a month. Um, and so once you once you start doing the math, it scales pretty quickly. Um, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Why do you think there are big creators that struggle monetizing and there's there are like smaller creators that actually make it work? Like what's the good question?

SPEAKER_01 34:39

That's a good question. I think about that a lot. I think the smaller creators just have um inherently they just have more time to spend with their audience, and so their their attention, their um the trust that they have, that connection they have with their audience is just stronger. Um, and so if they say, hey, like invest in this, or hey, I'm starting this membership, or hey, I'm launching this course, or um whatever it may be, there's a small, there's a higher percentage that will tend to invest just in general, again, not across the board, but in general, as a creator gets bigger, they're sometimes a little bit um maybe not as relatable, you know, because they're you know, they're doing these like math, they're very like grandiose things, you know. These they're traveling to like you know far places to make these videos or whatever it may be. And now they're not as like relatable, it's a little further out. So, and and you know, they have such a wide audience, maybe they're not interacting as closely with them anymore, you know. They're not replying to the comments as much, you know, things like that. Um so I think that's probably I mean, this again, general, you know, there's some creators out there that are that do a great job and they're massive and millions of subs, um, and did do a great job of keeping that connection. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

I feel like community is way more important than content, right? So, like for you, do you think creators should focus more on depth of relationship instead of maintaining the problem?

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Yeah, if they can, if they can, yeah, if they have the bandwidth to um community is really difficult to build, um, and so you really have to be intentional about it. Once you start a community, it's really hard to stop. You know, that's the thing, it's an investment. Um, and also like the truth is like community can be really messy. You know, you're dealing with people, and people have emotions, and you know, um, you know, and they have they have opinions and and and egos and things, you know. So, you know, it's beautiful, but like you have to be really willing to invest in it um time and energy and emotionally, you know, and um you know, as soon as you can, most likely, like I would suggest for most creators because they have other things to do, like definitely be present in your community, but look to hire, um, look to hire uh a community manager as soon as possible, you know. So um somebody that will take care of your community, right? And really own it. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

And how important do you think uh storytelling content is when it comes to being more relatable and approaching your audience and making them trust your content? Do you think personality building?

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Yeah, storytelling is, I mean, if you can, great. It's a really hard skill. Um, but yeah, if you if you can, if you can, sorry, my airpods falling. Yeah, if you if you can, if you can um incorporate storytelling, I think people love that. It's great for retention, it's great for connecting, trust building. Um, but again, it's a really hard skill, it's something that you have to practice continually.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

And what kind of partners usually approach channels that are growing consistently, like right now? Like when you're working at USCreen, what kind of partnership comes the most? What kind of partnerships?

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Um, for us, the partners that we like to work with now are actually customers. So if we have a customer that's doing really well, um, you know, again, we're not every company's the same. Other companies will probably work with a wider range of creators, but for us, we really tend to work with our customers now and support them in growing their business. You know, for us as a company, UScreen, um our North Star, our main metric that we track is active paid subscribers. So, meaning our customer subscribers. So we want our customers to have as many active subscribers as possible, paying them each month. And so, you know, we try to find again when we talk, we look through that lens in everything we do, whether it's Facebook ads or our webinars or training or how we look at our community or events, how can we do these things with the end goal to help our customers get more subscribers? So, you know, so we'll partner with um creators that are doing really well on our platform and maybe host um, you know, have them join us, you know, on our in our community to share their experience and their knowledge when we do events, like how can we bring them together so that they can learn from each other, you know. So that's really how we look at partnerships nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

And we all hear people talking about like editing, thumbnail, production, like all of these things that we all know and people talk about over and over again. But in your experience, what is actually moving the needle right now to be successful in 2026?

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Yeah, I would say just like really showing up authentically. I mean, it's probably not a new new thing that you'll hear, but with AI, the rise of AI, and the rise of you know, just things being automated, I think people are really seeking that um that like human connection. Um, so yeah, so creating ways for you to have like those those just like genuine connections with people, um, you know, that they'll recognize at the end of the day. Vitor, I think everybody wants to be seen and just be seen and heard and feel like they've been seen and heard. So, you know, again, community is really a great way to do that. Um, but in your content, like you know, just simply replying to comments when people do leave a comment and letting them know that hey, I saw you, like I hear you. So, you know, I think those any anything that you can do to create that connection, because as as things get more automated and AI, people aren't getting that as much. And so they're coming to they're looking at creators and just by them watching you, they feel connected. And so if you take that extra step to just even just recognize them and address them, um, that will go a long way. And don't do it because you want to grow a business and eventually sell them something, but just do it because it's the right thing to do, you know, it's just the right thing to do as a content creator out there.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Do you think people usually like overcomplicate strategies?

SPEAKER_01 41:00

They do, yeah, yeah. 100%, 100%. I mean, I'm I'm kind of like I've always had like a we're not a startup anymore, right? But I've always had this like startup mentality of just like just do it, you know, just do the thing and like yes, spend time to strategize and plan and think through like this could happen or this could happen, but at the end of the day, you have to do something, like you can't just like think on like sit on your plans, and so yeah, I do think sometimes most people do over-strategize and plan out too far ahead and like the specific things, and then the problem I think is that if some one of those things don't work out the way that you had planned, then you're like, Okay, there's a bad plan, and you start over again rather than just like okay, we have a general plan, let's just go to market, let's see what the market says to us, and then we adjust, you know, and so I think that's the way to I hope so. I think that's just the way I approach it. Um, you know, so just like go out there and learn, see what the market wants to do, and then get feedback and and then adjust.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

I know we've been talking a lot about like this creators that are trying to build real companies, but if if there's any creator out there who's like, I just want to stay solo and be a solo creator, do you think that's sustainable? And what advice would you give to those people?

SPEAKER_01 42:20

You can, yeah, you can definitely stay a solo creator. Um my only advice is to have other creator or entrepreneur friends. Um again, just earlier. You know, you're not you want to you wanna we're just made to be around other people, we're made to be in part of part of communities. Um, and so yes, you can run a business by yourself, but don't be just by yourself, you know what I mean? Like you can run a you know you can be the business operates on its own, but you don't want to be just like on an island, you know what I mean? So you want to make sure that you're connected with other people because there's gonna be days where you need to talk through some of these things with somebody, you know, or else you're gonna burn out, like you said earlier.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

What role do you think team plays with like when you're actually working with a team? Like how helpful do you think it can be if you're a solo creator and you're thinking about getting your first team assembled?

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Yeah, yeah. Do it slowly, do it slowly. Um and just learn how to, you know, uh when you have a team, just don't do it because you want to have people to boss around and like, hey, you do this, you do this. Like, just remember that like the best, yeah, the best leaders are servants as well. They have to come from like a servant mentality. How can I serve my team so they can do the best, you know, and not just it's not the other way around. Like, you're not gonna hire somebody because you want them to serve you, then you know it's not gonna work out really well. Um you might have a you might have a um you know successful business, but it's gonna be it's gonna be really painful and it's gonna be you know not the funnest way to to build a business. Um, and so yeah, if you're gonna hire a team, do it slowly. Learn how to serve, you know, that first team member, and then you can grow, you know, slowly. So um, yeah, and and do the thing like hire four people that are smarter than you that can do the things that you don't do well better than you.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Um, yeah, that's the best way to do it. If you're a content creator and editing is eating up your week, pay attention. VidPro is a professional video editing service built specifically for creators, not random freelancers and not AI tools. You get a dedicated human editor who learns your style, pacing, and brand from day one. You film your content and upload the raw footage. Your editor handles everything: cuts, captions, color rating, sound design, and short-formed clips. We deliver everything through Google Drive and frame.io so you can leave timestamp feedback and requests and limited revisions. We start with a $100 trial week that includes 10 hours of editing. Go to vidpros.com and start your $100 trial today. Stop editing and start growing. At what point do you feel like small creators should start outsourcing like editing, production, and all of that?

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Is there a Yeah, as soon as you can afford it, as soon as like, hey, like, and as soon as like, yes, you can afford it, and also like as soon as you're doing it, you're doing too much of it, then you're not able to do the things that you should be doing, just based on your skill set. You know, like I, you know, I was talking to um like another uh partner of ours earlier today, and he was still doing the editing. Um, but really what he he could just he should be really spending the majority of his time on strategy for his clients, but he's still doing the editing, you know, he's filming them and editing, and so it's like, hey, let's have a hard conversation. You should probably outsource the editing as soon as possible. Because nobody other people can do the editing, but only you can do the strategy. So you should do the strategy, you know.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Yeah. Because actually creating content takes so much time. You have to research about it. It's not like, of course, AI is helpful to structure things, but you can't just like write things down and just read what whatever like whatever GPT gives you. That's that's gonna be really bad. So you you have to think things through, you have to, in a way, experience life before you actually create content. If you spend too much time doing your editing, how are you gonna find time creating the content which is the most important part of your content of what you do, actually? Yeah, so I yeah, I do think I completely agree with you. Like as soon as possible, people should start outsourcing whatever they're doing and spending more time actually thinking about content and strategy instead of you know just being in front of a computer on Premiere Pro all day long because it takes such a long time.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Yeah, how do you think the role of like um how can I actually put this question again? Because in my mind it's a bit a bit confusing, but I no, actually, where do you think the creator economy and all these businesses like editing agencies and what you guys do at USCreen, where do you think this is going, like let's say in five years from now? That's that's what I wanted to say.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Yeah, great question, Vitor. Yeah, it's um I think A, there's gonna be more creators, I think not everybody's gonna want to edit. I also think there are like there are like tools and software and technology out there that's trying to automate editing, which I think is like is good, but it can't do the work of a human, you know. So what you guys do is always gonna be vitally important. Um and so I think there's just gonna be more again, more creators means there's more videos to edit. I think we'll also get to a place where um people will kind of like retract to smaller communities um rather than like being in bigger groups. And again, this is I think also you know, there's lots of factors to it, but I think because of there's so much AI and disconnect, and so people want to connect with people that really understand and see them and and like you know, speak their language, not like actual language, but you know, like speak like they they see the world in a similar way, and so they're gonna come to you know smaller communities and like retract to those. Um, and so there will be opportunities for people to lead those those those spaces and and create those spaces for different all sorts of different groups of people, um you know, and and more content will just be consumed through our phone, um, more videos. I mean, also TV, I guess. Like, I can't just say phone, because I think a lot of people are gravitating back to TVs, and um, even a lot of these creators are like building their own TV apps, like we're doing a lot of that for a lot of creators, and so again, they're taking over what traditional was like store shelves used to be legacy brands, now there's creator brands, feastables and on so on. And then when you look at like TVs, traditional, like even news, you know, a lot of people like don't consume news through like news channels, they consume them through social media creators, you know. They're what they're catching news um on Instagram and TikTok, you know, and so um yeah, there's there's just more of that happening. So it's it's moving fast, Vitor. It's it's crazy out there.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

Do do you think do you think platforms like YouTube will remain like the center of the ecosystem? Do you think there's gonna be like a new TikTok coming in the next five years? What do you think is gonna happen?

SPEAKER_01 49:46

Um I think there's always gonna be new. I can't say you I can't, I don't know what that will be. Um, I think there's always something new. I mean, you know, when I was a lot younger, Facebook was the thing, and then now, you know, and then there was Instagram, and now there's TikTok, and you know, there, you know, I think Snapchat is still popular amongst younger people. You know what I mean? Like, I think YouTube has stood the test of time the longest, in my opinion. They're kind of like they are social media, but they're like on their own, and then there's like Facebook and Meta and Instagram and TikTok. Um, so yeah, I mean, of course, I think there's always gonna be something new. Um, I think as a creator, it's you know, I I I wouldn't I wouldn't tie myself to one platform because you gotta expect that there's gonna be a new platform some you know five years from now, ten years from now. Um, and so I wouldn't just be like, I'm a TikToker, you know, that's all I do. I just do TikTok. Um, you gotta like try to be in like multiple platforms, at least two or three. So that if one goes down, you have an audience somewhere else. And then while you're building these like social platforms, again, back to earlier, build your email list, right? Build something where you can like if any of these platforms go away, you you know, you get black, you know, blacklisted, you lose your account, you still have your audience um that you can reach out to and and invite to your you know new platform, whatever that is. So, yeah, there's always gonna be a new platform, but um don't tie yourself to one particular one, um, you know, be be able to like move around.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

Yeah, if you're a creator and you have a business, how much do you think you should actually rely on algorithm and social media and being present? Like, I know we use it as a foundation and you're actually trying to get leads from it, but how important is it to build an audience there that is massive, or is it important at all to think about the algorithm and all of that?

SPEAKER_01 51:46

Yeah, think about the algorithm. I would say, yeah, think about the algorithm. Um, every every year I I think about the algorithm being less and less important. Um I think the algorithm is just what it is. I think you know, at the end of the day, they want to connect you with people. I think maybe maybe five years ago, algorithm was a bit more important. Um, and you know, but now there's so many creators and there's so many algorithms. Like, I'll I mean I spend a lot of a lot of time online just because of my work. Um, and all the time people are like, hey, do you know this channel? They have like 20 million subscribers. So I'm like, I've never, I've never seen that channel. I've never seen that channel, it's just not it's not in my algorithm, you know, and there's so many creators out there, it's endless. So I think um don't worry so much about the algorithm because that will always change, and you're never gonna beat the algorithm, you know. Um, so I would just can um focus on the things that you can control, which is your content and how you serve your community. And again, you know, you don't need to go viral, you don't need to go. There's a lot of people that have gone viral that have like very bad businesses and they don't do really well in terms of their business. Um, so focus on your audience and build products, um, you know, and really think like an entrepreneur. Be a creator, but think like an entrepreneur and um make your decisions that way, and you'll be you'll be just fine.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

When we go on social media now, like YouTube, we see so much content created with AI. So, in a way, there's like this abundant amount of AI content. Do you think because we have AI content now, it's gonna be harder to stand out in the crowd as like a solo creator just doing something a little bit more organic?

SPEAKER_01 53:28

Uh yeah, I guess so. I mean, it's just gonna be noisier. I think it's just gonna be noisier, and it's gonna be harder to tell what is AI and what's not AI. I think it's starting to get hard now. Um, but again, like you people still just want to connect with other people. Um, and so there's things that like AI just can't replace, you know. So um these conversations, this conversation can be replaced by AI, you know. I can't just talk to, I mean, I probably could maybe Vitor Vitor bot someday. Um, you know, but uh no, for now I think this is the this showing up authentically is like really difficult to replace with AI, and people want to see that still. Um, you know, they seek that connection. And so yeah, I think the community aspect of it and having conversations and again connecting with your audience is gonna be important. Don't shy away from AI, it's not gonna, you know, it's gonna be it's here. Um, so use it to your advantage for the things that um you know that you can take off your desk and off your plate. Um but the connection part it's gonna be difficult to replace with AI.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

And if people want to start doing what you're doing today, or if they want to be a client of yours someday, what should they focus on first?

SPEAKER_01 54:44

Yeah, um, again, I can only share what I did. So start creating content if you want to kind of get into this space, understand the creators that you're gonna work with or serve or partner with, and start creating content. Um, I think everybody should create content regardless, you know, for their personal brand. It's like your resume now. You know what I mean? So um, yeah, it's like your resume now. Like, hey, what did you do? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

Yeah, I mean, we all do that, right? I always say that we're all content creators, like, just try to find a way to monetize it because we're all sharing everything on social media. So you might as well make money from it.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, so I would say, yeah, create content, understand creators and what they think and how they think, um, what they do, um, and then ultimately you'll understand their pain point, and then you'll be able to serve them, you know, in that way. You know, you can't you can't solve somebody's problem if you don't know what their problems are. So I think that's the best way to do it, and then also just like connect with other people all the time, like find ways to connect. I mean, LinkedIn um is where I spend a lot of my time, and it's just a great place to be connecting with people that like not to like, hey, like, do you have a job? Or like, hey, do you want to work with me or buy my stuff? Like, just connect and learn. Like, hey, what are you seeing? Like these conversations, Vito, right? What are you seeing, you know, from where you sit? Like, how do you see creators, or what do you think the you know, this industry's going, or you know, what do you think about AI? Like, have these conversations and you never know what comes of it. Um, but yeah, just connect with people in that way.

SPEAKER_00 56:18

I mean, we're all on the same boat, right? We don't know where things are going. We're all just learning and integrating into this together. So why not just share information and just go with the flow? Honestly, Rob, thank you so much for doing this. Uh, it's so nice to have you here. If there's anything you'd like to promote, feel free and just have your moment right now.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

Yeah, no, thank you. Vitor, thank you so much. I love what you guys do. Uh, send my love to Michael and um yeah, I think you guys are doing great. Um, yeah. I mean, for me, I mean, obviously, if you guys want to learn more about UScreen, head over to UScreen.tv. Um, you'll find all the information. You can start free trials and all of that. Happy to you know set up a call with our team if you want to learn more. Um, and then on my stuff, like yeah, just connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram. Spend a lot of time there. So I'd love for you guys to hit me up there and again, love to hear what you're working on and and share notes and yeah, just have a conversation.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

Awesome. Thanks, Rob. If there's one takeaway from this episode, it's this the creators who win long term are the ones who stop relying on platforms and start building businesses they actually own. Subscribe, leave a comment, and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.