From Empathy to Action: A Love Letter to the Creator Ecosystem

Here’s my career, in a nutshell:

1.      Get bachelor’s degree.

2.      Take entry-level technical writing jobs.

3.      Network to get position at industry leader.

4.      Work, leveling based on performance.

It worked well for me, for a while, but something happened: My discipline started to change around me. My path was disrupted. The result? Now I’m here at #5:

5.      Build strategy in response to changes in discipline.

If I were starting out today, I think my career choices would’ve probably looked significantly different. I was drawn to my career by a desire to help people do the things that I love. I applied to my help desk job in college because I love the Internet and wanted to help other people get online. I stayed working a contract job, despite not being well-positioned for the resulting instability, because I love strategy and was helping org leaders communicate their strategy effectively. I spent a decade writing for project management software because I love planning and efficiency, and the resulting impact gains, and wanted to help others operate in more structured ways.

For me, it was never about writing, it was about helping. I’m a fine writer because that’s what I’ve practiced. Not just academically and professionally, but socially too. My 20s were filled with IRC and blogging, because that’s what nerdy 20-year-olds did in the late 90s and early 2000s.

But that’s not what nerdy 20-year-olds do socially now, and so I return to my earlier statement: If I were starting out today, I think my career choices would’ve looked significantly different.

Knowing what I know about myself, I would’ve 100% had a YouTube channel if I were in my 20s now. I would’ve had it monetized, and I would’ve been trying to turn it into a career, because it would’ve been enabling me to help other people do the things that I love.

Empathy

Fast forward to where I am in my career now. I have a lot of empathy for young, small creators, because they remind me of myself. I watch YouTube with my kids and admire the fortitude that their favorite creators have, learning editing and business skills by doing it and collaborating with peers—by practicing.

At the same time, I worry for these young creators. I also worry for the generation of kids growing up and taking for granted “creator” as a career path, no different from teacher or doctor or lawyer. I worry for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of the volatility that comes with saturation. Fame is fleeting, and what was a gainful career one day can disappear fairly quickly and quietly, sometimes for reasons outside of your control. So I worry.

I worry about predatory lending—young creators making the same terrible credit choices that I made in my 20s and not being able to dig out when their monetization strategies fail.

I worry about the psychological weight of fame in a world where mental healthcare is systemically broken. I made plenty of exceptionally dumb mistakes in my 20s, but my career path wasn’t tied to them.

Worry drives me to action. I’m drawn to work that helps people do the things that I love, and I love the creator ecosystem. From platforms that enable freelance content careers, to collaboration driving business growth, to unwavering community support for the brave act of hitting publish, there is so much beauty in the democratization of content. I want to help.

Opportunity

Looking around at my industry, those who have broad business skills, empathy across multiple roles, and curiosity that drives them to hack their way through new things are the ones who achieve the most impactful levels of success. Creators natively embrace whole-business thinking. They start as their own writers, producers, and editors. Their own agents. Their own analysts and strategists and finance departments. As they grow, they scale out of doing everything themselves, but, for the most part, not before they learn the fundamental skills of running their business top to bottom.

I see the value that those who have targeted a creator career path can offer in corporate environments, but I also see the misperceptions of the work, the platforms, and the relationships that serve as foundational to learning and growth.

I’m trying to change that.

I can’t speak for all types of companies, but my experience in software has been that technology companies certainly have opportunities that make good use of the skills creators have built. If we’re honest with ourselves as technology brands, we need these skills. We need the production and communication skills in our content and social marketing teams. We need the curiosity in our R&D teams. We need the audience focus in our CX teams, and we need the engagement and negotiation skills in our sales teams. But more than any of that, we need creators to simply be creators. We need the communities and relationships that creators are uniquely skilled to build through content. And we need their voices to be independent, honest, and genuine. We need their authenticity to establish brand trust, to ensure longevity of our brands.

In the support content world, which is my home court, the opportunities for creators are fairly straightforward.

When I was writing software content, I always felt that my work would’ve been more impactful if I’d been able to have a two-way dialog with my audience. I could’ve understood their needs by asking questions, built trust by making sure people weren’t blocked, and established brand loyalty by being my human and friendly self.

When you’re maintaining a product content set used by millions of people worldwide, the ability to directly engage with your audience simply doesn’t scale. 1:millions isn’t personal or impactful in support content.

Small creator ratios—1:100 or even 1:100K—offer significantly more value as communication streams. Creators are able to interact with and know their audiences on a direct and engaging level. They can ask questions, build trust, and establish loyalty with their own personal brands. If a small creator’s brand is aligned with your brand, the value is real, and it converts.

Just because our systems aren’t currently set up to enable democratized support content doesn’t mean that they can’t change to provide creator opportunity. The potential gains, from a product usage standpoint, seem significant enough to warrant the investment in change.

I have to believe there are other facets of our businesses where enabling democratized content creation with deep engagement, as a replacement or supplement to in-house content creation, is a viable choice, with the right kinds of changes. Certainly it’s happening in marketing, but content is used throughout the customer journey, not just in driving sales.

From my observations, brand support for creators primarily comes in the form of glorified product placement. Of course that’s working pretty well, especially for large creators, but I believe brands can do better. That they can rethink their processes, systems, and experiences, and pivot to embrace the fact that the content industry has changed. That the people who are coming up in the world and want to work in content aren't looking for the same old FTE jobs that I was looking for when I started my career.

Responsibility

As I’ve been rolling up my sleeves on learning and experimentation in the support content space, an interesting question keeps coming up: Do brands have a responsibility to invest in creators?

Frankly, I’m not sure. Earned media value presents an interesting question. Unemployment and hiring practices present another question. Corporate social values and voting with your wallet is also interesting to think about. I don’t have the right background or chops to make the call on whether responsibility is entering the picture here. I’ve been trying to nail it down for the better part of the last 6 months, and all I keep coming up with is “maybe.”

But what I’m consistently coming up with is, “why not?” Even if there isn’t a notion of brand responsibility in relation to the creator ecosystem, there is certainly vast opportunity that brands would be foolish to walk away from or ignore. In some sense, shareholder accountability offers another interesting question for public brands to ponder, in relation to that opportunity. While it’s easy to dismiss the creator trend as mostly about mass-appeal entertainment, that’s quite frankly not the reality and not an accurate representation of the industry shift.

Silos

As you might expect, much of the brand conversation around creators seems to reside in corporate marketing. Influencer marketing is an important trend, and creator ecosystems fall squarely within that realm because engagement is core to creator success.

But I had the great pleasure of being introduced to Influence 2.0 from Brian Solis at VidCon last month, and I have to tell you, he is spot on when he says that we should really be thinking about influencer marketing as influencer relations. Instead of looking at creators as a broadcast channel, we should be looking to them as community leaders who are involved and invested throughout the customer journey. Creators are part of a full partner ecosystem, not just the other end of simple B2B transactions.

Beyond embracing creators where they are, companies would also be smart to recognize creator skills as valid and valuable, even without formal education or traditional business experience. Learning is changing, and being a creator is real-world work experience.

I say this, very explicitly thinking of those young creators that I worry about. Sure, the opportunities that companies can bring to the creator ecosystem aren’t for every creator out there, but they’re the right fit for some, and they’d be a great fit for more people (like 20-year-old me!), if the opportunities were there. I think companies can offer interested creators a sustainable Plan A, or a viable Plan B if their Plan A doesn't work out.

To get to that kind of future, we need to stop working in silos. Content leaders across the business, who deeply understand customer needs, need to start talking with marketing and community leaders, who deeply understand relationship management. I’m doing that now and I have to tell you, it’s inspirational to see the energy and expertise that everyone is bringing to the table. It's not hard: Just listen, ask questions, and try to help each other. Be human. Collaborate. Good things will happen.

In Conclusion, Love

Sometimes, when I talk about this stuff, people kind of cock their heads and look at me like I’m off my rocker. I get it. I do sound a little starry-eyed and overly optimistic. That’s fine.

It comes from a place of love. Love for people who love to create content and engage with others. Love for customers who are using technology to go do great, important things. Love for collaboration—smart people coming together to bring positive opportunity to the world.

If that’s crazy, bring on the crazy.

If that’s not the right thing to invest in, I question the scope of your analysis.

And if that’s where your passion is too, let’s chat. I'd love to swap stories and evolve this industry together.