It’s no secret that the creator industry is changing every single day. There are new technologies and innovations that change the way we use social media and build our businesses as creators.

That’s one of the most fun (and the most stressful) parts of our job. We always have to stay in the know and be willing to pivot our strategies and our content given what’s up and coming in the industry.

With the end of 2022 approaching, there are some new trends on the horizon for the creator economy that we’re predicting for 2023. From social platforms turning into search engines (and learning how to capitalize on that as creators) to brands looking for UGC creators regardless of their following (AND how to capitalize on that), there’s a lot you need to know now to prepare for what’s to come in the new year.

This week, we’re here with Hess Hunichen and Emily Ward, the co-founders of Shine Talent Group, North America’s leading talent management and brand partnerships agency. They specialize in the online and social space and work with brands and agencies to create campaigns that are memorable and inspire consumers to take action.

We’re giving you the scoop on everything you need to know about the upcoming year as a creator. This my Biz BFFs is Soulcial Scoop.

If you had the opportunity, would you quit your 9-5 job to go become a full-time creator? Many would say yes, but it can be scary to take a chance this big on yourself.

From dealing with online hate and low engagement on the content you’ve worked so hard on to building relationships with brands and defining your “why”, there’s a lot that goes into being a full-time creator that truly takes a confident person to take on.

Today, we’re here with Hannah Schneider, a body confidence and self-love creator (and a great friend of mine) who’s been on this journey for four years.

Today, we’re diving into building the confidence to become a full-time creator. How do you deal with the hard stuff? What’s the difference between partnerships for Instagram and TikTok? How can you navigate the world of being a self-sufficient entrepreneur?

With the creator economy becoming worth more and more billions each year, being an influencer or a content creator is truly a lucrative career in 2022.

But, there are truly so many things that you need to know, master, and plan for in order to build long-term success as a creator.

Today, we’re here with Magda Houalla, the Director of Strategy at Aspire — one of the leading platforms that connects high-quality creators with trusted household names.

She’s worked in the influencer marketing industry since 2016 — both the brand and agency side, so it’s safe to safe that she’s seen what it takes to become a successful creator having worked with so many of them throughout her career.

We’re giving you the scoop on how to monetize with brands, how many followers you need to be successful, how to turn one-off partnerships into more long-term relationships, and the things that you need to know about the future of influencer marketing to plan for long-term success.

As a creator, one of the most important skills we can learn is to get comfortable with evolving. In the last few years, our industry has gone through some massive shifts like the introduction of short-form video, creators finding new and innovative ways to monetize, the creator economy being worth more and more billions as the years go by, and the growth of social commerce.

These are things we’re going to have to get comfortable with and eventually master as creators.

Today, we’re here with Eric Dahan, CEO of Open Influence, a platform that connects brands with some of the best creators in the industry. He’s been named a Forbes 30 under 30 and started the company when he saw that there was a real opportunity for creators to help brands reach their goals.

Today, we’re diving into the state of the creator economy. What evolutions have we seen in the last 10 years? Are platforms like TikTok and BeReal here to stay? What’s social commerce and what do we need to know about it as creators?

In a social media climate where we’re craving connection and relatability more than ever, finding ways to connect with our audience should be a top-priority, and storytelling is one of the best ways to do this. The video doesn’t need to be you actually telling a story front-to-back, it’s more about bringing your audience on a journey.

This week, we’re here with Skye Garcia, a social media coach and strategist who uses her expertise to help creators and entrepreneurs grow their community, following, and business.

Today, we’re diving into storytelling full force. What are the key elements of storytelling in a piece of content? How is it beneficial for creators? Why does it work so well?

As freelancers, sometimes it can be difficult to find jobs. Being a freelance creator is a rocky road, but it’s one that you get more and more comfortable with as you learn more about how to navigate this type of career.

But as you’re learning, you’re probably wondering things like what to charge, where the future of our industry is going, and how do you set yourself apart when applying for different gigs, right?

This week, we’re here with Isabella Lampson, the Social Partnerships Lead at Contra, a platform that gives you everything you need to launch, build, and grow your independent career.

Today, we’re diving into everything you need to know about working for yourself and landing gigs as a freelancer. What types of jobs are being posted more and more? What should creators do before applying to gigs to better their chances at landing it? How can creators stand out when applying for these jobs?

In an extremely saturated market of creators, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re finding a way to stand out. So, how can you as a creator set yourself apart from everyone else out there?

One of the most obvious ways? Within the visual content that you share on your page.

When someone comes to your page, before they read anything, chances are they’re going to SEE what’s on your page. Even after they’ve started to read things, typically it’s the visuals that are causing them to click on a specific photo or video.

Today, we’re here with Olivia Dixon, a self-taught photographer and creator who gets her inspiration from music, poetry, and travel.

Today, we’re diving into how to create the best visual content possible, how you can have a cohesive brand visually, and her best tips for creating the best visuals possible.

When it comes to being a creator who is managing and mastering both Instagram and TikTok, there’s a lot that you need to know about the different strategies that work to grow, balance, and create content for each of the platforms.

In this episode, we’re here with Madison Prettyman, the creator behind Choose Your Glow and Choose Your Social. She started her creator journey as a beauty creator who spoke about oily, acne-prone skin, but eventually she created another page to help creators learn how to master creating content successfully.

Today, we’re diving into how to grow, engage, and create for both Instagram and TikTok and how to balance it all along the way as a busy creator.

We’re giving you the scoop on all things mastering socials. This my Biz BFF is Soulcial Scoop.

Many creatives become influencers wanting to have a place to share their creativity and passions, but when they start to gain traction, they’re actually able to turn that online influence and creativity into a legitimate company. Being an influencer provides the opportunity for you to really soar further than just sharing content on social media. It opens up doors and allows you to fuel your passions.

This is exactly what YouTuber Natalie Barbu has been able to do over the last decade.

After growing her following to over 360k people, she wanted to create a tool to help other creators like her which led her to founding Rella, a management tool made for influencers to run their businesses.

But going from creator to CEO had its challenges. She had to find a solution to a problem that people would actually use, build a strong relationship with her co-founders, build an app, get funding through investors, and balance all of this with creation content consistently.

Today, we’re diving into everything you need to know about turning your online influence into a profitable, self-sustaining business. How do you balance multiple streams of income? How do you know it’s the right time to pivot your business? How can you find the right people to work with? What’s the process of building a legitimate company actually like?

So many people outside of our industry hear the worlds “blogger”, “influencer”, or “social media creator” and have their own assumptions about what our job entails.

But, what those people on the outside don’t know is that our job is so much more: It’s putting ourselves out there for the apps to bully - whether that’s by the app itself or by the people using them.

The effects that working in social media full-time can have on our mental health are truly just so real and valid. This is why self-care is so important. Focusing on self-care can actually help make you more money.

Today, we’re here with Megan Porta, a food blogger and the host of Eat Blog Talk podcast. She has an extensive history with not living a balanced life which has set her on a path of constant improvement in that area.

We’re diving into everything you need to know about making sure you’re taking care of yourself and your mental health as a creator AND how it can actually help you make MORE money in your business.

Most people who go into becoming creators have the goal of quitting their full-time job to pursue a career in social media, right?

But, it’s not realistic for a majority of creators to 100% rely on their income from sponsored posts with brands to pay their bills and provide a steady full-time income.

This is why having multiple streams of income is crucial, even mandatory, for finding long-term success as a creator.

This week, we’re here with Harley Jordan, a creator coach and owner of All Influence Management where she coaches and manages creators to build a brand that feels right and fully monetize their online presence with multiple streams of income. She’s negotiated over $200k in brand deals for clients of her agency this year.

Today, we’re diving into everything you need to know about building long-term monetary success as a full-time creator. What options are there for income? What about passive income? How can creators sell to their audience in a way that feels authentic?

Since Q4 is one of the biggest spending periods of the entire year, it makes sense that as creators we’re curious on how to work with brands for the holidays.

Since we as influencers or creators influence purchasing decisions, it’s a prime time of year to make a decent chunk of income. Many brands - especially those that are more prominent during the holiday season like giftable products or alcohol brands - save a chunk of their budget for this time of year. They’re making more money, so they’re willing to spend a bit more too.

Today, we’re here with Alex DiCapo, the VP on the digital & influencer team at AZOINE PR. She has developed and implemented impactful social campaigns across fashion, lifestyle, wellness, and tech for a diverse clientele.

Today, we’re diving into everything that you need to know as a creator to have a successful holiday season working with brands.

How do agencies and brands find and choose the creators they’re working with? When’s the best time to pitch? What can set you apart in that pitch? What makes a brand want to continue working with you even after the holiday season?

Short Version

Since Q4 is one of the biggest spending periods of the entire year, it makes sense that as creators we’re curious on how to work with brands for the holidays.

Since we as influencers or creators influence purchasing decisions, it’s a prime time of year to make a decent chunk of income.

Today, we’re here with Alex DiCapo, the VP on the digital & influencer team at AZOINE PR to give you the scoop on everything that you need to know as a creator to have a successful holiday season working with brands.

In the extremely saturated creator industry, it’s important that we’re doing our very best to avoid the influencer red flags that may inhibit our growth or ability to work with brands, right?

But, for many creators who are just getting started knowing exactly how to act and what not to do comes with a lot of trial and error. What if you knew about those red flags by learning through someone else’s mistakes and experiences? That’s exactly what we’re here to do with you today.

This week, we’re here with Audrey Cash and Terrah Holder, the faces behind TJ Creative Agency and Social Sessions podcast. This Austin-based dynamic duo focuses on helping businesses grow their social media platforms and educate content creators.

With about 13 years of experience in social media between the two of them, it’s safe to see they’ve seen their fair share of red flags when working with content creators for their agency.

Ready to dive in?

How to pitch to brands as a creator you ask? Well, it’s definitely not just as simple as writing an email and hitting send. You need to make a great impression on the brand and start to build an actual relationship with them. But how can you get a brand’s attention and really wow them in one simple email?

This week, our guest Jordynn Nicholson, an influencer coach and content creator, is answering that question for us. Nicholson has been a creator for 7+ years and is an expert in landing paid brand deals.

Have you ever wondered how to become a full-time influencer or content creator? You’ve heard me on Soulcial Scoop and through my social channels sharing tips on how to make it happen, but I’ve never really shared my entire entrepreneurial journey with you.

This week, I’m giving you the full rundown on how I took my boring retail job and turned it into a booming hair, makeup and photography business that I eventually sold in order to become. creator full-time.

I’ll share the highs, the lows, the struggles, and the lessons that I learned along the way so that you can learn from my mistakes on your journey to running a profitable, self-sustaining business from your online influence.

Is it just me or have you considered hopping onto another platform so many times? It sounds like such a great idea, but it’s hard not to think about all of the additional work that would be required and run the other direction.

All of the social media platforms out there offer a different advantage, so it makes sense that we want to dip our toes into all of them, but finding balance and having a content plan that’s balanced and sustainable for you to stick to is crucial. But, how do we figure out what that looks like?

Today, we’re here with Austen Tosone, a New York City-based fashion and beauty content creator and influencer educator who knows a thing or two (or pretty much everything) about diversifying her social media presence with both search-based social media platforms and algorithm-based apps.

After launching her blog in 2012 and creating consistently while working as a magazine editor and a content director, Austen built up her platforms and quit her 9-5 job to go full-time with content creation in April 2021. She’s partnered with brands like Kohl’s, Glossier, Walmart, HellFresh, and more. Austen is passionate about teaching micro influencers to value their work, build their dream audience and make sustainable income from creating content.

Today, we’re diving into what it’s like to find balance showing up consistently on multiple social media platforms. What performs best on each platform? How can you come up with a content strategy that allows you to put out valuable content all the time? How do you balance all of this content creation with having a life outside of the apps?

We’re giving you the scoop on all things building balance on multiple platforms as a content creator.

Learning how to analyze data as a content creator sounds like it might be tedious and boring, but once you see that it starts to bring you real results, I can guarantee you’ll be as addicted as myself and this week’s guest are. The thing about data? It never lies.

As a creator who wants to consistently do better, we need to know how to look at the data that apps like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube provide us with, find what that data is trying to tell us, and then use it to our advantage.

This week, we’re here with Jules Montgomery, content creator and CEO/founder of Influent, a company seeking to allow creators to just be creators. It’s the platform where you’ll be able to scour brand deal opportunities, read reviews from some of the top brands other creators have worked with, learn how to create amazing content and even calculate what your rates should look like.

Today, Jules is diving into all things data and analytics. She’s giving us the scoop on what she did to find out exactly what her audience wanted to see more of from her and how she tracked it all on a spreadsheet that you can even recreate. She’ll walk us through all the types of data that are important for us creators to be paying attention to so that we’re able to do more of what’s working on our pages. Plus, she’s sharing some tips on how this can help you land brand deals.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve very likely heard of UGC, or user-generated content. It’s a type of service creators can offer where they create content for the brands without any posting requirements. The content is used by the brand in their social media posts, marketing efforts, and sometimes even on packaging or in-store advertisements.

It takes a ton of that pressure of performances off of our shoulders and just let’s us focus on what we’re good at: being creators. But how the heck do you start as a UGC creator? How do you get these gigs? How do you know what to charge? What’s different about UGC vs. classic influencing?

Today we’re here with Mariely Galindo, a jewelry designer turned content creator, who just got her start as a UGC creator about three months ago. She’s dove in full-force, and is finding tons of success working with businesses to create content for them.

Mariely is giving us a peek at what it’s like to start as a UGC creator in mid-2022. She’ll tell us all about the different types of UGC content, what skills you need to have to produce UGC content, where she consistently is finding gigs, and more.

There’s usually a point in every creator’s career where you ask yourself: How can I become a travel creator? How can I land incredible deals with some of the most beautiful places on earth?

As we know, from the outside, the influencer industry is glamorous: free trips, complimentary meals, and gifted experiences, but being a travel creator requires intense work, and today we have Payton Calvin to give us the scoop.

This week, we’re here with Payton Cavin, a colorful travel creator based in Texas.

This week, Payton is answering all of our questions about being a travel creator. How we can start getting travel opportunities? Should we be getting paid to go on these trips? Or is it typically a trade? Who do you contact to land travel gigs? What does the process of working with a travel company even look like from start to finish?

We all know LinkedIn as a platform for professionals, right? We never really think about how to use LinkedIn as content creators as it’s not typically a platform that screams creativity. Contrary to popular belief, LinkedIn can bring in solid opportunities for connection for creators. In fact, it’s the one platform that I’ve had to most success creating connections with potential brand partners.

But, how the heck can we set up our profiles if we’re not in traditional jobs? How often should we post on LI and what should we share? Why is it beneficial to grow our accounts on LI and how can we do that? Plus, is monetizing an option on this platform?

This week, we’re here with Madison Masterson, CEO of Mad Marketing and an official LinkedIn creator who focuses her content on mental health awareness, disability awareness, and influencer marketing for the last 11 years. And today, she’s giving us the scoop on how to find success as a creator on LinkedIn.