Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Unveiling the Creator Economy: Challenges, Triumphs, and Financial Realities with Gigi Robinson
113 Plays1 year ago
Update: I recently launched my newsletter, The Sheconomist, and would love for you to subscribe: sheconomist.com - I share so many tools and resources that help young, high-achieving women with radical money and career self-advocacy.
----
Today, you are getting a behind-the-scenes look into the world of being a content creator. Our special guest is Gigi Robinson who is known for many things. From being a finalist in the Sports Illustrated Swim Search, to her advocacy in the chronic illness and body positivity spheres, Gigi embodies being a multi-passionate solopreneur.
Having been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome at a tender age, she understands firsthand the difficulties of being different. Gigi recently authored "A Kid's Book About Chronic Illness." This heartwarming book encourages readers to embrace life with a chronic illness and find the confidence to express their needs.
In an era where the creator economy is flourishing, it's essential to understand that success doesn't come without its share of challenges. Gigi, a leading voice in the Gen Z content creation space, offers an unfiltered view of how difficult it can be to achieve financial stability in this industry. Her journey, marked by resilience and determination, provides invaluable lessons for both budding and seasoned content creators.
Gigi opens up about the unpredictable nature of income streams, and the urgent need for comprehensive financial education within the creator community.
Recommended
Transcript
Advocacy for Creators and Women's Economic Power
00:00:00
Speaker
So my goal in the near future is to just continue to advocate for creators to get paid fairly. I'm Tamina and I'm extending a heartfelt invitation to you as we join forces in reclaiming economic power for women in a world that is often structured against us.
00:00:20
Speaker
We'll dive into the minds of accomplished female leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs to equip you with the confidence and knowledge to build wealth for yourself and other women. So buckle up, get ready to learn, and be inspired to take action. Welcome back, everyone. I am so excited for you all to join me again this week. Look, in the past year, it is very likely that you have stumbled upon the name Gigi Robinson.
00:00:48
Speaker
Gigi is known for many things, from being a finalist in the Sports Illustrated swim search, to her advocacy in the chronic illness and body positivity spheres, to all the way to NFT research and navigating life as a small business owner. She truly does it all. With features in Bustle, Business Insider, Forbes, and Vogue Business, Gigi combines beauty and brains as Gen Z's forefront thought leader in the content creation space.
00:01:17
Speaker
Gigi is a natural inspiration to her viewers, having been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome at the age of only 11. Gigi knows how hard it is to be different. However, her lively spirit, positive demeanor, and elevated work ethic have made her and her Spotify Live podcast everything you need is within an instant hit.
00:01:39
Speaker
Listeners of her podcast have the opportunity to learn how to become their own advocates, challenge the status quo, and dominate in professional settings.
Inspiring Through Chronic Illness and Building Confidence
00:01:48
Speaker
When Gigi is not working on her podcast or posing for a national campaign, she can be found working on her newsletter, The Creator Chronicles.
00:01:56
Speaker
Her latest project is aimed at documenting life as a young woman with a chronic illness and unlocking behind the scenes tips and tricks for rising content creators. Also, we're not finished yet, everyone. Gigi also launched her very first book, A Kid's Book About Chronic Illness, where she inspires her readers to learn about living with a chronic illness and how to build confidence when it comes to speaking up about your needs.
00:02:22
Speaker
What a resume, Gigi. Welcome to Give Her Scholars. I'm so excited to have you on the show.
Visibility and Support for Women's Accomplishments
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you so much. That was quite the intro. I really appreciate it. I feel like sometimes I'm like, I should condense it. Then I'm like, you know what? No, I've done all this work. I'm really proud of it and I deserve to have all the things highlighted. I think that is something every woman should think about.
00:02:51
Speaker
Absolutely. Look, a while back, I had a guest on the show, very, very well established and successful fertility doctor, actually. And, you know, her resume with all of the scientific and academic accolades and everything, at first I was like, wow, I'll be reading this out for probably seven minutes. And I was like.
00:03:12
Speaker
You know what, you know, my podcast is all about creating visibility for women. So we don't take shortcuts here, you know, we make sure that we provide the stage to women where we showcase all of their incredible work and all of the incredible accolades. So totally agree with you. We're not gonna dim your light on this, on this show, Gigi. As you probably know, this podcast is all about helping women build wealth for themselves and other women.
00:03:37
Speaker
And I always like to say that a wealthy woman can walk out of almost every room she feels uncomfortable in and create opportunities for other women along the way because financial independence equates freedom. And I always like to start out with the same question for all of my guests. Curious to hear from you Gigi, what does women supporting women mean to you and how does that show up in your life?
Balancing Support and Jealousy in Relationships
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, I really love this question. I feel like I've always been the kind of person to turn my friends on to something. If I get a collaboration or if I get a new contact and someone talking about how they can help me, I'm like, oh, by the way, yes, I let the person do their job and help me. But then I'm like, oh,
00:04:27
Speaker
I have a friend that would actually be perfect for you and could help you in the future or a friend that could really use your help. And so I'm just the kind of person that always is looking out for my friends. And two things, I would say a bunch of friends are very, very accepting and graciously just grateful for that kind of help.
00:04:51
Speaker
But I have had jealous friends in the past see that as a handout. And so as a young student or as a young professional, I think
00:05:06
Speaker
It's just been really a challenge to figure out how to balance that quite delicately because, again, you don't want to seem like a bad friend for trying to extend your resources and then someone gets mad about it. It doesn't really make sense. The only thing that makes it awkward is the other person's jealousy, thinking,
00:05:26
Speaker
of their own self-worth. And this has happened to me mostly in college. There's been a couple of incidences where it's happened since college was over, but I've just been a lot more careful with the people that I offer help and also precurs it with, oh, would you like me to introduce you? Would you like the help instead of just kind of doing it or referring them unknowingly?
00:05:53
Speaker
No, absolutely. I think that's super, super important. You know, something that I was just talking about with another guest recently was obviously all of us, we build relationships with people over time through school, through college and our professional lives.
Navigating Toxic Relationships and Fostering Support
00:06:10
Speaker
But at some point.
00:06:12
Speaker
You know, not all of these relationships are gonna continue to serve us. And to your point, just now you've experienced lots of jealousy probably from women your age, from your peers in high school and college and whatnot.
00:06:30
Speaker
As painful as it is, sometimes you just have to let go of those toxic people. And that then in return allows you to invite new people to your life who are genuinely excited for you, who cheer you on, who love seeing another woman succeed. So I think it's really, really important. And then when, when you are in that shared mindset, okay, let's just lift each other up, then it becomes so much easier for you to go out and be like, okay, Hey, I know this person that could really help you with X, Y. Let me.
00:07:00
Speaker
Make an introduction or would you like me to make an introduction or you know, whatever it might be in any given context I think it's very important that you surround yourself with the right type of people that Lift you up and and inspire you to be better and in return you're gonna offer them that the same on
00:07:15
Speaker
that note I just think sometimes it can be hard especially when you you do so much or it seems like you're like so over accomplished that other people are sometimes like oh she doesn't even need my help she doesn't even need the introduction she'll find it herself and I think that unfortunately that does happen a lot a lot of people again it comes
00:07:36
Speaker
from jealousy that you might take an opportunity away from them because they feel less than than you. I think overall it sucks that that mindset is instilled in some other people.
00:07:49
Speaker
I think I kind of, when I give back to other people in my network, I wouldn't say it's like necessarily like a transactional like, oh, it's going to come back to me right now, but it might come back in some other form if anyone's into karma and when, you know, no good deed goes unnoticed. And so anytime you do something to help someone else in the future or, you know, maybe in that day, something will happen that
00:08:16
Speaker
is positive and helpful to you in your life. So I feel like that can happen and that mostly happens to me, not necessarily the exact transactional, yes, this is from this person and this is why it's really helpful to me.
00:08:36
Speaker
No, absolutely.
Vulnerability and Authenticity in Life
00:08:37
Speaker
Love that. Gigi, something that you and I have in common and something that I particularly admire about you is the way you always show up with vulnerability and authenticity because vulnerability and authenticity are actually two of my core values.
00:08:55
Speaker
are brave enough to really share your personal experiences with mental health and chronic illness to create and hold space to allow other people to show up as their true selves. And I think not enough people in our society do that. I personally often get the question from members of my community how I am able to
00:09:14
Speaker
talk so openly about my own experiences with depression, chronic illness, and premature fertility decline. So I'd like to pass that question on to you, Gigi. How have you learned to use your voice to address historically stigmatized topics that are often considered taboo? Have you always possessed that skill? Is it like a muscle that you need to train over time? Tell me more.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, I love this question because I think over time it changes. When I was in high school, I started taking photographs of my peers and
00:09:53
Speaker
I did a short project that was about making people, photoshopping them onto magazine covers, but not altering the photography. So basically no retouching, but putting them on side of a digital magazine cover mock-up to show that anyone could realistically look like they're on a magazine cover. And so that was all the way over 10 years ago at this point.
00:10:18
Speaker
I then went on in my first year of college to create a project called, I feel like a supermodel, basically diving into that, but with a Q&A interview documentary and then a short film, I should say. And then after that, I went on to transfer to USC. And while I was there, I dealt with these professors and friends not believing how sick I was. And so the vulnerability
00:10:47
Speaker
fortunately or unfortunately was not a choice. It was something that I had to do to get other people to understand me. It was a mode of communication that I had to strengthen and I had to open up for other people to understand what was happening, for other people to gain a little bit more empathy, and ultimately for me to navigate
00:11:13
Speaker
internships, friendships, and my education dealing with these health issues. So I think it's a little bit of a mixture of learning how to do it over time. But in college, I was faced with people that didn't believe I was sick. But that always is going to happen. Now that I'm out of that, I think I've really been focused a lot more on how can I just create content that makes people feel less alone. So I don't have anyone really judging me.
00:11:41
Speaker
on a day-to-day basis. It's more the internet trolls that would judge me, but I feel really lucky in my community. There's a lot of people that are very, very interested in also not only seeing how I'm able to advocate and spread awareness for EDS and endometriosis, but also
00:12:05
Speaker
just showing them what's possible. That even if you live with these health issues, that that's not necessarily the end all be all, right? Like I was just at a conference for three days and was it a little challenging and did I need breaks? Absolutely. And so you just have to figure out what you need to do what you do. And once you figure that out, I mean, again, it comes with practice, but once you figure that out, life can be made a little bit easier.
00:12:35
Speaker
Absolutely. And it's so important to learn how to become your own best advocate because ultimately you're the one who knows your body best. You know what you need, but it's also important to build a support system to let other people help you and to let your environment know, okay, like I'd love
00:12:58
Speaker
to collaborate on xy project with you but it's important for me to set these boundaries in order to show up as the best version of myself because when i am able to show up as the best version of myself you know magic happens and i think it's so beautiful that again you create and hold that space and
00:13:20
Speaker
and bring people together to have these really, really important conversations about chronic illness. You just shared with us that growing up you were always under a lot of scrutiny and that your teachers and your peers did not always
00:13:36
Speaker
believe you.
Addressing Medical Gaslighting and Dismissal
00:13:38
Speaker
And unfortunately, gaslighting is not only very common in academic and professional settings. There's also a lot of gaslighting in women's healthcare. I'm sure you're very, very familiar with that yourself. I've heard via both anecdotal and scientific evidence that women very frequently experience their physicians telling them that their symptoms
00:14:01
Speaker
for imagined. I know for endometriosis, for example, it takes an average of six to 10 years to diagnose. There's a study that was published in academic emergency medicine that found that women who went to the emergency room with severe stomach pain had to wait almost
00:14:18
Speaker
33% longer than men with the same symptoms. And people of color are even more likely to have their symptoms dismissed by medical providers. I feel like we could have an entire episode on this topic alone, right? But if you were to go back to those teachers, those peers of yours, those medical professionals who dismissed your pain for years, what would you tell them today?
00:14:45
Speaker
If I was to go back and meet them as 25-year-old Gigi with the career that I've built for myself, I think the answer would be very different than what I would have done in the moment then and there during those situations. So I'll answer for both cases. 25-year-old Gigi today would bring them my children's book and say, you know, I know that in the past maybe you weren't too fond of the idea of
00:15:11
Speaker
my senior thesis or maybe you just didn't believe that I was sick, but I actually wrote a children's book about it and I was the first woman in Sports Illustrated to pose with a chronic illness in the magazine. If you have any questions, please let me know. I don't want this to happen to any other student. That's probably something I would say to a teacher. In terms of friends, I would
00:15:35
Speaker
probably say something similar, but I think a big key issue for the friendship was for friendships that failed was not only maturity, emotional maturity, and just knowledge and empathy, but it was also just a lack of people caring. I think I took maybe my friends at the time not responding to my needs personally.
00:16:05
Speaker
without taking into consideration that, you know, friends are busy and friends have their own things going on. I think also being 3,000 miles away from home and having friends that say that they'll be there for you and then they kind of go back on their word, that's where I did take it personally. I think justifiably so where someone says,
00:16:28
Speaker
I'll drive you to an appointment and then says, oh, it's really selfish of you to ask me to give up my time like this. So I think in those instances, just going up to someone and being like, look, I know, you know, things didn't really work out. I wrote a book about chronic illness for young people, but really for anybody to gain more empathy to understand what it's like to actually live with this.
00:16:51
Speaker
and just kind of keep it cute and simple. I think the book is a really great tool that it's not necessarily just about me, it's all about
00:16:59
Speaker
you know, just helping other people. So that's what today me would do. Past me would probably, for the teachers, I would go straight to the dean and I would actually report them. I think that that might be a little dramatic, as people say, but I don't think that ableism should be tolerated, especially if it's in front of other students and there are other students witnessing a teacher discriminating against a student's accommodations or disability.
00:17:29
Speaker
which is what happened to me, that I would go straight to the Dean and I would make a big stink about it. And I would say, look, my intention is not to hurt the teacher, but rather to make sure this doesn't happen to any other student. It's not okay the way that these teachers are treating me. It's not okay that they're denying my ADA accommodations. Like this is insane. That even happened at USC, that it happened in general. And so I would do that. And also to friends, I would say,
00:17:59
Speaker
Okay, I appreciate that you might not have the time for this right now, but in the future, please just let me know or don't say that you can commit to helping me when you can't. I think in college, again, as a maturity thing, it's a lack of understanding how to
00:18:17
Speaker
properly communicate those needs and boundaries to each other but luckily I've learned that over time and I'm glad actually I had those two these two opportunities to go through a scenario about what I would have done hopefully in the past versus what I would do now.
Promoting Systemic Change and Advocacy in Academia
00:18:36
Speaker
It's beautiful, you know, to also just for yourself, reflect on that growth that has happened over, over the years. Obviously today you are in a position where it doesn't matter what those people think about you anymore, because a lot of these people are probably not part of your life anymore. At least I hope they're not right to follow up on that. Gigi's not every woman is gonna go out there and
00:19:06
Speaker
become a very visible public activist. Not everyone is going to write a book about their experience with chronic illness. Not everyone is going to have it in them to do that work and provide resources and be a public educator.
00:19:27
Speaker
What are some strategies that women who might have made similar experiences with gaslighting can apply in order to be taken more seriously and hold their environment accountable to promote that systemic change that is so much needed? The first couple of steps are educating yourself as much as you can and having your facts straight.
00:19:55
Speaker
For the example of my accommodations being denied in school, had I fully done a deeper dive into the disability services that were available to me at school, as well as what my accommodations under the ADA and under my 504 were protected as, I think I would have been able to speak up for myself a little bit more or in general, because I really only addressed the issue to my
00:20:24
Speaker
disability counselor who was kind of like the middle person to the teachers, but I didn't see any change happen. And so I think just being able to be your own advocate really comes from having the knowledge, having the opportunity when somebody else is saying, no, you're not actually sick, saying, yes, I am. I can get you a doctor's note if you want. Here's my ADA form. And under the ADA,
00:20:53
Speaker
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's my accommodations and if they are not respected in an academic environment, here are the consequences. So I'm happy to further the discussion or I can take it to the Dean, right? Like that's one example. Again, I know it's like a little extreme, it may seem extreme, but in order to
00:21:15
Speaker
do your work as a student, I'm just going through my experience. In order to do that work as a student best, you have to have the support of your teachers. If you don't have the support of your teachers, why would you work hard in the environment? What actually happens is, as a student who needs accommodations, if you're denied them, your teachers tell you to work harder just so you can get on the same level as
00:21:44
Speaker
regular students. And that's the part that's not fair, that you're denied your accommodations and you're starting at 25% where everyone else is already at 50. And so I just think this happens far too much to disabled students. This happens to people of color, marginalized students, and it's not okay. I'll go back to the other part about, you know, anyone who's trying to just get better at
00:22:14
Speaker
advocating for themselves. I think also you can follow content creators like myself, obviously, but others as well that kind of go through scenarios. So a good one is if you have issues maybe with your weight and you go to the doctor and they ask you to step on the scale, you can just say, hey, I'm going to step on the scale backwards. I don't really want to know my weight.
00:22:37
Speaker
and then the nurses are trained to also be like, okay, they note it down, they put it in your chart, and then that's that. So I think there's a lot of little things that you can do that you just have to learn from the internet and also just from trying
Equitable Treatment and Safe Spaces in Organizations
00:22:54
Speaker
things. Sometimes for me at conferences or big days, I need to make sure that I have time to sit down and rest.
00:23:03
Speaker
mentally and physically. And so I also make sure I have extra medication in situations where I know I'm going to be exerting a more than normal amount of energy. And so you just have to really plan scenario by scenario, case by case kind of outcome, saying, I have a conference, here's the things I think I'll need.
00:23:26
Speaker
How can I prepare? Who can I ask for the accommodations and go through that before you get there and go to the conference and you're like, oh, I didn't look up who to ask. Unfortunately, with disability and chronic illness, it shouldn't be our responsibility to go out of our way to do that extra work, but it just is. For now, we just have to do that extra work. What I'm hearing there, Gigi, it's all about
00:23:55
Speaker
equity at the end of the day. Your teacher saying, Oh, you just got to work harder. Then we're not going to accommodate your needs. You just have to put in the work classic lack of equity examples. Similar when you go to a conference that you need to make sure that you have access to all of the resources that you need, such as.
00:24:14
Speaker
rest one being one of them, but also your meds, you know, being hydrated, all of that. Organizations and especially decision makers would need a lot more training on what it actually means to provide safe spaces, equitable places where people from every background can thrive and very much being aware and acknowledging that different people have different needs and you're only as strong as, you know,
00:24:43
Speaker
the weakest member of your society, because if only the people with the most amount of privilege are able to make progress and are able to be given fair opportunities, that gap in society is only gonna continue to widen, right? So those are very, very good tips, and I hope that everyone who's listening who might also be impacted by something that
00:25:11
Speaker
is impacting their access to opportunities, is able to take that in and hopefully apply to their own lives.
00:25:21
Speaker
Let's pivot a little bit, Gigi. You and I recently met for coffee, or I should rather say matcha, which was wonderful. And it was initially supposed to be an hour-long meetup quickly turned into two hours. Classic. During our conversation, I was really surprised to learn that your life as a full-time content creator is not always as glamorous as it might seem to the rest of the world.
Realities of the Content Creator Journey
00:25:47
Speaker
You know, when you hear someone
00:25:49
Speaker
is a finalist in the Sports Illustrated Swim Surge and was featured in the likes of Business Insider, Forbes, and Vogue Business. I believe that most people would think that that person is very well off financially. But you shared with me that that is actually not always the case. If you don't mind sharing, what is actually happening behind the scenes that you wish more people knew about?
00:26:12
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I agree, it is classic for me also to get into a conversation with a like-minded woman in business and a woman who means business to go quickly from one hour to two and a half hours chatting away. So it was really a lovely experience that we got to have in person finally instead of Zoom. So yeah, just to give everyone a little bit of a recap.
00:26:41
Speaker
I have been creating content since 2017. More kind of seriously, I would say I did it part-time all through college. And in 2020, I was an ambassador for Timberland, Abercrombie, TikTok, Tinder, Smashbox Cosmetics, and a bunch more. There's actually an Insider article about all the 13 ambassador programs that I was a part of.
00:27:04
Speaker
So if you do want to Google Gigi Robinson brand ambassador, that piece will come up and you can read more about that work as a student ambassador and field marketer. But when 2020 happened and COVID happened, I came home from college, graduated on my couch in New York City.
00:27:24
Speaker
I was like, I don't want to do corporate entertainment. That's what I was on a path to do. I was on a path to work at Warner Bros or Paramount or at an agency that does work with those big media companies. Ultimately, what happened is I said, you know what, I'm going to give myself six months. I'm going to do as much work as possible creating campaigns for brands and
00:27:51
Speaker
I guess we'll see where it goes and maybe then I'll do it full-time after that. So I did 87 campaigns in that short amount of time and I made just under $25,000 in that six months, which you're probably like, oh yeah, that's great. The next year, I think I did about maybe 20 campaigns and I made around $48,000.
00:28:19
Speaker
The next year I did eight campaigns and I made just over $120,000. And so you can see that yes, there are these increments that grow over time, but what a lot of people don't think about with the creator economy is they think, oh my God, that's your salary. That's how much you're taking away. No.
00:28:40
Speaker
That's like the biggest misconception I would say. I would say, ultimately, you have 30 percent going away for taxes, you have 30 percent going to a manager and or probably your team, and then probably another 20 percent of that going to your expenses for your business, and then you're left with what? About 10 percent for yourself to pay back,
00:29:07
Speaker
loans, credit card bills, personal travel funds, all of these kinds of things. And so at least in my case, I've been left with very little to save and invest. And so that's just kind of a breakdown over the past couple of years of like where I think my money and my spending is kind of gone with the creator economy.
Challenges and Financial Disparities for Female Creators
00:29:28
Speaker
I also think people think it's like a very
00:29:31
Speaker
get rich quick kind of thing or anytime you're working with a huge brand or you're speaking on a stage for a big brand, they think, oh my gosh, you are crushing it. You're absolutely making so much human featured in Forbes. You're clearly killing it or business insider, they vetted your income or CNBC. Ultimately, yes, they do vet your income. They might not always share it is the thing.
00:29:56
Speaker
So I think that part is definitely a little bit of smoke and mirrors. Unfortunately, I don't think enough people are reading about this. I think a lot of creators are just out here making as much content as possible and making it seem like once they get their brand deal that that brand deal is like, oh my God, it's like this brand deal. It's my dream to work with this brand. It's a dream come true.
00:30:24
Speaker
And while yes, that might be the case to get your dream client, that doesn't mean that they're paying your yearly salary for a couple pieces of content. And so my goal in the near future is to just continue to advocate for creators to get paid fairly, not only that, but also to try to talk to the marketers and be that middleman to be like, you know what?
00:30:47
Speaker
We really need to pay creators a little bit better, but also we need to teach creators how to run their business or their social media as a business because that's definitely not being taught either. And there's not any resources that exist right now to kind of aid in that problem.
00:31:09
Speaker
No, absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing that. You made a very good point. Yes, there was incremental growth in terms of net outcome from 25 to 45 to 120K. Obviously that's an improvement, but also let's not forget, Gigi, you live in New York City, like $120,000 in New York City. Not going to go a long way.
00:31:34
Speaker
To begin with and then something you and I also were talking about you know, especially as a female content creator, you know, There are all of these double standards that male creators oftentimes do not face. It is expected when you do a campaign that you also quote unquote look the part which means lots of expenses and you know,
00:31:53
Speaker
in makeup or your physical appearance. And in general, we all know, you know, the pink tags, we as women are being charged significantly more for a lot of our consumer products than men are. And at the same time, we're not being paid the same as men. So much double standard there. So I really, really appreciate you opening up there because I do think that gets forgotten.
00:32:16
Speaker
And a lot of the times you see all of these content creators, you know, a lot of them are your friends, right? Like doing these glamorous shoots, working with like the world's most well-known brands, but you rarely see what happens behind the scenes. And again, this goes back to what I really appreciate you for is, you know, you shed light on these important topics.
00:32:39
Speaker
show up vulnerably and authentically and are not afraid to give us a glimpse behind the scenes. So that's wonderful and I love that you also just pointed out.
00:32:49
Speaker
Okay, we need to also teach these oftentimes young creators how to successfully run a business, how to make sure that they're not being exploited by brands, by potential managers, talent agencies to ensure that they actually are able to build sustainable wealth for themselves, that they are actually able to put aside some money.
00:33:11
Speaker
To save to invest to pay off student loans or whatever it might be at any given Circumstance totally and on that note another thing I just wanted to mention really quick before I don't know if we're changing subjects are going deeper but is just the idea of Also payment terms
00:33:30
Speaker
So I've always said this, as a content creator, influencer, freelance journalist or writer, or freelance photographer for freelance videographer, you are a contractor to a brand or to a company. That is it. You're not something special necessarily. You are a contractor. You are getting a 1099 or you're submitting a W9 and at the end of the day, you have no benefits and you're not on a payroll.
00:33:57
Speaker
not enough creators are taking that part seriously. And so when you are doing business with a brand, for the most part, when you're getting a brand deal, even if it's with a big company, let me just be honest with you, what's happening is you are not usually getting paid the amount. Sometimes what brands will do is they'll pay
00:34:21
Speaker
very, very rarely. I've actually only been paid 50% upfront by one of my largest partners in the past, and then 25%, two thirds of the way through, and then the other 25% at the end. But typically what happens is you do not get paid net 30, which means 30 days after
00:34:41
Speaker
you submit your insights from the campaign, meaning you could start the work for a campaign, let's say in the beginning of May and you signed your contract in the middle of April. Your content is to them by the beginning of May and maybe they don't approve it for another two weeks to post by the middle of May and then maybe you have another deliverable to post before the 1st of June and so then you have to send them all of your insights by the 1st of June
00:35:08
Speaker
you would not necessarily get paid until you, one, submit your insights and two, submit your invoice, right? They do not remind you to do this, not because they don't want to pay you, but because it's not their obligation to. As a small business, you have to take the accountability and be on top of it and get your money. And what happens far too much is I gave you an example.
00:35:35
Speaker
where it's net 30, we go all the way up to net 90. I have been paid net 90 as in a entire three months after I've done the work from a brand. And so this is happening far too much. I don't know what the solution to this is. I know that for a lot of freelance
00:35:55
Speaker
contractors and creators, there's websites like Lumonu, Archie, and Willa that allow you to take the campaign money out, essentially on a loan from them, and then they take it over and they get paid after, but you lose two to five percent of your contract. And depending on how big it is, that can be a lot of money.
00:36:16
Speaker
And so I just think not enough people know about that before they get into content. Not enough people who are in the content world either pay attention to you or deal with that. I mean, if you have a manager or an agent, it's their job to kind of deal with that finance element for you. But to me, it's absolutely infuriating how you could start doing work and sign a contract.
00:36:39
Speaker
now and maybe the campaign is not over until December 31st, 2023 and you get paid in that 60 from December 31st, 2023, aka you will not get paid for work that you've done for almost an entire year until
00:36:57
Speaker
Q2 next year. It's absolutely ridiculous and I just don't know what the solution is and just nobody's talking about it. So I'm happy to be that person talking about it.
00:37:13
Speaker
Thank you so much for being so open and honest about this. Again, I'm just learning about all of this and it's truly mind-blowing and we need more people like yourself who are raising awareness for these honestly inhumane practices. And you kind of already answered my next question with that, but are there
00:37:37
Speaker
any other common practices in the creator space that really hurt creators financially? Yeah. Well, just because you make money one quarter, one month does not guarantee that kind of exponential growth throughout the year and your entire
Impact of User-Generated Content and Ethical Practices
00:37:55
Speaker
career. I think also as you grow, the deals become less frequent and higher paid, and sometimes those less frequent deals can
00:38:07
Speaker
cause you to really be in a state of, oh my God, how am I going to be able to pay my team? How is this going to actually, you know, manifest? I think it's been a challenge for me personally to just also take the time for my mental health and to get off the hamster wheel of constantly creating content and ultimately
00:38:36
Speaker
show up as the person and the creator that I am when I'm so worried about money constantly and how I'm going to get paid. I think also in terms of the creator world, there's now this pipeline of you can start out as a UGC creator, which means user-generated content. What's ultimately happening is UGC creators are offering mediocre content,
00:39:04
Speaker
two brands for cheap. Therefore, creators who have established brands, established communities, you know their face, they charge more and they'll make a better video, but brands are okay with mediocre content. Therefore, they're going to spend less. If you could get 10 videos for the price of one, why would you not do that?
00:39:26
Speaker
I think a lot of that is happening and that's on the brand side of thing. I think you should just think about like, are you okay with mediocre content? Like what's the ultimate goal? And with UGC, it's essentially creating content that nobody knows your face. Nobody really knows who you are or like what your content really is about. You just can create assets for a brand to post and use in their marketing, essentially as an in-house social media producer or editor.
00:39:54
Speaker
That's what UGC content is at the end of the day. A lot of people do not talk about this because UGC is really hot right now. It's one of these get rich quick things where you offer to make a video for $500 and you do 10 of them a month and that adds up, right?
00:40:15
Speaker
you're doing all of that work and you're really not getting the credit for it and you're also in a lot of ways. To me, it's making the creator economy a cheaper environment for people who are doing this full-time and it's a little bit stressful. I think another trap that we run into is that you need to have press or you need to be verified.
00:40:41
Speaker
I think that this is a big one and I don't know what else we have going on for the rest of the podcast because I could ramble about this, but I'm going to try to keep it short. I think to get verified by traditional standards, you have to have unique press articles written about you, not just mentioned in or on a list. You have to actually have these articles written almost completely about you and have proof that what you're doing is making an impact in the world, number one.
00:41:09
Speaker
Number two, just because you have the press doesn't mean you'll get verified. And number three, just because you're verified doesn't mean you're a good creator or that you are doing something exceptional in the world. And number four, you can now pay for verification. So all the things I just mentioned don't really matter at all at the end of the day. And number five with press.
00:41:29
Speaker
If you are a creator and you say, oh, well, I just want to get pressed because, you know, more people need to hear about what I'm doing. Why? Why is that? What's actually making an impact on the world with your content or why? Who are you actually reaching and how is this actually important? Right. A lot of people in my experience just want press because it looks cool and they can kind of show it off as a clout worthy thing. So yeah. That's what I have to say.
00:41:59
Speaker
Thank you for sharing. Honestly, Gigi, this conversation was so, so illuminating. I think a lot of people that might have some prejudice or bias against creators who are listening to this episode will be able to be just as
00:42:22
Speaker
blown away as I was when we first had this conversation a few weeks ago. So again, thank you so much for holding up the torch and for being an advocate in so many different spaces, ranging from mental health to chronic illness to the creator economy and ensuring that
00:42:41
Speaker
the practices are ethical and that our creators are being paid fairly. I think it's so, so important. I do want to end this conversation on a high note, and I don't only like to always start out with the same question, but I also like to close with the same question for each of my guests. So Gigi, curious to hear what is a financial milestone you have achieved that you are most proud of?
00:43:04
Speaker
I think reaching my first 100K in terms of how much I made, I know there's a lot of...
00:43:12
Speaker
I wish I could say that that was about how much that I saved, but unfortunately, that is just not where I'm at right now and that's okay. I think over time, hopefully, I will continue to get better and save more and get paid more and invest more and come up with new clever ways to run my business. But right now, I think reaching that first milestone was really, really important and big for me.
00:43:40
Speaker
You should be very proud of yourself and with all of the other stuff as in scaling your net worth and your investments. I want to be here to help you with that. We already had conversations about that, so let's make that happen. But thank you for your time today and again for your vulnerability and your authenticity. It's greatly appreciated.
00:44:00
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I hope that this helps anyone. And if you have any questions or qualms, feel free to either reach out or send me a DM about what you're experiencing. Amazing. And we'll make sure to link to Gigi's socials and her website in the show notes. Thank you, Gigi.
00:44:26
Speaker
Hey there, not so fast. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you've listened in from today. Reviews are a podcaster's most important currency. It helps me create visibility for the incredible women who join me on this show. And if you've made it this far, I'd like to believe that supporting women is one of your favorite pastimes.
00:44:50
Speaker
If you already left the review, first of all thank you, but why not share this episode with a friend or post it to your Instagram story? Thank you for helping me on my mission to make women rich by making women rich.