The Creator Economy Winter is Here
Why the Creator Economy has failed to live up to the hype (and why there's never been a better time to build!)
The Creator Economy is a wasteland.
Once the darling of the VC hype cycle, it’s failed to live up to expectations.
We’re seeing layoffs across the board, VC funding has dried up, and views have taken a nosedive.
More painfully though, we’re seeing Creators burn out left and right as the constant pressure from platforms like Instagram and TikTok pushes them to the brink.
We were promised the future of work: a career where you got paid to work on your own terms, doing what you love.
Instead, we got dancing thirst traps and overfunded startups.
So where did it all go wrong?
And how do we save the Creator Economy?
A Glimmer of Hope
Fortunately, things aren’t anywhere near as bleak as they seem.
In fact, we’re seeing extremely bright spots here at Stan.
Specifically, we’re seeing an entirely new class of Creators emerge that I believe will pioneer the future of the Creator Economy.
We’ve seen this emerging class of Creators launch durable, six-figure businesses while building a life on their own terms: maximizing time with their family, finding fulfillment in their work, and making a lot of money.
They’ve pioneered a sustainable business model that the entire Creator Economy needs to adopt if we’re to survive this so-called ‘Winter’.
But in order to explain to you how this emerging class of Creators has succeeded in spite of the rest of the market’s struggles, I first need to explain why the Creator Economy hasn’t worked out so far.
And why so many Creator startups are going out of business…
The Dirty Secret of the Creator Economy
I believe that being a Creator is the most difficult form of entrepreneurship.
As a Creator, not only are you required to create quality content week-after-week.
But you’re also required to build a successful business.
Both of these tasks are independently difficult, so when you layer on the emotional toil that comes with putting yourself online, you start to see how building a Creator Business becomes a near-impossible task.
90%+ of entrepreneurs fail building a regular business — so how can we expect a Creator business, with its added complexity, to fare any better?
It’s why we’ve only seen a certain kind of Creator succeed long-term: those that are strong on both sides of their brain — they’re able to channel their creative right side, as well as their logical left.
Unfortunately, this is a combination we rarely witness:
We all know starving artists.
And we all know robotic businesspeople.
But rarely do we encounter a “Creator-Entrepreneur”: the exceptional artist who also relentlessly gets s*** done , day in and day out.
But the difficulty of building a Creator Business extends beyond the sheer demand it places on the Creator.
Creator Businesses are also difficult to grow.
By definition, a Creator Business’ success is tied to the output of the underlying Creator.
And because a single human can only do so much, Creator Businesses face roadblocks like:
Solopreneur Risk: Creators are under an immense amount of pressure as both the Business’ CEO and its Brand. If the Creator burns out, then there is no Business. It’s crucial that Creators take care of themselves vigilantly.
Difficulty to Scale: Creators are often one-person teams, which means they are constantly the bottleneck for ‘scale’. Creators must learn how to delegate and scale teams if they are to break through the seven-figure mark.
Platform Risk: Creators have historically depended on the Platforms (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok) for distribution; too often I have seen a Creator’s engagement evaporate due to algorithmic shifts outside of their control.
Fickle Revenue Streams: Creators often make the mistakes of relying primarily on ad and brand deal revenue for income; this kind of ‘3rd party' income is low quality and fickle. The only Creators we’ve seen that have built durable, long-term businesses are those who create and sell their own branded products.
If we were to look at today’s Creator Businesses through the lens of an investor - we’d almost certainly say no. Today’s Creator Businesses have:
High Founder Burnout Risk
Limited Scalability
High Platform Risk
Inconsistent Revenue Streams
All of this points to how building a Creator Business is an extremely uphill battle.
And leads us to calling out the dirtiest secret of the Creator Economy:
The Dirty Secret of the Creator Economy: In their current form, Creator Businesses are Fundamentally Bad Businesses
So when we reflect on why all of these startups didn’t work out — it starts to become obvious.
How possibly could startups in the Creator Economy make money when the underlying Creators themselves weren’t making any money?
Until we find a way for Creators to generate a sustainable living for themselves, no other part of the Creator Economy can thrive.
And this is why we’re so obsessed with solving the Creator Monetization problem here at Stan — if we can figure out a model for how Creators can generate a sustainable, long-term income, then we can truly build a Creator Economy we’re proud of.
Fortunately for us, we’re not in this alone.
We’re lucky to get to support a generation of talented Creators who are already pioneering a new model forward…
“Creator-Entrepreneurs”: A New Hope
For all of the shouting of a reckoning, I’d actually argue that there’s never been a better time to be building in the Creator Economy.
What we’re seeing right now isn’t so much a “winter” as it is a reset back to reality.
The fundamentals of the Creator Economy are healthier than ever.
And there’s an emerging class of Creators that’s proving this out.
These are the Creators we proudly call “Creator-Entrepreneurs”, and they’re solving all of the problems of scalability and inconsistent revenue that I had mentioned before.
They are gritty, hardworking small business owners — and I believe that they are the future of the Creator Economy.
They see social media not just as a way to creatively express themselves, but also as a keen business opportunity.
And they’ve already started to solve many of the challenges Creator Businesses have historically struggled with:
They’re building their own Platforms: Creators like Coach Benny, a dating coach, are circumventing Platform Risk by using Stan to build their own email lists & private communities, owning their audience on their own terms rather than being gated by an algorithm
They’re building consistent, recurring income streams: Creators like Guided Fit Mama, a personal trainer, are using Stan to building passive, recurring income streams through memberships, paid communities, and courses that bring in income even when the Creator isn’t posting
They’re scaling into multiple-person operations: Creators like Austin Hankwitz, a finance Creator, have used the funds they’ve made from Stan to employ a whole team (including a COO and video editors) in order to scale their own output
They’re beating burnout: We have hundreds of Creators within the #StanFam self-organizing community meetups and finding healthy balances between daily content output and living a life outside of their screens
Here at Stan, we believe that the key to a thriving economy is a thriving middle class.
And fortunately, these Creator-Entrepreneurs are building the Creator Middle Class.
Take Creators like Abigail Peugh for example.
Abigail isn’t a glitzy, LA influencer dancing on camera.
She’s a mom, wife and kind-hearted entrepreneur who’s made over $400k on Stan in just the last 12 months.
She’s built a business not off of views and follower count, but by putting in the work to build multiple income streams.
She’s circumvented Platform Risk by building an email list.
And then, she’s used that email list to build Consistent Income for herself by offering her audience easily consumable digital products with a frictionless checkout process.
Astutely, she’s created multiple products priced at different price points in order to serve her audience across their entire customer journey, which increases her Customer’s Lifetime Value far beyond if she sold only one product.
From there, she’s supplemented this passive income with a more recurring income stream: her high ticket coaching membership.
And the best part? She’s accomplished all of this while still getting to be present with her daughter as a stay-at-home-mom.
So as we think about what business model the Creator Economy needs to thrive, our Creator-Entrepreneurs have charted us a clear path forward:
Creators Must Own Their Audience: Creators need to build a direct relationship with their audiences, either through email, SMS, or private community. Living and dying by an algorithm is not an acceptable proposition.
Creators Must Build Sustainable Businesses: Creators need to be able to take time off without worrying about their business. They also need to find a healthy relationship with social media. Both of these are only possible if a Creator builds a sustainable business, which requires both of the below.
Creators Must Create Passive Income Streams: Creators need as much passive income as possible to supplement their main focus — creating. Leveraging “build once, sell multiple times” products like digital products (ebooks, courses) is the critical lever we’ve seen our most successful Creators use.
Create Must Scale Beyond Themselves: There are huge opportunities for Creators to use generative AI to create content. And the Creators who learn how to scale a team will be able to watch their brand grow beyond them.
The Opportunity Ahead
When people ask me why I’m not worried about the short-term blips we’re seeing right now, I point to this.
I point to the thousands of Creator-Entrepreneurs that are pioneering an entirely new way to do business: one where you can use social media to build a direct relationship with your target customer, build your own brand, and do it all on your own terms.
When I see this, I get so amped about the future of the Creator Economy.
If we can make the ‘Creator-Entrepreneur’ business model accessible to everyone, then we have an opportunity to build a Creator Economy we’re truly proud of — one where anyone, anywhere can make a living working for themselves.
So to our Creators, this is my promise to you:
We will not rest until we have done everything possible to support you in your business — the software, the coaching, the mental health resources, and the community.
You name it, we’re going to build it.
Let’s do this. 😤
P.S. for those of you who believe in the future of the Creator Economy as much as we do here at Stan - and want to play a defining role in pushing it forward - we’re hiring!
A very compelling read!
This was a great read <3