I’ve been seeing a strange new trend on my social feeds… yes, this is a nod to my Substack note from last night.
Lately, it has been filled with a very specific kind of post. Possibly because the algorithm thinks I belong in this space, I don’t know.
But I’m seeing a ton of creators coming right out and saying that their sole reason for being online is to make influencer money. They see creators landing brand deals, quitting their jobs, and completely changing their financial reality, and they want that too.
Some have even taken it a step further, openly asking their followers to like, save, and comment more because they are trying to monetize their accounts.
And every time I see it, my marketer brain stops in its tracks.
Ok and before I get too deep into it, I feel like I have to say this to save my butt.
I’m a girl’s girl. I will 100% support other creators by double tapping and leaving comments because I want us to all win.
And I get it. We all have mortgages, grocery bills, goals, and kids to feed. Nobody wants to work for free, and I’m not going to pretend for a second that I do not want to make money.
Money is great. But here is the part nobody seems to want to say out loud: telling your audience that your goal is to make money off of them is the fastest way to make sure you never do.
Your audience is not charity
When you ask people to engage just so you can get paid, you are essentially asking your audience for charity. You are telling them, please help me hit a metric so a brand will eventually notice and want to pay me.
That is not how the internet works, and that is definitely not how business works. Asking for genuine support is one thing. But asking your followers to try and help inflate your metrics is where it gets a bit weird.
The creators who are actually making life-changing money never had to beg for a comment (with a few exceptions lol). They never had to plead for someone to watch their videos so they could pay their rent.
Why? Because they understood something fundamental that seems to have gotten lost in the creator economy hype.
Money is the byproduct of value, not the prerequisite.
When you become so good at a skill, practice your craft, and figure out how to communicate it clearly, the money will follow naturally.
Running an account is just running a business
I have spent over ten years working in marketing. When I started building my own personal brand recently, I approached it like building a business.
Because that is all content creation really is.
If you want to build an audience that actually trusts you, and if you want to partner with brands you genuinely love (like I recently got to do with Wix), you have to build the machine first.
Here is what that actually looks like:
1. Master an actual skill
Before you can ask for someone's attention, you need something worth paying attention to. That might be learning videography, sharpening your digital storytelling, getting comfortable speaking to the camera, or breaking down a specific industry you know inside and out.
2. Build a clear offering
In business, you need a product or service. As a creator, your offering is your catalog of work. It is your visual style, your unique perspective, your digital products, and/or the consistency of your videos. If your offering is sloppy or rushed because you are only chasing a payout, nobody is going to buy in.
3. Learn to market yourself
Having a good video is only half the battle. You have to learn how to package it. That means understanding hooks that speak directly to the viewer, structuring stories with tension and payoff, and leading with what your audience needs instead of what you want from them.
4. Study your numbers
You can’t improve what you refuse to look at. Treating your brand like a business means reviewing your analytics every single week. Looking at where viewers dropped off, which videos drove the most shares/comments/sales versus likes, and understanding what actually resonated so you can do it better next time.
Stop asking, start building
You have to work for it. You can’t just demand that the algorithm hand you a career because you showed up and asked for a like.
Everything shifts when you stop treating your audience like a stepping stone to a $$$ and start treating them like real people who deserve your best work.
The brand partnerships, the affiliate income, and the sales will come. But only after you build something worth buying into.
Ok, now go build and get that bag!
With love,
Sally