This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. So glad you're tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Today's caller, our listener, has an ambitious plan to unite creators, creators including podcasters and YouTubers, maybe some others, in an informal network to gain an advantage in negotiating for sponsors and other deals.
They believe there is strength in numbers and that independent creators could effectively unionize, could and should, I think they believe, at least on a small scale to increase their leverage. So I don't think they're talking about an actual unionization effort, but some sort of collaboration. In any case, this listener is wondering how to make this ambitious effort have the best odds of success. Now I've been thinking a lot about collective action lately. You're seeing so much happening in this fast moving world, especially with what I call the new economy.
Collective action campaigns from Redditors, people on Reddit taking on hedge funds. You see massive crowdfunding efforts, sometimes for political causes, sometimes for social goods, sometimes for causes that some of us might not think are so good. The point is there is indeed strength in numbers, like there is something to this collective action thing. But how do you make something like that work? Especially if you're talking about that network of creators that our caller, Landon, wants to bring together.
So let's hear from him. Well first, quick shout out to our sponsor, and then question and answer. [Music]
Hey Chris, this is Landon, and I started listening to the show after a friend recommended it last year. As you know, there's strength in numbers. I want to bring together a number of creators, including podcasters, bloggers, influencers, and TikTok stars.
My thinking is that being able to negotiate as a group will give us more power in attracting the attention of advertisers and other partners. How do I go about doing this? I'm trying to decide how to structure the group, legally speaking, as well as how to recruit the right people. Thanks. Landon, here is my advice.
Take it or leave it, of course. My advice is focus on a specific narrow group. So don't try to become the next CAA or William Morris or some kind of group that you're packaging hundreds of people. Focus on a really specific narrow group, like fitness influencers, for example. And there's still a lot of those, but that is something that you're like, oh, okay.
I've got a dozen people here who are all influential in the world of fitness. They're on TikTok, they're on YouTube, some are on Instagram. Maybe some are more popular on some platforms than others, which could actually be a strength. But the point is you're picking a specific narrow group. Doesn't have to be fitness, of course.
That's just an example. Second, have a specific goal, which I'll talk about more in a moment. And also as part of this, get a couple of VIPs on board as quickly as possible, okay? Because if you have a couple people, you're like, I'm starting a group and so-and-so is in it. And maybe one other person.
Then all of a sudden, a lot of other people will want to be in it. But if you're just starting from ground zero and pitching to a lot of people, then it's kind of hard to get buy-in. It's kind of hard for people to get excited about it. So I would say put all your efforts toward getting one or two people on board to start with who are the right kind of people that represent that specific group you're trying to focus efforts around. And then as for the goal, if it's to negotiate as a group, which Landon mentioned, with whom are you negotiating?
Do you have contacts with agencies and advertisers already? That's also a lot of work if you're starting from zero. So it might help to have a press kit and an offer you can make to those agencies and advertisers. That offer could be something like we have a network of 10 or however many popular creators who have millions of followers among them, all interested in fitness and life improvement, just to go with that previous example. For X dollars, you can plan a campaign across the whole network.
I think that's how you begin that particular pitch. But in terms of the group, it might actually be better at first to begin as an informal mastermind group, just to kind of share ideas and help each other out. But once money starts getting involved with the legal structure that Landon also asked about, it should probably be some kind of LLC or similar, because then you start to add complexity. So to sum up, I too believe in collective action. I do think there's strength in numbers as mentioned.
Let's just get specific about what we're trying to do here. Try to get one or two specific people on board who represent the ideal creator for this group and then grow from there. That's what I think about that. Let us know how it goes, Landon. And listeners, if you have a question, let me know about that too.
I'd love to know what you're working on, what your struggles are, what's going well, what's not. Just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will continue to feature them throughout the year, along with updates from listeners as they launch their projects. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Hope you'll subscribe and follow, come back tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
