Speaker 1: There was a moment where I realized I'd made a stupid mistake. And now I had two months to fix it before I had to lay off my entire team of 10 people and give up on my dream business. And so I did what any 25-year-old would do in my shoes. I started a TikTok. So let's back up. I own a video marketing company and help clients. And a client came to me and was ready to sign on to my mega package for a whole year. And so I was stoked. I was so excited. But I needed more help. And so I hired a team, trained them up, and we were ready to take on this client. But the week before they signed that year contract we had talked about, they backed out. So now I'm left with a company with expenses up here, seven new employees, and revenue down here. And I felt like I was driving a 10-passenger car down the road, all nine boys in the back, and then I hit a sheet of ice, lost control, and now I'm down in the ditch. And I need to get out of this ditch. I have two months to do it. Two months of resources. And that's where the idea for social media came, because I didn't have money for pay ads. I needed to be seen. So I started posting like a madman every day, three times a day. I started posting. And it was amazing. After the first 20 days, we actually had 20,000 people starting to follow this content. And I needed that. It was great. But I was still nervous, because followers didn't necessarily solve my problem. And so another 20 days pass, and my calendar starts to look like this. And so it's working, and I'm starting to believe maybe we'll be able to get through this. We have a few weeks left. And miraculously, just before that two months ran out, we were able to close enough clients to keep going, to continue on. And it was over six figures in new revenue from social media posts. And there was one thing just going through my head. What? In what world does a couple months of free posts on social media, in what way can that save a business? And in what world do people scroll on their phones, watch a 30-second video of a complete stranger, and then all of a sudden, they're ready to book a call? And in what world is a TikToker invited to the TEDx stage, for that matter, and you can complain to the committee afterwards? And as I'm thinking through this, how crazy is this? That's when I realized, you know, there's something bigger going on here. Something broader about the way that we do business that has changed. We're living in a new economy, and that's called the creator economy. And creator, of course, refers to content creator, people who make, whether that's tweets or pictures or videos, and share them with the internet. And it makes sense why this is happening, but here's how I would define the creator economy. The creator economy is a place where digital creators share content that drives business. Digital creators are sharing posts with the internet, and it drives business. And content is the real key here, because content is what we use to participate in this economy. It's what we use to compete for watch time and for attention, and that attention is so valuable. And it makes sense, right? With the rise of social media and streaming services and self-publishing, you really have to make something very interesting now to capture and to hold attention. And so in the new economy, content is really what equals currency. And now when you see that, you might think, well, just because I make a post on social media doesn't mean I'm going to have money in my bank account, right? And that's true. And that's not what I'm saying here. What I'm saying here, as an analogy, content is the currency we use in order to buy attention. Content is how we get seen, and it's easy to see that if you're seen, how that can quickly translate into growth for a business. So content is how we buy attention. But how big is this economy, really? Am I just exaggerating because I had a couple TikToks go viral? Well, we do have some real numbers on this, and we have to look to influencers specifically. Yellow influencers are the ones who are posting videos, hey, check out my luscious beard. People have been asking about my routine. I use this beard oil. Click the link, and you can pick it up for yourself. So they're paid by companies to sponsor products or services. And we've been tracking these numbers for a few years, and they did a study of businesses, a survey, find out how much of marketing budgets are going toward influencer marketing. It's between, for the majority of businesses, it's between 10 and 30%. Now mine seem like a low statistic, but to give you an idea, television was commonplace in households in the 1950s. It took 20 years till the 1970s before 20% of ad spend was going toward TV ads. So it took 20 years for that to happen. We've been tracking influencer marketing for only five years, and already it's between 10 and 30% of our budget's going toward that. And so already that tells me this is bigger than you and I think, and we've got a long way for it to grow. But I don't want to get too distracted by influencer marketing, because if we think of the creator economy as just influencers, we're missing the bigger picture. The creator economy is really for anyone who understands content. And some businesses will think, I have to pay creators because creators have influence. But how did they get their influence? They had to share content in order to get that. And so what if we as business owners, instead of paying influencers, what if we become an influence through content? And this is the trend that we're seeing. Here's a man, this is not a me, this is his profile picture, his name is Alex Hormozy. Very successful businessman, trainer, coach, and last year he was like, you know, I like being a millionaire, but you know what, sounds even better being a billionaire. And he sees all these celebrities launching these brands that go to a billion dollars, he's like, there's no way Kylie Jenner knows more about business than I do. What am I missing here? And he realized that what he was missing was content, leveraging content to gain more attention. And so he said, okay, team, we got to go from posting once a day, we need to outdo that, went from posting seven pieces of content a week to 71 pieces of content every single week. And in just six months he had one million people following his content. One million people waiting for the next thing he's going to talk about. That's the speed of content right now. And so it's amazing because business owners, they don't just have to rely on other people, on creators, now they can also become a creator to gain that same influence. And this is the part that's so exciting to me because since it's open to anyone and not just influencers, it means that the playing field is really even, that anyone with a smart phone can get involved with this. We all know people in our neighborhoods who maybe make art or crafts. I know someone who makes macrame. It's the little woven baskets where you put your plants in, you hang them up, looks awesome. And so she has this skill making macrame and she starts posting this, all of a sudden people of her friends or family and neighbors start saying, hey, can I have one? She's got some customers locally. If one of those reels goes viral, then all of a sudden she's got a larger audience. She's got people who are asking her for commission work from all over the world. And now she's got a certain Etsy just to keep up with the orders. She's got a business. So you don't have to take out a loan or rent a warehouse in order to start a business anymore. Now you can just start a TikTok and really test the waters with content. That's the part that's so exciting. If that sounds like a cliche, I have to tell you my favorite story. But first, your respect for me already should be down here because I'm a TikToker, but I'm going to lower it even further. I love Dungeons and Dragons. That's my favorite thing. I'm a big Dungeons and Dragons nerd. If you've ever walked into a room of people playing this game, it's the weirdest experience. It's all in your head. It's imaginary. And then you roll dice to pretend like you're slaying a dragon, and everyone's using weird voices. It's awesome. So there's a group of nerds who would play Dungeons and Dragons every Thursday night for four hours, and they were like, why don't we start streaming this to the internet? And so they did. They started sharing it on Twitch and on YouTube, and they called themselves Critical Rule. This is them. And the first year, it was thousands of people tuning in, and then it was tens of thousands. The next year, it's hundreds of thousands, and now it's in the millions of people who every night, they're on their live stream watching these nerds play D&D for four hours. And now all of a sudden, they have revenue coming in from their content, and so they've got resources. They start hiring a production team. They're producing books and licensing deals and doing all this amazing stuff, and then they got together and said, we love TV shows and cartoons. That's why we're all voice actors, because when we were kids, we watched this. What if we crowdfunded a TV show, and we could turn our D&D games into a little series? Let's try it. And so they put it up on Kickstarter, and they raised $11 million from their fans. $11 million. And because it was so exciting, there was so much hype around this, Amazon Prime picked up the TV show. And so the same company that just produced the new Lord of the Rings show, that produced this show that wasn't originally made for TV. No, in fact, it was made up on the spot by Dungeons and Dragons nerds late at night. And that's the power in content. Don't show this show to your kids, by the way. Content is the fuel that allowed them to get there. And obviously, they had to have some other skills along the way, but content is really what drove the community. And this is happening everywhere we look, because the media outlets that used to own all of our attention, the news and Hollywood and sports, now they're competing with social media. And so the celebrities that we all know and love, now I can be on the same platform as those celebrities just with my smartphone. It's decentralized. It's content by the people for the people. And so everyone with a smartphone can participate. And that is a revival of the American dream. People getting paid to do what they love. And so the question in all of our heads should be this. How can we get ahead in this economy? How can we become content rich? And I'm going to answer that, but first, let's review where we've been. So in the creator economy, content equals currency. It's what I use, the currency I use to gain attention and to be seen. And because content is the key, I don't have to be an influencer or a famous person to take advantage. I just have to learn how to make content. I have to become a creator. And so it's not just for influencers. But the playing field is even, and anyone with a smartphone can get involved, which is why it's bringing back the American dream. So how do we become content rich? How do we get ahead? And there's four things I would recommend. Number one, if you look at every platform out there right now, video is taking up the majority of the watch time. And so already, if you're using this currency of content, if you're viewing video as your main focus, then you're exchanging your content at a higher exchange rate than everyone else. This will put you ahead in the economy if video is your content focus. Next is be original. And you're going to hear people, if you start following these social media gurus, you'll hear them talk about the trends. You got to be trending it. You got to go viral. And here's where that might be an issue. Let's say you're going to hire a financial planner, and you're scrolling through your social media feed, and then you see one who's up there shaking his booty and lip-syncing to a trend. And then you swipe again, and you see one who is telling a story, maybe teaching a financial tip. Who are you more likely to hire, the twerker or the one who's just being human and telling stories and being original? There's a place for both. And if you've got a nice booty, go ahead and shake it. I think for most industries, it's the case that you don't necessarily have to chase trends in order to gain traction. You just got to be human. You got to be original. Start talking to the camera. Next is be consistent. And this is the one that nobody likes to hear because they want to get rich quick type of thing. And it's not get rich quick with content. First you have to post consistently in order to learn how to make content. First you post consistently to get good, and once you've gotten good, then you post consistently for growth. You might be thinking, well, Austin, you did it in two months. And that's true, but for two years before that, I was doing this for other people and learning how to do content, how to create. And so that might seem like a long time, but just think about it. Think about the stories you've heard. Is two years a worthy price to pay for the skill of content, for the impact that you can have once you learn this? For me, it was. And finally, be good. And this one doesn't really fit with risk. I'm not saying be good at creating content. What I'm saying here is that I actually don't like social media very much for what it does for mental health. I get that there's concerns there. And I want to make the world a better place for my kids. I'm sure a lot of you are in the same boat where maybe social media feels like this obstacle in doing that. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that the future world my kids live in involves a lot of social media. No matter what I do to try and stop that, they're going to be surrounded by it. So I can either avoid it entirely, or I can learn to use it for good, to make an impact. And there's enough garbage on the internet already. And so if you are one of the people who has a message, who has a story, who needs to get out there, that not just your community, but that thousands and millions of people need to hear, then please participate in this economy and get your message out there because we need it. We need good content. If that's you, then when you get home tonight, instead of scrolling social media, I invite you to take the time to think like a producer instead of a consumer. Think what is my post going to be? How am I going to get my message out there? Because like it or not, creators are going to be the presidents that we elect tomorrow. Creators are going to be the entrepreneurs that are getting paid to do what they love. They're going to be the ones who have influence over our families and our children. The creator economy is here, content is your currency, and you can be a creator. Thank you.