Who Is Actually Making Money in the Creator Economy?

**Samir** (0:00)
We've all heard about how fast the creator economy is growing. There's more creators than ever, there's more ad dollars than ever. And to put some specifics to that, the creator economy is projected to reach $43 billion in ad spend this year. So it's a good time to be a creator. But a recent report came out that surveyed a thousand creators and showed that nearly half of those creators make less than $10,000 a year. So where is this money going in the creator economy? That's something we're going to dive into on today's episode of The Colin and Samir Show. We're also going to talk about our next big press publish event, the Hollywood Creator Summit, coming to Los Angeles May 28th. And lastly, we're joined by our writer, Sid Cohen. Hi, Sid.

**Sid Cohen** (0:44)
Hi. I'm scared. Hi. He has a gun.

**Samir** (0:50)
Sid, what are you doing? Don't say that. It's crazy.

**Colin** (0:52)
No, it's true. He does.

**Samir** (0:53)
No, stop. Okay, Sid is our writer and Gen Z correspondent. How old are you, Sid?

**Sid Cohen** (1:00)
I'm 25 I turned 26 in three weeks.

**Samir** (1:02)
Ooh.

**Sid Cohen** (1:03)
Yeah. I'm off the insurance soon.

**Samir** (1:06)
So Sid is here on the show because we are bringing a new segment to this episode. If you guys like this, we'll bring it back. It's called Age Gap. Sid is going to throw out a Gen Z term to us. We have to get to the point where we understand it and can explain it back to her. That is coming up on the show. All right, Sid, bring us in to this episode.
What am I supposed to say? No, that's good.

**Sid Cohen** (1:33)
Is that going in? But that's what it sounds like, right?

**Samir** (1:36)
Yeah. All right, if you spend any time on Twitter this week, you saw big red numbers with salaries and job descriptions next to them. This was the New Yorkers piece where they interviewed 60 New Yorkers about their salaries and how much they're making. And there were some pretty astonishing numbers.

**Colin** (2:01)
Did you see any of this? I did see some of them, yes. From what I saw, it seemed like gig workers and more blue collar jobs seemed to be making more than what people would assume.

**Samir** (2:13)
For sure. The one that stuck out to me the most was the Manhattan dog walker. $92,000 a year salary walking dogs.

**Colin** (2:21)
Yeah, hustling. A lot of dogs.

**Samir** (2:25)
Ghostwriter writing substack pieces. $164,000. Wow. Pay up.
And then one that that stuck out and is really relevant to this conversation, influencer, $320,000, which was broken down to $250,000 in brand partnerships, $60,000 in consulting, and $10,000 in selling clothes.

**Colin** (2:55)
We have to know this person. This feels like-

**Samir** (2:58)
You think so?

**Colin** (2:59)
Yeah.

**Samir** (2:59)
Do you know-

**Colin** (2:59)
$60,000 in consulting.

**Samir** (3:00)
Hold on. Do you know how many influencers and creators are in New York City? What? You think we know 100% of them?

**Colin** (3:07)
No. I'm assuming we know this person. I think if you're a creator in New York City and you do $60,000 worth of consulting, my assumption is that it's creator centric consulting that we probably know.

**Samir** (3:18)
No, I don't think that's necessary. I think-

**Colin** (3:20)
Samir, you know like 98% of the planet.

**Samir** (3:22)
I do know a lot of people.

**Colin** (3:23)
I don't know why you're pushing back on this.

**Samir** (3:24)
Yeah, that's fair. Okay, that's fair. So, this week-

**Colin** (3:29)
Can we acknowledge that Sid's here? I feel like she's trying to talk.

**Samir** (3:32)
No, I'm not trying to talk. You have to say something.

**Sid Cohen** (3:35)
I thought you said-

**Samir** (3:36)
It's a podcast.

**Sid Cohen** (3:36)
You told me not to speak. I'm not allowed to speak. I just had to sit here and wear this shacket. I had to dress like you. You're not even filming. You said dress like you. I have to wear the shacket.

**Samir** (3:46)
Okay, Sid, explain yourself. So, Sid, you've been writing with the published press for how long?

**Sid Cohen** (3:51)
I have been writing almost... No, it's been over a year now.
Last week was my year. So, I've been here a year, been writing our newsletter, not making $160,000, so making note of that.

**Samir** (4:07)
Well, you're not a ghostwriter.

**Sid Cohen** (4:08)
No, but the way that...

**Samir** (4:10)
You have to write a bunch of people's sub stacks for that.

**Sid Cohen** (4:12)
Okay, so I'm gonna go to...