👋🏽 Doors Opening

Hey! Welcome to Creator Economy NYC — the premier place for all things creator economy in the Big Apple.

Writing to you from my semi-delirious post-Vegas state (note to self: red-eye flights are never "not that bad").

Just spent a few days at Creator Economy Live conference where I saw some familiar NYC faces from our community absolutely crushing it.

This week's newsletter is a good one — I'm breaking down the key takeaways from our first event of 2025. We packed the house to talk about scaling smarter, not harder as creators.

It's punchy, practical, and might just change how you think about your content.

Let's dive in.

✍️ City Spotlight

Scaling smarter, not harder as a creator

The energy was electric at our first Creator Economy NYC event of 2025. With TikTok's uncertain future and the creator economy evolving faster than ever, one question dominated our panel discussion:

How do we build sustainable businesses from the content we're already creating?

Our panel featured creators and experts who understand and turned their content into sustainable businesses - from subscription-based recipe services to career coaching empires:

• Erin McGoff (@advicewitherin)

• Jessica Morrobe (@travelingwithjessica)

• Zach Neman (@cheffinwithzach)

• Olivia Owens from Teachable.

Here are the key insights that emerged from our conversation that you can apply to your own creator journey:

1. Your "free" content is actually market research

One of the most powerful moments came when Erin, a career coach turned creator, shared how she identified opportunities to monetize her existing content: "I get hundreds of DMs every day, hundreds of comments, and I began to see similar pain points."

This isn't just engagement — it's market research in real-time. Your comments, DMs, and story replies are literally telling you what your audience might be willing to pay for. The key is learning to listen.

Quick ways to spot monetization opportunities in your existing content:

As Jessica pointed out during the panel, she ignored three separate signals from her audience before finally realizing she needed to create a paid offering. Don't make the same mistake, and identify the cues!

2. "F*ck It, Create It" vs. perfectionism

The most electric moment of the night came when our panel split on a fundamental question: When do you ship, and when do you polish?

Zach, who runs a successful recipe subscription service, stood firm on the perfectionist side:

"When it comes to publishing a recipe on my website, that has to be perfect. I've had to remake recipes three times just to make sure it's easy to follow."

His reasoning? When people pay for your product, they expect excellence.

Meanwhile, Erin took the opposite stance: "I'm an underthinker... I launched my course before it was ready because I wanted feedback."

Her approach paid off - customer feedback led her to add office hours, now one of her most valuable features.

The sweet spot? As Olivia from Teachable noted, "The first version is never going to be the best version. It's not meant to be."

Use the "F*ck It, Create It" mindset for testing and validation, but know when to switch to polish mode for your paid offerings.

3. Build your monetization ladder

The panel revealed a clear pattern in successful creator businesses: start with free value, then create natural steps toward paid offerings.

Erin's approach is brilliant - she gives away valuable career advice for free, uses strategic lead magnets (like her career quiz that doubled her newsletter in four months), and then creates natural upsell opportunities.

Simple, scalable, smart.

Bonus: Rethink what "education" means

One of the biggest mindset shifts discussed was moving past the "but I'm not an educator" barrier.

As Olivia explained, "At the end of the day, in your content creation, you're taking your own lived experience and sharing that with people, and that is an exchange of knowledge."

This really hit home. Whether you're:

• Sharing recipes like Zach

• Giving career advice like Erin

• Teaching Pinterest strategies like Jessica

• Or even just documenting your journey

You're already teaching. The question isn't whether you can teach – it's how to package what you're already sharing in a way that provides even more value to your audience.

Honorable mentions (because there was too much insight not to share)

LinkedIn is having it’s moment: LinkedIn emerged as the platform to watch in 2025. "Every content creator should be posting on LinkedIn... the amount of brand deals I get because they're like 'I saw your post on LinkedIn' is crazy," Erin emphasized.

Jessica's experience backed this up - she landed speaking gigs at major conferences and even made Forbes' LinkedIn Influencer list just by sharing her creator journey there.

If you're not on LinkedIn yet, 2025 is your year to start.

Power of community: Zach shared how he has a group chat of friends to review his content before it goes live to get feedback from an outside perspective.

And as Jessica emphasized, "Find your community in this industry... you'd be surprised at how much your feelings in the moment will be validated." (Hey, that's why we have Creator Economy NYC!)

Automation FTW: Erin's killer tip about using ManyChat for automated funnels had everyone taking notes. Instead of the typical "link in bio" approach, she uses strategic automations to capture leads and nurture them into customers. It’s something we use on our IG page, too!

Wrapping it up

Whether you're just starting out or running a six-figure creator business, the path to sustainability isn't about creating more – it's about leveraging what you've already built.

As we navigate 2025, you might’ve already done the hard part of building an audience and creating valuable content.

Now it's time to turn that foundation into something sustainable — or at least continue to work towards it.

 🎪 City Happenings

Upcoming events

February events are in the works (stay tuned), and we'll be at SXSW in early March! Want to stay in the loop? Check out our events calendar.

Have an idea for future programming? I'm all ears. Drop me a note at [email protected].

This community thrives on your input.

 🤝 Save the Date

Our first conference is coming — CONNECT.

One full day where the creator community comes together to build what's next.

No PowerPoint marathons or awkward small talk. Instead, you'll experience:

• Insightful panels with creators who are building right now

• Hands-on workshops where you actually create

• Meaningful connection that spark real ideas and collaborations

With the same great vibe you've come to love from our monthly events, amplified.

Mark your calendar: May 10th, 2025 in NYC

Ready to join us? Get on the waitlist for first access to tickets.

P.S. If you’re interested in speaking (at the conference or any CENYC event), fill out this form. And if you’re a brand that wants to get involved, email me here.

 👌 Picks & Perks

Recommended tools for the modern creator & marketer

Start a newsletter: It’s time you own your audience and start a newsletter. Get 20% off your first 3 months on any beehiiv paid plan. Snag it here →

Optimize your influencer campaigns: Siftsy analyzes comment sections to uncover sentiment and trends, helping you improve performance and prove ROI. Discover more here →

Get shareable clips in seconds from long form: I’ve been using OpusClip to easily create high-quality clips from our panels. Try it out here →

📚 Resources

FREE resources to accelerate your creator growth

I recently shared with you two free resources to help supercharge your creator journey in 2025. If ya missed it, you can download both right here:

The Creator Goal Setting Guide: A simple but powerful document to help you declare who you want to BECOME in 2025.

The Creator Accountability System: Your visual companion for consistent creation in 2025 (I’m using this now to send one newsletter a week!)

✌🏽 Stand Clear of the Closing Doors Please

Thanks so much for reading! Let me know what you thought by replying back here!

See you next week,

Brett