Hey! Welcome back to the Creator Economy NYC newsletter, your weekly hit of insights and strategies to help you build, monetize, and scale as a creator.
Most creator advice focuses on how to start, grow, and keep growing. Far less gets said about what happens when the thing you built has run its course.
Markian Benhamou spent 10 years as a creator. He dropped out of university, built Smile Squad into a successful comedy brand with millions of followers…and then he stopped all of it.
3 years later, he’s in what he calls “round two” of being a creator, and he has a new mission, a new body of work, and a very different definition of what he wants to build.
This week: a framework for knowing when a creator chapter is actually over, how to test your next one before you bet the whole business on it, and what to carry forward versus rebuild from scratch when you start again.
Let’s get into it. Plus, announcing the panelists of our next Creator Mixer to close out the summer - RSVP down below.
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Readers of this newsletter know how much I believe in this idea. The creator economy may live online, but relationships still drive it. The creators who build lasting businesses tend to create spaces where people feel connected, understood, and willing to learn from them.
That trust can become the foundation for a course, membership, event series, or broader product ecosystem.
The playbook includes seven practical plays, shaped by what I’ve learned while building Creator Economy NYC and watching creators turn communities into businesses.
It’s free, just click below.
The creator lifecycle: How Markian knew it was time to stop (and start again)
Markian started creating content when he was 15. After dropping out of university to pursue it full-time, he spent three years experimenting before he found the format that took off: relatable comedy sketches about different cultures. That became Smile Squad.
He hired a team, brought other creators into the videos, and spent the next five years building around the format. Eventually, the signs began to stack up: growth plateaued, views declined, the content felt repetitive, and Markian was no longer energized by making it.
“It’s like when you watch a show and it’s reached the seventh season,” he told us. “It’s like, okay, it’s time.”
That line is worth stealing. Markian was watching three signals at once. Call it the “Season Finale Test”:
The Numbers: Is growth flat or declining?
The Rhythm: Does the work feel repetitive, like you’re running lines from memory?
The Spark: Are you still curious about what you’re making?
None of those alone means it’s over. But when two or three start stacking up at the same time, that’s your cue to stop pushing and name where you actually are in the cycle.
He saw two possible paths. He could search for a new channel, series, or content formula, or he could stop creating altogether.
“I didn’t have the energy to start again,” he said. “And then the idea of stopping actually felt really good and natural.”
That realization marked the end of his first creator lifecycle.
🔒 Don’t fuhgeddaboudit: A declining growth chart is never the only signal. Watch for the other two, repetition and lost curiosity, before you write off a slow month as nothing.
Stop doing, start being
Markian’s motto for his next chapter was simple: “Stop doing, start being.”
For years, building the business had been his number-one priority. Stepping away gave him space to travel, slow down, and ask questions that constant publishing had left little room for: Who am I outside of this work? What do I believe? What kind of life do I want? What should the next chapter look like?
“I reached my max capacity in the previous chapter, and I had to evolve in order to do bigger things,” he said.
His “creator sabbatical” gave him time to separate his ability to create from the specific brand and format that had made him successful.
Round two starts with a mission
Markian is a Third Culture Kid, or TCK: someone raised across multiple cultures who does not fully belong to only one. He’s French-American and grew up across Russia, Spain, and Hong Kong.
The experience had always been part of his identity. After three years of traveling for fun, he wanted his next project to contribute to something he felt personally connected to.
He began by hosting meetups for third culture kids in Paris and making content about the experience. People immediately resonated with it. More importantly, Markian felt energized by the work.
“It just fueled this fire inside of me,” he said. “That was the sign of, ‘Ooh, I feel really passionate about this. There’s an opportunity there. Let me just see where it goes.’”
Today, he’s building a broader movement for third culture kids through content, community, and in-person experiences. He hosted TCK Fest, an annual festival for 100 third culture kids, and is exploring what the media side of the brand can become.
He’s still early. He doesn’t have every format, platform, or business model figured out yet. This time, the mission came before the machine.
🔒 Don’t fuhgeddaboudit: You don’t need a polished rebrand to test your next chapter. Start with the smallest real expression of the idea: a meetup, a short-form series, or one community event. Then watch for two signals, whether people respond and whether the work gives you energy back.
Starting over doesn’t always mean starting from zero
Markian’s pivot raises a question many established creators wrestle with:
Do you bring your existing audience with you, or build a new one from scratch?
His answer depends on the platform.
He still posts on the same Instagram account, where there’s some natural overlap between his former culture-focused comedy and his new third culture kid content. When he launches a long-form YouTube show, he plans to create a separate channel.
Even with an existing following, he’s realistic about how much of that audience is relevant to the new mission.
“Part of me wishes that I lost all my followers and could start from a base of 50,000 followers who resonate with the TCK content,” he said.
An inherited audience gives you reach, but not necessarily alignment. Markian believes today’s interest-driven algorithms make the transition easier: new content can find the people it’s relevant to, while an old follower count offers no guarantee that every post will perform.
That gives you more freedom to evolve as a creator. The right move may be a gradual transition on one platform and a clean slate on another.
“This is our life. This is our content,” he said. “If, as a creator, we’re done making a piece of content this way, then we change.”
Keep the principles. Relearn the formats.
Markian has more than a decade of creator experience, and he still doesn’t pretend to know which new video will go viral.
What he does have is a set of principles that will apply to any version of a creator business:
Experiment with multiple ideas and formats.
Pay close attention to who the content is for.
When something works, double down and turn it into a repeatable formula.
Adapt to how audiences consume content without abandoning the fundamentals.
Right now, he’s using short-form content as a testing ground. It lets him learn which ideas and formats resonate before making the larger investment in long-form.
He sees a YouTube series as the likely next evolution, a place to cultivate a deeper audience and build a more substantial business around the mission.
“There is an element of adapting to the times while keeping the principles the same,” he said.
That may be the biggest advantage of beginning again. Markian gets to approach the new brand with a beginner’s openness and a veteran’s pattern recognition.
The NYC Minute
After growing up around the world, building his first creator business, and beginning his second chapter in Europe, Markian sees New York as a key advantage in what he’s building.
“The energy is contagious,” he said. “The brands are here, the creators are here, the energy is here.”
The density makes collaboration easier. The people he wants to work with are often already nearby, and the city’s ambition has helped him feel more motivated about what he’s building.
“It feels like the opportunities are limitless,” he said.
Steal This Playbook
Three lessons to take from Markian’s story:
Know that a creator lifecycle is a natural part of the process. Once you know where you are in the journey, it can help you figure out your next step. It can also help you know whether it’s time to refresh, pivot, or pause altogether.
Test the next chapter before you engineer the whole business. Host the meetup. Publish five videos. Run one event. Look for audience demand and your own sustained curiosity before committing to a full relaunch.
Carry your principles forward. Platforms, formats, and audiences are guaranteed to change over time. But there are learnings that will be useful in every creator era, things like experimentation, audience awareness, and doubling down on real signals.
Our next event: Sept 9th - Creator Money Moves Mixer with Relay
We’re teaming back up with our friends at Relay for another night bringing together some of NYC’s top creators, operators, and industry leaders.
This time, we’re talking money moves as a creator.
Join us for great vibes, meeting people worth meeting, and a live conversation about what happens once the money starts coming in - how creators are growing beyond brand deals, building new revenue streams, and turning creator income into something bigger.
We’re excited to welcome an all-star panel of NYC creators making moves of their own: Crust By Carson, Felecia For The Win, Career Colin, and Alberta Tech.
If you’ve already built real momentum and are thinking about what’s next, this night is for you.
Two free tools top creators use to keep themselves moving
The Creator Goal Setting Guide (FREE): A simple but powerful document to help you declare who you want to BECOME in 2026. Get it here.
The Creator Accountability System (FREE): Your visual companion for consistent creation in 2026. Get it here.
Thanks for reading! Markian’s story is a reminder that all creator businesses are constantly evolving and you need to evolve along with it.
F*ck It, Create It,
Brett
With research, interview and editorial support by Taylor Cromwell - a newsletter and creator economy expert and founder of Creator Diaries. Follow Taylor on LinkedIn.