Recession Indicators: Creator Edition

In partnership with

Hey honeys and hustlers,

The price of food is going up. Gas prices are still high. The cost of goods may or may not be rising. Your local and state taxes are probably going up (thanks, Durham County, for that surprise during my car tag renewal). And who knows if we’ll have affordable health insurance tomorrow. But even in uncertain economic times, there’s one thing I’m certain of: I will make a joke with my last dying breath.

We often talk about diversifying revenue streams as creators and entrepreneurs as a pathway to sustainability. But today, we’re going to talk about it as a means for survival. There is so much money to be made in predictability. And in a recession, people opt for predictable, low-risk, high-reward revenue streams.

• Proven content formats. Tired of TV show remakes? Too bad.

• Evergreen content verticals – health, wealth, and relationships.

• Popular audience engagement tactics that leverage the human affinity for nostalgia, negativity, and catastrophe.

Here are some recession indicators from creators I’ll happily accept.

• Will Smith is releasing a rap album. I had no idea this would be his 5th album.

• SZA and Frank Ocean reportedly have been in the studio. I don’t know the last time I saw this man, or the last time July 31st hasn’t hit differently for me.

• Athletes are starting newsletters. Check out the latest from Russell Westbrook (created on beehiiv).

• People are leaving Substack. I’ve compared Substack to beehiiv. I’ve compared Substack to Kit. And next week, I’ll be sharing a deeper dive on Substack since a few things have happened since I stopped publishing there.

• Severance actors doing a pop-up at the NYC Grand Central train station (honestly, Ben Stiller has been incredible in totality, but still).

• 3 creators that I follow left their full-time jobs to go all-in on their creative businesses (pictured above).

  • Brett Dashevsky left Kickstarter to go full-time on Creator Economy NYC (which recently partnered with Teachable and beehiiv’s NYC Subway brand campaign activation) and Siftsy.

  • Dane Cardiel left Gumball to go full-time on Good Tape (which recently partnered with the Signal Awards) and Off the Record (which recently partnered with Rich Roll’s Voicing Change Podcast Network).

  • Joe Lazer/Lazauskas of The Storytelling Edge left his CMO role to be a full-time writer.

Wait, all of these sound like good things.

And they are. I went full-time at the beginning of the pandemic, so that last bullet point really got my attention. Sometimes the messaging around the economy influences our decision-making. Other times, the story we tell ourselves about our creative journey influences the perceived risks we take. There are a lot of unknowns, but there is also a lot of opportunity and potential for creative collaborations and innovations. The fact that established professionals are willing to take calculated risks by going independent signals both confidence in the creator economy's fundamentals and the existence of sustainable paths forward.

SZA has been all over the place – in a feature film, collaborating with Ben Stiller and Frank Ocean, in a State Farm commercial, hanging out with Kaytranada – and I think that’s a positive sign. Not only can creators be strategic with how they extend their brands, or pivot the foundation of their creative business to make more money, but they can also shift how they view currency.

There are 6 different types of currency: favors, attention, time, money, IP, and the bank of goodwill. Money and funding may be hard to come by right now, but I’m willing to bet that consistently garnering attention for your brand and work will pay dividends in the future. Creating a new project is a deposit in the bank of your creative assets. So much of starting a business or creative project involves sweat equity. If you were running paid campaigns as a means for new client, customer, or audience acquisition, consider how you can get back to organic marketing and leveraging collaborations for growth. And lastly, the difference between a favor and the bank of goodwill? A favor is often a one-time deal. The bank of goodwill requires more consistent deposits. I’m not saying to work for free, but I am saying to show up in whatever way feels right until you’re ready to ask for a return on the information, labor, or network you’ve given in a way that people simply can’t refuse.

Don’t be intimidated by the headlines. Be intimidated by your potential. I’m rooting for you.