This week on The Materialist, I’m joined by Tiffany Lopinsky — co-founder and president of ShopMy, the platform quietly powering your favorite creators.

We cover a lot of ground: the evolution of influencer marketing, why affiliate and subscription revenue might just save the creator economy, and what it takes to build something useful, without a playbook.

Tiffany speaks with the clarity of someone who’s seen behind the curtain — first as a content creator herself (shout out to Boston Foodies), and now as the operator behind a platform with 175,000 creators and 30,000 brands.

“There’s no playbook for something that hasn’t been done before. Otherwise, you’d have to write the playbook once you do it.”

That could be the ShopMy manifesto — and it wouldn’t be a bad one for the rest of us, either.

📌 Highlights from Our Conversation

• The 3 ways creators make money todayFlat-fee partnerships, affiliate revenue, and subscriptions. (Spoiler: Tiffany thinks the second and third are where freedom — and taste — live.)

• Why micro-influence isn’t just a buzzwordThe power isn’t always in scale — it's in specificity. Smart brands know that the right creator with 10k followers can outperform a scripted macro-influencer with a million.

• The changing role of press & retailLegacy media and department stores are losing ground. Creators now function like boutique editors and independent shopkeepers — and they’re often better at it.

• The invisible architecture of tasteShopMy isn’t just helping brands find creators — it’s helping good taste scale.

🛍 Brands Tiffany Loves (and Why)

Here are a few brands Tiffany mentions in the episode — all discoverable (and shoppable) through ShopMy:

* Le Monde Beryl — Elegant flats rooted in timeless design.

* Emme Parsons — Sandals and refined footwear with a minimalist soul.

* Porta NYC — Brooklyn-based earthenware shop she can’t stop talking about.

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