We’ve been talking to some talent managers of late. They play an important role for many creators, managing the business of their influencer status while the creator, well creates. Many of them add another perspective to the creative process, contribute ideas to shape partnerships into something more than they would be otherwise and are valuable to the brands and agencies in the equation as well.

But allow me a moment to be rather frank. Those are exceptions to the rule. Most talent managers are in it for one thing: maximizing the take so they maximize their commission.

Too many managers ask for inflated rates that show no economical connection to how many people will actually engage with the content. Yes, there is value in just the content, usage rights and the like. But if the purpose of an influencer collaboration is to get a message in front of their audience, then there has to be some attention paid to how many of said audience the message will reach and resonate with.

I've also been frustrated with conversations around usage rights.

But, I digress.

As much as we’ve been propping talent managers up lately on the show, I feel like we need to have a different discussion about them and the practice. Just so happens Jessy Grossman also thinks talent manager roles have changed and should be changing.

Jessy is the woman behind Women in Influencer Marketing. She’s got a great community and podcast, both by that name and abbreviated WIIM sometimes.

You may recall she was a previous guest on the show, back in May of 2021. We talked mostly about WIIM back then.

But she reached out recently and said, “Traditional talent management is becoming obsolete and needs to change.” Color me both curious and delighted.

Now, I’m not implying Jessy agrees with my semi-rant about fees and licensing and such. But I did think it was suitable to bring her back to Winfluence to have the conversation.

This episode of Winfluence is presented by CIPIO.ai. We are helping brands transform their digital marketing with user-generated content videos and images at scale. Come see us at CIPIO.ai. If you want me to personally show you the platform and how we can solve your digital marketing performance problems with high-performing UGC, just go to jasonfalls.co/cipio … fill out that form and I’ll personally set up time to chat with you.

Find show notes for this episode at jasonfalls.com/jessygrossman2.

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Influencer and Creator Talent Management is Outdated and Needs a Face Lift