Latest / Influencer Confidential / Creator Economy SECRETS & Top 2025 Trends From Influencer Marketing Expert #234

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Creator Economy SECRETS & Top 2025 Trends From Influencer Marketing Expert #234 · Influencer Confidential

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
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  Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
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  Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the curtain? Well,
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  Speaker 1: let's jump in as someone who's managed hundreds of thousands
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  Speaker 1: of dollars of budgets on the brand side and also
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  Speaker 1: has a creator community of over one hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 1: thousand creators. I'm very excited about today. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: deep dive into creator economy, predictions, influencer marketing trends for
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  Speaker 1: the new year. Please note that the predictions and the
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  Speaker 1: things I'm going to share are our opinions here at
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  Speaker 1: Sidewalker Daily, and they are in no specific order. This
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  Speaker 1: is what I think is going to come down the
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  Speaker 1: pipeline in our industry. So the first big prediction and
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  Speaker 1: or trend that I see happening, and this is going
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  Speaker 1: to affect me dearly, is say goodbye to batch content.
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  Speaker 1: Audiences want creators and brands to be alive on social media.
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  Speaker 1: That means batching months in advance and being out of
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  Speaker 1: touch with your audiences in your community. And does that
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  Speaker 1: mean that you can't batch every green style videos. Of
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  Speaker 1: course you can, but audiences expect you to show up
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  Speaker 1: to be alive. Showing up is the bare minimum you
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  Speaker 1: have to put energy into it daily versus batching your
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  Speaker 1: content out of time. Batching was a really big trend
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  Speaker 1: we saw about two years ago, but I think people
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  Speaker 1: that went down the batching route their social media is
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  Speaker 1: not as strong as people who actually pour love and
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  Speaker 1: energy into their social every single day. As someone who
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  Speaker 1: also batches her content, I know that when we post
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  Speaker 1: live and when we are more trending and talking about
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  Speaker 1: things that matter, and we're like feeding the energy of
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  Speaker 1: our content into our channel, it just does better. Twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five is also going to be the year that
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  Speaker 1: creators are going to be more respected and seen as professionals.
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  Speaker 1: We have seen creators and politics. We have seen creators
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  Speaker 1: in the media being quoted in the media, their stats
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  Speaker 1: out there. I believe spout Social recently reported that thirty
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  Speaker 1: percent of people trust influencers now more than they did
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  Speaker 1: six months ago. Influencers are not just you know, on
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  Speaker 1: the sidelines. They are coming in to the media in
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  Speaker 1: ways that we have not seen or expected outside of
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  Speaker 1: just owning their own brands. They are getting media training,
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  Speaker 1: they're own podcast episodes. Like I said, they're being quoted.
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  Speaker 1: This is the year of the career influencer. Our company
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  Speaker 1: personally has seen a huge uptick in the amount of
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  Speaker 1: creators investing in proposal documents, in case study documents, and
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  Speaker 1: refine media kits because they know that these are sales
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  Speaker 1: tools that they are able to create and then use
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  Speaker 1: to generate tenenty twenty thousand dollars brand deals. So they
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  Speaker 1: are investing in themselves as businesses. They're treating themselves as professionals,
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  Speaker 1: They're hiring people. I mean, this is now truly becoming
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  Speaker 1: the year that creators are professionalizing and taking this from
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  Speaker 1: hobby to tru lead a business. And because of that,
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  Speaker 1: I cannot tell you my next prediction. LinkedIn I think
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  Speaker 1: is going to pop off in ways that we have
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  Speaker 1: not seen before, especially the creators and influencers I work with.
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  Speaker 1: They are posting on social, but now they're posting on LinkedIn.
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  Speaker 1: And guess what they're posting on LinkedIn. They're not posting
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  Speaker 1: the same stuff that they post on social. They're talking
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  Speaker 1: to brands over there, they're posting about their favorite brand
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  Speaker 1: partnership they're using LinkedIn, so strategically it is wild. I
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  Speaker 1: think a big, big prediction is we're going to see
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  Speaker 1: all our professional creators, the ones that are making this
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  Speaker 1: as a full time income, get more on LinkedIn, care
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  Speaker 1: about their LinkedIn profiles, optimize them, and use LinkedIn to
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  Speaker 1: help take their business to the next level. From a
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  Speaker 1: monetary perspective, today's trend report is sponsored by me Sidewalker Daily.
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  Speaker 1: If you're a creator that wants to pitch to brands
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  Speaker 1: and you're ready to dive in head first, you want
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the blueprint you want to be able to do this,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I suggest you look into our Pitching a Brand's master Course.
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  Speaker 1: This is the most robust course you will find in
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the entire world. We're talking thirty hours of content. From
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: a video perspective, you're going to get my signature pitches,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: strategies that are not available anywhere else. You're going to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: have access to media kitsos and testimonials. We will teach
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: you how to make money on paid brand deals. Whether
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it's in the GUGC world or the influencer world YouTubers, TikTokers, instagrammers, whatever,
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  Speaker 1: whether you're just starting out or you've been doing this forever.
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  Speaker 1: We've helped creators with seven thousand followers land six figure
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  Speaker 1: brand deals. We've helped creators with millions of followers be
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  Speaker 1: able to take one partnership and you know, close a
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  Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars brand deal. There's nothing we haven't
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  Speaker 1: seen in this industry, y'all, from new creators who are
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  Speaker 1: just getting started to more advanced creators. We will support
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: you in your pitching journey. So that's something that sounds
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: exciting to you. Make sure you go ahead and check
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: out our pitching program. And now let's jump back into
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the trend report. I think another big trend that I
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  Speaker 1: am seeing, at least in the creator or community that
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  Speaker 1: I work with, my membership community, my coaching students, my
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  Speaker 1: pitching a brand's master course students, whether it's in the
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  Speaker 1: Facebook group, on the one on ones that I'm doing,
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  Speaker 1: creators are getting just way more confident selling directly to
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  Speaker 1: their audiences. So for a very long time, influencers were
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  Speaker 1: afraid to sell. They really little into it feels itch.
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  Speaker 1: I don't like it right. They didn't like to sell
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  Speaker 1: to their audiences. When I say sell, I mean direct sell,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's their own guides or their own PDFs. And
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  Speaker 1: that's why they would oftentimes do brand partnerships because the
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  Speaker 1: brand is paying them right But now there's something happening.
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  Speaker 1: They're like, you know what, this is a business, So
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  Speaker 1: I got to diversify my income right now to be fair,
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  Speaker 1: seventy percent of a creator's income now is brand deals.
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  Speaker 1: This is the biggest way that creators are monetizing because
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to OROI of time, it's the best
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  Speaker 1: baying for your buck. Brand partnerships is how creators are
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  Speaker 1: making the most money. But we're seeing them less afraid
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  Speaker 1: to sell, whether it's for their brand partnerships, their affiliates,
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  Speaker 1: direct to consumer. They're leaning into it now. We had
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  Speaker 1: a conversation with my community the other day and people
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  Speaker 1: were still kind of like, oh, I don't want to,
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  Speaker 1: but they had that realization that if they don't do this,
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  Speaker 1: if they don't really learn how to get a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more intentional with selling, that they're going to fall
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  Speaker 1: through the wayside. Because people are now realizing this is
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  Speaker 1: a business. It's funny. I had a call just this
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  Speaker 1: morning with a creator who has like two hundred thousand followers,
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  Speaker 1: and she kind of told me the same thing. I
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  Speaker 1: don't want to be posting all this sort of content,
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  Speaker 1: you know, our sponsored content. How do I like prevent that?
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  Speaker 1: And I said, really, there's two ways. Either you get
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  Speaker 1: higher paid brand deals so you can work with less brands,
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  Speaker 1: or the cost of losing that follower will not outweigh
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  Speaker 1: the costs you're getting from the brand partnership. So like,
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  Speaker 1: you may have to just be okay with losing some followers,
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  Speaker 1: and that may just be a mindset you have to
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  Speaker 1: kind of step into and again, to each his own,
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  Speaker 1: but this is something that I did recognize is still
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  Speaker 1: a mindset, like people are uncomfortable going online. But then
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  Speaker 1: the ones that are really making serious money, I mean
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking one hundred thousand dollars months, they're like, unfollow me,
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  Speaker 1: go for it. I don't care. I have this sponsorship
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  Speaker 1: with Samsung, I have the sponsorship with all State, Like,
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  Speaker 1: this is a business, and if you want to unfollow
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  Speaker 1: us because that bothers you see yourself out. I have
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  Speaker 1: seen that energy in the creators that I'm working with,
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  Speaker 1: especially the high level ones. This kind of comes with
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  Speaker 1: this whole confidence shift that I am seeing in the
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  Speaker 1: creator economy as creators, because they're being more respected, because
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  Speaker 1: they're being brought into public facing rules. Because creators are
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  Speaker 1: now truly seeing themselves as the business owners that they
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  Speaker 1: should be, they are more confident with saying no low
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  Speaker 1: ball offers, perpetuity clauses, strong exclusivity. Creators are walking away.
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  Speaker 1: They are not desperate. Just recently, I was talking to
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  Speaker 1: a big group of travel creators and they were doing
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  Speaker 1: something with a big luxury hotel. The contract was signed
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  Speaker 1: and last minute the hotel did not want to budge
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  Speaker 1: on their perpetuity clause. These are big creators all that
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  Speaker 1: if they went through with it, they would have just
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  Speaker 1: been selling themselves short. And they're like, we don't want
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  Speaker 1: to work with you, We'll just get an AIRBNBT and
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  Speaker 1: that's exactly what they did. Creators are walking away from
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  Speaker 1: brand deals because they are also confident in their businesses.
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  Speaker 1: They know their worth, they know their value. So we
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  Speaker 1: are seeing a shift of power where creators are a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more in control of their future. Now, if
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five is a year that you have decided
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  Speaker 1: to take brand deals, brand partnerships, UGC, content, whatever it is,
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  Speaker 1: but the making money side seiously. Then I would love
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  Speaker 1: for you guys to come to my next free life training.
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  Speaker 1: I will be doing a roleplay, I'll be sharing my screen.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to help you get ready to send those
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  Speaker 1: pitches out so that you are all set to go
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  Speaker 1: in the new year and finally start making money on
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  Speaker 1: the brand deal side of things. I will leave the
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  Speaker 1: link to my free training below. Come join me live
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: and get those questions answered. Another big prediction I am
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  Speaker 1: seeing is creators finally getting serious about affiliate partnerships. Affiliates
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  Speaker 1: are in for twenty twenty five now. One thing I
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  Speaker 1: do want to preface is when I talk about affiliate
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking really about the creator who's already going to
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  Speaker 1: create content to ensure that they have affiliate links for
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  Speaker 1: said content. They're talking about specific products. I don't mean
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  Speaker 1: a creator not getting paid for a brand deal because
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  Speaker 1: the brand wants to pay you an affiliate. That is
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  Speaker 1: not what I'm talking about. So let me give you
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  Speaker 1: an example. A creator is doing a get ready with me,
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  Speaker 1: and she's showing different products that she's doing or drinking
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  Speaker 1: or using or whatever. By not having affiliate links, it
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  Speaker 1: is a missed opportunity that creator is using stuff people want.
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  Speaker 1: I want to go buy it, and she's not going
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  Speaker 1: to get a cut because she did not take the
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  Speaker 1: time to create those affiliate links. That is truly a
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  Speaker 1: big missed opportunity here. The idea is, why not earn
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  Speaker 1: money on the things that you are going to recommend anyways. Again,
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  Speaker 1: she's going to do a get ready with me anyways,
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  Speaker 1: so why not take the time to create those links. Again.
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  Speaker 1: There are cases where brands come to you and they're
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  Speaker 1: that they don't want to pay you. You were not
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  Speaker 1: planning on making this content, and now they're like, oh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: but we can give you an affiliate No, no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about really
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  Speaker 1: setting yourself up for success in the affiliate space on
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  Speaker 1: content you would do anyways. Now, I do want to
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: just again share stats because this is what lights me
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  Speaker 1: up is when I hear from real creators. Just today
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that had a conversation with a creator she sold in
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  Speaker 1: the last thirty days twenty six thousand dollars in Amazon
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  Speaker 1: revenue total revenue. I was like, Wow, that is amazing
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a creator. Yesterday I had a coaching call with I'm
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  Speaker 1: doing like a big program with her and we're pitching.
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  Speaker 1: She told me that in the last year she is
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  Speaker 1: so over a million dollars in Amazon product She literally
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: said a million dollars. She was like, I'm even blown
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  Speaker 1: away by this. And she's coming to me because she's
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  Speaker 1: trying to up her brand partnerships because she is doing
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  Speaker 1: a lot already on affiliates. So again, this is stuff
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  Speaker 1: she's already posting about. She's already doing, so she's just
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  Speaker 1: taking the extra time to make sure those affiliates are
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  Speaker 1: in place. Now. Speaking about affiliates, I think a big
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  Speaker 1: trend this year is Amazon influencers. They are in. They
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: are a big time in, and they're in especially when
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: it comes to brand deals because Amazon influencers can sell
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  Speaker 1: Amazon that influencers can sell like nobody's business. We just
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  Speaker 1: talked about that one girl who sold a million this year.
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  Speaker 1: How strong is that all her efforts for the last
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: coming years being an Amazon influencer. We are now using
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  Speaker 1: that data in our twenty twenty five pitching efforts. So
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  Speaker 1: those creators that really focus on their affiliates, they're going
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to reap the benefits in twenty twenty five because they're
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  Speaker 1: going to be able to use all that data in
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: pitching in higher paid brand deals. Another big trend we're
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: seeing full on, full force is live shopping, but live
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  Speaker 1: shopping like in a way we've never seen it before.
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  Speaker 1: I was recently in Santa Monica and I saw a
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: pop up from Outlandish. They literally have a studio space
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: on the third Street promenade where you can go in
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  Speaker 1: and have little mini studios to do live shopping, whether
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: it's for TikTok shop or for Amazon live shopping, or
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you know, even on social media, we're seeing a lot
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: more social integrations happening. Live shopping is now something people everyday,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: people are comfortable doing. It's not as scary. I actually
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: was talking to this like jewelry creator the other day
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  Speaker 1: and she has a small following, but she sells jewelry
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  Speaker 1: and she was selling her jewelry on an Instagram live
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  Speaker 1: and she's like, yeah, we need ten thousand dollars just
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: selling our jewelry. So that just again got me thinking
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: about how live shopping is not going away, but it's
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  Speaker 1: getting stronger. And again that Santa Monica example just shows
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  Speaker 1: how powerful it is. With the rise of TikTok Shop
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: as well as you know, Amazon's videos live shopping is
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  Speaker 1: not going anywhere. In twenty twenty five, we're going to
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: see a big boost now, a prediction that I'm seeing
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and this kind of ties into that creator being super
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: professional and making this a business is old school networking,
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  Speaker 1: in person network equators treating this as they should be,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: which is client services. We are seeing more of that.
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  Speaker 1: Like I told one of my creator friends, I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: you need to fly to New York and go up
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: to dinner with all your PR connections. Like you need
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to make that effort because the people that have in
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: person connections, those relationships just last way longer. You'll be
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: top of mind, these brands will hire you more, You'll
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: create friendships. That's really how magic is done in business.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: People work with people they like. You don't have to
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: like wine and dine people. But again, as a creator,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: we're going to see more in person networking. We're going
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to see creators making this effort to treat these brands
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: in a client service mentality to get longer retainers, to
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: get bigger partnerships. And we're seeing that being done in person.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: People are saying goodbye to Zoom and they're going and
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: doing in person networking twenty twenty five is also where
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: we're going to see long form content like this be
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: up at front and center. Now. Short form has taken
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: over the game for the last couple of years, but
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: there is a subset. There is a niche community out
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: there of people that want long form video. Everyday. Creators
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: are joining substack right because it's a way to monetize.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: It's a newsletter. People are getting sick and tired of
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: algorithms and social There are people that are tired of
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: trending viral videos. They just want to follow people in
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: a quieter way. Even on YouTube. I would dare say
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that vlogs are making a comeback. Funny enough, you know,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: we are seeing more and more creators vlog to build
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: community with their audiences. Some blogs are like an hour long.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I was on my Inner Circle call. These girls were
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: telling me they're big YouTube bloggers. They're like, yeah, our
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: vlogs do amazing, and I was like, I thought, vlogs
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: don't help. So vlogs are not good for SEO and
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: for search, but they're great for community building, and they're
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: great for your audience feeling like they really know you.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: We're talking an hour plus like in vlog content is
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: going to be a big thing in twenty twenty five. Now,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: if you want to stay on the short form train,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: that's fine, whether you decide short or long form. Let's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: talk about those series that we're seeing. TikTok is the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: queen of this. I think when you start seeing like
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: these serialized concepts, you know, this ten part story, these
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: fifteen part stories where you just obsessively binging to see
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the next video. This is something I've seen creators do,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and the creators that do it well have a profound impact.
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  Speaker 1: People get hooked. It's when they create a series of
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: content right, and they all kind of link together and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: it's like a ten part series. I've seen eighty part
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: series on TikTok and I'm telling you, I am like
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: part eighty two and I'm still there watching it. This
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: type of content resonates really well, and it does work
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: nicely on short form because you're able to get through
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: it quickly. But I also think that this is a
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: strategy when we talk about creating more series that we
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: can see on long form content as well. Now, we
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: can't do a trends video without talking about our good
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: girlfriend ai Ai is here. It ain't going nowhere, and
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that's not a bad thing. We're going to learn how
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: to use it to optimize our businesses. Creators are using
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: this to brainstorm, to cont tent generate, to help with captions,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: just again to get efficient. I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: If you did, make sure to rate, review, and subscribe
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to our show and visit Sidewalkerdaily dot com for more
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: resources on all things influencer, marketing and social media. Until
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: next time,