The creator economy doesn't have a monetization problem. It has an inventory problem. I think creators are sitting on undervalued media inventory and don't know how to price it. Brands know how to exploit this, and to make exits to fix this inventory asymmetry. This is the venture media voice at full value, no tips, no hacks, just a GP calling out a market inefficiency with numbers.

Most creator advice focuses on audience growth as the path to money. That's wrong. Creators with 50,000 followers are broke. There are some creators with 5,000 followers that are still getting $3,000 deals. That gap exists. Because that exists, we can understand that the follower count doesn't guarantee you anything. If anything, you could say engagement matters more, but even then none of that is valuable if you don't have the right systems, relationships, and the right positioning for your brand overall.

The real problem is that creators don't understand what they're selling. They think they're selling content. What they're actually selling is media inventory.

Media inventory can be a few different things:

Every piece of content you create is your media inventory unit. It's important to note that you as a creator have to establish which of these is most important to you. I don't believe you need to have all of these set up and ready to go, but the more you have, the more profitable you can be. This is a warning because I don't want you as a creator to try to have all of these different platforms and all of these media assets ready to go, and you're not putting them together consistently. That's only going to make your life harder, and your content is going to suffer.

Most creators publish that kind of inventory and give the placement away for free to the algorithms, to sponsors who lowball them, or even guests that spam them to be on the show. I would argue that 90% of podcasts have this problem. They have guests reaching out constantly to be on their show who offer no sort of value or leverage. You don't want to be a podcaster releasing that kind of value for free, because you really get nothing for it. Sponsors don't come calling. None of these people have a large enough audience to where their guest appearance matters, and you still end up doing all the work and getting nothing for it.

Creators have to change this, especially podcasters. Back in the day, blogging actually had relationships where this would work. If you had a blog and you were trying to get it off the ground, you could bring in several different bloggers who had their own blogs, and you all could just help each other grow by constantly releasing articles. Now, the same thing should be happening with podcasts, but for some reason it's not coming together well. That's another story for another article.

The big thing here I want you to take away is a language shift. Stop calling your content content. Now it's inventory. When I release a podcast episode or a newsletter like this, this is inventory. I present it that way because when I'm talking to media buyers, they now have a different perspective of who I am as a creator.

Brands know what your media inventory is worth. Their media buyers have CPM benchmarks, audience comp, and data conversion baselines. The creators walk into negotiations with a follower count and a vibe. The brand walks in with a spreadsheet. The information asymmetry is the gap. Brands exploit it every time, not because they're predatory, but because the creator handed them leverage. You, as a creator, have to understand that some of these brands are willing to take advantage of you, and it's your job to be a qualified creator to have these conversations about being profitable.

This is why I also preach that creators should learn this kind of stuff as soon as you start creating content. Don't wait until you're a year or three years or five years in the content game to start taking content creation more seriously. In the early days, when you're buying your equipment and you're first setting up your social handles, you should also be learning how to actually present your brand to other brands. You want to be treated at a certain level with a certain type of respect.

This understanding is exactly why there are some B2B podcasts that have around 1,000 downloads an episode but they command a $150 CPM, while a lifestyle creator has 50,000 followers and gets offered $200 flat. Audience composition and intent. Brands know this, creators don't. That's something that you as a creator have to learn sooner rather than later.

Well first, you can start with booking a free Working Session. This is where I help creators directly with their systems, strategies, and profitability. Check out a recent example with Megan of Hot Girls Build Cults.

If you've been posting consistently and have nothing to show for it financially, it's not an audience problem. It's a pricing and packaging problem that's fixable, and that's exactly what the Creator Accelerator is built to fix. If this is a conversation you've been missing, that's what In the Making is for. Reply to this email or join our community, and we're going to help you be profitable.