Why Creators and Influencers Need a Mission Statement
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WHY CREATORS AND INFLUENCERS NEED A MISSION STATEMENT
Today, we're gonna talk about the importance of having a mission statement as a creator or influencer and how clarifying your vision and values will help you grow your audience and your bank account.
In this post, you're gonna learn the difference between
a mission statement
a vision statement and
a values statement
PLUS
Why doubling down on your content niche and specific expertise will help accelerate your follower growth.
How solving your audience's problems with your purpose will help you make more money.
People's passion for creating a profession of their own fulfillment and desire makes the creator world so interesting. We see this enormous percentage of people saying that now they wanna grow up to be YouTube stars instead of astronauts, and there's been this large-scale awakening of people's consciousness around what they wanna do with their lives. People realize that they don't end up on their deathbed saying all those things I could have owned. It's all those things I could have done, the things that they actually wanna spend their time doing, and that means finding a genuinely fulfilling job, which has been very difficult to find these days. And so when people see their heroes being able to turn their passion into their profession, you know, make a living off of their art, they say, man, I wish I could do that too. And I genuinely believe that everyone, somewhere inside of them, has something unique to share. Maybe it's a one-hit-wonder song. Perhaps it's an incredible blog post, and that'll be the end of it. Some people, it could be an entire career of videography, but I think everyone deserves that chance to get up on the world stage and provide something to the world that only they can make.
How Many Influencers Are There Currently?
SignalFire released some interesting proprietary research in late September. It was this fascinating study around how many creators there are now, right? And you had a top-line number of something like almost 50 million. And it was, I think it was like 2 million professional creators and something like nearly 47 million amateur creators. So like talk a little bit about, I mean, it seems like there's so much diversity amongst the different types of creators. Like before, you would think, Oh, it's like a YouTuber, that's a creator, right. But there are so many other different types of ways people are making a living creating content, creating projects, things like that.
So what they did was map out this creator economy startup ecosystem 'cause we genuinely believe that if this is the fastest-growing segment of small businesses, there will be an array of incredible and massively valuable startups built to serve those creators. And so, when they did this big research project, they found that there were almost 47 million amateur creators and over 2 million professional creators out there on the web that are basically making money either part-time or full-time from their creatorship. Not just posting content online. And that includes about 500,000 Instagram professionals, 300,000 on Twitch, over a million YouTube professional creators. And then on Instagram for amateurs, over 30 million creators are making some part-time income from this industry.
Three Phases of the Creator Economy
They found when they looked at the overarching trends going on with the creator economy that there were these three phases, these three layers through history that have really defined how the creator economy has worked. So let me lay those out for you.
STEP 1- Foundational Media Platforms
So step one was the foundational media platforms. These are the extensive social networks that everyone knows and loves. And initially, creators started to grow on these because people were looking for great content. And they've found that as long as they made content that was both brand-safe and something that brands would be interested in advertising, they could start to earn a little bit of money off of their ad views like on YouTube.
But what happened was that as the influencer world grew and the followings of those creators grew, they started to pull in this influencer marketing, and we saw the rise of influencer marketing. And their brands were again paying creators who were brand safe to do product placement sponsored content and use the reach they built upon these platforms to distribute that content in exchange for money. And so, as I said, the first step was to build the platforms and build an audience.
STEP 2- Monetize That Audience
The second step was to monetize that audience.
But the third step, I think, is most exciting, and that's where we are today.
STEP 3- Creators Becoming Their Own Business
And that's with creators becoming their own businesses because they built these giant fandoms. There's been this proliferation of new tools to help them monetize. They're starting to be able to move their fans off of the core social networks into either niche social networks or owned properties where they can earn a lot more than just a few cents per ad view. And that includes, you know, platforms like Patreon.
And also opportunities for shout-outs like Cameo, selling merchandise through apps like 4th Wall. And there's just been this explosion of new tools to help them.
How This Changed the Industry
Instead of appealing to the lowest common denominator, be totally brand-safe and kind of sterilized and boring. Instead, creators can make content just for a specific niche audience, which unlocks a lot more creativity because they don't have to conform to what's mainstream and popular. They can make just what resonates with those biggest fans because they can earn a lot more per fan through tipping, patronage, merchandise, and these other streams.
What's really great about that is it unlocks a few other things. One is that creatorship is no longer reserved for just the previously financially stable. Because it used to take so long to build up an audience on social networks before you could really start monetizing, it was really only the avenue of people who either had a ton of free time like kids or people who already had financial backing. But, things like TikTok and these new algorithms can launch somebody to popularity as long as they make a great piece of content. It doesn't matter how many followers they already had. You can create a big following overnight, which unlocks creatordom for underrepresented minorities and the financially underprivileged, as well as people we traditionally haven't been creators in the past. Plus, what you also get with that is the rise of diverse representation, which is essential. And we've seen this movement in Hollywood. People wanna see all sorts of different-looking people on the screen, and we're finally seeing that with creatordom too. And now every single subculture, every social justice movement, every sexual preference, every type of hobby and interest gets their own subculture. And that is a win for the public because that means that no matter what you love, there's somebody making content that will exemplify and deepen that love.
With this evolution of creators starting their own businesses and potentially bringing some of their fans to some of these other sites or apps or whatever else they're selling, patronage, that kind of thing, comes a little bit more of a responsibility to act like a business. Like, you know, it's less needing to game the algorithm on this platform that where I rose to fame, but now they need to think like a real business. And so, you know, creators are pretty similar to startups in that sense. Because to succeed, they need to think very clearly about the kind of customers or maybe their followers they're trying to serve. And so, one of the things I thought we could discuss today was mission statements and how powerful they can be to creators.
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Mission Statement Versus Vision Statement
I wanted to just quickly first discuss the difference between
a mission statement
a vision statement and
a value statement
MISSION STATEMENT
I hear people kind of get those mixed up quite a bit. And so, I wanted to quickly throw out a definition. So according to Lumen Learning, a vision statement is a statement of an organization's overarching aspirations of what it hopes to achieve or become. So their examples were Disney; their vision is to make people happy. And IKEA is to create a better everyday life for many people.
VISION STATEMENT
So the vision statement describes where the organization wants me in the future, a mission statement describes what the organization needs to do now to achieve the vision. So their examples are Honest Tea. So they wanna create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages. That's there, you know what they need to do now to achieve that vision, and JetBlue Airways was to inspire humanity both in the air and on the ground. And lastly is the values statement. And essentially, this is, you know what they term a code of ethics, right?
So How Are We Going to Act to be Able to Achieve Both the Mission and the Vision?
So first, just to think about this shift with creators, they're moving from being artists to being founders. Traditionally, a hundred years ago, if you wanted to be an artist, all you had to do was play guitar. You'd play a good guitar, and you could become super famous, but eventually, you had to become a radio personality. You had to go on the Ed Sullivan show, be on TV, become an actor, shoot music videos, become a videographer, a cinematographer. Then eventually, with the advent of the internet, you needed to become a community manager, a data scientist to make sense of all that data. You get to design merchandise and even be an engineer to run all of these systems that you're working with and a product manager to cobble together all these different tools.
And so, the role of the creator has really changed. And it's become one of actually being a team builder because it's infrequent to find all of these skills within a single person. And that means you need to convince people to join your creator club or, you know, your production studio the same way that a startup's founder needs to convince employees to come to join their company. And what you have to do to convince them that there is an excellent payday or an incredible opportunity on the horizon. That's when this vision statements these value statements. That's where these come in.
Because if you're a creator, you need to recruit people not only because they think there's gonna be a payday in the future. But because
You're actually doing something beneficial to the world, that you're creating that kind of diverse representation.
You're serving some subculture that's never had content made for it.
You're talking about important issues that may be the mainstream media isn't talking about.
VALUE STATEMENT
Your values statement is what I believe is how you act.
Your mission statement is what you want that acting to bring you.
Your vision statement is where that will carry you in the longterm.
I think if you put those all together, you'll be able to attract people to join your creator team. And that's really critical if you wanna be able to succeed.
Successfully Build Your Team
This is the format that I found was the most successful for pitching just about anything, whether you're pitching your boss on why you should lead a project, investors about why they should fund your startup, or why someone should join your team, this was the rubric that I think worked the best. So you first start off with the problem.
This is where you wanna drive home the emotional resonance of why what you're building or creating even matters. Because if you jump in the right with your identity, who you are, and introduction or talking about what you make, your solution right away, people won't understand why they need it. And if they're not the exact target audience, it's gonna fly right over their head.
So first off, frame who is this for? Who has the problem? What's broken about the world? What's missing in the content space that you want to fill. And when you do that, you're gonna make people feel like, man, why is this missing? Why doesn't this exist? I wish this did. And that's when you hit them with the solution where you talk about what you're making to fill that gap. Why what you're making is exponentially better, not just a linear innovation on top of what came before it. Because network effects and the cost of switching can be really intense, people don't want to switch to a new product or join and follow an unknown creator.
Show What Makes You Unique
You have to show them you're not just a little better. You're much better than what came before it. But at the end of the day, ideas are a dime a dozen. A million people want to jump into being a creator. It's obviously become one of the most popular professions, every kid wants to be one. And so you're gonna need to differentiate. And that's where the evidence comes in. This is where you talk about why you are the right person to lead this project, be this creator or run this startup. So you might talk about why you know you have an incredible experience that taught you exactly what you need to do or understand the customer or the target audience or the demographic you're trying to reach. It's when you talk about how you have these skills that you've put together that let you, you know, do the videography yourself or be able to do this affordably, or, you know you make your own music, or you do your own dances, design your own choreography. You're talking about what it is that you create specifically, what skills you bring.
But also your support.
Who is on your team?
Who's invested in you?
What's your traction?
How many views or followers do you already have?
Why is nobody else gonna be able to copy you on going on this journey?
But there's one more crucial part to any great story, and that's the superhero origin. People wanna know why you have a chip on your shoulder, and you're never gonna quit. Especially when it comes to creators. So many creators quit. The truth is, it gets tough. Especially if the views don't flow in right away to just quit and then slink back into your bedroom and not wanna make content anymore. And so you need to have that superhero origin story that tells why you will never quit. And so that might be a formative experience for your youth. I was like, Oh, you really wish that your family had this little bit of extra money, or you guys always made these funny videos on Sundays together, and you want that the whole world got to see them. Or that you felt like you looked on screen, you didn't see anyone who looked like you, you felt like your kind of people deserve to be on the screen too. You know, that's the kind of chip on your shoulder that's gonna make you a creator that will never quit, that we'll get through the hard times and will yourself to succeed. And that's what every creator really needs.
So one of the things that I think creating these vision, mission, value statements, and kind of this problem solution structure is it makes you think a lot more deeply about what you don't do, the content you don't make, or the brands that you won't partner with. As a creator, this means picking a content niche that's very well-defined, not super broad.
Why A Niche is Important
It seems like the path to stardom is always through the most mainstream, accessible, lowest common denominator, least offensive content. But what you start to realize is that there is an unlimited amount of that on the internet. There is so much content that if you're just another piece out there, no one's gonna care about it.
What you need to do is have something that makes you unique. And one of the ways to do that is to go niche to win. So instead of trying to compete with every other creator in the world for that big pot of, you know average users find some specific group, which you know better than anybody else, you're part of that subculture. You've lived those experiences. And when you make content for them, not only are you going to understand better what they want, you're going to be able to make jokes that land that is going to be esoteric, you know, inside jokes. And that's what people crave. They want a sense of affiliation. They wanna feel like they're part of a club with a creator. And when you're a niche creator, making something that you know your friends won't understand, it's even funnier to you. You become even more invested in that person because they're also irreplaceable. There's no alternative. There's nobody else who makes content just like them.
So you can't just scroll on and assume you'll find somebody else. You wanna keep track of them, so you don't lose them. And so people really wanna follow those niche creators. Plus, they seem a lot more relatable because they're not making the content for everyone. They're kind of speaking directly to you. It's a lot more intimate. And it means that when they make that content specifically for you, you're going to be more willing to open your wallet and say, oh, I'm not just gonna like give them a second of my time.
I'm actually going to buy a piece of their merchandise
Subscribe to their Patreon
Or something that actually earns them money
And when you do that, you're also tying yourself even more deeply into that creator's identity. You're wearing that T-shirt; you're gonna be talking about it because if you're spending money on it, you're probably talking about it. And it's that kind of word of mouth that can really grow. And so, while you might not end up with the same huge number of followers as if you went with a sterilized, generic type of content, you'll find that your followers love you even more and might be a lot worth a lot more than those fair-weather fans of some bigger creator.
You know, just as an anecdote, I think many brands these days have found that partnering with creators in niche content verticals performs really well. For example, we've partnered with a telecommunications company who has seen a lot of success in the FIRE community. They've partnered with a lot of the FIRE community and they're just a cell phone carrier. So it's the highest level of funnel you could get in terms of marketing, right?
That just shows how brands want to partner with influencers who are making very, very specific types of content. So that absolutely resonates for sure. And I thought it might be kind of fun just, kind of as a closing note here to get a tactical talk about how this can help creators.
I posted on Twitter some initial ideas and with your help, we had landed on, "We exist to help creators quit their traditional jobs and earn reliable income through the content and communities that they love." And what I had initially posted was definitely not that it was much broader, and it wasn't very specific, and it didn't feel tangible, you know?
These statements are so important because when you have a tough day, if you wake up and you read that mission statement back to you, I hope you read that one, and you think like, I am energized to get back in front of the camera because what I'm doing does matter to someone. I'm helping people achieve that financial independence. And I think the vision statement is to go along and to think about how can you make personal fulfillment or professional fulfillment just the status quo? Instead of it being this hard to attain thing that only the luckiest creators of the most successful or the most privileged people end up with that happy and fulfilled job where they feel like they have a real purpose every day, to democratize access fulfillment.
I think that is the real concept; the vision for you is that you're gonna help not only make this accessible to the, you know, the experts, the most talented people. These people can make anything but, some people don't necessarily have all the natural advantages. You still wanna make this education so available that you're democratizing access to personal fulfillment.
One of the interesting things when I started my Youtube channel, I was trying to figure out who my audience was. Is it the creator who really wants to quit their job, quit their nine to five and, you know, dive in and be a full-time creator.
OR
Is it a hobbyist creator who is enjoying a couple extra thousand dollars in monthly income or something like that.
And I think what I landed on is that you have to pick a lane as a creator to some degree. Like I said earlier, there are many people on YouTube, especially talking about, Oh here's how to make the best thumbnail or here's how-to, get your first 10,000 subscribers and this kind of thing. And so that really helped me in the beginning when trying to figure out my content schedule and what I was gonna talk about because it was a decision that was kind of already made for me.
I decided I'm only gonna talk about the business side of being a creator, that's it. I'm not gonna talk about anything else. I'm gonna talk about this, and that's my lane. And then even to take that a step further, it's like, okay, well, now that I'm talking about the business of being a creator, that 47 million amateur creators that you talked about, there's a considerable percentage of people who are like amateurs. They're very interested in this. They may not; maybe they're hobbyists. Maybe they're kind of more like prosumer creators where they're making some money, You know some meaningful income that they have to pay taxes on.
So I really love all this discussion because I feel like when creators go down this path to really be more intentional and purposeful about the types of content, they're making and who they're serving, it can help clarify your content calendar. And your schedule is like, Oh, well, if I know that I'm serving this person, well, maybe I should make this kind of content.
Everybody needs to find that lane for themselves. Building a team is one of the most essential things because you can't have all the skills in a single person. I think it becomes so much easier to know who to hire, what content to make, how to talk about yourself when you really drill down and crystallize what is at the core of your identity and your purpose. And I think whether you're doing that as a creator, it's not just about a business, and that can create, that can be something as simple as I want to delight people who love Dungeons and Dragons. However, that's a big enough niche in this world, and those people, there's enough of them that if they love you deep enough, they will do fantastic business for you. And you can turn that passion into a profession. And so it's really about just finding what your spot in the world is? How can your uniqueness in our species add to the collective intelligence, the collective content, and entertainment of our whole, of our whole world?
I really hope that you find your purpose and what makes you feel fulfilled because you know that life is too short to go about your life doing something you don't love.
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