We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lena Katz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?

I’ve worked in an industry where AI was supposed to be the savior for a few years now, and as each new wave of technology hits the market, my client list keeps getting better. The widespread marketing messaging in the creator tech sector, specifically AI-driven automation, is that these tech tools offer a magic solution that will decrease or eliminate the need for brand-side teams to do any “deep work.”  This is sadly not the case, and the more a team relies on a tool, the more trouble they’ll eventually land in. I don’t blame anyone for testing this tech, though. It’s very tempting.

1. There are the “trusted” most expensive creator discovery platforms that promise niche-perfect creator discovery searches, delivering a list of pre-vetted and screened creators.

Those don’t work because they rely on keywording and category organization that’s been done by humans — with varying levels of accuracy/honesty.

2. Some creator databases also promise to identify creators that can “deliver the best results” to a campaign.

That doesn’t work because the content that performs best according to machine analysis is –quite often, and quite dramatically–not going to be the content you want in your campaign. It performs well because it’s sensationalist, combative, risky, perhaps it even promotes something illegal. All of this is the opposite of what most brands consider brand-safe.

3. The new hyped “challenge” model of talent platform promises a huge, eager pool of real-people content creators who will willingly produce audition videos & give clients a whole batch of great spec work from which to choose finished pieces to license.

 This doesn’t work because people just generally don’t want to do loads of work for free. They might do it once for a brand they love, but not repeatedly to attempt landing a $300-500 assignment.  Asking them to do so is exploitative. And I’m putting this gently. Go to LinkedIn and you can find a hundred rants against this in much stronger terms.

4.  And of course, there are all the tools that promise they can execute a campaign or handle the admin/payments.

Sorry friends, but no matter what the dashboard looks like, they day-to-day detail work of managing a campaign or content launch has to be done by a human. There is no tech functionality that can discern a joke that’s not going to land, or  pick up a stutter on a word and  ask a creator to rerecord just that line. Spotting those errors, figuring out the solution, conveying the criticism nicely but in an actionable way, and ensuring the piece is corrected — that is a job for a person. And not just a person, but an experienced one.

So, as brand and agency teams try new tools and experience all variations of failure and disappointment, they get crankier, more jaded and more desperate for a solution.

My formula for getting these clients into their happy place is pretty simple:

•   I do my own keyword-mapping for searches, which avails me to run my searches against the public-facing keyword indexing that Instagram, TikTok, Google, Amazon etcetera have built over years –this is far superior to the keyword indexing that’s been done in the creator databases.
• I respect the power of creator communities, and I tap into them several times during every creator-integrated project.
• ·      I DO use technology — to pull analytics and look for problematic content. Deep-diving into creator profiles on a reputable 3P tool is always my second step, never my first.·
• I proactively approach creators — yes, some will take the first outreach step (or their managers will), but never would I run a passive search that 100% relies on other parties to make the first move. This is a business, not a 1980s high school rom-com.
•     I execute tasks. Myself. Some people refer to that as “getting hands dirty” or “getting in the weeds,” but I think if you want to know what’s going on in a project, you need to be familiar with it from the inside as well as 30,000 feet up.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My creator campaigns always stay under budget. So simple, right? In general I believe in budget transparency and making sure everyone is paid fairly.
Also, as I said in the main question, I don’t shy away from doing tedious work when it’s necessary.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Almost everyone thinks they’re a creative, or an “idea person.” This is probably just as true of people in non-creative fields as those in so-called creative ones. It’s why everyone has a side hustle or hobby — they need to let that creative steam off. And, a non-creative-professional’s hobby work might be just as high-quality as someone else’s MFA-schooled family-funded professional gallery showing. Being as deeply into creator discovery as I am, I see that every day, in every single possible permutation. There are accountants, data scientists, handimen and farmers out there who have a genius for storytelling and video production, and huge audiences to prove it. The people who stock produce in grocery stores are a THRIVING artistic community.

What I would say is, it’s not the belief in your creativity or the burning desire to create that differentiates successful creators from everyone else. So skip that expensive “creative mindset coaching” retreat you were thinking might kick your creative power into the next level. Save your money — those workshops are all just MLM for dreamers. Be a doer in your creative practice as you are in your regular career. Creative muscle is built by practice and consistent training, just like physical muscles. Persistence, diligence and work ethic -have discipline to keep producing creative work regularly, keep learning, improving your skills, taking feedback and adding new tools to your toolbox. That’s what will eventually put you in a position to monetize.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenakatz/
• Website: www.variablecontent.co