Hey friends,
Welcome back to Creator Etiquette®.
Today’s guest is a longtime friend! Kyle is the founder of G&B, one of the largest independent creator management firms in the United States. He started in 2014, his first client was his wife, then her friends, and what grew from that is a firm that has been actually caring about the people they manage.
We got into the math of when management actually makes sense, what radical transparency looks like inside a firm, how to support creators through loss and burnout, and what to look for when signing with anyone.
The Creator Middle Class Did Not Exist Until Someone Built It
Kyle made a claim that someone making a real, sustainable income from brand deals over a decade of time is a category that essentially had to be built. Without management firms like G&B taking on mid-tier talent and actively growing their businesses, that tier would not exist in the way it does now.
His firm did this not by signing the biggest names and riding their momentum, but by signing people earlier and investing in their growth. Two of his creators have fewer than 50,000 followers and each made over $300,000 last year. He said that number is the result of deep brand relationships, a unique story, a genuine community, and active outbound pitching on his firm's part.
Nearly 50% of the deals G&B does are outbound. They are not just answering inbound emails. They are pitching their talent to brands every day and creating deal flow that would not otherwise exist. When someone asks whether a 20% management fee is worth it, Kyle's answer is that whether your manager is making you 20% or 50% more than you would make alone, the answer is yes, the math resolves itself cleanly.
Do Not Get a Manager Until You Are Ready for One
Kyle’s firm used to send emails to smaller creators who reached out too early, telling them directly that they were not ready yet, explaining why, and saying to come back when they had started to understand their own deal flow and their own brand relationships. His philosophy has not changed. Every creator should hold it in their own hands first. Know your own business before you hand any part of it to someone else.
I have said a version of this on the show before, and it was validating to hear it confirmed by someone whose entire business model is built on the other side of that equation. The responsible move is self-management until you genuinely understand what you are giving someone 20% to do for you.
The Thing G&B Does That Almost No Other Firm Does
Every creator at G&B is on every email. They know about every negotiation, every contract amount, and every location detail. They can see the full picture of their own business in real time, rather than a curated version of it or a summary their manager prepared for them. Kyle described the alternative, where managers handle everything and hand the creator what they're supposed to do, as the Zoolander approach. That is not what he built.
His argument is that the relationship between a creator and their manager only works if they are genuinely in lockstep. You have to have shared goals, shared information, and real communication on a regular basis. The creator who is kept off the email chain is the creator who does not actually understand their own business, which is a vulnerability that compounds over time.
When the Job Gets Human
The part of this conversation I think about most is what Kyle said about supporting creators through loss.
He manages a creator who went through the death of her mother. His response was not to talk about content strategy or posting cadence. It was to sit with her and ask: what do you need right now? Not what does the business need. What do you need? Because the job, at the level he does it, is not just about brand deals. It is about doing life with people — through pregnancy, through grief, through the slow months and the disorienting moments where you do not know what your content is about anymore.
He called out the pregnancy lull specifically — something I had never heard named before — where a creator announces they are pregnant, the brands say congratulations, and then quietly go somewhere else. That is a real pattern. It is a real business problem with a real human cost attached to it. And the managers who help creators navigate it are the ones who treat their talent as people first and revenue lines never.
📬 Creator Call-ins
"I have 80,000 followers and I'm making around $3K a month in brand deals. Two managers have reached out. One wants 15%, one wants 20%. I don't know if I'm ready, or how to evaluate either of them. What should I be asking?"
Kyle's answer: do not choose based on the 5% difference. What matters is what you are getting for either number. Ask them if they pitch talent outbound or only handle inbound? Do they offer any form of legal review or education? How do they handle invoicing and money flow? What is the defined list of services in the contract? Is there a sunset clause, what is the duration, and what does it cover?
His one thing to do this week to be more management ready, before any of that: be consistent. The managers who are worth working with are watching your consistency before they watch your numbers.
Go follow Kyle on LinkedIn and look into the College of Influence if you are a creator who wants to get smarter about the business side of this industry without having to figure it all out alone.
Welcome to Creator Etiquette®. I am so glad you are here.
Xo, Gigi Robinson
Founder, Hosts of Influence® | Creator, Educator, Speaker, Author, Dog Mom 🐾
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