Marketers Are Already Talking About You...

Lia is the creator behind In Case You Missed It, an influencer marketing consultant to major brands, and an adjunct professor at UCLA where she teaches the actual business of being a creator.

If you would rather watch, the full episode is on YouTube and Spotify.

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Lia doesn't teach her students how to go viral. She teaches them how to think. What she's noticed, both in the classroom and across her consulting work, is that the creators who last are the ones who treat what they're building like a real business from day one.

That means asking: What's your business model? Where does the money actually come from (sponsorships, products, services)? Who is your addressable audience, and do they actually engage with your content? Do you have creator-market fit? These aren't glamorous questions, but they're the ones that determine whether you have a runway or a very short sprint.

"I find so many people who are skeptical when they hear this think, 'oh, there's actual strategy and intention behind this,'" Lia said about explaining the creator business to outsiders. "And I also think some creators aren't completely understanding how much you have to be intentional."

The move away from generalists is already happening, too. Lia’s been telling her students this for years, and Snapchat's head of creator development told her the same thing at Cannes this year. Specific frameworks. Focused content. A clear reason to follow you beyond "I'm interesting."

With so many people out there giving creator advice, selling courses, and posting takes, where do you actually start? Lia’s answer is to stop trying to absorb everything and get intentional about who you let into your head.

Find 3–4 people whose approach resonates with you, who are well-respected in the industry, and make them your North Stars. Then stop. The extra noise isn't helping you, it's stalling you.

If you want to understand what's actually happening in the market, Lia recommends reading newsletters from brand-side leaders. People like Dakota Rae, the head of creator marketing at Nordstrom, who writes a Substack about exactly who she's hiring and why. That's where you find out what brands are actually looking for before the trend cycle catches up.

Creators have a shelf life, not because they run out of talent, but because the forces around them shift. Platforms cycle. Adam Mosseri has been pretty open about Instagram actively looking for fresh, Gen Z voices. If you've been on the platform for years and that's not you right now, you feel that. The algorithm isn't working against you personally, it's just not for you right now.

Brands do the same thing. A couple of good years with a partner, and then they're looking for a new face, a new story. It's just the cycle. The creators who survive it are the ones who are always building the next relationship, asking who the right partner is for this season of their career, and not assuming the current one is permanent.

"I think you either need to continually reinvent yourself, or you need to be nurturing relationships with brands and sort of always be looking for who is going to be my next partner," Lia said. "If you go into it thinking Instagram loves me, or I've got a lock on this algorithm, it just doesn't happen that way."

One-off sponsorships exist, and sometimes they make sense, but there’s a difference in impact.

One mention doesn't build affinity. It barely builds awareness. Especially in B2B, where there's no instant transformation, no gut-instinct click. A single newsletter feature isn't going to change anyone's business. But when Lia has worked with a brand like Sprout Social over time, or when she's been doing ongoing work with Calendly, people start to say, "Oh, don't you work with them?" and that's the shift. That's when credibility compounds and the recommendation actually lands.

For long-term partnerships, show how the brand fits naturally into your regular content. Show that you're a thought leader, not just a placement. And if a brand is only interested in a one-time mention, at least be honest with yourself about what that's likely to produce.

Lia has been pushing LinkedIn since 2019. Her students didn't listen then, but they're listening now. LinkedIn isn't entertainment. It's professional entertainment, which means work-adjacent content wins, the behind-the-scenes of how you got a gig, the case study of why a video performed. The real numbers behind a brand deal.

A friend of hers spent months cross-posting Instagram content to LinkedIn with zero traction until she posted the story of how she got hired to shoot behind-the-scenes footage for a major brand in Times Square. That post hit 100,000 impressions. Because she told them how she got the gig, how she got paid, how she made it happen. That's the content.

Be professional! Hit your deadlines, reply to your emails, deliver what you said you'd deliver, when you said you'd deliver it. This sounds obvious until you realize how many creators aren't doing it.

Marketers talk. Lia has personally reached out to other brand-side people and asked about a creator before recommending them to a client. The conversation is already happening. The question is what they're saying about you.

"Marketers trade names," she said. "They'll say this person's a joy to work with, this person was so easy, and oh my God, this person's a nightmare, don't work with them."

Professionalism is your reputation, and your reputation is your pipeline. Protect it the same way you protect your rate card.

Lia, thank you for such an insightful episode. Follow her newsletter In Case You Missed It for creator economy industry insights straight from someone who's on both sides of the table. Don’t forget to check her out on LinkedIn as well!

Thank you for reading Creator Etiquette®. New episodes drop weekly! If this one resonated, share it with a creator friend who needs to hear it. See you next week.

Xo, Gigi Robinson

Founder, Hosts of Influence® | Creator, Educator, Speaker, Author, Dog Mom 🐾

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