Hey friends,
Welcome back to Creator Etiquette™.
I got invited to the New York Stock Exchange, and it got me thinking about what it actually means to invest in yourself as a creator. Not your portfolio. Not your stock picks. I mean the kind of investment that compounds in your career, your confidence, and your business. I feel like this is something that most creators completely overlook while they're too busy buying camera gear.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a financial advisor, and what I talk about today is not financial advice. If you are looking for financial coaching, there are many wonderful resources that I will mention and link below.
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Wait — The New York Stock Exchange?
I know. When I got the email I had the same reaction. I am not a finance creator. This makes no sense on paper. But I have been quietly watching what the NYSE team has been building when it comes to partnering with creators, and when the invitation came, I said yes without overthinking it.
Here is what I took away: institutions like the NYSE, the White House, and Capitol Hill are actively choosing to work with creators because they understand that we are how information reaches people now. The NYSE has a platform called ETF Central, and their whole thesis is democratizing access to financial knowledge, making sure that people who did not grow up in families that talked about money, who did not study finance, who do not have a wealth manager on speed dial, can still access the same information that insiders have always had.
That is the mission I want to plug into. And I have been in conversations with their team about building a professional development workshop specifically for creators that will cover how to actually manage the money that comes in from brand deals, how to think about investing, saving, IRAs, all of it. More on that soon. But it is coming and I am genuinely so excited about it.
How Financials Can Contribute To Burnout, For Better Or Worse
Before we get into the good stuff, I need to talk about something I have watched happen to so many creators (including myself, honestly).
It goes like this. You land some brand deals. You are excited. You do the work and deliver. Then you wait. And wait. Net 30. Net 60. Net 90. I have seen net 120. You budgeted for the payment, you planned around it, and then it is a week late and there is nothing you can do about it. Your stress goes through the roof. When your stress spikes, your creativity tanks. When your creativity tanks, you post less. When you post less, your engagement drops and everyone is asking where you went. And then the payment finally hits, your dopamine spikes, you go back to the top, you start booking more deals. And the whole cycle repeats.
I have watched so many creators spin in this loop without ever realizing that the real problem is not late payments. The real problem is that their finances are not set up in a way that gives them any buffer or breathing room. And that is entirely fixable, but only if you actually invest time and energy into understanding your money.
How I Made My Financials Less Stressful
In the past year I started working with two different finance coaches, and it genuinely altered my brain chemistry around running this business.
The team I want to shout out specifically is Beyond the Green Coaching. What they helped me understand is that the goal is not to stress less about money. It’s to know your money so well that it stops taking up space in your head. I now spend about two hours every single week on my budget, my expenses, and my accounting across both my personal and business accounts. And that time has given me more freedom than anything else I have done in my business.
When you know exactly what is coming in, what is going out, what you need monthly to operate, and what you are building toward — you stop making decisions from a place of panic. You can take on less work when you need to rest. You can charge more when you know your numbers support it. You can plan for the slow months instead of being blindsided by them. The chaos does not go away, but it stops running you.
None of this is financial advice — please talk to actual professionals for that. But investing in financial coaching was one of the highest-return decisions I have made as a creator.
Three Investments That Will Actually Compound
Here is the framework I want to leave you with. These are the three places I think every creator should be putting intentional time, energy, and money. Most people are only doing one of them.
1. Skills and Knowledge
Creators spend a lot on gear. I just invested in a new Shure MV7 Plus mic for this studio, and I budgeted for it intentionally instead of buying the more expensive version I did not actually need. Gear is fine. But the most overlooked gap is professional development: coaching, workshops, learning from other creators, courses, even advanced degrees if that is your path.
Here is a stat worth sitting with: executives say that 44% of a company's market value comes directly from the CEO's personal brand strength and reputation. If you are a creator, you are the CEO. Your brand is the company. That number should make you take your professional development very seriously. (Wave Connect Personal Branding Stats, 2025)
2. Your Brand Assets
This is about the difference between renting attention and owning something. Most creators are renting or building on platforms they do not control, growing audiences that technically belong to an algorithm. Strong personal brands extend into the real world. My book generates passive income regardless of where I am or what any platform does tomorrow. My trademarks on my name and my businesses are assets. The Creator Etiquette brand, the Hosts of Influence brand, even Zeke and Trixie's brand are all things I think about as individual assets that compound over time.
Two stats I want you to take seriously: only 1% of LinkedIn's monthly users post content, but those users generate over 9 billion impressions weekly. And LinkedIn profiles that list at least five relevant skills get discovered and messaged 31 times more than those that do not. If you have not updated your LinkedIn profile in the last quarter, go do it this week. (Kinsta LinkedIn Statistics 2025)
3. Your Network
Not your follower count. Not your LinkedIn connections. I mean who you can actually call when you are in a pinch and say — hey, I am spiraling about this contract, can you talk me through it? If you cannot name three to five people right now who would pick up that call, that is something worth working on.
The 2024 Lumia Gallup study found that confidence in traditional higher education dropped from 57% in 2015 to just 36% in 2024. People are increasingly finding that what actually moves careers forward is doing, connecting, and learning from experience. Your network is what makes that possible. And the way you build it is the same way you build anything that lasts — by showing up, adding value, and not burning bridges. (HCM Strategists, 2025)
📬 Creator Calls
This week's Creator Calls is actually a call to action straight from me to you.
After listening to this episode, what is one investment you are going to make in yourself? A coach? A course? A tool? A relationship? I am building a case study library from your answers, and I genuinely want to hear how it pays off for you over time.
DM me on the Creator Etiquette page, the Hosts of Influence page, or reply directly to this email. I check all of them. Your wins and your investments are going to help shape how we teach this going forward, and I cannot wait to read what you send!
More incredible things are coming this summer and I cannot wait to share them with you! Next week I will be talking to Emily Blair Marcus, the founder of Emily Blair Media PR firm. You won’t want to miss it!
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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