She Spent 14 Years at One Company, Then Bet Everything on the Creator Economy

Hey friends,

Welcome back to Creator Etiquette™.

My guest is Paige Kelly, the General Manager of Creator at Later, which is one of the most widely used social media scheduling and analytics platforms in the creator space. But before Later, Paige spent fourteen years at Wayfair. She started as an intern, grew up at the company through every phase of its scaling, and then made a major leap into a completely new world.

That leap, and everything she learned on both sides of it, is what this episode is really about. If you would rather listen in, you can catch the full conversation on YouTube and Spotify.

Most creators think staying at one place for a long time means you are playing it safe. Paige's story is the opposite of that. Wayfair scaled dramatically during her time there, and she was constantly being challenged by whatever the new phase of the business required. She never felt like she needed to leave because she never stopped growing.

Her role there covered category management across eleven product categories, global supplier acquisition, and brand strategy. And as she described it, that experience translates directly into what she does now. At its core, both jobs are the same thing. Building relationships, pitching a vision, and convincing people to trust you enough to build something together.

The through-line of her entire career? Relationships. It is the one thing that has been consistent across furniture retail, supplier acquisition, and now the creator economy.

One more thing worth noting: Paige was a nursing major in college. She did not study marketing, business, or media. None of it was planned. It was a series of calculated leaps, each one building on the last. Just because you started in one place does not mean you cannot pivot completely, it just means you have more life skills to bring with you when you do.

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Paige has worked with hundreds of creators across the Mavely platform, which Later acquired in January 2025 and which has over 180,000 creators in its database. When I asked her what the most common mistake creators make, her answer was immediate: inauthenticity. When a piece of content does not feel true to who the creator is, the audience knows. It does not land. The community does not come along for the ride, and it is obvious to everyone (including the brand) that it is just an ad.

Her advice to creators on how to fix this is also simple: push back on the brief. Brands have a core message they need to deliver, but the best thing a brand can do is give a creator the flexibility to take that message and make it their own. If a brief feels too rigid or too prescriptive, say something. The creators who do that consistently produce better content and get rebooked more often.

The other thing Paige looks for is data literacy. The creators she trusts most are the ones who understand their own performance, review what is working after each campaign, and are willing to adjust.

Paige dropped two terms that I want to make sure every person reading this actually understands, because they come up in brand deal conversations constantly and most creators have no idea what they mean.

ROAS — Return on Ad Spend. This is the return a brand gets on the money it invests in a campaign. It is one of the most important metrics in marketing broadly, and it is increasingly relevant to creators because brands are now sourcing creators specifically for paid media — running a creator's content as a boosted ad through the creator's own profile. If a brand brings this term up in a conversation with you, they are evaluating how efficiently your content drives results, not just how many people see it.

GMV — Gross Merchandise Value. This is the total value of the sales generated through your content, typically measured through affiliate links. If you post a link and your audience buys one hundred pairs of pants at $100 each, the GMV is $10,000. The more specific term Paige flagged as the one creators should actually track is

Commissionable GMV — that is the portion of total sales where you actually earn a percentage back. Not every item in your links will pay a commission, so understanding the difference between total GMV and commissionable GMV tells you what you are actually making.

If you are doing any affiliate work, you need to know both of these numbers.

Some creators are very vocal about being anti-affiliate. Paige's take is simple: why wouldn't you? If you are already doing brand campaigns, affiliate links are just added income layered on top of content you are already making. The key is not doing too much of it. Flooding your content with links dilutes the trust your audience has in your recommendations. The creators who do it well are thoughtful about the ratio, weave links into content that already tells a true story about who they are, and treat it as a business with real systems behind it.

The creators who do it at the highest level often have virtual assistants dedicated specifically to finding, managing, and updating their affiliate links across every platform — stories, bio, newsletter, DM automations. It is an entire operation. You do not have to build that overnight, but knowing that is what the ceiling looks like is useful context when you are deciding how much to invest in it.

Paige made the point that a lot of creators, especially early in their careers, sign brand deal contracts without reading them carefully — not because the brand is hiding anything, but because the creator simply does not know what to look for.

Two things she flagged as the most important to understand before you sign anything: exclusivity clauses and usage rights. Exclusivity determines what other brands you can and cannot work with during and after the campaign. Usage rights determine how long a brand can use your content, on what platforms, and for what purposes, including whether they can run it as a paid ad. These two clauses can have major financial implications that creators often do not realize until after the fact.

AI can help you parse language you do not understand. But please, consult an actual professional for anything significant. And if you are working through a platform like Later, the terms and conditions are there in the brief. Click on them and actually read them before you submit.

Paige's advice to anyone thinking about becoming a creator is the same advice she would give anyone starting a business: start as a side hustle. Do not quit your job because it looks glamorous on the internet. Build it in the pockets of time you already have — nights, weekends, holidays — until you have enough momentum and financial stability to make a bigger move.

And when it comes to systems, she made a point I loved: you do not have to be good at everything. Lean into what only you can deliver — being on camera, creating content, showing up authentically — and use the tools around you to handle the rest. That is what AI is for. That is what VAs are for. That is what platforms like Later are for. Focus on your zone of genius and build systems around everything else.

“A brand reached out to me. We went through the whole briefing process, I submitted my rate, and then they just went completely quiet. Did I do something wrong? Do I follow up? How long do I wait? And did I price myself out?”

Paige's honest answer: the most likely reason is that the budget did not match the rate you submitted, is just a numbers issue. Her advice is to ask for the feedback directly if you can. There is no harm in following up and asking whether you were priced outside of their budget for this campaign. It gives you real information, it keeps the relationship open, and it signals that you are professional and interested in finding a way to work together.

Also worth noting: if you are building a relationship with a brand or platform over time and you have flexibility in your pricing as you are growing, let them know. That kind of transparency makes it easier to find the right opportunity when the timing is right.

Go follow Paige on LinkedIn and keep an eye on everything Later is building for creators. It is a lot, and it is coming fast.

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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