Unfiltered Career Advice, What’s Keeping You Broke, and the Truth About The Creator Economy with Maggie Sellers Reum

If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. Y'all know I love a mood board, so everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision board. But then there are the things that make you pause and ask, "Am I even doing this correctly or do I even want to be doing this?" Like forming your business, getting the right documents, keeping your personal information private. This is where our sponsor at Northwest registered agent is so helpful. They're a one-stop shop for founders who want to launch and legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral. They help you form an LLC or a corporation, act as your registered agent, and give you tools like a business address, operating agreement, website, phone number, professional email, and free guides. They also have real corporate guides who know your local laws. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/hsrfree. Plan B is a backup birth control option that's there for you when things don't go according to plan. It specifically works after unprotected sex and before pregnancy occurs by temporarily delaying ovulation. Plan B is available nationwide at all major retailers and through delivery apps like DoorDash. No ID, prescription, or age requirement. It's the number one OBGYN recommended brand of emergency contraception and it won't impact your future fertility. That's Freedom the Bee. Use S-directed. I wanted to spend today to talk a little bit about what's going on at the crater economy, the startup economy, and my favorite obsession right now, which is the corporate body. I want to help people navigate all three of these industries, find which ones work for you at your stage at your life, and really help you go from one to the other because I luckily have actually navigated all three of those. So please, let's get into it and have some fun today. In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So let's get into it. Hi, angels. Welcome back to another solo episode. I am so excited to be here. I have my emotional support pillow, which I've realized I cannot do a solo episode without. It makes me feel so comfy and cozy, but what makes me feel more ready for this episode than ever is you guys. I was blown away by the support of the last solo episode because it was something that was new for us. It was an experiment. And if you know anything about hot smart rich and flight story, it is that we are obsessed with data, we are obsessed with experimenting, but I take such a responsibility to giving you the information that is really going to make you have a hotter, smarter, richer life. So today, I am going to ask you to do the same thing. Please, if you find value in this, please let us know. If you love something, you don't know when it will go away, if you don't share why you love it. And with the state of the internet right now, which we're going to get into, there is so much negativity going on that leaving a positive comment, leaving a review, subscribing to a channel, all things that are free, really help people figure out where to spend our most finite resource, which is our time. So it is the biggest gift to me to tell me that these episodes actually make a difference in your life. So please, if you haven't already, send this to a friend, subscribe, and let's get into it and have some fun today. So I wanted to spend today to do a little state of the union through the lens of my investing business, creator, entrepreneurship, multi-hyphenate lens that I tend to look at everything through. We're going to talk a little bit about what's going on with the creator economy, the startup economy, and my favorite obsession right now, which is the corporate body, okay? I want to help people navigate all three of these industries, find which ones work for you at your stage at your life, and really help you go from one to the other, because I luckily have actually navigated all three of those. I was such a proud employee of other people's company for over 10 years. I have been a creator for the last four years. I am a founder, I am an investor, and I think that I have a very unique lens on what is happening in the convergence of what I believe is about to come. I want to start with the state of the creator economy, because the last episode that we did that was a solo, what's really about Cannes, and how it could have been called the creator summit, and I want to share with you two really important things. It has never been easier to become a creator, but it has never been harder to make a living out of it. There was an article that I was obsessed with reading and sent to so many people, and it was the recent Vulture article that featured Audrey Peters talking about the end of Machia Pilates' Allo Yoga influencers. She was very brave and very honest about what it takes to be a successful lifestyle creator now, and it just doesn't work anymore to show unboxings and show a trip to San Trope, because there's so much of it on the internet that it's not cutting through the noise anymore. To cut through the noise, there are tactics that are being used, like rage bait, things that will trigger people to feel something about it, because you can't be in the middle anymore. The article talks about without having a strong niche, or without a strong point of view, or expertise, you will never be able to cut it as an influencer. That couldn't be more true from all of the qualitative information that I'm seeing online right now. I recently just posted a video about Alex Earl and why I was interested that her Netflix trailer for her new reality show that's about to come out. At the time of the video had only had around 60,000 views and had been out for about two weeks. And a lot of the comments back were about people not wanting to watch an everyday life anymore of an influencer, and they want to feel like they are seeing someone that is making their life better. So it's a little confusing when you look at the data, right? Because on the one hand, we are seeing the Forbes Top 50 Creators make collectively over $1 billion this year. We have never seen this before. But when you actually dig into the data, only 67% of creators are making more than $10,000 annually. This is a very confusing story because we are being sold a vision of becoming a creator and becoming your own boss and making so much money. But then 67% of creators are making less than $10,000 a year annually. This is mimicking what is going on with our actual economy, which is a K-shaped economy right now. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There is no middle class anymore, and the same is true with the creator economy. So if you're thinking, well, how do I become one of the 1%? I've seen a lot of creators do very amazing things to stand out. And I call this building your resume virtues, okay? We talk a lot about this. Resume virtues would be something like I go to a specific college, I have an investment thinking job after school. It's the accolades and the awards that build you a personal brand to stand out. It kind of reminds me of applying for colleges. How do you stand out when it's so competitive? And for me, it was stocking my resume and my application, so it was different than other people. Captain of the volleyball team, I had the most service hours of anybody in my high school. I was starting different charities, and I thought that was a way to stand out to all of these different colleges, and the same is happening right now at the creator economy. They are building their resume virtues to be able to break through the noise and have a very differentiated point of view, especially if you are a lifestyle influencer. And you don't want to go down the rage bait row, which is fair. My favorite story of this is Kate Bartlett. She went back to school. She got her MBA from NYU in a luxury fashion program. And what people don't realize is that as much as you are getting a degree and stacking up your resume virtues, you're also able to make content about that. There is never an easier way for me to create content than when I am out and living my life in the real world, when I'm attending events, when I'm at the office. It's so easy to create content because you're not manufacturing something behind your screen. So this is mutually beneficial for these creators. They're getting an expertise. They're hedging their bet to make sure that even if their creator journey doesn't work out, they actually have a fallback plan. But it also helps them tell stories in a very different way than what we are seeing with the masses when you're scrolling TikTok right now. I don't know about you, but I cannot open up TikTok right now or Substock without being sold how to tell people how to make money on Substock and teach people how I'm making money on Substock by teaching people how to make money on Substock. It is like that is what people seem to be obsessed with. And once everyone starts talking about the same thing, it is very hard to become a 1% creator. So to become a 1% creator, you really need to focus on stacking your resume virtues in different areas and offering different value that your community is not going to see on the endless scroll at the end of the day. This actually coincides with what content people want to consume, especially during economic instability, okay? In 2026, reports show that educational content is outperforming entertainment on leads and sales with brand partners. This is where brands want to put their money, is with people that are providing educational content. Based on another 2026 survey, 41% of social media users say that educational content is the number one content they want from their creators and from brands. That's crazy. So if you're thinking about being in your 20s and you don't have as much life experience and you're thinking about how can you provide educational content, it's very hard to do that when you can't pull from a 5, a 10, a 15, a 20 year career of real experience. And this is where people are saying the age of the influencer is dead. And the next era of content creators and of influencers are the people that have had 10 years of work experience that can call upon that experience and share value to their community through their lived life experience. So with that context, here's what I envision for where a few of these markets are going, okay? Millennials be ready. I started to see TikTok videos when I was scrolling. One was sticking out to me so much. It was the trend not all bodies can be influencers. Some of us have to hold it down in data analytics or project management. And I was immediately fascinated by these women. I went to their profiles. I started looking them up on LinkedIn. And I was so interested in these women's career moves in their resumes in what they were doing. And I thought to myself, why am I so interested in these corporate startup baddies? When my infacuation has always been with the founders and the creators turns out, of course, their science to this. And it's called the role-congruity theory. And it explains that people see women as less suited to roles linked with leadership, authority, and traditionally masculine traits. Crazy. So when a woman succeeds in a traditionally male-coded field, there can be a mismatch of what we expect to see and what we actually see, sparking curiosity. So I started digging into this a little bit more because, like I said, I am a hot nerd. And it sounds a lot like expectancy violations theory. Part two to the science. It's when someone behaves differently from what we expect. It will make us pay closer attention and reassess them. And this is why when we see a corporate body work in a field or in something that we don't expect them to be in, we are immediately intrigued. Which brings me to what I am so excited to share with you today, which is the importance of having a career and not having to be a founder at 18, 19, 20, 25 years old. You are not behind. You are building the experience the skill sets to give you an unfair competitive advantage that will help you build a business that can last through the ebbs and flows of what it will actually take to build something that lasts. I was a corporate startup body in my 20s. And I don't think I've ever really talked about this, but I would never have been able to be an entrepreneur in my 20s. I was going through so much personal development and had so much unsorted through emotions and personal life experience that I would never have been able to handle building a business and what it takes on top of what I was dealing with emotionally. I learned such valuable skill sets in my 20s working for other people, but I was always entrepreneurial. It is so important to remember that if you want to be an entrepreneur, there is a way to do that without starting your own company. And it is to be entrepreneurial, not to be an entrepreneur. And I started thinking about how I would really hit this story home for you. I have one boss that I worked for who I talk to still once every three months. His name is Matthew Koran. He is the founder and CEO of Freshy, which I was lucky enough to work for Matt during the time that we went public. And Matt taught me so much. So I thought about asking him for a note or something to share what I was like when I was 25, 26 helping build his company. And all he sent me back was a screenshot of an email. This is the email. We're going to link it. And it is me on December 25, 2016 at 325 in the afternoon. And it is a data report of our traffic onsite for the week leading up to Christmas. The number of users that watched a video, the number of people who viewed how we were converting people, and Matt responds and says doing work on Christmas is socially unacceptable. Please hold immediately and drink wine or eat cheese fondue, go sledding, etc. And I laughed when he sent me this back because that was me in my 20s. I was always acting like it was my company even though it was never my company. A lot of angels ask me how to get ahead or get promoted or to be given the things that they think that they are rightfully owed. My number one piece of advice is to act like an owner when you are not an owner. If you put in the work and you put in the reps, the outcome will always come back to you. And when I really started thinking about freshie and my time there, I can tell you about the first four months that I had my role there. I was first the marketing analytics manager, okay? And I had just come from business development. I had worked at sales force. I had really no idea how to successfully work in Excel. I had no idea how to make a pivot table. And I remember crying in the bathroom when I was responsible for sharing numbers that related to our same store sales and the marketing that we were doing to increase our bottom five stores every single week. And I remember thinking and looking at Excel and thinking I don't know how to do this. I really don't I don't even know how to start. And I did what I always did, which was get creative. And I remember telling the finance team that if they came into work an hour earlier every single day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I would take them to Starbucks across the street. I would buy them coffee and I would buy them breakfast and they would teach me how to build a pivot table. So shout out to Fenton, the main guy from the finance team that taught me how to not only work in Excel but Excel in Excel. And those valuable life skills that I learned about negotiating, getting people to buy in on my vision on what it was important to me. And to have people do something that would help my career, those are the life skills and experiences that I still use today as a founder. No ID, prescription or age requirement. That's freedom to be use as directed. I never would have known how to do the soft skills that are necessary to build a business had I not worked for other people. And of course, there is science to working for other people first. If you're listening to this and you are like, but I still want to be a founder, that's okay. The data that I am about to share about the median age of the most successful startup founders and the fastest growing startups and when they started their company is going to lean older. However, don't let that stop you if you are in your 20s. If you're even earlier than that, if you have an amazing idea, if you are solving a problem, if you are forced to become an entrepreneur or if it's a hobby that you want to do on the side, don't let the stats stop you because you could be the anomaly. These are just the facts of the data of showing the most successful startup founders. are typically older than what we glamorize in the news, but I want you. If you have an idea that you cannot stop thinking about, start the company, see what happens, start the next company, do what you feel called to do. TechCrunch in their 10-year analysis found that the average age of founding a company was 35 years old. Not even 35 yet. MIT research shows that after analyzing 2.7 million US entrepreneurs, the average founder of the fastest growing startups were 45 years old. For females, the average age of a founder is actually 44.3, so you can be a little bit younger as a female. And that, to me, is such a sign that you're not late. You're actually early. There is never a perfect time to start a company, but in the world that we live in of how easy it is to start something, there's so much pressure to do it early. But I always think about all of the life experience that I have had. I've worked in sales. I've worked in marketing analytics. I ran special projects for a publicly traded company. I worked as the head of brand marketing. I worked in entertainment. I worked in venture capital. That summary of experience has perfectly positioned me as one of the top 1% of creators. I am one of the top 1% of creators. I have never said that publicly before. Based on revenue, based on positioning in the market, I just won a Goldman Sachs Award. This is the first time I'm talking about this. Should we get the award, you guys? Goldman Sachs, Builders and Innovators. Maggie Sellers, Reim. This is a sign letter by David Solomon. God, I'm going to cry. A hundred people a year get this award from Goldman Sachs. I'm literally shaking. And it is for exceptional entrepreneurs of the year. If you had told me that I would be winning this award, I would never have believed you because I never would have gone into Goldman Sachs. And I really didn't start out as a creator to become an influencer. I started out as a creator to help people and to change the world and to make sure that women didn't have to choose between being hot smart and rich. So this award, even though it is addressed to me, it is not just for me. It is for us. It is for the recognition that companies like Goldman Sachs are recognizing that times are changing, that there is so much power in doing something that has mission and has purpose and has meaning. And I say that because I would never have won this award from Goldman Sachs, had I wanted or started becoming a creator right out of college or in my 20s. There is so much beauty in learning on someone else's dime. And that is exactly what you are able to do when you work for someone else. You don't have to pay to fail. You don't have to pay to make mistakes. One of the best pieces of advice that my husband has ever given me, my husband runs a $2 billion venture capital fund. And he said something to me about hiring, because we are starting to hire a lot of roles at Hot Smart Rich. And he said, at M13, we do not pay to teach people how to become investors. They can do that at A16z, they can do that at Sequoia, they can do that as an investment banker. We hire people that are ready for the job. And I remember thinking about that and was thinking like, well, I've always hired people for potential. And I've always hired people because I think that I can teach them. And as I think about now being a founder and employing people and hiring people, I value experience and I value life skills so much more than I once even thought that I would. So I have a thesis and it is that careers are making a comeback. It is cool to have a job. It is cool to be a corporate body. It is cool to learn on someone else's dime and add value to someone's bottom line and not taking on the stress of being a founder and joining the cult of entrepreneurship until you are ready. Because as someone that has now run a business for four years, not taking a salary officially for I think over five years, it is hard. There are so many moments where I feel like I'm about to quit. I'm about to break. And then I have a network I can call on. I have people that I could ask because I built that with my resume virtues over the first 10 years of my career. As I open that Goldman Sachs award, it makes me think of all of the awards I never got. I never got Forbes 30 under 30. I've never actually been on a list until this year. I just won Create and Cultivate top money award. I just won the Goldman Sachs. Builders and innovators award for their top 100 entrepreneurs in the US. Up until this year, I've never won an award. And as I sit here now that they are starting to accumulate, I'm actually so grateful that's not what I chased in my 20s. I chased experience. I chased working for incredible bosses and mentors. I chased men that I was aligned to and things that brought me purpose because if I've learned anything from the people sitting across from me in these chairs, it is that money makes things easier, but it doesn't buy happiness. And if all you are pursuing in life is money, fame, notoriety, you will never find it to be enough. And for me, I can't wait to see the corporate baddies break out. The girls, the men that are building at these incredible companies and really making a difference. It is so important not to cut and miss the messy middle. It is so important to accumulate experiences, networks, connections, ways of solving problems when you are in your 20s. If one day you want to become an entrepreneur and now you know that the deck is going to be stacked in your favor if you do this because you are more likely to be successful when you start accompanying your 30s and 40s and if you start it in your 20s. So with that, I want to go into some fun Q&A from the angels for the corporate baddies. The girls that wrote into me that said, this exactly we all don't want to be founders. What are your pieces of advice for the girls who actually enjoy working on corporate and want to work in the startup ecosystem? So the first question that I was asked was how do I get promoted? This is my favorite question, okay? I'm going to give you my POV and then I'm going to give you the science POV, okay? My number one piece of advice for getting promoted. Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. Take on initiative. Take on projects that is not scoped in your role. Go and join meetings that you aren't necessarily asked to be in. Be curious. Ask for coffee meetings with people across departments. Do not wait for someone to tap you on the shoulder. They are not coming. No one is looking out for you the way that you are looking out for you. It is so much better to apologize for overstepping than for people to say she never takes the initiative. She does her job and she clocks out. Number two, find problems that need to be solved. So when I was working at Frashie for Matt Korn, I was working in marketing analytics and I started noticing via the reports that we were starting to lose a lot of market share to things that were coming into the market, like Uber Eats and GrubHub and Meal Delivery Services, as well as things like Blue Apron and Hello Frash and people starting to cook at home because it was a QSR restaurant. And I remember coming to Matt as a 25-26-year-old and saying, "I think that we should offer people an all-day delivery of breakfast, lunch, and dinner since we offer all three at our restaurants. I'm going to start to build a pilot program with our top 20 restaurant tour franchises. Are you okay with that?" He was like, "Yeah, go and do it." The pilot ended up not being successful for a bunch of different reasons, but what it taught me about getting promoted and going from a marketing analytics manager to special projects was that no one showed me the way. No one was like, "Yeah, here's how you're going to go from marketing analytics to being special projects. I made it for myself because I noticed a problem that was happening in the organization and I was fascinated with trying to solve it." That's point number two. Number three, "never." And I mean never ask someone to pick their brain. When I get a message from someone asking to pick my brain, I'm like, "Babe, I protect my brain. I don't want anyone picking my brain." Offer value. Find someone that you are curious about that you will are interested in and offer value to them. I just interviewed someone for a new position this week and she found I mentioned something about my one-year anniversary and something I wanted to do for Courtney when we are celebrating it and I didn't have the solution and as a follow-up instead of just saying thank you so much it was so nice to meet you she sends a response that says thank you so much it was so nice to meet you and by the way here are three things that you can do for Courtney on your one-year anniversary hope that helps do you know how much value was provided to me in that email when it could have just been a checking in it was something that genuinely made my life better so when you are getting curious about other people's roles and expanding your network never ask someone to pick their brain find out something that you think they might want to know be interested in and send them that this one's controversial especially because when I was first starting my company we couldn't afford an office space but if you work at a corporate office or a startup do not work remotely studies don't lie fully remote workers were 11% less likely to be recommended for promotion than office-based workers if you have the luxury of going into the office go into the office get the time go to the water cooler go for lunch with people grab a coffee being in London with the flight story team for two full weeks was the most exhausting thing of my entire life over the last five years since I've left the corporate world it was also the best two weeks of my life I was able to talk so much about the mission of hot smart rich get so much buy-in from all of the different apartments around flight story that are really the keys to my success with the podcast being able to have those types of conversations and those meetings with people even if it's unofficial can make or break your success when you are trying to climb the corporate ladder so going into the science a little bit more this one fascinated me because I would say I actually didn't have this experience but I could understand how much more of an edge I would have had had I had this and it is the fact that an 81% of promotions the person had a senior colleague who supported their career and helped them get noticed so find a mentor find someone not by asking to pick their brain but offering value to them and really helping them succeed at their career in turn it will help you succeed into your career in the last solo episode we talked about doing these small acts and nice gestures for people and it's mutually beneficial because that's what people remember and the same is so true in the workforce doing things of value to people will bring value back to you having champions across departments not just with yourself if you work in marketing find people that you can add value to in finance little secret the keys to marketing and bigger budgets is being very close with the finance team so if you can actually add value to a different department and show that you are working cross functionally the better off that you will be the next question was very interesting for me and I am going to have a very black and white answer the question that I was asked was why do I keep falling for people at work I am not qualified to answer the why to that why are you falling for people at work I can only assume it is because you spend probably more of your life with your work colleagues and you even do with your personal life and your friends and family you are in close quarters you are solving problems you are making an impact but my answer to this is going to be to never mix business with pleasure once I felt like I was maybe falling for someone I would completely cut that off I do not think that it is smart to mix a personal relationship with where you work I don't think that it ever ends as well as you think that it could it never ends like the movies of course are there going to be exceptions to the rule absolutely but if I am giving blanket advice of what I would do because remember that's how I answer questions is not what you should do but what I would do I would never allow myself to fall for someone at work because to me this was a place to further my career development this was a place to make an impact on the world and this was completely separate from my personal motivations of wanting to have a healthy full life with a partner do Courtney and I my husband now work together yes but we independently formed a personal relationship first with real boundaries and real roles and responsibilities before we ever started mixing business with pleasure last question that I feel like we can get into today is about my hands so I got a question that said I love your hand tattoos and want to do something similar do you regret any of them or feel like they're out of place in the business world so let's do a little hand tattoo tour for the first time I have one two three kind of four hand tattoos this is on the wrist so I technically have three hand tattoos this is on my wrist and do I regret any of them no did I get any of them when I was in my early 20s no when I was working in corporate and at fast growing startups no I got all of these when I worked in entertainment and I was working in venture capital and I was working for myself so my answer as someone who now is hiring people I work in media I work in entertainment I of course have exposure to the investing world I think times are changing and I think that hand tattoos have never held me back if I was working as an investment-thinking analyst at Goldman Sachs would I feel the same way I can't say that I would the thing that I think is important for me to communicate is that being successful in business is about learning how to play the game we mentioned this on amy smells episode where just because I've cried on the internet and I'm honest about my business highs and lows I actually saved a video you guys this is a video that I made in 2023 it's called 2023 fails and I I'm gonna read them out called off my engagement gained eight pounds hormonal acne came back didn't learn French didn't go skiing the first investment company and second investment advisory company backed by S.D. lotter that I made close down because they ran out of money I watched that video today and I laughed because I have been through a lot of my career now on the internet and what I post on that story is not necessarily something that I would bring to a job interview or to an investor meeting in the same way and part of being able to be successful in business is learning how to play the game and when to play your cards at the right time just because I cry on the internet doesn't mean that when I'm in a room full of men trying to raise money or trying to get into an investment if I'm feeling emotional I break down in tears there is going to be nuance to every single situation and there is going to be the ability to read the room understand the players understand the stakes and so for me at do I believe that my hand tattoos have held me back as a media entrepreneur executive absolutely not do I feel as though my hand tattoos would hold me back if I was trying to get an investment thinking analyst job at a 23 year old at Goldman Sachs I do and that is why the mission of hot smart rich exists I want the ability to one day be judged based on on our work output and not necessarily for all of the things that we bring into the workplace that are personal expression and decoration before you get a tattoo I think it is very important to really sit with it for a very long period of time and understand why you are getting it what it is going to do for you and if you think that you will like that tattoo in the next 20 or 30 years if you are early in your career and you are on the corporate path of wanting to excel in the corporate ladder in very traditional finance private equity roles we're not there yet we're getting there the creator economy starting to invest the ways that consumer venture capital is changing the creator economy is changing the way that employees and employers and creator entrepreneurs show up I don't have any regrets about my hand tattoos but I also got them at a time in my life where I knew that I was never going back to the straight corporate environment that it would never take me out of a room that I might want to be in one day so with that angels another solo episode is in the box I cannot wait to see your reactions to this to really get a sense of how I can help and be of service and leverage my network my expertise to really help you live your hottest smartest richest life so please if you love something tell it leave a comment write a review a positive one send it to a friend subscribe to our channel and let me know if this is something you want to be a recurring series for we are still in our experimentation phase so all of the support means so much and I can't wait to see you next time (upbeat music) If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. 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