Agents vs Teams - Gigi Robinson

Gigi Robinson's business is fascinating! As we broke down last week, she leads a team of seven (7), producing and syndicating content across six (6) platforms as well as doing brand work and paid public speaking.

This week, we get into two (2) insights we can glean from her creator logic. Keep reading, because today’s insight is going to get SPICY🌶️!

Superlogic subscribers, keep scrolling when finished for your 3 bonus insights.

Let’s get into it!

Teams can replace managers and agents, if specialization isn't needed.

Gigi is represented as a speaker by Collective Speakers, but has no talent manager or agent for her brand business. Since her brand business is her #1 source of revenue, this bucks conventional wisdom. On the topic:

Gigi has successfully built a lucrative brand businesses generating outsized revenue relative to her audience size simply by having a part-time assistant negotiate the deals on her behalf.

She doesn't feel she could do the same for her speaking business, though.

A few thoughts on this:

Brand deal negotiation is no longer a specialized skill set, because brand deals are so common and the terms are so standardized.

• There are thousands of vlogs, coaches, and courses on how to negotiate a brand deal.

• The set of options and range within which companies can move on the terms of brand deals are fairly clear and narrow.

• The actual knowledge and skills required are not rare or specialized and negotiating, say, IP licensing, personal appearance, or content financing deals.

Where I do think there is value to having a representative on the brand front, especially for large creators, is in information asymmetry.

• Agencies and management companies have large, informal data sets of inside information on budgets, spending, similar deals, etc.

• This especially matters for big deals with sensitive high-level talent who have high opportunity costs and are willing to walk away if the terms aren't perfect.

For the majority of creators, who are likely to take a deal if it's in the right range and not harmful to their brand, the negotiating process is far more straightforward, and therefore doesn’t require a highly skilled and specialized manager or agent.

My mission is to liberate millions of people from dependence on wage-slavery by enabling them to benefit from the emergence of the Creator Economy. I believe that the more successful both Creators and the companies that serve Creators are, the better off humankind will be.

Thanks for reading!

Superlogic subscriber, click through for three (3) additional insights, on outside-the-box team composition, being where your customer is, and addressing revenue inconsistency.

See y’all Thursday!

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