Here’s how she got started

by · March 16, 2022

I’ve at all times loved working with content material creators. At 31, I’ve helped launch creator packages at among the greatest tech firms, together with Instagram and Pinterest.

Nevertheless it was irritating to see the pay inequality that content material creators always confronted. So earlier this 12 months, I determined to give up my $150,000-per-year job at TikTok to begin a “Glassdoor-like” app referred to as Clara for Creators.

Since launching, it has helped greater than 7,000 influencers and content material creators share and examine pay charges and assessment their experiences working with manufacturers.

The pay hole in influencer advertising

These days, there are only a few boundaries to turning into a content material creator. With the recognition of TikTok, for instance, you need not make investments a whole bunch or 1000’s of {dollars} in tools; anybody can attempt to construct an viewers and monetize their platform with movies they shoot on a smartphone.

Because of this, increasingly more creators have entered the enterprise. The issue? They’ve little information about how a lot cash they may — or ought to — be making.

Christen Nino De Guzman and TikTokers Fabian Flores and Leo Gonzalez.

Photograph: Christen Nino De Guzman

Content material creator offers are difficult. How a lot you are paid relies on the kind of content material you are providing a model and on what platform — an Instagram publish versus a YouTube video, for instance. Different components embody the scale of your following, engagement metrics and success charges with earlier partnerships.

To make issues much more sophisticated, manufacturers usually ask an influencer for his or her charge as an alternative of providing everybody a base pay with room to barter.

Many creators find yourself promoting themselves brief, particularly ladies and folks of coloration. I as soon as noticed a person receives a commission 10 instances what a lady creator was paid for a similar marketing campaign — simply because he requested for extra. I’ve additionally seen Latinx creators with triple the next of white creators be paid half as a lot.

How I began my mission-based enterprise

I knew a serious drawback that creators confronted was that they could not Google how a lot cash they may cost for advertising a services or products on their platform. That lightbulb second — and the way a lot I cared in regards to the creators I labored with — impressed me to construct Clara.

I needed creators to have the ability to share opinions of manufacturers that they had labored with, together with how a lot they have been paid for several types of content material primarily based on their variety of followers.

In March 2021, I despatched a bunch of chilly messages to potential traders on LinkedIn. In July, after weeks of continuous outreach that become greater than 10 pitch conferences, I acquired a small funding from a person investor. I used that cash to contract a group of builders, who I labored alongside to construct and check the app.

The Clara for Creators homepage in March 2022.

Photograph: Christen Nino De Guzman

Clara lastly launched for iOS in January this 12 months. Inside a month, with out spending any cash on ads, greater than 7,000 creators signed as much as share their charges on Clara, together with high TikTok creators like Devon Rodriguez and Nancy Bullard, who every have 24.4 million and a pair of.9 million social media followers, respectively.

On January 14, I give up my job at TikTok as a creator program supervisor to work on Clara full-time. Whereas I’m taking a large pay lower by leaving my 9-to-5, I am dwelling off my financial savings. What retains me motivated is realizing that Clara will help put extra money into the palms of deserving creators.

Proper now, I am centered on elevating capital to develop the platform. I am additionally spreading the phrase about equal pay and the way essential assets like Clara are. l publish profession recommendation and different assets on my TikTok account, the place I at present have 348,000 followers.

Receives a commission pretty: Know your rights and do your analysis

There are numerous issues you are able to do to work in the direction of better pay fairness for your self and others in your business.

When discussing pay along with your coworkers, it is essential to know your rights. Some firms could attempt to scare you from it by saying that wage speak is towards firm coverage. However underneath the Nationwide Labor Relations Act, many workers have the fitting to speak about their wages with their coworkers.

I’ve had six full-time jobs, and worry used to maintain me from speaking about cash. However the first time I brazenly mentioned my wage with a colleague, I discovered I used to be being underpaid. I then used that information to search for new roles the place I would be paid extra pretty.

These conversations do not must be awkward, particularly in the event you’ve established a secure and comfy relationship. Moderately than flat-out asking “How a lot are you making?,” strategy the dialogue in a “let’s assist one another” means. You may be shocked by the variety of people who find themselves keen to speak about it.

Remember that whilst you have the fitting to speak about your wages, your employer could have lawful insurance policies towards utilizing their tools — like work laptops — to have the dialogue. Shield your self by understanding your organization’s coverage earlier than sending a rallying Slack message.

And at all times do your analysis earlier than accepting a contract. Websites like Glassdoor, Ranges and Clara supply this information free of charge.

You can too search websites like TikTok and YouTube to get deep insights about pay. There are numerous creators who, like me, are open about what they have been paid at earlier firms — all the way down to inventory choices and sign-on bonuses, and who share details about firm cultures total.

I additionally created a spreadsheet for folks to share their titles and salaries alongside essential demographic info I’ve seen neglected on different databases, like gender, age and various identification fields. To date, it has over 62,000 entries.

When requested to your desired wage or charge, say: “Based mostly on my expertise, expertise and business customary, I would prefer to be paid [X].” Should you’re a creator, point out the scale of your viewers or engagement metrics which have wowed previous prospects.

And keep in mind, begin excessive. The worst factor they will say is “no.”

Christen Nino De Guzman is the founding father of Clara for Creators, a neighborhood that empowers creators by way of transparency, model opinions and discoverability. She is a Latina creator, speaker and mentor within the tech house, the place she has expertise working with content material creators at social networking firms equivalent to Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.