Gigi Robinson
Transcript
Danielle (Scrunch) (00:10):
Thank you Gigi. Thank you so much for being here on the Scrunch Creator Economy Show. It is so fabulous to have a conversation with you.
Gigi Robinson (00:19):
Thank you so much for having me. This is so exciting and I might nerd out a little bit. A lot of people think that I'm this like model and creator that doesn't research or has no educational background, but I'm actually almost done with my master's of science and innovation design and technology where I've been focusing on the creator economy the whole time. Wow. The tokenization of everything, so on and so forth. And so here I am getting ready to deliver nerdy Gigi.
Danielle (Scrunch) (00:51):
Oh my God, I am so excited to meet nerdy Gigi. This is
Gigi Robinson (00:55):
Fabulous. <Laugh>. Oh my.
Danielle (Scrunch) (00:58):
Well, why don't we start with how you got here. So, I mean, obviously when I, you know, found out about you, I see the outward stuff, right? I see your website, I see your social media. How did you create all of that? Where did you come from? Like have you always been a creator? Was there a career in the past? Like, tell me how you got here.
Gigi Robinson (01:19):
Yeah. Well I would say there's a couple of things. I was born and raised in New York City, so I always had this like really like heavy go, go, go achieve something really tremendous in a short amount of time. Hustle, hustle like mindset. And I don't know if that's the same in other parts of the world or if that's just like a New York thing. I think it's
Danielle (Scrunch) (01:41):
Very New York. Just a
Gigi Robinson (01:43):
<Laugh>. Yeah. I was like, I'm pretty sure it's just a New York thing. So I guess like at heart it's just ingrained in who I am and how I think and process the world because again, that's like where I've been privileged chef to grow up in. I went to LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, which is known as the Fame School. Cool. If you know the movie fame. Yes. So I went for fine arts, design and technology at the time. No fine arts and design. Sorry, the technology part comes later.
Danielle (Scrunch) (02:13):
That's new. Yep.
Gigi Robinson (02:14):
<Laugh>. Yeah. because when I was in high school, which was, I graduated in 2016, so I went from 2012 to 2016 Snapchat, Instagram, all of these big platforms were just starting mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And I hadn't yet figured out a way to monetize them, but what I had figured out was, okay, I can actually post about my achievements. And like people interact with that and they see that it's cool. And you know what, maybe I can actually use this as a portfolio when I apply to college. Oh. Which was like a weird concept at the time. Yeah. It was like, why would you, why would you include anything on social media? Like social media is this big bad thing that can be used against you at all costs and whatever you post online, they're forever. And I was like, wait, but like yeah, it's an archive, like the same as archiving something in a dark room with photography mm-hmm. <Affirmative>.
(03:04):
And so that's how I personally archived all of my accolades, my achievements, even like my artwork, my friendships, literally everything is like very technical. And simultaneously while I was in high school, I was also dealing with my chronic illness called e's Danlos syndrome. And I at the time had not really yet recognized how much of a problem it was for me. Mm-Hmm. I think it really took me moving to Los Angeles to U S C, being by myself and struggling with my health on my own, like without my mom's help mm-hmm. <Affirmative> to really start to advocate for myself and realize the power in that. So there's kind of like these two sides to it. But yeah, I also transferred to usc. A lot of people don't know that I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology for a year before I transferred. And I think that year really gave me a lot of unique perspectives on going after what you want and being able to get it. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, obviously I got what I wanted, which was to go to U F C and the rest is kind of history. But I'll stop there cuz I will ramble the whole night if I
Danielle (Scrunch) (04:13):
Don't. No, I love it. I love it. And I know now, so Oh my God, there's so much to talk about there, but I know now, you know, you really advocate for, you know, mental health and body image and lifestyle on your platforms. Why are you so passionate about those things?
Gigi Robinson (04:31):
Yeah, I think there's this concept in the creator economy right now about creators succeeding and those that don't. So there's kind of these two buckets. One is the super uber relatable creator who creates content for their younger self. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, it evokes a sense of nostalgia. It doesn't matter who you are. If you relate to whatever small piece of somebody's story, you're going to internalize it and essentially think to yourself, oh wow, that reminds me of me when I was their age, or I really wish I had this. And because of that, creators that are good at storytelling and good at connecting with their audiences based on something internal that they needed when they were younger, that's their motivation, like themselves mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but in turn they're helping so many other people. So that's one element of it. The other element is being smart about personal branding and using your voice and being well researched.
(05:27):
I think that's the piece a lot of people miss. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so that part is all about looking up charities. Brands are working with being passionate about certain brands that you are working with. Making sure that one, the brands are not problematic but two, also holding them accountable. So if they say they're, you know, into diversity and inclusion, but don't include that in their campaigns only corporately, it's like you're not catering to the consumer. Are you also working with creators that are on that kind of track? So while I was in undergrad, actually, I was, was still struggling with my health. This is like 2019 to 2020, like the entirety of Yeah. Wow. Of those two years. I was wrapping my senior capstone and one of my capstones was to prove that social media is art, but also to really examine what social media literacy meant.
(06:23):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And in doing that, I also started speaking about it and creating this framework on how to kind of audit your brand. And by brand I mean your social profiles and your morals as a, as a person detached from this phone. Yeah. And have them be these like things that you're able to say like, okay, I support, you know, sustainability, I support ending world hunger, I support mental health advocacy and I support, you know, also the note of hunger, like eating disorders. And so I'm gonna look at those charities that support that. And with that I'm gonna look at the brands that donate to that and those are the people that I wanna work with. But like, most people don't even take it that part. Oh
Danielle (Scrunch) (07:03):
My god. I was just about to say, I've never heard anyone actually like think about it. So like, well, and so logically and you know, so many people just say, well, you know, I really like this beauty brand, so I'm gonna pitch to the beauty brand. Like, I've never heard someone actually like figure out what their values are and you know, go after brands that align to that. Like, that's incredible. How did, how did you do this? Where did this come from?
Gigi Robinson (07:30):
Quite honestly, I'm a very curious person, but I also did go to U S C, which is one of the top research universities in the world. Gotcha. And so I think it's really just a part of doing my due diligence. I do this with every single company I work with. I do this with every single person I really even talk to. I, I research who they are. I look at their LinkedIn profile, I stock their social medias. I make sure I'm talking to a real person. In today's world, you never know, like you could be Catfish left and right. Oh yeah. And I don't wanna jeopardize that ever when I'm giving professional educational information out into the world. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, especially when it comes to dealing with health and health advocacy. Yes. Because you have to think about it this way, when I started getting into that, it's like anything that you recommend, you technically have to disclaim that this is just your experience.
(08:20):
It's not medical advice. Yes. That's something that like, was very new, I think all throughout pretty much covid to now. Mm. like the post, the post covid era, I guess is what I believe marketers are gonna be calling it. Yeah. <laugh> definitely is like making sure that we're really aware of the way that we're speaking about certain things and how we're able to disclaim certain things. So when I started thinking about that, I also started thinking about like, okay, if I am working with a fast fashion brand, but I'm talking about like supporting sustainability, it doesn't make sense. Exactly. You can't work with a fast fashion brand and say you support sustainability or like recycling. Right. Because most of the time they're just like greenwashing that mm-hmm. <Affirmative> what you can do is research brands that do actually have corporate sustainability initiatives. They have give back initiatives.
(09:14):
One of my favorites was my partnership with Timberland. You can go research it, but they do a lot with the environment. And that's something I personally loved and prided my pride pri was proud, how do I this pride <laugh> was proud, was proud to work with them about Yes. You know? And so I think that that is just a really important thing for more creators to think about. And a lot of times they don't. And again, the creators that are successful in the first thing that I talked about, which is storytelling. Yeah. They usually get to the point where they now have a team that they can say, you know what, here are my non-negotiables when I work with a brand. And the team, the manager, the agent, they go out and they figure that out for them. Yeah. And says, you know what, no matter what, here are all of the questions that, you know, Gigi wants when she works with a brand. And a lot of other creators, unfortunately right now, I think are just taking deals to get deals on their resume. And I sometimes do this too, still, believe it or not. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> it's not all sunshine and rebels over here, but I'm sure we'll get into that a little later.
Danielle (Scrunch) (10:22):
Well, I mean, it's probably a good segue into monetization, right? So, you know, and so many people just go all like, the only way I can monetize my account is through brand deals. So I think that mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, and I've even seen like education platforms pop up, like courses teaching creators how to get brand deals now. So. Right. What's your perspective on, on like actually monetizing a creator? Is that the only avenue? Are there other avenues? What, what are the kind of tips and tricks?
Gigi Robinson (10:51):
Yeah. I mean, I think monetizing can be really different, be based on each creator's kind of niche. If you're an educational content creator or like you are posting content to educate, you're probably also doing corporate consulting. You're probably also getting paid to go and speak at their, you know, companies. And is that technically paid partnerships from a company? Yes. Mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. But in reality it's, you are a freelancer as a content creator, you're a freelancer. Like, I don't care how many labels people wanna put on it. Influencers and content creators are freelancers. Mm. They have LLCs, usually a single member, sole proprietorship, llc. Yes. And from there they are going and they are externally hiring a PR team. They're being contracted on a 10 99 basis, maybe a w a W 9, 10 99 in the United States. That's what it is. I don't know. Yeah. What it is in the rest of the world.
(11:51):
And so a lot of creators miss that, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So when, like for me, I have like brand partnerships for social media. That's one category. Speaking public, public speaking engagements, that's another category. And then like modeling and attending events, that's another category. Gotcha. I personally have not tried or have not made any effort to sell a product. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, the reason being because people follow me for my content. They don't follow me because they want to buy something from me. They follow me because of my personality, my advocacy and my place in the world really is a public figure. Yeah. Again, once you get to a certain level, and I believe there's tears to this, not even tears, it's more like a spider web or like a brain web, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, there's the world in the center. It's the solar system. Okay. <laugh>. I love this.
(12:45):
Yes. We're we're going on here just cause we go with me on this <laugh>, the solar system, the creator economy. Yeah. That's the sun. The solar system is the center. Different kinds of creators surround that. Yeah. Public figures, people who are speakers, people who are inspirational you know, motivators, educators, I feel like they all go in one bubble. Hmm. Celebrities, you know, the overnight successes, the traditional celebrities, big Hollywood, they're another bubble. Then we have our sales funnel. I'm gonna teach you how to blah, blah, blah. People, I don't even know what I wanna call them. That's just, they get their own bubble. Then there's the micro influencers who quite honestly, nobody knows their name. They know what kind of content they make. They know if they need them to fit a niche or fit under a certain bubble of their campaign. The, you can go to that kind of creator.
(13:38):
And again I think micro influencers and U g C creators are kind of together. Cause again, the whole point is nobody knows your fend name. And I personally do not wanna work with a brand that doesn't wanna work with me. My morals and my values mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And so I have placed myself mentally and also in the real world into that public figure bubble. Yes. Because I don't wanna work with anybody that doesn't know who Gigi is. <Laugh> respectfully, you know? Yeah. Like, I'm not gonna work with a brand because they want me to fit into their micro influencer under 500 K bubble who fits a lifestyle or beauty niche. I'm not doing that. I wanna be a part of a big campaign as like a big face in it. And so that's something I have conveyed to my manager and that's why I do so few brand deals.
(14:30):
Yeah. That's why the, the places that I speak are like Spotify, Facebook, you know, there are these big companies because they wanna hear from me as an emerging creator. Yes. and so that's really my concept on monetization. And there's a need for all of them. And brands buy into all of those kinds of niche creator bubbles. Yeah. Because there's different parts of brands. Brands have to, at the end of the day, everything's business. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And for your business to work, you have to pay different people. Right. So that's what I, that's my theory on it.
Danielle (Scrunch) (15:03):
I love it. I love it so much because so many times I talk to brands and they're like, I just need that person. And I'm like, Hmm, no. You need all different types of creators depending on what you actually wanna get out of it. Right? Yeah. Like I love the different bubbles that you put people in for different, you know needs inside a business. What are the, I'm super curious. So when you go out and you talk to the big brands, so you do your speaking gigs at like the Facebooks and Spotify, what do they have you talk about?
Gigi Robinson (15:34):
I mean, I think it really varies company to company like class by class. Yeah. industry by industry. I've been asked by influential, which is one of the leading influencer, you know, marketing agencies that Paris brands to large creators. They had me speak on the future of live shopping. At Meta they had me speak on how to succeed at Instagram reels and Facebook reels. Nice. at, you know, Yahoo, they had me talk about social media literacy and internet mental health. So it really depends. And again, the reason why they can call on me to talk about these things are because of my morals Yes. In what I have shared on the internet. Yeah. About my, my thought leadership in the creator economy as a Gen Z leader about body image, about mental health online, about being a chronic illness patient advocate.
(16:32):
Right? Mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And most importantly about like the creator economy and how it works and how to pay creators equity and based on them as a human, not as somebody who fits a niche. So it really does depend. I also left out <laugh> school. I talked to a lot of university students. I've spoken at U c, ucla, UMass Amherst, f i t Baruch, NYU coming up. And so that's really exciting too. And I talked to PR classes, marketing classes, art classes. I have a fine art background. People don't know that. People don't know I was a photographer before. I was a content creator or an influencer, whatever you wanna call me. And I think that's pretty cool. And I don't think my, my biggest hot take is that actually you do not by any means have to niche down. Mm. That's my, that's my hot take. Everyone doesn't like that, but I like it
Danielle (Scrunch) (17:27):
<Laugh> that I I love that. I actually love that cuz I run multiple businesses and I'm like, I like lots of stuff. Why do I have
Gigi Robinson (17:34):
To pick
Danielle (Scrunch) (17:34):
One thing?
Gigi Robinson (17:35):
<Laugh>? Absolutely.
Danielle (Scrunch) (17:36):
It's so good. I love it too because I mean, it's super clear that you are both educated, you have experience and you are art. Like you can actually speak as well. Like Yeah. You know, and it's really important. I think if you, you want to pursue those opportunities to showcase that on your website and your social media so that these brands know that if they put you in a room, you are gonna do well. Right?
Gigi Robinson (17:58):
Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's the other thing, which is again, probably a little bit controversial about this industry is that you don't need an education to become a content creator mm-hmm. Or a successful one by means. Usually those overnight successes end up being overnight successes and getting to a point where they hire external people who they're paying not only to do the actual labor for them, but because of their place in the industry and because of their education and knowledge around it. Yes. With certain public figures and content creators, you are not only funneling like their media personality into your content, you're, you're not only paying them for their time and energy and resources it takes to create the content. Yeah. You're not only paying them for their digital real estate and their personal, very specific audience mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you are also paying them for their education Yeah.
(18:56):
And their expertise. And a lot of creators or online coaches may not actually have the expertise. They're usually the people that are like, I worked in real estate and then I became a social media girl <laugh>. And like Yeah. You know, that's totally awesome. I think that's amazing. But is that person who succeeded on like cracking the algorithm, really somebody that can thoroughly talk about the creator economy. Hmm. I don't know, <laugh>. And, and I just think it's definitely a misconception about a lot of people in this industry because a lot of people think the more followers you have, the smarter you you are or the, the more you care about a brand. But let me just tell you, a lot of this is all bullshit and it's all rehearsed. Yeah. I've been at a lot of different panels, especially during fashion week, where I saw people who have no college background, who have millions of followers, who really are not educated past high school mm-hmm. <Affirmative>
(19:59):
Go up and then talk about something in the industry such as, you know, supply chain sustainability. And it's like, this is just not true. Yeah. Like you are just, you are just regurgitating information somebody told you and diverting the actual answers like from the question. Wow. and maybe this is just me being hard, but I just personally don't think we should be really always listening to people that ha just have millions of followers who are quite frankly kids and don't do their due diligence and, and have the privilege of having other people give them that information. And this isn't, this does not apply to all creators with millions Totally. People with millions of followers who are incredibly intelligent, who've worked super hard, who have this background who are incredibly successful, right. Yeah. That we can undo listen to. But it just, it really frustrates me sometimes when brands or big companies hire big, bigger people that don't necessarily even like deserve, they haven't really what's it called, been educated enough to enter that room.
Danielle (Scrunch) (21:11):
Well. And I think that that's a really good lens for us as consumers though as well. Like we are looking to all of these creators or influencers or even brands sometimes just thinking that, oh my God, so many people are following them. They must be credible. They must know what they're talking about. But you are right. There are people who have just kind of landed <laugh> in their niche and built a big following. And I agree. Amazing. I love that so much. But we should be discerning as consumers as to who we actually get our information from.
Gigi Robinson (21:42):
Yeah. And again, that's something that I have learned as a research student at USC is doing your due diligence. Yes. I don't think most people even know what that means.
Danielle (Scrunch) (21:56):
No, I agree.
Gigi Robinson (21:57):
<Laugh>. and for those that are listening that may not know what that means, it really just is at the core doing your, putting your time and effort in to researching, to looking up who you're talking to, making sure you're saying the right things to the right people. You're, you're, you know, you have a certain etiquette you follow up properly, you say thank you, you're not rooted events, you know, you don't act privileged when you enter a room. Nothing is, is ever, I think if, if we learned anything about cancel culture in the past decade, nothing is ever guaranteed and nothing is ever going to stay guaranteed. Right?
Danielle (Scrunch) (22:38):
Yes. Oh yeah.
Gigi Robinson (22:39):
Like, I, I think that's, that's pretty important to recognize.
Danielle (Scrunch) (22:44):
I love that. So talk to me about your masters. So what yeah, what were you focusing on? Like, give me the rundown.
Gigi Robinson (22:52):
So my degree is a virtual degree, actually it was virtual prior to Covid. So that's been pretty cool. I've actually taken class from five or six different states and all the time zones. So that's like a fun fact about me in the program <laugh>. But it's a, it's a, you know, one and a half to two year program depending on how accelerated you wanna do it. But I'm doing it in exactly two years. Nice. And essentially it is a master's of science in innovation, design and technology. And so it really bridges the, I think the gap of where innovation really intersects across all of those fields. And for me, like you can apply it to literally whatever field you want and tailor the degree with certain classes to whatever you want. So if you wanna go of more of a design track, you're able to, if if you wanna go more a tech track, you're able to, I personally went like design business.
(23:49):
So and for that I really focused, again, like a lot of them are research based. So it's like if you are taking a class called tokenization of everything in the Community Playbook, well guess what? We live in a really cool time where we can talk about web three and we can research it and learn and have web three experts come to class and also like be a part of putting on I was a part on the council that helped put on uscs tokenization of everything during N F T L A week. And that was like really, really, you know, awesome that I was able to do that. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. I also have been in other classes like called you know, business essentials, tech essentials, like very fundamental level classes. And then a class I'm in now that I think is really cool is called an Intensive.
(24:43):
And it is basically a design sprint for two weekends on the future of work. How cool is that? That, that that's so cool what the degree is focused on. And we have experts in the future of work field who have been working in the future of work. I know it's pretty trendy now. It's always been something. I think that's pretty cool. But when we look at like futurism as a niche, it goes way back. Like futurism is literally like a time period of art. It's an art genre which I think is also really cool. It's, it's a framework that was applied to visual communication and it's just now kind of catching up to the workplace industry and we're putting an emphasis on it because I think what the art did at the time I told you I was gonna nerd out. This is Yeah.
(25:29):
I love this. No, keep going. <Laugh>, this is so good. It's basically, it's basically like taking that lens that artists put on the world that they helped people really be like, oh wow. Like I can look at art in a different way and I can see what could be possible based on just what one or a couple of artists maybe had thought. And then they created and they created it in a certain way to make you see the world that we're living in, in reality differently. Mm-Hmm. And so we can apply this to all niches, I think about the future of work pertaining to creators and the freelance gig creator economy Yeah. And what that means in terms of health benefits, what that means in terms of Yeah. Wow. Socializing what this means in terms of like education. Right. so at one point in my degree while I was researching, I really, really was like so keyed in on creating a social media literacy framework to help people manage and deal with the mental health effects that social media has on us, but like on a federal education level in the United States. But to do that, it got so complex so quickly where I was like, this is a great idea. I can do this to, I have to basically lobby the government and look at the federal education system that's already failing us in the United States before I even start to think about implementing something new. And I have to look at the budgets for all of that. Yeah. And the politicians who were fighting for certain laws and so on and so forth. And so I quickly stopped that research because it was hurting my brain
Danielle (Scrunch) (27:13):
<Laugh> and I focused,
Gigi Robinson (27:15):
I focused on more modern things like the creator economy and just the, the new innovation and everything in the way that, that was moving at the time. So it's not to say I'm not as passionate about social lit, lit, social media literacy, I definitely am. I absolutely love it. I will always be working in that field to help people have a better relationship with social media. However, right now I am just so fascinated and interested and intrigued by all of the trends that the creator economy really touches. So I'm integrating that into my content now. So yeah, that's what I've been up to the past two years. And I'm coming down the Holden stretch December 16th <laugh>.
Danielle (Scrunch) (27:57):
That is, is so that is so cool. I love it so much. But I mean, I love that, you know, it is not every day that you hear a creator say, I'm actually educating myself in the creator economy. I mean, you know, of course there's social media, of course people have masterclass, but like you are literally studying this space. That's awesome. Yeah. And and including it in your, your business and your brand. Right.
Gigi Robinson (28:22):
And the other thing that is so important that I learned actually when I was in undergrad, I actually interned at entertainment companies, Warner Rose and Paramount. Yeah. And again, this is yeah, my fine art background coming into play here. And I studied digital marketing with them and photography. And then I also worked in agency as a TikTok strategist. Oh, cool. So in my time as an intern and as a temp, I basically was like just kind of like doing my thing as an intern. But something that they taught me in entertainment was this exercise that is called the Daily Trades. And every day of my internship, I had to research three things that happened in the industry across the major headlines in entertainment. So it was like Variety Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, you know, film LA Times, like all of those, deadline billboard, all of those kinds of publications.
(29:22):
Yeah. And go and find like from three different sources three different topics, subjects, releases, headlines, and then write like a short blurb and basically do like this like, you know, MLA formatting thing. And just basically create a list of it. And it wasn't really for my bosses, like they didn't really care about what I sent to them. I think it was more about the practice of always staying current with something mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and learning something new every single day of work. And I personally do this once a week. I actually just gave this assignment to all of my interns, which is pretty funny. And I could talk about that in a second too if you want. But I was like, Hey guys, we need to start implementing this concept of the daily trades. And I don't limit them. I'm not like, you have to do this on influencer marketing.
(30:13):
I'm like, you can literally have this be anything in the creator economy. This can be with a cmmo or C or someone leaving YouTube, going to Google or go into Facebook Now to lead creators. This can be about a new feature release. This could be a new app release, this could be creator drama. This could be like literally anything relating to the creator world. And it's also just gonna be really interesting because I wanna see like, what are Gen Z women thinking about? What are they leaning towards? What are they researching? And I just think it's a really cool project. It's, it's also meant to be quick. Mm. It's like you can read an article in maybe 2, 2, 3 minutes, read three of them. Okay. Less than 10 minutes. Write a one sentence blurb about that. Okay. Maybe 20 minutes, maybe maybe 30 minutes max, you know, 10 minutes per article per, per thing. And you know, at the end of the day, if they want, they can go and post this on LinkedIn. Now they have a, a place to start with their creator economy reporting. And again, I just think that creators don't do their due diligence. What that is, the daily trades is the due diligence that I talked about before with the industry. It's incredible. So yeah.
Danielle (Scrunch) (31:25):
I love it so much. This is so incredible. So my last question to wrap us up is, so based on, you know, your experience, your research, all of the things you know, is there space for new creators? So, you know, for people who are kind of like sitting in their jobs, hating their life and going, I wanna get a part of the creator economy, do you think that there are opportunities for new players in this market?
Gigi Robinson (31:51):
Absolutely. I mean, I don't think that, again, like I mentioned before, like an individual creator who's already doing it full-time should limit their selves. I think that the way that the gig economy and the freelance economy and the creator economy is moving right now is people leaving their corporate jobs or going down to fully remote or even a part-time role and doing social media on the side. So I think the biggest thing, everyone's like, I don't know where to start. I don't know how to start. It's like, okay, well what do you do for self-care? And like, can you start off with a very basic things for me? Sometimes, not even. Sometimes I'm notorious for letting my entire room run amuck, <laugh> especially when I'm going through a, a busy, you know, period in my life. Like I will have outfits that I have to wear to events that I'm laying out everywhere.
(32:43):
I'll have shoe options, bag options. In New York, everything is nested. You know, we're in an apartment, so all of my bags are within a bigger bag. And if I wanna get to the bag that I want, it says bottom bag <laugh>. Yeah. So on and so forth. So I have to tear apart the closet and then I have to run out of the house because they didn't give myself enough time. And so then I get home and I'm exhausted and I go to sleep. And then I have to repeat this thing the exact like day after. So it's kind of like this running joke I have with my like audience and with my editor that every single month or every two months, I go through a period where I literally do a time lapse of me cleaning my room <laugh>. And that's like a fit. It's, it's almost gotten to be like a funny thing.
(33:23):
It's an accountability thing, but it's also just like something that's an easy piece of content I can post and be like, my mental health slipped up. I'm not taking care of myself. I'm actually struggling right now. Here's my reality of it. And it's kind of fun to watch because it's like instant gratification. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, it goes from the super messy, it's super clean. So it's like also a basic psychology thing. It's like, what can you post that people are instantly going to relate to? Yeah. Back to the storytelling thing I talked about first, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, it's that sense of relatability. Everybody slips up here and there unless people are like very, very into cleaning and very, very, don't ever let anything get messy. And those kind of people scare me. Totally the same. They call be out friends <laugh>. Yeah. So, so I think it's, it's also something like, do you eat lunch by yourself?
(34:11):
Can you like record a short clip of you like drinking your morning coffee? Like do you journal? What ki do you go for a walk even? And sometimes just like recording those moments and making yourself relatable in whatever field it is first will help instead of diving directly into the content. Because if you just come on and say, I'm a, you know, consultant at this big firm, and here's my advice, nobody cares because nobody knows who you are. And that's, you automatically put yourself in me. Nobody cares about you <laugh> bubble, fuck it in my opinion. So I think personal branding and letting people know you is much more important at first. And again, all you have to do is kind of like start and map it out. And another thing I talk about in my social media literacy lectures, especially when you are starting to create content, is like finding your true why mm-hmm. <Affirmative>.
(35:02):
And it's like, not like a me thing. Like I learned this somewhere over the years. Basically you ask yourself like, why is it important to me that I become a content creator? And then like you, you said like, oh, okay. Because I really wanted remote flexibility and creative autonomy over the content that I'm putting out on social media. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And why is it important that you have creator autonomy? Or why is it important you work remote? Well, I have a couple of chronic illnesses that, you know, actually prohibit me from really working a full-time or even part-time job because I can't always be accessible and therefore I need to be able to make my own schedule and create on my own timeline. And I also don't like when people micromanage the content and the creative vision, like most creatives feel this way. And why is it important to me that I have the time to take care of my health?
(35:54):
Well, without my health, I'm not gonna be able to do my job, right? Without creative autonomy over my videos, I may just fall down the rabbit hole of not achieving the goal of becoming this, you know, personal relatable entrepreneur and advocate, right? That's my end goal. Yeah. and so on and so forth. So you have to ask yourself, why is that important to me each time for five to 10, 10 times? Like literally I'm talking about getting it, writing it on paper, getting real with it. And the second you have each of those, you actually will start to be able to create brand pillars. You'll be able to take each of those. Why is that important to me when you get to the end, right? Whatever that is, becoming your own creator, becoming your own advocate. Because guess what, that's what I needed when I was a kid. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I needed somebody to look up to. So it'll obviously be like an internalized thing. Once you have that, you can say, okay, well what's like important to me when I work with a brand? And you can kind of think about like the different pillars of like, what's important to you. Another thing that I also do in my lecture is this exercise that I call like the five Cs of content creation. Give me a minute to pull it up because I'm sorry, I don't have it memorized right now. Oh my
Danielle (Scrunch) (37:14):
God. No. I'm so, I've already like written myself notes, so I'm like, let's
Gigi Robinson (37:19):
Do this. Oh my God. Stop. I'm obsessed. Let's see. Okay, here we go. Here we go. My five Cs of content creation. So here's how I do it. And it's basically the who, what, where, when, and why. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, but I call it CS for content creation and social media. But what is the status of your business right now, currently? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So like where are we right now? What's going on? Whether you are mid-stage, late stage expert, intermediate, beginner, all of that jazz. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, why do you wanna create, so that's where we go down that why is this important to me route, and then you can talk about like medium there, like all that stuff. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> who is the intended audience that you want to consume it and how are you curating it? So consumption and curation. Is there the where and when will you circulate this distribution platforms timing, marketing plan, yada, yada. And then how does this build community and start conversation within your brand and within your pillars. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So if you can answer the essentially who, what, where, and when and why the currently the creation, the curation, circulation and community aspects of being a content creator, I believe that you're going to be able to at least start and have a good place to start. From there. I know it's more, it's a lot. I'm telling you I'm like meant to be. Oh, it's good.
Danielle (Scrunch) (38:49):
Like this is a roadmap for creators.
Gigi Robinson (38:51):
It's, I'm, I love it. It's, yeah. Yeah. I go in and do another self-audit, which is essentially about identifying other professionals in your field, oh, what did I say before? Like 10 times doing your due diligence <laugh> and analyzing different like bullets of what you really admire and what they're doing well. So like there's a bunch of New York City creators that are succeeding right now. What are they succeeding at? Oh, well, okay, this one creator made a card game, she's like super famous and most of her money comes from this card games business. Guess what? Because of that, she's now able to become a public speaker. Guess what? Because of that, she's now been able to do the biggest brand deals and like everyone who's like who she is. So I think that's pretty cool that able to take something as small as like being a relatable creator to launching a product to then meeting her fans, to then now being known by Browns like that is honestly so smart.
(39:48):
So what am I doing that I can either replicate or improve on in my own way? Right? I'm not saying take another creator's ideal thing and copy them, obviously. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> what I'm saying is admire it and innovate and apply it to yourself. Like everything comes from a, a business plan and that's, you know, super, super important as well. And last but not least, I wanted to talk briefly about this concept called Quitters Valley. Something that makes a good creator stand out versus a bad creator is their ability to get through times when it's hard. Yeah. I personally really struggle sometimes with managing my finances and expenses due to the fact that when you are a contact creator, freelancer contractor mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you are not getting your money 30 to over 90 days after you've completed the work. Yes. I don't know if yeah.
(40:45):
Like that is so frustrating. Yeah. And there are tools that exist like luu and QuickBooks Pay and some other brands that allow you to essentially pull the money out early and then give ownership of your contract to that brand. But sometimes the brand or the agency managing it, cause it's a third party agency, not the brand directly, will actually have a problem with that. Yeah. And so therefore, you're actually not even able to get your money in the first place. So anyway, I deal with this. Other people deal with like low views getting to them or brand partners like, you know, dropping off a contract or, you know, just not getting as much as you thought you may have gotten. And what happens is you're, you're going up and then you go down into Quitters Valley and once you're in the Quitters Valley, it's really hard to be okay being at your lowest, right?
(41:39):
Yeah. Yeah. And I think the the worst part is when you know that you failed at something or that something didn't work, right? Yes. You're like, you're just falling off the cliff and you're like, shit, I'm in this place where I'm not doing as well as I thought I could. Maybe I should actually rethink this. I don't know if I should continue. And I think you should continue, obviously always, especially if you're, you know, if you have the padding financially or you're able to stay with your parents or your friends and you know, figure it out at that point and keep going because a lot of people quit at that failure point and because they quit. Those are the people that say, I tried it at the scam. I didn't like it. It's not for me. <Laugh>, they're all liars, right? Yeah. So what you have to do is you have to get through that and then continue up and obviously it's like a stock market. It's gonna be up and down your whole career. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> that's any career really. That's just I think life at this point. Yeah. But when you're first starting, you have to get through those really hard times until you see the results. And with that, I am done with being a teacher.
Danielle (Scrunch) (42:47):
<Laugh>. Well you are absolutely incredible JD thank you so much for spending your time and giving us your insights and wisdom and sharing that with the scrunch community. You are amazing. Thank you.
Gigi Robinson (43:02):
Thank you so much. This was so much fun. And thank you for letting me really just like talk about the stuff I love to talk about so openly and I can't wait for more people to listen to it. I know a lot of people ask me for you know, this kind of advice and I honestly don't give it out often. So you're lucky, <laugh>.
Danielle (Scrunch) (43:23):
Oh, I feel very privileged. You are incredible.
