Hi friend 👋

Pat and I finally made it to Edinburgh a few weeks ago!

I've been talking about going back for YEARS. So much that Pat has spent the last two asking when we're actually going!

We were supposed to have the whole week there, but then Amsterdam happened, and our Scotland trip got squeezed into about two days before we headed to Dublin and then back to the States.

Still loved it. I always do.

Now, there's one thing I've been talking about doing in Edinburgh for years, too.

Climbing Arthur's Seat.

The view from up there is stunning, and I've been wanting to go back and do it again.

Well, we got to Edinburgh.

Did I climb it?

Absolutely not 😂

I was so tired by the time we got there that I told Pat we'd have to save it for next time.

So after years of talking about Scotland, I finally got him there and immediately found another reason we need to go back.

Not that I'm complaining!

Anyway, we’re getting into a bit of a hot one today. Well, at least it’s hot to me, lol.

I’d bet a good number of you have wondered at some point whether you need a manager. And my answer to that is… it depends.

But that’s a much bigger conversation. Today, I want to start with how you know what your manager is actually doing for you.

When a brand deal lands in your inbox, did your manager bring you that opportunity, or was the brand already coming to you? And even if they didn’t bring you the opportunity, what did they do to make it a better deal?

On the other side, how do you make sure you’re not overlooking work you never see? Your manager could be having conversations on your behalf long before there’s an offer to forward. When you only see the end result, it can feel like things are just “happening anyway.”

So let’s look at what you’re paying for, what’s actually being done, and whether it’s the help your business needs.

I see this from the brand side of creator partnerships, and it's something I wish more creators understood.

Let's say a brand has been following you for months. They already know they want to work with you. They reach out, your manager handles the negotiation, you sign the contract, and everyone celebrates.

Great!

But when you look back on that campaign, I want you to remember that the brand came looking for you.

Your manager didn't bring you that opportunity. You did, through the content and relationships you've been building.

That doesn't mean your manager didn't earn their commission.

Did they negotiate a better fee than you would have accepted? Get the brand to pay separately for usage? Push back when the deliverables started growing? Save you weeks of back-and-forth?

Fantastic. That's valuable work.

But I want you to understand the difference between getting you in the door, negotiating once you're there, and actually managing everything afterward.

Because those are three different jobs, and some managers are excellent at one but don't really do the others.

The other thing creators don't always see is what happens before an offer exists.

When brands and agencies are discussing who to work with, managers bring up their creators. They're pitching you in rooms you're not in, recommending you for campaigns, and reminding people what you're capable of.

I've seen managers do this really well. A creator's name comes up constantly because their manager is always finding ways to put them in front of the right people.

You might not see that work until the brand reaches out.

So I wouldn't judge a manager only by counting how many inbound emails they forwarded. I'd also want to know what conversations they're having on your behalf.

And if you don't know, ask!

Here's where I think a lot of creator-manager relationships get complicated.

A manager working on commission makes money when you make money.

That's perfectly reasonable. It's also worth remembering when you're deciding what you want your business to look like.

Because if your manager's goal is to bring you as many good deals as possible, but your goal is to do fewer campaigns and spend more time on your own products, you're going to start wanting different things.

Neither of you is necessarily doing anything wrong.

But if they keep bringing you offers for another sponsored post when you've told them you want to do speaking, events or longer-term partnerships, I'd want to know why.

Are they actually pitching you for those things?

Do the brands they're talking to have opportunities like that?

Have they told you what you're missing that would make those pitches easier?

Or are they mostly selling the same packages because those are the ones they know how to sell?

And sometimes, the answer is that you haven't told your manager what you really want.

I cannot stress this enough: your manager cannot build the business you want if you haven't told them what that business looks like.

I would want them to know your financial goals, your minimum fees, which brands you want to build relationships with, how much sponsored content you actually want to make, and the other things you're interested in doing.

Not just, "I'd love more brand deals."

Which brands? What kinds of partnerships? How often? What would make a deal worth interrupting your existing plans?

If your standards aren't high enough for you, your manager's aren't going to magically be higher.

And a really good manager should be willing to challenge those goals when they think you're underestimating what's possible.

This is another distinction I make in conversations with creators.

A talent manager and a business or operations manager are not necessarily the same person.

Your talent manager might be brilliant at negotiating, pitching and getting you renewed. That doesn't automatically mean they're supposed to manage your content calendar, supervise your editor, organize your contractors or remind your accountant to send an invoice.

Some management companies do offer broader support. Some don't.

Neither model is automatically better. You need to know which one you're paying for.

I've talked to creators who need much more help with what happens after the deal comes in than with finding the next deal.

They have opportunities. They have brands that want to work with them.

What they don't have is someone making sure the work gets done without every little decision coming back to them.

A talent manager bringing in another campaign isn't going to solve that problem.

In that situation, I might rather see you invest in someone who can run your day-to-day business, or put better systems in place, than expect your talent manager to do a completely different job.

And yes, there's a world where you need both.

That's why I don't love giving everyone the same answer about management. Your business might look nothing like the creator sitting next to you.

I wouldn't start by asking your manager to defend their commission.

I'd pull up your last few campaigns and look at what actually happened.

For each one, I'd want to know:

You might realize your manager has been doing far more than you appreciated.

You might also realize you're still doing almost everything, including sourcing the opportunities.

Then I'd look at the money.

Pull the commissions you've paid over a period that actually represents your business, including quieter and busier months.

Now ask yourself what those payments are buying.

Not because you could necessarily replace a good manager with a cheaper assistant. You probably can't replace the right relationships, judgment and negotiating experience with a few hours of admin help.

But you may discover that you're paying for a level of representation you don't currently need, while the work you desperately need help with isn't being done by anyone.

That's useful information!

And please don't forget the longer-term value.

I don't want a manager negotiating the biggest possible fee today if the deal they're putting together makes absolutely no sense for the brand to renew.

A really good manager should care about what your business looks like next year too.

Sometimes that means asking for more money. Sometimes it means structuring a partnership differently, making sure the brand understands everything you can offer, or protecting a relationship that could become much bigger over time.

That's the kind of thinking I'd pay for.

Once you've done that little review, I'd schedule time to talk about the next few months.

Something like:

"I've been looking at the deals we've done together, and I want to make sure we're using your time and mine in the best way. I know we've been doing a lot of [current work], but I really want to focus more on [specific goal]. Can we look at which brands we're pitching, what we're asking them for, and what support makes the most sense going forward?"

Then listen to what they tell you.

Maybe they've already been pitching you for those opportunities and the brands aren't biting. I'd want to know why.

Maybe they're getting you into rooms you didn't even realize you were being considered for.

Maybe they agree you're doing too many small campaigns and have a plan to change that.

Or maybe they tell you that what you're asking for isn't really how their business works.

That's important to know too.

A manager can be fantastic at their job and still not be the right kind of support for what you're trying to build. And sometimes a manager who's doing an excellent job is worth every dollar because you have no interest in doing that work yourself.

I wouldn't immediately start shopping for another manager or demanding a different commission. I'd figure out what you actually need, compare it with what's being delivered, and then see what you can improve together.

Because the question isn't whether managers are worth their fees in general.

It's whether yours is helping you build the creator business you actually want to have.

And if you've never sat down together and talked about what that looks like, I'd start there.

Talk soon,

Tara