Amanda Marcovitch’s Post

Never imagined I'd keynote at my 1st Vidcon. Now I'm excited to do a panel too. Thanks Sherry for inviting me on your panel on how to build a creator team. Having the right team is everything - and many creators don't focus enough on hiring. Over the last few years, I've led hiring for our editors, videographers, thumbnail designers, and learned so much along the way that I look forward to sharing. I'll be joined by: • Sherry Wong (CEO of roster) • Hayden Hillier-Smith (Editor & Creator with 350k subs) • JT Casey (YouTuber with 16.5M subs) • Shon Niswanger (Lead Editor at Dude Perfect) Join us on June 27th at 12:30 in room 202. See calendar link in the comments.

It's surreal to see Jon's interview with MrBeast cross 1M views...but the craziest part? We pulled it off in 2 weeks: filming, editing, graphics, dubbing, everything. As a manager, I’ve learned that process is just as important as output. Our turnaround time used to be months, now it’s weeks thanks to a few changes: We hired editors who specialize in intros, graphics, and story so each can focus on their parts in parallel. We established long term brand partnerships so we could go to our top sponsors for quick turnarounds. Proud to say we’ve landed sponsorships on every video since 2021. We had our video dubbed in Hindi and Spanish which led to an increase in views. Were there a lot of long nights? Yes. But do opportunities like this come that often? No. We wanted to show MrBeast and team they could count on us for their big announcement. And show our viewers we could keep our same quality no matter what. PS come see my session at VidCon this year (Thursday, June 27 at 11:15 AM) where I’ll share more tips on how to run a creator business

Excited to announce I’m giving my first keynote at VidCon this year. I’ll share my best tips to get bigger brand deals, lower costs, and decrease stress. No matter if you’re a solo creator or have a bigger team. Few people talk about the “unsexy” side of being a creator: operations, hiring, partnerships, and more. But it’s often the most important. My talk is on Thursday, June 27 at 11:15 AM (Room 202). Let me know if you’ll be in Anaheim, would love to see you!

“25 EMPLOYEES?! You have less than 3M subscribers, what on earth are you thinking?!” That’s one of the top comments on the “Goodbye, YouTube” video from Watcher, the channel of ex-BuzzFeed employees who launched a streaming site. The problem? They grew too fast…and launched a streaming site that costs $5.99/month which nobody really asked for. Especially since Netflix starts at only a dollar more. Look, I get it. High production has high costs. We’ve spent $15K   just to make a single video recently. And relying on sponsors is stressful. But the key to success on YouTube is staying nimble, keeping costs low, and finding other revenue sources. That’s why creators like Matt D'Avella and Ryan Trahan downsized their teams...and now are seeing outsized results. Or Jay Clouse who recently launched digital products like his CreatorHQ template. We rely on consulting and courses to help cover our costs beyond sponsorships. For more, subscribe to our newsletter below 👇

Can't believe I'm saying this but...I'm now a writer for Forbes covering the creator economy. LinkedIn was a big reason this happened. Tbh I get anxiety about my posts here because I don't talk about the "sexiest" topics. I mean, my last posts were about creator insurance, usage, and taxes lol. I truly wonder if anyone will care. To my surprise, you did. And so did editors at Forbes. Most people don't know I wrote for them years ago about women in business. I went to a Forbes Women event and pitched myself, wrote several pieces, but then couldn't keep up during Covid. So when Forbes reached back out this year, I felt like I had more to say having grown a creator business with Jon. Case in point? My latest Forbes article builds on a LI post I wrote about name, image, likeness. See link below to read. Good reminder that you gotta keep putting yourself out there. You never know who's watching. And I say that as a Canadian who hates putting herself out there 😅

Everyone dreads tax day, especially creators. But here are 4 tips to make it easier: 1) Have a Vendor Onboarding Process For every vendor: - sign contracts to make sure you own the work product - collect banking info and require invoices to track payments - collect W9s and W8Ben forms to send 1099s easy Pro tip: avoid your personal Venmo. I use Melio to pay quickly and tie invoices to expenses. 2) Be Educated on Valid Deductions Some creators miss out on deductions while others abuse them. The key is to be reasonable. Last year, creator Ali Spagnola asked to write off sex toys, 40 lbs of cotton candy, 15000 lego pieces and a baby grand piano. Many of these would not pass an IRS reasonability test. Here are things you can deduct: - Clothing, hair & makeup, props related to specific shoots - Giveaway prizes - Camera gear & other studio equipment - Studio rent or a portion if you film from home - Editing software - Health insurance 3) Keep Up with Bookkeeping Having your bookkeeping done will make taxes a breeze. You'll know what you owe before even starting. Tracking expense categories has allowed me to keep a close watch on our expenses and actually lower our video costs by 50% :). Pro tip: outsource your bookkeeping then review monthly. 4) Find Ways To Lower Your Tax Bill - Make over 100K? You'll save more with a S Corp than a LLC. - Contribute to a Roth IRA, SEP IRA, or use a Backdoor Roth strategy to offset your tax bill. Taxes for creators is just like any other business. We just need to pay attention to it like we do our views and comments. And with that, I leave you with a meme post from none other than the IRS 🤣

This International Women’s Day hits different. Every year, my feed is flooded with “shatter the glass ceiling! Be a GirlBoss!” posts. But as a new mother, I say screw that. Everyday I help build Youshaei Studios. And everyday, I’m making a choice not to spend that time with my 7-month old. Leading up to her birth, I lined up 10 brand deals just so I could take a month off. I even signed 3 contracts in the delivery room. I love building a creator business and can’t believe the doors it’s opened. But sometimes, I wonder what it’s like just to be a mom. Everyone always celebrates career women. But let’s celebrate traditional women too. Women who support their partners. Women who are caretakers. Women who put their children above everything else. I know. This is probably the most unpopular thing to say on LinkedIn of all places where nobody’s job title is just “Mom.” But if that’s you, I see you and I’m cheering you on like I do all my fellow career women out there. Happy International Women’s Day

It was 3 hours before our biggest interview yet with Dude Perfect (60M subscribers). But something was missing. We rented an amazing studio. We had our videographers, audio engineer, and 6 different cameras to capture everything. Then Jon said: “We need string lights for the background. It’ll add the prefect little touch.” So I went to Home Depot, got them, and returned with just enough time to set them up with the team. That interview now has nearly 500K views in its first few weeks with many commenting on the production quality. That’s what working with creators is all about. No detail is too small. And you’ve got to roll up your sleeves to do whatever it takes.

Only 10% of creators make over $100K. But you know what makes my heart drop? It’s stories of young creators taking loans. In Jon’s interviews, Matthew Beem (5.38M subs) said he took out over $20,000 in loans while making $9/hr to buy a car for MrBeast. And Airrack (14.9M subs) said he borrowed $17,500 to buy Logan Paul’s couches. All in hopes of making content from it. Their risks paid off big. But they’re the exceptions.  We took the opposite approach:  1. We spent years developing our expertise (myself in ops, Jon in creative)  2. We pooled our savings to hire a team on day 1. Our goal was to build a best-in-class studio, not one-man show.  3. Jon took on Creator-In-Residence and consulting jobs to help cover our high production costs.  In our first year, we were profitable. This is also why we started Insider Accelerator and partnered with Thinkific. It’s a 90 day private coaching program with Jon to grow your audience and income. The smart way. There’s only a few spots left after Jon opened it to his waitlist. See link below 👇