When content creator Jerry Won sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris on his “Dear Asian Americans” podcast in November 2022, the moment felt surreal.
“I was blown away,” Won told Insider. “To be sitting with the Vice President of the United States and sharing stories that were so resonant and relevant to me and our community was so special.”
Won launched his podcast in 2020 to elevate the Asian creator community and regularly interviews Asian and Asian American creators, entrepreneurs, and creatives.
He is one of the many voices who have emerged as authorities on the creator economy.
Some, like Avi Gandhi, who writes the Creator Logic newsletter that highlights data and insights straight from creators, and is Patreon’s former head of partnerships, have worked with creators for years and accumulated massive audiences for their deep insights and industry connections.
Others, like TikTok and Instagram influencer Vivian Tu, who founded the personal finance brand Your Rich BFF to help other creators accumulate wealth, are still building their online communities.
Insider has compiled a list of top experts in the space who people around the world — including our reporters — rely on to stay on top of changes in the industry. The list is based on a combination of conversations with several creators and executives in the industry and Insider’s own creator economy team, as well as reader nominations that we vetted.
Here are 23 creator-economy experts who share their insights on podcasts, newsletters, and LinkedIn, listed in alphabetical order:
Amoruwa’s career has revolved around talent — from musicians to models to creators. Currently on Meta’s “innovation partnerships” team working closely with content creators, Amoruwa led much of Meta’s efforts in bringing NFTs to Instagram, as well as spearheading adoption for products like reels and IGTV.
Amoruwa launched a newsletter earlier this year that shares her takes on creator economy trends and debates, such as breaking down whether or not the term “influencer” is relevant in today’s talent industry.
On LinkedIn, Amoruwa shares posts about the industry and news from Meta as well.
Expert on: Meta, Instagram, and creator monetization
Where to follow them: LinkedIn (5,000 followers), Instagram (14,000 followers), and newsletter
Balasabas has several YouTube shows about the creator economy, including his video podcast “Coffee with Content Creators,” and his tutorials on creator tools like Adobe Express and StreamYard’s livestreaming platform.
He’s the head of partnerships and community at the video-monetization platform Uscreen.
Expert on: Influencer marketing, monetization, tutorials on creator tools
Where to follow: YouTube (9,400 subscribers) and LinkedIn (9,000 followers)
Begley hosts the “Earned” podcast from the influencer marketing company CreatorIQ. Begley cofounded Tribe Dynamics, another influencer marketing company, which was acquired by CreatorIQ in 2021. Begley is currently the chief strategy officer for Creator IQ.
From executives at big tech companies like Meta and TikTok to influencer marketers running buzzy campaigns for brands, Begley’s podcast touches many corners of the creator economy.
On LinkedIn, Begley posts data analysis about influencer marketing and the creator economy.
Expert in: Influencer marketing
Where to follow them: LinkedIn (4,800 followers) and any podcast platform
Bousquet is a content creator and founder of Your Soulcialmate, a brand that teaches creators about entrepreneurship and monetizing their brands. Her podcast “Soulcial Scoop” also advises creators on how to build their business and their careers.
Expert on: Content creators, entrepreneurship, and coaching
Where to follow: “Soulcial Scoop” podcast
Bruneteau launched in 2020 the American Influencer Council, an organization that helps creators with business development, creates professional standards for the industry, and more. Before that, she led social media and digital strategy for brands like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue. She began her career as a blogger in 2006 and managed, as a digital editor, the fashion and beauty verticals within Time Inc.’s style and entertainment division for Essence.com.
Expert on: Influencers from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds; diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI for short; influencer marketing; and social media marketing
Where to follow: LinkedIn (2,800 followers)
Creech writes a LinkedIn newsletter called the Social Navigator where he summarizes updates on the major social media platforms, from TikTok to Instagram to Reddit. He also offers a course on LinkedIn copywriting and audience development.
Creech is the SVP of strategy at Brandwatch, which runs a platform that offers social-media management and consumer-intelligence services.
Expert on: LinkedIn strategy, audience engagement and development
Where to follow them: LinkedIn (20,200 followers) and the Social Navigator newsletter
Dumas hosts the podcast “UNSTUCKKD,” where he interviews a range of guests including full-time influencers, entrepreneurs, and those who create content as a side gig. He also teaches listeners how to monetize their own podcasts, improve their personal finances, and secure brand partnerships.
Dumas is the product chief at Her First $100K, an organization started by creator Tori Dunlap that aims to help women build wealth.
Expert on: Podcasting, creator startups, personal finance, and entrepreneurship
Where to follow: “UNSTUCKKD” podcast
Gamble is influencer-marketing platform Mavrck’s associate director of influencer innovation. He helps brands experiment and apply new trends in the creator economy. Since 2021, he’s also written a weekly newsletter that breaks down news, insights, and trends across the industry.
Gamble is also very active on LinkedIn, which named him in 2022 among its Top Voices in the Creator Economy and where he now hosts his newsletter.
Expert on: Influencer and social media marketing, newsletters, and creator insights
Where to follow: LinkedIn (5,000 followers) and “Lindsey Gamble’s Newsletter”
Gandhi writes the newsletter Creator Logic that interviews full-time creators like Tejas Hullur, the duo Tax and Alessia, and Jay Clouse about how they run their businesses. He was also one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the Creator Economy for 2022 and discusses industry trends with his nearly 12,000 followers on the platform.
Gandhi told Insider he blends his analysis with data and insights from his nearly 15-year-long career working with creators. He also founded Partner with Creators, a creator startup launched in 2022. Before that, Gandhi was Patreon’s head of creator partnerships.
Expert on: Creator partnerships, startups, podcasts, newsletters, and social media marketing
Where to follow: LinkedIn (11,800 followers) and Creator Logic newsletter
Grossman is the CEO of the creator and management consulting firm Tribe Monday, and founded the network of creator-economy professionals called Women in Influencer Marketing.
She also hosts the “WIIM Podcast,” which covers trends and news in influencer marketing.
Expert on: Influencer marketing, networking in the creator economy, consulting
Where to follow them: The WIIM Podcast and LinkedIn (11,000 followers)
Haberman doesn’t just have two decades of experience in media and marketing, she is also an adjunct professor at UCLA Extension, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate students about influencer marketing.
Her newsletter, ICYMI (In Case You Missed It), has more than 8,000 subscribers on Substack and over 1,000 on LinkedIn. Haberman’s weekly newsletter, which drops every Friday, dives into the biggest headlines of the week in social media news — from highlighting interesting influencer-marketing campaigns to sharing exclusive information about what social-media companies are working on.
Haberman is a professional adviser for the American Influencer Council, a trade association founded in 2020.
Expert on: Influencer marketing and social media platforms
Where to follow them: Substack (8,000 subscribers), LinkedIn (4,700 followers), and Twitter (9,800 followers)
Harari has worked at some of the buzziest creator-economy startups, including Jellysmack and Patreon. At age 26, he is currently the global head of creators at SuperOrdinary, which acquired creator monetization startup FanFix in 2022.
Harari has built an active LinkedIn presence by sharing posts about the creator economy, particularly about creator partnerships and monetization strategies.
His LinkedIn has nearly 11,000 followers.
Expert on: Creator monetization
Where to follow them: LinkedIn (10,900 followers)
If you’ve ever been to VidCon, the annual conference that celebrates creators and industry professionals in Los Angeles, you may be familiar with Louderback.
Louderback, who is an advisor to several media startups, was the CEO of VidCon before it was sold to Paramount. Since 2021, Louderback has been writing a weekly newsletter called “Inside the Creator Economy,” which has over 17,000 subscribers on LinkedIn. Prior to publishing his newsletter on LinkedIn, Louderback had been sharing the newsletter through VidCon since 2020.
In addition to Louderback’s newsletter and LinkedIn feed, he hosts a podcast with Renee Teeley that covers the creator economy. He’s frequently speaking at public events — and will be speaking and moderating at this year’s VidCon.
Expert on: Media and creator industry news
Where to follow them: LinkedIn (29,000 followers) and podcast platforms
As a social media manager and consultant, Navarra has to keep a pulse on all the tech news affecting social platforms.
Navarra’s newsletter, Geekout, has more than 27,000 subscribers, according to his website. His weekly Geekout update covers everything from new tech features on platforms like Twitter or Facebook to broader news impacting the biggest companies in tech.
In addition to a newsletter, Navarra is active on Twitter, where he shares tech feature news and scoops. He also runs a paid WhatsApp community.
Expert on: Social-media platforms and tech features
Where to follow them: Twitter (164,600 followers), LinkedIn (45,000 followers), WhatsApp, and newsletter
Powell’s background is in marketing and advertising, but she’s become a content creator in her own right. She has worked on social media strategy for brands including Delta Air Lines and Sunwink, and written about creator culture for the creator marketing platform Hashtag Paid, covering topics such as the content strategy at Issa Rae’s production company Hoorae Media. She also has an audio series on LinkedIn called #CreatorTeaTalk where she discusses topics including the Black creator economy, cannabis creators, and more.
Expert on: Influencer marketing, digital and influencer culture, the Black creator economy
Where to follow them: LinkedIn (10,000 followers) and the #CreatorTeaTalk audio series
Rosenblum and Chaudry interview top creators like MrBeast and Marques Brownlee on the “Colin and Samir Show” podcast and host a separate show called “Creator Support” where they discuss the business side of influencing including episodes such as, “We Interviewed YouTube Employees about Shorts” and “Will AI Destroy YouTube?”
The creator duo has been working together for more than a decade, and the “Colin and Samir Show” has been running for six years and has 1.25 million YouTube subscribers.
Expert on: YouTube, creator strategies, creator interviews
Where to follow: “Colin and Samir Show” and “Creator Support” podcasts, and their newsletter “The Publish Press“
Schwarzenberger hosts the podcast “Unboxed: The Creator Show,” where he has interviewed industry insiders like Joe Sugg, Calfreezy, and Patricia Bright. He’s also the cofounder of Arcade Media, a management company for creators with clients including the popular YouTube group the Sidemen. Before starting his own ventures, Schwarzenberger was talent agency YMU’s chief creative officer and a creative strategist at the publisher Ladbible Group.
Expert on: UK’s creator-economy scene, startups, public speaking, Gen Z, talent management, and podcasting
Where to follow: LinkedIn (32,700 followers), “Unboxed: The Creator Show” podcast
Teeley cohosts with Jim Louderback “The Creator Feed” podcast, which discusses trending topics and news in the creator economy, such as creator pay at Meta or Amazon’s new TikTok competitor Inspire. She also offers creators consulting and coaching services and has presented at events like VidSummit and Creator Economy Expo.
Earlier in her career, she was the SVP of content and community at TubeBuddy, which does search optimization analytics for YouTube, and global director of digital marketing solutions at streaming company Brightcove.
Expert on: Trending news in the creator economy, consulting, and coaching
Where to follow them: “The Creator Feed” podcast
Tu is a TikTok and Instagram creator who runs the Your Rich BFF accounts, where she shares personal finance and investing tips to help followers build their wealth. She also has a newsletter and posts on LinkedIn, where she’s built a community of around 10,000 followers.
Tu began her career on Wall Street as a trader with JPMorgan. She started Your Rich BFF to help people from all backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented communities, take charge of their finances.
Expert on: Personal finance and investing, creators building wealth, and Asian American creators and founders
Where to follow: LinkedIn (10,400 followers) and enRiched newsletter
In 2020, Won launched Always Be Creating, a private-membership community that empowers Asian influencers in the creator economy. He also founded Asian Creator House, an events platform that brings together creators and brand partners. And he runs the “Dear Asian Americans” podcast, where he interviews key leaders within the Asian American community; past guests have included Vice President Kamala Harris and Your Rich BFF creator Vivian Tu.
Won also shares on LinkedIn tips on how to build personal brands for creators, entrepreneurs, and speakers.
Expert on: Asian American creators, creator economy startups, podcasting, DEI, public speaking
Where to follow: LinkedIn (26,900 followers), “Dear Asian Americans” podcast
Yang writes a Substack newsletter called Creator Economy that’s read by around 45,000 people. His most popular posts include practical how-to guides for building thriving creator businesses and interviews with top influencers, product leaders, and venture capitalists.
He also speaks about industry trends on LinkedIn, where he has about 65,000 followers.
Yang is the product lead on the online-gaming platform Roblox’s creator success team. Over the past decade, he has worked at some of the largest tech companies including Meta, Twitch, and Reddit.
Expert on: AI in the creator economy, creator community, product management, newsletters
Where to follow: LinkedIn (65,200 followers) and Creator Economy newsletter
Having worked at big tech companies like YouTube and Instagram, Youshaei knows more than the average creator about why social media platforms work the way they do.
Youshaei, who is also a content creator with more than 338,000 YouTube subscribers, makes content about being a creator. He has interviewed creators from the Paul brothers to Paris Hilton and recently interviewed YouTube star Danny Duncan.
Youshaei hosts a podcast called “Created,” where he will share interviews and advice about content creation. Youshaei runs a Discord group called the Created Club, where he moderates a network of 2,000 creators, gives feedback on creators’ content, and shares industry news.
He is also an advisor to TubeBuddy, an analytics platform for creators.
Expert on: Social-media platforms
Where to follow them: LinkedIn (59,200 followers), YouTube (338,000 subscribers), Discord, newsletter, and podcast platforms
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