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Are All Talent Managers the Same? đ€·đ»ââïž
July 4 always makes for a slow news week as most execs are on some sort of yacht in some sort of amazing place. So I figured it would be a great time to reflect on talent management companies and ask the operative question creators are always asking each other: what's the difference? I'll cover a few things creators should know before they sign, and discuss how some of the top orgs are differentiating themselves.

Sponsored by RockWater
Iâm breaking format again this week due to the 4th of July holiday!
Not enough news to belabor, so time to do a bit of navel gazing at the creator management industry.
Iâll start this edition with three main things every creator should look out for before signing with representation. Iâve been doing this on-and-off for 18 years, so these will be gold.
Then Iâll go over 10 of the top talent representation firms and try my best to break down how theyâre differentiating themselves from the market.
Letâs get into it.
Creators BewareâŠ
Know before you sign!
First of all, none of this is legal advice.
But if youâre getting legal advice from a newsletter then hereâs my #1 tip: donât do that.
All contracts have different loopholes, pitfalls, gotchas, and snags.
Get a lawyer. Or, if thatâs impossible, throw the agreement into ChatGPT and dig deep (thatâs bad but better than nothing!)
When creators sign with managers, they absolutely OBSESS over these three points, above all others.
What happens if my rep leaves? If you sign a contract with Evil Mega Corp Management because you like your manager Sarah Goodheart, then the company fires Sarah (happens all the time), you may not want to stay with EMCM. Itâs important for every creator to know this obvious-but-overlooked fact: every large representation firm has GOOD agents/managers and BAD agents/managers, and that goes for everywhere from the three-letter mega agencies to the boutique firms. If you get stuck with a bad rep because your good rep gets canned when some numbskull at the top thinks AI can do their job better, you need to be able to either leave with your good manager or, at the very least, leave EMCM.
âIâll do my bestâ isnât a strategy. Before you sign with an agent/manager, have a working game plan. What will they do for you every month, every week, every day? Do they even know your goals? I canât even tell you how many times Iâve talked to a creator who tells me they hate their manager, then when I ask, âWhat are they not going for you that you wish they would?â they donât have a good answer. Donât give up 10% or 20% for vibes.
How is your repâs reputation? A rep may manage some of the biggest creators in the space, but they may be known as difficult, annoying, or, at worst, scammers. There are managers and agents whom large brands told me they wonât work with anymore. I repeat: your rep may knock you out of consideration with brands. Donât just ask existing client referrals. They may just give you the one who theyâre dating, actually working hard for, etc. Talk to their past colleagues. LinkedIn is great for that! At the very least: reach out to one of their clientâs inboxes with a well-written brand offer from the most professional e-mail you can get and see how long it takes them to respond and how. A little devious? Yes. But the answer may shock you (50% chance they wonât reply at all).
AgainâŠlawyer, lawyer, lawyer. Donât sign anything without talking to Jonathan Katz or Tyler Chou or Mikey Glazer or Philip Daniels or Tristan Snell or any of the other awesome creator lawyers out there.
But donât even waste your time if those three arenât clear.
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Ten Classes of Creator Rep Firms:

Please note: this isnât about what these companies actually do. Itâs about what they say they do. The quality of execution varies wildly by manager, by talent, and by genre.
And if youâre a creator trying to figure out where to go next, DM me and Iâll have a frank conversation with you.
But hereâs where weâre at in no particular order:
Fixated: As an equity owner in the company, itâs in my best interest to say, âFixated does everything perfectly.â But really, Fixatedâs main value is in their understanding of content, including front-lines creation like they recently did with FunnyMikeâs Streamer Prom. In an industry where so much revenue is made directly from content, this is a huge boon over orgs churning brand deals.
Night: The company heavily built by their longtime representation of MrBeast, theyâre known as the company with incredible proximity to power. Even now, Kai Cenatâs Mafiathon 2 had a lot of Night/AMP connections (AMP is owned by Night).
Underscore: Though the website focuses on a lot of buzzwordy ânext-generationâ kind of stuff, where I see the power of underscore is in their verticalization. They have experts in very specific areas, and the ones I know are very, very good at it.
CAA/UTA/WME/Gersch/ICM: The âthree-letter agenciesâ are bulked together here because itâs hard not to, despite nuances in scale and quality of managers, these are the companies that have proximity to the biggest brands, Hollywood connections, and insane infrastructure. Theyâre in the âbuild inventory, sell inventoryâ business.
Grail Talent: Too few people are talking about whatâs being built at Grail Talent. Itâs an absolutely huge org that represents tons of talent and does a ridiculous amount of deal flow. They have some large talent, but are mostly great at mid-tier deal flow. In the industry we often joke that weâre in the business of âstacking nickelsâ and they do it better than pretty much anyone.
The Creator Society: There is a huge market of creators whose content acts as a catalogue, where each piece is showcasing something to sell. Youâll find these creators on LTK, ShopMy, and Amazon Live. And The Creator Society reps the best of the best.
Select Management Group/Digital Brand Architects/Dulcedo Management: The triple header of powerful female lifestyle, beauty, and fashion reps. Both with plenty of successes in building and launching beauty/lifestyle businesses around some of the largest creators.
Unruly/Moxie/Creators Inc: Donât sleep on the OnlyFans-forward agencies. Although most of their revenue is made from these premium paid sites, they also work with some of the largest modern-day social media models, who control culture.
Gushcloud International: One of the largest international management companies with over 150 talent managers, theyâre the âeverything storeâ of management with incredible infrastructure to do just about everything.
Loaded/Click/Ellify/A billion others: Gaming is a huge vertical in the digital world, but the talent, deals, and, frankly, âvibeâ is so drastically different, many management companies and agencies sprung up to service this market. And with the incredible rise in live and game streamers, which led to Nightâs acquisition of AMP, Kai Cenatâs company, these companies have significantly grown in relevance.
Cue the many comments and e-mails of those I forgot, but, trust me, with literally thousands of digital talent representation organizations, they canât possibly be covered in one newsletter.
But thatâs not the point.
The point is: there are managers for everything. They vary in quality, but, if you are a creator who needs help on the business-side, thereâs someone out there for you.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, Iâll send you my â10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!â deck!
Until next time, protect yo rep.