Winfluence · 2026-01-05 · 13 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
42 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
After a two-year hiatus, Jason Falls returns to Winfluence with a pointed critique of how certain talent managers operate within the creator economy. Falls shares direct feedback from multiple creators requesting to bypass their managers and work directly with brands, citing reduced earnings and fewer collaborations post-hire. The core issue: talent managers, paid on commission, immediately raise creator rates to optimize their own take-home without improving the creator's audience size, engagement, or content quality - a practice that eliminates price-sensitive brands from the deal pipeline. Falls also identifies an 80-20 problem where managers concentrate effort on established, high-earning creators while minimally servicing climbing mid-tier creators. The real victims are the 25,000 - 100,000 follower micro and mid-tier creators who operate on thin margins and can't afford fewer deals. Falls doesn't advocate eliminating talent managers entirely, but rather educates creators on better contract structures: require transparency on all negotiations, freeze prices until audience growth justifies increases, replace high commission percentages (up to 40%) with flat administrative fees plus lower performance-based upside, and structure compensation similarly to how virtual assistants price services. The episode serves as both a call to action for creator awareness and an industry reality check.
Creators report getting less money and fewer brand collaborations after hiring talent managers, primarily because managers raise rates without corresponding improvements in audience size or engagement, eliminating price-sensitive brands from their opportunity pool.
Most talent managers work on commission, paid only when they secure deals, incentivizing them to maximize their take-home by immediately raising creator rates regardless of performance metrics or audience growth.
Mid-tier creators with 25,000 - 100,000 followers are most vulnerable because they operate with thin margins and depend on steady deal flow to transition from day jobs; one fewer brand deal can make the difference between quitting and keeping their day job.
Falls recommends negotiating a flat management fee for administrative services (scheduling, content calendar, community management) paired with a lower commission on deals - typically much less than the standard 40% - rather than high commission on all earnings.
No; Falls advocates for educating creators to identify and remove greedy talent managers while recognizing that well-intentioned managers who benefit all parties do exist and serve a valuable administrative function.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode has a clear, moderately useful central argument (commission misalignment causing creator pricing-out) with a handful of actionable takeaways, but large portions are ads, personal re-introduction, and padding that dilute the density. The 80/20 application and flat-fee negotiation tip add modest value for brand-side operators.
Raising the creator's fees without an increase in effectiveness or efficiency to justify it is simply the talent manager eliminating a percentage of brands that will be able to afford or have interest in working with the creator.
Creators should also negotiate a flat management fee for the administrative services the talent management professionals provide, then pay a lower commission than they're asked as an upside to compensation.
Applying the misaligned-incentives-of-commissioned-agents argument to creator economy talent managers is a reasonable framing, but the underlying logic is ancient and near-identical to critiques of real-estate agents, sports agents, and financial advisors. The 80/20 rule invocation and capitalism framing are textbook recycled takes.
And then there's the 80-20 rule. Talent managers, like any other professional in a capitalist society, wish to spend most of their time with the clients that account for most of their money.
Most talent managers are paid on a commission basis. That means they only get paid more if the deals they secure for their creators are more.
This is a solo practitioner episode; Falls has genuine field experience running influence campaigns and teaching the topic, which grants some credibility, but all evidence is anecdotal and self-reported with no corroborating expert voices or outside practitioners.
I've been blessed with a full roster of client work in that time and just didn't have the bandwidth to keep up the pace of a regular podcast.
I've talked to several talent managers, some small independent ones, others who should be described more as talent agents more than managers, the ones at big firms, people in the industry know.
The episode provides a few illustrative numbers ($10,000 deal, 40% commission, 25k-100k follower band) and an informal network poll, but all figures are hypothetical or anecdotal, no named creators, managers, or brands are cited, and no hard data or third-party research supports the claimed trend.
They are the 25,000 to 100,000 follower type micro and mid-tier climbers who can't afford to lose deals.
If a brand were paying $10,000 for this creator to collaborate with last month, they aren't going to pay 40% more this month without a corresponding 40% jump in performance.
As a solo rant there is no interview dialogue to evaluate, and the rhetorical questions are largely self-answered without tension or pushback; the structure is coherent but the format forecloses any genuine challenge to the host's framing or evidence base.
Now think about that scenario in any other walk of life. When you hire an accountant to manage your books, does your accountant then increase your prices 20%, likely without your knowledge or approval, to pay their fees?
So you have to ask why.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Hello again friends. Thanks for listening to Winfluence, the Influence Marketing Podcast. It’s been a minute! For those keeping track, the last time I posted an episode of Winfluence was two years ago. I hope you haven’t missed me, but I also hope you’re excited to hear something new from my thoughts on influence marketing. And, as a measure of transparency, know that the only reason I stopped regular episodes of the show is … well … it worked. I’ve been blessed with a full roster of client work in that time and just didn’t have the bandwidth to keep up the pace. But that means I have two more years of experience dealing with the day to day of influence marketing strategy, campaign management, execution and measurement. I’ve also been teaching students an influence strategy course at the University of Louisville, so it’s not like I’m coming back to the podcast without new ideas or fresh perspective, so I hope you’ll appreciate that. And, to be realistic, I can’t promise I’m going to churn out a weekly episode from now on and be right back in the saddle. Let’s just say when I’ve got to something to share with you, I will. So your subscription is still worth holding onto.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
You enjoy podcasts. We know because you're listening to one. Hi, I'm Jason Falls, the executive producer of the Marketing Podcast Network. We love podcasts too, so much so that in addition to providing you with a great episode you're listening to, we also help businesses, brands, and even individuals produce their podcasts.
MPN Studios offers podcast consulting and production services to help you get you or your business its very own podcast. We've helped dozens of smart people, advertising agencies, and brands develop podcasts. All you do is record your content or interview. We take that and deliver a professionally produced audio or video episode complete with show notes, transcriptions, and even promotional clips to use on social media.
And our monthly subscription prices are hard to beat. If you or your company are jonesing to have your own podcast to establish thought leadership, drive business leads, or just have fun talking about your business or topic of choice, we'd love to help. Learn more at marketingpodcasts.net slash studio.
That's marketingpodcasts.net slash studio. Do you want Instagrammers or TikTokers to post about your brand? Or do you actually want to engage creators who influence their audience to buy your product?
If you're in the latter of those two, you've come to the right place. Welcome to Winfluence, the influence marketing podcast. hello again friends thanks for listening to winfluence the influence marketing podcast it's been a minute for those keeping track the last time i posted an episode of winfluence was two years ago i hope you haven't missed me but i also hope you're excited to hear something new from my thoughts on influence marketing and as a measure of transparency know that the only reason I stopped regular episodes of the show is, well, it worked.
I've been blessed with a full roster of client work in that time and just didn't have the bandwidth to keep up the pace of a regular podcast. But that means I have two more years of experience dealing with the day-to-day of influence marketing, strategy, campaign management, execution, and measurement. I've also been teaching students an influence strategy course at the University of Louisville, so it's not like I'm coming back to the podcast without new ideas or fresh and recent perspective.
So I hope you'll appreciate that. And to be realistic, I can't promise I'm going to turn out a weekly episode from now on and be right back in the saddle. Let's just say when I've got something to share with you, I will. So your subscription is still worth holding on to.
And I won't be throwing countless episodes at you just to stay top of mind. For those of you who enjoy a good Jason Falls rant now and then, you'll be delighted to hear that those moments are really the ones when I have something to say and share, so expect less interviews and more grumpy old man wishing the world would be better. When a new episode of WinFluence pops into your feed, it'll be fun for sure. What burr in my saddle has me champing at the bit to return to the podcast?
Talent managers are killing the creator economy. I'll explain how and why next on WinFluence. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news, the Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you.
Vanta is the platform used by over 16 fast companies like Synthesia Nandos and Granola who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk Get started at Vanta From the producers of Baby Reindeer comes Alice and Steve exclusively on Disney I wish I was in love. You're my best friend. Anybody would be lucky to have you. Meet Alice and Steve.
We've known each other for over 30 years. When Alice's daughter starts to date Steve. Mum, I want to keep seeing him. Things start to unravel.
Your mum just tried to shoot me. What? Alice and Steve, a Hulu original series exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required.
T's and C's apply. Welcome back to WinFluence. Talent managers can be very useful to content creators. They take a lot of the busyness of the creator's tasks away so they can focus on creating.
Talent managers can also be quite useful to brands, agencies, and consultants like me who often handle the brand side tasks of finding, contracting, directing, coordinating, and measuring a creator's collaboration. Some creators can just be hard to get a hold of, much less work with. Talent managers make that easier and better and are really good at making sure the creator crosses all the T's and dots, all the I's on deliverables and such. Sadly, the frequency with which I've been dealing with those types of productive, useful, delight to work with talent managers is slightly dwindling.
And it isn't my opinion or even experience in working directly with them that's driving this. It's that of the content creators themselves. In the last year, I've had more than one. In fact, a good half dozen creators reach out to me and ask that I communicate directly with them rather than their talent manager.
Now, six in a year might not sound like a big number, but that is also so unusual that the first time it happened, I called around to see if anyone else was experiencing this on the brand or consultant side. Only one other person at that time reported a similar experience. When I rechecked with the same group a few weeks ago, everyone reported at least one, and in most cases many more than one, creator had asked to circumvent the talent manager. Now, the total numbers I'm aware of may be small, but they speak volumes of a growing trend.
In every case that I have direct knowledge of, the reason the creators are asking brands and their representatives to cut out the talent manager is the same. The creator is getting less money and less brand collaborations than before they hired them. So you have to ask why. I've talked to several talent managers, some small independent ones, others who should be described more as talent agents more than managers, the ones at big firms, people in the industry know.
And of course, I've been doing this a long time, so I understand the space well enough to know why certain things happen. The primary reason a creator would get less money and less deals when they hire a talent manager is likely because the talent manager is in it for themselves, not the creator. Most talent managers are paid on a commission basis. That means they only get paid more if the deals they secure for their creators are more.
So what they do right out of the gate is raise the creator's prices. You know what talent managers don't do? Increase the creator's audience or effectiveness. So right out of the gate, the same creator is now asking for more money for the same audience size content quality engagement rate and so on Do you raise your rates without reason or justification Probably not I can think of many industries where that happens without the subsequent fallout of less money less deals In this construct, the creator is hiring someone to take a certain amount of work off their shoulders.
This someone is then changing the creator's pricing to ensure they, the someone, is paid optimally. Now think about that scenario in any other walk of life. When you hire an accountant to manage your books, does your accountant then increase your prices 20%, likely without your knowledge or approval, to pay their fees? Now, I've got more to say about that, but we'll save that topic for a future rant.
Raising the creator's fees without an increase in effectiveness or efficiency to justify it is simply the talent manager eliminating a percentage of brands that will be able to afford or have interest in working with the creator. If a brand were paying $10,000 for this creator to collaborate with last month, they aren't going to pay 40% more this month without a corresponding 40% jump in performance. And then there's the 80-20 rule. Talent managers, like any other professional in a capitalist society, wish to spend most of their time with the clients that account for most of their money.
When a new creator comes into the fold, they're not likely to have developed to the point of demanding high dollars from brands, so the talent manager is going to focus on the established creators that do. As long as the new creators are thrown enough bones over the course of the first year to not leave, the talent manager hasn't failed, and they've probably taken home a nice chunk of commission that benefits the haves and somewhat ignores the have-nots. This wouldn't be such a hot-button issue for me if it weren't for the fact that the creators that are being priced out of their market are not the ones with hundreds of thousands of followers and a big bankroll in brand deals.
They are the 25,000 to 100,000 follower type micro and mid-tier climbers who can't afford to lose deals. They're teetering on the edge of being able to really earn from their content, talent, and audiences, and one less brand deal next year might be the difference between quitting their day job and not being able to afford to. Talent managers who follow the strict rationales of capitalism are in it for themselves first and everyone else if they've gotten theirs, and they expect the brands to pay them rather than their clients.
And that is killing the creator economy. The middle class of content creators can't move up if someone is trying to take more than their fair share of the pie. So how do we serve those creators better? I don't advocate for getting rid of talent managers, but I will advocate for educating creators so they can get rid of the greedy ones.
First, creators need to understand they hire and pay the talent manager. The brands they work with hire them, the creators. We don't mind working with your staff rather than you directly, but it's none of our business what you pay them. That means the creator-talent manager relationship is such that the creator calls the shots.
Insist, as a creator, that the talent manager copy you on every proposal or even email exchange with the brands in question. It is to your benefit they negotiate up, but make sure they aren't negotiating you out as a result. Creators should require a new talent manager to freeze prices until or unless there is audience or engagement growth to justify it That is the only way a brand will accept a sudden jump in price And if you say well let just go out and find a dumb brand to pay more for the same thing Well you a greedy prick and that come back to bite you in the ass Creators should also negotiate a flat management fee for the administrative services the talent management professionals provide, then pay a lower commission than they're asked as an upside to compensation.
I've seen talent manager deals that pay up to 40% of what a creator brand gets. That's ludicrous in my opinion. List the things a talent manager does for you. Things like scheduling your posts, responding on your behalf if they do, managing paid promotions of your content, managing your content calendar.
Now price those activities to virtual assistants or other community management professionals and see if you can't get a better deal on the work work and then reward the talent manager for the sales sales. And yes, I should clarify that not all talent managers are bad eggs. Many are wonderful to work with and do right by their clients without hurting anyone else. Some do bad things because they're trained that way.
It's just the way it's done, but they have no ill intent. I've had the good fortune to work with a lot of really good ones over the years who understand that everyone has to benefit in the relationship. The creator, the talent manager, the brand, and the consultant or agency that represents the brand side too. But when one becomes two, becomes four, becomes eight in an industry that isn't big enough to ignore exponential growth of a hurtful trend, we have to pay attention and do something about it.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this, especially if you're a talent manager or their client, the creator. If you're the latter, are you getting less money or less deals after hiring a new talent manager? I'd love to know about it. And yes, I will protect your anonymity.
I have no intention of singling anyone out. I only want the influence marketing space to get better for creators, brands, and those of us in between. Email me at jason at jasonfalls.com.
And I know you know someone who might get fired up hearing this little tome. Share this episode with them. Send them to winfluencepod.com or the direct link to this episode, which is jasonfalls.
co slash talentmanagerangst. Thanks for sticking with a largely dormant feed for the last couple of years. I hope to talk with you again a lot sooner than the last gap between meetings. If you have a moment, drop WinFluence a rating or review on your favorite podcast app or on them all.
WinFluence is a production of Falls and Partners. WinFluence also airs along MPN, the Marketing Podcast Network. For more great marketing podcasts, go to marketingpodcasts.net.
Thanks for listening, folks. Keep watching your feed for more on WinFluence. You may know you're listening to this show along the Marketing Podcast Network, but did you know there are other great shows on MPN to help your business? Heather Eck hosts an amazing show called Your Radiant Spirit.
Heather, tell listeners about the show. What if the colors you're drawn to, the creative urges you ignore, and the quiet intuitive hits you brush off are actually trying to tell you something? Your Radiant Spirit is the podcast that helps you listen and live with greater clarity and purpose. And where can people subscribe?
You can find and subscribe at hethereck.com slash yourradiantspirit on marketingpodcast.net or search for it wherever you get your podcasts. You heard her.
Go subscribe. This podcast is heard along the Marketing Podcast Network. For more great marketing podcasts, visit marketingpodcasts.net.
Other episodes covering the same guests and topics, from across The B2B Podcast Index.
The Future of Podcasting, Media, and Audience Attention with Paul RiismandelThe Business Development Podcast · on Creator economy86 / 100
Clarity is the Real Key to Transformation 🐦🔥 with Charlo Allizard Leverage · on Creator economy76 / 100
From 10 Failed Products to a $1M/Month SaaS PortfolioProductLed Podcast · on Creator economy75 / 100
Getting Brand Buy In & Activating the Playbook // With David Aaker and Marcus CollinsThe Brand Builder's Playbook · on Creator economy73 / 100
Mini Truck Boom, Kylie and Zuck vs Spiegel and RDJ, Europe Considers ACTBPN · on Creator economy69 / 100
You Are Not Thinking Big Enough About AIFinding Peak w/ Ryan Hanley · on Creator economy69 / 100
What Digital Marketing Trainers Teach About Influence Marketing
What's Wrong With Influencer Marketing and What We Can Change in 2024
Differentiating Between Influencer Agencies, Consultants and Services
Cracking the Code to Gaming Influence
Why Can't We All Just Get To The Point?