Unfiltered Career Advice, What’s Keeping You Broke, and the Truth About The Creator Economy with Maggie Sellers Reum

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1:15Plan B is available nationwide at all major retailers and through delivery apps like DoorDash. No ID, prescription, or age requirement. It's the number one OBGYN recommended brand of emergency contraception, and it won't impact your future fertility. That's freedom to be. Use as directed. I wanted to spend today to talk a little bit about what's going on with the creator economy, the startup economy, and my favorite obsession right now, which is the corporate baddie. I want to help people navigate all three of these industries, find which ones work for you at your stage at your life, and really help you go from one to the other because I luckily have actually navigated all three of those.

2:00So please, let's get into it and have some fun today.

2:06In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart, and rich. So let's get into it.

2:17Hi, angels. Welcome back to another solo episode. I am so excited to be here. I have my emotional support pillow, which I've realized I cannot do a solo episode without. It makes me feel so comfy and cozy. But what makes me feel more ready for this episode than ever is you guys. I was blown away by the support of the last solo episode because it was something that was new for us. It was an experiment. And if you know anything about Hot Smart Rich and Flight Story, it is that we are obsessed with data. We are obsessed with experimenting. But I take such a responsibility to giving you the information that is really going to make you have a hotter, smarter, richer life.

3:06So today I am going to ask you to do the same thing. Please, if you find value in this, please let us know. If you love something, you don't know when it will go away if you don't share why you love it. And with the state of the internet right now, which we're going to get into, there is so much negativity going on that leaving a positive comment, leaving a review, subscribing to a channel, all things that are free really help people figure out where to spend our most finite resource, which is our time. So it is the biggest gift to me to tell me that these episodes actually make a difference in your life.

3:47So please, if you haven't already, send this to a friend, subscribe, and let's get into it and have some fun today. So I wanted to spend today to do a little state of the union through the lens of my investing, business, creator, entrepreneurship, multi-hyphenate lens that I tend to look at everything through. We're going to talk a little bit about what's going on with the creator economy, the startup economy, and my favorite obsession right now, which is the corporate baddie, okay? I want to help people navigate all three of these industries, find which ones work for you at your stage at your life, and really help you go from one to the other.

4:34Because I luckily have actually navigated all three of those. I was such a proud employee of other people's company for over 10 years. I have been a creator for the last four years. I am a founder. I am an investor. And I think that I have a very unique lens on what is happening and the convergence of what I believe is about to come. I want to start with the state of the creator economy because the last episode that we did that was a solo was really about CAN and how it could have been called the creator summit. And I want to share with you two really important things. It has never been easier to become a creator, but it has never been harder to make a living out of it.

5:19There was an article that I was obsessed with reading and sent to so many people, and it was the recent Vulture article that featured Audrey Peters talking about the end of Matcha Pilates Aloe Yoga influencers. And she was very brave and very honest about what it takes to be a successful lifestyle creator now. And it just doesn't work anymore to show unboxings and show a trip to Saint-Tropez because there's so much of it on the internet that it's not cutting through the noise anymore. So to cut through the noise, there are tactics that are being used like rage bait, things that will trigger people to feel something about it because you can't be in the middle anymore.

6:05The article talks about without having a strong niche or without a strong point of view or expertise, you will never be able to cut it as an influencer. That couldn't be more true from all of the qualitative information that I'm seeing online right now. I recently just posted a video about Alex Earl and why I was interested that her Netflix trailer for her new reality show that's about to come out at the time of the video had only had around 60 ,000 views and had been out for about two weeks. And a lot of the comments back were about people not wanting to watch an everyday life anymore of an influencer.

6:48And they want to feel like they are seeing someone that is making their life better. So it's a little confusing when you look at the data, right? Because on the one hand, And we are seeing the Forbes top 50 creators make collectively over$1 billion this year. We have never seen this before. But when you actually dig into the data, only 67 % of creators are making more than$10 ,000 annually. This is a very confusing story because we are being sold a vision of becoming a creator and becoming your own boss and making so much money. But then 67 % of creators are making less than$10 ,000 a year annually.

7:34This is mimicking what is going on with our actual economy, which is a K-shaped economy right now. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There is no middle class anymore. And the same is true with the creator economy. So if you're thinking, well, how do I become one of the 1 %? I've seen a lot of creators do very amazing things to stand out. And I call this building your resume virtues, okay? We talk a lot about this. Resume virtues would be something like I go to a specific college. I have an investment banking job after school. It's the accolades and the awards that build you a personal brand to stand out.

8:17It kind of reminds me of applying for colleges. How do you stand out when it's so competitive? And for me, it was stacking my resume and my application. So it was different than other people. Captain of the volleyball team. I had the most service hours of anybody in my high school. I was starting different charities. And I thought that was a way to stand out to all of these different colleges. And the same is happening right now at the creator economy. They are building their resume virtues to be able to break through the noise and have a very differentiated point of view, especially if you are a lifestyle influencer and you don't want to go down the rage bait route, which is fair.

8:55My favorite story of this is Kate Bartlett. She went back to school. She got her MBA from NYU in a luxury fashion program. And what people don't realize is that as much as you are getting a degree and stacking up your resume virtues, you're also able to make content about that. There is never an easier way for me to create content than when I am out and living my life in the real world. When I'm attending events, when I'm at the office, it's so easy to create content because you're not manufacturing something behind your screen. So this is mutually beneficial for these creators. They're getting an expertise.

9:34They're hedging their bet to make sure that even if their creator journey doesn't work out, they actually have a fallback plan. but it also helps them tell stories in a very different way than what we are seeing with the masses when you're scrolling TikTok right now. I don't know about you, but I cannot open up TikTok right now or Substack without being sold how to tell people how to make money on Substack and teach people how I'm making money on Substack by teaching people how to make money on Substack. It is like that is what people seem to be obsessed with. And once everyone starts talking about the same thing, it is very hard to become a 1 % creator.

10:17So to become a 1 % creator, you really need to focus on stacking your resume virtues in different areas and offering different value that your community is not going to see on the endless scroll at the end of the day. This actually coincides with what content people want to consume, especially during economic instability, okay? In 2026, reports show that educational content is outperforming entertainment on leads and sales with brand partners. This is where brands want to put their money, is with people that are providing educational content. Based on another 2026 survey, 41 % of social media users say that educational content is the number one content they want from their creators and from brands.

11:08That's crazy. So if you're thinking about being in your 20s and you don't have as much life experience and you're thinking about how can you provide educational content, it's very hard to do that when you can't pull from a 5, a 10, a 15, a 20-year career of real experience. And this is where people are saying the age of the influencer is dead. And the next era of content creators and of influencers are the people that have had 10 years of work experience that can call upon that experience and share value to their community through their lived life experience. So with that context, here's what I envision for where a few of these markets are going, okay?

11:57Millennials, be ready. I started to see TikTok videos when I was scrolling. One was sticking out to me so much. It was the trend, not all baddies can be influencers. Some of us have to hold it down in data analytics or project management. And I was immediately fascinated by these women. I went to their profiles. I started looking them up on LinkedIn. And I was so interested in these women's career moves, in their resumes, in what they were doing. And I thought to myself, why am I so interested in these corporate startup baddies when my infatuation has always been with the founders and the creators?

12:40Turns out, of course, there's science to this, and it's called the Role Congruity Theory. And it explains that people see women as less suited to roles linked with leadership, authority, and traditionally masculine traits. Crazy. So when a woman succeeds in a traditionally male-coded field, there can be a mismatch of what we expect to see and what we actually see, sparking curiosity. So I started digging into this a little bit more because, like I said, I am a hot nerd. And it sounds a lot like expectancy violations theory, part two to the science. It's when someone behaves differently from what we expect, it will make us pay closer attention and reassess them.

13:32And this is why when we see a corporate body work in a field or in something that we don't expect them to be in, we are immediately intrigued. Which brings me to what I am so excited to share with you today, which is the importance of having a career and not having to be a founder at 18, 19, 20, 25 years old. You are not behind. You are building the experience, the skill sets to give you an unfair competitive advantage that will help you build a business that can last through the ebbs and flows of what it will actually take to build something that lasts. I was a corporate startup baddie in my 20s, And I don't think I've ever really talked about this, but I would never have been able to be an entrepreneur in my 20s.

14:25I was going through so much personal development and had so much unsorted through emotions and personal life experience that I would never have been able to handle building a business and what it takes on top of what I was dealing with emotionally. I learned such valuable skill sets in my 20s working for other people, but I was always entrepreneurial. It is so important to remember that if you want to be an entrepreneur, there is a way to do that without starting your own company. And it is to be entrepreneurial, not to be an entrepreneur. And I started thinking about how I would really hit this story home for you.

15:17I have one boss that I worked for who I talk to still once every three months. His name is Matthew Corrin. He is the founder and CEO of Freshie, which I was lucky enough to work for Matt during the time that we went public. And Matt taught me so much. So I thought about asking him for a note or something to share what I was like when I I was 25, 26, helping build his company. And all he sent me back was a screenshot of an email. This is the email. We're going to link it. And it is me on December 25, 2016 at 325 in the afternoon. And it is a data report of our traffic on site for the week leading up to Christmas, the number of users that watched a video, the number of people who viewed how we were converting people.

16:11And Matt responds and says, doing work on Christmas is socially unacceptable. Please halt immediately and drink wine or eat cheese fondue, go sledding, etc. And I laughed when he sent me this back because that was me in my 20s. I was always acting like it was my company, even though it was never my company. A lot of angels ask me how to get ahead or get promoted or to be given the things that they think that they are rightfully owed. My number one piece of advice is to act like an owner when you are not an owner. If you put in the work and you put in the reps, the outcome will always come back to you.

16:58And when I really started thinking about Freshie and my time there, I can tell you of about the first four months that I had my role there. I was first the marketing analytics manager, okay? And I had just come from business development. I had worked at Salesforce. I had really no idea how to successfully work in Excel. I had no idea how to make a pivot table. And I remember crying in the bathroom when I was responsible for sharing numbers that related to our same-store sales and the marketing that we were doing to increase our bottom five stores every single week. And I remember thinking and looking at Excel and thinking, I don't know how to do this.

17:40I really don't. I don't even know how to start. And I did what I always did, which was get creative. And I remember telling the finance team that if they came into work an hour earlier every single day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I would take them to Starbucks across the street. I would buy them coffee and I would buy them breakfast. And they would teach me how to build a pivot table. So shout out to Fenton, the main guy from the finance team that taught me how to not only work in Excel but excel in Excel. and those valuable life skills that I learned about negotiating, getting people to buy in on my vision, on what it was important to me and to have people do something that would help my career.

18:26Those are the life skills and experiences that I still use today as a founder. Late night bites with friends, already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in, the night goes longer, and the laughs don't stop because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Plan B is a backup birth control option that's there for you when things don't go according to plan. It specifically works after unprotected sex and before pregnancy occurs by temporarily delaying ovulation.

19:10Plan B is available nationwide at all major retailers and through delivery apps like DoorDash. No ID, prescription, or age requirement. It's the number one OBGYN recommended brand of emergency contraception, and it won't impact your future fertility. That's freedom to be. Use as directed. I never would have known how to do the soft skills that are necessary to build a business had I not worked for other people. and of course there is science to working for other people first if you're listening to this and you are like but I still want to be a founder that's okay the data that I'm about to share about the median age of the most successful startup founders and the fastest growing startups and when they started their company is going to lean older however don't let that stop you if you are in your 20s, if you're even earlier than that, if you have an amazing idea, if you are solving a problem, if you are forced to become an entrepreneur, or if it's a hobby that you want to do on the side, don't let the stats stop you because you could be the anomaly.

20:21These are just the facts of the data of showing the most successful startup founders are typically older than what we glamorize in the news. But I want you, if you have an idea that you cannot stop thinking about, start the company, see what happens, start the next company, do what you feel called to do. TechCrunch, in their 10-year analysis, found that the average age of founding a company was 35 years old. I'm not even 35 yet. MIT research shows that after analyzing 2.7 million U.S. entrepreneurs, the average founder of the fastest growing startups, were 45 years old. For females, the average age of a founder is actually 44.3.

21:10So you can be a little bit younger as a female. And that to me is such a sign that you're not late. You're actually early. There is never a perfect time to start a company, but in the world that we live in of how easy it is to start something, there's so much pressure to do it early. But I always think about all of the life experience that I have had. I've worked in sales. I've worked in marketing analytics. I ran special projects for a publicly traded company. I worked as the head of brand marketing. I worked in entertainment. I worked in venture capital. That summary of experience has perfectly positioned me as one of the top 1 % of creators.

21:54I am one of the top 1 % of creators. I have never said that publicly before. Based on revenue, based on positioning in the market, I just won a Goldman Sachs award. This is the first time I'm talking about this. Should we get the award, you guys? Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators.

22:20Maggie Sellers Ream. This is a signed letter by David Solomon. God, I'm going to cry. 100 people a year get this award from Goldman Sachs. I'm literally shaking. And it is for Exceptional Entrepreneurs of the Year. If you had told me that I would be winning this award, I would never have believed you because I never would have gotten into Goldman Sachs. And I really didn't start out as a creator to become an influencer. I started out as a creator to help people and to change the world and to make sure that women didn't have to choose between being hot, smart, and rich. So this award, even though it is addressed to me, it is not just for me.

23:11It is for us. It is for the recognition that companies like Goldman Sachs are recognizing that times are changing, that there is so much power in doing something that has mission and has purpose and has meaning. and I say that because I would never have won this award from Goldman Sachs had I wanted or started becoming a creator right out of college or in my 20s. There is so much beauty in learning on someone else's dime and that is exactly what you are able to do when you work for someone else. You don't have to pay to fail. You don't have to pay to make mistakes. One of the best pieces of advice that my husband has ever given me, my husband runs a$2 billion venture capital fund.

24:06And he said something to me about hiring because we're starting to hire a lot of roles at Hot Smart Rich. And he said, at M13, we do not pay to teach people how to become investors. They can do that at A16Z. They can do that at Sequoia. They can do that as an investment banker. We hire people that are ready for the job. And I remember thinking about that and was thinking like, well, I've always hired people for potential and I've always hired people because I think that I can teach them. And as I think about now being a founder and employing people and hiring people. I value experience and I value life skills so much more than I once even thought that I would.

24:49So I have a thesis and it is that careers are making a comeback. It is cool to have a job. It is cool to be a corporate baddie. It is cool to learn on someone else's dime and add value to someone's bottom line and not taking on the stress of being a founder and joining the cult of entrepreneurship until you are ready. Because as someone that has now run a business for four years, not taken a salary officially for, I think, over five years, it is hard. There are so many moments where I feel like I am about to quit. I am about to break. And then I have a network I can call on. I have people that I could ask because I built that with my resume virtues over the first 10 years of my career.

25:41As I opened that Goldman Sachs award, it makes me think of all of the awards I never got. I never got Forbes 30 Under 30. I've never actually been on a list until this year. I just won Create and Cultivate Top Money Award. I just won the Goldman Sachs Builders and Innovators Award for their top 100 entrepreneurs in the US, up until this year, I've never won an award. And as I sit here, now that they are starting to accumulate, I'm actually so grateful that's not what I chased in my 20s. I chased experience. I chased working for incredible bosses and mentors. I chased men's that I was aligned to and things that brought me purpose.

26:26because if I've learned anything from the people sitting across from me in these chairs, it is that money makes things easier, but it doesn't buy happiness. And if all you are pursuing in life is money, fame, notoriety, you will never find it to be enough. And for me, I can't wait to see the corporate baddies break out, the girls, the men that are building at these incredible companies and really making a difference. It is so important not to cut and miss the messy middle. It is so important to accumulate experiences, networks, connections, ways of solving problems when you are in your 20s if one day you want to become an entrepreneur.

27:12And now you know that the deck is going to be stacked in your favor if you do this because you are more likely to be successful when you start a company in your 30s and 40s than if you start it in your 20s. So with that, I want to go into some fun Q &A from the angels for the corporate baddies, the girls that wrote into me that said this exactly. We all don't want to be founders. What are your pieces of advice for the girls who actually enjoy working in corporate and want to work in the startup ecosystem? So the first question that I was asked was, how do I get promoted? This is my favorite question, okay?

27:55I'm going to give you my POV and then I'm going to give you the science POV, okay? My number one piece of advice for getting promoted, don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. Take on initiative. Take on projects that is not scoped in your role. Go and join meetings that you aren't necessarily asked to be in. Be curious. Ask for coffee meetings with people across departments. Do not wait for someone to tap you on the shoulder. They are not coming. No one is looking out for you the way that you are looking out for you. It is so much better to apologize for overstepping than for people to say, she never takes the initiative.

28:42She does her job and she clocks out. Number two, find problems that need to be solved. So when I was working at Freshie for Matt Korn, I was working in marketing analytics. And I started noticing via the reports that we were starting to lose a lot of market share to things that were coming into the market like Uber Eats and Grubhub and meal delivery services, as well as things like Blue Apron and HelloFresh and people starting to cook at home because it was a QSR restaurant. And I remember coming to Matt as a 25, 26-year-old and saying, I think that we should offer people an all-day delivery of breakfast, lunch, and dinner since we offer all three at our restaurants.