Depending on where you are at the table in the influencer marketing space, your meal is slightly different. Creators can range from nano-influencers who barely consider themselves influencers or creators at all … to those who achieve true celebrity status and have full production teams they employ to create all that content while they live off their personality and audience connection.
For brands, you can be super nimble with your budget and work with the former of those. You can go big and work with the latter. But most find themselves somewhere in the middle jockeying around a mix of small and medium creator partners with a few big ones popping in from time to time.
That same range is found in the software space. You can find influencer marketing solutions for free or close to free. And you can also sign up for enterprise solutions that run thousands of dollars per month.
Then there’s the talent management segment. You don’t find many who work with creators under around 40-50,000 followers. But there is a huge difference in those who work with that level and those who manage six figure brand deals with the biggest stars on social media.
Temima Shames falls into that last category. The 24-year-old former child actor started Next Step Talent at age 21. Its employee roster is all people under 30. And they are responsible for amplifying creators to become some of the most followed influencers in the world. Their roster includes a bunch of Gen-Z creators I’ve never heard of, but that’s what makes the next tidbit most impressive.
That roster has more than six billion YouTube views, one debuted an album at No. 7 on Spotify. Another was TikTok’s biggest POV or point-of-view star. They had talent featured in YouTube’s Black Creator Class of 2023 as well.
I’ll drop a link to their roster page in the show notes so you can go see who they are. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I’m certainly not their target audience.
Temima knows how to shape content creators into influencers with massive followings. I asked her to come on the show to share some of that knowledge with us, as well as talk about the impending threats to the big influencers businesses as brands recoil from inflated prices and an abundance of UGC.
She’s a smart one, gang. Get ready to learn a thing or two from the queen of influencer talent, Temima Shames today on the show.
This episode of Winfluence is presented by CIPIO.ai. We are helping brands transform their digital marketing with user-generated content videos and images at scale. Come see us at CIPIO.ai. If you want me to personally show you the platform and how we can solve your digital marketing performance problems with high-performing UGC, just go to jasonfalls.co/cipio … fill out that form and I’ll personally set up time to chat with you.
Find show notes for this episode at jasonfalls.co/temimashames.
Links for this Episode
- Temima Shames on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/temima-shames-a59b59152/
- Next Step Talent: https://www.nextsteptalent.co/
- Next Step Talent roster: https://www.nextsteptalent.co/clients
- Scale UGC with CIPIO.ai: https://jasonfalls.co/cipio
Temima Shames Episode Summary
On this exciting episode of Winfluence – The Influence Marketing Podcast we dive deep into the fascinating world of talent management and content creation with a remarkable guest, Temima Shames.
First things first, let’s talk about the age factor. Temima is just 24 years old, and she’s already making waves in the influence space. She’s a shining example of why we shouldn’t judge someone based on their age alone.
Now, let’s get into the meat of the conversation. Temima shares some valuable insights on managing influencers and content creators. She highlights the importance of building long-term relationships and focuses on over-delivering at a lower price point to encourage repeat business. Many influencers are solely focused on maximizing their payment, but this can lead to missed long-term opportunities.
Temima draws a fantastic analogy by referencing athletes with long-term endorsement deals. Just like these athletes, influencers should prioritize building lasting relationships with brands. She also encourages creators to focus on creating good user-generated content (UGC) as it can lead to future opportunities, as long as they provide value and maintain honesty in their collaborations.
In a twist of fate, not all creators are affected by the decrease in brand deals. Those who haven’t focused on a long-term strategy and haven’t built their own “TV show” are the ones struggling. On the other hand, creators who have worked hard on their craft and built a TV show still receive brand deals in the form of sponsorships and endorsements. It’s all about adaptability and staying relevant in today’s ever-changing landscape.
Speaking of change, the industry is currently experiencing a shift in influencer marketing dynamics. Brands and agencies are now pulling back from traditional influencer engagements and putting more emphasis on user-generated content and performance-based payment systems. This change poses potential challenges for Temima’s clients, and it’ll be interesting to see how they navigate this new landscape.
Throughout the episode, Jason is truly impressed by Temima’s directness and intelligence. Her firm, Next Step Talent, sits at the top levels of the influencer space. She mentions some of her impressive clients, including creators with billions of YouTube views and notable achievements.
Before we wrap up, Jason and Temima discuss the importance of treating creators like humans and the need for managers to receive training in psychology and effective communication. It’s crucial to understand that creators can have personal issues that affect their work, and managers should set proper boundaries and genuinely care for their well-being.
Wow, what an enlightening conversation!
If you want to dive deeper into this episode, make sure to check out the links and platforms mentioned for more information. And of course, don’t forget to share this episode with your friends and help us grow the Winfluence community! Plus, exciting news – the show is now available on video on YouTube!
That’s a wrap for today’s episode of Winfluence – The Influence Marketing Podcast. Stay tuned for more fascinating discussions on the ever-evolving world of influencer marketing. And let’s talk again soon, on Winfluence.