It was a dark and stormy night. Just kidding. It's 5:00 PM and I've only seen rain once in the last 5 months since being in LA. All jokes aside, things are looking up and even though this gearing to be a tough winter, I hope all of you are well and safe.

Now to change gears and dive into this week's Talking Growth. OnlyFans is experiencing some hockey stick growth (maybe it's time I get a manicure?), there's finally a map of the creator economy and the companies that support it, and HBO said, "I'm the captain now" after the announcement of their upcoming releases.

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‍📰Talking Creators

Bella Porch M to the B - Bella Porch, the TikTok legend with an interesting background, managed to land TikTok's most viral video of the year followed by the cran-raspberry skating legend 420doggface208. Saying and typing that name will never not get old.

Creator vs. Influencer - If you asked me a month ago what the difference between a creator and an influencer was, I would say a creator has a community of true fans that exist on their own platforms while influencers only have followers. Over the past weeks, my definition of that has changed as more influencers are dropping the title influencer and referring to themselves as content creators. In essence, they're still influencers, but the newly minted title of content creator acknowledges their ability to tell engaging stories over social. Google Trends points to something different with influencers still yielding more searches. However, I wonder if the upward trend of Influencers compared to content creators is because the term content creator is still relatively new. Only time will tell on this one.

🤳Talking Social & Platforms

All Social Platforms are Becoming The Same - Snapchat and Instagram copied TikTok. Meanwhile, Linkedin and Twitter copied Instagram and Snapchat. The general consensus is that we might be witnessing the great unbundling of mainstream social media as every platform begins to virtually look the same. This is a plus for creators as it gets easier to distribute content; however, what does it mean looking ahead. Truthfully, I have no idea, but as I mentioned last week, the winning platforms will be those that set creators up for success.

OnlyFans Grew How Fast - This is an odd flex, but I'm confident that OnlyFans is going to have a similar story to that of Discord. Discord started off mainly for gamers before being adopted by teachers, finance bros, and anyone looking for an easy way to manage chat and a community. While OnlyFans is primarily geared towards sex workers, it's still a platform that's focused on providing an easy way for creators to monetize. The platform has grown relatively quickly and in a recent interview, its CEO briefly showcased their future vision.

Reddit Claims 52Million Daily Active Users - When I'm not making content or writing this newsletter, I lurk on Reddit. Seriously, Reddit is an interesting and weird rabbit hole that is tough to escape. It seems I'm not the only one as Reddit managed to obtain 52 million daily active users in October. Reddit reports that number is up 44% from the same month of last year. Clearly, this is a result of COVID tailwinds but it's impressive nonetheless.

☂️Talking Drops From Creators

Mapping The Creator Economy - Hugo Amseliem reached out to me months ago fresh of the release of the Creators Database. At the time he was putting the finishing touches on his essay on the definition of a creator. Since the release of that essay, he's been hard at work on his newly released map of the creator economy ecosystem and the companies that support it.

🏄Things you want to know

• HBOMax is changing the streaming game as theaters remain shut. Get caught up on what's being released and why you should be paying attention.
• The news regarding Tony Hsieh's death was far from easy. I did not know him personally but seeing the impact and stories regarding his life are nothing less than inspiring.
• Deceased artists are making their comeback on TikTok because what's old to one generation is new to another. Like Frank Sinatra.

🌱Talking Growth Updates

As a reminder, Talking Growth Pro is a weekly paid newsletter featuring marketing strategies, tactics, and resources from myself and others. This recap is a summary of weekly wins and what's working for my clients. Not included in this preview are 6+ marketing strategies, tactics, and resources only available to Pro members.

Clubhouse Marketing Audits - Clubhouse is backed up with requests for clubs, so for the time being, I'll be hosting rooms every Friday at 11AM (PST) to give actionable advice on your marketing efforts. If you're not on Clubhouse but want access, simply signup for Clubhouse and shoot me an email, so I can add you.

Client Growth + Wins of the week

• TikTok following grew from 603,600 followers to 621,700 followers
• Instagram went from 21,800 followers to 24,800 followers
• Newsletter subscribers grew from 5,488 to 6,671
• Course signups from 1126 to 1731 enrollments
• Private community from 186 - 200 members

What's working: We're maintaining the same frequency of posting as well as the same content. We've increased the number of live streams a week and shifted our focus to diversifying the number of products/pricing packages we offer.

Other Wins: This week I started tackling the scopes of two other content creators. So, while my personal account growth has been slow, there have been wins in other ways.

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Until Next Time

I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter. If you enjoyed what you read, forward this email to a friend. Just tell them to subscribe. Lastly, I tend to post more short-form content across social, so if you don't already, follow me and say hi.