Eight years, and the one thing that has not changed

When we started in 2018, a brand deal was a DM and a promise. There was no rate card, no usage window, no clause about whether the video could be cut into an ad two years later. Creators signed things they had not read because reading them was somebody else’s job and there was no somebody else.

Eight years on, almost all of that has changed. Rates are researchable. Contracts are longer and, on the whole, fairer. Platforms have monetization programs that pay something close to real money. The industry grew up.

One thing did not change. The person making the work is still the worst-placed person to negotiate for it. Not because they are bad at it, but because they are on the wrong side of the table. You cannot argue your own worth to someone who has to like you, and then go and make a video with them in it. That is the whole reason this company exists, and it is the one part of the job that has never gotten easier.