Creative Careers in the Wild

Welcome to Creative Careers in the Wild, the podcast from the Pretty Cool Data Community. Our premiere episode is the replay of our very first monthly Town Hall.

Kacie Luaders, founder of Could Be Pretty Cool and Pretty Cool Data, looks at the modern creator economy as a roughly 20-year-old industry still writing its own rules. From the early days of Facebook, YouTube, and iTunes podcasts to today’s AI-saturated feeds, she lays out where she thinks indie creators, artists, and creative entrepreneurs will have the most room to build.

The three predictions:

Shorter workdays mean more weekday experiences. Building on a prediction from Atlanta entrepreneur Jen Bonnett, Kacie argues AI will give people time back, and they will want low-cost, in-person things to do on a random Tuesday afternoon. That is an opening for lunch-and-learns, pop-up performances, and city-commissioned art.

Real life becomes the front door to your digital work. As more online content is AI-generated, audiences will want proof you are a real person before they follow, subscribe, or buy. Meeting you in person builds the trust that sends people to your platforms.

The creator economy and the traditional arts converge. With arts nonprofits under pressure, traditionally trained artists will need a creator mindset, while creators keep building the industry standards they never had. The labels “artist” and “creator” will matter less and less.

Kacie also pokes a hole in her own second prediction: Kids growing up on AI-generated content may not care whether their favorite creators are human at all.

In this episode

Join the conversation

What do these predictions mean for your creative practice in the next year, three years, or five? Share your thoughts in the community, and let us know if there is a topic you want to dig into at a future Town Hall.