In this infrastructure-focused episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene unpack three stories built from original Net Influencer research and platform updates that reveal where the creator economy's operational foundations need to evolve:

🏗️ What 2026 Needs: Build Things That Last: Net Influencer surveyed 92 industry professionals asking what the creator economy needs more of this year. The overwhelming consensus? Long-term partnerships, performance clarity, creator freedom, and systems that treat creators like businesses—not viral machines. The alignment across voices reveals the industry knows exactly what sustainable growth requires: less guesswork, more intention, and relationships built over time to test, learn, and identify what actually drives ROI.

📄 Contract Infrastructure Breakdown: In another roundtable on managing creator contracts at scale, a clear pattern emerged—contracts have evolved from paperwork to infrastructure, but the tools haven't kept up. Teams are still piecing together PDFs, emails, DocuSign, and manual processes. Contracts work fine with 10 creators but become bottlenecks at 50-100. Nii predicts the future isn't all-in-one platforms but best-of-breed solutions for specific workflow pieces, similar to how Lumeno focuses solely on payments while integrating with other systems.

🔍 Google Centralizes Creator Discovery: Google launched creator search inside Google Ads for YouTube partnerships, adding keyword-based discovery and structured filters directly into their paid media platform. This isn't just a feature—it's a signal that Google understands YouTube is one of their most AI-resistant assets and that the convergence of organic, creator, and paid is accelerating. By making creator discovery live inside ads infrastructure, Google is betting that easier access to creators equals more paid amplification dollars.

From industry-wide alignment on sustainable growth needs to the operational chaos of scaling contracts to platforms centralizing creator workflows—this episode captures the infrastructure gaps and platform responses defining the creator economy's next evolution.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In our fourth guest episode, host Ceci Carloni sits down with Greg Glenday, CEO of Acast, for an in-depth conversation about why 2026 is the year podcasting finally becomes mainstream—and what brands are still getting wrong about discovery, measurement, and showing up authentically in audio.

🎙️ The Meritocracy of Podcasting: Unlike traditional media where gatekeepers decide what content reaches audiences, or social platforms where algorithms put their thumb on the scale, podcasting is a pure meritocracy—listeners decide what's good by seeking it out. Greg argues this makes it fundamentally different from every other medium, but also harder for the industry to categorize. Podcasting doesn't fit neatly into audio, video, influencer, or social teams, so agencies and brands are still trying to find where it belongs.

🎯 Discovery Isn't Broken—It's Just Slow: The challenge isn't technology or algorithms—it's trust. Building a relationship with a podcast host takes time, unlike the instant judgment you make with Netflix shows. Greg shares how Acast is tackling discovery through curation, playlist experiments, cross-promotion, and transcription data that surfaces topical connections. But the real unlock? Getting brands to understand they're buying audiences, not creators—and 25 mid-sized shows with overlapping audiences can be more effective than one massive podcast.

💰 Why Big Brands Haven't Arrived Yet: Most top 250 US brands still don't buy podcasting. Greg uses peer pressure to wake them up: "Are direct response advertisers like Athletic Greens and BetterHelp smarter than billion-dollar CMOs? They only buy channels that work—and they've been growing with podcasting for years." The missing pieces are trusted third-party measurement, brand safety verification (now solved with partners like Barometer), and understanding that podcast ads should feel additive, not disruptive—intimate conversations, not roadside billboards.

From why podcasting is narrative influence (not just audio) to how revenue should spread beyond the top 200 shows to why sought-not-served content changes everything about brand safety—this conversation captures podcasting at its inflection point.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In our third guest episode, host Ceci Carloni sits down with David Abbey, co-founder and CEO of Endlss, to explore what happens when you actually listen to what brands need—and rebuild your entire platform around those insights.

🔄 The Pivot That Changed Everything: David shares the story of building Trend, a social marketplace designed to solve multi-brand checkout friction, only to discover creators wouldn't adopt it. Instead of forcing the product, he spent years listening to hundreds of brands describe their real problems: gifting chaos, manual payments through PayPal spreadsheets, communication nightmares at scale. This led to rebuilding from scratch and launching Endlss—an all-in-one influencer and affiliate platform where the entire feature set is free, and brands only pay as they scale.

📈 Where Creator Programs Break: Drawing from migrating brands with 1,000+ creators from competitors, David pinpoints exactly when systems fail: it's not one thing, it's the compound effect. Manual gifting works with 10 creators but breaks at 100. Email communication is fine for 25 but becomes impossible at 500. The 90-10 rule applies—90% of your results come from 10% of creators, but you can't identify them without proper infrastructure. The brands crushing it? Three-year-old digital natives who grew up in this space versus legacy companies still figuring out change management.

🎯 The Alignment Problem: David argues the biggest miss in creator marketing isn't budget or tools—it's alignment. Brands think "we need influencers" instead of "we need influencers aligned with our brand values whose audiences will resonate." He contrasts spray-and-pray approaches (message 100 people, hope for results) with strategic selection (carefully choose 100, introduce yourself, build relationships). One partner agency increased client revenue 80% in a single month by focusing entirely on alignment over volume.

From the hard lessons of building the wrong product to identifying exactly where scale breaks to why AI should accelerate creativity but never replace content—this conversation captures the builder's perspective on what infrastructure the creator economy actually needs.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In this 2026 kickoff episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene tackle three stories, two of which were built from original Net Influencer research that reveal where the real gaps and opportunities exist in the creator economy:

🤝 Trust Isn't Declining—It's Just Misunderstood: A Harvard Business Review piece challenges the narrative that influencer trust is eroding, arguing that authenticity gets co-created through interactions between creators, brands, agencies, and audiences. Nii introduces the concept of "Content-Audience Fit" (CAF)—the idea that brands can't just drop the same activation across 100 creators and expect results. The real issue isn't trust disappearing; it's brands treating influencer marketing like a media buy instead of a relationship that requires genuine alignment.

📊 The CRM That Doesn't Exist: Net Influencer's roundtable with 24 industry professionals revealed zero consensus on how agencies manage creator relationships at scale. From Salesforce to Airtable to Google Sheets to custom builds—the infrastructure layer is still wide open. We debate whether this chaos reflects the beauty of a people-first industry or signals massive opportunity for innovation, and why one-size-fits-all tools may never work when workflows vary wildly across platforms, creator types, and campaign objectives.

🗑️ What the Industry Needs to Ditch: In a survey of 77 creator economy professionals, four themes dominated what needs to be left behind: late payments, vanity metrics, broken measurement, and over-scripting creators. But what surprised us most? The near-universal alignment on these issues. We explore what should have made the list (hint: the AI vs. creator debate), why the organic vs. paid divide needs to die, and what excites us most about the industry's continued professionalization heading into 2026.

From reframing trust as a co-creation process to exposing infrastructure gaps to identifying what's holding the industry back—this episode captures both the maturity and growing pains of an ecosystem finding its footing.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In our second guest episode, host Ceci Carloni sits down with George Mani, Chief Growth Officer at ehko.ai, for a provocative conversation about how creators are becoming the new media companies—and why traditional media's resistance to change is creating the opportunity of a generation.

📺 The Death of Traditional Media: George shares his journey from finance to media, witnessing firsthand how zero-click search, walled gardens restricting traffic, and the expensive TV newsroom model are all fundamentally broken. His work with multicultural publishers revealed a harsh truth: brands showing up only for Heritage Months without year-round authenticity is bad business—and the $1.7 trillion LGBTQ purchasing power proves multicultural isn't niche anymore.

🔥 Creator Burnout & The Pressure Cooker: With media budgets shifting from 10% to 70% flowing through walled gardens, creators face unprecedented pressure from brands expecting unlimited scale at unsustainable rates. George unpacks why the "more is more" advertising mentality doesn't work in the creator economy, how creators receive tens of thousands of DMs daily, and why the industry needs to shift from quantity metrics to quality influence.

🤖 AI as Augmentation, Not Replacement: ehko.ai's mission is to create digital "auras" of creators—not headless avatars, but authentic extensions that handle administrative burden while preserving the human connection that makes influence work. George delivers a bold prediction: within years, AI-generated content will flood social platforms, but this will only make genuine human creators more valuable. He argues AI should automate tedious tasks so creators can focus on what matters: building community and producing content.

From why creators are the new media infrastructure to how brands must fundamentally rethink measurement in the walled garden era to building sustainable economic futures for creators—this conversation captures a watershed moment where the entire media ecosystem is being rebuilt in real time.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In this year-end episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene explore three stories that reveal how brands are fundamentally restructuring around creator-first strategies:

🧼 Unilever Admits Defeat (And Wins): The CPG giant's home care division transformed Cleanipedia—a 20-year-old cleaning tips website—into a global creator platform working with 2,000 creators across multiple countries. Their new CEO strategy includes "Said by Others" as a core pillar, essentially admitting that creators deliver brand messages better than Unilever itself. We explore this massive power shift and whether raw, unpolished, socially-native content from regular people is now the winning formula for legacy brands.

🏨 Radisson's Creator Hub Revolution: The global hospitality brand launched a platform specifically for nano influencers across 210 hotels, trading free three-night stays for content instead of cash payments. We debate whether this democratizes access for smaller creators or risks normalizing unpaid work, and if brands building their own internal creator systems signals the end of agencies and marketplaces.

📊 The M&A Market Awakens: Despite a 69% drop in deals last year, 2025 saw a major rebound with blockbuster acquisitions like Publicis buying Captivate for $175M. Quartermass Advisors' new report predicts even more $100M+ deals in 2026—but here's the twist: all the value is going to companies that help brands work with creators, not companies that help creators themselves. We explore what this means for where the real power and money sits in the creator economy.

From Unilever giving up brand control to Radisson building creator infrastructure to M&A revealing who actually captures value—this episode shows how 2025 reshaped the fundamental structure of the creator economy.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In our first-ever guest episode, host Ceci Carloni sits down with Alex Dahan, founder and CEO of Open Influence, to explore the complete evolution of influencer marketing from a founder's perspective who's been in the trenches since 2013.

🚀 From Clothing Line to Agency Pioneer: Alex shares how selling out his own products through early Instagram promoters led to founding Open Influence at 19—before "influencer marketing" was even a term. We dive into the early days of convincing brands that social media was the future, battling misconceptions about creator effectiveness, and why execution has always been the true differentiator in this space.

📊 Data, Community & What Actually Works: After 12 years working with brands like AT&T, Uber, Mercedes-Benz, and Amazon, Alex reveals what's fundamentally changed (data-driven decision making) versus what's stayed constant (content is still king, community is queen). He explains why 2017 was the industry's breakthrough moment and why he believes we're still in the infancy stage despite consolidation.

🤖 The AI Revolution & What's Next: Alex delivers a bold prediction: within 3-5 years, AI-generated content will outnumber human-created content on social platforms. But rather than replacing authenticity, he argues this will make genuine human connection even more valuable. We explore how agencies must balance automation with execution, why self-serve tools have become commoditized, and what the next wave of innovation looks like.

From entrepreneurial origins and leadership lessons to the future of AI-flooded social feeds—this conversation captures both the historic arc and forward trajectory of an industry that's still just getting started.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In this short-form dominated episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene explore three stories that reveal how bite-sized content is creating entirely new economies:

✂️ The Rise of Clipping Agencies: Meet Evan Stanfield, a 19-year-old college dropout who built Clipping Culture—an agency generating billions of views by turning long-form content into viral short clips. We explore why clipping has become the new entry point into the creator economy and how it bridges the gap between hours-long podcasts and algorithm-friendly snackable content that drives massive distribution.

🎬 MrBeast's Vyro Marketplace: The world's biggest creator just launched a platform paying people $3 per thousand views to clip content—higher than most platform payouts. Vyro connects video clippers with established creators and brands, letting anyone monetize their editing skills instantly. We debate whether this creates a sustainable micro-economy or if it's just flooding algorithms with "shots on goal" until platforms push back.

🍔 DoorDash's Creator Program: The food delivery giant is now paying users to post short-form videos of meals directly in-app across 20 US cities. Is this the new TikTok for food or just another platform trying to capture attention? We explore what this means for food creators and whether an affiliate model (like TikTok Shop) would make this strategy actually work.

From college dropouts building clipping empires to MrBeast industrializing content distribution to DoorDash betting on in-app video—this episode captures how short-form content isn't just dominating consumption, it's creating entirely new business models and career paths.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In this Q4 episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene tackle three stories that expose both the maturation and vulnerabilities of the creator economy:

💰 Slow Ventures' Creator Thesis: VCs are evolving how they invest in creators, with firms like Slow Ventures treating creators themselves as the asset—not just their businesses. The thesis? Brand equity lives with the creator and their community, not on a balance sheet. We explore what signals smart investors look for and why this approach represents a fundamental shift in how institutional capital views creator power.

⚠️ The Corner Agency Collapses: A UK talent agency shuts down, leaving creators unpaid and exposed. This isn't just one bad case—it highlights how vulnerable creators remain despite running legitimate businesses. We debate whether the industry needs blockchain-based payment protections, collective action from top talent, or if this is just the risk of working in an unorganized space.

📱 Instagram's Repost Feature: The platform introduces a Twitter-style repost button for Reels and feed posts, promising more discovery for creators. But is this a real unlock for visibility or just another borrowed feature that won't stick? Nii drops a hot take: this feature won't survive past 2027.

From sophisticated VC investment strategies to the harsh realities of creator payment vulnerabilities to Instagram's latest platform experiment—this episode shows both how far the creator economy has come and how much basic infrastructure it still needs.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

In this industry-shifting episode, hosts Ceci Carloni and Nii Ahene unpack three stories that show how traditional business is reshaping the creator landscape:

💼 Accenture Makes Its Move: One of the world's biggest consulting firms acquires Super Digital, the influencer agency behind campaigns for Amazon, Apple, and Pinterest. This isn't just another agency deal—it's a signal that influencer marketing has officially entered the enterprise consulting world. We explore what this means for creators when global consulting giants start treating influence as core business strategy.

📺 Private Equity Buys YouTube: PE firms are acquiring entire YouTube channels, swapping out creators for new talent and pushing harder for sponsored content revenue. We debate whether this represents real growth in the creator economy or the beginning of content factory capitalism that could strip away the authenticity that made these channels valuable in the first place.

🍟 McDonald's "Theory of Smalls": The fast-food giant ditches big brand messaging for micro-targeting niche communities through Minecraft, manga, and K-pop collaborations. This new strategy from Cannes suggests brands should focus on small fandoms that drive culture rather than mass appeal. But does going hyper-niche risk alienating the broader audience?

From billion-dollar consulting acquisitions to the financialization of YouTube to McDonald's betting on niche culture—this episode captures how traditional business is fundamentally reshaping the creator economy landscape.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.

The Big Three by Influence Weekly: 3 Biggest Stories. 1 Essential Conversation.