WIIM

How Does Your Brand Look On Clara With Christen Nino De Guzman Of Clara (@christen)

Today we’re speaking with Christen Nino de Guzman of Clara for Creators. Latina creator. Speaker. Tech Mentor. Christen is the Founder of the newly launched app Clara, a community that empowers creators through transparency, brand reviews, and discoverability. An industry vet, Christen has almost a decade of experience working with top content creators at social networking companies such as Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. She is a motivational speaker and mentor in the tech space who is passionate about helping people break into the industry through career advice and actionable content.

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[00:00:00] Jessy: Hi everyone and welcome to the WIIM Podcast. Women in Influencer Marketing is a first of its kind exclusive networking group made up of inspirational women. This podcast is where we explore influencer marketing and get real about women in business. Find us wherever you download podcasts, and of course, you can always find us at iamwiim.com. That’s iamwiim.com.

[00:00:22] Jessy: Hey guys. Welcome back to the pod. I’m super excited to be here with you guys today for so many reasons. We’ve got a lot coming up, this episode is a really good one with, Christen Nino De Guzman of Clara for creators. So stick around for that cause our interview was really good. She’s fascinating and I really enjoyed my conversation with her.

But before we get into this week’s episode, we have got a huge event for you next week, I can’t believe it came up so quickly. So next week we have our next Best in Influencer Tech event. So you probably have attended these in the past. This is like our, I think it’s our seventh one that we’re doing.

So we’ve had them before, they’re always highly successful, essentially. If you haven’t been, essentially, here’s what to expect. We have incredible sponsors of this event, which is also what keeps it free for you guys, so it’s entirely free. Our sponsors come in and they demo the latest and greatest, the best, and the newest, product offerings from their tech company, all the influencer tech that can help you source creators faster and better and smarter and manage campaigns better, and also like work reporting. All of those things that you probably have implemented before and struggled with, they come in and tell you how awesome their product is and how it solves your tech problem.

So you could be doing incredible influencer marketing work, but if you don’t have great tech to support it, you’re gonna fall behind, I stand by that. So I hope you guys sign up for this event. I am telling you it’s completely free and it is hugely, hugely valuable for you guys, it’s on March 28th, 

So head to our website now. I’ll link it in our show notes, but it’s iamwiim.com/events. Look for the best influencer tech event and I hope to see you guys. It’s gonna be so good. 

All right, so our guest today, I know I teased it out before, but we’ve got Christen Nino De Guzman. She is a Latina creator, a speaker, a tech mentor. She is the founder of the newly launched app, Clara for Creators, which is a community that empowers creators through transparency, brand reviews, and discoverability. 

She’s an industry vet. She has almost a decade of experience working with top content creators at social networking companies. She’s worked at Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest y’all, she really knows her stuff. She’s a motivational speaker and mentor in the tech space who’s passionate about helping people break into the industry through career advice and actionable content. So I am definitely gonna be linking all of her social platform. In the show notes below, but she’s got like a platform for different topics. 

So for example, if you might know career Christen, in which, on Instagram, she gives awesome career advice for people who work in influencer marketing or who maybe wanna work in technology. You could follow Christen, if you wanna hear a little bit more about her and behind the scenes of her as a startup founder or you can follow Clara for creators and learn more about the company and things like tips for getting paid more of my brands and how much, brands are paying creators and things like that. I love that she has them all streamlined. I follow them all and after listening to her today, I have a feeling you will too. So without further ado, I’m so excited for you to mean Christen.

 So first and foremost, big giant welcome from East Coast to the West Coast. Welcome to the show, how’s it going today? 

[00:04:42] Christen: Thank you, I’m excited to be here. 

[00:04:44] Jessy: I’m excited to have you. I know that, you have been, talked about in our industry in a really cool way, and I just wanna give you props for that, first and foremost. 

I think it’s hella cool to be able to innovate in our industry and to keep pushing really important conversations forward, and that’s what you’ve been doing, so first and foremost, I wanna give you props. We heard a little bit about you in the intro to this podcast, like on paper, but I think a really cool place to start, which is to like, learn about you as a human. 

So tell me a little bit more about like your childhood and like how you grew up, I think you’re from California?

[00:05:33] Christen: So a little bit about me. So I grew up in California. I went to college in Nebraska, so I lived in the Midwest for a little bit and I remember when I was like a student at University of Nebraska, my major was like journalism.

So like at the time we were learning about marketing, advertising, and I remember one day one of the original founders of Twitter came to speak to our class and apparently he had dropped out of University of Nebraska. And at the time it was like a huge big user of Twitter.

So I was just like this is really cool. He, left University of Nebraska and went on to create this like cool app, and in high school I really started becoming obsessed with social media. I was like very early on, like on Facebook and I think, hearing him talk at my college really solidified the fact that I wanted to work in tech.

I just was really excited about how it was changing the world, and so when I graduated, it was like my goal to work at Facebook. I was like, I have to work at Facebook, and I had done a few things like up until graduation that I really enjoyed. So for example, I’m sure you’ve seen there’s so many different like fan pages for like artists and celebrities and things like that, and like the people that run those fan pages really know their stuff when it comes to social and building community. 

So I did a little bit of that when I was in high school and college, and for like Nick Jonas specifically, I was like working on a film that he was making. It was like an indie film, and I really started like building community, building an audience for this film and all these Nick Jonas fans and I was like, this is so cool.

I really think I need to leave where I am, move back to California and really pursue this and the big tech and working in tech, I felt like I really had to be in the bay to work at Facebook headquarters. So I moved to San Francisco, I got a role at a startup company and I really just started to try to get myself headed in the direction of Facebook.

And obviously Facebook is a super, at the time, still is, it is pretty competitive to get a role like in one of those larger tech organizations, especially, as someone who is not like Ivy League educated, or doesn’t have, I didn’t have a 4.0 in college. I put all of my extra effort into internships.

So I wasn’t like focused on academics, I was focused on having four internships my senior year, to try to really figure out what I wanted to do. So I moved to San Francisco, I got a role at a startup, and then I kept getting different jobs to try to get me closer to influencer marketing. And then I got my first official role in influencer marketing at Pop Sugar, which is like media company, very similar to Buzzfeed if you have not heard of it, but they focus mostly on women, and I was working on their influencer program. 

So like this was back in the day when we were really focused on more traditional bloggers and all bloggers were like the same type of person. A lot of them I worked with were like mommy bloggers or they lived in the Midwest.

It’s definitely not like the influencer world we have today, but I remember, working and just like really, thinking wow, is this like a bubble that’s gonna burst? This is pretty crazy. We’re paying all these influencers so much money to post on their page to get free products. And so I worked there and then I ended up getting a role getting recruited for a role at Instagram.

And I think once I got that role, I was just like so excited to really be working like at the forefront of the platform that was, making creators. And so I got that role and then I spent a bit of time on Instagram, launched one of their very first creator programs. They were not thinking of creators in the way that I think they do now.

I think back then they were very traditional and old school when they thought of marketing at Instagram, and so worked on one of their first creator programs, then went to Pinterest, and then most recently I was at TikTok, and then I launched my own app called Clara for Creators, which is essentially like a glassdoor for creators to help them understand pay and how to monetize more efficiently.

So I think that’s a long-winded answer, asking the question of like, how did you get here? I think the short answer is I was obsessed with social media, I decided to move to the Bay. I had a couple startup gigs, ended up getting a role at Instagram. And then from there I felt like I was really able to use that big name on my resume to get to the next big tech company.

And then I also became a creator myself during the pandemic, so that’s been a fun ride as well. So I’m really fascinated with all things social, all things influencer and creator and feel like I’ve been doing this for quite a while now. 

[00:10:51] Jessy: So you’ve been taking a vacation for the last few years?

[00:10:53] Christen: Yes, exactly. I’m on sabbatical. 

[00:11:01] Jessy: So I would love to hear, you have worked at Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, was the biggest lesson? What was the biggest takeaway from working at like three of the biggest social media plartforms platform? 

[00:11:17] Christen: So I wanna tease the story, but I wanna go back to it because prior to me working at Instagram, I had worked at, companies that I was essentially doing brand deals, between Fortune 500 companies and creators. 

And when I got to Instagram it was so interesting to me because, that is the platform like for creators of all the creators we’re building their audience on, and they weren’t leveraging or looking at creators as marketing like vessels. They were not tapping in, leaning in to building a community of creators and working with creators to promote like the product features, that they were launching instead, they were like doing very old school things.

And so when I got there I was like, hey, I had come from a background of using a creator to sell shoes on Instagram or on a blog. And so when I got there, I built out a program with a colleague that was really focused on working with creators on Instagram to market, new Instagram product features.

And at the time it was really scary because, I knew creators could market products like effectively, but I wasn’t sure if like digital. It would have the same results. So, I I think the most surprising thing of of working at at Instagram back in the day, this was 2017, was that like they just were not even like in the mindset of seeing creators as like the future of marketing, of advertising. 

advertising And I think, it was a big deal that me and a colleague had to propose this program where we actually lean into the people making the people content on Instagram to market new Instagram product features. And I think looking back, it’s so interesting because now you look at Instagram and they have creator programs around like diverse identities. They have all of these, giant events and millions of dollars that they’re pouring into, Reel’s bonuses. 

But like at the time they were just not seeing like how incredible like creators could be for their their platform in building communities. So I think the most interesting thing is like, I think it really took them a while to I think for the the light to go on and them to really understand that creators are the future and they’ve built they’ve built a lot of careers on their platform, but they weren’t really leaning into that.

I think that was probably the most interesting thing of starting my role there was like, it took a lot of convincing, you had our CMO that was, maybe like forties or fifties and was very leaned into traditional old school marketing and it took a lot of convincing and a lot of proof, of that hey, proof of concept, this can work and you should lean into it.

And then now you look at where they are and they have these worldwide creator programs. So I think it was a really interesting time to be in tech and be working with creators because not everyone believed, what the future would look like. And I think now it’s so crazy because it’s like everything is all creator centric.

Every platform has an intense, creator strategy, monetization, all of these things that they’re rolling out, but just a few years ago it was, that was not the case. 

[00:14:35] Jessy: And I think that’s so important, I love that you brought that up for a million reasons. One of ’em, just to see like in such a short period of time, how much can change.

Like they recently announced, that Meta is gonna be like joining the ranks of, Reddit and Twitter and like on YouTube where they’re gonna have a subscription model for creators or for businesses so that if they opt into it, they could get, they could get a verified check mark. They can get additional reach, they can get chat support, and, some people are up in arms about it as like a very polarizing thing. 

And I think without even getting into how you feel about it, how our audience feels about it, what it is showing to me to parlay it back into your comment is things can change and don’t be surprised if you know forever Instagram has been free and all of a sudden if you want certain things they’ve been free for a long time and have allowed a lot of influencers to make, millions of dollars and now they’re asking for their piece of it and things are changing in a way that maybe nobody ever expected and how interesting that is, and it’s all fair game, it’s their company, they can do whatever they want. 

So speaking of, businesses, I would love to hear. How you went from working at, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, having these incredible experiences being like such a role model for women in tech, and then you decided to launch Clara and to go out on your own and become an entrepreneur, walk us through the mentality of that, cause I know that transition it’s not something that you’ll do at the drop of a hat. What was that like in reality and what got you there ultimately? 

[00:16:41] Christen: Yuh. I think the pure and like honest answer is that I, again, going back to was obsessed with social, had this awesome career working on an Instagram and I was at Pinterest and then like TikTok started really just, being like the sexy new app.

And I think for me, having worked with creators for so long, I was really obsessed with how TikTok was making, 2023 version of fame more accessible, cause before it was gate kept I felt and I used to think this all the time I wish I would’ve started making content five years ago, because now those people are, have such a big audience.

But all of a sudden it was like with TikTok, you didn’t need to have worked, five years on your blog. Like you could make one video and get an audience overnight. And I just loved that cause it felt like fame and like all this stuff was not being gate kept.

It was more about talent and anyone could find an audience, if they just were entertaining and interesting and so, it didn’t matter, like they didn’t have to have fancy camera equipment, they literally could have an iPhone and be in their car and, gain millions of followers. So I saw that TikTok reached out to me a role about a role in Los Angeles.

I had been wanting to, to move to L.A cause that’s where most of my family is. So I moved from the bay to L.A, got this role, and I was managing thousands of creators. During my time at TikTok, I would manage like ones with 30 million followers, I’d also manage smaller creators. 

And every day, like in working with these top creators and my role there was basically like growth strategy. So I would help educate them on how to use TikTok, how to grow on TikTok, how to grow as a creator. And, every day I’d get the question in my inbox from like thousands of creators, there’d probably be at least a handful of these a day saying hey, how much did I charge? Or, I just gained 200,000 followers last week from this video.

And now I have Netflix reaching out to me like, what should my rate be? And it was always so conflicting because, obviously I can’t tell them what their rate should be. But then also, I started creating content and what I realized is I was getting brand deals and I didn’t really know what the standard was.

And with my role at all these companies, I would constantly be, CC’d on brand deals between big companies, asking creators, what’s your rate for a TikTok, what’s your rate for an Instagram? And the responses from creators were literally if it was like a chart, like you would have one saying, my rate’s 20,000 for a video, and then another would be like, maybe it was like the first time a brand ever reached out to them and they would be like, oh my gosh, I’m so excited, I’m just gonna save $500. 

So you would have these major like disparities in between rates. There was really no consistency, and a lot of times I’d talked to the creator, be like, hey, you can charge more, and they were what? I can charge more, and their mind was like, blown.

And I just realized, there was influencer marketing and big brands. Working with creators was just now becoming the new thing, and I felt like future of work was changing. All these creators I worked with were able to leave like their jobs and become full-time creators, and I just realized like there was really not a database that had existed that was available for people to go and see, how much other creators are being paid.

And I thought of myself when I was getting a role at TikTok, when they’re asking me how much money do I wanna make a year in my position, I was able to reference different sites like Glassdoor to understand, what is a fair salary, what is my market value in this position?

How much does TikTok pay? What is their range? And then how much can I charge? Otherwise I would go into a negotiation just, I’m not gonna throw a random number out because then TikTok might be like, you’re crazy, or I might be getting low balled, and I felt like that resource, needed to exist for creators, even more so because creators are getting deals weekly, sometimes daily.

And if they don’t have some sort of resource where they can see, oh, Netflix just paid a creator my size, 10k last week, I should probably ask, and maybe I’ve only been charging a thousand, I can get maybe 8, 9, 10k for this video. So, I was seeing the problem firsthand every day, and then also as a creator, seeing it for myself because I was having brand deals.

So I just knew, I was like, I need to create some sort of app and platform for people to really just have as a resource to see how much brands are paying with the hope that, I could reach the people that need it most, who don’t have agents or managers and who are really just advocating for themselves, and just really get the information out there. 

[00:21:36] Jessy: I love that. And I think that I’ve personally seen managers and talent agents use it as a resource too. So I think that, transparency of information is valuable for anyone who will raise their hand and go out to get it.

it’s just gonna improve the conversation because it’s pulling down the veil and it’s just giving people like a voyeuristic look into all things pay. And it’s interesting that, influencer marketing is such a female dominated industry, and it’s interesting because.

I don’t know, I’m making a broad generalization, of course, but I feel like women generally can struggle talking about how much do you make? How much am I making? Like it’s just an uncomfortable conversation for a lot of people. So to be able to say, look, go to this destination, go to Clara you guys even have an app too, which I love go to Clara and, see it for yourself, I think is a really powerful thing. 

What would you say to some folks who have checked you guys out and say, like big question. Is this the complete picture? Because Cause I can imagine that some people might go there and say like, all right, let’s, see what it is, maybe from the brand side, and they’d be like, okay, this influencer, yeah, sure she was paid, 10 10 times more than this one, but there’s more to why we arrived at that number, how do you guys tackle that? How do you guys respond to that? 

[00:23:16] Christen: I think that’s a good question. There’s times when I personally have witnessed deals where like there there was no rhyme or reason why someone who’s getting paid. It was simply, not malicious intent from the brand, but they ask creator what their rate is. If someone comes back and says a thousand, they’re like, done deal.

And if someone comes back and says 10,000, they’re like, okay. So it’s not always, in In my opinion, it’s it’s up to the creator to help educate themselves. And of course, ideally, the the brand should, in a perfect world, have some sort of I I would say more ethical approach from the way that they’re paying creators.

So maybe they put in place a baseline, they’re not gonna pay any creator under $5,000 or X, Y, and Z. But the The purpose with Clara is definitely, to your point, it’s take the information with a grain of of salt, it’s the same way like Glassdoor. I can see someone’s salary in the same position.

I might not know how many years experience they had or maybe that they came from Meta to TikTok, cause because that would influence the pay. I think, the way to look at Clara is the same approach of, there’s a caveat.

So you can see maybe a creator your size got paid 10k, so so that can help you as you go into your negotiations. But obviously there’s a lot of things that can go into a rate, maybe that creator was paid that much because they also asked for a year of usage and things like that.

So it’s more of just a resource in a creator’s toolkit, maybe you have your own standard rate that you always use. For example I tend to charge like 3000 a video for a video on TikTok, but if I’m able to go to Clara and see Netflix just paid a creator smaller than me 5k, then I can use that information to negotiate, my rate based off, if there was no app to really help guide them, then maybe I’m leaving like 10 times, like money on the table.

So I think the goal is there’s so many cool apps out there. Some that help you calculate your rate, some that you know, like Clara, that help you, that help to show you what other brands are paying. I think it’s all like just, put all these apps in your toolkit and then as a creator, really hopefully these will all help you make informed decisions and monetize more effectively.

But it’s definitely to your point, not a situation where you just wanna see the rate and go, okay, this person got 10k I’m gonna ask for that. I think there’s a lot of factors that go into a rate, and what I wanna do is just help with transparency and, give creators access to that information because I think before it felt like everything was just talked about in silos.

I would only talk to the creators I know. And then as I worked with communities at TikTok, I would see, Hispanic creators only talking to Hispanic creators. And so if Hispanic creators are getting underpaid, they’re only talking to each other, it’s just not gonna really help the disparities.

So, the goal with the app is let’s just get the information out there. Let’s get more transparency because the industry desperately needs it. 

[00:26:22] Jessy: I appreciate the heck out of that answer. Thank you. That’s what I was hoping that you might say, I had no idea, of course. But, to provide another resource in your toolkit to say we keep using Netflix, but shout out to Netflix.

Hey, Netflix paid another influencer of my size, five times more, knowing that like that budget is there, so like maybe it’s not gonna be one post because maybe my engagement is less, but maybe saying like, all right I’m gonna hope that maybe I can add in a few more things to get to that number simply because I know that number is available.

Like that alone is powerful. There’s so many different ways that you can just utilize it, you have the information now, to utilize, and that in of itself is a huge huge thing. 

My last question for you for today, how can more women work in tech? I think that a lot of people are, gonna listen to this podcast and be like very in awe of everything that you’ve achieved and, how can some women follow in your footsteps, get into that side of things?

[00:27:34] Christen: I think being a woman in tech, like breaking into tech always like felt really hard and almost impossible for me. When I thought of my end goal of Facebook and when I was graduating college, I was like, this doesn’t seem like it’s ever gonna happen for me.

And I remember just like sitting in my apartment in San Francisco applying to countless jobs and I would get so many rejections from them, like auto rejections, like I knew of my stuff wasn’t even breaking through to the recruiter.

And looking at the people that work there, they had all graduated from a really good college and a lot of them were men and a lot of them, were well connected.

And so, think we all get like really caught up in like the big dreams of I want this now, but I tried to put myself on a path to get closer to that end goal, and recognize like it was gonna take a little bit of time like laying down the foundation to like really get the role that I wanted.

And then once I got the role I wanted, it was like I was getting hit up and recruited from all the big tech companies. So I think the things that I did in the beginning that, I would would recommend to anyone is like working in startup companies, there’s obviously there can be a lot of risk associated with startups, because in general right now there’s a lot of layoffs happening, but I think with startup roles, there are a lot easier to get into because there’s not as much competition as like the Googles and the Instagram getting that big name.

But you can get roles that will be like really closely aligned to maybe, let’s say for example at Instagram. I worked on the brand marketing team. And so like during my roles at startups, I was doing marketing and I was doing influencer marketing, and so I was able to get my foot in the door, work at an app, work at a startup, without having that big name, and then slowly but surely, like my experience became more and more relevant and then I was able to land to lay on that big role.

And then I think the second thing that, I don’t think I did a good job of this, but I definitely see a lot of people reaching out to me and networking. I think the networking can be so effective when done right. And then the caveat is done, cause I don’t think most people do it right.

But I think that a lot of times, and especially for me, like graduating college, I would just reach out to people at these big companies and like immediately ask for a favor or ask if they could help me get my foot in the door and all this stuff. 

And I think one of the things that a lot of people, and I do a way better job of doing it now than I did when I first graduated, they say your network is your net worth, and I really think looking at every relationship that you make in a professional like setting as like a really long-term relationship as opposed to like shortsighted in like what favors can this person do for me?

So for example, if you’re graduating college, you wanna work at a Google, really trying to like slowly network, whether that’s go to events like in your city, Google and all these big companies typically host a lot of networking type events.

And really like marketing, even Women In Influencer Marketing, I’m sure there’s like a community there that people tap into, and I think like even nurturing those relationships and taking them slow over time. And And so something I think is really effective is like reaching out to people maybe that have your dream job or work at your dream company for coffee chats or like a Zoom chat.

 And really kind off slowly but surely building a relationship over time. I think a lot of times when we’re like younger in our careers, sometimes we think what what could I possibly offer like the CMO of Netflix or or Meta? And I think a lot of times, like there’s not much that you can offer, but what you can do is support them.

And I think whether it’s like liking their LinkedIn posts, tweeting to them, Twitter is like very highly effective, tool to build community with with people who are more senior at companies because, they definitely see tweets that come into them. So it’s really just like supporting in whatever way that you’re able to.

Whether that’s liking posts, sharing like maybe you saw an article online and you share it with someone. And really like building a relationship over time, and then, long term, maybe that person post a job that you’re interested in and you can reach out to them and ask them, if they have any advice for you because you’re applying for the role. 

But I think when I first graduated school, I really looked at networking as like short term gain, let me reach out to this person, and I think that’s really not how it works. It’s more of a marathon than a sprint. 

So really thinking of, how can I make sure that in five years from now, I like still have a relationship with this person, even on a professional level? Because ultimately I think you probably know this super well, that the influencer marketing industry is small.

It feels big, but it’s small, and I have worked with the same people at different companies and the interns that I worked with five years ago now are a lot of times managers or like directors. So it’s really important that you, nurture and maintain relationships as best as you can, and be kind to everybody.

But I think my biggest tips for like women in tech is look at startup roles because. A lot of them might be the next big app, might be the next big thing. You can get a lot of experience, wear multiple hats and, not confine yourself.

So it’s also a really good opportunity as you’re new in your career to understand what you like doing. And then those can help set you up for a larger role in tech. And then the second piece is really ,just the networking and really looking at every relationship as more of a long-term relationship. you want it to feel like double-sided, right? You dont want it to feel like you’re just leeching up the person or trying to take their energy.

So I think those two things would be my top recommendations on if you want to get a job in influencer marketing, in tech in general, like definitely don’t sleep on those things. And then I think there’s one more piece, I think because this is the influencer marketing like industry, I think it’s also important in my opinion, that you kind off make yourself a voice in the community.

And I think there’s so many outlets that you can do that. You can do that on LinkedIn, you can do that on Twitter. Just by tweeting your thoughts to things like everyone has like their own, area of expertise. If you’ve been working in influencer marketing for a year, I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of things and have a unique perspective that a lot of people do not.

And I think it’s really just being open and and not being afraid to share your perspective and your 2 cents, and that’s how you become a thought leader, that’s how you might get opportunities and, and be asked to speak at events is because you have a unique perspective. So I would say, don’t worry about how like young you are in your career and I think really making yourself the thought leader that, you hope to be in 10 years.

You can probably do that in a year with social media, if you tweet or share a unique point of view. So I think it’s really just like leaning into those three areas. 

[00:34:42] Jessy: You are speaking my language. I cosign everything and you said it so well. That’s good advice. Everybody listening like re-listen to the last few minutes because that was really good advice.

So look, so for everyone listening now, who wants to support you and prop you up and respond to your content and like engage in that conversation, where can they follow you? 

[00:35:12] Christen: Yeah, I mean I think, look, just say this because I never pictured myself as like an entrepreneur.

That’s not like what I was out to do. I think what happened was there was a problem I saw in my role working at Instagram, TikTok that I like, could not ignore any longer, and I felt like I had to help fix it. 

And so I think that if people want to connect with me I have like my personal Instagram, which is just at, Christen, C H R I S T E N, or we can connect on LinkedIn. I’ll pretty much connect with anyone, just send me a note like saying that you saw me on this, but I think also just like the one thing that’s really important to me is transparency in creator economy, so that’s why I launched, Clara For Creators.

So if there’s ever a time when you know a creator, doesn’t know what to charge, consider Clara For Creators, like a resource in their toolkit, in your toolkit. I didn’t actually get to mention this, but another big reason why I launched Clara was because I felt like the brands needed the transparency as well.

And I think that without transparency, the brands can improve. And I think, as we all know, working in this industry, a lot of times the brands have unrealistic expectations, they’re not held to the same standard because they don’t really understand how they’re being perceived by creators. 

And so, the main reason why I launched it was also so brands could have more visibility in how they should be improving their relationships with creators. 

Creators wanna be paid on time, they wanna be, treated with respect. And I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of, getting people to see influencers and creators as like a legitimate profession.

It’s crazy because a lot of people not in this industry don’t really understand how much creators are being paid, how much they’re transforming, just like the marketing industry.

So I think for me I would love to also connect on Clara For Creators, we have a TikTok, we have an Instagram page, and if you working in your job need access to rates or wondering what brands are paying creators, definitely check out our app or our site, and I welcome suggestions on how to make it better if you’re working like at an agency or if you’re working with a brand and you’re like, oh, I wish that the app had this so that creators could see usage.

So they could see X, Y, Z, I welcome that feedback and I want it to be a resource that is helpful to everyone, both the brands and the creators. 

[00:37:39] Jessy: I love that so so much, Christen, I hope that everyone follows all of your platforms cause you have quite a few. And I love that each one’s like a little bit different and so we’re gonna link all of them in the show notes.

I wanna support you and what you’re doing, I’m like a big fan. I think I very much respect what you’ve been creating and I love it. So thank you so much for joining us today, it’s been a pleasure. 

[00:38:05] Christen: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:38:07] Jessy: If you enjoyed this episode, we gotta have you back. Check out our website for more ways to get involved, including all the information you need about joining our collective. You can check out all the information at iamwiim.com. Leave us a review, a rating, but the most important thing that we can ask you to do is to share this podcast.

Thanks for listening. Tune in next week.

Christen Nino De Guzman

Founder, CLARA FOR CREATORS

Latina creator. Speaker. Tech Mentor. Christen is the Founder of the newly launched app Clara, a community that empowers creators through transparency, brand reviews, and discoverability. An industry vet, Christen has almost a decade of experience working with top content creators at social networking companies such as Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. She is a motivational speaker and mentor in the tech space who is passionate about helping people break into the industry through career advice and actionable content.

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