Why everyone will be a creator in five years

The Creator Economy Unveiled: How Passion, Platforms, and AI are Redefining Digital Entrepreneurship

Presenter Jillian Wolf led a discussion on the creator economy with choreographer Matt Steffanina and Kajabi President & CPO Sean Kim. Mr. Steffanina shared his journey, starting a YouTube channel in 2007 driven by a passion for dance and community, not initial financial gain. He emphasized that genuine passion is fundamental for building an engaged audience and sustained success.

Mr. Kim recounted his transition from Amazon to TikTok in 2019. Initially skeptical of TikTok’s content, he was convinced by its advanced discovery algorithm, which promised to connect users with diverse information. This understanding of discovery’s power later influenced his focus on creator monetization challenges at TikTok.

Recognizing creators’ struggles to monetize on platforms, Mr. Kim sought solutions, leading him to Kajabi. He saw Kajabi as a platform empowering creators to build independent businesses, own their audience data, and control their content and pricing. His move to Kajabi was driven by its immense value in fostering creator entrepreneurship.

Kajabi, valued at over two billion dollars, supports creators in 200 countries, facilitating over six billion dollars in earnings. Mr. Kim highlighted Kajabi’s decade of experience and its all-in-one tech stack, enabling diverse creators, many over 35, to monetize specialized knowledge. A former Meta product manager, for instance, built a $4 million business sharing interview prep content.

Mr. Steffanina addressed maintaining authenticity and engagement in a saturated market. He stressed constant reinvention and recalibration to prevent burnout, adapting high-production dance content for short-form platforms. He underscored the necessity of multiple income streams, citing his online dance studio, DNCR (built on Kajabi), AdSense, real estate, and Web3 gaming ventures.

The discussion then turned to AI’s impact. Mr. Kim noted AI’s tremendous benefit for Kajabi’s creators, reducing content creation time from weeks to minutes. Kajabi integrates AI for various tasks, including social ads, landing page design, and course creation, significantly streamlining business development and empowering creators.

Mr. Steffanina acknowledged AI’s exciting yet scary potential, observing realistic AI-generated dance videos. He advised creators to focus on unique, uncopyable human elements like storytelling, which AI cannot replicate. For longevity, he concluded that enjoying one’s work and building a strong community are paramount, with impact and influence naturally following.