Jealousy is a normal thing in life. We are only human after all. We naturally are competitive but being too competitive can paralyze us from growing. Learning how to control jealousy and funnel that energy into making yourself, your content, better is just one key to success in the user generated content world.
Add in money from brands, sponsorships, and advertising and it can become nearly impossible for some to let go of their jealousy, to get away from it on a personal level.
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Jealousy Over Success
At the height of my commission-based efforts with YouTube shows and podcasts, I was working with over 50 clients. Who wouldn’t want to be involved in something that required absolutely no effort on their part but could potentially be a boon financially?
Yeah, this is why most UGC’s hate commission-based earning. It is also why you probably could find a rooster beak full of teeth before you find a PR company or brand manager working commission of any kind.
Some content creators love commission-based earnings.
From my experience it breeds jealousy quickly in the communities. Content creators see other content creators making bank with commission-based earnings, yet they have not made a penny. Both feel they did the same amount of work but only one got rewarded.
Every content creator is at a different level in their journey and once you realize that you will be better off in the content creation world.
The same happens over views, one of the easiest to fake metrics you can use to measure success. Some legitimately earn those views and followers (another easily faked metric) but so many today want to appear successful as fast as possible that they go for the content creation DLC packs.
Those that take the short cut are obvious to anyone that knows what to look for. Sadly, most people don’t understand that. This includes brand managers that fall for it at least once.
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Everyone Is on a Different Level in Their Journey
I have seen several creators start their journeys neck and neck with each other and one takes off while the others don’t. There is no clear-cut reason, could be posting times, could be general content, could be wording of descriptions, too many/not enough hashtags, it could be anything.
The point is, we are all at different levels in our content creation journeys.
This includes relationships with sponsors and brands. Just because you only know a creator from TikTok does not mean they only post on TikTok or grew 100% on TikTok.
I have seen many creators I worked with in 2014 on YouTube grow and post regularly gaining some decent success. Those same creators joined TikTok and blew up there, many thinking they were an overnight success – no, they put in almost a decade of honing their skills on YouTube, you just weren’t on YouTube to see their growth.
With that work on YouTube came building relationships with brands and sponsors that they brought with them to TikTok and other platforms.
Many starts on TikTok and get jealous of these “overnight successes” that seemed to pop up, especially during the pandemic. Obviously, those just starting out are on a different level than the “overnight success” and really have no business comparing themselves to a decade plus long veteran in User Generated Content.
I mean that as in you are only hurting yourself if you are comparing your beginning to their 10+ year long quest. You will always be sour about things, and it will eventually cost you your interest in UGC at all.
Jealousy is a bitch as they say.
Image source - Pexels.com
Sponsors Have Favorites Just Like You
Behind that e-mail address is a real person. They have a job to place advertisements, sponsorships, etc with content creators.
Just like you, they will have favorites in the content community. It is human nature.
This could very well be the only defining reason one content creator is chosen over another for brand sponsorship. The type of content, the brand they are placing sponsorships for, general guidelines they are given, etc. all play into who gets sponsored and who doesn’t.
From doing this type of work for nearly a decade, working with over 100 brands, I can honestly say, view counts is a dwindling in importance metric.
Companies are learning just because a content creator has a million followers does not equate to a massive positive response from that community.
Some brand managers simply like certain creators more than others. Also, those creators probably returned enough on the investment to keep working with them.
Brand managers, just like everyone else, will gravitate towards creators they have a history with. It saves time as the brand manager already knows a lot about that creator and can probably work a better deal for them.
How you combat this is simply doing your best. Be respectful when a brand manager reaches out with what you consider a “low ball” offer. I will cover this more in a future article, but it is a key moment in your content creation career and being a snarky ass is not in your best interest here.
I hope you understand that reputation matters. A LOT.
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Focus on Yourself
It is hard to not pay attention to other content creators and not be jealous of their successes. It is human nature to be competitive. When that urge becomes so strong that it hinders your own creation then you have a problem.
Using jealousy to push you to keep creating is one thing, letting jealousy stop you from creating is another.
Just remember, 99.99999% of what you read on social media, see on TikTok, etc. is fake. It is not real, and it is designed to appear as the creator is “making it”.
Some take that old saying, “fake it till you make it” too seriously.
Image source - Pexels.com
If you find that you are constantly getting stuck in jealousy over certain creators, simply block them. Your focus should be on your content, not theirs. If you are spending time watching their content and fuming because they landed a sponsor you wanted then that wasted that you could have been working on your content and earning other sponsors, maybe the one you wanted.
Jealousy is hard to get over, that is a fact of life. We each must figure out how to do it every day.
Don’t let jealousy hold you back. Enjoy content creation and enjoy life.
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