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The creator economy is transforming how individuals build wealth, and Gen Z is leading the charge.
In this episode of Stocks in Translation, Markets and Data Editor Jared Blikre and Producer Sydnee Fried are joined by Mary Esposito. Esposito is the founder of Money with Mary, an educational platform dedicated to empowering Gen Z with financial literacy.
Blikre and Fried, along with Esposito—who is also a social media influencer—explore the creator economy.
Blikre, with the help of ChatGPT, defines the creator economy as “people monetizing or making money from digital content, which could be products, services, skills or ideas on [social media] platforms.”
Esposito shares her journey as a social media influencer. “My first business, my first crochet business… Purple Pear... I was able to generate an income from that,” says Esposito, “I had all this extra money. 'What was I [going to] do with it?' And so that’s what got me interested in personal finance as a whole.”
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She expands on what led her to start her second business, Money with Mary. “What inspired me to start Money with Mary [was] when I realized that there was this really big gap in our educational curriculum.”
With the TikTok ban still uncertain, Esposito offers her perspective as a creator. “For me personally, if this comes down to an issue of national security, which is what they say, I’m going to build my sustainable business on apps that are American-owned and that have, you know, the approval of the US government, so to speak.”
Esposito also sheds light on the revenue share from social media engagement. “I had a video go extremely viral on all platforms… over a hundred million views across platforms, like 10 million likes, I think accumulated across platforms. And Instagram paid me $140.”
She explains that most of her revenue comes from “brand deals, affiliate marketing, and other external sources” connected to her business.
Finally, Esposito shares lessons learned from her investments during the pandemic, including her experience investing in Palantir (PLTR) in 2021.
Now, she follows a dollar-cost averaging strategy. “Instead of investing like chunks of money at different random intervals trying to time it, it’s like time in the market instead of timing the market,” says Esposito. “Now I can automate my trades, and so I’m investing smaller increments, but more periodically and consistently.”
Twice a week, Stocks In Translation cuts through the market mayhem, noisy numbers and hyperbole to give you the information you need to make the right trade for your portfolio. You can find more episodes here, or watch on your favorite streaming service.
This article was written by John Tejada.