The Art of Creator Relationships

 "I feel stuck, creatively, and I don't know how to get out of this." 

This is one of the most common challenges creators face. How do we help a creator get "unstuck" and help them progress toward their goal? 

Let's say for instance that you are a CSM working for an email marketing service that helps creators like musicians build and manage email subscriber lists that alert them to new music, tour dates, and other tid bits.

You get on a business review call for a high-value client with a list of 15-20k subscribers, and you begin to gauge where they are in their customer journey. They suddenly tell you that they can't continue because they are in a creative rut. What do you say to them? Essentially they are telling you that can't keep going until they get out of the rut. 

Creators are unique in that the business relies 100% on their ability to...well, …create. Without them, the whole system will eventually collapse. Now, in some cases they might have a team helping them, but the majority of creators in the industry are doing it all themselves. As a creator myself for over a decade, I can tell you that "doing it all" is the recipe for someone to become overwhelmed and eventually hit burnout. In other words, they will get "stuck".

So how do you help a creator get unstuck? It's more straight forward than you think. 60% of the time it's a priority and organizational problem, and they just need help getting organized and learning how to focus, but 40% of the time it's a mental block.

You see, creators can often hit a point where they feel their creative energy is tapped and unless they reset on a regular basis it will happen more frequently. This is where a CSM specializing in creator journeys can be not just a helpful asset to the customer, but a trusted advisor that understands exactly what they are going through and give them the tools to get back on track.

As a creator I have been fortunate to have a partner that empathizes with me and provides support. I don't know what I would do without her. Not all creators have someone like that. 

As the creator economy continues to expand exponentially, more SaaS companies are going to need specialists that have focused experience in the creator space as creators themselves, as well as experience and knowledge about the customer success journey.