This photographer-model-creator launched a successful content studio

^{Making a living as a creator shouldn’t be some elusive thing. And what’s the best way to learn how creators are making it work? To go behind-the-scenes. These bi-weekly interview issues are like having coffee with your favorite creators. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about solopreneurship and the creator economy.}

Good morning. There are many lucrative paths the creator's life can take you beyond brand partnerships and ads. This week’s creator-turned founder was a luxury photographer, runway model and Pinterest creator, who worked on celebrity campaigns like Rhianna’s Fenty Beauty, before starting his own content marketing shop. 

This creator-founder path is one we’re going to see a lot more of.

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Shane Anderson is an artist with a logical side. He started out in tech marketing, before being offered a role at Google to work on an app. After his early career success, Anderson traveled to the UK, where he ended up working under two luxury fashion photographers and learned the history and techniques of image making. 

Once back stateside, Anderson continued in commercial photography at a production company at the cultural pulse of celebrity – where he helped bring campaigns like Rhianna’s Fenty Beauty into the world. This greatly informed his philosophy that celebrity brands and personal brands are the same. 

As a fashion photographer, runway model and Pinterest creator, with a decade of experience working with luxury brands, Anderson saw an opportunity to launch a luxury content marketing studio that put brands at the center of the zeitgeist. He’s one of a growing cohort of creators who are crossing over to brand-side, bringing his unique point-of-view from being a creator into client marketing campaigns. Anderson said proximity to celebrity and culture is critical for communicators spearheading company marketing. 

“If we look at creator-led brands, they’re really good at capitalizing on who that person is. The most successful ones distill that into a brand world or a persona, such as Sabrina Carpenter or Zara Larsson, who are built on heavily aesthetic roots,” he said. The same logic of community and world-building can be applied to creator brands. 

“We did some work with bareMinerals, who wanted to restage the brand with a more wellness, lived in-world. As part of that, we rolled out the social content for it and made the models feel lived-in, get-ready-with-me, as if people are living in this brand world. This is a continuation of the logic into a commercial brand that creators and celebrity founders have been doing forever.” 

IRL events and activations are another example of where we’re seeing top brands inviting the consumers to be part of the brand world and create content themselves. Anderson is drawing on these insights in how he’s building his agency, a—son. “Building a brand world around myself, my history and varied careers have significantly helped drive sales. 30% of my income has come through founder-led posts on LinkedIn, which is a great upcoming creator market.” 

Anderson said the creator has matured from an influencer and he’s excited to see what the next evolution of that becomes. There’s more meaning, substance and community now. “I’m seeing a lot of creators that aren’t full-time creators. For example, they’re doctors or makeup artists who also have an audience as creators. It’s that passion and knowledge that really fuels the platform. 

Some people just want to have fun on social media. Some people want the stability of a corporate job that pays the bills, so they can talk about plants in their free time.” He believes we’ll see more fluidity between creators jumping into corporate roles, and vice versa. 

He himself has been poached by brands. “Brands and agencies are working to build-out in-house solutions that can keep up with the demand for content, as well as keeping up culturally,” Anderson added. “The more content there is, the more important your point-of-view matters.” 

Being authentic, curating great taste and viral experiences that bring the world together is what sets successful creators apart from the rest. Anderson said fatigue is real and we want something nice to look at that enriches our lives. 

As for brands, the ones who are nimble with a light footprint are able to be reactive and culturally fluent in ways without the large overhead and layers. Anderson has applied that same thinking to his agency, assembling fractional creatives on a per-project basis, based on who can best build the world the client is looking for. 

As for a — son, Anderson views it as a conversation between his vision, what the market wants, and what people are resonating with. He views his business as a canvas, where he shows up each day to work on it, sees how it looks, and pivots as needed. Culture, world-building, the preservation of art and traditional production systems are all part of the core DNA of the agency, and he’s excited to see where it scales in the next decade alongside the creator economy.

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Speak soon,
Amanda

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