You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio. Hey, I want to switch gears because our next guest spent a decade at NBC Universal, ultimately becoming a communications executive before striking out on her own. Monty Ellis is founder and CEO at The Creative Collective. It's an organization that, in its own words, is building a more equitable future for thousands of black and brown creatives. Manti Ellis joins us on Zoom from New York City.
Good to have you with us, Amani, how are you?
I'm great, Carolyn, Tim, thank you for having me.
I should note the Creative Collective your company, also puts on Culture con. It's a conference for diverse creatives and young professionals. Hey, tell us a little bit about your story, because you left a job that you know you started basically as a page I thought this was really interesting. At NBC working, you're working your way up to an executive there. At what moment were you like, I want to strike out on my own.
Wow, it was such an amazing experience. I was in my dream job, love ingad working at NBCUniversal and what I realized was I really was in search of community, and so I invited a few friends over to my one bedroom apartment. Ten people turned into thirty people, turned into fifty people, and I realized there was truly just so much hunger for education, sharing and resources. And that's how the Creative Collective and then ultimately culture con was was born.
So tell us about some of what you guys are doing today and what the creative Collective does in terms of helping those who either want to enter the influencer economy. Talked us a little bit about that.
Well, what we're seeing, you know, the creator economy is now a two hundred and fifty billion dollar enterprise. It's not going anywhere, and we want to make sure that the creators, the black and brown creators that are starting a lot of these trends, are equipped with the resources and the tools and the education to really compete in that market. And so one of the really great things
that we're doing, you know, is culture con. Culture brings together brands, creators, mentors, educators to really equip them with that education, sharing everything from how to build your own deck, how to negotiate on your own terms, discovering if you
need a manager, if you need a publicist. All of those tools are available at Culture Con and then throughout the year we have classes where creators can really learn about how to find their zone of genius, how to collaborate with other creators again, how to negotiate their rates, really getting into the nitty gritty of those tools, those conversations to really make sure that they have a seat at the table money.
We're talking about this on our editorial call this morning, and our YouTube and TV producer Elizabeth brought our attention to some context when it comes to black and brown folks in the creator community and what's happened over the last few years when it comes to really not receiving credit for their work. An NPR story from a few years ago talked about how black TikTok creators are on strike to protest a lack of credit for their work.
Talk a little bit about the history here and what you guys are doing to kind of change some of the pattern that we've seen.
Absolutely unfortunately, you know, black creativity is nothing new, but we really want to make sure that black creatives are getting credit for all of the contributions that they are giving,
you know, to the social platforms. One of the agencies that we work very closely with is Kensington Gray, and Kensington Gray is really fighting on the front lines with these creators, making sure that brands are not only considering these creators, but also prioritizing them when they should and not just during a certain time of the year.
Right.
We want to make sure that when we think about the future of creativity, the future of equitable you know, creative influence, that it's not just during a certain time of the month or during certain themes of the month. Diverse black and brown creatives are not just to be pigeonholed, you know, for specific campaigns. They also have lives out side of Black History Month, Indigenous People Month, and for us, it's just really widening the scope of what America looks like,
what the world looks like. In that perspective, it's diverse and so I we're seeing a new generation that's not going to you know, accept anything that's handed to them. They want credit, and there will be, you know, voices that want to make that.
Hurt and many I'm so glad you went there. I have conversations like that with our black colleagues here at Bloomberg you know, I think it's really important that we have Black History Month, but I feel like I want to be thinking about this twelve months of the year every day. So how do you think about that so that it's not pigeonholed or that we constantly put people in pockets or groups in pockets. How do we do that.
One of the things that we do at the Creative Collective is we really work hand in hand with our brand partners, right, and so we're not asking them to come in and cook and know everything. It is about collaboration and so a lot of our partners come to the Creative Collective and they say, listen, we want to get this right the community. Tell us about the community, And the first thing that we say is, let us show you the work that's already being done. There's no
need to reinvent the wheel. If you're looking for creatives that are talking about fashion, we know where to find them. And so I think, again, it's really pivoting, not that these creatives don't exist, you might just not be looking in the right place.
I'm very curious about your business and how you're making this business work. I understand it. It's a live events company and you do events throughout the year. Are you also doing consulting?
Well, I would say majority of our business does come through our sponsorships and our agency work that we do. We also do do some consulting with our partners. A lot of the campaigns before they go live, they pass through our front door, and our partners have seen incredible success by just by putting that extra step instead of skipping over the culture, involve the culture. It's been really important for us and I think super beneficial for them.
We'll talk to us about give us a specific story or two in terms of where you guys have come together, figured something out and kind of the payoff if you will.
You know.
One of my favorite kind of examples, and this was a few years ago, but we were actually invited into Conde mass by Anna Wintour and her team. They wanted to talk about diversity in front of the camera and behind the camera, and so we came in spoke with their leadership team, and I think for me, what that really showed was that there was an appetite to learn,
there was an appetite to do better. And so we sat down with the executive team and said, listen, we are so inspired and impressed by the diversity we're seeing on the cover. But let's also talk about the makeup artists. Let's also talk about who's doing their hair. We want to make sure that the model feels comfortable in her skin and that she isn't getting on the cover just to have realized, oh wait, this complexion isn't my color. And so for us, it starts all the way at
the top working its way down. And I think we were so inspired by Anna Wintur and her team for taking that first step and really inviting us into the conversation.
You know, when you talk about kind of the digital age, the influencer economy, marketing and all that great stuff, how do you think that that can ultimately maybe reduce the gap that we see in wealth between black individuals or and the white population, if you will. How do we break that gap? We've talked so much about the importance of wealth creation, right, that can be passed down from generation to generation. How do we get there through what
you are doing? Like I said, through an influence or economy or platform.
Yeah, I think you know, there's so many different lanes, and I think that we need them all Right, You look at Aurora James and the fifteen percent Pledge and doing you know, very important equitable work in terms of fashion and making sure that black and brown individuals are represented on the shelves. At the Creative Collective, we're doing
similar work in terms of creative equitable solutions. And so for us, again it starts with education, opening up the doors, opening up the budgets, and making sure that we're not pigeonholing specific people during certain times of the year. I think we're also seeing in terms of creators, they're building
their own platforms. The barrier to injury has never been lower, and now you can build your own audience, monetize your own audience, and so I think we're going to see more creators of building their own shows, building their own audiences, selling ebooks, digital courses, merge and realizing that they can actually be the drivers of their fate.
Imani really cool stuff. Really appreciate you taking the time and joining us on Bloomberg Business Week. Amani elis founder and CEO at the Creative Collective. They put on Culture Con, a conference for diverse creatives and young professionals. Creative Collective is an organization that is working to build a more equitable future for thousands of black and brown creative