“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.”
That line, made famous by The Usual Suspects, has been rattling around in my head lately. Because I think the tech platforms have pulled off a pretty impressive trick of their own.
They've convinced millions of content creators that they're just one viral hit away from becoming the next MrBeast or Joe Rogan.
Start a YouTube channel! Launch a podcast! Build a following on TikTok! Work hard enough, create great content, and eventually you'll build a massive audience that you can turn into a thriving business.
There's just one problem: You're almost certainly not going to be the next MrBeast or Joe Rogan.
That's not an insult. It's math.
According to CreatorIQ's State of Creator Compensation report, the top 10% of creators received 62% of all payments in its 2025 dataset of brand and agency campaigns.
As the report explains:
“A small percentage of creators capture a disproportionate share of total spend. The majority of spend flows to a relatively small segment of high-performing creators, and this disparity is deepening.”
But isn't more money flowing into the creator economy? Absolutely. That doesn't mean the average creator is getting ahead.
CreatorIQ found that total creator payments increased 59% year-over-year, while the number of creators participating in campaigns grew by 183%. As the report concludes, “creator marketing is scaling faster than creator compensation gains are flowing across the creator ecosystem.”
And in its more recent State of Creators 2026 report, CreatorIQ found that 67% of surveyed creators earned less than $10,000 annually.
Yet superstar success stories are held up as examples of what's possible for everyone. And why wouldn't they be?
The platforms don't need every creator to succeed. They just need enough creators to believe they might.
You're Playing Two Different Games
You want to build a sustainable business. The platforms want to maximize the amount of content and attention flowing through their systems.
Those goals aren't necessarily aligned.
Platforms provide tremendous value by helping creators reach audiences. But they also benefit from having millions of people producing content, even when only a fraction of those creators earn a living.
And when creators struggle, what's the advice they hear? Post more often. Improve your thumbnails. Repurpose everything. Master the algorithm. Use AI to produce more.
Notice how the answer is always more content?
Welcome to ContentMaxxing
This relentless pursuit of more better content is called ContentMaxxing. It's the belief that whatever problem your content business faces, the solution is to produce more content, improve what you're already making, or distribute it more widely.
Conveniently, that's exactly what the platforms want you to do.
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Content is a powerful way to attract an audience. But an audience isn't a business.
You may be creating valuable content. That doesn't automatically mean you can monetize it.
You Don't Need Millions of Followers
What if, instead of trying to reach millions of people, you focused on providing more value to a smaller group?
A creator with 1,000 dedicated followers might earn more by bringing 50 of them together for paid workshops, events, or networking opportunities than by trying to attract another 100,000 casual viewers.
You could bring people together around a shared mission, help them build relationships, exchange knowledge, and create opportunities for one another. Instead of constantly chasing a bigger audience, you could generate revenue by helping the people you already reach get more out of being part of your community.
That's Community Revenue.
You can still use the platforms to attract people. But you don't have to build a business that depends entirely on their algorithms.
Could Community Revenue work for you? Join my free Beyond Content: Find Your Community Revenue Opportunity workshop. You'll explore how to turn the audience you've already built into a new revenue opportunity by bringing people together.
Find Your Community Revenue Opportunity
You don't need to become the next MrBeast. You need to build a business where you can succeed without millions of followers.
Because the greatest trick the platforms ever pulled wasn't convincing you that you could become a superstar.
It was convincing you that becoming a superstar was the only way to win.
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