The need-to-know questions to ask a prospective talent manager

Trust me, these are the questions you won't think to ask, but definitely should!

Okay, so you’ve decided you’re ready to bring on a talent manager after you’ve checked all the boxes on my “Am I ready for a manager?” checklist. 👀 Get it, girl! Now comes the search to find the right agency for you!

I like my first call with a prospective client to be a vibe check, really. I don’t dive a ton into analytics, rates, past partnership successes etc. on the first go around. As a manager we work so closely with our talent on the day-to-day that I need to make sure we can even gel. So instead, we spend most of the time getting to know each other: Yes, I want to hear about your creator journey and how to got to where you are now, but also, tell me where you grew up, tell me about your partner and kiddos if you have them, what’s your coffee order, tell me about the last podcast you listened to.

On our second call is where I tend to get into the nitty gritty of the inner workings of a creator’s biz to see if there is good alignment, and this is where I suggest the creator also come prepared with a set of questions for management.

Throwing it back to my sorority days (any Delta Zetas 🐢 in the house?!) -I’ll give you the same advice I used to give PNMs (potential new members for my non-sorority peeps) going through recruitment - remember that you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. Don’t get lost in the anxiety of “do they like me?” and remember to ask yourself “do I like them?”.

So with that, here’s a list of ?’s I think should give you good insight into how an agency functions and what they prioritize in creator partnerships:

1. What commission percentage do you earn of brand deals? I’ll tell you that 20% is industry standard across the board if that’s helpful. Secondary question - what exactly do they earn 20% off? Is it just brand deals, or are they taking 20% of Adsense, or 20% of affiliate revenue or 20% of merch sales etc. You need to know how big of a piece of your business you’ll be handing over to management

2. What’s your ratio of talent to managers? This is important! You don’t want to be one of 30 creators to a single manager if you’re looking for a very high touch management experience because there is literally no way they can provide every client with the attention they need when they’re stretched that thin.

3. What is the average duration a talent is with the agency? Ask about their longest standing client and how long they’ve been with the agency. If you find that they have a high client turnover, let this be seen as a red flag 🚩

4. How much proactive outreach do you do for partnerships? This answer is going to vary greatly. Personally at my agency, VRAI, we secure about 70% of our talents’ partnerships from proactive outreach. Meaning we’re pitching our buns off! I will say, THIS IS NOT TYPICAL. We’re hustlers at VRAI haha but most agencies will be looking at a 80/20 split, or 70/30 split at best. They’re expecting for talent to have 80% of their business leads come from brands reaching out directly to the talent to work together and 20% should come from supplemental opportunities the agency has pitched for. Your preference here is really going to come down to how much biz you’ve been booking on your own up until this point.

5. How often do you do creator payouts? Most talent agencies are invoicing on behalf of their talent, meaning we invoice the brand and once we receive payment from the brand, we take our 20% and pay out the rest to the creator. We do that process weekly so you can assume if we’re on NET30 payment terms with a brand (and god willing they pay on time) you should have funds in your account by NET40. Other agencies only do payouts once a month, so you might be looking at 60 days before you’re paid. 🫠

6. What is your sunset clause? This is an important one. Obviously, you hope you find an agency you love and want to stay at for forever, but sh** happens. What you don’t want to have happen is that you are blocked from working with any brand that you worked on together while under contract for 2 years without still forking over commission to your prior agency 🙃

7. What opportunities do you work on outside of brand partnerships? If you have a dream of launching a podcast or writing a cookbook or creating a physical product line, you’ll want to know if your agency has experience in executing those dreams!

8. How do you handle email communications with brands? Ask if the agency has a shared email inbox with talent and if you receive visibility into that email inbox. I’ve heard of agencies who do not allow access to that inbox to talent so the creator is fully blind on the inner workings of their business. They have no idea who/what brands are proactively outreaching to them and that’s obviously dangerous for so many reasons. YOU are in control of your business and should have clear sightline into how it’s functioning.

   This is not exhaustive, obvs, but these are some questions that you should definitely come armed with in convos! Side note - VRAI is looking to bring on a few new creators this year so slide into our inbox, would love to chat 🤍 molly@vraidigital.com

   xx

   M