The world of talent management can seem a little unsettling if you don’t understand its function. I know the first time I ever reached out to an influential person online and was passed off to an agent-type, it was kind of a turn off. But as I grew to understand the role of a talent manager — to handle the busy work of influence as a business and let the creator do what the creator does well — I realized talent manager serve a valuable function in the ecosystem.

Now, you might think that talent managers really only come with influencers who have hundreds of thousands of followers. And you might think the influencer in question is going to cost a lot more money since they have to pay the people who represent them. Neither of those perceptions are necessarily true. And one talent management firm that highlights the nuances of exceptions to the perceptions is Shine Talent. 

Jess Hunichen and Emily Ward founded Shine a few years ago when the two public relations pros grew tired of pitching clients as independent consultants collaborating. They started Shine as a public relations firm, then gradually shifted to fill the gap they saw in representing the online influencers many of their clients were hoping to connect with.

Shine’s roster of talent includes a number of lifestyle influencers, so parenting, fitness, food and the like. But they aren’t all half-a-million followers and up mega-influencers. In fact, Shine has several who have less than 50,000 followers. For them, follower count isn’t the only threshold to need representation. Sometimes the talent for creating great content and the desire to grow are a part of the equation, too.

Both Jess and Emily joined me recently to talk about the various ways they advise their talent on working with brands, how they handle the issues surrounding influencer fraud and what a good brand-influencer partnership really looks like. I found it quite refreshing that there are firms out there like Shine that aren’t just looking to make a good commission and are focused on connecting the dots between brands and the audiences of the great talent they represent.

This episode of Winfluence, the podcast, is sponsored by Winfluence, the book! Get a special discount by clicking the button below, buying on the Entrepreneur Press bookstore and using the discount code FALLS20. That earns you 20% off the retail price, just for being a Winfluence (the podcast) listener. Read and learn why we’ve been backed into a corner to think influencer marketing means Instagram and YouTube and how reframing it to be “influence” marketing makes us smarter marketers.

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