Drawing inspiration from his past experiences of being taken advantage of in the music industry, Eric Boyce now leads sociaLebs where he manages talent and teaches the business side of content creation and collaborations with brands. With many creators not knowing their worth and undervaluing themselves, Eric launched a digital management company to make it possible for content creators to do what they love and earn at the same time. 

Inspiration to Explore Influencer Marketing

Eric started in the entertainment industry at a young age. As a creative, he said that he’s always been ambitious. He was always looking for things to inspire him. 

“I did the music scene, the acting scene, did off-Broadway in New York, and then somehow, I had this kind of life where he had to ask ‘Do I want to chase fame or do I want to chase success?’”

At 21 years old, Eric started to work in the records department of an entertainment law firm and worked his way up into management. From there, he went on to work at a digital advertising firm where a lot of his friends were copywriters and branding execs, working for various companies. Eric started to explore the digital space and learned from what his colleagues shared with him and experimented with it himself. 

The Need to Know One’s Value

Eventually, Eric walked away from that job and started sociaLebs. He was inspired by a rant on YouTube in the early 2000s by a creator who said that YouTube was paying him to do video content. From there, Eric did a lot of research and started seeing more creators coming into the digital space. That sparked his interest in what talent could be. Talent could be making money from home, for example. It could be anything. 

“But it wasn’t all easy for me. I learned a lot from my experience of being taken advantage of when I was in the music industry. That’s what made me want to learn the business side of things and then use that knowledge to protect other content creators. The experience also urged me to jump into the digital space early on.”

Eric Boyce on Launching sociaLebs 

Eric gathered talents and taught them the business so that they won’t make the same mistakes that he’s made in the past. 

“Of course, the first experiences weren’t easy because there was no blueprint to guide me.” 

Eric started around 2010, and around that time, it was unclear to him what people charge for content. There also wasn’t many talents out there so it was a lot easier to close brand deals. And since there were more brands than talents, brands fought over them. But today, there are more talents than brands. 

“Brands could go through a list and if they don’t like your rates or they don’t like what you’re proposing, then they’ll just move on to the next one on the list.”

When he was starting out, it was a mixture of two things: it was a lot easier to close brand deals but he didn’t know what his value was. And if you didn’t know your value, then you can easily get taken advantage of. It was an important learning curve because he knew he was building the blueprint for the next generations to come. 

Empowering Content Creators

It’s Eric’s goal for content creators to get the respect and value that they deserve. sociaLebs represents family, diversity, and making sure that the values of talent can be retained. 

“We look for diversity when it comes to personality. Everyone has their own unique personality. We encourage brands to work with talent who audiences can relate to, as though they’re the person next door or feel that they’re best friends.”

sociaLebs supports talent by guiding them in their partnerships with brands and ensuring that their collaborations with them will be successful. 

“We know that a lot of talent don’t know their value. They don’t have lawyers and managers and they’re undervaluing themselves. They should be able to focus on their creativity and coming up with ideas and being innovative. It’s important for talent to not forget why they got into the digital space, to begin with. They should be able to continue doing something close to their heart.”

What’s Next for sociaLebs?

Eric shared that he wants sociaLebs to get more involved in traditional media space like documentaries. 

“Content creators have a story, and I think sometimes, we only get to see the forefront of what they project on social media. But there’s a lot more that goes into who they are as individuals – where they come from, the music of their neighborhood, the food they grew up eating, and their family background, among others.”

He said that we often miss out on those details from content creators because we’re only getting to see a small part of their life. 

“I feel it would be beautiful to see more about the content creators’ lifestyles and capture it in a beautiful way with a production and be able to live and breathe what it’s like to be them. It would be nice to see someone as they chase their dreams, their success story, and to know what they’re going through. That’s how the audience gets to relate to them even more.”

A Word of Encouragement to Aspiring Content Creators

Eric emphasized the importance of community. Content creators need to find a community that loves them and doesn’t care if they have one follower, a hundred, or a thousand followers. 

“Continue to speak to your audience and always stay motivated. Continue pushing your message because there are so many duplicates out there and we don’t need any more duplicates. We need the individuality of everyone, and we need that to be at the forefront. That is truly what’s going to make this industry stay alive.”

Takeaway

Another crucial point that Eric mentioned was for talent to always seek out motivation and to never be afraid to ask questions.

“Always shamelessly love yourself as much as possible.”