Robert Blake with his Youtube Subscribers plaque
Roberto Blake
Roberto Blake is a creative entrepreneur and best-selling author of “Create Something Awesome Today: How Creators Are Profiting from Their Passion In the Creator Economy.” Blake has created over 1000 educational videos on his YouTube channel and grown to over 500,000 subscribers by helping creators turn their passion into profit in a realistic way. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, while traveling across the country to speak at events like VidSummit and Social Media Marketing World.
Goldie Chan: What has your career path been?
Roberto Blake: My early background is actually in advertising and graphic design. Eventually I became a full-time freelancer, doing various creative work including design, photography and video editing. Freelancing gave me the time freedom to pursue content creation. My freelancing career (specifically as a freelance writer) opened up opportunities in combination with making YouTube content, that lead to public speaking events for publications in the creative services industry, and eventually the social media marketing arena. The networking opportunities I gained from events lead me to consulting with brands, and eventually coaching individual content creators and building Awesome Creator Academy. In less than 10 years I went from earning $30K a year to currently $300K a year. I’ve had a very interesting career path, considering I’m only 38 years old. Now I’m currently pursing a personal dream of establishing myself as a published author.
Chan: What has been your favorite project that you’ve worked on?
Blake: Honestly my favorite project was writing my book “Create Something Awesome: How Creators Are Profiting From Their Passion in the Creator Econmy. Writing a something that I’ve always wanted to do since childhood, and it’s really come full circle, since one of my first jobs was working at a book store. So becoming a published author is a bit surreal for me 20 years later. Writing a book was one of the biggest creative challenges of my life. As much as I enjoy video, live streaming and podcasting, there is something unique about writing that I always come back to. Writing requires a commitment and a level of intentionality that very few people can appreciate.
Chan: What is the creator economy?
Blake: The creator economy, from my perspective can be best described as the intersection of creative work, technology platforms and entrepreneurship. That is why I describe myself as a Creative Entrepreneur. The creator economy allows us the opportunity as creators to monetize and to grow an audience with little to no upfront capital. That’s never been accessible at scale before now. The technology is what really makes it possible to end the era of starving artists. The huge transition is …….
