 I cried watching one of your videos today with a bit of context. One of my favorite movies ever, Stand By Me. That's my favorite movie of all time. I wish it was. Look at my goosebumps. I am not the biggest fan of icebreakers. If you could give me your elevator pitch of who you are, so we can get to know each other a little bit better so this combo goes even better than I already think it's going to. My name is Clio Green. I go by the Gen Z historian on social media. I make content about American history, culture, and politics. My mission is to add context to social issues because there's so many problems that we see in the United States. I've worked with many brands and I'm also on a TV show on Nickelodeon called Nick News. So my elevator pitch is I'm Robin Del Monte, also known as Girlboss Town. My content speaks about trend forecasting, PR moves, and all things creative when it comes to marketing, brands, and celebrities. I essentially couldn't get a job in marketing or creative, so I created a digital resume to show brands that not only are people already invested in our relationship before it even begins, but to show the power of sharing your ideas online. Why did you decide that it was better to talk an idea about brand strategy on TikTok instead of, say, going to a brand or a company directly working there? I had quit my, like, fifth corporate job, start waitressing and working at Anthropology, try to save up money to go back to school because I felt like that was the next step I needed to have to be quote-unquote successful. So by posting online, I didn't necessarily do it consciously at first. It was just kind of scratching that creative edge that I needed in my daily life, and then it transpired into something so much bigger where I was directly talking to those brands. The reason I chose to speak about it on social media was because I feel like I wasn't being heard in a traditional setting. Yes, I can totally relate. So I graduated from Yale University in 2022. When I graduated, I was going to go into consulting full-time. While I was there, I realized that there were so many political things that I couldn't say. It was literally in the contract that you had to represent yourself a certain way on social media or else it would come into conflict with the company values and how you present in front of clients. I also felt like I had to leave to share the ideas that I wanted to share because it was shortly after 2020. There was a lot of conversations people were having about race and politics and history and society that they just did not have the answers to. I felt like if I were still at the job that I had in consulting, I would probably be kicked out for some of the ideas that I was sharing online. When it comes to sharing my ideas or educating, there's an art in the storytelling of doing that. And I feel like that translates so well on video. Why take those onto a platform like social media and TikTok? When you are watching content on any platform, there's often a moment where there's a lack of content that you want to see. I thought that if I can get my ideas out on a TikTok, make the content that I don't see, someone else would benefit from it. When I'm learning things on TikTok, I'll look at the comments and people will be like, oh my god, if this is what my classes were like in high school, like I would actually listen and pay attention. And I think that is something that's so beautiful about this next generation of creators, especially with people like you, is translating context and education in a way that's extremely digestible. What's your process? Because that is the big question. Teachers want to know how we're getting to young people. I was the ultimate consumer of media, and I feel like to know the consumer, you have to be the consumer. A lot of what I do is very off the cuff and I feel like that's why my audience likes it and what resonates with them. I never actually make videos that are off the cuff. I spend at least probably three to four hours researching before I write the script, before I film the video. But at the same time, I think that there's a way to be authentic even when there's so much pre-planning. I've been on far-right TikTok just in the circles because they hate my content, especially around very relevant topics like transphobia and racism. These are things that very much put you in a place where you're at risk of having so much hate. So for me, that pre-planning is so necessary. What is one piece of advice that you've received about dealing with hate, backlash, people coming for your character, people coming for your views? Identify what is valid criticism, what are opposing views, and then identify what is hate. If you kind of bucket them all together, then you're really missing out on ways that you can improve your content and also misrepresenting some fans. Because there have been times where I've done a lot of hate from a video and because I was in this mindset that like all of the commentary that I was getting that wasn't on my side of the aisle was hate, I like kind of responded to them in a way that I wasn't proud of. And I feel like a lot of that comes from ego, at least for me. I have been in the same boat where sometimes people are coming after me and I'm like, oh my God! It's like, you know the meme with the SpongeBob with all the people running around in his brain? That is literally me. Sometimes I have to take a step back and be like, you know what, as much as this hurts my ego and they maybe could have said it in a nicer way. Yeah, a little bit nicer. They have a point and it keeps me accountable a lot of the times. Now I feel like we should switch over to speaking about our relationship with brands. What does it look like for you to work with brands? For me, being someone who creates content about history and politics, there are some companies that just want to stay away from all sort of political creators but there are also a lot of companies who very much lean into that. My first ever brand deals that allowed me to become a full-time creator coming from agencies that do a lot of advocacy where it nonprofits or 501c4s that fund political creators to share a message. After that, I made the breakthrough into sort of the mainstream. At the times of the year where big companies are hyper-focused on representing diverse creators, I'm really able to partner with brands that are super invested and sponsoring creators who have something to say. My favorite brand deal that I've done in a long while has been with the History Channel and the company actually cares about investing in creators, investing in diverse stories, investing in culture. That's been something that has kept me working with brands for a long time. You can tell pretty quickly if they kind of value creators' voices and opinions throughout the creative process. The best type of brand partnerships for me is when we can both bring something to the table and see each other's point of view and then put it into the point of view of the consumer or the audience that they want to attract. I cried watching one of your videos today. Yeah. A bit of context. One of my favorite movies ever, Stand By Me. That's my favorite movie of all time. Really? I'm serious. I saw your video about the converse ad proposal using the song Stand By Me and because it resonated with me so deeply and you had the song playing in the background through TikTok, it just like had so much emotions and it just goes to show like how talented you are. To be able to have somebody like you tell me that my ideas are good is so special and something that I didn't hear when I was younger and something that I really hope I can give to other people and allow them to want to share their ideas as well. You share advice but you're not sharing all of your ideas and that's what entices someone to see a one-minute plan but then also want to engage with a whole consulting deal because so much of my early content was just sharing ideas that I felt like I couldn't keep in. There wasn't necessarily a whole plan there. I'm really trying to position myself as a serious journalist as a director-producer of educational history videos. Intentionality is how creators will sustain. When they think about their passions and what got them into the space. I always say, I don't want virality, I want longevity. When I first started going viral and becoming a creator I wasn't like super intentional. This is something I struggled with for a little bit and I wonder if you feel the same way and if you have any advice. When your creativity becomes your career how do you manage both? Because when there's pressure on something that used to just be your creativity and your ideas has that ever affected you and how you create organically and how you work with brands? I know that working with a brand will be like pulling teeth and that they're so misaligned with my own mission and that they're just generally hard to work with then I'll say no to a deal. It's an aspect of privilege, it's an aspect of being in the game for a little bit and having a lot of deals to choose from which I'm very grateful for. But at the same time I think it has to be a collaboration. It's a little bit like dating. If that initial call with the brand shows that they don't internalize these sort of things that creators have been screaming for literally years now that we need to be co-collaborators that you need to work with us and that you need to be aligned with us and that you need to allow our own ideas to influence the campaign then I don't think it's a match and that's something that I'll say no to. Brands have been doing this for X amount of years but they're still such a disconnect. However, there are so many things that I have no idea about that the brand knows about. So that's why it needs to be collaborative. What is one thing for brands that they can do within the first meeting with a creator you're like okay you know what, they hear me, they see me like I want to work with them. It explains that I chose you for these reasons because of this video because I saw this vision. That's the most respectful thing that they can do to start off a conversation and it makes me realize that there was intention behind choosing me and that we can start from there. To work in a creative industry sometimes you have to get there in a creative way and I feel like my pitches are very creative and different and non-traditional so when a brand comes to me or pitches me in like a creative way that is when I'm like okay we think the same I see. I get you, I love that. So we talked about our start, our beginning, what we're currently doing but I feel like the biggest question especially currently is what the future is going to look like in the creator economy. I strongly believe that the creator economy is going to shrink. A lot of these platforms are at risk of being completely removed from the country. So many creators are doing the same thing as other creators. For me it's really about honing the skill that you have that will make you successful even outside of social media. There's so many people trying to be creators currently and I don't necessarily see that changing but I think opportunities and how we view creators will be different. When a brand wants to work with me I hope like around 90% of the time they don't want to work with me because of the number of followers that I have they want to work with me because of my ideas. I work with like who I am, what I bring to the table and how I can translate to an audience. If my work can move somebody to the point where they laugh, cry, enjoy themselves, I'll be happy and maybe we'll be sitting next to each other at the Oscars one day. And these seats like this. I also think that like obviously we never know what the future holds. I'll be tucking into your TikTok to try to digest it and educate myself on where the future is going and what I should be doing as well. Thank you for the next big agency idea that will change marketing for her. Thank you so much. It was great to talk to you.