Why the creator economy's biggest problem isn't content, it's education

Mikhailla Fitzgerald, CEO, Huume Talent

The numbers are hard to ignore. The global influencer marketing industry was worth $13.9 billion in 2021. By 2024, it had reached $24 billion. By 2028, it is projected to hit $52 billion. And according to research spanning students across multiple countries, over 60 per cent of middle and high school students surveyed between 2021 and 2024 said they wanted to be social media influencers or chose their future careers online.

In Australia, 55 per cent of adults aged 18 to 60 say they would be willing to give up their careers to become an influencer. The creator economy is not a trend. It is a generational career shift. And the education available to people trying to build careers in it hasn't kept pace.

This is the gap that the House of Huume Creator Academy was built to close.

As CEO of Huume Talent, a talent management agency working with content creators and brands across Australia, I have watched the same problem repeat itself for years. Promising creators come to us with genuine potential, real audiences, compelling content, and authentic voices, but without the business infrastructure to support formal management. 

They sit in a no man's land between hobbyist and high-performing talent, with no clear path between the two and no one holding them accountable while they try to figure it out.

The education market hasn't solved this problem. Most creator courses are taught by someone who went viral once and has since repositioned themselves as an all-round expert. 

The business experience behind these programs is often minimal. The curriculum typically covers content creation basics, and perhaps some guidance on landing brand deals, which is, at best, an incomplete picture of what building a sustainable creator career requires. 

According to the Fujifilm Forecast Content Creation Trends report, 51 per cent of Australian creators are not currently earning any money from their content, and a further 27 per cent earn money only sporadically. That statistic doesn't reflect a lack of talent. It reflects a lack of strategy, structure and business knowledge.

The House of Huume Creator Academy addresses this directly. The program covers strategy, structure, industry knowledge, monetisation and community, not as a watch-this-video-and-tick-a-box exercise but as a hands-on, group-based journey through the full architecture of a creator business. 

The curriculum goes well beyond brand partnerships, teaching creators to build actual IP and business infrastructure - income streams that don't depend entirely on sponsored content, which I describe as renting income rather than owning it.

The monetisation conversation is one of the most misunderstood in the creator space. Follower count has become the dominant currency, but it's the wrong metric. Someone with 30,000 highly engaged followers, plus the right strategy and business systems, can run a genuinely profitable creator business.

Building the business behind the following

Someone with 300,000 followers and no structure is one algorithm change away from losing everything. Creator Academy is built around this understanding and the curriculum reflects it.

Goldman Sachs estimates the creator economy could be worth nearly $500 billion by 2027, and universities internationally are beginning to respond, with institutions in the US, like Arizona State University, now offering dedicated creator economy degrees. Australia's talent management industry needs to respond too. Creator Academy is our contribution to that response: a structured, scalable, industry-backed pathway that bridges the gap between aspiration and sustainable professional practice.

The program includes weekly group coaching calls, guest masterclasses from industry experts, real monetisation opportunities and client briefs, templates, pitch decks and operating systems, and a private creator community. The top 5% of performers will be offered formal management with Huume Talent, making the Academy not just an education program but a genuine pipeline to professional representation.

The creator economy is producing the next generation of Australian media talent; that's undeniable. It deserves an education system that takes that seriously.