Rachel Maeng Brown is the CEO and founder of GEN Agency. Awarded “NYC 20 in their 20s” (Crain 2021) in Entrepreneurship and Sports, she is also a former Big Ten student-athlete, Official TikTok Partner, Content Creator, and front-office sports staff member. She and her company are also featured in the upcoming documentary “The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution” premiering world-wide March 13th at SXSW 2023. As a young woman-of-color in the marketing and sports space, Rachel has worked with brands like Meta, Ray Bans, Netflix, Turbo Tax, Morgan & Morgan, and more. She has worked for companies like The PGA Tour, USRowing (rowing arm of Team USA), Main Events Boxing, SponsorUnited, Rutgers Football, and the NY Mets. Rachel also consults companies on influencer marketing, creator programming, strategy and operations.
1. What motivated and inspired you to start your own business?
I had already worked with influencers and athletes in the marketing and media space pre-Covid and was a former Big Ten student-athlete at Rutgers University. Because of the lockdown, people were stuck at home browsing social media and buying more items. I recognized this and started working with different companies to assist in their brand and marketing, and eventually was hired by TikTok as an official partner as an educator on branding through LearnOnTikTok. Eventually, I teamed up with other influencers and activists to create what is now known as GEN Agency. In 2022, I became the sole owner of the agency.
2. Tell us about your business.
GEN Agency is an influencer management, full-service marketing campaign, viral event production, and NIL Education and Consulting agency. We are a multi-channel network with more than 66 Million+ growing followers across our creator’s social media platforms. Our goal is to democratize the creator economy by empowering our creators, providing on-time payments, opportunities for networking and growth, and industry education. Their program “Athletes Turned Creators” provides education to student-athlete and athletic departments about building a personal and leveraging it for brand deals, to the NIL landscape.
3. Where is your business based?
We are a fully remote company, with creators all over the United States and Canada.
4. What were the first few steps you took to get your business up and running?
Our focus has always been to democratize the space by assisting creators/athletes with the areas that are overlooked by brands and businesses. We made sure to set fair rates for their content and designed programs and partnerships that gave them more opportunities to monetize their social media and grow their brand.
5. What has been the most effective way of raising awareness of your business and getting new customers?
Our reach is heavily reliant on word-of-mouth! Most of our new creators are referred to us by our current partners. We are focused on working with creators that are highly motivated, responsible, and interested in creating a long-term business strategy. We love to interview and onboard creators and brands that our network has recommended!
6. What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Our biggest challenge will always be making sure we are sourcing enough paid brand opportunities for our creators.
7. How did you overcome these challenges?
We are constantly talking to our current brand and agency partners to explore their upcoming recruiting needs and pair our creators. We’re always attending events and connecting with brands and agencies in the space to find more opportunities. We also design and launch internal programs that give our creators other non-traditional paid partnerships like UGC and ad content. In the NIL space, we are always fighting to democratize the space and increase access to education to all athletes, not just the top ones. Most companies focus only on the athletes than can immediately have a financial impact on the company. They don’t provide real benefits to all male and female athletes across all sports. We are establishing our education at these Universities and Collectives so athletes can learn to grow and leverage their own social media to increase their paid partnerships and career opportunities.
8. What is the best advice you have received recently?
Time management – with a large number of creators and brands in our pipeline, we are always working on new campaigns and partnerships. Our staff and creators are able to work together and stay on time because we keep everyone on a schedule of scripts, filming, and even posting sponsored content.
9. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
Time management, organization, and mental health. If you manage your time, plan your tasks out, keep all your resources organized, and stick to a plan, you’ll be able to keep moving forward and grow! These first two also help with your mental health. Often entrepreneurs get overwhelmed because they have a long list of tasks. If you can organize what you need to get done and take it step by step, it won’t feel as daunting. If you get to a place where your mental health is suffering, you SHOULD take a break! Setting a cut-off time every night or even enjoying a weekend are buffers that every entrepreneur should have to relieve stress and allow them to refocus and recharge. It’s not being lazy it’s taking care of yourself.
10. What are you currently learning about for your business or looking for help with?
We are always learning more about the Creator Economy – things influencers want, their struggles, or even how brands want to expand their partnerships. Through our partnership with Beacons.ai we’re able to not only read and learn from their research and community, but we’re able to co-host virtual events for the Beacons community of influencers! The NIL Space is a constantly changing space because it’s start was less than 2 years ago! There are so many players in the space like collectives, managers, agents, etc. We are focused on the education of athletes, universities, and collectives and their staff. We are providing the steps for athletes to understand what influencer marketing is and how they can grow their own social media and increase their paid brand deals. We’re able to talk directly to students, their coaches and administrators through our partnership with HBCU Heroes. We provide NIL workshops and consulting to their schools and organizations and will be heading out on a 16-stop virtual Zoom career and financial literacy tour starting Feb 23rd @ 9am est (registration info: https://www.hbcuheroes.org/secure-the-bag-tour) where we’ll give HBCU students and athletes steps on how to create viral videos and partner with brands!
11. What are your goals for the next few months and how are you striving to achieve them?
- Launch our NIL in as many power schools as possible
- Host our NIL workshop series in all 16 HBCUs on our HBCU Heroes Zoom Tour
- Help become an expert in the NIL education side
- Help creators find $1M worth of brand deals this year
We are speaking to multiple schools across the country and will be speaking to athletes at all stosp on our HBCU Tour. We are excited to be partnering with more collectives and their managing companies and NIL platforms. GEN Agency is also currently finding new brand partners for our creators and will be launching out Influencer in Residence (IRP) retainer program this month, with a whole new roster of creators available at monthly rates.
12. What is your favorite business tool or resource?
Notion
13. What social media outlets do you use? List them below.
- TikTok: @rachelmaeng
- Instagram: @rachelmaeng
- Linkedin: @rachelmaeng
- Twitter: @rachelmaeng
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