The fee is the floor, not the ceiling

Charlie Oscar’s 2026 influencer report makes a case worth sitting with. Brands are starting to build with creators, not just book them. Equity. Revenue share. Product lines. Ambassador roles with actual skin in the game. The best creators aren’t only asking “what’s my rate?” They’re asking “what’s my stake?”

The creator economy isn't a media line item anymore. It's an asset class. Brands still buying reach by the post are leaving the real upside on the table.

The examples everyone points to: Alix Earle took equity in Poppi (the soda) instead of a fee, and rode it to a slice of a reported $1.95bn exit. Anna Archer did the same with Runna before Strava bought in. Those are outliers, but the model underneath them is not.

You’re not walking in empty-handed

Here’s what’s easy to forget when you’re negotiating a rate. A brand can buy an ad slot anywhere. What it can’t buy is the reason your audience believes you. You bring distribution, attention, and trust that already exist. That’s the thing worth pricing, and it’s the thing a flat fee quietly undervalues.

Think about it in plain numbers. A one-off post is paid once and gone. A stake in something that works pays for years. Most stakes are worth nothing, of course, so this isn’t a licence to swap real money for hope. But it’s the difference between being rented and being invested in.

How to spot a brand worth backing

Three things, in my experience, separate a real partner from a client who wants cheap content.

They want your opinion, not just your face. The report is blunt about this: the industry is brilliant at spotting talent but far less good at briefing it, supporting it, and setting it up to succeed. A brand that briefs you like a partner is showing you how the relationship will actually go.

They give you room to be yourself. If a brand wants you sanded down until you offend no one, that’s a rental. Take the fee, do the job well, and move on. Nothing wrong with that. Just don’t confuse it for a partnership.

And the product is something you’d genuinely use. This is the whole thing. The report is clear that if a creator believes in the product, audiences feel it, and if they don’t, the whole thing crumbles. Backing a product you’d never touch is the fastest way to burn the trust you spent years building.

A quick reality check on equity

Equity isn’t free money. Understand the vesting. Understand what has to happen for it to be worth anything. Understand that “worth anything” is the exception, not the rule. Do the maths with your eyes open, and don’t trade a real fee you need for a lottery ticket unless you truly believe in the thing you’re backing.