Hi, this is Cynthia from Moray, Kentucky. Marketplace connects the dots in the economy in the

U.S. and abroad without the chatter. It's my main source of fact-based information.

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In the influencer economy, building a following is just half the hustle.

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Lily Dramale. From being your own boss to doing work you actually

from being your own boss to doing work you actually like, the perks of influencer life have

drawn in plenty of creators to an industry valued at $ billion dollars.

Take Sid Raskend, whose goofy life hacks have earned him millions of followers on Tik-talk and Instagram.

Here's something I wish I knew before. I was in my 30s.

Rocking a thick vegetable back and forth makes it easier to cut.

Rock.

But a following as large as SIDS doesn't guarantee you can make enough to quit your day job.

Still, younger would be creators

should understand what it takes to make it.

Says Janelli Espinal, host of the Marketplace

Podcast financially inclined. If they're gonna pursue it, host of the Marketplace Podcast Financially Inclined.

If they're gonna pursue it, if they're interested in it,

they should be as informed as possible.

We should simply be exposing them to this

as a possible career path and explaining to them what are the advantages of this type of work, what are the disadvantages, what are some of the successful parts of this and the exciting exciting parts and what are some of the

challenges and the drawbacks and then letting them make the most informed choice

that they can about whether this is something that they would like to do or not.

...