Turning My Creator Mistakes Into Solutions We All Need

How my personal experiences led me to expand creator support, mental health initiatives, and new partnerships

Author

Shira Lazar
April 20, 2025

The fact is:

If you’re a creator, you’re also a small business.

Whether you’re running a company like I am with What’s Trending, or building your own brand as an individual creator, you’re a business owner. Full stop.

And when you start thinking about yourself that way, you also start realizing how many tools, benefits, and resources are missing from the creator economy right now.

When I first started out, I didn’t fully see it either.

It took making mistakes. Running into obstacles. Facing gaps I didn’t even know existed — in my personal experience, and inside my own business.

Now, I’m at a point in my career where I can look back, and instead of gatekeeping what I’ve learned, I want to use it to help build solutions for all of us.

Over the past year, I started looking more seriously at how small businesses traditionally access things like discounted health insurance, professional resources, and collective benefits.

One answer kept coming up: associations.

Instead of trying to build something from scratch, I approached the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) — one of the most established associations in media — to see if we could expand their membership model to include creators.

Today, I’m proud to be part of NAB’s new Creator Council, where we’re working to open up membership and the kinds of perks, relationships, and support systems that independent creators and small businesses deserve.

At the same time, my personal mental health journey has been a huge part of this evolution, too.

It’s what led me to launch Creators for Mental Health last year — finally bringing together two worlds that continue to shape who I am: digital culture and well-being.

Last year, we hosted two proof-of-concept events that showed there’s real demand — and a real need — for this work.

Now, we’re expanding the vision.

Creators for Mental Health will focus on bringing mental health well-being tools to the creator economy through events, content, research, and services.

Here’s what’s coming up:

  • Our next Mental Health Awareness event in Los Angeles — stay tuned!

  • Launching the first Creators for Mental Health Research Study across North America, sponsored by Opus (we’ll be surveying 500 creators soon!)

  • And an exciting new discounted therapy offering for creators — announcement coming soon.

This isn’t just about identifying problems.

It’s about building the systems we should have had all along, together.

If any of this resonates with you — if you’re passionate about creating a healthier, more sustainable future for creators — reach out.

I’m always looking for collaborators, partners, and people who want to co-create what’s next.

We can’t do this alone.

It’s going to take real work, real resources, and real care to make it happen.

Other headlines to check out:

AI

Creator Economy

Web3 


🎧 New Episode of The AI Download: What Does An Ethical AI Film Studio Look Like?  

On this week’s AI Download, Shira Lazar sits down with futurist and creative technologist Don Allen III, Creative AI Pipeline Director at Asteria, one of the first ethical AI film studios. From robot rights and a new religion to clean data models, they explore how creators and studios can embrace AI without sacrificing artistic integrity—or jobs?

This episode covers: 

 🔹 What James Cameron really thinks about AI in film
🔹 Why “clean models” could redefine animation
🔹 The quiet takeover of AI in CGI and production pipelines
🔹 How to spot real innovation vs. AI-washing
🔹 Why updating your bio might be more important than your résumé

🎙️ Listen now to get caught up on the AI headlines you need to know plus insights on future of life, creativity and culture. 

This series is brought to you by Hivelighter—helping you cut through the noise and highlight what matters.

Gentle Reminder 🙏

Every time you speak kindly to yourself, your mind learns to trust you. Keep going. 

- Jeff Moore

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