In an illuminating interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Shine Talent Group co-founders Jess Hunichen and Emily Ward dispensed invaluable advice and recounted their experiences in scaling their talent management agency internationally. Jess discussed the logistical hurdles of establishing operations across borders, highlighting the importance of team cohesion and strong leadership in maintaining a unified culture, particularly through the challenges of the pandemic.Emily on the other hand, introduced ‘The Thread’, an innovative tool developed to streamline the workflow for talent managers, born out of necessity for efficiency and lack of suitable existing solutions. Hunichen also touched upon the unique balancing act in influencer talent management between rapport and professional boundaries. Looking ahead, Emily predicted increased regulation and standardization in the industry, suggesting that accreditation could elevate professional standards. The decision to expand with ‘The Thread’ and Shine Ventures, according to Jess, stemmed from a desire to foster collaboration and support industry growth. Ward credited ‘The Thread’ with enhancing productivity to the extent that it enabled a shift to a four-day workweek without compromising output. The duo’s parting wisdom for aspiring talent managers emphasized the power of collaboration for collective advancement in the influencer talent management sphere.
For Jess Hunichen: What were the major challenges and opportunities encountered when establishing Shine Talent Group across regions such as Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.?
The most obvious ones are the logistics – setting up bank accounts, payroll, staff for an international company comes with challenges, but we’ve brought in incredible consultants to support our expansion. Our team was always set up to work together cross markets, as we’ve worked across the US and Canada from the early days of Shine. It’s something we’ve focused on heavily, especially since covid, to ensure everyone on the team feels connected and well supported by the leadership team, particularly when it comes to training and team culture.
For Emily Ward: How did the idea of The Thread come about, and in what ways do you see it supporting talent managers and agencies?
We originally developed the concept of The Thread to support the growth of the Shine Talent Group team. We were struggling with the manual aspects of Google Sheets and lack of visibility. When we reviewed the tools available in the marketplace, nothing we could find had been developed from the Talent Managers workflow, from start to finish. After delving into the development and speaking to our peer agencies, we realized we weren’t alone – and we wanted to make it available to others.
For Jess Hunichen: Which specific needs and challenges have you identified as unique to influencer talent management?
With talent management still being such a new industry that is constantly evolving, it is essential that we are consistently looking at our service offering and making small adjustments to align with what is important to talent and what is important to our team, year over year. For talent managers to be successful in their roles they need to strike a balance between friendship/rapport with their talent and being their manager, it’s a delicate balance and requires some boundary setting.
For Emily Ward: When looking at the ever-changing digital landscape, what trends or shifts do you foresee in the talent management industry in the coming years?
More regulation will be coming. If you look at parallel industries like entertainment you can easily predict how unions and collectives will be formed to help provide creators with benefits and protection. I also believe accreditation will happen within the social influencer talent management space. Our team has extensive training when they join Shine Talent Group, but there are no standards in the industry for who is allowed to redline a contract or negotiate the financials of a deal. Accreditation would provide assurance that everyone is working off of the same baseline experience.
For Jess Hunichen: How did the decision to diversify with The Thread and Shine Ventures come about within Shine Talent Group?
Shine Ventures was a goal since the early years of Shine. Collaboration has always been a pillar of our business and we see Shine Ventures as being another way we can collaborate with emerging companies to share knowledge and grow incredible ideas together. The Thread was initially launched from a need of our team to handle the volume of our growth. Seeing that there was no project management platform that existed in the industry to manage the workflow from the talent managers perspective, we decided to invest in the development of The Thread, then finding a way to have it offered to our peers. This was an opportunity to offer to help further the industry as a whole.
For Emily Ward: Which initiatives at Shine Talent Group, such as remote work and wellness programs, do you believe have the most significant impact on team morale and productivity?
Sincerely, the biggest impact on our productivity has been the introduction of The Thread. It has allowed our team to scale down to a 4-day work week while maintaining our billings. It also has provided the management team with the visibility we needed to have confidence in our fully remote working structure. It allows us to access information which can help further our team member training ensuring nothing is being lost from not being in office every day.
For Both Jess Hunichen and Emily Ward: Based on your success and experiences in the influencer talent management industry, what essential advice would you offer to upcoming talent managers or agencies seeking to thrive and innovate in this space?
This space is built on collaboration, so our advice would be to continue that as a mission in your professional career. We all can learn more and further the industry as a whole from sharing our expertise and working together on solutions versus doing it apart.
