Work Diaries: Director of Creator Success
Meet Erica Hsu and discover about her job and why it is so crucial to Jellysmack’s success
Erica is no stranger to the influencer and creator space: she’s been working in the industry since 2014. “I feel really lucky,” she says of getting in on the ground floor of the social media craze. She landed her first position right after graduation, doing branded content for an influencer marketing company. It helped her hit the ground running and get the hands-on experience she needed. That was the first time she met current colleague, Georgia McKay (Senior Director of Creator Success).
It was Georgia who eventually introduced her to Jellysmack after their second job together. “It sounded like something a little bit different than the traditional Creator space,” says Hsu. Despite explosive growth in recent years, as evidenced by their friendship, the social media industry is still a small world. And appropriately enough, Jellysmack is all about connecting people. Both on and off line.
And so, Erica was hired as a Senior Creator Success Manager last year and has been promoted to Director of Creator Success. It’s just what it sounds like: she spends her time cultivating seamless partnerships with Jellysmack’s Creators. They’ve got questions? Concerns? Feedback? Erica is their go-to girl. Let’s not forget about internal stakeholders — she’s responsible for them, too.
Like most in the Golden State office, in early 2020, she was living in the city, braving LA’s byways and superhighways on her daily commute. Then, the pandemic hit. That’s when she decided to head to her parents’ digs to ride it out “away from all the chaos of the city.” Swapping her city life for a bigger workspace and some quality time with the fam just 30 minutes outside the city limits? It was a win-win.
So what’s the day-to-day of a Senior Creator Success Manager? Working from home gives her a little more leeway, and she uses the time before work to get things spick and span. “I do like to have a nice morning routine — I like doing things that make me feel like I’m starting my day off on the right foot. A little bit of cleaning. I like to have a clean space.”
The 9-hour time difference with HQ does affect her schedule. She sits down at her computer “no later than 8am, sometimes before.” A coffee aficionado, she’s got a nice pour over ready to go. Just ground coffee, hand-poured hot water, and a filter; no machines involved.
LA takes care of the Creators themselves, Europe takes care of their content and pages. “We want to make sure that everything is running smoothly and of course that the content is on point.” So, a check-in with her European colleagues is always her first order of business. Mornings are inevitably “the busiest part of the day.” A morning of team meetings or meetings with Creators might ensue.
Lunch, like everything else, is early. Sometimes as early as 11:30am. She’ll make herself a green bowl: “quinoa with some greens and whatever looks good in the market, peaches and strawberries, tempeh.” She admits to having been influenced by the healthy LA food scene and is always on the lookout for the latest superfoods.
Then, “things will start to slow down.” Her afternoons are reserved for less pressing matters: non-urgent business, playing catch up. She wraps up no later than 5:00pm, which gives her plenty of time to soak in all that SoCal has to offer — whether it’s rock climbing, hiking in the Hollywood Hills, or exploring LA’s famous foodie scene.
Though the office is closed for the foreseeable future, maintaining a sense of community and team spirit remains a priority at Jellysmack. “The LA office is pretty good at organizing cultural events,” and restrictions are slowly being lifted in California. Because while working from home certainly has its advantages, Erica does miss seeing everyone in person.
For now, the office is organizing virtual classes and summits. They had one for Juneteenth. Instead of doing the normal day-to-day, they broke out into small groups and brainstormed about how they can better “support black culture and how to source and hire more black creators.”
Erica is also learning new skills at home. She balances her healthy eating with a love of baking and a “sweet tooth.” She admits hopping on the sourdough bandwagon back at the beginning of the pandemic. It’s perfect for a home office lifestyle. “You have to be home all day so that you can fold the dough every thirty or forty minutes.” It’s her small way of indulging and taking well-deserved breaks.
Erica enjoys working at Jellysmack, takes advantage of her work-life balance, and doesn’t see herself leaving the social media scene any time soon. “It’s obviously an industry that has grown tremendously in the past few years, and I just really enjoy doing it.”
