Cole Nevins has been in the sports media space since he was eight years old; from blogging on an iPod Touch to building a high school creator network, running a content agency, and now leading creator partnerships at Yahoo Sports.

In this episode, Tyler and Cole dig into the evolution of the sports creator economy, how making money online has fundamentally changed who becomes a creator, and why "creator loneliness" is one of the most underrated problems in the industry today. Cole closes out the episode with five bold predictions for where the creator economy is headed, from the death of follower counts to the rise of audience-first businesses.

🕒 Timestamps

0:00 — Intro

0:32 — Cole's background: from iPod Touch sports blogger to Yahoo Sports

3:52 — Building Phenom: a sports media network for high school creators

4:42 — The shift from the creator economy to the creative economy

6:08 — Why monetization changed everything for creators

7:29 — Creator loneliness: the hidden pain point of solopreneurship

8:28 — Do all creators need to be entrepreneurs?

11:13 — Creators inside big media companies: opportunity or trap?

13:02 — Building a team vs. building a community of collaborators

16:49 — Keeping creator operations lean in the AI era

19:07 — How Yahoo Sports is thinking about creator partnerships

22:19 — Solving creator pain points: cash flow, access, and production support

26:32 — Minimum guarantee deal structures and sharing the upside

29:25 — Balancing creative control with brand input

31:16 — The Barstool incubation model and creator leverage

34:40 — Can you manufacture a great creator from scratch?

44:47 — What AI can and can't replace: in-person, live, and personality-driven content

47:37 — Creators intentionally making mistakes to prove they're not using AI

50:02 — The "give a shit factor" and finding your unique creator angle

51:41 — Cole's five predictions for the future of the creator economy

56:16 — Outro