The Creator Economy Is a Blueprint For the Future. The Professional-Managerial Class May Pay the Price.

Professional Managerial Class (Definition) : The Professional-Managerial Class (PMC) is a social class of educated professionals and managers who do not own the means of production but exercise control over production processes and social institutions, mediating between the working class and the capitalist elite. The PMC was first theorized by Barbara and John Ehrenreich in 1977 as a distinct social class situated between the owning class and the working class. Unlike the bourgeoisie, they do not own capital, and unlike the proletariat, they are not primarily engaged in manual labor. Their defining characteristic is credentialed expertise, such as university degrees, professional licenses, or specialized training, which grants them institutional access and authority.

In 1991 and 1992 the rave scene exploded out of the UK allowing regular people making music to find global audiences through 12" records pressed out of their urban and suburban homebases. Manipulating samples into new sounds, I knew the music industry and work and life would never be the same. Even in 2026 when you watch certain niche artists explode on the scene I pump a fist knowing they are all following a blueprint from the OGs of that era: The Prodigy, Acen, NJoi, Altern 8 and many others armed with samplers and creative ideas now in the cobwebs of our memories. These producers seized the means of production from the mainstream music industry institutions of that time and created their own rules, their own economy and ultimately their own careers.

Fast forward and in 2020 when I was working at Microsoft as the head of their brand studio I came up with an idea for a long form YouTube video show dubbed "The Download." Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't, but when coming up with the idea, I noted to the team that it would not flow like a regular 22 minute linear show we were used to when watching streaming shows. "It will be samples, segments or clips that when cut down can be shared in their own right. The clips are the business model."

If you speak the language of "social media" this is not novel. You get it because this is how you absorb content. In small fragments and snippets. But the format was not what was important. What was important is the show was put together entirely by regular people. The employees. The employees were the creators and the craft makers. In that original spirit of 1991/1992, we were owning the means of production for the modern era.

Fast forward to 2026 and all of that IP can easily be reshuffled into not only a show, but products, software, solutions, merch. It could easily sustain the people who were part of creating it outside the corporate system that birthed it. When we look at what happened in the early 1990s and what happened with the dawning of the creator economy, we can see all a glimpse of the future of work we are beginning to take for granted.

You see creators are not just people who make videos with brand sponsorships in mind. Most of us truly have larger goals. Ones that do not fit how a career has been defined by the Professional-Managerial Class these past 40 years. We aren't here to just make you laugh while you watch our TikToks. We're here to create the future just like those original music producers designed a self-sustaining system. Many of us want to build things for people (like engineers) and tell stories on how those things can be used (like artists). And pay ourselves instead of relying on either the state or corporations to do that (like entrepreneurs). Most of us are hybrids, don't fit into a box and are usually targeted in the higher systems of education or corporate jobs as "troublemakers." While too many people get caught up in the commerce aspect of the creator economy, many miss how it is defining a new merchant economy outside the confines of the PMC. We want autonomy and lives outside the corporate monopoly systems. We want to be the owners, the managers and the working class all at the same time.

The creator economy is ushering in the next wave of work and life for the 2030s. The focus is less about sitting at a desk selling time and more about forming collectives that define future human potential. Most of the creator class I speak to are not only the most down to earth folks but possibly more balanced than the current model we've been living in since the end of World War II due to an injection of humanist thinking over pure tech solutionism. Mimicking the Luddites, many creators are rebelling from the Bezos, Musk, Zuck approaches to business (which were just updated versions of Jack Welchian philosophy). Creators realize that change must occur if labor projections showing a mass shortage of workers are correct. Why? If we understand that the coming years will not enjoy the abundance of workers that past decades did, then everyone’s approach to the labor market will need to change. This conflict is leading to two opposing forces in the business world that pits the creator economy on one side, the corporate economy on the other. Somewhere in the past five years, a few of the most outspoken Professional-Managerial Class folks began to speak on behalf of the creator economy and felt it needed these big brands as fuel to survive. But many creators aren't interested in this as much as the industry trade outlets think we are. I'm one of the outcasts who doesn't see the creator economy relying on big brands to pay us. I see the creator economy forking off from the need for brands and creating its own ecosystem supported by people. Much like those early producers in 1991/1992 had an audience mainstream outlets didn't see, the creator economy can go direct to the source very much like we saw with an explosion of direct to consumer brands. As a result of this, the creator economy could usher in something that is more Star Trek in its roots than THX-1138. One that puts more emphasis on the collective of people who build new systems of reciprocity where everyone gets equity when they help support those creator collectives than a few stakeholders benefiting from others' labor in a surveillance state defended by the PMC.

Tech solutionism failing is possibly a signal we’re at the end stage of 80 years of neoliberalism. The creator economy rising now into a mainstream force isn't coincidence. It's the next wave of preparing us for where things are going. As the initial wave of entrepreneurial-ism post World War II gave way to managerial-ism this past decade, we are seeing less innovation to careers. For far too long there were only a few career paths. And it benefited those with access. The rise of a new spirit in how to approach making a living is a threat. Unless it can be co-opted. If you think the creator economy is two people with microphones talking to one another on YouTube, you're missing the larger pattern. It's a remix of the merchant economy of the past, a Do It Yourself (DIY) spirit that leads to the creative destruction of the powerful titans of business that defined the 20th Century. Including the PMC who is seeing the writing on the wall with less room for them as layoffs increase and that career path becomes more obstructed. This creative destruction and chaos is giving way to people who literally are creating new ideas and opportunity by making videos in their car.

I give a ton of advice to people when it comes to their careers. Ever since I turned 19 in 1991 I've been a creator. And I've weaved this type of thinking into jobs, job titles and a career that took me from startups to small businesses, solopreneurships when those were considered eccentric to very senior positions at Fortune 100s. I even wrote a whole predictive book on the topic a decade ago that's finally gaining attention from business schools. What's finally becoming more visible is the creator economy is rapidly becoming the future of business because technology has fundamentally reshaped how we learn, work, earn, and interact. With the rise of productivity platforms, individuals are no longer dependent on traditional employment structures to generate income; instead, they can build personal brands, monetize niche skills, and reach global audiences directly. They don't need to join the PMC if they don't want to. This shift reflects a deeper behavioral change: people increasingly value autonomy, flexibility, and purpose-driven work over conventional career paths where we traded prestigious degree titles for prestigious job titles that all traded time for money.

As automation and AI continue to disrupt routine jobs, more individuals will be pushed, and empowered, to think like creators, continuously adapting, creating, and offering unique value. In this environment, success depends less on formal credentials and more on creativity, authenticity, and the ability to cultivate new solutions, making entrepreneurial thinking not just advantageous, but essential for participation in the modern economy.

If you are still gainfully employed with one job as a W2 employee reading this, your boss possibly doesn’t see this—or doesn’t want you to—because they won’t benefit from it. Creative destruction always has a cost; something, and some people, get left behind for new ideas to be born that eventually swallow the herd up. Creative thinkers are now done kissing the ring of the aristocracy. And the PMC that defends it. We have far more opportunity than trading hours for a paycheck, only to be pulled into a Microsoft Teams meeting on a Tuesday morning and told our services are no longer required. The same way bedroom producers in 1991 rewired the music industry from the ground up—pressing records, building scenes, and bypassing gatekeepers entirely—today’s creators are doing the same with content, community, and commerce but having their eyes set on larger prizes. The creator economy is to 2026 what those bedroom rave producers were to 1991: a decentralized uprising of talent, powered by technology, that shifts control away from institutions and the PMC and back into the hands of individuals willing to build something of their own by the people and for the people.

Geoffrey Colon is founder of Creative Studies, co-founder of five businesses, author of the 2016 book Disruptive Marketing and a business troublemaker. Find him here or here or over here and even here.