For the last decade, the capital-C Creator economy has boomed to over $250 billion, and we have watched as Creators parlay their success online into tangible political, cultural and financial influence. Being a capital-C, professional Creator has become the new American Dream.  

Brands have noticed how valuable Creators are, too. Insurgent brands like Glossier, Hello Fresh and Dunkin’ spend millions to secure top-shelf Creator partnerships, hoping to capitalize on the star power of Creators to drive even more demand for their products. The problem is: the space is overcrowded, working with top-tier Creators is increasingly expensive—and given how fragmented the ecosystem has become—it’s harder to guarantee a return on the investment.   

In the background, there’s another group of content creators quietly taking hold of the brand narrative.  We call them “lower-case c creators”. This growing group of digital natives, work across a repertoire of platforms in an unpaid capacity. They’re also largely untapped by brands.  

Tapping the Infinite Scalability of Everyday Creators 

While marketers often chase the same pool of top-tier influencers, millions of users are quietly influencing brand perception—without media kits, professional distribution deals or even commercial intent. They’re Airbnb hosts writing thoughtful listings, Strava athletes logging runs and Reddit users giving niche advice. Last year, YouTube released a study that showed over 65% of Gen Z already see themselves as some form of creators. Lower-case ‘c.’ 

These lower-case ‘c’ creators are leaving a digital paper-trail that contributes dramatically to brand narratives—all through their authentic experience with it.  

The beauty of digital creation among everyday creators? It scales the brand. As AI becomes more integral to product discovery, these digital signals—comments, reviews, playlists—become key inputs into how consumers choose brands: 

• Content is more discoverable—casual Reddit posts are feeding ChatGPT responses. 
• Organic behaviors are training the models—every user action informs the next. 
• Authenticity is outperforming polish—genuine beats glossy. 

We’ve moved from brand-to-audience to a creator-to-creator model. Brand content is created, consumed and annotated by all lower-case c creators. But this creates new questions: How do you enable and guide these everyday creators? How do you help these creators – who are your customers and employees – reflect your brand values? 

What We’ve Learned (and How to Apply It) 

Our research with pro Creators shows two big motivators: authenticity and rewards. Their top challenges? Time, burnout, feeling isolated and not knowing how to succeed.  

These insights apply to everyday creators, too. Here’s how smart brands are responding: 

• Redefine creation as contribution: Creating isn’t random, it’s a meaningful act. Logging a route, sharing a playlist, writing a review—demonstrate its impact on the community. 
• Recognize and reward effort: Recognition matters—as does having something to aspire to. Highlight top contributors, feature them and give creators increasing access to the brand. The more they contribute, the more they matter. 
• Foster community: People are looking for genuine online communities. Connect creators directly and show how their input helps others. 
• Encourage remixing and brand co-ownership: Make it easy for users to echo and build on each other’s content—and show how their content is a critical part of the brand narrative. 
• Center users in their stories: Creators don’t just talk about brands—smart brands, talk about creators and make them the center of their own stories. 

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Great leadership and great communication go hand in hand. Just look at the greats—from Martin Luther King Jr. to Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Leaders who respect language as a force for change have transformed cultures, systems and policies. 

But how exactly do impactful leaders approach language to initiate such meaningful change? And how can leaders communicate to guide their organizations to success?  

Right now, we find ourselves in a reality that’s both ripe for change and steeped in the minutiae of the moment — where every word can be recorded, shared, scrutinized and misconstrued. For that reason, thoughtful and intentional communication from leaders is more important than ever before.  

To Guide Meaningful Change, Leaders Must Communicate with Purpose  

Organizations are changing at a deeper, structural level in response to the storm of urgent external forces like systemic inequality, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health crisis and the shift to hybrid working – with many having to respond to a number of these factors all at once. The result? A huge emphasis on organizational culture and change at a rapid pace.   

But we can’t talk about organizational culture transformation without talking about language. Language is one of the most powerful tools for inspiring focused action and influencing culture.   

The Anatomy of Effective Language  

The role of language is to connect—and intentionality is essential to connect effectively. When Aristotle spoke about language in his theory of language and meaning, he defined three ways to effectively connect with another individual or team: to open their mind through reason (logos), to open their heart with emotion and vulnerability (pathos) and to find common ground through a shared truth or values (ethos). Through these elements of language, leaders can connect, persuade and build trust more effectively.    

Language is a system that defines and pervades all other organizational systems and it’s both fueled and forged by your culture. It only makes sense then, that when your organization evolves, language must evolve along with it.   

Approaching Language During Transformation   

With companies going digital, organizational communication has a host of new challenges. How do you pick up the vibe on a Zoom call? How do you make one-on-one calls feel as natural and spontaneous as passing a colleague in the hall? It’s hard work, which is why so many leaders are eager to bring people back to the workplace. While it’s tempting to cling to the systems that have kept our workplace cultures humming for decades, we have been jettisoned into a hybrid, hyper-speed era—one that demands more dynamic, adaptable cultures. Language acts as both the cultural catalyst and the glue holding an organizational culture together.   

At Prophet, we think of the organization as a macrocosm of an individual. Like an individual, an organization has DNA, a Mind, Body and Soul — and when we are looking to effect transformation, it has to be human-centered across all these elements. Why? Because businesses don’t change. Humans change and then they change the business.  

Let’s look more closely at these four areas and the role that language plays:   

• DNA: How an organization defines their shared vision, values, purpose and ambition  
• Mind: Enabling the workforce to adopt new skills and drive change   
• Body: Language helps teams understand the systems needed to direct their transformation   
• Soul: Motivating employees and other stakeholders to contribute to the change  

By thinking about language through the lens of Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model, leaders can more effectively communicate throughout the transformation process.   

DNA | Defining the Change   

Language literally builds an organization’s DNA. That’s why crafting the DNA involves a careful thought-through, strategic, iterative process that captures data-driven insights and diverse perspectives from across the organization. The idea is to define and then express the new ethos in an authentic way.   

Recently, we worked with Thrivent, a major U.S. financial services organization, to transform its business and brand. Thrivent wanted to innovate its offerings and expand its reach to new markets while maintaining its loyal membership base and values.  

Defining the ambition with a team of data scientists, strategists and writers allowed for the team to take a more critical lens to the language used in the DNA of the organization. From this work, we defined a shared purpose that reflected Thrivent’s heritage and enabled everyone to align with the modern organization it was ready to become: Thrive with Purpose.  

We like to think of leaders as the carriers of this DNA, modeling shared values and purpose in both their words and actions, so we worked with Thrivent’s senior leaders and managers to create a launch video that introduced the new ambition and shared purpose to the whole organization. From there, we helped them roll out the new strategy, consulting on their communications and providing exact language — including a new brand voice and messaging — so managers and senior leaders could confidently share the new ambition and brand with their teams. Together, our work received the 2020 Transform award for tone of voice.  

Body | Directing the Change   

Embodying and directing any change requires a clear roadmap and reliable systems that give the DNA a place to materialize. We use language to set and measure clear goals and achieve them together (i.e., KPIs). Word choice in KPI development is critical because they must be clear, tangible, and directional.  

To develop these KPIs leaders should ensure they should:   

1. Ladder up to one of two key business drivers  
2. Be linked to the ambition and meaningful milestone on a roadmap  
3. Be aligned at a business or functional level before translating into team or individual goals   
4. Be shared and transparent  

Talent and performance development is a great example of this. A while back, we worked with a newly formed but significant global bio-pharmaceutical player with an ambition to create a more decisive, agile and performance-driven culture. To achieve this, the organization wanted to take a fresh approach to recognizing employee performance — including how it rewarded individuals and teams that truly made a difference.  

So, we set out to first clarify what “good” performance looked like. Then, we translated that new definition into a purpose-driven method of goal setting and performance conversations. We helped its team choose language more thoughtfully, which enabled managers to respond to this shifting performance criteria by having the right conversations.   

Mind | Enabling the Change   

To enable change, leaders must appeal to people through reason (logos) to help them adapt to the new set of values (ethos). If employees are clear on their roles and know exactly how to upskill to align with the ambition, you can establish capabilities built on trust and progress.   

For Thrivent, activating the new DNA proved challenging for their financial professionals because they run their own businesses around their personal philosophies. So, we found common ground, showing the connection between their values and the new brand purpose, promise and principles.   

Then we gave their professionals the tools — scripts, talking points, and educational resources that gave them the language to bring the brand DNA to life in their daily work. We also recorded interviews with them where they shared their financial philosophy through the language of the new brand promise. This helped them co-create accessible, on-brand language to share with clients.   

Soul | Motivating the Change   

The most enduring and dangerous myth about leadership is that you must have all the answers — and if you don’t have them, pretend you do. A leader who can admit when they don’t have all the answers gains trust. And when combined with that trust, a leader who makes space for employees to be seen, heard and understood helps to take people on a change journey.   

For a culture to flourish through a transformation, it’s vital for leaders across an organization to reinforce shared values, celebrate wins and share learnings as often as possible. In the Human-Centered Transformation Model, we call this Soul. By motivating small wins throughout the organization transformation journey, employees feel recognized for their efforts and connected to something bigger than themselves.   

In addition to a regular and genuine celebration of small successes and learning moments, the single most powerful way a leader can motivate change is by showing vulnerability.  

When the pandemic hit, Prophet was among many organizations that closed the offices. We prepared to close for two weeks and were instructed to work from home. Those two weeks stretched to nearly two years. During this time, our CEO Michael Dunn, along with the Exco team, created a Global Pulse call, a bi-weekly check-in that connects all the firm for 45 minutes to meditate, share stories, talk about recent events and be “together”. While the Global Pulse calls were a direct response to the missing connections we had in the office, they have created a ritual that has given us all a sense of unity as well as opportunities to make space for the difficult experiences we were and are all facing.  

Michael Dunn starts every Global Pulse call with a guided meditation—a simple and gracious use of language that, over time, introduced new behaviors and cultural norms to the firm. To experience a guided meditation on that scale with fellow colleagues spoke directly to hearts and minds, and for many, became a ritual we relied on.  

“The single most powerful way a leader can motivate change is by showing vulnerability.”

What is also subtly powerful about this ritual is the name: Global Pulse. Alone these words are impactful, but together even more so. The invitation to “check the pulse” of our global culture serves as a warm reminder that our culture is a living, evolving aspect of our co-existence — and it influences all we do. 

We spoke with Michael about his reflections on the Global Pulse and use of language over the past 18 months. He noted, “For the first few months, and even up until now, I feel so much pressure to get the tone and experience just right. But I started to see that using the mindfulness exercise to open the forum, which I do along with everyone else who participates, helped create space for me to feel more present, more connected, more curious and more vulnerable, which then rippled across the globe for everyone who was participating. It helped to elevate the experience for everyone as we invited teams to offer gratitude, spotlight work or have hard conversations about the world around us and Prophet’s way forward.”  

The Global Pulse gave the firm both the space and the language to connect and speak on behalf of our needs. Some pulse calls are filled with photo sharing and stories about working from home. Others are set aside for difficult conversations or empathizing with those who are grieving. We had agendas, but oftentimes we led with our hearts. Because sometimes intentional language doesn’t always require polish. It can simply be about admitting what you don’t know, what you dare to believe and what you need.   

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Brands with strong voices can lift us out of our fears, reassure us that life will move forward and assist us as we continue to embrace major change together. More practically, brands can drive clarity around important topics, like new safety practices, inventory availability or even business closures. 

A distinct brand voice helps a company elevate its message and show the world who they are and what they stand for. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the way brands use their voices to communicate with us is more salient than ever. 

It feels comforting to us, as verbal branders, to notice the brands that are doing it right. The ones who have used their brand voices to connect with their audiences and express who they are in a meaningful, lasting way. We drew helpful insights by evaluating how brands reacting at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – communicating in a way that both comforted their consumers and supported their business.  

Here are Five Examples of Communication Approaches We Love  

Admit to Not Having All the Answers

While brands often have the responsibility of steering the conversation in their category, it is perfectly OK to ask customers what they want to hear. 

Reformation, a sustainable clothing brand, chose a direct communication style to connect with their audience, ending an update with refreshing candor. “Lastly, we’re not exactly sure what is appropriate for a company like ours to be talking and posting about right now. What’s resonating with you? Do you still want to hear about new collection launches and sustainability-related stuff…? Please let us know.” This created a refreshing moment of candor that felt on-brand for Reformation. 

Restate the Brand Purpose to Frame Inspired Action

Some brands are using this time to reflect on their mission and values. 

Target frames its steps to protect employees and customers by stating a core promise of the brand. Chairman and CEO of Target Brian Cornell stated, “…a commitment to help all families is at the heart of Target’s purpose. Our goal is to be here for you and keep navigating through uncertainty together – and we will do everything in our power to live up to that promise.” 

“The way brands use their voices to communicate with us is more salient than ever.”

Through this lens, Target’s actions, such as designating their early hours as a sanctioned time for the elderly to shop or enacting back-up care benefits for parents and caregivers, become proof points of its enduring purpose. 

Address the Emotional Impact

Many brands are well-positioned to connect with their audience about the emotional impact this hardship is having on their lives. 

Zola, a wedding registry company, primarily serves engaged couples. Right now, much of their audience is scrambling to make alternate arrangements or postpone their weddings. 

Zola has sent several emails to communicate plans to support their audience, including setting up a help hotline to call for advice. One message rings clear across all channels: “If your wedding has been affected, we’ll do anything we can to help”. 

The intentional use of the word “anything” subtly mirrors their tagline, “anything for love,” which is displayed under the signature of every email. Here, Zola is stretching beyond a registry to be a helpful resource in a challenging time. 

Encourage Community Mindfulness While Communicating Operational Changes 

Retailers are uniquely challenged with making tough business decisions and communicating them in a sensitive way. 

Retail and recreation company REI stood their ground as community leaders by calmly communicating the temporary closing of their stores. The brand, which is well known for their unique take on consumerism habits (most notably, their Black Friday #OptOutside initiative), framed their announcement as a thoughtful decision to protect the community, rather than their business, saying “…there are more important things than business right now—we owe that to one another.” The letter ends with, “be well and take care of one another.” It’s simple but authentic to the REI brand. 

Find Moments for Thoughtful Playfulness—If It’s Authentic to Your Brand 

Kin Euphorics, a non-alcoholic social tonics brand, is deeply rooted in social connection and finding enlightened, healthy ways to connect. Their brand voice has an undeniable playfulness, which they brought to life by renaming social distancing as “Solitude Scaries,” playing off the phrase “Sunday Scaries.” 

This pinch of playfulness feels on brand and is a simple way to ease the intensity of the stressor and create a sense of community. 

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