AJ Eckstein

Sales Strategy Analyst ($XXB Tech/Media Client)

Creator Match

Building the #1 tech-enabled agency that helps scale Creator programs for top B2B Brands.

We are trusted by the world’s most innovative B2B/SaaS Brands (i.e. Anthropic/Claude, HubSpot, Notion, Teachable, Wix, beehiiv, BetterHelp, and more), as well as the most influential LinkedIn Creators.

Creator Match unlocks LinkedIn's potential for Brands. Match with vetted LinkedIn Creators. Enjoy effortless campaigns and robust analytics. Get matched today.

Trusted by leading Brands like HubSpot, Notion, BetterHelp, Wix, Teachable, beehiiv, Framer, Athletic Greens, and more...

As your co-pilot, we guide LinkedIn Creators and Brands through end-to-end campaign management, from initial Creator discovery to comprehensive campaign reporting. Our mission is to unlock the untapped potential of LinkedIn, fostering trust, increasing awareness, and driving conversions for impactful and successful brand campaigns.

Founder & CEO

Fast Company

- Contributing Writer for the "Work Life" section of Fast Company, focusing on topics such as Gen Z, the future of work, leadership, productivity,  and career advice
- Fast Company is the "fastest-growing business magazine ever"
- Audience Size / Reach: 33 MM Total Footprint, 11.55 MM avg. monthly page views (according to Fast Company Media Kit)

Journalist/Writer

TED Conferences

- Invited to speak at a TEDx Talk from reflecting on my own transformation—from a person who was lazy with few goals to founding a career platform that helps Job Seekers achieve their dreams—I've learned the power of ambition and the importance of finding mentors
- Everyone, even the most successful people in the world, had mentors who helped them along the way. Let's "unclip the velvet rope" and guide you into the VIP space of the professional world

TEDx Speaker

LinkedIn

- Invited to become one of the youngest "LinkedIn Learning Instructors" and join the "LinkedIn for Creators Program" 
- Launched 3 online courses (with 150,000+ happy learners):
1) Professional Networking
2) Strategic thinking Tips to Solve Problems and Innovate
3) Nano tips to create video cotent

LinkedIn Learning Instructor

The Final Round

- We are the go-to career platform to knock out the competition and advance past the final round interview.
- Learn from Recruiters, Hiring Managers, and Career Experts.

Founder 

Online Course Instructor

- Top 1% most popular shows out of 2,000,000+ podcasts globally (ranked by Listen Score)
- 140+ 5-star reviews on Apple Podcast
- Join us in the ring as our host, AJ Eckstein, speaks with RECRUITERS to learn the secrets why certain applicants get knocked out and others are still standing after the final round.

Podcast Host and Creator

University of California, Los Angeles

- Partner with UCLA as a professional career coach to help people make decisions and plans related to life and career directions
- All professional career coaches are vetted by the UCLA Alumni Career Engagement team
- Host career workshops for the Bruin community

Professional Career Coach

Business Insider

- Write career-focused articles for Business Insider / Insider (audience of 250 million)
SOME PAST ARTICLES:
- "How to 'layoff-proof' your job, from 6 top recruiters at Netflix, McKinsey, Walmart, and more"
- "2 Snap recruiters reveal how to land a job at the social-media giant — and the biggest mistake candidates make"

Contributing Writer 

Accenture

- Promoted to Senior Analyst and then Management Consultant (in under 6 months) during this project
- Aligned to "Accenture Song" - the world’s largest tech-powered creative group
- Own the strategy and execution of 8 marketing campaigns (largest promotional campaigns and new product introductions); expected to reach 50M+ people & $XXM+ in revenue
- Co-run the client's Referral program, helping drive $XXM in net new revenue, beating our forecast by 900%
- Manage direct relationships with marketing clients regularly and is the main point of contact for 10 global stakeholders
- Support the reinvention of the marketing operations team by combining analytics to enable more personalized content, crafting marketing strategies for global stakeholders, and continuously owning and driving new project work streams

Consultant - Product Marketing ($XXB Tech/Media Client)

- Support Managing Directors on a strategic sales assessment for a $XXXB global tech client
- Create client value by driving sales insights, storylines and POVs, and sales pursuits 
- Oversee a team of 10 clients and 8 Accenture professionals to track KPIs and deadlines

- Consult for a global $XXB tech client in the Fortune 50 through The Dock, Accenture’s flagship R&D and global innovation center designed to incubate new ideas to life
- Propose, grow, and manage high-level strategy projects with an innovative lens for one of the largest accounts at the firm including 25,000+ employees 
- Design the training and upskilling on innovation strategy for the client account

Strategic Innovation Analyst ($XXB Tech/Media Client)

- Only Analyst selected for the next "Analyst Rotation Program" on The Walt Disney StudioLAB
- Working on a team dedicated to reimagining, designing, & prototyping the entertainment experiences & production capabilities of the future using innovative technologies to advance the art of storytelling

Strategy & Consulting Analyst (The Walt Disney StudioLAB)

- 1 of 3 Analysts selected for the "Innovation Fellowship Rotational Program" on the Client Innovation Services (CIS) Team
- Facilitated innovation strategy & ideation workshops for C-level execs from Fortune 100 companies
- Helped clients solve their toughest problems by incorporating emerging technologies, Agile Methodologies, and Design Thinking techniques

Strategy & Consulting Analyst (Innovation Fellow)

Career Coaching Company

- CCC has merged with "The Final Round", the go-to career platform to advance past the final round interview
- We offered 1:1 tailored coaching from recent grads who work at top companies to help you land jobs

Founder

World Surf League

- Digital content strategy, programming, and planning for WSL TV

Project Manager

Founder @ Creator Match 🧩 Scaling Creator Marketing for B2B, SaaS, & AI Brands | Fast Company Journalist | LinkedIn Learning Instructor (150K+ students) | TEDx & Keynote Speaker

I’m AJ, Founder @ Creator Match 🧩 #1 tech-enabled agency building & scaling Creator programs for B2B Brands.

We are trusted by the world’s most innovative B2B/SaaS/AI Brands (i.e. Anthropic/Claude, Notion, Zapier, HubSpot, Teachable, Wix, beehiiv, BetterHelp, Framer, and more), as well as the most influential B2B Creators.

[Creator Match Services]
→ Tech-enabled brand-side agency (done-for-you service): We run some of the largest and most creative B2B  Creator campaigns in the world, handling end-to-end strategy to execution.
→ Cutting-Edge Tools: Our Creator Match LinkedIn Chrome Extension is a *free* tool that helps users analyze top-performing content, identify brand sponsorships, and track post analytics.

[Our Story]
This journey started as a LinkedIn Creator struggling to monetize. I was laughed at in creator communities as no one took LinkedIn seriously. But I realized I wasn’t alone as I found a community of underserved, underpaid, and underappreciated LinkedIn Creators just like me (and maybe just like YOU).

So I did what any rational person would do. 

I quit my comfortable Fortune 500 management consulting job to go all-in on solving this pain point! And then Creator Match was born!

I’m on a mission to help Brands crush results with innovative campaigns and get B2B Creators PAID!

**For Brands/Agencies/Creators 👉 Get matched at creatormatch.com**

Outside of being a busy Founder, I also:
📰 Write for Fast Company (work/life section)
🎤 Speak at events/conferences around the world
🚀 Launched 3 LinkedIn Learning Courses (150,000+ learners)
🌎 Travel and explore: surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking
🥇 Compete in endurance sports (Marathons, Ultramarathons, Triathlons)

Follow me for daily content on being a young founder (building in public), LinkedIn growth and monetization tips, brand deals, B2B creator/influencer marketing strategies, and more.

Message me if you’d like to chat about Creator Match (Brands & Creators), speaking at your event/conference, and sponsorship opportunities.

1 year ago, I had this crazy idea to quit my $130,000 corporate job to launch a B2B creator marketing agency.

The fact that someone wanted to leave what they were doing to come build this vision with me still blows my mind.

Today marks Tara Knight 🧩's 1-year anniversary at Creator Match 🧩.

Here's how we met:

I first came across Tara through a creator she was managing on LinkedIn.

Then we met IRL at a Creator Economy NYC event (shout out Brett Dashevsky).

A few weeks later, I posted that we were hiring.

I texted her the JD to share with her network.

She responded: "Reading this JD sounds like you wrote it for me LOL. I've been struggling with deciding to stay building something solo. I miss having someone to build with."

I was staying in a crappy hostel in Boston for HubSpot Inbound (yes, a hostel... with my goated founder friend Aidan Brannigan) when we hopped on the hiring call.

Tara confidently said: "I start Monday. I need to be employee #1 at Creator Match."

And she was. She started as our "Head of Creator Marketing" and quickly rose in the ranks to become our "Chief Operating Officer  (COO)."

Here's what one year with Tara looks like:

→ She's paid out $1,000,000+ to B2B Creators

→ Brands literally tell us they want to hire her away from us

→ Creators call her the "Creator Fairy Godmother" because she's always fighting to get them more deals and higher rates

→ She's helped run mega campaigns for Notion, Anthropic/Claude, Teachable, Wix, Semrush, HubSpot, and more.

Employee #1 sets the entire company culture. The energy they bring. The standards they set. The work ethic they model. That's what Tara did.

She didn't just take a job. She built the foundation of what Creator Match 🧩 is today.

To Tara: Thank you for saying yes when this was just a crazy idea. Thank you for betting on us. Thank you for being the first believer.

Creator Match wouldn't be what it is without you. 💙 

Crazy we are only 1.5 years in this journey, and I've never been more fired up in what we are building and the impact we are having.

💬 Friendly reminder to go thank that person today that believed in you. It's never a bad time to show gratitude :)

PS - So many fun moments building with you this past year. From Notion Faces in Agrentina during Xmas to our first work trip together in NYC to our Superbowl at SXSW... and then Amsterdam in 2 weeks! 

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

AJ Eckstein 🧩

Everyone thinks Founders spend their days signing million-dollar checks.
Meanwhile, I’m doing arts & crafts with safety scissors.

I’m standing there with glue sticks and a stack of brand logos, while the FedEx guy is giving me that “what is this dude doing?” look LOL.

Here’s why: 

We hosted a 20-person Creator Match 🧩 partner dinner in SF with our brand and creator partners... i'm talking incredible marketers from Anthropic, Lovable, Notion, Gusto, Atlassian, OpusClip, Nvidia, and more.

Could I have ordered custom signage or fancy table decorations? Of course.
Instead, I’m cutting out company logos by hand and driving around town asking bartenders for toothpicks.

The plan? 

Stick these little company logo flags into our celebratory cake.

My team thinks I’m crazy. And maybe I am. 
But honestly, this isn’t new for us.

When we hit our 1-year company anniversary, we mailed out 50 custom gift boxes to our creator and brand partners. Inside: hats 🧢  that said “Pay Creators,” handwritten cards (with my questionable hand writing), and personal notes from our team. 

No vendor. No automation. Just HOURS of us writing, packing, and shipping.

And you know what? That’s the stuff people actually remember.

In a world where everything feels automated and overly polished thanks to AI… being scrappy, personal, and a little imperfect is what cuts through the noise.

The brands winning in creator marketing right now aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones still willing to roll up their sleeves and get creative.

And that’s the B2B Creator Marketing agency we’re building at Creator Match: scrappy enough to cut logos by hand, hungry enough to beg for toothpicks, and bold enough to make people feel something.

💬 When's the last time you hand-wrote something?

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Update: I'm leaving my agency to become a country singer.
And I'm trading my CEO title for cowboy boots.

Okay wait, before you unfollow me (my voice is awful lol)...

Let me explain what just happened.

I'm speaking at Semrush Spotlight 2026 in AMSTERDAM on October 29th!! 

Topic: LinkedIn in 2026: The Untapped Power of Creator Marketing (and sharing all of the learnings building Creator Match 🧩)

The team asked every speaker 2 simple questions:
→ What's your favorite music genre?
→ What's your ideal walk-out song for the conference?

My answers: Country. "Till You Can't" by Cody Johnson.

This week they sent me THIS: A custom AI cassette cover turning me into a country music icon.

Instead of "Till You Can't" it says "Post Till You Can't." LOL

I'm actually obsessed. This is what happens when marketers stop thinking like marketers and start thinking like humans.

Most conferences send the same boring speaker assets:
→ Generic templates
→ Standard headshots
→ "Please share this" energy

But Marina Nikolaeva and the Spotlight team understood something most brands completely miss:
→ Great marketing doesn't feel like marketing
→ Turned speaker promotion into entertainment
→ Made me WANT to share it because it made me laugh
→ Connected my personal interests to their campaign theme

And now thousands of people are seeing this post who would've scrolled past another "excited to speak at..." announcement.

That's the difference between pushing content and creating content people actually care about.

1,200+ ambitious marketers. 85+ speakers. 25+ keynotes. 150+ masterminds. 200+ leading companies.

I get lonely on trips. Meet me in Amsterdam for the marketing conference of the year? 10 likes and i may just go on a linkedin live and sing country for you.

Oh, the team also gave me a 25% off discount code for my audience (dropping it in the comments)!!

💬 Have you been to Amsterdam? Need recos plzzz

#SpotlightConf #Semrushpartner

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

As someone running millions in LinkedIn creator campaigns, these are the questions I get asked the most, and my hot takes:

5️⃣ What trends are shaping LinkedIn partnerships?

Budgets are moving from Instagram and TikTok to LinkedIn, especially in B2B and SaaS. Video is dominating thanks to algorithm boosts and higher engagement. Brands are investing in long-term collaborations instead of one-offs. Niche expertise now matters more than follower count. And authentic storytelling always beats generic promotion.

Tip: Video is best when boosted with LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads.

4️⃣ What challenges do brands and creators face?

LinkedIn wasn’t built for creator marketing. There’s no marketplace, no pricing standards, no native analytics. This leads to brands overpaying, choosing the wrong creators, or failing to measure impact. 

Creators also face disorganized workflows. They have never been able to monetize on LinkedIn (like you can with YouTube Ad Sense).

Tip: Agencies like Creator Match 🧩 help you build and scale your B2B/SaaS/AI creator programs with a dedicated team to make partnerships more transparent, effective, and data-driven.

3️⃣ How do you keep partnerships authentic?

The best partnerships feel like a creator’s usual post, not an ad. When the content aligns naturally with the creator’s voice, people pay attention. If it sounds like corporate copy, it gets ignored. That’s why creators need to stay selective, and brands need to find authentic fits. Trust is everything on LinkedIn, and authenticity sustains it.

Tip: Stay "on brand" for the creator, not "on brand" for the brand. 

2️⃣ What’s the biggest misconception?

That LinkedIn creator marketing is pure ROAS. It doesn’t. In B2B especially, the goal is credibility and trust over time. A single post won’t close a six-figure deal, but repeated exposure through trusted voices builds affinity and keeps brands top of mind until buyers are ready.

Tip: The best influencer marketing is "always on" not "one off." Plus, you unlock bundle rate discounts when you buy in bulk vs a la carte.

1️⃣ What advice would you give to creators?

Brands want influence, not just audience size. Engagement, consistency, and credibility matter more in B2B than raw follower counts. A smaller, highly engaged niche community often beats a larger but less relevant audience. 

Tip: Aim for at least 1% engagement on LinkedIn, share organic brand mentions, and prioritize steady results over occasional virality.

💬 What common question did I miss?

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Excited to announce that Creator Match 🧩 has acquired Creator Economy Live.

This marks a huge step forward in our mission to match b2b/saas/ai brands and creators together at scale.

…okay jk 😂

But apparently that’s what the LLMs think (see pic below). No, I did not found CEL lol.

Thank you Kahlea Nicole Wade for flagging this - the AI rumor mill is getting out of hand.

Reminder: not everything written by an LLM is true.

Anyone else catch a wild hallucination like this?

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

San Francisco died during COVID. Now AI revived it.

I walked past my old management consulting stomping grounds at Salesforce Tower in SF… and for the first time in years, the city feels awake.

Funny story - I wasn’t even supposed to be here.

Was grabbing tacos with a friend on Saturday and over a round of spicy margs ended up buying a last-minute ticket to SF.

No agenda. No plan. Just a hope and a prayer that I’d figure it out once I landed.

That’s founder life. I was literally just in SF two weeks ago 😂

Here’s what the 2 day trip looked like: 👇

🗓️ Tuesday
→ Creator Economy lunch with Monica Khan
→ Descript workshop with Daisy (Growth) & Laura Burkhauser (CEO), + Grace Ling 🐰 & Jacob Miller
→ Lunch with Gusto's Co-founder (Tomer London)
→ Founder catch up with Virio's Founder Eric Lay
→ Hosted another Marketers Dinner (+ Matt Swain) w/ Katie Parkes & Brianna Chapman from Apollo, Valerie Chapman, & Lana Ivory

🗓️ Wednesday
→ Creator marketing mixer w/ Jennifer Phan, Amanda Branson, Victoria Liang, Kristin Fracchia, Jean Kang 
→ Smooth Media brunch w/ Jenny Rothenberg, Sydney Frigerio, Sarah Teich
→ Creator brunch w/ Avni Barman & Lana Ivory
→ Founder coffee chat with Allie Vogel

Key takeaways:
• Creators dominated every brand conversation around distribution
• I heard the word “agent” at least 65 times this week LOL
• SF truly feels like the home of AI, more than LA or NYC

Bonus: When in doubt, just send the trip. You'll never regret choosing the path with the better story to tell. 

Next week, Creator Match 🧩 is helping a brand activate at F1 Week in Austin 🏎️... Then I’m off to Europe for two weeks for a speaking gig!! 

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Thanks Morgan Young Brett Dashevsky for the post inspo!

plz help: i need to eat 18 pounds of cookie dough and work off dessert with a pickle ball partner this weekend...

So i've been feeling like an influencer lately.
Not sure how I feel about that LOLL but it's been wild.

B2B creators are finally starting to have their moment. For example:

🍪 Sweet Loren's sent me cookie dough (part of their #cookiebreak campaign)
 
🥒 Relay Financial sent me a pickleball set with "serving profit" branding (part of their #RallyWithRelay campaign)

Here's the truth: B2B creators have never received a single gift from a brand.

Meanwhile, every TikToker gets daily packages from skincare brands.

This is the biggest missed opportunity in B2B marketing.

What actually happens when you gift B2B creators:
→ You build genuine relationships, not transactional ones
→ They post about it (because it NEVER happens)
→ Their audience pays attention (novelty effect)
→ They're shocked someone noticed them

For Brands ready to try this:

Manual approach: Find 20 Creators in your ICP. Research their recent posts. Send something that connects to their world. Costs under $2000, takes several hours.

Scale approach: Work with agencies like Creator Match 🧩 who know these Creators personally, already know which Creators want gifts and would post about the gifts, and can execute gifting campaigns that feel authentic.

B2B marketers: your competitors aren't doing this. Your creators are waiting.

💬 Brands: What's stopping you from sending your first creator gift this week? 
💬 Creators, do you want to receive more brand gifts?

PS - Tag the brand pages below if you want influencer gifts ;) 

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

I wore a tux to a 1,000-person wedding and left realizing one thing:

you don’t need to do the “right” thing... just "your" thing.

It was one of those nights where you see everyone from your past:
- High school friends
- College classmates
- People you haven’t spoken to in years

And it’s wild to see how different everyone’s paths look now.
Some are doctors, founders, teachers, didn’t go to college, married, chefs, lawyers, or have kids.

There’s no single timeline anymore.
Everyone’s just figuring it out in their own way.

Throughout the night, a few people came up to me and said:
“AJ, you’re doing the thing with Creator Match 🧩.”

Truth is… I don’t know if I am DOING the thing.
But I’m definitely TRYING to do the thing lol.

And that’s what matters most.

Because when you look around a room like that,
you realize there’s no single path that leads to happiness.

Some people peak early.
Some people peak late.
Most of us are still figuring it out.

So stop worrying about doing life “the RIGHT way.”
Just make sure you’re doing it YOUR way.

That’s the thing worth doing.

PS - if you need more motivation to post on LinkedIn... several ppl at the wedding came up to me saying they recognized me LOL. What a wold world we live in man.

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, B2B Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Everyone wants to raise millions of dollars. You know what’s actually sexy? Running a profitable business.

Had dinner with a couple other Founders who also run creator marketing agencies. All of us are in our mid to late 20s, each running seven to eight figure businesses, 100% bootstrapped.

We ended up talking less about winning and more about the stuff no one really posts about like:

Hiring the wrong person. Losing a client you thought was locked in. The anxiety & stress that hits at 1 AM wondering if you are doing enough.

It is wild because you think these things are your individual problems until you meet other Founders who are going through the exact same thing.

On paper we are "competitors".  In reality we are just 3 people trying to build something meaningful, pay Creators, partner with Brands, stay sane, and live on our own terms.

I used to have imposter syndrome as a Founder. I used to think that owning an agency was not good enough because it was not the “hot” thing - not software, not raising millions, not getting into YC.

But over time I realized the sexiest thing is living on your own terms. Paying your team well. Working with incredible clients. Paying Creators. Building something you are so passionate about that it never feels like work.

This journey has also given me the freedom to travel around the world doing what I love (as in traveling to Europe AGAIN this weekend to speak at a marketing conference).

If you are building something, find other people who are in the same trench as you. Swap notes. Share learnings. Be honest.

No joke I send Brandon a 10 minute voice message at least once a day... whether it's venting, asking for advice, or sharing a tip I just learned. 

You will be surprised how much faster you grow when you stop pretending you have it all figured out.

And yes... a rising tide really does lift all boats. 

Go follow these legends:
- Apple Crider from Creators Agency
- Brandon Pourmorady from Adhesive Media

💬 Are you networking with people building in the same trench as you (whether that is for your 9-5 job or startup)?

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

This fintech company just locked Kevin from The Office in a glass box in NYC... then made him their CFO. 

Yes, that Kevin that spilled the chili #iykyk

This is B2B Campaigns in the Wild, the series that makes you say "Wait, that's B2B?"

In the campaign, Kevin is back to “handling expenses” but this time for Ramp.

They even showed a live tracker comparing how many receipts were processed:
→ Kevin (manual): 123
→ Ramp (automated): 224,211

It’s a hilarious way to show off their automated expense tracking and speed while tapping into pure nostalgia.

The results speak for themselves
→ UGC videos crossed millions of views
→ The campaign was featured on @ newyorkers on Instagram
→ And entire Reddit threads even covered it all

Oh and because Ramp loves chaos, they also hosted a wedding inside a glass box... with The Rizzler as the ring bearer. Even David Wallace even made a surprise appearance.

This reminds me of that live Severance glass box pop up in Grand Central if y'all remember that to promote the show.

B2B marketing is getting wild. And I’m here for it.

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, B2B Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Epic campaign Ramp team / Nathan Allebach

Ramp The Office Campaign

Founder life is basically living 10 lives in a week. Here's a real sneak peak (from LA to SF to Austin):

Meta lunch w/ Lana Ivory → 

Podcast interview w/ Samantha Zink → 

Wedding w/ Elliott G. → 

Fly from LA to SF →

Gusto Showcase event w/ Dedrick Boyington-Warmack Morgan Cornelius Sunni Dupree Tomer London → 

Michelin star 9 course creator dinner w/ Ruben Hassid → 

6 AM run w/ Grace Ling 🐰 → 

Anthropic office happy hour w/ Lexie Barnhorn Lior Alexander Will McTighe → 

Creator Match partner dinner with 20 epic brands and creators → 

Notion conference w/ Danielle Ito Angela Park → 

Rooftop creator meetup w/ Avni Barman Jesse Zhang Brett Dashevsky Jahnavi Shah Noam Nisand → 

Fly from SF to Austin → 

2 friend's birthdays → 

All in 7 days 🫠 

There's no work life balance... it's called work life integration ;) 
And a lot of coffee and working in pockets throughout the day

I'd lie if I said founder life is not an absolute roller coaster with crazy stress/anxiety/workload. But maximizing the adventure building Creator Match 🧩

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

What I did as a founder this week.pdf

It's not fair for CEOs to work from anywhere and expect their team to sit in an office.

This past month I was on the road for 4 back-to-back weeks across 4 different countries: 🇮🇹 Italy / 🇨🇭 Switzerland /  🇧🇷 Brazil / 🇺🇸 USA (San Francisco 2x).

It was one of the most grueling and rewarding stretches I’ve ever done. 

At Creator Match 🧩, we’ve always been remote first. 

For example, Naek M. is in Honduras, Tara Knight 🧩 is in Montenegro, Jerrica Long 🧩 is in New Jersey, Damilola Ogunbanjo  🧩 is in Nigeria, Sebastian Bimbi 🧩 is in Peru, and the rest of the team is all over the world. 

Our only rule is simple: work wherever you want, as long as you’re online for our clients.

Here’s what a month of true “work from anywhere” taught me 👇

1️⃣ You don’t need an office, you need adaptability.
If you can’t work from a plane seat, café, or hotel floor, you’re not really remote.

2️⃣ Structure is more important than setting.
Your productivity depends on how you manage your energy, not where you are.

3️⃣ Trust is greater than tracking.
If you need to see your team to believe they’re working, you hired wrong.

4️⃣ Movement fuels creativity.
Some of my best ideas came while walking through Zurich or grabbing an espresso in Capri, not in a Zoom call.

As the founder of an early stage startup, I don’t have the luxury of taking time off, and honestly I don’t want to. Things are too exciting right now.

It’s not about work life balance. It’s about work life integration.

I always try to have an anchor reason to go somewhere. For example I went to Brazil to speak at the Teachable x Hotmart conference, the biggest marketing conference in Latin America. Then I extended the trip to Rio with a few friends like Elfried Samba to rip a helicopter ride 🚁 .

Work is taking me around the world, and I’m extending my stays not only for brand/creator meetups, but to have fun along the way.

Trying to run a company, manage employees, and oversee millions of dollars in creator campaigns while always traveling the world and jumping time zones is chaotic. But I’ve learned to thrive in the chaos.

What's next?
- This week: Helping a brand partner activate Creators at Formula 1 Austin TX
- Next week: I fly to London then Amsterdam to speak at Semrush Spotlight conference

💬 What are your thoughts on remote work?

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Stop chasing new clients. Make your current ones look like superheroes.

The secret: Get them promoted and everything else falls into place.

→ That’s the entire playbook.

Doesn't matter if you work at an agency or in consulting. Client services are client services. 

When your work gets your client noticed by leadership,
when their boss forwards the campaign results in slack,
when they start getting promoted for the impact you helped create,
you’ve already won.

That’s how we think about partnerships at Creator Match 🧩
We’re not a creator talent agency chasing volume. We’re a brand-side partner that goes deep in creator marketing with fewer (B2B/SaaS/AI) brands.

This week, one of those partners (Fiona Turko) celebrated 1 year at Zapier.

And it’s been incredible to look back on everything she has built in just 12 months:
⚡️ Scaled Zapier’s Creator Program into a real engine, turning advocates into trusted storytellers.
🎙️ Tested podcast partnerships that made automation feel accessible, not intimidating.
🚀 Connected Product, Brand, and Growth to prove creators can make AI and automation feel more human.
💡 Partnered with Creator Match 🧩 to grow Zapier’s creator presence on LinkedIn in the most authentic way possible.

We’ve taken Fiona to dinner in Toronto 🇨🇦  and will be hanging out again soon in Vegas and Utah (for Zapier's first brand trip with 20+ of the biggest AI Creators). Because our goal isn’t just to deliver, it’s to build together.

When you care about your clients beyond the contract,
you stop thinking in months and start thinking in years.

Her wins are our wins. And if you make your clients look like superheroes and get them promoted, the rest truly does fall into place.

Happy 1 year, Fiona - I think I can speak on behalf of our team and all of the Creators we've worked with that you are a LEGENDARY partner :)

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

This is the second convo ive had this month where the CMO of a billion dollar brand told me their campaign goal is "vibes"

How does one quantify this? Asking for a friend lol.

B2B creator marketing is unmatched.

We skipped the happy hour to host a team hackathon.
No trust falls. No icebreakers. Just one week to build an app.

To celebrate our new partnership with Lovable and their Cloud Launch, we gave our team at Creator Match 🧩 1 week to build something... fun or functional, didn’t matter, as long as it worked.

Here are some of the apps the team built:
→ Viral Idea Vault
→ Founder Journal
→ Content Calendar
→ LinkedIn ROI Calculator
→ Creator Economy Academy
→ CookCozy (your cooking accountability companion)
→ Campaign Post Reviewer (which we’re now actually building internally)

And yes, all of the apps have have backend functionality thanks to the new Cloud & AI Launch (a built-in backend for Lovable apps that just works. No manual setup required).

What started as a “fun experiment” to learn more about AI turned into one of the best team activities we’ve ever done.

3 key learnings:

1/ You can’t teach AI adoption - you need to let people build with it.

2/ You learn way more about your team when they’re creating, not presenting.

3/ Some of the best internal tools start as side projects.

The best way to build team culture isn’t over drinks - it’s by building together.

If your team’s bored of traditional workshops and "lunch n learns", try this:

Give everyone 1 week to build something. You’ll be surprised what you learn.

💬  What are you going to start building today?

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

everyone keeps saying AI will replace influencer marketing agencies... yea?

I'd love to see AI respond to an email from an Influencer saying:

"sorry my video will be delayed 1 week after launch since I am now sending it to Burning Man"

we are not the same 🤣

(I wish I could say this wasn't from a real experience at Creator Match 🧩 lol)

Sending with love from SF tech Week… coming out of a panel about craziest stories from influencer marketing

The biggest brands in the world have the smallest marketing teams.
And after 5 coffee chats this month, I finally understand why...

I talk to so many brands every week, from billion-dollar SaaS/B2B/AI companies to fast-growing startups, and it’s the same theme every time.

→ Everyone is understaffed

It’s not that the budget isn’t there.
It’s that most of it goes into product.
The mindset is, “If we build something great, it’ll market itself.”

The barrier to build has gone to 0.
And the new moat is distribution.

You can have the best product in the world,
but if no one is telling the story,
no one will ever know.

That’s why the smartest brands are starting to think differently.
They’re learning to lean on 3rd parties.

Agencies like Creator Match 🧩 for speed and bandwidth.
Creators for authentic storytelling.
Freelancers for flexibility.

It’s not about hiring bigger teams.
It’s about building smarter ones.

Because in 2025, the brands that win won’t be the ones with the most people.
They’ll be the ones who know how to extend them.

💬  Have you also seen that marketing/social/influencer teams are crazy understaffed in 2025? 

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

The agency model is broken for modern AI, B2B, & SaaS companies.

There’s a massive gap right now between how fast these new companies move… and how slow most traditional influencer marketing agencies still operate.

Those agencies were built to service B2C brands that move like cargo ships.
But these new companies? They’re speedboats.

→ They ship weekly
→ They pivot the day before go-live
→ They launch products faster than most agencies can even spin up a deck

To actually make noise today, you need a partner that can keep up.

A single “launch week” in AI can look like:
→ GPT-5 dropping
→ Sora 2 launching
→ Claude Sonnet’s new version
→ Stripe shipping a new product
→ Notion hosting their SF conference
→ Cluely spending $500K on billboards

That’s one week. You either rise above the noise , or you disappear in it.

Most agencies can’t move that fast. They are tied up in corporate red tape. They shut their laptops at 5:01 PM on Friday.

I want Creator Match 🧩 to be known as the team that makes unrealistic timelines happen... the brand-side agency that specializes in velocity and relationships.

We’ve worked weekends and holidays.
We’ve had entire campaigns change the night before launch. 
Not because we love chaos (we don’t 😂)… but because this new group of companies don't wait for Monday.

And as an agency partner, we have to move faster than the fastest companies in our space. Then multiply that by 30+ brands at once. So yes, we sprint daily.

Year 1 was LinkedIn creator marketing.
Year 2 is scaling full creator programs for the fastest-growing B2B, SaaS, and AI brands on the planet.

And this would not be possible without some incredibly passionate team members like Tara Knight 🧩 Naek M. Damilola Ogunbanjo  🧩 Jerrica Long 🧩 and more!

Just last month, we pulled off 2 massive launches - one with $200K and another with $400K in influencer spend - in under two weeks.

If your marketing partners aren’t sprinting with you... you’re running the wrong race.

Some food for thought at a coffee shop in Austin TX just 1 week before a Formula 1 brand trip and then Euro trip for speaking :) 

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Side quest sunday (ACL edition) - private Creator event with Spotify & live performance from a Grammy-winning artist...

Life of an agency owner at Creator Match 🧩 is HECTIC

You deal with SOOOO much crap every day, and you are constantly being pulled in different directions from brands, creators, your team, and everyone in between

But it is such a relationship game... 

and the more time you spend in the industry, the more you show up, and the more people you meet lead to a lot of really cool opportunities

You continue to question if you should be "in the room" of these private events and have crazy #impostersyndrome

Shout out Dustee Jenkins (Chief Public Affairs Officer at Spotify) for an incredible pre ACL event in Austin TX... as well as the UTA team (Nate Jones Olivia Frary) for the invite!

Oh and the singer Maren Morris has the best voice I've heard in YEARS... check out the songs "The Middle" and "The Bones"

✈️  Heading to the airport to fly to San Fran for Tech Week. Who will be there?

#sidequestsunday

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Marketers are obsessed with tracking everything. But the best campaigns? They live off the grid.

Because the truth is the best marketing moments don’t show up in your analytics dashboard. They don't include UTM links. 

In B2B marketing, your goal should NOT just be to get seen. 
It’s to get shared in private communities. 

→ The DMs. The company Slack channels. The subreddits. The private communities on Circle.

That’s where pipeline really starts.

We see this every week at Creator Match 🧩 running millions in creator campaigns for the world’s biggest B2B, SaaS, & AI brands in the world. 

A campaign can go viral and move nothing. Another gets ten comments and ends up in 5 Slack channels across marketing orgs, rev ops teams, and founders’ chats. Guess which one converts.

The shift happening in B2B right now is massive. Public engagement metrics don’t tell the full story. Private shares do.

Your goal should NOT be to go viral. 
It’s to be Slack-worthy.

Here’s the test I use before we run any campaign for one of our Brand partners:

“Would their ICP share this in their company Slack channel?”

If the answer’s no, we go back to the drawing board.

There are 3 reasons someone shares something in Slack:
😂 It’s hilarious and painfully relatable (think memes)
💡 It makes them look smart (think educational)
🔥 It taps into a cultural moment everyone’s talking about (think Notion Faces)

That’s it. Those are the triggers that make people hit share.

When we helped Notion run the largest Creator campaign in LinkedIn history (Notion Faces), 50 creators posted at the same time on the same day. Sure, it went viral, but the real impact was seeing screenshots of those posts pop up in Slack channels across marketing teams worldwide. That’s where the buying journey actually started. 

I legit had friends texting me screenshots saying "AJ, your post somehow got shared in our company Slack channel."

So before you chase virality, ask yourself: would someone drop this in their Slack?

***
🔔 Follow me AJ Eckstein 🧩 for more content on entrepreneurship, LinkedIn Creator Marketing, and Brand strategies

Taplio

AJ Eckstein 🧩's Linkedin Analytics

What is AJ talking about?

's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}AJ Eckstein 🧩's Linkedin Analytics

What is AJ talking about?

's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

AJ Eckstein 🧩's Linkedin Analytics

's Best Posts (last 30 days)