Digital Media Veteran / Building Digital Businesses, Moving Culture

Phil is a pioneer of the digital media revolution, working as a pre-YouTube professional web video producer in 2005, video content app creator before the smartphone revolution in 2007, an early exec in the MCN boom with two successful exits, and as the Head Gaming Creators at Facebook and Mobcrush, driving the live streaming and the creator-driven media paradigm shift. Currently, as COO of Fixated, Phil is creator services with Fortnite UEFN and Roblox games, creator-focused products, branded integrations, and critical infrastructure necessary to scale a creator's media business.

Previously, Phil was the Head of Gaming Creators, North America at Facebook and the Head of Creators at Mobcrush. In both roles, the departments saw significant growth working with top game streaming talent including Ronda Rousey, Disguised Toast, Corinna Kopf, Shroud, and Nate Hill, to name a few.

Phil was the COO of Studio71, one of the world's largest MCNs, growing the network from 1 billion to over 8 billion monthly views in 3 years with over 1,000 creators.

Before S71, Phil joined Fullscreen as the Head of Channel Partnerships as the 9th employee, completing his tenure as the VP of Networks. He grew the network to the largest MCN in the world (on comScore) in less than 1 year. He was the recipient of Fullscreen's first "Founders Award" for his role in building the industry-leading company.

In May 2006, Phil worked for Viva! Vision, who powered the #1 Latin channel designed specifically for mobile (Viva! Vision TV), the #1 Action Sports channel on V-Cast, and over a dozen mobile phone channels. Phil produced hundreds of hours of successful, digital-endemic original content.

In 2005, Phil created a comedy series for Turner's broadband channel SuperDeluxe.com, for which he acted as producer, director, and editor, called "Party Animals."  A trailer for the pilot was shown on national television when it placed top 5 in FX's "Make Your Own Pilot Competition."

Phil was also a popular comedian, performing at such prestigious LA venues as the Second City Los Angeles (and acting in their touring company aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines), the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater (improv program graduate), and comedy festivals across America. As a content creator, his videos have received over 100 million views on digital platforms bolstered by his work as a talent/producer on the YouTube channel "PronunciationManual" and co-hosts the "Two and a Half Sportsmen" podcast.

I've gone to every VidCon since 2012, when we were handing out Fullscreen T-shirts to anyone we saw vlogging on the very, very empty show floor.

Now I'm on VidCon's Hall of Fame Selection Committee for 2026! 

You'll see the Hall of Fame Class of 2026 get inducted live at VidCon Anaheim, June 25 – 27.

Per usual, I have some very, very spicy takes around whom I'm advocating for to be part of the first-ever Hall of Fame Class...

And you'll see me haunting the Industry lounge, the Marriott pool, the Hilton lobby, and at least one panel.

Who will I see there?!

Phil Ranta

CEO, Stealth Talent - Building Digital Businesses, Moving Culture / 20 yr Digital Media Veteran

Spoke at SoCom, the social commerce conference yesterday! Some thoughts:

- Another standing room only panel! Amazing talk with Mythical, Epic Gardening, and Breezy Golf about creator entrepreneurship. Too many gems to list but in short: it’s a great way to build a huge company fast.

- $14b in sales on TikTok Shop in the U.S. in 2025. That’s nuts. And the brands keep improving. Last year it felt very drop-shippy. Now it’s a lot of Tarte Cosmetics, The Gap, and Paris Hilton (announced at the show!)

- M&A was in the air! Lots of talk about scaling to exit, looking for companies to buy, and at least one talent manager who tried to poach a partner in a company that will likely suffer some legal wrath (not me!)

- So much to learn about margin control, inventory management, 3PL, and affiliates. All important as we build Stealth Talent but all far more complex than I originally thought. But AI tech seems to help these logistical issues a ton! 

- YouTube shopping has come a long way in a year! Shoppable stickers on shorts look amazing. Can’t wait to try it out.

- Jordan Matter’s talk on his daughter Salish and Sincerely Yours is a great reminder that some of the most influential people in the world are unknown to anyone over the age of 30. Don’t let your own biases block these big opportunities!

- My favorite thing about conferences: reuniting with past co-workers I adore. So nice having a mini-Studio71 reunion!

- FREE COFFEE! Max Benator said it was inspired by my complaining last year about the lack of coffee and I choose to believe him.

- I was shocked at how many random conversations I had with Shopify experts. Huge market that I don’t think about enough, but probably should given their integrations with TikTok Shop and YouTube Shopping!

- I accidentally hugged someone thinking it was someone else then kept running into her throughout the day and it was very, very awkward.

I really love this show. Can’t wait for next year!

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AI is powerful enough to save or break the world.

I’m not being hyperbolic.

That’s why Anthropic looks like such a hero at the same time that OpenAI is getting absolutely hammered on social media.

Put your partisan views aside and let’s look at this from a marketing POV.

The Department of Defense rebrands as the Department of War, spends a year picking broadly unpopular fights while saying the president should get the Nobel Prize, then on the day they strike Iran wherein a girl’s school was hit with mass casualties, Sam Altman posts the below.

Meanwhile, Anthropic introduced themselves to most normies through Super Bowl commercials criticizing OpenAI’s wildly unpopular decision to start putting ads in AI, then gets in a fight with the government by saying their corporate convictions are more important than a deal.

You don’t have to be a CMO to figure out who is winning here. And OpenAI’s errors are as unforced as it gets.

These platforms will never hit the valuation they need (by my last check that number is approximately ‘infinity’) without average consumers.

And stories like this are breaking through.

Silicon Valley: please get out of your bubble and talk to your customers.

Or, if you’d prefer not to, just watch some of their TikToks.

Sam would have been better of just doing the deal and not announcing it tbh

What metrics really matter in social media?

Views? Subscribers? Comments?

Cool. Why?

In this edition of 'Grow 1%' I'm going to challenge you to really think about the metrics that matter to you. For example, if you get a million views on a video, does that help you reach your goals or does it just look cool?

As always, if you like the newsletter, please share it with everybody!

This is 'Grow 1%', the short weekly newsletter with tips to improve your social media strategy by 1%. Subscribe so it gets delivered to your inbox! An

Open article: Growing in the Right Direction by Phil Ranta • 3 min read

Stealth Talent LIVE is a weekly live stream where the Stealth Talent team dives into creator economy news from the team that lives it every day, and provides updates from the Stealth Talent universe!

You're not done once you hit 'post'.

You need to keep the algorithm engaged with your content for as long as possible.

And, generally, around 24 hours after you post a piece of content, the view velocity for your post will start to wane.

That's when I use a strategy called 'The 24-Hour Echo'

In this edition of 'Grow 1%' I'll tell you how to use this strategy to get the algorithm re-interested in your content after views start to slow.

And, as always, if you like the newsletter, please share it around!

Open article: The 24-Hour Echo by Phil Ranta • 3 min read

I promise you: despite AI fears, there are skills to develop that give you a leg up in the job market.

And it's no longer software certifications and ERP experience.

Join Sheryl Miller, Rosanne Werner, and me as we break down what we're seeing in the market and where we think the market is going.

It's online-only on March 11, 2026, at 10am PST!

This webinar is free, so please register and try to drop by!

https://lnkd.in/gWu4zTWd

Spotter's event last week discussed 'Creator TV' a lot.

But haven't we heard this a million times? Why is this different?

In this edition of 'The Creator Rep' I'll break down how creators and their teams should be thinking about the 'Creator TV' movement. And, no, it's not just about YouTube getting big on OTT...

Also in this edition:

🤔 Influencer Marketing Changed Faster Than Sellers’ Pitches (Thoughts Are My Own)
👶🏽 Cocomelon Joins Disney
🗣️ Stanify’s Comment Section Cheat Code
❌ X Adds More Paywalls for Standard Use Cases
🐂 Jesser Takes Over the Bulls
💪🏼 Jobs from Netflix, Critical Role, and Nike
🎭 …and a dank meme from yours truly!

Check out the full edition here >>> https://lnkd.in/gnfwvAHX

And a huge thank you to RockWater Industries and Chris Erwin for sponsoring this edition! Have you thought about selling your creator business? Make them your first DM!

A MrBeast editor got nailed for 'insider trading' on a prediction market platform.

But...how can gambling be 'insider trading'?

Since there is so much money and influencer marketing around these platforms, I wanted to dive into what they are, why they're allowed to do what they do, and what creators should think about before they take a deal with one of these companies.

Also in this edition:

🧑🏽‍💼 Section 230 Needs to be Reformed, Not Eliminated (Thoughts Are My Own)
🌮 TikTok Users Love Recipes
📸 Snapchat Gets Snappy With a New Awards Show
📻 Podcast Finally Surpass AM/FM Radio
⛳️ Truth Social May Go Private
💪🏼 Jobs from Netflix, SpinMaster, and Fox Sports
🎭 …and a dank meme from yours truly!

Check out the full edition here >>> https://lnkd.in/g8TrcCNz

And, as always, if you like this newsletter, please share it on your company Slack or your engagement pod DM!

Talks about #tiktok, #youtube, #creatoreconomy, #socialcommerce, and #influencermarketing

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