In Bustle’s Quick Question, we ask women leaders all about career advice, from the best guidance they’ve ever gotten to what they’re still figuring out. Here, Alexis Fisher, CEO of Timeline Management, talks about how she entered the industry, her keys to success, and more.
It’s hard to imagine a world when influencing and its culture of brand deals, exclusive capsule collections, and chatty GRWMs weren’t a part of our everyday lives. But 10 years ago, content creation was hardly the lucrative (and aspirational) career path it is today. And while diving head-first a developing industry isn’t for everyone, it was for Alexis Fisher.
“I live my life with the foundation of like, ‘What is the worst thing that can happen?’ The worst thing that can happen is I took a chance on myself, it didn’t work, and then I would be able to figure out something else,” Fisher, 32, tells Bustle. So in 2015, she started her own company, Timeline Management, which manages the careers of influencers and other nontraditional personalities in the creator economy.
Spoiler alert: It all worked out. This past December, Live Nation acquired a majority stake in Timeline, allowing the company to act as a division within the ticketing giant and create live event and touring opportunities for influencers and digital creators. Since the first-of-its-kind acquisition, personalities like the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and the cast of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives have already signed on to take their acts on the road.
The roots of Timeline date back to 2014, when Fisher was a publicist at what’s now known as Maker Studios, a digital division of Disney where she worked with YouTube creators like Rebecca Black and TheRhodesBros. She left the job a year later and started Timeline first as PR company, bringing nearly a dozen clients with her. But while others were scrambling to understand the creator economy, Fisher sensed opportunity — and soon shifted her focus. “So many people were trying to figure out how to merge the digital and traditional world together,” Fisher says. “There was a gap in the market.”
She was early to some of the now-commonplace practices of influencer culture. In 2017, she scored client Anastasia “Stas” Karanikolaou a capsule collection with PrettyLittleThing. That same year, Fisher helped Chantel Jeffries leverage club appearances into a legitimate DJ career and record deal. “I was so passionate about building and creating, and it was just like the Wild, Wild West,” Fisher says. “No one ever did this before, so there was no roadmap of like, ‘This is what you do and this is how you do it, and this is who you talk to.’ No one knew. So I was literally making it up as we went.”
So to what does she owe her success? Aside from the usual mix of passion and hard work required to run any business, the CEO starts her day by reading her daily horoscope and always carries a few crystals in her bag. “I don’t know why it works or what it’s actually doing, but I don’t ever take it out of my bag because I don’t want to, like, mess up the voodoo,” says Fisher. Here, she recounts the early days of her career, the qualities she looks for in clients, and her unlikely productivity tip.
In those early days, did you have a lot of people around you who were supportive?
Oh, everyone was a hater. Everyone talked sh*t about me, everyone called me every name in the book. I think that was the hardest part of starting my own thing — no one believed it. Now everyone’s like, “How do we get in the digital space? Help bring me deals.”
What has been the most rewarding project you’ve been a part of as a result of your job?
Doing the record deal for Chantel and having her be the first female residency in Vegas was really cool. Also, I represent Jamie Lynn Spears, and we brought back Zoey 102. I produced that movie with her.
Do you have any pre-meeting rituals?
Funny enough, I do not write anything down and I don’t use a calendar. Everything is just stored in my brain. I would not recommend it, but it works for me.
What social media platforms are you using to find your next big client?
Obviously, people say TikTok, but I’m not a huge TikTok person. I think there’s more to it than just social media. Someone has to stand for something, [whether it’s] on TV or you posted something on TikTok. It’s really about the content of it, rather than the platform that it comes from.
Who are some of the creators and influencers you’ve got your eye on right now?
Young moms. I think it’s really hard to balance [content creation and motherhood]. So any young female who’s trying their best is who I want to empower.
What is your advice to women who are just starting their careers?
I think this generation thinks things should be handed to them, and we need to shift the mindset and go back to the days where there actually is no substitution for hard work. So my advice is, honestly, you really do need to put in the work and the time and invest in yourself. Be the best version that you can possibly be.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to start their own business?
Do it. Literally just try. What is the worst thing that can happen?
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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