Katy Shah and India Mayer founded Of Note in Nashville, Tennessee, in early 2020, not to disrupt the Influencer Management industry, but to fill a specific gap they had watched develop. Both had spent years in traditional public relations, building expertise in brand positioning and storytelling across lifestyle categories. When creators in Nashville began seeking dedicated management, the founders saw the opening.

“There was quite a great creator base in Nashville, and no one was really focused on them,” India says. “Nashville is a music business town, so there are a lot of agents and managers who work with artists. Those companies were trying to dabble in influencer, but it didn’t seem like any were hyper-focused on it.”

Of Note now operates a nationwide roster of lifestyle creators spanning fashion, beauty, home decor, food and beverage, and family content. The agency rejects roughly 95% of inbound inquiries. Its pitch is intentional management: every signing is strategic, and every creator receives individualized attention rather than a standardized playbook.

What a PR Background Teaches You About Creator Marketing

Katy and India met at a Nashville PR agency, where they worked on behalf of clients across food, hospitality, and lifestyle. That environment, rather than a brand-sales or Influencer-Marketing background, shaped how they approach management today.

“Having had a public relations background, we had more awareness of all other aspects of marketing versus just coming in from a sales background,” India says. “Having an understanding of what brands are looking for in terms of their overall marketing strategy has served us very well.”

The practical effect is visible in how the agency positions itself to clients. “Our clients really respect that we understand public relations, public image, and publicity,” she adds. “We can make recommendations that we might not have been able to have had we not had that background.”

That orientation also shapes how the agency approaches creator careers. “From the very beginning, we have always been super strategy-focused and wanted to work with our clients to tell their stories and slot business opportunities into those stories in an organic way,” India explains.

Fewer Than 5% of Inbound Inquiries. That’s Not an Accident.

Few agencies advertise their rejection rate. Of Note’s founders treat it as a feature.

Of the creators who approach the agency seeking representation, fewer than 5% are signed. When the decision is no, it comes down to two factors: data and fit. “90% of the time it’s about the data,” Katy says. “We look at their revenue, analytics, and past partnerships to make sure that the people we sign are strategic for our business and for their business.”

The secondary screen is cultural. Personality and culture fit determine whether Of Note believes it can do its best work for a given creator. Rejections aren’t always permanent. “If we don’t think their business is in a place yet where they need management at the level we provide, we tell them we’d love to keep in contact as they grow,” Katy says.

That selectivity enables the agency’s core model: a low manager-to-client ratio that allows individualized daily attention. “Our managers are talking to every single one of our creators multiple times via text, phone call, voice memo, Zoom,” India says. “We’re often the first to know when they get engaged or are pregnant or are doing a big, exciting thing for work, because that leads into what they’re able to accomplish day to day.”

The revenue threshold for new signings has also risen as the agency has scaled. “When we started, we were okay signing someone making a few thousand dollars a month; now, it’s in our best interest and our team’s bandwidth to only sign creators booking at a higher volume,” Katy notes.

Two Divisions Expand Of Note’s Reach Without Inflating the Roster

Rather than accept lower-threshold creators into its core management program, Of Note built a separate infrastructure for them.

Photo: The Of Note team

Creator Strategy, launched in 2022, handles affiliate revenue, organic posting strategy, video editing, and platform optimization for creators who need support outside of brand partnerships. In practice, that means setting up Amazon shops, fine-tuning LTK performance, or helping creators build consistent income through newsletters and Substack. “We’re seeing this huge push for things like Substack,” India says. “Optimizing those platforms and finding other revenue streams allows for more longevity.”

Creator Development, added in 2024, goes further. It is a pathway for smaller creators who have not yet reached Of Note’s minimum thresholds but whom the founders believe are headed in the right direction. Of the 10 creators who have participated, two have graduated to full management. One now has over 500,000 followers; the other remains under 100,000 but has built a business within a tightly defined niche, according to Katy and India.

“It shows that there is a lot of room for different types of creators,” Katy says. “As long as someone’s really strategic and interesting and keeping up with the content their audience wants, there’s a huge opportunity to turn this into a successful business.”

Both graduates shared common traits: a well-defined niche, audience engagement depth, and a business-first mindset from the start. “They came into this thinking of their brand as a business,” Katy notes. “They knew kind of where they wanted to get to.”

Brands Have Gotten Better at Creator Partnerships. Not Good Enough.

Brand education has improved since Of Note launched. That progress, however, remains incomplete.

The clearest failure mode, from India’s vantage point, is overcontrol. “When a brand comes to us, and they want it to be very scripted and look like it’s a commercial, and they want the person to mold into what they had in their mind, it tends to be a recipe for disaster,” she says. “You’re not just hiring an actor, you’re hiring a personality and an ambassador for your brand.”

The better-performing brands, Katy notes, come with clear casting logic and then step back. The smartest campaigns, in her view, combine awareness-focused and conversion-focused executions rather than choosing between them. “The smartest brands do both in tandem,” she says. “I don’t think it’s that small brands do one thing and big brands do another.”

On the growing use of micro creators, India offers a frank read of the market. “I think it’s a mix. Brands certainly want to stretch their budget, but there are also some really excellent fits for brands that are micro creators.” Budget is a factor, she acknowledges, but the calculus isn’t always cost-driven. Sometimes the match is simply better.

Watching Agency Consolidation Happen With No Plans to Join

The talent management market in the Creator Economy has been moving toward consolidation. Of Note’s founders have watched deals form around them and made a deliberate choice to stay out.

“We’ve made the decision to stay independent and don’t see that changing anytime soon,” India says. “Mostly because we get consistent feedback from our creators that they like to be part of a smaller, more intimate agency.”

The founders acknowledge the appeal of larger platforms. Better infrastructure for finance, legal, and HR can look attractive as agencies scale. But the trade-off, in their view, doesn’t serve the creators they represent. 

The proof point they return to is retention. “We feel really proud that so many of our creators have stayed with us for years and years,” Katy says. “Our original women that we signed at the very beginning of our business are still here.”

Building Sustainability

Of Note recently held a two-day creator retreat in California for most of its roster, designed as much to observe the agency’s culture as to celebrate it. What the founders said they found confirmed what they had been building: a tight community of ambitious, aligned creators who reflect the agency’s operating values.

“The goal is to continue that throughout this year and beyond,” India says, pointing to selective additions to the roster and continued expansion of both Creator Strategy and Creator Development as the priorities for the year ahead.

In a Creator Economy where management infrastructure has largely been built around scale, Of Note’s model represents a different kind of bet: that the most durable agencies are those that grow carefully, serve deeply, and hold the line on who gets in. For its founders, the early returns suggest the approach is working.

“We’ve seen a huge amount of growth year over year,” Katy says. “That’s certainly not slowing down in 2026.”

Photo credits: Joanna Morris

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