I’m not sure about you, but I don’t remember any kids in my kindergarten class standing up and saying, “I want to be an influencer when I grow up.”

Yet, a survey from Morning Consult revealed that 86% of people ages 13 to 38 want exactly that.

While some may scoff at the idea of making youtube, podcasting, or social media a career, it’s not a far-fetched dream. With the unprecedented amount of access to media platforms, equipment, and other resources, the possibility of becoming your own successful brand is higher than ever.

Recently, I sat down with former NBA player Matt Barnes, and he is backing his own kid’s pursuit of success as influencers.

“I didn’t step into the business world — or even really start thinking about business until I was about 32,” Barnes said.

“Obviously, just like my parents, I hope my kids are happy, make the NBA, and make a ton of money. But if they don’t, I have to prepare them for life, not only how to be good men and leaders, but at the same time, that business sense, because now more than ever, there are millions of dollars waiting at the palm of your hand. You just have to know how to access it.”

There truly are incredible opportunities awaiting us if we choose to educate ourselves and take the steps necessary to access them.

It wasn’t long ago that one had to work through dozens of gatekeepers, train for years, in order to be given the green light to broadcast their message on one of the few platforms that were available. Now, the cliché, intimidating figure of the all-powerful, cigar-puffing producer has faded slightly into the background. Now, the gatekeeper content creators face is not so much a person, a company, or another external factor. The biggest gatekeeper content creators face is themselves. Will they put in the time and effort necessary to see success?

Barnes has been putting in the work himself. His own show, All The Smoke, is a top 25 business podcast, and he feels like podcasting is still — in many ways– an untapped gold mine.

There are currently over two million podcasts, but that pales in comparison to how saturated other platforms are — like YouTube with its 37 million channels.

Barnes explains, “There is a ton of famous TikTokers and tons of famous YouTube kids. But no one is really in this podcast space and my kids have a unique identical twin bond where they just play off each other. The way they talk shit to each other and we’ll wrestle in the middle of the podcast, but then also intelligently speak on what they’re talking about. Like they know sports too, so I think it’s a great triple threat.”

The potential is huge. And for Barnes, he thinks this is just the beginning.

“I’m just giving the kids different opportunities, like, great if you want to play sports — but you can also be a lawyer. You can also be in management. You can also be a content creator. There’s a lot of other stuff that goes into this world outside of just playing sports. So I just want to have them prepared in that space.”

Do you think content creation is a necessary skill for future generations?