How Hannah Williams Built a 7-Figure Business With Creator Gravity
The CEO of Salary Transparent Street shares her recipe for being magnetic online.
In 2021, Hannah Williams discovered she was being underpaid $25,000 as a Senior Data Analyst. (Could you imagine?). That revelation, and the roiling anger it sparked, led her to launch Salary Transparent Street (STS).
STS is now a media platform advocating salary transparency to fight discriminatory pay practices and wage gaps. With 3 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, the business pulled in more than $1 million in its first year. Casual.
I first met Hannah in April 2022 when she hired me as a ghostwriter, and I realized immediately: This. Woman. Has. Gravity. And her magnetic presence isn’t just hypnotizing, but the driving force behind her seven-figure business.
I’d always wondered: How’d she do it?
Luckily, Hannah’s a real one and agreed to an interview to share her secret sauce. 💚
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
AL: Creator Gravity is composed of three pillars: 1) Purpose 2) Health 3) Energy. Let’s start with your purpose: A planted flag that tells the audience which direction you’re facing.
How did you know your purpose was viable enough to create an entire business around it?
HW: The first video for "Salary Transparent Street" went mega-viral. Within the first week, we were having conversations with The Washington Post, CNBC, and potential partners like Indeed and Glassdoor. That’s when I realized: I can definitely monetize this.
Usually, when people picture monetizing their business, they think of selling something to the community (a course, digital templates, etc). But the biggest opportunity is partnering with a major company to push your purpose forward. That’s where the big money is.
It also keeps your content free, which is important when you’re first starting. If peddling to your audience is the first thing you’re doing, people’s guards definitely go up!
AL: Definitely. A strong purpose also has an origin story: A personal experience that explains why you do what you do. In your case, you share the story of being underpaid $25,000 at your old job.
How do you feel about sharing such a personal part of yourself to grow the business?
HW: I had zero qualms. My origin story was integral to making Salary Transparent Street legitimate. For example (and it’s a terrible example), but say somebody started a street interview channel about cancer.
They ask people whether they’ve had cancer or been affected by cancer. How weird would it be if that person had literally no experience with cancer, with themselves, or their family?
Versus if that person comes up to you and says: “I'm doing this because I lost my family member to cancer, I want to bring awareness to it.”
Now you want to talk to them. Now it means something. And now you're invested in the journey.
AL: Another pillar in Creator Gravity is energy. It’s the unique electrical charge in your content that people subconsciously absorb. In my experience, when I create something from the heart, it “does better” than when I try to force it.
How do you infuse energy into what you build?
HW: It’s a constant battle! For me, the least important thing is the algorithm. Don't worry about what people in your niche are doing. Don't even look at what other creators are doing.
Listen to your community. Answer their questions, but at the same time, do things that you feel good about. Ultimately, your audience wants you to show up as the best version of yourself, but you can only do that when you feel good about what you’re doing.
AL: It’s interesting because energy comes across differently depending on whether you’re trying to build a “personal brand” or “gravity.”
The former focuses on being known for the sake of being known, where you’re prioritizing views and amassing followers. The latter is about creating thoughtful content that likely won’t reach as many people, but the people it does reach are greatly impacted by what you’ve made.
HW: Yeah! That goes for how you treat metrics, too.
For example, you can’t judge how “well” a video is doing based on traditional standards, like views. You have to read the comments and see what the engagement is like. Views aren't everything, and sometimes, they can tell the wrong story.
Like, if you just look at views, you could think you’re struggling. But if your comments are up, that's more important because people are showing up. That's so much more valuable than somebody who watched your video for five seconds and scrolled past.
AL: Exactly. A view means they passed by, but engagement means they stepped inside your world.
This leads well into the next question. A creator with gravity cares about the audience’s health and creates “nutritionally rich content.” How do you define what's valuable to your audience?
HW: Totally! A few things:
1. Focus on Emotional Resonance
Whenever I’m deciding what to post, I think about how people are going to walk away from the video. Are they going to be upset? Inspired? Happy? Excited? Sad? It’s so important because what we do at Salary Transparent Street is tell stories.
2. Ask Yourself What You Bring to the Table
Second, as a creator, it's key to reflect on and recognize your value. What are you bringing to the table? Why are people watching your videos?
For us, that answer is education. People watch our videos because they either want to make sure that they're being well compensated or explore what other jobs are paying.
3. Always Do Audience Research
Third, I’m always doing audience research and reading every comment on all my videos.
Like, back in the day when I interviewed a data analyst or a software engineer, I’d just ask, “How much do you make?” and move on. But now, I know when you work in tech, you have a base pay and then more added on top. I got that context by reading the comments under my videos.
I really see my community as the people that I'm creating for. I always make sure I'm meeting their needs and reading their feedback wholeheartedly.
I feel like I've come so far as a creator, and that's because I listen to the community.
AL: Love it. Let’s chat monetization.
As a creator starts to build gravity, opportunities start flooding in. But not all opportunities are created equal. Some may destroy your planet (dramatic but true) if they’re not aligned.
How do you know which opportunities to say yes to?
HW: Who we partner with could make or break our platform because we are so driven by our purpose to help workers learn and earn more through pay transparency, as well as legislation, and showing up for workers’ rights. Our community knows what our purpose is, and any deviation from that is a betrayal.
It's a betrayal of trust and of everything we spent the last three years building. That’s why we say no to 99% of partnerships that come our way.
If I cannot find a way to make a partnership relate in some way, shape, or form back to compensation, the workplace, or workers' rights, I don't even entertain it.
Most of the time, the brand partnerships we do have are ones that we sought ourselves because we know what we’re looking for.
I just take a lot of pride in making sure that the partnerships we do bring value, because we don't charge our community for anything.
I know that it’s not sustainable forever, but as long as I’m going to take ad dollars, I'm going to make sure that I work with a brand that is giving something to my community.
AL: That makes total sense. Any examples in particular of brands that were a bad fit?
HW: We actually had an opportunity with a major Fortune 500 company, but they had been in the news for union busting and basically not caring about their workers.
Could you imagine the betrayal if I’d accepted their offer?
The reason that I'm so gung-ho about all this is because I am a voracious consumer of content. I love my favorite creators, and I put a lot of trust in them. I've felt that betrayal before when you see them partner with somebody or something, and you're like,
“That's not in line with any of what I thought your values were or what you cared about me as a community member.”
It leads to an unfollow. It leads to less engagement. It leads to a loss of ad dollars in the long run. So it's not worth it to me.
I know that we can build a strong business without partnering with the wrong people.
AL: This is a perfect segue to our last question! These creators that you love have a very strong gravitational pull. What is Creator Gravity to you?
HW: I love Cierra Rene and @bran_flakezz (both are based in Philadelphia!). A couple of other creators are Victoria Paris, Allison Kuch, and Isaac Rochell. Those are creators whose content I watch every day, and the reason that I love them is that they’ve just always been themselves.
Sure, we all make mistakes. But they've always made an effort to be truthful and transparent. And I think transparency is something that resonates with people nowadays. People want to feel like you're not lying to them.
And that sounds like such a simple thing to ask for, right? But it can be really hard to feel like you know people. I'm not gonna say I know these celebrities, because I don't, but they make you feel like you’re their friend.
And a good friend would take accountability. They’d apologize. They’d try to understand. They’d show up authentically and be truthful. If you’re a creator who can be a friend to people, you're going to build gravity.
But if you just act like they're spectators that you don't respect or value their opinion, why should they value yours? Why should they value your content? It goes both ways. It can feel really like you're on this pedestal and everyone's watching you, but really?
You owe everything to your community.
Follow Hannah’s personal Instagram @thatmoneystreetgirl and the Salary Transparent Street account. And if you’d like more Creator Gravity interviews (or have a specific creator in mind!), holler and let me know. ✨
Awesome insights! So heartening to read that the algorithm matters in the least to her.
Love her insight on not pandering to the algorithm, but creating a body of work you’re proud of!