What I've Learned Working with Content Creators and Influencers as a Performance Psychologist: Behind the Camera

Content creation has evolved from a hobby into a legitimate career path, with creators building massive audiences and substantial businesses. Through my work supporting content creators, including involvement with programmes like Endpoint LIVE’s Performance Psychology initiative, I've often seen that creators face unique mental challenges where psychological skills and resilience training can make a substantial difference. (If you’re a content creator or have worked with people in the field, I’d love to hear your suggestions too if any of this article echoes your experiences!)

The Psychology Behind the Camera

Here are some of the key psychological patterns I've observed working with creators across platforms:

Heavy Metrics Focus Creates Comparison Trap

Creators live in a world of constant metrics with stats like views, likes, subscriber counts, engagement rates, watch time, shares and more all readily available. This can lead to excessive social comparison, with constant evaluation against others, often unfavourably (Vogel et al., 2014). Much like most of us, creators can end up comparing their behind-the-scenes struggles and worst days, with others' highlight reels and best days, overlooking the fact that most people rarely share their failures publicly. This can give the impression that everyone else is doing better, and you’re falling behind, which in my observations, can significantly impact motivation and wellbeing.

This metrics overload can transform creative expression into a numbers game, reducing intrinsic motivation and increasing anxiety as content shifts away from creativity, towards metric extraction. I’ve seen over time that supporting creators to focus on process goals alongside their outcome metrics can actually help both performance and wellbeing in the long term.

Burnout Risk Is Amplified by Lack of Control

Traditional burnout research identifies lack of control as a primary risk factor (Maslach & Leiter, 2016), and content creators experience this acutely through algorithm changes, changing trends, government policy, platform policies, and audience demands they cannot predict or control, with their income often directly tied to these outcomes.

A video that took weeks to produce might receive minimal views due to algorithmic shifts, whilst a throwaway post may go viral, and it’s this unpredictability combined with the perception of a lack of control which can cause challenges. Unlike athletes who know the rules of their sport won't fundamentally change overnight or that the government will ban their sport completely, creators operate in constantly shifting environments that can devastate their reach, niche, and income without warning.

Resilience as an Essential Skill

The public nature of content creation often exposes creators to criticism, trolling, and harassment at a scale you’d rarely ever see at an ‘in-person’ job. The sheer frequency and severity of abuse can be a real challenge to handle, especially if you’re a creator just starting out who must moderate their own chats or comments. Not only do creators have to handle this form of abuse, they also have to maintain their performances and brand whilst doing it, which can be exhausting.

Many creators I've worked with have developed sophisticated psychological defence mechanisms, learning to separate constructive feedback from destructive comments. They also take practical steps to prevent these events occurring whilst managing their own responses when they do occur.

The Authenticity Paradox Creates Constant Tension

Linked with the idea of performing and ‘keeping the mask on’ is the challenge of being simultaneously authentic and performative. Research on emotional labour (Wagner et al., 2014) shows how exhausting it can be to manage emotional expression for work, and creators do this constantly. They're expected to share genuine moments whilst maintaining a brand, be relatable whilst being aspirational, and continuously entertain.

When you combine this with the fact that if healthy boundaries are not in place creators can feel like they’re ‘always on’, it’s the perfect storm. Even when you ‘clock off’, notifications might still come through, you might watch other streamers to relax but find yourself thinking about their success and how to replicate it, and before long it’s time to go live again and your mind hasn’t had a proper rest.

Pre-emptive Support

Most creators and agencies only seek psychological support when they're already struggling, and by this point it’s likely that both wellbeing and performance have suffered. Working in this space has shown me that proactive psychological support centred around stress management, boundary setting, and emotional regulation before problems arise, can be effective in minimising the risk of challenges down the line.

Just as athletes work with sport psychologists during training and the off-season, not just after injuries, creators could benefit enormously from ongoing psychological support that might prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

The Business Case for Creator Psychology

Supporting creators psychologically is both great for the creators and the businesses that work with them. Wellbeing challenges and burnout directly impact content quality, consistency, and career longevity which is a significant challenge for the creator’s wellbeing and their investment in the career.

Forward-thinking organisations are beginning to recognise that sustainable creator success requires more than talent and equipment. It requires robust mental frameworks and support that helps creators navigate the unique pressures of their profession whilst maintaining creativity and authenticity.

Moving Forward

Content creation is here to stay, but we need to professionalise the support structures around it. Just as we wouldn't expect professional athletes to compete without physical conditioning and injury prevention, we shouldn't expect creators to build audiences and businesses without psychological preparation and ongoing support.

Long-term success in content creation requires attention to both the creative and psychological sides of the work. It’s brilliant to see organisations like Endpoint that are beginning to recognise this, investing in creator wellbeing alongside performance as part of their overall strategy.

If you're a content creator struggling with any of these challenges, or an organisation/agency looking to support creator wellbeing, I'd welcome the conversation. The field is evolving rapidly, and we're still learning what works best! Feel free to reach out at: www.abbottsportpsy.com

References:

• Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103-111.

• Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Roberts, L. R., & Eckles, K. (2014). Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of popular media culture, 3(4), 206.

• Wagner, D. T., Barnes, C. M., & Scott, B. A. (2014). Driving it home: How workplace emotional labor harms employee home life. Personnel Psychology, 67(2), 487-516.