You Know Who just signed a creator with 10,000 followers.
To some talent managers and agents, pouring resources into someone that close to the start of their journey as a creator might not feel worth it. But Joanna Giunta says when she’s looking for creators to add to her roster, she’s more impressed by dedication and willingness to learn than numbers.
And that approach impressed someone else: Reign Maker Group, the “constellation” of creator-focused companies offering services across brand, media, marketing, and talent. It just partnered with Giunta’s boutique talent firm You Know Who, which she co-founded with fellow longtime talent rep Olivia Doherty in 2025.
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
“Passion will take you a long way,” Giunta tells Tubefilter. “We love a development project. Showing creators, ‘This is how you understand your conversions, this is how you grow your community.'”
Signing creators who haven’t yet solidified their personal brands and built massive audiences is a chance to “mold them and see how much room they have to grow,” Giunta says. “You get to see what you can make together. There’s brands to meet, moments to be had, panels to be on, no matter what the follower count is.”
In the case of the creator with 10,000 followers, Giunta found her “through a referral from one of our long-standing clients,” she says. “We ended up signing both her and her fiancé, and for us it was a no-brainer. Even at a smaller following, her attention to detail and her ability to take a trend and make it feel entirely her own was incredibly clear. That’s always a signal.”
What about other signals? What else indicates a budding creator will grow into a sizable personal brand? “We’re drawn to creators who are genuinely living their lives and have found a compelling, creative way to share that with an audience,” Giunta says. “Someone who knows who they are, or is actively figuring it out in a way that feels honest and intentional. The creators who are constantly showing up, refining their voice, and studying the space tend to be the ones who last.”
She also looks for people who aren’t “chasing virality or gimmicks,” and people who “understand what’s working in the market but are putting their own spin on it rather than copying it,” she adds.
With all this in mind, You Know Who’s ultimate goal is to help the creators on its roster build sustainable careers in content with an audience who will dependably tune in. Its stable currently includes 17 creators across the lifestyle, fashion, and beauty niches; among them are Stephanie Pena, Giulia Amato, and Lori and Noah Dankocsik.
“We have people who started at 100K and now have 2 million,” Giunta says. Meanwhile, creators who were denied for brand deals before working with You Know Who “are now moving thousands and thousands of units” through partnerships with brands like Starbucks, Airbnb, Home Goods, Dove, Lysol, Liquid IV, and L’Oréal.
“The talent support part of our business involves making sure we’re constantly able to evolve as they evolve, as what they’re doing evolves, and as the internet evolves,” she adds. “We’ve always spent so much time with our talent, strategizing where they’re going to take their careers this year, keeping on trend.”
In this business, she says, “Wins aren’t always seen unless they’re a transaction–unless they’re tied to money. We wanted to focus more on building careers versus having a number of talent that we’re just billing on. Anyone can close a deal that comes into their inbox. We wanted to show people what their real potential is.”
Doherty agrees, chiming in, “It’s always been less about the immediate dollar sign. If you’re excited about someone, go for it. Run with it. Someone might not have the numbers, but we can sculpt them and elevate them. It’s all about the passion.”
Giunta says the primary advantage of coming under Reign Maker Group’s umbrella is that “we’re able to maintain that independent manager feeling, someone who can chat with you every day, spend time on calls to you, but you have access to a big creative-level agency network. We have access to people who work in publishing, access to larger deals…”
“Everything is in house, and we have all these branches we can tap into while maintaining integrity with our talent,” Doherty adds.
Giunta and Doherty will always be “home base” for creators, “like a best friend,” they say but as part of Reign Maker Group, You Know Who’s talent will “also get the big agency feel and connections and experience.”
Jonathan Chanti, Reign Maker Group’s co-founder and CEO, says his company teamed up with You Know Who because “they’ve proven they can build across every layer of the ecosystem. From ventures to brand deals to social consultation and PR expansion, they’ve consistently executed with depth.”
Giunta and Doherty “represent the difference between people who showed up early and people who’ve actually built something over time,” he adds. “You Know Who has built deep relationships, real deal flow, and a multidimensional approach to the business that goes far beyond traditional management.”
Reign Maker Group launched in July 2025 and has since acquired a handful of companies. Last October, it sealed a deal with the Beverly Hills-based Paradigm Talent Agency, which will play a key role in helping it build digital creators’ careers offline, and traditional celebrities’ careers online. And, in December, it partnered with North House Talent–which, similar to You Know Who, is a boutique management company that wants to keep things feeling personal, while giving creators access to Reign Maker Group’s corporate-sized stable of services.
Reign Maker Group is a Tubefilter partner.
