How the Creator Economy Is Changing Military Careers

The traditional military career path was once relatively straightforward: Serve, separate or retire, get an education if necessary, and find another employer. Curtez Riggs thinks that model is being disrupted.

U.S. advertising spending on creators is projected to reach $44 billion in 2026, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, as companies increasingly treat creators as a major marketing channel rather than a social-media experiment.

For service members, veterans and military spouses, that growing economy presents something else: another potential way to make a living.

Riggs, a retired Army first sergeant and founder of the Military Influencer Conference, has watched that transformation unfold for more than a decade.

“I’ve watched the economy grow,” Riggs told Military.com. And he believes military-connected people are increasingly finding their place in it.

The Traditional Military Career Path Is Changing

Riggs spent 21 years in uniform. For much of that time, he said, the career model was built around institutions. A service member might spend five, 10 or 20 years in the military, separate, pursue additional education and then join another organization.

“You were tied to an institution,” Riggs said. But younger generations aren’t necessarily approaching work the same way.

“They’re not committed to saying, ‘Hey, I want to be with this company for 20 years. I want to have this job for 20 years,'” Riggs said.

Instead, he sees younger workers looking for ways to leverage their skills more immediately and create opportunities for themselves.

Digital platforms have dramatically lowered the barriers to doing that.

Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Substack and other platforms allow individuals to build audiences around their expertise and interests and potentially earn money from those audiences.

For military-connected creators, their military experience itself can become part of that expertise. A junior enlisted service member may know relatively little about traditional entrepreneurship but possess something valuable online: firsthand knowledge of military life that other people want to understand.

Veterans can build communities around lessons learned during or after service. Military spouses can develop audiences around everything from PCS moves and careers to finance, fitness or family life.

And unlike a traditional job, creators can potentially generate revenue across several platforms at once. “We’re learning how to sustain ourselves in a very non-traditional way,” Riggs said.

A Following Can Become a Business

The opportunity is no longer simply about accumulating followers or getting free products. The creator economy is becoming increasingly professional.

IAB projects U.S. creator advertising spending will reach $44 billion this year, up from $29.5 billion in 2024 and $37 billion in 2025. Nearly half of creator ad buyers surveyed by IAB described creators as a “must buy” for their brands.

That money isn’t distributed evenly, and building an audience doesn’t guarantee a sustainable career. But it demonstrates how dramatically the business surrounding online creators has matured.

Riggs has seen the same transformation within the military-connected community. In the earlier days of social media, much of the emphasis was on algorithms, likes and clicks.

Now, he said, successful creators are increasingly thinking like business owners, considering collaborations, distribution and, most importantly, how their content generates revenue.

The military influencers plus creators are getting very savvy at how they put out and publish content, who they collaborate with, but most importantly, what’s the revenue model that’s going to drive and sustain them, allow them to grow their brands and businesses, but most importantly, continue to feed their families, Riggs said.

That revenue can come from multiple directions. A creator might earn money through brand partnerships, advertising, subscriptions, affiliate marketing, speaking, consulting, products or services.

The same piece of content can also be distributed in multiple forms. A podcast can become a YouTube video. Pieces of that video can become YouTube Shorts or TikTok clips. The conversation can become written content or social-media posts.

Riggs described an ecosystem that allows creators to “eat in multiple places.”

Military Spouses and Veterans Are Finding an Opening

For military spouses, that flexibility can be particularly significant. Traditional employment can be complicated by relocations and other demands of military life. A business or audience that moves with the creator offers a fundamentally different model.

Riggs said he is seeing more military spouses tapping into those opportunities and being rewarded for it. Veterans are doing the same.

Niche expertise that may once have been difficult to turn into a conventional job can now potentially be packaged through newsletters, podcasts, videos, courses, consulting or other products and services.

We’re seeing more people in the military spouse and veteran space that are making this a very realistic transition to support and sustain their quality of life, Riggs said.

That doesn’t mean everyone with a smartphone is building a viable business. But it does mean the options available to someone leaving military life increasingly extend beyond choosing another employer.

And for those still serving, the same opportunity creates a more complicated question.

When a Service Member’s Phone Becomes a Paycheck

Riggs sees the changing definition of work in his own family. His 16-year-old daughter works at McDonald’s for about $14 an hour, he said.

But she also understands something previous generations didn’t grow up considering: A piece of content created with her phone could potentially earn that amount in minutes.

“These kids are being introduced to a new way of work,” Riggs said. That new way of working doesn’t stop when someone joins the military.

Riggs said there are young service members who create content while wearing the uniform and generate revenue through their online presence.

That raises questions military leaders will increasingly have to confront about where personal content, military identity, duty time and commercial activity intersect.

“If my phone is paying me, the military may also be compensating me for my time,” Riggs said. “At some point, it becomes a conflict of interest.”

He believes the issue is only going to become more important as the generation entering military service becomes increasingly accustomed to creating and monetizing content.

“That’s going to be a larger question that military leaders are going to have to figure out how to address,” Riggs said.

Creators May Also Be Recruiting for the Military

There is another side to the equation. Riggs spent 17 years in Army recruiting. Growing up in Flint, Michigan, he didn’t live near a major military installation. His first meaningful exposure to military service came from a recruiter.

Today’s teenagers don’t necessarily need that recruiter to get their first look at military life. They can open TikTok, Instagram or YouTube and find service members documenting everything from basic training and deployments to workouts, career fields and everyday life in uniform.

Military service itself, Riggs said, becomes part of a creator’s identity and can provide value to the audience. That means service members building personal brands may also be providing the services with something they spend heavily to obtain: exposure to potential recruits.

“From a recruiting standpoint, the military is getting free marketing every single day,” Riggs said.

The challenge for military leaders may be figuring out how to preserve that benefit while establishing clear boundaries around commercial activity and military responsibilities.

A Different Kind of Military Transition

Riggs experienced the potential of that new career model himself before retiring from the Army. While still serving, he built digital businesses that produced substantial income.

“I got to a point where I was making a substantial amount of income while I was an active duty service member,” Riggs said.

Around his 15-year mark, he said, he seriously considered leaving the Army because the financial resources he had created outside the military made that possible.

He ultimately stayed, retiring after 21 years. But his experience illustrated something that is becoming increasingly accessible to others: The transition out of military service doesn’t necessarily have to begin on the day someone takes off the uniform.

A service member can begin developing an audience, expertise, relationships or a business years earlier.

Riggs pointed to other military-connected creators who have followed variations of that path, turning side businesses and content into speaking, collaborations, investments and other opportunities.

How widespread that phenomenon has become remains unclear. Riggs is now backing an effort through militarycreator.com to begin measuring the military-connected creator ecosystem, including why people enter it, what revenue they’re earning and what challenges they encounter.

What does the economy look like, and then why are they doing it? Riggs said. What type of revenue are they earning?

He also wants to understand what education and resources military-connected creators need to build sustainable businesses.

“The reality is, there’s no education model that’s built on at this point in time that’s focused on any individual creator based upon what their needs are,” Riggs said. “And that’s the gap that we’re seeing in the community right now.”

The traditional military transition isn’t disappearing. Most service members will still leave the military and go to work for another organization. But that is no longer the only path.

For some service members, veterans and military spouses, the next career may not begin with submitting a résumé to another institution.

It may begin with an audience, a phone and something they know that other people are willing to pay for.