happy almost-June, friends 💌

I genuinely cannot believe we're about to cross into the back half of 2026. Wasn't it just January like five minutes ago? After the past couple of months I've had, I'm very ready for a little pause.

So I've been on a bit of a hiatus from Creator Diaries. I haven’t ran out of things to say (never the case lol) but life had decided to throw basically every major milestone at me at once (most of it was self-inflicted but I digress)

I think I decided to do every major life change humanly possible in the span of about 30 days, and somehow make it all work:

→ I got settled a new full-time role at Storyarb ✨ I'm writing content for executives, building full editorial programs/newsletters for B2B content marketing teams, working alongside a brilliant team. Also helping to grow The Standard newsletter so I’m super excited to nerd out there!

→ I got married 🤍 We tied the knot in the middle of May and then ran away to the Scottish Highlands for a road trip. We took two full weeks completely unplugged — and I mean it when I say no inbox checking was allowed! I cannot overstate how life-giving that was. I came back feeling so energized and inspired for the next chapter.

→ And we're in the middle of an international move (because why not throw that in too). My partner got his US visa, so we're packing up and heading back over to the States in June.

Woof. New job, married, moving countries… all in roughly two months. I don't necessarily recommend the timeline, but I'm here, I survived, and I'm grateful to see what's next.

In today's issue: where I'm pointing Creator Diaries for the rest of the year (off the back of one of my first big podcast features!), a few links I've been saving, a peek at the interviews in the pipeline, and one little experiment I'm hoping a few of you will jump into with me.

Let's get into it 👇

-Taylor

Right before life got chaotic, I went on the New Media podcast with Kolby Hatch — and if you want a genuine peek into what's been rattling around my brain lately about building media businesses and the creator economy, this is a great one to listen to.

We got into a lot of the stuff I'm most fixated on right now: why being a creator doesn't automatically make you a media business, what this wave of acquisitions signals (Starter Story → HubSpot, Salary Transparent Street → NowThis, Plaid → This Week in Fintech), the "key face" risk and how creators build something bigger than just themselves, why the email list is still the most undervalued asset out there, and my bull case on IRL events.

(We also got into my mom's accidental creator business, which is one of my favorite stories to tell 😂)

That's the lens I'm bringing to Creator Diaries for the back half of the year — and this convo is a great intro to all of it 🧭

The whole reason I can step away and not totally panic is that I've got some great interviews teed up. Over the next two months I'll be releasing a few new creator-founder Q&As — conversations with people building companies in the creator economy. On deck:

And as always- if you're building something in this space and would want to come on for a Q&A feature, I’d love to hear from you. Throw your hat in the ring here 👋🏻

This one is a bit of a personal experiment. I'm finally going all-in on video, and I'd love some company.

I'm looking for a handful of folks who already know they should be creating more content and want a bit of accountability and inspiration to actually DO the thing.

My idea: a small group to cheer each other on and test this out together over the next couple of months (totally free!)

If that's you, reply to this email or shoot me a DM!

A few things I've been reading, listening to, and saving while I've been away:

S/O to Matter for helping me keep this list going!

That’s all for this week 👋🏻 Here's to a strong second half of 2026! 🫶🏻