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TL;DR
Hellooo friends! I can’t believe summer is winding down here but I always love this feeling of “back to school” energy in September. I had a lovely little reminder the other day at how crazy August has been for me over the years.
5 years ago, I was wrestling with the decision to leave my prestigious journalist job at The Wall Street Journal (and NYC overall). *cue full blown anxiety attacks and an identify crisis
4 years ago, I lost my tech job AND got dumped on the same day (true story; you can’t make this stuff up)
From this bottom point—affectionately known as my own personal D-Day—I completely rebuilt my life from scratch. I started my own freelance business. I finally left NYC and pursued my dream of becoming a digital nomad.
I eventually made the leap to live in London for 3 years, where I met my partner (now husband <3)!
This year I find myself going through another reinvention era (albeit with a lot less of the crisis and anxieties of years prior) and feel grateful of this date that reminds me each year of the growth and change that’s possible. I’m still on this beautiful, endlessly surprising journey to build a life and business that I love 💗💫
And I’m so excited to share with you a peek into what I’m building!
-Taylor
$$$ ALERT
Building a creator business can feel like death by a thousand subscriptions. A newsletter platform here (love u tho beehiiv <3), a banking app there, an automation tool, a community platform — and before you've made a dollar, you're bleeding hundreds a month just for the privilege of trying things out.
And the worst part you're paying full price to experiment and figure out what even works for you when you have the least money to spend on it.
That's why I teamed up with Creator Access Network 💪 Think of it like Costco for creators: one membership unlocks exclusive deals from 40+ companies (the best beehiiv deal anywhere, Manychat, Mercury, Wispr Flow, and more) — over $20k in savings and growing.
THE CREATOR TO FOUNDER JOURNEY
For about two years now I've been circling the same idea from a dozen different angles. The creator-founder divide. How to use content to build a business. Build an audience, then do whatever you want. Every interview, essay, deep dive, etc. has been me poking at one specific question:
How does someone go from having an audience to having a business?
One of the things I’ve been building around is this framework for the creator to founder journey. I’ve noticed key characteristics (and growing pains!) of SO many creator businesses that I’ve studied over the past few years.
There’s a clear path:
Experimenter: “I’m figuring out what I want to say and who I want to say and who I want to say it too.” At this stage you’re testing out platforms, formats, niche etc.
Publisher: “I’ve found my thing. Now I’m building the habit and the audience.” Once you’ve figured out your fave platform and the content you like to create, you start doubling down.
Monetizer: “I’m proving that people will pay for what I’ve built.” Now that you’ve built and engaged audience, you start with experiment with different ways to make money.
Operator: “It works—but it all still depends on me.” This is the sneakyyyy killer of creator businesses. You’ve found something that works, that makes money, but without finding a way to scale you get stuck with it all depending on you.
Founder: “I’m leading a company that started with an idea I published online.” This is the dream state, but it takes a lot of hard won lessons, delegating, and (most importantly) failing to get there.
The creator to founder journey
So what does this mean for you? Well first I believe that awareness is powerful tool. If you think you’re building like a founder but your business shows you you’re only at the publisher, well you have some clear gaps to close.
And if you’re at the experimenter level wondering how to level up to the next stage, you have clear action items to work on.
Anyways, there is a lot more to come from me on this topic. I’m excited to share more!
In the meantime, I’m always looking for more creator-founders to interview for this newsletter. I’ve been building out video interviews and will be publishing them on Youtube moving forward too 👀
Here are the people I’m looking to connect with:
You're building a community and figuring out how to make it sustainable
You're trying to actually monetize a YouTube channel or newsletter
You're negotiating brand deals and learning what things are worth
You've hired someone and have opinions about how it went
If any of this sounds like you, I’d love to chat! Reply to this email and we can keep this convo going.
LINKS & THINGS 🗞️
A few things I've been reading, listening to, and saving recently:
Sponsor Magnet by Justin Moore. I got free access to this book thanks to my Creator Access Network membership and literally sped through this book in 2 days. As I’ve been on my creator business journey, navigating the world of brand deals has felt like this black box. Justin’s book has been INSANELY valuable for me in understanding how to actually pitch brands, how to understand the value of your audience, and the key terminology you should know when negioting deals. (I’d love to publish a deep dive on some of my key lessons learned here soon!)
Recently got to chat with Jack Settlemen of Snapback Sports for a Creator Economy NYC feature—and I loved to learn about how he’s building his creator business! What started as a Snapchat account has turned into a full scale media empire. We also talked about his creator equity deal with a company that sold for more than $1B and his thoughts on long term brand partnerships .
This is a delightful read from ADWEEK on how the biggest creators are hiring outside CEOs, launching product lines, restructuring into parent companies and courting Wall Street. it also covers the unglamorous ops work nobody talks about: employment agreements, clean books, building a team that can run without you. (helllo operator to founder stage!)
Speaking of creator → founder journeys, I also loved this profile of fitness influencer Gabby George (the creator behind the viral bridal arms series!) and how she’s been building her own 7-figure fitness platform instead of chasing brand deals.
S/O to Matter for helping me keep this list going!
I’m also excited to partner with Wispr Flow for this week’s issue. I’m not sure there’s another tech product out there than I’m a bigger loyalist and evangelist for! Moving to dictating tools has been a game changer in my work and I truly use it for everything, every single day.
Speak naturally. Send without fixing.
Wispr Flow turns your voice into clean, professional text you can send the moment you stop talking. Not rough transcription you have to clean up. Actual polished text — ready for email, Slack, or any app.
Speak the way you think. Go on tangents. Change your mind mid-sentence. Flow strips the filler, fixes the grammar, and gives you text that reads like you spent five minutes writing it.
89% of messages sent with zero edits. Millions of professionals use Flow daily, including teams at OpenAI, Vercel, and Clay. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.
HOW I CAN HELP 👋🏻
If you’re enjoying my work and want to find some way to work together, here’s how I can help!
I’m looking to work with 1 more creator company client ahead of Q4! Putting out manifestation list into the world: I’d absolutely love to launch a branded interview series with a creator tech tool and talk about how creators are using their brand to build their business! Dream brand if you’re reading this, you know where to find me 🙂
I’m opening a few 1:1 strategy/consulting slots on Wednesdays moving forward! If you have specific questions around newsletters, LinkedIn, founder led content, creator businesses, etc. I’d love to chat!