๐ซด What if YOU are the one job away?
Hey Reader,
I read something in Variety recently that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. Last year, actor Cheyenne Jackson was about to lose his SAG-AFTRA health insurance. Despite a career spanning more than 40 television shows and several movies, he hadn't earned enough that year to qualify.
He was one job away.
Specifically, he needed another $6,000. So he called his friend Kathy Bates, told her the truth, and asked if there was anything he could do on Matlock. She called him back less than five minutes later. She found him five lines with no character name. Instant yes.
That tiny role helped him keep his health insurance. Now Jackson is paying it forward with One Job Away, using his platform to spotlight other working actors who are painfully close to qualifying for SAG-AFTRA health coverage and need one more booking. Some aren't thousands of dollars away. They're a few hundred bucks short.
And I keep thinking... How many of us are one job away from something right now?
I'm not talking about your big, audacious dream. Definitely not your someday goal and we are not touching that giant number on your vision board underneath the villa in Tuscany. I'm talking about something you need.
Maybe you're one job away from making rent without touching your savings, hiring the help you've desperately needed, staying independent instead of applying for a j-o-b office job, making payroll, paying down the credit card that's been quietly picking up the pieces where you're not making ends meet, or simply having enough breathing room to make your next decision without panic sitting on your chest.
But I've been thinking even more about the person on the other side of that equation.
Kathy Bates didn't need a job.
Cheyenne Jackson did.
She had something else: the ability to put his name in the room.
๐ You might be somebody's Kathy Bates.
We talk about community and networking from the perspective of the person who needs something. Build relationships so people will refer you, tell people what you need, stay visible, ask for help.
All true.
But relationships aren't vending machines where you put in enough coffee dates and eventually a referral falls out. They're reciprocal.
Who are you referring? Hiring? Recommending when somebody asks if you know a great designer, copywriter, photographer, accountant, consultant, editor, coach, contractor, or producer?
Whose work are you buying? Whose name are you putting in the room?
Because you may not think of yourself as particularly powerful.
But you might be Kathy Bates to somebody.
๐ธ I'm one job away, too.
For about three months, I've been doing some of the least Instagrammable work in existence. I've been systematically going through my network, reconnecting with people, asking for referrals, qualifying opportunities, making introductions when I can, following up, submitting proposals, and doing the deeply unsexy nuts and bolts of business development.
There is no cute BTS Reel for this. It's spreadsheets and emails and conversations and asking. This is normal, expected work but in a tight economy it has an urgency to it that is deeply uncomfortable.
Because โone job awayโ doesn't mean waiting for somebody to discover you. You still have to put your name in the room.
There are several places in my business where one job changes the math.
- I'm one job away from not needing some of the quiet contracts you never hear about because they're there to pay the bills.
- I'm one job away from the Dojo becoming a reliable monthly revenue floor that keeps the studio lights on without me spending roughly 30 hours some weeks hunting through RFPs, proposals, and grants.
- I'm one job away from putting my #1 behind-the-scenes helper on a monthly retainer so we can make more things, faster, because generosity gets a hell of a lot easier when the infrastructure underneath it is stable.
- I'm even one job away from funding the first grant I want to offer a marginalized creator to help them make a podcast that deserves to exist.
And there are bigger financial realities in my business that aren't one job away at all. I self-funded the startup costs for my studio after traditional funding didn't materialize. Those costs get solved by many jobs, over time.
That's an important distinction. โOne job awayโ isn't magical thinking.
One client isn't going to descend from the heavens on a glittery fucking cloud and solve your entire life.
Sometimes, though? One job really does change something.
And while writing this, I realized something almost embarrassingly obvious.
You're already in my room. ๐ฅณ
You subscribed to this newsletter. You know what I do. Some of you have been reading my work for years. So... are YOU my one job away?
Maybe you've been meaning to hire me. Maybe there's a media project sitting on your someday pile. Maybe somebody told you last week that they need exactly the kind of help I provide and you didn't think to connect us.
I've spent three months doing the asking everywhere else.
I'm asking here, too. ๐ TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE WORKING ON โ hit reply because I can't read your mind from over here!
๐ค And then go look around your own room.
I hear some version of this year has been so hard everywhere right now.
Yes.
It fucking has.
But if we're all sitting in separate rooms waiting for somebody else to send the referral, make the introduction, buy the thing, hire the person, or create the opportunity... we're going to be sitting there for a while.
Maybe you can't hire someone yourself, but you know someone who can.
Maybe you've been meaning to buy the thing anyway.
Maybe you have an introduction you've been sitting on because you haven't gotten around to sending the email.
Maybe you've been lurking in a service provider's orbit for six months thinking, I really need this, but haven't pulled the trigger.
I'm not asking you to override your budget, ignore red flags, manufacture a need, or spend money because somebody else's hardship makes you feel guilty.
That's not generosity. That's shitty decision-making with a halo on it.
But if the need is real, the fit is good, the resources are available, and you're still hesitating... why?
Sometimes โI'm being responsibleโ is responsible.
โAnd sometimes it's fear wearing a sensible cardigan.
Cheyenne Jackson started One Job Away because Kathy Bates once came through for him. Somebody helped him, so he turned around and made himself useful to the next person.
That's community. It is not what can everybody in my network do for me? Community is a fucking verb. It's an action. Are you in motion in this season?
What can move through this network because we're all paying attention to each other?
The client you don't need might be exactly the client somebody else needs. The job you hear about might belong in somebody else's inbox. The contractor you're thrilled with probably needs you to say their name when someone asks.
You don't need 741,000 Instagram followers to participate.
You need to pay attention.
So I want to know: Are you one job away from something?
Hit reply and tell me. You don't have to give me your entire financial history or convince me your need is worthy. Tell me what one job would change for you and what that job looks like.
Maybe I know somebody. Maybe somebody reading this knows somebody. Maybe nothing happens this time.
But I'd rather we start putting names in rooms than keep watching talented people disappear into their own little corners while everybody waits for the economy, algorithm, government, universe, or Mercury exiting the microwave to save us. (FYI, Mercury did finish cooking in the microwave the night before this landed in your inbox. ๐
)
And if you're reading this thinking, I'm okay right now. I'm not one job away from anything...
Good.
Maybe this week you get to be somebody else's Kathy Bates. ๐
๐ซ It's weird until it works! Maybe you can help someone by sharing this newsletter. Share the archive here.โ
โป๏ธ Give Your Gear a Second Life
(And Someone Else a Voice!)
As part of Sasquatch Media Grounds' climate pledge and our journey toward B Corp certification, we're launching a Gear Lending Library to keep perfectly good creative technology out of landfills and put it back to work in the hands of people who need it.
Got a microphone, camera, lighting kit, or other production equipment collecting dust? We're accepting donations of working gear to help build a community resource where creators can borrow equipment instead of having to buy everything themselves.
We'll begin lending to Creator Economy Dojo members in early 2027, with plans to expand access to the broader community later in the year.
Less waste. More access. More voices making cool shit. That's a climate pledge we can get behind.
SMG is a for-profit business, so any & all donations are not tax-deductible charitable contributions.
We're accepting working equipment only during this initial drive.
๐๏ธ Gossip from the creator trenches...
๐ The new luxury is handmade
I love spotting a trend and then watching it go mainstream. A year ago, I was talking about how AI would make genuinely handmade art and creativity more valuable, not less... and now designer brands are building campaigns around exactly that. If you're worried about AI disrupting creative work, remember: when one thing becomes abundant, something else becomes scarce. Scarcity has value. Can you value yourself differently to carve a new customer pipeline?
โThe new luxury is analog โโ
|
|
๐ ๏ธ Marketing is engineering now
From this day forward, you may refer to me as your Anti-Boring Engineer. Tech companies are apparently hiring IRL Engineers because (in my extremely scientific summary) the tech bros are discovering that attention maxxing has industry standards. Underneath the ridiculous job title is something worth noticing: distribution costs money, attention takes work, and making good shit isn't enough if nobody finds it.
โNames & titles are overrated โโ
|
|
๐ Your judginess is showing
Speaking of being someone else's Kathy Bates... have you considered whether dunking on small business owners for using AI is helping anyone? Maybe you can become part of the solution instead. Read: purchase something. And if you haven't looked at Canva's templates lately, some of those flyers you're judging may have started there anyway. AI didn't invent mediocre marketing. There has always been slop.
โMaybe supporting is more helpful โโ
|
Something For Sale
Someone told me this week, "Holy shit that's a discount." Yup. ๐ Got something you're stuck on? Get three private 60-minute strategy sessions with me to use over 90 days. Bring your business, marketing, media, or creative problem... and we'll figure out what makes sense to do next. Just my brain on your business.
 |
$500.00
Borrow My Brain: Holiday Edition โ๏ธ
|
โ
|
|
Something For Free
I'm planning a New Year New Me YouTube training on how I use AI to work with my CRM in normal human language, and I'm considering adding a private live Q&A for those of you who want help figuring out how this could work in your own business.
Want it? Raise your hand.
No commitment required. I just want to know who's interested.
๐๐ปโโ๏ธ TEACH ME THE AI + CRM THING โโ
This is how you find the Kathy Bateses in your network!
|
โ