🍅 Do You Know What a Box of Tomatoes Costs?

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Hey Reader,

There is a video making the rounds right now that I cannot stop thinking about, and it is not about AI or algorithms or the creator economy. It is about tomatoes.​

A restaurant owner walks into his kitchen and asks every single employee the same question: how much does a box of tomatoes cost? The answers come in all over the place, and every single one of them is significantly lower than reality. He pulls out the invoices. The cost of goods has increased 260% in a single year. That cost ends up on customer tabs for their pizzas.

His point is not to shame anyone. His point is that you cannot make good decisions about a business you do not financially understand. When a customer complains that the pizza is too expensive, it is because they have never stood on the owner's side of the equation. They see the pizza. They do not see the tomatoes, the labor, the lease, the insurance, the equipment, the electricity, and the ten other line items that exist before a single slice hits the table.

Every business is the same. Including yours. Especially yours, if you have been pretending otherwise.

Your content should not be a cost center. It should be a profit center. That is the entire thesis of what we do here, and most people are running their content operation in the wrong direction and calling it hustle.

Here is the pattern I see constantly, and I want you to sit with it honestly because there is a very good chance you recognize yourself in it.

Inspired by a true recent story:

Someone comes to me wanting full showrunner services. Production coaching, strategy, content planning, editing, the whole operation, and they want it fast because life does not wait. The proposal comes back reflecting exactly what they described wanting. Full service, real timeline, editors, videographers, administrative support, strategy layered on top. The number is significant, not because anyone invented it, but because that is what it costs to deliver what they asked for. When you want that level of production quality, it is not a solo job. My people are very good at what they do, and good people cost money.

The response, which is a very human response, is some version of not realizing how much was involved. Even after real talk about real numbers on live calls.

It is not the cost that surprises people. It is the official proposal/contract/invoice with their name on it. In the abstract, everyone knows good production costs money. In the specific, when it is your project and your proposal and your credit card, suddenly the equation feels wildly different than the vibe board you built in your head.

This is not a story about how production is expensive and you should feel bad about your budget. This is a story about standing on the owner's side of the equation, which is the only side that actually runs a business.

I hear people say things like "other people make videos for a hundred dollars each." Good for them. But I do question how they survive, and whether a spouse or a safety net is quietly subsidizing that price point. A hundred dollars is less than one seventh of my personal, very real, monthly health insurance premium. That is not shade. That is math. The vision you have of the outcome you want is not found through bootstrapping anymore. Scale requires a cost of goods.

You could become a tomato farmer. But then you would not be a pizza maker. You cannot do both at the same volume, and at some point you are going to spend capital. The only question is whether you are doing it with your eyes open or your eyes closed.

You cannot want the pizza without understanding the tomatoes.

The creators you admire are investing significantly to make it look that effortless. The smartest ones are not building the ten thousand dollar per month production out of the gate either. They started with a clear understanding of their floor, learned to earn back their overhead first, and grew into the return on that investment with intention. That is not glamorous. That is how it works.

Your content should be a profit center, not a permanent line item on your personal credit card.

That is the whole point of the Creator Economy Dojo. Not to sell you on a dream production budget you cannot sustain, but to help you turn your content from a cost center into a profit center, whatever that looks like for your specific setup, and build from there with your eyes wide open.

Because the vision you have is absolutely achievable. You just have to be willing to stand on the owner's side of the equation and look at the full picture honestly, tomatoes and all.

Your show should make you money. That is not a goal. That is the standard.

👉 Check out the Dojo and learn to become a profit center... or scroll down to join us for our Claude Design workshop this month and start automating the production tasks that are eating your time and your budget.

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🗞️ Gossip From the Creator Trenches

🏗️ Are You Building a Business or Playing House?

Think about what it costs to open a brick and mortar store: rent, electricity, paint, counters, fixtures, all of it before a single customer walks in. Now look at your production setup. Your SaaS stack is your counters. Your internet and electricity are your infrastructure. Your mortgage or rent is your lease. That is your floor, and your revenue has to clear it before you get paid a single dollar. The question worth sitting with is whether you are actually engaging in commerce or playing house with your projects. There is no store without product, and if you are so deep in bootstrapping mode that you have become the contractor building out your own fitting rooms, you have stopped making the thing people actually pay for. Your addiction to bootstrapping might be killing your entire store.
🔗 The brick-and-mortar reality check​

🐎 Muck Out More Stalls.

I was deep in "allergy" eye territory this week 😭 when I got sucked into the story of the trainer behind the Kentucky Derby winner. Not only is she the first female trainer to win the Derby, but the way she built that path, quietly, unglamorously, and one stall at a time, is the story we all needed right now. And then you find out the jockeys who came in first and second are brothers. The whole thing is a masterclass in what team effort and long game thinking really look like when they pay off. If you published your latest episode this week and wondered why the million dollar deal has not materialized yet, this one is for you. Go muck out some more stalls.
🔗 I'm not crying, you're crying​

💰 People Don't Have Money Right Now. That Is the Whole Explanation.

I watched this reel by a young comedian more times than I am going to admit publicly because he just said the quiet part out loud with zero filter. Why are the fun things not selling? Because people are squeezed and they know it. That is not a think piece or a trend report. That is just the truth. What this means for your business is worth sitting with honestly. No, you cannot survive on free offers and good vibes. But you can make sure that what you are charging for delivers a real outcome, something that feels more essential than a concert ticket in a tight economy. Content like this is actually excellent market research because it is a very loud, very public expression of exactly what your audience is sitting with right now.
🔗 It's funny because it's true​

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🤖 Your Promo Content Shouldn't Take This Long

Claude Design just dropped... and we're already putting it to work.

On May 27th, Everett Cento (the person who quietly runs the AI engine at Sasquatch Media Grounds) is teaching a live workshop on how to use Claude Design to generate polished, on-brand social content from your actual brand assets.💨 Faster.💨 Without the token-limit wall.💨 Without starting from scratch every single time.💨

This is not a "here's what AI can do" hype session. This is hands-on, your-brand-in-the-tool, walk away with a working system in two hours + at least one (if not more) quality posts ready to schedule.

It's open to everyone 🎉 Dojo members, you already have this. Everyone else, tickets are $97 and the recording comes with it.

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Let's Hang Out Just want me 1-on-1 to tell you exactly what to do about that problem with your show? Smash the link and book me... all to yourself. $197.00 Borrow My Brain: Talk Me Out of My Content Spiral, Mary Let’s fix that. ​

Participate + Join In: Despite the gossip on LinkedIn, ChatGPT isn't dead. Far from it. These custom bots are used weekly by people who swear by them. $13.00 Buy My Bots: Get the whole library Run It Like a CEO ​