๐ค The Permission Era Is Over
Hey Reader,
For decades, fame was controlled by a very small number of institutions. Movie studios, television networks, publishing houses, record labels, modeling agencies who supposedly discovered someone in a mall food court while ordering their Orange Julius. We all grew up with those stories. Today we call it going viral, which is the same mythology in different technology, except for one crucial detail people consistently forget.
Those people did not appear out of nowhere... they participated.
The models walked into malls, the musicians played tiny clubs, the actors went to hundreds of auditions, and the creators posted for months or years before one video caught. They were already inside the system before the system noticed them. So the discovery story was never about being discovered, it was about showing up somewhere people could find you.
People do not need permission to publish anymore. They need the courage to participate. This includes you.
That is the actual shift. The algorithm did not replace the gatekeeper, it replaced the requirement for permission. And the data is catching up to what that actually means.
Meta recently surveyed nearly 10,000 people across four generations and eight countries, and the results should permanently change how you think about your visibility strategy. The trait people valued most in creators was not aesthetics or follower counts or a perfectly curated lifestyle. It was expert knowledge, cited by 81% of respondents. The content type people most want to consume is not entertainment. It is education and learning, at 73% globally, with Gen Z at 79% and Millennials at 78%.
People are not scrolling looking for celebrities. They are scrolling looking for guides.
โAdweek summarized this research with the headline that expertise has dethroned fame. I think that stopped one insight too early.
Expertise did not dethrone fame. Expertise became fame.
Those are two very different arguments and the distinction matters enormously for how you think about your own visibility.
Because here is what I keep watching happen with the people who come to Sasquatch Media Grounds. They say they do not want to be famous, just enough clients, just a full workshop, just people who know what they do. Which is exactly what visibility is. But somewhere along the way we convinced ourselves that visibility and celebrity are the same thing and they are absolutely not. And while you might be nodding along right now, in your body the somatic response is to run away like Monty Python. And that, my friends, is not a workable strategy. That is some inner head trash that is going to sabotage your podcast plans or your YouTube posting schedule like a bad 80s TV villain.
Some people want to be LinkedIn famous while some want to be on whatever we're calling television today, and some want a TEDx talk in their bio. Some genuinely want to be the most trusted name in a very specific corner of a very specific industry. These are all legitimate, but none of them are the same thing. And until you know which one you actually want, your marketing will always feel like you borrowed someone else's definition of success and are trying to wear it like it fits.
Money is oxygen to a business. People are oxygen to money. If no one knows you exist, your business eventually suffocates. That is not vanity. That is math.
The research from this week's article makes the path forward obvious: a creator with 50,000 genuinely engaged followers in a specific vertical can and increasingly does outperform a celebrity with five million passive ones. Among Gen Z and Millennials, 85% regularly watch content from accounts they do not even follow. The interest graph has replaced the follow graph. What they're saying is that relevance beats reach, and it beats it every time.
And relevance comes from the one thing that cannot be manufactured, purchased, or borrowed from someone else's aesthetic: genuine expertise shared honestly with the kind of specificity that only exists because you actually lived it.
One of the survey respondents described trusting a creator because during a paid review the creator actually shared some negative thoughts. That honesty made her memorable. It wasn't that she had polish or the level of her production was amazing or her follower count impressed them. It was simply the willingness to say something real.
That is your entire marketing strategy in one sentence.
The permission era is over. The gatekeepers did not just lose their jobs, they also lost their relevance. Which means the only thing standing between you and being known for something real (by the right people) in a way that actually serves your business, is whether you are willing to participate consistently and honestly in the system that already exists and is already waiting for you.
Nobody gets discovered anymore.
They show up.
๐ If you want help doing that consistently, check out what's coming up in the Dojo, below...
๐๏ธ Get Booked on Podcasts
You have had "pitch podcasts" on your to-do list for at least a year. Possibly two. The pitches are still sitting in your head and the sent folder is still empty.
My friend Rachel Allen is fixing that on July 29th.
Rachel is a copywriter and fractional CMO who has turned podcast guest spots into millions of views and paying clients, and she is bringing her exact system to a live two hour workshop so you can walk away with pitches ready to send, not just another framework to think about.
Here is what you are getting: a pitch reframe that makes the whole thing feel less terrible, templates that actually get a yes, and the before during and after system that turns a single thirty minute conversation into clients for years.
Dojo members this is already yours. Everyone else grabs a ticket for $97 and the replay comes with it.
Wednesday July 29th, 2 - 4pm Pacific (5 - 7pm Eastern).
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$97.00
Pitch, Pod, Profit
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๐๏ธ Gossip from the creator trenches...
๐ฅ The Crypto Bros Have a Problem
I missed Ben MacKenzie's Portland screening of his documentary and I have not forgiven myself. The good news is you can now watch it from anywhere. MacKenzie, who you know from The OC and Gotham, took his economics degree and went to war on the crypto industry in the most methodical and entertaining way possible. Someone with real credentials using their actual expertise to hold powerful people accountable is extremely on theme for this week. Live stream with Q&A on August 22nd.
โGet a pass or select a group watch party โโ
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๐บ Audiences Are Getting Choosier
Binge watching has peaked and I am not even a little surprised. Attention is scarce and people are increasingly deliberate about what they spend it on, which means the "dump everything at once and hope they get hooked" model is losing ground to content that gives people a reason to come back. Funny timing given that I am about to drop the final season of School of Moxie in a full season release. Sometimes you do the ironic thing anyway. ๐ Give me a good reason to be a rebel... dropping July 29th.
โTo binge or not to binge โโ
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๐ Watch Hacks. I Am Assigning It as Homework.
The Emmy nominations dropped this week and Hacks is having a moment, as it should. I have been assigning this show to studio clients for a while now because it does something most business books cannot: it shows you what it actually looks like to develop a voice, protect your craft, and build something that lasts in an industry actively trying to grind you down. You do not need another framework. You need to watch Jean Smart work. Go.
โIn case you need more convincing โโ
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Let's Hang Out
More on this coming next week, but if you wanted a sneak peek, you can get your tickets starting now. Yes, there is a goody bag. ๐๏ธ Let's make money, honey! ๐ธ
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$197.00
Sasquatch Media Grounds LIVE!
Your show should make you money.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Dovetail Wine Cellars, Vancouver, WA... Read more |
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Participate + Join In
Podcast Movement's fall gathering is getting permanently parked in NYC starting this year! Whether or not you're going, you can help vote on which sessions should get stage time. 50% of the sessions are selected through community choice (so make your voice heard!) and 50% are selected through committee. Personally, I love this shift in the PM universe because it's bringing in a much more inclusive vibe. We all noticed the diversity at SXSW in March and it was a breath of fresh air for this conference series.
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