iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Francis Zierer

Ernie Smith @ernie.tedium.co · 17/09/2025

This is the way to do it. Substack wants to own ALL your audience on its own tools. Beehiiv is like, “sure, put your chat on Discord and your videos on YouTube, we’ll make it all work out.” Best of breed > suites. Every. Single. Time.

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

On Tasteland this week, @mikerugnetta.com joined us to talk about late-stage platformism, the rise of the agentic web, that the attention economy is a zero-sum game, how Hentai explains platforms, and heading to the library to avoid AI slop. Full episode on all pod platforms! pod.link/1760333416/

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Lex Roman @lexroman.com · 15/07/2025

What’s a creator journalist? Liz is featured in today’s Creator Spotlight talking about how creator journalism differs from traditional newsrooms www.creatorspotlight.com/p/liz-kelly-... @lizkellynelson.com

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 Your audience wants to pay you

How one former media executive is teaching creators to think like founders, not freelancers

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Liz Kelly Nelson @lizkellynelson.com · 15/07/2025

So fun to talk to @fzierer.bsky.social about my favorite topic!

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

People ARE paying independent, creator-model journalists for their work. @lizkellynelson.com is one of a network of leaders helping journalists make the jump from traditional newsrooms to starting up their own publications through her essential newsletter, Project C. An essential episode today.

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Today on Tasteland, @colenowicki.com joins @princessdaisy.bsky.social and I to talk about the state of the skate industry, Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (and the pitfalls of happinessmaxxing), the smell of skateboarding, and religion being big in skateboarding. www.tasteland.fyi/ep-46-state-...

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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 18/04/2025

A good read for my fellow synesthesic freaks, as a person who often thinks of things that aren't smells in terms of smells, loved this from @fzierer.bsky.social!

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Lex Roman @lexroman.com · 16/04/2025

Growth hacks like me are killing what’s good about the internet. @fzierer.bsky.social has the antidote in his piece for Dirt on “brand sillage.” dirt.fyi/article/2025...

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Amanda McLoughlin (they/she) @amandamc.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Fantastic interview with @fzierer.bsky.social for @beehiiv.com! Never before has an interviewer quoted one of my vlogs back at me 🫶🏻

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

“[What qualifies someone] to run a digital media company or be a digital media creator is making digital media.” — @amandamc.bsky.social on The Creator Spotlight Podcast today. What Amanda, Eric, and co. are doing at Multitude is a blueprint for sustainable creator-first media businesses. Listen!

youtube.com

How to Make a Living as a Creator — from a podcasting expert

YouTube video by Creator Spotlight

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Today in TASTELAND, Colin Nagy joins @princessdaisy.bsky.social and I to discuss laundering credibility, who gets to decide what we remember, how cultural mores get baked into LLMs, fact-check literacy, "irrational hospitality," and more

tasteland.fyi

Ep. 37: In defense of hospitality ft. Colin Nagy

This week Daisy and Francis talk to travel and hospitality writer, Colin Nagy. Colin is also the co-creator of the newsletter 'Why is this interesting?' Colin: http…

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Today on Tasteland, Trey Taylor joins @princessdaisy.bsky.social and I to discuss his new fragrance brand Serviette, how he taught himself to make perfume, the art of selling a lifestyle, perception vs. perception vis-à-vis taste, Kelly green, and more. Listen —

tasteland.fyi

Ep. 34: Fragrance Rich ft. Trey Taylor

This week Daisy and Francis are joined by Trey Taylor, Gen Z consumer expert who has recently pivoted into the world of fragrances and just launched their perfume b…

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Sworn enemy of video podcasts @ericsilver.bsky.social came on my video podcast and we talked about: 🎙️ How he teaches podcasting 🎧 Audio-only podcasts are still the future 🚫 Spotify toxicity 🤝 Building an ethical, creator-first business 🎲 Why "actual play" podcasts work so well And more : )

youtube.com

How to Make a Living as a Podcaster in 2025

YouTube video by Creator Spotlight

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

"It is so much harder to teach someone who has no imagination how to have a creative idea than to teach a creative person to learn Excel." @ericsilver.bsky.social on tomorrow's episode of The Creator Spotlight Pod. It's a good one.

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nick susi @nicksusi.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

People are saying everything feels like hypergambling now. I will add - social media feels like it has become a casino not for financial but for social capital. A game where people place bets with hot takes, where bigger risks could have bigger rewards, but the house always wins.

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Peri Strathearn @peristrathearn.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Paying subscribers to @mattbrown.bsky.social's newsletter, Extra Points, get access to a simulator game: "an edutainment product for sports students", as @fzierer.bsky.social puts it. That's a cool perk. More info: www.creatorspotlight.com/p/matt-brown...

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Had a wonderful time chatting with Matt a couple weeks ago. Read the writeup!

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Every morning, famously, Sisyphus re-jiggered his strategy to roll the stone up the hill based on first principles.

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Today on TASTELAND, our guest rugged us so I asked @princessdaisy.bsky.social to tell me 5 things she did this week or I would accept her resignation as co-host. We also spoke about media productions vs. consumption literacy, why we need more working-class media, islands and empires, and more —

tasteland.fyi

Ep. 31: Art of the steal

There's no guest this week, which gives Daisy and Francis the chance to discuss why people hate Renoir, the simultaneously growing and eroding types of media litera…

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

"For me, when you take on the label of creator, you're more saying that you're making content, obviously, and that content is being shared and owned by these platforms where you have no control over anything.” Wrote about Alicia Kennedy choosing to be a writer over being a creator, on principle.

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 Positive social friction

How Alicia Kennedy parlayed a Twitter following into a mailing list, and how she plans to build a new type of publication-education business on that foundation

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Liz Kelly Nelson @lizkellynelson.com · 17/02/2025

The news ecosystem is evolving. The lines between journalism, content creation and AI-generated news are blurring. A new framework is needed to better define these shifts. This piece maps the spectrum – from “Trad News” to emerging creator models. Take a look: 🔗 projectc.beehiiv.com/p/from-trad-...

projectc.beehiiv.com

From 'Trad News' to AI: The evolving journalism landscape

A visual breakdown of how and where news is produced in 2025

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

3 weeks ago I interviewed @kofie.bsky.social for Creator Spotlight. 2 days before the podcast's publication, he and a couple of colleagues were laid off. 3/4 of my most recent interviews have been laid off by Vox in the last few years. So I scrapped my planned profile and wrote about it!

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 Social media presence as career insurance

ft. Kofie Yeboah, a beloved sports and gaming content creator publishing long-form YouTube videos, TikToks, and all manner of other content

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Today on Tasteland, @princessdaisy.bsky.social and I chat with Jad Esber about inverting the internet's personal data model to favor individual users over companies, "data gravity," how taste aggregation apps do and don't contribute to social relationships, and more —

tasteland.fyi

Ep. 29: Shelf life ft. Jad Esber

Daisy and Francis are joined by Jad Esber, founder and CEO of Koodos Labs, a product and research company focused on the next generation of the internet. Koodos Lab…

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

You will not survive a month lost in the wilderness without knowledge of bushcraft, either pre-existing or gained by sheer force of will to survive. Neither will you thrive long-term in the creator economy without knowledge of entrepreneurialism. My latest:

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 Creators are entrepreneurs

The business of art and the art of business; this is the arena of the creator and entrepreneur alike

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Reposted by Francis Zierer

Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Finally watched Adam Curtis' "Century Of Self" this week and it helped me understand our current political moment a bit more. According to Curtis, the rise of mass marketing in the 1900s changed the "citizen" into a "consumer". And I believe a similar shift is happening again. Short thread...

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Dirt @dirt.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Introducing...Notes 📱🗒️ Notes is the first book collaboration between Dirt and Night Gallery. A tribute to the humble iPhone note, the collection features 100 phone notes from 100 creative contributors.

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

I'm hiring an Assistant Editor. We hit 330k subscribers this week. Looking for an excellent writer and research to increase our output and depth of quality. We're building a lighthouse publication for the creator economy — aim to be the leading source of strategic writing and industry analysis.

careers.beehiiv.com

Assistant Editor, Creator Spotlight (Remote)

Job Opening: Assistant Editor, Creator Spotlight (Remote) at beehiiv in Remote.

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Interviewed Lindsey Stanberry, current creator of women's personal finance newsletter The Purse and founding editor of Refinery29's Money Diaries, for last week's Creator Spotlight. Here she is on the traditional wall between editorial and advertising departments:

“One, for journalists, they don't understand what keeps the lights on. So then there is this snobbery about, like, we couldn't possibly do this. But bills have to be paid. Your salaries have to be paid.

Two, then it prevents them from being entrepreneurial within organizations. And I think journalists have a lot of really good ideas, and they're exposed to so many different ideas through their work, there's no reason why they shouldn't be entrepreneurial and go after these bigger ideas, but they need money to do it.”

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

"That's the primordial soup. When you're in a time period where nobody really knows what to do. Pivot to video, pivot to podcast, run eight different social accounts that have a decreasing return on investment. How do you make it work?" @princessdaisy.bsky.social in Creator Spotlight!

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 Monetizing taste in a newsletter

ft. Daisy Alioto, CEO of Dirt Media (and editor, writer, and audience development expert)

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

When I interviewed Ernie for Creator Spotlight earlier this year, he said "Email is a visual medium," which sounds so obvious now but I'd never heard said. Changed how I think about my own work. He just redesigned his website. I think it's neat! Long live websites.

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Today in Tasteland, @joshuacitarella.bsky.social joins @princessdaisy.bsky.social and I to define accelerationism(s), how he'd redesign social media as part of the post office, envelopes as law and technology, manifestos, podcasting with Destiny, his Doomscroll pod, and more —

tasteland.fyi

Ep. 21: Envelope Accelerationism ft. Joshua Citarella

Josh Citarella is an artist, writer, podcaster, and researcher who is best-known for his work researching online Gen Z political extremism. He’s the founder of Do N…

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

For last week's edition of Creator Spotlight, I wrote about John Hu, founder of Stan, a creator monetization tool, and a highly capable video creator in his own right (see: @jayhoovy on YouTube, with 129k subscribers).

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Excerpt from a fun interview we did recently with Lauryn Menard, who frames her design practice as starting with a product's end-of-life.

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Today in TASTELAND, @princessdaisy.bsky.social and I are joined by Trevor McFedries to talk network spirituality, techno-optimism vs. techno-pessimism, the content "gold rush" that's all picks-n-shovels and no gold, building a better world for people vs. humanity, and more.

tasteland.fyi

Ep. 20: People vs. Humanity ft. Trevor McFedries

This week Daisy and Francis are joined by DJ, producer, founder, renaissance man Trevor McFedries. Email your questions to tastelandpod@gmail.com to be featured in …

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

"Learn how to say no. No to advertisers, no to clients, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All the mistakes you'll end up making are the moments that you should have said no." Interviewed Adam Ryan for last week's Creator Spotlight. Few people out there better at building business around newsletters.

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 Adam Ryan

ft. Adam Ryan, CEO of Workweek and a newsletter business expert

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tylerdenk.bsky.social @tylerdenk.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

we are now hiring @beehiiv.com for engineering, data, customer success, and customer support 🌎 fully remote 💰 competitive salary 📈 401(k) match 🩺 insurance 🧘🏿‍♀️ monthly wellness day 📚 unlimited book budget 🏃🏽‍♀️ tons of autonomy careers.beehiiv.com

careers.beehiiv.com

Careers at beehiiv

We're empowering creators to create, monetize, and grow by building the most powerful and robust newsletter platform, built by newsletter people. And we're only just getting started 🚀beehiiv is commit...

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Francis Zierer @fzierer.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

I wrote about burning newspapers, if "creator" is a real job in Richard Scarry's Busytown, Elon's "You are the media" tweet (you kinda are; more to the point, he is), TikToks without staying power, and content capital in last week's Creator Spotlight. Give it a read —

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 How liquid is your content capital?

An letter from the editor

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Lex Roman @lexroman.com · 30/11/2024

“You do have content capital, but your liquidity is zero. X owns your content capital.” www.creatorspotlight.com/p/content-… by @fzierer.bsky.social

creatorspotlight.com

🔴 How liquid is your content capital?

An letter from the editor

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Lex Roman @lexroman.com · 22/11/2024

Francis compiled some of my favorite growth tips from journalists in today’s edition of Creator Spotlight. This tip from Seamus is 🔥 Features @seamushughes.bsky.social @mattbrown.bsky.social @awalkerinla.bsky.social www.creatorspotlight.com/p/lex-roman-... Newsletter by @fzierer.bsky.social

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