If 2024 is the year YouTube went Hollywood, is 2025 the Year Hollywood goes indie? Cristiano Ronaldo and Tom Brady have joined YouTube. Matt McConaughey has been on YouTube but is now starting a newsletter on Kit. Arnold Schwarzenegger hosts his newsletter on beehiiv. Many journalists, both independent and complete newsrooms, are pivoting to Substack and beehiiv. The migration of established celebrities and journalists to independent platforms signals a significant shift in the creator economy landscape.
When Hollywood stars and mainstream journalists move to independent platforms, it legitimizes these spaces for all creators. Yes, they were already legit for us, but to see athletes and actors who have already amassed wealth and fame put in consistent effort to own their platforms says something about the changing tide and perception of traditional media. Celebrities choosing independent platforms over traditional media highlights the growing importance of direct creator-audience relationships. Maybe all the online creators chirping about the value of building and owning your audience connections are onto something.
As Hollywood talent embraces more authentic/less scripted content formats, it suggests that audience engagement matters more than high production values. If you’re working with limited resources, you now have no excuses. If you’re thinking, “They can get away with that because they can always pay for talent to help them execute and they already have name recognition,” let’s talk monetization and a few pro tips we can learn from celebrities and journalists entering the indie creator space.
If some of the biggest names you can think of see the value in diversifying their revenue streams, I highly recommend you consider doing the same. But strategically. You may not be able to pour the same time and resources into being fully present as a podcaster, newsletter creator, and YouTuber all at once. But you can leverage each platform to generate multiple streams of revenue. Newsletters, some podcast hosting providers, and YouTube all allow creators to give their audience the option to support them with a monthly paid subscription. If people don’t want to commit to a monthly subscription, providing the option for a one-time payment of direct support is also an option (Buy Me a Coffee and the like are good workarounds).
Podcasts, newsletters, and YouTube are long-form platforms that allow for deeper connections and more targeted selling of products to your community. Arnold Schwarzenegger has The Pump App and merch. Matthew McConaughey has his own tequila brand, Pantalones. Journalists and newsrooms can typically supplement their paid subscriptions and donations with brand and ad partners given the affinity, specificity, and size of their audience.
If you’re looking to get serious about growing your audience on one of these long-form platforms, here are my suggestions that will work for any audience size or budget:
Prioritize consistent content over perfect production. When you’re first figuring things out, you’re probably going to try a lot of different formats. That’s necessary to see what your audience is and isn’t interested in. You can always find ways to make something better, but you can make nothing better.
Focus on building authentic connections with your audience. Don’t just post and ghost. Try to actually have conversations with your audience. This typically means including a call-to-action within your content to prompt people to respond, send you an email, leave a comment, etc.
Learn how to market your original work. It’s unlikely that you’re going to “go viral” with a podcast, newsletter, or even on YouTube. So your first subscribers will likely be people you’re already connected with on other social platforms. Leverage and grow those connections through marketing your podcasts, articles, and videos there. Try to find where your desired audience hangs out online and show up in their feed, in their comments, and in their DMs (where appropriate).
Bundle your platforms for exposure for brand deals. Your newsletter audience by itself may not be big, but your newsletter plus your podcast could amass a compelling audience size for a potential brand partner. Your YouTube channel may not be huge, but your YouTube channel plus your Instagram or newsletter could generate enough views to be important to a brand or advertising partner.
Pro Tip💡: If you want someone to check out what you’re making without coming off too salesy, ask for their feedback. They’ll feel recognized as someone who would have a valuable opinion on it, and they may even want to follow along and root for your success. I’ve done this with this exact newsletter on Linkedin.
What are you working on, and how can I help?
