Put Your CEO On Camera Or Die Trying

_{Day 46/100}

Hey - It's Tim.

I'm eating a beavertail in the dark in bed at 11:23pm whilst I write this. I'm a Canadian now. Economically it makes sense.

We have a long one today. Hope you got a coffee ☕

_{Estimated read time: 10 minutes 23 seconds.}

The Influencer Age is Dead

Not with a bang but with a whimper. A TikTok sound playing to empty rooms. A sea of sponsored posts with zero engagement.

In 2019, brands fought to get their products in influencers' hands.

In 2024, the best influencers have become the brands.

Companies that don't get this are scrambling to hire creators instead.

A friend with 38k LinkedIn followers just negotiated a $30k salary bump when changing jobs. No extra skills. No magical experience. Just her audience.

Both sides knew exactly what she was bringing: instant credibility and distribution when she changed that LinkedIn bio.

Smart play by her. Desperate move by the company.

The Rise of the Creator Founder

A blunt truth: nearly 90% of consumers no longer trust influencers.

That's not me making stuff up. That's hard data from 2023.

Another cold reality: 61% of people aged 13-39 say the more ads an influencer posts, the less they trust them.

The moment an influencer's content feels like advertising, their power evaporates.

People don't trust hired guns anymore. They want the real deal.

Enter: The Creator Founder.

Creator Founders Taking Over Every Industry

Yes, we all know about Mr Beast's chocolate empire and Gary Vee's wine hustle. Snore.

Consumer Products

• Alex Hormozi — Built a $250M portfolio through content. His videos drive 80% of Acquisition.com's traffic. Facebook (150k followers) brings him 10x more traffic than TikTok (900k followers).

• Emma Chamberlain — YouTube star → Chamberlain Coffee founder. Premium coffee brand that perfectly mirrors her aesthetic. Zero traditional marketing budget.

• Huda Kattan — Beauty influencer → Huda Beauty founder. Turned makeup tutorials into a cosmetics empire worth over $1 billion. Her face is the brand.

• Grace Beverley — Fitness influencer → TALA activewear CEO. Shows product concepts on Instagram before they're made. Crowdsources feedback that becomes new product lines.

• Simmy Dhillon — Built Simmer Eats by being the face on TikTok. No fancy agency. No big ad budget.

• Jess Hunt & Jenna Meek — Turned beauty expertise into REFY, one of the fastest-growing makeup brands with just authentic content.

• Olivia Jenkins & Jack Zambakides — Transformed D. Louise into a multi-million-pound jewelry business through consistent, personal social presence.

• Goodgirlsnacks — TikTok about healthy snacks → Own protein bars with 7-figure run rate. Good Girl Snacks

SaaS & Tech

• Nathan Barry — Blogger → Founded ConvertKit (email marketing platform). Now a $30M+ ARR business built on trust and relationships, not VC money.

• Rand Fishkin — SEO expert who built Moz, then SparkToro. His Whiteboard Friday videos outperform any ad campaign.

• Pat Flynn — Podcaster → Built Fusebox (podcasting tools). Used his "Smart Passive Income" audience as both market research and first customers.

• Jon Yongfook — Developer who built Bannerbear (image API) in public. Documented every step, every win, every setback.

• Arvid Kahl — Built and sold FeedbackPanda (SaaS for online teachers) by building in public. Twitter following became customer acquisition.

• Dan Martell — Created Clarity.fm connecting entrepreneurs with expert advice through consistent personal content.

• Udit Goenka — Founded PitchGround (SaaS marketplace) and TinyCheque (AI venture studio) by building personal expertise first.

Digital Products & Communities

• Matt Gray — Systems YouTuber with 150k subscribers → Founder OS platform generating $1.2M monthly. Works 4 hours a day. Over $8.7M in total revenue.

• Justin Welsh — LinkedIn solopreneur → $2.3M in 2023 selling courses to 14,000 students. One-person business with 90% profit margins. Justin Welsh Courses

• Codie Sanchez — LinkedIn/Twitter content on "boring businesses" → Contrarian Thinking newsletter with 750k+ subscribers and 15+ employees.

That's 20 examples spanning physical products, software, and digital products.

All following the same playbook:

1. Build audience through valuable content

2. Establish trust and credibility

3. Create products that solve audience problems

4. Use personal brand as marketing engine

This isn't a fluke.

Why Traditional Influencer Marketing Is Dying

Let's look at the data (because I'm not just making this shit up):

• 45% of Gen Z say influencers "don't have as much sway as they used to."

• 51% of consumers report scrolling right past influencer ads.

• Brands spent 23% LESS on social media marketing in 2023, with another 11% drop expected in 2024.

• The golden age of mega-influencer campaigns is over.

What happened?

1. Oversaturation — Too many #ads. Too much noise.

2. Algorithm changes — Platforms prioritize friends over influencers.

3. Regulation — Required #ad tags killed the illusion.

4. Trust collapse — Consumers can smell the bullshit.

The Proof Is In The Data

Here's what happens when employees and founders become the voice:

• 76% of consumers trust content from employees more than from the company itself.

• Employee networks reach 10× larger audiences than official company channels.

• Employee-shared posts get 8× more engagement than the same content on brand accounts.

• 59% of B2B buyers say thought leadership (from founders/experts) is more trustworthy than marketing materials.

Three Paths Forward

1. Die on the Hill of Traditional Marketing

Keep running ads. Keep hiring influencers for one-off posts. Keep targeting keywords no one searches for. Keep losing money.

If your CMO's LinkedIn is tumbleweeds, this is you.

2. Half-Ass Creator Marketing

Post inconsistently. Hire an agency to ghostwrite your thoughts. Try to sound smart instead of being helpful.

Congrats, you'll be a mediocre brand with mediocre results.

3. Go All-In As A Creator Founder

Put your face on camera. Share what you know. Build in public. Make your audience part of your journey.

Turn your expertise into content, into audience, into revenue.

This is the path that's working now. Not tomorrow. Today.

How To Become A Creator Founder

1. Pick your lane — What's your specific expertise? What can you teach better than anyone?

2. Choose your platform — Where do your people hang out? LinkedIn? TikTok? YouTube? Don't try to be everywhere.

3. Create consistently — Daily is ideal. Weekly is minimum. Hormozi posts multiple times daily. Welsh never misses a day.

4. Build your system — Tools to create faster. Team to help you scale. Can't do this alone forever.

5. Make something worth buying — Turn your knowledge into products/services people actually want.

Day One Starter Pack

Stuck on where to begin? Let me simplify it:

Step 1: Find your content sweet spot

Step 2: The first post framework

1. Share a specific mistake you made

2. What you learned from it

3. How others can avoid it

4. Ask a question that invites conversation

Example:

I spent $10,000 on Google Ads before realizing I hadn't set up conversion tracking. Literally burning money. Three things I do differently now: - Test tracking on day one - Start with $50/day max - Check results daily, not weekly What's your most expensive marketing mistake?

Step 3: The content kickstarter exercise

Take 30 minutes. Write down:

• 10 problems your ideal customer faces

• 5 mistakes you've made in your industry

• 5 myths you want to debunk

• 3 predictions for the next 2 years

• 7 tools/resources you use daily

Congrats. You now have a month of content ideas.

My $68,000 Creator Founder Experiment

This isn't theory. I've lived it.

When we launched Penfriend.ai last year, we did $40,000 on day one.

Then another $28,000 in a single weekend later in the year.

No ad spend. No complicated funnel. One platform, and an offer.

Just 100k followers across myself and the other founders who'd been getting value from us for years.

We built the audience as people first, then made a product that suited them.

The Audience-First Advantage

Building an audience is hard. That's the truth.

It's years of showing up. Creating when no one's watching. Helping without immediate payoff.

But once you have it?

• Market research? Ask your audience.

• Product development? Involve your audience.

• Launch strategy? Tell your audience.

• Distribution? You guessed it.

The product, marketing, understanding – it all becomes easier.

Traditional companies do these things backward:

1. Build product

2. Figure out marketing

3. Try to create audience

Creator founders flip the script:

1. Build audience

2. Understand their problems

3. Create solution with built-in distribution

Five Years From Now

Two types of companies will exist:

1. Those built on personal brands

2. Those that wish they were

The distinction between "content" and "commerce" will disappear entirely.

Every founder will be a creator. Every creator will be a founder.

This is why putting your CEO on camera isn't optional anymore – it's essential in a world where authenticity wins and execution can be automated.

Put your CEO on camera or die trying isn't just a catchy line.

It's the stark reality of modern business.

The question isn't whether you should become a creator founder.

It's whether your competitor already is one.

✌️ Tim "Your CEO’s LinkedIn is Tumbleweeds" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

P.S. Start a fight. Send this to your CMO.

P.P.S. Song of the week: "Video Killed the Radio Star" (seems fitting, no?)

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