The Garden Harvest: 9/12/25
Your weekly digest on the intersection of the Creator Economy and Legacy Media.
Welcome back to the Garden Harvest.
Each week, we gather and curate the freshest insights from the worlds of Creators and Legacy Media, so you can stay rooted in what matters and spot new opportunities where others can’t.
Let’s get into it…
FRESH CLIPPINGS
From the Metaverse to the Paramount Lot
Paramount just tapped a top Meta exec as Chief Product Officer, and it feels bigger than a routine reshuffle. With the studio in the middle of a regime change, this hire is a clear signal that the walls between Hollywood and the Creator Economy keep crumbling.
This isn’t just a “tech guy” in a studio role—it’s a legacy player pulling in someone who knows platforms, products, and creator ecosystems to compliment its film slate. Look closely and you can see a future where content, distribution, and creator-driven networks aren’t siloed, but part of the same system.
Paramount is betting that to stay competitive, it has to play not only in Hollywood’s sandbox, but in the one creators are busy building for themselves.
Owners, Not Influencers
Phil Ranta, a longtime creator economy exec and ex-CRO of Wormhole Labs, is back with a stealth startup aimed squarely at turning creators into entrepreneurs. It’s the next evolution of a theme we’ve been tracking: creators don’t want to only be spokespeople anymore, they want equity. They’re not satisfied with brand deals or platform payouts; they’re building companies, owning IP, and sitting at the same table as the investors who used to treat them like talent-for-hire.
This shift changes the math for Hollywood. If creators are structuring themselves like businesses, then studios, networks, and brands have to engage them as peers, not influencers.
But don’t worry, there’s upside: more durable collaborations.
The challenge is, of course, adapting to a generation that’s not waiting for permission to own the upside.
Depth Over Reach
Over the weekend, Salish Matter’s new skincare line Sincerely Yours drew an estimated 80,000-90,000 people to the American Dream Mall in New Jersey for its pop-up / launch event. By all appearances, it wasn’t just curiosity (or big follower counts) driving that size of a crowd. It was loyalty in physical form. Fans lined up from before dawn, and 20,000 skincare samples were handed out in minutes.
This is more proof that “influence” means far more when expressed in engagement and action than simply a glossy follower count. Salish is a creator whose audience wants presence, not just content.
What’s especially telling: the launch had relatively little traditional promotion ahead of time. Most of it was built through Salish’s base, with community moments like two-way chats helping seed excitement. That underscores how a creator who owns that connection with her audience can mobilize them without the usual marketing machinery.
A master-class in creating and reaching your fans.
GARDEN VIEW
A fun debate on Publicis’ $150M acquisition of Captiv8 and its 15 million–strong creator network that happened a few months ago.
With ad dollars are shifting from legacy to creator platforms, it’s a sharp debate worth watching.
HARVEST QUOTE
“The solution emerging across my consulting practice isn’t revolutionary, it’s medieval.”
— Tech consultant Shelly Palmer discussing how AI is pushing companies back toward apprenticeship-style career paths, where junior talent learns directly from senior leaders.
A reminder that just as creators and legacy media are blurring lines, career development may circle back to deep, one-to-one learning instead of systemized training.
Have a great weekend…