🎤 Live This Week: Catch Me at B&H Bild
I’m stepping out from behind the moderator chair and onto the stage.
This Tuesday at 4 PM, I’ll be speaking at B&H Bild. If you're in NYC, it's free to attend, pull up and say hi.

🎬 This Week’s Drop: The Show Era Is Here
Everyone’s making content. The smart ones are making shows. We’re breaking down how structured storytelling is becoming the biggest unlock for creators and brands looking to build something that lasts.

A QUICK THANK YOU!

I’ve had about 20 people tell me over the past few weeks that they actually read this thing.

Genuinely blows my mind. Half the time, I assume I’m just shouting into the void.

I hope something here sparked an idea, or just made you think a little differently about what you’re building. That’s the goal.

Appreciate you being here!

🎤 Next Up: Catch Me at B&H Bild (June 17th)

I’ll be speaking at B&H Bild next Tuesday at 4 PM, and this time, I’m not moderating. If you’ve only seen me host panels, this is your chance to catch me on the mic, not just passing it.

Although I do recommend you come to network, because I’ll be networking my butt off with brands. Here are a few brands exhibiting:

• Cannon

• Adobe

• Sony

• DJI

• Apple

Did I say it was a free event?

I’d love to see some familiar faces in the crowd. Come through!

My panel will be at:

• 📍 Location: Jacob Javits Center - Content Creation Stage

• 🕓 Time: Tuesday, June 18 @ 4 PM

P.S. Our next Social4TheWin event is coming soon. I’ll have the official Luma link and details in next week’s newsletter. Stay tuned.

If You Want to Win on Social, Think Like a Showrunner

Let’s skip the trends and talk about what works:

Shows.

Not one-off skits. Not single posts.
Structured, serialized content with a clear premise, built to scale attention and loyalty.

Like actual programming. With characters. Arcs. Repeatability.
And yes, I'm talking about TikTok and YouTube, not HBO. (Though some of this is better than half the crap on Hulu.)

Creators are building them. Media companies are buying them.
And the smartest brands are slowly starting to catch on.

And while I absolutely should be doing more of this myself… instead, I’m writing a newsletter about it. (Let’s call it... research.) But for now, let’s break down who’s already doing it and how this shift is changing the game for creators, companies, and everyone in between.

🎬 THE 3 TYPES OF SOCIAL SHOWS

1. Creator-Owned Shows

(aka: The blueprint)

These are shows built, hosted, and distributed entirely by individual creators. No brand involvement (yet). Just smart concepts and serious execution.

🧢 Ryan Trahan – “50 Airbnbs in 50 Days”

He’s raising $1M for St. Jude. It’s day 4 and he’s already passed $150K.
Each day = a new Airbnb + challenge + storytelling beat.
It’s bingeable, wholesome, and insanely effective.

✍️ Brand Angle: Airbnb is getting 100M+ views from this… for free. If they’re not donating $1M to St. Jude by the finale, I’ll lose hope in marketing. This is a no-brainer goodwill moment with 10x ROI in brand equity.

🎮 Ludwig – “Tip to Tip: Japan”

He and Michael Reeves went from the bottom to the top of Japan without phones or maps. It’s chaos. It’s travel. It’s a full-blown adventure series.

Think Anthony Bourdain meets Survivor meets two guys who probably shouldn’t be allowed to cross a street unsupervised.

✍️ Brand Angle: Red Bull was the sponsor, which makes sense… but where was Kikkoman? Or Pokémon? They literally walked Japan. They should’ve had to detour through a ramen factory and a real-life Pokémon Center.

Also, considering the fact that I’m a Japanophile and big anime weeb, it’s no surprise I loved this!

🧾 James Klusaritz – “Paycheck Phantom”

James is an undercover HR ghost haunting corporate America.
It’s funny. Relatable. Smart. And every video plays like a new episode of The Office if HR were actually self-aware.

✍️ Brand Angle: Where is LinkedIn? Or a giant HR tech company like Rippling? Imagine this guy doing a parody video inside LinkedIn HQ. Tell me that wouldn’t slap.

I previously wrote about James in an article a year ago about his work with Jack Links.

📱 Sydney Jo – “The Group Chat”

She reenacts dramatic group chats with voiceovers, personality shifts, and more tea than a Real Housewives reunion.
It's native to TikTok. It’s brilliant. It’s highly shareable.

✍️ Brand Angle: Apple should’ve jumped on this. Green bubbles vs. blue bubbles as actual plotlines?? That’s culture. That’s positioning. That’s a missed opportunity.

2. Brand-Owned Shows

(aka: When a brand actually gets it)

These are rare. Like, beyond rare. But I came across a channel this weekend and saw two people already post about it on LinkedIn.

🏠 Bilt – “Roomies”

Well-produced, funny, seemingly episodic (only one episode out right now).
It’s like a vertical-format sitcom that doesn’t feel like a forced ad. So we’ll have to see how this continues, but the success for one video is pretty outstanding, all things considered.

✍️ Context Reminder: Bilt is a loyalty program where you can pay rent and earn points. This is the rare case where branded content is just content, and it works.

3. Media Company-Owned Shows

(aka: Owning the IP, owning the channel, owning the upside)

🎤 Doing Things Media

They own Recess Therapy, Middle Class Fancy, Neurodivergent Moments, Doggos Doing Things, and like 40 other channels.
They’ve taken meme pages and turned them into real, scalable content franchises.

They don’t just post memes; they build and have purchased personalities, shows, and platforms that brands can plug into.

💥 Fallen Media

Owns What’s Poppin? with Davis Burleson, Street Hearts, and Subway Oracle.
They’ve built a street-interview empire and found a way to turn man-on-the-street chaos into repeatable, monetizable formats.

🧠 Mad Realities

I met with Talia Schulweiss, the host and producer of the show Hollywood IQ, the other week. We graduated from the same high school, about 7 years apart, though. So small world moments.

🎭 Dhar Mann Studios — The Wild Card That Works
You can roll your eyes… but Dhar Mann has built one of the most consistent short-form episodic empires on the internet. To me, it feels like Degrassi on steroids.

Every video is a mini-moral play:

• Same cast of characters

• Clear lesson every time

• Hook → tension → resolution → signature line ("So you see...")

The quality is polarizing. The structure? Flawless. This is IP at scale. It’s Aesop’s YouTube. Don’t sleep on this model, especially if you’re building content around values, transformation, or punch-you-in-the-face messaging.

🎥 Don’t Forget: Traditional Media Is Watching

This isn’t just social anymore. This is IP development (intellectual property).

Look at Reesa Teesa — her “Who TF Did I Marry?” saga was a TikTok series. A woman in her car is telling a story. And it went so viral that the series was later adapted into a movie by Alvin Gray's 9/10 Productions, titled "The Wife That Didn't Know Who She Married", and a television series by Natasha Rothwell.

TikTok = the new writers’ room.
YouTube = the new pilot season.
Short-form series are the new spec script.

The best concepts are going to get bought, adapted, and distributed way beyond social. This isn’t just brand strategy. It’s a media strategy.

😮‍💨 But... Let’s Be Real. Most People Can’t Just Launch a Show

Here’s the truth:

You can’t just decide to “start a series” and expect it to work.

Why?

Because audience recognition matters.

A lot of these creators already have:

• Strong facial recognition

• Engaged audiences who come back for them

• A history of consistently performing content

• Trust

If you haven’t built that yet, launching a series might flop.
Not because the idea’s bad, but because no one knows who you are (yet).

This is the part I think about a lot with Excel Daddy. I blew up on TikTok and put out 60 videos in my first month. Never showed my face. And I think that screwed me a bit. I posted a video the other day and it got 1,000 views. Not because it was bad or the concept is bad - because my concept is fucking great!

But because people don’t know me. People don’t know the character outside of education. And I need to figure out the production style that works.

💼 My Plan: Build a Hedge Fund Comedy Universe on TikTok

I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while: a TikTok-native series set inside a fictional hedge fund, where I play every character.

Think Meet the Klumps meets HBO’s Industry.
Dry, absurd, corporate satire. Built for vertical.

But this isn’t just for laughs… It’s a creative Trojan horse.

Right now, Excel Daddy is mostly known for tutorials. Which is great… but it limits brand range.
This show unlocks something bigger, characters that brands actually want to align with.

Here’s the lineup:

• Managing Director: Jon Hamm energy, born in Greenwich. Luxury brand deals (watches, spirits, travel).

• Vice President (Excel Daddy): Overworked but sharp. Tech, finance, B2B brands.

• First-Year Analyst: Just trying to survive. CPG, coffee, delivery apps, career platforms.

You don’t slap a logo on a slide; you embed the brand into the world.

That’s the goal. But first… I need to rebuild audience recognition, get back on camera, and remind people I’m more than Excel spreadsheets.

Let’s see what happens.
Because again, without that baseline, the best ideas go nowhere.

🧠 TL;DR — Shows Are the Future

Whether you’re a creator or a brand, here’s what to take away:

• Think in formats, not posts. Could someone binge your content like a series? Remember James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke?

• Make the brand part of the concept. Don’t just sponsor, embed. I always say that seamless integration is the key to good brand partnerships.

• Focus on structure and repeatability. A great hook is nothing without great delivery.

• Audience recognition comes first. Don’t skip the groundwork.

The future of social isn't viral.
It’s episodic, structured, and ownable.
The next big wave won’t be a post, it’ll be a pilot.

It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
But it does need structure, characters, and a reason to care.

That’s how you turn content into something people actually remember.

I’m working on mine. You should be, too.

See you next week,
— Jacob