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Most creators are earning below minimum wage.
That's not hyperbole. It's reality when you factor in hours spent chasing viral moments for pennies in AdSense.
Codie Sanchez found a different path.
She makes over $100M annually, but not from brand deals or ads. She buys boring businesses, like laundromats, paint shots, and coffee shops, and uses content as the distribution engine to scale them.
We interviewed Codie on the Karat Podcast, and here are the highlights.
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Who is Codie Sanchez?
Codie Sanchez is multi-millionaire, NYT Best Selling Author, and founder of Contrarian Thinking–a financial media company teaching people how to achieve financial freedom.
She's amassed over 5M followers across platforms and is known for her passion for buying and scaling "boring businesses."
The Creator Trap: Renting vs. Owning
"Creators are actually workers at below minimum wage," Codie explained [28:01].
The platforms own the real estate. You're just renting space, constantly at the mercy of algorithm changes and declining CPMs.
The math is brutal: For brand deals, the company needs to earn 5-10x what they pay you [5:55] for it to make sense. And for affiliate deals, you're taking all the risk (by creating content that might not convert) for a very small slice of the pie.
Even worse, data shows brands get better ROI by doing multiple small deals with the same influencers [6:07].
What does Codie say the alternative is? Become valuable enough that someone gives you equity instead of a one-time payment [6:32].
The Three Paths to Ownership for Creators
Codie says there are three paths creators should consider to own their business:
1. Use Content as Distribution, Not Monetization
Stop chasing views alone. A bakery with great content outperforms a viral TikToker with nothing to sell.
If you're a chef making food videos, buy a small coffee shop or bakery. "You buy a small coffee shop and you layer your creativity on top of the thing that already makes you money. Then you just have a lot more stability." [27:32]
2. Learn Deal-Making, Not Just Editing
The real unlock isn't better thumbnails. It's understanding terms like equity, revenue share, bonus structure, and splits.
Every business operates at different levels. Affiliate marketing and brand deals are the lowest level because you capture the least upside [5:07].
Codie says: The goal is to negotiate for ownership stakes.
How to start:
• Offer to take equity instead of cash for your work.
• Partner with small businesses and grow them via your content.
• Buy profitable companies using seller financing or other people's money.
"The real language of money is understanding all the terms that are associated with how you make deals or exchanges of money" [4:16]. Most creators never learn his language, and it prevents them from getting out of the lowest level.
3. Start Boring, Then Make it Sexy
Codie didn't begin with flashy ideas. She bought small, stable businesses with proven cash flow, systematized them, and added content on top.
One example: Codie co-owns Pinks Window Cleaning. They have 130 franchise locations, mostly owned by people under 35 who are good at distribution.
Window washing isn't particularly sexy. It's not a service people drool at the idea of booking.
But Pinks has changed that.
By applying their creativity to the content, Pinks has become a fan-favorite, even for people who've never booked a window wash.
The key is to take something boring but profitable then make it sexy. It's difficult to do things the other way around.
The Rich Owner vs. Poor Owner Mindset
Codie's developed a framework she calls "Rich Owner, Poor Owner" [43:42]:
Poor Owner thinks:
• Nobody does it as good as I do.
• I can't afford to hire someone.I tried to outsource this, but they didn't do it the right way.
• How can I do this myself?
• can't handle growth because I'm not willing to do this right now.
Rich Owner thinks:
• It's a WHO, not a HOW.
• What would it look like if this worked?
• Let me take short-term pain and do tasks myself to grow revenue and so I can make better hires later on.
• I'll delegate anything below my hourly rate.
If you're making over $100k annually but won't hire a VA, you're valuing your time at below minimum wage [47:22].
Systems That Scale
Codie's superpower isn't memory–in fact, she's "extremely forgetful." Systems have become her lifeline [48:30].
She says everyone should have a CEO Dashboard (she keeps hers in Notion) with an at-a-glance view of:
1. Two North Star Metrics - Revenue/profit plus a balancing metric (like followers).
2. Pacing Tracker - See if you're on track. If you're 51% through the year but only 48% to your goal, that's yellow/red [50:14].
3. Five Main Projects - Focus only on what drives the business forward [50:36].
4. Tasks by Date - Every task is assigned and tracked
This interview was jam-packed with value... well beyond what we're able to share in this newsletter. Highly recommend giving the full podcast episode a listen on YouTube.
Quick Links
😵 Instagram launches new rewards program.
👀 Metrics to improve to land more brand deals.
📈 How to use Trial Reels to increase your views.
This week with Karat...
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