While scrolling through articles about everybody’s grand time in Cannes (feels like everybody but me was there) I stumbled across a Vaseline commercial that made me...emotional? Genuinely not on my bingo card for 2026 lol. It was a recap on their latest, most successful campaign "Vaseline Originals” where the company credited and productized the most viral creator use cases of the product

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For years we’ve all been using Vaseline for..well everything: healing wounds, facial moisturizer, reviving old leather, whitening teeth (as a dentist: can confirm this doesn’t work!). And creators have been highlighting these hacks online for years. Turning them into viral moments and driving enormous organic reach for a product they were never paid to promote. There were more than 3.5 million Vaseline hacks floating around online and the original creators were never credited for it.

Until.. Vaseline did the smartest thing a brand could do.. they handed the brand over to creators!

They went back through the most popular Vaseline hacks online, tracked down the creators who posted them first, and turned two of those ideas into real products. Jen Chae (@frmheadtotoe) and Lauren Luke (@laurenluke_panacea81), had shared their brow tamer and primer hacks back in 2008. Nearly two decades later, Vaseline turned released the products on TikTok Shop in Thailand, and gave them a % of the sales!! And they sold out. Twice!

So what can we as creators learn from this moment?

1. Your Insight Is The Asset

Creators have been the last step of the product cycle for so long. A company builds something, decides what it means, writes influencer briefs and then hands it to us to amplify.

Vaseline pulled creators to the front, brought them into the labs and built the products around their ideas. Creator roles are moving upstream, out of distribution and into product development.

The thing being bought isn’t just our reach anymore, it’s our insight. What a great time to have ideas!

2. Your Most Authentic Ideas Have The Biggest Upside

You can fake alignment with a brand for a check (just look at all of the sudden Claude users on your feed lol). But you can’t fake an idea that’s still useful nearly two decades later. Chae and Luke weren’t performatively posting for Vaseline, they just actually used it, and earned them a huge pay day.

Brand deals are great and a necessity. Roughly 97% of the $44,000 I made as a creator in June came from brand deals. But while a good brand deal pays rent for a couple months, a percentage of sales on a product behind a major campaign, is what can turn content into a predictable, long-term career. Authenticity and alignment always win long term. (To be clear: they got no equity, it was reported as a share of sales, and the specific terms weren't made public.)

This story really made me excited about the future of the creator economy. Its the closest thing to ownership a company this size has ever handed a creator and a great sign for whats to come! (Vaseline’s team has already been approached by marketers at Coca-Cola and Ferrero asking how they pulled it off.)

SO let me know, what crazy things have you or a family member used vaseline for?

Until next time!

In the last 6 months I’ve gained 80K+ followers across platforms and have signed over $180,000 dollars worth of contracts off content.. My immigrant mom is wincing at me at me sharing those numbers with you. And while a lot of that has to do with luck, even more of it has to do one very intentional move I made at the top of the year: make my page less about me and champion the viewer.

The biggest misconception about being a creator is that people follow you because they care about you. They don’t! (At least not yet.) Think about why we scroll the internet. Its not because we wake up with complete strangers on our mind. Its because people online are living in the city that we’re debating moving to, or pursuing a job we’re too scared to chase or loudly sharing opinions we secretly text about in group chats. We don’t follow people because we’re obsessed with their lives. We follow them because their life gives us information about our own. So what does this mean for creators who want to grow a following and land brand deals (more on this soon)? Turn your life into a case study for the person you’re trying to serve.

Here are 3 ways to do that:

1. Your Problems Are Your Value

We’ve made finding a “niche” way more complicated than it needs to be. God I'‘m sick of that word. Your best content isn’t hiding in a trending format. It’s in plain sight, in the problems you’re facing in your actual life! The ones keeping you up at night!

• Identify the problem you’re truly facing in your life. (Break ups, finances, fitness journeys..everything waiting for you after you post the curated photo dump!)

• Learn as much information as you can about it and start solving those problems for yourself

• Document it all in real time and re-phrase it as solving problems for others. Ex: “How to Pay Back Student Loans in 3 years” Can someone make that video hahaaa..asking for a friend.

2. Your Life Is The Case Study

Making it about the audience doesn’t mean completely removing yourself and becoming a page of facts w/ no emotion. In fact, you’ll share even more personal details once you’re the case study. But always ask this question before hitting record:

• “How does this moment in my life help someone understand something about theirs?”

Because “I moved to New York to Chase my Creator Dreams” is about me.

“Why You Should Move to A Big City” is about everyone who wants to. (I still get to be vulnerable and sprinkle details about my strained relationship with being a dentist too)

Same story, different reach (no algorithmic pun intended lol)

3. Your Page Is The Pitch

There is no email you can send to the marketing team of your dream brand that will be more convincing than the story your page tells.

The secret sauce to brand deals isn’t convincing brands you’re valuable after they find you. It’s becoming the person already solving the problems they built their products to solve. And once they find you..cause they will. They will be begging YOU for a spot on your page :) Take my word for it, it’s happening to me in real time.

In a world full of people who want to serve themselves, serve others, and all your wildest dreams will come true.

Yours truly,

A creator who happens to be a dentist, watching his dreams come true in real time.