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Chief Executive Officer

As the CEO of your creative life, are you leading—or reacting?

Author

Jaime Solis
04 Apr

Welcome to Red Threads

For creators who lead. Strategic insights at the intersection of media, marketing, AI, and culture.

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” — Michael Altshuler

The Red Thread This Week

Become the CEO

Many creators get stuck in task mode. The inbox. The editing. The endless to-do list.

But if you’re building something—a business, a brand, a body of work—you’re not just a task-master. You’re the CEO.

The head strategist. The owner of the mission and the vision. The decision-maker.

And the best CEOs don’t just react—they lead.

They ask:

  • What work is truly mine, that only I can do?

  • Where can I create the most leverage?

  • What will still matter six months from now?

  • Which tasks can I delegate or eliminate entirely?

Being a CEO means building systems, not just completing tasks.

Creating assets, not just checking boxes.
Letting go of what got you here—and making space for what could get you there.

~ Jaime

📌 Stop viewing yourself as a task-doer. Start seeing yourself as the leader who decides which tasks are worth your time.

🔑 The Unlock

4 CEO Moves You Can Make This Week

  • Audit Your Energy – What drains you that someone else could do? Offload it.

  • Make One Strategic Decision – Look at your list of responses to strategic questions like “Who’s it for?” and “What’s it for?” Choose something high-impact you’ve been putting off—and commit.

  • Specialize – Generalists blend in. Specialists stand out. Niche down in a specific area and consider charging more.

  • Invest in an Asset – Create something today that compounds: evergreen resources and content, a new skill or tool, a collaboration.

📌 Take Action: Block 30 minutes and ask: “As the CEO of this project, what should I start doing, stop doing, and double down on?”

💡 Creative Edge

Start Thinking Like a Founder.

The difference between a freelancer and a founder?
When work calls a freelancer answers–and does the work. A founder decides what work is worth doing in the first place.

That means:

  • Building evergreen, sustainable systems instead of chasing trends

  • Prioritizing the long game over inbox zero

  • Saying no to good things to make room for great ones

Ask yourself:

  • What’s my unique advantage?

  • What am I building that will outlast the week?

  • What would someone with my vision stop tolerating?

Because in the end, strategy is self-respect at scale.
And your future self is counting on you.

📡 Industry Pulse

  • TikTok Launches Platform for Artists
    TikTok quietly rolls out TikTok for Artists—a central hub offering marketing tools, analytics, and audience insights to help musicians grow on-platform.
    Read more

  • Podnews 2025 Report Card Reveals Rising Stars
    The annual survey ranks podcast platforms, hosts, and tools across trust, innovation, and monetization. YouTube made gains—but Spotify took a hit in perception.
    Read more

  • Inside UMG’s $288M Catalog Spend
    Universal Music Group spent big in 2024—acquiring 5M songs and spending $288M on catalog. The bet? Legacy assets still drive long-term cultural value.
    Read more

  • Why Listeners Hit Play on Podcasts
    New data reveals top motivations behind pressing play: curiosity, mood management, and personal recommendation dominate. Format matters less than intention.
    Read more

  • Morrissey Takes Legal Action Over Online Harassment
    A decades-long online campaign of harassment led to a formal investigation and legal action—highlighting digital reputational risk for legacy artists.
    Read more

  • March’s Audio Research Roundup
    From AI narration tests to Spotify’s evolving ad formats, March’s studies offer new signals about how listeners engage—and where opportunity lies next.
    Read more

📈 By The Numbers

What it says: Creator-led marketing is outperforming traditional ad models across the board, with better engagement, higher trust, and stronger ROI.

What it means: Brands chasing attention need to stop thinking like broadcasters and start thinking like collaborators. If you're not already leveraging creator partnerships, you're leaving reach, resonance, and revenue on the table.

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

  • Recall.ai – Summarize anything, forget nothing with AI. Capture, summarize, and revisit any content or ideas quickly.

  • Vapi – Build voice-based AI agents with customizable personalities and phone call capabilities.

  • MoCha – Generate movie-grade talking characters from speech and text.

  • MiniMax – Minimax’s text-to-speech AI supporting over 30 languages.

  • 10Web – AI-powered WordPress platform to build, optimize, and host websites faster and smarter.

⚡ Final Note

You’ve got an idea. A message. A story worth telling. The only thing standing between you and your own podcast? Getting started.

That’s why I put together The 7-Day Podcast Challenge—a simple, step-by-step guide to getting your podcast live in a week. No fluff, no wasted motion. Just a clear path from idea to launch.

And thank you for spending time with Red Threads this week. I’m glad you’re here.

~ Jaime

P.S. Could you use some help with a project you’re working on? Let’s talk! 

📌 If this issue sparked something for you, forward it to a friend.

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