{{first name | friend}}!

I've watched every Codie Sanchez video that exists. Some of them twice, which is a strange thing to admit, since I didn't need the information a second time. I think I just wanted to hear her say it again.

That's the thing I keep circling back to. Plenty of people teach the exact same subjects she does. I don't binge them. I binge her.

I noticed it properly a few weeks ago, half-watching something else, when a notification told me she'd posted. I clicked before I'd even finished the thought. That's not how I treat most creators. Most creators, I consume. Her, I show up for, the way you'd pick up when a specific person calls instead of letting it go to voicemail.

So I've been sitting with the question. What actually earns that. Is it built, or is some of it just luck and a good voice.

Here's roughly where I've landed, still working through parts of it.

I couldn't name the five other people teaching the same lessons she teaches. Not because they're bad at it. I just don't remember their voice. Hers, I could pick out of a lineup with one sentence, no name attached.

Some of what she posts isn't even the useful stuff. It's just her, being clearly herself, on a day when nothing particularly teachable happened. I used to think that was filler. Now I think it's the reason the useful stuff lands harder when it finally shows up.

Swap the presenter out of most business content and honestly, nothing changes. Swap her out of hers and the whole thing falls apart, which tells you the presenter was never separate from the content in the first place.

And she repeats herself. A lot, actually. I don't mind. It's a little like a friend telling the same story again, and you let them, because they tell it well and you kind of like hearing it.

None of that happens by trying to become someone's favorite. It happens by being specific enough, consistent enough, and present enough that "favorite" just becomes the accurate word for something that was already true.

1 question for you:

Who's the creator you binge instead of consume, and what's actually different about how you watch them?

2 things I keep coming back to:

Recognizability beats information every time. I already knew most of what she teaches from somewhere else. I kept watching anyway, because I wasn't really there for the information the second time around.

The parts that feel like filler usually aren't. The clips where nothing gets taught are often doing the most work, quietly, in the background, long before the useful stuff even shows up.

3 things about what actually earns "favorite":

You can't manufacture it by trying to be liked. It shows up as a side effect of being specific and consistent long enough that people stop thinking of you as a creator and start thinking of you as just someone they check in on.

Repetition isn't a flaw once someone trusts you. It reads as a flaw from a stranger and as comfort from someone you already like.

The presenter and the content stop being separable. That's the actual tell. Once you can't imagine the lesson without the person teaching it, you've become the reason people show up, not just the reason they learn something.

Stephen

P.S. I still don't fully know why I show up for her and not the ten other people teaching the same material. I have theories. None of them feel finished yet.

P.S.S. I hope this is your favorite newsletter 🤣😂😂 see ya tomorrow

Let’s Connect on LinkedIn if you like it there

Follow me on Threads/IG

Wanna work with me?

Got Stuff to say? Start your own Newsletter with Beehiiv