Taylor Lorenz’s Power User - Content Creation Has Become a Pyramid Scheme

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

The MLM industry has rebranded for the TikTok era. Now, instead of hawking LuLaRoe leggings, women are paying $500 for PDFs on how to become micro influencers. Support my independent journalism:🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz   🗞️ Substack: https://www.usermag.co   The "hustle economy" is no longer about selling essential oils or leggings to your neighbors. A new wave of multi-level marketing-style schemes has taken over Instagram and TikTok. Digital courses specifically targeting young mothers with the promise of "passive income" and "financial freedom" by becoming a content creator have become pervasive. In this episode, I sit down with Caroline Moss (founder of "Gee Thanks, Just Bought It") to break down how content creation became the new digital pyramid scheme. We expose the dark reality of the influencer economy, the rise of Faceless Marketing scams, and why so many women are buying $500 PDFs just to turn around and sell that same PDF to someone else.We talk about influencer saturation, the use of ChatGPT to write generic "chaos mama" scripts, the rise of "course core" and the heartbreaking reality that most of these creators are making absolutely zero dollars.  Follow me:https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz     https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0    https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenzhttps://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social https://twitter.com/taylorlorenz Follow Caroline: http://geethanks.substack.com https://www.instagram.com/geethanksjustboughtitpodIn This Video:The evolution of MLMs.Why "Faceless Marketing" is the new trap for introverts.Selling courses about selling courses.The role of ChatGPT in generating low-quality influencer content.Why viral views don't equal a paycheck.The psychology of targeting stay-at-home moms.The origins of the mommy blogger world, Heather Armstrong aka "Dooce"

Some of these courses are like, you have paid $30 for this course, put this course back into chat GPT, make it your own, and then turn around and sell it to someone else. That's insane to me. These days, the hustle economy isn't about pink Cadillacs or essential oils. It's about selling content creation. Across the internet, but especially on Instagram, content creation as a career has quietly taken on the structure and psychology of a multi-level marketing scheme, especially for young mothers who are promised, income, identity, and autonomy. Platforms are overflowing with videos insisting that anyone can do it, that success is just a few short form videos away, and that failure is a mindset problem rather than a structural inevitability.

This new MLM-style industry is being monetized through courses, coaching sessions, and an endless array of self-branding PDFs. But how did content creation become a digital pyramid scheme? And why are so many young mothers being roped into it? To discuss all of this, I called up my friend Caroline Moll. Caroline is the founder of G thanks just bought it, an amazing newsletter and podcast where she gives shopping recommendations on the best products. I have bought so much stuff from this newsletter. It's amazing. She always finds the best deals. The shorts that I wear every single day I found in this newsletter, I've bought so much random stuff for my home that I absolutely love.

I've known Caroline for over 15 years. She's a genius. And she's also so deep in the world of MLM Mama content creation, Instagram. So so excited to have her here today. Hi, Caroline. Welcome to Power User Podcast. Hello, Taylor. Thanks for having me. I'm so glad you're here because I wanted to discuss this with you so much. And I feel like we've been texting each other so much. And I was like, just come on my podcast. We need to break this down. So to start off, I kind of want to jump back and talk about the origins of this.

Like before content creation became this like get which Crix team sort of like, when did this start? We all know how the influencer industry began. But to me, a lot of this idea of like going on social media to make money and get rich started in the early 2010s with MLMs. Yeah. I think that's probably accurate. I think in terms of like, where are people hanging out online is where people will go and

try to sell you something that will make you rich. You know what I mean? And MLMs or pyramid schemes had already had such great success when you were just doing Tupperware parties like with your neighborhood, right? And then the smart, I mean, and I'll put that in quote, smart because it's devious. Like people were like, well, now everything can be your neighbor. Now, like, you can, like, you know, you can have a Facebook group of people you don't even know and you could sell them something. So I think, like, with the rise of, like, groups and when Facebook moved away from, like, the wall and, like, now you can, like, join, like, little clubs on Facebook or like these things where these like-minded people can come together and you could, like, have community, like, will there will always be someone in there being like, well, how can we monetize this? And I think, like, that is where, like, you saw the MLMs pop up and people being like, I'm going to sell you.

nail polish. I'm going to sell you leggings. I'm going to sell you this. And I'm going to sell you the opportunity to be your own boss and to make thousands of dollars and you don't have to go to the office. And who's that most appealing to the people who are staying home and raising their children? I feel like, I mean, the 2010s, especially the early 2010s were so defined by like classic MLM culture, kind of being reinvented for the internet. Like so much of that Lula Row stuff and just like Avon, all these other ones, rodent and fields or whatever, what happened on Facebook. It was all about kind of network marketing on Facebook when Facebook was at its peak. And then I feel like, yeah, as you said, I mean, people's, the industry started to get cracked down.

Also, I think a lot of that stuff was kind of undercut by the rise of e-commerce and these e-commerce platforms where suddenly you actually don't need to hear from like a friend because you can just go on a subreddit and get all the advice that you need and also just like read tons of reviews that are now all over like any sort of website. And also even just like things like Timu or Zara or fast fashion. Like you suddenly just like you didn't need to buy leggings from your like random high school sorority sister. And I mean also like Lula Row leggings are not your average like black workout leggings. Like these are very specific colorful loud and at a point for a year or so like very trendy. But like anything else like it's very 2014 and now it's 2026. So we're very much like past that like and it's not a brand that it's because, Because the brand is actually not super about the product.

The product is a placeholder to keep them out of legal hot water. What they're selling is opportunity. They're not actually selling you clothes. So the brand itself is not like growing and evolving with trends and making new products. It's just like here sell these like shit leggings. But like actually what you can sell to your next door neighbor is this like amazing lifestyle where you're buying a Lexus and you only work like three hours a week. And they can do that too if they give you $5,000.

And then you get like a cut of anything that they make. And at some point you're like, Like if nine people on your street are all selling the same pair of leggings, who's buying them? No one. So you're in a pyramid scheme. To me, I feel like a few things that changed also in the late 2010s. I guess I could say, you know, 2018, 2019, leading up to the pandemic, which I think supercharged this whole sort of industry was also the rise of algorithmic feeds. It was really hard to become an influencer throughout most of the 2010s because Instagram didn't even release their first algorithm.

on the main timeline until 2016. There was no such thing as Instagram stories until 2016. And it wasn't even really until 2017 that they had like fully rolled it all out. And Twitter too introduced an algorithmic timeline for the first time ever in 2016. So it's like... And if you think about that three years later is the pandemic. And that to me all feels part of this timeline that we're still in. And like three years isn't just that, it's just not that long of a time.

So you're right. It probably just didn't blow up until... It was really hard to become an influencer. Like it was actually really hard. really hard. You had to be able to like market yourself really well and build like a very dedicated audience. And then that audience would be consuming almost everything you posted because it was a chronological feed. And so you had to really retain them. It worked well for the bloggers. I mean, that was the first iteration. And then remember like blog role and and your Google reader fell

off? And then those people are like, well, what do we do now? And it's like you moved all your stuff to Instagram. Yeah. I mean, I guess like blogging was kind of an earlier version of this. The thing is, is that the money and blogging was never really there. And like blogs were emergent. And yes, there was like blog her and these sort of big events for like blog moms and stuff in the, you know, in that earlier influence or time period. But it wasn't like everyone was following bloggers yet. It was still like the industry was growing.

And I feel like, I mean, the turning point to me was 2020 because you had the pandemic hit. A lot of moms who did like part time jobs or other things or like worked as a secretary at their on school or whatever, like we're suddenly stuck at home. A lot of them lost work. A lot of women, I mean, there were so many articles about this were pushed out of the workforce generally that year. And it was also a time when everybody was getting online. And you were doing everything online. You were working out. You were shopping. You were going to like Zoom happy hour, which is like the worst thing we ever did as this society. What was that about? I never want to go to a Zoom happy hour again. What the hell? Just let me sign off. Everything was going nuts.

I would think also that's like when the influencer industry started. to be taken really seriously. I mean, you saw this even with like Silicon Valley venture capitalists, like Mark Andreessen and these people who hated on influencers. They hated on influencers throughout the whole 2010s. They talked about how like worthless these people were. And then suddenly like people started to take the online world seriously and be like, wait a minute, there's actually a lot here. Money's pouring in. Actually, the internet's our default reality. All these like tech people get into it. All these venture. Like everybody's just pouring money into the influencer industry. And I think it made a lot of people that were there at the right time, like really, really rich. And what you also have

to remember is because you and I are about the same age, when we were leaving college and going into the workforce, that was prime time for a company to ask us like, hey, are you proficient with, like, Twitter and Facebook? And you're like, yeah, like, I know how to log in. And that was all we needed to get a job in that space because it was like, I don't know what this is. Oh, we'll get like some 22 year old to do it. It's why the trope of like someone's social media intern is going to be fired today because everyone still thinks there's like a 22 year old running like a really huge brand's Twitter account, which is just like not the case. But in the beginning of, you know, money rushing in to Instagram and TikTok and think the influencing world.

I won't even say TikTok yet because I feel like that did not even come until like into the pandemic. But like Instagram for sure and especially among millennials is like all these brands are now being told from above like, hey, everyone's doing everything online. So like, oh, this person has four million followers or this person is 300,000 followers. That must mean it's worth like $50,000. We'll pay them to do like. And that changed really quickly too. But in the beginning, It wasn't about like, oh, well, how much are you actually converting? Oh, like, how many people are actually clicking on your link and shopping? It's like, you have lots of followers.

Well, okay, we'll give you lots of money. And I don't think that there was just like enough data yet to be able to be like, okay, well, what are we actually paying for? What do we actually want return? It's just like popular person, we give them money. And I think if you were very early on that, 2018, 2019 in the influencer world, I'm not saying you didn't work any hard, but kind of what we're about to talk about today. It's like you were very, very much like first in line.

And you probably got, like, you reaped the benefits of like a new world. You also had, I mean, I think like, again, once these venture capitalists decided that the influencer industry was worthy, they coined the term the creator economy, which is hilarious and was never a term in the 2010s because they wanted to distance themselves from past statements that they made about the influencer world. But they started pouring all this money in. And you had also the CEOs of platforms like Instagram say, oh, yes, we embrace the creator economy. We love our creators. Like, we want, you know, more engagement. is also when they're starting to do that, like lean further and further into algorithmic discovery to compete with TikTok. TikTok was always a very creator first platform in the sense that they could make

people famous very quickly because of the algorithm. And so suddenly I just feel like there was this like influencer boom in like 2021, 2022 where people started to, yeah, like blow up, make big brand deals. Also like you started to see these success stories like Charlie DeMilio came out of nowhere and made like $50 million. And the reason those success stories happened the way they did is because of algorithms. because like it used to take a really long time to get famous because you had to build that subscriber base over time. But with TikTok, like you were just getting these overnight stars and then the other platform started to compete. And I feel like it just became this like massive popular, you know, sprawling industry, multi-billion dollar industry that everyone's like, wait a minute. Whoa. I thought these people are just on their phone.

Right. I want a piece of that. And then comes the people who are like, oh, my job can be telling people who want a piece of that that they deserve a piece of that and here's how to get it. and they can pay me for that information. Another thing that's happening simultaneously, kind of amidst all this, again, like, really around 2020 and after with the rise of platforms like TikTok shop and Amazon, et cetera, is affiliate marketing. And Amazon launching Amazon creators, Walmart launching Walmart creators, like Target creators. Everybody. There's a bazillion businesses that then encapsulate, like all the smaller brands.

Like, you know, Walmart and Target have it in-house. Other people hire agencies to do it for them. It's all, I mean, like affiliate marketing. It's like everything. And I feel like a lot of these influencers as well, started to lean really hard into affiliate marketing, make tons of money and say like, listen, you don't even have to have millions of followers.

If you just have, you know, 50,000, but you're selling them on, you know, your Amazon shop every day. Like you too can be a millionaire. And the platforms leaned into this. Like I remember at VidCon, Amazon had this like, this was like 2022. They had this like giant booth where they were just like essentially

telling everyone like sign up for Amazon, you know, like put this code in your car. content on Instagram. Like you could become a millionaire. And it's like, really? I don't think so. I mean, definitely not overnight. I mean, I'll say I found like a ton of success. And I have like what they call in this world. Like I am a micro influencer. I started as a podcast that was literally the business model was like, come tell me what you're buying. I will put a link to that in the show notes. If someone buy, you know, all disclosed, but if someone buys it, that's how the podcast makes money. But I think what people don't see is like the obvious parts of it. It's like build your

community. You have to work really, really hard before you make. make like any money. And I think that there is a misconception by going to a thing like VidCon where they're like, oh, just sign up is like, well, who's listening to you? How have you built trust? How have you built something that people find value in? You know, there's two different kinds of attention economies happening. I think another thing that we started to see with the rise of like affiliate codes and, you know, Amazon programs and stuff was UGC. And UGC marketing, which got really big. I would say in the past two years, but really 2025, that's when I started to see on Twitter, these digital marketers do these big threads about like, oh, yeah, they're like, this is

UGC, UGC, UGC, UGC, UGC means user-generated content. It's what the internet runs on. We're all producing it every day. But now companies will sometimes, like, work with UGC creators, essentially people that have almost no following that will create content for free in exchange for almost nothing. Like, you know what's really bleak, Caroline? I won thread on Twitter that was this girl talking about her UGC journey or whatever. They don't even send the people the products.

What they're doing is sending them imagery to use and stock video of the product to use stock video of the stuff. And some of these content creators are including that in there. Like you used to at least get like a free facial cleanser. Now they're like, hey, check your email. You want to be a UGC creator? Okay, let's see how your video performs. Here's some, you know, optional B-roll footage of the product you

can include, but you're not going to get the product. Now this strength leads me to another point, which I know from doing this now, is like, sometimes I will get emails. And they're like, hey, so in exchange for like three reels, can we send you like our best selling nonstick pan and, you know, our best selling like knife set? And it's like, no, because that's not how I operate. But I can also see a world where it is so exciting to be like, wow, this company actually wants to send me their stuff for free, that you're agreeing to make three reels, which some actual content creators are getting paid thousands and thousands of dollars to do. And they're taking advantage of you because they don't, they think you don't know that. Or maybe you don't

know that. Yeah, I mean, I don't even think these women are getting a much free product aside from like maybe little types. I don't even think they're getting a pan set. I mean, these are people that have like 600 followers. I think we keep kind of almost lowering the bar like further and further. Like, companies are positioning the bar to be a content creator so low that it's like, are you a user of social media? You can do user generated content. That is how low. The bar is on the floor. You can have three followers. Just advertise for us. Can you log into Twitter? Do you want to get hired as our social media manager in 2009? Like, yeah. But at least we got a salary with healthcare. Sure. But that's like someone in 2015 being like, I can log into Twitter. I can log into

Facebook, I'm going to apply for these social media manager jobs and someone on this side of, you know, the devil on this shoulder being like, do it. You totally deserve that. You deserve it. That's, you should be your job. It's crap. The gifting of it, I have seen a lot of them trying to be like, hey, I hope you said, like, don't do shit for like a can of seltzer. I don't care how many followers you have. But like, there's a lot of brands who are going to be like, these idiots are just so excited to get a lip gloss in the mail. They'll make a reel for us. And maybe they'll make something that we can just take and they'll sign something that's like you can use it in perpetuity or like we can use it in your commercial it's just like I blame the obviously above and they're

taking advantage of it it just makes me sad so we have affiliate marketing stuff kind of taking off I feel like everything got so saturated quickly and there were all these kind of get rich schemes happening also in like the mail internet of like they all had drop shipping stores they all had you know crypto NFTs whatever all this is sort of bottoming it out and then in 2023 we see the of platforms like Kajabi and these courses. And suddenly everybody is encouraging you to like make a digital course and saying like, okay, digital goods are the new future. There's these course platforms that you can easily set up a PDF.

This is also by the way, right when AI is taking off chat GPT had launched a year earlier. So it's really easy to generate these types of courses. 2023 is like when I really started to notice the like get rich quick of it all of like really kind of the MLMification of like content creation. I'm rolling my eyes because I do think that the course, we called it course core when we were talking, you and I. Courses are great. And I think it's really cool that you can just like build a thing that you can sell over and over again. But we're talking about something a little different.

I have bought, not courses, but I have bought like ePdfs. It was literally like the ultimate Trader Joe's recipe, literally items to recipes. And as someone is just like not good at cooking and like there's just too much information on the internet, I was like, sure, I'll pay $6 for this. And I used it like all the time. That, to me, great use of courses, smart. You have information. You want to share it.

You want to monetize from it because, you know, sure, you can put all of that out on your Instagram for free, but like, it's smarter to say, like, I'll put like one recipe out a week for free. If you want access to everything at one time, just pay with one, you know, $10, $6, $12 thing. Great. But what we are seeing right now is the rise of courses. on how to become a content creator. And that's what they're calling it, a content creator.

Some of these courses are like, you have paid $30 for this course, put this course back into chat GPT, make it your own, and then turn around and sell it to someone else. And like, that's insane to me. And that is what we're seeing happening all over Instagram right now.

And that I think is like the the dark side of the course structure. Exactly. I mean, yeah, we all love courses that are useful and helpful. I mean, to me, like, I started to see this with, like, the teen boys buying drop shipping courses, like, that sort of emerged. And there was all these other sort of courses on things, but it is this like content creation

course or services, right, where it's like, I'll give you a custom plan. Of course, the custom plan is not very custom. It's like literally. It's not custom at all. It's literally chat. It's insane. Yeah, like hundreds of dollars and even thousands of dollars. And they're all being targeted to women, I would say in their 30s, 40s and you

even 50s. Yes, women who have really young kids and women who are about to not have any kids in their house at all. It's the same target as the MLMs used to go after, but it's not like any sort of one formal MLM that's doing it, which almost makes it more insidious. It's just this network of like thousands and thousands of women that are like, I'm a social media, you know, expert and I'm going to sell you my course. And then of course, those people that buy the course, then set up their Instagram account, get a thousand followers and then start trying to sell their own course. Which is just the course that they bought regurgitated back into AI and turned into something else. And it's like all the same language that you see with the MLMs.

It's like a lot of words, not a lot of information. It's like, do you want to know how I make $5,000 a month by like only being on my phone for like two hours a week? I'm like, I'd love to because I'm on my phone 100 hours a week. So like, let me know, mama. I would love to know. And then it's like, trust me, this is like what's happening in the influencer world. And I'm like, you have 900. Who is feeding you this? It really makes me sad because I'm like, you deserve to be successful.

You deserve to like find success. But someone is selling you snake oil and you are buying. It's also like you can tell the women who have fallen for this snake oil, like you said, because not only do they have pretty generally low follower accounts because they're not employing strategies that work. But it's this like desperation. And they format a lot of their pages the same for people that like don't know what we're talking. about what you'll start to see these online and if you engage with one you're going to get a million on reels but it's like they love to do the kind of like b-roll footage of them like standing looking at the camera or like rearranging flowers or something and then it'll have like the caption

about how like hard life is as a content creator that's the text on the video and then the caption is just chaty p t slop about you know how to push through right exactly every video is like day four as a content creator here's what i've learned you just have to keep showing up as yourself you just have to you just have to show up and post it mama and it's all mama language and and mama language scares me because mama language is MLM language like that's like the big siren for me but it's like day four as a content creator the way to find success on the internet is like not ever going to be as easy as like here's a bunch of templates here's a facebook group where we're all trying to do the same thing and we will talk about the comment cycles it's like anybody can find success on the internet and

what people mean when they say that is like if you have something that you're good at or that you want to teach people, you know, you use your account to do that. You use strategies employed by other content creators that you see as like sort of working the algorithm. You know, trial reels is one or like things that Instagram or like TikTok sort of promote as ways for content creators to like utilize to get in front of an audience. But like you're not going to like randomly stumble upon a million dollars by just posting like day four as a content creator. I'm a chaos mama and I'm just so random and I'm just doing laundry. Like it's just just blows my mind that people are falling for this. Yeah, I mean, I think this is the fundamental thing

is that these women don't have anything to say. Like so many successful content creators became content creators because they had a passion for something or they were creatives, artists, or just people that wanted to like show up and had something to say or had a strong point of view. I'm not trying to degrade these women and say like they don't have anything going on or they're not amazing. Maybe they do have these amazing things, right? But I think they're being sold this vision of essentially like, yeah, like almost encouraging them to water themselves down and follow these templates and this idea that like fame can come to anyone if you work hard enough, which is just capitalistic hustle culture, you know, being sold back to

desperate people, which I guess is like a tale as old as time. I also think that one thing that people really don't care about is life as a content creator. And this is something that I think every so true. That's so true, Mama. No one cares. What is that even mean. But that is what so much of these women, I think, because they don't, listen, a lot of them rightfully don't want to like overshare about their personal lives or they don't, maybe they have a hobby, but it's not something that they're going to like go hard on on the internet, but they want to make extra money. And so they just talk about how hard it is to grow an audience and to be a content creator. And it's like that is the least type of engaging content that you can

possibly make. Yeah, no shit. We're all on this internet app ourselves. Like, who are you talking to? And the answer is each other. Each other. And so I want to talk. about the communities that have kind of like emerged because I feel like there are you know if you go into the comments of a lot of these women's posts it's all other women like this that have fallen for similar schemes so that's what I first started noticing and so by the way this conversation that Taylor and I having came about because someone got served to me on a for you page that I was just so like what is this I never followed but I did watch like a few videos like start to finish and so of course Instagram's like give her more she loves these and I landed

on one and saw that you had liked it. So I texted you and I'm like, okay, so you've seen this too. But here was the most shocking thing to me is like the first one that came on my for you page was so clearly going viral for all of the reasons this woman did not want it to go viral. People were making fun of her. The comments were like, this shouldn't be your job. Like it was mean, it was like mean spirited. The woman was kind of awkward.

Awkward like, you know, like reading from an AI script like being like, hi, I'm a content creator. Like it's like you're not, you're reading from a, and then. in this comment, she'd be like, yeah, I'm reading from an AI script. Like, yeah, I use chat GPT and everyone's like, but this doesn't let us get to know. I don't know. But like, people were piling on for very like low hanging fruit. And I was like, wow, but she has a million views. So if she's rage baiting, you know, she's done a great job. It's hit the algorithm and it's doing great. But then Instagram started showing me more of her videos. And then I noticed

when I looked at the comments, there would be like 200 comments. And the videos would all kind to be the same. It was still pretty awkward. You're still reading a chat GPT script. You're kind of just saying like slop sentences that make no sense like here I am just a chaos mama standing here drinking a lecroy and I'm like what's a chaos mama there's so many chaos mammas are very in my feed right now but the comments were like yes mama I can so relate to that and then I would click into those people's profiles and it was the same thing like 900 followers and then the bio would be like just a mom of two making it through this awkward thing we call life and I'm like okay okay and then all the comments on that person's posts are like you got this I

love following your content. And then I realized what was happening, which is like, they have all bought a course and they are paying up the ladder to someone who's making bank off of them and off of their desperation. But they're all in a Facebook group where someone is saying, like, okay, you guys, drop your Instagrams in the comments. And remember, like, engage with each other. Like, make sure you're going like hands up emojis. It reminds me of like 2013 Twitter when people are still like, hey, Taylor Lorenz, thanks for the follow. Like a whole fucking tweet that says that. And it's just like a misuse of the platform and like, yes, you're going to get 200 comments, but like, where is that getting you? And it just is like, it blows my mind that someone is sitting at the top of this being like, oh, how I became a content creator. I sold hundreds of women this like $50 course. And so many of these women, of course, end up selling their own courses. It makes me sad because they're not set up to be content creators. Like being a content creator is really hard. And I think that they're not ready for the public. to engage with their content. I think when they're on the come up and when they stay in that little

universe of, you know, the mama universe, like they all hype each other up. They all leave these comments. But once it breaks containment, you mentioned that one video. And I've seen so many on my feed that sort of break out of their, you know, their algorithm, which is good, right? Like, that's theoretically what you want. But they cannot handle it. They don't like it. They can't handle the attention. Of course. They don't want to be made fun of. They don't want to be made fun of. And they don't know how to handle online attention fundamentally because they haven't really built up to it and they don't even know how to capitalize on it or wield it or anything. And I often see them get defensive where they double down.

They will reply, especially on TikTok as well, which I was looking at something. It's like, you know, they're like, they're doing video replies to every comment. Like, oh, I guess you're just jealous. And it's like, girl, like, come down. Put the phone down. Put the phone down. Like this is the internet. Yeah, I did see the one woman who I, who has really caught my eye in this world.

The video that I saw, the original video that. I saw that got me to her page, I was looking for it the other day to send to you, and she deleted it. And it was the one that had like a million views. And I'm like, well, yeah, I don't blame you. Like, there was so many horrible things that people were saying to you in the comments. Unfortunately, that is what it's like to go viral on the internet sometimes, especially if you are not giving them anything. You're just like, I'm a content creator. Like, you're ripe for the picket. Like, that people are going to come at you. And you know, another sort of form of this or offshoot of this that I think has taken off

as well is as more women or want to be content creators, I think a lot of them have also gotten hooked into buying courses on faceless marketing and setting up faceless Instagram accounts, which we've talked about before, which is really just affiliate where it's like, they're shopping accounts, but you're like filming yourself, you know, restocking. Like this became popular again with the rise of affiliate marketing and just these like ASMR kind of restock videos a couple years ago. But now we've seen like the corsification of that where we had a couple really smart, creative, talented, faceless content creators that just made shopping content that was essentially

product demo videos and Restock. And they did a great job of it. But now they're telling all these women, are you too nervous to put your face on camera? Don't worry, just buy this course. And you see these, I was watching some woman. This woman just had her like random hands out and she's refilling the laundry pod. She's like moving one laundry pod to another like glass container from the, you know, and it was like one of those one reels that right that has like 23 likes and a couple comments.

And I looked at her account and it's faceless content creation. And it's like you have 527 followers. Like, but you can imagine like not only are these people buying courses, but there's an entire industry selling to these people. Like I was trying to think like, okay, how did she film this? She must have had to buy one of those necklace type things, right? That has the phone mount around you. And so many of these women are buying ring lights. They're buying cameras.

They're buying all of this stuff, which also is an industry that's selling to these people. And I think of like the companies that make all of this crap that are like, I mean, I have this that I bought one of these like sticky things that it was like stick it to your car window, you know, and then you can make your. But it's like there's so many people selling and taking these women's money in these pursuits. And it's sad. It does make me sad. You know, I love the hands account because I've been in this business now for six years. And my manager is always like, you should be doing more video. And I'm like, I don't want to.

It's a lot of work. Like, I don't like it. I like doing what I do the way I do it. And the reason why I think I haven't grown in like a huge way is because I'm not playing to the algorithm because I don't find it interesting and I think I would get really, really tired of what I do. And I watch those hands accounts with the knowledge of how much it takes. I actually realized the other day one girl smartly doesn't use her own home. Like she has a rental apartment that she has stocked with all this stuff because I'm like she has three kids. There's no way her house looks like that. And then I like thought about it. And I'm like, no, of course. It's a write off. It's like anyone in an office space like her. office space is probably like a one bedroom apartment where all of her Amazon boxes go. And she does all the stuff and the lighting is perfect and everything's white and everything's cream. And to be clear, the hands accounts that I love and that I'm thinking about are not selling courses. They're also the most successful ones, like over a million followers. But like it is so difficult to do that

kind of work. Is it brain surgery? No. Is it rocket science? Also no. But like a 30 second video is probably like four to five hours of work at the end of the day. And what's unfortunate is that probably probably in these like lesser than e-courses, they're like, that girl just made a 30 second video. You could do that in between during nap time. It's like, no, you can't. This is a full-time job. One thing I'm curious about with these women, too, is like, who are they even looking up to?

Like, has there even been a breakout influencer that bought one of these courses that followed one of these courses that has used this playbook to actually become successful? I've never seen it. I've never seen a successful influencer that has these, types of captions even. Like the very clearly chat UPT written captions. And the people that do blow up from talking about being an influencer, which I really don't think even happens anymore,

it's maybe it was like Tanna Mojo in like 2018 or David Dobrick, like vlogging his crazy life as a YouTuber. That's inherently interesting. I hate to say it, but like these mom's lives, like they're not necessarily inherently interesting. If that's what you're showing on the internet, no, that's not interesting. Someone out there is saying like, hey, you're a mom. hashtag relatable mom like talk about being a relatable mom and then they do that by saying like i'm a

relatable mom and it's like this is nothing you guys are just doing nothing like and this is not about moms but it's those are the people who are being targeted i've never also been like i got to follow this person who's just like here's me just being a content creator and that's what all of this content is so like who if you're getting famous it's because from haters and you're not equipped for that well also like it's interesting because like obviously some of the first mommy blog went viral at the time, like, mommy blogging became a thing because at the time, back 25 years ago, it was this actually pretty radical feminist act

to talk about being a messy mom and like sort of breaking the stereotypes of mothers that were completely dominant in the mainstream media at the time, which didn't show things like postpartum depression or struggling to breastfeed or all these things. So you had these like these iconic mommy bloggers that were very candid, that were sharp writers that would develop these communities,

because it felt liberating for moms to be able to talk about that. Of course, there's still stigma around mothers and parenting and stuff, but also we have a radically different landscape around motherhood. And a lot of people actually understand that it is really hard to be a mom and there's chaos and we're all chaos mammas, you know, here. And so they're not necessarily being forward enough where it's sort of shocking. And they're not offering anything. And I think... And they're not offering anything, yeah.

Yeah, I think with the deuses of the world and, you know, for like the first six years of my like online life, like all I read were mommy blogs. I didn't know other blogs existed. I was just very into mommy blogs. I didn't have kids. And to this day, I still don't have kids, but I loved it. And I think now looking back with a, you know, clearer eye in 2020 vision, it's like, yes, radical feminist act, but what it provides, like all of Instagram success, all of viral internet influencer success is what are you offering someone that makes them say, I need

to spend my attention on you? Because I could go anywhere with it. You know, like, what are you giving me? And I think in 2005, you. Yes, it's novel and it's like really radical, but it's also like there are no community spaces when you are up with a child who like is crying all night. Like, do you know how amazing that must feel to be in the common section of like a Deuce blog post?

It's like it's the original Reddit almost. And it's like what these courses are missing. And honestly, like in an evil way, what they know that they are missing, but they're still selling you anyway, is that like, yes, hashtag relatable mama's. have always gotten attention on the internet and some of them have found a lot of success. You're not actually telling these people why and you're not giving them any tools to get them there. You're just saying, here's a bunch of templates. People love you talking about how tired you are, mama and how like you don't like doing laundry.

And it's like you got it. It's 2026. Like you're, what are you giving someone? There is a massive content industrial complex aimed at selling and giving women in that information. and targeting those women and developing products for those women. And like, you know, I'm pretty sure like happiest baby or whatever, right, even had like a block. Like a lot of these companies that make products for these new mothers also, like,

have their own content marketing schemes. So like when you come on in 2025 or 2026 and all you're saying is like, I don't always put away my laundry. It's like, okay. It just makes me think like, have you ever been on the internet before? Like, what are you watching that you like? Well, they haven't. And that's the thing, too, that I think is interesting.

about a lot of these women. I actually don't think they're very online. I think if they were more online, they almost wouldn't fall for this. Like there's, there's an online language and a lot of this is like offline behavior where it's like you read about the internet. You see an article about somebody making $10 million and you think I can do that too, but you're not really immersed in these spaces because if you are immersed in these spaces, you end up picking up language and norms and you sort of become part of like the broader community of the internet. And I don't think these women actually are very online. Right, because who doesn't actually have time to be very online, people raising children. And it's like, that becomes the easiest target. They're being told, like, the internet is this, like,

easy place to master. And it's like, no, it's a blood sport. It's actually really hard. It's getting harder and harder and worse and worse. And these platforms are going to take more and more from you. And it's going to get, like, you are so unprepared for what this takes because it is a job that is actually really hard to do. And at the end of the day, you are going to give up because you're going to really, really try, but that $40 you spent or $60 you spent or $200 you spent is in someone else's pocket. And they knew that you would give up. And they knew that none of this stuff was going to hit. You know, there's a couple of people who I have followed for a while for one reason or another who like cycle in and out of the MLMs. And recently two out of the three have switched over to

courses. And literally it is like how to be a boss babe. Like it is 2014. Like how to be a boss babe, work two hours a week, make $5,000 a month. And I'm like, again, I would love to know. Like, tell me how to work two hours a week and make $5,000 a month. Well, it's also like, who are you influencing? If we have 10 million influencers and we already have micro influencers, we already have nano influencers, which a lot of these people ultimately, I guess, are. But it's like, what are you in? You're influencing them to become content creators. And then you guys were all just content creators boosting each other. You know what I just thought of? It's like, I follow a ton of influencers. I follow X, Y, and Z for this thing. I follow X, Y, and Z for that thing. And what

these content creation courses actually are like weirdly. selling is like you are now the one content creator that anyone needs. It's like I'm not following someone who's like I'm a content creator. I'm following someone who like does dopamine dressing or I follow like somebody who does like needlepoint. I follow chefs because I don't know how to cook and I like watching other people cook. I follow people who like travel for a living and like all of that makes up my diet. But these content creators are like and you're going to follow me because I'm a content creator. It's just like a weird, like, I don't even know if anyone's ever defined content creator to you. Like, it's not just like person who makes an Instagram video.

But that's what they think it is. And I kind of think the media reinforces that to them. Like, I don't think that there's been a lot of coverage about, like, if you are just an normy offline person, and maybe if you're young, again, you're more immersed in that environment if you're some zoomer, but like, if you're like a 35 year old or 45 year old woman and you've got a few young kids and you're overwhelmed and you just. read these headlines that are just like, Mr. Beast is now the biggest YouTuber or like, you know, Miss Rachel's blowing up. Like, you just sort of see like person putting content on the internet money. And again, the tech

companies are interested in you believing this because the tech companies also, they want you to spend more time on the app and they want you to create content for them as much as you possibly can. That's another thing too that like I signed up for a new Instagram account recently and I registered it as a digital creator account because it's just like another. and pages I have. And it was like onboarding me onto the creator program. And it's like, sign up, post a carousel, get a bonus. And I'm like, wait, this is scammy. Like, I don't want to, I'm making account for fun. Like, I don't want to be like funneled into this like business scheme. That is such a great point. Because what were we doing on Instagram, you know, 12 or 13 years ago?

Even if I scroll back to like 2013, 2014 Instagram, it's like the super filtered photos, six likes. comments, there was no messaging. Now Instagram is a business and you on Instagram as a business person. There is no like casual use of Instagram anymore. Like if you are on Instagram, you're there to make money and you're right. They're saying like here's how you sign up, like input your PayPal account. Make sure you give us your social security number so we can pay you and like, why are you here if not to make money? Look at all these other people making money. It really blows my mind. It also makes me think of like, well, when was the last time I was really offline and I can't like I don't think I ever really would ever have described myself as an offline person since the internet I've very much been an online person but I do remember getting really I mean like what's the you know two thousand two version of this it's the like work from home online like and I was always enticed by it but I you know I didn't need a job in 2002 but like what were those jobs actually in 2002 what were those ads that were like do you want to do want to work from home and make money what was that I remember it more like in college like and I'm sure they started

with the dot-com bubble, right? Because there was also like, you can e-trade from home, become an e-trader, become a, like, the internet has always been full of get rich quick schemes. And I think that like, there was always sort of that side of it. I think that social media has just brought it to like the mainstream, where it's like, okay, I'm sure these people, and I'm sure these moms again were targeted in MLMs before I would say

that's like the precursor to this. And I don't know what they were doing before that, probably like, yeah, other work from other schemes to make money. I mean, young moms are always in this. this difficult position because a lot of them are really, we're probably really competent in their previous careers, but they've had to take time off often when they have kids, reinvent themselves, find some sort of flexible work environment. And that's really hard for them. While also being like stuck in this patriarchal system where like they still have to be like

the main parent and like taking care of their kids. And I think like watching that Lula Roe documentary really opened my eyes to just like these specific women have such a target on their back, which is that like you can attract people with like boss mama, be your own boss. retire your husband, make so much money, but you're still stuck under the system that's like, you know, but you have to be home and the family first. And like, and I think these courses are just like the next iteration of it and less hard to trace back to a thing that like promises you a product. Like all of this stuff is just like living in the cloud. It's harder to crack down on because there's no one MLM company that's doing this to all these women. And because these tech companies,

I'll say it again, are completely complicit. They want to sell everybody this idea. They want you on there. They want you engaging. And I think it's, I just want to disabuse anybody of the idea that you make money on Instagram. I have 176,000 followers or something. You know, I post my videos all the time, mostly TV clips of me, whatever. But I am technically enrolled in the monetization program because I remember when I quit my job

to Washington Post. I was like, why not? I'll sign up. See how much I make. I just want to show you how much I made last month. I got a statement. Hold on. Can you read it?

$10.32. $0.32 for generating like hundreds of thousands. of views for that. Like, I post every day on this platform. Like, I'm a well-known reporter. I'm, these women, I'm sure, would love to have 176,000 followers. And that's how much you make. I have 57,000 followers. I've been doing this for six years. I have made zero dollars on Instagram itself, zero. Because it's a scam. It is a scam. They are selling you a lie. It is so hard to be a content creator. It's a tough job. And also, no one wants to see it. No one wants to see you setting up your tripod and talking about it because it has to be completely behind the scenes.

It's like it's tough. I feel bad like for these women. I mean, I was even just thinking like editing this podcast. I'm like, I think these women are ultimately kind of like victims of this system. No, they're absolutely victims of it. Like it drives me nuts because what I want to do is comment on all of them and be like, this is insane. Like someone is selling you a bridge, but like that's just like, oh, you're mean. You're not supporting other women. Like I'm not going to get into that. You know what I mean? But like, that's what this is. Like, it makes me so mad. They are all victims of it.

And it's like, gee, you're not only victims of it, but you're like publicly putting that on display for other people to, like, eat you alive. And it's like, it's ultimately not your fault. Someone told you. Like, this, the woman that we both kind of had on our page is such a great example. And I really wish she hadn't deleted the video that broke out and got a million views, though I really understand why she did based on the comments. But it was like a lot of people were in the comment.

saying, you know, the things that you and I are thinking. And then, you know, she did the comment, reply in the new video. And a lot of it was like, yeah, so what? I'm not a good public speaker. And I need chat GPT because I'm not a good writer. And a lot of people are like, then this doesn't sound like the job for you. But it's these people who are like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're bad at Instagram.

If you don't have a tripod, if you don't have the lighting, if you don't have an aesthetic home, if you don't have cute clothes, if you're not rich. Like, you can make a ton of money. And it's like, that's not true. And you're telling people this, like, false. so that they give you $99 to learn more and then you don't give a shit what happens to them. So another thing I will mention Taylor, because I did kind of do a little work on this, is like, I was trying to figure out through the comment cycles.

I was like, okay, who's selling a course and who's just trying to make a page? And basically anyone over 1,200 followers is trying to sell the course. But the people who, the woman that we both is not being followed by any of these people who sell courses. They don't give a shit. You are a $99 straight page. It's sad. It really makes me sad.

And then meanwhile, now it's my entire free page because I've just like sat there and watched so many. It is such a thing on like women's Instagram, especially for like women in our age group. But I will tell you my friend Matt, who is like a literal Zoomer influencer, Matt Bernstein, also started to get some of these people on his page because he on TikTok, which is interesting because they're also on TikTok, although I think Instagram is the hub for them. But he was also saying that like he had, he had gotten some and I was like, oh, welcome to welcome to the world. because like these people are just all over.

And I do think it's going to get worse. I think a lot of these women, we've mentioned chat GPT and stuff, but a lot of these women are being sold AI. And they're told, you know, doesn't matter if this, doesn't matter if you have no skills at all. AI is going to help you.

And once again, these tech companies are saying, yes, it will. Get on there. Post your content. You're going to be a millionaire tomorrow. And it's, they're not. Another thing I noticed about a lot of these women is because they're all really vehemently defending chat GPT

in the comment. because of all the people who were like, hey, like, if you need chat GPT to, like, write your captions and write your scripts, then like, why am I following you? I could see this caption from anyone. Like, I don't know anything about you. Honestly, the nicest way most people put it. And then you can tell a lot of these women, like, I can just imagine what the course says. I was looking at a lot of their profile photos. You see them cycle out. I mean, it's funny when you see some of these come up on reels. I'm so deep into this algorithm. Like, I think they just know my target market and a lot of my friends have. have new, you know, young kids. And so I engage with a lot of that content. And sometimes you'll get a real that'll come up and I'll click. And it was actually posted November of last year. And they've since quit. They haven't posted in months.

And you're like, gosh, this is one of those, you know, accounts that you, that's defunct. And so, yeah, they move on. And sometimes they'll like restart or pick up the page and be like, I'm back at it. I'm trying again. And I mean, it's capitalism that's failing them. It's our, like, patriarchy that's failing them. Like, it's all really bad. And I just, I feel.

like it is ultimately the end point of capitalism to I mean I wrote this is sort of the conclusion of my book is like there is nothing more sort of like capitalistic than commodifying yourself and your life and your experience of motherhood right like that is bleak but then to do all of that and not even make money is like even sadder and like and for what and if the end game is like well you know it pays my rent like it pays my mortgage it paid for my kid's school like okay okay you do you we're all in hell you know like money is the currency, great. Yeah, it bums me out. And I think seeing those defunct accounts really bother me because it's like, what pile does this now go on top of for you? A thousand dollars here,

$100 there, someone promising you something that was going to make your life easier and better and your problems go away. And you can be like all these other people you see online. And then you end up leaving being like, I'm not good enough. I think I keep bringing up the Lula Road documentary because it really made a huge impact on the way that I thought about this whole world Before I was like MLMs, like, everyone who like joins is an idiot. But I'm like, oh, like they're praying on really desperate people. And it just makes me sad because it really makes me remember that part of the documentary where the man who was like the head of it, who was like, if you can't sell these leggings,

it's your fault. It's not like a, and it's like it's not their fault. It's like you reach saturation point. Caroline, thank you so much for joining me today. Also, tell everybody where they can follow yourself because I, I love, I love your newsletter so much. I love all your stuff. Thanks.

You can follow it. It's called G. Thanks just bought it. And my Instagram is G. Thanks just bought it. Pod. And you can follow that on Instagram. And from there, you'll find my substack and my Facebook community and everywhere for good

community recommended product. Product recommendations. And it's fun. I'd love to have you there. All right. That's it for the show. If you like my work, please, please support me on Patreon via the link below. On my Patreon, I do monthly exclusive Q&A live streams.

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