Most people in the creator economy build the audience first, then figure out what to sell. Mel Grauds did it backwards, and it worked.

Mel founded Melrose Training in 2020 with virtual classes, one-on-one clients and no following. Six years later she's running three Toronto studio locations, Yorkville, Rosedale and King West, plus virtual training and LIFT, her new small-group strength class. Along the way she's partnered with alo, Knix, Under Armour, Formula Fig, Revlon and Healthy Planet, and was chosen by Sporting Life to lead the official stretch at the Sporting Life 10K.

In this episode of That Digital Take, host Torri Webster sits down with Mel to talk about what the business actually looks like behind the Instagram version, and the bet she's making that's quietly rewriting the influencer event playbook: taking the production, the brand access and the budget, and pointing all of it at real customers instead of creators.

They get into the real barrier keeping women out of the weight room, the cost of building a brand on transparency, the structural risk of being the face of your own company, how motherhood changed what she's willing to say yes to, and how you prove community is real when brands only measure impressions.

Topics covered: creator economy · fitness entrepreneurship · brand partnerships · influencer marketing · community building · women's strength training · Toronto small business · motherhood and entrepreneurship · in-person events · personal branding

Mark Gaetano — Snarky Marky — is seven years into a career most creators don't survive two of. 4.9 million TikTok followers, 380 million likes, and he's doing it full-time from Toronto.

Host Torri Webster sits down with the creator behind the teacher POVs, the cafeteria monitor and "the volume inside of this bus is astronomical" to talk about what's actually changed in seven years — and what it takes to keep up.

Mark is refreshingly specific about the craft. When he started, a video was one continuous take, 15 to 60 seconds, no cuts. Now the hook is everything, and he explains what shifted in the last two to three years and what creators have to learn from it. He talks about working through creative resistance, why burnout is real once this becomes the full-time job, and how he handles the dry spells between brand partnerships after six years of relying on them. He also makes the case that YouTube Shorts pays, a fact he thinks most creators still misunderstand.

Plus: school was always Plan A, why posting on TikTok used to be considered cringe, the strange truth that no two For You Pages are alike, how COUCHella came out of a little FOMO and turned into 26 million views, and why he thinks the lifestyle niche might be in trouble.

In this episode:
(00:00) The bus video and the five years before it
(09:21) School was always Plan A
(19:28) When posting on TikTok was still considered cringe
(20:30) Why everyone's For You Page is different
(21:31) One continuous take to fast cuts — how the format changed
(22:32) Why the hook became everything
(23:40) Working through creative resistance
(25:05) Fight or flight, and going full-time
(26:41) Burnout is real — the strategy for managing it
(27:47) Six years of brand partnerships and the dry spells
(29:38) You can get paid on YouTube Shorts
(31:22) The hardest part: socializing with other creators
(40:13) COUCHella, FOMO, and 26 million views
(44:45) Why the lifestyle niche might be in trouble

Follow Mark: @snarkymarky on TikTok and Instagram
Follow the show: @thatdigitaltake
Hosted by Torri Webster.

Follower count vs. craft. The three things she looks for before hiring a creator. The contract and rights mistakes she sees over and over. And why brands will keep paying humans as AI-generated travel footage gets better.

Every travel brand is now expected to publish authentic creator content everywhere — social, paid, web, email, booking platforms, partner channels. Almost nobody built a content operation designed for that volume. CrowdRiff calls it the creator content supply chain problem.

Abby Yew, Head of Growth for Creators at CrowdRiff, joins That Digital Take to explain how they solved it: a network of more than 900 creators across Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand who have completed over 12,000 creator-led shoots, built on ongoing relationships, fair pay, and perpetual usage rights included from day one. Creators aren't chasing invoices. Brands aren't re-licensing every time they reuse a shoot.

Drawing on more than twenty years in marketing, community and content, including leading marketing at Wattpad and YONDER, Abby breaks down the shift from being paid for your audience to being paid for your work — and what that means for anyone building a content operation right now.

In this episode:

• Why content creation stopped being a creative function and became an operational one
• The shift from paying for audience to paying for work
• Whether follower count still matters
• The three things Abby looks for before hiring a creator
• The contract and usage rights mistakes brands make repeatedly
• Why human creators hold their value as AI footage improves

Guest: Abby Yew, Head of Growth for Creators, CrowdRiff
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/abby-yew
CrowdRiff Creators: https://crowdriff.com/creators/

Torri Webster goes inside the Ted Lasso Season 4 world premiere in Los Angeles with exclusive carpet interviews, plus a behind-the-scenes look at what covering a Hollywood premiere is really like.

This week on That Digital Take, Torri travels to LA with Apple TV+ for the world premiere of Ted Lasso Season 4, and this one's a hybrid episode.

First, exclusive conversations from the carpet with Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca Welton), Jeremy Swift (Higgins), and Juno Temple (Keeley Jones) about returning to the world of Ted Lasso, what fans can expect from the new season, and why the show keeps resonating around the globe. Torri also sits down with Canadian soccer icon Christine Sinclair to talk about her legendary career, the legacy she's built for the sport in Canada, and why Ted Lasso became such a cultural touchstone for soccer fans.

Then it's the solo half. Torri breaks down what covering a Hollywood premiere actually looks like from the inside: the 6 a.m. press day, the evening premiere, the after-party, the pressure of writing thoughtful questions when a celebrity has already answered hundreds that day, and a few Jason Sudeikis moments that never made it to social. Plus a catch-up on Osheaga, wedding planning, and that premiere look.

Ted Lasso Season 4 is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Follow That Digital Take with Torri Webster for weekly entertainment interviews, premiere coverage, and honest conversations about creator life.

This week, psychiatrist Dr. Lesley Kirkpatrick joins That Digital Take to unpack why our brains won't switch off, and whether the same technology that helped create the problem can be part of the solution.

Dr. Lesley specializes in OCD, burnout, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and is the founder of mindcomb, a psychiatry-led, audio-first wellness app built to support people between therapy appointments. She shares the story of building it, from spotting the gap in care to figuring out how a doctor becomes a tech founder, and where she draws the ethical line on what an app should never try to replace.

Then we get into the real stuff: how to tell actual burnout from a genuinely exhausting season, why anxiety gets louder the moment your head hits the pillow, why your brain insists on replaying a conversation from three days ago, and what OCD actually looks like versus the version people joke about online. Plus, a candid look at wellness culture, the pressure to journal, meditate, cold plunge and optimize your way to being "regulated," and whether we've turned healing into just another performance metric.

We close with a rapid-fire round covering AI as a therapist, the habit people swear helps anxiety but usually doesn't, and the free, unglamorous practice Dr. Lesley wishes more people would try.

Sarah Nurse is one of the most recognizable faces in Canadian sport, a three-time Olympic medalist, Olympic gold champion, and record-holder for the most points scored in a single women's Olympic hockey tournament. Today she plays for the PWHL's Vancouver Goldeneyes while continuing to represent Team Canada on the world stage.

In this episode of That Digital Take, we go beyond the ice. Sarah became the first hockey player to front a major beauty campaign with Revlon and has built a thriving business as a content creator and entrepreneur, turning her athletic career into a personal brand that reaches far beyond sport.

We talk about performing under pressure, redefining success after the podium, building a career that outlasts your profession, and why today's athletes have to think like entrepreneurs. A must-listen for anyone building a personal brand.

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Sarah Nurse, PWHL, women's hockey, Olympic hockey, Team Canada, Vancouver Goldeneyes, personal branding, content creator, entrepreneurship, athlete branding, women in sports, Revlon, creator economy, sports business, That Digital Take

Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary built a global entertainment empire, PAW Patrol, Bakugan, Air Hogs, and hundreds of toys that shaped childhoods worldwide, with, in his words, no experience necessary. In this episode of That Digital Take, host Torri Webster sits down with Ronnen to talk about his first book, No Experience Necessary, and the philosophy underneath the billion-dollar business.

This is less a conversation about toys and more about becoming: why inexperience can be a competitive advantage, why curiosity, wonder, and optimism are underrated superpowers, and why success is often more of an identity shift than a business strategy.

Ronnen and Torri go deep on risk and patience (why time (not money) is the real cost of starting), passion and conviction as forces that de-lever uncertainty, building businesses with friends while protecting the friendship, and his concept of "Uber Luck" and why "doubt is anti-luck." They also explore staying curious after billionaire status, avoiding stagnation, knowing when to let an old version of yourself go, and what it means to be an entrepreneur in the age of AI, social media, and constant comparison.

Whether you're a founder, creator, artist, or anyone trying to build a more meaningful life, this one will leave you underlining.

Plus a rapid-fire round: the belief Ronnen has completely abandoned since 25, the one risk people should take sooner, and how he finishes the sentence "Experience matters, but ___."

Subscribe to That Digital Take for weekly conversations on entrepreneurship, creativity, reinvention, and the creator economy.

Personal branding isn't about visibility, it's about legacy and leadership. This week on That Digital Take, host Torri Webster sits down with Taylor Buckley, founder of Golden Hour Collective, a social-first consultancy built to elevate female founders and entrepreneurs. With over a decade in social media, PR, and brand strategy, and appearances on Breakfast Television and Style Canada, Taylor breaks down where personal branding and the creator economy are actually headed next.

We get into why the internet stopped rewarding perfection and started rewarding authenticity and storytelling, whether audiences really trust creators less than they used to, and why founders are becoming the face of their companies. Taylor unpacks the real litmus test for "community," what happens to your audience if Instagram disappears tomorrow, what becomes impossible to automate as AI floods the internet with average content, and the creator-economy shifts almost nobody is talking about yet.

Plus: the metrics that matter more than follower count, what creators overestimate (and underestimate) when they launch products, the internet-safety line between authentic and overexposed, and a rapid-fire round on overrated platforms, underrated skills, and 2027 predictions.

In this episode:
• Why authenticity and storytelling replaced perfection
• Whether creator trust is actually declining
• Founders as influencers (and influencers as the new agencies)
• The real test for whether you have a "community"
• What AI can't automate in content and branding
• Better success metrics than followers
• Internet safety, overexposure, and what women may regret posting
• The next shift in personal branding nobody's discussing

Guest: Taylor Buckley, Founder of Golden Hour Collective
Topics: creator economy, personal branding, female founders, social media strategy, community building, AI content, digital marketing, entrepreneurship

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