Hamish McKenzie

And she grew a community there to about half a million people.

They were all based around practical, accessible recipes.

So when she did eventually publish that cookbook, it became an instant New York Times bestseller.

Not because a publisher anointed her,

but because of the genuine relationships she had cultivated with her readers.

Consider Matt Iglesias.

In 2020, Matt left Vox, the company he co-founded, to start a newsletter, which he called Slow Boring.

Matt had been a blogger since the early 2000s.

He went on and wrote for The Atlantic.

Then he started Vox during the social media boom.

But it's with Slow Boring that he's found true independence.

Today, he writes about what he wants to write for an audience of more than 200,000 subscribers, and he makes more than a million dollars a year.

What these creators share in common is independence from traditional gatekeepers and aggregators.

They succeed by cultivating trust, not by gaming algorithms or knowing the right people.

So when you subscribe to Breaking Points,

or you support Caroline's Substack, you're not just paying for content, you're entering into a relationship.

The creator knows you're there, they value your support, and they can often engage with you directly in ways that just weren't possible in the old systems.

This garden is about ownership and sustainability and resilience.

When the creators own their relationships with their audiences directly, no platform or algorithm can suddenly cut them off from their community.

That sense of ownership translates into a sustainable income that doesn't depend on algorithmic whims or viral trends,