{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"State of Play","title":"He Designs Channels Like He Grows Plants: Kevin Espiritu","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/40522ea2\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3418,"description":"Kevin Espiritu runs Epic Gardening, one of the clearest examples of a creator-led media business that became much more than content: YouTube, commerce, products, books, and Botanical Interests.\nThis conversation covers why Silicon Valley is suddenly fascinated by new media, what Kevin learned from the old SEO and affiliate-marketing era, why creators over-optimize the wrong things, how Epic Gardening thinks about products, IP, TV viewership, brand deals, channel strategy, and what it actually takes to build media that lasts.\nGet the UX Tools Newsletter (written by me)\nJoin 100,000+ designers for weekly insights on creative software and the people shaping it: https://uxtools.co\nCHAPTERS:\n0:00 Media is soil\n0:27 Why new media week starts with Kevin\n1:38 Silicon Valley discovers creators\n3:26 From SEO hacks to durable media\n7:03 True outliers are one-of-one\n10:19 Why creators get platform-stuck\n12:33 Products, IP, and real media businesses\n17:25 Brand deals without draining trust\n21:03 YouTube is becoming TV\n23:22 Format experiments and channel strategy\n30:31 Packaging before production\n35:07 Scaling beyond the founder\n40:03 Tommy's media company, live consult\n45:30 Broad vs niche audiences\n50:02 Raising money and the next creator companies\n56:06 Cultural campfires\nLINKS:\nEpic Gardening: https://www.epicgardening.com\nBotanical Interests: https://www.botanicalinterests.com\nKevin Espiritu on X: https://x.com/KevinEspiritu\nFOLLOW ME:\nX / Twitter: https://x.com/designertom\nIG: https://instagram.com/itsdesignertom\nLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tommygeoco","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/Q4goNjMCyLVJblsVd-hc65Y9xpTGIkbjq5L00Huluhg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kZTM4/NTdjYjhlYmI5NzU0/YjRlNDNkMjFiNDgy/NTRhNi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}