yes it's sunday. yes this was supposed to hit your inbox friday. my sister flew in for the weekend and i made the executive decision to be a human being for 48 hours instead of a content machine 🤪 because getting it done on sunday beats perfect but never sent. so. weekend edition it is 🤍

i was talking with my creative director erin this week and i said "social media isn't real." and she said, "and working in ugc proves that." and she's right. not in a basic "highlight reel" way. in a we literally cast, brief, and direct people to look real for a living way.

then i did a subscription audit and ended up downgrading some software i didn't realize how much i was paying for. it's the financial version of the same erin observation: i was paying for things i'd basically been told i needed by an industry whose job is to make sure i keep paying.

so we're doing a two-parter today, creator side + money side, keeping it tight 🤍

in today's belated weekend edition:

📱 the authenticity industry is, in fact, an industry
💸 the subscription audit (and what i actually downgraded)
🎁 a trend, a quote, and my sister in town!!
🪞 interns + the usual + STEADFAST IS COMING BACK FR THIS TIME

let's go ↓

ugc briefs are honestly kinda funny when you read them out loud.

they say things like "film this in your kitchen. holding the phone like you're telling a friend something on facetime. no makeup, casual tone."

the casual nature of the creative is the whole assignment: spontaneity is the deliverable + trust is the asset.

and it works because people trust people more than brands. so we built a whole industry on that gap and called it ugc.

buuut the part i still side eye is what it does to the consumer when we scroll. you can't always tell what's a genuine recommendation vs a placement built to feel like one, and the placements get better at hiding every quarter.

i honestly don't have a clean takeaway to land the plane here. just two small thoughts that i think hold:

social media isn't real and ugc proves it. i love my job, but still true. just worth clocking so you know what you’re actually looking at when you scroll.

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🌐 savvie.org is officially LIVE!!! the home for everything financial literacy for women in their 20s and 30s :) but with that we say goodbye to stan store 🪦 you served us well.
- you can now shop the digital products at savvie.org/shop 🛒
- and if you feel led, donate to help keep these resources accessible at savvie.org/give 🤲

📓 also check out the savvie scoop if money content is more your lane than this teague talk chaos, that one's for you!

quick context: last weekend i pulled my last 12 months of gmail + paypal + business banking account transactions to check out where my recurring expenses live. the goal wasn't really to cancel them all. most of my subscriptions are tools i genuinely use - the goal was to find the tier-creep, which is way sneakier than forgotten subscriptions.

tier creep is when a tool launches a new "pro" or "max" plan, gently nudges you to upgrade, and you do. and maybe you see the value from that upgrade for a month. but then six months later you can't remember a single feature you upgraded for and you're still paying for it.

so here's what i did:

→ i downgraded my claude plan. i upgraded to a higher tier when claude rolled out a new feature i was stoked about… then i used it like 3 times. love claude but didn't need that tier. immediate $900/year saved.
→ kept everything i use weekly without guilt. notion, beehiiv, the tools that actually earn their keep stay.

what i'm not gonna do is pretend i optimized my way into financial peace.

i just looked at the tier i was on for each tool and asked myself "is this the version i actually use?" for at least three of them the answer was "no, i upgraded for a feature i barely touch."

how to do your own audit this week:
→ search your inbox(es) for "subscription," "receipt," "renewing," and "thanks for your payment." filter to last 12 months. that single search will surface 70% of what you're paying for.
→ download your bank/card statement as a CSV and sort it out by vendor. anything that appears on the same date pattern is a recurring charge.
→ for each one, ask: am i on the right tier for how i actually use this? not "should i cancel?" necessarily, because most of the time the answer there is no. but the better question is "can i be on the cheaper version?"
→ set a calendar reminder for 90 days from now to look at it again. tier creep is recurring revenue's whole business model!!

your money is leaking in tiers you upgraded for features you've forgotten about. mine was. not a moral failing — that's literally the model. you just gotta look.

(if money content is more your thing than this teague talk chaos, the savvie scoop sends every other wednesday at savvie.org/#newsletter 🤍)

trend: maxxing 🫠 lolol. if you haven't seen "looksmaxxing" all over tiktok, consider yourself lucky i’m sorry to bring that blissful ignorance to a head today. -maxxing is gen z slang for trying to optimize. there’s a lot of craziness behind it but all you need to know is the format went viral and now there's cyclemaxxing, fertilitymaxxing, energymaxxing... basically pick any wellness vertical and slap "maxxing" on it. a funny format for any brand or creator with a "how to optimize x" angle - visual slides, educational tone, all the things.

read: the 2026 tiktok partner innovation awards recap on adweek. tiktok just held their first-ever awards ceremony specifically honoring the agencies, creative shops, and martech partners best at scaling creator-led content for brands. think of it as the industry's quiet acknowledgment that "make it look unscripted" is now its own award-winning craft category. t's basically the receipts for everything erin and i were talking about - that the authenticity industry is a judged competition now.

comedic relief: and all God’s people living in California said….amen ↓

totally random: anyone watched imperfect women on apple tv?? i NEED someone to debrief it with that’s not my mom and dad (no offense u guys) - this is the best show on tv rn. big little lies fans u will be pleased.

thanks for reading 💌

erin's line is gonna live in my head for a while. and all that money i was paying to feel like a "pro" user. so is the fact that my sister is on my couch rn and we are about to go to the california strawberry festival bc when in rome 🍓

i don't think any of this is groundbreaking. i think we're just all walking around being quietly sold to and gently upsold by an internet that's very good at looking like it isn't doing any of that.

the move is just to clock it 🤏 start to find the invisible brief behind the recommendation. notice the tier you upgraded to and forgot why. notice this version of "casual" you're consuming, and ask if it's actually casual.

now go be a little unpolished this weekend. it's good for your soul.

xo,
callie 🤍

p.s. reply and tell me, what's a subscription you forgot you were paying for? i'll share a few in next week's letter (without naming names because some of them are embarrassing lol)