A couple of years ago I attended Social Media Week in New York City. During a panel, the moderator asked who everyone’s favorite creator was. I leaned in, expecting to hear about the newest, trendiest influencer.
An Adweek editor answered: @grandma_droniak.
I knew of her from my grandparent book-writing days, when her grandson was the star and she was his sidekick, before he made her famous on the internets. It caught me off guard that a 90-year-old grandma was the savvy social media executive’s favorite—and it stuck with me.
You are cooler and smarter than you think.
We spend a lot of time assuming someone else has the answer—looking outward for the next idea, the next trend, the next voice to follow. But sometimes the instinct you already have is the answer.
Two of my current favorites are Microwave Man and The Holderness Family.
Microwave Man literally wears a microwave as a helmet—his head completely hidden inside. He skids to a stop on his electric bike, flips his neck to the side to whip the door open to reveal his face, and then shouts a positive affirmation, followed by, “you all better hear that!”, before dramatically slamming the door shut and speeding off down the street. I love the messages, but I’m just as fascinated that someone came up with the idea in the first place.
The Holderness Family is wildly creative. They do music parodies on everything from parenting teenagers to perimenopause—telling teens “I want you to know, where those dishes go” to the tune of Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know, or “I’ve turned into my dad, my dad” to Michael Jackson’s Bad.
And their Hallmark parody, where Kim’s hot flashes save Christmas by melting the ice blocking the road, is epic.
Looking outward for ideas and best practices is valuable, but so is the maturity to recognize when your own experience and instincts are already pointing you in the right direction. Sometimes the work isn’t finding a new answer—it’s trusting the one you already have.
Who is your favorite creator or influencer right now?
