EMILY AUSTIN: FROM INSTAGRAM LIVE TO MEDIA OWNERSHIP

How a pre-med student turned an unexpected start during the pandemic into a career spanning sports broadcasting, Miss Universe, entrepreneurship and entertainment — and why her next chapter is all about ownership.

Emily Austin never planned to become a creator.
Before millions of views, major sporting events, television appearances and international stages, she was a pre-med college student following an entirely different path. Then COVID-19 changed the world — and, unexpectedly, the direction of her career.

With campuses disrupted and life suddenly moving online, Austin began interviewing athletes on Instagram Live. There was no television network behind her, no major production team and no carefully engineered media strategy.

There was simply curiosity, a phone and the willingness to start.
“I didn’t wait for a network to give me a show or for someone to decide I was qualified,” Austin says. “I started interviewing people myself, built my own audience and created proof that there was demand for what I was doing.”

That instinct — to create first and wait for permission later — would become one of the defining principles of her career.
What began as conversations on Instagram eventually opened the door to sports broadcasting, television and entertainment. Austin went on to interview major figures in sports and culture, work high-profile sporting events, launch her own show and build businesses. She also became the youngest judge in Miss Universe history.

But perhaps the more interesting story is not how quickly her visibility grew.
It is how deliberately she has worked to turn visibility into something she can own.

FROM A PHONE SCREEN TO THE BROADCASTING WORLD
Austin describes her career not as the result of one dramatic breakthrough, but as a sequence of opportunities that gradually changed what she believed was possible.

First came the interviews. Then bigger sporting events. Then increasingly prominent personalities and broadcasts. Miss Universe added another dimension to a career that was already moving beyond the traditional boundaries of sports media.

“At some point I stopped feeling like I was trying to break into the industry and realized I had actually built a career in it,” she says.

Her path reflects a broader transformation taking place across the media landscape.

For previous generations, aspiring broadcasters often needed a network before they could build an audience. Today, creators can reverse the equation: build the audience first, prove the concept independently and allow traditional media opportunities to follow.

Austin did exactly that.
Social media may have provided the opening, but she never intended for it to become the final destination.

“Social media was the vehicle,” she says, “but I never wanted it to be the destination.”
Instead, she used digital platforms as infrastructure for something larger: a career combining broadcasting, entertainment, entrepreneurship and personal brand.

BUILD BEFORE YOU’RE CHOSEN
Ask Austin which strategy contributed most to her growth and her answer is remarkably simple: create instead of waiting for permission.
It is a philosophy that challenges one of the oldest assumptions about media careers — that someone else has to choose you first.
Austin created her own proof of concept.

She interviewed people before being hired as an interviewer. She built an audience before being handed a major platform. She developed a recognizable presence before waiting for an institution to validate it.

That distinction matters.
For Austin, one of the biggest mistakes emerging creators make is focusing on the appearance of success rather than developing actual value.
“Followers aren’t a business,” she says. “Develop a skill, become knowledgeable about something and give people a reason to care about you beyond a viral video.”
Her advice for someone beginning today is equally pragmatic: choose a direction, publish consistently, study what works and stop waiting for perfect conditions.

“Make 100 pieces of content before deciding something doesn’t work.”
The first objective, she argues, should not be monetization. It should be discovery: understanding what you are uniquely good at and what your audience genuinely responds to.

THE COST OF BEING VISIBLE
Austin’s rise was not without resistance.
Entering sports media as a young woman meant navigating an industry where credibility could not always be assumed. More unexpectedly, she says some of the resistance she encountered came from other women.

“I expected women in the industry to want to help the next generation of women succeed,” she says. “Instead, I sometimes experienced women tearing me down rather than lifting me up.”

There was another education happening simultaneously: learning how to exist under public scrutiny.

Once your work is seen by millions, Austin notes, opinions arrive with it — about your appearance, your voice, your beliefs and even whether you deserve the opportunities you have earned.

The experience forced her to develop emotional independence early.

“It taught me not to build my career around other people’s approval.”

That lesson remains particularly relevant in an industry increasingly governed by instant feedback. Likes, comments, shares and criticism can all become metrics of validation if creators allow them to.

Austin learned instead to treat them as information — not identity.

PEOPLE DON’T FOLLOW A RÉSUMÉ

Austin’s professional access has certainly helped fuel her audience growth. Major athletes, global events, television sets and red carpets naturally provide compelling content.

But access alone, she says, is not what builds a lasting audience.

“People don’t follow a résumé — they follow a person.”

The turning point was allowing audiences to see more than the polished professional image.

Her content now reflects the many environments she moves between: sports, entertainment, fashion, beauty, business and travel.

On one day, she might be ringside interviewing a world champion. On another, she could be hosting an international event, working on her skincare company, recording a podcast or filming her reality series.

Rather than trying to force those identities into a single niche, Austin has embraced the range.

Her three words for her personal brand say it clearly:

Ambitious. Unfiltered. Versatile.

“I don’t fit neatly into one category,” she says, “and I’ve stopped trying to.”

BUILDING A BUSINESS BEYOND THE ALGORITHM

That versatility also extends to Austin’s business model.

She began monetizing her audience relatively early through brand partnerships, initially with companies connected to sports and betting. As her profile expanded, so did the categories she could work within — including lifestyle, fashion and beauty.

Today, her revenue is intentionally diversified across broadcasting and hosting, social media partnerships, podcast and media work, appearances, events and entrepreneurship through her skincare company, People’s Beauty.

The strategy is intentional.

“I never wanted my livelihood to depend entirely on an algorithm.”

It is a lesson that an increasing number of established creators are learning.

Algorithms change. Platforms lose relevance. Reach fluctuates. Brand budgets move.

An audience can be extraordinarily valuable, but without infrastructure around it, attention alone can be fragile.

Austin sees the future of the creator economy moving decisively toward ownership.

“Creators are becoming media companies,” she says. “The strongest creators won’t rely exclusively on sponsorships. They’ll own products, shows, intellectual property and businesses.”

The distinction between creator, entrepreneur and traditional media personality, she believes, is rapidly disappearing.

TRUST IS THE REAL CURRENCY
For all the attention paid to follower counts, Austin measures influence differently.

“Influence isn’t how many people see you; it’s how many people trust you enough to listen when you have something to say.”

It is a distinction between reach and authority.
Reach can make someone visible.
Trust makes that visibility valuable.

That philosophy also shapes how Austin approaches commercial partnerships. She believes the best collaborations are the ones that can exist naturally inside the creator’s actual life.
Audiences, she says, can immediately recognize when an endorsement feels manufactured.
And that makes one of the most tempting creator-economy mistakes — accepting every available deal — particularly dangerous.

“Short-term money can cost you long-term credibility. Your audience’s trust is one of your most valuable assets.”
Her rule is that commercial growth should amplify the brand rather than gradually erase the personality that built it.

“The audience came before the advertisers.”

THE BUSINESS BEHIND THE POST

Austin’s public life can appear glamorous: international travel, sporting events, interviews, television productions and red carpets.

The operational reality looks very different.
Behind a few seconds of polished content can be research, flights, preparation, negotiations, contracts, production calls, editing and logistics.

“There’s an entire business behind something that might look like someone simply posting a video.”

That gap between perception and reality is also central to one of Austin’s most ambitious projects: her reality series, No Days Off.
The series follows the behind-the-scenes reality of a career that moves continuously between broadcasting, business, sports, entertainment and travel.
For Austin, the unpredictability is not an interruption to the story.

It is the story.
Alongside the series, she continues developing The Emily Austin Show and expanding People’s Beauty, while pursuing larger broadcasting and entertainment opportunities.

INFLUENCE BEYOND PERSONAL SUCCESS

Austin’s ambitions are commercial, but she does not believe influence should end with personal advancement.

Family, faith, independence and hard work remain central to the way she describes her values. Animal welfare has also become an important part of how she uses her platform.

She has worked with PETA on awareness initiatives and volunteers with Starts With One Today on Skid Row, helping animals in need.

“To me, influence isn’t only about what you accomplish for yourself,” she says. “It’s what you can do with that platform for others who don’t have a voice.”

It is an important evolution in her definition of success.

Titles and milestones still matter. Becoming a Miss Universe judge and establishing herself in major sports broadcasting were achievements she once could only imagine.

But accomplishment alone is no longer the objective.

THE NEXT CHAPTER: OWNERSHIP

If one word defines Austin’s next chapter, it is ownership.

She has already been invited onto major stages. Now she wants to build the stage.

“I don’t just want to be hired to be the face of something; I want to own the things I’m building.”

It is a shift from opportunity to equity, from participation to control.

Her ambitions for 2026 bring together the different parts of her career rather than forcing her to choose between them: sports broadcaster, entrepreneur, host, creator and entertainment personality.

That multiplicity is also part of the message she hopes to send to the next generation of women watching her.

“You don’t have to choose one identity,” Austin says. “You can be feminine and ambitious, entrepreneurial and creative, outspoken and professional.”

For an industry that has spent years encouraging creators to “find a niche,” Austin’s career offers an alternative possibility.

Perhaps the ultimate goal is not to remain inside the category that first made you successful.

Perhaps it is to become valuable enough to transcend it.

Austin’s journey began because the world shut down and a pre-med student decided to pick up her phone and start asking athletes questions.

Years later, the technology has changed, the stages have become larger and the opportunities have multiplied.

But the principle behind her career remains remarkably consistent:

Don’t wait to be selected.

Create the opportunity. Build the audience. Earn the trust.

And eventually, own what you build.

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EMILY AUSTIN ON THE CREATOR ECONOMY

On influence:
“Reach gets attention. Trust is influence.”

On starting:
“Create instead of waiting for permission.”

On building a career:
“Followers aren’t a business. Develop a skill.”

On brand partnerships:
“Short-term money can cost you long-term credibility.”

On the future:
“Creators are becoming media companies.”

On success:
“Success for me means having the freedom to build the life I want, doing work I’m proud of, taking care of the people I love and never having to compromise who I am to get there.”