💡 Creator News: IRL is Cool Again, AI Fruit Slop Videos, "Everything is Collapsing Into Itself"
Celebrities want to be entrepreneurs -- entrepreneurs want to be content creators. Nobody wants to be a celebrity.
👋 Hi from Los Angeles! If you missed my emails with my event links, I’m here buying writers coffee and asking them questions about what the creative and writing scene is like here.
☕️ I’m buying coffee for writers today in Hollywood from 10am-noon and tomorrow (Monday) morning in the westside of LA from 11am-1pm — if you want to join RSVP here and check out the details. Right now the coffee and co-working meetups are open to paid subscribers of 💡 Sutoscience or ✍️ Make Writing Your Job.
👇 Be sure you’re following our Luma event calendar for upcoming events in LA, SF, and more cities coming soon.
Here’s my dispatch from my creative lab for you this week:
💬 Links I Sent My Fiancée
My fiancée (!!!) Kyle Cords is my co-founder which means DMing him links counts as productive work 💕
AI fruit slop videos are going viral on the internet, and it’s an inevitability that AI video is going to proliferate more widely on the internet.
As a sidebar, I’ve been hearing a lot about “vertical video” here in Los Angeles from writers and creators who talk about content “made for social media” — mostly referring to poorly produced soap-opera style romance videos pushed to mobile apps that consumers spend too much money on. One writer I talked to said that “everything is collapsing into itself.” Meaning: Hollywood and the world of content creators/social media is merging into one. Celebrities want to become entrepreneurs and start podcasts — entrepreneurs are having to become content creators and influencers and grow their brand. Seems like the future will be really rewarding to generalists.
🌁 Dispatches From the Bay
What to do and where to eat in San Francisco.
👋 I just launched the creatives ONLY social club — and our first event in San Francisco will be a picnic in the Presidio. I’ll be bringing light bites and non-alcoholic drinks — bring your desire to make new creative friends in the Bay Area! It’s $15, but you can use the code SUBSTACK50OFF to get 50% off 🎟️
☕️ Content Trends
Trends in social media, content creation, and what’s going on here on Substack.
Will social media companies be held responsible for their impact on the mental health of individuals? A recent ruling said yes. Silicon Valley has always built their social media apps like slot machines (quite literally even hiring slot machine designers to help make them addictive) so I’m curious to see how this plays out.
I’m kicking off my new Monthly Substack Lab live series on Zoom this upcoming Saturday! Join if you want to put your Substack under a microscope and figure out the alchemy required to help it grow. 🪴
💰 What to Watch & Read If You Want to Make Money Online
Resources to make you smarter and richer in the Creator Economy.
Unethical advertising is something that has been on the rise — especially in the world of shady affiliate marketing on social media. This great video by Hannah Alonzo breaks down a crazy trend. You won’t believe the rabbit hole she went down based on the videos that kept surfacing to her feed:
🛍️ Add to Cart
Things that have made my life better or products I have my eye on.
My best purchase lately has been tickets to events I’m finding on Luma and Partiful! I’ve been meeting some incredible creatives, writers, and interesting people in both LA and SF by putting myself out there and just showing up.
One trend I’ve been seeing in the Bay Area is that huge companies have been paying multi-six-figure salaries to “event coordinators” whose entire job is to just throw cool events in order to bring awareness to products and companies. As the Internet grows more noisy, IRL is cool again — which is also why I’ve been diving deeper into the world of throwing events again. (More on this soon!)
Questions? Thoughts? Would love to hear what you’re thinking, reading, or making in the comments.
Happy creating,
-Amy