“great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals - artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers - who make up an ‘ecology of talent’” -
Austin Kleon, “Show Your Work”

I have a note written to myself on a whiteboard. It reads simply, "Don't work in isolation". Perhaps it is a strange note for my home office (where I am most often working on my own), but it is a note to myself that I need to share my work and my interests widely. You don't know what sort of doors it can open.

I have been reading and referencing the book, "Show Your Work", by Austin Kleon. Much of what the author suggests aligns well with the note I made to myself, scrawled at the top of a white board - things like "share something small every day", "tell good stories", and "teach what you know".

One section of the book, to which he devoted a whole chapter, is titled "Find a Scenius" and it continues to capture my interest. The quote above defines what a scenius is - an "ecology of talent".

I want to create an ecology of talent around web3 creatives - not just developers, but writers, artists, and content creators. This would be a community that offers support, fosters collaboration among fellow creatives, and leverages new technologies to build audiences and brands.

Purpose

First, we need to define why the community should exist and more importantly, what is its vision?

Brad Feld, a founder, author, and angel investor, helped to create a thriving startup ecosystem in Boulder, CO. According to Feld, a healthy ecosystem requires a consistent cadence of events, with a mix of weekly, monthly, and occasional larger gatherings to maintain engagement and cater to different needs within the community; this could include weekly "open coffee clubs" for casual networking, monthly brown bag lunch events with focused topics, and larger pitch nights or workshops on a less frequent basis.

He credited a big part of their success around establishing a “collision density” - opportunities for entrepreneurs, devs, and creatives to “collide” on interests, passions, and talent.

An important and ongoing aspect of this will revolve around creating that collision density in which ideas can take shape.

So, I'm defining the purpose like this:

To give voice and audience to creatives, discover new and exciting talent, and create a space for those interests, passions and skills to collide.

The mantra for the community should be:

Creating a space

I'll be using the /creators channel (I'm a moderator there) on Farcaster as the front door for these communications, and working with Cameron to help establish rituals and prompts to keep the interactions going. The communities core interactions should be around discovery and creation.

While the channel will be the starting point, we want interactions to be genuine and more than surface level.

Along those lines, I'll endeavor to create virtual meetups as a space for those creative "collisions" to take place and nurture that “ecology of talent”.

Monthly Virtual "Workshops"

The meetups will have 2 parts:

  1. A moderated monthly speaker series
  2. Creator Pitches - projects, art, and endeavors

SPEAKER SERIES

Host conversations with topics ranging from: Growing your channel, community building, creating a content plan, community rituals, developing a plan to monetize a channel (this can take MANY forms, not just memberships), smart contracts and NFT projects, podcasts, video creation, and marketing.

Our first meetup should be focused on "growing a channel" and "community building" - a topic for which we can easily find speakers and generate interest from other channels.

CREATOR PITCHES

We’ll coordinate idea/project presentations, in the style of startup pitch competitions...but with a different intended outcome. The Creator pitch will be a way to generate awareness, find additional team members, a receive guidance from fellow creatives and founders. Hence, the "pitch deck" will also be a little different...

For a few years, I taught a “how to pitch” class at a local incubator. While investor pitches were typically 10-15 minutes long, I always encouraged the teams to perfect their 5 minute pitch. This was a format suited to pitch competitions, but I found it to be the best exercise, because it focused on limiting the non-essential.

The pitch deck I recommended was:

  • What is it?
  • Problem and Solution
  • Market
  • Competition
  • Team
  • Traction/Milestones
  • How you'll make money
  • Ask and Close

The Creator pitch deck will be:

  • What is it?
  • Team
  • Show your work!
  • Mo Money
  • Mo Problems
  • Ask for feedback

WHAT IS YOUR IDEA?

This could be art, writing, video, a product, or any other creative project. This is the space to sell your vision. It is close to your elevator pitch, except you don’t necessarily need to be solving a problem.

Startup pitches are geared toward solving a problem because it can demonstrate a need in the market. Pair that with a good market size, and you have something that investors see a more sizable return on.

In our case, we don't care about market size. We care about passion. Focus on what makes your project interesting and compelling.

WHO ARE YOU?

If you have team members, who are they? What is your background? This slide can establish credibility or tell your story (why you are interested in your idea, your approach, etc)

SHOW YOUR WORK!

Like the title of the book, this is the opportunity to "show your work". If you can demonstrate traction or an audience, flaunt it. If you have made progress on your project, show it.

MO MONEY

If you’re building a product, tell us how you'll be monetizing.

If you’re an NFT project, don't use your holders as your revenue stream. Think of how you'll make money long term. I wrote about this in a previous article, but I believe the next cohort of NFT projects should have monetization plans in mind.

If you don’t have a monetization plan yet, that is okay…but plan to talk about it in your Mo Problems slide.

MO PROBLEMS

Unlike the standard startup “what is the problem you’re looking to solve?”, we’re not as concerned about solving big problems.

Our problem slide is your problems.

Are you short team members? This could be an opportunity to find like-minded people.

Don’t know how you’ll make revenue long-term? Mention it.

Want to sell 1 of 1’s but haven’t built up an audience?

What are you missing? This is where you are expressing your own doubts and concerns and soliciting solutions from your fellow creatives and founders.

Most people don’t like acknowledging their problems. But, we're building a community of your fellow creatives.

ASK FOR FEEDBACK

Through this pitch, you're generating interest in what you're building, finding team members, and soliciting feedback.

That isn’t to say that we should tell you what you want to hear. It just means that if we have criticisms, we'll approach it in a supportive way.

Reinforcing channel interaction

By setting aside time for online meetups, we're encouraging a level of interaction greater than surface-level channel casts. Future interactions will be more genuine and more authentic.

Ideally, these monthly meetups points back to and strengthens the purpose of the community - to give voice and audience to creatives, discover new and exciting talent, and create a space for those interests, passions and skills to collide.

I would greatly welcome comments around community building. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

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