Let Go and Haul: multiple identities, what topics do you want to hear about?
Week 41, 2018 – Brooklyn
Journey: where we’re at
Hiiiii! I’m back from Toronto and Canadian Thanksgiving. It was so good to see my fam. It’s so good to feel so much love.
Ok! So what’s up in TRASH land!? This week we did a focus group with some creators that ended up being totally oversubscribed (good problems to have!?) and shed some light on some details about the platform side of things and confirmed some others. Huge shout out to Kofi for organizing! (and more on that in a sec).
Okay, we’re still hiring for this role and it has an UPDATED title of Systems Architect. If you know anyone who does devops-y stuff that is more dev than ops please forward this along we really want to find this special human! Because otherwise...
Just kidding it won’t be that bad but this is a good gif.
Journal: what I learned
I’ve started asking people how many Instagram accounts they have. The creators we talked to this week averaged five. FIVE. I talked to another creator later on in the week and he was talking about how all the “kids” he hangs out with just grew up knowing they needed an account for marketing themselves and a finsta for bullshitting with their friends. They never even questioned the need for at least two. Of course.
The multiple identities thing is also something we encountered at Vine – creators would have one personality and then they’d start a new project to experiment with something else.
“It’s exhausting” is what we heard this week. And it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. Is there a way for us to have multiple identities without them feeling like... multiple identities?
But the alternative is tricky. It’s really hard to be your whole self to all the people all the time.
This is something I feel with this newsletter too. I try to write to a younger version of myself. I try to write to the Hannah in her teens and 20s that didn’t know this was possible. If I can reach just one of those people, job done. But it’s tricky. There are a lot of topics about being a woman founder that don’t fit a quick Sunday night update. If I think too hard about the diverse group of people I’m sending this to it gets… intimidating! And of course, this is part of the trick – you can’t think too hard about it. You have to just write for that one person who represents your audience and if other people aren’t into it, that’s okay. It’s easy advice to give and very hard to actually follow. I got this advice from my friend Jeremy Keith years ago when I asked him how he was able to blog so effortlessly. At the time I really really struggled with the idea of “putting myself out there”. It took many years of reconciling who I am with myself to get here. It’s still the best advice I’ve heard and try to follow
It’s hard to remember every week what that time was like when I try to write to a younger version of me. I’m curious – what topics would you like to hear about? What stuff are you trying to learn or struggling with in your career? I really love it when friends (and new people I don’t know yet but will know!) respond to this email and tell me. It starts the kind of conversations I want to have (and enjoy writing about if I can.
Jams: what I’m into
Here are some of the vids that were poppin in our Telegram this week:
Credits to Predator mashed up with the Full House theme lololol via Anton
The lighting in this French rap video Ateyaba – Rock With You via Franck
Mr. Bottle Opener rides a rollercoaster via Alana
This Planet Earth mashup by Madison. Reminds me of the Vine Editors.
Last but not least. This new song by Robyn.