Building Something Incredibly Awesome

A Tantalizing Vision

I actually have a lot of work to do today. After God knows how many years, I've finally set some actionable goals for myself for today, each of which will lead me closer to my ultimate mission. I'm surprised to say that I've been enjoying it as well! However, my professional project may soon require me to interact with people, so I figure this is a good time to establish the brand for my company. I had a visionary revelation a week ago, when I was just coming down from my latest weed binge.

See, I've always been torn between my divulging passions. I have these personal projects that seem to pull me in different directions, and I found myself having to choose between them. I wanted to start a food blog and build a sustainable lifestyle brand to leverage my formal education and culinary experience. I also loved how practical, hands-on, and useful it was. In doing research and writing content, I figured I could learn all about that stuff. 

I'm talking foraging, pickling, food, fermentation, and all that jazz. Kind of like LifebyMikeG (previously ProHomeCooks) or Homegrown Handgathered. There are a bunch of them out there, too. The biggest appeal was that even if the world's electricity grid collapses, these timeless skills would be passed on, allowing us to thrive. Plus, I wouldn't feel like a fraud ever again 😂.

Then, when I changed profession, that became marketing. A marketing blog to teach me all the shit, while helping others learn the same. Before both of those, I wanted to make one about fictional storytelling. I loved the idea of diving deep into incredible masterpieces like Adventure Time, Avatar: TLAB, One Piece, Arcane, Primal, Scavenger's Reign, and more.

I figured that discussing TV shows, movies, and anime would improve my ability to create them, which was something I've always been passionate about. I thought how cool it'd be to make content and share the glory of these wonderful works of art. Yet, this was by far my weakest idea, because I hated dissecting that shit when I actually sat down to do it. It ruined all the magic for me. Nevertheless, I had some cool ideas, like covering animal archetypes (IYKYK), frameworks, storytelling devices, and other concepts.

Then there was a nonfiction, self-help book I wanted to write called "How to Live" which essentially passes on all the most important things I've learned in life thus far to everyone I meet, putting my own name on the line, instead of telling people to check out Simon Sinek and David Goggins or some shit. Like actually writing the book, hence becoming a quasi-expert, and directly answering people to spread the word. It seemed fun to me. 

In a Nutshell

Here's a little side note about me: My favorite form of physical exercise has been MMA training, because they mix it up every single day. You have the same framework for each session: warm up, dynamic stretches, core muscle groups, actual training via drills, and cooldown. 

Yet, within that framework, we had strength training, calisthenics, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, grappling, judo, tackling, footwork, core building, endurance drills, and God knows what else. That's my idea of fun. Everything you do complements, connects, and uplifts the rest, even though it's all different and new enough to be interesting. Similarly, I realised a few days ago that I need not choose between these three things. 

That's why I'm sitting down here today, to build a brand which brings together:

- Marketing: Business solutions, market research, community building, product development, clear communication, audience orientation, and making change happen; these are some words that describe my idea of marketing. Marketers serve as bridges between companies and their target audiences. They represent the customers in boardrooms and the brand in the market. A good strategy informed by research, real networks of people, consumer psychology, and timeless sales principles. The latest technological developments that leverage AI, APIs/Apps, the internet, and all that jazz.

- Storytelling: The timeless craft that serves as the foundation of our society. Entertainment, immersion, engagement, leveraging the human brain's natural mode of thinking, characters, plots, scenes, visuals, colors, narratives, values, meaning, archetypes, symbolism, personification, metaphors, subtext, culture, context, and all the other pillars of the craft. Inspiring people through raw, unbridled creativity. Shaking things up with an artist's vision. Think fictional stories, scripts, comic books, art, video games, and animation.

- Revolution: Educating, arming people with knowledge, challenging the status quo, enlightening, elevating, empowering, emancipation, clarifying, organising data into information, and information into practical wisdom. Filling in the gaps, catching those who fall through the cracks, and making concrete things people can grasp. Books, articles, posts, videos, images, carousels, audio clips, and anything else under the sun, like print media or billboards. Call it CSR, charity, farming goodwill, or offering value to your audience.

Getting Specific

Those are the three things separately, on their own. To provide further clarity, I'll offer some examples. Writing a book based on the learnings from working with a company and sharing the ideas for free would be a revolution. It could be data collected during content creation, unique experiences of the workers, or a recap of scattered knowledge in a digestible format for a specific audience.

Creating a short fictional series in any medium that directly engages the same target audience is a form of storytelling. It could be a series of short, written stories about certain characters who represent important conflicts and ideas within an audience, or how external factors outside of that domain affect the people within it. It could even be a fun, cathartic, and even violent/dissociative series of short, unhinged videos that just carry a certain vibe the audience needed.

Marketing, for example, is a systematic, measurable, solution-seeking, and action-oriented process that leads to achieving set goals or solutions. It might involve an audit of a company's current position, setting various goals, doing market research, connecting with target groups, building proprietary solutions, leveraging technology, getting attention, organising campaigns, launching, managing, supervising, optimising, engaging, measuring, analysing, getting feedback, and most importantly, making change happen.

Side-by-Side

Now, let's compare, contrast, and differentiate the three for even deeper clarity. Storytelling is all about ideas. Powerful, emotional, and impactful ideas can take root deeply in the imagination. It's a sense of life, a worldview, a perspective or two. Intuitive explorations of conflict, cathartic symbolism, immersive narratives, archetypal characters, unraveling themes, developing plot points, and creating journeys. It deals with all the WHYs of anything. Why you get up in the morning. Why some things keep repeating. It's meant to inspire people. Storytelling is about fun, joy, whimsy, and wonder. It's about the inexplicable, unsaid things that can only be felt. It's an ancient form of art that just makes sense to human beings, and it's all about the experience.

Revolution is a service we offer to humanity. It's fueled by the belief that as the world changes, old ways must be adapted whenever necessary. In the age of information, when everything is just a few clicks away, people need trust, clarity, tribe, and service. They need someone to look out for them because they're too busy fighting for survival. Revolution takes a cold, hard look at the biggest problems of our times, and does not flinch. It offers wisdom freely and seeks to improve the world. Of course, it builds goodwill. But more importantly, it makes the world a better place. In a hyper-capitalistic environment, where you can use some bullshit AI app to build a website in a few minutes (global warming be damned), revolution offers the hard facts and cuts no corners. It deals with the HOWs of anything. How to get from A to B? How did they do that? How do I do that? It's meant to empower people. The theoretical and practical tools that can be helpful to most (of any specific group of) people, most of the time. As with people, theories and tools must be updated with time and adapted to the needs of individuals.

Marketing is the hard fucking cumbersome work that allows us to do the rest. Storytelling is primarily for the creator because art is subjective and demands bold, creative decisions. It's where the artist lets themselves go wild and enjoy themselves fully. It's indulgent, and if it's authentic, it'll likely resonate with a real audience out there. But, it's work that simply breaks even. Because the artist gets full rein, they might stretch the deadline and push the budget. Since it is primarily promoted organically, long-term sales might be limited. However, it keeps the workers happy, fulfilled, and sharp as a tack.

Revolution is a way to earn attention in a world that's doing better than ever on paper, but feeling worse with every passing day. It's an act of humility and service, which pays due diligence to reality. For instance, if your audience is full of chefs, you have to face the fact that they are busy as hell. Revolution, as I see it, is empathetic and people-oriented. It's a powerful acknowledgement of our past and our current situation. While storytelling plays flirtatiously, hiding away its secrets behind a dancing veil, taunting, giggling, and being cutely precious, revolution is direct, clear-cut, practical, and pragmatic. A story might show how a good attitude plays out next to a bad one, but it will playfully pretend to be unserious, calling itself non-factual. Meanwhile, Revolution says it how it is, wastes no time, and offers a 12-step guide to achieving a good attitude, along with 6 reasons why you don't want a bad one, providing real-world, verifiable sources of information. It's paying your dues to the unspoken social contracts that keep our world turning.

Coming back to marketing now. Marketing encompasses all communication between a company and its target groups. Yes, in practice, it is the process of making change happen. Yet, in contrast, marketing is supposed to be the third pillar that supports the organisation by creating solutions for others. It's all about the company itself, my company, the one that does all three things. It is a service we offer to other companies at a lucrative price (for both of us). It leverages all the latest tools and technologies, monetising all our assets at fair profits. It deals with all the WHATs of any project. All the knitty gritty details that ought to be sweated (for lack of a nail, may lose the war). What are we trying to do here? What are we doing this month? This week? Today? Next hour? Right now? What's the fucking plan? It's 100% no-BS practical solutions. It's productive and business-oriented. 

Why All Three?

Finally, let's see how it all fits together under one roof. Primarily, the idea for my business was born from experience. In the two years working in marketing, I saw various conflicts of interest. Countless aspiring artists like myself struggle to find a viable way to their craft, and end up trying to earn a living in the marketing world. Except that they're artists, not salesmen, business executives, or tech geniuses. So, they end up bullshitting agencies with subpar work, and clients with endless delays (like me lol).

Companies turn to marketers to boost their sales, often with little to no understanding of why they aren't selling as well as they could be. Hell, companies in Jaipur don't even know what they do. Most owners have inherited their wealth and lack the experience, knowledge, and exposure necessary to achieve their goals. Hence, the clients don't even know what they need or whom to trust. They end up wasting money and then spouting how useless the whole endeavor is.

Agencies are caught in the middle. Most of them learn to bullshit their way through projects, learning how to manipulate all their levers to keep going. After all, it's a survival game for them. Excellent agencies, however, might find themselves having to offer consultations, to the point where they are basically making the business plans for their clients. To be fair, if your client doesn't have a decent BSP, why the hell did you take them on? That's the vicious cycle that I've seen in my city: Companies hire the subpar talent that's available, are unable to attract good clients, and then are forced to take on whoever will have them just to keep the lights on. It's a negative feedback loop from hell. 

On the talent side, agencies struggle to manage artists, who need creative freedom to thrive, even when their work does not yield results or make sense at all. I saw this ecosystem and sought a way out, quitting my job a month ago. I was perplexed because the audience wants to feel. They want what the artist dreams of creating. Most importantly, people want someone to make them feel special. 

A few days ago, it hit me like a cruise liner quietly crashing into a beach house. In my vision, I saw the perfect solution. A place, a banner, a group of people who were interested in all three things. These ideas come in various forms. Marketing sense can come from an MBA, an online hustle, or a sales/support job. Revolution might come from activists, writers, or folks who studied mass communication, hoping to become journalists. I'm sure you can imagine storytelling, but it can honestly be any kind of artist.

Then, the clients would be people who care deeply about at least one of the three things and can appreciate the importance of the other two. Just imagine it with me: You're writing a book? We have copywriters, designers, and editors. We can help you publish your shit. Oh, you are an independent filmmaker in need of equipment? Sure, you can rent from our humble studio. Hell, we'll even throw in a consultation at a discount, just for your idealistic ass!

As for the bread and butter, we will charge clients for the full service, not the deliverables. Initially, we might have to eat a loss and stay lean as hell to break into the market, but I see some real potential here. Now, the success of this business depends entirely on me, since it will be my baby. I know the ropes of storytelling, and I'm learning the art of revolution as we speak. As for marketing, I know I need a serious education in some heavily technical subjects. I plan on charging for my expertise, after all. As such, I'm going to teach myself coding, ads, graphics, and whatever else I have to.

This is the vision. Now, in reality, I'll stick to what I can do myself until I gather assets and find the right people. So, this company won't be starting off with a bang, launching shoots and campaigns immediately. Nevertheless, I want to decide on the right brand name, messaging (a tagline and an elevator pitch would do for now), and logo, which will appeal to the right people, clients, fans, and talent. 

After 2-3 hours of AI-gen bullshit, I have some contenders: 

- Azad Works

- Voltage Media

- Haq Studio

- Candor Co.

- Sway Creatives

Let me sleep on it and see where I land.