Oche Writes’ Post

I've spoken on stage, live-streamed, and MC'd an after-party. I did it all while battling crippling social anxiety. For most of my life, I've had social anxiety—to the point where I've had a panic attack at a small music festival. The one way I've been able to manage it is by having an "anchor." I'm okay as long as I know one person at the event and keep them in my general eyeline the whole time. Think of this person(s) as a security blanket. Many, especially introverts, deal with this on a regular basis. It can stop us from accomplishing a lot in life—this fear and anxiety. We can't avoid social events as creative professionals, freelancers, or founders. We must network and mingle with others. In my career, I have: → I spoke to industry leaders/founders one-on-one. → I spoke at conferences. → I live-streamed for Adobe. → I have taught workshops and webinars. → I MC'd an after-party for a conference. → I competed in live art competitions (InkWars x3). I could do these things without a special pill or a genius method. I willed myself to do it. I repeated a mantra to myself over and over: "Be the person you want to be." The first time I used this was during my flight to San Diego for an interview at a design agency in 2014. I had only met one person at the agency beforehand, so I had no anchor. The whole flight from Georgia to California, I repeated a mantra: "Be the person you want to be." Now, I know this won't work for everyone, but it's how I was able to overcome my anxiety. Do I still have it? Yes. But I can manage how much it bothers me and how much it influences me and my actions. If I can overcome it, you likely can as well—you need to make the effort. ——— What was one time you broke free from your anxiety?

Yesterday a global artist posted that she was tired of social media. The reality is, we all are. So what's the answer? 👇 Making social media work requires systems. We cannot rely on ideas, passion and motivation to be sustainable on these platforms. We have to build systems and take daily action. Here's what I see work with our clients (hopefully this will help you to start building yours) 1. Know Your Brand If you don't know who you are and what your story is, posting becomes meaningless. Put in the work to understand your message and the rest will become easy. 2. Develop Formats Simple formats that you can produce regularly without too much thought. This could be an acoustic performance + written text or talking to camera about the meaning behind your music, whatever it is make it something that feels authentic and easy to produce. 3. Commit to Consistency Decide on a period of consistency and stick to it. For the artists that we work with it's 30 days of content, for others it might be 100. Commit to that challenge and measure it's impact along the way. If you feel tired, know that you are not alone and we all feel the same. Put that emotion into action and build systems that will serve you for life.

The original storyline for Telegenic__Music is about an African alien stranded in foreign lands. The character for the project is “ZOii”. The best way the character can reach the other lost aliens is through frequencies. While stranded, the character stumbles upon music. The character believes that this is the best way to send out a sonic smoke signal. The character “ZOii” searches the planet for an identity to avoid being attacked by natives. After researching and studying various cultures and ethnicities, the character changes form into “META DJ ZOii”. The character realizes that being a DJ is the optimal choice for sending out the frequencies. Over time the character notices that they may be stranded alone in the foreign land. The character has no way to escape the new world and strives to find more knowledge about the land and its inhabitants. I want to write more about the story in detail. The goal is to publish a book or assist with the development of a movie in the future. Both production (telegenic__music and spooky_poopv) are correlated in a very specific fashion with the featured music in the production. The goal was to make a different kind of film production in a different way on a dying platform (instagram). It would have been easier to make a full film production and upload the footage to YouTube but instead, the entire film is split into 60 second clips and placed in the instagram story feature and added to the highlights. Adding the content to the highlights makes the entire production fully automated. I’m the first to implement the concept and demonstrate the potential possibilities of this MVR (music video radio) concept. Both projects are musical film productions that are split into pieces and added to the instagram highlights feature. Meta’s (Instagram/Facebook) first fully automated MVR (music video radio) musical film production show series. PRESS PLAY ⏯️ ALLOW PROGRAM TO RUN ➡️ TAP TO SKIP ⏭️ (Age Restriction 21+) GEN 1 (BETA TEST)⚡️ https://lnkd.in/gtt8MDcb GEN 2 (BEST VERSION) 💩 https://lnkd.in/gWDwnU4J

Even your favorite artists are like this… Think Beyoncé, Burna Boy, Drake, The Weeknd, Rihanna, Wizkid, Eminem, etc. You might say you enjoy all their songs. But the reality is that not all their songs are top-notch. That’s why some of them will go viral and others will collect dust in your gallery. However, what’s interesting is that they keep dropping songs. They keep producing CONTENT and they get better and better. And then, at some point, it’s easier to overlook their not-so-good songs because in your head you already place them as favorites. That’s exactly what content writing is all about. The aim is not to go viral in every post. But to strengthen the relationships with your audience and make them gradually think of you as a favorite. And you have to do it for a long time to get there. So play the long game because that’s how you win. PS: Need content to generate leads for your business? Send me a DM asap.

"When am I going to be famous?" After years of working with hundreds of emerging artists, I've noticed this question comes up at some point for almost everyone, regardless of talent or skill level. ❓ “I’m in my 30s. Is it too late to break through?” ❓ “I’ve released two albums, and it feels like no one is listening. Is this as far as I'll go?” ❓ “I create content every day, but I’m still stuck in my bubble. Is my music just not good enough?” ❓ “My debut single didn’t go viral. Should I just give up?” We’ve all heard stories of "overnight" success, and it’s easy to feel discouraged when reality doesn’t match the dream. But these stories rarely reveal the years of hard work and resilience it takes to get there. Self-doubt, anxiety, and pessimism can creep in—even for the most gifted. That's why I loved The ROSTR Group infographic on Grammy nominees for Best New Artist this year. It shows that the average time from the first release to nomination is 7.8 years 😳 It’s a powerful reminder: there is no set timeline for success in this industry. Please check out their latest Instagram post for more insights! Of course, time doesn’t guarantee recognition. You could put your all into your craft and still not receive the acclaim you hope for. But if you're passionate about the journey itself—creating, growing, connecting with an audience—that alone can be fulfilling. The path might be long, but if you love what you do, you're already succeeding.

From my coloumn, Waking up to my weekend: Overload+1 Saturday, 30NOV2024   It was in 1995. My husband and a couple of his friends, with the memories of their successful months long ticket-drive (literally so by the wife of one of his friend) to stage the banner of their new-found hobby-horse, Pallavi, a partner ship to enable listening to live classical carnatic concerts in Sydney with  others who yearned for that genre of entertainment, released the tickets of their forth coming concert by Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman, to the accompaniments of Sri G J R Krishnan, Srimathi Vijayalakshmi and Sri Karaikudi Mani. In all of some indistinct hours with in a day, they had to close the box office, for every ticket was sold out. A spurious one-off occurrence in the history of Pallavi with every other resembling their first taste at ticket-drive, adequately augmented by all of their hobby budget most times. Pallavi changed its organisational structure a few years down the line and incorporated the entity, with a constitution that formalised their intent and operations thus far for the assurance of sustainability of its intent in the years to come: Pallavi, their little hobby horse; unpretentious in its intent, accurate in its accountings and truthful in its operations. Organising for unpretentious, accurate and truthful delivery is, however, impossible without a validated implementation of policies, procedures and work-instructions interfacing in a cohesive multi-plexed regulatory framework fit for delivering communication solutions for humans in a social setting. The first step in developing any regulatory framework is to take stock of the existing operations/provisions and exclude consumer segments(contra indicate) who may suffer potential harm from potential communications, (eg. posts, feed) etc. that are potentially, pretentious, inaccurate, and untruthful. I am celebrating X-mas early: https://lnkd.in/g8U_QZUQ   Sumathy 

Happy Sunday 😊 🙏 - I don't know about you, but here in Jerz (local shorthand for New Jersey 😁) we are experiencing a week of rain and cold front, which I'm using to catch up on some study and enjoyment of reading, writing and art. The Artocalypse is developing into a wonderful community. So much good stuff! I thought I'd take a moment to introduce you to a pretty nifty feature on our platform itself. Did you know that in The Artocalypse with a single click you can curate all content shared by an individual artist into one single feed you can enjoy? But so what Kimberly, I can do that everywhere. Yeah, but these posts are not made on Artocalypse like they are everywhere else. They are made on the artists independently created blog and made available publicly for you without you needing to join or subscribe to Artocalypse. We are artist founded and run, not some faceless ad media corporation. Follow us and patron and support independent artists, not exploitative media outlets. Unfettered, uncluttered, no exploitation, no noise, just you and you're favorite artist - so go grab a tasty beverage and cozy up. If you have a favorite artist who isn't in our community yet, why not tell them? Share this post. Ok now back to the nifty curation feature, Here's what you do: At the bottom of every artist post on the platform there are two simple options for you: ➡️ SEE MORE FROM THIS ARTIST and the other is ➡️ READ ON ARTIST WEBSITE Now go try opening a post and clicking on both options to see what happens, Enjoy! 😍😊 https://artocalypse.org

I was recently asked to provide a few thoughts as part of the PublicDisplay.ART final issue that includes an in-depth survey of creatives in the greater Seattle area. PublicDisplay.Art was a labor of love by Marty Griswold and it’s sad to see it go. Sometimes that’s what happens when you’re fighting the good fight… you lose. Same challenges all creatives face. Who knows what the future of journalism is, I sure don’t, but art can only benefit from intellectual criticism that provides perspective and context for viewers while championing good work. I’d love to think it’s just a generational shift and a new model will rise from the ashes of the old, but I may be wrong. Maybe in the future they’ll give out Pulitzers for the best tweets. We’ll just have to wait and find out. "Musicians need a lot of things to build a career, but mostly, they need money. When we navel gaze about the 90s and the "grunge scene," we often forget to acknowledge the role that cheap housing played in seeding that global music phenomenon. There continues to be so much great music being made and performed in Seattle, but it's harder than ever for musicians to exist in our city, let alone flourish. We have to find more ways to support creatives and creative spaces or face an extinction event." - Ben London You can read the full issue here. https://publicdisplay.art

We asked Sasha for some tips to help artists continue to grow in 2025. Two words: creative challenges.  Creative challenges can help you stay inspired, break through creative blocks, and engage with your audience in new ways. Plus, with the rapid pace of change in the industry, it's key for artists to be adaptable. Some ideas for how musicians can benefit from a creative boost: ✅ Spark New Ideas – Constraints like "write a song in 48 hours" can ignite fresh creativity. ✅ Build Consistency – Daily or weekly challenges help you develop a steady creative rhythm. ✅ Expand Your Skills – Trying new genres, sounds, or techniques keeps you evolving. ✅ Boost Engagement – Involve your audience by sharing your challenge journey and results. Remember, challenges such as these can help push an artist out of their comfort zone, often leading to unexpected breakthroughs.

Here's a little storytime. Today, this handler is writing this article after an unofficial team meeting that happened between two departments- Marketing & Engineering. We discussed quite an interesting number of issues, especially ways to make the Circo app accessible and convenient for our users to use. Discussions like this make us wonder about quite a few things- especially African representation in the content creation space. In a world where Western content often dominates social media, African voices need a platform to shine. That's where Circo comes in—an app dedicated to showcasing African content and empowering African creators. With its focus on authentic African stories, Circo is changing the game, giving creators the visibility and recognition they deserve. Circo is more than just a platform; it's a community. It brings together artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, performers and many more from across the continent, fostering connections and collaborations. It's also a space where cultural exchange thrives, allowing people from all backgrounds to engage with Africa's rich and diverse heritage. Launching in a few days, Circo is arriving at the perfect time. African culture is gaining international attention, and Circo ensures that this momentum continues. It's not just about amplifying African voices—it's about celebrating them. Don't miss out on being part of this movement. If you haven't reserved your username on Circo yet, now is the time.