(scenius thread) a more general version of this is my dominant preoccupation, so here are some riffs and thoughts
broad strokes: you’re basically trying to create a movement, a scene, and that’s made up of interactions between people, which you will need to orchestrate, initially 1 at a time
fixating on the $1m can be a bit of a mistake. you will need more than $1m in the long run. so in a way you can think of the $1m as your fundraising pool, the way by which you will get $10m, $100m, $1b in the short run, you will want to get attention from the right people
this is how I think about it, maybe it’s slightly scarcity-mindset-y, but I think it’s prudent: for starters, don’t touch the money at all. do as much as you can without any money. it’s like figuring out your marketing: don’t do paid advertising until you have product/market fit
talk to all the creatives in your life and strengthen your relationships with them. ask them what their challenges are. ask them what they’d like to see, what they’d like to do. develop a model/understanding of their inner states, the challenges they face, etc
cultivate your own taste. make lists of what you love, why you think it’s great, why you think it deserves more attention, what you want to see more of. put this on a blog, a vlog, on twitter. weave this organically into your conversations with every person you meet
introduce these to each other. host dinner parties, zoom parties. tell them about each other’s work. ask them questions. take notes on what comes up. share those notes with the world via your blog/vlog/twitter. continually solicit feedback and suggestions
continually, recurringly, always be talking about the art you love. always be asking people what their favorite art is. cheerfully encourage people to explore and discover. how wonderful it is that you already have a thoughtful repository they can access
read up about past egs of people who successfully managed to cultivate creative scenes. get a sense of their scenius manager vibes. who are the underappreciated creatives that you already know? who should they be introduced to? make those introductions
talk to the best individuals you know
tell them about your idea
introduce them to each other individually
host events/parties where they all come together
get the word out
have high standards
get people wanting to challenge and impress each other
to reduce it down to fundamentals the most important thing is that every day you must be talking to people, and every day you must be introducing people to each other from there, you’ll find out organically what the next steps are. follow up and follow through
finally the most important thing is that you have to stick around. it sounds obvious when you say it, but the vast majority of all attempts to do anything substantial fail because people quit. your job is to BE PRESENT and NOT DISAPPEAR. until you die (2023: reminded of what murakami said about newer novelists)
don’t fucking quit, and try your best not to die
learn good reply game, go on the relevant subreddit, go on the relevant youtube channels, forums, tiktoks, wherever people are hanging out. learn their material. thoughtfully comment, reply, DM.