The Future Lab with Lee Schneider Season 3

Rachel Allen is the owner of Bolt from the Blue Copywriting. She describes her work as mixing the neuroscience of communication with the art of great writing to help businesses take the cap off their income, impact and influence. We’re going to talk about publishing your book and who you’ll need on your team to succeed at it.

Timestamps

[00:01:14] Skills in book editing.
[00:04:23] Consistency in longer form writing.
[00:07:09] Struggles of first-time authors.
[00:09:43] Importance of cover design.
[00:13:19] Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing.
[00:16:33] Enhancing chances of traditional publishing.
[00:20:03] Advising on genre choices.
[00:22:24] Ghostwriting and book intimacy.
[00:25:38] Writing with emotional depth.

Find out more about Rachel at her website. 

Creators & Guests

JV Hilliard is the author of the multi-book Warminster Saga. Here's how he often introduces himself. 

“Born of steel, fire and black wind, J.V. Hilliard was raised as a highlander in the foothills of a once-great mountain chain on the confluence of the three mighty rivers that forged his realm’s wealth and power for generations. His father, a peasant twerg, toiled away in industries of honest labor and instilled in him a work ethic that would shape his destiny. His mother, a local healer, cared for his elders and his warrior uncle, who helped to raise him.”

We talk about how he builds the world of his saga, his point of view about promoting his work, and what it's been like to expand the his storytelling into a video game and a graphic novel. JV gets a lot from the contribution of beta readers and discusses how the process of editing works for him. 

Creators & Guests

In today’s episode, you’ll meet Karen Gershowitz, author ofTravel Mania: Stories of Wanderlust. 

In pursuit of a passion for travel, Karen has lost and gained friends and made a radical career change. She has visited remote areas of Indonesia on her own, and became a translator, though only fluent in English. We’ll hear about some of her memories with people she met around the world. 

When Karen started promoting her book, she had a few hundred Facebook friends and about 500 LinkedIn connections. Now, those numbers are in the thousands. She’ll tell us how she developed her online audience and sustains it. And we’ll also learn about her next book and how she plans to promote it online. Find Karen on Facebook and the links below. 

Creators & Guests

In today’s episode, you’ll meet Rod Faulkner, self-professed Blerd, (Black nerd) founder of The7thMatrix and host of EYE ON SCI-Fi Podcast. He’s a lifelong lover of science fiction and fantasy. 

Rod shares his enthusiasm for short-form science-fiction films. We discussed how a short-form film, with its time limitations, can be an exercise in creative constraints. 

The most unique and original science fiction and fantasy narratives, in my opinion, are being told by independent film makers in the short film space. I'm attracted to that medium is because they only have a few minutes to tell their story. It forces them to be succinct. It forces them to make bold choices about how they convey the narrative that they're trying to tell audiences. 

He points out that one of the great things about short films is that by pretty much the first minute, you’ll know whether it’s for you or not. 

A filmmaker he recommends is Anthony Ferraro. Anthony specializes in making instructional videos for DIY-ing genre shorts.  Here’s [Anthony’s YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/@createscifi). 

Creators & Guests

Brian Freeman discusses Creatorland, a professional networking platform designed for content creators in the 100 billion dollar creator economy. He explains that the platform was developed to address some of the drawbacks of LinkedIn for content creators that include a lack of focus on content creation. Freeman shared that his company started by interviewing creators early on in the development process, building direct relationships with them, and using their feedback to refine the platform. Creatorland’s early success came from focusing on opportunity, discovery, education, learning, and networking with peers.

Get info at https://creatorland.com.

Explore Mee6, a Discord moderation bot. https://mee6.xyz/en/plugins/management

Creators & Guests

In this episode of the FutureX Podcast, host Lee Schneider interviews JJ Ramberg, co-creator of Goodpods, a platform designed to help podcast listeners discover new content and share recommendations with their friends. Ramberg and her brother Ken founded the platform to address the discovery problem in podcasting, where there is so much great content but few effective ways to find it. Goodpods aims to amplify word-of-mouth podcasting and connect producers with new audiences through user-generated content and community-driven promotion. The episode also touches on the importance of understanding your audience and seeking feedback when building a new platform or product, and JJ also discusses her Discord community, New Atlantis Labs. 

Creators & Guests

In today’s episode, you’ll meet Dr. Robert Eschmann, a writer, scholar, filmmaker, and educator from Chicago. He is an Associate Professor of Social Work and a member of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, as well as a Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. His new book, *When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age* is a comprehensive study of how racism manifests online and it highlights the antiracist tactics rising to oppose racism.

Creators & Guests

Black Twitter

Black Twitter is a community where, in Dr. Eschmann’s words, “Black folk get together and perform Blackness online, challenging racism and highlighting ways that racism is pervasive in society. Another part of that is just collectively enjoying popular culture.”

Yuza Farzan, writing in *The Guardian*, called Black Twitter a form of Black witnessing. Farzan calls up the tradition of Ida B Wells, a founder of the NAACP and a civil rights activist, who documented and compiled white violence against Black Americans, including more than 10,000 lynchings. “Much like how Black Twitter works today, the Black press has historically provided a counter-narrative when white media institutions failed to condemn injustices against Black people and, in some instances, even incited violence,” Farzan wrote. 

Allissa Richardson, author of *Bearing Witness While Black*, was quoted in the Guardian article. “Black activists always knew that they were never wed to one particular platform to get the message out. I think that’s the beauty of Black witnessing, is that it hacks any social network that it needs to at the time to get the word out.”  

In today’s episode, you’ll meet Laura Hartley, founder of an online school for change makers called Public Love Enterprises. She teaches people how to detox from capitalism, patriarchy, and supremacy culture. Her intention is to empower changemakers, activists, and entrepreneurs to radically reimagine the world, creating the conditions for social healing, collective thriving, and liberation.

Creators & Guests

Danielle Desir Corbett is an author, podcaster & podcast marketing coach. She hosts two podcasts,  Women of Color Podcasters and The Thought Card Podcast. She publishes Grants for Creators on Substack. And she’s the mother of a one year old child. And I’ve probably left something out!

We’re going to talk about how to manage multiple projects, and in keeping with the theme of this podcast, we’ll talk about how to build community for your projects — in Danielle’s case, building community around many projects. Closed-captioned video available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/x6Q92otB2gI

Creators & Guests

In today’s episode, you’ll meet Piet Terheyden, Co-Founder & CEO of Literal. Literal — the url is literal.club — is a platform to share books recommendations and reviews. Piet is also the creator & curator of Minimal Gallery, an online gallery showcasing the best web design. The gallery started as a way for him to save website designs that inspired him. He has a deep background in front end development and web design. 

Creators & Guests