Starting Over ♻️
On building the airplane as we fly it
blog.forty-seven // In January, we set out to create an entire “season,” releasing five new videos in the weeks leading up to our print edition of Creator Mag.
As of yesterday, the last episode of the season is now out on our YouTube channel. If you haven’t seen it yet, drop everything and go watch it now.
This one meant a lot. At the end of 2024, we began the process of calling creators we knew to hear about how their year went—and the lessons they learned as they looked ahead to 2025.
Not only did this project, “Twenty-Five Calls for 2025,” serve as a launchpad into our mission to Make The Internet Feel Smaller. It also was an opportunity to genuinely listen, to better understand the things actually on creators’ minds.
Things like filmmaker Daren Girdner’s appreciation for still making time to play basketball—even if he’s a little out of shape these days. Or commercial director Ashley Xu’s observation that putting herself out there was key to losing the fear of not being liked. Or cinematographer Paolo Abeabe’s commitment to stop riding the wave in favor of making his own.
A lot of coverage surrounding the “creator” world focuses on individuals’ value in terms of numbers. This appears in the form of podcast hits and trade publications, of research papers and slide decks.
There is a place for that coverage. But there’s also a place for a more human side of storytelling that inspires us to create the things we find meaningful. And I would argue there’s just as much to learn about (and from) the humans as there is to learn about their numerical impact.
Stitching insights from twenty-five different conversations together into one eight-minute video was a unique challenge, but I couldn’t be more proud of how it came together. All credit goes to Shua for his mixing and editing work here, as well as Moy for bringing the audio to life with beautiful captions and motion graphics.*
We hope this one hits you in the heartstrings—and that you pick up the phone and catch up with a friend soon, too.
With that also comes the official conclusion to the season. While we’re still packing and shipping orders, the nature of our publishing schedule means that we’re already looking ahead towards the next zine (out July), reaching out to potential subjects and talking through the stories we think are worth telling.
We’re building the airplane as we fly it, after all. Therefore, it felt like the perfect time to check in with a fresh installment of “Five Things I Think (I Think).”
— NGL
P.S. Interested in catching up with the full slate of conversations from “Twenty-Five Calls”? You can read them here.
P.P.S. Last blog, we shared our favorite stories from this past season. You can read it here.
One :: I think showing up is easier said than done. I’ll be honest—over the last several months, writing this blog twice a week has been difficult.
The nature of what we do means that there’s a constant slate of moving pieces. Developing, shooting, and editing videos. Marketing. Communicating with customers, collaborators, and event venues. On top of that, designing and producing a beautiful print zine—and not skimping on said zine’s actual storytelling.
Don’t take this as a complaint; it’s what we signed up for, of course. Yet with all those moving pieces, sitting down to also deliver coherent thoughts to you, lovely reader, means showing up, every week.
When I started the original Creator Mag in 2022, there was no blog. A magazine would drop, then I’d disappear for three months, eventually reemerging with more stories to tell. This is what I felt like I was creatively capable of, and if those stories were good enough, who needed to hear from me for a while, anyway?
What I’ve learned these days is that the consistent dialogue this space and our regular gatherings provide is essential. It’s not only an opportunity for us to comment on more timely topics; it also lets us listen, to what’s piquing your interests and what’s resonating the most. We’re building this thing right alongside you.
There are always ways to make things more efficient, to simplify them. But how do you streamline the life and soul of what we do? I don’t think you can. We just need to show up, every week.
Two :: I can’t stop thinking about that Tyler, the Creator quote. For the last three years, honestly.
If you’re new here, I first wrote about this idea all the way back in August. Most creative folks perpetually want to be in the state of making the thing, not marketing the thing.
But people are busy. And we handicap ourselves when we don’t take the time to share our work with the world—and then share it again, and again, and again, according to Tyler.
The key moment starts around the forty-three minute mark of the interview linked above:
“You went through something. You wrote words down. You figured it out in a structural format. Found music to go along with it. You recorded it.
And you mean to tell me that you’re going to be passive with your own sh*t and just put it on your story once? Are you f**king crazy bro?
I’m still promoting my album that came out [last] June! It’s a year out and I’m still out here!”
To sum: I’ll keep yapping about our latest edition of Creator Mag because I’m proud of the work that went into it. I’m also really proud of the stories and video episodes themselves. It would be disrespectful to that process to do anything but continue to yap.
Three :: I think respecting our readers’ support (both their time and money) is our top priority. There are an endless amount of stories we can potentially pursue over the next several months. We have some incredible leads, and even as this last season wore me out, I can’t wait to get back in the saddle and tackle new projects.
I’m trying not to get too ahead of myself, though, because the work isn’t really done. There are still magazines and tees to ship, and we don’t exactly have a customer support team communicating updates or fulfilling orders on our behalf.
Along with sending thank-you videos, I’m also writing personalized notes and slipping them into each package. Overkill? Maybe. But a couple hundred notes is not all that much in the grand scheme of things.
John Green’s relationship with his audience has inspired me a lot here. With the release of his new book, Everything is Tuberculosis, he signed one hundred thousand copies. While John has a team that helps him out with this kind of stuff, he also has a heckuva lot more responsibilities than my 26-year-old self does on the day to day. In other words, that commitment to thanking readers is astounding, and a large part of why people keep tuning into his work over the last two decades.
I spoke with Elyse Marshall, John’s publicist, for our recent cover story, “A Crash Course on Hank and John Green.” Here’s a graf from the story:**
Elyse mentions that John can sometimes afford to be a little more empathetic with himself, too. After we log off our call, she sends a follow-up email, noting that the team no longer has John do public book signings on his tours in an effort to preserve his energy.
“The last public signing that I did with John was in 2014…there were maybe a thousand people in line and we were there for hours,” Elyse writes.
“John wasn’t going to leave till everyone had their book signed.”
That respect is paramount. If we can reflect even a fraction of that respect to our readers, then I’ll know we’re on the right path.
On a separate note, I’m roughly halfway through Everything is TB. Highly recommend giving it a read.
Four :: I think I feel personally attacked by “the ChatGPT hyphen” discourse. There’s a clip going around the interwebs of two Gen Z podcast hosts talking about how the use of em dashes (which ChatGPT often employs) is concrete evidence that someone used AI to write their article/blog/IG caption.
The catch? The podcast hosts don’t seem to realize that em dashes are not only a grammatically-correct form of punctuation, but they’re also commonly used by writers of all shapes and sizes—specifically, journalists.***
So yes, they referred to em dashes as “the ChatGPT hyphen.” If it weren’t for the abominable state of our federal government, stuff like this makes me want to pack up this whole writing career schtick and go become a park ranger at Yosemite.
Five :: I think that monologue from White Lotus is an all-timer. I finally caught up on Season Three ahead of tonight’s finale. And my oh my, I was laughing my ass of the entire time a certain character graced our screens.
I’m finishing this blog up at a cafe down the street from my apartment. While it’s been a real treat spending this time with you, I have been waiting all day to watch the Season Three finale for Lotus.
Time to pack up. See you again Thursday!
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
* This project was very much inspired by Sean Wang, director of the 2024 breakout film Didi. I highly recommend his prior film, “Have a Good Summer,” an eight-minute documentary you can watch here.
** The full story is only available in our print zine. Pick up your copy here if you haven’t already!
*** Pun intended.
I love this! It's so empowering, especially in a time where my brain often mistakes media overconsumption with creation and being an active participant in the creator space.
What did you think of the White Lotus finale?? There were some more crazy profound lines/monologues that struck a chord with me.