I'm a grassland, because I am driven to create a body of work, fiction and non-fiction, that coheres around a very particular idea. This aligns well with my Spotlighter SCALE path, which our interactions over the past couple of days have helped me to clarify. There will certainly be some actions to follow up this realisation.
Amazing! There's so many resources for grasslands and spotlighters in Hapitalist too since I learned a lot of what I know from my ex-business partner, who was a grassland.
I think I'm a Grassland because I've been slowly, methodically accumulating a body of work over the past several years. But I think my SCALE path is an Evangelist because when I think about doing Spotlighter things like intentionally trying to put out a lot of content and own an area of expertise, I feel exhausted, but inviting people to share my work with others and connect me with opportunities to share my work (such as podcast guesting) feels super easy.
Since our brains are mirroring our world (people and places) all the time, "contagion" is a great fit. When we see others smile, we tend to smile; when we hear a story together, our brains start to sync around the story and the storyteller.
I guess you take the edges off with: Growth through Mirrors, maybe? 🤓
I’m a Forest because I'm relational and connective. While my main topic is embodying the divine feminine, I started writing this year about revillaging and how to embody the divine feminine while community building. It's been a very natural extension of my main topic. Writing from a relational place aligns with my SCALE path of Spotlighter because I want to be seen and I want other people to feel seen. I am creating something that feels like home to the people who find me. My identity is my brand. My super power is putting emotion to words and I often receive feedback that readers finally have words to describe how they feel, or "I found your work and cried". I'm a memoirist and personal essayist. Readers follow and subscribe because they see themselves reflected in the sharing of my humanness.
lol - is there any combination that Hapitalist does not have resources for? (rhetorical question). I'm curious, is there a section or tag for Spotlighter/Forest combinations in Hapitalist? Where would I find those resources? (also, I'm not a paid subscriber so I acknowledge I won't see it yet, but I'm curious how I would find these specific resources)
There's not a tag. I can say the thing we don't have much on is retailers, so if you want to smash KU or something, there's not a ton there, if anything. However, because you get access to Russellbot that can help you individualize anything to your situation, and bi-monthly calls, there's a robust crosssection of information.
I've also had a chaotic career, which touches on many things.
There's Build a Rabid Fanbase, which is very Foresty. There's several resources on Substack, which is super Spotlight-y. There's a workbook on memberships, which is foresty, and also a book on how to write books readers devour, which is like the bible for a forest/evangelist.
There's also a workbook on going to shows, which is a good spotlighter strategy. I even have one on running your own virtual conference, but that might be available here too, for free.
I have put everything valuable I've ever done in the resources, because I want it to be like the operating system of your business, and easily be worth the $300/yr that it costs. The value comes with people staying for years, so I have incentive to make it valuable for all the people.
However, Arbiters and deserts, there's not a ton of optimization stuff, but depending on your platform, and what you want to do, there's stuff for almost everything, and Russellbot has been trained on it all so hopefully they can help you synthesize it.
I’m a Forest because I do my best work connecting with fans/readers and truly enjoy interacting with them. This aligns with my SCALE path of Evangelist because I rely on on my fans/readers to spread the word about my work.
That being said, I need to make more time to foster my fans/readers so that my SCALE path works for me in a substantive, sustainable way which doesn't plateau.
Replying to my own post? I forgot to add that I not only enjoy working and interacting with my fans/readers, but also with other authors (though they're not mutually exclusive groups) to help them grow their readership/fan base!
It feels like I am mix of Grassland and Aquatic. The steady and methodical aspects of the grassland fit as well as the layered world building of the aquatic. These seem to align with my SCALE path of spotlighter.
Russell, thanks so much for all the clarification articles. So helpful.
I’m a Bramble because my skills and joy are in "translating" what we know about how the brain functions as a living, complex system (and why that matters) in a personable, approachable way. My book's alpha readers almost always on how it feels like they're having a cozy, kitchen conversation with me.
This aligns with my Spotlighter path right now because I'm still working on the book and sharing my perspective and style in a slow, gradual building of sharing my expertise and connecting (in Substack) with some others having similar perspectives in other domains. I want to spotlight what I think people may be missing, but I'm not in a hurry. And I'm connecting to slowly build toward linking audiences with others to help my People find me. But that's a lower priority right now.
I’m an Aquatic. Once I stopped reigning in all my varied interests, I can see that. I want to create and express "story" in all the possible ways. (Usually I want to do it all at once which is hard on my own).
Fortunately, Aquatic aligns comfortably with this week's revelation that Collaboration is my SCALE path. (Diving in to Collaboration might allow me to keep playing with all my ideas at once, because I don't have to do it alone.)
I am grateful that I have some excellent Collaborator/Aquatic role models to learn from. I touched base with a couple of my favorites this week, and I have recently been accepted into 2 anthologies. Look at me being all Collab-y.
I’m a Forest because I want my readers to feel seen, to connect emotionally to my work, to feel bigger inside, and to have more hope. I write deep-character-driven, idea-driven stories. I have a strong, warm authorial voice.
I’m not a Forest because I can easily separate by work from who I am, I’m not interested in close connecting with readers IRL, I don’t want people to buy into my personal story, just to form a relationship with my work.
I’m a Grassland because I’m not in a rush, I’m relentless. I just keep writing and growing and making great stories.
I’m not a Grassland because I’m inconsistent (no blog archive, ha!), not comprehensive, don’t think in timelines, not sure where the market is going. I geek out for the stretch of a book/series (like about living underwater, or volcanoes, usually science-related) and share bits of the cool stuff I find, but then once the series is over I’m on to another deep dive on something else.
After the updated SCALE paths essays yesterday (thank you!) I’m thinking I’m a Spotlight? Mainly because I’m less comfortable at the idea of performing the other ones. If I focus on writing faster, maybe I could try Arbitrage—the data-following sounds fun and I could deep-dive on lots of weird topics. I would have to change my ways a lot to be a Collaborative, and even more to be a Launcher. Evangelist still sounds good, the sharing ideas and reading experience, but I’d have to learn how to be a better connector. Spotlight’s “thought leadership” sounds closest, but is that something I could actually aim to do or something that I recognize I’ve done after I start having success with it and build on that?
Maybe this next year can be a series of small 3-6 month experiments with different paths?
If you’re in Hapitalist, then you should come to any call you can. If you are thinking about joining, then this is a good time bc it will likely be less crowded with the holiday. We will be doing one next Thursday for free to anyone in the challenge too.
I’m an Aquatic who likes building huge immersive universes and exploring deep themes of racial reconciliation, chasing that theme across formats, genres, and even into non-fiction (*gasp*). That sort of aligns with my SCALE of Spotlighter as I’m constantly talking about this theme and directing attention back to said universe through podcasts, guest blogs, collaborations, and lots of other Spotlighter fun.
Oh plus I think I’m inventing a new category because I don’t see anyone else writing in the dystopian / racial reconciliation space. And then I got the idea to poke the bear of racism with a cross-cultural race car romance. Def Aquatic.
I’m a grassland because I have found my preferred (rather specific) niche, and settled on a sustainable publishing schedule which I think I can sustain for the long term. This aligns with my Spotlighter SCALE path because through our interactions in this challenge, I can now see a way forward that builds on my growing catalog of work and position myself as a prominent voice in my niche. I'm feeling a lot more positive about the future now knowing I can (should) simply give up on some of the growth avenues I've been wondering about/dabbling in, which don't align with my strengths.
One of the reasons I didn't interact with the Ecosystem framework when it was initially released is that I didn't really feel like I fit any one of them very well. In the same way that astrology lines up with broad strokes but lacks finesse, I felt the same applied here for me. I have strong traits from several of the Ecosystems but don't really operate like one of them.
If you put a gun to my head I could split between Forest (the type of work I make) and Tundra (the pace at which I make/release it) but I also have the slow steady endurance of a Grasslands. But I still don't feel like I'm any of them really.
So with that in mind these amalgams of traits align with my Scalepath (Evangelist) because I try to make work that makes the reader feel seen, helped, or comforted in someway.
I've had this feedback directly from readers of Warhead specifically, and Tasteful Noods; and those are probably the two books that get readers to spread the word new readers via social media or, somewhat embarrassingly, going to comic shops and asking them to stock Warhead. (I can never decide if this is good or bad for me- because I think it's probably annoying to the shops and makes them dislike the reader, as well as me and my work)
I also just published this article on blended ecosystems, and so maybe you'll see yourself in one of them, or maybe it's not for you, and that's okay too.
While Hapitalist is built on this foundation, I can't say we talk about the ecosystems or scale paths all that much. It's more a taxonomy that puts us on the same page, but really it's about the resources, Russellbot, and the breakthrough sessions. That's where the magic is, in those sessions and Russellbot.
That's interesting. I see you as clearly being an aquatic as you pull threads from so many things to create your own thing. Like, every conversation with you that I've had about how you think about story, and how you weave things together screams aquatic to me, but then again I do not interact with you nearly enough.
I’m an aquatic because I want to create a world where readers are fully immersed and crave more after visiting my website, etc. This aligns with my SCALE path because I often need collaborators to help me get there (or validate my crazy ideas so I can move forward).
I’m a Desert because I love looking at trends, writing to market, and aim to move fast. This aligns with my SCALE path because Arbiters are also tactics-focused and all about optimization.
At one point when I first heard about Author Ecosystems, I was leaning Savannah with the Grassland hybrid, but the more I've learned about Grassland, the less that feels like a good fit. I think I liked the idea of some of it (not the being front and center part but the steady/roots part).
I’m a Forest because relationships matter to me. Everything about Forest is me. This does not align with my Collaborator SCALE path but it is definitely right for me and what has worked best for me in the past. I’m excited to lean into it.
I’m a Forest because networks and collaboration are mandatory when it comes to filmmaking and emotional resonance is the most critical aspect to draw producers, directors and actors to a project. This aligns with my Launcher SCALE path because I have to constantly create and introduce new projects while re-introducing older ones based on what the industry is seeking. The industry is based on trends, so something that gets passed over today may become relevant tomorrow. Plus, I'm now trying to launch a book component to create I.P. around my most noted work to date.
I'm a grassland, because I am driven to create a body of work, fiction and non-fiction, that coheres around a very particular idea. This aligns well with my Spotlighter SCALE path, which our interactions over the past couple of days have helped me to clarify. There will certainly be some actions to follow up this realisation.
Amazing! There's so many resources for grasslands and spotlighters in Hapitalist too since I learned a lot of what I know from my ex-business partner, who was a grassland.
I think I'm a Grassland because I've been slowly, methodically accumulating a body of work over the past several years. But I think my SCALE path is an Evangelist because when I think about doing Spotlighter things like intentionally trying to put out a lot of content and own an area of expertise, I feel exhausted, but inviting people to share my work with others and connect me with opportunities to share my work (such as podcast guesting) feels super easy.
I love it. Sounds great. Today somebody said that evangelists are growth through contagion and I love that, even though it’s a bit gross imagery.
Growth through contagion - I love it!
Since our brains are mirroring our world (people and places) all the time, "contagion" is a great fit. When we see others smile, we tend to smile; when we hear a story together, our brains start to sync around the story and the storyteller.
I guess you take the edges off with: Growth through Mirrors, maybe? 🤓
I’m a Forest because I'm relational and connective. While my main topic is embodying the divine feminine, I started writing this year about revillaging and how to embody the divine feminine while community building. It's been a very natural extension of my main topic. Writing from a relational place aligns with my SCALE path of Spotlighter because I want to be seen and I want other people to feel seen. I am creating something that feels like home to the people who find me. My identity is my brand. My super power is putting emotion to words and I often receive feedback that readers finally have words to describe how they feel, or "I found your work and cried". I'm a memoirist and personal essayist. Readers follow and subscribe because they see themselves reflected in the sharing of my humanness.
Man. It felt really good to nail that down.
Amazing!!! I love it, and Hapitalist has so many resources for somebody like you :)
lol - is there any combination that Hapitalist does not have resources for? (rhetorical question). I'm curious, is there a section or tag for Spotlighter/Forest combinations in Hapitalist? Where would I find those resources? (also, I'm not a paid subscriber so I acknowledge I won't see it yet, but I'm curious how I would find these specific resources)
There's not a tag. I can say the thing we don't have much on is retailers, so if you want to smash KU or something, there's not a ton there, if anything. However, because you get access to Russellbot that can help you individualize anything to your situation, and bi-monthly calls, there's a robust crosssection of information.
I've also had a chaotic career, which touches on many things.
So, if you look at the resources here: https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/nonfiction
There's Build a Rabid Fanbase, which is very Foresty. There's several resources on Substack, which is super Spotlight-y. There's a workbook on memberships, which is foresty, and also a book on how to write books readers devour, which is like the bible for a forest/evangelist.
There's also a workbook on going to shows, which is a good spotlighter strategy. I even have one on running your own virtual conference, but that might be available here too, for free.
I have put everything valuable I've ever done in the resources, because I want it to be like the operating system of your business, and easily be worth the $300/yr that it costs. The value comes with people staying for years, so I have incentive to make it valuable for all the people.
However, Arbiters and deserts, there's not a ton of optimization stuff, but depending on your platform, and what you want to do, there's stuff for almost everything, and Russellbot has been trained on it all so hopefully they can help you synthesize it.
Cool! Thanks!
I’m a Forest because I do my best work connecting with fans/readers and truly enjoy interacting with them. This aligns with my SCALE path of Evangelist because I rely on on my fans/readers to spread the word about my work.
That being said, I need to make more time to foster my fans/readers so that my SCALE path works for me in a substantive, sustainable way which doesn't plateau.
I love it.
Thank you :)
Today I was talking to somebody and they said that evangelism was like growth through contagion. Idk if that’s a healthy metaphor, but it is true.
Replying to my own post? I forgot to add that I not only enjoy working and interacting with my fans/readers, but also with other authors (though they're not mutually exclusive groups) to help them grow their readership/fan base!
It feels like I am mix of Grassland and Aquatic. The steady and methodical aspects of the grassland fit as well as the layered world building of the aquatic. These seem to align with my SCALE path of spotlighter.
Nice, have you read the blended ecosystems article yet? That would make you an estuary. https://www.frictionlessgrowth.com/p/blended-ecosystems
I just finished it. The estuary feels much better. Funny, before I read the article, I had the thought of a coastal marsh being a good fit.
Kismet
Russell, thanks so much for all the clarification articles. So helpful.
I’m a Bramble because my skills and joy are in "translating" what we know about how the brain functions as a living, complex system (and why that matters) in a personable, approachable way. My book's alpha readers almost always on how it feels like they're having a cozy, kitchen conversation with me.
This aligns with my Spotlighter path right now because I'm still working on the book and sharing my perspective and style in a slow, gradual building of sharing my expertise and connecting (in Substack) with some others having similar perspectives in other domains. I want to spotlight what I think people may be missing, but I'm not in a hurry. And I'm connecting to slowly build toward linking audiences with others to help my People find me. But that's a lower priority right now.
Awesome! Lots of strategies in Hapitalist that could help you :)
I’m an Aquatic. Once I stopped reigning in all my varied interests, I can see that. I want to create and express "story" in all the possible ways. (Usually I want to do it all at once which is hard on my own).
Fortunately, Aquatic aligns comfortably with this week's revelation that Collaboration is my SCALE path. (Diving in to Collaboration might allow me to keep playing with all my ideas at once, because I don't have to do it alone.)
I am grateful that I have some excellent Collaborator/Aquatic role models to learn from. I touched base with a couple of my favorites this week, and I have recently been accepted into 2 anthologies. Look at me being all Collab-y.
Yaaaas!
I’m a Forest because I want my readers to feel seen, to connect emotionally to my work, to feel bigger inside, and to have more hope. I write deep-character-driven, idea-driven stories. I have a strong, warm authorial voice.
I’m not a Forest because I can easily separate by work from who I am, I’m not interested in close connecting with readers IRL, I don’t want people to buy into my personal story, just to form a relationship with my work.
I’m a Grassland because I’m not in a rush, I’m relentless. I just keep writing and growing and making great stories.
I’m not a Grassland because I’m inconsistent (no blog archive, ha!), not comprehensive, don’t think in timelines, not sure where the market is going. I geek out for the stretch of a book/series (like about living underwater, or volcanoes, usually science-related) and share bits of the cool stuff I find, but then once the series is over I’m on to another deep dive on something else.
After the updated SCALE paths essays yesterday (thank you!) I’m thinking I’m a Spotlight? Mainly because I’m less comfortable at the idea of performing the other ones. If I focus on writing faster, maybe I could try Arbitrage—the data-following sounds fun and I could deep-dive on lots of weird topics. I would have to change my ways a lot to be a Collaborative, and even more to be a Launcher. Evangelist still sounds good, the sharing ideas and reading experience, but I’d have to learn how to be a better connector. Spotlight’s “thought leadership” sounds closest, but is that something I could actually aim to do or something that I recognize I’ve done after I start having success with it and build on that?
Maybe this next year can be a series of small 3-6 month experiments with different paths?
That’s what we do in Hapitalist! The book section on Prioritization is about this too, and we’ll talk about it in a couple days
Would it be useful for me to check out the Hapitalist call today? I've only skimmed the workbook; maybe can just listen in tonight.
If you’re in Hapitalist, then you should come to any call you can. If you are thinking about joining, then this is a good time bc it will likely be less crowded with the holiday. We will be doing one next Thursday for free to anyone in the challenge too.
I’m an Aquatic who likes building huge immersive universes and exploring deep themes of racial reconciliation, chasing that theme across formats, genres, and even into non-fiction (*gasp*). That sort of aligns with my SCALE of Spotlighter as I’m constantly talking about this theme and directing attention back to said universe through podcasts, guest blogs, collaborations, and lots of other Spotlighter fun.
Love it.
Oh plus I think I’m inventing a new category because I don’t see anyone else writing in the dystopian / racial reconciliation space. And then I got the idea to poke the bear of racism with a cross-cultural race car romance. Def Aquatic.
Totally.
I’m a grassland because I have found my preferred (rather specific) niche, and settled on a sustainable publishing schedule which I think I can sustain for the long term. This aligns with my Spotlighter SCALE path because through our interactions in this challenge, I can now see a way forward that builds on my growing catalog of work and position myself as a prominent voice in my niche. I'm feeling a lot more positive about the future now knowing I can (should) simply give up on some of the growth avenues I've been wondering about/dabbling in, which don't align with my strengths.
Amazing! Love it. So many resources in Hapitalist for grasslands and spotlighters :)
I'm a forest, which aligns with my SCALE path of evangelist, because I do enjoy building a community around my work.
Sounds great! Really like how you’re think launching book you just put out.
Thanks!
One of the reasons I didn't interact with the Ecosystem framework when it was initially released is that I didn't really feel like I fit any one of them very well. In the same way that astrology lines up with broad strokes but lacks finesse, I felt the same applied here for me. I have strong traits from several of the Ecosystems but don't really operate like one of them.
If you put a gun to my head I could split between Forest (the type of work I make) and Tundra (the pace at which I make/release it) but I also have the slow steady endurance of a Grasslands. But I still don't feel like I'm any of them really.
So with that in mind these amalgams of traits align with my Scalepath (Evangelist) because I try to make work that makes the reader feel seen, helped, or comforted in someway.
I've had this feedback directly from readers of Warhead specifically, and Tasteful Noods; and those are probably the two books that get readers to spread the word new readers via social media or, somewhat embarrassingly, going to comic shops and asking them to stock Warhead. (I can never decide if this is good or bad for me- because I think it's probably annoying to the shops and makes them dislike the reader, as well as me and my work)
I also just published this article on blended ecosystems, and so maybe you'll see yourself in one of them, or maybe it's not for you, and that's okay too.
https://www.frictionlessgrowth.com/p/blended-ecosystems
While Hapitalist is built on this foundation, I can't say we talk about the ecosystems or scale paths all that much. It's more a taxonomy that puts us on the same page, but really it's about the resources, Russellbot, and the breakthrough sessions. That's where the magic is, in those sessions and Russellbot.
That's interesting. I see you as clearly being an aquatic as you pull threads from so many things to create your own thing. Like, every conversation with you that I've had about how you think about story, and how you weave things together screams aquatic to me, but then again I do not interact with you nearly enough.
I’m an aquatic because I want to create a world where readers are fully immersed and crave more after visiting my website, etc. This aligns with my SCALE path because I often need collaborators to help me get there (or validate my crazy ideas so I can move forward).
Amazing!
I’m a Desert because I love looking at trends, writing to market, and aim to move fast. This aligns with my SCALE path because Arbiters are also tactics-focused and all about optimization.
At one point when I first heard about Author Ecosystems, I was leaning Savannah with the Grassland hybrid, but the more I've learned about Grassland, the less that feels like a good fit. I think I liked the idea of some of it (not the being front and center part but the steady/roots part).
I concur
I’m a Forest because relationships matter to me. Everything about Forest is me. This does not align with my Collaborator SCALE path but it is definitely right for me and what has worked best for me in the past. I’m excited to lean into it.
I think it's perfect for a Forest, especially if you collaborate with a Spotlighter who can get you reach.
I’m a Forest because networks and collaboration are mandatory when it comes to filmmaking and emotional resonance is the most critical aspect to draw producers, directors and actors to a project. This aligns with my Launcher SCALE path because I have to constantly create and introduce new projects while re-introducing older ones based on what the industry is seeking. The industry is based on trends, so something that gets passed over today may become relevant tomorrow. Plus, I'm now trying to launch a book component to create I.P. around my most noted work to date.
Amazing!