Episode 3: Building Creative Community with Kayla Hollatz

Join us for this episode of Chasing Creative as we talk with creative community builder Kayla Hollatz! Kayla is a PR and social media professional by day and a creative coach, community builder, short-form poet, and host of the Twitter chat #createlounge by night. Listen in as we talk about investing in your audience to build an authentic community, finding the courage to launch your creative projects, and fighting off online overconsumption.
Here’s where to find Kayla
Website: www.kaylahollatz.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kayla_hollatz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaylahollatz/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kaylahollatz/
Periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/kayla_hollatz
Grab Kayla’s poetry collection, Brave Little Bones!
Don’t forget to stop in at #CreateLounge on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. CT!
Here’s where to find Ashley
Website: www.BrooksEditorial.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brookseditorial
Instagram: http://instagram.com/brookseditorial
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/brookseditorial
Here’s where to find Abbigail
Website: www.InkwellsandImages.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbigailekriebs
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abbigailekriebs/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inkwellsandimages/
Quotes

“Remember how important it is to keep chasing that creative work,
because we need it.” Kayla
“The people I’m investing in are going to come along with me because I
care about them.” Kayla
“The only way that you’re going to build loyalty is by building trust,
and the only way that you’re going to build trust is by giving value.
That value is going to show that you’re really keeping your community
in mind and you’re creating content for them.” Kayla
“Everybody has something that they can bring to the table that no one
else can. Nobody else is going to be able to do exactly what you do
and bring your perspective and experience to your creative work.”
Kayla
On silencing that critical voice that says you have nothing to offer:
“The best way to silence that is by not only creating what you do but
launching that creative work.”
“What you do and what you launch is going to inspire other people.”
Kayla
On passion projects: “Just get started on it, fall in love with it,
and launch it.” Kayla
“There’s room to have passion projects that you hold dear to you that
nobody else necessarily has to see, but it can still have value to
you, and that makes it still valuable of your time and effort.” Kayla
“Just because you’re not putting something out there for likes or
tweets or to sell doesn’t mean that it’s not worth going after in your
own time.” Ashley
“It’s just so important to keep going after what you’re passionate
about. Even if it’s something different from what you do
professionally, I really believe it will still help you professionally
because it’s going to flex those creative muscles and make sure you’re
always looking at things in a different way.” Kayla
“I think everything you do influences the other parts of your life. I
don’t think you can separate your creative self from your ‘real life’
self.” Abbigail
“Part of what we have to do as creative people is make time to honor
that little part of the self that wants to create, that wants to do
something just for the sake of doing something.” Abbigail
“It’s worth fighting the feeling that creative work isn’t worth your
time because what you’re doing is really worthwhile, even if you can’t
see it or measure it.” Ashley
“The numbers may feel good and make you feel warm and fuzzy for a
little bit, but what’s going to make you feel so, so fulfilled online
is having a group of people that are likeminded who are rallying
around you and who support just about everything you do.” Kayla
“When you’re investing your time in your people, they’re going to
invest back in you.” Kayla
“As much as we can talk about connection, there’s also the sad reality
that we all do, in some way shape or form, have to make
money---hopefully doing what we love. Having a community that’s set up
to respond well to your product is going to have those people become
not only loyal community members but also loyal community members that
convert when you do offer new products or launch something new.”
Abbigail
“Give yourself the excuse to play around, have some conversations, and
see where you enjoy being and where your audience enjoys being. That’s
when you can start to make those one-on-one connections and have them
go from just an audience member to a community member.” Kayla
“I think when overconsumption happens, that’s our cue to shift
ourselves from consuming a lot of content to creating more content.”
Kayla
“You can’t invest well into your community if you’re not investing in
yourself as well.” Kayla
“Anytime we start to second-guess something, we want to take some time
to make sure we’re moving in the right direction.” Kayla
“None of us can be at 110% at all times. It can feel like everyone
else online has it all figured out, but none of us really do. We’re
all just trying to do the best we can with the energy we have.” Kayla
“Make awesome things.” Kayla
“As long as we make sure that we’re always making room for creativity,
that’s going to make room for everything else that we hold really dear
to us.” Kayla
“Writing short-form can help anyone who wants to improve their
long-form writing.” Ashley

Mini Book Club
The Anatomy of Being by Shinji Moon
Spoken word poetry by Sierra DeMulder: http://www.sierrademulder.com/
Reading Novalis in Montana by Melissa Kwasny
Online poet John Blase: www.thebeautifuldue.com