Author: <span>betsyjmoyer</span>

Betsy Moyer The Blog

What I’m up to… in a nutshell?

Betsy Moyer

Besides growing out this mane of hair, the following is an email that I just sent for an introduction to what all I have going on. I didn’t even MENTION the crazy news that in the next week, a press release will be going out, to announce my role as President of leading custom furniture design, retail and manufacturing outfit, Jaxon Home.

 

Here’s a little ditty about what I’m into in my days since quitting KCRW a year ago, where I launched 10 blogs, brought our social fan base from around 30k to 400k in a short number of years, helped launch the KCRW MusicMine iPad & iPhone apps – as well as produced an underwhelming YouTube video series called The Cue.

Over the past year, my long time friend, fellow musicmaker, and new biz partner and I refined his santa monica search marketing agency into one that accommodates full service digital marketing ideation. We focus on organic growth tactics. His expertise in SEO is unparalleled, and I run around with my expertise in Social Media Marketing and talk to business owners, throwing out audacious ideas for content marketing until one makes enough sense and fits the budget well enough that it sticks.

We’re building some new websites for a couple of KCRW DJs, we’ve created digital campaigns for clients from an educational rapping puppet video series, to an online macaron baking contest for bloggers… We’ve also delved into a unique code set on Shopify that allows custom furniture makers to extend some really cool functionality to their online shoppers through Shopify – which is an easy and great platform for small biz owners. Additionally, I publish for several blogs, contribute to LA Magazine, Audio Muffin & The Estate of Things. The last pot that I have my hand in is another top secret app project, in development and currently seeking funding. I’m in charge of community, content organization, presentation and taxonomy.

I’m also often told that my emails are too long.

If it seems at all like I don’t have any focus, rest assured – I question it too. 🙂
The great thing is that I’m flexible as a consultant and I’m beginning to understand that new ideas just spawn other new ideas. So I’m happy to discuss any new project to see if there is any value to my involvement or any recommendations I can make.

Projects

Flyer Handout Design

A friend of mine runs a business that has something to do with Escrow. I’ll claim ignorance. I have an escrow account, but I don’t know what it does. Jon’s company wanted to help Angeleno’s carry their grocery load since LA banned single use plastic bags. Seems nice huh? They had some canvas grocery bags ordered, and this flyer will accompany them at an event.

Yay! Projects.

Impact Escrow Flyer

Career

Future Dreamin’

I have a dream that I call Seven Wanders.

One fine day, I want our vintage shasta camper fruits to function as a jobby, a hobby/job. As in, a revenue generator– that I LOVE!

Betsy Moyer Adventure Hat

When Jeff and I took a weekend trip up the coast for a little stay in a sleepy old craftsman style hotel near Ventura State Beach, I hatched this plan with him over oysters and a bloody mary.

We would set out to find and renovate old vintage campers and collect a fleet. He was interested in bringing in modern conveniences like wi-fi and gaming. I was interested in interior decor that felt homey and on trend. We dreamed up a couple of different themes and talked about the kind of people that we imagined might like to rent a camper and haul it away for a getaway here in Southern California.

Amazingly, we got home and he made it happen! I love the man for setting my dreams into motion.

Betsy Moyer Vintage Shasta Camper

So, the plan is to move forward with this dream starting first with one, to see if we can actually do the work. We’d like to park that hunk of metail up on piece of land in Topanga and work on it there. My guess is that it could take us sometime yet to really get moving on the land, but we’re always keeping an eye out for opportunities via Trulia. As far as I can tell though, he appears to be dead serious about all of it. I pinch me.

Betsy Moyer Seven Wanders vintage camper

There is also very seriously an east coast version of Seven Wanders brewing in the back of our minds… meaning we like to dream of getting a piece of land in NC too. I already have a shasta there, parked in my Dad’s driveway. I’d love the reason to come home often…

The land becomes sort of a home base for Seven Wanders in my mind, whether it merely serves us as our own family private campground and weekend getaway retreat, or if I can make it super cute and market it on AirBnB for a bit to see how we fair with the hospitality side of things…

Betsy Moyer Seven Wanders dreaming

The dream of launching “Seven Wanders” as a business – will mean we have created a getaway product for the modern gypsy soul. Whether that is an actual hospitality getaway, or a retail getaway remains to be defined.

I do love the hospitality angle! Come to Topanga and temporarily pretend to be a roving boheme hippie in our trailer?

The thought processes split a little bit here, b/c we have to either build out the amenities on a site or we could figure out vehicle rentals and map out really great weekend trips using sites like AirBnB or Outdoorsy.

It’s a bit fantasy land right now.

But we like to kick back and dream up themes for different trailers. I always talk about Stevie Nicks and Steve Jobs falling in love and taking off for a weekend camping trip, and Jeff talks about how to work the renovation to properly accommodate an Xbox One and a 5 gallon kegerator. As an added amenity with your week’s camping rental – get a keg of craft beer!

Betsy Moyer Seven Wander anywhere

I see it as a lifestyle that people would surely buy into… an experience.

It’s very “Southern California – don’t give a what, sunshiney, young, aesthetically inclined hipster” folks that wanna staycation/getaway from town for a weekend, or folks that wanna fly over from the east coast and get a taste of something that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Betsy Moyer Seven Wanders

It’s PCH w/ a flowy kimono, felt hat, fringe boots. Or, the sequoias in a caftan, with braids and modern moroccan lanterns hanging overhead. It’s pretending that you live in the era when hitchhiking was safe. It’s being in the camper that everyone in the campground wants to be in.

Betsy Moyer Seven Wanders kimono So Cal camping

Seven Wanders dreaming inevitably comes along with some retail…

That way, if there is anyone out there in the world that can’t make the trip, they can still buy the throw blanket, the floral 100% cotton sleeping sack, the solar powered moroccan lanterns, the teepee tent, the kimono even.

So… These are my dreams. What do you think? Do you want to play Seven Wanders with me? Would you come for a week and live the dream?

Career

Cancer

When I quit my job at KCRW, I felt a surge in support from tons of folks, from all walks of life. Family, friends, colleagues, even people that I’d never met yet felt a real friendship with through social media.

Thank you so much to all of you. It was such a rewarding time for taking a little soul searching dig.

I had this feeling somewhere within, that despite my love for KCRW and the “dream job” that it was – my home life was becoming more and more important. My friends and loved ones supported me as I came home daily, consumed with work goals and bad days, unable to focus attention on little else beyond work challenges. I’d all but abandoned myself in the way of hobby/passion projects that once brought me great joy. (The Estate of Things & VintageShastaCamper.com for example)

In retrospect, it was so insanely and perfectly timed for what fate had in store, that it boggles my mind.

Just two months after leaving KCRW, I was settling myself into my new gigs… contributor to LA Magazines’s Style blog, The Clutch – and more consumingly, the Creative Director for OnClick Marketing Group.

Then, the dude got sick, and what we thought was the flu, turned out to be something so much scarier. By now, almost a full month in, he’s just finishing up round two of chemotherapy to treat a cancer called Burkitt Lymphoma. It’s not a very common thing and please, don’t Google it – cause it looks so much worse than the particular shape that he is in. He’s a champ and he is responding really amazingly well. He’s acing all of his tests.

I am renewed. I feel grateful for almost everything life has to offer! Grateful that I got myself out of the 9-5 desk job and into a new adventure that could accommodate this crazy life change without too terrible a disruption. Grateful that I was working from home the morning that he fell from illness.

Whenever my moment came around at KCRW, the one where I decided that my life outside of work was important enough to me to take that leap and leave, and see what would be next….. well obviously I would have never expected this. But I guess there was some crazy cosmic juju thing going on, and it’s as if it just all makes sense now – it fell into place just perfectly so that we would be prepared to take this head on and have our situations optimized for his recovery.

So, that is where we are for the time being. We will still keep our eye on the long game goals, renovating the Vintage Shasta Camper, building on the successes of the OnClick Marketing business, weighing my time with a healthy dose of attention toward passion projects, and as for the short game… We’ll focus on getting the dude back on his feet.

Thanks again to all of you for your continued interest in what is going on!

 

 

Career

It’s Official. Betsy Moyer, Creative Director for OnClick Marketing

It was fun while it lasted, setting up my home office, pouring over all of my hobby blogs as if it was my full-time job! But the party is over! And I am employed.

 

 

nobslegitseo

 

Taking time to do the soul searching what’s next stuff was good for me, and it’s hard to believe that it’s over. But,  y’all, I’m really excited for what is to come! I’ve officially accepted an offer from OnClick Marketing Group to join the team as the Creative Director. Essentially this means working hand in hand with the founders to lead the team through all client marketing strategies, to ensure consistent and quality creative output. OnClick’s portfolio consists of some really exciting companies across several of my favorite niches! In fact, right now – I’m writing from a showroom desk on the floor of Helm’s Bakery’s JAXON Home. If that isn’t right up my alley, I don’t know what is!

Head on over to the OnClick site to see what it’s all about, but you can bet that one of the first projects that I’ll be working on, is our own digital content strategy. Soon enough we’ll have a beautiful showcase of all of the work this fantastic creative organization has already produced…. Content like these super sweet and sassy Student Loan RAP videos that help educate graduates how to consolidate student loan debt.

 

Music that I love

The Luxembourg Signal

practice

I’ve most often passed on public karaoke but I’ve ALWAYS sat there watching others, longing to be the one singing that song, or racking my brain for the tune that I could nail, if only I had the guts.

Somehow or another I have ended up with friends who have invited me to voice some back up here or there and I’ve even performed on a published EP and on stage all but TWO times for a brief and seemingly promising (but now defunct) project called Barbara. Now I’ve landed myself front of stage with a bandful of incredible talent, to sing 7 songs at The Satellite in Silverlake, Los Angeles. NBD…… just jumped from – afraid to karaoke to LEAD SINGER ROCK STAR.

On this day, the day of the show… I’m pretty emotionally spent. I’m so tired that I can’t even cognitively deal with the reality that 12 hours from now, these past few months of work will have been for a moment that is past. I feel a bit weak and terribly mentally ill. Nonetheless, we are made better by pushing ourselves into our wildest dreams.

betsy moyer the luxembourg signal

Speaking Gigs

NPR Leadership Conference

So this happened. The fine folks of NPR gathered with us at the NPR headquarters in Culver City last week to embark upon an 11 week training course for member stations from all over the country. Conversation centered around remaining relevant as digital changes the media landscape. The training is intrinsically pretty news-centric since that is what most stations are focused on. We certainly have plenty room for growth in digital around that area of our programming.

We felt like the big kids in the room at some points, but I found a way to get excited about this initiative — encouraging me to focus some time and effort on communication and education with folks at the station about the potential impact we can make as an organization if we  focus on HOW to think about creating content for the web. Work is suddenly more and more about teaching people to fish……… or teaching the horse to drink the water, or whatever idiom I can slay.

The organizers of this event invited me to fill up an hour slot after lunch talking about KCRW’s “identity” in the digital space, which I was happy enough to do, but definitely did not have time to prepare for. Luckily, they were super casual and let it unravel as a more candid conversation than an official presentation with a well appointed slide deck and pictures of cats.

I appreciated the opportunity very much s0, and am happy to put another public speaking notch on my belt. Thanks NPR.

Music that I love

New Fav: Reptar

Much gratitude to WeListenForYou who prompted me over to the MySpace page of Athens band, REPTAR on Monday. In the tradition of virality I now karmically pass this new discovery on to you. And because I LOVE our digital age, I emailed Poof and the boys for some info and permission to provide you with some tunes. Seriously, they are so very charming. Both signed their responses with love and let it suffice to say that the tone was more than humorous. “Of course wed love to get you some of our music! duh gurrrrllll!”

Friday night would be on the top 10 list of favorite nights ever if I could walk to Central here in Santa Monica & catch these guys playing. Maybe some day! The music is so undeniably appealing and fun that I can only imagine being present for their raucous dancepants. If you like Animal Collective and MGMT, or the recent ditties by The Naked and Famous don’t even bother asking yourself if you will like Reptar!? ***duh gurrrrllll!

I want to tell ya to relax and just enjoy the sounds for their FUN DANCEABLITY. However, its became evident by the repeat play and the girlish way that I daydreamt that Context Clues was not a song, but the script based on our love story typed out by a vintage typewriter and delivered to my home that they are songwriters TOO  songwriters that don’t know where I live or where I make romance!

So.. here’s the scoop. the Athens, GA quartet is a buncha younguns, college kids that must be spending a ton of time on the road convening between schools from Asheville to Atlanta, and playing gigs from Atlanta house parties to SXSW to Raleigh. 2 released singles (available on iTunes) and the forthcoming EP were produced by Ben H. Allen, who has worked with Animal Collective, Deerhunter, The Whigs, Matt & Kim, & Gnarls Barkley.  If that isn’t a sign of faith in the talent and the future success of this band, then you can just take my endorsement. ;)

OR hit play below and decide for yourself! I can’t wait to hear what you think!

Reptar: Context Clues

Reptar: Houseboat Babies
If you were lookin for a new anthem, this is it. It’s The Curish and would make the perfect soundtrack to a Brat Pack revival movie scene about young hipsters sexting in dark bars and smoking Williamsburg Camels.

Reptar: Canabbis Canyon

Reptar on Facebook

Reptar on MySpace