Melissa's Journey: From Zine Creation to Writing

LARPing

• {00:04:06} - “The first time I published a zine was in 2015 and I was at a point of my editorial life where I really wanted to have ownership over my work, and I wanted to publish articles that were long-form and a little bit more thought-provoking.” - Melissa
• {00:06:21} - “Your way out of algo chasing was to do something on your own and do it printed. Physical format is the way to free yourself from the algo because no algo beats handing out your zine to people.” - Brian
• {00:12:52} - “Lovers and Outlaws really explores how our relationship status is and how we buy things, consume things, and choose products are interconnected and really it gets into modern marketing and also the five stages of consumerism, which are need for recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation.” - Melissa
• {00:14:26} - “There are a lot of parallels between the way that we're shopping for products and how that informs the way that we shop for relationships today because they both come through the same device. And so the way you buy and the way that you consider purchases is very physically adjacent and maybe even mentally adjacent to the same device that you use to shop for and pursue a love interest as well.” - Phillip
• {00:23:09} - “They say build products that you want to use and also build products that actually solve a problem. So being a writer for over ten years, I knew that there were outdated content management systems, there were outdated payment systems, and also outdated data storage. And I know that for a lot of writers, it's really hard to build a community, especially if you're freelancing and you don't really have the means to maybe start a newsletter list or continue to get recognition over your work. So I wanted to build a product that was totally decentralized for me as a writer.” - Melissa
• {00:29:31} - “What I think we do differently at Future Commerce is we're reporting on our view of the world, and we have a lot of principles around that. I think that what you buy and where you buy it is shaped by who you are and who you're around. And I think you're exploring a totally different aspect of that through this concept of love, sex, dating.” - Phillip

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Melissa Henderson and The Violet Verse
• Grab your copy of The Multiplayer Brand here
• Meet us at eTail Boston 2023
• Check out The Edge Summit from Bloomreach
• Have you checked out our YouTube channel yet?
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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