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Writer's pictureThomas Fox

This is the smallest

... typeface that I’ve ever used in a team email. I know, impressive. It’s supposed to distract you from how long the whole email is. How long is it? It’s so long I’m going to give you an advance summary because even if (who am I kidding, when) you don’t read all of this, I’d REALLY like you to retain some of this information.


Here it goes. Enclosed here: - 3 Big Changes, for me and for CreativeMornings - An Umbrella Brand, - A Subscription membership, Patreon - A micro-grant program. - Welcome New Partners! - Looking for New Partners! - This Month, and Looking Ahead! _________________________________________ Finally, An Umbrella. I’m frequently asked, “What do you do outside of CreativeMornings, it seems like this is a full-time job.” The answer is that I lead a disjointed amount of pursuits in marketing, advertising, and arts promotion, I don’t frequently know what I’m doing, it’s scary and - I love it. I am going through some change though, like everyone, always, and I'm looking to grow into something new. Specifically, I’d like to stop separating my “work" buckets and support all of the art, music, business, and culture that I can wrap my heart around under one banner. I’ve been searching for a phrase to represent the unifying themes of CreativeMornings, of Agumboot Music Festival, my previous projects Bad Racket Recording Studio, Brite Winter Festival, and even all of the hard skill-based work I’ve done for marketing, advertising, and public relations clients over the last 10 years. In each project, I’ve always kept a guiding principle to contribute to a culture that looks outside of the success of me as an individual, or my individual organization, to cultivate a community that is rooting for each other in a mindset of abundance - because our lives are collectively better when each of us is able to put our best into the world. In each project, I’ve worked to change the perspective on things we might not typically care for… like the grey skies of my home Cleveland, Ohio, anything is as grey or great as you decide to make it. To me, this collective outlook feels summed up in the phrase That’s Greyt Culture, and so, that’s what it is called. Going forward any of the arts programs I work on, including CMCLE, I plan to identify as produced by GREYT CULTURE and promote on the web, matter of factly from thatsgreyt.com. For CreativeMornings/ Cleveland this changes almost nothing about the program other than there will now be an organization behind the production that I can work to build and over time produce better and better programs with/for this community. You’ll have questions. Send them, meet me for coffee, call me. I’m here and I’m an open book, working my damndest to make the most of the time I’ve got simply because “The way we spend our days, is how we spend our lives.” Patreon. Emilie Unkrich told me that I mentioned this “Half-assedly” last month. It’s true. It was half-assed. I wasn’t ready to announce it yet, I’m still not and need to produce a video, but I should have done this a long time ago and need to get started. The in-kind value of CreativeMornings is easily over $30k/year without including the time to organize…To make a free program like this keep happening I really need an on-going support structure, it’s just that nobody told me how to do it! I’m sorry, and going forward I believe setting up an easy membership is going to be the best way to keep CreativeMornings going and growing. Patreon is a membership platform to support creators on the internet, but there’s nothing that says that we can’t use it to make something in real life, like CreativeMornings. I like it because It’s simple to opt-in/out - subscribe or unsubscribe at any time, and mostly what we’re asking for is for guests to cover the cost of their breakfast and coffee if they want to. I’ve done a fair amount of calls and conversations with people leading to now and this is where things currently sit. Rewards are cumulative. This is all up at Patreon.com/join/CMCLE - if you have feedback please tell me.

$8/mo Golden Ticket.

-Guaranteed Entry Even When “Sold Out”


$20/mo Team

- Receive Behind The Scenes Team Email. Get early event notice and help contribute to the program


$48/mo Golden Group Ticket

- Guaranteed Entry For your company even when “Sold Out” (7 Tickets ) - Company recognized for support in the print program.


$248/mo Partners - Align mission with CreativeMornings - Logo & link in all chapter email newsletters - Company logo, link, and description on each event listing on CreativeMornings.com - Company logo and description in each event print program - Logo and link in all tickets emailed to the community. - Listed in social media events - Combined Digital Marketing Reach up to 25k/mo across all Channels


$840/mo Golden Partners

- Onsite booth space at monthly events for brand activation

Before You Ask. No, You do not have to subscribe to the team to stay on this thread and help put events on. The team level is there because I frequently hear that people would like to support but don’t have the time. For this circumstance, a little money helps a ton, and It makes sense to provide all of the planning resources assembled to valued community members so they can help if they do have time. MicroGrants. I'm considering setting up a Patreon level called the Monday Fund. It’s $78/mo. The $30 over and above the golden group ticket level goes into a fund to support projects from the community. We’ll solicit pitches for projects at CreativeMornings, members of the fund will meet the first Monday of the month to review pitches submitted and vote on the winning idea. (An Album, an art project, a garden, a website, a concert, a mural, a film… anything that people want to make.) I’d like to do this for two reasons: 1. I’d like to include higher levels of the business community in CreativeMornings that I have so far been mostly unable to get to participate. This is a more exclusive format and at a time that is traditionally suitable for “networking” activity, which from conversations I’ve had should help to get buy-in. 2. While setting up a membership fund through Patreon to support CreativeMornings events, I’d like to support the community with more than words and connection - by giving small amounts of money between $500-1000 to truly foster an exponential amount of projects to come forth. As Bob Ruggeri said at CMCLE… “Some of the Most Beautiful Art is Just Floating Around in People’s Heads” - How much richer would we be, if more of our community’s art was able to find its way out into the world. This is called the Monday Fund. It’s very much unready to be announced and I need your feedback. I need your suggestions of potential members. New Partners! Copied here, Starting next month as the first-ever CreativeMornings partner through Patreon will be Dollar Bank. Amira and Colleen from Dollar Bank have been coming to CreativeMornings for many months and I’m excited to introduce them to everyone next week. Looking for A New Print Partner! As you may know, Nadia is no longer at Jakprints and the company is focusing on digital marketing efforts, and thus not sponsoring community programs like CreativeMornings. I’m so grateful for the 2 years we were able to work together and now looking forward to including another great Cleveland company in CreativeMornings events. Greg Patt, is a friend, former owner of Orange Blossom Press and has agreed to help us this month… starting in May there is an opportunity to take over all the print for CreativeMornings' Designer and Community features. If you have any leads, let me know! Thanks for reading my novel. -T Fox _____________________ Looking Ahead! Team Members: Please Review Below. If Something is open Claim it! If something is wrong, tell me! If something is missing. Tell me! I’m hoping to have music booked for next week today. If you’d like to see things we’ve considered you can see ALL of the Speakers, Venues, Musicians, Culinary Partners, Illustrators, and more for CreativeMornings over 4 years on our google planning doc. APRIL DATE: 4/19/19 THEME: INCLUSIVE SPEAKER: - Jenice Contreras, Hispanic Business Center VENUE: Cleveland Public Library, Carnegie South Branch BREAKFAST: Shawnda Moye BREAKFAST FEATURE: Hungry Bear Waffle Bar COFFEE: Molly Farris, Phoenix PROGRAM SETUP: Jessica Will PHOTOS: Katie Dike VIDEO: Jay Hovanec PODCAST TEAM: David Allen Moss, Dave Douglas LIVE TWEETING: Kate Eidam MUSIC FEATURE: QUOTE DESIGNER FEATURE: Kate Hardy ESPRESSO PITCH: ESPRESSO PITCH 2: ESPRESSO PITCH 3: CHECKIN: Joon-li, Stacie Gerrity, ?? AV: Thomas A. Fox SETUP: MAY DATE: 5/17/19 THEME: PRESERVE SPEAKER: - Ann Klotz, Laurel School VENUE: Western Reserve Historical Society BREAKFAST: Shawnda Moye BREAKFAST FEATURE: COFFEE: Molly Farris, Phoenix PROGRAM SETUP: Jessica Will PHOTOS: Katie Dike VIDEO: Jay Hovanec PODCAST TEAM: David Allen Moss, Dave Douglas LIVE TWEETING: Kate Eidam MUSIC FEATURE: QUOTE DESIGNER FEATURE: ESPRESSO PITCH: ESPRESSO PITCH 2: ESPRESSO PITCH 3: CHECKIN: Joon-li, Stacie Gerrity, ?? AV: Thomas A. Fox SETUP: JUNE DATE: 6/21/19 THEME: WONDER SPEAKER: - Stormy Sweitzer, Case Western Weatherhead School of Business PHD Candidate VENUE: BREAKFAST: Shawnda Moye BREAKFAST FEATURE: COFFEE: Molly Farris, Phoenix PROGRAM SETUP: Jessica Will PHOTOS: Katie Dike VIDEO: Jay Hovanec PODCAST TEAM: David Allen Moss, Dave Douglas LIVE TWEETING: Kate Eidam MUSIC FEATURE: QUOTE DESIGNER FEATURE: ESPRESSO PITCH: ESPRESSO PITCH 2: ESPRESSO PITCH 3: CHECKIN: Joon-li, Stacie Gerrity, ?? AV: Thomas A. Fox SETUP:

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