Exciting times ahead! The next stage of this newsletter and a brand new community
It’s been just about 18 months since we launched this Substack and our brand marketing agency, Bonfire, behind it. (We now speak to 800 of you weekly, if you can believe it.) We wanted an outlet for our always earnest, sometimes messy, sometimes vulnerable, hopefully thoughtful and informative reflections on being a creative person in a working world that can feel anything but creative. We wanted to a place to explore and encourage alternative relationships to our jobs and careers. Relationships that are softer, kinder, more intentional.
Beyond the how-to guides and editorial musings, it seems what you like most are those moments where we lay bare our personal and unresolved experiences—be it our relationship with creativity, work, jealousy, capitalism, or mental health. It’s been (truly, no exaggeration) a joy to receive your feedback, your reflections, your laughter, and no shortage of “Omg, ME TOO!” messages and comments in responses to our posts.
It’s that last category of reply that made us realize that there was something more to be mined here, an opportunity to foster better connections and conversations between so many of you who talk to us, but don’t have a way to talk to each other. (And you might be sick of hearing just from us!)
So here we are, giddily soft launching Campout, our online community for creative marketers and the creative curious.
What is Campout?
Campout is an online community hosted on a platform called Circle. It features regular events and new courses monthly, an always-growing template library, vetted job board, and more. It’s 100% designed to foster more of these "Hey, me too!" moments, but in a way that’s less broadcast from us and more clubhouse for you.
And you’re enthusiastically invited to join us!
How much does it cost?
You can get the full Campout experience for free for your first seven days.
Once you get a taste of what’s available, we have paid monthly and annual plans, starting at $30 per month that get you access to all the Campout goodies, like courses, templates, a job board, and even 1:1 coaching. If you’re interested in those, we’re giving you an early bird discount for being a newsletter subscriber: Use code NEWSLETTER-FRIEND for 50 percent off your first month.
You can get started here, completely for free, today.
If a paid Campout plan isn’t for you right now, no worries at all. We will be running quarterly free events and newsletter convos that are open to all.
Is this newsletter going away?
No way! This newsletter isn’t going anywhere, but its name will change to Around the Bonfire, and we’ll be merging it with Kevan’s personal newsletter (new friends!).
You'll still hear from us, Kevan and Shannon, but with some new formats and maybe a new voice or two joining the conversation occasionally. And while some big things are changing, its frequency won't; we’ll still be in your inbox every week.
Thank you for being part of our journey. And whether you join us over in Campout or not, we consider you part of our community.
Kumbaya,
Kevan & Shannon