👩🎨 Issue #13: It's Time to Start Creating
How to start building your digital brand from an expert, Erica Barry
💬 Welcome to issue #13 of Between the Lines
Happy Thursday, ya’ll! This week’s issue has an artsy bent, and we’re highlighting some stories of community members who are carving entrepreneurial, creative-first journeys. Check out our interview with Claremont’s newest future best times seller Erica Barry, the author of Don’t Wait, Create, and also learn more about some of the music, poetry, and acting that is coming out of Claremont. Enjoy! 🎶 🎬 🎨
My Best, Miles
👤 Community Member Spotlight: Erica Barry
by Josh Tatum & Miles Bird
Erica Barry is an entertainment industry professional, writer, and digital content creator. She studied economics and media studies at Pomona College, where she discovered her passion for media, entrepreneurship, and representation. She is fascinated with discovering new ways to bring important stories forward that would not otherwise be told. She’s worn many hats in her life, from Disneyland princess to management consulting.
When she’s not taking the creative world by storm, she’s celebrating the work of her fellow creators. When she realized that more mainstream creators were getting their starts on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, she went looking for a guidebook, only to find that there wasn’t one. Therefore, she set out to write her debut book, Don’t Wait, Create: How to Be A Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution.
Erica loves hiking Runyon Canyon, experimenting with new recipes, and catching up on the latest TikTok trends. She was able to spend some time with BTL and share some color on her recent book and career journey.
You just published and authored: Don’t Wait Create: How to be a Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution.” Tell us about your new book! Can you tell us about the book’s inception story?
I have been drawn to digital media since the early days of the Internet. This book explores the importance of digital content creation in today’s media and entertainment landscape, and provides practical and inspiring advice from successful content creators for anyone who wants to follow in their footsteps. In my opinion, it is critically important for aspiring content creators to understand how digital media is changing the industry.
During the pandemic, I noticed that the type of entertainment I was consuming rapidly changed.
Instead of watching a new series or going to the movie theater, which I used to do all the time, I was scrolling through TikTok for hours. Major studios weren’t able to make content anymore and celebrities seemed out of touch with the struggles many Americans were going through. There became this whole new market for alternative media and content. I really wanted to learn more about it, but realized that there hadn’t been a resource written about digital content creation. Thus, Don’t Wait, Create was born!
What is the best way for the community to be in touch and follow your work? And is there someone or something, in particular, you would be interested in having people reach out to you about?
You can find me on my website and on Instagram @eribarry. If you have any questions about writing a book, content creation, or just want to say hi, please shoot me an e-mail. Also, Don’t Wait, Create is available on Amazon and everywhere books are sold.
Read the full interview below! 👇
👩🎨🎸📝 Claremont Creators:
In light of the interview with Erica about her new book, and the inspiration we drew from reading it, we wanted to shine some light on Claremont Creators out there in the world who are pursuing entrepreneurship in unique ways! 🌏
1) First up, Iris Liu (CMC) left a role at BCG and is now producing a play in Hollywood. The play is opening on October 10th, and crowdfunding & ticketing info is here! 🎞 🎬
I couldn't be more excited to be a part of bringing live arts back to Hollywood. We have an incredible women-led team and stellar, predominantly Middle-Eastern cast. Our venue is non-traditional, outdoor, and quite epic: the back patio of restaurant "Wood & Vine" in the heart of Hollywood, right across the street from the Pantages.
This is a self-funded production and we are asking for tax-deductible donations of any size to help defray costs, as ticket sales will not cover costs completely. (I know, the management consultant in me is screaming, but hey, for the love of the art!).
2) Legendary alumnus Clancy Tripp (CMC) is officially a poet. She’s perhaps best known from her time on campus for founding The Golden Antlers, which is a very serious news publication. Check out her poem here on Black Warrior Review’s “Boyfriend Village!” ✍️ 📝
Clancy Tripp is a Midwest-based writer, graphic artist, and humorist. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Catapult, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, Slice, The Rumpus, and Reductress. She has won the 2020 Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction and the 2021 Witness Literary Award in Nonfiction. Find her on Twitter @TheUnrealTripp or online at www.ClancyTripp.com
3) When Jenson Tuomi (CMC) isn’t directing Business Development at Meriwether Group, he’s jamming out! He and his band Les Gold just launched their new music video for “Wahoo” and their new EP drops soon 🎧 🎸
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
by Josh Tatum
Nuro, a robotics start-up focused on autonomous delivery and backed by top VC firms (raised over $1.5 billion), has built an elite team and secured partnerships with national brands to launch its custom-built, zero-occupant vehicle, the R2. Dan Mitchell, who leads City and Community Engagement for Nuro got his start in Government Affairs at the Rose Institute. Claremont Colleges alumni interested in roles can reach out directly to Dan via email to learn more or just swap notes on the autonomous vehicle industry. Check out the positions they’re hiring for:
City Lead (Los Angeles) - Nuro is seeking an experienced Business & Operations leader to develop and oversee the day-to-day operations of one of our key early deployment regions. You will be Nuro’s go-to leader on the ground as we continue to execute on our R&D missions and as we launch new commercial partnerships. This is a high-impact role that demands great breadth and depth of team management, customer obsession, technical acumen, and determined execution.
With Rebilly, companies can harness the ultimate payment orchestration platform and future-proof all things payments with a single integration. Founded by serial entrepreneur and CMC grad, Adam Altman, Rebilly solves all kinds of payment problems for any business. Even better, they are hiring for numerous positions and want Claremont alumni:
Looking for your next move in the developer space? Look no further! Symbl.ai is an early-stage, venture-backed startup, backed by top investors that are democratizing access to conversational intelligence for developers. CRN recently chose Symbl as one of the top 10 hottest AI startups in 2021. The company’s founder, Surbhi Rathore, is a friend of Claremont and looking for her first Claremont hire:
Check out all the other 5,000+ open jobs at 400+ Claremont-founded companies here on our Storyboard!
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Check out the 30+ part-time roles
Over 750 remote jobs are available
180+ internships available at companies like Cruise, Cisco, & Samba TV
As always, if any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines! Or if you are an employer and are looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured!
🗣️ Conversations on the interwebz:
by Josh Tatum
This week’s top read 🔥
An incredible reminder from Ho Nam, HMC graduate and Managing Director at Altos Ventures. Check the rest of the thread for even more 🙌
Everything else you need to know….📖
Chad Thornton (PO) Head of Design at Airtable, giving some solid advice about how to simplify our lives 🤔
Building off of Chad’s simplifying advice, Yohei Nakajima (CMC graduate and GP at Untapped Capital) shares some thoughts on how to manage all the things that constantly tug at your energy and attention ⚡️
Education is as important as ever, especially because the last year+ all K-12 education has been on Zoom University. Sam is digging in and looking for some wisdom from the crowds 📚
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🤤 BTL Snacks:
You may not be able to get your favorites snacks at the Claremont dining halls anymore on the weekdays, but hopefully, these juicy tidbits from BTL will satisfy the hunger for now! 🍽️
📈 Leading digital medical company, Doximity, is booming….. Find out how Nate Gross’s (CMC) company stocks soared 49% in August
🧬 Abasi Ene-Obong’s (Keck) company, 54gene, just raised $25M….. And they did it with Claremont investors like Maya Horgan Famodu at Ingressive Capital
🎮 Playco just launched the first game on TikTok….. Check out how the PO founder, Michael Carter, and Co. have pulled it off and how they reached their unicorn status
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