instacart delivery is for geniuses
and the next white noise maker book club pick
One thing I’ve learned about doing Instacart deliveries in LA is you cannot, cannot, cannot be looking or feeling bummy. You’ve got to have a little bit of a lurk going on, and clean hair, and perfume, something that says “I can’t believe I interrupted my day of Being Cool to bring you this gallon of whole milk in a weird glass bottle.”
Something that says, “I don’t know why you need me to personally hand you this bag of grapes instead of leaving it at your door, Tricia, but OK.”
Something that says, “I’m only doing this until I Become a Star!”
Because otherwise, there you are, walking around La Cañada Flintridge High School, wondering if you can get in trouble for skulking around, texting Kymmy about where the hell you’re supposed to deliver the fake eyelashes she ordered. Which makes for a great story—literally, I think I told it to every single person I visited when I was back home in Pittsburgh for a visit. But like many great stories, when it’s actually happening, you feel kind of weird and small and squishy.
But then again. Then again! Knowing things is power. And knowing what people eat is a power of especially intimate vintage. They eat it. They put it in their bodies. It briefly becomes them, and then they shit it out. These rich people with gates and circular driveways and entry codes you have to punch in, they eat the cheapest, saddest bread. They want bananas “with no brown spots please.” My god, do they know what is going to happen to these bananas in two days’ time? Do they think they can outrun aging by scolding you, a stranger connected to them in an app, for giving them one banana out of 29 with a brown spot on it? (This really happened. A woman cut my tip after delivery because of one banana with a brown mark on it.) There is an obvious power differential here. But information is another form of exchange. And if you want to keep it that way, you have to look foxy when you make your InstaCart deliveries.
It’s spy vs. spy out there.
In other news, I’ve chosen the next book for the white noise maker book club: Be the Gateway by Dan Blank.
I feel too restless/haven’t read enough yet to do a summary of this book in my own words, so here’s some ad copy:
“Many people feel the drive to do creative work, but get overwhelmed by the process of connecting with an audience. They follow ‘best practices’ in marketing that never seem to pan out, don't produce results, and make them feel lost and oftentimes, frustrated. Be the Gateway offers a powerful way to have an impact.
If you want to share your voice and inspire people with your writing, art, craft, or creative idea, you have to be the gateway for them. Instead of throwing ‘products’ out into the marketplace, you open them up to a new way of looking at the world, of knowing themselves, and connecting with others. You unlock new experiences for them—not just through what you create, but through the unique way in which you share it with the world.
Too often we think about the creative process as being separate from the marketing process. Instead, view them as the same. Replace the inclination to ‘promote’ with the desire to share and engage. How and why you create is a story—and is the best asset you can use to truly engage people. Be the Gateway shows you how to use that gift with joy and confidence.”
This book kind of comes out of left field; I don’t remember where I first encountered it, but it wasn’t via the typical matrix of creativity/process books. It feels (or looks, anyway) a little more corporate than the usual titles that writers approach and discuss on this topic. But I like this idea of seeing marketing as an extension of the creative process, and I am eager for another context in which to workshop these ideas. Plus, I’ve been obsessed with Taylor Swift’s creation of a nearly Q-Anon-level fandom and Charli XCX’s use of unreleased tracks to give herself freedom from promotion, which becomes its own tactic, and I consider both of these highly successful strategies to be congruent with this idea of the making becoming the marketing.
Sounds chewy, right? More soon.
Thanks for stopping by! It’s good to see you. You look great. <3