Repetition, repetition, repetition, oh yeah, uh-huh, repetition!

how to use repetition to build confidence and strengthen your brand awareness and connection with your community (also tipping drag artists, also Ravenous Tales)

Top 3 Hot Topics for Today:

1. Get Your Reps in, Babes

2. Tip Your Drag Artists!

3. Ravenous Tales & The Wretched Harvest

Topic 1 - Get Your Reps in, Babes

For as much as I lift, it took me a minute to realize that “reps” in the gym stood for repetition lol… and I wish that was a joke but you know how you say something so much it doesn’t sound like what it is anymore? “sets and reps, sets and reps, sets and reps”… anyways, sorry for rambling! Here are some flexing pics of me and my hot partner Joe as an apology gift! (lmao)

#YourFriendlyLocalMeatball

In the gym, or in athletics, you do reps over and over in order build or maintain muscle strength and endurance. Mechanically, running through reps of running routes in American football as a receiver, going through reps of your 8-counts as a dancer, you’re going through the motions in a controlled setting so that when you perform, it will hopefully come second nature, even when things like a defense or an audience is a variable factor.

You might be thinking to yourself “wtf is all this sports talk, Danny?!” and it’s me making an attempt at a metaphor (also, if you didn’t know, my past career before I worked in gaming was in Public Health, fitness, and corporate wellness)! Whether you’re lifting, or dancing, or writing, or creating a presence in a digital space, the more you do it, the more you’ll learn about your own habits and strengths. These repeated actions or behaviors (repetitions) build a solid foundation so that when you act upon it, you feel comfy in the space and are able to regulate any opposition that comes your way.

Once you get YOUR reps in and you start feeling stronger in who you are, your values, what your POV is online, etc, you can start using the idea of repetition in how you deliver your content towards your audience to start building a bridge so that they can start connecting and relating phrases or aspects of your content to YOU.

My personal favorite, low lift (pun intended) ways that I’ve added value to “my brand” by using repetition is having a phrase and go-to verbiage that I can use across my platforms that help describe my brand and who I am in my digital space.

Here are some examples:

• “Hey y’all, it’s Danny”

  • Even though 99% of my followers know that I’m Danny, I still use with this in TikTok videos, in social copy, in introductions/sign offs on live streams etc. It’s comfortable, it’s cozy, it’s humble, it might show someone I’m from the south with my use of “y’all” - there’s a lot of benefits in a short 4 word phrase.

    • Action item: Create a catchphrase for yourself. Keep it short, keep it sweet, keep it catchy and try out a few different things. Say it out loud repetitively. Be mindful of how it rolls off the tongue, how you feel when you say it etc. It can be an introduction, an outro, something that conveys your talking points/content/niche etc. Write 1-3 of these short phrases and try them out in some content going forward for the next month or so and then revisit them as you see fit.

• #YourFriendlyLocalMeatball + these emojis 💪🏼🥩

  • Part of how I take up space IRL and online is being “Your Friendly Local Meatball”. Thinking of “my brand”, the goal is to be welcoming, invite folks in, and break down the ideals of toxic masculinity. Particularly in posts that I post about lifting/body image/flexing selfies etc, I’ll hashtag this. I don’t hashtag in the idea of trying to “trend” this hashtag but it serves its function: it allows folks to find more posts that are similar to these (or conversely mute posts if they don’t care to follow that). Visually with the emojis, the combo helps distinguish me from other posts over time if folks can relate 💪🏼🥩 to me, being a friendly local meatball.

    • Action item: Create a hashtag for yourself or a topic/aspect about yourself or your niche that relates to you + 1 or 2 emojis that could represent it. If you feel lost, start with tying it to alliteration of a day of the week + a topic like #MeatballMondays 🍝 and maybe every monday you post about meatballs, or meaty men (lol). Start using this as consistent, repetitive way to talk about a specific topic. After a month or so, reassess how it felt, how the posts performed, and if you need to keep going or change it up.

• The Internet’s Emotional Support Himbo

  • If I had to describe myself digitally, it would be this. If we were being technical and “Danny Quach” was a product, it’s a large of my brand voice and UVP (Unique Value Proposition - we will probably talk about this in a future post!) and if I had slogans, I would pull from this idea. The repetition here goes into putting it in bio’s if folks ask for it in specific projects or in my bio’s across my social profiles if it makes sense.

    • Action item: Write a concise 1 sentence about who you are, or what your goals are, or what your project is. Being concise and specific and direct is a skill in and of itself and full agencies get hired to do this for companies, so do NOT feel defeated if this one is a toughie. Write a super long run on sentence and try to pear it down or iterate on that over and over til it feels correct. Don’t delete the longer ones; leave them up and come back to them, split off from them and keep pulling from these. This is a great exercise to help think about your missions or goals in a digital space and something to rely on if you’re looking things like your own values or the values of the community you’re trying to build.

The goal of these action items is to try and add tools to your tool belt that you can rely on over time, to make help guide decisions on content to create or something you can fall back on if you ever feel stuck. Let me know if you do one or all of these, if you want any feedback, and how easy or hard it was for you to do it. Remember, you can repeat, iterate, and reiterate on the same idea so do not get caught up in trying to make a “perfect” introduction or hashtag or phrase. And even if you don’t use these, it’s still a great way to “get your reps in” to get to a better of idea of your digital presence.

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Topic 2 - Tip Your Drag Artists!

The topic is really the call to action here: TIP. YOUR. DRAG. ARTISTS!

Follow their instagrams: Coco Cavalli, Beatrixx Oddity, Blush, OTR Wednesdays

Shout out to OTR (Off the Record) Wednesday's at the Renaissance Theatre in Orlando FL for providing space for drag entertainers. From left to right: Coco Cavalli, Beatrixx Oddity, Blush

Especially in today’s political and social climate, this is an easy way to support the queer community and drag as an art form and entertainment medium. And listen, I get it, for you, it might be a “in this economy?!” type moment where money is TOIGHT like a TOIGA but do your best and prioritize tipping your queens and kings if you’re going to their shows. Specifically to the Orlando drag scene, we have a brilliant and supportive trans drag community and that’s even more incentive to support these artists!

I’ll call this out too: Tip ALL of your drag artists, not just the headliner. Local queens are the heartbeat of the community. Even if you’re super excited to go see someone you’ve seen on TV, please, please, PLEASE give money to your local artists as well! Even a $1 makes a difference! A $5 is better and girlies if you head up to the $20 tips, you’ll make the drag artist’s night.

An easy way to frame it is this: if you go out to eat or out to the movie, you’ll be spending $10-$20 easily. Take that money, break it into $1’s (a reminder that if you’re drinking, tip your bartenders too!), and tip those queens! Some reminders if you’ve never been before:

• DO NOT use the tip as “bait”, please. You look silly and you’re making it harder for the queen to perform.

• DO fold it length wise, and get it close enough to the stage so they can grab it without having to almost fall off.

• DO NOT try to stuff it down their garments (unless invited).

• DO engage if they engage with you!

• DO NOT TOUCH the queen inappropriately. This includes grabbing, kissing, poking, reaching for their hair/props.

• DO yell and hype them up and feed them the energy they’re giving you!

Let me know if you’ve been to a drag show before, if you have a favorite venue in your home town, and who your favorite drag queen/king/artist is!

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Topic 3 - Ravenous Tales & The Wretched Harvest

The last topic is pretty much just me gushing about my friends and how amazing they are as performers, as creators, as people. If you don’t know Raven aka previously “Rek it Raven” aka the current RavenousTales then you may be new to this space because she’s phenomenal. Raven is a powerhouse of a creator, a Twitch partner, and absolutely brilliant storyteller. They put together an actual play called The Wretched Harvest (VODs are up on YouTube - catch up now!) which is a Victorian Horror campaign that airs Tuesday nights at 8pm ET. I’m lucky enough to be part of this cast and I’m ecstatic to be able to play and perform with this group. If you have a couple extra coins in your pocket, here’s a link that you can put them towards to support the cast and production!

Feel free to check out this cast apart from the show as well because they’re brilliant humans that are worth the follow:

• Jay aka Swole Initiative, our wretched DM for this campaign

• Austin aka Sailor Scout Austin, playing Demios (Kalashtar Barbarian Monk)

• Joy aka Sensitive Joy, playing Olga Marz (Dhampir Soulknife Rogue)

• Nick aka Diction, playing Chezz Farblood (Half-elf Street Fighter)

• Raven aka RavenousTales, playing Dr. Azjah Navec (Tiefling Plague Doctor)

• And ME! Danny aka Br00TaL DAN, playing Trix Bloodlust (Drow Warlock)

All of the character art/3D models/poster you see was made by Sin! You should give them money and support queer, indigenous artists, and consider hiring them for your next TTRPG project!

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And that’s it for this one, y’all! As always thank you for letting me into your inbox and onto your screens. Let me know if you did any of the action items, go to any drag shows, or watched any of The Wretched Harvest!

TTFN (Ta-Ta For Now) !

Stay strong. Stay thicc. *Big hug*