I had a bit of a revelation sitting in church this morning. It wasn't necessarily about anything related to church, whoops, but it was very interesting. I had the realization that although I am a master at list making, I am horrible at completing the tasks I put on my lists! In fact, I probably spend more time working on lists than I actually do completing them.

I can already hear my mother expressing loudly (all the way from Michigan) “I've told her this her entire life!”. And man can I already feel Dustin's eyes rolling to the back of his head as he has mentioned probably a million times in the last month that “if you make another flipping list, I swear!”. Needless to say, I may have a slight problem with lists.

Between my caffeine addiction (2-3 coffees a day), my list making addiction and my inability to stay on task without Netflix in the background (which spoiler alert, doesn't actually help) – I've kind of been operating at a lower level of productivity than I actually should be at. I'm also, if I haven't mentioned before, the queen of procrastination.

For instance, I'm about to hop on a call with the lovely Patrícia for the next Merge Podcast episode and I have yet to write the script. Rather, I am here writing about how terrible I am at procrastination!

In high school I was really good about planning and following through. I was that girl who had her project done three days in advance, but then would decide to add an elaborate part to it and then would be up until 2 in the morning the night before it was due, simply for extra credit. Anyone else?!

I know, I know, I can hear the crickets.

I know, most people aren't like that, but that's just how I am. In recent years though I've found myself falling into bad habits of too much TV, too much time spent scrolling and honestly, a lot of sleeping. I know that partially it's because I've had some health issues in the last year and I haven't wanted to do as much and it also has been attributed to my struggles with depression, but that still isn't an excuse for not getting crap done on a regular basis.

So as an encouragement to myself, because really, I'm preaching to myself here, I am going to let you in on 5 productivity tips that I use when I want to get crap done!

...and then have some self control. This is actually a tip that I combined from Graham Stephan and then something I already did myself. On your phone, I'm not sure how it works for Android users, but for iPhone users, open up your Reminders app and utilize it as a your “personal assistant” for the day. One problem I have is that I have an endless to-do list that governs my day. Rather than trying to jump from one thing to another and getting overwhelmed, when I'm operating at my best self, I prioritize my tasks, plug them into the Reminders app with timers based off of how long I'm going to give each task and then I just start.

1. It helps me stay on track timing wise and one thing Graham talks about is how when you give yourself a specific amount of time to do something, you're much more likely to actually accomplish it because your brain goes into work mode.

2. This allows me room to tell myself how much I am actually capable of accomplishing in a day. If I see that I have a lot of hard and long tasks, I may switch one out for something easy or fun to lighten the load for the day. This helps me stay on track, accomplish my goals and avoid quick burnout.

3. One tip that I recommend is scheduling in a set amount of time for scrolling, lunch, taking a walk, etc. Breaking up your tasks with these things will help you to stay productive but also take mental breaks with actual timers so you don't waste the rest of your day away on accident. Self-control with technology can be super difficult but if you set boundaries in place you are 100% capable.

Okay so I know this is really silly, but remember the reward systems your parents would use when you were learning a new skill- like for example, potty training? Rewards work for adults too. 😂 It might seem a bit childish, but it actually works. Rather than allowing myself to turn on Netflix during lunch, which ends up turning into me watching 6 episodes “while I work” (BS), I don't get to turn on my favorite show until after my work day is done. Now for most of you who work out of an office, this is a no-brainer, but for someone who works from home it can be hard not to do this. For those of you who don't work from home though, things like cooking and cleaning when you get home from a long day can seem awful when PostMates and Netflix is waiting right around the corner. I encourage you to set little rewards up for yourself instead. One day a week you can order PostMates after you've cooked for five days in a row. Or after you're done cleaning the kitchen a glass of wine and a couple pieces of chocolate are waiting for you by the couch.

Now I know my mother is probably dancing around the room reading this right now in a (proud) fury. Yes, she always told me to get up after sitting and working for hours (I was homeschooled) and no, I usually never did. But for real ya'll, whether you work from home or an office, you have to get up and move around. Obviously we find times where we are in the zone, but otherwise you should get up once an hour and take a little walk around the house or office. If you can, step outside for a minute. The change of scenery and getting your blood pumping will actually help your brain to focus more and you will be able to get much more accomplished in the long run. Plus, you might even get your creative juices flowing if you're stuck in a rut. Try to schedule these walks in throughout your day. If you use tip #1, give yourself a reminder to do it after each task. If you don't, set an alarm every hour on the hour to get up and walk for five minutes.

Whoever set the precedent that you should only hang out with people on weekends was batty. Especially if you work from home, or even an office, you have to get out of your typical work environment at least once a week. Whether that means working from a different room, a coffee shop or a restaurant- get out. Our bodies naturally adapt to routines, but then they start getting dull and we then get distracted or start to lose our natural flow. By changing it up once in awhile it allows our brains to stay active and that is exactly what you want! I know that when I go work at a coffee shop I get 10x more done in 4 hours than I do in 8 hours at home. Why? I think it's because I feel the pressure to accomplish things in my allotted amount of time and it's easier to not get distracted when you're working somewhere other than home. This also goes for surrounding yourself with new company. If you have a creative job or hobby it's important to go out and connect with other humans, people watch and explore. This allows your brain to start creating new stories, to get inspiration and it gives you a break from the work, work, work. Which actually in result allows you to be more productive. I know for myself personally that when I get an idea, I am itching to start and within a few hours I am usually done with the project because I work so much faster when I am inspired. This article itself is a result of that. We haven't been out of the house at all since we got back from Michigan and I've been in a bit of a creative rut. When I was sitting in church and heard the word productivity, all of the ideas started rushing to my head and I got home and immediately had to get started.

I am SO speaking to myself here but I've actually gotten better about this in the past few months. I've started carrying a huge water bottle and I make sure to finish at least 1-2 everyday. But I definitely could get that up to three if I tried. And I'm not talking about sparkling water or flavored water, I'm talking just plain H2O. It's so good for your body to have a break from coffee and tea, although it's fine to have, replacing your second and third and (fourth) cup of coffee, I see you, mhm, with a few bottles of water will clear up your brain exponentially. I'm not going to explain the science because a. I'm terrible at science and b. I've heard it all before but I truthfully don't remember the why. But the point is: drink 👏🏻 your 👏🏻 water 👏🏻! Trust me, I have given every excuse in the book as to why I haven't drank water in the past...

“*My lipstick will come off*“ – use all day lasting lipstick or carry a metal... straw.

“*It's annoying drinking out of a big bottle & taking the lid off*“ – use... a straw. (Don't come for me turtle lovers, I told you to use metal ones!)

“*I hate washing the bottles & I won't drink out of plastic*“ – get a BPA free dishwasher friendly bottle.

“My water bottle is dirty” – you're being lazy, wash it.

“I hate the taste” – squeeze some lemon it, wallah.

“I always forget about it” – The best way to remember this is to set it as a part of your morning routine in your reminders. Write in that you need to fill your water bottle in the AM and then do it again in the afternoon and then once in the evening. By the time you've finished your day you will have drank about what you're supposed to in a day. And yes, you can still drink your morning coffee and your evening wine.

See, I've heard it all because I've said it all. Stop making excuses and just do it. There's always a solution.

Well that's all for today, I must be running to my next task with Patrícia, hopefully I'm not too disorganized, ya'll will hear on Wednesday when her episode of the Merge Podcast airs. You can judge me then. 😉

Have a fabulous week!

xoxo – Ry

Yesterday I posted about using the internet for good and I told you about my friend Lauren and her daughter and how you could help them. Like I mentioned they are trying to get away from a domestic abuse situation and although she's been able to make progress, with the current legal system, it hasn't been enough. Lauren really opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes people just need help. It's not a scam, it's not something they want to do, they just need help. I think as humans we are quick to assume that nobody actually really needs help, they can help themselves. But what about the ones who are exhausting all of their resources and it's still not enough? What about those that have come to the end of their line and the last thing they want to do is ask for something, but when it comes to their children's well-being, they have no other choice?

As humans who also go through crap, we need to be much more gracious and understanding because in all reality, most of us are just one job, one called loan, one broken down car away from needing help ourselves. As I was thinking through all of this, I had a song come to me. This song is inspired by Lauren's story and much of the imagery is how I see her. She is strong and she is trying and the only thing on her mind right now is protecting and caring for her daughter. As my own resources aren't overly abundant right now, I am doing the one thing that I know how: singing.

I will be selling the song I wrote for Lauren exclusively on XSongs: “What Do You Do?”. It's really simple to buy, all you have to do is go to the website, click on my song and purchase it with XRP. You will then be able to download it and listen on your phone or computer. As XSongs doesn't tell you which song is bought, any songs bought by January 17th, the proceeds (after being exchanged for USD) will go to Lauren directly. I will have a preview of it here and on Twitter so that you can have a sneak peak before you purchase. Any tips sent through my Twitter TipBot- @riley_quin for the next week plus all purchases of the song will go directly to Lauren and her sweet girl, Harper. If you would rather donate directly to Lauren & Harper, this is her GoFundMe or you can reach out to me directly for her PayPal, Venmo or CashApp information (I won't be posting it for privacy reasons.)

To buy the song head to XSongs, click “artists” and then scroll to my name (in alphabetical order). Click my name, choose whichever song you like, if you'd like to download the song I wrote for them again it's called “What Do You Do?” and then you click purchase.

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=389726901452670860

What Do You Do? – Riley Q ©2020

She’s a wild horse on the run

She may bend but she ain’t breaking

She’s fierce like the rising sun

Painting light on darkened places

She’s not afraid to cry

But her soul is far too weary

What do you do when it all comes crashing in?

What do you do when you don’t stand a fighting chance?

Do you turn away?

Do you fall asleep?

Do you bury your head way down deep?

What do you do when the only thing left to do is leave?

She put up with him for far too long

She always see the good inside

But now the little one- he’s too far gone

She just wants them out alive

She’s not afraid to cry

But her soul is far too weary

Oh she loves the rain

But it's different when you've got no shelter

Oh and cars weren’t made

To live in when there’s stormy weather

I've been doing a lot of self reflection the past few days as it seems like the world is completely falling apart. I know it isn't, entirely, but I bet to certain individuals right now, that's exactly how it feels. Last week there were bombings in Iran, this week there was a Magnitude 6.4 earthquake in the Caribbean. There are fires rampaging Australia and tornadoes ripping through Oklahoma. Meanwhile on a smaller, but just as important scale, there are kids being moved to their 5th foster home, desperate to be done living out of a trash bag. There are women waking up with the realization that they were raped the night before. There are mothers and fathers sobbing over their children's bedside because they are dying and there's nothing they can do to stop it. There are single mamas running for their lives, doing the best they can to protect their babies from abusive partners and fathers. Although we like to think that all is good, it's not. Once in awhile we will click share on a go-fund-me or we'll share a song where the proceeds go to the cause, but we really don't care too much. Somehow our society has convinced us that sharing those types of things makes us look bad. Which is crazy, coming off of the number one season for giving, that we would second guess helping those who are in need right now. I mean really, the internet is the perfect place for these things because it's the fastest way to meet a group of people.

I don't typically share links for donations or anything like that because of the bad rap they can get. I myself am one of those people. I don't know why I'm like that, I was always taught to help people no matter how it made me look. Today even writing this article I am a bit nervous because I often fear Coil becoming a place of self-promotion and link sharing. I also don't typically share too personal of stories on Coil because they never get a great response. Maybe I'm just too focused on analytics to just let it be, but it's the truth. When I do let my guard down to share a personal story and it doesn't do amazing, I fear to tell another one. But today, I must. Today I have to use the internet for good to help someone who feels like their world is closing in on them.

Yesterday my lovely friend from Texas put out a message on her “friends only” Instagram story. She set it so that it was private to the people she knows care about her and she shared with us that she is in a dangerous situation. Although I knew about her history with domestic violence and abuse, I didn't realize it was still actively going on. It's funny how the internet can make things seem one way and they're absolutely the other.

I actually met Lauren through Facebook or Instagram, a friend of a friend I believe. Anyways, I've been connected with her for over a year. I have watched her daughter grow and learn, I have watched Lauren flourish with her business and work hard to maintain three jobs to care for her daughter. I have watched Lauren battle Lyme's disease while still trying to show up for her business and taking care of her daughter.

Recently it's come to the point where her daughter is in jeopardy of having to be cared for by an abusive person. They have already had to run several times from this person but unfortunately because of the flawed legal systems that this country holds when protecting children from domestic abuse, a restraining order isn't cutting it anymore. Lauren has had to hire a lawyer, amongst paying for her Lyme treatments and still trying to take care of her daughter.

I don't usually ask for help on other people's behalf. I don't like asking for money as I myself am very strong willed and prideful when it comes to those things. Lauren is strong, but she needs help and I know how hard it was for her to ask for it. I invite you, if you feel led, to first and foremost cover her in prayer or healing energy (if that's your route). If you are able to financially contribute to Lauren's situation, I know it would mean the world to her and her sweet girl.

With Lauren's permission I am linking her go-fund me link below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/rename?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

If you don't feel comfortable giving through go fund me, I also have access to Lauren's Paypal, Venmo and CashApp handles. Just reach out to me and I will give you that info! (For privacy reasons I'm not freely posting them.)

As I've said before, I am very wary of Coil becoming a place of self-promotion, go-fund-me links and so on, but I feel strongly enough about this to break my own rule for a minute.

If you or someone you know is a single parent or you've endured domestic abuse in any way shape or form, you know how she is feeling right now and I encourage you to at least pray for her, they need all of the energetic support they can get.

You can read more details of Lauren's story on the go-fund-me page and you can learn more about her on her podcast/blog- The Intentional Girl. If all you do is check out her website, you will learn how incredible she is and how hard she is fighting and advocating for survivors of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and for the mamas who are fighting for their children. This is actually a great example: D*mn You, Domestic Abuse

https://www.theintentionalgirl.com/episodes-1/episode/1b60756e/or-dmn-you-domestic-abuse

I appreciate this community so much and I know how much trust it takes for me to able to stand here and share her story today. I love you all and I am so appreciative of your friendship and support.

xoxo – Ry

p.s. I have an additional project that I have worked on to support Lauren and I will be launching that as soon as it's finished, keep your eyes peeled. 💕

Welcome back to the Merge Podcast!

I am so happy you're here, especially if you're in the developer space, looking to understand the creative mindset a bit more, I invite you to listen in. If you missed last week's episode of the Merge Podcast: What is Merge? click the link to listen and learn what Merge is all about and why I started it in the first place.

It is my personal belief that there are two main hurdles that we are going to have to jump in order to see the majority of the creative community embrace adoption of the Internet of Value (IoV). In this episode I interview my husband, Dustin Sandrell, on our story and our role in the community as well as a bit about why he thinks creators are holding back. Later on in the episode I dive deeper into the hurdles that we need to jump and how can go about easing the journey of adoption for creators specifically.

If you are a developer looking to understand what creatives need to “get it”, listen up and let me know what you think!

Let’s connect on Instagram, Twitter, Coil and Cinnamon!

If you’d like to be featured on the podcast to share about what you're up to as a creator or developer, or you know of someone who would be perfect, reach out on social media or send me an email, riley@rileyq.com.

- Riley Q

https://www.buzzsprout.com/790439/2425994-helping-creatives-embrace-the-iov

...or

I'm usually “behind” on trends. Instagram launched in 2010 but ya girl wasn't on it until my friends literally took my phone and made me make an account in June of 2015. I didn't even start to use my Twitter account until spring of 2019 and I didn't know TikTok was even a thing until fall of 2019. When I first started using these platforms I had so many fears about being good enough and having interesting and beautiful content. I was so afraid that if I did it “wrong”, people would never like me. I actually wrote about that in my song “B Ok”-

https://open.spotify.com/track/75BFyNcSKX44MBBCIAuKh5?si=FEfldVNbSMyD5wVQr60pqg

CHORUS:

See the girl in the mirror she don’t see clearly

She don’t see she’s beautiful when she gets called pretty

She counts on every like to say she’s good enough

She’s wasting all her time on an empty love

My point in writing about that though, is now, looking back, I realize that I couldn't ever make content “wrong” as long as I was making something that I was proud of. I guess that's why going into Coil, even though I was right on the mark on timing, day one of the beta launch, I still felt confident. Yes, it helps having nothing to compare yourself to starting on day one, but I've also learned a lot throughout the years about confidence and believing in what you have to offer the world.

Yesterday I had the privilege of joining in on the “PLAN” livestream- “Patty, Lauren, Adam & Nick”– although if the acronym worked out differently I'm sure Nick would've loved to be mentioned first. 😂 But for real, thanks for having me on ya'll, it was fun! Anyways, while on there I talked a bit about why I believe Coil and the technology it works off of is the solution to the ever-growing problem of the current social media climate. I didn't get a chance to deep dive into that, but as promised on the livestream, I wanted to go a bit deeper into how Instagram got to where it is now. Throughout this article I would recommend observing some of the toxic behaviors and practices that we've bought into throughout the years that have landed us where we are now, we don't want to repeat these mistakes on Coil.

A little bit about my background, even though some of you may know, there has been an influx of new users recently and I think it's important to keep the stories fresh! Back in 2018, I decided that I was absolutely done living in Michigan. A lot of not so great things had happened in 2017 and the beginning of 2018 and I needed to get out of the state. I was hardcore wander-lusting and I needed to get out and explore the world on my own. In April I started praying about where God wanted to send me and by June 30th I was driving 500 miles south with my family toting a UHAUL and my best friend, Luca, in the passenger seat. I ended up living with a family in East Nashville and honestly, I had no clue what I was going to do. I had been previously working at a church without a degree. I did event coordination, admin work and childcare and although I loved it, that wasn't going to be my forever job. Now honestly I moved to Nashville to pursue music initially, but I knew that wasn't going to pay the bills and I really didn't want to get a job in the food or service industry. I was kind of stuck because I knew a 9-5 was just going to land me right back where I was in Michigan, so I knew I had to do something different.

Before I moved, in early June, I was trying to figure out a way to start a business and work for myself. I wasn't interested in joining an MLM and I really didn't know how I was going to be able to make the whole thing work with my lack of experience. Now over the years I managed to get pretty good at Instagram and had gotten my following up quite a bit through music, fashion blogging, living the “influencer” life and more. I had self-taught myself a bit of coding and I was starting to design and work on websites for myself and my friend's bands. I had even bought a camera for vlogging and photos for my brand and I was getting decently good at shooting and editing. Before I knew it I realized I had enough to work off of to start a basic branding and social media business and that I actually had enough work to build a portfolio from working with friends. I've always had an eye for branding but for a long time it manifested physically through my design work with wedding planning and event planning that I did in high school and post graduation. When I realized that I could take that same eye and apply it to businesses and people, I had my idea in the bag. God really confirmed what I had realized when only a few days later a woman reached out to me and invited me to run her social media and train her employees on their accounts. Within the month my business was up and running and by the time I moved to Nashville I already had 8 clients. It was enough to stay busy and keep my basic bills paid, but I knew I wanted to expand.

Now this story gets long and I truly don't want to waste your time, so I'm not going to go into everything but that first year of business was extremely hard. There were moments that I quite literally had no clue what I was doing. Also, note, if Dustin hadn't come along, I would've been screwed come tax time (nobody told me about self-employment tax!). I kept my business running long enough and I made it work. I've now been in business *officially* for just over a year and a half, although it feels like so much longer. My business though, has changed significantly as my passions have changed and as social media has changed.

Coming from someone who grew her account organically by 8,000 followers in a few months in 2016/17 – to now, I can tell you that Instagram is NOTHING like it used to be. Facebook is NOTHING like it used to be. Standard social media is no longer a place to express yourself, to connect with other people and to create beautiful things. Nope, social media is now about fighting for attention, hoping you can “crack” the algorithms to be seen and most importantly, it's about ads. I cannot stress this enough:

Not because it's not good to see what your audience wants, but because 90% of your audience isn't actually SEEING your content anymore, so they can't even tell you if they like it! I see so many business owners and content creators feeling totally worthless right now because they used to get 200 likes on their posts and now they feel lucky if they hit 50. Ya'll SAME. Instagram and teaching people how to use it strategically was MY JOB and now I'm lucky if I get 100 likes on my posts- the same ones that used to be getting 1,000 likes. Followers are dropping left and right, bot accounts and ad influencers are all that's left. Bloggers and “influencers” are paying companies to like their posts, they're joining pod groups to ensure they get engagement, even though it's not organic. Advertisements are the only way to get noticed or into the algorithms on Instagram and Facebook now. But really, don't bother running ads unless you're throwing 4-6 figures at Facebook, they're almost worthless at this point.

Ya'll, social media is a literal joke now. Do we still use it? Yes, because we're addicted. But that doesn't make it any less of a joke. We have gotten so far from social and so far from quality it's not even funny. We have rewired the system to mean that if you're not paying top notch photographers thousands, your content won't be worth looking at. We've made it so that unless you're selling products for 15 different companies a week, you're not going to be worth anything. True creators have stopped creating because they don't feel like it's worth it and they know they won't be noticed. OR they gave in and started doing influencer marketing just to try and make a buck and that, well that's a whole other story and that market is completely oversaturated at this point as well.

We've been lied to, manipulated, treated like walking wallets and it's not okay. In turn, as creators we are becoming manipulative, liars and we feel forced to turn everything we do and say into an ad. Like if I can be honest with ya'll right now, if my old business coach knew that I was creating content on Coil right now and I wasn't getting paid “thousands” for just thinking of it, she'd be throwing a fit. Isn't that ridiculous? But that's my point- we have grown to believe that we are entitled to getting paid thousands for mediocre work and we're becoming brats about the whole thing. But why? Because that's what these platforms were designed to do. They were designed to bait and switch. They were designed to get us so addicted to not only being the consumer but also being the creator. They were designed to become over saturated and to make the competition so fierce that we'd stoop to paying for our content to be advertised just to reach people. We'd stoop to forcing groups of people to engage with our content just to get on a trending page, regardless of if the content was good or not. That is what social media platforms have been designed to do- but that's because they weren't ever going to make any money if advertisements weren't involved. The CEO's of these companies wouldn't be worth a dime if no-one was paying to be a part of it. Rather, they've manipulated millions of people into believing that this platform is their “home” and that they're safe to create and share there. But that could not be farther from the truth. Your content isn't safe there if your personal beliefs don't align with the political beliefs of those companies CEO's. Your content isn't safe to be shared and will not be protected if you dare to believe that there might be a better system than what we're using. You are not safe to scroll and to enjoy content, they're watching you and listening to you (literally through your phone) and then they are selling back to you through advertisements what they think you need and quite literally what you've stated you need in your day to day life. This is absolutely ridiculous and the data tracking is getting completely out of hand.

Although people are starting to realize all of this and have slowed their roll on Instagram and Facebook, I think that it's important that as Coil users we start to talk about these issues openly with friends and family and offer the solution of Coil, Cinnamon, etc.

☞ When someone mentions that they were talking about needing to buy orange juice and then it pops up in their advertisements on Instagram, that's a great time to talk about Coil and the way that they're working to run the internet differently.

☞ When someone mentions that they are tired of creating content only for it to not be seen, mention Coil and invite them to try it out.

☞ When someone mentions that they are over the fact that they don't see anything except for advertisements both from Instagram/Facebook and “influencers”, invite them to check out Coil's content creators.

If you need to, post about Coil and Cinnamon on your socials and explain the new platforms. Utilize your current audience on those platforms as much as you can and invite people to use the new ones. Drop breadcrumbs from your posts and put them in graphics that fit the platforms. Try to lure your followers in with the promise of better content that you know they want on Coil/Cinnamon.

So yeah, I might be giving up on Instagram, but I'm not giving up on the internet yet. I'm not going to stop posting on FB/IG, not that I think there's much hope, but I do believe that they're a decent catalyst to get the message out about these new platforms- well, at least until this new message gets censored. 😉

If you'd like to start sharing about Coil/Cinnamon on your social platforms, I've got free graphics and guides that you are more than welcome to, you can download them here!

xoxo – Ry

Happy Sunday!

I hope ya'll have had a great weekend!

xoxo – Ry

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=389720590199555967

Hey ya'll! I hope you're having a wonderful Friday. This week I finally had time to sit down and work out the kinks of my website rileyq.com and as I am focusing more on supporting the Internet of Value, I added a few aspects of that to the website. I talked a bit about it in my bio and then added information to the Merge podcast page. I also promote my Cinnamon and Coil links and I've also used Coil's plugin to monetize the website directly.

When I designed the website I wanted it to be a place where I could send people to not only see what I've got going on music wise, but where they could also see how I'm involved in the IoV.

My sole goal is not to just do well on Coil. Coil is great, I love it, I literally won't shut up about how to succeed on it, but my first love and main priority is music. My goal with music though is to leave an impact on the industry, promote new technology and to help other artists succeed in whatever way works for them. I do believe that the technology that is being developed revolving around the Internet of Value is extremely vital and will be life changing for the music industry. With that being said, I am utilizing as much of the technology as I possibly can now and I am advertising it as much as I possibly can without being obnoxious. Being innovative and doing things differently and independently was already part of my brand and now even more so as I embrace the technology.

My goal when users visit my website is to see my music, obviously, but to also see that I'm utilizing platforms other than Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc. I want them to see see the other platforms, but also see that I'm working to raise awareness for web-monetization, specifically in music. I believe this will happen more and more over time, but for now, I will do what I can to talk about it in subtle ways through my bio and through having the Merge Podcast also available on my website.

As this all becomes more adopted it's important that new users see your involvement and support so I definitely encourage you to do the same if you can! I'll be adding more information as I can but check it out and let me know what you think or if you have done something similar DM me on Twitter, I'd love to see your websites!

https://www.rileyq.com

Coil has now been up and running for 8 months and it has been very exciting to see the immense growth from May until now. I have loved seeing new creators pop up almost daily, it's inspiring! A few days ago I posted about my favorite posts of 2019 and the creators behind them. Today, I want to share a few newer creators who I've recently discovered and that I'm extremely interested in watching this next year.

Rashon Massey -

Meet Rashon, founder and creator of MICOPEIA, a premium and affordable wellness and body care company. He launched Michigan Pharmacopeia® in 2016 after going through several health issues. I find Rashon's articles not only entertaining, but he also provides a unique lens as he does much more than educate and provide wellness products. Rashon is well versed in the music world and music journalism and actually hails from my home city of Detroit. I am always excited to discover new creators, especially ones who I share similar passions with. If you are interested in health and wellness, healing, journalism, or just blogging in general I would check out and follow @MICOPEIA on Twitter!

Christian Rizea -

I stumbled upon Christian a few weeks ago and his articles immediately captured my attention. Although he has been blogging since October, I must've completely missed him. As I mentioned, there has been an influx of new creators and it's hard to keep up! Christian keeps a cohesive theme of maintaining mental health and bettering yourself as a person through most of his articles. I've very much enjoyed reading through his philosophies and motivational posts! I highly recommend “How to Manifest What You Want in 2020” and “Forget, “New Year, New Me!” and How to Really Achieve Your Goals in 2020”. Both articles are extremely well written and are very helpful. I highly recommend following Christian, I'm excited to learn and grow via his posts this year. You can find Christian on Twitter here.

Chelsea Dickenson -

Although Chelsea has been YouTubing for two years, you can check out her full channel here, she just recently joined Coil! Chelsea is a travel vlogger and specializes in cheap holidays (the traditional english term for vacation). Chelsea caught my eye when I noticed her first article, “Asking Locals to Decide our Day in New York”. NYC is my favorite city in the world and as I did something similar with my last trip to the city, I had to see what she did! She and her boyfriend went around the city and each place they went was recommended by a local at the previous joint. It was so fun to watch them experience NYC like a local, it truly made me swoon and my travel itch started back up again. Chelsea has a few other installments of that series, “Ask a Local”, both on Coil and YouTube. I highly recommend checking her out! In her most recent article she even revealed her next travel destinations for Coil subscribers! I'm excited to watch her over the next year and learn from all of her travel tips! You can also keep up with her and track her travels on Twitter!

Sincerely George -

Although SG is certainly not new to the community in any way, she recently has started to blog more on Coil! Today I actually noticed that she blogged the first day of a 100 Day Coding Challenge! Although I have been designing websites for a few years, my knowledge of coding is still very minimal and I'm excited to follow along with these next 99 days! SG also just launched a second Coil account- “An Inspired Soul”, I recommend checking that out as well! Sincerely George is one of the most encouraging and loving members of the Coil and XRP community and I would not be where I am now without her! Even if you don't 100% understand XRP I highly recommend following her on Coil and Twitter, she lights up my life and I know she will do the same for you!

SHEE -

Singer, songwriter, and visionary creator, SHEE is one you need to pay attention to in 2020. SHEE just released a new song on December 26th – Attention. On Coil SHEE writes about the songwriting process and dives into each of her songs that she's released a bit deeper. Last year she released 16 songs in 16 weeks and you can read all about that on her page! Her music is mesmerizing, beautiful and her lyrics are incredible. If you're interested in music or songwriting I highly recommend reading her articles and listening to her music. You can find SHEE on all major platforms! Follow her on Twitter as well for regular updates and new releases!

I hope you enjoyed learning about new creators in the community! It's exciting to see more and more people join Coil and add to the ecosystem of the Internet of Value. If you're new to the platform or we haven't connected yet, I'd love to meet you! Reach out on Twitter and introduce yourself, I love supporting new creators.

xoxo – Ry