January 13, 2022
Have you ever been intrigued with the idea of creating a brand or business without your face?
If that is you, today’s podcast guest is the incredible Atticus of Atticus Poetry. If you’re not familiar with his words, we can guarantee you’ve seen many of his poems while scrolling Pinterest or seen them shared to an Instagram story by a friend.
He has created an incredible, successful business empire, all while remaining entirely anonymous. No one knows who he is. He wears a full face mask to any book readings, etc. Today we talk about the reason he chose to build an anonymous brand, the price of fame, and how to create a connection with your audience without sacrificing your privacy. We then dive into how to get inspired when in a creative rut or dealing with writer’s block, the best advice he has for writers or creatives everywhere, and what he has to say to creative entrepreneurs who are also wanting to build successful businesses like his.
Atticus is a 3x New York Times Best Selling author of Love Her Wild, The Dark Between Stars, and The Truth About Magic. His words have been tattooed by tens of thousands of his avid followers and readers.
He’s been Rated “The World’s Most Tattooable Poet” by Galore Magazine and the “#1 Person to Follow” by Teen Vogue. He’s been followed, quoted, and retweeted by the world’s top superstars including Karlie Kloss, Shawn Mendes, Emma Roberts, and Alicia Keys.
As if that isn’t enough, he’s been featured in Time Magazine, Elle, The Guardian, Fast Company, Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal as well as written for and collaborated with Kygo, Maroon 5, Coach, Absolute Vodka, Stance Socks, Target, Urban Outfitters, Refinery 29, and more.
In 2019, Atticus launched the Lost Poet wine brand, quickly becoming the highest-rated red wine on Wine.com and selling over 300k bottles in year one.
When first starting and posting on Instagram Atticus found it as a unique way to meet people in the writing community and share work and art. He wanted to keep it anonymously so it wouldn’t bleed into the rest of the things he was doing. As the account started to grow quite quickly, more people started to follow, it was even more important to him to stay anonymous. He didn’t want the fame and recognition that sometimes comes with big followings. He had a friend who was quite famous at the time and passed away in a hotel in Vancouver from what he would say complications from fame.
A lot of people think Atticus Finch and he is a big Harper Lee fan. But always loved the name Atticus and have since found out that there is a great nation of Attica in ancient Greece and Atticans were famous philosophers and poets. That wasn’t the reason that he chose it but love that it correlates to that.
It is tricky. From the beginning, he has been encouraged not to be anonymous. His agent and book publisher, all tell him that if he took off the mask he would sell more and be able to do more media coverage. That’s not what it is about for Atticus as he values keeping it about the words. He doesn’t think he will ever become non-anonymous.
Social media is a double-edged sword but one of the positives is being able to create around the industries that you love. Creating a business around who you are. Nothing says that you have to be the face of it to create successful businesses online.
Go after your passions because it does take a lot of work. He thinks Atticus would have faded away quite quickly if he didn’t truly love writing and poetry. That’s the only reason it grew, he liked to write and he posted.
Audiences often connect with authenticity. Stay in your lane and stay in that authenticity and it will help with success.
People who he works with definitely know who he is. They keep the secret. A lot of it is about trust, people know who Atticus is but they know the reasons he doesn’t want to be famous. They know that he is serious and people are willing to help and be a part of it. They can see he’s not doing it for the wrong reasons.
It’s about creating systems, he has a book team, an in-house team that runs day today, a wine team, and a merch team. They have these little silos and coordinate them to work well together.
Atticus draws from his life primarily. His life experiences and the people around him. Drawing a lot from travel. He falls in love with cities and finds them to be his muses. Traveling, meeting new people, and different cultures are inspiring to write about.
Dry spell with creativity:
The idea of writer’s block. It happens to Atticus and everyone in the creative industry. He has learned tricks along the way to help him when he’s not inspired. To get past that, traveling helps him personally. Moving his location, as simple as from his office to a coffee shop will help. Experiences, meeting new people and places.
Don’t be scared to start. You have to start somewhere and there are so many tools available right now for people starting a business. It’s not that hard to make a store on Shopify. Create quality products that your followers would enjoy. Be authentic, create quality things and just show up. Don’t be scared.
The Kakotsky quote “Don’t try”, can help you get out of your head and find your love for whatever you may be doing rather than force things. Don’t be scared, the most important thing you can do as a writer is to write. Or as any creative, to just start. Today is the best day to begin.
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WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
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