Your February Newsletter: Black History, Big Runs, & Busy Schedules!
It's officially First Friday, which means it's time for your monthly newsletter from MRVL WRLD and Alex Auguste!
Hey Google, play Nina Simone "Young, Gifted, and Black". It's Black History Month, and I hope the 92% continue to flourish, stay moisturized, get the bag, stand on business, smell good, feel good, look good, and get paid good.
Not sure who the 92% are, stay tuned and I'll detail it in our February Newsletter from MRVL WRLD and Alex Auguste. Let's take a look at our highlights for this month's newsletter.
BLACK HISTORY, LOVE, AND PRIDE
Check out this curated playlist covering the joys of Black sounds and voices, the soul of Black love, and the resilience that encourages us to honor the past while we shape the future. This 35-track playlist includes music from Wale, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, Solange, and more. Now Available on YouTube Music.
GASPARILLA DISTANCE CLASSIC: BLACK RUN CLUB REUNION WEEKEND | FEB. 22nd, 2025
We're 15 days away and race day is coming! You're invited to take part in supporting myself as well as the entire crew from Tampa's very own Rolling Proud Run Club as we take on different races from the 5K, 8K, 15K and the Half Marathon at Tampa's Gasparilla Distance Classic on February 22nd and 23rd.
Gaspy, as everyone is referring to it as, is expected to be HUGE - and what you didn't hear in that video produced by MRVL WRLD was that the weekend is unofficially being dubbed THE BLACK RUN CLUB REUNION WEEKEND! Rolling Proud has invited Black Run Clubs from across the country to join us in Tampa that weekend to create a very special atmosphere like nothing we've seen before. I'll be running the 5K and capturing the joy and energy of the weekend.
Whether you're racing or cheering, let's show up and show out!
FEB. 22nd & 23rd, 2025
For more information, times, and registration info, visit Run Gasparilla
MRVL WRLD x ROLLING PROUD RUN CLUB SCHOLARSHIP GALA | March 7th, 2025
I've had the opportunity to with Rolling Proud Run Club over the past two months, but nothing was more exciting than kicking off their promotional campaign for their upcoming scholarship gala. Masquerade In The Bay will take place March 7th, 2025 at Hotel Haya, marking the one-year anniversary of the run club's founding and is expected to be a masquerade ball with awards, special guests from Tampa's fitness and wellness community, and a scholarship giveaway.
For this video, we brought the jazz and vibes to Ybor City for an amazing shoot inside Hotel Haya, delivering that authentic "Gatsby" vibe to get attendees ready for some celebration.
ICYMI: THE CAPRICORN SEASON SHOOT. BEHIND THE SCENES IN FULL COLOR
Capricorn Season is well behind us. We've seen the individual birthday videos come together for the four subjects of the campaign. Now, see Imani, Nyshayla, Alex, and Olivia in full screen, in full color to see how each individual video was created and the behind the scenes of how it all came together in Downtown Tampa.
Read More: The Capricorn Shoot. In Full Range. In Full Color
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: WE ARE OFFICIALLY IN THE AGE OF IMPERFECTIONISM
On my recent livestream of VividLife TV titled, "The Junk Files", I discussed the odd reality many people face: being frustrated with your own work and then scrapping it - removing it from the web, or worse deleting it completely. Maybe the color grading was off; or the audio wasn't too clear on track 7; or it didn't break 1,700 views; your glorious creation that took hours to create didn't do the thing it was supposed to do. And you scrapped it?
Or the ultimate worse: you couldn't get your project to where you wanted to get it - you couldn't get it to be perfect so you just never put it out to begin with.
Btw the 92% is the Black men and women who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Watch: The Painful Tale of The Fidget Spinner
There was a 10-hour window where TikTok went down on January 19th, and with it, Capcut went. And suddenly millions of perfectionist who had had their projects sitting in drafts in the app realized that drafts aren't posts. You expend more energy hoarding your unreleased projects; you're taking up storage on your drafts; and that poor USB storage device has seen its day.
It's time.
Here's another point to consider: artificial intelligence. With AI gearing up to be a major player in 2025's creator economy and in the film industry, you're going to begin seeing content so perfect - both in design and performance - that I honestly believe it's going to change the entire ecosystem of who is a creator and who's a consumer. But what AI can't create is imperfection - or authenticity. At least not yet. If you're not catching on yet, there will be an influx of accounts online that are fully artificial intelligence, presenting their lives as if they are 'one of us', going viral, swallowing large brand deals, and possibly even setting trends. Their pages are perfect.
But perfect content is phasing out. After all, that was kind of what people really enjoyed about TikTok, right? Front camera and thoughts. Bonnet on, hair half done, no filters, house in the background, and drop the hook! Creators across YouTube and Instagram are dropping the heavy productions for raw, day in the life videos that show the blemishes of ourselves, our environments, and our situations. Vulnerability and authenticity are becoming the unquantifiable X-Factor that will make a difference as people are bombarded by perfect videos, high production quality, artificial intelligence and doom scrolling.
Artificial Intelligence can't create that...yet.
And so we all have a year. It took artificial intelligence about 18 months to generate images of proper hands. So, it may take that long or shorter for it to develop content from content creators that sounds, looks, and speaks to the ethos of authenticity. In 2025, release your grungy videos. Release the pilot of your podcast. Let your audiences see and remember what Day 1 of your journey looked like, so they can remember where you started.
In 2025, repost your old, underperforming posts. Repurpose your old content. Keep whispering "old to me, new to you". Introduce your new followers to the old you that they'd never believe existed. Make your Day 1s real ones, and your Real Ones evangelists.
Don't just show your products and services - tell your story!
THE ALEX AUGUSTE OMNISTORY
Last year as I intended to re-release many of my book titles, I also decided to tell my own story as well. 5 years ago, starting MRVL WRLD has helped me on this journey of becoming the great storyteller. Now, my own great stories are seeing new light. The Alex Auguste Omnistory refers to the complete collection of all my written (and not yet written work), their relationship to one another, and their relationship to my own life.
As projects like "The Black Grasshopper" get loaded up for release this year, it's important to note that while it's a stand-alone story, it is indirectly connected to A Boy Bathed In Blood, We Missed a Meeting and even my life.
There will be more on The Omnistory and "The Black Grasshopper" on February 25th, 2025 and beforehand, in further depth on Patreon.
STAY TUNED. STAY CLOSE: CONTENT HAUS
As we prepare to approach Q2, MRVL WRLD is happy to announce an upcoming series to serve our community with resources about content creation, an opportunity to get hands-on with other creatives, and engage in real time with other creators and subject matter experts.
We're also looking to have sponsorship discussions as early as possible. If you're interested in learning more about our mission for "CONTENT HAUS", please reach out to us via email at hello@mrvlwrld.com or schedule a call with us!
Follow Along & Stay Connected:
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💌 Reply to this email if you want to collaborate or have something exciting to share!
- Alex Auguste & The VividLife Team