Back from a break, thanking Jamie Lynn Spears, big plans for the future, and I'm hiring!

Sunday, January 16, 2021

Hi!! Happy New Year, can I still say that? I started today's newsletter with a cartoon to show why I disappeared for a few weeks. I finally moved into my very own apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. I kind of forgot how much work it is to get the apartment in working order, and it's taken a lot of my time and energy. But, I love it, and this move is already inspiring new ideas. It reminded me why I started drawing these cartoons in the first place.

As you saw in the cartoon above, I'm digging myself out of boxes and stuff ... so much stuff. Sometimes when I take a break I worry I won't come back to this. So I was relieved when I genuinely wanted to draw that cartoon and write this newsletter.

Plus, read on to see my card ideas for Valentine's Day, why I need to hire some help, and my big vision!

If you're new to Danielle in Doodles, welcome! I publish this newsletter of my latest doodles and updates most Sundays, and you can see archives here.

Valentine's Day

I want to start prepping for V-Day now. I offered the first card above last year and it was popular. I'll probably redraw it digitally. The other two ideas are new. What do you think? Have any other ideas? I also want to do one with a couple locking the door that says "Let's isolate!"

Passover plans — I need to hire help!

I'm definitely going to update my Haggadah, "Don't Fuhaggadahboudit" for Passover this year. And, instead of a Zoom Seder, I want to produce a Seder show with actors playing out the characters and maybe rapping. Audience members will receive a Seder basket with all the food. Maybe I sell merch, too.

What I've learned is that I need help with promotion and reaching the community. Especially since I have a full-time job. So I want to hire someone who can help with PR and promotion for the book and play and maybe website updates, social media, fulfilling orders, and event management. Ideally this person would be in NYC so we can meet and have a background in Judaism, PR, marketing, or communications. I don't have a huge budget but can pay hourly or a project fee. This might be the right gig for a college student or recent grad. Email me if you know anyone!

And, in another newsletter, I played around with the idea of creating a Britney Spears-themed Haggadah this year, too, since she was recently "freed." Her younger sister Jamie started speaking out, so it seems like the story is going to get more complicated. I think I'm going to leave that idea for now. Honestly, thank you Jamie Lynn for saving me that work and reminding me to focus on my existing product.

The future!

I realize that DID has diversified and I've connected with a few different audiences. I've loved that, but I also want to narrow down and focus on the intersection of what I love to do, what works, and what can build a bigger audience.

DID is a few things — my personal blog in cartoons, cartoons about news/pop culture (which I've done less of), products/custom cartoons, and Jewish content cartoons. Here's what I'm thinking and how it's building toward something much bigger:

Keep Danielle in Doodles as my personal blog focused on my life in NYC.
An NYC millennial doodling about funny and relatable stuff in her life. Sometimes I draw other people, and their pets.
I think the new criteria for what I draw will be, like when I started, doodles that relate to something in my life. I'm going to do fewer doodles on breaking news because the time crunch is stressful. I'm going to also try to be more consistent with my doodle character and it will be the main character in most cartoons.

Introducing, Jew in Doodles (an idea, open to other names)

Funny, relatable cartoons about being Jewish! Created by @danielleindoodles. DM me your cartoons to be featured!

This will start out as just my content, I'll repost old doodles but redraw them digitally. Eventually, I'd love this to be a curated community where I share and showcase other artists.

I'll still sell products like cards, custom doodles, and books, and maybe merch.

Big dream! This is also twofold. The reason I'm splitting these is that I want to maintain my voice and personality, and eventually would love to write my own books with cartoons about my life.

With the Jewish account, I can dive deeper into that world and build community. Eventually, I'd like to regularly feature other artists, and become a source for content and a marketplace to buy merch, prints, or illustrations from your favorite artists. I've found so many awesome Jewish cartoonists I want to feature. I also want to do more events.

One day I'd replicate this model for other cultures and hire duplicates of myself to run different divisions like head of content, engagement, sales, and events. I'd become the creative director and watch "Doodle World (?)" grow.

What do you think, am I ready for Shark Tank?! 

Thank you for reading! I'm settling into my apartment and super excited about the future! Also, I may reduce this newsletter to every other week. So, I'll say, see you on a Sunday soon.

Doodles!

Danielle Brody

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