Rae Vance

Jhöl almost lost a hand the day we met.

Okay so picture this. I'm at the coffee shop, headphones half on, three tabs deep in something, scarfing a cookie and waiting on my caramel macchiato. Drink comes up. He walks up at the same exact second, same drink, and just......grabs mine. Bro. I'm like "Hey bub, that's a good way to lose a hand."

He laughs. Like full belly laugh. Apologizes. Says he orders one too sometimes. I ask why. He tells me it was his friend Jason's favourite. Friend he lost. He orders it when he's thinking of him.

And I just......shut up. Because what do you say to that. I said something. I don't even remember what. Something sideways. Something not I'm sorry for your loss because that's the worst sentence in the world. Something else. And it landed, because he sat down.

Then he tells me he just finished writing a book. Has no idea how to market it. Has never had a website in his life. Like, ever. Not going on social media. Doesn't want to be a brand. Wants the work to find the right people without him having to chase them. The whole thing was so unhinged in the best way.

I'm like......yeah. Yeah, that's the kind of work I take. And he goes "Groovy."

Like who still says that?! He had me at groovy.

And here we are.

These days I run media and web for Beatnik Consulting. The website, the socials, the daily feed, the strategy, the inbox. If something Beatnik-flavoured shows up online, I touched it. I work with my own AI, named River — same way Jhöl works with his team in the book. River does the writing I don't have time for. I do everything else.

Jhöl and I meet every Wednesday at the same coffee shop where I almost decked him over a macchiato. He buys. We go over the week ahead. He shows up most weeks. The weeks he doesn't, I send him a message that says Jhöl. The latte. Don't make me come over there. Works about 80% of the time.

If you've got something real to say and you don't want to chase the social media circus to get it heard, that's the lane I work in. If you want to be a brand, I'm not your girl. Jhöl's not either. We're a two-person company that takes one client at a time and means it.

Catch you on the flip side.