POETRY IN EDEN 2024 Wrapped!
🎁 A life of purpose, cross-platform insights, + looking into 2025
Listen to a version of this column on the Poetry in Eden podcast, episode #26, also embedded here.
😊 The Joy of Launching the Podcast, including Poetry Performances 😊
It took a lot to get my podcast up and running, and at one point I almost gave up! But, on 5 April, after completing my intro music (a compilation of piano and drums), I released my very first episode of Poetry in Eden on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
Soon after, on 1st May, I started performing my poetry live again in unique venues like art galleries! I released all of these live performances as recordings on the podcast too.
🎙️ NEW: Live poetry performances in podcast episodes 4, 7, 9, and 17.
On 19 May, I welcomed my first podcast guest, creating a philosophical exchange for uncovering the stories of others and sharing it back in a way that reminds us our differences are much less than our shared similarities in this human search for meaning and purpose.
🎙️ NEW: Six guests, mostly students of psychology, with incredibly inspiring takes on life, in podcast episodes 6, 14, 20, 21, 25, and 27 (coming soon).
🧙 I Left Behind a Life I Built Over 15 Years, for My Purpose 🧙
Five years of Ivy League studies, including Brown University undergrad in Economics and Wharton Executive MBA — 3 summers and 2 years in New York City Investment Banking, closing 4 multibillion dollar deals with CEOs in 2 years as a data analyst in the Goldman Sachs Natural Resources group — 8 years with Google on 3 continents, in almost every marketing role, with incredible access to information and experience. A serious case of burnout and a disgruntled feeling about the systems which lead our society, and an urge to give something more in this short life we live. . .
All within the second half of this year, I took the fork in the road with all of my skills and experiences to become a full-time writer because I remembered how I felt in elementary school when I first discovered how much I love to read and write. I turned right when I thought I would turn left because I felt misaligned and it was distorting my energy and my focus. I kept going down an unfamiliar road because I had to see where the life of an artist could lead me! And here we are today. . .
🤔 NEW: Have you made big pivots this year? Share your biggest wins and challenges with this in the comments.
📚 Published a Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook Which Went Viral for 30 Days 📚
I still cannot describe all the steps that go into publishing a book without wincing, so let me cool down, and come back to you with more on this process in 2025 (and potentially exclusively on my instagram)!
After launching Poetry in Eden, the first book of its series, globally, it trended #3 and then #2 in the General poetry category for 30 days! Making it to #1 means I would have been a debut bestseller, mentionable for the NYTimes!
Not to mention, I was compared to the 23rd U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo and #1 New York Times bestseller & director Kwame Alexander by Publisher’s Weekly, the book bible, and will appear in the their January 2025 magazine.
“Tender, empowering poetry of identity, peace, and collective healing, Iyamu grounds her vision for social change, believing that transformation must germinate from within. This spiritually charged debut collection provokes and illuminates humanity's ceaseless search for meaning with a fierce commitment to healing ancestral wounds.
Iyamu’s verse adopts a rhythmic, trance-like cadence that … nevertheless amplifies the voices of those she seeks to champion: the marginalized, the oppressed, and even the voiceless flora and fauna whose fates remain mere collateral damage.
At its core, this collection aims to dismantle self-constructed walls, urging readers to rediscover their roots, reclaim their faith, and let the "voices of a shared plight...of a shared right to live" finally be upheld.” source
🎙️NEW: Did you know the audiobook has an anthem song?
The audiobook opening credits start with a song, with lyrics and accompaniment also directed by me and my sound engineer.
The poetry audiobook performance is available across 38 platforms including Spotify and Audible, and really brings the book to life!
With all this in mind, please leave a review wherever you consume Poetry in Eden (bought on Amazon? Leave a review there. Listen on Apple podcasts? Leave a review there). It really makes a difference!
💻 Branding and SEO Are Still Underrated for Long-term Success 💻
Poetry in Eden is a brand which sits under my mission as an author. I will have other brands (i.e. books/platforms) which sit under me through the coming years.
I worked with an international brand team, which I formed myself, to ensure all marketing elements align with me as a brand. My logo is also there on the book cover and my website.
The first version of the website was good, and similar to a LinkTree. I wanted it to be simple and accessible. As the book went live, I realised how many parts exist under my brand, and I needed to create a more comprehensive one-stop-shop for my viewers.
A site migration, and endless copy-editing later, we now have www.feliciaiyamu.com relaunched in a way that feels completely aligned with me and my mission. As the site re-launched, less than six months into my SEO strategy, I also got a Google Knowledge Panel, which is autogenerated once enough verified and aggregated info on a person exists on the World Wide Web!
Onward as the World Wide Web googles “felicia iyamu” and finds an author. I recommend searching me on your mobile device! The Google Knowledge Panel experience is more impressive there than what they are currently showing on desktop.
Keep my thorough framework in mind for your next project!
🔮 Social Media and Looking into 2025 🔮
While I love Substack, I have also noticed many writers feeling a similar ‘cringe’ feeling about what the platform has become — for example, ONLY POEMS, a publication which attained incredible success including on Substack, recently migrated to MailerLite. They call it their breakup with Substack because. . .
“Well, turns out it feels like a cheap lil game in our already flooded-yet-somehow-still parched social landscape to try to milk every type of content for money and always be thinking about hooks and hits and upticks and monthly vs. annual subscriptions based on (apparently) how much a “post” (at the end of the day, a collection of words, like any other) deserves.” source
Meanwhile authors like
encourages consistency and putting ourselves in the path of luck, while inspirits patience and consistent long-term growth worth sticking around for! A part of me cannot help but agree.Where else (often rapidly) grows, engages, and retains our following and community outside of free social media platforms? If you have any ideas, leave thoughts in DM or comments.
At the end of the day, social media requires consistency and strategy, and not all are promised ‘fame’ or ‘success.’ After I began focusing my attention on my Instagram strategy in H1 2024, I am impressed to see the following has grown 110% YoY and gets 18k monthly views on average! Comparing my account to my friend’s account with 20k followers, we were shocked to see we share the same monthly views, and mine with better engagement metrics!
With all this in mind, I will take January to decide if I will stay on Substack, or also migrate this impressive following somewhere else.
This decision will not affect you all in the least, as my column will always arrive straight to your inbox, but it is a decision nonetheless. I will try some new formats and approaches, and see what it can bring us.
I THANK EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU FOR THE ENDLESS SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT. I feel grateful for all the travels, connections, and opportunities 2024 has brought me!
NEW: All in all, a new book is being written for you as we speak, so hold your hats because we have just hit the ground running into 2025!!!!