#how to do market research for a startup

[dakusan]

hi hi !!

i love love love ur vamp!skz universe and im wondering if you’ll tell us how each boys got turned?? im sorry if you’ve already done this and ive just missed it, but im soooo invested in this universe i MUST know how they all got turned.

you’re an amazing writer and i’m looking forward to indulging in this universe even more<333

OOOOHHHH THIS IS THE BLOODLINE QUESTION OF THE CENTURY 🔥🩸

thank you—you’ve just opened the coffin door and unleashed the origin lore of each vampire boy.

and yes, babe, I will give it to you. And since we’re already howling under this moon, I’m taking the chance to give you the full profiles of every member:

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

🕯️ VAMPIRE!SKZ LORE: ORIGIN + CHARACTER FILES

𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍 // Abnormal — The Leader

Born Abnormal. Eldest son of the legendary Bahng bloodline.

🩸 Blood Type Preference: A+ — says it tastes like control. 🩸 Bite Spot: Neck or heart. Always leaves a mark. 🩸 Risk Level: High. Do not lie to him.

Bahng Bloodline: A dynasty of Abnormal vampires known for intellect, power, and empire-building. They're respected, feared, and so fucking tired.

Occupation: CEO. Medical empire overlord.

❖ EMPIRE OVERVIEW

1. 𝐋𝐔𝐗𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇 Flagship Reach: 13 facilities worldwide (Seoul, NYC, Geneva, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Berlin…) What it is: A network of luxury medical campuses and trauma centres that function like private sovereign kingdoms. What it offers:

Elite trauma response units (some vamp-only),

Surgical wings equipped with vampire-safe tools,

Discreet blood-donor programs for feeding complications,

24/7 hybrid maternal wards,

Enchanted ICU rooms for patients with volatile magical signatures,

Postpartum sanctums.

How it runs: Every doctor, intern, and nurse is background-screened magically and politically. No one gets in without blood-clearance. And every building is rigged with silent security enchantments known only to Chan.

2. 𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐒 HQ: Underground beneath an “abandoned” teaching hospital in Osaka Employees: 83 total—47 scientists, 13 vampires, 6 war criminals turned researchers, 1 talking AI What it does: High-clearance research on:

Abnormal vampire genetics,

Inter-species fertility + gestation,

Soul-bond chemistry,

Venom therapies and neural reprogramming,

Rage-state prediction and pre-hormonal suppression formulas.

3. 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 HQ: Seoul, hidden behind a high-end tech startup Subsidiaries: 9 licensed shell firms, 3 black-market syndicates What it sells: Top-tier, vampire-adaptive medical tech. Some legal. Some… not. Main Products:

Vamp-compatible IV systems (no iron spike, scent-neutral tubing),

Hemoclot gauze: used in abnormal labour + field trauma,

Self-stitching scalpels: close tissue in 0.3 sec,

Bite inhibitors: prevent fatal overfeeding during sex or rage episodes,

Feeding suppression cuffs: rare, restricted, and locked behind magefire clearance.

4. 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 Established: Over 150 years ago under another name. Current Holdings: Over 70 registered shell companies, 200+ shadow contracts, assets in 11 global sectors Main Focus:

Vampire security firms,

Blood currency exchange management,

High-level scent encryption tech,

Strategic real estate purchases near bloodlines of interest,

Loyalty enforcement firms (aka very legal hitmen with degrees).

5. 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐓𝐒 + WHISPERS

Has scent ownership over 4 black-market vampire auction routes (never used them),

Secret shareholder in Hyeon-Bio, the largest supplier of iron-rich synthetic blood in Asia,

His personal blood vault is temperature-controlled and spell-locked.

⸺⟡⸺

𝐋𝐄𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 // Abnormal — The Prince of Teeth

Born Abnormal. From an aristocratic vampire family.

🩸 Blood Type Preference: B — "B for bite me, baby." 🩸 Bite Spot: Inner thigh. Just to watch you twitch. 🩸 Risk Level: Extreme. Glamours first, fucks after.

Lee Family: Aristocratic Abnormal vampires so ancient their bloodline predates language. They believe in order, lineage, and old magic.

Occupation: Executive Director of Containment & High-Risk Retrieval

❖ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 Minho is Luxe Health’s final option. He doesn’t run a hospital. He protects the entire machine. He operates in shadows—enforcing blood oaths, hunting threats, and handling bond-based emergencies no one else can touch.

What he actually does:

Tracks down rogue vampires who break hospital bonds or threaten mate pairs,

Personally retrieves stolen blood samples, escaped experimental subjects, and traitors,

Handles bond enforcement violations—especially vampire-hunter syndicates who target mates,

Interrogates internal security threats (very few of these leave intact),

Protects Chan without ever being asked to.

⸺⟡⸺

𝐒𝐄𝐎 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐁𝐈𝐍 // Normal — The Enforcer

Born Normal. From a proud Normal vampire family.

🩸 Blood Type Preference: O- — calls it rare. treats it like a reward. 🩸 Bite Spot: Just below the ribs. Deep. Bruising. Precise. 🩸 Risk Level: Moderate—unless you're crying. Then he breaks.

Seo Family: Normal vampire family known for bodyguard bloodlines and brute loyalty. They don't scheme. They protect.

Enchanted Jewellery for Sun Protection: Dual silver hoop earrings. They keep him stable and sun-safe.

Occupation: Director of Hostile Containment & Physical Defence Operations

❖ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 He’s not the planner. He’s the defence system. The vault. The riot wall.

What he actually does:

Leads containment units that subdue rogue vampires in medical environments,

Personally handles rage-state patients (he’s the only one strong enough to suppress them physically),

Trains Luxe staff in defensive protocols,

Keeps rage suppressant venom under strict lock—his blood is used in emergency antidote formulas.

⸺⟡⸺

𝐇𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐍𝐉𝐈𝐍 // Abnormal — The Siren

Born Abnormal. Abnormal vampire mother. Human father. …and he never lets his dad forget it.

“You pulled my mother? With those weak human genes? Bro.”

🩸 Blood Type Preference: AB — says it's complicated, like you. 🩸 Bite Spot: Over your pulse point. Wrist. Neck. Inner thigh. 🩸 Risk Level: Lethal. Will make you beg, cry, and thank him.

Hwang Line: Hyunjin's mother: a high-ranking Abnormal vampire matriarch. Stunning, powerful, untouchable. His father: a human with no idea how he pulled her. Hyunjin roasting his dad is normal occurrence.

Occupation: Artist. Director of Sensory Magic & Bond-Stabilisation Therapy

❖ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 Though he doesn't run anything, he's indispensable to the emotional architecture of Luxe Health.

What he actually does:

Oversees rooms where patients are emotionally unstable due to blood-bond trauma,

Performs ritual scent-mapping—helps bondmates reattach after mental collapse,

Creates magic-infused paintings used in trauma units to reduce psychic overload,

Monitors the sensory energy of Luxe hospitals, adjusting scent/sound magic,

Helps mate-pairs in distress by feeding them calm via shared dreaming

⸺⟡⸺

𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐉𝐈𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐆 // Normal — The Shadow Walker

Turned vampire. Born human, loud as hell. Got turned by a Normal vampire who didn’t even mean to turn him.

“I was just gonna feed a little—I didn’t know you'd bite me back!” Woke up the next day like “why does the sun feel like betrayal?” and “why do I want to bite the cashier at 7-Eleven?”

🩸 Blood Type Preference: A— — "light, fast, makes me hungrier." 🩸 Bite Spot: Wherever you're exposed. Probably when you're distracted. 🩸 Risk Level: Unstable. You'll think you're in control. You're not.

Han Family: Chaotic, mortal home where the TV was always too loud and nobody ever knocked before entering. His mom still doesn’t know he’s a vampire. She just thinks he’s sensitive to light and drinks “imported beet juice.”

Enchanted Jewellery for Sun Protection: Chaotic collection of silver and black rings. They absorb sunlight, protect from UV shock, and stabilise his energy.

Occupation: Lead Hemalchemist & Magical Encryption Architect

❖ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 Nocté Labs’ resident panic button + bloodcode architect

Cracks encrypted vampire contracts, binding curses, and genetic seals,

Designs venom modulation formulas for vampires in unstable emotional bonds.

What he actually does:

Designs blood-reactive compounds used in venom neutralisation, soulbond preservation, and hybrid pregnancy survival,

Synthesizes fetal-compensating serums,

Created the blood-matching algorithm used to stabilise inter-species transfusions,

Writes enchanment-locked medical codes for hospital tech (IV drips, blood storage, surgical authorisation),

Cracks cursed blood-seals and reversed magical bindings—like when a rogue vampire curses their own records,

Developed a venom-response biometric lock: doors open only when the right vampire's venom is present.

⸺⟡⸺

𝐋𝐄𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐗 // Abnormal — The Dreamer

Born Abnormal. Abnormal bloodline from a solar house.

🩸 Blood Type Preference: AB+ — "dreamers always taste sweeter." 🩸 Bite Spot: Over the heart. Tops of breasts. 🩸 Risk Level: Soft until he isn’t. You won’t wake up the same.

Lee Family: An Abnormal rare bloodline from a Solar House, steeped in dream-magic, prophecy, and radiant aura work. Soft-spoken, terrifyingly intuitive, and believe that every dream is a message.

Occupation: Director of Bond Stabilisation & Post-Feeding Regulation (Luxe Health)

❖ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 Where Chan leads, Minho protects, and Jisung breaks systems—Felix heals the aftermath.

What he actually does:

Monitors vampire feeding patterns to prevent overbinding, venom addiction, or withdrawal,

Performs post-bond stabilisation rituals for mate pairs,

Oversees emotional syncing in new hybrid families.

⸺⟡⸺

𝐊𝐈𝐌 𝐒𝐄𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐌𝐈𝐍 // Normal — The Beloved

Born Normal. Normal x Normal vampire family.

🩸 Blood Type Preference: A+ — "clean. sharp. predictable." 🩸 Bite Spot: Inner arm. Slowly. Like he's reading you. 🩸 Risk Level: High for overthinkers. He'll see through you.

Kim Family: A sweet, clean Normal x Normal vampire household where everything is labelled and dinner happens at 6PM. They believe in civility, stability, and passive-aggressive policy memos.

Enchanted Jewellery for Sun Protection: A minimalist silver hex-pendant with diamond facets (Chaumet's Bee My Love necklace). Blocks UV. Cancels glamours. Magical lie detection, it vibrates softly if someone isn't being truthful.

Occupation: Director of Medical-Legal Integrity & Bond Law Arbitration (Luxe Health)

❖ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 He is the law inside the blood. Where Chan builds, Minho eliminates, and Hyunjin dreams—Seungmin makes it all function.

What he actually does:

Handles disputes between vampires and blood donors—usually ends with someone glamoured or gutted,

Is one of three licenced enforcers allowed to break a soulbond if needed (he hates it),

Reviews all new Luxe Health experiments, hybrid procedures, and blood treatments,

Vetos anything that violates consent, autonomy, or emotional safety,

Investigates feeding misconduct, glamoured coercion, or illegal bond formation,

Oversees background screenings for every single hospital staff member.

⸺⟡⸺

𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐈𝐍 // Normal (Evolving Abnormal) — The Smile with Fangs

Born Normal. Normal x Normal vampire family. Supposed to stay that way. Except… things started happening.

His aura began distorting.

His heartbeat slowed.

His veins started glowing when he was hungry.

🩸 Blood Type Preference: "Yours is the only one that matters." 🩸 Bite Spot: Whatever he sees first. He can’t wait. 🩸 Risk Level: Unknown. His blood hums. And so does the dark.

Yang Family: Normal x Normal vampire lineage. Steady. Safe.

Occupation: Junior Bond Support Specialist, Luxe Health

❖ 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐄 He is the law inside the blood. Where Chan builds, Minho eliminates, and Hyunjin dreams—Seungmin makes it all function.

What he actually does:

Works under Felix's supervision to comfort patients post-bonding trauma,

Learns how to manage bond flares, withdrawal symptoms, and memory bleed,

Smells emotions better than most normals—Felix suspects this is early Abnormal scent-mapping,

Occasionally enters micro trance states while feeding — Abnormal memory-linking? Still undocumented.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

🩸 BONUS SCENE — HOW HAN JISUNG GOT TURNED

It started at a club. Of course it did.

Jisung was 21, overly cocky, and two shots past good judgment. She was glowing—red dress, dark eyes, and a stare like she knew things. He asked if she wanted to dance. She asked if he tasted good.

They ended up at his place.

Clothes flew. Lights flickered. Neck-kissing intensified. Somewhere between a moan and a joke, she sank her fangs into him without warning. Jisung yelped, swore, and out of pure chaotic panic—he bit her right back.

Like. Fully chomped her shoulder.

Not seductively. Not vampirically. Just… human instinct + rage + horny adrenaline.

“YOU BIT ME, I BITE BACK. IT’S CALLED BOUNDARIES—”

She laughed so hard she fell off the bed. Then vanished.

And Jisung? He woke up 12 hours later, naked, on the floor, with the blinds open and his skin sizzling like bacon.

The bite on his neck was half-healed, but his teeth ached, his heartbeat was missing, and he couldn’t stop hearing the guy next door crying about his failed Tinder date.

And the fridge? The fridge was screaming. Not audibly. But energetically. Emotionally. Spiritually. The pickles had rage. The oat milk was mourning.

His dog wouldn't come near him (he took that personally).

He lasted twenty minutes before shoving on sweatpants, three pairs of sunglasses, and a bucket hat and speed-walking to the ER like a man possessed.

He burst through the ER doors like a disaster.

“I think I’m dying. Or I’m already dead. Or the pickles are gaslighting me.”

A nurse screamed. A security guard passed out. And one intern fainted when his eyes glowed after yelling “WHAT’S IN THE BLOOD BAGS?!”

They restrained him. Badly.

Cue, Bang Chan.

He got called.

He stood in the doorway with one brow raised, arms crossed, as Jisung sat on the hospital bed with two nurses passed out and an empty blood bag in his lap.

“Who the fuck are you?” Jisung asked.

Chan blinked. “You bit back, didn’t you.”

“EXCUSE ME?”

“Yeah. Got laid, got bit, and you panicked. Bit her back?”

“SHE STARTED IT.”

Chan nodded, pulled out a tablet, and typed something.

“Congratulations. You turned yourself. That’s rare. Stupid, but rare.”

They had to sneak him out of the hospital to a Luxe Health affiliate facility. Chan handed him a velvet-lined box with five mismatched silver and black rings.

“These are panic-forged. Calibrated to your blood and neurochemical spikes. Wear them or burn.”

“Will they help with the milk screaming?”

“Eventually.”

Jisung put them on. The room stopped spinning. The fluorescent lights stopped crying. He exhaled for the first time in 12 hours.

“Okay. So now what?”

Chan smirked.

"Now you either implode, or you figure out how to live with it. You seem like a lab rat. We'll see."

Jisung didn’t implode. He started reading. Obsessively. And then coding vampire encryption algorithms just to “see if he could.”

He broke into Nocté’s internal database within four days. By day five, Chan hired him.

“You’re annoying, unstable, and your emotional energy shorts out half our security systems… but you’re a genius. Don’t make me regret this.”

"Too late."

He became Lead Hemalchemist & Magical Encryption Architect six months later. Still wears the rings. Still talks to his dog. Still hasn’t told his mom.

“What happened to the vampire woman?”

“No clue. Hope she’s well. Hope she’s confused.”

“Hope she’s telling people ‘he bit me back’ and they think she’s joking.”

🩸 And that’s how Han Jisung became a vampire. No destiny. No plan. Just sex, panic and bite reflex. Rest? History.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

🦇 HOW CHAN MET THE KIDS

HAN JISUNG

How they met: ER. 9AM. Chaos. Jisung walked into the hospital like a possessed cryptid. He had a half-healed bite on his neck, glowing eyes, and a blood bag clutched like a Capri-Sun. Bang Chan got paged. He arrived to find two unconscious nurses, one passed-out intern, and Jisung blinking up innocently. They sedated him with sugar cubes and sarcasm, smuggled him out through the supply exit, and brought him to a Luxe Health affiliate. Chan handed him a box of black-and-silver enchanted rings.

Bonded over: Neurotoxin theory, cursed coding, and shared chaos energy. By Day 4, Jisung hacked Nocté’s database. By Day 5, he was hired. By Month 6, he was Lead Hemalchemist & Magical Encryption Architect. Still unstable. Still a genius.

⸺⟡⸺

SEO CHANGBIN

How they met: A rooftop brawl in Busan. Chan was handling rogue vampire surveillance. Found a hulking figure beating the unlife out of two ferals with nothing but his fists and a cursed trash can lid. Turns out Changbin, a Normal vampire, had taken one look at some ferals harassing a kid and gone full WWE. Chan stepped in. Changbin squared up. “You next?” Chan: “God no. I’m here to offer you a job.” Changbin: “...Do I get dental?” Chan: “You don’t need teeth cleaning, but sure.”

Bonded over: Heavy lifting. Shared distaste for drama. Emergency planning. Mutual respect. He’s now Chief of Enforcement & Containment. Still punches through walls.

⸺⟡⸺

LEE MINHO

How they met: Chan was tracking a rogue diplomat who’d gone dark in the southern city sectors. What he found instead was a blood-soaked apartment, two neutralized traitors, and one barefoot vampire sitting on the kitchen counter eating strawberries like nothing happened. Minho didn’t look up. Just said, “You’re late. I cleaned already.” Chan: “You kill them?” Minho: “They tried to touch my cat.” Chan blinked. The cat blinked. The corpses did not.

Bonded over: Deadpan sarcasm. Precision. The mutual understanding that some monsters are better on your side. Also: they both hate unnecessary meetings and love sharp tailoring. Minho now runs the most feared branch of Luxe Health. Executive Director of Containment & High-Risk Retrieval. If you go rabid, defect, break a pact, or bite a diplomat? He’s the one they send.

⸺⟡⸺ LEE FELIX

How they met: In a lucid dream. No, literally. Chan fell asleep in a cursed zone and woke up in a dreamspace filled with glowing doors and ocean sounds. Felix was sitting in the middle of it, braiding golden threads into a circle. Felix: “Took you long enough. I saw this meeting six months ago.” Chan: “...Am I dead?” Felix: “No. But your shirt is ugly.”

Bonded over: Dream magic. Prophetic patterns. Moonlight rituals. Felix later appeared IRL at Nocté’s doorstep holding a blood map and a smoothie. Now Director of Bond Stabilisation & Post-Feeding Regulation at Luxe Health. Monitors bond integrity across blood partnerships. Specializes in emotional imprinting post-bite and venom-laced intimacy fallout. Sleeps more than he's awake.

⸺⟡⸺

HWANG HYUNJIN

How they met: Chan was called in to calm a rogue Abnormal with volatile sensory magic wreaking havoc in a high-rise studio gallery. The paintings were screaming. The scent of memory was leaking from the floors. And one of the interns claimed her lipstick was whispering her secrets. Chan stepped into the center of the room—and found Hyunjin barefoot, shirt half-painted, surrounded by levitating canvases and crying brushes. “Hi,” Hyunjin said. “Do you ever get so emotional your aura starts painting without you?” Chan blinked. “You need containment protocol.” Hyunjin tilted his head. “I need better brushes.”

Bonded over: Chaos, controlled burnouts, the sanctity of beauty, and how the council has no taste. Chan offered him a role. Hyunjin agreed—on the condition that no one ever touches his sketchbooks and he gets a studio. Now Director of Sensory Magic & Bond-Stabilisation Therapy (Luxe Health) but also Resident aesthetic menace. Full-time artist.

⸺⟡⸺

KIM SEUNGMIN

How they met: Chan was giving a very serious presentation on venom-resistance protocols to the Vampire Medical Council. Seungmin raised his hand mid-sentence and went: “Your math’s wrong. Your fourth slide contradicts your second.” Chan: “…Excuse me?” Seungmin: “Also your tie is ugly. Continue.” They argued. For 47 minutes. In public. Chan’s eye twitched so hard his glamour nearly cracked. He hired Seungmin out of spite. Seungmin accepted out of boredom. He’s been judging everyone since.

Bonded over: Sarcasm, obsessive data ethics, filing council complaints just to see if they get read. Official Director of Medical-Legal Integrity & Bond Law Arbitration (Luxe Health). Has blackmail on everyone. Including Chan.

⸺⟡⸺

YANG JEONGIN

How they met: He just… showed up. No seriously. One day he walked into Nocté Labs asking for internship credit. Said he was Normal. Blood test disagreed. He broke a lab door with his smile. Chan: “You’re Awakening.” Jeongin: “Cool. Can I still work part-time?” Chan: “Sure, just don’t explode.” Jeongin: “No promises.”

Bonded over: Snark. Surprising feral strength. Jeongin mocking everyone’s drama while secretly becoming the most terrifying one. Currently in training. Awakening into something… dangerous. Still uses emojis in reports. Current role is Junior Bond Support Specialist, Luxe Health under Felix.

· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────༺♱༻────── · ·· · ──────

sweetfang. chaos-summoner. thank you for this ask I blacked out. Woke up with 13k+ words and bloodlust in my coffee.

did I go overboard? probably. do I regret it? absolutely not. do I hope you read it under a blanket at 3AM whispering “oh my god”? yes. yes I do.

this universe has fangs now and you helped feed it. so drink deep, dream wild, and remember: 🩸Han Jisung got turned by biting back during sex. 🩸Bang Chan owns a hospital empire and your soul. 🩸Jeongin showed up like a glitch.

🖤 stay haunted, stay hungry

[ludolka]

Also omg I’m going crazy because I’m fucking cooking up another au- y’all are allowed to hit me with a car lmao

But I’ve been heavily inspired by the work I do and the numerous talks I had with my dad, who is a ceo of a small tech startup and also I’ve been getting back into D:BH lately, which also inspired me

So ! What I have so far; basically it’s an android/artificial intelligence becoming rouge and sentient au

There is a group of scientists working on a fully functional AI-powered android, the first of its kind. It’s called the Xelqua line and so far they only have one model, 001 (so Grian) that is still a work in progress

The main group assigned to 001 consists of Mumbo, Joel, Jimmy and Lizzie, everyone has a different purpose in teaching and developing 001. Mumbo’s the main programmer, Joel’s the mechanic, Jimmy works with the social programming and he’s the main person who talks to and teaches 001 and Lizzie’s the designer

Scar and Cub are also there with the company, Cub is the supervisor of 001’s main research/developer group and Scar’s the marketing leader, who closely works with the group to keep up with updates and he pretty much promotes the company and the Xelqua line for investors

I want to format this au differently than how I usually format my au’s, I want the main storytelling to be through comics and possibly fics, all in the style of research entries

( Also, name suggestions for the au would be appreciated once again lmao and also send me asks about this !! I wanna talk about this au !! )

[coffeekenzie]

I interviewed for my dream job at the USDA a few months ago. I was second choice. I held out hope for months. Finally found out the other guy accepted. Fine. It’s research I really believe in even if I don’t get to be the one to do it. The research proposal I put together for the application excited me. I hope they take some of my ideas into consideration, I’m not precious about them. I want science to thrive.

Now as far as I can tell on the research unit site there are no active employees. And even though I didn’t get the job it still makes me so mad. I guess it’s slightly better than getting the job and relocating and then getting laid off 3 months in but still the fact that myself and my unnamed competitor went through a really rigorous application process to run a research lab only for it to be for fucking nothing makes me so mad. I don’t know if they actually laid off all employees but they definitely laid off probationary employees (>3 years) and all the effort that goes into those probationary years, the funding secured to build a lab and a research project and hire post docs to get fucking nothing from it is such a goddamn waste. One of the probationary researchers I know was laid off was an analytical chemist and do you KNOW how expensive a GC-MS is??? The analytical chemist I worked with at UC Davis liked to say his lab was the equivalent value of a cul-de-sac of homes in Davis.

Plus agricultural research is by nature of agriculture SLOW. Shit takes time to grow. So much fucking WASTE by shuttering USDA-ARS sites. I know it wasn’t just Davis. I have a USDA-ARS job search alert that has gone dark.

When I interviewed and asked about the election they said they had some concerns about Trump but agriculture was so bi partisan that it was very unlikely that the election would have a major impact on the department.

Fuck Elon Musk, fuck DOGE, fuck Trump. I’ve been dealing with this shitty ass job market for over a year trying to leave my terrible startup and the potential for government work felt like a miracle. The people who achieved that should not go through being put out like that. Plus you know fast paced industry jobs won’t want employees used to the pace of government bureaucracy.

I just I know there’s so much bad going on but this one hits close to home.

Also the research project was mitigating the effect of wildfire smoke exposure on grapes and other west coast agricultural products so enjoy further enshittification of your west coast fruits and veggies because it’s certainly gonna not stop being on fire there.

Man I went on my yearly vacation to Washington wine country right after the interview over the summer and the small wineries I visited were so excited about the research the USDA was doing.

It’s so fucking stupid

[zylentrix]

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At Zylentrix, we’re on a mission to empower individuals, businesses, and communities through innovation, integrity, and sustainability. Our vision? To lead the world in integrated consultancy services, transforming challenges into stepping stones for growth. Whether you’re scaling a business, launching a career, or pursuing education, we’re here to equip you with the tools to thrive. Let’s unpack how our mission, values, and culture make us the partner you can trust.

🎯 Our Mission & Vision: The North Star of Zylentrix

Mission: “To empower individuals, businesses, and communities by delivering innovative and customised solutions across education, technology, recruitment, and business consulting. With a commitment to excellence, integrity, and sustainability, we strive to create opportunities, bridge gaps, drive transformation, and foster long-term success.”

Vision: “To be the global leader in integrated consultancy services, transforming lives and businesses through innovative, sustainable, and forward-thinking solutions that empower individuals, businesses, and communities to thrive and succeed.”

We’re not just consultants—we’re architects of progress, designing futures where everyone has the chance to excel.

💎 Core Values: The Pillars of Everything We Do

Our values are the blueprint for how we serve clients, collaborate with partners, and grow as a team:

Integrity: “Building Trust Through Transparency” Every decision is guided by ethics. No shortcuts, no compromises.

Innovation: “Driving Future-Ready Solutions” From AI-driven recruitment tools to sustainable business frameworks, we pioneer what’s next.

Excellence: “Delivering Impact & Measurable Growth” We set—and smash—high standards, ensuring clients see real results.

Customer-Centricity: “Putting Clients at the Centre of Everything” Your goals shape our strategies. We listen, adapt, and deliver.

Diversity, Inclusion & Collaboration: “Creating Equal Opportunities for All” Diverse teams = smarter solutions. We champion equity in every project.

Sustainability: “Responsible Business for a Better Future” Green tech, eco-friendly practices, and ethical growth are non-negotiables.

Empowerment: “Enabling People & Businesses to Thrive” We don’t just hand you tools—we teach you how to master them.

🤝 Our Commitment: Tailored Support for Every Journey

Zylentrix is your partner in growth, no matter your starting point:

For Businesses:

Tech Solutions: Streamline operations with scalable AI, cybersecurity, and cloud systems.

Strategic Recruitment: Access global talent pools curated for cultural and technical fit.

Consulting Excellence: Turn insights into action with market research and digital transformation plans.

For Job Seekers:

Career Mastery: Revamp resumes, ace interviews, and unlock roles in booming industries like fintech and clean energy.

Global Mobility: Navigate international job markets with visa support and relocation guidance.

For Students:

Education Pathways: Secure admissions and scholarships at top universities worldwide.

Future-Proof Skills: Gain certifications in AI, sustainability, and more through our partnerships.

For Startups & SMEs:

Scale Smart: Leverage data analytics and ESG frameworks to grow responsibly.

Funding Ready: Craft investor pitches that stand out in crowded markets.

🌱 Our Culture: Fueling Innovation from Within

At Zylentrix, our workplace is a launchpad for creativity and collaboration. Here’s what defines us:

Lifelong Learning: Monthly workshops, innovation challenges, and tuition reimbursements keep our team ahead of trends.

Agility in Action: When the world changes, we pivot faster—like shifting to virtual career fairs during the pandemic.

Collaborative Spirit: Cross-departmental “sprint teams” solve client challenges, blending tech experts, educators, and recruiters.

Ownership & Impact: Every employee, from interns to executives, contributes to client success stories.

Work-Life Harmony: Flexible hours, mental health resources, and sustainability days ensure our team thrives inside and out.

Join the Zylentrix Movement

Ready to transform your business, career, or community? Let’s build a future where innovation and integrity go hand in hand.

📩 Connect Today 👉 Explore our services: Zylentrix 👉 Follow us on Social Media for tips on tech, careers, and sustainability. LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok X Pinterest YouTube Quora Medium 👉 Email consult@zylentrix.net to schedule a free consultation.

[olderthannetfic]

I saw a good post about the anti-BL creators of Western BL flavored stuff like Heartstopper and RWRB that was like: if they are so hell bent on the idea that their stuff is aimed at gay and bisexual men or boys, why did they not bother to look at any media by/for gay men? It’s not like that’s hard to find. Even if you’re just looking at stuff for teens like with Heartstopper author, most of the big YA books about gay or bi male characters are by gay male authors. Maybe try reading those. They’re clearly reading nothing but slash fanfic and maybe like M/M romance novels for women or like, idk, Check Please, and then going Shocked Pikachu Face when it turns out their books are way more popular with female audiences and Heartstopper TV has a famous gay man talk about how it’s clearly not for gay men and not how actual gay boys act.

And like… I don’t think there’s anything wrong with M/M stuff for women, the author of this post was clear that she didn’t think there was either. But these authors clearly wanted to make M/M for men so like… maybe talk to queer men or look at the media queer men are making for themselves if that is your goal! Less fanfic, more Looking or whatever.

It’s just the sheer fucking hubris of assuming that because they are some other flavor of queer and they’ve read some M/M fiction (slash fanfic) that they must know what it’s like to be every type of LGBTQ+ and don’t need to do any research to appeal to that audience.

--

They don't want to make m/m for cis gay male culture.

What they want is to have their current tastes validated in a "You're one of the boys and those other filthy fujos aren't!" way.

Trust me, this crap has been going on since the 90s and before. It's a common affliction of slash fans who want to be the most special. That goes for the trans men trying to assert their masculinity in a world that doesn't respect them as much as for the straight ladies who endlessly tell you about their Gay Best Friend. It's a disease that hits all parts of BL fandom.

It's just our local flavor of "Knitting isn't just for GIRLS anymore!" and "Now you can drink tea as a MAN!" startup bro insecurities. You know, the people being parodied here.

The best we can do is to keep laughing in their faces and keep treating BL as a marketing niche with genre conventions that's open to whomever shares that taste.

[dropintomanga]

AI Can't Be the Whole Solution for Manga

So this week I found out out a Japanese start-up called Orange, who wants to be the Netflix of manga by translating a lot of manga with new apps and tools for the world to fight against online piracy. And to do so, the company will use AI to machine translate all of their manga into English. They also received $20 million USD in funding (one of their investors is Shogakukan) for their goal. This company wants to release up to 500 titles a month at some point.

I honestly don't know how to feel about this.

I read a more in-depth report from Deb Aoki of ComicsBeat and Mangasplaining about this whole startup. There's a lot of tout given by Orange about how this will help the manga industry overseas. Terms like deep learning, accessible content, influencers, reducing cost of localization, etc. are thrown around. Orange already has done some work for Shueisha for some of its MangaPlus titles. While it's apparent that the North American market only gets a small fraction of the manga published in Japan, there's concerns over whether this endeavor will end well.

A good number of manga translators and editors in the North American localization scene have commented on how bad this can be. AI machine translation is far from perfect. While DeepL (a Japanese language translation app similar to Google Translate) is arguably better than Google Translate, there's still errors abound. AI machine translation doesn't seem to be at a stage where you can just show it off to the world and have it translate something like a research paper with context. And even if the translation was good, there still needs to be people to fix errors AI will miss and the jobs to fix those errors don't necessarily pay well since they're the equivalent of "data entry" jobs.

And speaking as someone who reads up on mental health news, AI is not good for picking up nuances and differences that can help people for the better. It's only good for standardizing universal treatments. AI can not be open to the vulnerabilities of other people. One recent story I read last year was about a eating disorder helpline that created a chatbot to help those with eating disorders and how it bombed. There were complaints about how the bot didn't address patients' concerns that they were feeling down or bad about their bodies. Even worse, the chatbot gave some horrible advice by telling people to follow behaviors that led to their eating disorders in the first place. The support staff was fired in favor of the chatbot and while the chatbot was taken down after the complaints, it still left a bad taste in my mouth because mental health problems can never be solved without the human element.

I see this with what's apparently going to happen with manga. I don't see this creating a better world for manga readers. I'm well aware that there are a few professional manga translators in the scene who aren't doing a good job, but I feel they're doing fine for the most part. There's a glaring issue though that most people aren't thinking about - the amount of content we have out there.

We're in a golden age of having so much catered to us that it's ridiculous. Anime, manga, webtoons, video games, board games, music, etc. There's a lot out there. And to have a Japanese startup proclaim that they want to put out up to 500 titles a month, who realistically has the time to read all of them? I wonder if that's the point of these ventures - beat down consumers with so much material to consume that they become apathetic to what's going on behind the scenes.

I do want people to read manga, but I don't want them to become so overwhelmed to the point of burnout and numbness. That's the last thing any manga fan should want. I'm already hearing complaints from my fellow manga peers about the amount of manga we're getting here. It's nice to see bookshelves and libraries filled with manga, but which titles are really being read?

I also think there seems to be no universal standard that EVERYONE can agree with regards to localization. You have the professional side that knows a lot due to being inside the industry, but can be hindered by the Japanese publishing side and pestered by fans who think they know better. And you have the fan side that thinks they know everything because of scanlations and miscellaneous fan translations.

If you're a professional, it's a rough job and I applaud all manga freelancers who do it. Sometimes, I may not agree with the localization choices. But I'm not going to raise a pitchfork and treat them like they're witches. I know a few of those folks in-person and see the human in them.

If you're a fan, you can't expect a very casual reader to understand Japanese terms being spoken out right off the bat. It takes a while to get used to those terms. I'll use myself as an example as a riichi mahjong player. I throw out terms like suji, kabe, mentanpin, ryanmen, etc. to my fellow players. However, if there's an absolute beginner I'm talking to, they will have no idea what the hell I'm talking about.

I know some fans are like "Whatever, understanding those terms make me stand out. Yeah, I'm different! Screw the normal world!" But that makes it sound like gatekeeping to a certain degree. It's fine to have that kind of knowledge, but binding it to the very fabric of your identity is not healthy when circumstances change.

Orange seems to want a universal standard for manga translation by incorporating a variety of people into their process, but the fact that people will only be involved AFTER the translation makes me skeptical and the company is being called out for some things on their website. Both professionals and consumers will be screwed here. AI is being pushed so hard by corporations because it can readily applied to real life jobs and regular people in many ways, compared to cryptocurrency/NFTs, which applies only to people with a crap ton of money to spend. I've seen instances of AI usage at the company I work at - some of it good, some of it bad.

But nothing will beat the will and heart of the people. I think that's what scares AI-promoting people. Turning us into total mindless consumers prevents us from being mindful people that want to do right by others. Sure, reading manga makes me happy. But I don't want to be the only one who's happy. I also want people to make informed choices about what to consume.

I also want some people to stop assuming that Japan is the most "anti-woke" country alive out of their rage against localization because it's totally not. Japan has problems and there's people living there speaking out against them. They're "woke" in their own way. I swear that almost everyone who thinks Japan is better than the West hasn't lived there at all and are basing things from a very filtered point of view. I actually feel sorry for them because their lives are just so focused on consuming without thinking for themselves - a perfect market for the AI-pushing crowd.

I'll finish by saying that this AI-powered manga translation venture needs to happen with the right kind of people already on the table through the whole process and where everyone benefits. Everything bad with AI, as far as I've seen, has left people behind with no compassion or empathy. Manga has taught the wonders of compassion and empathy for all and I don't see the Japanese business side of things preaching what their works speak.

[glimmeringwolfjungle]

Why Today's Best Professors are Redefining Entrepreneurship Education

Introduction

In a global where innovation drives fiscal growth, the position of educators in entrepreneurship has on no account been greater necessary. The panorama of entrepreneurship schooling is shortly evolving, and at the leading edge of this alteration are this day’s satisfactory professors. They are usually not purely coaching pupils to start companies; they're redefining what it capability to tutor entrepreneurs. With an emphasis on real looking program, experiential gaining knowledge of, and mentoring, those educators are crafting a new generation of innovators organized to address proper-international challenges.

This article delves into why today's satisfactory professors are redefining entrepreneurship guidance, exploring their techniques, philosophies, and the have an impact on they have on each pupils and the broader startup atmosphere.

Defining Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education: Beyond Curriculum, Toward Impact

When we dialogue of excellence in entrepreneurship instruction, it’s central to look beyond common curricula. Today’s optimal professors know that only presenting experience isn’t ample. They try for impact—fostering abilties that translate into tangible result.

The Shift from Theory to Practice

Gone are the days whilst scholars discovered entirely as a result of textbook theories. Top professors now employ a mix of theoretical frameworks and life like applications. They curate case stories that mirror cutting-edge market stipulations and inspire scholars to analyze authentic-world problems.

Collaborative Learning Environments

To beautify gaining knowledge of reviews, many educators create collaborative environments wherein scholars can Small Business Professor Tucson Best Entrepreneurship Professor in Tucson brainstorm solutions mutually. This technique not solely fosters creativity yet additionally builds most important teamwork abilties. Through organization tasks and peer opinions, pupils learn from each and every different even as creating their company acumen.

Incorporating Real-World Challenges

Professors by and large convey business gurus into the lecture room or require scholars to engage with startups right away. This exposure allows for rookies to confront true demanding situations confronted with the aid of marketers these days. By doing so, they enhance integral wondering abilities and flexibility—tendencies obligatory for good fortune in any entrepreneurial pastime.

Bridging Theory and Practice: How Great Professors Connect Academic Rigor with Startup Realities

One of the such Entrepreneurship Professor a lot vital contributions made with the aid of in the present day’s accurate professors is their capability to bridge the space between theoretical realizing and life like utility. They do that through integrating educational rigor with actual-global startup realities.

Guest Lecturers from Diverse Industries

Inviting visitor lecturers who're professional marketers gives priceless insights for college kids. These experienced pros share studies approximately their successes and failures, featuring courses that should not be observed in textbooks.

Field Studies: Learning Outside the Classroom

Many professors endorse for subject research—immersive discovering experiences wherein college students can note firms in action. These tours en

[innomaxstartup]

How to Start a Business from Scratch in 2025 – A Step-by-Step Guide for New Founders

Thinking about launching your own business but don’t know where to begin? You’re not alone. In 2025, starting a business from scratch is more accessible—and more competitive—than ever before. Here’s how to do it right.

🚀 Introduction: Why 2025 Is the Perfect Year to Start a Business

The rules of entrepreneurship are changing fast. Thanks to AI tools, digital platforms, and remote work, building a business from scratch has never been more possible—or more exciting.

But with opportunity comes complexity. The startup world in 2025 is competitive, fast-paced, and constantly evolving. If you’ve got an idea and the ambition to bring it to life, this guide will walk you through how to start a business from scratch—step by step.

Whether you’re launching a tech startup, a local service, or a creative venture, this practical roadmap will help you move from dream to launch with clarity and confidence. Importance of Startups for India’s Economy 

Startups play a pivotal role in shaping India’s economy by creating jobs, fostering innovation, and contributing significantly to GDP growth. As of 2022, startups accounted for about 2.64% of employment in the Indian market, highlighting their importance. The government of India has recognized this potential and launched various initiatives, such as the Startup India scheme, to support startup growth through funding, mentorship, and favorable policies. This ecosystem has propelled India into the ranks of top global leaders in innovation and entrepreneurship. 

 Step 1: Validate Your Business Idea

Don’t build before you validate.

Many new entrepreneurs fall in love with their idea before checking if people actually need it. In 2025, with customer attention at a premium, market validation is non-negotiable.

Here’s how to validate:

Talk to potential customers (online or offline).

Use tools like Google Trends, Reddit, and Quora to check demand.

Launch a quick landing page with tools like Carrd or Webflow and collect signups.

Offer a pre-sale or pilot to gauge interest.

If no one bites, pivot or refine.

Step 2: Do Market Research

Understand your customers, competitors, and trends.

Before spending time or money, study the landscape. What’s trending in your industry? Who else is offering similar products or services?

Use:

Google & YouTube for trend spotting.

SEMrush or Ubersuggest for keyword and competitor analysis.

Statista, CB Insights, or even Instagram/TikTok for emerging consumer behavior.

Find your edge. Your unique value proposition (UVP) is what will separate you from the noise in 2025.

 Step 3: Write a Simple Business Plan

This isn’t corporate homework—it’s your action blueprint.

In 2025, your business plan doesn’t have to be 40 pages long. Keep it lean, focused, and useful. Include:

What you’re selling

Who it’s for

How you’ll reach customers

Cost to build/operate

Revenue model (how you’ll make money)

Short-term and long-term goals

Tools like Notion, LivePlan, or Canva Business Plan templates can help make it painless.

 Step 4: Choose a Business Name & Register It

Your brand starts with a name.

Make it:

Easy to remember

Easy to spell

Relevant to your offering

Available online (domain + social handles)

Use tools like Namechk, GoDaddy, or NameMesh to check availability. Once chosen, register it in your country or state. In India, use the MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) portal. In the US, check with your Secretary of State’s website.

Don’t forget to buy the domain and secure the social media handles.

 Step 5: Handle Legal & Financial Basics

Yes, it’s boring—but skipping it can cost you.

Choose a business structure (sole proprietorship, LLP, private limited, etc.)

Apply for licenses or permits based on your industry.

Open a business bank account.

Set up accounting tools like Zoho Books, QuickBooks, or even Excel if you're bootstrapping.

Separate personal and business finances from day one.

If unsure, talk to a startup consultant or accountant. Step 6 : Choose the Right Business Structure

In 2025, many new founders prefer flexible setups that protect their personal assets and allow easy growth. You can choose from:

Sole Proprietorship (easy, but less protection)

LLP/LLC (more legal protection, preferred for small businesses)

Private Limited Company (ideal for startups looking to raise funds)

Each country has its own rules, so check your local regulations or consult a business advisor.

Step 7 : Build Your Online Presence

If you’re not online, you’re invisible.

In 2025, your digital presence is as important as your product. Get started with:

A clean, responsive website (WordPress, Wix, or Webflow)

Active social media profiles (LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, depending on your audience)

A basic Google Business Profile if you’re local

Email marketing tools like Mailchimp or Beehiiv

Build credibility through consistency, not perfection.

 Step 8: Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Start simple, launch fast.

Whether it’s a physical product, digital service, or mobile app, launch with the minimum set of features needed to test real demand.

Your MVP might be:

A no-code app built with Glide or Bubble

A service offered through DMs and GPay

A prototype product made by hand

Speed is your friend. Launch. Learn. Improve.

Step 9: Start Marketing Early

If you build it, they won’t come—unless you market it.

Use cost-effective methods to start:

Organic social media content

Blogging and SEO (try ChatGPT to draft posts!)

Influencer partnerships or product seeding

Referral programs or giveaways

Cold outreach (emails, DMs, calls)

In 2025, community is currency—build yours early and nurture it.

 Step 10: Explore Funding Options (If Needed)

If your startup requires capital, explore:

Bootstrapping (your own savings)

Friends & family

Crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Ketto, etc.)

Angel investors or venture capital

Startup accelerators or incubators

Pro tip: Even if you’re not raising money yet, create a pitch deck. It clarifies your vision and makes you look investor-ready.

Benefits of Government Schemes for Startups1. Financial Support: 2. Tax Exemption 3. Simplified Compliance 4. Easier Public Procurement 5. IPR Support 6. Access to Funding 7. Incubation and Mentorship 8. Mentorship and Skill Development 9. Networking Opportunities 10.Promotion of Innovation

Conclusion: 2025 Is the Best Time to Build. So Start.

Starting a business from scratch isn’t about waiting for the “perfect” moment. It’s about taking the first small step, validating, building smart, and learning fast.

In 2025, you don’t need a million-dollar idea. You need clarity, a problem to solve, and the grit to keep going.

✅ Ready to launch your startup?

At Innomax Startup Advisory, we help first-time founders go from idea to impact with mentorship, incubation, funding support, and everything in between. Don’t do it alone—get expert help that actually moves you forward.

👉 Visit https://innomaxstartup.com/ to get started. Your business starts now Let’s build it—step by step.

[video-editing15]

Mastering SEO: How Buzz Creators Ranks Your Brand at the Top of Google 🚀 

Introduction: Why SEO Still Rules the Digital World  In a world where over 90% of online experiences begin with a search engine, showing up on Google is no longer optional—it’s essential. Whether you're a startup, e-commerce brand, or service provider, SearchEngineOptimization (SEO) helps you attract organic traffic, build authority, and turn clicks into customers—without paying for every visit. 

But ranking on Google isn’t about luck. It’s about strategy, content, and consistency. 

That’s where BuzzCreatorDigitalMedia comes in. As a top-rated digital marketing agency in Dubai, we help businesses climb the search rankings with smart, scalable, and ROI-driven SEO solutions. 

What is SEO and Why Does It Matter? 🧠 

The higher your site ranks, the more traffic, leads, and sales you generate—organically. 

Here’s what a strong SEO strategy includes: 

✅ Keyword Research – Identifying high-traffic, low-competition keywords for your niche  ✅ On-Page SEO – Optimizing content, headers, meta tags, and internal links  ✅ Technical SEO – Improving site speed, mobile responsiveness, and indexability  ✅ Content Creation – Publishing quality blog posts and landing pages that rank  ✅ Backlink Building – Earning high-authority links to build trust and domain strength  ✅ Local SEO – Getting your business found in local searches and Google Maps  ✅ Analytics & Reporting – Tracking rankings, traffic, and conversions 

With Buzz Creators, your website isn’t just searchable—it’s unmissable. 

Why Choose Buzz Creators for SEO Services? 

At Buzz Creators, we don’t chase trends—we build long-term results. Our SEO strategies are data-driven, ethical (white-hat), and 100% tailored to your business goals. 

💡 Custom SEO Plans – No copy-paste strategies. Every business gets a personalized SEO roadmap  📈 Proven Ranking Results – We help you move from page 10 to page 1 (and stay there)  🔍 In-Depth Keyword Research – Find exactly what your audience is searching for  🛠 Full Website Optimization – From site speed to content structure, we fine-tune everything  📊 Transparent Monthly Reporting – Know what’s working with clear, jargon-free updates 

✨ Did You Know? If you're not there, you're invisible. 

Buzz Creators Digital Media: SEO and Beyond 

While SEO is at our core, Buzz Creators offers a full spectrum of digital marketing services to grow your business online: 

📱 Social Media Management – Build your brand and engage your audience on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more  📢 Google Ads & Paid Media – Immediate visibility with strategic PPC campaigns  🎨 Website Design & Development – Fast, mobile-friendly, and SEO-optimized websites  🖼 Graphic Design – Visuals that capture attention and communicate value  🧠 Content Marketing – Blog posts, landing pages, and copywriting that converts 

We don’t just drive traffic. We help you convert visitors into loyal customers. 

Proven SEO Strategies That Deliver 💼 

At Buzz Creators, our SEO framework is tested and results-focused. Here’s how we boost your search visibility: 

✔️ Comprehensive Site Audit – We identify all technical and content gaps holding you back  ✔️ Keyword Mapping – Align keywords with pages for better relevance and ranking  ✔️ Optimized Content Creation – Regular blog posts and landing pages targeting ranking opportunities  ✔️ Local SEO Optimization – For Dubai-based businesses, we target high-converting local traffic  ✔️ Mobile & Speed Optimization – Your site loads fast and looks perfect on every device 

FAQs on SEO Services 

🔹 How long does it take to see SEO results?  SEO is a long-term strategy. While some changes show results in 1–2 months, sustainable rankings usually take 3–6 months, depending on your niche and competition. 

🔹 Do you work with local or global businesses?  Both! We help Dubai-based companies rank locally and international businesses reach global audiences. 

🔹 Can you optimize my existing website?  Absolutely. We perform a full site audit and implement on-page and technical improvements for better performance. 

🔹 What’s the difference between SEO and Google Ads?  SEO is organic and long-term. Google Ads is paid and delivers immediate results. We often combine both for a full-funnel strategy. 

Final Thoughts: Ready to Rank on Page One? 🚀 

SEO is not just a tool—it’s a digital growth engine. If you’re serious about building a sustainable online presence and attracting the right traffic, SEO is your best investment. 

At Buzz Creators Digital Media, we help you go from being undiscovered to being unmissable on Google. 

🔹 Want to outrank your competitors?  🔹 Need expert SEO strategies that deliver results?  🔹 Ready to grow your traffic and sales? 

📞 Contact Buzz Creators Digital Media today and let’s build your SEO success story! 

📍 Visit 👉 https://buzzcreators.ae/7-services-biz-to-brand-buzz-creators-digit 

📲 Hashtags for SEO & Social Media: 

#SEO #SEOServices #BuzzCreatorsDigital #DigitalMarketingDubai #SearchEngineOptimization #RankOnGoogle #ContentMarketing #WebsiteTraffic #LocalSEO #GoogleRanking #DubaiSEOExperts #OnlineGrowth #BuzzCreators 

[digitalgrowthbyte]

Why Digital Marketing is a Game-Changer in 2025 — And How We Can Help

Let’s be real — if you’re not doing digital marketing in 2025, you’re pretty much invisible online. Whether you're running a local cafe, launching a new SaaS tool, or offering freelance services from your laptop, digital marketing has become the secret sauce to scaling your reach, engaging your audience, and driving actual results.

But wait — hasn't digital marketing been around for ages? Yep. But the way it works in 2025 is on a whole new level. And trust me, if you’re not paying attention now, you’ll be playing catch-up later.

So grab your chai or coffee ☕, because we’re diving deep into how digital marketing is changing the game this year — and how we at Digital Growth Byte by DR Digitalzest can help you crush it.

🚀 What Makes Digital Marketing So Powerful in 2025?

1. People Are Online More Than Ever

Let’s face it, we all live on our phones. From scrolling Instagram Reels to Googling the best pizza in town, your target audience is just a few taps away from discovering your brand — if you know how to reach them.

Stats don’t lie: Over 5.3 billion people use the internet globally, and digital ad spend in 2025 has skyrocketed. Why? Because online is where the money is.

2. AI and Automation Are Making It Smarter

Gone are the days of guessing what works. Now you’ve got AI tools that can:

Predict what your customers want

Personalize your website content in real-time

Automate emails, ads, and even SEO

In short? Digital marketing in 2025 is no longer just about effort — it's about smart effort.

3. SEO Is Still King (But It’s Smarter Now)

Google’s algorithm is savvier than ever. It rewards:

Helpful content

Fast-loading websites

Authentic backlinks

Great user experience (UX)

This means if your website looks shady, loads slowly, or offers zero value, you're basically ghosted by Google. On the flip side, if you’re investing in good SEO practices, you're winning — and we can help you with exactly that.

4. Content Marketing = Trust + Sales

People no longer trust direct ads alone. They want value. Blogs, YouTube videos, Insta carousels, case studies — these build trust and drive organic sales.

2025 content marketing is all about:

Telling stories

Solving problems

Creating relatability

Building authority

And guess what? You don’t need a fancy agency to get started — you just need the right roadmap.

5. Digital Ads Are More Affordable Than Traditional Marketing

Newspaper ads, TV spots, radio jingles — they cost a bomb and have limited targeting.

In contrast, a Facebook ad campaign with ₹500 can reach thousands of people who are already interested in what you offer. And that’s the magic of performance marketing in 2025.

😎 Real Talk: What This Means for Your Business

Whether you're a startup, coach, service provider, or a solo hustler — digital marketing can:

Put you on the map (literally)

Drive qualified traffic to your site

Generate leads that convert

Establish your online authority

Still not convinced?

👉 Here’s a detailed look at the core benefits of digital marketing in 2025 — backed by real stats and insights that prove why going digital is no longer optional, it's survival.

📌 How We Can Help You Win at Digital Marketing

At DR Digitalzest, we’re not just another digital agency with jargon-filled pitches. We’re real people, working with passion to help real businesses grow online using smart, ROI-driven digital strategies.

Here’s what we bring to the table:

✅ 1. Custom WordPress Website Development

Your website is your digital storefront. We make sure it looks great, loads fast, and converts visitors into leads.

We offer:

Clean, SEO-friendly designs

Mobile responsiveness

Lightning-fast speed optimization

Conversion-driven layout structures

✅ 2. SEO That Actually Works

We don't believe in shady keyword stuffing. Our SEO game is all about:

In-depth keyword research

On-page and technical optimization

High-authority backlink building

Local SEO for geo-targeted growth

Result? You get found by the people who matter.

✅ 3. Meta Ads & Social Media Marketing

We help you run high-converting Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) that hit the right people at the right time — with retargeting, lead gen, and conversion tracking.

Plus, we handle:

Social media content calendars

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[jamessmithblogs]

Laying the Foundation for Your Hotel Venture

Starting a hotel is an exciting adventure! To succeed, you need a solid plan, and a well-thought-out business plan is key. This important document outlines your hotel’s goals, strategies, and financial outlook. It will help you navigate the hospitality world. One key area to focus on is the choice and integration of Hotel guest room furniture. The right furniture can greatly affect how happy guests feel and how smoothly your hotel runs. Let’s take a closer look at the main parts of a hotel business plan and highlight why guest room furnishings matter.

1. Executive Summary

Kick things off with a brief overview of your hotel idea, mission statement, and key financial points. This section should give readers a quick glimpse of your vision and goals.

2. Market Analysis

Do some research to understand your target audience, including their age, preferences, and spending habits. Check out your competitors to find what they might be missing. Knowing the local market will help you choose room designs and hotel guest room furniture that your guests will love.

3. Unique Value Proposition

Explain what makes your hotel special. This could be a unique theme, outstanding service, or a great location. The guest room furniture you choose is important here. Comfortable and stylish furnishings can make your hotel more inviting and enhance the guest experience.

4. Operations Plan

Outline how your hotel will operate daily, including staffing, management, and service standards. Be sure to include plans for buying, maintaining, and replacing guest room furniture to keep everything looking great and working well. Regular maintenance is key to ensuring guest comfort.

5. Marketing and Sales Strategies

Share how you plan to attract and keep guests through advertising, promotions, and partnerships. Showcasing the quality and design of your guest room furniture can be a strong selling point, highlighting your dedication to guest comfort.

6. Financial Plan

Offer detailed financial projections, including startup costs, revenue estimates, and break-even analysis. Set aside about 10% to 15% of your total budget for guest room furnishings. This is an important investment, as good furniture can boost guest satisfaction and encourage repeat visits.

7. Design and Aesthetics

Dedicate a section to design, focusing on selecting guest room furniture that fits your hotel’s theme and brand. Thoughtful choices in furniture can create a welcoming atmosphere that guests will remember. Work with interior designers to find pieces that are both functional and attractive.

8. Sustainability Practices

Consider eco-friendly options by choosing guest room furniture made from renewable materials. This will not only attract environmentally conscious travelers but also show your commitment to corporate responsibility, which could help save costs in the long run.

9. Risk Management

Think about potential risks, like supply chain issues that could affect furniture delivery, and come up with backup plans. Building relationships with several suppliers can help ensure you always have quality furnishings available.

10. Appendices

Include extra materials like furniture inventories, supplier contracts, and maintenance schedules. These documents add transparency and support the operational side of your business plan.

In summary, a well-rounded hotel business plan sets the path for your venture and highlights the significance of guest room furniture in shaping the guest experience. By planning carefully and investing in quality furnishings, you can create a comfortable and appealing environment that leads to happy guests and a successful hotel!

[thewonderrrrrrr]

Reflection on Opportunity Recognition, Needs Analysis, and Lecture Series 1: Startup

The lecture on Opportunity Recognition and Needs Analysis provided valuable insights into how entrepreneurs identify and assess business opportunities. One of the key takeaways was that successful startups are built on solving real problems rather than just offering innovative ideas. This perspective aligns with the importance of conducting a thorough needs analysis—understanding what people truly need rather than assuming what they might want.

The discussion also emphasized that opportunities arise from gaps in the market, inefficiencies, and evolving customer demands. Entrepreneurs who actively observe their environment, engage with potential customers, and validate their assumptions are more likely to develop sustainable business models. I found this particularly relevant because many startups fail not due to a lack of creativity but because they do not align their offerings with genuine market needs.

Lecture Series 1 on Startups further deepened my understanding of the entrepreneurial journey. The speakers shared real-world experiences, highlighting challenges such as financial constraints, competition, and the need for adaptability. A key lesson was the importance of leveraging available resources, an approach aligned with effectual reasoning, where entrepreneurs start with what they have and build upon it rather than waiting for ideal conditions.

This lecture made me reflect on my own entrepreneurial journey. I realize the importance of validating my ideas through market research, customer feedback, and continuous iteration. Instead of focusing solely on a business plan, I now understand the significance of flexibility and responsiveness to changing market conditions.

Overall, the session reinforced the idea that entrepreneurship is not just about taking risks but about making informed decisions based on real opportunities. The key to success lies in recognizing needs, understanding the market, and being adaptable to change.

[tideandtale]

Mastery Journal Entry: Reflecting on Business Venture Research Class

Going into m Business Venture Research class, my main goal was to get the understanding of how to properly do research and learn the different research methods while learning and evaluating how to launch a successful business. I was using this class as a way to develop the skills I needed to be in marketing, and how to learn about the trends within my writing industry. I also wanted to learn about the structure of my own business idea with using real data from people who already did the research, and I just had to find it to see how well I would pair off in my field.

Needless to say, this course met my expectation because it equipped me with the tools on how to conduct research with valid resources on different aspects of my writing business. I looked at many different case studies, I read different articles, and the assignments I did helped me assess the market demand and how I should refine my business model to make it better, and how to make it stand out above the others.

The key takeaway from this course would be how important it is to actually do research and make sure its thorough before putting your business out there. You want to make sure you stay on top trends and that there is a demand in the market for your business. Some of the readings I found extremely useful would be:

The Five Cs of Opportunity Identification: The five Cs would be Customer needs, competition, context, and capabilities. These principles had given me a structured format to visualize when creating my business idea.

Business Research Methods by Naval Bajpai: Specifically I want to talk about chapter 1. The chapter went over the differences between basic and applied research. The purpose of these two types of research is to help you decide to develop or contribute your knowledge. It went over the importance of the techniques and procedures for doing the research.

Startup Opportunities by Brad Feld and Sean Wise: This is another noteworthy resource I found helpful. In Chapter 3 it talks about the criteria for an opportunity. An idea but be durable, timely, attractive and it has to add value to the buyer. If it doesn't meet these four criteria's then there is no opportunity, and it won't be successful.

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: This reading had given me an understanding about the methodology of the Lean Startup. It had focused on creating products and get feedback from customers so that we could better our business and products. This approach would be essential or me simply because with my content creation I want to create content people want, and in order to do that I would need to gather my reader's and clients feedback. It's essential to my success.

In my business, I would utilize the skills I learned in this class and apply al of the research methods and evaluations so that I can make my freelance business better and more appealing to my clients. More importantly, I would utilize the Five Cs of Opportunity Identification so I can better understand the market, trends, clients, and my readers. This would help strengthen my confidence in my ability to do proper research but also help me gain the knowledge for my writing. This class has helped me make better decisions and gave me the kills I needed to help me during my decision-making process and how to properly find opportunities for my business.

Mastery Journal

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm in TARTU, ESTONIA! Overcoming the Enshittocene (TOMORROW, May 8, 6PM, Prima Vista Literary Festival keynote, University of Tartu Library, Struwe 1). AI, copyright and creative workers' labor rights (May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building, Lossi 3, lobby). A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation (May 10, 3PM, University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037).

out of atrocity photos https://www.salon.com/2007/07/23/torture/

#20yrsago Floppy RAID https://web.archive.org/web/20040202110812/http://ohlssonvox.8k.com/fdd_raid.htm

#15yrsago Chinese provincial government orders local officials to smoke more https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5271376/Chinese-ordered-to-smoke-more-to-boost-economy.html

#15yrsago San Francisco Muni begins to enforce imaginary no-photos policy https://web.archive.org/web/20090510023205/http://www.whatimseeing.com/2009/05/06/what-is-munis-photography-policy/

#15yrsago MPAA to teachers: don’t rip DVDs, just record your television with a camcorder https://vimeo.com/4520463

#15yrsago End of Overeating: the science of junk-food cravings https://memex.craphound.com/2009/05/07/end-of-overeating-the-science-of-junk-food-cravings/

#10yrsago Imagineer Rolly Crump on the 1964 NY World’s Fair: audio memoir https://itskindofacutestory.com/?p=135

#10yrsago Vi Hart explains Net Neutrality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAxMyTwmu_M

#10yrsago Kids are mostly sexually solicited online by classmates, peers, teens https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2014/05/05/sexual-predators.html

#5yrsago danah boyd explains the connection between the epistemological crisis and the rise of far-right conspiratorial thinking https://web.archive.org/web/20190427233128/https://points.datasociety.net/agnotology-and-epistemological-fragmentation-56aa3c509c6b

#5yrsago “Steering With the Windshield Wipers”: why nothing we’re doing to fix Big Tech is working https://locusmag.com/2019/05/cory-doctorow-steering-with-the-windshield-wipers/

#5yrsago Facebook hands hundreds of contractors in India access to its users’ private messages and private Instagram posts in order to help train an AI https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-ai/facebook-labels-posts-by-hand-posing-privacy-questions-idUSKCN1SC01T/

#5yrsago People with diabetes are scouring the internet for a discontinued insulin pump that can be reprogrammed as an “artificial pancreas” https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/looping-created-insulin-pump-underground-market/588091/

#5yrsago App lets you auction your San Francisco parking spot https://web.archive.org/web/20140506133800/http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/05/05/sell-your-s-f-street-parking-spot-for-20/

#5yrsago How the diverse internet became a monoculture https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/276-20-years-after-napster-cory-doctorow-on-what-went-wrong-2/

#5yrsago Apple’s growth strategy is a textbook case of antitrust abuse https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/6/18531570/apple-company-purchases-startups-tim-cook-buy-rate

#1yrago Don’t Curb Your Enthusiasm https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/07/dont-curb-your-enthusiasm/

[mariacallous]

In his spare time, Tony Eastin likes to dabble in the stock market. One day last year, he Googled a pharmaceutical company that seemed like a promising investment. One of the first search results Google served up on its news tab was listed as coming from the Clayton County Register, a newspaper in northeastern Iowa. He clicked, and read. The story was garbled and devoid of useful information—and so were all the other finance-themed posts filling the site, which had absolutely nothing to do with northeastern Iowa. “I knew right away there was something off,” he says. There’s plenty of junk on the internet, but this struck Eastin as strange: Why would a small Midwestern paper churn out crappy blog posts about retail investing?

Eastin was primed to find online mysteries irresistible. After years in the US Air Force working on psychological warfare campaigns he had joined Meta, where he investigated nastiness ranging from child abuse to political influence operations. Now he was between jobs, and welcomed a new mission. So Eastin reached out to Sandeep Abraham, a friend and former Meta colleague who previously worked in Army intelligence and for the National Security Agency, and suggested they start digging.

What the pair uncovered provides a snapshot of how generative AI is enabling deceptive new online business models. Networks of websites crammed with AI-generated clickbait are being built by preying on the reputations of established media outlets and brands. These outlets prosper by confusing and misleading audiences and advertisers alike, “domain squatting” on URLs that once belonged to more reputable organizations. The scuzzy site Eastin was referred to no longer belonged to the newspaper whose name it still traded in the name of.

Although Eastin and Abraham suspect that the network which the Register’s old site is now part of was created with straightforward moneymaking goals, they fear that more malicious actors could use the same sort of tactics to push misinformation and propaganda into search results. “This is massively threatening,” Abraham says. “We want to raise some alarm bells.” To that end, the pair have released a report on their findings and plan to release more as they dig deeper into the world of AI clickbait, hoping their spare-time efforts can help draw awareness to the issue from the public or from lawmakers.

Faked News

The Clayton County Register was founded in 1926 and covered the small town of Ekader, Iowa, and wider Clayton County, which nestle against the Mississippi River in the state’s northeast corner. “It was a popular paper,” says former coeditor Bryce Durbin, who describes himself as “disgusted” by what’s now published at its former web address, claytoncountyregister.com. (The real Clayton County Register merged in 2020 with The North Iowa Times to become the Times-Register, which publishes at a different website. It’s not clear how the paper lost control of its web domain; the Times-Register did not return requests for comment.)

As Eastin discovered when trying to research his pharma stock, the site still brands itself as the Clayton County Register but no longer offers local news and is instead a financial news content mill. It publishes what appear to be AI-generated articles about the stock prices of public utility companies and Web3 startups, illustrated by images that are also apparently AI-generated.

“Not only are the articles we looked at generated by AI, but the images included in each article were all created using diffusion models,” says Ben Colman, CEO of deepfake detection startup Reality Defender, which ran an analysis on several articles at WIRED’s request. In addition to that confirmation, Abraham and Eastin noticed that some of the articles included text admitting their artificial origins. “It’s important to note that this information was auto-generated by Automated Insights,” some of the articles stated, name-dropping a company that offers language-generation technology.

When Eastin and Abraham examined the bylines on the Register’s former site they found evidence that they were not actual journalists—and probably not even real people. The duo’s report notes that many writers listed on the site shared names with well-known people from other fields and had unrealistically high output.

One Emmanuel Ellerbee, credited on recent posts about bitcoin and banking stocks, shares a name with a former professional football player. When Eastin and Abraham started their investigation in November 2023, the journalist database Muck Rack showed that he had bylined an eye-popping 14,882 separate news articles in his “career,” including 50 published the day they checked. By last week, the Muck Rack profile for Ellerbee showed that output has continued apace—he’s credited with publishing 30,845 articles. Muck Rack’s CEO Gregory Galant says the company “is developing more ways to help our users discern between human-written and AI-generated content." He points out that Ellerbee’s profile is not included in Muck Rack’s human-curated database of verified profiles.

The Register’s domain appears to have changed hands in August 2023, data from analytics service Similar Web shows, around the time it began to host its current financial news churn. Eastin and Abraham used the same tool to confirm that the site was attracting most of its readership through SEO, targeting search keywords about stock purchasing to lure clicks. Its most notable referrals from social media came from crypto news forums on Reddit where people swap investment tips.

The whole scheme appears aimed at winning ad revenue from the page views of people who unwittingly land on the site’s garbled content. The algorithmic posts are garnished with ads served by Google’s ad platform. Sometimes those ads appear to be themed on financial trading, in line with the content, but others are unrelated—WIRED saw an ad for the AARP. Using Google's ad network on AI-generated posts with fake bylines could fall foul of the company's publisher policies, which forbid content that “misrepresents, misstates, or conceals” information about the creator of content. Occasionally, sites received direct traffic from the CCR domain, suggesting its operators may have struck up other types of advertising deals, including a financial brokerage service and an online ad network.

Unknown Operator

Eastin and Abraham’s attempts to discover who now owns the Clayton County Register’s former domain were inconclusive—as were WIRED’s—but they have their suspicions. The pair found that records of its old security certificates linked the domain to a Linux server in Germany. Using the internet device search engine Shodan.io, they found that a Polish website that formerly advertised IT services appeared associated with the Clayton County Register and several other domains. All were hosted on the same German server and published strikingly similar, apparently AI-generated content. An email previously listed on the Polish site was no longer functional and WIRED’s LinkedIn messages to a man claiming to be its CEO got no reply.

One of the other sites within this wider network was Aboutxinjiang.com. When Eastin and Abraham began their investigation at the end of 2023 it was filled with generic, seemingly-AI-generated financial news posts, including several about the use of AI in investing. The Internet Archive showed that it had previously served a very different purpose. Originally, the site had been operated by a Chinese outfit called “the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” and hosted information about universities in the country’s northwest. In 2014, though, it shuttered, and sat dormant until 2022, when its archives were replaced with Polish-language content, which was later replaced with apparently-automated clickbait in English. Since Eastin and Abraham first identified the site it has gone through another transformation. Early this month it began redirects to a page with information about Polish real estate.

Altogether, Eastin and Abraham pinpointed nine different websites linked to the Polish IT company that appeared to comprise an AI clickbait network. All the sites appeared to have been chosen because they had preestablished reputations with Google that could help win prominence in search rankings to draw clicks.

Google claims to have systems in place to address attempts to game search rankings by buying expired domains, and says that it considers using AI to create articles with the express purpose of ranking well to be spam. “The tactics described as used with these sites are largely in violation of Search’s spam policies,” says spokesperson Jennifer Kutz. Sites determined to have breached those policies can have their search ranking penalized, or be delisted by Google altogether.

Still, this type of network has become more prominent since the advent of generative AI tools. McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher at online misinformation tracking company NewsGuard, says her team has seen an over 1,000 percent increase in AI-generated content farms within the past year.

WIRED recently reported on a separate network of AI-generated clickbait farms, run by Serbian DJ Nebojša Vujinović Vujo. While he was forthcoming about his motivations, Vujo did not provide granular details about how his network—which also includes former US-based local news outlets—operates. Eastin and Abraham’s work fills in some of the blanks about what this type of operation looks like, and how difficult it can be to identify who runs these moneymaking gambits. “For the most part, these are anonymously run,” Sadeghi says. “They use special services when they register domains to hide their identity.”

That’s something Abraham and Eastin want to change. They have hopes that their work might help regular people think critically about how the news they see is sourced, and that it may be instructive for lawmakers thinking about what kinds of guardrails might improve our information ecosystem. In addition to looking into the origins of the Clayton County Register’s strange transformation, the pair have been investigating additional instances of AI-generated content mills, and are already working on their next report. “I think it’s very important that we have a reality we all agree on, that we know who is behind what we’re reading,” Abraham says. “And we want to bring attention to the amount of work we’ve done just to get this much information.”

Other researchers agree. “This sort of work is of great interest to me, because it’s demystifying actual use cases of generative AI,” says Emerson Brooking, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. While there’s valid concern about how AI might be used as a tool to spread political misinformation, this network demonstrates how content mills are likely to focus on uncontroversial topics when their primary aim is generating traffic-based income. “This report feels like it is an accurate snapshot of how AI is actually changing our society so far—making everything a little bit more annoying.”

[ayashitetsuko]

Izzy the Hierophant: The Major Arcana that reminds us to get back to work

As a tarot student, I am fascinated by the interpretations made by fellow tarot enthusiasts in the Our Flag Means Death (OFMD) fandom, on which Major Arcana card best represents Izzy Hands. Popular fanmade decks such as The Cat Bandit Tarot by artist Jennie Planet see him as The Devil—a force that keeps the lovers apart—and Judgement—beating Ed down when he was already at his worst. Valid as they are, these interpretations see Izzy as a negative influence, but I like to offer an alternative take. 

I see Izzy’s energy and role in the canon (and eventually, in my personal life as the viewer) as the Hierophant. An energy often found uninspiring, but when used correctly, it can help people make their dreams come true. 

In her book The Holistic Tarot (2015, North Atlantic Books), tarot master Benebell Wen uses Tradition, Conventionalism, and Institutionalism as the keywords that explain the Hierophant card.

“The Hierophant is a holy man, an important figure in his society … People rely on him to be a channel between heaven and earth. In a reading, the card typically indicates a desire to follow conventions and norms, a traditionalist—one who holds traditional values,” she writes. 

The Hierophant is often seen as the card that calls for querents to be conservative. Instead of thinking outside the box, it expects them to open the manuals and follow the instructions. When discussing making our dreams come true, the Hierophant energy is often seen as an obstacle—curbing creativity and exploration in favour of traditions. 

We did see these traits displayed by Izzy in various scenes, such as in Episode 4 when he demanded Ed to come up with a defensive plan after they noticed a Spanish ship coming their way or when he threatened to blackmail Lucius for … you know what he did.

While these scenes might cement Izzy’s role in the story as the Bad Guy, his role is also a reminder of the importance of maintaining a structure—even on a pirate ship. Because this structure, no matter how dull it is, enables us to function and create the impact we want in our personal and professional lives.

The Hierophant energy

The Hierophant card is known for having a restrictive–perhaps even oppressive–energy. In my early days as a tarot student, I tended to roll my eyes whenever it showed up. It was not the kind of nuance I wanted as a young person. But eventually, I learned how the Hierophant energy could positively impact one’s life when used wisely. Instead of preventing progress, it can help with it. 

As someone who works in the tech startup community, I regularly meet people driven to succeed. Buzzwords such as “innovation” and “disruption” are being thrown around lightly; everybody wants to be the next big thing that changes the world. Big ideas, even the most unrealistic ones, are cherished and encouraged.

But people are being brought back to Earth rather quickly in this industry. There are even statistics to prove it: Up to 95 per cent of startups fail simply because they cannot find product-market fit, according to various sources. In layman’s terms, they create products and services that nobody needs. This is why startups are commonly advised to implement rigorous market research and product testing to prove that their ideas work; to have the discipline to do more than just talk.

On an individual level, the Hierophant energy is one I tap into to achieve my goals. To be productive, I need to run my days smoothly. This means clearing my housekeeping tasks before leaving home, logging off social media during work hours, and ensuring I eat my vegetables to stay healthy. They are boring AF, but they provide me with a structure to keep the machine well-oiled.

When I look back on my life, all the times I managed to achieve and create something good for myself (and hopefully others) are when I stopped daydreaming and started implementing the Hierophant energy into my daily life. While it is important to explore new ideas, all of them will be pointless without the structure that ensures it is being developed properly. 

Now, back to Izzy

One might see Izzy as a traditional pirate who is resistant to change. I mean, what the fuck is even a retirement? It does not exist in this line of work. 

This context places Izzy as a counter to Stede Bonnet’s “fresh, groundbreaking” ideas about piracy. It is easy to see Izzy and his beliefs as outdated and needing disruption. But we must remember that piracy is a dangerous business. While pirates generally entered the business with a ready-to-die mindset, a structure that allows the crew to be functional and prepared to handle risks should be appreciated instead of being seen as a threat. 

This is especially more relevant in a situation where a leader struggles to function properly. Ed is a smart and gifted captain, but his short attention span and mood swings have made it hard for him to function on some days and for the crew to maintain their trust in him. His wit may have allowed them to survive another day, but will it be sustainable without a system to ensure that? What happens when he is having his moment? At the very least, they would need a plan.

This is a calling for us to look into our own lives and see: In which area do we need a first mate to yell and remind us to focus?

--

This article was first published in Above All Else: An Appreciation of Izzy Hands, a zine dedicated to Con O'Neill's Izzy Hands from Our Flag Means Death.