Monday Meeting

In this open discussion episode, host Kendall Hotchkiss leads a hands-on social media workshop, fielding community questions and sharing practical strategies. Topics range from promoting free tools to crafting hooks, storytelling techniques, and platform-specific tactics for motion designers.
This episode covers:
Promoting free tools and work-in-progress content: Rather than only announcing a tool at launch with a single video, sharing the development journey—snags, workarounds, and behind-the-scenes moments—builds anticipation and a stronger audience connection.
Platform strategy for niche audiences: Different platforms serve different purposes—Reddit and LinkedIn tend to perform well for technical tool creators, while Instagram favors short-form and quick cuts, YouTube rewards vlog-style depth, and TikTok skews toward meme and humor content.
Documenting process after the fact: For creators who struggle to post while in the middle of a project, it's entirely valid to open old project files, film a quick walkthrough, and frame it as a case study or retrospective.
Posting for availability without sounding desperate: Framing availability as "booking for next month" rather than "available now" signals that you're still in demand.
The chocolate-covered almond hook framework: Effective posts use a compelling hook (the "chocolate") to draw people in, paired with genuinely useful substance (the "almond") to retain them. The three copywriting questions—Can I visualize it? Can I falsify it? Could nobody else write this?—help ensure posts feel specific, authentic, and not interchangeable with AI-generated content.
Storytelling structure for social posts: Short-form storytelling follows a simple beginning-middle-end arc—even a monthly recap carousel ("here's what I did, here's what I learned, here's what's next") qualifies. The three-panel problem/solution/outcome format and writing as if addressing a specific person (a mentor, a son, a Girl Scout troop) help ground posts in a specific perspective and avoid generic-feeling copy.
Consistency over frequency: Posting once or twice a week with focused, high-quality content outperforms daily posting of filler. Engaging on other people's posts, reposting with commentary, and showing up in comments all count as social media presence—useful for staying visible without burning out on original content creation.
LinkedIn profile and banner optimization: The LinkedIn banner is an underused piece of real estate where freelancers can embed their elevator pitch or positioning statement.
Upcoming Events/Schedule:
Gartic Phone Game Night on Wednesday, April 29th (details in Discord)
Next Monday: Kendall interviews YouTube content creator Audrey Havey
Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!
SHOW NOTES:
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Shannon Mckinstrie
Creator Science Episode about Chocolate Covered Almonds
Copywriting Questions
LinkedIn Tips with Jasmin Alic

In this open discussion episode, host Kendall Hotchkiss facilitates a conversation about social media strategy, platform algorithms, client acquisition, and staying authentically human in an AI-saturated landscape.

This episode covers:
Meaningful engagement over passive liking: Substantive comments beat emoji reactions for both algorithm visibility and real relationship-building. Setting a 20–30 minute timer prevents social media from becoming a time sink.
The four A's of social media posting: Motion Hatch's framework — Awareness, Attraction, Action, and Advocacy — structures content variety across promoting others, sharing process, availability callouts, and community engagement. Haley's free Social Media Guide is worth grabbing (link in the show notes)
AI for lead scraping, not content writing: Local AI agents can scan platforms for job posts and collaboration opportunities and surface them in a spreadsheet, saving hours of scrolling while keeping outreach personal.
Platform algorithms are not one-size-fits-all: LinkedIn penalizes over-posting, Twitter/X rewards volume, and YouTube Shorts audiences are distinct enough from long-form viewers that separate channels are recommended.
Know who you're actually marketing to: Most motion designers end up marketing to peers rather than clients. The content, tone, and platform should shift depending on which audience you're trying to reach.
Automate payment chasing: Invoicing platforms send automatic payment reminders and can escalate to legal language after repeated non-response — removing a major mental load for freelancers.
Show your face, or find a workaround: Imperfect, human content outperforms polished output right now. Camera-shy creators can use voiceover, carousels, B-roll, or animated photos to stay visible without going fully on-camera to boost engagement.
Beat posting paralysis with constraints: Time limits, daily challenges, and monthly content batching all help override perfectionism and keep the posting muscle active.
Upcoming Events/Schedule:
Game Night on Wednesday, April 29th
Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!
SHOW NOTES:
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Hayley’s FREE Social Media Guide
$1.80 Strategy by GaryVee
Kendall’s YouTube

In this open discussion episode, host Jen Van Horn facilitates conversations about technical workflows, education platforms, and professional organization practices within the motion design community.
This episode covers:
Contra platform for freelancing: Commission-free alternative to platforms to Upwork that's gaining traction for motion design work, including interactive sports graphics for NBA broadcasts and March Madness using Rive.
Rive's growth and applications: The tool has evolved significantly with full scripting capabilities and multiple runtime environments, making it viable for web, mobile apps, Unity games, and interactive broadcast graphics—positioning itself as "the new Flash."
Overlord workflow integration: Battleaxe's subscription-based tool enables seamless transfer between Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma, and After Effects while maintaining editable text and shape layers, though gradient handling remains imperfect.
School of Motion's subscription model: The shift to all-access passes provides better value for students taking multiple classes and companies purchasing team slots.
Project organization best practices: Color-coding systems for layers, markers, and timelines save significant time in collaborative environments; treating every project as if another person will work on it prevents future workflow bottlenecks.
The importance of keyboard shortcuts: Mastering hotkeys and custom workflows dramatically increases efficiency—editors working entirely from keyboard without mouse contact demonstrate the extreme end of optimization.
Storytelling over technical skills: As AI tools improve at composition, motion designers' value increasingly lies in editorial sense, timing, tension-building, and emotion—skills that complement rather than compete with automation.

Upcoming Events:
Gartic Phone Game Night is scheduled for TONIGHT! (Mar 25th) 
No meeting Monday, March 30th 
Next month: Kendall will be hosting -stay tuned for the theme!

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:
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Color Palette Cinema instagram
Color Theory Book: "If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling"
Universal Audio

This episode continues March's focus on branding and marketing strategy, with host Lee Smalt chats with Mary Hawkins about her journey as a NYC-based art director and animator.

This episode covers:
Career evolution and intentional pivoting: After decades of broadcast and network work for clients including MTV and Food Network, a deliberate shift toward nonprofit and non-fiction documentary animation reflected a desire for more meaningful, durable work over high-volume commercial projects.
The "art director" title debate: The group explored how titles like art director, creative director, and generalist often fail to capture what motion designers actually do, and how the right title can open or close doors depending on the client.
Process as strategy: Thorough pre-production — including mood boards, decks, and research — isn't just organization; it enables the right creative conversations with clients and keeps complex projects coherent from brief to delivery.
Unconventional research methods: For a documentary project tied to Back to the Future, digging through physical record crates for period-accurate visual artifacts produced more authentic reference material than standard Pinterest or stock-image research.
Personal work as a portfolio strategy: Passion projects like Love Letters for the Subway — a short film about NYC's subway lines — consistently generated inbound client interest, reinforcing that showing the work you want to do attracts the projects you actually want.
Animation's role in documentary filmmaking: When archival footage doesn't exist, animation provides narrative coverage that's both flexible and stylistically distinctive, as demonstrated across multiple documentary projects.
Real-world impact of design work: A water safety campaign for Rising Tide Effect — including subway, ferry, and bus ads — contributed to zero drowning deaths at New York City beaches in its first year.
Personality as a differentiator: At a senior career stage, leading with who you are — not just what you can do — increasingly drives meaningful project inquiries, especially for clients seeking a long-term creative collaborator.

Upcoming Events:
Next Monday, March 23rd: Open Discussion episode
Game Night: Gartic Phone on Wednesday, March 25th
No episode Monday, March 30th
Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:
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Mary's LinkedIn
Portfolio
Company
Love Letters From The Subway

In this episode, host Lee Smalt welcomes Ashton Hauff, co-founder of Bismarck-based branding studio The Good Kids, for a conversation on brand strategy and its role in the creative process.
This episode covers:
Strategy as the foundation for creative work: Building a strategy phase into every project — before any visual work begins — gives both the creative team and the client a shared vocabulary and a clear framework for decision-making, reducing subjective disagreements and last-minute surprises.
The "Slingshot Method": The Good Kids structures their process in three phases — strategy, creative, and activation — with strategy serving as the launch point that makes everything downstream smoother and more intentional.
Four pillars of brand strategy: A thorough strategy examines the company, its customers, its competition, and the broader cultural context, ultimately distilling those findings into a singular brand idea and an emotionally compelling brand story.
Distinguishing brand strategy from marketing strategy: Brand strategy defines who you are, what you believe, and how you look and sound; marketing strategy builds on that foundation to determine where and how you show up to reach your audience.
Clients want to be passengers, not drivers: Most clients want confidence in the process more than control over it. A structured strategy phase helps clients trust the creative team to lead, while still feeling involved and heard throughout.
Handling pushback on strategy: Rather than selling strategy as a separate service, bundling it into core packages reduces friction. When clients push back, asking about their business goals and long-term investment in things like signage or websites often helps illustrate why upfront strategy saves money down the road.
Knowing when to walk away: Maintaining an internal red flag list helps identify difficult client relationships early. For borderline situations, adding a percentage to the project bid can offset the extra friction — but some clients simply aren't the right fit.
Applying your own process to yourself: Using the same strategy frameworks on your own business — even if it takes longer to prioritize — leads to clearer positioning and stronger client alignment over time.

Upcoming Events/Schedule:
Game night was postponed — a new date will be announced in the Monday Meeting Discord
Next week's guest: New York-based art director Mary Hawkins, continuing the conversation on strategy and visual branding
Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:
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Ashton’s LinkedIn
The Good Kids