Sixteen Philadelphia change-makers joined us at the Love Lab on Tuesday night to learn from Chelsea Cox, who has become one of Philadelphia’s leading civic engagement content creators. 

Chelsea started her career as a data scientist producing spreadsheets, risk models, and the kind of work that lives in the back office and never gets a byline. Somewhere along the way, she got restless watching budgets and policies move through Philadelphia without anyone translating what any of it actually meant for the people the decisions were about, so she built a company, C2 Consulting, that does the translating. 

Chelsea walked the audience through her career arc, sharing everything from her early social media reels and the equipment she started with, to the free content she posted for months before anyone paid her for it. She talked about specificity and the actual mechanics of naming which information she was drawn to make content about.

In the room was a mix of fellow content creators, journalists, media makers, artists, and one elected official, who happened to be Chelsea’s sister, State Representative Morgan Cephas.

The room was bubbling with questions… How does she actually structure a shoot week? What does the editing workflow look like when it’s just her? How does she balance work and motherhood? 

Chelsea had answers. Five attendees booked paid 1:1 coaching sessions with her to have her offer advice and strategies on their work. Love Now Media encouraged this as part of the series. It’s our goal to help map a throughline of customers for the content creators who demonstrate value that extends beyond occasional philanthropy-funded initiatives. 

The Cash Flow Conversation

Philadelphia is a social justice-oriented city. Named “the poorest big city,” creatives’ advocacy work often and appropriately centers the needs of those struggling to make ends meet. 

Conversations about content and media, about social justice work, and money have all lived in separate rooms. The organizer talks to other organizers. The content creator talks to other content creators. The founders talk to each other. The person with capital and the person building something from a phone camera almost never sit at the same table long enough to actually help each other. And underneath most of those separate conversations is the same complaint, on repeat, about there never being enough money. Rarely does anyone follow that complaint with an actual plan. 

Content, Context, and Cash Flow is Love Now Media’s first attempt at closing that gap on purpose, not just teaching people how to hold a camera and tell a story, which is the work we’ve always done, but putting people in a room with other people who are already making money and people who are connected to the resources that could get them there.

It worked faster than we expected. Representative Cephas shared an actual opportunity, open for creatives to apply for with Pennsylvania’s Spotlight Program. Here’s the link: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/coa/current-opportunities/spotlight-program

We’re doing it again on Tuesday, September 15th, with Jacen Bowman, a human rights advocate and content creator. He will be sharing his methods for producing content, gaining access to rooms that don’t usually let cameras in, and keeping the public informed about issues that most outlets cover once and then move on. 

Follow Love Now Media on Instagram for the details, and come sit in the Love Lab with us. Bring your questions. We’ll bring the folding chairs.