Haliey Welch aka Hawk Tuah aka spit on that thang girl is in some hot water.
Now I don’t care much for crypto shenanigans and I can almost tell from this going out, that your eyes are rolling around the back of your skull – clanking about.
But there be lessons in here and I’ll break it down…
So quick little context add if you don’t know what’s up.
Haliey went viral when a clip of hers found its way on youtube some months ago.
She was asked “What is one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?”
…and so her reply was “You gotta give em that hawk tuah and spit on that thang…”
(I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that onomatopoeia is one of my favourite literary devices)
Now that is the most wholesome description of a sex act I’ve ever heard and what can I say?
She’s go the cute little accent to go with it too. Here’s a shortened version of the clip if you’re interested Hawk Tuah Clip
Now she’s had way more than her 15 minutes of fame. It’s been roughly 7ish months. Her life has changed with the mass amounts of followers gained, interviews had and on top of that she’s even got her own podcast.
It takes a turn for the worst though and when you have that type of influence thrown at you in such a quick time.
That’s when the dark side of influencer economics gets put on full display.
The main point of this is the parasocial bonds we can form with our favourite artists/actors and persons of high influence.
We get that blind trust and throw ourselves deep into their world without fully understanding what can happen.
Now I’m not saying that everything is bad but there’s always potential for it. This is where your own morals and ethics come into play.
Plus you see this with any big fanbase. Swifties Vs Stans Vs Potterheads etc.
Although the Cult of Hawk Tuah went wild when her meme-coin went live.
The market cap hit $490 million, but within a few hours 90% of its value was lost.
Now I’m not great at math but I can tell you that is a shit-show-omega-gigantic loss…
People are pissed and some have had their lives ruined. Taking out second mortgages to finance this crypto coin.
That whole crypto space is filled with shit like this, but usually it’s orchestrated over a long period of time.
This has gone from “She’s cute and wholesome” to “She belongs in prison” real fast.
Now is it her fault or her team’s fault. Was she puppeteered into doing this due to this rise in fame so fast? I really dunno.
The final point to this little bit of drama is the type of bond you want with YOUR fans as a creative.
As a writer I want people to tune in and consume my emails every day.
I want them to become raving fans or get pissed off with me that they bail.
I don’t want lukewarm fans. I want the die hard ones who stick around.
I want them to be able to share their wins and losses with me so we can figure it out together.
I want them buy my books/stories/warez when I share it with them.
I want brutal feedback because that’s how we all learn and grow.
I want them to look for my emails when the hit the spam box.
I’m sure you’re getting what I mean.
Die hard fans versus lukewarm fence sitter fans.
And the only way you can do that is to treat then the way you want to be treated. You want to take out a little bit of time to reply to them when they do send you a message. You need show that you’re human just like them. You don’t want to abuse their trust like in Hailey Welch’s case.
The world in its current state is a cold place. Everyone’s fighting a battle we can’t see and community is more important than ever.
And if you want a little more context to the whole Hailey Welch drama. Coffeezilla dropped a little expose. He’s the internet detective for all types of online scams that these influencers throw out.
Stephen Walker