I haven’t met too many people who are truly complacent in life. We’re well beyond the days where you can settle into a career right out of college and retire a few decades later with a pension. So we need to rely on creativity and opportunity to meet our needs.

This month, I wanted to shine a light on the unconventional world of Calvero, an independent musician who is making waves in the art of creative promotion. We’ll explore how Calvero leverages his ability to spark curiosity (often through dry humor-laden videos on TikTok) and forming a compelling narrative that involves and engages his audience in an often unexpected way.

I’m lucky enough to say that I personally know the vast majority of you who are reading this, and I also know that many of you wouldn’t consider yourselves to be working musicians, but read on to see just how well Calvero’s methods can be transposed across a diverse spectrum of content and niches.

Part 1: "Jilted" - Nostalgia, Deception, and Collaboration

Some of you may remember the 1998 romantic comedy, “Jilted,” directed by Robert Iscove of “She’s All That” fame and starring a teenage Julia Stiles and David Krumholtz. Goth teen Jil (Stiles) encounters Krumholtz’s character, Ted, and a quirky, dysfunctional relationship ensues.

This film was full of unforgettable moments, like when all the teens got food poisoning and got graphically ill at prom, the touching heart to heart between Jil and her dad after he was jumped by loan sharks, and don’t even get me started on what we now only have to refer to as “the pinecone scene”. But the most vivid moment to me was the end (spoilers ahead!) where the uninhibited joy of graduation was instantly shattered by a terrorist attack.

Fortunately for Calvero, his song, “Wait,” played over the end credits immediately following that scene. And unfortunately for Calvero, the movie was a critical disaster, so much so that the studio completely scrubbed it from the internet. Go ahead and check. I’ll wait.

Were you able to find anything about it? I'm going to assume you were unsuccessful, probably because Jilted never existed. It’s a figment of Calvero’s imagination that he and his audience took and ran with through a month-long series of videos that bamboozled much of TikTok.

Calvero’s style of music is reminiscent of 80s rock legends like Phil Collins, so if you didn’t know that he was currently in his mid 30s, you might find it feasible that his song could have been featured in a movie in the late 90s. And new fans who were unfamiliar with his style of humor absolutely took that bait, scouring the internet for any inkling of truth to his story, even going so far as to contact Robert Iscove directly for details (who was a great sport about the ruse).

What made this extra special was how Calvero's existing audience embraced the whimsy of Jilted and wove their own fictitious anecdotes into the movie's lore. They’d leave comments about their favorite scenes, memories about who they watched it with and where, and argued with critics who had the gall to suggest that the movie was fictitious.

His commitment to the bit didn’t go unrewarded: each comment, both positive and negative, spawned videos featuring his song, blog posts talking about him and his insistence on the legitimacy of the film, and a huge boost in the TikTok algorithm for some of his content. The attention it garnered can’t be ignored.

Part 2: "Hank Green Eyes" - Humor, Confusion, and Intentional Engagement

Before the "Jilted" saga, Calvero achieved semi-viral status thanks to a misheard lyric.

His song, "I Hate When I Think About You," includes the following lyric: “Hey green eyes, makin' me confused.”

However, many first-time listeners could have sworn he was singing about popular science personality Hank Green: “Hank Green eyes, makin' me confused.”

Instead of correcting the error outright, Calvero brilliantly harnessed TikTok's built-in tools to create continued engagement around the song. He assumed the role of a misunderstood artist, pretending to be genuinely upset about people incorrectly identifying Hank Green as the subject of his song. This ingenious move transformed the misstep into a triumph. Every interaction, every misheard lyric became an engagement opportunity, propelling "I Hate When I Think About You" to the ranks of his most-streamed songs.

Through a collaboration with Dave Bunting of King Killer Studios in Brooklyn, I actually played a small part in this story, too. We created a TikTok effect that allowed users to superimpose various versions of Hank Green's face onto their own, letting only the users’ eyes to appear in place of Hank’s. This of course was a tongue in cheek reference to Calvero’s game, giving him more opportunities to be “mad” at anyone using the effect. And, to take it one step further, we named the effect "Green Eyes” as an intentional misdirection to lead unsuspecting people into the pun.

The result? Over 4,000 creators embraced the "Green Eyes" effect, generating a staggering 8.4 million video views and securing its position among TikTok's top 1% of effects. It ended up being a great example of a way that a TikTok effect can compliment storytelling and a brand’s personality to allow their audience to create a shared experience together.

Are a fake Julia Stiles movie and Hank Green the topics of any of Calvero’s songs? Of course they aren’t. But Calvero used humor, storytelling, and very intentional audience engagement to create vibrant, memorable moments in the growth of his brand.

Now, think about your brand. Do you see any opportunities where you could incorporate your own personality in lieu of a sales pitch or a soulless promotion post?

I’d also encourage you to listen to Calvero's music—it’s really quite good. It’s available on most major streaming platforms, and the following link will bring you there:

Your feedback is invaluable to the future of this newsletter. Do you find long-form content like this more helpful to your journey, or would you prefer more quick bites, tips, and aggregated content?

Until next time,
Dan

PS: If we're not connected on social already, let's change that!
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