Heroes of Cosplay Sanctuary

Welcome to Season 6 of the Healing from Cosplay podcast! 🎭✨ We're back after a long pause season premiere, host ScottyB welcomes back Anthony Cosjitsu to discuss his incredible year filled with personal milestones and cosplay adventures.

🔹 Big Life Updates: Anthony shares the heartwarming story of his engagement to @Liza_Bean, their romantic proposal in London, and plans for a 2026 wedding.
🔹 Cosplay & Coll...

A distinct style, and a wonder to the industry, we're talking with Gem Beauty in this special Christmas Episode!

Gem came prepared and shares some of her insights into makeup as a professional effects and makeup artist. Her creations are one of a kind, and we get into a lot of tips, tricks, and her insight into creating a look for any Cosplay.  You'll learn about her process, the steps she takes, and her positive...

Cosplay has its dark side - believe me. And if you don't, then in today's episode, you can hear it from Anthony Cosjitsu, as he returns to chat with me all about the depths that some go to inside of the community. 

Cosplay is and should be a positive space, but we know that with anything there can excess, anxiety, competition, cancel culture, and poor behavior. We talk through the ups and downs that we have expe...

There are steps you can take in Cosplay, or anywhere.  I'll take the time in this season ending episode (at least, standard episodes coming out regularly), to tell you what my process is.

-          Decide on the thing in one of the areas you’re working to fix, my 5 are Environment, Physical and Mental well-being, Finance, and Relationships.

-          Write down the thin you want changed most and just write about it –...

Follow One Course Until Success. Stay the course – small corrections as you learn, but you do learn, and you can see results – giving up is the only issue – but if you agreed to the ‘what is it going to take’ part, then you’re in charge of when you quit.

Find us online:
https://www.heroesofcosplaysanctuary.com/

Find the Sanctuary on Social:
With Co-Host @astravoidcosplay
Follow Her On Instagram & Join Her Ti...

The hard things we do – belief, consistency, skill building, failing, improving, and having a very solid goal will always pay off in some way.   Difficulties do not need to be avoided in order to have a happy Cosplay life.

Find us online:
https://www.heroesofcosplaysanctuary.com/

Find the Sanctuary on Social:
With Co-Host @astravoidcosplay
Follow Her On Instagram & Join Her TikTok Community!
https://link...

Selling yourself as the product to a fan is unsustainable and only works short term – you create more anti-fans in the process – focus on what’s sustainable – keep your distance if this is what you want.

It doesn’t scale like a product or service would – make the thing – video series, book, mass produce patterns, entertain, but don’t sell friendship. Find the product or value-add service that you can provide to your audience.  There...

Just because you exist, doesn’t mean anyone owes you and it really isn’t a good reason to pay you – skills, knowledge, experience, expertise – sell that and use your personality to sell it. Chose ethical money making – coning people, pandering to likes, feigning interest and leaning into obsession – all dangerous.  There is inside the community a slippery slope.  Make sure you want to jump in to this when you do, and understand wha...

Remember, you started this because you wanted to be with the people, not high above them – celebrities never interact, and when they do we go crazy – but this isn’t how it should be for us in Cosplay – we’re not Hollywood Actors...

Non-response, never interacting – it’s not social – if it’s just to talk about the next thing you’re doing and you ignore your best people because you’re always busy chasing more new people – see what you...

There are a few Cosplay traps that we haven't talked about yet - more to do with cosplayers supporting cosplayers or those outside of the community who think they're doing the right thing by over-extending themselves to buy other people Cosplays. 

Do not become a “Fan” and carry a torch – have friends, collabs, but do not de-value yourself into having someone be above you because they can model, or act, or are de...

Do not go to Cons just to con people.  Do not hustle to see what you can get for free. Diminishing the community, your value, and only seeing others for what they make and how many followers they have reduces you.  Avoid being the gatekeeper, or the cosplayer that bait and switches everyone for some personal issue that isn't being addressed within yourself.

Find us online:
https://www.heroesofcosplaysanctuary.com/

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The fame monster is real and cosplayers chase it. Eventually it traps you and you're just as stuck in your online world and it's customer service as you were when you were answering the phones at work and getting yelled at by customers. You begin to feel trapped.

Staying relevant, getting validated, feeling the good and bad of it – dopamine either way and that rush is what got you into your scroll hole, your outreach loop,...

Avoid the authentically fake influencer, cosplayer, or person.  Also, don't become this person. Selling and promoting the "fake" life on Instagram just leads to so many issues with yourself, with your following, and eventually - unless you have a PR department - it comes back to find you. You can't sustain a "fake" persona unless it's all you do and that is your life. Being a persona or a public f...

Do you have Con Friends?  The people that only talk to you because you go to conventions and might see them there with their other friends?  They might talk to you online, but ONLY about cosplay and they seem like they'd not even bother with you if you weren't gaining followers week by week?  Maybe they just want to use your platform to gain more Insta-fame or for some other made up 'clout' metric.  Who knows?  ...

We’re only showing so much of ourselves, and that self is based in fiction – graphics, effects, quotes – it’s all made up so that you like it. Going overboard with "fake" – beyond makeup into alteration for validation and so much lack of authenticity in just being what you THINK you have to be in order to gain attention.  You use terms like 'higher self' to describe what you do in order to 'fit in' to ...

Is there a downside to keeping your regular job when you gain some ground in the cosplay community?  The short answer is yes, but there's just so much pressure to be in the space and be "the best" or rub elbows with celebrities, or get the best deals as an influencer with name brands.  Whatever put that into your head, let's try and unpack it and have it make a little more sense for the casual cosplayer.

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Cosplay doesn’t need to be your full time thing – you don’t need to run a business small or otherwise - you can just enjoy being a cosplayer.  Despite the online world and the pressure it places on you to make money as a cosplayer and an influencer, take a step back and think about how Cosplay can be fulfilling without being your full-time all-in career.

Find us online:
https://www.heroesofcosplaysanctuary.com/

Find the...

Being independent can make you really dependent. Everyone idealizes the "ditch the 9 to 5" without really telling you how hard things are to replace when you do. For someone starting out, it might be a little easier, but for all cosplayers - listen in before you decide that jumping out of the corporate life and into entrepreneurial dress up adventures, consider what doing part time can mean for your overall stability.

Find...

There’s a difference between laziness and doing less – create space for creative ideas and projects. When you're just rushing and freaking out to get more content up to produce more reactions, you're not in a very creative space.

Pick your battles and focus your time – relax and do.  It's not a race, and it's certainly not a rush. Never feel like you HAVE to cosplay – especially if it’s just a hobby – you don’t h...