Category: Creator Confidential
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Holding back the good stuff
If you’re an artist, you will need to balance between delivering good work that matches your vision, and delivering the work at the level you’re capable of delivering. For example, sometimes there’s just not enough time, energy, and resources to do good work. Other times, timing isn’t right—the world isn’t ready to receive a certain…
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Virgil Abloh’s first website
For me, there are few things more exciting or entertaining than diving into a person’s early work. The more I like the work, the more early work I want to see. I recently came across the term, “nerdsniping,” from Paul Millerd. That sensation sums up what I experience when I’m researching the process of an…
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The only way to change someone’s mind
“Getting a prospect to admit their “mistake” borders on the impossible. All you’ll do is irritate or antagonize your prospect. That is not the way to persuade them to buy from you.… No, the prospect won’t change their mind, but they will be delighted to make a new decision, based on new information,” writes Zig…
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Life is a team sport
When I interviewed Annie Duke, we discussed the writing process for her first book, Thinking In Bets. Duke had made writing a team sport, firstly by recruiting a friend with a Juris Doctor degree, who was also a writer, to be her editor—outside of her editor at her publisher. This friend helped serve as a…
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Getting to know a business
If you’ve ever wanted to start a company, or write a book, or make something meaningful, it helps to go through the process as the person who’s paying for it. If you’re starting a company, figure out your potential competitors and see if you can work with them as a customer. If you want to…
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“What would you recommend?”
Whether it’s selecting an item at a new restaurant, or mapping out the 10 year vision for their business, the other person—your boss, your customer, your client—doesn’t always know what they want. They’re waiting for you to tell them. That’s when preparation meets opportunity; it’s your chance to provide them with the information they need,…
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Contentions: Names set expectations
What’s the difference between a book, an ebook, a digital book, a pamphlet, a booklet, a brochure, and a bulletin? By strict definition, they share a lot of common traits. They are all documents that hold words on them. The main difference is what each word leads a person to expect. For example, a book…
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Play to your strengths
It’s one thing to find a strategy, tactic, or best practice that worked for someone else. The internet is bursting with people sharing what works for them. It’s an entirely different thing to find the practice that works for you. You are the most important factor in how the things you do turn out. For…
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Their currency, their rules
With the prevalence of loyalty programs, it’s important to remember: if you’re using a company’s currency (such as points, rewards, coupons, etc.), you’ll need to abide by their rules. They can update their rules anytime with arbitrary guidelines and principles. They will often do this to incentivize you to make decisions or behave in their…
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Compiling
Film editor Brian Kinnes recently compiled a 73-minute film of Frank Ocean’s infamous Coachella set, using fan-made footage. Brian Kinnes’s insight was to download all of the files as they were uploaded to YouTube; the footage has since been removed from the internet, and he uploaded it and received a cease and desist. He now…