Category: Creator Confidential
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Creative Doing, now available on Kindle
In the past couple of years, I’ve done most of my reading on an ebook reader (an Amazon Kindle). I love paper books, and I’d sworn by them through most of my 20s; then I moved across the world and couldn’t bring them with me. I’m slowly donating them to the library. As you can…
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Google and the Dip
Seth Godin describes The Dip as, “The long slog between starting and mastery.” Two excerpts from Seth Godin’s The Dip stood out to me: “The brave thing to do is to tough it out and end up on the other side—getting all the benefits that come from scarcity. The mature thing is not even to…
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Contentions: Same campaign, fresh hook
While many marketers, journalists, and writers gather up their year-end round ups and campaigns—each largely only differing in the assortment of inventory—a decade ago, the Bloomberg Businessweek team found a moment of truth within the structure: the jealousy list. It describes the premise as, “All the stories we wish we wrote this year.” It’s a…
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Publish everything, promote selectively
I’d previously corresponded with a prominent author who had dabbled with writing every day. They concluded that the practice wasn’t for them—they weren’t capable of developing a good new idea every day, which would reach hundreds of thousands of readers. This stood out in contrast to my recommended approach, which is to make a lot…
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It wouldn’t be the same without you
The title was inspired by some words I saw on the pavement near the Flatiron building a few weeks ago. I didn’t write down who wrote it, though it clearly made an impact. My life—and I’m guessing dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands, of others—wouldn’t be the same without them. Some quotes that have…
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Publish it anyway
One of the biggest differences between talking and writing is the element of spontaneity. When you speak, once the words are out, you can’t take them back. The closest thing you can do is amend your words, by saying, “I take back what I said,” or, “I misspoke.” By contrast, when you write, it is…
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Contentions: Bringing creativity, brand, and distribution together
As an expertise, marketing has an even wider set of specialties and experiences than many other lines of work. Even in the world of organic internet marketing, it’s easy to experience overwhelm considering the many channels; TikTok, SEO, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Threads, Reddit, etc. While marketing can be extremely fun to work on (and equal…
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Your art doesn’t need more time, your time needs more art
I’ve occasionally written about the experience of writing within small amounts of time. In Big Ideas, Small Papers, I write: One of the most painful things about writing in small amounts of time is the lack of time for re-working. It feels like writing on a scrap of paper that’s way too small. I would…
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POSSE
Platforms can amplify your voice, certainly. However, publishing directly on them as a medium also changes the way you approach writing. A platform incentivizes you to think of what your work can do for you; true creative work requires you to consider what you can do for your work—and for other people. It’s a platform’s…
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Create momentum
50 Cent on his recent Final Lap Tour: I was gonna do four dates internationally, and Live Nation didn’t want to do the four days because they were like, “It’s gonna be COVID, you’re not going to get through the dates,” or whatever. I ended up financing the dates. I paid for the arenas, and…