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Another business model example blending creativity and expertise
A couple of years ago, I highlighted Chris Do’s business model for The Futur. More recently, I also highlighted Dan Runcie’s business model. Here’s Dan Shipper sharing his business model for Every: At the top of the pyramid are the enterprise deals. I’ve previously written a bit about Spotify’s, Axios’s, and Headspace’s moves into the…
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Procrastination
When you don’t do something you said you would do, you’re hurting your confidence. Procrastination is a great example of that. If you said you were going to work on something for an hour, and then you open up social media for five minutes and an hour goes by, you need to find a new…
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Presenting uncertainty
If somebody is approaching you about a simple question that you know is impossible to answer, you want to respond with a demonstration of your expertise. Let them know the uncertainty is justified; show historical evidence that what they are asking is difficult to predict. Look at the evidence or circumstances and let the person…
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Confidence buffer
A friend once told me about pitching one of the world’s biggest companies. While they didn’t do business together, my friend was saying it was incredible—borderline a miracle—that the sales conversation even went that far. Then he reflected that it was his own responsibility. He said, “We shouldn’t have to be perfect to get it.”…
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Cargo cult confidence
A couple of people from a tribe untouched by civilization are scouting their nearby land. They see a freight airplane landing on a runway. The plane is full of food. They report back to their tribe and instruct them to build a runway for an airplane. They believe once they build a runway, the airplane…
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Game reps
If you want to compete as a creator—to help your work gain recognition, to improve your craft, to earn respect and prove yourself, to monetize your work—then you will need to show up to the marketplace. In your early career, as you still improve, you want to find every opportunity to do this. Sometimes this…
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Be nice and kind to yourself
When you’re being nice, you are being polite with the intention of making someone feel good. You may be withholding your honesty because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. When you’re being kind, you are being honest with the intention of helping someone improve. You will tell someone that there is food in their…
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Two types of confidence
Confidence means different things to different people. Generally, there are two types of confidence: Epistemic confidence describes a person’s certainty about what’s true. When a meteorologist reports a 70% chance of rain, they are expressing epistemic confidence. Social confidence describes a person’s comfort with their social expression and role. When a person steps on a…
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Doing the impossible
Nobody thought it was possible to run a mile in less than four minutes. Until 70 years ago, one person did it. He believed he could, because he saw his run times improve slowly and steadily. Then a month after that, somebody else ran a mile in under four minutes. Since then, nearly 2,000 more…
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The case for a non-social publishing surface
One of the traits of publishing work on social media is its quick feedback loop. You’ll quickly know if an algorithm believes that people care, or doesn’t. Some people strike gold the first few times, but it’s more likely that the experience of posting will feel disappointing. You need to hang in there until you…