Entrepreneurship
Why “Just Work Harder” Doesn’t Work
Ok quick history lesson because I thought I knew this stuff but I really didn’t learn it till I was an adult. We’re taught that for centuries women were denied access to capital, property, employment, separate economy, government, and our own freaking children. What we’re not really taught was how this was true as recently as the (…)
Signal In The Noise: Introducing The Carbon Almanac
Before I tell you this story you need to know that I was the founder of the Save The Earth Club at I. Weiner Middle school in 1994. I petitioned for half a day of school to facilitate workshops and speakers and, yes, I was 10. I also drove my parents insane insisting we reduce, (…)
Write Copy You’re Proud Of
There’s a category of businesses I call “cookie-cutter” because they all look the same. You can tell who runs a cookie-cutter business because they’re obsessed with business “formulas” for scaling. And they do it quite well. If you want to run a cookie-cutter business it will probably work, at least for a little while. Books (…)
Fine, I’ll Get Back On LinkedIn
At the urging of my friend Louis, I have returned to LinkedIn. I’d avoided it for years because I’m not in the market for a “job,” and find the dialogue on there to be vapid, performative, and – I cannot emphasize this point enough – emphatically boring. Forced hot takes, feigned “excitement” over things (…)
Sooo easy
In 2017, I wrote a piece on Hustle Guilt where I argued that we’ve put the wrong values on a pedestal when it comes to what we call “hard work” and “sacrifice.” It’s hold hat 🎩now. Once Mrs. Huffington collapsed on her desk and Peterson’s burnout piece went viral the world took a collective, “oh shit.” And (…)
Why Is No One Reading My Newsletter?
Back in April, I had the privilege of speaking at Newsletter Fest (“A FREE online conference to ignite your newsletter strategy!”) and you can watch the talk here. The polite version of how this talk came to be is that Curated asked me to come on and talk about email newsletter myths. The real version is (…)
How to Get a Life (no, really, how?)
The best manager I ever worked for told me to work less. Having just been scolded for needing to bill more hours to our clients, I was confused by his advice. “I need you to have a life. It’s part of your job as a marketer. We need to be in the zeitgeist.” I think (…)
Think Deeper
Forty hours. It took me 40. freaking. hours to write (and re-write and edit) the piece that led me to my first “viral” moment. For every “viral” moment I’ve had since, it’s taken about the same amount of work. Quality, for me, takes time. Time, patience, and so.much.editing. Those three ingredients feel diametrically opposed to (…)