June 2018 : A newsletter
/Status: summer. 😎
Here’s a quick rundown of ten observations on topics + experiences I’m finding interesting.
According to data compiled by Strava, there’s a 95% chance I’ll finish my next neighborhood 5K w/in 14.3 seconds of a 7:33/mile pace (n=58)*. *This quest for everyday applications of statistical techniques acquired in business school is made possible by Garmin, in conjunction with an iphone I’m seeking to upgrade within the next few months because my current model is bonking. Additional (and unceasingly thrilling) analysis forthcoming.
At the shop, a.k.a. Tune, we’re prepping for our annual conference, a.k.a. Postback, a two-day palooza of ideas, networking, entertainment, and more networking in sunny Seattle. It’ll be [fill in the blank with whatever term the cool people are using that’s the modern equivalent of ‘rad’ but without the desperation of ‘amazeballs’]. Speaking of conferences for the marketing and creativity set, Cannes is also happening this month, as it does every June. Worth a follow.
Trends, trends, trends. They're the second reason most people travel to conferences. Smart attendees who want to plug into what's happening in tech will preread Internet Trends by Mary Meeker and her team at Kleiner Perkins. Fair warning: it’s a 294-slide opus. At thirty seconds/slide, it’ll get you through nearly two-and-a-half hours of flight time.
I continue bookmarking stories on Twitter @morebetternow. Here’s one with particular applicability to a part of the world I know (the startup part, not the astronauts, Daily Show, or Coach of the Boston Celtics parts): What Your Startup Can Learn from Astronauts, the Daily Show, and the Coach of the Boston Celtics by Adam Grant. Additional goodness: If reading’s not your jam, the same content is available via SoundCloud.
There’s a non-zero probability you had a teacher, professor, mentor, or coach who described learning as a lifelong process. (Notice that insertion of statistics-speak..?) With this in mind, two books are currently on my desk: Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee, and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Superb, both. Also an update on Grant, by Ron Chernow: I finally finished it. It was good. (Note this is referring to Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, not the previously mentioned Adam Grant from bullet #4 of this update. Assuming better than 2:1 odds you already figured that out.)
If you’re lucky, part of what you’ve learned is how to deal with success and failure. It’s a central theme of Grant (the Chernow biography) and so many of my favorite reads. In this vein, Ryan Holiday recently published a thought-provoking article: How to Recover When the World Breaks You. As Holiday notes, “The question is, as always, what will we do with this? How will we respond? Because that’s all there is. The response.”
Back to business, here’s another bookmark for the brand-inclined: The Most Successful Brands Focus on Users not Buyers by Mark Boncheck and Vivek Bapat. I can’t emphasize enough how important the user/buyer distinction is. And how frequently sales and marketing teams fall into the trap of focusing on the wrong audience. Check it out.
While we’re in the Dropping Knowledge segment of today’s show, here’s a short video I cut many moons ago: 7 Steps to Owning Your Value Prop (and crushing the competition). I won’t bill it as 4:18 that will change your life. But it might just make what you’re striving for a little easier to achieve while offering a few ounces of structure to the thought processes of your marketing, sales, and product/service teams.
As you may have gathered by now, this whole morebetternow thing isn’t all serious business. That said, serious business can be almost anything. If you’re heading out this summer - and I certainly hope you are - then might I also recommend a recent installment from Brain Pickings? Here it is: Nature and the Serious Business of Joy.
And finally, as a lifelong sportsman, I try to pass along the best of what I’ve learned: Keep it fun. Because fun = joy. And joy is all the fuel a competitor needs. My kids show me this every day, every season. That's it (no links).
All for now and back to work. But first, a quick 5K.
More soon.
-John