February 2019 : A newsletter

Status: 🌤❄️⛷and 🖥.

1. According to two-time Pulitzer-Prize winning author David McCullough, “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.” It’s also why, in the marketing and communications game, good writing travels. And good writing :news flash: travels light. Meaning keeping it on point (i.e. thoughtful) pays. Perennial reco: The Elements of Style by Strunk & White.

2. To me, thoughtful work requires a deep interest in Why? Few answer it well. This is notably true in the field of digital marketing (one of my day job hats), where there’s a metric for every action and inaction, and a rationale for both - some of which change quarterly. Takeaway: The more anyone can help their team (and their target audiences) unpack Why? succinctly and with objective proof, the more effective they can be. This requires a constant stream of inputs, including a classic rediscovered, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Caveat lector: It’s dense.

3. This is a ten-second time-out to allow those who may be thinking tl;dr to catch up with those hanging on every word (appreciate it, AT). Here’s a podcast reco for the dedicated who’ve read this far: The Hidden Side of Sports. It’s produced by the authors of Freakonomics and available wherever you download your digital audio.

4. I also have two Instagram feeds for you: Chris Burkard and Alex Strohl, both of whom consistently inspire with their adventure photography, stories, and approach. For brand work, Yeti is superb.

5. While in the *great outdoors* category, I’ve descended over 170,000 vertical feet on waxed boards so far this winter season. Though I’ve _postponed_ the pursuit of skiing at least as many days as my age in a single year, there has been terrific joy in the past three months.  And now, back to that day job (later, a stretch).

6. An article I wrote got published in cmo.com. Thanks, cmo.com (and Adobe). Cool.

7. A few weeks ago a colleague asked why I invest so much energy in content. A: Because it works, and when it does it generates exceptionally high ROI. Just as time and KPIs have largely validated Seth Godin’s (2008!) observation: “Content marketing is the only marketing left,” so too has personal experience.  While the only marketing might be a tad extreme, content is super-important and the good stuff - the material that unequivocally influences revenue - is always in short supply because it’s not easy to make.

8. Rowing is my new thing. At home. Because it’s still winter and I can typically carve out like 15 free minutes in any single block; or enough time for 3K at approximately 32 strokes/minute and a pace of roughly 2:15/500 m. It’s peaceful and low-impact and I dig it for both. Also for a mind + body connection, I can multitask 🚣‍♂️ 🎧 by listening to podcasts at the same time.

9. Just yesterday I finished a truly outstanding ‘cast: Jim Collins: A Rare Interview with a Reclusive Polymath. Tim Ferriss hosts and does a nice job bouncing from topic to topic. It’s so good I recommend dropping everything except your phone and starting now.  

10. If you haven’t started yet, here’s something to chew on:  “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” -Mark Twain. (H/T: the above-recommended Ferriss/Collins ‘cast)

Always forward.   

-John

September 2018 : A newsletter

Status:  Pumpkin Spice (preseason)

Here’s a quick rundown of ten observations on topics + experiences I’m finding interesting.   

1. What I’ve learned from logging 210 activities on Strava so far in 2018 can be summarized by Newton’s First Law: Objects in motion will remain in motion (unless acted upon by an opposing force not including vacations, weekends, or weather).  🍎 Still recording times + distances + locations on my Fenix 5, which has proven impervious to rain, wind, sleet, snow, heat, cold, the ocean, lakes, slip-n-slides, and lemonade spills.

2. I’m diving deeper into the pursuit of mastery: what it means, how it’s achieved, and the type of person who achieves it.  This has led to Mastery, by Robert Greene, which I’m enjoying immensely and annotating with vigor.  I’ve also started reading The 33 Strategies of War, ibid. And it’s equally good if not better.  The Laws of Human Nature, also by Greene, will be released on October 23, 2018.       

3. One runner and writer acquainted with mastery is Malcolm Gladwell, whose book, Outliers, remains a classic.  BTW: Gladwell, at age 53 in 2015, ran a 5:03 mile. Quickness. He also has a podcast, Revisionist History, which is worth a listen.  Am playing (then muting, then playing again) Malcolm Gladwell’s 12 Rules for Life as I type. Practical psychology.

4. Mastery is a process like any other.  While 10,000 hours of practice is a useful starting point, here are two articles I found worth 1/80,0000th as much time: How to Master a New Skill and The Best Leaders are Constant Learners.

5. Meanwhile back at the office, we’re translating data into product marketing strategy into creative ideas into brand impressions into sales.  Twenty-first century alchemy? Not sure but we’re keeping it interesting. In the pursuit of our own mastery, we’ve been gathering inspirado from multiple sources, including:  Creativity’s bottom line: How winning companies turn creativity into business value and growth ; The secret to great marketing analytics: Connecting with decision makers ; Customer strategy and marketing insights from Bain ; and The 10 best business and leadership books of 2018 so far, according to Goodreads readers.  Brain food.

6. Let’s say you’re scanning this on a train, bus, or other moving object aboard which you’ve willfully surrendered all logistical control.  You have limited interest in stories written in second-person and are tired of reading. You think maybe it’s time for a video and haven’t yet viewed Marques Brownlee’s Tesla Factory Tour with Elon Musk. You click here then hit play. And you think, “There’s a master at work.”  Then you watch a bunch of additional MKBHD videos and think, “💯.”  Then you decide you might want to learn more about Tesla and the next thing you know you’re thinking a new electric car in cherry red would be totally sensible.  From that point I have no idea what you do but I cannot be held responsible.

7. Worth following on Twitter: Lin-Manuel Miranda, the supertalent who brought Hamilton to life. Also a master. Also an unceasingly insightful, hard-working, positive person.

8. Fast Company’s list of The Most Creative People in Business is now available for 2018.  Worth a read, if not to double-check the list for the people or brands you might know then at least to spur big ideas of your own.  Anything’s possible.

9. And in sports podcasting news (there’s no easy segue for that but here goes), it’s still baseball season.  Whether your preference is analytics or the opera of competition, there’s something for many on the Baseball Tonight Podcast.  It’s also my best bet for keeping up with 11-yo fans able to devote more than 15 minutes per day to highlights.

10. And now a quote: “Actually, your past successes are your biggest obstacle: every battle, every war, is different, and you cannot assume that what worked before will work today.” So true. And still so many perceive it untrue. Source (who else?): Robert Greene.

Stay flexible.  I’ll do the same.

-John

July 2018 : A newsletter

Status:  SPF 30. 

Here’s a quick rundown of ten observations on topics + experiences I’m finding interesting.   

1. Postback 2018 was a big success and I’m happy to have played a role in bringing the event to life.  This year’s edition, hosted in Seattle on July 19-20, brought together an eclectic group of marketers from around the world and across the digital ecosystem.  Two key takeaways: 1.) We measure to manage so that what we manage is what matters most; i.e. know the difference btwn signal and noise..both can change fast. 2.) What - and how - we communicate and share has never been more important so you might as well hold yourself to a high bar.         

2. Shifting gears (which would be a pun if my bicycle weren’t a single-speed), I recently broke the 150 mark.  For what, pray tell?  A: Cycling and running segments recorded on Strava so far in 2018.  Yes, my minor obsession continues and including alpine skiing the tally is over 170 segments.  Pls forgive the rhetorical question and indulgence, it’s just that I really like data and you might, too.  

3. Continuing the thread: Sports are advertising are sports are content marketing is marketing.  The storylines are everywhere, all the time. Here’s one covering another of July’s signature events: Wimbledon says complacency is its ‘biggest threat’ as it looks to build a global brand.  Plus one relating to the largest single sporting event in the world, also held this year in the seventh month of the Gregorian calendar: Why Nike ditched a proven winning strategy for the 2018 World Cup.      

4. As mentioned in previous notes, there’s big upside in the B2B corner of the content universe and beyond.  Research recently uncovered and/or reread: B2B Content Marketing 2018: As Usage Nears Saturation, Still Lots of Room for Improvement; 2018 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends - North America; and: Four Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing.  All-up: Think audience + format + channel and repeat (with originality) at scale.

5. Do you read Seth’s blog?  I recently returned and it’s as insightful as ever.  For example: Walking away from fast twitch.  Because the race belongs to those who keep going.

6. With all the work-ing and Strava-ing and strategize-ing, there’s never enough time to read.  I did manage to finish Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (5/5 stars) and What Made Maddy Run by Kate Fagan (difficult and important, especially for parents), and am flying through Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts by Ryan Holiday.  His work is consistently high-quality, which is why I link him so often.     

7. Being effective at anything requires deep commitment, a point underlined many times in Perennial Seller and the premise of To Make or Not To Make, an article I jotted two years ago.  Sometimes I read what I’ve written and with the benefit of additional experience reconsider it through a different lens.  That’s part of the creative process. In this case, To Make holds up.  Knowing how to make things happen has never been more critical.      

8. I also made a short movie a while back and titled it The Pumpernickel Clause.  It’s about the importance of knowing your target audience.  You may like pumpernickel, you may not like pumpernickel. Doesn’t matter.  It’s your audience that matters.

9. Monthly podcast feature: The Tour de France is underway and I’ve been listening to The Move.  It’s a daily show hosted by Lance Armstrong and JB Hager, often with guests and most days from the comfort of an Airstream trailer.  For the 105th edition they’ve added a segment titled B-Fast with Boswell; or more specifically Breakfast with Boz; or even more specifically short conversations between Marshall Opel and Ian Boswell, one of 5 US riders in this year’s race.  Been fun.

10. And finally, a monthly quote: “As long as you can start, you are all right.  The juice will come.” -E Hemingway. I like juice.

Thanks for tuning in.  Back soon.

-John

June 2018 : A newsletter

Status: summer. 😎

Here’s a quick rundown of ten observations on topics + experiences I’m finding interesting.   

1. 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.     

2. 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.

3. 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.   

4. 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.     

5. 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.)

6. 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.”

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.    

10. 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

April 2018 : A newsletter

Welcome to the last week of April 2018.  That was fast. 

Here’s a quick rundown of ten observations on topics + experiences I’m finding interesting.   

1. Over the past few months I’ve gotten into Strava. Not that the platform is without privacy concerns, but technology that promotes a healthy lifestyle and friendly competition is generally good with me. I’m optimistic this one is on the rise.

2. Regarding privacy, whether or not twenty eighteen is the year digital marketing gets turned on its head remains TBD, but overdue change is on the way. Maturing and increasingly controversial consumer platforms and technologies (ex: social media), new regulations (GDPR), mainstream AI, and more signal a shift that will leave a portion of the brand/agency/tech ecosystem asking “What next?” It’ll be an obstacle for some, an opportunity for others. At risk of TL;DR,the shakeout is on.

3. If fortune favors the bold, then constraints favor the creative. And if creativity remains the most sought-after skill in business, then we should all expect more ideas and less dilemma, larger bets and smaller barriers. This daily grind (plus Hanah One...not a paid advertisement) keeps me going.

4. One more note from the creativity soapbox: I remain fascinated by the increasing need for real-world storytelling in B2B marketing and specifically tech. There are always bright spots, but the scope of underwhelm continues to leave an open door for brands capable of expressing themselves and why they do what they do in plain language. It’s not always easy; it’s also not impossible.

5. One way to improve creative work is by teaming with an experienced editor. Here’s a snapshot of how I think about editing. Not all the answers and pro tips, but having launched a wide variety of ideas across formats, teams, and contexts, I’d rather share than safeguard. Punchline: The more you make, the better you’ll be.

6. I’m reading a biography of US Grant. It’s 1,104 door-stopping pages by the author of Hamilton, the biography that inspired the musical soundtrack that remains in heavy rotation on my at-home hi-fi. As for Grant (the book), it’s excellent. One of my favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln, who described Grant’s impact in easy-to-understand terms: “The only evidence you have that he’s in any place is that he makes things git! Where he is, things move!”

7. I look for a sense of git in every candidate I interview and seek to uncover it via two back-to-back questions. Here they are: 1) What do you do?; and 2) Why is it important? Ten times out of ten, they work. (No link..feel free to answer for yourself.)

8. As mentioned on many occasions, the power of video cannot be overstated. That said, I multitask to podcasts. Here are three of hundreds I’ve found especially engaging: Cal Fussman: The Art of a Great Question (James Altucher Podcast, ep. 324), Life is Hard. So What Are You Going to Do? (Jocko Podcast, ep. 112), and Sir Richard Branson: The Billionaire Maverick of the Virgin Empire (Tim Ferriss Podcast). (Note: As an editor, I recommend avoiding overused and oblique terms such as ‘engaging.’) In this case, let’s call them compelling.

9. This article is probably worth nine minutes (Medium est.) of your time: Here’s The Technique That Ambitious People Use to Get What They Want by Ryan Holiday.

10. And finally: “Life is either daring adventure or nothing at all.” -Helen Keller. Your move.

All for now and back to work.  If I don’t return within the next month (or so), that won’t mean I’m not available.  Just that I haven’t paused.  

-John