December 2020 : A newsletter

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Current status: 🔨🚵‍♂️⛷   

  1. I’ve returned to cycling in twenty twenty and appreciated it more thoroughly than ever before. I’m riding not racing, pedaling a steel frame vélo with 700c x 42mm tyres in an olive and tan combination propelled by a single ring chainset and - more importantly - slowed by hydraulic disc brakes. Fifteen hundred (give or take a few 00) miles in, it’s a genuine joy. 

  2. More data? My executive decision maker says yes. I’m sampling Whoop, a health and fitness device I wear above my wrist. Three months in, the metric I’m following more closely than any other is heart rate variability (HRV). The science-inclined may appreciate these details from The Lancet. Takeaways + personal experience: try to get better rest, eat healthy, minimize blue light, stretch, hydrate, take your daily vites, meditate, sleep in a cool room, and minimize stress. The remaining hour of your day can be free time.    

  3. Loyal readers (your holiday card will be in the mail prior to 24 Dec) are aware that my lists tend to bounce from topic to topic. Exempli gratia: The Cycling Podcast. It’s not for everyone other than those who appreciate the opera of bike racing and stories from places most of us have been unable to visit in 2020, e.g. 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸 & most destinations > 2km from home.    

  4. At least my library is in top shape. Rather than list links, here’s a photo of ~3/4 of the highlights. The balance are scattered will-nilly around my return address. Note: Digital Minimalism, which you’ll be free to pursue within approximately 00:00:57. 

  5. In the event you’re shirking duty - like, now, at this moment - I offer you a recent think piece from Eric Barker: 6 Things The Most Productive People Do Every Day.  

  6. Speaking of productivity or the lack thereof, or the lack thereof as a means to eventually achieve it once the mind has had a chance to run-on, the holidays are arriving post-haste and I prefer the season of light be just that. Free prezzies: Holiday letters from legends of Greek mythology and A few minor requests before you take your holiday vacation.  <- Not that most readers are venturing far this season but you’ll get the gist.    

  7. At various times and due partially to a pandemic, I took a break from making things. This didn’t help my HRV. Inspirado: Keep calm and make ugly art.  Even I can do that. 

  8. In the event the whole “How’s Work?” conversation comes up on your next video call in which your video part is expected to be in the on (i.e. 🔴, occasionally blinking) position, I recommend keeping it quick regardless of your audience. Here are a few thought starters, if not to be cited by name (really, try not to do that), then perhaps to trigger a window-filled space in your brain where you occasionally stumble upon an unreasonable idea with a reasonable chance of success: Six problem-solving mindsets for very uncertain times, Video tips for surviving a covid-19 winter, and How to brief a senior executive.  

  9. Returning to seasonally heady matters: Turkey or sides: a Socratic dialogue. I curate so you can focus on the big questions.

  10. I also plan to bake a cake. This one: Teddie’s Apple Cake. Apparently it’s ‘lovable,’ a ‘show-stopper,’ and ‘virtually indestructible.’ I hope for the sake of friends + family this is true.  

  11. Survey: Have you watched any of the EF Gone Racing vids on the YouTube 📺? No way, you haven’t? There’s still time. If you like cycling and video and rice cakes and stories of stories inside stories, then you might enjoy this rice cake recipe and this video about a guy who pedals from the farthest point south to the farthest point north in Great Britain. If not, I won’t judge.   

  12. I’m going to end this update before it gets too crazy. Maybe I’ll go skiing. The old farmer with the almanac predicts my northwest winter will be fairly average with some cold spells and snow but less snow than normal and maybe warmer than usual. The rest is just details. (How’d he/she get the almanac-writing job in the first place?) About those details: the mountain weather forecast may serve you well. 

  13. One more nugget for the history buff(s) on my DL: Prior to listening to The Rewatchables podcast, I was unaware that Rocky IV - the movie - ended the Cold War. I can barely write that with a straight face but with a little data mining the claim can be supported. More data: the film is 32% montages, an equally impressive observation. Added to queue. 🥊  

  14. And finally, a quote: “Going one more round when you don’t think you can – that’s what makes all the difference in your life.” -Rocky Balboa. Because there’s always another round. 

Be well stay well.

-John

December 2019: A newsletter

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Status: 🌲🚎❄️

  1. Housekeeping: I’m closing in on 365 miles run in 2019 and if I get there it’ll amount to one-per-24-hrs at an average pace of approximately 7:47/mile. Rewards: pride (which is forever), and maybe a tin of seasonal butter cookies (equally enduring).

  2. The local snowsports season remains stuck in the slush and apparently Washington’s Best Ski Community is a Parking Lot. Sweet but this has lasted long enough. If someone could just turn on the snow machine I’d like to move up the mountain. In the meantime it’s goblet squats and kettlebell swings and the LPP (Low Pressure Podcast) for yours truly.

  3. I started at Formative in August. We’re a boutique marketing agency specializing in strategy, campaigns, and communications for foundations, NGOs, and brands who are focused on doing well by doing good. 👍

  4. I’m also now commuting by bus. [Insert mental image of fellow travelers and their accoutrement, including but not limited to: canis lupus familiaris, shopping carts, vaping and other smoke products (some in use), birds, a ferret, felis catus domesticus, food and beverage, and one preacher]. With the inclusion of being thrice ghosted by the 29 - in the rain - it’s meeting expectations. Also: Man on bus can tell by surroundings he either hasn’t reached stop yet or passed stop long time ago. That man is not me but I can relate. Pull cord for recos.

  5. Twenty nineteen has been a good reading year. Recently: Tools and Weapons by Brad Smith, Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday, Call Sign Chaos by James Mattis, The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins, Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, Range by David Epstein, and more. In the words of General James Mattis, author of Call Sign Chaos, “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate and you will be incompetent because your personal experiences aren’t broad enough to sustain you.” Stick that in your stocking.

  6. Speaking of personal experiences 🔨: It’s hard to overstate the importance of reskilling in every category of the working world. Starter pack: 1.) Redefining the role of the leader in the reskilling era; and 2.) Why companies are failing at reskilling. Talk amongst yourselves.

  7. Thanks to the miracle of 5G, I’m also able to stream videos on the bus, including Masterclass sessions on film & tv, culinary arts, design, photography, business, science and technology, and more. I also recently rewatched Casey Neistat’s Human Flying Drone and am now in a 57% (est.) more festive mood. 📹

  8. By this point all three of you have hopefully gathered that this is not a holiday letter. No really. Also if you haven’t heard, My mother’s annual holiday letter is spreading fake news. Not mine IRL but click and you’ll get the gist. Be careful what you believe 🎅🏻

  9. In a quest for shock-and-awe, I’m meditating on Very Easy Apple Cake. It’s the Very Easy (not just Easy) that has drawn my attention and demands analysis. More eventually.

  10. And finally, as ever, a quote: “You can hold your breath until you turn blue, but they’ll still go on doing it.” -Marcus Aurelius. That they will. Remember it all goes on sale in January.

Ahoy for 2020.

-John

July 2019 : A newsletter

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Status: ☀️🚲🗽

  1. June was a commute-by-bike month. Average daily totals: 46 minutes, 8.3 miles on my Trek single-speed. If you’re thinking “wait a half-second that’s not very fast,” then I invite you to join me for an uphill evening return, a journey I describe as The Pedal, Walk, and Carry. If you like stairs and a 16% incline, it’s 100% for you. 

  2. I spent most of last month evaluating a B2B SAAS idea with the all-star team at Pioneer Square Labs. Good times, great learnings. 💡 Here’s how I describe the experience to my kids: Start with What do you do with an idea? then add a whole lotta work.  

  3. More biz: I’m a big fan of customer lifetime value (CLV) as an organizing principle for marketing strategy - especially at B2B SAAS companies. Primarily because it requires a cross-section of teams (sales, marketing, finance, customer success) to think critically about why they’re in business and the value they’re delivering. For additional knowledge: What most companies miss about customer lifetime value.    

  4. Maximizing CLV - and by extension, company value - increasingly depends upon product and marketing personalization. Reading reco: The future of personalization and how to get ready for it. Because it’s here. 

  5. In other news: As an early riser, I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone. For example: Navy Seal commander explains why wake up at 4am, courtesy of the unparalleled Casey Neistat. I’m also convinced predawn starts are a key to unlocking creativity and over-the-top GSD (Getting Stuff Done 👊). Once you make it a routine, you may never return to sleeping later than 0600.   

  6. The 2019 Tour de France gets underway on July 6. It’s a two-wheeled, three-week opera set against some of the most stunning backgrounds in sports. Here’s how to watch live and/or follow The Move podcast (recommended). 

  7. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup (also in 🇫🇷) has been outstanding, as anticipated. If you’re reading this after July 7, the winner will have been crowned and here’s hoping it’s who I hope it will be 🇺🇸. Either way, the inspiring stories in We asked, they answered: 108 Women’s World Cup Players on Their Jobs, Money and Sacrificing Everything will live on. 

  8. 🎧: Michael Lewis’s podcast, Against the Rules, is terrific. It’s a 9-episode analysis of what has happened to fairness in American life and a prime example of great storytelling.       

  9. 📚: The Spy and The Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. Also exceptional. Thumbs up.

  10. And finally, a quote: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” -Pablo Picasso

Think big.

-John 


June 2019 : A newsletter

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Status: 🌊☀️📚

  1. Summer is here 😎. First, a flashback + update: It’s now one week post-Ski to Sea 2019 and I’m emerging from the hurt locker character-reinforcing-experience that was the ‘downhill ski’ segment of the race. Race organizers, let’s be honest: 97% of the ‘downhill ski’ is an uphill climb (in ski/snowboard boots, while carrying one’s planks/board). For most participants it’s also a catch-22: If training doesn’t throttle your calves, the event will. 📷<- click for uphill to finish line data. Onward.     

  2. I like this video and you might, too: BOOKSTORES: How to Read More Books in the Golden Age of Content. The premise: solid, footage: excellent, editing: exceptional - and sylistically, it’s a 10/10. Watch, learn, share.

  3. Then check out Wait But Why, one of the blogs reco’d in the vid. Two suggestions: How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) and 100 Blocks a Day. Either (or both) might change the advice you give and how you fill your time, adventure races notwithstanding.

  4. Then check out Barking Up the Wrong Tree, ibid, and one of Eric Barker’s recent installments: New Neuroscience Reveals 5 Rituals That Will Make You Happy. Am fully in favor of #2: Do More Stuff.

  5. Some of my favorite stuff is creative work and because creative work requires inputs and risks and insights, check out The Creative Future Report. Among other takeaways: Adaptability is the key skill of the future. 👍 Also: Debbie Millman’s presentation ‘Anything Worthwhile Takes Time. Plus: the Design Matters podcast, also featuring D. Millman.

  6. I subscribe to a handful of newsletters. Some for work, others as points of comparison (re: style, format, content), and still others to stay connected to current and cultural events. One is The Hustle, a daily email that covers tech and business news. Another is from Austin Kleon, who recently jotted a heads-up on Operational Transparency referring to a longer HBR piece titled Operational Transparency. 🖱-> 🖱 Kleon is also the author of Keep Going: How to stay creative in good times and bad. Embrace the process.

  7. This just in from the world of academia: New study finds simple way to inoculate teens against junk food marketing (source: The University of Chicago). Spoiler: Tell teens they’re being manipulated and they’ll rebel - in a good way.  Also: 10 Principles of Modern Marketing (source: MIT). ☑️+ ☑️

  8. Elsewhere on the internet: The Moving Correspondence of Albert Camus and Boris Pasternak via Brain Pickings. From one of Camus’s letters to Pasternak: “It is false to say that frontiers do not exist. They do exist, temporarily. But at the same time there exists a force of creativity and truth uniting us all, in humility and pride at the same time.” Also check out Camus’s beautiful letter to his childhood teacher after winning the Nobel Prize.

  9. More brain food, this from Jason Silva, the former host of Brain Games and the personality/thinker/talent behind the video series, Shots of Awe. Recent clip: The Fear of Being Fully Alive. At a 4:31 runtime it’ll require an investment of 1/3 of 1/100th of your daily blocks; 2/3 after you’ve watched a second time. You get the math.      

  10. And finally, as in every update, a quote: “Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.” - Marcus Aurelius (H/T: Daily Stoic)

Own it.

-John

May 2019 : A newsletter

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Status: 🌻🕶🎿

  1. Courtesy update: According to Year Progress (and math), as of May 1 we are 33% of the way through 2019. I vote we continue.  

  2. Here’s a reason: The 7-stage Ski to Sea adventure race is on the near horizon (May 26) and I’m doing the downhill ski event again. In this case, ‘downhill’ is a 97% misnomer. For the uninitiated, participants in the downhill ski climb 900’ uphill while carrying their skis (or snowboard) in deep snow from the base of Mt. Baker Ski Area to the top of the lift-accessed portion of the mountain, then click into their gear and race back down to the base. It’s bonkers and painful and I think I might order some of that wacky kinesiology tape to help fend off the 100% probability of pain. Sufferfest self-talk: This is fun this is fun this is fun.  

  3. In other news... Loyal readers will recognize that Marketing ROI remains a personal quest and frequent topic at morebetternow HQ. To wit, two more articles worth a scan: 1.) A Better Way to Calculate the ROI of Your Marketing Investment; and 2.) Calculating the ROI of Customer Engagement. Today I Learned (TIL). 💯

  4. In business, success requires balancing right-brain creative juice with left-brain quant skills. Book reco reprise: Damn Good Advice (for people with talent) by George Lois. I reread this classic last week and the advice remains damn good.

  5. It (success) also requires feeding the beast, nourishing the spark, gathering inputs, staying sharp. All the things. This time of year, I like to check out What’s on at the  Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Then tune in again during the show from 17-21 June 2019.  

  6. A few weeks ago, Adobe sent me (and thousands of others, I presume) an email titled: Collaborating is validating, exhilarating, and hard as heck. First, I agree - and am aware it can be at least that hard. Second, there’s a thoughtful collection of articles that were linked via the email, starting with Collaborating on a Creative Project? Tips for Making It Work. I like tips. They help reinforce targets.  

  7. Segue to podcast-land and a recent installment from the author of Extreme Ownership and one of the most successful podcasters of them all, Jocko Willink. Reco:  Set Standards. Aspire to Achieve Them. Become an Eminently Qualified Human. It’s a dose of equal parts reality and motivation. 🏋️‍♂️  

  8. We’re also all about data here at morebetternow and with numbers on my mind I offer you Significant Digits, brought to all of us by the data pros at fivethirtyeight. Significant installments are weekly and I try to visit weekly because I don’t want to miss anything important. For example, I had no idea that NASA and other space agencies are running simulations to prepare for a 100-300 meter wide (hypothetical) asteroid strike in 2027. I’m unclear how much of the year 2027 will have passed before the (hypothetical) asteroid strike but I’d like to request it (the asteroid) wait until beyond the 75% point because I’d really like to get my summer vacation in.  

  9. One more thing: I’m continuing to chisel away at MySportsMath. It’s a program that helps elementary and middle school students reinforce their math skills by focusing on categories they enjoy. In other words, it helps make math fun. The program features 405 questions spanning 8 sports. All sports-related questions include a range of math concepts, helpful tips, and an answer key complete with an example scratchpad. Get started today @ (where else?) mysportsmath.com. Check it out and let me know what you think, OK?  

  10. And finally, as ever, per usual, a closing quote: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -R.W. Emerson. True, true.

Keep moving forward.

-John

April 2019 : A newsletter

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Status: ☀️, 🏃‍♂️, 🚀, and 💻

  1. It’s spring and I’ll keep moving because I don’t know any other way. Perhaps you share the motivation. For additional fuel, check out the Association Between Push-Up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events Among Active Adult Men. Spoiler alert: According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), those able to complete 40 pushups have significantly lower risk of cardiovascular events than those unable to complete 10. You could’ve guessed, you say? Prove it. Also JAMA is a gem.

  2. Baseball season is here and I assume your 2019 copy of The Bill James Handbook is dog-eared and ready-to-go. (Yes?....No?) I’m also digging into Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports are Played and Games are Won and have The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership (a sports -> business crossover) in my queue. Net: I may not be fleeter afoot than last year, but at least I’m putting the mental miles in.

  3. I find the relationships between management and labor in sports endlessly fascinating. Brain food: Not Just Another Labor Force, a podcast episode by the Freakonomics team.

  4. While you have those headphones on (or in?), consider one of master storyteller Cal Fussman’s recent pods, The Infinite Game with Simon Sinek. The concept of an infinite game - in other words, the pursuit of continuous and mindful improvement - is what business strategy should be all about. Applies equally to pushups. 💪 Yes.

  5. Back to the data (b/c we always return to data in these monthly notes). Work-wise, I’m currently playing in the $191BN mobile advertising game ($93BN in the US alone). It’s so big that if you’re not succinct about which part of the game you’re playing, you’ll get lost. Meaning stories matter. And they matter more than many people think until they hear a good one and - kaboom! - they wish they had the same.   

  6. Do you know who knows how to tell a story? Garr Reynolds. I met Garr back in 2007 when he visited Microsoft and led one of the best training sessions I’ve ever enjoyed. If you’re not familiar with his work, check out the now-classic Presentation Zen, then jump to slide:ology, and Resonate. One link leads to another and there’s a reasonable probability you’ll sample Made to Click, then Story, and other winners of the genre. They’ll be worth it..promise.  

  7. Do you know who else knows their stories? Astrophysicists. Truly, they do. Proof: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Smart dude, acclaimed read. Also: Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry. (Aren’t they all?) To infinity and point #8.

  8. Have you been keeping pace with what’s happening at Space X? 10, 9, 8...They’re launching rockets, returning rockets ..7, 6, 5.. and generally pushing the envelope..4, 3, 2.. It’s a replay of The Right Stuff for a new generation, only now it’s all being recorded..1..like here 📺 (Cut to 48:50 for ignition and blastoff.) Watching rockets never..gets..old.

  9. I’ve been into stories for as long as I can remember: watching them, assembling them, sharing them, and since my first real job weaving them into my work. Abundant as they may be, thoughtful stories cannot be generated on command. They require work. And because they require work I keep the TED storytelling page bookmarked. Inspirado for us all.   

  10. And finally, a quote: “Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail.” -Ernest Hemingway

Galvanize.

-John

March 2019 : A newsletter

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Status: In like a 🦁.

  1. I’ve seen the future and it is sun-filled. Still I row, row in the predawn hours. Here’s the routine (courtesy of my good friend and accomplished oarsman, Agent H): 500m (@35 strokes/min) followed by a 0:30 cooldown, multiplied by 5. Result: a 13-minute, survival-of-the-fittest rowing session and low-impact alternative to another staple: the 5K run (@ 160 strides/min). Have data, will travel.

  2. Have podcasts, will travel smarter. And with a healthy relationship between performance and (not or) longevity, the probability of traveling farther improves dramatically. The goal: stay in the game by working with purpose. Podcast reco: Peter Attia: Eric Chehab, MD: Extending healthspan and preserving quality of life.

  3. Of course, purpose isn’t limited to sports. Brands can (and should) have purpose, too. Trouble is, many either aren’t aware of what they can be or lack the bravery to reveal it. If Tom Fishburne’s (a.k.a. The Marketoonist’s) sketches weren’t so on-the-nose they might hurt less. Either way, his work is terrific and worth a follow, starting with a recent installment, Brand Social Purpose.

  4. Startups need strength, corporations need flexibility. Both need growth. Brain food: The Two Ways for Startups and Corporations to Partner. Clearly there are more than two ways but keeping it simple has its advantages.   

  5. With strength and flexibility you can put in the hours and who knows? maybe change the world. Here’s how Bill Gates is tackling some of our planet’s biggest challenges: Talking Tech & Saving the World with Bill Gates! Nice work by all who made this happen. (Including you, AC.) Followers of MoreBetterNow - an exclusive group, to be sure - may recognize the producer and co-star of the Gates interview, MKBHD, a.k.a. Marques Brownlee. Marques was also featured in September 2018 when I highlighted his Tesla factory tour with Elon Musk. Both clips are outstanding.    

  6. Regardless of your organization’s purpose, more video is likely a good idea. For my $0.02 (why is it always $0.02?), video is the most powerful communication medium in the history of planet Earth. Forthwith and if you’re not yet sufficiently inspired by observation #5, additional learning: How to make a film. Now give it a try, yeah? And dedicate to making what you make gooood [insert prayer emoji].

  7. While we’re talking video, Free Solo won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Think you’re tough? Check it out and reassess.  

  8. Can I also talk video in point number 8? Bruce Springsteen on Broadway is exceptional. As a storyteller and musician, the man is in an echelon of his own. BTW Bruce is also a favorite of Dr. Eric Chehab (he of observation #2, above). As if additional endorsement is necessary.   

  9. In last month’s update I sung the praises of Tim Ferriss’s podcast with Jim Collins. If you haven’t yet, lend a listen the next time you’re on the move. 🚣‍♀️🏃‍♂️ And if you’re inclined, check out Collins’s recent monograph, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great. Yes, a monograph. Meaning it requires stationary consumption. Also apologies for the segue pun in that opening sentence.

  10. Monthly quote: “Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.” -Marcus Aurelius. I couldn’t agree more.

Now’s the time.

-John