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CJ Chilvers

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Do Personal Brands Matter?

Many of you have asked me about the differences between personal and business newsletters, websites, and branding. There must be something in the air, because I’ve seen a lot of content spring up around the subject lately, including from Gary Vee, Seth Godin (in multiple new interviews), and Copyblogger.

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Want a Do-Over for This Month?

Some of my experiments aren’t as Earth-shattering as others, but I wanted to share one small update I’ve made to my routine that might improve your life by 0.5%. For the last few years, I’ve been keeping a note called, “Month notes.” Every month or so,

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The Books of No Excuses

I buy books to dissect their strategies as much as to read. A sub-genre of these purchases is the “no excuses” book — a book that exists to show you why you have no excuses not to publish your next book. Kevin Kelley’s new book, Excellent Advice for Living, is

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The Workspace of the Future Is a Workbench

A few months ago, I shared some aspirational garden offices. But I didn’t share the aspirations for what should go inside those offices. For example, this is a beautiful office, but it’s not a place for work. It’s a place for leisure. So, what makes for a

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Your 3-Step Book

What if you could create a table of contents for everything you’ve posted online? How many chapters would you be proud of? I’ve done it. It’s not difficult. It’s not even as time consuming as you might think. The secret is constraints. Don’t worry about

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Solitude Deprivation

Since I’m doing some editing and cleaning on my site, I figured it might be fun to do another link love issue. Enjoy! — CJ 1 Author Cal Newport explains the collected research on whether smartphones are bad for kids or just another moral panic. This was more even-handed than

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When Pay to Play Doesn’t Pay

Seth Godin just posted about the search tax you’re paying: “Amazon took in more than $30 billion in ad revenue last year, money spent to elevate some products over others in the hierarchy of attention.” Amazon, like Google, YouTube, and Apple’s App Store are often referred to as

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You’re not namedropping enough.

I wasn’t kidding. Curation is probably your best bet for the near future. And it’s been too long since I shared some great links and quotes. Enjoy! — CJ You’re not namedropping enough. I love this. What’s the secret of the most successful local publication ever (grabbing

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Principles for Creating with AI

As usual, when I find myself writing too much about a topic, I have to distill it all into a set of principles — easily digested by a (very) mere human. These principles are backed by real data, case studies, and personal interviews. They are subject to change, ridicule, and memes…

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Choose your stressor.

Here’s just a quick lesson I learned from a road trip to the Smoky Mountains this past week. Even with the views, the southern cooking, and time with family, I put in plenty of work — both for myself and others (related: see my new post at StudioNorth on B2B