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CJ Chilvers

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The Stupidest Experiment

Me since 2001: Don’t revisit your Van Halen book for a third edition. It’s an endless pit of work that never makes money and invites trolls by the dozens. Me in 2022: Let’s do this thing. As always, I’ll report back with my findings on Substack,

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Just putting it out there

Publish your weird ideas in public. You never know who’s listening. Back in May 2021, I posted this idea about a guitar design to Twitter, tagging EVH guitars: I asked EVH for a Nuno-style version of the guitar (which is a natural-finish ash or swamp ash guitar body with

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Surviving the Ad-pocalypse…Again

Experience is a brutal teacher. One lesson, that is almost never passed along, is that creators should avoid advertising as a business model for as long as possible. Sure, most of time, it seems like the easiest, fastest way to put food on the table, especially to a younger generation

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Return of the Lazy Billionaire

I love a good lazy billionaire — or at least a person who acts like one. I’ve written about them in the past as trusted, imaginary advisors for creativity and marketing. Strategy? Funnels? Pfft. Make it. Sell it. Move on. Lazy billionaires protect their time, energy, and reputation — all of

Return of the Lazy Billionaire
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Having trouble starting your next thing?

Make a list of writers, podcasters, and YouTubers who are consistently pushing out great stuff – in the ugliest ways. Refer to it often. I love slap-dash creators! I won’t name names here, but they’re not hard to find. From the CEO who records videos on his morning walks

Having trouble starting your next thing?
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The Cures for Burnout

Hi there! I’m back from Maine and ready to publish. How has the summer treated you? The hope is that it’s sunsets, pools, and loved ones having fun all around you. The truth is often that we hope the summer just staves off the inevitable burnout for a

The Cures for Burnout
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Consumption is underrated.

“Create. Don’t consume.” Do you hear this mantra as much as I do? Does it get under your skin too? Behind every hour of good writing is at least 10 hours of reading. Every great writer I’ve known is a voracious reader. Every great musician I’ve known

Consumption is underrated.
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Why Nerds Win

Are you a good fit for what I write? Here’s one way to know. I’ve been getting a lot questions about my new website theme. It’s still being built out, but how I decided on the theme should tell you everything you need to know about “growth

Why Nerds Win
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You are more interesting than you think.

I’m guessing you’re a generalist, because most people are. But the online content-consumption machine seems to reward those who make their personalities all about one thing. I believe that’s a distracting, unhelpful remnant of the first 29-ish years of the web — minus the first five years. Why

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You’re Doing Email Marketing Wrong

The time and money invested in email is going to the wrong places. Investing for the long-term with relationship and content marketing is the best use of your funds. But short-term-focused marketing emails still represent the vast majority of spending. As long as that’s true, where should that spending