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Social proof is overrated.

There’s so much bad advice in content strategy, that no one bothers to talk about what is merely overrated advice. After decades of email marketing, copywriting, and content strategy, I’ve can confidently say that “social proof” gets too much attention. It’s important, but it’s overrated. It’

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Enjoy collaboration…or else!

I can’t look at the news anywhere online without seeing threats being made by CEOs to their remote workers. It’s a thinly-veiled, insecure attempt to turn the clock back and save what’s left after their poor real estate decisions. I think it’s an opportunity for indie

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“Don’t stay home.”

In 1995, the band 311 had a hit with the song, Don’t Stay Home. Ever since, it has played in my head whenever I’m supposed to go out for an event and don’t feel like it. This happened last weekend. Consider it for your weekend. I had

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The Best Newsletter in the World

This is not my usual newsletter day, but in the past few weeks, I’ve written a book, several guides, a course, and more articles than I can remember. I wish I could share them, but none had bylines. So, I figured I’d just randomly share some interesting links

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Never meet your heroes?

Never meet your heroes, they say.  Well, I met Nuno Bettencourt last week and he turned out to be a nice dude. Plus, he’s also the template for a well-lived creative life. For those who don’t know, Nuno is one of the last guitar gods still performing. You

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Some Idiot Wrote This

My favorite creative prompt.

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Creativity vs. Productivity 🥊

I saved this from a post by Tobias van Schneider, which has now been deleted. Spot on, though. Links are break quicker these days, which is just one more reason I need to create more of these link-sharing posts. Feel free to send me any that you think I should

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Personalization is creepy.

File these rules under “totally obvious advice that almost no one follows.” 1. Don’t be creepy. 2. Treat everyone online as if you’re talking to them in real life. 3. Long-term relationships build long-term businesses. 4. You are never automatically entitled to track a person. You wouldn’t

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RIP: The External 🧠

Last week, while everyone was arguing over who the next social media giant was going to be, Evernote laid off its entire U.S. staff: “Evernote, the app that has sought for two decades to find a large paying audience for its ‘external brain,’ is moving its operations to Italy,

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Thanks for the advice!

I don’t like analyzing personal newsletters. They’re whatever their creator wants them to be. There’s no rules. That goes for mine as well. But I am interested in looking back every year or two to check in on what you think. I don’t nitpick. I don’