You are not a commodity

Email today is now less a communications medium than a communications compile target. It’s a clearinghouse technology. It’s where conversations-of-record go, where identity verification happens, where service alerts accumulate, and perhaps most importantly for publishers, where push-delivered longform content goes by default. It is distributed and ... See more

When a person aspires to be a brand, they forfeit everything that is truly glorious about being human. Building any brand requires consensus. When we position ourselves as a brand, we are forced to project an image of what we believe most people will approve of and admire and buy into. The moment we cater our creativity to popular opinion is the pr

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Even if you don’t have anything to sell right now, you should always be collecting email addresses from people who come across your work and want to stay in touch. Why email? You’ll notice a pattern with technology - often the most boring and utilitarian technologies are the ones that stick around the longest. Email is decades and decades old, but ... See more

Authenticity is doing and saying what feels right to you in all moments. You have no judgement of yourself. You don’t overthink, perform, or strategize to get people to receive you in a specific way. You understand that your real tribe will stay, and the rest will fall away.