Subscribe to my newsletter
I create a newsletter called GrowthCandy. Each issue shares one idea to help build and spread your work, delivered as a short comic. Fast to read. Easy to apply. Hard to forget!
What makes ideas spread, stick, compound and keep moving once released. There are 548 posts in this topic.
“Content” can be a nasty little word sometimes.
It reduces creativity to “something that goes into something else.” Jam in a jamjar, or dog waste in a plastic bag, doesn’t matter. “Content.”
So what is a “content creator”? Someone who fills things with other things. They create evidence of measured output.
Compare that to “artist”. What’s an artist? Someone who creates works of art. They create evidence of care, creativity, and a point of view.
On that basis, what do you want more of to represent your work and reasons to check it out?
Evidence of measured output?
Or evidence of care, creativity, and a point of view?
I talk to quite a lot of entrepreneurs.
You’d be surprised how many are very, very, very distracted.
“Should I get that other smartphone? I’ll watch hours of reviews about it.”
“Should I get a Mac mini for local LLMs? I’ll spend weeks reading reviews about it.”
“Should I be getting into watches or something? I see people on Twitter doing it.”
“I should stay ahead of the competition by watching more video podcast interviews.”
What’s much rarer, I find, is folks simply staying focused on their own thing.
Falling in love with the place they work, the thing they’re building, the future they can make with their hands.
And that’s great news: the bar is low for you. Focus up, champ.
Someone asked me, “Do you ever think about having a day off from publishing daily?”
Which rhymed with a question I had before, “Do you keep it up daily because you’d hate to break your streak?”
The funny thing is, neither!
Publishing daily has two benefits:
1: Having ideas to share daily exercises your idea-having muscle. I like to keep that muscle strong. I write scripts, build worlds and curriculum, make experiences… these are all things that benefit from a strong idea-having muscle!
2: Shipping is a habit that is easily broken. If you fall out of the habit — maybe shipping something every couple of days instead of daily — you’ve already halved your “exercise” and output.
Daily is better.
If you’re a competitive, testosterone-fuelled go-getter, you may never have visited the Sanrio website before.
Give it a quick peek.
On it, beyond the cute characters, you’ll see endless — endless — collaborations.
With brands you might deem competitors (like Tokidoki). With brands you might think are vying for the same discretionary dollars (like Loungefly). With brands you might think have nothing to do with a Hello Kitty audience (like Formula 1).
And yet there they are. Why?
Too many brands think that great experiences are zero sum games. That for us to win, they must lose.
But Sanrio disproves this outright: instead of competing, we can collaborate. We can make things together, and actively promote those joint ventures to our respective audiences. Each audience becomes aware of the other, each grows, and everyone finds something they like. Everybody wins.
Next time you think about your competitors, think of them as future collaborators. Watch what it does to the way you show up in the market.
“There’s no market for that idea.”
Dear friend, have you ever opened eBay?
People buy the wildest things all the time, every day.
Don’t focus on if there’s “no market” for an idea.
Focus on your wild ones. Make things for them they’ll love and look forward to.
There’s a market for that.
There’s a faster path to “more” than “more”.
When you enjoy creating and shipping great work, it’s only natural to want to do more of it.
But “more” is more easily achieved by cutting, than by additional raw effort.
Parts of the process that didn’t need to be there.
Parts of the deliverable that don’t change the recipient’s experience.
Every part of the process of creating that slows you down, or doesn’t pull its own weight in the value or delight of those you create for.
Cut those parts out.
Even if you’re unsure, try cutting them out anyway. If they’re important, they’ll come back to you and let you know about it. They’re good like that.
Cut.
The problem with advertising is that the mug wins. Great for the seller, not great for the buyer.
If webpage real estate is auctioned, you paid the most, so you show up. Everyone else stopped bidding, which is why you won.
The main solution to that problem is to use advertising as kindling, not the fire.
If you make things people actually love, and would look forward to seeing more of, there’s a good chance they’ll tell people for free. The auction got it in front of the first person who, in turn, got it in front of the second person.
If you don’t make things people actually love — you’re just there to push product and that’s that — there’s a good chance you’ll have to be a mug for a very long time.
If we love great art, creations, ideas, worlds, stories, products…
And part of why we love them is the humanity, the connection, the effort, the heart, the care that went into them…
And as human beings we love to see such things unfold in order to build connection and care for those things being built…
Then maybe part of what makes it resonate with people isn’t the finished piece, perfect, manicured, and ready for the world to see.
Maybe part of what makes it resonate is being invited to follow along in the journey, witnessing the ideas, the struggles, the doubt, the ideas that didn’t work.
Maybe we want to see all the bad stuff, so we can celebrate in the good stuff, too.
Perhaps that journey is precisely the thing we need in order to truly appreciate what you’re doing.
Perhaps the bad stuff is part of the good stuff.
Perhaps it’s time to be vulerable, not perfect.
When there are lots of projects going on at once…
And lots of team members who need your feedback…
And lots of reports you need to speak to…
And lots of decisions you need to make…
And lots and lots and lots and lots…
The best way I’ve found to deal with them all, is to slow down your inner voice.
T o s p e a k a l i t t l e b i t s l o w e r i n s i d e .
My inner-voice can be mile-a-minute, if I let it. Flitting from concern to concern, thought to thought, thing to thing, barely finishing one thought before another starts up. Faster, faster, faster.
I’m convinced it’s one of the places that anxiety and stress come from.
But when you slow it down… and give each thought… space… to be…
One word… at a time…
Suddenly…
Things feel calmer. Much, calmer.
As though, there’s space… and time… for all of the things… to take, their turn…
And somehow… it all… gets done.
Try it sometime.
“Thanks for asking! I’m honored you thought of me, but I don’t have the capacity to take this on right now. I’m currently deeply focused on some existing projects, but do ask me again later in case the timing works out better then!”
This is an email template.
Try making a version similar to this, but in your own voice. No + gratitude + explanation + invitation.
With that stored for easy use, you’ll be better equipped to focus on the things that matter most for you, without slipping into polite “Yesses” that you didn’t really mean.
Time’s finite, protect that focus.
Making products is basically just this:
1: Find a problem
2: Make a promise
3: Keep the promise
It’s only three steps. Try not to skip them.
I can tell when my focus is way off.
There are certain activities that give you—or your work—life.
(Bonus points if you’ve optimized life to where they’re the same thing!)
…And then there’s everything else.
Here are 3 questions that put my focus back on track:
1: What are those activities, again?
2: Do they make up a good chunk of every day?
3: If not, what am I going to do about it?
The problem with when people “fake it until they make it”…
Is the “it” never truly happens because you’re so distracted.
Convincingly pretending to lead a successful project takes as much time as leading a real one.
Convincingly pretending to have skills you don’t takes as much time as building the real skills.
Convincingly pretending to have domain authority takes as much time as actually knowing your stuff.
So why mess around faking anything?
Why not just do the thing?
My team uses Basecamp because all of the work is in one place.
Our marketing uses Brevo because all of the email and customer data is in one place.
Our animation pipeline uses Toon Boom products because everything from storyboard through to compositing is ine one place.
Our codebases use standard syntax and structure because every developer who touches it finds it easy and familiar.
Our scripts are written in .fdx files because every scriptwriter knows what to do with .fdx files.
“Simple and accessible” are key ingredients in our decision-making process, because it frees us up from thinking about the things that don’t matter.
So that we can focus our attention on the very few number of things that do.
The funny thing about the list of things on your mind right now…
Is if you were to write them all down…
And cross out the ones that don’t directly impact the heart of your work or those you love…
You may just find that the list reduces by 90%.
Just from asking one question.
Isn’t it better to focus on just those things, then?
The things you’re deliberating over…
Reading reviews about online…
Umming and arring about…
Do they make your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better?
If not, why not ditch the evaluation and just focus on making your family meaningfully happier or your art meaningfully better?
If you need the perfect idea, you’ll never start creating.
If you need the perfect notebook, you’ll never start sketching.
If you need the perfect writing app, you’ll never start writing.
If you need the perfect script, you’ll never start acting.
If you need the perfect anything, you might be focused on the wrong thing.
Maybe “slightly better than today” is actually the better path.
Maybe “slightly better than today” compounds over time.
Maybe that compounding effect is the closest thing to perfect we’ve got.
How do you know if your marketing is working?
If your marketing team increases MQLs, but close rates decline because lead quality is down… is your marketing working?
If your post-sale team’s new referral system creates new MQLs, but SDRs take the credit despite flat reception… is your marketing working?
When things are so complex that everyone focuses on their own little piece of the puzzle just to make sense of what they do… is your marketing working?
It’s tough to answer. Everyone defines success differently, and none of the definitions can truly answer whether or not marketing — all of it — is working.
It’s easier when everyone defines success the same way. For things to be simple enough that everyone can easily remember the entire plan regardless of their role, and how their actions contribute to the common goal.
No more places to hide. Everyone measured on their ability to execute the same plan. No blame games, no “that’s not my job” just one team, with one plan, and one goal.
Simplicity removes hiding places.
I’ve long been an advocate for daily rituals.
Such as this daily journal, for instance. It doesn’t take long, but it gives myself — and others — a glimpse into what goes on in my mind.
Here’s another daily ritual worth thinking about:
A daily thank-you note.
To colleagues, employees, customers, relatives… and if you’ve exhausted all those, strangers.
It’ll make us more thankful people, while making someone else’s day.
Like any daily ritual, I like to commit to doing it once. Then to doing it again the next day. And the next day. Then to a week. Then a month. Then 100 days. Then see how long it goes for.
This daily journal is a 3,058 day streak so far. The ritual works, and the benefit is win-win.
Worth considering.
List the projects you have on right now.
If you had to kill one of them, which would it be? Why did you choose that one?
Okay. Now do it again, out of those that remain. Which would it be? Why did you choose it?
Do it again.
Hmm. Three projects — important projects — just got axed. With justification.
Why are you doing those projects, again?
Would it be better to focus on those that remain, instead?
When a company you like buying from does something you don’t like, what do you do about it?
We have two choices.
I use the computer I use because of what I want to make with it, not because of what I believe.
Same is true of my notebooks, pens, books, all of it.
Because I value my ability to create over my ability to agree with everything who make those tools.
The alternative would be to look for another provider each time they make a public misstep.
Trading mastery and familiarity for tangential philosophical alignment with those who manufacture my machines and bind my notebooks.
There are many who believe jumping ship regularly in this way is a great idea.
But I’m not sure making the velocity of my creativity the casualty of their missteps is a success to me.
There’s a subtle difference between perfectionism and growth:
Perfectionism: Make, see how it could have been better based on your thoughts, scrap what you did to make that instead, repeat.
Growth: Make, ship, see how it could have been better based on feedback, make that next, repeat.
Which are you doing?
“Wedding photographers outraged by amateur who offered to pay couples to shoot their big day.”
Some see this as “A race to the bottom gone wild.” I get it.
But I see this as “A keen photographer committed to starting their portfolio and photographer career, in a climate where such jobs are far from guaranteed, so are thinking outside the box to make it happen.”
I fully support that kind of mindset.
Nevermind the naysayers. Go get it, bud.
If you keep a notebook or pen in your hand, you’ll write or draw.
If you keep a book or magazine in your hand, you’ll read.
If you keep a phone in your hand, you’ll waste time.
The future is in your hands.
Got five minutes to spare?
You’ll be surprised what you can do with them.
You could sit quietly and focus on your breathing, calming yourself down in five minutes.
You could spin up a Hetzner server and get some open source software up and running in five minutes.
You could write a really rough draft of your next project or product idea in five minutes.
You could document some big sales challenges and where you think the solutions are hiding in five minutes.
You could tidy up all that clutter on your desk or on your desktop in five minutes.
Or, y’know, you could just waste it on social media, doomscrolling, for no reason.
But five minutes can go much further for you than that.
If you don’t have enough time for your ideas,
Throw out your phone for a day. Leave it in the kitchen or in a drawer, for a full day.
Notice how many times you feel anxious, or reach for your pocket.
That’s how many times your mind could have been on your ideas.
That’s how many times your hands could have been reaching for the tools of your craft.
Even when there is no time… there’s a little more than you thought you had.
Give it to your ideas.
What’s the difference between a fit and unfit person?
Or someone with lots of savings or not much savings?
Or someone with a good marriage or a bad marriage?
Or someone with a vast skillset or a weak skillset?
Lots of things.
But one of those things is that the former always invests a little bit daily, and the latter always thinks they could do something about it tomorrow.
A little bit daily makes all the difference.
When we work on two projects at once, how clever we feel.
Like a productivity monster.
Perhaps you’re chipping away at one, maybe an LLM is researching another, and there you are. Doing multiple things.
Badly.
Multitasking usually only slows us down.
Single-tasking usually feels like we’re slowing us down.
But it’s the other way around.
This is my 3000th post on my blog.
Some are great. Most are alright. Some stink.
That’s fine.
Keep hitting publish. The reps that count.
The gift of producing great work, is the opportunity to produce more great work.
The gift of producing mediocre work, is the opportunity to get better.
The only bad work is whatever was made in haste to make a quick buck.
Other than that, it’s all good. Just keep producing.
I create a newsletter called GrowthCandy. Each issue shares one idea to help build and spread your work, delivered as a short comic. Fast to read. Easy to apply. Hard to forget!