So, what else have you learned in 2018?
These are amazing. Thanks to everyone who shared them.
First, market like a salesperson. As my marketing career has involved far more collaboration with sales teams over the years, and as I've taken on more business development work, I only gain more respect for the skills of the best sales professionals. So much of it involves persistence, determination, and following through. My favorite feature of any online application is Gmail's "snooze" feature which lets you return email threads to your inbox at a later date (I previously used third-party apps for this); it makes it easier to keep pushing for responses, whether you're trying to lock in a meeting or collect a bill. Most importantly, it's a shift in mindset. In the past, I was way too skittish about following up too often, if at all. Then I realized that most of the time, people are happy to receive a follow-up note for something they lost track of themselves.
To that end, the other big lesson this year is that sometimes, you just need to launch your idea. The Serial Marketers Slack community launched after a LinkedIn post that led to a simple Google form to gauge interest. More than 350 people have signed up, and quite a few are active. A number of people have since done business with others in the community, and it's been a great spot to get recommendations and inspiration. I had an idea for something like this in 2016 and hesitated doing it. Candidly, it even felt self-serving to be the one launching this. Why me? Aren't people inundated with media and social networks? Is it worth it? What if it fails? And yet – it was time, people wanted it, and in at least some small way, it works. I can't wait to see where it goes.
Thanks to everyone who's read this, and to so many of you who have shared links, jobs, events, and – most importantly – answers to the question, "What are you making of yourself?" Please keep letting me know; I read (and respond) to everyone. What are you making of yourself this holiday stretch?
I'll be taking next week off and sparing your inbox. Happy, Healthy, Meaningful, Peaceful New Year – the one holiday that literally everyone on the planet can celebrate together.
I just got to join my fellow Binghamton University alumnus Clifford Sobel on his live video show on entreprenurial stories that he airs through his Streamcast Network channel on Facebook. It's long-form video, and I was recovering from a cold so I sound too nasal, but it was a lot of fun to talk and talk and talk about sources of inspiration, including what led me to launch the newsletter and then publish it on a weekly basis. I also give credit to a lot of the people I've learned from such as Scott Monty, B.L. Ochman, Heidi Cohen, Jeff Pulver, Christina "CK" Kerley, and Chris Heuer. Cliff has a very impressive studio out on Long Island if you ever want to produce something there or have him join you in the field, and he can also fill you in on everything you need to know about live-streaming; I'll be happy to introduce you to him anytime.
I love plugging the exciting endeavors from the Slack community, and member Dan Lewis just passed the funding threshold for his Kickstarter project to bring his "Now I Know" series to YouTube. So yes, Kickstarter projects and YouTube series remain alive and well, and you should reach out to Dan if you're inspired to try either yourself.
There's an underappreciated genre of reporting that explains the story of various children's pop culture phenomenons. The AP gives this treatment to "Baby Shark." These are properties that rack up billions of views on YouTube, so as much as you might want to spend more time watching "Despacito," these kid vids are also chomping up the record books.
There's a lot I love about Medium, especially how easy Medium makes it for people to publish engaging stories. Their native tools for a new blogger are fantastic. But… there are some SEO drawbacks. I worked on some issues like this earlier this year at Storyhunter, and Medium has only gotten worse in terms of search engine optimization value and how they address the needs of their community. Anyone who publishes on Medium or is considering launching such an outlet there should read this in full. Thanks to Valeria Maltoni for sharing this in Slack.
I'm not a fanboy of Jobs or Musk, but I am a sucker for brilliant writers. Professionally, I'm not sure I've come across anyone whose writing has grabbed me as powerfully as L2's Scott Galloway, particularly in how well he blends personal and professional tropes in his columns. This week's edition is a great year-end read on Galloway's advice to get the easy stuff right.