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Weighing Importance, LinkedIn Experiment Updates, and More – #104

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Super Early Bird

Prices go up on Friday for Creator Economy Expo. If you create content for a hobby, side hustle, or full-time for yourself or your company, you need to join me in Cleveland May 1st to 3rd.

Bar none, the best speaking lineup we’ve put together in my 20 years of doing events.

Check out the agenda here.

For an extra $100 off, use code JOEVIP. Register here.

Is this Important?

Brandon Arvanaghi shared this 20 second clip from Elon Musk on LinkedIn. Now, I’m not a big Elon fan, but I simply love this.

Basically, Elon says that he only asks “is this important to get done?” with an activity. If it is, he does it. If it isn’t, he doesn’t.

Maybe the advice is too simple, but I like it.

Look at anything you are doing. Ask the question “is this important to get done?”.

That’s it.

If we lived our lives that way, things would be better, yes?

My LinkedIn Experiment

For the past 60 days I’ve been posting regularly on LinkedIn. Here’s what I’ve found.

I post at least once per day weekdays and every other weekend (for time purposes). Weekend posts do better naturally because of less competition.

There is no difference between images or no images. It’s all about the BIG IDEA. Hashtags seem to help, but not so much you notice.

For my two best posts, one was an image (the subscriber hierarchy) and one was a story on being focused.

Over the 60 days, I’ve added less than two thousand LinkedIn followers, which is rather disappointing given that I already had over 200,000 followers.

But here are the big aha moments.

1. I added a LinkedIn newsletter as an offering when I started this whole thing. I send this Random newsletter out (shortened) to those people that sign up on LinkedIn the Monday after this one goes out.

I’ve added almost 25,000 subscribers in 60 days. Truly amazing. It seems that is the best call-to-action when people check out your profile.

2. Speaking of profile, I’m averaging over 1,000 profile looks a day. Before I started this, it was about 20.

3. Commenting on other people’s posts is probably the most critical. And not for the reasons you think. When you comment on someone else’s post, YOUR audience sees that you did so in the LinkedIn stream. While you might pick up some new followers if someone who doesn’t know you found you interesting, commenting on other’s posts is maybe the best way to stay top of mind with YOUR current audience.

If you don’t have a following, I’d go heavier on the commenting. Target 10-20 accounts where your customers/prospects are hanging out.

I’ll keep going, but so far, so good.

Everywhere

While we were on family vacation  our youngest asked us to watch the movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” If you are not familiar, this is the movie that just snagged 11 Oscar nominations.

Without giving anything away, it was, perhaps, the oddest movie I’ve ever seen. Two weeks later and I’m still thinking about what it means.

If you want to see something truly original, and visually stunning in parts as well, check it out and let me know what you think.

It was one of those movies that I didn’t like once it was finished but has been growing on me ever since.

Content Questions

This week Brian Piper and I finished recording the audio version for Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition (available for preorder now). I wanted to share this section on content questions (included in the book) because, frankly, it’s everything when it comes to content creation.

If you create content for an organization, you most likely are supplied a budget from a senior executive.

While YOU create content for many reasons, they only care about the answers to these four questions:

  • Is the content driving sales for us?
  • Is the content saving costs for us?
  • Is the content making our customers happier, thus helping with
    retention?
  • Is the content growing our community and expanding our
    opportunities?

I call this sales, savings or sunshine.

That’s it!

If your content metrics can show one of these four things, you’ll never have an issue getting and growing a content budget.

Book Recommendations

I just finished two amazing books that I highly recommend.

The first is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The second is a historical fiction novel called The Rose Code by Kate Quinn.

If you want to feel a full range of emotions, both books will do that. Plus, superbly well written.

I asked my LinkedIn audience for some other book recommendations and they came up with some amazing ones. Here’s the link.

DisneyWorld Review

We had a truly amazing family trip to DisneyWorld with the kids.

Couple of thoughts if you are planning a trip:

The two best Disney attractions are Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Hollywood Studios) and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (Epcot). It’s worth it to pay for skipping the line. To do that you need to sign up for Genie+ (their fast lane pass) and then check in with your app at 7am to reserve the ride.

IMO, if you are serious about getting on the attractions you want, you need Genie+. The cost ranges from $15-$20 per person per day (this is over and above the ticket cost).

We did the Airbnb thing and did not stay at a Disney resort. I don’t regret it at all, but if you stay at one of the Disney resorts you get early access into the park and get to reserve hard-to-see attractions on Genie+ first. The kids wanted to have dinner at Space 220 restaurant at Epcot, but we couldn’t swing a reservation. We wouldn’t have had an issue with that if we stayed at a resort.

Here’s my top 10 ride list at the Disney Parks.

1 Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – Epcot
2 Rise of the Resistance – Hollywood
3 Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – Epcot
4 Expedition Everest – Animal Kingdom
5 Mickey’s Runaway Railroad – Hollywood
6 Living with the Land – Epcot
7 Soarin’ – Epcot
8 Space Mountain – Magic Kingdom
9 Na’vi Journey – Animal Kingdom
10 Toy Story Mania – Hollywood

Final notes.

Slinky Dog, the coaster, is frankly not worth the wait IMO. Rock ‘n” Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith was nice but very short. We made sure we were on it since they are redoing it soon and losing Aerosmith. Avatar Flight of Passage is the new Pandora attraction at Animal Kingdom. I simply was not a fan. The ride is overproduced and parts are just unnecessary. If you decide to ride it, use your Genie+ to skip the line. Waiting is simply excruciating.

If you want to get the most out of Genie+, you really need a park hopper pass. It stinks but it’s true.

If I had to choose only two parks to go to, it would be Hollywood Studios and Epcot. If we had small kids, Magic Kingdom.

Google: No More Page 2

I had some conversations on LinkedIn this week regarding Google. I didn’t realize how many people were unaware that Google is just one continuous scrolling page now (in the United States at least).

There is no more page 2.

So, there you have it.

Here’s all the conversation on that if you’d like to check it out.

Simplicity, Focus and Diverse Revenue – #103

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Savannah Bananas Owner to Keynote at Creator Economy Expo

A few months ago I read a book about someone who changed the entire formula of what building a business looks like.

That book was called “Fans First” by Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team.

The Savannah Bananas are a self-proclaimed baseball circus.

I’m over the moon excited that Jesse will be our closing keynote speaker at Creator Economy Expo (CEX) May 1-3, 2023 in Cleveland, Ohio.

If you create content and want to meet, talk with and learn from content creators just like you, find a way to CEX.

I’d love it if you can join me to watch Jesse and 40 other amazing speakers. Use code JOEVIP to save $600 total off the regular price (ends January 27th).

$TILT Coin Is Dead

Any of you wonderful people who owned $TILT coin already know the news that $TILT coin, my social token, is no more.

I have a confession to make. We built the $TILT coin Web3 model on rented land.

Yes, me, Joe Pulizzi. I’m the one that speaks at conferences all over the world telling content creators and brands not to build their audiences solely on social media, or “rented” platforms.

$TILT coin was amazingly successful. We became the #1 social token by coin supply and support volume on the Rally.io network for a year running thanks to The Tilt community that supported our experiment.

But sadly, Rally informed us that they could no longer support their token marketplace, and we were given advice to, basically, get out while we can.

This whole experience has been gut wrenching for me personally and I sincerely apologize to each one of you for the time and money you put into $TILT coin.

That said, I learned so much and have met and talked to so many wonderful people because of $TILT coin.

I describe the entire affair in my latest podcast episode (listen here).

image courtesy of DALLE-2

Simplicity

As some of you know I’ve been testing out LinkedIn as my key social media network for 2023.

One person I’ve been watching is Justin Welsh. Justin is a solopreneur who learned to drive attention and revenue from LinkedIn in a very short period.

His process is so simple it’s crazy.

LinkedIn: 2x per day
Twitter (tweets): 2x per day
Twitter (threads): 1x per week
Weekly Newsletter: 1x per week
45 minutes per day interacting on LinkedIn

That’s it.

In less that two years Justin has become a millionaire plus through a few hours a day of focus.

It reminds me of a statistic I use in my keynote speeches from Content Marketing Institute. Basically, the average company creates and distributes content 13-16 different ways. Tweets, blogs, webinars, research, events, newsletters, oh my.

In essence, we try to do all the things.

We need to remember that to be truly strategic we need to say no to almost everything and an emphatic yes to a few things.

I believe Justin has the right model.

– A specific focus: helping solopreneurs drive digital revenue.
– One controlled channel: email newsletter.
– Two social media channels: LinkedIn and Twitter.
– Expanded reach: comment regularly on 10 to 20 key accounts where your audience is hanging out.

Done and done.

But Diverse Revenue

So whether you work for a big company or are a content entrepreneur, we want to focus on fewer channels (at first) and become amazing at them through sheer focus.

This is not true for generating revenue.

Let’s just look at the average individual for a second. According to Entrepreneur magazine, most people make money in very few ways. Individuals who collect a salary from a business generally have one or maybe two sources of income (their paycheck and possibly an investment account). Perhaps you know many people in this situation. They go to the same job every day, work to pay off their bills, and don’t have much left for savings or investment after each month.

Millionaires, on the other hand, have multiple sources of revenue coming in, whether that’s through multiple businesses (and multiple products and services within those businesses), real estate transactions, countless investments and more.

Think about your situation. I don’t care what kind of job or career you have, how many ways you bring in money is a big deal.

For example, as a content creator, you can generate revenue through:

  • Consulting/coaching
  • Online courses/workshops
  • Print and audiobook sales
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Speaking fees
  • Membership programs
  • Advertising
  • Live and virtual events
  • Subscription fees
  • Merch sales
  • Sponsored content
  • Donations
  • Products
  • NFTs

I’m probably forgetting a few, but this is a good starter list.

Before we sold Content Marketing Institute in 2016, most people thought all our revenue came from our event, Content Marketing World, in the form of attendee fees and sponsorships. At that time, we also generated a significant amount of consulting fees, paid email rental, digital sponsorships, webinar programs, and even book sales.

The formula is about being focused on your content and distribution, and diverse with how you bring in revenue.

Our research at The Tilt goes into quite a bit of detail on this topic. Click here for free access.

NFT Turnaround?

You all thought NFTs (non-fungible tokens) were dead, right?

Well, think again.

On our 2023 This Old Marketing predictions show, I made the bold prediction that the first sign of a crypto comeback would be in the collectible NFT market (you can listen here…it was a super-fun episode. We reviewed our 2022 predictions that were horribly wrong.).

If you look at the top NFT rankings on Opensea (Opensea is the largest NFT marketplace), the major NFT collections have not only held their value over the past few months but are gaining traction. CryptoPunks and Bored Apes are holding up really well (much better than any other cryptocurrency) and OG NFT collections like Chromie Squiggles by Snowfro have gained 50 percent in the past 30 days.

We have also started to see more interest in our own NFT project, CEX Never-Ending Tickets (less than 40 are left at this point).

Don’t get me wrong…we are a long way to restoring confidence on the crypto side, but I believe the greatest Web3 projects of our time are being created at this very moment ($TILT coin not included).

Your Family Mission Statement

In all the talk about personal and career goals, sometimes we forget about creating our own family mission statement. Our family has had a mission statement on our wall for well over a decade now.

The mission statement is our family purpose. It’s what we strive to be today and in the future. I believe that mission statement has been crucial to our family’s success and happiness.

Here is what it says:

The Pulizzi Mission
As Pulizzis, we hold true the following with ongoing purpose and action:
We thank God every day for our blessings, even on days when we are challenged or face hardships.

We always share what we have with others and help out whenever we can to whoever is in need.

We praise each other, as we are each blessed by God with unique talents.

We always finish what we start, always try even though we may be afraid, and always give the activity of the moment our full attention.

Short version:
Thank God. Always Share. Say Nice Things. Give Our Best.

The best part? When visitors come into our house, they notice and almost always comment on our mission statement. It’s one of those little things that make a difference.

Maybe you can work on yours for 2023???

And…as you read this I’m on family vacation with the kids. My hope for you is to spend as much time as possible with your family in 2023.

“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun.” – Marcus Aurelius

Much love!
Joe

What Do You Want to Be Known For? – #102

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Feedback from the Previous Random

Thank you all so much for your feedback on the previous issue of The Random. Many of you will be happy to know that we are to keep going “as is” with the newsletter. That means I’ll continue to share, well, whatever I want and not tie this to my business directly.

That said, I am going to publish most of this newsletter over on LinkedIn as a test run and see how it goes.

With TikTok most likely facing a ban (or a sale to a US-based company) and Twitter not knowing what they want to be right now, 2023 should be a growth year for YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.

I’m betting that LinkedIn gets much more attention in 2023 … thus … my current strategy.

My plan is to post at least once per day on LinkedIn, and comment on five to 10 posts of others per day. The goal? To build up my two email newsletters (The Tilt and The Random) and drive content creators and marketers to Creator Economy Expo.

I’ll keep you posted on how it works (or doesn’t).

Movie Alert

One of my favorite books of all time is “A Man Called Ove.” I recently learned that the book has been turned into a movie, “A Man Called Otto,” starring Tom Hanks. Apparently, the movie is to be released in the next few weeks. Here’s the official trailer. Fingers crossed that this is good.

The Day After Tomorrow

Like many around the country, Cleveland, Ohio was near zero degrees with plenty of snow most of the week. As I looked out the window, eyeing the snow drifts and frigid temperatures, I had a longing desire to watch the movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” starring Dennis Quaid.

I went over and asked Chat GPT for a one-sentence description of the movie for you:

The Day After Tomorrow is a science fiction disaster film about a catastrophic global climate change event caused by global warming, which leads to a new ice age and mass destruction.

Anyway, there is a scene where a group of teenagers and adults are waiting out the big storm at the New York Public Library, desperately trying to keep warm by burning books. As they wait longer and are unsure they will survive, the character played by Emmy Rossum says to Jake Gyllenhaal’s character:

Everything I’ve ever cared about, everything I’ve worked for… has all been preparation for a future that no longer exists. I know you always thought I took the competition too seriously. You were right. It was all for nothing.

For some reason those lines really hit me. So many of us (including me) are focused on the wrong things. So many of us spend too much time engaging in content (TikTok anyone?) or activities that don’t make us better people or impact the world in a positive way.

The rest of this sentimental newsletter comes from that thought.

What Do You Want to be Known for?

It’s the end of the year, so of course you’ve been inundated with every goal setting and prediction piece of content available. Hopefully, you’ve pushed many of these aside to focus on time with family and friends. Maybe de-stress a bit?

I generally do the opposite. Of course, I love spending time with family and friends, but I feel like a clenched ball inside trying to figure out what I’m going to focus on next year (I know … I have issues).

I take this time very seriously.

It reminds me of the famous story when Bill Gates met Warren Buffett.

Bill Gates did not want to meet Warren Buffett. He did not think they’d have anything in common. But at the urging of Meg Greenfield (the Washington Post editor at the time) they met on July 5th, 1991. Gates was nervous and was dreading the meeting.

Greenfield gave both a sheet of paper and asked each to write down the one word that is their key to success. Both, as it happened, wrote down the same word.

Focus. 

From that day, the two became best friends.

Now hold that thought for a second.

Almost a decade ago I read The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. The TL;DR is that focus is indeed king for success to happen … and then they outline a bunch of tactics on how to become a focused person.

In a section of the book the authors talk about sports phenoms such as Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps. Specifically, it was about how talented they were at MANY sports, but they decided to focus on being great at one thing (Woods at golf and Phelps at swimming).

They didn’t just excel. They dominated.

Among the many reasons why is that they CHOSE what they wanted to be known for.

Ask yourself this question:

What do I want to be known for?

This is easier said than done. I’ve contemplated this idea more than most, and it’s sometimes exhausting asking yourself, over and over, the question “what have I been put on this earth to do?”

I believe we can do this by breaking the idea up into smaller, specific parts, for our jobs … our families … the way we think.

For example, let’s pretend you are a marketer 😉. You are trying to choose between more focus on social media or more on content creation for your marketing? If you choose content creation, you can put social media to the side…but don’t stop there. Drill down on content creation. Let’s say you need to choose between TikTok videos and your email newsletter. You choose email newsletter.

You just decided to focus on creating and distributing the industry’s leading email newsletter in 2023. Excellent. But that still feels overwhelming, so break it down even more.

To create an amazing newsletter, you decide that’s going to take three original, thought-provoking articles per week. Are three articles per week specific enough? No.

Let’s say each article is 1000 words. That’s 3,000 words a week.

Dividing that by five business days, you have 600 words per day.

So, to dominate your market, you need to write 600 words a day.

Excellence = 600 words per business day. Anyone can do that, right?

Okay, let’s take personal financing. You are worried you haven’t saved well enough to this point and need a million dollars someday in order to live well into your retirement.

Let’s say you are 40 years old and want to reach this goal before you are 70. You’ve saved $25,000 so far.

Okay, break it down.

At an average 10 percent return per year, you’ll need $4,500 put into your stock market account per year. That may seem overwhelming.

You can break that down to $375 per month or around $35 per day.

At least now you can make the lifestyle decisions you need to and then focus on the goal.

You can do that with each one of your core categories. What’s your ONE thing for each category.

What do I want to be known for in business?
How’s my health? What can I do better?
How about my family? How do I find more quality time?
What about charitable goals? Is there a cause I should align with?
What financial goals do I want to tackle?
How can I keep my mind fresh?

When you run through each of these questions, the output should be one specific thing you can do each day to accomplish your focused goals. It might look something like this.

Write 600 words per business day.
Walk two miles per day.
Spend one hour without devices with my family per day.
Raise $5,000 for my charity once per quarter.
Put aside $35 per day into my retirement account.
Read 20 minutes every day.

I recommend using an app like HabitBull to keep track of your daily/weekly/monthly goals.

This is the type of focus that at the same time keeps you incredibly well rounded as a human being.

If you keep to this, you’ll look back at 2023 as a huge success.

How to Make Decisions

Ben Meer is a great person to follow on LinkedIn. Every few days he talks about systems that help you improve your life.

This one on making decisions caught my eye.

Normalize “no” as you default answer for everything.

Whether it’s new work projects or social gatherings, saying “yes” to non-priorities ruins your priorities.

If it’s not an overwhelming YES, it’s a no.

Rented Land Strikes Back

Twitter seems to be working on its own idea of focus for 2023. A few weeks ago they announced that they were killing their enewsletter product Revue. Revue was a newsletter service like Substack, but could be integrated into a Twitter profile and timeline. Newsletters could be free, paid or a combination.

Can creators move to another platform from their paid Revue newsletter? Sure they can, but accomplishing this is easier said than done. How many subscribers will want to move with the content creator and pay to another platform? A small percentage.

Just another friendly reminder that any revenue generated from content on a third-party platform is fleeting at best. Do your homework and consider the next platform VERY carefully.

Thanks for reading this edition of The Random. Just a reminder that the next pricing deadline for Creator Economy Expo is coming up soon. CEX is May 1st to 3rd at the Cleveland Convention Center. If you are building a business as a content creator, this is the event for you.

End-of-year Giving, Christmas Markets, and More – #101

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Today’s newsletter is 1,037 words and can be read by an average person in four minutes and 12 seconds (according to Google).

Feedback from the 100

My last newsletter, issue 100, received the most reaction from you (my wonderful readers) ever. Easily over 200 of you responded directly with your feedback and goals for 2023.

And…you also said (emphatically I might add) NOT to change the newsletter and NOT to make it more a part of my business (The Tilt). So, point taken.

Outside of changing this newsletter to just “Joe Pulizzi’s newsletter” it will stay pretty much the same (for now).

Oh, and thanks. It meant a lot to me to see the feedback. At least a dozen said that this newsletter is the only one they read, which made me both thankful and, at the same time, afraid for the future of the human race.

End-of-Year Giving

I’ve talked to many people who are looking to donate to charitable organizations before 2023 comes around. If you would like to donate to a tax deductible organization, please consider The Orange Effect Foundation.

All proceeds go to children in the United States who need speech therapy or speech technology who otherwise cannot afford it. OEF now supports over 350 children in 35 states. Donate here.

Discovering Christmas Markets

image taken at the Christmas Market at Grand Place (Brussels, Belgium)

After the last newsletter where I mentioned my wife several times, I have been put on wife/newsletter probation and I’m not allowed to talk about her anymore. So, I won’t be discussing anything about my wife this newsletter.

So, back to my wife. The image for this issue comes from the Brussels, Belgium Christmas Market. I was in Brussels last week delivering a keynote for the Belgium Marketing Association. This was the first time I was able to bring my wife along for the ride.

When performing my last few keynote speeches, I left the stage feeling I really didn’t hit a home run. This one was different. I was ON and the audience was fantastic (about 1,500 Belgians in the audience). I love speaking to people from Belgium and The Netherlands. They actually smile at you while you’re speaking. Either they like what you are saying, are awed by an American speaker, or are high as a kite. Maybe all three. Anyway, I need more of that. We all do.

Okay, back to my wife. I’ve been to Brussels three or four times, but this was the first time I was able to really enjoy the city. And we definitely did, especially the Christmas Market.

Before we arrived, I did not know that Christmas Markets were a thing. It’s so much a thing in Europe I felt a bit ignorant that I wasn’t aware of them.

A Christmas Market is basically a month-long Christmas party in a city center. It features booths with unique crafts, food, games and more. Many have programs with music or dancing. And lights! They are everywhere.

The Brussels Christmas Market (we were told it’s the best in Europe…I’ll take their word for it) featured all those things, plus outdoor ice skating, curling, and our favorite, VIN CHAUD. Vin chaud is the French term for a spiced wine drink, similar German glühwein. I honestly had my doubts, but wow was it amazing. We had the regular vin chaud (four euro), but you can add a shot of amaretto or rum for a euro. My friend Bo Sacks says the shot of rum is to die for. Next time for sure.

It was very cold in Belgium the days we were there, and those of you who know me understand that I can’t take the cold. I have a disorder that I’ve been whining about for years called Raynaud’s syndrome where blood doesn’t flow well to my hands and feet. My extremities easily go from pain to numb to (if I wait too long) passing out (which has only happened twice).

Anyway, I use Raynaud’s as an excuse to make extra stops into pubs to warm up and have more beer. It’s actually kind of nice so don’t feel bad for me.

The Brussels market left me thinking that Cleveland, Ohio should do something like this. I’m sure New York or Chicago do, but I’m not aware of it. It’s event marketing at its finest.

So put the Christmas Markets on your list of things to do. You won’t regret it.

Getting Older

As you know, I’m turning 50 in May. I guess everyone knows because I now introduce myself as “Hi, I’m Joe Pulizzi and I’m turning 50 in May.” I’ve noticed two things in the past year about how 50 is a real transition to getting older.

First, there is no such thing as “too early” to get up. There is, however, going to sleep too late. 11 pm is now late. 12 is too late. 10 seems just right. I’m not bothered by going to sleep at 9:30am.

On the other hand, if I happen to get up at 3:30 or 4:00 am it doesn’t seem weird anymore. I was sitting on the couch a few weeks back reading a novel at 3:45am and it seemed totally normal to me. When did that happen?

Second, phone calls from my family startle me now. If it’s a phone call, and not a text message, my first instinct is that someone died. My second instinct is that someone fell or had a stroke or heart attack.

But text messages aren’t safe either. A text before 8 am and I think one of three things: one of my international friends texted me, it’s my brother (who has no concept of time…love you bro) or someone has died.

I grew up in and around a funeral home, so death has always been a natural part of life, but these two things are new. Welcome to 50.

ChatGPT

I purposely decided NOT to write about ChatGPT (the AI writing tool) since literally every newsletter I read and podcast I listen to has been covering it. If you want to know what all the fuss is, you can listen to this episode of This Old Marketing (ChatGPT Goes Matrix) with Robert Rose and I.

I mean, it is important, but not THAT important.

That last sentence was a joke just in case some AI bot is reading this. Yay ChatGPT. Please don’t take over my body and use it for a battery.

Resolutions

I’m working on both resolutions and discontinues (things I’m stopping) in the run up to 2023.

For example, I have decided to run a marathon next year while I still have working knee caps. So there’s that. Also, I’ve made a pledge not to read email the first hour of my day.

And finally, I’m making a renewed push to gain new subscribers for this newsletter. If you have a friend or colleague who would appreciate getting this every two weeks, please send it on and have them subscribe.

The Special 100th Issue of the Random – #100

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On Valentine’s Day of 2019 I sent the first Random newsletter to about 500 people. The one you are reading now is issue number 100, sent to 9,371 subscribers.

Every other Thursday for almost three years. Hard to believe.

First, thank you for subscribing. It means a lot that I don’t just write these as inner monologues.

Second, this was a difficult issue for me to create. I mean, how do you deliver on the lofty expectations of a 100th issue?

I’ll get to that in a second…but first, a comment about this newsletter.

——

This is my personal newsletter. People subscribe at JoePulizzi.com and it really has nothing to do with my business, The Tilt. This has, in many ways, become an issue.

As a content entrepreneur and content creator, I know I should absolutely align this newsletter with my business in some way. On the other hand, I have people who open this newsletter who aren’t necessarily content creators or care about marketing in any way. They are basically “fans of Joe,” which is my most important audience 😉.

Anyway, I’m talking with The Tilt team tomorrow about trying to figure out how to integrate this newsletter into the business in some way. So… changes are afoot. More to come.

——

So, back to this 100th issue. Yeah, I was stuck, until I realized this is not MY 100th issue. It’s YOUR 100th issue. The Random has always been about delivering value to you, the readers, of this completely free fortnightly publication.

Based on my tireless audience research (which amounted to about six emails coming from the readers of this thing), I’m going to cover areas I believe are truly important for you and a successful 2023 (but mostly things my wife wanted me to cover ;).

So, without further ado, here goes.

My 10 Best Ways to Get Content Ideas

Reader and friend Brian Piper (and co-author of the next edition of Epic Content Marketing) asked me how I come up with fresh content ideas after 100 issues. Here are my top 10.

Read a fiction book. Since I’m in the marketing/content area, most people wonder if my best writing ideas come from reading business books. Not a chance. I read at least 15 minutes of fiction every day. It’s my #1 resource for writing ideas.

Just write. No one likes to hear this, but it’s true. Sometimes you just have to sit down and start typing. About anything really. That’s how I wrote my novel, The Will to Die. It took about four weeks of writing every morning just to start uncovering a story that wasn’t horrible.

Podcasts. I love listening to music, but podcasts are where the money is at. Any podcast will do. I prefer mine while running. Sometimes I have to stop while I’m running and read out notes to my phone so I don’t forget the ideas.

Talk to my kids. Holy holy this is amazing content. Talk to them about anything. When I was their age I grew up in a completely different world. They look at life so differently. Just ask them questions.

Talk to my wife. If I can just listen to her without interrupting with MY thoughts on the matter, I actually get quite a few writing ideas from our conversations.

Facebook. Ha, just kidding. I’ve never had one good writing idea that came from FB.

Running. Or any strenuous physical activity for that matter. Pushing yourself physically forces you to escape through thinking.

Take a shower. This could easily be number one. I’m not proud of the amount of water I waste standing in the shower thinking about life. I really need one of those writable boards that go in the shower.

Read my journals. I have hundreds of old journals that I scratch notes in. Most of it is gibberish, but for some reason when I read through old thoughts new thinking arises.

Ask questions. Talking to my audience is always beneficial. If I can figure out what that particular person is struggling with, I can generally create three or four articles, podcasts or presentations from it. I guess their pain is my power.

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My wife Pam asked me to do the following in this newsletter: list 100 things I want to do, 100 books to read, something to do every day for 100 days, and 100 ways to make your wife smile. Below you’ll find my answers, but I knocked off the zero with each one of these because I’m lazy.

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10+ Things I Want to Do

Travel more. I listened to Trevor Noah recently who said, “the cure to ignorance is travel”. I agree with this 100 percent. I’ve been blessed to travel to over 20 countries…and it’s still not enough. Bucket list items to hit in the very near future are Greece, New Zealand and Japan (with my youngest son).

Run a Marathon. I can’t believe I just typed that.

Sell individual stocks and buy ETFs. I pride myself on being a decent investor. Most of my investing I do by buying individual stocks. That said, it takes way too much time and energy to follow all these companies so I know what I’m doing. And honestly, it’s not worth the energy. Just diversify though ETFs and call it a day.

Write another novel. It’s nice that so many people want me to write the sequel to The Will to Die. Do I have another novel in me? I think so. My plan is to start writing another novel in 2023.

Downsize. My wife and I have been through a few situations where loved ones needed to downsize. OMG this is such a challenge. Best to start ASAP on this so everything I own can fit in a tiny house.

Stay close to my kids. I don’t have an action plan for this, but I’m hopeful my kids will always feel like they can talk to Dad…about anything. Texting them about stupid things is my current go-to strategy.

Less TV and less social media. Basically, this comes down to using my time more wisely.

Take care of my body. I’ll be 50 next year. Probably need to make better choices with what I eat and drink (as I drink a soda after finishing a bowl of queso).

Help others. I know, so broad, but…I have made so many mistakes and learned so much…I feel some of these experiences would be valuable to other entrepreneurs, creators, dads, husbands… I think that’s why I love the book writing process so much. I currently have a one book every two years plan. Maybe I should increase that.

NFTG. I’m still affected by what other people think and do. I hate to even admit this. I’d like to focus more on doing my thing, doing what I think is right and stop caring at all about what other people think and do. This is getting easier as I get older. Maybe I’ll get there someday.

More cruises with friends. You know who you are!

10+ Must-Read Books (or Series)

Note: These change on a daily basis based on my mood.

Stranger In a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein (greatest novel ever IMO)

A Gentleman In Moscow – Amor Towles

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir (amazing sci-fi)

Matthew Corbett Series of Books – Robert McCammon (early 1700s mystery)

The Carls Series – Hank Green (sci-fi…your kids will love it too)

Amos Decker Series – David Baldacci (memory man series)

Monkeewrench Series – PJ Tracy (IT thriller)

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

The Big Short – Michael Lewis

On Writing – Stephen King (best book on writing ever)

A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman (you’ll cry)

Kate Burkholder Series – Linda Castillo (nothing better than Amish suspense thrillers)

Anything by Blake Crouch

Something To Do Every Day for 10 Days

Set big but measurable goals and read them every morning before you do anything.

Don’t open your email until you’ve accomplished at least one thing.

Send a note to a different friend each day. Written/print/mailed preferred but texting is accepted.

Before stating ANY opinion ask a question first.

Kiss your significant other.

Donate something to someone in need.

Throw away something you have kept for more than two years.

Visit someone who doesn’t get many visitors.

Support a local shop or restaurant instead of Amazon or a chain.

Think about yourself in their position before you criticize. Or just don’t criticize.

10 Things to Make My Wife Smile

Don’t start any more businesses (this may be personal to just me, but…).

Smile at her (this is easy…research shows that when you smile people smile back).

Leave little notes around the house.

Listen. No, I mean really listen.

Plan a date (or two).

Pretend (every now and then) that we are still dating.

Encourage her.

Stay in bed a few minutes longer in the morning before running to the coffee machine.

Do groceries together.

Be present (this could easily be number one).

Use her ideas when writing this newsletter.

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Well, that’s it for #100. I hope you found it worthwhile. I know I did…I feel like I have a lot to do.

If you feel compelled, email me back one big thing you are working on for 2023. That way I can help support you in reaching your goal.

Best,
Joe