“There are no experts, only varying degrees of ignorance.” — Amit Trivedi
Our lives are filled with puzzles.
Puzzles made up of rules and assumptions.
Some designed to guide us forward, others to hold us back.
We can get stuck in a puzzle — too intimidated by its scope and complexity to move.
Or, we can summon the courage to navigate through it and discover enough wrong turns eventually lead to the right one.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. WANT TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR EXPERTISE? START HERE.
“The more clear you are about your expertise, its value, and who it benefits, the easier it becomes to monetize it.”
This post won’t tell you how to get rich quick, but it will help you figure out how to monetize your expertise — either as a side hustle or as your main source of income.
I suggest six questions to ask yourself if you want to make money from your expertise including what separates you from other experts in your field, how your expertise can change a person’s life, and who needs to learn what you know.
RELATED: How to make the right choices in your career.
2. HOW TO BECOME A TIME REALIST
“Time realists look at a task and break down the math of it. They’re conscious of how long things take, and they factor that in to their plans for the day. Time optimists, by comparison, are just that: hopeful about things they would like to do. It leads to them to overstuff their days and become frustrated when their list of to-dos doesn’t get completed.”
In order to master time management, you first need to learn how to realistically assess the time it takes you to do various tasks.
The New York Times explains how to become a time realist and suggests you use no more than four communication platforms, integrate your to do list into your calendar, and categorize activities based on the level of concentration they require.
RELATED: How to get more done by planning less.
3. 13 SIMPLE MONEY MANAGEMENT TIPS TO TRY TODAY
“There’s no getting around car insurance, unfortunately. But one way you could save money is by shopping around and comparing rates at least once a year. Fortunately, services like Gabi and The Zebra will do it for you.”
If you’ve been meaning to get more on top of your finances, cut your spending, or increase your savings, this post can help.
The Penny Hoarder offers 13 money management tips to try today including recommendations of apps and services to lower your interest rates, invest your spare change, and get help negotiating your bills.
RELATED: An easy way to lower your spending.
4. THE THREE RULES OF WRITING PITCH EMAILS
“When you nail the subject line, you automatically nail the rest of the email. Why? Well, if you’re able to describe exactly what your email is about in one short sentence, you’ve already accomplished your task.”
The better you are at writing pitch emails, the more likely you are to get responses to your requests.
Darius Foroux three rules of writing pitch emails can help make that happen.
His tips include to never lead with a generic compliment, spend 80% of your time crafting your subject line, and never send “follow up” emails.
RELATED: How to pitch an idea like a Pixar producer.
5. HOW TO HIRE SOMEBODY TO HELP YOU WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
“If you see a proposal that looks cookie-cutter and is something they say works for every client, take that as a warning. Every business needs a different strategy.”
I was recently interviewed by eCommerceFuel along with several other leading social media consultants about how to hire somebody to help you with social media.
The article touches on a variety of topics including the importance of setting goals first, how to determine whether you should hire outside social media help or have an in-house employee do it, and what skills to look for when hiring somebody to do social media for your business.
RELATED: Read this before you hire a social media expert.
6. HOW TO HANDLE A MIDLIFE UNRAVELING
“To call what happens at midlife ‘a crisis’ is bullshit. A crisis is an intense, short-lived, acute, easily identifiable, and defining event that can be controlled and managed. Midlife is not a crisis. Midlife is an unraveling.”
If you’re middle aged (however you define that), this one’s going to resonate with you.
Brene Brown details what it’s like to face a midlife unraveling and suggests it’s an inevitable phase of life we all have to cope with — no matter how hard we try to outrun it.
RELATED: The biggest threat facing middle-aged men is loneliness.
7. HOW TO BECOME A SOLOPRENEUR
“The best way to become a solopreneur is to start creating content. Costs are low, you can pivot quickly, and it’s largely passive income so you can fund follow-up efforts.”
As someone who has followed a similar path and achieved similar results, I highly recommend you check out Tiago Forte post about how to become a solopreneur.
He offers a step-by-step guide on how you can use content to build a business, unlock opportunities, and lead yourself down paths you wouldn’t otherwise have imagined.
RELATED: The 100 rules for being an entrepreneur.
8. SEVEN STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES FOR BUSINESSES
“Want to keep readers engaged after your first paragraph? Focus on the action in each of your following sentences.”
You can learn to tell interesting stories about your business no matter how boring it may seem on the surface.
Enchanting Marketing suggests seven storytelling techniques you can employ including to plunge your reader into the action, make your client the hero of your story, and create suspense through cliffhangers.
RELATED: How to harness the power of storytelling science.
9. HOW TO MANAGE YOUR ATTENTION ON SOCIAL PLATFORMS
“Stop blaming the media platforms for your own wallowing in small-minded twitter gossip about people. Strength train to the point where you decide whether to be there or elsewhere.”
Now THIS is an interesting Twitter thread.
Venkatesh Rao explains “How to actually manage attention without smashing your phone and retreating to a log cabin.”
He suggests the idea of unplugging from our “social computer” is a mistake that will cause you to be severely disadvantaged due to your lack of information compared to others in the world.
Rather than unplugging and blaming the platforms, he suggests users train themselves to better manage their information flow.
RELATED: Nine daily practices to increase your attention span.
10. FIVE THINGS YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS FROM RICK RUBIN
“It’s a frustrating job in many respects because it’s like fishing — you can go out fishing, but you can’t say ‘I’m going to catch three fish today.’ We have very little control over this process.”
Music producer Rick Rubin is a creative genius who’s made a career of helping other geniuses generate their best work.
This collection of five things you can learn about the creative process from him includes to recognize your way may not be the best way, approach creations like chapters in your life, and believe you can create your best work yet in order to do so.
RELATED: How to start a creative project when you don’t know where to begin.
WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF
I discovered some of this week’s ideas from Postanly, Khe Hy, and Steele Roddick — they’re awesome and worth checking out.