“If you’re unhappy, you should change what you’re doing.” — Marc Andreessen
I had an “a-ha moment” while attending the Social Media Marketing World conference this week.
The more expertise a person has about social media, the less value they place on follower counts.
They understand it’s an overrated vanity metric.
Meanwhile, social media amateurs are obsessed with follower counts.
Don’t be fooled: A strong connection with a few is WAY more valuable than the limited attention of the many.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. HOW I GET STUFF DONE
“If you’re going to be a person who tries lots of things, you also have to become a person who’s not afraid to quit them if they don’t work or take up too much time.”
Three people asked me the same question this week: How do I get so much stuff done?
In this post, I share the 11 things I do to be productive without working 24/7 including to develop processes for work and life, always be first to suggest a meeting time, and repurpose my work to get the maximum value from it.
RELATED: How I got more done, reduced stress, and mastered time management in 10 minutes a day.
2. YOU HAVE ENOUGH TIME AND MONEY
“Remarkable work is usually accomplished by people who have non-typical priorities.”
This is a Seth Godin post so you know it will be both brilliant and take less than a minute to read.
He explains why the excuse of not having enough time or money doesn’t mean what you think it means.
RELATED: The world’s worst boss is you.
3. HOW TO SELL YOUR ART IN THE REAL WORLD
“The successful people are the ones who are able to do the creating and are able to then kind of push into the world — Steve Jobs put a ding in the universe — the people who are actually willing to carry the idea forward, and proselytize it, and evangelize it, and argue it, and advocate for it, and make sure people see it, and make sure it succeeds.”
This is a must-listen/read for anyone who does creative work or is an entrepreneur.
Venture capitalist (and Netscape creator) Marc Andreesen was interviewed on screenwriter (and Billions creator) Brian Koppelman’s podcast about a wide range of topics including how to sell your art in the real world, the advantages of systems thinking, and how to react when the world doesn’t “get” your ideas.
The link above will take you a transcript of their conversation which also includes a link to listen to the audio podcast — I highly recommend it.
RELATED: How to handle rejection.
4. HOW TO BUILD YOUR FOLLOWING (AND WHY COMMUNITY IS MORE IMPORTANT)
“Here’s the shift in mindset that I want you to make: Stop thinking about followers and start thinking about community.”
Everybody wants more followers, but what everybody needs is more community.
In this 8-minute video, Christopher Penn breaks down how to build your following and explains why you should stop chasing followers and start building community, including a framework to do so.
RELATED: The secret to getting more followers and customers.
5. HOW TO READ MORE
“Every hour you spend inching through a boring book is an hour you could’ve spent plowing through a brilliant one. When it comes to books, quitters finish more.”
As somebody who finds reading books valuable but can’t seem to bring himself to read that often, I found this one helpful.
Austin Kleon offers five tips to help you read more including to quit reading books you don’t like, carry a book with you at all times, and frequently visit book stores or libraries.
RELATED: How to read books without actually reading books.
6. STRATEGY IS NARRATIVE
“At the end of the day, strategy is the art of getting other people to do something. In the pursuit of that, narrative (call it ‘storytelling’ if you really must) is the strategist’s tool. Strategy is narrative.”
I don’t even know where to begin summarizing all the brilliance in this post.
Martin Weigel shares 13 tips to help you craft a strong strategic narrative including to make action your goal, that there is only momentum or useful description, and to use small words to express big ideas.
RELATED: Strategy for non-strategists.
7. WHAT TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE YOU START A COMPANY
“If you pursue your idea, you will likely be waking up every morning of the next two to 10 years touting its value not just to your employees, but also to your customers, to your friends, to your family, and to your significant others.”
If you ever consider starting a company, read this first.
Maynard Webb suggests 10 questions to ask yourself before you start a company including are you comfortable with risk, do you need outside validation, and what are your motives?
RELATED: A five-week plan to start a side hustle on your lunch break.
8. FIVE LINKEDIN MARKETING STRATEGIES FROM GARY VAYNERCHUK
“There are two ways to ‘attack’ content: Either engage with it, or produce it.”
Gary Vaynerchuk is bullish on the opportunities LinkedIn presents at the moment and this post explains why and how to take advantage of them.
His five LinkedIn marketing strategies include to publish native articles on the platform, use LinkedIn to host in-person events, and add your profile link to your email signature.
Speaking of LinkedIn, if you’d like to connect just send me a request and mention you’re a For The Interested reader.
RELATED: LinkedIn tips from 11 LinkedIn experts.
9. MARC ANDREESEN’S PERSONAL GUIDE TO PRODUCTIVITY
“By not keeping a schedule, I mean: refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day. As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.”
This was written way back in 2007, but the ideas it contains may be even more powerful today than they were back then.
Marc Andreesen shares his personal guide to productivity including recommendations that you not keep a schedule (whenever possible), leverage structured procrastination, and only agree to commitments when both your head and heart say yes.
RELATED: How to create your own productivity system.
10. HOW TO WRITE HEADLINES PEOPLE WILL CLICK, LIKE, AND SHARE
“How do you keep the greatest blog post in the history of the world a secret? Give it a crappy headline. Headlines make or break blog posts and are every bit as important as the content of the post itself.”
My blog posts have been read by millions of people and one of the biggest reasons for that is three headline templates I’ve repeatedly used.
In this post I explain how to write headlines people will click, like and share and break down how to create personal experience, value promise, and self-expression headlines to draw more attention to your work.
RELATED: 10 quick tips for bloggers.
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WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF
I got some of this week’s ideas from Storythings and Joi Sigurdsson — they’re awesome and worth checking out.
Image via Angel Hernandez.