10 Ideas For The Interested This Week - For The Interested

10 Ideas For The Interested This Week

“Insecurity is a waste of time.” — Diane von Furstenberg

I’m working on a new thing.

If you have your own newsletter or are thinking of starting one, you’re going to love it.

For now, I invite you to go follow the new Newsletter Creators Facebook page I set up this week and join the 600+ creators already in our Facebook group.

More to come soon.

Now, on to this week’s ideas…

1. HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE FOLLOW-UP EMAIL AFTER MEETING WITH SOMEONE

“The true impact of a meeting is determined by what happens after it ends.”

It’s one thing to have a good meeting with someone, it’s another to have it lead to something meaningful.

In this post I share six tips about how to write an effective follow-up email including to have a clear goal for the email, write like a minimalist, and include a postscript.

RELATED: How to send emails to very busy people.

2. HOW TO RAISE YOUR DAUGHTER TO BECOME A STRONG WOMAN

“Buy products from women-owned companies. Tell your daughter about them, via their products and websites. Most companies now have a decent founder/inventor bio on their sites. These up-and-comer profiles are some of the most vibrant, contemporary stories you can find online.”

After giving a recent keynote speech, Jules Pieri was approached by a man who asked her a question unrelated to the subject of her talk: He asked how to raise his 4-year-old daughter to grow up to be like her.

Flattered, Pieri gave the question some thought and compiled her answers into this post about how to raise your daughter to become a strong woman.

Her advice includes to surround your daughter with actual role models, support causes that support the advancement of women, and talk about this stuff with boys and other men.

RELATED: What it’s like to raise a teenage daughter.

3. HOW TO WRITE A WINNING PROPOSAL

“As much as it may pain some, all business transactions boil down to dollars made or dollars saved.”

Do you think it’s possible to win 80% of the deals you pitch? It may be if you pitch them well.

Kayla Lee breaks down how to write a winning proposal including to write the words that matter most, agree on price before you send the proposal, and sell results instead of objectives.

RELATED: Focus your sales pitch on the stakes, not the pain.

4. BEGIN BEFORE YOU THINK YOU’RE READY

“Embarrassment is a momentum-killer and a dream-killer. When you let your fear of being laughed at override your pursuit of success, your dreams die and you give your power to deadbeats who have no business commenting on your life.”

If you wait until you’re ready to start a project, the chances are you’ll never start it.

Anthony Moore suggests a key to success is to begin before you think you’re ready and points out your ultimate success is often determined by how much embarrassment you can take.

RELATED: How to start a project when you don’t know where to begin.

5. WHAT YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT NICHE MARKETING FROM FOOD STALLS

“Hawker store owners would rather specialize and be renown for one spectacular dish, than cook a lot of dishes that are just OK. They’re not concerned about being everything to everyone.”

Malaysian street food vendors have a lot more business savvy than you may realize.

Cynthia Marinakos breaks down lessons you can learn about niche marketing from food stalls including that less is more, word of mouth is powerful, and personality matters.

RELATED: How to overcome your resistance to committing to a single niche.

6. SNOOZE IS A TRAP

“In or out, yes or no, on to the next thing. Snooze is not for you.”

This post is ostensibly about the snooze button, but as with most Seth Godin posts it’s actually about much more.

He explains why snooze is a trap and suggests you avoid putting off any decisions you’re capable of making right now.

RELATED: 18 ideas about how to make smarter decisions from the book “Thinking in Bets.”

7. TIME IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE AS A LEADER

“Delegating is a gift with two recipients. You get more time, and someone else gains valuable experience.”

As a technology director at Amazon, Dave Anderson has had to learn how to juggle an extremely busy schedule.

He believes a leader’s most valuable resource is their time and explains how to maximize the way you spend yours including to identify your most important task, realize business as usual won’t work, and cut your schedule to the bone.

RELATED: Six must-read articles about how to scale leadership.

8. IN ORDER TO GROW YOUR AUDIENCE YOU NEED TO TALK TO YOUR AUDIENCE

“When we talk to our audience, and do so regularly, we can transform everything, from the entire arc of a series of episodes, to tiny pockets of copywriting to promote the show. I urge you: Talk to subscribers. It’s our unfair advantage over those who refuse. And why? Because they think it doesn’t scale.”

I’m amazed how few people who are interested in growing an audience are willing to talk to their existing audience. That’s a huge missed opportunity.

Jay Acunzo explains why in order to grow your audience you need to talk to your audience and points out doing so can help you better understand how people discover your work, why they connect to it, and how you can better serve them.

RELATED: The ultimate guide to growing your audience.

9. SAYING NO IS THE ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY HACK

“Saying no saves you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future. No is a form of time credit. You retain the ability to spend your future time however you want. Yes is a form of time debt. You have to pay back your commitment at some point. No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.”

Just say no.

James Clear suggests saying no is the ultimate productivity hack and proves it with a break down of why we say yes, the role of no, and how to say and upgrade your no.

RELATED: How to say no in a more powerful way.

10. HOW TO REWRITE THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE

“The stories of our life are malleable. We can rewrite them as often as we want. In doing so, we create a new reality for ourselves.”

Stories are powerful and none more so than the ones we tell ourselves about who we are and what we’ve done.

In this post I explain how to rewrite the story of your life including what happens when you change the villain, location, or supporting cast of your story.

RELATED: Your story is your power.

WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF

I got some of this week’s ideas from Khe Hy and Jessica Williams — they’re awesome and worth checking out.

Image via Sarah Cervantes.