10 Ideas For The Interested This Week - For The Interested

10 Ideas For The Interested This Week

“Information is the resolution of uncertainty.” — Claude Shannon

Information is power.

But it’s increasingly difficult to source, filter, and discover information that improves your work or business.

I can help.

I can be your “Information Concierge.”

I’m excited to announce a new consulting service I’m offering through which I find, curate, and summarize content and information for a select few clients (individuals or companies).

The information is customized to your unique needs and designed to save you time, surface opportunities, and give you a competitive advantage in your pursuits.

Clients get custom Information Reports I create for them on a weekly or monthly basis for a set fee.

If the idea of having me as your personal Information Concierge appeals to you, email me and tell me a bit about you and your goals.

Thanks for your interest!

Now, on to this week’s ideas…

1. HOW TO FIND THE BEST INFORMATION ON ANY TOPIC THAT INTERESTS YOU

“Every topic expert follows other experts on that topic so scouring their followers is a great way to dive deeper into that world and expand your information sources.”

My favorite posts to write are ones that are simple, useful, and actionable. This one checks all those boxes.

I explain how to find the best information on any topic that interests you and offer 10 simple tactics to do so including to search word combinations in Google, search micro-niche hashtags on Instagram, and follow people who other topic experts follow.

RELATED: How to find what you don’t know you’re looking for.

2. SEVEN PIECES OF COMMON WRITING ADVICE TO IGNORE

“Writing about what you want isn’t terrible writing advice in and of itself, rather it’s the implication that people should want to read whatever you write.”

There’s no shortage of writing advice out there but unfortunately much of it is not as helpful as it seems.

Ayodeji Awosika shares seven pieces of writing advice to ignore including to write about whatever you want, join a writing group, and anything that doesn’t boil down to “write more.”

RELATED: 22 writing tips from Stephen King.

3. HOW TO SET AND ACHIEVE GOALS

“Whether you want to improve your relationship with your wife, accomplish more in your career, or find more joy and meaning, this goal-setting process will help you get there.”

The more intentional you are, the more likely you are to succeed.

This Calvin Rosser guide on how to set and achieve goals can help you become a lot more intentional in your work and life.

It’s a step-by-step guide to help you evaluate where you are, set your vision for the future, and measure your results.

RELATED: How to improve your day by setting anti-goals.

4. A JARGON-FREE INVESTING MASTER CLASS

“Save yourself thousands and build real wealth with time-tested advice from the best financial minds.”

This is a helpful resource if you feel a little lost when it comes to personal finance.

Wealthsimple has put together a jargon-free investing master class that features 10 short videos on topics including the stock market, automating your finances, and how much you need to retire.

The 45 minutes it takes to watch the whole thing just might make you millions over the course of your life — literally.

RELATED: The four new rules of personal finance.

5. ARE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS A REALITY SHOW OR A MAGAZINE?

“There’s nothing wrong with the occasional selfie and you certainly should share the story of yourself, your work, and your art — but those doesn’t have to be the ONLY stories you tell on social media.”

Social media strategy can get complicated, but here’s a simple question to ask yourself when trying to figure out how best to use your platforms: Do you want to be a reality show or a magazine?

In this post I break down the differences between two common social media content strategies and explain why a magazine approach is more likely to provide value to your followers.

RELATED: Two ways to write social media post captions that get more likes and shares.

6. PARENTING ADVICE FROM A MOTHER WHO RAISED TWO CEOS AND A DOCTOR

“What I’m offering, and what has struck a chord with so many people across the world, is an antidote to our parenting and teaching problems, a way to fight against the anxiety, discipline problems, power struggles, peer pressure and fear of technology that cloud our judgment and harm our children.”

Esther Wojcicki’s daughters have turned out pretty well. One’s a college professor, one’s the CEO of YouTube, and one’s the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe.

In this article she explains how that happened and shares five fundamental values that help children become capable, successful people including trust, independence, and collaboration.

RELATED: To raise an empowered girl, encourage her to be funny.

7. A COLLECTION OF GREAT TALKS FROM DESIGNERS

When a professional design association asks its followers to share their favorite talks by designers, the resulting Twitter thread becomes a great resource.

This thread is packed with enough great design talks to keep you busy for quite a while.

RELATED: Nine ideas shaping the future of design.

8. 26 GREAT PITCH DECK EXAMPLES AND TIPS

“People hate doing math. So you never want to make the audience or investors try to do quick math on any of your graphs or charts.”

This one’s primarily about pitching a business, but it will help you with just about any presentation deck you put together.

Ryan McCready shares 26 great pitch deck examples and tips including to stick to the rule of three on each slide, use a similar layout for problem and solution slides, and pick a background image that fits your messaging.

RELATED: How anyone can make better presentation slides.

9. THE QUIET LIFE OF THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN

“There’s really no difference between here and home, it’s just everything’s compacted down to a 14 by 14 room.”

Will you learn something from this video? Probably not.

Will it make you jealous? Maybe.

Will it make you feel calm? Definitely.

Great Big Story shares a two-minute documentary about the quiet life of the king of the mountain, a guy who spends weeks at a time living alone on the top of a Montana mountain and working as a fire lookout.

Spoiler alert: he loves it.

RELATED: The inspiring story of the Forest Man.

10. HOW TO CONQUER YOUR FEAR AND GO AFTER SOMETHING YOU WANT

“Being nervous only means you care.”

Opportunities are scary and it’s easy to let fears hold you back from pursuing them.

In this post I break down how to conquer your fear and go after something you want including to recognize it’s OK to be nervous, every opportunity can be undone, and nothing’s ever guaranteed.

RELATED: Lessons learned from facing 100 fears.

WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF

I got some of this week’s ideas from Khe Hy, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Creative Mornings, Tijmen Rumke, and Joi Sigurdsson — they’re awesome and worth checking out.