One-thousand pardons for my absence. I’ve been building my business. The below diagram explains how that feels.

Anyway, shout out to the amazing clients (including some of you on this list!). I’m so grateful. In truth, going out on my own is the best thing I’ve ever done.

Like you, I'm over-subscribed to newsletters. But there are a few that I open because they make me think and provide value and I hope that this one does that for you.

The predominant thing I do for clients is write and help with their comms strategy. I’ll be focusing more on these things going forward, with some self-improvement sprinkled throughout.

I’m going to start being consistent with this newsletter so if you ever find yourself not into it anymore feel free to unsubscribe with love and light.

Create Your Own Media Channel

I don’t watch the news anymore. Mainly because it feels like being stuck inside an echo chamber of hyperventilating takes. You’re never more informed after watching the news. There’s just more stuff that pisses you off or worries you. And that’s by design. The best thing you can do is opt out entirely.

Unfortunately, a lot of people still believe traditional media is final scripture. But journalism is dead and dying (I think it will be reborn as something else). Begging an over-worked reporter facing pressure to get clicks to think rationally about your pitch is a losing battle.

One of my top recommendations to clients is to become your own media channel.

Whether you rep an organization, a person, a company, or if you’re a hype-man of one, you should create your own content. So that you can stop relying on a system that rewards the most extreme headline.

When you create your own content you’re creating the precise narrative you want to see. And by distributing it across your channels you engage and build a connection with your audience. This leads to greater buy-in — your audience is more likely to trust you.

This is taking back control. You decide how your story is framed, you provide insight directly to the people you want to reach. This is the future.

Note: I understand that for many organizations you must do both. You still need to pitch traditional media because it’s not quite dead, but I would spend more time on your branded content and consider earned media a bonus. This helps ensure that when the shift does come, you are well-positioned.

Write Better

Good writing is clear thinking. Can you distill your point to one sentence?

If you can’t explain it simply, you likely don’t understand it.

More research can help but if you’re still struggling I like to ask: what is this about?

I recently wrote a speech to donors. The speech was as an opportunity to brag about what the organization had accomplished with donors’ $$. But it felt a little flat. So I asked myself: what is this about? More than that, what do I want the audience to feel?

The answer was trust, that their money is going somewhere worthwhile. Thinking about the emotion I wanted to evoke helped clarify the content. And it helped me pare down everything that wasn’t in service of that emotion. The emotion became my guiding light.

Yes, good writing is clear thinking, but even more than that good writing is good editing. Paul Graham explains this well in Write Simply.

An old journalism professor of mine used to scream this line at us: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”

Writing more doesn’t fix bad writing. It often requires better understanding and then better editing.

Health is Indeed Wealth

Do you believe it yet? This recent podcast from My First Million is excellent, but I transcribed the most important point.

Our health care system incentivizes doctors to 1. operate in silos 2. treat on a Fee For Service basis. The more pills they prescribe or procedures they conduct the better for their bank account. And rarely do they coordinate across service lines to see the medications you take or conditions you have that fall outside of their specialty. Note: Doctors do not hold all of the blame for this — the system is a mess and they are at the mercy of many other players.

After decades under this model we have bad health outcomes that cost us even more money (20% of patients account for 85% of all medical spending). We need to fix the system (value-based care and coordinated care are on the rise), but the transition will take years.

In the short term, everyone should treat their health like an investment.

Here’s an example of what I mean: if I had known interest rates were going to be this high for this long, I would have bought a house a few years ago. And if I was really smart I would have bought the second I could afford it.

My point is: if you knew how fucked up our health care system is, you would have started eating better and moving more years ago. Start now. It will be the best investment you ever make.

From My Swipe Files

We owe it to each other to be our very best.

Lol Tweets

Not a lol this time, more of a 🤯

Love you, bye!