Personal Growth
Toddler Book Teardown (Also My Yom Kippur Sermon on Forgiveness)
My kid has this book about making mistakes called, “It’s Ok To Make Mistakes.” It’s cute and means well, but there is one page that drives me nuts. There is an elephant standing on a diving board over a pool who clearly does not want to jump off that diving board into that pool. And the copy (…)
Holding Onto The Dream of Being a “Real” Writer
I don’t know about you, but I’m still waiting for the day I get pulled aside by a teacher who lets me in on a secret. And the secret is I’m a precocious genius who has unparalleled talent, unlike anything she’s ever seen before. And if I would just get over my horrible attitude! the (…)
How to Get a Life (no, really, how?)
The best manager I ever worked for told me to work less. Having just been scolded for needing to bill more hours to our clients, I was confused by his advice. “I need you to have a life. It’s part of your job as a marketer. We need to be in the zeitgeist.” I think (…)
Think Deeper
Forty hours. It took me 40. freaking. hours to write (and re-write and edit) the piece that led me to my first “viral” moment. For every “viral” moment I’ve had since, it’s taken about the same amount of work. Quality, for me, takes time. Time, patience, and so.much.editing. Those three ingredients feel diametrically opposed to (…)
The “I’m Better Than This” Phenomenon
“I SENT ONE EMAIL AND NOTHING HAPPENED.” I was older and more experienced than I care to admit in public when I had the above reaction to what-I-deemed-was a failed launch. I’d drank the online business Koolaid and believed that I should have arrived by now at the point where you “make sales while you (…)
What Are You Reading?
Some people might argue that purple lipstick is not an essential, but they never had to pack all their “essentials” in a carry-on for two weeks at the age of 14. So yes, my purple lipstick made the cut (GOD WHY). Packing was sanctimonious for my mother, who insisted that anyone who checked luggage was (…)
What’s This About Process?
One of my best friends can sit down and write a post from start to finish in one sitting. It’ll need some editing, but the ideas are there, the voice strong, and the argument mostly formed. I hate her. Another friend of mine writes poetry. He calls them blogs, but they’re poems. Each day he (…)
How Much Should You Share Online?
One thing I still don’t get about driving a car is rubbernecking. I understand slowing down if people or debris are in the road, but looking to see what’s happening in the middle of a busy freeway sounds insane. Of course, I absolutely rubberneck because I’m a human being with eyes and I also want (…)