Your book recommendations

Thanks to everyone who got back to me with awesome reading recommendations! Now that I've fixed the email forwarding issue, I was able to collect a selection of those writings and have put them together for you here, along with links to enjoy them. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World by Jeremy Rifkin

Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living A Good Life by Mark Manson

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Where Do We Go From Here by Martin Luther King (delivered on August 16th, 1967 at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention in Atlanta, Ga. - not a book, it's a speech. And it's awesome.)

Thank you all for participating. I envision more opportunities for us to come together and collectively & easily build resources for one another. More details to come..........

I'm a dum dum, my bad!

I just realized that I wasn't receiving your responses to my emails over the past few months! My bad! Maybe I thought you guys were being quiet? Who knows! Anyway, I wanted to apologize in case anyone wondered why they never heard back from me. I like being super responsive with my list, or at least thought I did, lol.

I'll get back to you promptly from now on. The email forwarding snafu has been fixed. I promise.

Thanks for reading, please share posts on social media when you love them via the buttons below, and I look forward to what 2017 brings.

Stay up!!!

P.s. I've started scheduling time with the 5 people who reached out to take me up on my 30-minute strategy session freebie! I'm looking forward to learning more about what you guys are working on.

The student and the teacher

It's interesting thinking about the way students and teachers interact. Even though the teacher is largely the person imparting knowledge and perspective, the greatest exchange happens when both parties know there is learning to do.

I had an interaction recently where the person I was chatting with looked at me as the teacher. I was having that conversation when the thought came up, "You can learn a lot from this person even though it's clear that right now they are hoping to learn from you."

I mentioned something along those lines to my conversation partner. I reflected that even when we play the role of the teacher, that it's important to allow ourselves to be taught.

I reflected on various interactions I've had playing either role, and my main takeaway is that the natural hierarchy can blind both the student and the teacher to certain insights, if they're not careful.

If the student thinks her teacher is bulletproof, she's sure to miss important critiques, parallel ideas, or valid negations of that school of thought.

If the teacher thinks she has nothing to learn, she's sure to miss out on important takeaways their youthful counterpart might offer.

Depriving ourselves of insight by blindly protecting our chosen ideals or thinking our knowledge can't be improved are mirrored oversights.

No matter what role we think we're playing, we're always both the student and the teacher.

Hopeful haze

As the calendar flips over, many tend to think about making positive change in the year ahead. For all the focus areas of improvement one could identify, for me it's about intentionality in my relationships, focus in projects, and making time to get mentally and physically fit. For as much as we can get bogged down by the daily grind, I'm feeling good about this renewed sense of optimism. As the hopeful haze fades in the coming weeks and months, and it surely will, the question is less about how to maintain the discipline to meet and exceed every single one of our goals, and more about what we do to remain hopeful.

Pessimism is the heaviest of non-starters, immediately vanquishing possibility and leaning back on reduction.

But how do we remind ourselves that optimism is the only clear choice?

More importantly, how do you hit the energetic restart button? I'd love to know. I'm trying to build those skills.

Skills of the future

This political cycle has revived protectionist economic policies for people who feel the world is passing them by. Despite the rhetoric, anyone hocking these ideas knows damn well that the jobs people want repatriated are never coming back. The tide of a globalized economy took over long ago, yet we hear silly talking points about bringing back outmoded commodities like coal, an energy source and economic engine that anyone can see is on it's way out.

The future is digital & we should be embracing tomorrow's economy by focusing on digital skills.

Lets not mince words. I'm talking about training blue collar workers to use computers instead of machines associated with a bygone era.

Either we build an economy with workers whose skills will remain relevant or we can race China to the bottom of the manufacturing mountain while drastically reducing quality of life.

There's no going back. We might as well go forward.

Recommend a book?

As we all downshift into sweatpants & leftovers, I'm hoping to make time for some reading. I'm currently working on Questlove's Mo-Meta Blues, as well as Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between The World and Me. I've got plenty of art books I could meander through but inevitably my favorite reads are suggestions from friends.

So... got any great book recommendations for me?

Just reply with the title or a link, thanks!

Duplicate content, digital etiquette

When Facebook, Twitter and every other social network started letting you post the exact same content to other places, many of us were fooled into the more is more paradigm. I'm not saying I've never been guilty of the duplicate content error, especially in the early days of social media, but things change and it's up to us to shape digital etiquette. Toggle a few boxes and now the (beautifully taken) photo of your brunch is posted to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Tumblr, and more.

The problem with duplicate content is that if we follow someone on multiple networks, we end up seeing that brunch  photo 5 times. It feels like someone telling you the same thing repeatedly without pause.

I just posted a photo, I just posted a photo, I just posted a photo, I just posted a photo, I just posted a photo.

We really don't have to share the photo 5 times, we also don't want to subject our friends to a barrage like that. The sentence above kinda shows how ridiculous this is. If you have entirely different follower bases on each network there might be an exception to the rule but that's rarely the case.

If spaced out over weeks and months, it makes sense to post root content with new copy on multiple networks, especially if you're a brand, firm or freelancer. Another worthy exception. That said, if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Linkedin, I promise not to blast duplicate content.

Whadyasay, shall we all make that promise?

What activates you?

New York City. I was just there for 5 days and it always energizes me. It tops me up, keeps me hungry, and inspires me. The art, the food, the pace, the sounds, the smells, the vibrance, the grit, the texture. It's a multicultural, extrasensory kaleidoscope and I love it.

I walked as much as possible, listened to the new Tribe record constantly, took some fun photos, and drank enough espresso to fuel an army.

The feel that worlds are constantly colliding or perhaps more aptly, dancing together is one that moves me.

Whether it's NYC or any other place, idea, concept, community, practice, ethos or state of mind, it's essential that we find the things that activate us.

What activates you?

Does this idea suck? (A gift for you)

It can be hard to tell. We often get started on building an idea before properly taking stock of the idea's HOW. What I mean by that is, we often glaze over key portions of implementation and start making. This can lead to frustration, false starts, and stalled projects. For folks like you and I, we always know our WHY, but we can't let that passion thwart tactical implementation.

This is something I experience often. I've also talked to a bunch of you about needing a way to vet what we're doing, which prompted Levi Baer and I to create something that we hope helps many of you build your next project by thoughtfully going from idea to reality.

Does This Idea Suck: A Framework for Evaluating Ideas and Making Greater Impact was the end result.

It's free and it's for people like us, who think, care, and make.

It could also help you decide not to undertake a certain project. If we're being realistic, that has to be one of the options. To that end, we built something honest that will help you be critical about 'the how'.

If you like it, all we ask is that you share it on social media, or send the link to a few people who it might help.

Thank you for being on my list, and for giving me permission to share with you.

It's been fun. Onward.

Life pie

While I don't believe in fixed pies with respect to good will, effort, community, and connection, I do think that time is a fixed resource. While I've certainly absorbed ideas from people like Tim Ferriss and Jonathan Fields with respect to how living in alignment and focusing on value can hone one's efforts, there are still only 24 hours in each day.

That said, we have to make decisions. Some things need to happen, and thus, some things need to get cut.

Part of the inspiration behind Does This Idea Suck was needing to figure that equation out.

The pie of each day does not literally expand unless we're officially moving to longer days. (I think my sister in law, Kelly Fox, finds a way conjure up 30 hr days but I still don't know how she does it.)

To be honest, most of us could use some help discerning, strategizing, and figuring out what our top 3 priorities are for our morning, much less what activities, projects, products, and businesses deserve our time & effort day after day, and year after year.

Some of the questions might be, who else is helping or why do we think this will work?

Most importantly, what will our life pie support? How much can we give?

End of the year freebie

Lately I've been doing a lot of work triangulating the digital marketing buckets for IPaintMyMind, making sure we're doing everything we can to offer value to our partners, communities, supporters and artists. No matter who we serve, there's a specific way that we'll activate them, and there's always room for improvement.

The thing is, whether a nonprofit, freelancer, or small business, we have to not only be able to specialize in a high value vertical, we also have to be proficient in various other areas to rock it out and not leave important growth areas neglected - email marketing, social media, PPC, SEO, copywriting, web development and others, like digital organization tools (Slack and Trello), valuable apps & chrome extensions, and more.

That said, I've learned a lot in those areas over the past few years and am happy to offer a FREE 30-minute consultation to the first 5 people who reply to this email. When I did this 6 months ago, I had a few great chats, including a great session with James T. Green, a multidisciplinary creative who just became a podcast producer at MTV News.

He had this to say about our time together, "Thanks to Evan, I was able to properly visualize what it was I needed to focus on for the upcoming week, month, and year. Sitting down with him was essential for getting my projects in order and a great value add for my businesses. Cheers!"

If I can help you up your game in any of these areas or others, I'd be happy to.

I also have another project launching soon that I'm looking forward to sharing with you.

Be well.

Plenty of doubt for everyone (let's embrace it)

For as much as we hear about people building cool things and succeeding, there are 10x as many stories about the obstacles that created tension for people summiting their own mountain. To act as if there are plateau's where it's all figured out would be dishonest, but to act like there's no chance of getting to the top is just as unrealistic.

We're going to try things that work and others that fail, but if we surround ourselves with the right people, we have a much better chance of getting where we're going.

The reality is, easy has always been an option. It's the vocation part we're all striving for, no matter where our office is located or what yesterday looked like.

If we keep it 100 and share the less-than-certain moments, we'll achieve perspective and quite probably open ourselves up to the next good move.

After all, there's plenty of doubt for everyone (let's embrace it).

Superpowers

These times we live in remind me that my pen is a pistola, a microphone, a beacon, an opportunity, a way of being, a light, and a superpower I must rededicate myself to beyond these pages.

I'm not saying this to toot my own horn - it's about being honest with myself and all of you as to how I can best contribute.

How do you gleam? How do you serve best?

What way of being do you possess that is especially needed right now?

Ask your friends, ask your mentors, ask the people that you feel see you as you truly are. We all need each others superpowers more than ever.

The learning economy

We should always be pushing out to make ourselves the obvious option once an opportunity arises. The thing is, standing pat never gets us there. Even though it's less than obvious, the least risky option is to try something, develop skills, and get to the point where we can make great websites, sales letters, or marketing strategies for the people who want a beautiful, functional solution.

This includes making some bad stuff as we hone our craft. We gotta get good before we get great, and as someone with a patience deficiency, this is something I'm always trying to internalize.

The learning economy rewards people who are constantly expanding their scope of knowledge, iterating, reassessing, and staying relevant. To that end, Udemy is one great way to add skills to our toolboxes.

We can rage against outside forces, demand that the clocks get turned back, and go kicking and screaming into a future with less options... or we can saddle up and get our learn on.

23 to 1

What is often called corruption in equatorial nations is referred to as "lobbying" in the United States. Leave it to us to whitewash something that is explicitly about purchasing the favor of government officials thus circumventing the electorate. "For every member of Congress in 2011, there were 23 registered Washington lobbyists. 535 senators and representatives; 12,719 lobbyists."

That's 23 to 1. Twenty three men and women buying dinners and writing checks for every ONE elected government official.

If you're interested in the growth in lobbyist spending, top spending corporations, top lobbying firms, top spending industries, and more, you can view that here.

I'd ask a rhetorical question now but that feels facile. You know what the problem is.

We is everyone

It's a lot easier to blame someone when we don't relate to them. It's just cleaner. No need to question ourselves or those in our camp. Even though we always should.

No need to wonder how we could show up more fully next time. Even though it's worthwhile.

The thing is, the flames of division have been fanned, making it hard to look at our own shortcomings. When we feel attacked or our equality undermined, we rarely give in to logic or reason.

We is everyone, it's just hard to see sometimes.

Please, vote

Our democracy is certainly flawed, but it's imperfections do not justify apathy. There has been a lot of false equivalence floating around this election, and as a progressive neither mainstream candidate truly suits me. The thing is, it's not just about me.

It's about all of us. It's about how one of the options will affect everyone.

You don't have to love either option, but you do need to be discerning about the actual policies, and how scary one of these options truly is.

I certainly have my own opinion (I voted for Hillary Clinton) but I'm not here to convince you how to vote. That said, I do think that standing on the sidelines is the best way to make sure none of the problems you care about are solved. And sometimes, it means things get worse.

In this case that means.... please, vote.

The struggle is real

The other day Lindsey (my wife and best friend) and I were driving somewhere, and I told her about a conversation I recently had with a few friends about business, entrepreneurship, and captaining your own ship. Positivity is my common default, but I also feel that I try to be forward facing about the pain points that create stress, tension, and anxiety in me.

I now realize I might just gloss over them.

In short, Lindsey said I should share more of those pain points. She basically intimated that I make the struggle sound good and that I should let a few more eyes and ears come into contact with the process of negotiating doubt.

To that end... I'm in a really tense place these days as I wait to hear about a deal for IPMM that would be a huge win for various reasons. Managing my own expectations while putting all the work in can spin me up sometimes.

As good as I feel about things, feelings don't put food on the table or pay bills, so I had better be turning them all into momentum.

Some days I'm down and some days I'm flush, but between loving the process of doing the work and learning, I'm able to feel good most of the time.

Even so, the struggle is real, and there are certainly moments when I wonder what the fuck I'm doing.

No wish will achieve my goals for me, so I better combine all this doubt, optimism, grit, limbo, hustle, seeking, service, and delight ... and do this.

Screw it up

"Scream it, screech it, yell it, screw it up, whatever, but do it." - Alicia Keyes

Thank you + cleaning house

Hey everyone! I want to take this opportunity to thank you for being a part of these ideas. For those of you who read these writings regularly, it really means a lot to me. I wanted you to know that.

I also want to thank the folks who check it out once in a while, and the people who have barely opened it at all, lol.

That said, I want to get into the annual habit of cleaning up this list. The last thing I want to do is be a nuisance, and I like the idea of an engaged readership and only sending these writings to people who want them.

I don't want to be part of junk in your inbox.

Because of that, I'm going to unsubscribe any email addresses that have opened these less than 20% of the time. Email inboxes can get out of hand without me adding to the problem, so I'm gonna tidy up and make sure that these questions, ideas, strategies, and reflections aren't adding to the noise.

I'm glad you're a part of this, and please feel free to respond if any of these pieces are particularly valuable, helpful, or fun for you. I'd love to hear why.

Thanks again for joining me.