Month: March 2025

ABC TAKES FIVETHIRTYEIGHT OFFLINE

“But the standard behavior when closing a web publication is to just pull the plug. When the whole company goes under, that’s one thing. But when there’s a parent company, especially a thriving one, there’s no justification for pulling the plug other than spiteful disregard for the work. From the perspective of a company the size of Disney, it would cost veritable pennies to keep FiveThirtyEight’s website around forever. What a disgrace.”

From Jon Gruber, re: the closure of FiveThirtyEight.

This doesn’t just suck for the public at large, the ones that can no longer reference the material for reports or research. Think of all the broken links now!

But also all the people who worked on the site – all that work, poof, gone in an instant.

Say it with me – corporate owned internet media is a shit show, and the sooner these sports coat wearing motherfuckers wake up and see the trail of destruction they’re leaving across every industry they prance into and pillage, the better.

MAGIC AND MACHINERY

You can have the magic, but you need a little machinery to make it go. It’s still magic, and it’s a gift to the world.

But you can have all the machinery in the world, but without any magic, well… what good is any of it?

Strategy and tactics… you can learn those.

That’s what I always tell my super talented clients. The ones who’ve been making magic for decades. Pro mountain bikers. Musicians. Painters.

The hard work is already done! Try being magical at any of those with one course, or email drip sequence, right? You can’t.

But add a little bit of machinery to the mix. A well thought out email sign up page (one that doesn’t just say “sign up for updates”).

A plan for sending out a newsletter, and not just “whenever.”

An idea how to frame the magic around the business side of things, without just posting images of products with BUY NOW buttons.

Magic and machinery… good to have both, but if I had to pick just one I’d take the magic.

ENERGY IS MY STRATEGY

In our Zoom call today, we got talking about strategy. And in the breakout room we just fell into “the energy is the strategy.”

The light, the magic, the thing that only you can do, and the way it lights you up – that’s the strategy. I chase that every day.

Doing my invoices and updating spreadsheets, that ain’t the strategy. Heck, seeking out BIGGER CLIENTS ain’t the strategy. I wanna help people with their internet / marketing / social media / email questions right here, right now.

It’s why I push my Email Guidance offering more, because I can help people right where they’re at. One free “pick my brain” email, and if you like that, there’s a payment link to keep picking my brain.

That’s the joy. It is JOY solving problems and helping creative people do well.

How am I supposed to trust AI if somehow my computer can’t offer me spelling suggestions for this? Like, I’m obviously trying to spell opportunities, but nope – just can’t figure this one out!