The Connection Newsletter 33 - Slow

The Connection Newsletter 33 - Slow is sexy

November 12, 2018

Hello!

This is edition #33 of

The Connection

, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here.

Yesterday I spent time mowing and raking leaves -- first time I had to do that in probably 10 years. #suburbandadlife. 

Hope you’re having an amazing Monday :) 

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Make sure to hit "Display Images" above to see puppy pics. 

. There’s a lot of press and buzz around fast growth: companies that grow to an immense size quickly. Small businesses that hack that one trick to earn 6- or 7-figures. People who did this diet and discovered their abs were suddenly traced in Sharpie marker. It’s easy to forget that

.

Okay, articles this week:

…

. Ramit would always say, “You have the crystal ball of your future right in front of you — people who are 10 to 20 years older than you.” In that context, I found this article particularly fascinating. What lessons did 50-year-old Harvard grads learn? What did they regret? And how could I apply it to my life, today? Some lessons that stood out to me:

In our early 50s, people seem to feel a pressing need to speak truths and give thanks and kindness to one another before it’s too late to do so

Many classmates who are in long-lasting marriages said they experienced a turning

point,

when their early marriage suddenly transformed into a mature relationship. “I’m doing the best I can!” one classmate told me she said to her husband... From that moment on, she said, he understood: Her imperfections were not an insult to him, and her actions were not an extension of him. She was her own person, and her imperfections were what made

her her

. Sometimes people forget this, in the thick of marriage.

Nearly all the alumni said they were embarrassed by their younger selves, particularly by how judgmental they used to be.We have all become far more generous with our I love you’s. They flew freely at the reunion. We don’t ration them out to only our intimates now, it seems; we have expanded our understanding of what love is, making room for long-lost friends.Our strongest desire, in that same pre-reunion class survey—over more sex and more money—was to get more sleep.

…

Long and well worth the 20 minutes to read this haunting story.

The day would come when many West Virginians recalled the story of Jack's Powerball Christmas with a shudder at the magnitude of ruination: families asunder, precious lambs six feet under, folks undone by the lure of all that easy money.

…

. High-level lessons:

1. Building a large Instagram following is almost never an accident. Unless you’re building off an existing brand (e.g Kardashian) it takes a lot of work and time.

2. To continue to capture attention, you adapt to the channel, the channel does not adapt to you (the product).

It took Bianca Vesco four years to build up 10,000 followers on Instagram. In that time, she worked in some of the most highly regarded gyms in New York City and modeled for companies like Athleta and Reebok. Then a year ago, her account got hacked. Someone, she doesn't know who, infiltrated her account, deleted her photos, and changed her username. The hacker had essentially created an entirely new account — with all of Vesco's followers. "I didn't have Instagram for two weeks and it was incredible. I gave myself that time to mourn,"

sas

Vesco. "But it's an obligation for us." To rebuild her new account at @biancapaigefit, Vesco spends at least three hours per day creating video content and books one catchall photoshoot each month. And that's from someone who tells me, "I'm sorry to curse, but I don't give a shit about how many followers I have."

…

. Many consumer goods have decreased in what people are expecting or willing to pay, relative to what they actually pay: cars, furniture, software, TVs. But not everything has gone down, namely,

the cost of health care and education has increased dramatically.

…

. Admittedly, this is a fluff piece, with advice like “rediscover your soul” and “turn barriers into beacons.”  But if you read between the lines, there are important lessons in rebuilding a struggling business and fading brand:

1. You can't rely on linear channels. One successful Superbowl Ad does not fix a business.

2. Retention, not acquisition, is king.

3. The best way to retain is to deliver an amazing experience. You deliver an amazing experience by improving operations.

4. Good experience drives retention which drives word of mouth acquisition.

5. To further drive acquisition, they added additional acquisition loops like company generated content on social media.

…

I listen to the GaryVee podcast a few times a week and still found a lot of insight in this book. Takeaways:

1. If you want something, you have to be willing to work for it. But make sure

you

actually want it

(and it's not what others want for you).

2. There are a lot of different tactics to execute on the thesis of hard work, and it’s helpful to see how various people approached it. 

3. The only game is the long game.

Thanks for reading!

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