marketing
Put relationships first.
This has been the conclusion I’ve reached at middle age as well — about marketing, publishing, business, parenting, everything. We’re hardwired for this. That’s why it’s so prominent in my personal publishing principles [https://www.cjchilvers.com/personal-publishing-principles/]. From Cal Newport via Lex Fridman [https://youtu.be/
How does it make you feel?
Carlo from The DO Lecture series [https://thedolectures.com]: > “It’s not how it looks, it’s how it makes you feel.” Even though he’s talking about work spaces here, I think this is a sentence we could use to describe anything we create and market — or just
You Need 2 Things
Whenever I write copy for a marketing campaign or new product, I ask for two things: 1. Who is the audience? 2. What is the goal of this piece? It’s rare to get a straight answer for both — even from billion-dollar companies (especially from billion-dollar companies). Both are required
Hey, World! It’s About Time!
I’ve spent months trying to duct tape together what the team at Basecamp just unveiled: Hey, World [https://world.hey.com/jason/hey-world-b02a6f2e]. In short, they’ve taken their email service, Hey [https://hey.com], and turned it into a privacy-friendly, old-school publishing platform. I love it. Just about
Ask.
You have to ask. It’s humbling. It’s takes guts. But if you need help, you need to ask. If you want customers, you have to ask. The problem is that some businesses ask too much and don’t provide enough value. The heart of content marketing (and just

Be a Lazy Billionaire
I was inspired to start updating my oldest available book, The Van Halen Encyclopedia [https://www.cjchilvers.com/the-van-halen-encyclopedia], by a few great ideas I’ve seen from others over the past month. I thought they might inspire you too. I began by updating the book in real time on