Hey Everyone,
Hope you're having a great week. Here are a few things I've been reading, writing and pondering lately. Enjoy!
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New Season of HubSpot’s podcast The Growth Show
Ever wonder what happens when you turn down $30 million from Mark Cuban? Or when you take a classic brand like Moonpie and go totally rogue with their social media? Maybe you’ve pondered what it would be like to build a social movement around getting people to complete grueling spear tossing, mud covered obstacle courses?
The host, Meghan Keaney Anderson, a VP of Marketing at HubSpot, interviews some amazing people like Rand Fishkin of Moz, Joe De Sena the creator of the Spartan Race, the CEO of Coffee Meets Bagel Arum Kang, and a bunch of other great guests.
You can subscribe to The Growth Show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.
1. How to Earn a Senior Content Marketing Role
In this episode of the Animalz podcast, I sit down down my colleague Devin Bramhall. She's had a interesting and successful career in content marketing. There's lots to learn here for anyone interested in leveling up from content marketer to marketing director. She talks about:
🚀 becoming a manager
👩💻 taking credit for your work
💻 the power of side projects
👔 navigating the startup industry
🙋 when it's time to find a new job
You can listen on our blog, or on iTunes, Overcast, or Spotify.
2. Five Below, the Amazon-Proof Store
Toys "R" Us couldn't cut it, but Five Below is growing like crazy. What gives?
Five Below uses a formula that has largely insulated it from competition from Amazon.com. The chain keeps prices low by creating products from scratch with hundreds of suppliers around the world and sells them in an environment where children want to hang out. “Online is great when you know what you want,” Five Below Chief Executive Joel Anderson said. “When you walk into one of our stores, you will discover things you didn’t know you wanted. It’s like a treasure hunt. We’re the T.J. Maxx for kids.”
3. How to make your dog Instagram-famous
Loni Edwards is a "pet influencer"—she's also a Harvard Law alum and two-time entrepreneur. So before you brush off this idea, consider why Loni Edwards has chosen this space. It's lucrative, interesting work—and she gets to hang out with dogs and cats all day.
Come for the puppy pictures, but stay for the (many) insights that apply to human marketing as well.
4. Tweet of the Week
5. Random Links
- Thanks for the shout out Reforge: Your blog is not a publication (Btw get on this newsletter)
- EmailPlanner.io looks like a cool tool for planning our Black Friday/Cyber Monday emails.
- I didn't realize this until I read the post, but ... wow ... yes they are: iPhones are hard to use
- That's what I'm talking about: The dream is an eCommerce side gig that runs itself
Have a great weekend!
Jimmy
PS - I’m looking to partner with a few great businesses to sponsor this newsletter. It reaches a bunch of smart folks from places like Google, Apple, Spotify, New York Times, Marriott and Harvard. Shoot me an email if you're interested in working together.
PPS - I'm now an official Ghost partner. I've been using Ghost to run my blog for years and I absolutely love it. If you signup for Ghost with my link I do get a commission, but you get an incredibly powerful and simple way to manage your website. Markdown ftw!