Hey Everyone,
Hope you're having a great week. Here are a few things I've been reading, writing and pondering lately. Enjoy!
Sponsored by Clearbit
A New Book from Clearbit: From IC to Leader
My friends at Clearbit are in the process of releasing another great ebook. In each of the next few issues, I'll feature a snippet from one of the chapters. Here's a bit from Kyle Gesuelli's (VP of Growth and Analytics at Frame.io) chapter:
"First-time managers tend to be willing to settle for good junior-level people," he says. "More often than not, that's going to come back to haunt you because it's going to lead you to say, 'I can do this better than them,' which can be a bottleneck. You have to be self-aware enough to say up front, 'I'm looking for a partner.' I don’t like looking at a person like 'you're someone I'm going to manage.'"
Read his chapter here and check out the ebook here.
1. Work in Slow Motion
This is a very short essay I wrote a few years ago. I found the idea to be helpful this week so I’m resurfacing it this week.
Years ago, a mentor told me a story about NFL quarterback Joe Montana. He wasn’t the fastest guy on the field and didn’t have the strongest arm, but he saw the field in slow motion. It was his unfair advantage.
2. When Employees Feel Ignored at Work, Everyone Suffers
Here’s another old post I wrote. Ostracism at work comes in all shapes and sizes, but is particularly easy to overlook at remote companies.
Hire introverts, but don’t treat them like hermits.
3. Expertise is ‘Just’ Pattern Matching
S/o to my coworker Jan for introducing me to this blog recently. It’s full of good posts like this one.
This model of expert decision-making is useful because it gives us a usable model of expertise — far better than the ones found in the deliberate practice literature. For example, one conclusion from this model is that if you want to become better at something, you should look for ways to expand the set of recognisable prototypes in your head.
4. Tweet of the Week
I wholeheartedly endorse this idea. My tool of choice is Sketch but that’s far less important than just doing it. If you read the Animalz blog (example), you’ll see diagrams and visuals to support nearly every idea we share. We do that because it’s a great way to clarify your own thoughts and, like Alex says, it makes sharing your ideas much easier.
The best thing you can do as a marketer is to learn a design tool like @figmadesign.
— Alex Kracov (@kracov) March 3, 2020
The ability to communicate ideas visually through wireframes and sketches helps you get ideas across faster while building empathy with design teams. It's also really fun.
5. Random Links
- My friends at Tuff (a remote growth agency) are hiring a Growth Marketer and an SEO Strategist. Check the job description and salary ranges—these are really solid jobs.
- Here’s a cool update from the CEO who paid every employee at least $70,000.
- A great post from Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne: My experience with burnout as a startup
Have a great weekend!
Jimmy
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