Howdy friends.
Writing to you from Memphis on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
It's hard to believe I've sent this weekly email for almost 6 months now!
While the content style might be changing, the why behind my newsletter has remained the same: "to spark conversation by leaving you a tad bit happier, more knowledgeable, and more curious than you were before."
But most importantly, smart readers keep pushing me forward. So I wanted to give a big thank you for reading this little email every week.
I promise we're going somewhere with the Baer Necessities, even if the destination might feel unknown right now. I've found joy in the process of writing and curating this email every week. In fact, I see the Necessities as a proxy for how I like to live my life: one week, one day, and one moment at a time in service of my future self and for those around me.
So cheers to the next 6 months!
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Let's get to the Necessities this week: a short list of what I'm exploring and learning.
Below are 3 things I'm enjoying the most right now:
The Necessities
⌛✍️ Timeless Advice on Writing: The Collected Wisdom of Great Writers
Lately, I've been challenging myself to consume content that's stood the test of time. That's why I've spent the last several weeks devouring as much as I can from Maria Popova's blog: Brain Pickings. In her post on Timeless Writing Advice, she linked over 100 (!) blogs on advice from some of history's best writers like Jack Kerouac, George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, David Foster Wallace, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and so much more. Someone could (and should) write a book on the collected wisdom from these authors. Plus, Popova does a better job than anyone of curating the work of these timeless writers. Fair warning: once you dive down this rabbit hole, it might be hours before you see the light of day.
Read the post: Timeless Advice on Writing.
🦉 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice (Kevin Kelly)
I'm sticking with the theme of unsolicited advice, because this post is filled with so much wisdom. A few weeks ago, I linked to Kevin Kelly's 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice and mentioned how much you can learn from Kelly's 68 years of traveling, writing, and creating. Now, he just published 99 Additional Bits of Advice, and it's just as profound. Here are some of my favorite bits from him:
- Being wise means having more questions than answers.
- Compliment people behind their back. It’ll come back to you.
- Most overnight successes — in fact any significant successes — take at least 5 years. Budget your life accordingly.
- Contemplating the weaknesses of others is easy; contemplating the weaknesses in yourself is hard, but it pays a much higher reward.
- Advice like these are not laws. They are like hats. If one doesn’t fit, try another.
Read it: 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice.
🔬 Landing Page Formula
At Gilded, I do a ton of copywriting and I'm constantly looking for marketing inspiration and knowledge. Enter Harry's Marketing Examples (@GoodMarketingHQ): the best marketing account on Twitter that I've found to date (PS: Julian Shapiro is another good one). Specifically, I love this landing page formula for its simplicity:
1/ Explain the value you provide (title)
2/ Explain how you'll create it (subtitle)
3/ Let the user visualise it (image)
4/ Make it believable (social proof)
5/ Make taking the next step easy (CTA)
Click the tweet: Landing Page Formula.
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Most popular link last week: How to turn $100 into a lot more (via @SweatyStartup)
That's all I got for you this week!
As always, please let me know your favorite links from this week, what you want more of, what you want less of, or how I could improve. I always love hearing from you!
I hope you have an amazing week ahead!
Much love,
Jonah
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