Gruntled | NYT Subscription up for grabs | Series C lessons learned
Esteemed readers,
Did you know "gruntled" can be used as the opposite of "disgruntled?"
Yes, the laws of the English language would make this seem obvious but... this news is making me giddy. I hope today leaves you feeling simply gruntled.
Bonus: Want a subscription to the NYT?
On a more serious note -- calls from the White House for the media to "keep its mouth shut" make it more important than ever for the media to do exactly the opposite. So, I'm giving away a digital subscription to the NYT. Just tweet @KatieMartell and let me know you want one - and why. I will choose at random early next week.
Why NYT? They are spending the most time and money in court fighting for federal public records within the Freedom of Information Act. (Source)
Let's move on.
In this edition of the world's best newsletter:
Two types of decision makers.
Don't believe everything you see - tech behind fake news.
Three senators, one "woman"
Stop looking to the left and right. Run for office.
What marketers don't understand about buyers
It's time to unlearn
Series C retrospective
Quote of the week
1. Two types of decision makers.
There are satisficers and maximizers. Satisficers are often the happiest - they're comfortable moving forward with a decision once criteria are met. They make the best of it. Maximizers are focused on making the optimal decision. They evaluate every single alternative so that they can rest assured they have made the best possible choice. AKA, they're wildly indecisive. Which are you? Which are your buyers?
2. Don't believe everything you see - tech behind fake news.
Like everything else in the media, be wary of what you see. See some of the crazy techniques used to fabricate very believable videos behind fake news.
PS: Why don't we just call it what it is? Propaganda?
3. Three, senators, one "woman"
Wait, four senators. This seemingly simple slip-up at SFGate/Getty (now corrected) is one of hundreds of examples of why last week's march matters. A female senator was identified as a random ‘woman' taking a selfie with male colleagues. Combined with a study this week that shows elementary school kids associating "smart" with "boy" as early as age six... and you start to see why this matters.
"A study published Thursday in the journal Science suggests that girls as young as 6 can be led to believe men are inherently smarter and more talented than women, making girls less motivated to pursue novel activities or ambitious careers. That such stereotypes exist is hardly a surprise, but the findings show these biases can affect children at a very young age." Grumble.
4. Stop looking to the left and right. Run for office.
Enough said. Check out this organization: She Should Run
5. What marketers don't understand about buyers
Congratulations to marketing industry luminary Ginger Conlon for her launch of MKTGInsight, a new publication that I'm honored to be part of with a contributed article, "7 Realities Marketers Don’t Understand About Buyers Today"
6. Time to unlearn
Beth Comstock of GE shared this HBR article on LinkedIn recently. I liken it to a state of preparedness against the uncertainty of change.
"Unlearning is not about forgetting. It’s about the ability to choose an alternative mental model or paradigm. When we learn, we add new skills or knowledge to what we already know. When we unlearn, we step outside the mental model in order to choose a different one."
Yesterday I had a great conversation with a CMO starting a new role in a startup.
She's taking steps to actively "unlearn" what she's known in all previous roles, and open herself to what has changed in marketing as she moves into a role requiring strategy and execution with a much smaller team and budget.
I'm excited for her, and bolstered by her willingness to take some risks in her new role.
7. Series C retrospective
This is a really fascinating look at what one of the founders of Salisfy would do differently in the time leading up to his successful Series C (a major milestone.) I love these retrospectives.
"Rather than write a “ra ra!” post talking about the success of the company, I wanted to look back over the last 4.5 years and think about what things, in retrospect, we did and didn’t do so well to get us here."
Quote of the week
"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." MLK
Democracy requires participation - you don't need to agree with me on my political views (although these days it feels more like basic human decency than politics) you just need to get involved. What are you doing?
Yours,
Katie
Want to share this newsletter with your followers? Click here to Tweet a highly professional message I have pre-crafted just for you.