MTV, legible graffiti, Spanx, and failure.
Hello, sunshine. Here's your mantra for this (rainy) Friday:
In this week's edition of The World's Best Newsletter:
1. MTV is Desperately Trying to Prevent its Inevitable Death
2. I know where all my blog photos are coming from... the 17th century!
3. Guy Paints Over Shit Graffiti and Makes it Legible
4. Spanx and Failure
5. Are you busy? Or just suppressing an existential crisis?
6. Interview: The Conundrum of Marketing to a Marketer
7. 26 content marketing format ideas
8. Stat of the week: How many millions of Facebook likes happen in the first 60s of the day?
9. Quote of the week: crazy.
1. MTV has announced that VH1 Classic will be rebranded as MTV Classic
The early 2000s (oughties???) teenager in me is SO okay with the idea of seeing Daria, Jackass, and MTV Cribs back on TV. It may be the jaded geriatric in me speaking, but whatever passes for MTV programming in 2016 is painful to watch. So kudos to them for delaying their inevitable demise -- but wouldn't this content be better on say, Netflix? Just saying. What do I know.
2. The British Library Puts 1M Images into the Public Domain from 17th-19th Century
There was a day in my life where I realized there were really two types of people in this world: those whose eyes grew wide with shock/anger when Comic Sans MS makes an appearance in the real world, and everyone else. Those who call out recognizable fonts in the wild (I swear every tattoo parlor uses a font called "Bleeding Cowboy,") and those who think we're nuts.
So for those of us who spend far too long perusing fonts or who could browse stock photo sites all day long (seriously) I gift you: 1M new images, public domain, free to reuse/remix, all from 17th-19th century. Check out some highlights. I'm obsessed. What's even happening here? Who cares. It's wonderful.
3. Guy Paints Over Shit Graffiti and Makes it Legible
While we're on the the topic of fonts... check this guy out. Hilarious.
4. Spanx and Failure
I can totally relate to this. The father of Spanx founder and CEO, Sara Blakely, would ask at the dinner table, "what did you fail at today?" In this great video interview she redefines failure as the fear of not trying. Sounds cliche but really, when was the last time something that scared you, or felt outside your comfort zone, killed you? You're reading a newsletter on a Friday morning, so I'm gonna go on a limb and say you're still alive. And better off because of the lessons learned.
Watch the video, and go do that thing that you really want to do. You'll be okay.
5. Busyness as an existential reassurance
We're too busy. We're obsessed with being busy. Take it from a girl who has bucked the trend of 10-12 hour workdays to work from home as a consultant. The freedom of time, the choice of priorities is downright liberating, and this whole shift has been eye-opening as to the trap of busyness. This article in the NYTimes says it best.
"Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day. "
6. Interview: The Conundrum of Marketing to a Marketer
Marketing tech platform BrightTALK recently interviewed me about something I fell into in my career: marketing to marketers. I had a lot of coffee before this phone interview, be forewarned.
My favorite advice (...err, well, it's my own advice, whatever) "Stop trying to be something and someone you're not." Seriously how much content from any of these 4,000 vendors look, feel, and sound exactly alike? Read on.
7. 26 content marketing format ideas
There's a lot more than eBooks available to us as marketers. Let's make some new stuff, shall we? Here's 26 quick ideas I'm using with clients.
8. Stat of the week: The ridiculous amount of content consumed every minute
In the first 60 seconds of your day, Facebook receives over 4 million likes, Instagram sees more than 2 million hearts, and 350k Tweets are sent. IN THE FIRST MINUTE OF THE DAY. Ridiculous.
9. Quote of the week comes from author Paulo Coelho
"Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who don't know they're crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to."
Feeling inspired? Feeling at least sufficiently distracted? Tell a friend about this newsletter.
Happy Friday,
Katie