Today’s inspo: the stacked guitar tone and key change in “Goodnight Adeline” by Green Day off of their new record Saviors.
The Mea Culpa:
It’s me, hi.
Coming to you live and direct from my sixth city in the last two weeks. The same guy who, all the way back on January 4th, said, “yeah! I’ve started a Substack!”
StarteED. Past-tense. Such a bold and brash just-starting-the-new-year declaration…
The same guy who then didn’t put anything out again until today. Like… mid-March.
I’m the problem, it’s me.
Even my fiancé said she wouldn’t subscribe until there had been two posts, because “one post isn’t actually anything…”
In my defense, I did have an out at the end of my first correspondence. “I’ll post when I can…”
That this is being posted March 12th as opposed to January 10th is not for a lack of desire.
I journal every day. It’s part of a small, daily routine I have stayed diligent about following this calendar year:
Wake up (important first step)
Pull two espresso shots
Meditate (s/o Open)
Write some pages
Play the NYT games
But the thing about journaling is that it’s personal. It’s not for anyone else. And I love it. There are no rules: I can scribble endlessly, nonsensically – expression for expression’s sake.
And as much as it doesn’t matter, the scribbles have value personally and professionally. The scribbles are cathartic. They help me make sense of the knots of thoughts in my head, how I organize the way I feel about things.
But this thing - the point of it - is that you’re here. It’s not scribbles in a book on my desk. This is a choice, in ink, on the internet. And it doesn’t really change if it’s 5 of you, or 50 of you, or 500 of you, or 50,000 of you. An audience is an audience. And the data says that somewhere between 72-75% of all adults in the world fear performing in front of an audience.
I say all of this because I’d imagine that the war going on in my head over the last couple months is fairly relatable.
The Hangup:
The truth is that there is WAY too much noise in the world right now. WAY too many people, talking about WAY too many things that they have no credibility talking about, claiming to be experts. Opinions are like assholes, etc etc… you know the rest. We humans aren’t wired to handle an onslaught of 6,000 tweets a minute.
And for so long, I’ve resisted being a part of that. It feels like by doing this, I become part of the problem. Just another man with a keyboard, a microphone, and a fast internet connection.
But what makes this whole thing complicated is this: my informed opinion is what pays my bills. For the last 15 years, I have advised successful and powerful people about what they should do to make their companies… better. (We’ll get into that in a few paragraphs.) And I’ve been told by peers who are much smarter than me that I need to get my voice out there. That I need to start talking or writing or sharing or speaking. That there are lesser people with larger followings and larger influence.
An inferiority and imposter complex is a hard thing to navigate.
This kind of negative self-talk is something I’ve battled my whole life: I didn’t go to a prestigious university, I went to state school. I don’t have a fancy MBA, or any MBA. I am clinically depressed. I didn’t dream of having a company, I played in bands. I partied. I have anger issues. I was an Uber driver.
Typing this, I don’t feel like I deserve your eyeballs.
But I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have mentors and colleagues who challenged and believed in me. I’ve worked incredibly hard, marrying an intuition and instinct about how people are emotionally motivated and incentivized, with a learned understanding of how strong and clear brands are strategically built and managed, and it’s afforded me a great career.
Put another way, my “day job” is to look at the world, try to understand it contextually, and help leaders make decisions within that context that will create deep relationships with people who will buy shit from them. Or donate to them. Or choose to work for them.
And that requires that I know a little bit about a lot, and thoughtfully connect the dots, see patterns, and build systems. That sentence is the only thing I am anything close to being an expert in.
It’s a practice that’s been honed over a decade at agencies filled with really smart people and incredible mentors; currently as co-founder of a strategy firm called Major Futures.
On Original Thought:
The beginning of my career coincided with the rise of social media and the ability to broadcast anything, anywhere, anytime. So mentors and teachers drilled into me, over and over, the importance of “original thought.” Of cultivating new ideas, or being a “thought leader.” I don’t think that was bad advice, but after a decade of the internet making everyone an expert, the reality is this: there are no* original ideas.
*with the obvious and glaring exception of professional research. Real, Professional Research, like, by acclaimed researchers, scientists, and academics (not some person on Twitter whose worldview supports yours).
Every angle, every take, every corner, every idea - with or without merit - has been expressed, by someone, somewhere… in an article, or on a blog. On a podcast (probably sometime between Rogan’s 5th and 6th hour), or from a GPT.
The whole concept of publishing something worthy of an audience becomes daunting and stifling when instead of speaking authentically, you’re anxious with the hope that a line that hasn’t been used somewhere appears out of thin air, whether you believe in it or not.
After all, there’s an audience to consider. An internet that needs to be provoked.
What This Won’t Be:
What this isn’t going to be is a space for #Brand stuff. I refuse. This will not be a place to find business hacks, or Top Five Tips To Get Noticed On LinkedIn. That shit is so boring, and so overdone. What interests me, and why I got into strategy and brand building in the first place, is the science of human relationships — why we love what we love. I just happen to practice it in a business context.
Those dynamics: relationship building, identity, meaning, purpose, clarity… are what I find most interesting, and - if you can apply them to your life or your business - by far the most valuable.
What To Expect:
When I made the decision at the end of last year to start sharing more publicly, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do, and specifically where. I wish I could TikTok or X or Thread, but I’m not really that good at any of that bite-sized content, and it doesn’t feel like me. I’m much more comfortable talking late into the night, a few drinks deep with a few interesting people.
My whole life I have picked my spots, and gone deep. My style is thoughtful and loquacious. My desire is seriousness and intensity. Because that is what the world needs right now.
And in a world where answers and analysis - even premium answers and analysis - become a dime a dozen, where substance is just a GPT input prompt away, style becomes a differentiator.
So I offer this as a manifesto of sorts.
This space is for me. An addicted consumer of information and data, who knows a little bit about a lot; digesting it, churning it up, and spitting something out on a regular(ish) basis, so that I can make sense of it for myself. It’s the art of sampling, but for the written word.
This is not a business newsletter (but it’s not Not A Business Newsletter). This is not cultural commentary (but it’s not Not Cultural Commentary). This is not an arts or sports or commerce blog (but it’s not Not A — you get the idea).
The pieces that see the light of day will contain multitudes, just like we all do. There will be pieces about the Lakers and the Rockefellers, modern masculinity and art in the MoMA, a run in at a coffee shop and what’s new on my Kindle. But the common thread (if there is one) will be an honest and thoughtful attempt to make sense of the things that intersect my world as a Professional Informed Opinion-Haver. It may reach many people, or it may just be me typing into the void. Either is fine with me.
Sometimes it will be interesting, and sometimes it won’t be. After all, this space isn’t called Shiny New Thoughts, it’s called Used Thoughts. There’s a lot of shit in that used bin, but occasionally you find a gem.
Each post, newsletter, whatever… will have some inspo, some used thoughts, and some recommended readings.
If you’ve gotten this far, nice. And thanks! They won’t usually be this long. Usually.
Peace & Love.
JMO
03.12.24 Library List:
“The State of Culture 2024” - Ted Gioia
“Jay Shetty’s Backstory May Have A Few Holes” - New York Magazine
“Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out” - The Atlantic
“Kacey Musgraves Comes Back Down To Earth” - New York Magazine
“Russians Keep Turning Up Dead All Over The World” - Wall Street Journal