Essays

Creator Economy Jul 21, 2021

Creator, meet operator

The creator economy makes a promise. But does it deliver?

Mindset Jun 24, 2021

How top creators avoid burnout

How do you replace yourself when you are the business?

Audience Builders Jun 16, 2021

From sweaty startups to viral Twitter threads

Nick Huber (aka @sweatystartup) shares his journey from Cornell undergrad to self-storage entrepreneur to amassing a huge online audience.

Startups Jun 09, 2021

Startup sliding doors

Over the course of building your company, you face several divergent paths.

Startups Jun 02, 2021

Founder-Creator-Investor

The startup world's hot new hyphenate.

Audience Builders May 26, 2021

Audience is leverage

Experts and builders from all over the business world have discovered that audiences create unfair advantages.

Creative Process May 18, 2021

Completing the puzzle

Every week, I talk to prolific creators, founders, and builders. The same phrase comes up over and over again.

Mindset May 12, 2021

Playing games

Make sure you know which one you're playing.

Mindset May 05, 2021

Purpose, then process

With any creative effort, there is an important order of operations to follow.

Media Apr 28, 2021

Why newsletters work

They're simple, efficient, and perhaps a bit overhyped. But why are newsletters such an effective medium?

Media Apr 21, 2021

Feel like a stranger

I journeyed down the web3 rabbit hole, and found a tantalizing future for media.

Creative Process Apr 14, 2021

Let things unfold organically

Creators are often told that consistency is a key virtue. But that’s not the whole story.

Creative Process Apr 07, 2021

Connecting the dots

A great story has the power to stretch time and bend the cosmos. Here's how to tell yours.

Creative Process Mar 31, 2021

Forget creative genius: pursue craftsmanship

You don't need to be a genius to create, and you don't need to be tortured to be an artist.

Media Mar 24, 2021

A content strategy fit for Bubba Gump

Forget "fish where the fish are." To find your audience, you need to fish where no one else is fishing.

Mindset Mar 17, 2021

Get on the bus!

There are times when something big, something beyond description comes along. And you’ll face that question: do I get on the bus?

Media Mar 10, 2021

Slice it thin

How to generate an endless supply of content ideas that will help you build your audience.

Mindset Feb 24, 2021

Planning the perfect personal retreat

How to reclaim your time, rebalance your energy, and become one again with the Force.

Creative Process Feb 17, 2021

No excuses: Create something

How to silence your inner critic and embrace creativity.

Startups Feb 10, 2021

You’ll know when it's time to sell your company

In a landscape overflowing with hustle porn, startup acquisitions are the money shot.

Mindset Feb 03, 2021

Surrender to the flow

The world is full of distractions. Flow is your reward for tuning them out.

Media Jan 27, 2021

Media liquidity is back, baby!

SPACs and creators are bringing the fun back to media.

Getting Started Jan 20, 2021

How to make money on the internet, circa 1998

My life changed forever when, as a teenage nerd, I discovered how to make money on the internet.

Startups Jan 13, 2021

Your startup is not your baby

After I sold my first company, people would say to me: “That’s like giving away your baby.”

Life Jan 06, 2021

2020: A personal year in review

No doubt about it: 2020 was a lemon. But I still made lemonade.

Media Dec 23, 2020

How Bleacher Report found our first writers

How a handful of friends started a sports blog and built it into a community.

Creative Process Dec 16, 2020

The inverted curiosity pyramid

A tried-and-true process to get maximum leverage from your content creation.

Creative Process Dec 09, 2020

Dreamer, realist, or critic?

Walt Disney's creative process can help you make magic.

Mindset Dec 02, 2020

Fresh eyes

Acknowledging that the success paradox exists is the first step. The next and most important step is developing strategies to overcome it.

Startups Nov 18, 2020

The sophomore slump

I know the success paradox well. I’ve fallen prey to its intoxicating effects.

Startups Nov 11, 2020

The success paradox

The bigger the success, the harder it becomes to parse which inputs were most vital.

Life Nov 04, 2020

When life feels surreal

Reality now feels like we are living in a David Lynch movie.

Startups Oct 28, 2020

Setting off on your own

If you find yourself stuck climbing the career ladder, get off and build an elevator.

Mindset Oct 21, 2020

I have an unfortunate announcement

I am a fraud. An impostor. My entire career – my whole life really – has been built on lies and deception.

Media Oct 14, 2020

The leaky bucket

How Bleacher Report became an email powerhouse

Mindset Oct 07, 2020

Living with uncertainty

Uncertainty is everywhere. Here's how to deal with it.

Media Sep 30, 2020

Why media companies should be direct to consumer

It doesn't matter what trend you chase, growth hack you engineer, or platform you build on.

Startups Sep 23, 2020

Startup lessons from the Dead

What can the Grateful Dead teach us about building startups? More than you'll ever know.

Startups Sep 16, 2020

The arrival fallacy: What it feels like to sell your company

It should have been one of the best days of my life. And yet on the day the deal closed, I felt depleted.

Mindset Sep 09, 2020

Launch day

Launch day always brings some unique feelings. One chapter closes, and countless others begin. There is anxiety. There is relief. There is possibility.

Creative Process Sep 02, 2020

Making things and putting them on the internet

Last year, a friend who runs a middle school in Red Hook, Brooklyn invited me to speak to a group of eighth graders at their career day. My fellow speakers were an education administrator and a pharmaceutical salesperson. Compared to them, my career arc was a little harder to explain.