Following the events of this past weekend, there’s a lot to be contemplative about today. More than anything, we should be spending time considering the recent acts in Paris, keeping up with the news & forming educated opinions about what’s happening in our world. Please, make time to get outraged. Make time to take it personally. Make time to be absolutely fucking destroyed. And then, and only then, when your brain and your heart and your hands are shaking so much they need a break—then you read today’s edition of I Hate Monday: The most productive way for small business owners & bloggers to procrastinate until it’s not Monday anymore. Because truth be told, hating Monday is the least of our problems.
- Subscription business models are HOT these days, and with good reason—the busier we get, the more we want to autopilot as much as we can. And if that autopilot can also double as a luxury treat for ourselves, well then, sign me up to every wine and makeup club on the block! Recently we’ve seen the subscription model adapted more and more to service-based businesses, which is a great way to create a steady stream of revenue. Super, a new $25/month subscription service that takes care of the pain-in-the-ass parts of being a homeowner (pipe burst? they’ll come out and fix it) is a great example of how a little creative positioning can be quite profitable. Super is really just like purchasing homeowner’s insurance, except it’s not positioned as homeowner’s insurance—it’s positioned as a monthly subscription designed to make your life easy. And that, therein, lies the genius.
- I just got done saying praising the power of creativity for business, and this is creative, alright, but…can we say poor taste?
- And this is an example of creativity done right.
- If you were looking to procrastinate today, this is just the thing. Jumper sends you to different places around the world to explore using Google Street view (and even has matching background sounds), allowing you to view The White House or, you know, a hot tub full of baboons. PERFECT.
- LinkedIn has introduced a new feature that allows you to search & hire pros…straight from their profiles. I predict this is going to be BIG. (And very useful when you need somebody stat.)
- Speaking of when you need somebody stat, over the weekend I had the funniest / best / most mind-blowing experience ever. Something fatal / annoying / completely confusing was happening with one of my websites, and our devs weren’t available to help. Next thing I know, I find myself going to this website that allows you to link your credit card and get instant help from a developer, charged by the minute. So there I am in my pajamas, my hair all twisty and turney, with sleepy in my eyes – I click a few buttons – and next thing you know, A TOTAL STRANGER POPS UP ON VIDEO ON MY SCREEN AND HE CAN SEE ME, TOO. I hadn’t realized it was going to be a video call, but sure enough, there we were, Nathan and I. We stayed on the call for 40 minutes or so, and by the end? Nathan had saved the day. And I’ve gotta say? I would totally do this again—even if I don’t know what the hell SQL is.
- Ever wonder why Trump can be so repulsive…but still compelling? Dave Pell offers his thoughts. “He is the first candidate to ever actually speak his mind.” And, I agree. Raw, frank, wild honesty keeps us glued. My challenge for you: How can you use this in your business?
- The holidays are riding in on their red Starbucks cups, and pretty soon, we’ll all be guzzling eggnog and flipping the bird at each other in shopping mall parking lots. (My favorite time of year.) Soon I’ll be coming out with my annual Holiday Shopping Guide For People Who Work Online & Don’t Want Another Freaking Yankee Candle, but in the meantime, having your friends’ most embarrassing photos turned into a coloring book sounded like an EXCELLENT head start.
- Thick. Heavy. Stock. The feel of parchment in your hands. The luxury of black ink. As much as I love my Kindle, nothing compares to a beautifully designed coffee-table book. It’s a sacred experience where you not only get to benefit from the wisdom on the page, but the aesthetics in your hands. Reading this way feels like a special treat, which is why I was so proud to see Jenna, someone I’ve mentored in the past, come out with this brand new luxury magazine, The Independent, that was created for that very reason: To give people working online…something offline. Looking beautiful, ladies!
- Sell physical products? Shopify’s now introduced a new drop shipping service. You sell a product on your website. Shopify sources it and sends to your buyer. You swirl your marshmallows around in you hot chocolate.
- I don’t know jack about sports but that doesn’t mean I can’t paint my face and pretend to be totally in the loop. (This would have been an excellent tool in my twenties.) This is an interesting campaign by Nissan that lets you upload a photo and automatically paint your face according to your favorite sportsteam’s colors. The concept feels a little disjointed—but then again, cars and sports were always star-crossed lovers.
- A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how much I was liking CoSchedule, but I’ve got to be honest: Buffer’s new social media calendar is pretttttttttty tempting. I happen to LOVE Buffer for social media sharing, but one of the issues was that I could never plan to share things on certain days (which is helpful when you’re running a marketing campaign, for example). But now with their new calendar, I might just have to become a CoSchedule traitor. *cue ominous music*
- Mike Montiero is famous for his Fuck You, Pay Me talk. What we didn’t know was that he was about to face a crippling depression that, as creatives, can feel like the scariest thing in the world. As he explains, “I convinced myself that if I seeked treatment I wouldn’t be me anymore. I wouldn’t be as creative as I wanted to be. I wouldn’t be able to write as me. It would take away my edge. My personality was tied to my depression.”
- Being real & providing a raw snapshot of your experience is the backbone of compelling storytelling. Here’s a TMF community member who did a great job of that in this story about worrying that his child’s homemade Halloween costume wasn’t going to be good enough.
- Speaking of the TMF community, Caroline wrote this post, which was then picked up by Huff Post, and then, 43,000 likes later, is now being translated into French, Spanish & Italian.
- I always say that the experience IS the product, and these guys have created a course that proves it. They’ve found a way to differentiate themselves by providing a unique learning experience that takes you on a learning adventure…literally. So many business owners are worried that their expertise is nothing new or revolutionary, and therefore they don’t know how to stand out from the sea of sameness, but remember: You don’t have to invent the lightbulb. You just have to show people how to use the lightbulb in a new way.
There we go. Politely piss off now, Monday. We’ll see you next week.
Love,
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