I recently planned and launched a publication on Medium from scratch. But before spending a weekend planning the business model, I had to think hard on what values would become the compass to guide my content.

The publication, Persistence in Practice, provides realistic, practical advice on creative work, productivity, and building habits to go the distance.

I wanted my editorial values to set the publication’s moral fiber apart from the majority of the self-improvement market, where overhyped content dishes out hackneyed takeaways.

Planning the publication helped me understand what editorial values I wanted to uphold when writing content. But, in many ways, these values are also what I want to see more of as a reader. [Read more…]

Personal development is one of the most consistently popular topics on the Internet. It makes sense: most people want to push themselves further, and we all readily take as much information, guidance, and encouragement as we can carry on the subject. Unfortunately, the majority of self-improvement advice is dished out with wanton disregard for readers and rarely offers genuine value. [Read more…]

When you’ve taken a piece of content through several drafts and feel confident it’s ready to share with the world, it’s tempting to eagerly click the publish button and skip the final check.

But a blog post needs more final checks that go beyond spelling, grammar, and readability. You need to run through your administrative duties in your CMS to ensure it’s loved by search engines and refine your writing at certain parts of the post to delight humans.

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I’ve been asked how my paintings, drawings or even notebook doodles have been done: “How did you do that?”. The answer is learn from my mistakes, but I usually pause and daydream before I provide an explanation.

I picture myself whipping up a masterpiece right out of bed without breaking a sweat. Then the fake background prop falls over and I look like a hack on my high-horse stage. I wish a swift stroke answered “how did”, the way that string of “you do that” sounds like a single movement. But it’s not one movement, it’s not even sequential movements; it’s a tangled process.

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If you haven’t picked up the pen in a while, it’s frustrating getting the writing juices flowing.

Recently, I haven’t made the time or set the mood for writing as much as I’d prefer.

But, I’ve spent my last few weeks reading books on writing, and I’ve trimmed several hundred pages of advice into 5 lean points that will invigorate any flat-lined drives to write.

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If an audience was asked to describe a profoundly inspirational and influential individual from any firm, from a big corporation to a small start-up, we would probably hear two separate roles and their accompanying processes mentioned as one. The person would most likely be described as an effective manager or leader, with the roles and their processes used interchangeably:

“He/She was a great leader because they managed the people/the company well.”

“He/She was a great manager because they led the people/the company well.”

Well, which is it? [Read more…]

You could be your own worst enemy when it comes to interviewing as an undergraduate.

“Sell yourself” has been hammered into our head countless times by professors and advisers. We’ve all heard the job interview pep talk, but is there a chance we upperclassmen and recent graduates are selling ourselves the wrong way?

Is magnifying our skill-sets and experiences so that recruiters can see we’re “unique snowflakes” an effective method of proposing our value? When we simply rely on selling ourselves, or even “overselling”, could we actually be selling ourselves short?

Let’s hit the lab. [Read more…]

Is it absurd to compare one of the most notorious leaders whose disruptive ideas changed so many people’s day-to-day lives to an imaginative revolutionary who developed a cult following by manipulating minds with propaganda? Hold on, let’s reread that sentence. Who is who?

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