Another Excuse Newsletter

Welcome back to the Another Excuse Newsletter. It isn’t just another excuse, but a reason to start that thing you’ve been putting off.

What to expect this week:
👓Perspective - Drown or Swim
🔨 Tool - Learn Anything
🍿Consume - MSCHF
📖Concept - Toothbrush Theory

Latest Podcast Episode

This week’s guest is James Pringle.

James is the co-founder and COO of Narchie, an investor at Portfolio Ventures and the co-host of the Riding Unicorns podcast. We cover it all in this episode, including how Narchie, a social marketplace for homeware, started.

In the episode, we discuss:

• How Narchie started
• How they got 20,000 waitlist signups
• What kind of businesses Portfolio Ventures invests in
• The difficulties of being a founder
• Why he started podcasting
• The scrappy tactics he used to grow the podcast
And so much more...

You can check out the episode here.

Perspective

Drown or Swim

Changing your language can completely change how you perceive a problem.

When we use the term “drowning in it” it obviously has negative connotations.

For example, if you're really busy and you say to someone that you're “drowning in meetings”, what does that imply?

That the meetings are a chore. They're taking up a lot of your time and you're struggling to stay afloat.

But what if you made a single word change?

You aren’t drowning in meetings, you're swimming in them.

Now you can't get enough of them. You enjoy them. You want more of them.

They're the exact same meetings, but with a change of one word, you start to see the opportunity that those meetings bring.

You're grateful for them and you're comfortable and confident going into them.

And when you tell others about the meetings you're swimming in, people perceive it as positive.

Meetings are flooding your calendar, you can't get enough, and business is good.

We can make this switch about anything that feels like a chore.

Swim, don't drown and everything starts to change.

Tool

Learn Anything

AI is affecting all industries.

I feel that education is one of the industries that is eager for disruption.

Not only are the ways we learn outdated, but the way certifications are accredited is too.

Globe is a site that uses AI to help you learn anything.

It breaks down a subject into modules and chapters on its own and basically walks you through learning any particular subject.

The barriers are getting lower and lower to learning anything you want.

I mean YouTube has already done that, but if you aren't a visual learner then this could be the better option for you.

The next step is certification.

This will obviously take longer because huge institutions hold all of their value in their certifications.

They aren't going to give it up that easily.

But anyway, if you're looking to learn something for free or just curious, check it out.

Consume (Read / Watch / Listen)

MSCHF

These guys are the kings of viral marketing.

I’m sure you’ve come across a few of their products and maybe didn’t even know they were behind it.

They’re able to achieve a level of virality where everyone is talking about their products and they don’t need to pay them.

It’s the “in thing” to buy, test and post about their products.

I’m sure you saw videos about the big red shoes above.

They’re so impractical and funny looking and yet they were selling out. Everyone was talking about them.

They create products for the sole purpose of going viral. Not, practicality or use case. Which is an interesting approach.

Check out their website and take a look at the products they produce. Odds are you’ve come across a few of them before.

So many lessons can be learned from their ability to tap into current narratives, hop on trends and create virality.

Check out their website here.

Concept

Toothbrush Theory

The idea behind the toothbrush theory is everyone wants a toothbrush, everyone needs one, everyone has one, but no one wants to use anybody else's.

This theory mainly applies to ideas and views.

If it’s not your idea then you can find it difficult to engage with it.

It’s also known as Not Invented Here syndrome.

We see it creep into many aspects of our lives and even more so with the divisiveness of content today.

Everyone wants you to pick a side. There is no middle grounds.

So this theory suggests that people even have the tendency to avoid using or buying products, believing in research, standards, or knowledge from external origins.

This is usually a by-product of the social media echo  chambers and the research illustrates a strong bias against ideas from the outside.

This form of tribalism can get so bad that the people will refuse to accept new ideas, with proof, simply because someone from a group they disagree with brings them forward.

This is pretty evident in the right and left debates in the US.

There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground and the excuse of fake news is being used more and more frequently.

Anyway, you get the point.

This is a reminder to remain open to opposing views because there’s nothing to suggest that yours are always right.

Thanks for Reading

Now start something!

P.S. Feedback is welcome and needed! If you’d prefer to send me an email and not respond, you can do so here: [email protected]

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