With everything going on in the world (2020 amiright?), it seems that people have forgotten how to slow down. Though some have different ideas about what it means to create space, doing so can be a great way to take pause and allow yourself to live your best life. I’d argue that creating space might be the single-most-important thing you can do for yourself this year. And I’m going to explain how in a few simple steps.

Identify that You Need Space

Just like the “12-Step Plan”, the first step to recovery is admitting that there’s something wrong. To create space for yourself, first, you…

Especially in today’s content-loaded world, you see a lot of people talk about how to avoid living like a failure. There’s this article talking about habits that will guarantee your demise.

There’s also this one that outlines the crucial mistakes people make throughout life.

My personal favorite, however, is this Medium post, solely because of the pictures used (seriously, go check it out, after you finish reading this piece).

All of these articles are good, but I think it’s time we flip the problem on its head. Let’s learn to live with our failures instead of trying to avoid them.

…

*Record scratch* Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.

See, I never saw myself as a “podcast host” type of guy. Sure I enjoy listening to podcasts, but putting myself behind the mic trying to entertain people every week for about 15–50 minutes? Yeah, count me out. Don’t even get me started on the newsletter part — it takes all the concentration in the world to write this paragraph without having a typo in it!

It started as an ‘interview series’ (I wouldn’t dare call it a podcast). Several of my friends from high school and college…

As I sit here typing away at the keyboard, I have this question pounding away at me.
Why am I doing this? What’s the endgame here?

Before I go on, I may need to explain what this is. I am embarking on a journey to document my experiences and that of others in their 20s trying to figure out the best way to live their lives. I don’t know what I’ll discover, or if I’ll discover anything, but I do know that I will share a story that I don’t see told too often. …

Recently I stumbled upon a clip from one of Gary Vaynerchuck’s speeches. Though it was an older speech, throughout the clip GaryVee (who uses this moniker on social media) captivated me as I watched. GaryVee has a phrase that demonstrates the marketplace that is now social media. He refers to “day trading attention,” via email, Facebook and Twitter, or most recently, Instagram.

I love this phrase! To unpack it further, I’ll use Gary’s own words before I give my take.

In GaryVee’s world: “You don’t overspend on what everybody believes is tried and true…You have to find angles [and] what’s…

So I’m going to digress a bit…

The year is early 2000-and-something, and I’m visiting family for the summer down in Clearwater, Florida. As some may know, Clearwater sits right on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. Lucky for them, my family’s house sits right on the outlet to said Gulf.

Now, I know what you’re thinking — what the HECK does this have to do with Instagram??? Just trust me and you’ll see the metaphor soon.

While I’m there, my cousin decides to go fishing on the edge of the dock, and being a kid, I decide to…

So if you’re like me, you’ve been hearing a lot about chatbots. Also, like me, you’ve probably been skeptical — your first thoughts forming a picture of Terminator, or Her (Scarlett Johansson please marry me). To be honest, that’s perfectly reasonable, though Mark Zuckerberg might have something else to say about that.

I won’t get into the debate about artificial intelligence here (that’s an entirely different article, or Elon Musk’s next book). Today, I want to talk about chatbots, especially because the hype train has fully left the station. …

Okay, so for whatever reason, you ignored your friends’ and colleagues’ advice and you went solo for your social media production. Great, no sweat off my back (even though I know I would have done a great job on your project). And you’re doing okay too… that is until you realized that you don’t really know the first thing when it comes to social media. [Insert funny picture of someone drowning in responsibility/problems].

Sure, you might know social media, but do you know social media. Yeah I didn’t think so. But that’s okay, I’m here to help. Hi there —…