Do what you love but it’ll still feel like work
And how to use inclusive language in your business
- After basically one year of publishing only in my newsletter, I am finally updating my blog with the past original articles. You can also always access these via the newsletter archive.
- In one minute on the internet, Venmo users send $304k, Google conducts 5.7 million searches, and YouTube users stream 694k hours.
- Earlier this year, I switched to a new writing app, Ulysses. I write essays and articles in markdown, so this has been a pretty great writing tool. Its tagging feature and export to Wordpress have made publishing & organizing much easier. It’s a paid app and the link is not an affiliate one, I just love it this much.
That’s all- I hope you enjoy this issue!
Do what you love but it’ll still feel like work
“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Singer Marc Anthony has said this but variations of it date back to 1982. Are people still spouting this motivational bullshit? Sometimes, when I tell people I just met what I do for work, this quote gets thrown at me and every time, I vehemently disagree.
I got into coffee as a hobbyist. I loved how much there was to learn and tinker with (I still do) and how there was such an interconnected community. A decade later, the rose-tinted glasses are off and I’m a lot more realistic about this industry. I still love it and its people but not in a blanketed kind of way.
Entrepreneurship, solopreneurship, freelancing – whatever you call it, it gets way too romanticized. You can’t just be like Nike and just do it. Once you start selling and receiving payment for things, that’s when you get deep into LLCs, liability documents, quarterly taxes, and so on (or worse, someone else tells you that you haven’t been paying taxes correctly). And to be honest, when you do what you love you feel a lot more passion for it and subsequently, you do a lot more of it. This means you find yourself finishing up an article at 9 pm like I did last night. Believe me, at 9 pm, I did not love being a writer.
I love what I do. I love all the writing and photography and marketing consulting. I don’t love forcing myself to write or having to track invoices or constantly wondering where my creative inspiration went for photography. I also don’t love emails or sitting at my desk for most of the workday.
If you’ve been thinking of going off on your own, don’t let this list stop you. But also, please don’t believe all the hype of everything being rainbows and puppies. Even puppies come with their own set of hyperactive energy and frustrating training exercises. The benefits outweigh the negatives, which is why I’m still doing what I do. I write all of this from a position of privilege. Being able to control my work and projects and general schedule is a benefit that not everyone has.
“Do what you love and you’ll enjoy work more but not always” is my pitch for a replacement quote. I know it’s not as catchy but it’s definitely more realistic.
How to Use Inclusive Language for Your Brand & Business
[BYLINE] Words make a huge impact, whether in your marketing content or social posts. This guide helps you navigate inclusive language for your brand.
Quick text updates & links on what's new on the networks
Facebook changed its ad audience display from Potential Reach to Estimated Audience and now counts unlinked FB/IG accounts as two separate accounts in ads. In case you had missed it, a whistleblower revealed her identity and in suspicious timing, all of Facebook’s products went down.
Twitter opened its professional account application to all businesses in the US. It added the ability to remove followers without blocking them. It’s testing another way to more easily view your feed in chronological order.
Instagram combined IGTV and feed videos into Instagram Video. It also added new in-app alerts for technical issues and policy violations and live stream scheduling.
In other network news, one study found that TikTok ads drove a stronger brand impact than other platforms.
Helpful links on how to improve your digital marketing
5 Ways To Grow Your Customer Relationships Through Social Selling
Social selling solves the problem of needing to fill a pipeline and connect with customers by building relationships on social media.
www.convinceandconvert.com • Share
How to Sell With Instagram Reels and Stories
Discover a strategy to turn more followers into customers with Instagram reels and stories.
www.socialmediaexaminer.com • Share
How Does the Google Search Algorithm Work in 2021?
Discover what Google‘s search algorithm looks for when it ranks content, and find out how you can adapt your strategy to meet these criteria.
Anything I've enjoyed reading recently
Food fraud and counterfeit cotton: the detectives untangling the global supply chain
The long read: Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level
When you monetize your hobby, it looks a lot like a job
How writer and ceramicist Marian Bull approaches her work.
The Girlboss Is Dead. Now It’s Time To Kill The “Good Boss”
What last summer’s girlboss reckoning made clear was that the girlboss wasn’t any more virtuous or ethical than her predecessors — often the very men who put the girlboss in power in the first place.
An update from my container garden!
My Gasteria glomerata (the strange-looking one) has so many little plant babies!
What'd you think?
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By Jenn Chen
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