Happy Sunday, beautiful Pixie,
Today I offer you a confronting message, and it’s intentional.
I sent this at 11 am, on the 11th of the 11th. Take yourself a minute of silence; today is Remembrance Day.
What I what you to remember is every person who fought in a war, and how pointless their death was. I want you to remember the intense grief, the intense suffering. I want you to remember the total destruction of the area known as Zone Rouge, which is unfit for any human life, and will be for hundreds of years. I want you to remember that veterans only get together not to remember the war but to be with those who suffered with them.
And then, I want you to think about your clients and where your money comes from. If it comes from the service of war - which Australia euphemistically terms Defence - or weapons or small arms, and that is more than 20% of your income, ask yourself what the fuck you’re doing to the world by being an enabler. Then, ask yourself whether you are as serious about life, environment, and climate as you say you are. (If you do.)
In today’s reading there is a whole lot of amazing stuff. My personal favourite is Tim Ferriss’s interview of Seth Godin. I’m in fangirl heaven.
And please do take 29 seconds to answer this one question about our Sunday Letter, so we can continue to make it awesome for you. :)
May your week this week be filled with love and compassion.
~ Leticia Mooney, Queen Pixie at Brutal Pixie
Tip of the week
Publishers never just have an idea and produce a flurry of work. Contemplate why; then ask yourself what you might learn from that.
The Sunday Five
Here are the best articles we’ve found from the past week. If you find any gems during your week and would like to see them included, email them to hello@brutalpixie.com.
[ Publishing] Harvard Business Publishing joins LinkedIn as learning content partner
The inaugural learning content partner for LinkedIn is Harvard Business Review. Even though there is a load of high-level dribble about ‘personalised and contextualised flow’ in the press release, it means that if you pay for both HBP products and LinkedIn, then you can get both in one place. Read this here.
Key Takeaway: Find the partners with your audience and create publishing partnerships that benefit both of you.
[ Audience ] Blog to a niche community, not just an area of law
In this short little piece a Real Lawyers Have Blogs, Kevin O'Keefe puts the case forward for writing to a niche community, not just an area of law. If you have our book Brilliant Blawgs, then this is a no-brainer for you - but for most people it is really new thinking. You can read some of his excellent suggestions here.
Key Takeaway: Writing for a community means you can write about everything designed for that community - including events you don’t run. It expands your scope massively.
[ Customer Experience ] Four common CX misunderstandings
This is a sharp and shiny (not particularly short) article about four common misunderstandings about Customer Experience - and how to resolve them. While CX seems like something way out of the ballpark when it comes to content, it’s actually the heart of this beautiful parkland. Everything must serve your customers. I encourage you to go and read this.
Key Takeaway: Solving any CX issue is not a matter of technology.
[ Marketing ] Have you pre-sold your book?
Ok, so this is a little bit outside our usual ballpark, but I’m including it because of the lessons you can learn from entertainment. It is particularly important for you if you are writing a non-fiction book! It’s all about pre-selling your work. How far in advance should you be working? For non-fiction it’s three years. Haha, yep. Read this here.
Key Takeaway: One of the most important elements of great launches is anticipation.
[ Learn ] Seth Godin on the Tim Ferriss Show
Squeeee I am super excited by this. And also because Tim has finally got his sh*t together and offers transcripts on the same page as the recordings. Go read this and revel in the intellectual mastery of Seth Godin - and find out how you can reintroduce 6 hours of life into your day. Yep, you read that right. Go get the rest here.
Key Takeaway: “You’ve got to be in this cycle of making a mess in order to slowly organize it into the thing that over time will feel like the right thing.
What value do you get from The Sunday Letter? Spend just 29 seconds to answer this.
I’m curious about the value that you get from my letters every week. I’ve been sending them for more than four years, and with the advent of The Next Five Years, I’m thinking about how to make sure that they’re both awesome (and, in a sense, unmuddied by each other). So please click here and answer this simple question. It will help us make these publications super awesome. Thanks!