Sophie Cross is one of the kindest and savviest people I’ve had the privilege of knowing. And if you aren’t connected with her already, I highly recommend you correct it right away and give her a follow!
An entrepreneur, writer, editor-in-chief, playlist connoisseur, advocate for freelancers, lover of vans, and all-around badass, Sophie shows up in numerous ways for the community and has several newsletters under her belt including:
The now-retired Thoughtfully
The Dunker by Freelancer Magazine
And the newest star in the block, Make It Monday
At the time of recording this episode, we delved deep into the Thoughtfully newsletter.
Tune in to hear Sophie talk about her life in the van, crazy business ideas, navigating the freelancer life, having a song for everyone she meets, the importance of community and so much more!
This is episode #19 on the Newsletter Nerd Show.
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#18 contentfolks ft. Fio Dossetto
Meet Fio Dossetto.
A lover of em dashes and sticky notes, she writes the contentfolks newsletter to help marketers create content that truly serves the audience.
When she’s not writing the newsletter, she works on other interesting projects like this. And for a kid who always found joy in words, the opportunity to create a comic book about email delivery dogs and having ‘spread joy’ as a success metric is a wild dream coming true!
In this episode, we talk about opinionated editors—em dash is THE best punctuation mark of all time, don’t fight me—finding joy in words, giving yourself permission to be silly, unlearning things as a newsletter creator and a whole lot more!
Dig in by hitting the play button!
Find out more about the Newsletter Nerd Show here - https://www.thenewsletternerdshow.com/
Time Stamp:
00.40 - Why em dashes are the best punctuation marks of all time
02.14 - What Fio found joy in as a child
03.28 - A project where spreading joy was the goal
06.24 - Silly mockup pages to fuel creativity
09.10 - How contentfolks happened
11.30 - Going from a weekly newsletter to a fortnightly newsletter (+ Ann Handley)
16.02 - How the sticky note representation came to life
18.21 - One thing that Fio had to unlearn mindfully as a newsletter creator
20.36 - Not playing the numbers game
22.35 - What success means for contentfolks
24.14 - If Fio could only one newsletter for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
27.27 - Something Fio considers a newsletter sin
28.39 - The Reading Room
35.35 - Fio plays Have You Ever
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#17 Quick Brown Fox ft. Salman Ansari
If you’ve always had multiple interests and are convinced that you lack the focus to specialize in a particular interest, you should probably (really) hit the play button right now!
Because Salman Ansari was once in your shoes too.
Today, helping people embrace the polymathic mindset is one of the key things he tries to achieve with his newsletter Quick Brown Fox, where he explores creativity, philosophy, fables, and more.
What truly makes Salman’s work soul food for every creator is that by sharing his story with you, he gives you the reassurance that you’re not navigating the creative world alone.
Not to mention the sense of calm that washes over you as you come across his work.
To learn more about the Newsletter Nerd Show, head to https://www.thenewsletternerdshow.com/
Time Stamp:
0.42 - Gripe with the phrase 'A jack of all trades is a master of none'
1.59 - Specializing Vs exploring multitudes
9.57 - How the pandemic has redefined careers
14.08 - What being a polymath really means to Salman
17.57 - Being protective of playful experiments
22.08 - Energy management when you're pursuing multiple interests
27.52 - The importance of resting and recovery
29.25 - Where the Quick Brown Fox fits in on Salman's journey
38.43 - Not taking unsubscriptions personally
40.49 - What Salman thinks is a newsletter sin
42.02 - The Reading Room (where Salman reads an excerpt from his newsletter)
44.31 - Salman's upcoming book Wandering Spirit
52.09 - Have You Ever? (where Salman answers Yes or No questions about his newsletter)
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#16 Doodle Digest ft. Amy Nolan
A long lost relative of one Mrs Pepperpot, Amy Nolan—who writes the Doodle Digest newsletter—has been doodling since she was a kid.
"My dad would make sure that I always had plain papers to doodle on," she smiled.
From pillowcases and shoes to her dog Barry, Amy has experimented with a wide range of canvasses for doodling.
Today, Amy also creates commissioned business illustrations that I highly encourage you to check out!
In this episode, Amy and I unpack a lot about baking disasters, creativity, flipping the narrative of your newsletter, taking your art seriously, not second-guessing yourself or your audience, handling unsubscriptions, and a whole lot more.
And consider yourself warned: there's a LOT of giggling as well.
This is episode number 16 on the Newsletter Nerd Show. Find out more at www.thenewsletternerdshow.com
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#15 Figuring It Out ft. Rohit Srivastav
The year is 2011 and Rohit Srivastav has been reaping karma points on Quora, Reddit, and Facebook. On the former two by leaving helpful answers and on the latter by, well, running a meme page.
Little did he know that his love for writing and satire would lead to encounters with pioneers in Indian SaaS (Software as a Service) and would eventually lead him to marketing.
Today, Rohit runs a newsletter—Figuring it out—where he shares lessons that he wished he knew as a young marketer.
He also moonlights as a poet, screenwriter, and an A+ human being.
That, apart from making Twitter and LinkedIn a much better place with his humor.
This episode on the Newsletter Nerd Show is about mental frameworks, not taking yourself too seriously, navigating roles, and everything you wish you knew as a young marketer!
To learn more about the Newsletter Nerd Show and never miss out on an episode, head to https://www.thenewsletternerdshow.com/
A show that celebrates stories of independent newsletter creators across the globe and discovers their newsletter journey. Run a newsletter? Drop me a line!
New Zealand