Sometimes you go slow to go fast.
What is MasterClass? What problem does it solve?
I’ve been working in online education for the last +6 years, and MasterClass has been in my periphery for as long. The first course I checked out was Christina Aguilera Teaches Singing. That was Fall of 2015.
“For parents, this is a Shackleton moment.”
This according to Tim Armstrong, CEO of the DTX Company (I’m paraphrasing).
“Your family is frozen in time. You have to spend more time with each other. During this time, I’ve gotten to know my kids 25% better.”
His interviewer, Scott Galloway added:
“You’re going to look back at this time as historic. You hope your kids and family look back on it positively.”
What Tim and Scott are saying is: play offense. Everything we do, we can frame as either offense or defense:
A house with “good bones” is one with the potential to go from “frumpy-to-fabulous.” She is structurally sound, regardless of the missing shingles, broken windows, and peeling paint.
She may look beat, but like Tyson Fury in the 12th round against Deontay Wilder, she’ll weather the storm.
It doesn’t require a master architect to list the ingredients of a house with good bones: a solid foundation, a strong frame, put together with thought and care.
It made me wonder: what are the common ingredients of a good life? What does a life with “good bones” look like?
What a week: six-hour bottlenecks at airports, toilet paper outages, billions of dollars erased in the markets, and over 6,500 lives lost around the world.
Let’s talk about one trait that’s crucial during these times: leadership.
During times of crisis, we look for guidance. We want a steady hand to navigate choppy waters. Leadership isn’t about winning an election or job titles. Leadership is about your behavior.
Some behaviors of good leadership:
Recently, I spoke to three different students from my alma mater.
They wanted advice on getting started in filmmaking, developing online courses, and marketing.
They asked good questions, and most of it centered around a central theme: “what skills should I focus on?”
Skill development is crucial, no doubt. You must have the chops. However, looking back at my career thus far, in the 3-4 industries where I’ve done well, I focused a lot less on skills and more on habits.
I like to think this served me well, despite a scattered career trajectory, for a few reasons:
- Skill sets change but the ingredients to build skills — your habits — remain the same.
- Habits are always under your control. Control your habits, control your destiny.
I’ve written a lot about the power of working for free, and how you can work for free to uplevel your career.
But how long should you work for free? How much time is “enough” before you ask for a paid position or move on?
My friend Michael Alexis keeps a running list of life lessons, the way others might keep a list of half-baked business ideas or ex-lovers. He started compiling this list 3 years ago.
The entire list is worth a deep read. Here’s one I’ve been thinking about a lot:
“I am constantly blown away by how little I know.
If you roll back to any ‘six months ago,’ I thought I knew a lot, but in hindsight I’m surprised I was even functional.
I expect this cycle to continue indefinitely into the future.”
I find this inextricably true in my life as well. I’m confused about how I got anything done six months ago. That’s doubly true if we rewind to a full year.
Ever think you’re not very good at your job?
You’re not bad per se. You’re not incompetent or lazy.
You put in the hours. You don’t drop the ball. You check off your to-do list.
But perhaps when you look at your peers, you notice them stacking promotion after promotion on their LinkedIn profile. Or at drinks, they casually mention receiving a second raise this year.
Maybe it’s politics or luck. Perhaps they “play the game” better than you do. Sometimes that is why people get ahead.
But what if you suspect they’re just better at their job than you?
If that’s the case, how would you uplevel your skills? What skills do you improve, and how would you do it?
On January 6, 2019, I ran the first of two tests on our Shogun Albany Instagram account, as part of my efforts to run marketing for one of the family restaurants.
Test 1 : An Instagram contest where participants had to follow the Shogun account, tag 2 friends, and guess the type of fish in a photo. One winner would win a $10 gift card to Shogun.
Test 2 : I ran 2 ads to drive people to this contest, against two different Audiences: Mothers living in Albany and surrounding areas and Students living in Albany and surrounding areas.