Catching You Up
On May 13th I golfed 100 holes in a day. Thank you to everyone who supported me again this year. You are incredibly generous.
For those interested, we (my partner Jim Kozak and I) started on the first hole at 7:00am.
· 9:10am – finished 18 holes
· 11:35am – finished 36 holes
· 2:02pm – finished 54 holes
· 4:48pm – finished 72 holes
· 6:58pm – finished 90 holes
· 8:03pm – finished 100 holes
Total time of 13 hours, 3 minutes
In total we raised over $48,000 this year! All proceeds go to children and families who need speech therapy and speech technology and cannot afford them. To this date, we have over 400 grants going out to kids in 39 states.
It’s always crazy to me that this whole thing started with 80 people golfing a scramble in 2007.
Small actions can make a big difference.
And there is no rest for the weary. Our next charity event is our 18th Annual OEF Golf for Autism (this is a scramble event). If you are in the area and would like to golf, here’s the link. The event is on August 5th.
It’s been an incredible two weeks…
After finishing Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX) on May 7th, I celebrated my 51st birthday on the 10th, watched my oldest graduate from college on the 11th, did 100 holes on the 13th, and then ran the Cleveland Half-Marathon on the 19th (1:59:31). Let’s go!
Spend It All
I was recently turned on to the works by Annie Dillard, who among other things, won the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in 1975.
This 1989 New York Times piece from Dillard is a must read.
She says, “Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon?”
This is not only helpful for me as a writer, but also, it’s a life lesson.
Life is incredibly short. I’m 51 and I feel it in my bones that I’ve barely started. Every minute of every hour is a gift not to be squandered.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love watching movies, or I catch the latest SNL shorts on YouTube. Sometimes I scroll away on Facebook to see what people in my circle are up to.
But I also realize that every minute spent “watching things” is a minute I’m not spending with friends, or family, or creating things that could impact the world in a positive way.
At CEX I talked to so many content creators struggling to find success (whatever that is to them). When we unpacked their businesses, it was clear that their content wasn’t making enough impact. To Dillard’s point, they weren’t treating their content creation like they were about to die. It seemed, to me at least, that they were creating just another article or video or short.
That may have been enough for success 20 years ago, but it’s not today. There is too much competition, and social media platforms and search engines aren’t going to do you any favors (like I was given in 2007).
So write your thing or record your video. In the editing process, ask yourself if you’d be proud of this piece of content if you died tomorrow. Did you give enough to this thing you created? Would you do it differently?
I bet you would. I bet I would as well.
“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”
Life is short. Make the decision to be better for you. Now is not the time to hold back. Push forward, and if you do, you’ll start to see the impact you are making on others.
You have a gift not to be squandered. I’m excited to see and hear what you’ll be producing next.
A Win for Inclusivity
My wife and I have been going to Cleveland Guardians baseball games together our entire relationship (we started dating in 1994). About 10 years ago, we noticed the crowd getting older and older. This was concerning especially since we didn’t notice this trend at Browns football games or Cavaliers basketball games.
That problem is now not a problem anymore.
Enter District tickets.
A few years ago, the Guardians started testing out what they call “District tickets” where you get a standing-room only ticket to the ballpark and a beer for $15.
This worked great, except that there weren’t enough places in the park to really see the game with a standing-room only ticket.
Well, the Guardians have slowly changed the makeup of the entire park, adding premium standing-room only sections in left and right field, and last year they took out an entire section of seats in the upper left and upper right-hand corners for standing-room, open seating, and easy access to food and drinks.
This year, we’ve gone to six games, and the difference in the makeup of the ballpark is noticeable. The average age of a Guardians ticket buyer must have dropped by 10 years. ALL the standing-room only sections (and I mean ALL of them) have been packed with kids (under 30) having an amazing time with friends taking in a ball game.
Growing up a baseball-first fan, this warms my heart.
I can envision even more ballpark changes to accommodate the growing number of young fans who don’t mind standing up for the entire game.
Even more impressive is the Guardians push for inclusivity.
Before the Sugardale Hot Dog Derby, as well as the seventh inning stretch, the announcers would begin by saying “Ladies and gentlemen.”
For example, the seventh-inning stretch would be, “Ladies and gentlemen, up on your feet, it’s time for the seventh-inning stretch.”
But in the middle of last year, they started using “Guardians fans” instead of “ladies and gentlemen.” We noticed the change immediately.
Can you imagine the impact something like this makes on someone who identifies as non-binary?
I can’t applaud this type of change more. It’s these types of small changes that make a very big difference in people’s lives.
Go Guardians!
No More Rented Land in Presentations
For the past decade I’ve done two things with my public speeches.
1. I would periodically place my social media handle (@JoePulizzi) throughout the presentation.
2. I would put a CTA at the end of my presentation, asking them to connect with me on social.
Well, not anymore.
My past two keynotes I’ve directed people to my website and newsletter.
All these years I’ve been sending audience members to connect with me on a site that is not mine and one that I can’t control. And with the continued algo changes, even if they do connect with me, they’ll probably rarely see my content. Or…if they can…the platform will change the rules so it’s harder to connect.
Leveraging rented land is fine if it’s strategic, but now is the time to focus on the assets we have control over.
