Master the Art of Storytelling with Adam Davidson
Everything we published this week, plus: a cohort-based course we think you'll love
Happy Sunday!
Exciting news! Adam Davidson is doing a newsletter and a course with Every. It’s called Masterful Storytelling, and in it Adam wants to teach you how to do great storytelling for your business.
He’ll pull back the curtain on what makes stories work—lessons that he picked up from his time as the co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, and from his work at This American Life, the New Yorker, and in Hollywood. He’s distilled everything he’s learned down into a few universal rules that can help you tell your story whether you’re writing a pitch deck, refining an elevator pitch, or composing your about page.
The newsletter is coming soon, but you can register for the course today. It’s for folks raising money, hiring people, or looking for a better job. Really, it’s for anyone who wants to learn from the best about how to tell the story of their company, their product, or their life.
The course is four two-hour sessions between August 17th and 26th. In it, Adam will work with you directly to teach you everything he knows about storytelling—and help you make your story sparkle.
He just opened applications and is allowing exclusive access for Every readers until Wednesday.
There are only 15 slots available and they’ll fill up quickly. You can register here:
What We Published
6 Articles, 3 podcasts
How to Get Your Creative Work Back on Track
by Coleen Baik in Superorganizers (8-minute read)
At the onset of the pandemic, artist and designer Coleen Baik experienced something that might ring true to anyone who considers creative work their first, second or third priority: she basically stopped making things. Recently, she found herself drawn to picking things up again—but she needed a plan. In this fascinating, detailed, and visually stimulating guest post, Coleen shares the slide deck she built to guide herself—and now us—through getting back into the swing of things.
Snowflake: The Righteous Blood Sucker
by Evan Armstrong in Napkin Math (11-minute read)
Evan recently tweeted that this was the best piece he'd written in weeks, and who are we to disagree? The second in a new series on GTM metrics, this one focuses on Revenue Retention. Specifically, why is Snowflake so good at it? The multi-cloud-using storage service doubled its income last year doing something that isn't necessarily unique. How exactly that happened offers a good case study for any company, Evan says—so what are you waiting for?
Chaotic Good (or, how to stop hating yourself and start writing)
by Rachel Jepsen in The Long Conversation (13-minute read)
No sophomore slump in sight for Rachel's revamped TLC. This week, Every's editor extraordinaire shares thoughts on an underrated element of the writing process: chaos. Because as much as systems and planning can help in creative work (see: this week's Superorganizers), sometimes you need a little bit of wildness to get off the ground. Make sure to read on through for Jack Keroauc's Rules for Writers, and how they can help guide you to writing without shame.
Why Holden Page is an optimist in a gloomy industry
by Sherrell Dorsey & Annaliese Griffin in Free Radicals (10-minute read)
Today, Holden Page is the director of the finch news site FinLedger, overseeing writing that hones in on tech and finance without making nonsense out of either. But as a kid, Holden was a WordPress blogger—a passion that served as the basis for his emphasis on accessibility and community today. Speaking with Sherrell, he discusses the origins of his awareness of inequity in the tech industry, how business news can alter industry conversation for the better, and the advice journalists aren’t getting right now.
The Plastic World of RealSelf
by Fadeke Adegbuyi in Cybernaut (7-minute read)
Ever heard of RealSelf, the online platform that matches plastic surgeons to would-be clients? It's also known as "TripAdvisor for boob jobs," as Fadeke informs us here while analyzing the pandemic-era uptick in surgeries—as well as patients' openness in sharing the work they've had done on social media. Is RealSelf helping people be comfortable with their desires—or is it moving us another step closer to unhealthy body image standards?
Can Ethereum Be Ultra-Sound Money?
by Nat Eliason in Almanack (5-minute read)
Nat spent DeFi Friday getting into the bottom of a particular point of marketability for Ethereum: does its supply—which, apparently, is decreasing—truly make it "ultra sound" as opposed to Bitcoin's merely "sound" currency? Nat is a useful voice of caution here, with his eye on Ethereum's flexibility. As with many things in DeFi, nothing is for sure, so keep consuming grains of salt and reading Nat.
Inside the Longform Content Game at Twitter
🎧 Means of Creation with Li Jin & Nathan Baschez (57-minute watch/listen)
This week on Li and Nathan's passion economy talk show, Twitter's Head of Longform Content Nick Sallon dropped by to talk through the platform's acquisition of newsletter service Revue, how they plan to appeal to writers in a hyper-competitive atmosphere, and plenty more.
Ali Montag on why the narrative isn't worth Chasing
How Joshua Ogundu Found a Therapist
🎧 Talk Therapy with Dan Shipper & Nathan Baschez (41 and 36-minute listens)
Dan and Nathan welcomed an excellent double-bill of guests to the pod this week, covering serious ground in just over an hour altogether. First, they talked to journalist and recent Divinations guest writer Ali Montag about her piece on the "Inner Ring of the Internet," and why the media class needs to think wider when it considers its audience. Then, they welcomed Joshua Ogundu, a member of L.A.'s tech community, for a frank discussion about his journey through to starting therapy, and what we can do to destigmatize it for others.
Community Calendar
What's going down in our Discord this week.
Monday July 26th, 10am ET/7am PT: Focused Work Pomodoros with Dan Shipper
Thursday July 29th, 11am-1pm ET/8am – 10am PT: Community Working Session with Rachel Jepsen
In this weekly two-hour event, our cameras are on, our tunes are flowing, and we're getting things done together! Executive editor Rachel will open each session with a ten-minute writing exercise to get us all in a creative flow. Then, participants can share in the #fireside-chat channel what they're hoping to accomplish during the session. Finishing an essay? Getting started on a new project? Tell us what you're working on!
Want to be looped in on upcoming community events? Check out our Discord server!
What’s Going On
News you might have caught or missed.
- Dozens of Writers Join Facebook's Newsletter Platform "Bulletin"
- Tumblr Announces Post+, a subscription service for its creators
- Robinhood Ditches IPO Traditions Again in a Roadshow Open to All
- The Senate’s E-BIKE Act could make electric bikes a lot cheaper
What We’re Reading
Our favorite writing from beyond Every.
- How TikTok's algorithm figures out your deepest desires (TheWall Street Journal)
- Is It My Body (Real Life)
- Vibe Me Up, Moodboard (Dirt)
-
Job Hunters, Have You Posted Your Resumés on TikTok? (The New York Times)
Every on the Internet
When our writers make a splash outside the Every pool.
- Fadeke Adegbuyi joined the On Deck podcast to chat about her recent article on Study Web, as well as her experience joining a writer collective (fingers crossed it's all good). The same article also received a mention in a Think With Google report on what YouTube culture can tell us about the changing future of online video trends.
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