DesuckiFive Friday - April 12, 2024
Happy Friday, everyone. It’s that time again… five bite-sized bits crafted to squeeze some of the suck out of your work life. Featuring Cameron Day, Dan Nelken, Hadley Vlahos and a cameo from everyone’s favorite fast-food spokesblob.
Hope you enjoy. If you do, please feel free to share this with friends, family, coworkers, etc. If you don't enjoy it, please pass along to your mortal enemy.
1. DesuckifyWork™ Podcast
There’s no text book for working in advertising. At least not officially.
Unofficially, as far as I’m concerned, there are two. Soon to be three. All written by today’s guest on the DesuckifyWork™ podcast, Cameron Day.
Spend a few days digesting Chew With Your Mind Open and Spittin’ Chiclets and you’ll be armed and ready for just about anything this nutty business hurls at you.
We spend a good chunk of time diving into some of the highlights during our conversation.
2. Desuckifier Spotlight - Dan Nelken
Work sucks when you’re not sure if you know what you’re doing. You feel like a fraud. And you are convinced that everyone knows it. Soon, they’ll be dragging you away from the company laptop, while everyone points and laughs. This is the kind of mindfudgery that Dan successfully counters with his book, his newsletter and his online course. He breaks down the art of copywriting into digestible tips, tricks and techniques that will put a Shaq-sized sock in your inner critic’s pie hole.
3. Desuckified Book Reco
The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by Hadley Vlahos
How is a book written by a hospice nurse, filled with poignant stories about the final moments of life relevant to the idea of desuckifying work? It’s not, at least not in any direct way. But if you’ve reached a certain age, you pay more attention to the way you spend your days. Which, for almost all of us, includes work. And while we can’t all be hospice nurses, we can think about the impact we make with our work. We can act in accordance with our values. And we can embrace and cherish the relationships we build along the way. In her book, Vlahos gives us a window into the life of the dying. No two stories are the same, and yet each one is breathtakingly beautiful in its own way. You can’t help but wonder how you will look back at your own life, whenever that moment comes. And I hope each one of us can say we lived with love, intention and purpose.
4. Desuckified Tip of the Week
Creative leaders often think that leadership isn’t creative. So they resist it, continuing to lean into their skills as a writer, art director, designer, etc. But the best leaders are the most creative ones. You just apply your creativity differently. Instead of fine tuning your craft, you use your creative brain to find better ways to rally your team, to collaborate with other leaders, to celebrate great work, to persuade, to inspire, to find the right shade of black for your outfit when they take the new profile pic for the company website.
5. Desuckified Learning from the Week
In a recent study, researchers found that people in their mid-fifties tend to smile more than folks of any other age. I’ll be 54 in two months—I hope I’m keeping the average up. I’m not sure the 4 hours I spent on the phone with my health insurance company last week helped. Unless you count a grimace as a smile. Grimace, ha. Now I’m thinking of that plump purple sack of joy from Mickey Dees and I’m smiling again. Maybe there is something to this study.
Life’s too short to do work that sucks. Click below to set up a free 30-minute Desuckified Discovery Session.