The Mix Tape, Vol. 93
Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Vol. 93 of The Mix Tape newsletter, mixing writing, content + pr strategy, Apple nerdness, and fitness.
This week’s Mix:
Stop using the c-word in marketing
People I’m grateful for this week
Keep your rejected creations
This week’s Florida photo
Stop using the c-word in marketing
The c-word always made my skin crawl a bit when other marketers used it. When I used it.
The c-word?
Yes. “Consumer.”
“Consumers” depicts a soulless Zombie army whose singular purpose is to use up what you have to offer.
Here’s how to make a small vocabulary change that leads to better, more compelling marketing stories.
People I’m grateful for this week
I had so many great conversations this week. It was nuts.
I’m grateful for many people I didn’t even know two years ago (and have yet to meet in person!). Here’s some of them and what they create:
Nate Kadlac led me to the no-cost strategy calls idea. He helps people design authentic lives from the inside out. He’s also great at more traditional design and you can check out his excellent newsletter “Plan Your Next” here.
Bryce Longton co-created an online group of alumni from Write of Passage who get together, chat and brainstorm briefly, and then go heads-down and write. It’s two of my favorite hours every week. Bryce writes about styling principles and more in her newsletter, Marvelous Marvelous.
Charlie Bleeker co-created the weekly writing group. She writes fearlessly in her Transparent Tuesdays newsletter and says smart things about writing like this:
Mark Schaefer, author, marketing strategist, and speaker, was a guest speaker in the Ness Labs Newsletter Crew and dropped tons of knowledge bombs like this one, when talking about finding a niche for your newsletter:
“Sometimes the point of differentiation is you.”
Steven Wilkinson leads the Newsletter Crew along with Nate, and brought Mark on to speak. I’m grateful to him and Nate for building a high-value, supportive group that meets each week. Steven writes about business, entrepreneurship, and finance in his Good and Prosper newsletter.
Jen Vermet helped me ideate, create, and refine my essay this week on the marketing c-word. She writes about lifelong learning in her Letter from a learn-it-all newsletter.
Tobi Edmonds-Holley writes about leadership and personal growth. It’s always fun to geek out with him on fitness, Apple, and Jack Carr novels.
Megan Goering drops insight bombs into conversations. This week, she noted the growing coalition of online creators and thinkers aren’t necessarily like-minded—we havediversity in thought and experiences—but we are life-minded. We all want to create, learn, connect, and challenge ourselves to grow.
All of these people are super-smart, creative, and generous. And I met them all online, which would not have been possible for 99.999% of humanity’s existence. Pretty great.
Keep your rejected creations
If you create, you will be rejected.
But: don’t throw that work away.
Zach Snyder, creator of 300, Man of Steel (two personal favorites!), and many other films, has been turned down often.
His Star Wars pitch was rejected, but he didn’t give up on his idea:
Zack Snyder says he's turning a failed Star Wars pitch into a sci-fi, samurai movie of its own.
Better late than never, Snyder clarified his plans on a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast as reported by Slash Film. Snyder said he pitched Lucasfilm on a movie set after Return of the Jedi about a new cast of Jedi warriors on a mission, but was turned down.
His pitch for the movie Army of the Dead went into seemingly permanent purgatory. Eventually, Netflix picked it up, and is investing deeply in the concept:
Budget issues meant that Army of the Dead sat with Warner Bros. for over a decade before Netflix eventually swooped in and acquired the distribution rights in 2019.
[…]
When Netflix greenlit Army of the Dead, they also greenlit a prequel movie and an anime series, with Shay Hatten attached to write the scripts for both.
Hang on to your ideas—maybe for a long time.
Sometimes creative success is just about timing and finding the right people to believe in your work.
This week’s Florida photo
Last weekend, we hung out at Armature Works, a refurbished former street car warehouse on the Hillsborough River. Armature Works now has numerous walk-up restaurants and a huge public space on Tampa’s Riverwalk. It has a prime view of downtown:
It was packed and things felt “normal.” The wine, Mexican food, and company were all terrific. It was a great night to celebrate our 8th grader’s middle-school graduation.
High school, here we come.
*takes deep breath*
Welcome to three new subscribers
As always, thank you for reading and sharing.
Please hit reply if you have questions, comments, or open rebuttals. (Or just want to say hi.)