Do you know what your most powerful weapon is in fighting the current rise of fascist ideas and literally saving the world?
(And also making you more moolah hurrah?)
It’s your brain.
Your voice.
Your ideas.
The words you use and how you put them together to subvert and combat misinformation, cruelty, and outright lies.
Coincidentally, this is also your most powerful tool in selling what you do to people who want and need your help.
And also coincidentally, this will help you bust open damaging systems and — you got it — literally save the world.
Cos right now the world’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of the smallest minority this planet has ever seen and I dunno about you, but I don’t want those clowns in charge of anything.
(A 2021 Oxfam report found that collectively, the 10 richest men in the world owned more than the combined wealth of the bottom 3.1 billion people, which is almost half of the entire world population. That group’s combined wealth doubled during the pandemic. If that doesn’t make you wanna vomit, well… off you pop. Nobody gets that rich by treating people well. They just don’t. Except Dolly Parton, but she gives so much money away I don’t think she even counts as a billionaire anymore.)
My mission is, on the face of it, to help people use their voices to write cool books. But it’s so much more than that.
My mission is actually to change the balance of power and redistribute that wealth. Not through communism, because we all know that was a nice idea that went horribly wrong. But through people using their voices and skills and passions to run businesses and do jobs that bring them amazing clients AND amazing paychecks.
With those clients and paychecks comes confidence (the confidence of a mediocre white man which can move mountains) and power. Because, like it or not, money = power.
I know where I’d like that power: in the hands of people who want a better world for everyone, rather than the hands of a white supremacist who wants to colonise Mars rather than using his wealth to solve the very real problems of this planet.
They’re powerful.
We’re more powerful.
Their algorithms are going to be hard to fight.
But if we use our voices, our words, our skills — we can fight them and win.
Fixing all the problems is so overwhelming it’s impossible to start.
But if we start small — with our voices, our messages, and our skills — to reach just one other person, the problems are fixable. There are more of us. Far more.
And one way to do this is with comedy. Humour. Comedy is the queen of subversion, of rebellion, of activism.
It’s how you reach people who may otherwise not be reachable.
It’s how you connect with people you want to connect with, who might then want to work with you — and who will be more likely to pay you more for what you do.
You might think comedy is for professional comedians only, that you’re “not funny”, that this is too scary for you.
Let me change your mind.
Come to my Find Your Funnybone MicroWorkshop on Thursday Feb 13 at 11.15am GMT. It’s just 45 minutes long and you’ll learn 3 new skills you can apply to all your writing.
And — BONUS — you get free access to my Creative Playground Power Hour immediately afterwards (12-1pm) to put your new skills into practice.
There is a little teaching but it’s minimal — we’re going to spend the class playing and creating and developing new ideas and discovering how funny you are!
And yes, this is a paid class — because we ALL deserve to get paid for our time and expertise.
But it’s just £25 (+VAT).
There’ll be a recording sent out after if you can’t make it live, but please do make it live because you’ll get my direct feedback. And it’ll be really good fun — the group so far is great!
Book your ticket here:
And now — it’s time for the Friday Goodie Bag! Here’s what I’ve found for you this week:
This creative writing exercise
Dan Kelsall is a funny man. He’s also a top notch marketer. This week on LinkedIn, he posted something he’d been playing around with (note that word: playing). He hadn’t done it for any real reason except to mess around.
He took the recruitment world — a boring place, by and large — and got silly. Using a bunch of different topics (dictator-led regimes, hairdressers, Christian carpenters, and more) he came up with crap names for recruitment agencies and they’re extremely chortleworthy. Look here.
Next time you find yourself with five minutes here or there, have a play yourself. This is how we get better at writing, at thinking, and at coming up with ideas. Will most of them be usable? No. Will some of them? Yes. Will it be fun? Also yes.
Where did that phrase come from?
One thing I like to do is go down a rabbit hole about the origins of words and phrases. So many things in the English language come from a nautical origin — but not all! I saw this Instagram reel digging into the origins of certain phrases — take a look.
(The last one — taking the wind out of their sails — the reel got wrong. It’s actually from where one sailboat overtakes another, coming between them and the wind, hence literally taking the wind out of their sails. The rest is — I think — more or less correct.)
Look into a word’s origins and you’ll find all kinds of stories, tidbits, and an insight into how language and culture has developed.
This voice and visibility retreat
My friend Sophie Lee, whose event I spoke at in Brighton last week, is hosting a full day retreat on March 22 and I’ve already bought my ticket. It’s going to be a wonderful event for voice and visibility, in London, on Saturday March 22.
There’ll be workshops on style, confidence, image making, crafting, and my bestie Yinka Ewuola will leading an incredible session on cashflow that will be a gamechanger for many. I know because I’ve worked with her so many times.
And you’ll go away with some gorgeous photos from my friend Wendy Wo0 Gannon, who is magical behind the camera!
Best of all? Tickets for this FULL DAY are just £150+VAT. Book here.
These cartoonish old masters
Tyler Turnbull (thanks to Eddie Schleyner for mentioning him!) takes old paintings and makes them his own.
“Downcycled is a project by Tyler Turnbull using damaged or forgotten art to express the sheer immaturity he holds within.”
Essentially, he takes a junk shop painting find, then adds his own twist. For example, an old oil painting of a classic still life of flowers in a vase and a jug, and he’s added steampunk junk to it — hypodermic needs, bullet casings, bits and bobs — all in the same painting style.
Also check out his copywriting because there are funny little touches all over the place.
Check out his Instagram here, too. He gets his audience involved in choosing his next painting which is genius because it guarantees buyers.
This article about western motherhood
Sharon Hurley Hall shared this Guardian article by Patience Akumu in her SHHARE community and it’s a sobering and fascinating read.
“Being a mother in the west would be a dream, I thought. But compared with Uganda, it was a nightmare… Nothing prepared me for the reality of mothering without my extended family to help. How have western women managed like this for so long?”
This got me thinking about how capitalistic, colonial, patriarchal systems in the west have steadily dismantled communities and extended family units for centuries, removing people’s support systems — and their ability to organise.
The question “how have western women managed for so long?” really gave me pause because I suspect many of them simply have not. Or at least, not intact and joyfully. We were never meant to do it all alone.
What I’m reading
Still reading the same three (3) books. They are:
- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. It’s going to be a slow read because it’s heavy, but it’s so important. A must-read for every human, I believe, if we want to understand how we got here and how we can build a safer, kinder, more equitable world for ALL of us.
- Stand the Fck Out* by my buddy Louis Grenier. Most marketing books are boring. This one isn’t. It’s also extremely readable and useble for people like me — content creators — where most are aimed at bigger corporations or physical products. And it’s super fun because it’s Louis!
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. I’ve nearly finished this one and, like Becky Chambers’s other books, I love it. It’s like a cosy cuddle while it pokes your brain about what it is to be human and live in our broken world.
What I’m writing
I am putting together my Find Your Funnybone MicroWorkshop which is going to be so much fun! If you haven’t got a ticket yet, it’s just £25 — come and join us. Replay available but live is better.
And I’m back writing my own comedy pieces because I’m doing a comedy writing course on Wednesday evenings this month. It’s a lot of fun!
Word of the week
Filipendulous (19th century)
It means “hanging by a thread”.
Quote of the week
“The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the universe, which runs through himself and all things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have a wonderful weekend, and do something creative!
How to work with The MicroBook Magician
MicroBook Magic: Write your MicroBook in just 8 weeks — book for April 2025
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Book Coach In Your Pocket: Let’s see how much you can get done in just 30 days
VIP Book Breakthrough Day: Make a quantum leap in book progress in just one day (or two half-days)
Nonfiction Book Ghostwriting: Idea to book in just 20 weeks
Buy My Book: How the hell do you write a book?