📬 DB's Newsletter - Number Two 💥
well, for most everyone this is actually number 1. First newsletter in the wild.
Hi 👋
Here we go. Newsletter "Number Two" of an ongoing project where I highlight some ideas I’m thinking through, what I’m reading, or how I’m going about building a business from scratch, among other things.
The point is shipping work on schedule, as is, worts and all, as an ongoing work in progress. Next time will be on the monthly schedule, which means mid October -- PEAK 🍂leaf peeping time before Halloween.
Hope to see you again then... 👋
Welcome to the beginning. I appreciate you.
- Derek Baynton // Nameless Consulting Business
💡note: email format is still being tested. This month using mailchimp (while thinking about substack — would love insight if you've used either and have any opinions to share :))
What's in a Name?
(I still don't have an updated name for the business, which is fine. Still operating under my LLC, The Offsite Collective, and otherwise going by my name. Here I reflect on some of the other ideas...)
A few themes brewing, still nothing sticking. I like em, but not enough to love em.
Capital Q - reference to the metaphysics of quality from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, my favorite book and foundation to a lot of my personal philosophy.
Just doesn't feel right. Feels too cheap.
Amor Fati - I love this, love the way it rolls off the tongue. Obscure, and piques a lil curiosity. It's a latin phrase, meaning 'the love of fate, to which I was exposed in reading Nietzsche. He describes it's meaning to “Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….but love it.”
If I ever decided to start an Amaro brand, this would probably be it. But prob not the name for my business...
Camerado - most recent idea. Reminder to take the leap, be ready for whatever adventure.
“Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?”
― Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass
Kumquat - I'm somewhat detached from whatever the original connection was to inspire this (kumquats being mysterious, misinterpreted fruit. Making kumquats vs. widgets). Probably just clouded with the feedback from people with their heads in the gutter 🙄.
I can still see this being an investment business. Kumquat Ventures with the Elizabeth Holmes spoof as the backdrop (black turtleneck pic of me holding a kumquat). We could raise billions.
Something's Brewing - could this really be a name? No, prob not.
This Month's Note to Self
Confronting the inner voice
Over the past couple years I've been learning the martial art of Jiu Jitsu. It was completely new to me.
Pretty much a sure way to see your mind go into panic mode, if you pay attention. Exhaustion, claustrophobia, someone trying to strangle you, and an increasing fear that you'll now be too weak to recover - all trigger a natural fight or flight reflex to survive.
All this came to me while rolling (sparring) a few weeks back. I was only 15 seconds in with a guy that had 50+ pounds on me, years of experience, and strong as a fucking ox. I was already winded from a full round just before, and he quickly took me down into a position with his full weight bearing down. The breathing only gets heavier and heavier, and with the added weight restricting that already struggling breath, the cunning little voice of self-doubt now starts to scream and scheme.
It’d be easiest to give in, maybe fake an injury or tap out from fear, anything to escape. “Just give yourself up” or “maybe your shoulder is injured again." It's amazing how quickly excuses can appear in your mind, trying to convince your body you can't do it anymore.
But if you succumb to that voice enough times, before you know it you'll realize you’re unknowingly quitting a lot of things when they get tough. Something bothering you? You don’t wanna open that wound, it’s too hard, it’ll be painful. Avoid the discomfort, there's always something else to do instead...
I pushed with everything I had to brace myself to get to neutral, and continued getting crushed for the next five minutes of the round.
But instead of finding way for it to end, right now, I found recovery in the next breath. Once I quieted that voice, I could take inventory of the situation I find a way out.
That is why I do this. It's going to really suck at times, but it provides a constant opportunity to confront what's holding you back.
Face it. It's the only way.
Some Good Reads
Gonna skip the supporting/summary paragraphs this time, just links (+ short comments).
Books I loved:
Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday
Some Linkies:
The Risk Not Taken by Andy Dunn. Originally read back in 2014, well worth the revisit.
Stop copying the wrong thing by Steve Bryant. Love reading Steve's take on many things in the creative process, but this is one of my all time faves. Link takes you the edition of his weekly Article Group newsletter, which I also highly recommend.
Can 'We' Work? Perspectives on WeWork's IPO by Dror Poleg. Best take I've read to date, cuts through the noise, focusing on where there's innovation and what's been working.
The Attention Economy Crisis: The Future of Content, Commerce and Culture by Joe Marchese
Building product-market fit with relationship marketing by Brad Tiller. #longread. Very long read, but packed with tons of insight at each stage of the journey. Great resource and how to guide for taking a closer look at your relationship with your audience to better manage in today's attention-less world.
How Does WeWork Make Money? by CB Insights. Another WW take, another long read. For those interested in covering all the bases. Love em or hate em, they offer a lot to learn from and are here to stay along with a whole crew of other flavors.
The Land of Unfinished Projects
Excited for this section - to revisit things I've been wanting to do or putting off or once started but never completed.
I've shipped V1 of my website!
💥 www.derekbaynton.com 💥
Quickly built on a flexible platform that will allow me to test content and adjust on the fly as needed.
Current purpose is to have a limited bio site and place to capture any inbound interest, and evolve the brand as I get feedback.
👋That's it for this month.
I may add a section of how and what I’m building, but right now the focus has been on the customer and delivering value to their business. That’s oxygen, step one, I can’t grow without it.
To market first or to build product first has been the constant struggle to balance. Far too many out there seem to be about marketing first. And focus way too much on what things ‘look like’ vs how they actually operate. Not a mistake I want to make. Maybe a subject to elaborate on in the future..
Thanks again. I love you.