Strands of Genius: Farnam Street Blog, What Makes People Buy, It's Not Over Until You Win

Guest curated by Joshua Bull, Founder, Passionate Pursuit Design Studio

Jan 25, 2024

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, JOSHUA BULL ::

LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA

I am Joshua Bull and I am an artist and founder of Passionate Pursuit Design Studio. I had the pleasure of meeting Rosie and Faris through Josh Patterson aka the Senator and boy did our crew have an amazing time before life caught up with all of us and ushered us along.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): Whether we’re dancing in a field or watching his Instagram videos, Josh Bull is full of inspiring energy! We’re loving following along his adventure and so happy to have him as our first guest curator of the year. Thanks, Josh!

:: THE LINKS ::

FARNAM STREET BLOG

They never miss. Wisdom, quotes, important learnings for life. It's always insightful and a lot of the learnings are as bite-sized as they are impactful. Some great excerpts below:

Frank Slootman is one of the best CEOs and operators in the world. This no-nonsense conversation is full of insight, inspiration, and actionable takeaways. While it took nearly a year to get Frank on, the conversation was even better than I could have imagined.

“Performance is something that we will give more time; behavior we won’t. And that’s because behavior is a choice, not a skill set.”

“Real love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.” — Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements

“Never forget that your unconscious is smarter than you, faster than you, and more powerful than you. It may even control you. You will never know all of its secrets.” — Cordelia Fine in A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives (FS Blog)

WHAT MAKES PEOPLE BUY

What Makes People Buy? Price & Value Masterclass with Ron Baker A lot of creatives struggle to sell. Not work, but with sales itself. To sell the product, to sell the service. It can feel weird and icky to try to take something that's so intricate to ourselves and simplify it to 'please buy'. I loved this video because they talk about pricing, and about value. And the present a structure for how to sell that doesn't feel icky or gross. But instead it takes in account the value YOU have as a creative and what you bring to the table and encourages you to do so as you try to close those big projects that we all have to do to survive if we freelance and run our businesses. (YouTube)

IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL YOU WIN

There's a big focus on health more than ever today. Physical health and mental. In order to have a healthy body, you need to eat well, exercise etc. And for the mind, for the part of the mind that's ambitious, that wants to achieve. the equivalent for me is to fight the negative words of doubt with words of positivity and motivation.
Les Brown is an incredible speaker. He's been at it since before I was born and I listen to him nearly weekly to keep my mind in a good place. Because I am plagued with doubt and imposter syndrome from time to time and the best way to fight doubt is to listen to words of power. This talk is from the 80s, but it still slaps. (YouTube)

Looking for more from Joshua Bull? Coming Friday, look for an interview from him in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Catan

:: City :: New York

:: Book :: The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

:: Podcast :: oooooo tough one, Pod Save America

:: Album :: Jay-Z -The Blueprint 3

:: SMILE LINES ::

The main thing I want is for everyone to feel good about themselves, lead healthy lives, and nurture the relationships they have because they are precious. I want this more than I want to design. But I absolutely love design and if you want to see my work, you can check it out here.

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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

Strands of Genius