Estimated skim time: 6 minutes.

Hi friends! Lots to talk about. This month I...

• Went officially full-time at SparkToro
• Launched a YouTube channel and live talk show (Fridays, 11am PT)
• Started creating a cohort-based course on Content Marketing​

But enough about me. Let's focus on you...

🌿 Make a Personal Media Kit

Since you're part of this newsletter, you're likely a creator, marketer or founder, which means you spend some time in the public eye. Which means...

You need your own media kit!

A media kit is a way to quickly and easily share your bio, photo(s), and links. I made a 2-minute video on how to make one, using my media kit as an example.

But video is not for everyone and maybe you don't want to watch that. 😂

If that's the case, here's the cheat sheet:

Bio and hi-res headshot: No more than 70 words. This easily fits in any event website or webinar registration page. It should include:

• Your current title and company.
• A summary of your career path with social proof.
• 3 or so past roles to highlight.

Name pronunciation: I wrote out the phonetic version of my last name and uploaded a 6-second audio clip of myself saying it. I recorded it in Zoom (free account!) then uploaded the file to my WordPress blog.

Past speaking appearances and/or other published work. Think of this as a menu of options for people to choose from to get to know you better. If you don't have speaking appearances yet, then link to your essays or posts that best represent who you are and what people can expect from a talk by you.

Publish on your site, Google Docs, or Notion. I set up my media kit as a hidden page on my site. It's Google-able but I don't care about findability because I'm the one who sends the link. A media kit isn't how people find you. It's what you share after you've already pitched yourself or been invited to an event.

So if you already have a personal site, you should be able to whip up a media kit page in a few minutes. If you don't have a personal site, consider using Notion (it'll look polished and the URL can be short) or even Google Docs (if that's what you're more comfortable with).

Whatever you do, don't spin your wheels designing a fancy PDF. It'll take too long, it's a clunky way to share hi-res images, and it's more cumbersome to attach a file to an email than send a link. As an event organizer and show host, I will take a Google Doc with easily copy-and-pastable info over a fancy PDF any day.

🍏 DM Interview and the Menu Guest: Chi Thukral

​Chi Thukral is a creator and social media badass who grew Yanko Design's Instagram from thousands to 1.1 million followers.

And Chi is the next guest on the Menu Show! Set a reminder for Friday, Jan 21. at 11am PT. We're going to eat Warheads candy and do sour-faced takes... in which we'll talk about the marketing opinions we once held that we realized were wrong.

Screenshot interview below:

👀 Next up: Khe Hy: On Jan. 28, Khe Hy of Radreads will join the show! You might know him from his popular course, Supercharge Your Productivity. He's also one of my favorite writers.

🧁 Petits Fours

Four links to interesting, funny, or otherwise valuable content.

🔹 Chapter 1: Burnout: "It was another day. Get up. Work. Go to bed. Nothing changes. The rinse and repeat of it all was exhausting… numbing." In this piece, Christina Garnett writes about burnout through fiction

🔸 Harry Dry's copywriting examples: You know Harry Dry from his Marketing Examples. These are... copywriting examples. Mouse over each example and you'll get an insight on what makes it great. Fun resource.

🔹 My favorite funny tweet: This one had me rolling.

🔸 Twitter's main character of the week: I'm sorry but you have got to see the replies on this tweet. 😂

🥗 Quinoa, Kale & Chickpea Salad

​

Serves: 6-8

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1 bunch kale leaves, torn
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 medium tomato, small dice
• 5-6 fresh basil leaves, torn or chopped
• 1 14.5-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• Juice of 2 lemons (about 2 oz)
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup olive oil, divided
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook the quinoa: Over medium heat, add the quinoa to a saucepan and toast until it pops steadily and smells nutty, about 3 minutes. Add the water, bring to a boil and loosely cover until the quinoa has absorbed most of the water, about 12 minutes. Turn off heat, stir, cover and let sit about 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and set aside.

2. Prep veggies: Tear the kale into bite-sized pieces, chop the shallot and tomatoes, and tear or chop the basil.

3. Cook kale and shallots: Over medium heat, add 3 tablespoons olive oil to a large saute pan. Add the kale and shallots and cook until slightly wilted, about 6 minutes.

4. Mix salad: Transfer the cooked kale and shallots to a large mixing bowl. Add the quinoa, tomatoes, basil, and chickpeas. Add 2 pinches salt and pepper. Mix well.

5. Make lemon vinaigrette: Whisk together lemon juice, lemon zest and 1/3 cup olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add 3/4 of the dressing to the salad and toss. Add additional dressing to taste.

Optional backstory: I was funemployed for 8 months between my journalism and marketing careers. I lived on a modest budget of $1,100 per month. $750 for my rent and $350 for everything else. Almost every day for lunch, I ate this salad. It's healthy, filling, cheap, and easy to make in a batch once a week. And assuming you eat it in 6 servings, it comes out to only $2 per serving.

🍹 Last words!

Have a fun and productive week.

And don't forget, Khe Hy is joining the Menu show on Jan. 28! He has an awesome skinny margarita recipe and I'll ask him if we can make it together.

I hope he says yes because I already put it on the YouTube art.

Oh, and if you want to join the wait list for my upcoming content marketing course, drop your info and give early feedback in my Typeform. This early bird/beta test pricing is $800, which will be a significant discount from the final price. The course will happen sometime in April.