Cartoonist

Nathan T. Wright is an artist. He has origins in the early days of social media, made impact inside corporate marketing, and now illustates remarkable art with drawings, cartoons, murals, and more. Ben and Nathan jam on The Adventures of Fatberg, the early (fun) days of social media, the speeds in-house at a large company, leading a creative process with clients, real skills for studying the arts, and understanding the business of being a full-time artist.

After the break that features a reading of Aphorism, Nathan and Ben dive back in by talking graphic recording at live events, the positive tension of smart cartoons, and extending value by reformatting great content into books. EP90 of YDNTP is an absolute bop – share with a friend!

EXTRA SHOT

Nathan T. Wright is the friend who illustrated the mug that has become part of a brand that is Ben McDougal.

What started as the caffeinated, community-driven cover art for You Don’t Need This Book, now extends through the Roasted Reflections NFT Collection, imprinted phygital clothing, the front of tiny ideabooks, temporary tattoos, a huge neon sign, and of course, the artwork for this timeless podcast! Cheers to this episode and another shared relic that keeps the fun brewing!

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BONUS MATERIALS

https://nathantwright.com

The Adventures of Fatberg

https://etsy.com/shop/ntwillustration

City of Santa Ana FOG Activity Book

Roasted Reflections Break: Aphorism

https://NewYorker.com/latest/cartoons

http://Cartoonist.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

https://MainframeStudios.org

EP21 – Pinball Wizards 🎙️ Ben Sinclair

EP44 – Do What You Love 🎙️ Scotty Russell

EP55 – Inextinguishable Light 🎙️ Jim Morgan

EP60 – Goosebumps 🎙️ Nic Roth

http://YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

https://BenMcDougal.com/NFT

http://BENBOT.ai

 

 

Push Through

Alongside a career in finance, Steve Walsh is an investor and wrote Make the 10X Leap to help founders scale. We talk about choosing to push through the storm, raising strategic financial capital, collaborating with investors, signals for when it might be time to scale, and all that goes into writing your first book.

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BONUS MATERIALS

https://BisonEquityGroup.com

http://Push-Through.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

Roasted Reflections Break: Winds of Outrage

https://BenMcDougal.com/How-I-Wrote-YDNTB

EP59 – Agents of Change 🎙️ Amner Martinez

EP73 – Care Directly 🎙️ Jon Van De Veer

EP84 – Base Camp 🎙️ Jon Kallen

http://YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

Adapttitude

Rachelle Keck is the 14th president of Grand View University. Students join us in-studio as we discuss the energy of leadership. We also talk about writing a book and how to leverage an adapttitude, which is an attitude that fosters an aptitude for adaptation.

After an extended break that celebrates Playforce Principles and Seth Godin’s Real Skills, we navigate the ROI of higher education, cosmic curiosity, and what’s worth sacrificing to achieve progress. We close with a viking story from Rachelle, on how she burnt the ship by selling her law practice to pursue more grand adventures.

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BONUS MATERIALS

https://Wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachelle_Keck

https://Grandview.edu/about/about-gv/president

https://x.com/rachellekeck

https://linkedin.com/in/rachellekeck

http://Adapttitude.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

Roasted Reflections Break: Playforce Principles

EP9 – Future of Work 🎙️ Nancy Mwirotsi

EP31 – What is School For? 🎙️ Russ Goerend

http://YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

Roasted Reflections on Discord

http://BENBOT.ai

Become What You Think

We hear the Internet is a big deal. Drew Harden is a web development wayfinder, author, and culture-building leader at Blue Compass. After some rich thoughts on creating significance within a company’s culture, we dive into the world of web development. Ben was in web development for 8 years back in the day, so this was a fun chance to hear how web design and development continues to evolve. Ben and Drew chat about key things for different types of websites. After BEN BOT suggested an average cost to have a web development company create a website, we talk about budgeting for web design projects, but also remember that it’s never one size fits all. Before the break, we run through content creation and the marathon of search engine optimization.

After the break, we double click on SEO (here’s a link to the Blue Compass SEO Guide), but stay plugged in! Drew and Ben shift into a great chat on writing and publishing your first book. Hear Drew share stories from his book writing quest that led to RETAIN: How to Create an Incredible Company Culture that No One Wants to Leave. Ben and Drew then have fun reflecting on narrating your own audiobook. In fact, let’s extend the fun! Use an Audible credit to enjoy Drew’s audiobook here and Ben’s audiobook here. If writing a book keeps you up at night, this is a fun listen. Drew then closes with a neat moment, which inspired the poetic title.

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Threaded Thoughts

Let’s talk tactics. Here is a simple technique to absorb, translate, and share the (audio)books you read.

Start with one tweet, then reply to that same tweet over and over again. The result is a thread (sometimes called a tweetstorm) that combines your key takeaways and gives you a single link to share your collective thoughts.

Here are a few examples…
Tribes – Seth Godin
We Are All Weird – Seth Godin
This Is Marketing – Seth Godin
Free Prize Inside – Seth Godin (ideal for intrapreneurs)
The Icarus Deception – Seth Godin (great for students)
Startup Community Way – Brad Feld & Ian Hathaway
Think Like A Freak – Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
The Hard Things About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz
Angel – Jason Calacanis
Think Again – Adam Grant
Entrepreneurs’ Weekly Nietzsche – Dave Jilk & Brad Feld
The Almanack of Naval Revikant
BONUS THREAD – Big Thoughts in Little Tweets

Why is this helpful? If you’re thirsty to learn from (audio)books, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed as authors bombard you with knowledge. Passively enjoying (audio)books is fine, but this organizational exercise forces you to slow down, which reduces the numbing effect. In short, crafting concise tweets that are all connected forces you to feel the experience.

Another benefit to sharing threaded thoughts, is that each public post draws out more focused contemplation. I’ve found this technique makes me think deeper, use words carefully, and has actually made me a better writer. Such value is compounded when the entire thread can be retrieved with one link.

Lastly, this exercise generates accountability. When this exercise becomes a habit, you spend extra time with that first tweet, knowing it may become be the foundation for a neat collection of thoughts. As the thread expands, you’ll feel momentum that keeps you listening/reading. If progress stalls, the lingering sense of an incomplete project may bring you back to finish the literary journey. If you must get through something quickly, just craft a smaller thread, but include one post that lists the page numbers for areas that caught your attention. Such a hack is still better than nothing.

To be clear, this exercise is not about pirating content or echoing knowledge like a parrot that sounds smart. It’s about sharing a meaning narrative while leaning into what resonates for you, knowing you’re creating a relic for others (including your future self) to enjoy as well.

Extra Shot

Tag me on Twitter if you try this! I’d love to follow along and will definitely chime in if you experiment using You Don’t Need This Book.