450. Best Advice I Received in 2023 🦉
My most meaningful quotes, notes, and tidbits from a big huge year
Hellooo 👋 So happy to have you here. I’m Kevan. I have spent 15+ years as a head of marketing for some cool tech startups. Now I’m co-founding a brand storytelling business called Bonfire. We do coaching, advisory, and content, and we’d love to hear from you, anytime. Come say hello.
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The Best Advice I Received in 2023
I did a lot of things this year. And therefore needed a lot of advice. 😅
I made career moves, I co-founded a brand new business, I learned new skills, I tried to know myself better and know the ways that I impact those I love — good and bad!
And I was immensely grateful for the wonderful advice of friends, the inspirational words of artists and writers and musicians, and — I must admit — the serendipity of a well-timed social media post (thank you, algorithms).
Some of the advice you’ll see below comes from some of my favorite books, articles, and newsletters of the year, which I wrote about last week.
Here is the best advice I received in 2023.
“How great could things be?” As opposed to “what’s the worst that could happen.”
“Let them.” Helpful advice for removing myself from controlling tendencies and the opinion of others. Let them think what they want!
It’s late but everything comes next.
~ Naomi Shihab Nye
This amazing quote from Aliza Grace
The grief doesn’t go away
The grief doesn’t shrink
The grief stays
And we grow“I once told my therapist I was depressed because I didn’t know who I was. She said, ‘Or maybe that’s exactly who you are: A person trying new things, exploring, creating a life, seeing what feels good. Sounds beautiful to me.’”
Then I know that there is room in me for a second huge and timeless life.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke“The audience comes last.” I kind of hate this advice because I am by typically very others-focused. But this came to me in
a dreama TikTok and is spoken by Rick Rubin. “The audience doesn’t know what they want. The audience only knows what’s come before.” So we should make the stuff that we, the creators, want.Sharp point — This concept comes from Nike’s branding, via Natalie Lam, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Groups. She says that Nike always manages to have one sharp point in its advertising, one thing that’s very very interesting - for instance, the bright neon green shoes at the Olympics. “Bet big on that one sharp point and then put all your effort into that.”
“Having a partner doesn’t mean being two columns, standing so straight and tall on their own, they never touch. Partnership is leaning and being caught, and catching the one who leans toward you.”
~ Adapted from Maggie Smith
“On the days you only have 40% and you give 40%, then you gave 100%.”
“Define yourself by who you are, not what you do.”
“Is this useful?” A good question to ask myself when I’m spiraling down a rabbit hole. I stop rabbit-holing once it stops being useful.
“All you need is one person in your life who says, ‘You got this. I believe in you.’ in order to find the courage and energy to do things you have never done before. But more importantly that person also needs to say, ‘And if everything goes wrong, I will be there for you, I will be there with you.’”
“Burnout happens when you’re attempting to do all the things you see others do, but you don’t realize that they have deep meaningful relationships that you can’t see and you think falsely that you have to do it alone. You don’t as an individual have the energy, but in community and in relationship and in friendship, it’s remarkable what you can achieve.”
“The best way to deal with overwhelm is to spend 2.5 hours mindlessly scrolling and then buy a $9 ice cream cone from the new place down the street.” Maybe not literally, but the point of self-care is a good one. 🍦
About this newsletter …
Hi, I’m Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I previously built brands at Oyster, Buffer, and Vox. Now I am cofounder at Bonfire, a brand storytelling company.
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