{D} 119: Yes but what's your question

Maybe just ask

Yes I've been away for awhile. Yes I'm back for a while. Yes, every Tuesday for a while. Yes and yes and onward, I'm available for strategy and content work. Yes, links are at the bottom. Yes, I love you, and how. -s.

It’s true, simply true, that everything we do is a question. This is just as true in everyday life as it is in everyday business. Pedestrian examples abound.

You’re giving a gift to your partner: Will they like it?

That’s certainly one question.

Certainly another question you could ask would be: does it say to them what I mean it to say?

Of course while your partner is receiving the gift, they’re asking themselves: what do they mean by this?

Even a statement—e.g., you’re welcome, e.g., I love what you’re wearing—are interrogations of meaning: do you understand what I mean, how are you receiving this, do you love me too?

In life there are no final statements, no final acts, and even the most final of acts is a question. Which is: where am i going?

And: did it matter?

Which sounds grim, or maybe obvious, but has the virtue of being true.

Even rejection is a question. Say anything you want, as angrily as you want, yell it scream it whatever, it always ends with the mark that signifies a question. The person who hates a person is always wondering why the other person doesn’t care.

Fuck you. That’s a question, too.

If you want to make money off this fact:

Take finger air quotes “brands.”

Brands spend a lot of time embodying statements, but of course they’re really asking questions.

Just Do It is really asking what’s stopping you, besides yourself?

I’m Lovin’ It is really asking why feel guilty?

A Diamond Is Forever is really asking yes but how much do you really love her you fickle piece of shit? or something like that anyway.

Maybe this is why question slogans never do it for me. Got Milk? was just another way to ask if this celebrity jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?

Of course, the question behind a brand is really just the strategic insight that led to that brand, or to that campaign.

But in my experience I find too many teams trying to get to a creative answer, instead of better understanding the strategic question.

Which is to say: Fewer mission statements please, more mission questions.

I was talking the other day to a reader

Let’s call him Chris, because Chris is his name.

Chris is a very interesting guy. Very into logistics and sustainability and local manufacturing. He was wondering whether and how he should start publishing something about those topics.

Many questions arise in circumstances like this, and quickly.

Should I write, is one of course. What should I write, that’s a big one, too.

Those are fine questions to ask, all well and good. But the more important question to ask is the one you may have never asked yourself, way back when you started going down whatever rabbit hole you went down in the first place.

Why do I care about these topics?

What is it about these topics that’s interesting to me?

Whatever the answer is, that’s where your writing begins.

You’re just trying to find readers who have the same questions you do.

Which means that the act of writing for a reader is the act of trying to find those answers—those further questions beyond—together.

-s.

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A visual collection of advice that doesn’t suck // how I imagine my computer feels inside // From friend of the letter Russell Davies: “I’m increasingly reluctant to think of January as a time for fresh starts - I keep them for the spring. January is for rest and recuperation and maybe for thinking and planning.” // Cuddling, weights, winter forests: 101 healthier and happier tips // Memenome turns academic papers into brainrot videos // this is a magical roll top writing desk // Here are all of the 2024 Year in Music lists from All Music, AV Club, Brooklyn Vegan, etc. // A handy collection of small web building and creative tools // how to sabotage your workplace // Smartphones don’t suck. People do //

p.s. I don’t know if you remember, but last year I set out to make cassette mix tapes for my brother and sister. Well y’all, I made cassette mix tapes. Was it a process? Yes it was a process. Do they sound good? No they do not! But along the way I created playlists in Spotify, because convenient. Here’s SIDE A (indie country soul) and SIDE B (jazzy classic electronic). Enjoy.

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Delightful is a 100% organic, free-range, desktop-to-inbox newsletter devoted to helping you nurture creativity in your daily life and work. Links every Tuesday (free), resources on Thursdays (rarely, paid). Your host is Steve Bryant, friendly neighborhood brand and content strategist, who is for hire (linkedin).

A few ways I can help you:

1. Hire me as a content advisor to create powerful content ideas, manage your content engine, or optimize your workflows. Book a call.

2. Work with me 1:1 to audit your existing content and/or create an audience profile and competitor map. Book a call.

3. Take my 1-day workshop for creating effective content for you and your team. Book a call or buy the self-serve version.

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{ 🔒 archive }

• Content frameworks for advertising agencies
  4 frameworks for agencies shifting to a content model

• My content strategy toolkit
  14 tools for organizing, measuring, and creating content

• My value proposition template
  A Canva whiteboard for designing a value proposition that targets a customer segment with your unique value

• My concept diagram template
  A Figjam for diagramming the complex relationships between concepts

• Product Content Strategy 101
  For anybody who’s creating a product that requires editorial content

• The Bento Box Method for developing topical content
  A cute and useful way to structure your content topics

• Marketing strategy for agencies 101
  The four different content marketing strategies for agencies, written for the exec team at a previous agency

• Positioning strategy for agencies 101
  The four different ways to compete, written for the exec team at a previous agency

• Hiring scorecards and why you should use them
  Stop using voodoo hiring methods, friend

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Thanks for reading. Be seeing you.

What confounds a society is not serious opposition, but the lack of seriousness altogether. Generals can more easily suffer attempts to oppose their warfare with poiesis than attempts to show warfare as poiesis.

—James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games