The Best of @BJMendelson - Issue #4

Hey Hey!

Welcome to another edition of The Best (of) @BJMendelson wherein I attempt to entertain you in fifteen minutes or less.

Hopefully less.

It should not take anyone fifteen minutes to read any email, let alone a newsletter from some guy you know on the Internet.

If you’re getting this newsletter for the first time, please reply to this email with just the word “Bulbasaur”— this helps to keep my email in your inbox and out of the spam folder. Or worse, the “Promotions” tab.

You ever been to the “Promotions” tab? Nobody is wearing a mask. It’s a bad neighborhood. One guy on the street corner keeps asking me if I have tickets to see Pierce Brosnan singing covers of NAS songs. I didn’t even know that was a thing! Why would I have tickets for that?

Anyway, adding me as a contact ensures that you get this newsletter every Wednesday. All you gotta do is: 

Call me, Apple. I’ll be here all week to write your next Apple Watch commercial!

(For what it’s worth, I really like the Apple Watch. Mostly because my Dad is obsessed with it, and for a 72-year-old-man who doesn’t like technology much, or know how to use it, he LOVES his Apple Watch. And anything that makes Dad happy, with the life he’s had, makes me happy too.)

I’ve been listening to The Moth since about 2015 or so. There have been a couple of really great books to come out of it, in terms of teaching people how to tell a story.

The first one was Margot Leitman’s “Long Story Short”. And the second is this one, “Storyworthy” by Matthew Dicks. You can purchase both of them here (and help local bookstores out at the same time by doing so.)

No matter where you are in your career, or what your chosen profession may be, being able to tell great stories is going to be the key to your success. So, I highly recommend both these books.

And if you’re on the fence, just watch Matthew Dicks below talk about Homework for Life, which is a concept he covers in his book. (I promise “Homework for Life” is not as terrifying as it sounds.)

Nothing! I’m still recovering from COVID. I’m feeling much better, but I didn’t do anything this week that wasn’t absolutely required of me to do.

We’ll be back on track next week with the Social Media Is Bullshit edits.

Oh, speaking of which: Since the 10th-anniversary edition is primarily an audiobook, I’m going to be posting the manuscript, cut up into bite-sized chunks, over on my LinkedIn blog. You can read the new Chapter One right here. Just do me a solid and click on the Like button at the bottom if you go read it, and leave a comment that’s slightly longer than “nice job”.

Doing this will help surface the post for other people on LinkedIn to find.

I’m doing this because I want to collect some feedback on these revised chapters. This way, I can make any last-minute changes to make the book better and more enjoyable for you when it comes out.

So if you’re not already following me on LinkedIn, I recommend you do so to get the manuscript. It costs you nothing.

And yes, I know it’s funny to be posting the manuscript for a book called “Social Media Is Bullshit” on LinkedIn, to which I reply: If social media is so great, why is LinkedIn and Meta (Facebook) running television commercials in the year of our lord 2022?

The answer? You have to live on the platforms that are right for you and for your audience, which is what the message of the book was way back in 2012.

Hey, you reading this newsletter. Do you have something you want to promote? Cheap Pops and Plugs is a community space. If you are getting this email, and have something you want to get the word out about, send me an email at BJ@BJMendelson.com and I’ll promote it here.

On the weeks when I don’t have something from the community to plug, I’ll plug an indie comic book project that I thought was interesting. That brings us to today’s plugee, ThoughtScape Comics!

“Anything is possible in the pages of ThoughtScape Comics and its taut tales of trauma and transformation, of people pushed past their limits by the gods and monsters they meet - or become - at the edges of reality.

ThoughtScape Comics is a sci-fi anthology comic book series in the tradition of 2000 AD and Dark Horse Presents and influenced by Black Mirror, The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone. Each issue is 48+ pages long and features both serialized and self-contained stories written by Matt Mair Lowery (Scout Comics’ Lifeformed) and drawn by some of the most compelling artists in indie comics.  

"A beautifully designed high-concept cornucopia, full of playful layouts and innovative art.”

- LIAM SHARP (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, 2000 AD)

“ThoughtScape Comics is the quintessential, beautifully packaged and expertly made serialized sci-fi anthology that comics needs right now.”

- LIANA KANGAS (Trve Kvlt, She Said Destroy, Black AF: Devil’s Dye)“

That’s all for this week! I hope you got a quick laugh or at the very least a polite chuckle.

Enjoyed this week’s newsletter? You can buy me a coffee here for $5.

Want to get in touch? Email me at BJ@BJMendelson.com or DM me on Twitter @BJMendelson

The only way any of us succeed as creatives is through your support, and there’s no better way to support a creative than through telling other people that we exist.

See you on Wednesday.

-BJ