CREATORS OF ALL TRADES

Newsletter #74

Cosmo AI Cover | Podcast Advertising | Tool for Shortcut Nerds | Building in Public | Walking Meetings | TV & Music Recommendations | and more

Welcome to Fresh van Root newsletter #74. Let us get right to it. Text-To-Image tools are still buzzing, now the cover of an international magazine was created using such a tool. If you are into podcast advertising, there is a video podcast in this issue that will help you. And if you are a keyboard shortcut nerd, you will like the tool recommendation on that topic. Bonus content: some music recommendations for your summer party. Stay fresh + hydrated. Rolf

Hello to 24 new subscribers. Here’s what this newsletter is about: We are exploring content and apps at the intersection of marketing, productivity, content creation, and social media – for curious minds. This bi-weekly newsletter is a summary of that exploration. 

🧠 Hand-Picked Content

Podcast Advertising: What To Measure (Video, 13mins)

I recently set up podcast ads for a client project, and this video podcast was beneficial to get the right expectations. In 10 lessons, the CMO of Ahrefs shares what the team learned after spending 200K on podcast advertising. Non-surprising takeaway: do not think of a podcast as a lead channel but as a long-time brand investment. More

Personal Growth: Talk About Your Work (Blog, 5min)

Do you need a little nudge to finally start the podcast, newsletter, blog, or community you have been thinking about? This is a motivational text to unleash your inner creator-self. More

  • Bonus: I recommend “Show your Work” by Austin Kleon as a practical guide on that topic. More

AI: Magazine Cover Created Without Digital Artist (Video, 1min)

This video documents how the Cosmopolitan cover was made with AI. It starts with the initial briefing (what the cover should show) and then shows how AI was used to land the perfect cover. As I said on Twitter, knowing to write prompts for AI tools is a great skill to develop and hone, one that can change/advance your career. My advice: if you don’t have plans to retire in the next 5 years, don’t ignore the possibilities of AI-powered text-to-image tools. More

🛠️ Tools & Apps & Services

Personal Productivity: Shortcuts For Blocks Of Text

TextExpander is software for people and teams in communication-heavy roles looking to unify and accelerate business communication. You can add text snippets/messages and access them via a user-defined shortcut. An example would be email templates, LinkedIn messages, and tweet replies that you can access via shortcuts. The company caught my attention with a Techcrunch article announcing it got 49mio (!) funding. If you repeatedly type the same messages, check it out. 1Min Demo | More

Personal Productivity: Walk During Meetings

What about hosting/attending meetings while walking instead of sitting at your desk? Spot is a startup that works on that topic. Yes, you can use Microsoft Teams/Zoom/Google Meet or other online meeting software on your mobile, but Spot is made for walking meetings specifically.

Spot automatically records and transcribes calls, it’s audio only on purpose, and it comes with a gamification feature of showing “Top Walkers”. The app’s purpose makes absolute sense, the question is if you want to add another app for just having “walking meetings” to your tool stack. Screenshots | More

About Those Text-To-Image Tools: Dall-E and Midjourney

The heavily discussed and often shared images of Dall-E took over the web in the last couple of weeks. Open AI, the company behind the service, announced a public Beta inviting 1mio people to try it out. More

  • The little sibling of the service, called Dall-E mini, is a freely available. More
  • Midjourney, a Dall-E competitor, followed this move by Open AI and also opened its beta program. More
  • A comparison of Dall-E and Midjourney was shared in the last issue of this newsletter. More

📣 Fresh van Root

Building In Public

“Build In Public” is a learning and marketing strategy. You publicly announce and document a project you are working on. This is a big topic on Twitter, where you can follow such projects with the #BuildInPublic hashtag. More

I embarked on such a project myself. What I want to accomplish is building a personal blog website using NoCode builder Bubble and Headless CMS Storyblok. You can follow my progress on Twitter. More

🏞️ Your Next Wallpaper?

Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro | Unsplash

The Wirecard Scandal (TV Series)

If you haven’t left Netflix, give “King of Stonks” a chance. It’s “inspired” by the Wirecard scandal and portraits the excesses/stupidity at the fintech. A few good laughs in there. More

DJ Sets For Your Summer Party (Soundcloud)

  • Bart B More @ That’s The Spirit – house music with many known songs remixed. More
  • Haensen&Gretel @ Fusion Festival 2022 – downtempo chill & relax set. More

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