Volume 19
A Midjourney crash course, handshake gender norms, trippy modern fairy tales and a podcast software rec.
Hi and welcome to Volume 19 of Content People.
I was on vacation in upstate NY last week. Kind of missed putting this bad boy together.
Hope everyone’s having a great week.
Here we go.
The Content People Episode
LinkedIn-famous Drew Brucker joined. We covered: Why he started posting on LinkedIn, what he thinks it takes to be successful on the platform, and how to engineer a career pivot. And he gave me a crash course on Midjourney, which is coming for Shutterstock’s lunch. 😬 🥪
Check it on Spotify, Apple, and Google.
PS: We hit more than 10K listens earlier this month. Thank you so much for all the support here.
Listening To
Conversations with Tyler. This episode was especially compelling. Tyler Cowen and entrepreneur Daniel Gross explore:
Conducting job interviews, formulating questions, and spotting talent.
The importance of a really good homepage for even super early-stage start-ups.
What charisma is and how it manifests (or fails to translate) in remote environments.
And why do some of the most successful men in the world (they only mentioned men, FWIW) drink so much Diet Coke?
Anyone who conducts job interviews, cultivates teams and talent or focuses on innovation might find it interesting. Tyler and Daniel co-wrote this book, which is now on my list.
The Quote
Ok. Need some opinions on this. 🤝
In the above Conversations with Tyler episode, Tyler Cowen referenced experiencing an awkward handshake moment when meeting with women.
COWEN: We’re both men. You go to shake hands with the women. It’s not clear what the convention is, what the handshake should be like. There’s a clear standard with other men, and if the man matches that standard, at least you know they’re good at prep, good at a certain kind of conformity, good at learning particular things. But the handshake from a woman — it’s just a confusion. Obviously, it doesn’t exist over Zoom, and that’s better, I think.
I thought this was really interesting.
As a little kid, my dad gave me basic handshake lessons.
And, in professional environments, I’ve always expected to shake hands (when appropriate).
But I’ve definitely noticed that, for some men, there’s a hesitation - they might shake the hands of the men in the room first, and then look at me with a flash of apprehension.
At that point, I usually just smile and initiate a handshake.
It can feel a little bit embarrassing and othering (in my experience) - especially when you’re the only woman in the room.
I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts, experiences, and preferences around this:
What’s the vibe on handshakes these days?
Are we all-in on gender-neutral handshake expectations?
In this post-Covid age, are we just less into touching hands at all?
Reading
White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelli Lynch. Trippy modern fairy tales. Post-apocalyptic vampire Sci-Fi stories. Could not put it down.
Recommending
If you’ve thought about starting a podcast: I cannot recommend Zencastr, a recording and distribution software, more highly. It’s $25 per month, super easy to use and very reliable. AND: They have amazing customer service.
Case in point: I emailed them a question about my RSS feed last week, but then figured it out separately. Their customer service team followed up with me twice via email just to make sure I saw their reply and was all set. Fate@Zencastr: Wherever you are, thank you.
Not an ad. Just a rec. (I wrote a lot more about starting a podcast here, too.)
That’s it for this week.
Hope you’re doing well. Thanks for reading.
Meredith
You know how I feel about handshakes, Meredith! Haha. They are the bane of my existence as a sweaty handed person. Away with them!!
It is 100% correct to shake a woman's hand, no questions or hesitation. I have a firm handshake and deploy it happily. It's weird that so many people comment with surprise about it being firm. Women everywhere-- firm that handshake up. Let's not give dudes everywhere THIS simple reason to other us. There's plenty of other shit, but let's keep handshakes neutral. (And firm!)