The Newsletter Nerd Show – Details, episodes & analysis

Sophie Cross is one of the kindest and savviest people I’ve had the privilege of knowing. And if you aren’t connected with her already, I highly recommend you correct it right away and give her a follow!

An entrepreneur, writer, editor-in-chief, playlist connoisseur, advocate for freelancers, lover of vans, and all-around badass, Sophie shows up in numerous ways for the community and has several newsletters under her belt including:

• The now-retired Thoughtfully
• The Dunker by Freelancer Magazine
• And the newest star in the block, Make It Monday

At the time of recording this episode, we delved deep into the Thoughtfully newsletter.

Tune in to hear Sophie talk about her life in the van, crazy business ideas, navigating the freelancer life, having a song for everyone she meets, the importance of community and so much more!

This is episode #19 on the Newsletter Nerd Show. 

Meet Fio Dossetto.

A lover of em dashes and sticky notes, she writes the contentfolks newsletter to help marketers create content that truly serves the audience.

When she’s not writing the newsletter, she works on other interesting projects like this. And for a kid who always found joy in words, the opportunity to create a comic book about email delivery dogs and having ‘spread joy’ as a success metric is a wild dream coming true!

In this episode, we talk about opinionated editors—em dash is THE best punctuation mark of all time, don’t fight me—finding joy in words, giving yourself permission to be silly, unlearning things as a newsletter creator and a whole lot more!

Dig in by hitting the play button!

Find out more about the Newsletter Nerd Show here - https://www.thenewsletternerdshow.com/ 

Time Stamp:

00.40 - Why em dashes are the best punctuation marks of all time

02.14 - What Fio found joy in as a child

03.28 - A project where spreading joy was the goal

06.24 - Silly mockup pages to fuel creativity

09.10 - How contentfolks happened

11.30 - Going from a weekly newsletter to a fortnightly newsletter (+ Ann Handley)

16.02 - How the sticky note representation came to life

18.21 - One thing that Fio had to unlearn mindfully as a newsletter creator

20.36 - Not playing the numbers game

22.35 - What success means for contentfolks

24.14 - If Fio could only one newsletter for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

27.27 - Something Fio considers a newsletter sin

28.39 - The Reading Room

35.35 - Fio plays Have You Ever

Ryan Gosling is seated in his therapist's office. When his therapist asks him what's bothering him, he gulps down the lump in his throat and starts talking about how Papyrus, the font that the blockbuster movie Avatar (yes, the one with the blue-skinned, human-alien hybrid creatures) used in its logo, was haunting him.

So it was no surprise when Hua Shu—creator of the FontDiscovery newsletter—said that Papyrus or anything resembling Papyrus is the font she’ll never use even when all hell breaks loose.

A rebellious spirit from the start, design—fonts in specific—gave Hua a space to break rules and channel her rebelliousness. Today, she is a designer, coder, design professor, Google Font contributor, and a full-time font nerd!

Hit that play button below to enjoy a 27-ish minute glimpse at the world of typography - through the eyes of a clay-loving-kid who had no idea she’d fall in love with fonts when she grew up.

This is episode #9 on The Newsletter Nerd Show.

Drop me a line here if you want to see yourself or someone you know on the show!

As I checked my microphone one last time while also praying that my notorious pup (we call her Pebbles) doesn’t break into an impromptu melody only she knows the notes to, a Zoom notification echoed across the room.

*Cole Schafer entered the waiting room*

(THE Cole Schafer, who runs Honey Copy and along with it, three newsletters - Sticky Notes, Stranger than Fiction, and Chasing Hemingway)

At 2.30 am, there's a thin line between dreams, illusion, and reality. And this sure seemed more like the former two than the latter.

“She’s cute,” Cole spoke in a baritone that still hasn’t escaped my ears, when Pebbles unexpectedly jumped in to claim her spotlight, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (quite literally).

A sheepish grin and multiple failed attempts at shoving a canine tail away from my face later, the conversation you’re about to witness began.

This is episode #8 on The Newsletter Nerd Show.

Marketing, when stripped away from all of its fancy evening clothes, is simply the art of understanding people. And irrespective of how many people tell you we’re all rational beings, we couldn’t be any farther from it.

And that’s precisely the message Kushaan Shah’s newsletter—The Marketing Mind Meld—tries to drive home. The about section of the newsletter reads Musings on marketing and human behaviour that will blow your mind 🤯. 

Read one edition and you’ll know this is not yet another snake oil marketer making tall claims but is someone who knows the depth of what he’s saying.

This is episode #7 on The Newsletter Nerd Show :)

Time Stamp

1:54 - The Story Unfolds

24:44 - Reading Room

29:13 - Newsletter Have You Ever

For Anirudha Basak, time slows down in his ancestral city of Kolkata (previously Calcutta). A place where people take their own sweet time for banter and tea, it is the city’s āddā that he fondly reminisces.

Āddā is a salon-like gathering at which thoughts and persuasions of the day could be discussed in a good-natured, if sometimes vociferous, manner.

After he signed and sealed his love letter to the cultural capital of India, Anirudha went on to tell me about his banking newsletter - Bank on Basak. What began as a news repository for his personal reference soon became a trusted source that simplifies the Indian banking landscape for the rest of us.

From the mistakes that young people make when investing to the discipline of consistency, this conversation branches out and runs a wide course, not unlike the Hooghly river.

Hit that play button to dig into the conversation!

Time Stamp

0:41 - The Story Unfolds

24:08 - Reading Room

29:16 - Newsletter Have You Ever

When I’m 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, my grandkids will ask me how I once managed to remain sane amidst all the noise on Twitter and found its warm, happy corner. And I’ll tell them all about the incredible List Lady™ aka Chantelle Marcelle.

Loved for her marketing chops, Twitter list-making skills, and ability to hype up fellow marketers and creators, Chantelle writes a fortnightly marketing newsletter that caters to novices and veterans alike.

Here’s her elevator pitch:

I think I do a really good job at collecting insights and information from a variety of different sources, from a variety of diverse voices. I don't just focus on the leading influencers of the moment. I think I’ve done a good job at picking out those unique, maybe lesser-known stories and data points and insights and putting those together into something to help inspire or motivate others.

Tune in to episode #5 of The Newsletter Nerd Show to hear all about Chantelle’s newsletter, her take on the Oxford comma, the role of communities, being inclusive, and the quality of curation, among others.

Luciano Vizza’s newsletter on food and cooking—Salt Sear Savor—is served hot every week and is a complete treat!

But it comes bearing a warning - If you’re looking for a traditional step-by-step, hand-me-the-recipe-in-a-book kinda newsletter, this isn’t for you.

However, if you’re looking for one that dices the “why” behind every recipe, sautés anecdotes (there’s a really good one about pasta🍝), and garnishes with puns (*internal screaming*), Salt Sear Savor is just the one for you!

This is episode #4 on The Newsletter Nerd Show. 

If given the chance, would you pack your figurative heart in a suitcase right now and gallop away to mystery lands you’ve never heard of?

I know I wouldn’t. But, I know of people who’d scoop this up like an ice cream vendor deftly would, no questions asked. How people can be devoutly passionate about condensing their lives in nothing but a suitcase and strut away at a moment's notice is beyond me.

Sairam Krishnan is one of those people and says his idea about travel, reading, and writing involves a lot of thinking about place.

A reader, writer, and marketer, Sairam runs two newsletters—The CMO Journal, one for the trying, thinking marketers and East Coast Road, a space for creative, personal pieces. He’ll always be someone I look up to because of his sheer dedication towards his craft and even simply as a human being.

So, when he agreed to join me on The Newsletter Nerd Show, I knew I was in for a memorable conversation :)

This is episode #3 on The Newsletter Nerd Show!

What does it take to be declared the cooler sibling in the family?

You can sport sumo suits and wrestle your way to the title. Or, you can simply let me be the judge.

Today's smart 🍪award goes to the newest guest on the Newsletter Nerd Show - Ankita Tripathi, who runs The Sunday Grammarphones newsletter!

"I was appalled by my brother's entire lifestyle because he was a successful writer," she began after we had settled into our virtual squares.

But thanks to him, what followed was a newly found passion for poetry and grammar. Several years and one *cough* viral LinkedIn post later, she began offering valuable grammar sessions.

This is episode #2 on The Newsletter Nerd Show. Sit back and enjoy :)