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In Episode #626, Nathan interviews Derek Thompson. He\u2019s a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, one of the biggest media companies out there. His first book, Hit Makers, is about the science of hits, pop culture, and technology and why people like what they like. He currently resides in New York.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 Homo Deus
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Mark Zuckerberg
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Evernote
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cTake more risks because people are fundamentally resilient and can handle the downside of those risks\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 \u2013 Nathan introduces Derek to the show
• 02:15 \u2013 The reason people go into journalism is because they seek answers to questions
• 02:21 \u2013 For Derek, the best reason to write a book was to answer questions
• • 02:29 \u2013 Derek loved writing about what people like
• 02:33 \u2013 People say a book has to have an \u201celevator pitch\u201d
• • 02:39 \u2013 Books are more of a broken elevator
• 03:36 \u2013 \u201cCreativity is the ability to come up with surprising answers to familiar problems\u201d
• 04:36 \u2013 Derek wrote his book to allow himself the opportunity to be curious about anything he found interesting
• 05:00 \u2013 Derek worked with Penguin Publishing
• • 05:10 \u2013 Derek had an agent, Dell Ross, who was Derek\u2019s proposal doctor
  • 05:35 \u2013 Derek and his agent sent the proposal to every publisher they could reach
  • 05:43 \u2013 Derek also talked directly to publishers
  • 06:06 \u2013 There are a lot of different audiences for a single book
  • 06:10 \u2013 Derek\u2019s agent was his first audience member
• 06:18 \u2013 Derek picked his agent because she\u2019s unsentimentally intelligent and has a motherly approach
• 07:27 \u2013 Hit Makers came out in February 2017
• 08:08 \u2013 The rating in Amazon was quite high for a first-time book writer
• 08:40 \u2013 \u201cSelf-publishing is riskier\u201d
• 09:15 \u2013 The average amount an author gets for the book sales
• 10:30 \u2013 Derek hasn\u2019t talked about his advance with his agent
• • 10:58 \u2013 The delta was probably about 2X
• 11:11 \u2013 There are publishers who believed that Derek\u2019s book wouldn\u2019t work at all
• 11:20 \u2013 Almost all book proposals from first-time authors are rejected and the best example of this is J.K. Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter
• 12:46 \u2013 \u201cThe future of popularity is a very tricky business\u201d
• 13:13 \u2013 The easiest metaphor for the science of popularity is the weather
• 14:09 \u2013 One of the theses in the book was to ask the question: is virality a myth?
• 16:45 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Creativity is the ability to come up with surprising answers to familiar problems.
• Most book proposals from first-time authors are rejected, but there will be that ONE who will believe in you.
• People are fundamentally resilient, so TAKE that risk \u2013 the regrets of not taking that risk will be more difficult to handle.

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Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox\xa0 \u2013 The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Organifi \u2013 The juice was Nathan\u2019s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio \u2013 Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Freshbooks \u2013 Nathan doesn\u2019t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives