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What We Value Versus What We Pay For
Not everything we value works as a product—or why writing a premium newsletter is more like a crowdfunding campaign than a business
 • 
Tara McMullin
5
'The Creator Economy Is Eating Creative Acts'
This moment on the internet is weird—and more than a little frustrating. I sat down with Charlie Gilkey and Kate Tyson to hash it out.
 • 
Tara McMullin
, 
Charlie Gilkey
, and 
Kate Tyson
4
"Wait, I think you're platform-pilled"
Peer into the matrix and discover how everything we think we know about creating content and online marketing is an illusion.
 • 
Tara McMullin
1
What Makes an Expert an Expert?
The personal growth space is riddled with self-proclaimed experts in everything from relationships to careers to wellness. Who should you trust?
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Tara McMullin
"She Looks Like an Instagram" Or, How Empowerment Became A Brand
How the aesthetics of self-help shape its message and marketing
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Tara McMullin
Most Popular
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Sorry (Not Sorry), Self-Promotion Doesn't Work
 • Tara McMullin
9
How A Syllabus Could Change The Way You Plan
 • Tara McMullin and Sean McMullin
5
Quid Pro No Thank You
 • Tara McMullin
5
'The Creator Economy Is Eating Creative Acts'
 • Tara McMullin, Charlie Gilkey, and Kate Tyson
4
Rethinking work, business, and leadership for the 21st-century economy

Decoding Empathy

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How to Make Room for Others
How can we reimagine our practices, systems, and norms to invite everyone to participate and contribute?
 • 
Tara McMullin
Learning Empathy from Copywriters & Doppelgangers
Copywriting gave me a toolkit for cognitive empathy. So I asked a copywriter to tell me how she does what she does.
 • 
Tara McMullin
Decoding Accessibility and Sparking Wonder
Questions about accessibility are really questions that wonder about who gets to be together and how they gather.
 • 
Tara McMullin
A Brand is a Constellation
The mythical norm, visibility bias, emerging from the margins, and expanding our circle of recognition
 • 
Tara McMullin
5
Decoding the Language of Empathy
Ask 100 people what empathy is, and you'll get 100 different answers. Yet, empathy is billed as an essential "soft skill" for today's world of work. So…
 • 
Tara McMullin

Work

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Evenings and Weekends
My daughter's simple question made me (eventually) remember the people we so easily forget when we talk about work.
 • 
Tara McMullin
1
How to Give Yourself a Break with Progressive Overload & Periodization
Rest and recovery are critical to pursuing excellence in all its forms.
 • 
Tara McMullin
2
Speculative Investing Made Personal
How we've turned ourselves into speculative projects—and then pulled others into our schemes.
 • 
Tara McMullin
17
The Subversive Potential of Defining 'Good'
Without clearly establishing what we're really trying to do, we end up relying on assumptions of what's good—assumptions that rarely align with our…
 • 
Tara McMullin
Rethinking Creativity
Creativity seems to be the cure for whatever ails you. But there is reason to be cautious when invoking its name.
 • 
Tara McMullin
1
How to Take Back the Vision of the Creator Economy
"How do you want to live?" that question—and a few more—are at the heart of my conversation with Charlie Gilkey and Kate Tyson.
 • 
Tara McMullin
, 
Charlie Gilkey
, and 
Kate Tyson
2
What Works
What Works
What Works is a newsletter and podcast about work, the many ways it shapes us, and how we can better shape it.
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This Is Not Advice

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14:43
Why Nachos Aren't on the Menu
Or, how do you decide to expand your business to include a new product or service offering?
 • 
Tara McMullin
How Structure Transforms Our Ideas
The way we structure our work can turn mere information into stories and wisdom.
 • 
Tara McMullin
19:01
Process Entropy and Process Evolution
If you're waiting for the day your business, system, or process runs itself, you'll be waiting forever. Change happens—what we do with it is what…
 • 
Tara McMullin
2
17:47
Making What Can't Be Sold
How do you turn a jumble of thoughts into a cohesive project?
 • 
Tara McMullin
1
14:03
How A Syllabus Could Change The Way You Plan
Planners and project management apps reinforce linear, chronological thinking. What if we used a completely different medium to plan for growth?
 • 
Tara McMullin
 and 
Sean McMullin
5
24:19

Productivity

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How to Give Yourself a Break with Progressive Overload & Periodization
Rest and recovery are critical to pursuing excellence in all its forms.
 • 
Tara McMullin
2
What I've Learned About Pacing Myself
On coaching myself to go slower and say 'no' more often
 • 
Tara McMullin
What Works?
A brief reflection on effectiveness
 • 
Tara McMullin
How to Rethink Work Stress
The stress of work can be especially tricky to describe for creative and knowledge workers who love what they do. That doesn't make it less real.
 • 
Tara McMullin
How to Feel Good About Going Slow
I love going fast. But here's how I also learned to love being patient and enjoying the process.
 • 
Tara McMullin
1
Rethinking work, business, and leadership for the 21st-century economy

Recent posts

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Toward a "Local" Approach to Building a Business
Or, the trouble with scaling up
 • 
Tara McMullin
2
How Advice Culture Turns Us Into Winners (And Losers)
"Self-help" is more than a category of books or podcasts—it's a medium through which we perceive the world and ourselves.
 • 
Tara McMullin
"Do People Know What It Is?"
The case for prioritizing recognition over attention in offer development and marketing
 • 
Tara McMullin
2
Evenings and Weekends
My daughter's simple question made me (eventually) remember the people we so easily forget when we talk about work.
 • 
Tara McMullin
1
You Get What You Pay For—Or Do You?
Thoughts on price, sustainability, and our due diligence as business owners in response to NYT's "They Spent Their Life Savings on Life Coaching"
 • 
Tara McMullin
3
On Restlessness
"The urge to leave began with a cricket song."
 • 
Tara McMullin
Leaving the Cult of Never Enough
At age 50, Manisha Thakor realized that she'd sacrificed her life at the altar of work. Her new book tackles how to unwind a toxic relationship with…
Published on What Works • 
Always Be Optimizing
Mechanical nursemaids, self-imposed insomnia, maintenance as art, and the quest for a life that's full but not overflowing—not in that order.
 • 
Tara McMullin
1
Margins of Maneuverability
A no-win scenario reminds us we have room to experiment. I speak with former Teen Vogue executive editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay about her new book, The…
 • 
Tara McMullin
How to Give Yourself a Break with Progressive Overload & Periodization
Rest and recovery are critical to pursuing excellence in all its forms.
 • 
Tara McMullin
2
Introducing Summer Seminar x What Works
Join me for an 8-week adventure into the wilds, and rethink rest, comfort, and when we've done enough.
 • 
Tara McMullin
Black Box Thinking
How is artificial intelligence impacting the way we think and what we know to be true?
 • 
Tara McMullin
© 2024 Tara McMullin
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