Welcome to The League of Extraordinary Analysts
A Monthly Analytics Newsletter for the Extraordinary and Those on Their Way
You're receiving this email for one of two reasons: 1) you subscribed forever ago and have since forgotten about it, 2) you were a student in my class over the last two weeks. There's an unsubscribe at the bottom if you're not interested in receiving more of these. Alternatively, you could forward this to a friend or two that you think would benefit.
League History
The League of Extraordinary Analysts is a domain that I bought years ago in hopes of encouraging my team to publish about the work they were doing. Shortly after we published the second post, we were laid off along with about 30% of the company. The good news is that it all worked out and everyone ended up somewhere better. The bad news is that The League has been on hold since. I'm hoping to jumpstart it with this newsletter and see what happens.
If you're interested in publishing on The League of Extraordinary Analysts, reply to this email and let's make it happen. If you want to write, but don't have an idea then you should also reply to this email.
Let's talk about mentorship...
There's a term we use in-industry called "managing up," and I've found there are many parallels between successful employees who can manage up and successful mentees who benefit from the mentors in their life. Full disclosure, I hated the term "manage up" when I first heard it. It felt like a scapegoat for managers who didn't understand how to develop their people and when used maliciously, it can mean that. However, if used correctly, it will put you ahead of the pack. I couldn't fit everything I wanted to say in a reasonably-sized email so you can read the remainder of the blog post here.
Extraordinary Analytics Jobs
The Techstars Associate Program program is a great internship program for anyone interested in entrepreneurship.
They have four associate roles open right now in Cary, NC:
I CAN'T STRESS HOW INCREDIBLE OF AN OPPORTUNITY THIS IS...Please reach out if you want to apply but want help preparing for the process.
Extraordinary Resources
If you're one of my students from the last two weeks, you'll know that I love to share resources. The list below is some of the resources we talked about in class recently. I'll share more in each version of this newsletter that goes out.
Books
Linchpin by Seth Godin: This book changed my whole outlook and accelerated my career in ways I couldn't have imagined.
Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett: The advice in this book, specifically about negotiating your salary is priceless.
Web Resources
Entrepreneurship Toolkit from Techstars
Startup Job Opportunities in Raleigh Triangle
Thurgood Marshall x Hennessy Fellows Program for Career Preparation
TechStackd Community for Underrepresented Folks in Tech
ProductHunt - Community for entrepreneurs to launch their new products
AirTable -- A great tool to try piloting and prototyping new ideas
Social Media
A note about social media: the key to using social media in a way that doesn't rot your brain is to focus on people who help you grow, not just those who help you consume. Social media is your corner of the internet, so curate it carefully and use it to your advantage, instead of your detriment.
My favorite tweet right now:
Extraordinary Follows
Some of my favorite people in my corner of the internet right now. You’ll notice none of these people identify as analysts, but they’re all analytical thinkers, which is really what matters.
Arlan Hamilton: Founder of Backstage Capital, a venture capital fund for underrepresented entrepreneurs
Nicky Chulo: Grammy-winning Art director/designer for Atlantic Records and Trap Karaoke
Casey Carter: Seattle's hardest working woman in entertainment
Mina Markham: Senior engineer at Slack; built the tech that powered HRC's 2016 Presidential Campaign
Shea Serrano: Author of Basketball and Other Things and The Rap Year Book
Michell Clark: Marketing and Branding Visionary
Congratulations for making it to the end...
p.s. Do you have a LinkedIn? If not, please make one! If you already have one, or if when you make one, reply to this email with a link to your profile within the next 7 days and I'll pick a random winner and send you a copy of a book of your choice from the list above.