A gentle close to the week

Plus, 11 beautiful things I wanted to share with you. / Issue 1,525

Oh, hi friends!

Goodbye, January. Goodbye, February. Farewell March, April, May, June.

You were here for us and things happened — things I’d write about, if only I could remember — but now we’re shrugging off the weight of two seasons and entering the summer bridge.

We don’t want big goals in the summer bridge.

You might be reading this at the train station, or at a family gathering, or two weeks after the Fourth of July when you’re clearing out an email backlog.

We want summer to be summer: light, breezy, memorable.

But there’s so much ahead: new school seasons, fresh jobs, launches and limitless possibilites.

So we can think of summer — especially a holiday weekend summer — as a perfect bridge from here to there.

It’s a perch from which to observe.

That was then, this is now, up ahead is everything else.

Enjoy the gentle bridge.

You deserve the break.

11 Beautiful Things I Wanted to Tell You About

• Musical theater people: I watched this master class of writers pitching their shows and learned so much! We all have to pitch ourselves — and our projects, theater-related or not — so watching other people be brave helped me understand how to be brave, too.

• Speaking of theater, the Theatr app is a useful resource to grab reasonable tickets to shows! Like Stubhub for Broadway and off-Broadway.

• Cher Hale’s 10 (Free) Ways to Receive Mentorship is so valuable — especially love her reach-out email templates at the bottom.

• Safeguard your creativity. I always like what Nicole Zhu has to say, and how she says it.

• Also, did you know Jeff Daniels can SING?! This is a perfect song he wrote (thanks to Maria DiFabbio for sending!).

• A trio of people I’ve been very lucky to work with over the past year have recently released books! LOVE to see it!

Chanchal Garg’s Unearthed: The Lies We Carry & The Truths They Bury is a beautiful, revealing memoir about trusting your inner voice and how Chanchal reclaimed her bicultural identity on her own terms.

Nicole Loher’s Love, Loss, and Everything in Between is a gorgeous book of poetry and prose charting the difficulties and highs of love and the triumph of rediscovering yourself. Watching this book grow from query letter (which we worked on in a Launch the Plane session two years ago!) to pub day was such a gift.

Selena Soo’s Rich Relationships: Create a Million-Dollar Network for Your Business is a book I’ve already given to eight friends (with more on the way!). I’ve learned so much from Selena about how to show up in the world, nurture relationships, and write better cold emails (her templates are gold).

• “Pull the heart of your work out of your chest and lay it out there for the gods, that’s all I’m asking of you,” he told them. “Not much.”

— From this great profile of Sam Freedman of the Columbia Journalism School.

• Finally, a year after everyone recommended it to me, I watched Thelma on a plane. Loved it SO much. It’s on Hulu. What’s better than watching 95-year-old June Squibb act circles around everyone? She’s starring in another new movie this year, as she should. It’s never too late to play the lead in your own life.

Enjoy your Fridays, your Saturdays, and your Sundays. Talk soon.

P.S. — My Launch the Plane strategy sessions are back for the summer!!! Learn more here.

P.P.S. — I’m also starting something new: Open Skies Day — free 15-minute brainstorming slots held once a month. If you want a quick spark of clarity, July is booked but sign up here for August!