Year One: The Verse Newsletter Highlight Reel
First-Year Favorites
We love a good highlight reel, so we thought we’d flash back on our first year by pulling up some past newsletter hits. Whether you’re new to The Verse or you’ve been with us from the jump, it’s worth revisiting some faves. If we do say so ourselves, they’ve aged well. Just like us.
No—we’re not talking about your style. Or questionable fashion trends. We’re talking the little tweaks that can take a piece from ill-fitting to polished and put-together. Stylist Samantha Dowson evangelizes the transformative power of a good tailor.
While there’s no doubt that control over your physical space clears up mental space, there’s another organizing opp hiding in plain sight that will give you more bang for your buck. We went to our favorite organizer Rachel Rosenthal to take our decluttering next-level. She quickly named the two spots we usually stay a good 6 feet from: our phones and our inboxes.
One of our favorite celebrations of small things is Admiral Bill McRaven’s Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World. We asked him why now, more than ever, we should start our days with simple wins.
If you’ve ever done the cut-them-too-long-then-too-short dance, you may find arranging store-bought flowers daunting. To help us achieve that just-delivered look, we turned to Meredith Wallace of Rocking Bird Flower Co. While you’re flowering your nest, you just might discover the joy of arranging.
Give yourself a halftime speech.
To break down the anatomy of this classic in the communication genre, we talked to those who have coached and been coached. As you read their advice, imagine coaching yourself in your own specific situation. Here’s your opportunity to challenge yourself, recenter your focus on your goals, reach for some confidence and hold yourself accountable. If the Rockford Peaches can do it, so can you. Who will you be when you emerge from the tunnel for the second half?
Once upon a time in our pre-Verse corporate lives, we heard some stellar advice when faced with business curveballs: Build a cabinet. It’s a concept as established as the US Presidency itself; none other than the Constitution prescribes its role in advising the President on any subject he (or how ‘bout SHE) might require, under the purview of each member's office. It’s slowly gained popularity in a business sense, and is even a regular Saturday feature in The Wall Street Journal.
Sh*t you should by now: kitchen edition.
Somewhere along the way to new culinary adventures, we forgot to hone our basic moves. Case in point: How is it that we are only now perfecting a simple steak? Sometimes we’re so busy seeking top-chef challenges, we forget how gratifying it can be to do the workaday stuff well. As DaVinci so accurately put it, “Simplicity is ultimate sophistication”—or, put differently, basic need not be basic.
As we evolve (devolve?) more and more fully toward emoji expression, we half expect cave drawings or hieroglyphics to make a comeback. But even in our time of hobbled IRL communications, we would like to place a vote of confidence on the good old-fashioned written word. When it’s good, persuasive writing is still effective AF—and maintains ample utility in our tech-enabled world.
