Hey there -

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been experimenting with an idea that I think would be interesting (and hopefully inspiring) to the next generation of Jewish authors, artists, creatives and entrepreneurs.

We’ve quietly been curating and publishing interesting conversations about Jewish identity from well known figures - celebrities, well known entrepreneurs, inspiring authors and artists, social media personalities, popular podcasters, etc - ostensibly, to inspire the next generation of Jewish thought leaders to feel a bit more comfortable in their skin.

(I know, at least for me - hearing from actors and creatives and even popular comics I didn’t even know were Jewish talking about the importance of our culture and community in their own lives - has been meaningful to hear, and I know -in difficult moments, my much younger self would have absorbed some extra confidence that is so very important for young adults navigating this moment, often othered, ignored and even alone.

So - each week, starting in early September, we’ll be posing one question to our community and offering those who want to share, an audio link to answer.

Each week we’ll publish the audio of our favorite responses to that weeks question in a private podcast feed available to all those that would like to listen.

If you’d be interested in participating, let me know, below!

You can also hear excerpts from my responses to the first few questions (on mindset shifts since October 7th (above) and the biggest challenge facing young writers/creators) below.

Better together -

Ian

“The wall always lies”

he said as we made small talk on the way up the hill.

How many ways do we kid ourselves and lull ourselves into a silly sense of playing the real game?

How do we effort and invest ourselves in busy work that shrinks our story and lessens our light?

I play tennis everyday

Against a wall

My bones are brittle and my body is bruised

But I still can put on a good show

So when a kid walked by and said – “You want to hit?” – I wasn’t too put off by the USTA T-shirt

I was unprepared for the onslaught of embarrassment I brought upon my brittle body and evaporated ego.

After all – I frequent the wall.

The wall is a lie

A trick I play on myself – for myself – that I’m still in the game

But when the game comes to you – not to embarrass or impress,

But just to be what it is- real and raw, it holds up a mirror.

You can look away.

But you can’t hide and pretend you were in it all along

I said – sometime later on the way down the hill –

“Hey I haven’t played much in a while but before this…….I thought I was hitting pretty well.”

After all -

On the wall.

He said with a smile, a second time now – with evidence and our fresh experience to tether this truth

“The wall always lies “

And of course, it’s true.

If you are going to play the game – play it right and play it real

The wall is happy to delight in your delusion

But in the end – when we play it soft and small and seek out and sneak about the safety of the shade.

We fool nobody but ourselves.

A tiny but mighty collection of fonts and templates for self published authors, artists and entrepreneurs in 2026.

(I created this specifically for a workshop we hosted for Jewish authors, artists, illustrators and entrepreneurs in our community at the end of last year - but alas, these fonts are absolutely ideal for anyone who is writing a children’s book with a fun flair this summer)

I annotated many of the fonts faces for fun - which you can see in some of the selections below :)

You can download the whole collection here, it’s free (and i’m pretty sure all of the fonts included remain so, as well :)

https://challah.metalabel.com/challah01?variantId=1

#bettertogether

Ian

1. The conspiracy, revealed: most Jewish people are tired, love their families, and have strong opinions about bread.

2. Every century a new batch of people is certain the Jews are the problem. Every century those people turn out to be the problem.

3. We've been the villain in everyone's story for three thousand years and we're still just trying to find a good parking spot on Saturday morning.

4. If Jews ran Hollywood, you’d think there’d be better roles for Jewish actors over 40. (call me, Quentin, I’m available)

5. We're still here. You're still wrong. Let's get something to eat and talk about it.

6. Pharaoh tried it. Spoiler: plagues.

7. For a people supposedly obsessed with money, we’ve spent an awful lot of history being robbed.

8. The average Jewish household is less "global cabal" and more "who took the last of the good chicken with garlic sauce leftovers."

9. That asshat on X thinks he groks the entire Talmud via a Tuesday tweet. My parents want our Hebrew school tuition back.

10. OMG, your best friends girlfriends ex is Jewish and nobody likes him? Mazel Tov, first you got the proof, next you get the Nobel in Statistics.

11. Empires have risen and fallen trying to erase the Jewish people. We are currently arguing about what time to make a reservation.

12. History's most relentless scapegoat is also history's most stubborn survivor. At a certain point, you gotta admit , we must be doing something right.

13. Still here. Still cooking. Still arguing. Your move, history.

14. Life is short. We are all going to die. Is this really how we want to spend this precious moment of life - on hate & engagement bait?

15. Somewhere right now a Jewish person is stuck in traffic, late for dinner, and stressed about an email. The empire runs itself, apparently.

16. Want to hear something ironic? We have your back. Is it too much to once in a while sorta, kinda have ours, too?

17. The global Jewish conspiracy meets every Friday night. It's called Shabbat. There's brisket. You're welcome to come.

18. If Jews ran everything, Lenny Kravitz would be 100% one of us. (Love you, Lenny - keep rocking. #challah)

19. Pro Tip: You can fact-check a Jewish conspiracy theory in about four seconds. Antisemites are famously not doing this.

20. Finding someone to blame is easy. Finding the actual problem takes courage. Antisemites consistently choose the easier option.

21. Right now there is a Jewish teacher living in a country you’ve never heard of, simply to make the world a little better for those that have less.

22. If Jews really were in control of everything, it would be kosher to call our JCC dojo Jew Jitsu to make me happy. (it’s not. I asked)

23. Three thousand years of being history’s scapegoat and we still show up. At this point it’s basically a personality trait.

24. Your landlord, your boss, your ex, and the economy are not difficult because of a Jewish conspiracy. Life is difficult. For all of us.

25. Hey, we just want to work hard, think hard, love hard, laugh hard and make the world a wee bit better....just like you.

26. If we ran the universe, there would be more middle aged Jewish dudes playing point guard in the NBA (hand raised over here)

27. Antisemites tend to be very confident and very wrong simultaneously. A rare talent. (See Dunning-Kruger effect for a free evaluation)

28. We gave the world monotheism, the Ten Commandments, psychoanalysis, and the bagel. You're welcome. Now knock it off.

29. You don't have to understand Jewish culture to enjoy a deli. That's basically the whole lesson.

30. Pro tip: No matter what the genius in your FB feed tells you, Jews don’t agree on everything, let alone geopolitics, religion or war and peace.

31. Right now, there is a Jewish scientist working overtime to cure a disease someone you know, will one day have.

32. Right now, there is a Jewish lawyer, working pro bono to free an innocent man or woman from a sentence they don’t deserve.

33. Right now, there is a Jewish entrepreneur fighting for your right to say anything you choose, about the future of Jews, because freedom is a right we all deserve.

34. Jews are 0.2% of the world's population and apparently responsible for 100% of its problems. Extraordinary efficiency.

35. Our motto: Survive, thrive, often forgive but never forget. We will. (and we won’t)

36. The average Jewish person's daily concerns: traffic, their back, whether their parents are ok, & if that parking ticket will show up. Not world domination.

37. The global Jewish conspiracy meets quarterly, controls international banking, and still can't coordinate a group text.

38. Nothing says “I’ve run out of actual ideas” quite like a centuries-old scapegoat. PS - we have lots of good ideas. Let’s discuss.

39. History's most decorated losers all had one thing in common: a Jewish problem that turned out to be their problem.

40. Honestly? If you need a scapegoat to explain your life, the problem isn’t the goat.

41. 3000 years of “this ends now.” It has not ended. We have, however, perfected the art of the comeback — and the comeback meal.

42. Spend one Friday night at a Shabbat dinner and report back. We’ll wait.

:)

Ian & the tiny but mighty Juicy crew

PS - i’ve got 99 problems, and a pug is one.

In the newsletter biz, we call those FUQ’s.

ANYWAY, because i’m pretty transparent about my life.

I have very few FUQ’s left to give.

I don’t know about you.

But i’m fresh out of fuqs.

So in the absence of anything else instructive to share with my fellow Jewish authors and entrepreneurs this week, I figured I would share some of the worst performing product covers I’ve made in the last 15 years being a full time writer, designer and digital product creator.

It turns out, as my CPA a random someone reminded me last week, my sense of humor is an aquired taste.

But as I re-consider my career, something really valuable occurred to me.

When you have zero fuqs left to give, doing creative work -even if only for an audience of one - is a lot more fun.

PS - as part of our tiny book about project, we’re experimenting with turning the BIG ideas from our community into TINY interactive books……in only 3 days.

(you can see a quick demo/example of a tiny book interactive formatting experiment at the bottom of this post)

We’ll take your BIG idea, and design a tiny, interactive book ideal for every flavor of social sharing - here on Substack - on Instagram - or anywhere else your words and work land in the world.

If you’ve got a BIG idea that would make for a terrific tiny book, feel free to give me a shout in the comments below.

(this is something we’re offering for all of our communities of authors, artists and entrepreneurs, largely folks in the mental health/mindfulness/therapy professions, but for a select group of Jewish themed projects, we’ll do it for free)

Hey there -

If there is one thing i’ve learned over the last year and change running this tiny but mighty newsletter - it’s that Jewish creatives have an infinitely elastic appetite and enthusiasm for connecting with other Jewish creatives….but often have very little time (or insight) on how to actually make that land in real life.

We’re doing a series of beginner friendly workshops (by invite only - but only because the trolls keep finding us) on how to create cool things in community - through collaboration with other Jewish artists, authors and entrepreneurs - that not only make you happy, but make you money too.

(a little excerpt from our most recent is above - and if the interest is there, i’d like to do two of these in Feb as well)

These will be free - and more important to me, they are not about promoting some sort of community container or walled garden of our own - (on Substack or otherwise) but rather, trying to inspire and encourage folks in our Substack community who I may never meet, or will never know, go out in the world and build fun, meaningful and profitable things on your own, with your own preferred partners, through your own projects, with your own professional peers and niche neighbors, or simply others who otherwise inspire you to want to make things better, by making better things together.

As always, we want to have fun, share lessons and resources that empower, inspire and entertain, and help Jewish makers and entrepreneurs connect, collaborate and create in the spirit of making cool things that make the world a better place for all.

Teach what you know. Do what you love. Wake up the world with your work.

If you’re interested in joining the next cohort - let me know! (TBA based on interest and response)

:)

Ian, Angie, Ziggy and the Juicy Jews crew

Coming soonish (maybe june-ish)

PS - if you’re still reading this, you’ve got way too much free time too.

How about a digital day planner?

Use code “Substuck” for a special surprise.

:)

I’m not sure where this year is going…..but it’s definitely going to be better if we stick together.

:)

Ian

For those of you who haven’t yet smashed the unsubscribe button……

We’re going to be hosting a fun brand building workshop in our community for folks who crave a little bit of extra clarity with respect to your newsletter in 2026 - if you’re interested in joining us, challah in the comments!

Better Together :)

Ian and the tiny but mighty Juicy Jews family

As some of you know, we’re building a new space for Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate and create in community.

I published a tiny manifesto for some of what we’re hoping to accomplish in 2026, which is available in PDF form, here.

(note - please ignore the spelling mistakes. I’m quitting coffee today and it ain’t easy :)

If you’re interested in joining us, we should be ready in about a week.

(you can download the complete PDF here)

I appreciate you!

BetterTogether

Ian and the tiny but mighty Juicy Jews family

Good News!

Our tiny little agency has been invited to publish a year end digital product celebrating independent publishing (and publishers) in 2025, and I’ve decided to make the focus of that project - this tiny but mighty newsletter community for Jewish creatives.

By any reasonable standard, when it comes to this Substack - I’ve had far more bad ideas this year , than good ones. (and in full, I think it’s safe to say it’s kinda been a disappointing year as far as metrics go)

But…..far more important to me, it’s been a ton of fun!

A ton of fun creating content for other Jewish creatives (something i’ve never really done before) - and a ton of fun connecting with so many cool, creative and inspiring Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs. (a number of which, I can now call both creative collaborators in the real world…… and good friends)

Some highlights and lowlights……from my many attempts to keep people laughing and motivated, below :).

Much more cool stuff coming in 2026.

And it’s not too late to share your favorite piece of writing in 2025. Just drop a link to something you’ve published in 2025 that you’d love more people to see - and i’ll include it in a printable pdf/collection we’ll be posting early next week, and sharing in an email in the new year.

#bettertogether

:)

Ian

The 2 questions I hear most often from Jewish entrepreneurs just getting started on Substack are

1. How do you stay so damn sexy into middle age?

2. Where are all the funny Jews on here?

Okay, the truth is, absolutely no one asks me question #1 which really hurts my feelings.

It would take like 19 seconds and we could immediately pretend it didn’t happen so things wouldn’t feel awkward later.

Plus I would do it for you.

The next question, invariably is - where are all of the funny Jews on Substack?

Let’s be honest.

If they’re on here, they're in hiding.

Not the schmaltzy, let’s talk about Aunt Sarah’s kugel again, bad dad joke kind of funny - because meh, that’s cute……but to my ear anyway, not all that funny.

We want the edgy, occasionally outrageous, a little over the top, courageous, even confrontational pee in your pants kinda funny.

Folks on here that do it for me?

Shalom Auslander's Fetal Position

"Just to spite the world, don’t cry! Just to spite the world, only laugh, only laugh!" - Sholom Aleichem. Amen, Brother.

Big swings. Some misses. But the hits, for my money, outrageous, insightful and smart, are the biggest and longest lasting laughs on Substack - Jewish or otherwise. If you’re not subscribed you’re missing out.

Not always proud to admit it, but Andy Borowitz makes me laugh :)

The Borowitz Report

Home of Truth

By Andy Borowitz

Who are yours?

Let’s celebrate the funny Jews and shine a bright light on those that make us laugh, even during the dark and depressing days.

Share a link to your favorite funny Jewish author or creator…..on Substack or off.

AND - don’t forget, you can still share your OWN favorite piece of writing from 2025.

It’s free. It’s fast. Just post a link to your own favorite piece of writing from 2025 and we’ll share it more widely with our tiny corner of the world.

(We’re curating and collecting all of these community recommendations into a master collection that we’re going to publish and promote early in January.)

Some of the writing that has been shared thus far, that I hadn’t previously seen or read, really exemplifies the value in asking folks to share. (because the writing is fantastic, funny, entertaining and inspiring all in one go)

Finding Simcha

Pregnancy in the World’s Most Misunderstood Place

The OB/GYN office in my neighborhood runs with the efficiency of a command center. For the record, no one here says “obstetrician.” She’s just ha’ginecologit, the w…

Read more

a year ago · 10 likes · 3 comments · Hether Warshauer

Wishing all much good health, happiness, and a happy, hopeful 2026 for all of us.

Our continued career as a species could probably use a little good luck, as well :)

(the answer is sleeping late, staying active, and lots of gentle sobbing which clears the pores and gives you that fresh face just out the shower glow)

Hey there!

We’re putting together a collection of the favorite things folks in our community have created in 2025 ….and would love an extra opportunity to share with the world. (or at least our tiny but mighty corner of it)

Like fight club though, there are a few rules.

1. It absolutely doesn’t have to be on Substack, but does need to accessible via a public link

2. It does have to be posted in 2025. (which excludes the shitty poem I wrote as a junior in high school that was nominated for a state prize, to my great and enduring surprise)

3. If an essay, some pics/art/illustrations in the piece will be helpful, as it will help the final document look a bit better, and aesthetics matter

Finally, we’ll be asking for your favorite piece of writing from 2025 published by someone else early next week as well, so it’s a great opportunity to take a peek back at some of your favorite newsletters from 2025, and introduce the singular most important, inspiring or thoughtful piece with us, and others, too.

Our goal for early 2026 will be pretty simple. We simply want to go back to where we started and focus on elevating the art, ideas and creative life of our favorite Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs - curating, reading, recommending and helping to aim a few extra eyeballs at their words….and their work.

(we’re working on a fun new way to promote your books/newsletters with interactive online previews too - a little sneak peak at the beta version below.

Shabbat Shalom to all - and for everyone stuck in what looks like another stay at home snow apocolypse this weekend, remember that the science on day drinking is pretty flimsy and wine warehouse delivers. #gobirds

Ian, Ziggy and the tiny but mighty Juicy Jews fam

Hey all -

As we’ve shared privately with some folks in our community already, we’re working on a new idea for Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs who would like a fun way to promote your words and your work.

We’re designing a new series of cards that will feature tiny author and creator profiles with different unique elements across the sets. (some will have design differences as below - from the minimal to the over the top-ish - and we’ll have some fun little personality touches that we’re going to include, predicated a bit on the type of work you do. (different questions for Substack authors vs designers, vs brick in mortar business owners, etc)

The hope is to have our first beta cards out in January.

Some prototypes i’ve put together in the last day or so.

If you’d like to be featured, leave a comment in the Substack comments and I’ll share some extra details over the next few days. (this is largely going to feature NON Substack style content - we’re really hoping to feature Jewish writers, creatives, E commerce brands, shops, celebrities and folks like that who do creative work for a living, but I’m happy to include authors here who have supported/shared our efforts to build something together over the last year or so, so if that’s you, say hi!)

On another completely fun but silly note, knowing a bunch of Jewish authors and creators who have found ourselves on the receiving end of much trolling and not so super friendly DM’s from folks who aren’t huge fans of us as a talkative tribe, working with a bunch of designers and doodle artists in my day job, we created some fun “challah back stick figure bubbles” to add some ridiculously effective bad art to bounce out of uninvited stranger danger conversations you didn’t start - and are ready to end.

(we made about 30 thought bubbles you can add your own text - or use the random prefilled responses which make zero sense, but strangely……make otherwise angry people seem to scratch their heads, and slowly walk away, which never fails, to crack me up! :)

If you’d like a copy, leave us a comment and i’ll share the file!

Better Together :)

Ian

Hey there!

One of the things we’re hoping to do more of in 2026 is writing/creating more content for kids and teens. (not via Substack of course, but via our own private community)

We’ve also heard from many aspiring Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs who would like to write something meaningful for kids in the next year, who have questions about design. (fonts/illustrations/layouts/templates/etc)

This morning, I edited a list of FREE fonts that are perfect authors and artists interested in speaking to - and teaching kids of all ages and stages.

I added some commentary and thoughts on many of the fonts, too - some of which you can see a bit more detail, below :)

Each font is linked and as of this writing, 100% free.

If you want a free copy of the master file - feel free to say hi in the comments!

Teach what you know. Do what you love. Wake up the world with your work.

better together :)

Ian

PS - special thanks to Noko Washiyama, on which the idea and design is based. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Content edited and changed by Ian for Challah! the newsletter

Or not - but I was in the mood to make some bad wall art today.

PS - this is inspired by the iconic profane wall art hanging on Jonny Ive’s wall at Apple, which has inspired many copycats - of which, considering the low probability odds of someone else coming up with the same idea on a slow Tuesday afternoon in December - mine is the latest.

You’re welcome.

PPS - thanks for all of the great support on our last post - I got a bunch of emails and a few DM’s and we’re definitely going to be building this as a community project for 2026. Will have more on this in the next few days, but if you’re a Jewish author, artist, maker, creator or entrepreneur, I think you’re gonna love it.

I do very little very well.

As you probably already guessed, i’m an excellent pickleball player, I have excellent taste in indoor scarves for all seasons, i have an unusually high wine tolerance for a mid sized person and i’m really good at writing tiny books on yoga and meditation that nobody ever buys, which hurts my feelings and all 9 of my chakras.

(I know what you’re thinking - true, most people only have 7, but in a weird twist of covid era fate, i got an extra 2 from the craigslist shaman who was living in my basement for most of 2020)

When I think about the direction I’d like to take this newsletter (and our tiny but mighty design agency with a growing focus on Jewish creatives) in 2026, it kinda always comes down to three choices.

○ create cool stuff for ourselves, by ourselves

○ create cool stuff for others, by ourselves

◉ create cool containers for Jewish makers, authors, artists and entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate in community - to inspire interesting entrepreneurial and artistic ideas, and as an aspirational ideal - to make things better by making better things together.

Let’s be honest, no one is creating these places and spaces for us.

If you’re a young Jewish creative in the world these days, proud of your identity, connected to our culture and community - but you show up online to connect and create in areas that extend beyond the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves and the others in our orbit - if you care about the cultural conversation - but are firmly focused in the direction of your professional dreams - and your passion is putting your ideas, your art or entrepreneurial inspiration out into the world, there are very few Jewish places and spaces for you.

If you’re a retired art teacher with big ideas about putting your gifts to work in the world - if you want to share your experience and expertise with the world - if you want to learn how to market your art, write and self publish an ebook, create a course or community in the service of making the world a better place for the rest of us, if you feel most comfortable being open and honest and transparent with other Jewish artists and entrepreneurs - there are very few Jewish places and spaces for you.

If you’re stuck in the middle - a full time Jewish creative in the midst of a fun and successful creative career - looking to connect with other niche neighbors and professional peers in whatever work you do in the world - if you have one ear always up - looking for a new, fun, creative outlet or sexy sidehustle to lose yourself and immerse your creative ambitions in 2026 - if you feel yourself biting your tongue and burying your light in more mainstream artistic and entrepreneurial communities when it comes to advertising your identity in the midst of uncomfortable community comments and chatter - there are very few Jewish spaces built entirely for us.

So we want to build that in 2026.

A private community and collection of courses and cohorts for Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs to learn together, grow together, build together, make cool stuff together and change the world together. (or at a very minimum, to make the world a wee bit better, by making better things together)

The idea incubator and brand accelerator for ambitious Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs with a need for speed.

No politics.

No pointing fingers.

No othering each other.

A tiny community of smart creatives with big ideas.

To amplify our art, inspire ideas and build connection, creativity and collaboration within our community.

Creative Jewish people coming together to learn from each other.

To teach, learn and lead.

To share our own areas of experience and expertise in the service of connection, collaboration and creativity.

And to build an economic engine that ethically empowers everyone to actually get paid for your art, your ideas, the services you sell and the work you offer to others.

(something that I can promise, for those of us who write, create, build, design and teach for a living - no matter how much most of us push - Substack will never open the right door in the mansion of profitable publishing careers :)

If you’re interested in joining us, drop a note in the community comments and share a little bit about what you’d like to accomplish as a creative in 2026.

Teach what you know. Do what you love. Wake up the world with your work.

PS - we have a small series of tiny courses from our first book - the short video above walks through a content curation strategy that I use everyday in our design studio for creating resource collections with free/low cost tools that work wonderfully well for digital creators.

PPS - thank you for reading - I appreciate you!

:)

Ian

a few years ago, right in the middle of the lazy, hazy everyone stay at home pandemic daze, I woke up one happy July 4th weekend morning to hear my partner say - “hey, your FB page looks really weird”

(she had ostensibly been checking the “happy birthdays” as mine is 7/1 - and we took the day away as a much needed holiday weekend /birthday staycation from social media and the world)

Suffice it to say someone had been kind enough to hack my personal page to advertising my commitment to ISIS - and some sort of all in Arabic celebration of Islamic Jihad, none of which I could read, nor understand.

Even worse - the same messaging appeared on my primary business FB page - with well north of 25 thousand followers, tens of thousands of likes/shares/comments and the hundreds, if not thousands of hours (and dollars) I spent carefully, thoughtfully and SLOWLY growing an audience in the mindfulness/mental health and inner space community.

(those folks were also kind enough to use the credit card attached to my business page to run up thousands of dollars of ads to their own pet projects, of which, I was blissfully unaware, until the first “declined” charge text message appeared about a week later)

While I didn’t understand what the words on my soon to be deleted by FB with no appeal page broadcast to the world, I did understand one thing quite clearly, on that hazy, lazy summer day.

My life - and my business - were both fucked.

And while the personal stuff blew over quickly (as a middle age Jewish guy living in the suburbs with lots of middle aged Jewish guy friends and family, very few people were immune to the obvious fact that I had been hacked) - my business - my art, my ideas - my words and my work - almost of all of which I was lazy enough to let live almost exclusively on platforms that I didn’t create - nor control…….took a very long time to recover.

This is all very ironic of course, as for the longest time, when consulting my own clients and community, I would always admonish them - social media can be great for business, but always “Build your brand, on your own land”

Like many other forms of advice I offered to others over the years, I didn’t take my own :)

Anyway, I’m a fan of Substack.

But i’m also under no illusions that they couldn’t plunk me off their platform for any reason, at any time and if the only place i’m building is here, I could be fucked all over again.

And as George W. Bush and Pete Townsend taught us all so well -

“Fool me once. Shame on me. Fool me twice? Won’t get fooled again. “

(cue Roger Daltrey and the ghost of Keith Moon)

PS - have you seen Roger Daltrey lately? How does he stay so damn handsome at 80 something?

I find it deeply mysterious and yet hopeful.

Anyway - build your brand on your own land.

That was really what I wanted to say here.

And if you’re building a newsletter on Substack, the short video walkthrough above is a good way of making sure you continue to control, what you create on here - and otherwise.

If you need help implementing it - let me know, and i’m happy to help for free.

:)

Ian

PS - say what you want about Geraldo, but he’s looking pretty good at his age too. If he wasn’t such a know it all, and I had more friends in high places, I’d set him up with my Aunt Jean in Boca - they’d make a smashing couple.

“When the machines take over, which they eventually will, when all information is available all at once in a fire hose of instantaneous algorithmic eccentricity, the only thing that will remain for the real artists, is the pleasure of our good taste and personal preferences that make the world a wee bit better for those we love” - Benjamin Franklin

Okay, Benjamin Franklin didn’t really say that. I made it up after one cup of coffee too many about 8 minutes ago.

And the only real person I love on Substack is my sister, but even though she’s the best writer in the family, she rarely posts anything and doesn’t even open my newsletter emails, even though she says she reads every one.

Checking Substack #analytics at Thanksgiving can be a bummer :)

But as Benjamin Franklin didn’t say, but probably wished he had -

You can’t fake taste.

And learning how to skillfully and professionally curate your favorite art, ideas, resources, recipes, recommendations, tools, tips, templates, tutorials and those of your niche neighbors and professional peers, remains one of the best ways to build your brand, your business and your bank account as an author, artist and entrepreneur.

This week (hopefully later today) our first tiny but mighty community book on marketing/selling/promoting our work as Jewish authors, artists and entrepreneurs in difficult times…..will be available.

We are going to be adding lots of extra content - mini courses, video tutorials, workbooks, a private AMA audio feed, and a lot of other resources that I hope inspire many other Jewish creatives to connect, collaborate and create cool stuff together - in community.

In the short walkthrough above (which I recorded this morning for a totally different project) I share my own process for using Milanote, a free(mium) tool that makes building a canvas of curated content that you can share with your friends, your family, your clients and community a breeze.

It’s fun - it’s fast, and it’s totally free. (I pay for Milanote - but only because we use it in our tiny agency in a more structured way, but it’s totally free to use the way I outline above)

Over the course of December, I will be teaching a “How to Curate Content like a Pro in 2026 for Authors, Artists, Agencies and Entrepreneurs”

We’ll be using 4 free or low cost tools:

1. Milanote

2. Notion

3. Ghost

4. Sublime

It’s ostensibly, for clients in our mindfulness/mental health community.

But really, for me, it was motivated and inspired knowing it would be useful for the Jewish creatives reading this newsletter, and in my life - many of whom seem to be struggling a bit with picking a creative path and entrepreneurial outlet for 2026.

If you’re interested in learning new and innovative ways to connect, collaborate and create things you love with other authors, artists and entrepreneurs in the Jewish community - or your own immediate orbit - leave a note in the Substack comments, and i’m happy to share a link where you can learn more.

Also note - while this course will be behind a paywall on our private LMS in my day job biz - I’m happy to give it away for free, no need to pay for it - happy to give everyone here access for free who wants it.

Teach what you know. Do what you love. Wake up the world with your work.

:)

Ian

#bettertogether

When you have a huge family of doctors and lawyers, nosy aunts and curious cousins - starting a new Substack isn’t generally a well understood career change at Thanksgiving dinner.

And yet, here we are.

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

:)

Ian

PS - still true

PPS - my personal re-brand which no one cares about aside…:) “Challah! A Tiny Book of Big Questions for Jewish authors, Artists and Entrepreneurs” will be live on Amazon on Dec 1. It’s been a labor of love to make something that we hope inspires Jewish creatives to make things better by making better things together, in community - and speaking for the tiny but mighty cohort of creators who participated, I can’t wait to share it with you.

We are hoping to create a series of tiny books and courses on mental health for Jewish kids and teens in early 2026.

If you are a mental health professional - a teacher - write about mental health issues - or have a personal interest in meditation, mindfulness, and spiritual growth in difficult times - I’d love to hear from you.

This is a great opportunity to share your experiences and/or expertise in a community publishing project that I hope - makes a meaningful difference in the lives of the next generation of Jewish authors, artists, entrepreneurs, human beings.

I’m also pretty stoked to re-write and re-create much of our existing mindfulness and meditation oriented content (which was created for a much more general adult audience/community) to be more resonant with folks in the Jewish community, who would appreciate learning some of the ways these same techniques intersect - and appear, within our own customs and traditions.

So for all the Moms and Dads, for Bubbe and Zayde, and everyone in our community who is interested in cultivating a bit more calm, compassion, purpose, presence and inner peace through practices that are both grounded in science, but have a decidedly Jewish flavor - #challahback in the Substack comments if you’d like to join us!

I appreciate you reading!

Keep creating :)

Ian