Nathan Baugh

World Builders

Founder / Writer

Senior Consultant

Clemson University

Tutor

Teach For America

Accelerate Fellow

Consultant → writer. I study the best storytellers ever and share with you what I learn. Writing fiction and writing to 77K storytellers every Saturday. Join us 👇

Founder

Roast my potential book covers. 

What do you like? What don't you like? Which would get you to pick it up off the shelf?

Ghostwriter. Exploring the art and science of storytelling. Debut fantasy novel this fall. Building something new.

A few years ago, I went to a $15 open mic in Austin. First comedy show I’d seen.

Dude gets on stage. The crowd goes nuts. It’s Shane Gillis, one of the most popular comedians in the world.

He pulls out a notebook and a pen, grabs the mic, and starts telling jokes.

When the crowd gives one of those loud, genuine laughs, he jots down a note. When the crowd looks at each other, confused, he jots down a note. When the crowd stares at him, expecting more, he jots down a note.

You get the idea. He’s testing jokes. Making a note of what’s connecting and, even more importantly, what’s not.

Then, I imagine, he cuts or changes the parts that don’t connect. Tests them again another night. And repeats the process until the joke, his story, is tight and compelling throughout.

He made me realize:

This is how you can treat Storytelling, too.

Your story is flexible. You can constantly test, get feedback, improve, repeat. Like Shane, what you’re looking for is moments of connection:

- Your boss starts nodding along.
- Someone leans forward in their chair.
- Your beta reader leaves a great comment.
- There’s a spark of interest in your partner’s eye.

You get the idea. You’re searching for that visceral reaction in your audience. When you see it, you double down.

Stories are iterative.

I've created 2 new landing pages over the last 6 months. One converts horribly while the other converts incredibly well. Some weird stats:

- The horrible converting one is priced at $99.
- The incredibly well converting one is priced at $499.

The obvious answer is an audience mismatch -- people expect story related stuff from me, not 'grow your writing business.'

Sure that matters but let's be real not a <1% to 18%+ jump.

So what's the difference?

Very simply -- I ran the second LP through 🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner's entire Transformational Landing Pages training... and haven't put that effort into the first.

One idea that -- in my opinion -- made the biggest difference:

Fascinations

Eddie says a fascination is "any sentence designed to conjure intense curiosity and compel action, in that order."

Capture the attention, then direct it.

I loved the idea. Loved the entire course.

Eddie's running a crazy BFCM sale. From $999 to $249.

This is my affiliate code, which I'm proud to share: https://lnkd.in/gbKDPAqr

Hands down the most effective course I've taken all year. If you'd like your landing pages to convert more people, it is a no brainer.

PS. Here's the LP that actually converts: https://lnkd.in/gZwScNBr

LinkedIn constantly shocks me how helpful people are. So many people took time to share great feedback on the covers for my novel.

Thank you thank you thank you.

To keep up w the project - just monthly notes - plop your email here for the waitlist: https://lnkd.in/gTeaFfwE

Penguin Random House

Working on my first book with Penguin's imprint, Portfolio. Stay tuned!

Author

Sherwood Media

I cover business and markets stories for Sherwood News, Robinhood's new media subsidiary. I write a biweekly opinion column, "Weird Money," as well as occasional feature stories.

Columnist

Young Money Newsletter

Since August 2021, I've been sharing my thoughts on money, work, the complexities of life, and more introspective musings in my weekly newsletter, Young Money. As of September 2024, I have ~64,000 email subscribers, and my articles attract millions of page views each year. Check out my newsletter in the link below.

I also occasionally speak on the above-mentioned topics for conferences, companies, and other audiences. Message me here or email me at jack@youngmoney.co for inquiries.

Writer

Litquidity Media

I was the Editor-in-Chief of Exec Sum, a daily financial newsletter created by the popular finance meme page, Litquidity.

In my time with Exec Sum, we grew our subscriber base from ~90,000 subscribers to ~270,000, I was responsible for editing each day's newsletter, communicating with advertising partners, and creating long-form sponsored content.

Day-to-day operations included:

Curating all relevant deals across M&A, VC, PE, SPACs, etc.
Identifying the most relevant headline news stories from the previous day's news cycle
Providing recaps of the most important earnings reports from the previous day
Assisting with ad copy and maintaining communication with sponsors

Editor in Chief, Exec Sum

Backpacking Travel Blog

Before moving to New York City for business school, I spent the better part of a year traveling around Europe, with a two-month stint in Argentina, and writing. A lot. I wanted to see the world while I was still young enough to pursue my wanderlust, and I decided to document the whole journey. Both of which were, in hindsight, wise decisions.

I visited more than 20 countries in total, recording the journey across 50+ blog posts. Highlights include seeing the northern lights in Tromsø, Norway, driving a Fiat 500 around the Amalfi Coast, visiting my ancestral roots in Edinburgh, fighting for my life to improve my Spanish in Buenos Aires, and, of course, making a dozen lifelong friends along the way.

If you're young, go see the world for a bit. Future you will be glad you did.

Travel Blogger

My first job out of college, which, unfortunately, coincided with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, I quickly learned how different macroeconomic shifts (like pandemics and negative oil prices!) impact the logistics of distribution networks, as my team adjusted UPS's North America profit plans in the wake of the pandemic.

As with most entry-level finance jobs, I also quickly learned to master Excel and PowerPoint.

Domestic Finance Specialist

U.S. House of Representatives

Legislative Intern

Writer, among other things.

Blog: I've been writing my blog, Young Money, weekly since August 2021, and as of September 2024, I have ~64,000 subscribers. Topics range from behavioral finance to existential introspection.

Book: I'm working on my first book with Penguin Random House's imprint Portfolio.

Day job: columnist for Sherwood Media, Robinhood's media subsidiary. I cover business, markets, and more, and I write a twice-weekly column, "Weird Money."

Jack Raines

X, the everything app, now shows "country of origin" of everyone's accounts. Turns out that 90% of anonymous MAGA influencers live in India, Bangledesh, and various sub-Saharan African nations.

The LinkedIn version of this would be exposing everyone who puts "Harvard Business School" in their education after taking an online course, or showing that the "fractional growth leader" with 200k+ followers runs an agency making $3,421 a month running Meta ads.

Forward Deployed Personality Hire @ Slow Ventures

The "open to work" banner on LinkedIn is like the Hinge rose of looking for a new job. It reeks of desperation. The only people who will take you seriously are those who are equally desperate.

I instead propose that you should cold DM your ideal employers and say, "I'm not interested in working for you." It sparks intrigue. Mystery. They'll think, "Hmmm, why would Jack go out of his way to 'not want to work for me'? What does he know? What is he hiding?"

Next thing you know: $500k base + equity.

Work smarter, not harder. Don't be an NPC.

There's a viral Substack post claiming that $140k is the new "poverty line" in 2025.

I can't believe we're really arguing whether or not $140k represents a new poverty line. Of course it does. Take the typical after-tax monthly budget: housing $2k, food $1.5k, and token usage on Cursor / Claude Code $6k.

How are you supposed to invest for the long-term?

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

Today I’m thankful for VCs creating the term “operator” to describe what everyone else calls “a normal job.”

Angèle Sahraoui on our team at Slow Ventures put together a 10/10 deck on the history of the maritime infrastructure and which new threats and opportunities are emerging thanks to recent tech shifts.

If you're into deep tech, or you're an avid ocean enjoyer who's curious about what's going on under the sea, check it out. Also, if your startup is trying to find Atlantis, shoot her a DM.

Full deck: https://lnkd.in/e2sbt6Yw

After a 3 month break I’m firing my newsletter back up post-book writing. Highlights include self-gaslighting and thoughts on Robinhood x prediction markets.

https://lnkd.in/eXrK_8Ae

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Thanks to popular demand, we decided to take Slow Ventures’ “Etiquette School” a step further and write an etiquette book.

If you missed out on the IRL lessons and need help with your eye contact, snag a copy here and come to one of our live events in 2026.

Link: https://a.co/d/9K8tZzE

Unfortunately I couldn’t afford a real fireplace this year, so I had to build one in the metaverse instead.

#HappyHolidays #Web3Fire #Chimney

Horizontal AI this, vertical AI that. Is anyone building Diagonal B2B AI SaaS?

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The Battle

Nathan Baugh

Jack Raines

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nathan Baugh's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreNathan Baugh's LinkedIn Performance