Vassilena Valchanova

Happy "update website footer copyright year" to all who celebrate.

Come on! You've got time this week.
Your inbox is slow. Your calendar is light.
Take two minutes and tell someone their work landed.

It'll make their year. 🫶

You publish into the void. You see the view count go up, but you don't see the people. You wonder if anyone actually reads past the first line.

A single message from you can change that.

Right now—this week, before everyone disappears for the holidays—content marketers and creators alike are sitting at their desks wondering whether they made any real impact at all.

Because creating content is lonely.

Go say thank you to a content writer today.

The podcast you listen to on your commute.
The brand whose newsletter you read every week.
The LinkedIn creator whose posts you screenshot and save.
The YouTuber who taught you that thing you quote all the time.

Most marketers I know are tiptoeing around something about their product. A feature that doesn't fit category expectations. Something that feels like a disadvantage. But your biggest differentiator might be the thing you're currently hiding.

Guinness built their entire brand around the one thing most beer companies would try to fix. A proper pour takes a 💩-ton of time!

But they didn't hide that! In fact, it became their story. They made it ceremonial and built it into culture.

Leave it to me to turn a touristy brewery tour into a positioning lesson. 😅 But a recent trip to Dublin gave me the perfect thing to share – after all, the Guinness Storehouse has a whole floor dedicated to advertising. It's a great example of how to build a whole marketing strategy around "a bug"!

Building a Content System for 2026 with Adriana Tica · Luma 2026 is coming. Are you building a content system—or just feeding the hamster wheel? The content that actually drives results doesn't come from doing more. It…

That's exactly what @adrianatica.bsky.social and I are focusing on in our live session on Wednesday: luma.com/zgti70mf

Sign up to join live or get the recording!

Everyone's asking: "What content should we create next year?" This is why we get exhaustion blueprints disguised as strategy.

What you should be asking is: "What are we finally going to stop creating?"

It's about building the discipline to do less—and make it count.

To create a 2026 content plan that works, you need to put on your "NO" hat.

Real content strategy isn't about doing more. It's about strategic discipline—knowing exactly what's worth your time and what's just feeding the hamster wheel.

the man is wearing a red shirt and looking at the camera . ALT: the man is wearing a red shirt and looking at the camera .

All Bulgarian snakes and lizards be like:

"if you're in it for the love of the game, attention finds you when you truly earn it. When you aren't getting attention... the tough love reality is that you haven't yet earned it." - good reminder for anyone creating content out there from @jay.blog

When someone sits next to me at the train station, bus stop, or park bench, I just stare straight ahead and say "it's done. Did you bring the money?" They usually freeze before apologising and making an excuse to leave.

OpenFest 2025 Schedule, talks and talk submissions for OpenFest 2025

Поради големия интерес, удължаваме срока за подаване на предложения за OpenFest 2025 до 15 септември! 🚀

Изпратете ни вашата идея за лекция, уъркшоп или щанд: cfp.openfest.org/openfest-202....

🕑 Не пропускайте шанса си да станете част от най-готиното събитие за отворен код и изкуство.

Still can't get over the lack of silly pauses in "Rock n Roll Nerd" but this album is bangin'!!!

Wow Lego recreated Comic Con at the San Diego Convention Center inside and out & the details are amazing, down to the crowds and lines and booths.

Everyone wants the summary. But the summary is what's left after someone else decided what matters. Their priorities aren't yours. Their filters aren't yours. When you operate on summaries, you're thinking with someone else's brain. - @farnamstreet.bsky.social Shane Parish telling important truths!

Нотариус: Не можем да ви отворим документа от флашка, защото системата ни е защитена.

Също нотариус: Пратете ни документа на ТАЗИ ПОЩА В ABV. 😒😒😒

I've been following the Max > HBO Max rebrand and I'M HERE for the marketing strategy of "we never wanted to end up back here, but leadership is leadershipping..." 👌

The Quest to Save the World’s Rarest Pasta For 300 years, only a handful of women in Sardinia possessed the skill to create “threads of God.”

Food is more than food; it's culture—and it needs to get passed on.

50 Years of Travel Tips I’ve been seriously traveling for more than 50 years, and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve traveled solo, and I’ve led a tour group of 40 friends. I’ve slept in dormitories and I’ve stayed in presidential…

Kevin Kelly is a smart human, and some of these tips are true gold (though I wouldn't be asking a taxi driver to meet their mom any time soon!)

@kit.com has a 12,000 subs free tier and it's a great platform to work with.

I almost didn't get into bed because my cat was sprawled across the cover and I think it's better to sleep on the couch than disturb her level of comfy 🥹 Now she's at the edge of the bed with her back turned, looking disappointed (I don't know how, she conveys the mood while turned the other way)

Tarot says -

Photo of 5 dog figurines in profile facing to the left in a staggered line. The closest one is reddish, the three in the middle are beige, and the furthest is dark grey. Each one has a cuneiform inscription on their side.

For anyone wondering, some possible dog names have survived from cuneiform sources.

On tiny dog figurines found buried under a palace in Nineveh, Iraq are inscriptions that seem to be names.

dan rigiššu “loud is his bark”

munaššiku gārîšu “biter of his foe”

mušēṣi lemnūti “expeller of evil”

Не е до мъж/жена. Другаде търси отговора (каза тя, преди да си легне)

Play It Safe | Sydney Opera House 50th Anniversary YouTube video by Sydney Opera House

I can't believe I've never seen this - it's both a good marketing example and a real motivational banger!

Daniel Arnold’s New York | Vogue YouTube video by Vogue

Love how this was shot and edited. Hard to believe it was for Vogue. (I keep forgetting they have a few artistic souls there.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtKd...

Now that I own vassy.me as a domain name, I'm wondering whether or not to move my site to it from valchanova.me.

✅ Pros: shorter and easier to spell.

🛑 Cons: it may feel less professional, and I'll need to move *gestures vaguely towards screen* all of this.

Do you guys have any thoughts?