Rhythm Over Speed 🪇

Author

Damon Brown
September 17, 2025

In partnership with

This edition is also brought to you by Shortform. Learn more at the bottom 👇🏾

Hi reader,

Fall allergies and seasonal shots had me down last week

Everything had to be done

But couldn’t be.

What happens when you can’t do it all?

You do all that needs to be done

And that list is much shorter

Than we think.

I had to focus on rhythm

Rather than speed

Consistency

Not completion

And it forced me to see what was important 🕵

Keep This Stock Ticker on Your Watchlist

They’re a private company, but Pacaso just reserved the Nasdaq ticker “$PCSO.”

No surprise the same firms that backed Uber, eBay, and Venmo already invested in Pacaso. What is unique is Pacaso is giving the same opportunity to everyday investors. And 10,000+ people have already joined them.

Created a former Zillow exec who sold his first venture for $120M, Pacaso brings co-ownership to the $1.3T vacation home industry.

They’ve generated $1B+ worth of luxury home transactions across 2,000+ owners. That’s good for more than $110M in gross profit since inception, including 41% YoY growth last year alone.

And you can join them today for just $2.90/share. But don’t wait too long. Invest in Pacaso before the opportunity ends September 18.

Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.

As I was getting back up to speed this week

Author Ryan Holiday had a wonderful newsletter

About the very same topic:

The most surefire way to make yourself more fragile, to cut your career short, is to be undisciplined about rest and recovery. To push yourself too hard, too fast. To overtrain and to pursue the false economy of overwork.

To last, to be great, you have to understand how to rest. After all, it’s not ambition or skill that is going to set you apart but sanity, balance and the discipline of your discipline.

So it isn’t rest versus productivity

But balance versus fragility.

And better to keep your amazing pace intact

Than to do an unnecessary temporary sprint in sacrifice 🤕

International HR and payroll in 185+ countries

Growing your team outside your HQ country? RemoFirst helps you employ anywhere, with EOR services available in 185+ countries.

International HR and payroll for global employees and contractors— without setting up a local entity.

Ready to level up your freelance business to today’s dynamic environment? My friends at the Institute for Independent Journalists has lots of stuff happening right now!

The IIJ's popular Business of Freelancing course returns this fall, taught by IIJ founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis and investigative journalist Lisa Armstrong. This eight-week live, online course combines real-world strategy with personalized guidance, covering topics such as rate setting, finding new clients, and long-term planning. Participants receive feedback between sessions and a toolkit of resources to support their business goals. Early bird registration is open until Sept. 19 for just $189, at https://theiij.com/biz25.

You can also catch IIJ’s 2025-26 webinar series. From September to February, the Institute for Independent Journalists holds FREE monthly webinars to foster connections between freelancers and editors and unpack thorny subjects. Webinar topics include reporting on your own community or identity, pitching op-eds and national outlets, and finding journalism-adjacent work. Registration is free but space is limited.

Creating the future you seek takes time 👩🏽‍🎨

As you’ve seen in recent BringYourWorth.tv episodes, my office has been stacked with books lately! Shortform is one of my favorite companions for understanding books quickly and remembering the highlights from classics I may have forgotten. The service goes well beyond summaries, giving serious breakdowns, analysis, arguments, and even overarching themes connecting a book to other pieces of literature. It also showcases material related to your favorite book, like popular podcasts, articles and more. Shortform is a great way to sample new books you’re curious about or to go deeper on ones you already know super well.

Get 20% off now.

🙋🏾 I’m Damon! (http://www.damonbrown.net) I help side hustlers, solopreneurs & others like yourself bloom. As a bestselling author, 2x startup founder & 4x TEDTalker, I co-founded the popular connection app Cuddlr and led it to acquisition within a year while being a stay at home dad with my infant son.

🫱🏼‍🫲🏿 Today, my boutique coaching business Bring Your Worth supports hundreds through one-on-one virtual and in-person support, as well as behind-the-scenes services for TED, HEROIC, and other impactful organizations. You can catch this free weekly newsletter as well as the 18,000-subscriber strong television show BringYourWorth.tv.

🚀 Think coaching could help you get to the next level? Reach out and let’s chat.

đź“š You can also grab my 27th book, The Complete Bring Your Worth Collection, everywhere books are read, heard, and sold.

🔥 Want to reach wisdom-hungry solopreneurs and side hustlers? Sponsor this newsletter and/or BringYourWorth.tv. Learn more here!

📨 Feel free to forward this newsletter! Not a subscriber? Get it every Wednesday for free here.