Elijah Cone

📍Greensboro, NC | Senior Director, Crooked Media

📝 Editor’s Note | Rob Belk

​​No one is ever going to call me trendy. Much to my wife’s dismay I think that Target’s Goodfellas is a great fashion-forward brand.

However, I would say that I was ahead of the curve when it comes to personal newsletters. My OG readers will remember “Cat’s Scoring Points,” my love note to the Carolina Panthers in the 2010’s. Thankfully, I decided after one too many poor seasons to transition to Rambull in 2021.

From time-to-time, friends come to me with advice about starting a newsletter.

This is my advice:

• Have a niche or a unique POV; and then try to be even more niche/specific

• Write 5 drafts of your newsletter

• Do not publish the first edition until you have 5 drafts

Similar to the temptation to buy a URL when you have a business idea (which I’m guilty of), force yourself to not worry about subscribers, open rates, or which newsletter platform to use.

Trying to get to 5 drafts will quickly let you know if you’ve got enough passion, content, and time to do it. Once you start, it is a treadmill.

…. just start writing.

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Without further ado…

Why Elijah?

I first met Elijah in LA before we both took the very well traveled path of moving from LA to Greensboro. His legend grew through his meme account, @Shoppes_At_Friendly_Lover (a must for any Greensboro residents). I enjoy talking about his work as a producer on Pod Save America and I really want him to produce his own podcast one day….

Self-Description

Content guy. I'm a producer on several podcasts and video series. I'm on a long paternity leave for my 2nd child (please congratulate). And sometimes I talk on mic.

Elijah’s 6 Recommendations

Written in Elijah’s own words…

1. Return to Applebees

Hear me out. The other day, an old friend asked me if I wanted to go out for drinks. We kicked around the normal spots in our rotation before we landed on a place we hadn't been to in a very long time: Applebees. We went and had an excellent time. Sat at the bar. No food. The drinks were cheap. Some were neon. We both agreed to wear khakis for some reason. It felt right.

Chain restaurant connoisseurs will hat tip Applebees for its niche. It's a place where you can *really drink* in a way that you can't at a Chili's or TGIFs, yet it doesn't market itself as a bar in the way of a Buffalo Wild Wings. If you're like me, you mostly go to breweries and the like. It's an essential and almost spiritual exercise to throw in the occasional Applebees. You just might find something that you didn't realized that you'd lost.

2. lululemon License to Train Hoodie

This hoodie is the inevitable conclusion of athleisure. It is outrageously lightweight and breathable. When you put it on, it feels like you're wearing the wind. I'm not totally sure what function the hood has (it definitely does not keep you warm), but I do find it comforting that it's there. This genre of clothing has become acceptable workwear for those who work in New Media and similar fields, especially if you take a lot of zoom calls. I wear it in this context more than working out. The price is an offensive $118. I really get a kick out of that. Who is balking at $119.99 or a nice round $120, but whipping out the credit card for $118? A ridiculous piece of clothing in every way. I love it.

3. Patagonia Provisions Tinned Fish

Tinned fish is a tiktok trend in its own right. My wife and I have been pairing it with another tiktok trend - Girl Dinner - except we do it as Girl Lunch. If you're unfamiliar, Girl Dinner is basically further deconstructed, wider ranging charcuterie. You eat a bunch of stuff out of the container. Tinned fish is a good protein to throw into the mix for this kind of meal. Apparently it's also very good for you. I couldn't tell you what an Omega 3 does, but I'm glad to be Omega 3 maxxing. Plus, you get the benefit of feeling like a Sophisticated Little Fancy Man when you eat tinned fish.

Real tinned fish enthusiasts will scoff at this particular brand. "Fish Wife or a Spanish brand is the way, you tourist," some of you are probably saying. And that's valid. I am buying fish from jacket company. But I'm early on my tinned fish journey, and this is just where I'm at right now. I'm excited for where the road will take me next.

4. The Pitt

I'm asking you and Rob to bear with me on this and my next recommendation of popular things. The Pitt, while popular with a swath of Americans, hasn't hit a critical mass yet.

Anyway -- Phone distraction has presented a big problem for television producers. Netflix has decided to tackle the deterioration of our attention spans by having characters in new shows routinely recap what is happening in the plot through dialogue. Gross.

HBO's The Pitt approaches this problem another way. Each season takes place entirely in an emergency room over the course of a day. There are no b-plots in weird locations that you struggle to remember. There's no confusion of what a character you haven't seen in a while is doing (they're treating someone). The show indulges in a lot of blood and guts, but it also has a lot of heart. It manages to hit some strong emotional beats and deeply human vignettes while maintaining a frenetic pace. It trusts its audience to have seen enough procedurals to be able to keep up.

5. The Bill Simmons Show (mostly the NBA stuff)

Again, I'm asking you and Rob to bear with me through this recommendation of a popular thing. I want to approach this one as a producer.

There are only so many formats for talking into a microphone. Here are a few big ones that roughly encapsulate the professional podcast landscape today:

• The Group With Great Chemistry. I've seen past Rambull guest writers reference the All In podcast. That is an example of this format. Pod Save America, the show I work on, is another.

• The Solo Act. This is a staple of sports and conservative talk radio. Think Colin Cowherd or Megyn Kelly. These shows generate some good social clips. I generally think they're hard listens.

• The Interviewer. Self explanatory. The base format for Rogan, Amy Poehler, Call Her Daddy, Diary of a CEO, etc.

I just did my annual switch from Pardon My Take (group with great chemistry) to Simmons after the NFL season, and I've been appreciating how well he blends elements of these different formats. He's rotates through a familiar crew of his company's talent and his friends in the industry. It allows him to have great chemistry with his guests/cohosts without the lineup getting stale. He can still get his takes off as a solo artist. And he can pseudo interview these expert guests/cohosts in a way that doesn't break the conversational feel. It has challenged some of my assumptions about how you can format a show.

I've talked with Rob and others in our Mid Sized Post Industrial City about the challenges of making a successful local show. How you format that show is a hurdle. I think the Simmons model is good north star.

6. EVs as a Time Hack

I love bunnies and rainbows and want to save the world as much as anyone, but when I bought an EV in 2023, it was for economic reasons. I don't commute and they had a since-repealed generous tax credit to buy domestically made ones (rip). You've no doubt heard the arguments for and against EVs at this point. Here's a case that no one made to me that I've discovered since getting one:

Going to gas stations is a huge waste of time. I took for granted that I had been going to them for my entire life - first with my parents, then as an adult. Eliminating a biweekly task that sat in the back of my head every time the tank hit half has been incredible. On top of that, you don't realize how ridiculous of an exercise standing next to your car and waiting for it to fill up is until you stop doing it. Some may argue, "Oh well it takes time to charge the car," and I can confidently say that argument is cope. Imagine if you had to go to a special depot to charge your phone. That's the gas station. So, if you're someone who likes to optimize their time and the mileage tradeoffs make sense for you, go for it.

Want to get in touch with Elijah? dm me on twitter @elijahcone

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P.S. from Rambull — A major disclaimer for this recommendation is that I have inherent bias as Primo is a client. However, my litmus test is that my wife genuinely loves our dispenser. For me to get away with putting a big top loader in our kitchen and not have her balk, is all you need to know. Our dispenser has both hot and cold along with the dog bowl attachement….this is definitely one of those things that once you get the filtered water with minerals you wont easily go back to faucet.