Introducing LORE
A new era for Per My Last
Per My Last newsletter is now LORE, a newsletter about how to turn narrative capital into capital capital.
Read on to learn more.
When I started this newsletter two and a half years ago, I named it Per My Last for two extremely well-thought-out reasons:
I thought “Per My Last Email” was a simply adorable name for a newsletter
Permylastemail.substack.com was already taken
Per My Last was a place to think through the patterns I was noticing—both in how companies were telling their stories and in my own career. I wasn’t quite sure what, if anything, those things had in common, but I’d grown up reading tech bloggers like Paul Graham and Ben Casnocha whose posts spanned the personal and the professional. I figured I didn’t need to think too hard about how it all hung together.
A lot has changed since then. I left corporate life to found First Principles Communications. I took a standup comedy class and wrote the first draft of a novel that I’m currently revising with an eye to publication. I had the good fortune of leading corporate communications for independent production company Annapurna, where I got a masterclass in universe-building.
In other words, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to tell a story. And the one concept I keep coming back to, the thing really stuck in my craw, is the idea of lore.
What is LORE?
In video games, lore is the backstory behind the game’s fictional universe. It can also refer to the body of traditions and knowledge held by a particular group (e.g. folklore).
Lore, in other words, is the story behind the story.
Lore comprises the sticky details that actually draws people to do things like:
Buy a product
Invest millions in a company
Leave the stability current job for a new one
More bluntly, lore is the means by which narrative capital turns into, well, capital capital. It’s the substrate on which great companies, movements, and brands are built.
What should I expect from LORE?
My plan is to release LORE weekly-ish. I want to write a newsletter you’re excited to see in your inbox, while also challenging myself to write at a slightly uncomfortable clip for someone with a demanding day job.
Who is LORE for?
Entrepreneurs, executives, builders, communicators, and the growing crowd of people realizing that communications strategy is business strategy
This is awesome. Super excited to read. Subscribed!