# Find your people

*Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading *[*one of my
essays on
Medium*](https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)*, *[*my
personal
website*](http://seanblanda.com/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)*,
or seeing something
on *[*Twitter*](http://twitter.com/seanblanda?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)*.
I send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I'm
working on and thinking about — all ending with a sweet flag. See past
issues *[*here*](https://tinyletter.com/blanda/archive?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)*.
Now, to the newsletter: *\
\
![A stream running through Lenartov
Slovakia](../images/6547bb12ba24.jpg)

*A small stream passes through the quaint village of Lenartov,
Slovakia.*\
 

### ***Let's have dinner***

After taking a month hiatus (see why in the next section) [Pilcrow
House](http://pilcrow.house/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people) is
back with three private, single table dinners:

**11/4 - Dr. Sarah Taber** - (author of *Root Causes*) @ Osteria on the
future of agriculture in America. We'll cover:

- ​Why "Agribusinesses" may not be the boogie man you think it is
- How and why most family farmers are ***awful*** at business yet have
  10x net worth of the average American household.
- ​Why more farms should operate like the Hutterites

There are four spots left. I'd love to see you there:\
 

### **\[[Reserve Your Spot](https://www.tickettailor.com/events/pilcrowhouse/293640?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)\]\
\
-**

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**11/20 - Matt Stoller** (author of Goliath) @ The Fitler Club on
monopolies and the future of the Democratic party. [Read the preface to
his book
here](https://promarket.org/how-the-watergate-babies-released-the-beast-of-monopoly-upon-america/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people).
An excerpt:\
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*"Why did Washington respond to the 2008 financial crisis by pushing
even more wealth and power into the hands of the same people that caused
it? The answer is partly rooted in the legacy of the angry young
Democrats who entered Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal and
unwittingly loosened the chains of concentrated corporate power."*

 

### **\[[Reserve Your Spot](https://www.tickettailor.com/events/pilcrowhouse/293643?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)\]\
\
-**

**12/10 - Jillian Richardson** (author of *Unlonely Planet*) @ Giuseppe
and Sons on America's loneliness epidemic.

### **\[[Reserve Your Spot](https://www.tickettailor.com/events/pilcrowhouse/293642?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)\]\
\
-**

Pilcrow House is a place for a candid conversation on topics that
matter. For each dinner, an expert from out-of-town comes to
Philadelphia to create the most interesting dinner table in the city. No
phones, no social media. (In September [we welcomed Trapital's Dan
Runcie](https://www.instagram.com/p/B2k0FECjQH3/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)
to discuss the economics of hip hop.) We’ve done a handful of these now,
and there’s nothing like it. [Sign up for the mailing
list](http://pilcrow.house/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)
to get a heads up the moment new dinners are scheduled.

### ***A village of Blandas.***

I was 28 when I finally learned where my last name came from. But, when
cleaning out my Grandmother’s house I found my grandmother's handwritten
notes. They stated that my great, great grandfather was from Lenatrov,
Slovakia.\
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“Blanda” wasn’t some shortened last name lost to history from some
country no one remembers. “Blanda” was Slovak. After a few 23andMe
tests, my brothers and I hired a genealogist (a father/son duo named
Radko and Conka) to see if they could trace our lineage back further.

They were able to go back two generations, but then the trail stopped.
In order to find the next record, they had to travel to the village of
Lenatrov, a village of 1,000 people on the border of Poland and Slovakia
to request records in person. So, after attending a wedding in France, I
headed to Slovakia. 

Radko and I rented a car from the nearest big city (Kosice) and drove
the 90 minutes to the village. There we entered the municipal building
and entered the office of the mayor: Jana Bľandová. I had emailed with
Jana a few months earlier. When I arrived she greeted us warmly in
Slovakian and shook my hand. She pointed to me and said “Blanda” and
then placed a hand on her chest and said “Blanda!”

It was then I learned that, in Czech and Slovakian, adding “-ova” to the
end of a name essentially means “Mrs.” So Blandova isn’t a different
name than Blanda. It signals that the woman married into a Blanda
family. She was a Blanda!\
\
![The mayor and me](../images/734010588fe1.png)I came to greatly admire
the mayor ([you can read more on my Instagram
here](https://www.instagram.com/p/B3aWgQLDMJG/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people))
but in a surreal experience, I met several Blandas and when touring the
nearby graveyard I noticed it was filled with versions of the Blanda
surname.

We were unable to discover any new information about my family tree from
the visit. But I was able to tour the village, meet its residents, and
learn about its history and struggle in modern Slovakia.

The trip made me appreciate the calming effect of context. To know even
a little bit about the sequence of events that lead to my life enabled
me more fully appreciate what I have, wonder what may have been, and
live the rest of my life in service of those that came before—even if
I’ve never met them. 

### ***Current obsession: "category creation"***

Last month I wrote on my personal site in the post: *[What I wish I knew
five years ago about building a career in
“content”](https://seanblanda.com/what-i-wish-i-knew-five-years-ago-about-building-a-career-in-content/?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)*:\
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"Getting content right matters more than ever. Editorial is the life
blood of this new way of operating. It provides the backbone of what
every non-commodity brand is based on. It gives the advantage of a
network effect to businesses that would not otherwise have it."\
\
What I would call editorial or (ugh) content strategy, is known as
"Category creation" in the SaaS business. In short, the businesses that
invent (and name) an entirely new category thrive (Examples: Hubspot and
"inbound marketing" or Salesforce and the CRM or Gainsight and the
"Customer Success" position).\
\
This, of course, is done with a kick-ass product. But it needs to be
supported by messaging, marketing, thought leadership, community
building, and events. These are the messy combination of skills
possessed by editors, journalists, event producers, and community
managers. And it's what [we're building at
Crossbeam](http://getcrossbeam.com?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people).\
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If this sounds (even vaguely) related to what you do, I'd love to chat.
Reply to this email!\
 

### ***Official newsletter flag: Slovakia.***

![flag of Slovakia](../images/32990ece4d4a.png)\
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In 1991, *[The New York
Times](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/27/opinion/l-cold-war-doesn-t-explain-slovak-nationalism-204491.html?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people)*
wrote:

*“Slovaks, ruled by Hungarians for a millennium, have never enjoyed
independence. The closest they came was between the world wars, as
partners of the Czechs -- who they think often look down on them as
country bumpkins. That lack of national history and that sense of
inferiority now combine to produce a fierce assertiveness.”*

Slovakia has been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Czechoslovakia, a
protectorate of Nazi Germany, and has a complicated relationship with
nationalism that I’m only beginning to understand. Unfamiliar to most
Americans, some Slovaks [consider the use of national symbols a sign of
extremism](https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20460586/how-the-national-emblem-appeared-including-so-far-secret-communism-designs.html?utm_source=Blanda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=find-your-people). 

The blue, white and red are a nod to Pan-Slavic colors, with many of
Slovakia’s neighbors sharing the same scheme (I personally always
confuse Croatia and Slovakia!). The Slovak flag is easily recognizable,
however, for the Slovakian coat of arms which features the Tatra, Fatra,
and Matra mountain ranges and a double cross. \
\
![slovakian flag](../images/1c98d73c4583.png)The funny thing about the
three mountains? One of them is actually in Hungary. The Slovakian flag
is also one of the only in the world to have an alternative design if it
is handing vertically, ensuring that the coat of arms is always
readable. A fitting metaphor for a nation seeking to gain a new
perspective on itself—for better and for worse.

Dear reader, may you also enter the final months of this year with a
renewed perspective. Thank you for making space in your crowded inbox
for this newsletter.\
\
--Sean