Have a piece of emo cake to start and end the newsletter today; in-between cake, check out the 5 Love Languages and a great piece by Charles Duhigg on finding the root of the problem.  Short and sweet, just like the cake today!

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The Five Love Languages, an international bestseller from Dr. Gary Chapman, is an easy-to-read and digest relationship guide for many people.  My family was introduced to the book 15 years ago, and we used it for everyone.  Love languages are a way to categorize ways to show and receive love from others.  This is an oversimplification, but the primary categories are:

Each category can carry more weight for an individual than another.  More importantly, understanding another person's love language can help you communicate with them.  MINDJOURNAL wrote an excellent primer on the popular book, and you can read it here. 

When the author and productivity expert Charles Duhigg was researching info for his latest book, he discovered that asking better questions and drilling down to the root was a great way to solve the real problem.  One of the problems Duhigg was trying to solve was spending more time with his family and making eating dinner together as a family a priority.  His research led him to a process called "the Five Whys," found at an old car factory.  The process starts with the problem and asks why, in Duhigg's case, "why don't we family dinner?"  The first answer is we get home too late because we spend too much time at the office.  Ask the next why we spend too much time at the office, and so on.  Each answer allows for analysis and a change in the process; for Duhigg and his family, it meant leaving earlier in the morning, pre-planning kids' clothes and breakfast the night before, and if they left earlier in the morning, they would finish work earlier and leave on time.

If you don't start breaking down the details of the challenge and asking the right questions to solve the root problem, the steps can seem endless.  The five whys can be an excellent place to start; you can also read more about Charles Duhigg; both will help you build successful strategies.  Duhigg gives an excellent overview in an article on NYT from the archives, and it's worth a revisit.

In a delicious story, a baker misread a DM and made an Emo cake with decadent black frosting for a four-year-old.  It turns out the customer wanted an Elmo cake.  First, we've never even thought of asking for an Emo cake; we will now add that to the things we know you can ask for.  Two, why not give the kid an Emo cake and start 'em off early with fantastic music!  We read the story on The Today Show’s website, and the TikTok is below for your dreamy emo feel.

Singer songwriters.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

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Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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