3 June 2019
This week's additions focus on leadership, marketing, and founder stories, with new digests from Founders, StoryBrand With Donald Miller, and Y Combinator. Highlights include How Frick became the only coke producer profitable at 90 cents a ton A simpler customer path beats a better product every time.
Showing 14 digests for 3 June 2019.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Henry Clay Frick: Carnegie's partner and steel industry architect
Founders
June 9, 2019
Founder interviews
10
Competitive analysis
8
Unit economics
6
How Frick became the only coke producer profitable at 90 cents a ton
Carnegie Steel: profits from $4M to $40M in eight years under Frick
Why Frick gave millions away anonymously while gouging workers at company stores
Conversion rate optimisation
YouTube
Reduce cognitive load at every step of your customer path
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 6, 2019
Conversion rate optimisation
9
Copywriting
6
A simpler customer path beats a better product every time.
Every touchpoint costs the brain calories — cut them ruthlessly.
One round of clarity work multiplies across thousands of customers.
A simple technique for having tough conversations at work
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 6, 2019
Find a story from your past where you made the same mistake
Shared experience kills the judgment mindset before it starts
Reframing failure as lesson stops the post-firing shame spiral
Equity & cap tables
YouTube
How to split equity with cofounders to maximise long-term motivation
Y Combinator
June 6, 2019
Equity & cap tables
9
Hiring & recruitment
5
Equity splits should maximise motivation, not reflect negotiation outcomes
Four-year vesting with a one-year cliff makes generosity safe
If a cofounder isn't worth a generous grant, rethink the relationship
Reciprocal Links and SEO: What a 140,000-Domain Study Found
Ahrefs
June 5, 2019
73.6% of high-traffic domains have at least one reciprocal link naturally.
43.7% of Google top-10 pages carry some form of reciprocal link.
Build relationships first; links follow without conditional trading.
How Dara Khosrowshahi transformed Uber from pirate culture to disciplined navy
Masters of Scale
June 5, 2019
Culture building
9
Management
7
Case studies
6
Why Uber's toxic bro culture nearly destroyed a $70B company
Tell people where to go, not what to do — Dara's core management shift
Truth-telling CEOs hear problems early enough to fix them
Resilience & grit
YouTube
Reconnecting with nature and awe to survive the stress of leadership
Bill Gallagher
June 5, 2019
Resilience & grit
9
Deep work & focus
5
Communication
5
Joy is a moral imperative — even amid pain and loss.
Awe in nature reverses PTSD, isolation, and burnout faster than willpower.
Skiing Iraq and Afghanistan turns former war zones into human bridges.
The four pillars of high performance organisations
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 5, 2019
Only four practices separate high performance organisations from the rest.
70% disengagement explains why consistent execution is so rare.
Execution is the dismount — leadership, alignment, and engagement are the routine.
Using "you" and "your" to make marketing customer-focused
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 5, 2019
Shift marketing language from brand to customer with one word
"Your favourite plumber" outperforms "we're the greatest" every time
Overuse backfires — treat "you/your" as seasoning, not wallpaper
Not gossiping is the single most underrated trust-building habit
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 5, 2019
Communication
9
Identity & self-belief
5
Gossip doesn't make enemies — it quietly kills your career advancement.
Leaders distance themselves from gossips without ever saying why.
Three employees who tripled their salary shared one trait: no gossip.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Simone Giertz on creativity, making shitty robots, and surviving brain surgery
Y Combinator
June 5, 2019
Founder interviews
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Resilience & grit
6
Brain surgery forced her to drop the shitty-robot format — and she never looked back.
The things that feel easy and fun are usually what you're best at.
Building multiple income legs is how you stop YouTube from eating your life.
Prospecting & outreach
YouTube
The fastest way to turn a struggling company around
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 3, 2019
Prospecting & outreach
9
Pivoting
6
Struggling companies stop selling — that's the core problem.
Weekly product emails to your customer list restart cash flow.
Strategy can wait; soldiers in the trenches come first.
Closing techniques
YouTube
Why customers don't buy: the clarity problem
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 3, 2019
Closing techniques
9
Copywriting
6
Buyers won't do the math — you have to do it for them
Confusion always produces a no, not a maybe
Rejected prospects can flip to yes when you name their specific upside
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
Hire entry-level people who can run the department within two years
StoryBrand With Donald Miller
June 3, 2019
Hiring & recruitment
9
Management
5
Entry-level hires should pass a 24-month leadership potential test
Fast growth creates internal vacancies — unprepared assistants leave gaps
Hiring from within beats external hires on cost and customer continuity