22 June 2020
This week's additions focus on mindset, leadership, and marketing, with new digests from Deep Questions with Cal Newport, Masters of Scale, and Joanna Wiebe. Highlights include Productivity fixes how you work, not how much lands on your plate. Communicate more when you lack answers, not less
Showing 10 digests for 22 June 2020.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport on productivity, email habits, and training focus as a skill
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
June 28, 2020
Deep work & focus
10
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Productivity fixes how you work, not how much lands on your plate.
Announcing email boundaries backfires — just quietly check less often.
Concentration is a trainable skill; schools should treat it like one.
How Delta's CEO navigated a $100M/day crisis with candour and conviction
Masters of Scale
June 27, 2020
Communication
9
Long-term planning
8
Cash flow management
6
Communicate more when you lack answers, not less
Cap load factors to rebuild confidence before chasing revenue
Use the forced pause to accelerate investments competitors won't make
Triggered emails outperform long nurture sequences
Joanna Wiebe
June 26, 2020
Email marketing
10
Conversion rate optimisation
6
Open rates collapse after day three — most sequence emails go unread
Saturday is the worst day to send; Tuesdays and Thursdays perform best
Four behaviour triggers replace long drip sequences with relevant, timely emails
Founder interviews
Podcast
Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Studios: from talent to media mogul
Acquired
June 25, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Business models
7
Branding
6
Owning production — not starring — is how Oprah became a billionaire
A $16M bet on herself returned one of the best media IRRs ever recorded
Oprah invented native advertising, book clubs, and the influencer playbook
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Should you write a book? A framework for deciding
Noah Kagan
June 25, 2020
Identity & self-belief
8
Branding
7
Content marketing
5
No deep personal why means the book will defeat you.
Authors outrank founders in status — even with far less real-world impact.
Fear of identity change, not lack of information, stops most writers.
Edwin Land: Pioneer of instant photography and visionary inventor
Founders
June 25, 2020
Origin stories
10
Identity & self-belief
6
Land refused to accept that photography required waiting—he invented instant imaging after his daughter asked why photos couldn't appear immediately.
He set impossible deadlines to force breakthrough work: announcing a product launch nine months before a prototype existed.
Building a great company requires designing the best product first, then solving costs—not the reverse.
Tom Peters on why people are the only thing that matters in business
Bill Gallagher
June 24, 2020
Management
10
Delegation
7
Identity & self-belief
6
Excellence is how you behave in the next five minutes, not a destination.
MBWA works because genuine curiosity about people is intrinsically rewarding.
One bad hire can destroy culture — give everyone veto power in interviews.
How to build your first email list from zero to 100 subscribers
Noah Kagan
June 24, 2020
Email marketing
9
Content marketing
7
Growth hacking
6
Each email subscriber is worth ~$1/month in predictable revenue
Social grows your audience; email is how you actually profit
Eight concrete tactics to get your first 100 subscribers today
Founder interviews
Podcast
Robert F. Smith on liberating human potential through business
Masters of Scale
June 23, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Hiring & recruitment
8
Business models
6
Vista's aptitude-based hiring doubled diversity and doubled revenue growth.
Paying off Morehouse debt frees graduates to play offense, not defense.
Liberating human potential is both a moral imperative and a competitive edge.
Resilience & grit
YouTube
16 fastest-growing remote jobs in 2020 and how to land one
Noah Kagan
June 22, 2020
Resilience & grit
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Delegation
5
Do the work for free first — then ask to get paid.
Offline businesses moving online created 16 concrete job opportunities.
Avoid freelance marketplaces; direct outreach gets you paid far more.