20 July 2020
This week's additions focus on mindset, operations, and leadership, with new digests from Founders, Noah Kagan, and Deep Questions with Cal Newport. Highlights include Barnum realized outwardly respectable people had forbidden desires—the gap between what people say and want. Starting for fun, not money, is what enables a decade of consistency.
Showing 10 digests for 20 July 2020.
P.T. Barnum: How showmanship and resilience built an empire
Founders
July 26, 2020
Origin stories
9
PR & media
7
Barnum realized outwardly respectable people had forbidden desires—the gap between what people say and want.
He mastered indirect advertising through calculated scarcity, fake experts, and multi-city letter schemes.
Bankruptcy at 50 taught him that focusing outside core competencies destroys wealth built over decades.
Productivity & habits
YouTube
Building a sustainable YouTube career: lessons from 10 years and 130M views
Noah Kagan
July 23, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Motivation
7
Processes & SOPs
6
Starting for fun, not money, is what enables a decade of consistency.
One upload per week beats twice-weekly if quality suffers.
Your creative environment shapes output more than discipline alone.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Office hours, rabbit holes, and deep work productivity habits
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 23, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Replace email with office hours to handle complex questions in minutes instead of days of back-and-forth.
Use idea notebooks and delayed review to satisfy curiosity without letting rabbit holes derail your schedule.
Checklists (not willpower) solve perfectionism: surgeons and pilots use them to eliminate doubt and move forward.
Content marketing
YouTube
How to Win a Year's Worth of Clients From One Blog Post
Joanna Wiebe
July 23, 2020
Content marketing
9
Prospecting & outreach
7
Copywriting
6
One demonstration-focused post generated all non-referred clients for a full year.
Pre-sale blogging closes 70% of calls versus 20–30% without it.
10–15 targeted outreach contacts beats mass cold emailing every time.
Employee engagement, wellbeing, and manager coaching during crises
Bill Gallagher
July 22, 2020
Management
9
Communication
8
Retention & loyalty
6
Engagement stays stable in crises — but predicts whether companies recover above average
Weekly manager check-ins measurably cut employee worry, stress, and loneliness
Employees now choose employers based on growth opportunities, not perks or pay
How Noah Kagan built a $1 million annual income over 15 years
Noah Kagan
July 22, 2020
Bootstrapping
9
Long-term planning
8
Origin stories
7
90% of a million-dollar income came from one business, not diversification
Keeping salary near zero for seven years and reinvesting profit was the strategy
Reaching $1 million took 15 years — start now, pick something you'll do for a decade
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Amantha Imber: resetting work habits, the four-day week, and life after CEO
How I Work
July 22, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Management
6
Processes & SOPs
5
Why productivity experts fall into the same email traps as everyone else
The 100-80-100 four-day work week: same output, one day back
Identity-based rules beat willpower for breaking bad work habits
How smart founders decide which fires to let burn
Masters of Scale
July 21, 2020
Pivoting
7
Processes & SOPs
7
Management
6
Neglecting some problems is a deliberate competitive strategy, not a failure.
Assign probability and damage to each fire before deciding to act.
Deferred fires compound — watch for merging crises, not just loud ones.
Customer discovery
YouTube
How to validate a business idea and get your first customers in 48 hours
Noah Kagan
July 20, 2020
Customer discovery
9
Prospecting & outreach
7
Market research
5
Three customers and $100 in 48 hours proves your idea works
Start with your network — rejection is data, not failure
Fear, not lack of ideas, is what stops most founders from starting
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Work, Technology, and Deep Living: Practical Advice from Cal Newport
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
July 20, 2020
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Capture tasks with extreme low friction using plain text files to prevent overwhelm.
Face overwhelming workloads head-on by seeing them clearly instead of avoiding them.
Do less, more intentionally: focus on essential priorities to eliminate work resistance.