9 November 2020
This week's additions focus on mindset, leadership, and strategy, with new digests from Noah Kagan, Joanna Wiebe, and Acquired. Highlights include Top creators should have six to eight revenue streams, not one. Your internal approver kills emails before customers ever see them
Showing 13 digests for 9 November 2020.
How YouTube creators build media companies, not just audiences
Noah Kagan
November 14, 2020
Business models
9
Content marketing
7
Pricing strategy
5
Top creators should have six to eight revenue streams, not one.
Creators are the next Disney, not the next Tom Hanks.
Digital media management is wide open — most good roles are unfilled.
How to write and get SaaS lifecycle emails approved
Joanna Wiebe
November 13, 2020
Email marketing
9
Copywriting
8
Your internal approver kills emails before customers ever see them
A strict structural template is the shortest path to approval
Rhetorical devices — tricolon, polysyndeton — make copy sound good fast
Designing software to feel like a game: Rahul Vohra on Superhuman
Acquired
November 12, 2020
Design thinking
9
Iteration & feedback loops
7
Deep work & focus
5
Extrinsic rewards halve intrinsic motivation — gamification backfires without game design.
Flow, not features, is the design target — inspired by racing a Lamborghini at cognitive limits.
Superhuman reverse-engineered Chrome's font engine for sub-pixel typographic perfection.
Business operating systems
Podcast
Dropbox's Virtual First: redesigning work after COVID forced the experiment
Masters of Scale
November 12, 2020
Business operating systems
10
Culture building
6
Work-life balance
5
Offices repurposed as Studios — no desks, only collaboration space
Neither fully remote nor open-office return works; intentional design does
Always-on culture is unsustainable; technology needs better defaults
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Prioritizing tasks, structuring leisure, and building knowledge over information
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
November 12, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Identity & self-belief
6
Consolidate all task decisions into one morning planning session.
Structure weekends with big rocks, not time blocks, to avoid burnout.
Information breeds tribalism; knowledge requires studying the best counter-arguments.
Bill Bowerman: the coach and obsessive craftsman behind Nike
Founders
November 12, 2020
Origin stories
10
Identity & self-belief
6
Rest is as important as training — Bowerman proved it against every coach of his era.
Bowerman's shoe obsession: saving one ounce per shoe cuts 55 pounds of effort per race.
Phil Knight built Nike partly just to keep working alongside Bowerman for a lifetime.
Business operating systems
YouTube
Scaling Up Coaches on Differentiation, Decisions, and COVID Leadership
Bill Gallagher
November 11, 2020
Business operating systems
9
Competitive analysis
8
Management
7
Most companies cannot prove their differentiation — coaches must dismantle self-delusion first.
Misalignment at the top is always the root cause of problems below.
Optimal decision teams are small, cross-functional, and include a single accountable final voice.
Nike's Phil Knight: How to build a brand through authentic identity
Masters of Scale
November 10, 2020
Branding
9
Case studies
8
Business models
6
Why authentic belief in a product beats charisma-driven sales
Losing your supplier can force the brand breakthrough you needed
Picking a side — even a controversial one — builds deeper loyalty
Telling the brutal truth to your team in a crisis
Bill Gallagher
November 10, 2020
Communication
9
Resilience & grit
6
Hiding fears from your team keeps you stuck and alone
Admitting you have no plan can unlock collective breakthroughs
One founder doubled his company after telling his team the brutal truth
Telling the brutal truth unlocks your team's problem-solving power
Bill Gallagher
November 10, 2020
Communication
8
Case studies
6
Hiding a crisis from your team keeps you stuck alone.
Admitting 'I have no plan' opened the door to a breakthrough.
Radical honesty helped double the business within one year.
Revisiting Castos one year later
Startups For the Rest of Us
November 10, 2020
Case studies
8
Business models
7
Hiring & recruitment
6
Merged Podcast Motor editing service into Castos hosting to create dual-funnel premium offering.
Tripled revenue in one year by hiring owner-minded marketing lead instead of task-based contractors.
Launched private podcasting for membership sites, courses, and enterprises at enterprise price points.
Content marketing
YouTube
How niche YouTubers monetise weird hobbies and grow consistently
Noah Kagan
November 9, 2020
Content marketing
9
Pricing strategy
6
Social media
6
Repeating the same format for years beats chasing novelty
Brand deals and email lists outpay AdSense significantly
Dropping posting frequency tanks reach — YouTube punishes inconsistency
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Managing attention, productivity systems, and building character intentionally
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
November 9, 2020
Deep work & focus
10
Productivity & habits
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Constant feed-checking makes you cognitively impaired without realising it.
GTD captures well; time block planning beats it for daily control.
Character is trainable — track it daily like a professional metric.