4 January 2021
This week's additions focus on mindset, strategy, and marketing, with new digests from Silicon Valley Girl, Joanna Wiebe, and Masters of Scale. Highlights include Import proven foreign business models into underserved US niches Pitch one prospect's specific problem, not yourself or your services.
Showing 14 digests for 4 January 2021.
15 high-demand small business ideas worth starting today
Silicon Valley Girl
January 10, 2021
Import proven foreign business models into underserved US niches
On-demand speed beats incumbents — 15 minutes changes customer loyalty
Drone videography market is set to grow 14x by 2025
Prospecting & outreach
YouTube
Cold pitching that converts: the rule-of-one framework
Joanna Wiebe
January 9, 2021
Prospecting & outreach
10
Copywriting
7
Pitch one prospect's specific problem, not yourself or your services.
One recipient, one problem, one solution, one call to action drives 60% conversion.
Minimum viable ask beats a phone-call close at the cold-pitch stage.
Eight reliable lessons for unreliable times
Masters of Scale
January 7, 2021
Management
9
Pivoting
7
Communication
6
Move faster than you think possible—speed trumps perfection in crisis.
Create your own trajectory instead of reacting to chaos.
Repeat your message until you tire of it; your team is still absorbing.
How Gary Vee makes millions beyond ads and sponsorships
Noah Kagan
January 7, 2021
Business models
9
Bootstrapping
6
Audience attention is more valuable pointed at real businesses than micro-monetisation.
Speaking gigs alone earn Gary an estimated $6 million per year.
Empathy Wines went from zero to a $3–6M exit in under 12 months.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Productivity habits for distracting days, deep work, and metric tracking
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
January 7, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Resilience & grit
5
Anxiety blocks deep work — cut it on distressing days without guilt.
Process drives 90% of productivity gains; tool choice drives 10%.
Start with one keystone habit per life bucket, then expand slowly.
SEO Content Writing: A Six-Step Framework for Consistent Traffic
Ahrefs
January 6, 2021
SEO
10
Copywriting
7
Content marketing
6
Target topics with proven search demand, not just personal interest.
Match content type and format to search intent before writing a word.
AIDA intro formula hooks readers; data-driven outlines satisfy Google's algorithm.
Best of Scaling Up 2020: Leadership, Sales, Culture, and Resilience
Bill Gallagher
January 6, 2021
Management
9
Prospecting & outreach
7
Resilience & grit
6
BANT sales script cut: 120-day cycles slashed to 54 with conversational discovery.
Bureaucracy built for illiterate workers fails modern knowledge organisations structurally.
Life-sentenced inmate saved a guard — proof coaching transforms the 'unreachable'.
How Gary Vee built a $200M empire across 12 businesses
Noah Kagan
January 6, 2021
Business models
10
Case studies
8
Audience attention is the raw material; agencies convert it into revenue
Internal tools built for clients can become standalone licensed products
Two-tier agency pricing captures Fortune 500 and mid-market simultaneously
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Dan Pink on writing, timing, and designing your workday
How I Work
January 6, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
5
Your peak mental hours are too valuable to spend on email.
Environment design beats willpower for sustaining deep work.
Generating 60 bad titles surfaces the one good one.
Year-end review and planning practices for founders
Bill Gallagher
January 5, 2021
Goal setting
9
Productivity & habits
6
Long-term planning
5
Memory defaults to recent weeks — a structured review corrects that.
Ritualize the year's close before planning; a clean slate changes what you build.
Anchor annual goals to a 5–10 year vision, then break into 90-day actions.
Making dev team decisions, selling Drip, and founder milestones
Startups For the Rest of Us
January 5, 2021
Processes & SOPs
7
Productivity & habits
6
Exit strategy
5
Designate a tech lead — decision gridlock ends when one person owns outcomes
Neither founder regrets selling Drip; burnout and rare acquisition windows made it right
Share milestones with founder peers, not family — SaaS metrics need context to land
How Ali Abdaal built 1.3M subscribers as a full-time medical student
Noah Kagan
January 4, 2021
Case studies
10
Growth hacking
7
Outsourcing & delegation
6
Starting hyper-niche then expanding outward drives compounding audience growth.
Reinvesting every dollar into gear and a team creates an uncatchable moat.
Three years of never missing a week beat talent, resources, and production quality.
Why be productive: defining intention over output
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
January 4, 2021
Time management
10
Deep work & focus
8
Productivity & habits
8
Productivity without defined life goals defaults to just working more
Separate information-gathering from deep work; always target a concrete artifact
The right productivity system depends on personality, not universal superiority
Resilience & grit
Podcast
How Theodore Geisel spent decades becoming Dr. Seuss
Founders
January 4, 2021
Resilience & grit
7
Deep work & focus
6
Dr. Seuss chose children's books because his ad contract allowed it
Cat in the Hat came from a 225-word challenge, not creative vision
Nearly 30 years of rejection and day jobs preceded full-time writing