10 May 2021
This week's additions focus on leadership, founder stories, and mindset, with new digests from Bill Gallagher, The Daily Stoic, and Joanna Wiebe. Highlights include Incorporated only because a client forced him to — not by choice. Seneca warned against slavery — your phone qualifies
Showing 13 digests for 10 May 2021.
Founder interviews
YouTube
From freelancer to founder: building a scalable production company
Bill Gallagher
May 16, 2021
Founder interviews
9
Culture building
6
Business operating systems
5
Incorporated only because a client forced him to — not by choice.
Core values workshop transformed every hiring decision he made.
Refusing to ask for help was the biggest brake on growth.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Eight Stoic strategies to spend less time on your phone
The Daily Stoic
May 16, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Seneca warned against slavery — your phone qualifies
Phone-free mornings and evenings add 10+ hours daily
Remove social apps from your phone; limit inboxes to three
Three Steps to Nail Your Niche Fast as a Freelancer
Joanna Wiebe
May 16, 2021
Niche selection
9
Processes & SOPs
7
Communication
5
Picking a niche starts the work; three steps follow.
Treat your own business as a paying client project.
Fewer services, controlled narrative, 258% revenue growth.
How Google's chief health officer ran a global public health platform during COVID
Masters of Scale
May 13, 2021
Case studies
9
Processes & SOPs
7
Management
6
Google's search defaults and doodles are de facto public health interventions
Tech's edge over public health: forecasting forward, not just tracking backward
Why herd immunity — not individual vaccination — is the population-level goal
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Managing tasks, attention residue, and deep work schedules
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
May 13, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Time management
7
Emotional distractions are the worst possible kind for knowledge work.
A 'waiting-on' list built in real time prevents obligations falling through cracks.
Motivation is too fickle to govern whether you start cognitively demanding work.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Three alarms to align daily behaviour with health, work, and relationships
Bill Gallagher
May 12, 2021
Identity & self-belief
10
Productivity & habits
8
Work-life balance
7
Name a best-self identity for each domain; behaviour follows instantly
A near-fatal heart attack exposed the cost of sacrificing health for work
Evening routine — shutdown, digital sunset, 8 hours — drives next-day output
Calm: How sleep became the sleeping giant
Business Breakdowns
May 12, 2021
Case studies
9
Unit economics
8
Pivoting
7
Data revealed sleep was primary use case; Calm pivoted from meditation education to mental fitness
Content as utility plus habit formation unlocked 80% retention rates versus competitors
Annual upfront billing enables capital-efficient growth without venture capital or debt
Founder interviews
Podcast
How Obama built the team and mindset to seize a historic moment
Masters of Scale
May 11, 2021
Founder interviews
10
Delegation
8
Long-term planning
7
Moments choose you — position yourself before the window opens.
Horizontal teams with real authority scale faster than top-down ones.
Listening to community stories before acting is the highest-leverage move.
Getting back to loving your business by giving away what you hate
Bill Gallagher
May 11, 2021
Delegation
8
Work-life balance
6
Most founders hold roles they never wanted to own
Map every role on a FACE chart, then give away what you dislike
Delegating over time leaves only the work you love
Outsourcing & delegation
Podcast
Hiring vs. Outsourcing, E-commerce SaaS, and Listener Questions
Startups For the Rest of Us
May 11, 2021
Outsourcing & delegation
8
B2B sales
7
Growth hacking
5
Don't let perceived regulatory barriers block e-commerce SaaS ideas; payment processors handle compliance for you now.
Find early-adopter customers who want to take risks with you, not risk-averse prospects who'll never commit.
Bootstrap founders win by serving their customers well in niches, not by outspending rivals in winner-take-all markets.
How to meet influential people before they become famous
Noah Kagan
May 10, 2021
Meet future influencers early — before they're too busy to respond
Help someone for a year before asking for anything in return
Persistent follow-up turns closed doors into invitations
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Maintaining deep work: time blocking, hive mind alternatives, and the deep life
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
May 10, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Work-life balance
6
Time blocking forces you to face the true cost of shallow work.
Replace unscheduled messaging with designed processes, not new tools.
Sustained deep work discipline requires committing to a deep life philosophy.
Jeff Bezos and the building of Amazon: lessons from The Everything Store
Founders
May 10, 2021
Origin stories
10
Business models
7
Culture building
6
Why Bezos defined Amazon as an 'un-store' long before it became one
Two retailer meetings in 2001 that rewired Amazon's entire pricing strategy
The regret minimization framework: how Bezos makes irreversible decisions