24 October 2022
This week's additions focus on marketing, strategy, and mindset, with new digests from Noah Kagan, TK Kader, and Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth. Highlights include Top brokers start near-broke; Serhant earned $9K his first year. Formal value props kill trust — plain language wins every time.
Showing 26 digests for 24 October 2022.
Luxury Real Estate Agents on What It Really Takes to Earn $1M
Noah Kagan
October 30, 2022
Case studies
9
Prospecting & outreach
6
Top brokers start near-broke; Serhant earned $9K his first year.
Brokerage is zero-capital risk — time is the only real investment.
Relentless outwork beats inherited wealth and networks every time.
Crafting a value proposition that spreads like wildfire
TK Kader
October 30, 2022
Copywriting
9
Prospecting & outreach
6
Formal value props kill trust — plain language wins every time.
The Hey Man version: simple enough for a half-drunk SDR to deliver.
Three signals confirm you've nailed it: trust, repeatability, action.
Building Substack: Becoming a network for writers
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
October 30, 2022
Roadmapping
8
Business models
7
Growth hacking
6
Recommendations feature drives 70% of growth by letting writers curate discovery
Writers can now earn living wages from thousands, not millions of loyal readers
Direct subscriptions remove ads' incentive conflicts to put readers fully in control
Outsourcing & delegation
YouTube
Seven tips for choosing a performance marketing agency
Neil Patel
October 29, 2022
Outsourcing & delegation
8
Branding
5
The team on your account matters more than the agency's name.
Awards from peer judges are a reliable proxy for real results.
One channel won't grow your business — demand omni-channel coverage.
KPIs and OKRs: What they mean and how they work together
Layla at ProcessDriven
October 28, 2022
Processes & SOPs
8
Business operating systems
7
Not every number qualifies — only true performance drivers are KPIs.
OKR key results are outcomes you influence, not tasks you check off.
KPIs and OKRs are complementary: execution metrics feed into goal milestones.
What Y Combinator actually is and how it protects founders
Y Combinator
October 28, 2022
Fundraising & VC
9
Equity & cap tables
7
Business models
5
YC flips fundraising: founders name the price, investors cold-email them.
40% of a recent batch entered with just an idea — early is better.
Friendly early-stage investors are often the most exploitative.
Five quick SEO tactics that move rankings without waiting years
Neil Patel
October 27, 2022
SEO
9
Copywriting
7
AI tools & automation
5
Pages ranking 11–20 can jump to page one with small content edits
A $10–20 third-party tool can generate thousands of backlinks
Specific title-tag tweaks lift click-through rate by up to 45%
Six startup mistakes that killed PricingBot and built ScrapingBee
Rob Walling
October 27, 2022
Time management
9
Productivity & habits
8
A paying customer is the only real validation — everything else is noise.
Commit to one acquisition channel long enough to hit the compounding phase.
Consistency at the wrong thing compounds failure; know when to quit.
Email marketing fundamentals that generate a 42x return
Semrush
October 27, 2022
Email marketing
9
Copywriting
6
Email returns $42 per $1 — if your list stays healthy
Plain, conversational emails outperform designed promotional ones
Prune inactive subscribers or spam filters penalise your whole list
Founder interviews
YouTube
How a Soviet childhood vision shaped a Silicon Valley creator's life
Silicon Valley Girl
October 27, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Goal setting
7
Identity & self-belief
6
A vivid childhood dream acted as a daily decision filter for decades.
Lost $20K chasing a startup that turned out to be someone else's dream.
Block critics freely — their words describe themselves, not you.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Jim Clark: three billion-dollar companies and the engine of revenge
Founders
October 27, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Resilience & grit
8
Business models
6
Poverty and abuse fuelled a revenge-driven obsession with achievement.
Engineers create wealth — Clark spent three companies proving they should keep it.
The goalposts never stop moving: satisfaction is a tool Clark used, not a destination.
Contracts & agreements
YouTube
How to design an executive benefits program
HR Party of One
October 27, 2022
Contracts & agreements
9
Bootstrapping
7
Hiring & recruitment
6
Standard disability caps leave high-earning executives with half their coverage.
Key person life insurance pays the business, not the individual, on death.
A buy-sell agreement stops ownership passing to someone outside the business.
Category creation, rebranding, and opinionated software in B2B SaaS
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
October 27, 2022
Niche selection
9
Branding
8
Iteration & feedback loops
5
Category creation only works when customers lack budget but can be educated to create one.
Miro rebranded from RealtimeBoard in five months — mobilizing the whole company was essential.
Opinionated software enforces better practices; flexibility alone perpetuates systemic problems.
Building a marketplace for monetizing fame with personalized videos
Business Breakdowns
October 26, 2022
Case studies
9
Business models
8
Pricing strategy
6
Solved creator monetization gap: famous people often poor, Cameo enables direct fan payments
75-25 revenue split with unique retention metric: four videos in 14 days predicts 97% retention
Viral flywheel from talent promotion drives free customer acquisition; B2B fastest growing segment
Mental health & wellbeing
Podcast
The Happiness Lab podcast: a preview from Cal Newport
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
October 26, 2022
Mental health & wellbeing
9
Relationships & family
5
Your brain lies about what will actually make you happy.
Fear and pain in small doses can genuinely feel good.
YOLO philosophy doesn't work the way most people think.