2 January 2023
This week's additions focus on marketing, strategy, and mindset, with new digests from Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life, TK Kader, and Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth. Highlights include 98% of entrepreneurs are stuck in passion-or-profit — not both SaaS 3.0 shifts from showing you answers to acting for you
Showing 30 digests for 2 January 2023.
L'Oreal: how science, scale, and brand architecture built a beauty giant
Business Breakdowns
January 4, 2023
Business models
10
Branding
8
Pricing strategy
7
Barriers to entry are low in beauty — barriers to scale are enormous.
L'Oreal spends 32% of sales on advertising, the highest in consumer goods.
ROIC compounding from 23% to 40%+ is what the market consistently misprices.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Self-esteem, confidence, and what drives Gary Vaynerchuk
GaryVee
January 4, 2023
Identity & self-belief
10
Resilience & grit
8
Founder interviews
6
Why confidence built on validation collapses — and what lasts instead
His mother reinforced kindness, not grades — that distinction made him
Self-awareness is the only prerequisite for any real self-development
Resilience & grit
Podcast
100 Lessons from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
The Daily Stoic
January 4, 2023
Resilience & grit
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Deep work & focus
5
Virtue and character are the only things within your control—all else is external distraction.
The obstacle is not separate from action; accept constraints and transform them into fuel for greatness.
Simplify ruthlessly: do less, say no, and return to the present moment where life actually happens.
Automation & tools
YouTube
8 ways to automate a SmartSuite CRM and cut manual data entry
Layla at ProcessDriven
January 4, 2023
A single dropdown field is all it takes to trigger personalised emails.
Stale deals auto-assign a follow-up task before they fall through the cracks.
Default field values and forms eliminate data entry before it starts.
Five ways to keep your brand relevant
Masters of Scale
January 3, 2023
Branding
9
Vision & mission
6
Community building
5
Safe positioning slides brands into obscurity; take clear stands that define who you are.
Refresh your narrative for different audiences while keeping the core mission intact.
Listen actively to customers and build ongoing dialogue to shape your strategy.
Vulnerability as a leadership tool: how honesty drives teams
Bill Gallagher
January 3, 2023
Communication
9
Management
6
Admitting you have no plan can inspire more loyalty than false confidence.
Vulnerability without a commitment to fight just looks like collapse.
Sharing a real crisis with your team unlocks collective problem-solving.
No-code & low-code
Podcast
No-code MVPs: when to build without code and how to think about it
Startups For the Rest of Us
January 3, 2023
No-code & low-code
9
MVP & prototyping
8
Identity & self-belief
5
No-code lets non-technical founders ship a working MVP in weeks.
Scale, throughput, and UI flexibility are the real hard limits.
Perfectionism and scarcity mindset kill more startups than bad code.
How simplifying to one offer, one client, one message grew profit
Sunny Lenarduzzi
January 3, 2023
Case studies
9
Business models
7
MVP & prototyping
6
Deliberately low YouTube views converted better than chasing viral reach.
Revenue ÷ content pieces reveals whether your content is actually converting.
40 clients at $5K needs only 200 leads — not mass traffic.
Compliance & regulation
YouTube
What Is an ERISA Wrap Document and Why Small Businesses Need One
HR Party of One
January 3, 2023
Compliance & regulation
8
ERISA applies to employers of all sizes — not just large companies
One WRAP document can cover multiple benefit plans simultaneously
Your benefits broker can build the WRAP document for you
How to inspire others by sharing your vision
Bill Gallagher
January 2, 2023
Communication
9
Public speaking
6
Leaders hold back passion trying to seem responsible — stop it
A three-part formula: current reality, trajectory, then your dream
Only inspire when you're genuinely lit up — authenticity is the trigger
7 social media metrics that actually move the needle
Neil Patel
January 2, 2023
Growth hacking
9
Conversion rate optimisation
7
Likes and impressions rarely grow your business — these do
Beat competitors by benchmarking engagement rate against them, not averages
Consumers are 71% more likely to buy from a social referral
Seven strategies to recession-proof your SaaS business
Rob Walling
January 2, 2023
Pivoting
9
Cash flow management
8
Growth hacking
6
Cut non-working channels immediately — half-assing them wastes runway.
Snipe customers from VC-backed competitors before they finish imploding.
Stay offensive: falling ad and talent costs favour those who don't freeze.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Four mindset hacks to replace fear with forward focus
Dan Martell
January 2, 2023
Identity & self-belief
9
Resilience & grit
8
Motivation
7
Fear and faith are both future projections — you choose which.
Swapping 'have to' for 'get to' rewires how tasks feel instantly.
A single memorised question can interrupt fear and reset focus.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Career planning, discipline, and slow productivity for 2023
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
January 2, 2023
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
8
Long-term planning
6
Treat career transitions like investigative journalism, not wishful storytelling
Overhaul all five life buckets to build lasting discipline — not just work
Revenue is the only honest test of whether a side hustle is real
Carnegie and Frick: the partnership that built American steel
Founders
January 2, 2023
Case studies
10
Business models
7
Processes & SOPs
6
Obsessing over costs — not profits — is what made Carnegie untouchable
Expanding during the 1873 depression cut Carnegie's build costs by 25%
Two titans with identical philosophies destroyed each other through ego