15 May 2023
This week's additions focus on founder stories, mindset, and strategy, with new digests from Brett Malinowski, Cameron Herold, and Rob Walling. Highlights include One designer, zero employees, $120k/month — here's exactly how. Lead with values and trust — never systems — when acquiring companies
Showing 32 digests for 15 May 2023.
How to coach and manage your most difficult managers
HR Party of One
May 18, 2023
Management
9
Conflict resolution
5
A six-step plan to fix problem managers before termination becomes necessary
Train all managers together so the difficult one doesn't feel targeted
Skip-level meetings and 360 feedback reveal whether coaching is working
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Find a way to use what life hands you
The Daily Stoic
May 18, 2023
Resilience & grit
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Management
5
AI disruption is a stoic opportunity, not a threat to resist.
Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations as a grieving parent mid-pandemic.
The four Cardinal Virtues are inseparable — courage needs wisdom to matter.
Community building
YouTube
Are SEO conferences worth attending?
Ahrefs
May 17, 2023
Community building
7
Branding
6
Talks open the ideas; one-to-ones are where real depth happens
Beginners gain more from talks; veterans gain more from networking
Introverts can pre-arrange meetups on social media before arriving
Eight time management strategies for executives and COOs
Cameron Herold
May 17, 2023
Time management
9
Delegation
7
Outsourcing & delegation
5
Block only 60% of your calendar — protect the rest deliberately
9:30–11:30 AM is prime people time; afternoons are for admin
If you don't have an executive assistant, you are one
How one designer built a $1.3M/year solo productized service
Starter Story
May 17, 2023
Case studies
9
Business models
8
Unit economics
6
Flat-fee subscriptions replace hourly billing — no proposals, no tracking
20 clients, no employees, $176/month overhead, zero meetings
Insecurity kept him at his day job two years longer than necessary
Resilience & grit
YouTube
How to live without regret: lessons from 90-year-olds and radical accountability
GaryVee
May 17, 2023
Resilience & grit
9
Communication
8
Founder interviews
6
At 90, people only regret what they never tried.
Radical accountability means owning your life without self-punishment.
Kind candor — not harsh, not silent — is the highest-leverage leadership skill.
How Princess Reema used business thinking to open doors for Saudi women
Masters of Scale
May 16, 2023
Case studies
10
Vision & mission
7
Resilience & grit
6
Being denied a job as royalty revealed the scale of women's exclusion.
Training Olympic athletes secretly at home to establish irreversible precedent.
Fluid persistence beats confrontation: bring people with you, take steps not leaps.
Content marketing
YouTube
What is a marketing strategy and why you need one
Semrush
May 16, 2023
Content marketing
9
Vision & mission
5
Strategy sets direction; the plan delivers the tactics
Documented strategies make marketers 414% more likely to succeed
Six components every solid marketing strategy must include
Founder interviews
Podcast
How one developer built a multi-million dollar solo software business
Startups For the Rest of Us
May 16, 2023
Founder interviews
10
Bootstrapping
7
Business models
6
Open source burnout is inevitable unless you monetise the support from day one
Flat $1,000/year pricing beats per-use competitors at scale
Ten years of blogging and failed projects built the trust Sidekick needed
Objection handling
YouTube
How to handle "it's too expensive" without negotiating on price
Sunny Lenarduzzi
May 16, 2023
Objection handling
10
Pricing psychology
7
"Too expensive" almost always masks a deeper objection about value or timing.
Never negotiate price — clients who haggle upfront will break boundaries throughout.
Anchor prospects in transformation cost, not your fee, to dissolve price resistance.
The four types of pay periods and which works best
HR Party of One
May 16, 2023
Bi-weekly beats semi-monthly for most teams — here's why
26 vs 24 paychecks: the difference employers often overlook
Payroll schedules should be chosen deliberately, not inherited
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Robert Greene on six stoic concepts for a more fulfilling life
The Daily Stoic
May 16, 2023
Neglecting what you control while resisting what you can't is wasteful madness.
Fear of death operates as hidden anxiety, making you risk-averse without knowing it.
Judge people by behaviour patterns, not what they say about themselves.
Founder interviews
YouTube
How immigrant grit shaped a $875M startup founder
Y Combinator
May 16, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Resilience & grit
7
Identity & self-belief
6
Refugee parents' survival instinct became Tracy Young's entrepreneurial fuel
Imposter syndrome made her hide identity traits that were actually strengths
Immigration drives economic output — and founders disproportionately prove it
How teams can stop drowning in work using the CPR framework
Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life
May 15, 2023
Processes & SOPs
9
Automation & tools
6
Deep work & focus
5
Only 50% of work time goes to actual skilled work — here's why.
One channel hierarchy eliminates the daily communication scavenger hunt.
Meetings have a calculable dollar cost most leaders never look at.
How to use webinars and paid social to sell information products
Neil Patel
May 15, 2023
Funnels
8
Closing techniques
7
Paid ads
6
Long-form webinars still convert cold traffic better than any alternative.
Agencies only beat in-house marketing once you already have something working.
Engagement rate beats follower count — giveaway growth actively hurts reach.