22 May 2023
This week's additions focus on marketing, founder stories, and strategy, with new digests from Cameron Herold, GaryVee, and TK Kader. Highlights include 11 direct reports as COO leaves no time to grow anyone AI frees humans from routine tasks for more meaningful work.
Showing 24 digests for 22 May 2023.
How many direct reports a COO or CEO should have
Cameron Herold
May 28, 2023
Delegation
9
Management
7
11 direct reports as COO leaves no time to grow anyone
CEOs cap at five; COOs cap at seven or eight
Homogeneous teams are the exception — identical roles allow more reports
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
AI will make soft skills the only real competitive edge
GaryVee
May 28, 2023
Identity & self-belief
9
Resilience & grit
6
AI frees humans from routine tasks for more meaningful work.
"Fake it till you make it" breeds habits that eventually destroy you.
Empathy and EQ become the only differentiators once AI owns IQ tasks.
How ToutApp reached 100,000 users with three go-to-market principles
TK Kader
May 28, 2023
Growth hacking
9
Content marketing
7
Niche selection
6
A precise ICP — not just a job title — unlocks everything downstream.
A lead asset reframing the customer's problem drove tens of thousands of downloads.
Embedding in Salesforce's ecosystem beat paid ads for reaching the target audience.
Sales systems & CRM
YouTube
Why world-class companies never stop their sales training
KeyPersonOfInfluence
May 28, 2023
Sales systems & CRM
9
Closing techniques
7
Apple does 40 minutes of sales training every single shift
Even Google can't automate away its armies of salespeople
Every sale requires logic, emotion, and urgency — drop one and it fails
Pitching investors
Podcast
Strategic narrative: why world-shift beats problem-solution pitching
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
May 28, 2023
Pitching investors
9
Branding
8
Vision & mission
6
Pitching a world shift, not a problem, defines a movement buyers join
Five-part framework turns obstacles into life-or-death story stakes
The narrative becomes the product roadmap's north star, not just a sales tool
Founder interviews
YouTube
How Neil Patel builds businesses: capital, mistakes, and hiring
Neil Patel
May 27, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Hiring & recruitment
7
Bootstrapping
6
Why starting your second company is almost unfair advantage
Wrong people kill great ideas — a $1M cloud computing lesson
Talent without enjoyment won't compound into hours or results
Long-term planning
YouTube
How to scale a business through people, content, and honest self-awareness
GaryVee
May 26, 2023
Long-term planning
9
Hiring & recruitment
9
Content marketing
7
Your expansion ceiling is set by loyalty, not market size.
Remote work is quietly crippling junior employees' development.
Content is the main dish — posting once a week proves you don't believe it.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Switching from ClickUp to SmartSuite: hierarchy, translation, and migration mistakes
Layla at ProcessDriven
May 26, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Content marketing
8
SmartSuite linked records replace most duplicate fields and folders from ClickUp
Six specific habits that waste time when migrating between the tools
Feature-by-feature translation: every ClickUp object mapped to its SmartSuite equivalent
Founder interviews
YouTube
Neil Patel on building businesses, giving back, and marketing in 2023
Neil Patel
May 25, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Bootstrapping
6
From $5k/month at 16 to nine-figure agency in five years
Inner-city kids with equal tools would outshine wealthy peers
Google cookie deprecation is partly a weapon against Facebook
Resilience & grit
YouTube
Executing advice beats consuming it: Gary Vee on action and mindset
GaryVee
May 25, 2023
Resilience & grit
9
Identity & self-belief
8
Founder interviews
5
99% of advice-listeners never execute — action is what proves anything
Artificial timelines force bad decisions; let the right move emerge naturally
Ignoring criticism requires equally ignoring praise — they're the same trap
Building a profitable affiliate site from scratch using SEO
Ahrefs
May 24, 2023
SEO
10
Iteration & feedback loops
7
Pricing strategy
5
Why SEO beats ads and social for consistent affiliate income
Product clusters link roundups to reviews, compounding content output
Informational posts earn backlinks that power your commercial pages
How RH climbed from near-bankruptcy to luxury furniture leader
Business Breakdowns
May 24, 2023
Case studies
9
Business models
8
Pricing strategy
6
Gary Friedman turned near-bankrupt RH into a 25% margin business.
Massive gallery showrooms replace advertising — stores are the brand.
Membership model eliminated promotions, the silent killer of retail margins.
Resilience & grit
Podcast
How a 109-year-old neighbour embodied stoic wisdom on living well
The Daily Stoic
May 24, 2023
Resilience & grit
10
Identity & self-belief
8
Origin stories
7
Contentment and purpose matter more than the pursuit of happiness
You control only which handle you grab on any situation
Mixing generations deliberately is maintenance, not a nice-to-have
Analytics frameworks and tools for in-house marketing teams
Semrush
May 23, 2023
Data & analytics
9
Automation & tools
6
Measure less data to get more results with the Small Data Framework
Prove analytics ROI before you spend with the payback calculator
Build live Looker Studio dashboards tied directly to your KPIs
Acquisition multiples, earnouts, and job-switching decisions for bootstrappers
Startups For the Rest of Us
May 23, 2023
Fundraising & VC
9
Pivoting
7
Customer discovery
6
Growth rate determines whether you get a revenue or profit multiple
Optimising for profit early can cap your exit value significantly
If no one talks to you pre-product, they won't post-product either