9 October 2023
This week's additions focus on marketing, leadership, and mindset, with new digests from Cameron Herold, Rob Walling, and TK Kader. Highlights include Title inflation makes 'average COO salary' a meaningless number Light gray text and tiny fonts are silently killing your conversions.
Showing 29 digests for 9 October 2023.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
COO compensation in the US: what to actually pay your second in command
Cameron Herold
October 15, 2023
Hiring & recruitment
9
Unit economics
5
Title inflation makes 'average COO salary' a meaningless number
Real mid-sized company COOs earn $300k–$450k, not $140k
Benchmark by company size, role scope, and state — not title
Seven SaaS UI mistakes non-designers make and how to fix them
Rob Walling
October 15, 2023
Design thinking
9
Conversion rate optimisation
7
Light gray text and tiny fonts are silently killing your conversions.
White space isn't wasted — it signals trust and guides the eye.
Mismatched app and landing page design makes users feel lost.
The basic growth equation every SaaS founder needs to know
TK Kader
October 15, 2023
Unit economics
9
Funnels
7
Business models
5
Three metrics — activation rate, conversion rate, ACV — determine your lead target.
Optimising funnel metrics can cut required leads from 56,000 to 12,000.
Setting a revenue target is the prerequisite; vagueness is not a strategy.
Writing a business book as a client-acquisition tool
KeyPersonOfInfluence
October 15, 2023
PR & media
9
Community building
7
Giving away 1,000 books a year beats selling them every time.
Every 1,000 copies Gabriella Rosa gave away returned ~$1M in business.
A repeatable formula — control question to big finish — lets you write fast.
Iteration & feedback loops
Podcast
How Stripe operationalises design quality at scale
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
October 15, 2023
Iteration & feedback loops
9
Management
7
Hiring & recruitment
5
Stripe's checkout quality improvements drove a 10.5% lift in merchant revenue.
Walk the store: 15 critical journeys reviewed quarterly by cross-functional leaders.
Performance = Potential minus Interference — and org structure is often the interference.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Arnold Schwarzenegger on being useful, ambition, and paying it forward
The Daily Stoic
October 14, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Goal setting
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Nobody is self-made — recognising your debts creates an obligation to help others
Every liability (accent, name, body) became an asset when Arnold committed fully
A specific goal beats vague ambition every time; the vision must feel genuinely yours
How Kopi Kenangan built a $270M coffee chain from a small-format model
EO
October 13, 2023
Business models
10
Niche selection
8
Case studies
7
A latte cost 30% of daily income in Indonesia — the gap no one filled.
Tiny stores next to Starbucks outperformed and attracted $270M in funding.
COVID tripled outlet count after the CEO took a Rp. 1 salary.
Resilience & grit
YouTube
Winning on social media requires consistency, self-awareness, and loving the process
GaryVee
October 13, 2023
Resilience & grit
9
Social media
7
Motivation
6
Low follower counts mean your content isn't resonating — change it.
Organic social is the highest-ROI free distribution channel available today.
Falling in love with losing is the real competitive edge in entrepreneurship.
Automation & tools
YouTube
Build a free DIY help desk in SmartSuite in under 20 minutes
Layla at ProcessDriven
October 13, 2023
Automation & tools
9
AI tools & automation
6
A free SmartSuite template replaces chaotic email-based support in minutes.
Customer-facing forms auto-create tickets, eliminating manual data entry.
Built-in AI drafts reusable email templates from a plain-English prompt.
Blog posts are no longer enough: what actually builds SEO authority
Neil Patel
October 12, 2023
SEO
9
Content marketing
6
Free tools earn more backlinks than almost any blog content
Updating old content drives more traffic than publishing new posts
Low-authority sites need tools, not just more articles
How to build a dropshipping business on TikTok Shop in 2023
Brett Malinowski
October 12, 2023
Social media
9
MVP & prototyping
7
Prospecting & outreach
6
TikTok Shop's affiliate system generates sales with near-zero upfront ad spend.
TikTok's AI targeting outperforms manual audience selection 90% of the time.
Drop shipping is the cheapest way to validate a product before building a brand.
Business operating systems
YouTube
The value of community when adopting EOS in your business
EOS Worldwide
October 12, 2023
Business operating systems
9
Culture building
6
EOS adoption creates team camaraderie beyond the numbers
Self-implementing with your visionary builds genuine alignment
The real ROI is becoming better humans together
Resilience & grit
YouTube
Self-compassion and attention as the foundation of productive work
GaryVee
October 12, 2023
Resilience & grit
9
Content marketing
7
Culture building
5
Removing self-judgment — not better systems — is the real productivity multiplier.
Media and creative must share one roof for true sales accountability.
Day trading attention means paying only for impressions people actually consume.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
When to rescind a job offer before the new hire's start date
HR Party of One
October 12, 2023
Hiring & recruitment
9
Communication
6
Candidates who lie in interviews take the opportunity away from themselves.
Excessive pre-start questions reveal whether a hire can work independently.
Renegotiating salary after acceptance is a valid reason to part ways.
Objection handling
YouTube
How to respond when clients edit your copy
Joanna Wiebe
October 12, 2023
Objection handling
9
Copywriting
8
Clients edit on gut instinct — redirect them to data every time
Ask why changes are being made before defending your copy
Your research-backed guess outweighs their gut when no one knows for sure