Deep work & focus

Podcast

Designing workflow to let high-value knowledge workers cook

Deep Questions with Cal Newport February 10, 2025

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Deep work & focus 9

Productivity & habits 7

Processes & SOPs 5

• Why digital tools drag every knowledge worker toward permanent distraction
• Two-step cooking model: reduce responsibilities, consolidate what remains
• Letting even a few people cook challenges the busyness-as-productivity regime

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Branding

YouTube

How Valentine's Day became a billion-dollar industry

StoryBrand With Donald Miller February 10, 2025

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Branding 9

AI strategy & adoption 7

Content marketing 6

• Why a pagan fertility festival became a $2 billion candy market
• The Industrial Revolution was Valentine's Day's real turning point
• Premeditated attention beats expensive gifts every time

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Origin stories

Podcast

Leon Hess: how a 19-year-old built a $53 billion oil empire

Founders February 10, 2025

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Origin stories 10

Business models 7

Processes & SOPs 6

• Started with one used truck selling oil refineries threw away
• Built the western hemisphere's largest refinery using regulatory loopholes
• Ran a $53B empire with the detail obsession of a corner-store owner

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Case studies

Podcast

How Michelle Wahler bootstrapped Beyond Yoga to a $400M exit

How I Built This with Guy Raz February 10, 2025

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Case studies 10

Bootstrapping 8

Business models 7

• Wholesale treated as paid marketing, not a compromise.
• Refusing investors preserved the values that drove the acquisition.
• A single fabric discovery — ignored as too expensive — became the brand's signature.

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Communication

Podcast

How Atlassian's Dom Price makes difficult conversations easier

How I Work February 10, 2025

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Communication 9

• Calling it 'difficult' creates the problem before you start
• Ask more than you tell — curiosity beats persuasion every time
• Bad news doesn't improve with time; delay turns it into an ambush

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Resilience & grit

Podcast

Stoic wisdom on desire and anger as fuel

The Daily Stoic February 10, 2025

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Resilience & grit 9

Motivation 6

• Desire is a machine built to reach, never to hold.
• Anger fuels short-term wins but corrodes everything long-term.
• Seneca: even justified anger makes you look insane, not powerful.

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