Weekly Roundup #13— Excellent Advertising, Scaling Startups, The Potato Chip’s Origin and More
Impactful things I read, watched, and created this past week.
I’ve been polyphasic sleeping for about 3.5 months now. Here are some changes I’ve noticed and observations I’ve made:
- I can still easily sleep a whole night (9+ hours) when I want to. I was initially concerned this sleep pattern would ruin my ability to do so.
- I gained 10 pounds in the first month of probably not-so-healthy weight. This weight came primarily because I was eating nearly twice as many calories as normal.
- I’ve since lost that weight. All I did to lose it was eat less. How did I eat less? By drinking protein first thing when I wake up at 2am. Protein significantly dampens your appetite when you drink it within 30 minutes of waking up.
- Waking up at 2am doesn’t feel novel to me anymore.
- I can do pretty much whatever I want in my morning hours and not risk falling asleep. For the first month I had to do highly-engaging activities otherwise I’d start to doze off.
- I do a “crash night” once per week where I sleep the full night. This has been the key to long-term sustainability for me.
- I tried a full week of “normal” sleep to test if my productivity levels would be higher. They weren’t. Not even close. And I was a less happy person because I wasn’t getting nearly as many things done.
What I Read
Pricing needs to be a bigger part of the conversation for every company. In another article I shared in a previous weekly roundup, the author dug deeply into why pricing should come before product. It’s worth revisiting regularly.
“Eight people in a room for an hour doesn’t cost one hour; it costs eight hours.”
Here’s a great case study on how to use content to grow your audience and traffic. The author shows how he leveraged three types of content — evergreen, link-earning, and viral/social — effectively and how/why each is used.
What I Watched
Effective advertising #1 — Here’s a humorously depressing commercial by Telia wifi.
Effective advertising #2 — A well-told story about a family renovating their home and the many life experience they have along the way. It’s creative, touching, and entertaining.
Effective advertising #3 — A funny ad for National Canadian Film Day. They set the stage well with tons of blunt humor.
Yet another compelling video by Great Big Story. Here’s the interesting tale of how potato chips were born.
What I wrote
I download and use tons of new apps every week. I’m always on the search for better ways to do things. Email is one category that I’ve gained a particular interest in because of how central it is to my work and personal life. Here are 8 of my favorite free tools that I’ve used to help improve my email game.
