Thread by @jmikolay

Take a triple shot of @MorningBrew

I organized and distilled 12,000 tweets from @businessbarista @austin_rief @tobydoyhowell and @KinseyGrant into a summary of their big ideas, in three parts...

1⃣: Business Building
2⃣: Building Yourself and Career
3⃣: Social Media Principles

(first, an observation)

There are three kinds of companies:
🔷Audience companies
🔷Companies that will become audience companies
🔷Companies that will become irrelevant and decay

If you don't think you lead one or work for one, you do or you will

Part 1⃣: Business Building

Never forget, no one has it easy…
🔷Building a business is hard
🔷Building a business is hard
🔷Building a business is hard

The work is hard, but the formula is simple…
🔷Hire great people
🔷Work your ass off
🔷Catch some lucky breaks

First things first, post truly great content…
🔷Content that’s valuable
🔷Content you’re proud of
🔷Content that’s differentiated
🔷Content your customer fiends for
🔷Content people give a shit about and want to share
🔷Content so good your customers turn into your sellers

Focus relentlessly for years…
🔷Show up
🔷Put in time
🔷Do unsexy work
🔷Default to action
🔷Be ready for the grind
🔷Ask for nothing in return
🔷Things take longer than you think they will. Always.

Prioritize consistency…
🔷Bat for singles and doubles
🔷Prove and reprove your value
🔷Study, gain insights, and apply them
🔷Small insights can have huge impact
🔷If you want to be original, take unoriginal ideas and execute them flawlessly

Build an obsessive audience that gives a shit about you…
🔷Earn attention
🔷Force people to care
🔷Hold their hands if necessary
🔷Deliver content that connects
🔷Serve people in a way that fuels their passion
🔷Now that you have an audience, don’t fuck it up

Get your content in front of your specific customer…
🔷Be tactical
🔷Target a niche
🔷Find relevant people
🔷Make the niche so small it’s uncomfortable

Consume constantly (including your own product!)…
🔷Eat content
🔷Dream content
🔷Breathe content

Hire the right people, but don’t rush it…
🔷Know the job
🔷Build a persona
🔷Hunt for unicorns

Care about your people, and invest in them…
🔷Enlist them in a shared vision
🔷Empower them to see their greatness
🔷Give them resources to be lifelong learners
🔷Get out of their way

Empower all-stars…
🔷Give them freedom to be creators and personalities
🔷Give them tools, training, and culture to make it happen
🔷Give them clarity around mission, values, and direction
🔷Put them in a position to succeed, and watch it pay off many times over

Build culture intentionally, and over-communicate…
🔷Emphasize what's important
🔷Don’t assume people have context
🔷Make it easy to find out what your company does
🔷Give adequate background before elaborating on the future

Document the journey, especially the early days…
🔷Keep a detailed journal
🔷Take pictures and videos
🔷Reflect on what you’re building
🔷Create an entrepreneurial time capsule
🔷Showcase great and horrible experiences
🔷Your future self will thank you

Build in public…
🔷Increase vulnerability
🔷Increase serendipity
🔷Increase opportunity
🔷Increase transparency
🔷When context is missing, people assume the worst

Play the long game…
🔷Leverage data to build trust
🔷Give people more than just content
🔷Build deep and direct relationships
🔷Build assets that will be valuable in five years

Part 2⃣: Building Yourself and Your Career

Get comfortable being uncomfortable…
🔷Grow a thick skin
🔷Show extreme resilience
🔷Be proud of it

Increase luck surface area…
🔷Survive
🔷Persevere
🔷Work your ass off
🔷Create public work
🔷Keep your head down
🔷Don’t give up too early

Learn ravenously…
🔷Absorb takeaways
🔷Recognize patterns
🔷Desire true feedback
🔷Learn from smart people
🔷Be a sponge to your own life experiences

Be curious in your personal and professional life…
🔷Ask good questions
🔷Seek true feedback
🔷Acknowledge blind spots
🔷Have the humility to be wrong
🔷Feed your brain like an ever-expanding library
🔷Learn every day through questioning and exploration

Think critically and challenge norms…
🔷Challenge traditional tech teams
🔷Challenge traditional growth strategies
🔷Challenge traditional advertising opportunities
🔷Challenge traditional ways of creating content
🔷Approach everyday with an underdog mentality

Know your superpowers, and leverage them…
🔷Lean into your competencies
🔷Double down on your strengths
🔷You’re great at some things and mediocre at the rest
(And that’s fine!)

Exercise empathy…
🔷Do the right thing for others
🔷Champion others’ franchises
🔷Embrace others’ perspectives

Find the rest of Part 2⃣ and all of Part 3⃣ here...

And follow me if you want more big idea summaries!

letter.substack.com/p/the-best-of-…