💡 How top founders think (and how you can, too)

Big ideas come from deep learning—here’s how to absorb more from dense information

Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

What do exceptional founders, marketers, and leaders have in common? They never stop learning.

This week, we’re covering the non-negotiable traits of great founders, why “webinars” need a rebrand, and my favorite method for getting the most out of challenging reads.

Today’s agenda:

📚 Get the most out of tough reads

🧩 Traits of exceptional founders

📺 Tips for successful webinars

💼 Briefly: Joyful marketing, AI search, & YouTube trends

⏱️ Up & coming: The evolution of organic social marketing

🤔 How to read hard books

Back in the day, we used resources like CliffNotes to get a handle on dense, hard-to-get-through text.

Now, we can use ChatGPT! And no, it’s not cheating—it’s your assistant in preparing for the read and helping you throughout the read, including context on the “lingo,” themes, tips, and supplementary materials.

Watch my new video to see how I leverage ChatGPT to help me squeeze the most context and understanding out of whatever I’m reading

📚 Check out what I’m reading:

• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

• On the Edge by Nate Silver

• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

• The Rise and Fall of Nations by Ruchir Sharma

• Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

• The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert J. Gordon

💡 Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more insights that have helped me achieve wealth while maintaining a strong work-life balance!

🫵 The secret to a successful business is… you

No pressure, but seven-time founder and investor (of over 100 companies) Rogers Healy says the one thing that can make or break a business is the founder.

Healy says these founder qualities are “non-negotiable”—and what every founder needs to be successful:

• Urgency: Not frantic or rushed, but purposeful, laser-focused, and moving with intent and drive

• Authenticity: Genuine people build a loyal, organic following that lasts

• Resilience: The ability to adapt and keep moving forward with what you have—despite inevitable setbacks

• Passion: The “secret sauce”—everyone can feel it and believe it

• Accountability: Owning all actions—good and bad (Healy’s most-valued quality in a founder)

💡 Remember, people are investing in you. Which qualities do you think are most important in your industry?

🙅 Don’t call it a webinar

People love webinars—according to a 2024 B2B benchmark report from Goldcast, companies are hosting 22 webinars per year on average.

But, call your webinar a webinar, and you’ll see a 50% drop in registration rates.

What’s going on? And why aren’t people tuning into your webinars? Kishore Kothandaraman, co-founder/COO of Goldcast, has the answers:

• Be creative: Your audience still wants to learn in a virtual format, but they don’t want the same boring webinars of the past. Write a compelling, exciting title to generate interest—and keep “webinar” out of it.

• Make it a series: Viewers want a “bingeable series,” a la Netflix or Amazon Prime. Plan a buildable series to establish trust and authority.

• Ramp it up: Keep ’em coming—those 22 webinars per year (about 2 per month) are giving you more exposure and awareness benefits than companies that aren’t doing it. Set a reasonable goal for your business, and get started.

💡 Schedule a Discovery Session to see how we can accelerate your go-to-market and lead-generation strategy.

Briefly

⛔ Store closures in the U.S. spiked in 2024 and are expected to rise this year, which one expert attributes to “competitive threats” rather than a decline in demand. See the data here.

🎉 Joy over fear—see why one founder/CEO is encouraging businesses to “rebel with joy” and embrace positivity in marketing (research shows it can work just as well as negativity).

🤖 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says ChatGPT’s latest model, o3-mini, will be available to paid and free subscribers in the coming weeks.

🔎 A report found that people who use AI tools for search, including ChatGPT and Gemini, are clicking the links AI provides as its sources and boosting traffic and sales. This is promising news as businesses continue to learn more about how to leverage AI search traffic.

📹 YouTube’s latest trends report highlights seven shifts that are reshaping digital marketing, including user data, content types, creators, and more.

Up & Coming

Is organic social media dead? Not exactly—but it is evolving fast.

In 2025, brands need to be more strategic to grow their social presence without relying solely on paid ads. Read this guide from Sprout Social for organic growth strategies and real-world examples.