Boxed cake mixes before 1933 required only water. But when Duncan Hines' cake mix forced the consumer to add fresh eggs as well, sales soared.

Adding friction is a counterintuitive strategy that makes something slightly more challenging, increasing its appeal.

Whether you're running a Slack, Discord, Circle, or in-person meetups, it's crucial to connect one-on-one with members.

Schedule calls with new members to get a sense of their needs and to learn about their interests and expertise. Not everything needs to be scalable.

• In a time when there's more competition than ever, sometimes the only way to stand out is to lead with value.
• Trust that the investment will come back to you.
• Over time, people will get to know you for your high-quality work.

• Master one channel, then scale.
• Create a flywheel that gets both repeat content and allows you to scale with decreasing friction.
• Anything worth doing takes time, but once you start to see momentum, it becomes easier to expand your efforts and get a greater return on your inv...

• Tap into underleveraged marketing channels and you can reap the benefits before these channels go mainstream.
• Niche or smaller email lists tend to have high open rates and click-through rates, which means they're ripe for sponsorships.
• Not everything can be low-hanging fruit....

Instead of hiding the cancel subscription button, create trust with the customer by sending reminders that their recurring charge is about to be debited. They should have the 'skip' option ready in case they don't want the services anymore. This is counterintuitive to the hilt but helps build wor...

• Encouraging your email subscribers to opt out so that they stay in is counterintuitive.
• Check who hasn't opened your emails in the past 90 days and delete those who don't click.
• Hitting that delete button will hurt your gross numbers, but your open rates and clickthroughs wil...

• Give free press to brands who share your similar audience, ethos, or approach.
• Align yourself with other brands by promoting them in your work.
• You'll earn goodwill, potential reciprocation, and unlock doors for future collaboration.