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Hi Everyone,
Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.
This week we’re talking about maniacal standards, protein, and unpacking. Let's get into it.
Double the Money
Alex Lieberman and Austin Rief started the Morning Brew newsletter in 2015 when they were students at the University of Michigan. Five years later, after growing it to about 3 million subscribers, they sold it to Business Insider for $75 million.
They recently told a story about their maniacal quality standards on the My First Million podcast.
In 2017 and 2018, the first two or three hours of the day consisted of reviewing their content and comparing it to their competitors.
"We would come to work, print out Morning Brew, Axios, The Hustle, and The Skimm," said Austin, "And Alex would go through every single story circling what he liked and x-ing out what he didn't like.
Alex is the most likable person on the planet. The only person on the planet who doesn't like Alex is our first writer because Alex would sit there and cross out half the words he put in the newsletter and be like, 'Lindsey Quinn [writer at the Hustle] wrote this same story better than you did. Be better.'
We were maniacal. We were crazy about this newsletter thing."
This wasn't a weekly meeting where a midlevel employee critiqued a few stories. It was a huge chunk of every single day. It was both the founders participating. It was reviewing every single word they published the day before. It was reviewing every single word their competitors published the day before.
It was an insistence on quality. A quest for any tiny detail to improve the product. It was reminiscent of Bill Belichick quizzing players in the hallway or Steve Jobs berating employees about the design on the inside of the iPod.
"A lot of me being maniacal about the content," said Lieberman, "came from what Austin taught me about standards. The standard of your business is what you allow. If you allow suboptimal content to be written, that is the standard you set. By not saying anything, you're implicitly saying that that is okay. That was my biggest fear was if I said 'okay' to things that were not exceptional content, that was the new standard of our business."
Nick Bare, CEO of BPN says the job of a leader is to set the standard and hold the standard.
When you're at the top, quality is your responsibility. You have to communicate what is expected and speak up when expectations aren't met.
Quality matters. Standards matter. They're the difference between excellence and obscurity.
The host of the podcast, who also happens to be the founder of The Hustle, a Morning Brew competitor, said he never did what Austin and Alex did.
His newsletter sold for less than half.
That outcome speaks for itself.
This was a great Huberman Lab episode covering nutrition as it relates to muscle building and fat loss. The bulk of the conversation focused on protein.
If you're trying to build muscle, burn fat, or optimize your diet, this is a must watch episode. Here are a few of my takeaways:
As long as you eat between .7 and 1 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, the timing of when you eat it—especially relative to when you exercise—doesn't matter much.
If you're trying to burn fat, it doesn't matter if you do fasted or fed cardio. As long as your nutrition is the same, you'll see the same results either way.
This one surprised me. Studies don't support the villianization of seed oils. They actually show more positive health outcomes with the consumption of seed oils versus things like olive oil or butter. Huberman theorized that seed oils get a bad rap because of who they often hang out with: highly processed, starchy and/or sugary foods.
Billy Oppenheimer wrote a great piece last week about unpacking. It's basically the idea of breaking big goals, events, or looming possibilities into their constituent parts.
This is a crucial leadership skill because it removes friction, facilitates action, and makes progress, accomplishment, and success more likely.
He used examples from Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, running a coffee shop, and his recent trip to Vienna to illustrate the idea, which made it a delightful read.
If you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe to his newsletter. He sends something similar every Sunday.
Workout of the Week
I enjoyed doing this one with my mom, wife, and sister in law before our 4th of July party last week.
"Party in the USA"
30-20-10
Calories on rower, bike, or ski erg
GHD or abmat situps
DB thrusters (35s)
You do 30 of each, then 20 of each, then 10 of each. Enjoy!
Quote of the Week
"Most of us aren't defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be." - Jocko Willink
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Talk soon,
Joe