Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

This week we’re talking about Bill Belichick’s interview process, gratitude, and advice from founders. Let's get into it.

Interview Like Belichick

Pat Kirwan, a New York Jets executive, described Bill Belichick as "the most effective interviewer of prospects he'd ever come across."

As Ian O'Connor wrote in his biography of Belichick, "[Kirwan] saw the coach as an evaluator who could run a penetrating one-on-one and quickly get to the essence of a player without turning the sit-down into a police interrogation."

At the 1997 NFL combine, Belichick ran one of these interviews on a defensive lineman prospect. The guy was good, but he was known as a slacker. The coach was trying to figure out if he was worth the gamble.

Belichick invited the player into the room, shut off the lights, and immediately fired up game film. The film Belichick used was filled with examples of the prospect playing poorly. Then Belichick began asking questions.

"What happened on this play?"

"What went wrong here?"

"Why did you do that there?"

"After ten minutes," Kirwan recalls, "the kid cracked and started blaming his coaches, saying, 'They didn't use me right.' You can only imagine where this is going. The lights go on and Bill goes, 'Hey, we'll be in touch.' The guy leaves, and Bill says something to the effect of, 'That guy will never play for me.'"

By honing his interview process—by becoming a penetrating evaluator—Belichick could dodge bullets and find hidden gems. He could filter out the bad eggs, making his job as a leader much easier.

His approach might sound harsh, but one of the most important jobs of a leader is to hire the right people—to build the right team. If you hire right, all your downstream tasks become easier. So while it may be uncomfortable, while it may not make you many friends, it pays to be harsh up front. Because tolerating—and ultimately firing—the wrong person is much harder than not hiring him to begin with.

Flowers & Leadership

This short article about an eighth grade graduation shared one of the most powerful lessons of leadership: if someone matters to you, make sure they know it.

It’s a 60 second read that could change your day in a very positive way.

31 Takeaways from a Founder Mastermind

Tyler Denk is the founder and CEO of beehiiv—the platform I'm using to send you this newsletter.

He has a great newsletter called Big Desk Energy, where he shares his experiences growing his company. This particular issue covered a bunch of takeaways from the most recent founder's mastermind he hosted. Lots of good stuff in here for anyone running a team or a company. I'll highlight a couple of my favorites:

• Avoid sycophants. Asking candidates during the interview process to criticize the company or the interviewer → the goal is to avoid sycophants afraid of giving critical feedback.

• Personal touches at scale. Personalized DMs, handwritten notes, sending merch, and going the extra mile to acknowledge users and employees. It makes a difference. (See Flowers & Leadership above—I love recurring themes.)

• Excellence is the standard. All the founders sweat the little things and hold their employees to the same standard. Things like typos in emails or taking too long to respond to customers aren’t acceptable → how you do one thing is how you do everything.

Workout of the Week

This one was an ass-kicker. I drastically underestimated how hard it would be.

"Sinking Ship"

For time:

• 30 alternating dumbbell snatches (50)

• 45 calorie row

• 60 GHD situps

• 45 calorie row

• 30 alternating dumbbell snatches (50)

My goal was sub ten minutes, but it took me 13:58. It’s good to get humbled now and then. Let me know how you do.

Also, let me know if you're doing the CrossFit Open this week. I'll probably be doing the workout over the weekend.

Quote of the Week

"To be prepared for war is the most effectual means to promote peace." - George Washington

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Talk soon,

Joe