July 2019 : A newsletter
/Status: ☀️🚲🗽
June was a commute-by-bike month. Average daily totals: 46 minutes, 8.3 miles on my Trek single-speed. If you’re thinking “wait a half-second that’s not very fast,” then I invite you to join me for an uphill evening return, a journey I describe as The Pedal, Walk, and Carry. If you like stairs and a 16% incline, it’s 100% for you.
I spent most of last month evaluating a B2B SAAS idea with the all-star team at Pioneer Square Labs. Good times, great learnings. 💡 Here’s how I describe the experience to my kids: Start with What do you do with an idea? then add a whole lotta work.
More biz: I’m a big fan of customer lifetime value (CLV) as an organizing principle for marketing strategy - especially at B2B SAAS companies. Primarily because it requires a cross-section of teams (sales, marketing, finance, customer success) to think critically about why they’re in business and the value they’re delivering. For additional knowledge: What most companies miss about customer lifetime value.
Maximizing CLV - and by extension, company value - increasingly depends upon product and marketing personalization. Reading reco: The future of personalization and how to get ready for it. Because it’s here.
In other news: As an early riser, I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone. For example: Navy Seal commander explains why wake up at 4am, courtesy of the unparalleled Casey Neistat. I’m also convinced predawn starts are a key to unlocking creativity and over-the-top GSD (Getting Stuff Done 👊). Once you make it a routine, you may never return to sleeping later than 0600.
The 2019 Tour de France gets underway on July 6. It’s a two-wheeled, three-week opera set against some of the most stunning backgrounds in sports. Here’s how to watch live and/or follow The Move podcast (recommended).
The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup (also in 🇫🇷) has been outstanding, as anticipated. If you’re reading this after July 7, the winner will have been crowned and here’s hoping it’s who I hope it will be 🇺🇸. Either way, the inspiring stories in We asked, they answered: 108 Women’s World Cup Players on Their Jobs, Money and Sacrificing Everything will live on.
🎧: Michael Lewis’s podcast, Against the Rules, is terrific. It’s a 9-episode analysis of what has happened to fairness in American life and a prime example of great storytelling.
📚: The Spy and The Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. Also exceptional. Thumbs up.
And finally, a quote: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” -Pablo Picasso
Think big.
-John