Hi everyone!

A huge welcome to the 121 of you who have joined since the last issue. The BrainPint community is 1,394 strong!

You guys are hearing this here first. I'm committing to a Product Hunt launch for Newsletter OS on Thursday! I don't think I'll ever be ready but I really want to get this done. It's going to be my first launch and I'm pumped. Would love to have you join the conversation!

It's been a busy few weeks and I've had to be laser-focused with how I spend my time. This week's BrainPint touches on many things I've been pondering.

I'm sharing great reads on how to build your audience, how to turn your thoughts into insights and opportunities & predictions about digital products.

Thanks again for reading and for all of your support.

With gratitude,
Janel

What I've learned from building in public
An article featuring me! Read about the origin story of my latest side project, and how I've grown my audience. There's a lot of juicy stuff to dig into here. Remember that you don't ever need to optimize for interestingness. "To be interesting, be interested. I constantly find ways to lift others up. Befriending other curious minds has also helped me grow my audience as we shine spotlights on each others' work." I love that I can showcase all the cool things / people / articles I find each week on BrainPint.

Trends - Digital Products
Curious about digital products? This Trends report is loaded with opportunities & predictions. My takes: 

• Bundling between creators will take place
• Build an audience & credibility before you launch. If you're seen as an expert, people won't hesitate to back you. Give value first. Take later.
• Test products before you launch to fight the Curse of Knowledge

The rise of community-curated learning networks
We're witnessing "a new business category that doesn’t even have a name yet, but which I believe will become an important part of our digital lives: online communities at the intersection of content curation and knowledge management"

Designing the perfect day
Did you know that knowledge workers have the capacity to do 2-4 hours of high-quality work per day? This article has hard-hitting truths & useful resources that help you spend your time wisely.

Key takeaways:

• Busyness is the absence of priorities - Use frameworks to become more intentional about prioritization
• Protect this house - Commit time to work that can move the needle
• Manage your energy, not your time

Two ways to grow your audience: do more or do less
"The more you do, the less well you do it. You have limited time, effort, and resources, so each additional “thing” takes those elements away from other things." This really resonated with me. I have dozens of ideas brewing in my head, but I have decided to build and grow Newsletter OS first. Focused effort builds momentum.

A 5-Step road map for saying ‘No’
It is so tough to say no. You want to be helpful to others, but need time & space to create. This article helps you say no without feeling bad.

1. Remind yourself that time is valuable and once it’s spent you absolutely can’t get it back
2. Ask yourself: “Would I be willing to do this thing tomorrow?”
3. Respond quickly. Don't leave people hanging
4. Own your “no” if it’s not a priority (because something else is) 
5. Reframe your “no” to minimize guilt

I've been saying "no" more frequently as I want to be laser-focused in building & marketing Newsletter OS.

How to turn thoughts into insights
Thoughts are abundant. Interesting, but not always useful. Insights are rare and valuable. How do you distill thoughts into actionable insights?

1. Don’t take things at face value - challenge your assumptions
2. Ask “why” and “so what” - ask sharp questions
3. Put in more reps - the more you practice, the better you get

Teach AI to anyone
Free toolkit to learn more about the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence, then teach others about it.

PMAlerts - Social listening tool that you can use to track mentions across multiple social networks & platforms. It's free for now, so join me in being an early adopter.

Cold Email Templates by Hunter.io - Find inspiration from best-performing cold emails, sorted by categories.

State of Marketing 2020 Report by Hubspot  (H/t Declarative Statements)

Bad Unicorn - If you want to have a chuckle every (other) Friday, this team brings the worst startup ideas to your inbox. Their latest idea is Unslack, a parody of Slack in Google Sheets. Love the boundless creativity that of the team behind Bad Unicorn.

Hyperrealistic 3D scans of sneakers - Check out the first photo-driven 3D viewer. It's the intersection between 3D modeling and product photography.

Shows And Reviews - Get the top five movies and shows to watch on the top streaming sites.

P.S. Happy to have been featured in Trends.vc & Build In Public, Not A Newsletter this week!