Weekly 40 Hour Kit by Fabiano Abreu Ott

The journey of growing your business without grinding 24/7.

40 Hour Kit: The "Closing the Loop" Challenge

(Here for the subject line? Find it in the 🚀 Challenge section)

Hey Reader,

Once a week for one and a half hours I hold a lecture called 'How to Start a Startup' at the CODE uni in Berlin. (Not that I'm an expert in that topic, therefore I also invite other founders every week to talk and answer questions from the students.)
Last week was the last session of the semester and we did something special. I asked every student to send an email to their future self. Scheduled to arrive in 10 years. With a short essay on who they want to be in 10 years and what is currently holding them back from becoming that person.
​Was humbling to notice that some students will receive their emails while still being younger than I am today.

If you want to do this exercise yourself, there are plenty of free tools to schedule the email (for example FutureMe).

And now, let's get started with your freshly brewed 40 Hour Kit:

​
💡 Entrepreneurial Insight

For a founder, the fear of being negatively perceived is a greater threat to your business than the fear of failure.

Inspired by entrepreneur & podcaster Michael Smoak on the Modern Wisdom show.​

⚖️ Balance Hack

If you work in a café or a coworking space, your brain constantly has to fight 'irrelevant speech'. Constant background chattering, which is one of the most damaging distractions to cognitive work.

Using a 'noise mask' by listening to White or Brown Noise (e.g., on Spotify) or functional music (e.g., on Brain.fm) significantly reduces the mental tax you pay for background chatter.

Based on scientific research in Cognitive Neuroscience.

🚀 Challenge

Go through your current pipeline of leads. Identify the bottom 20% and send them a polite "Closing the Loop" email this week.

You'll either reclaim mental overhead spent chasing those leads, or it makes the leads actually chase you (out of FOMO).

Inspired by bootstrapping expert and founder Blair Enns’ 'The Win Without Pitching Manifesto'.

✨ Recommendation

5 Hacks on how to write an exceptional Welcome / Onboarding Email to your customer:

1. Start with their goal, not your product.
   ​Welcome to x, here's what you can do.
   ​--> You're here to fix xyz, let's start here:
   ​
2. One Action only.
   Every extra CTA is a conversion you're giving away.
   ​
3. From a human with a name.
   ​From: Team from [company].​
   --> From: Sara from [company].
   ​
4. Write with the person in mind.
   Refer to their individual context instead of using a generic template.
   ​
5. Focus on your click rate, not the open rate.
   Did they really take the next step?

Based on insights from Jonathan Bernard - bootstrapped founder of DigiStorms.

❓ Question for you to ask another Entrepreneur

Aside from 'Founder', what is one identity you’ve neglected this year that you miss the most?

Have a nice & productive week!

Best,

Fabiano

Grow together with other founders - without sacrificing your lifestyle.

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​Read past 40 Hour Kits here.