20 Minute Playbook: Tactics, Routines, and Habits of World-Class Performers

We deconstruct Brian Scudamore's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Brian Scudamore is the Founder and CEO of O2E Brands. We cover the power of branding and systematic approaches to business.

“My advice, or challenge, to someone who's looking for their integrator, their second in command, their partner, whatever it is—is to get really, really clear on what your gaps are that you need filled by someone else.” – Brian Scudamore

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/brian-scudamore-800-got-junk-wtf-playbook-show-notes 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/brian-scudamore-800-got-junk-wtf-playbook-transcript 

CHAPTERS

In Episode #95, we deconstruct Brian Scudamore's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:43 – Learning and growing with ADD

00:06:14 – On parenting with an open mind

00:08:30 – Superpowers and struggles

00:10:50 – The power of a brand

00:18:56 – Systematic approaches in business

00:28:29 – Recommended books

ABOUT BRIAN SCUDAMORE

Brian Scudamore is the Founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, which today does more than 700 million in annual revenue. What's more, he bootstrapped the business and has grown it for over 33 years now, which is an incredible track record. Brian's also the author of New York Times bestselling book WTF, which stands for Willing to Fail and is about how failure can be your key to success.

And he has a new book coming out later this year called BYOB. Build Your Own Business, Be Your Own Boss. In this episode, we cover Brian's struggle with ADD and how he found his learning and management style over the years, how he counterbalances his desire to move quickly and fire before he's aimed with being smart and sensible. How he's used the power of brand to build 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, as well as his newest businesses SHACK SHINE and WOW 1 DAY PAINTING. And we also talk about one of Brian's favorite books, the E-Myth, and how it helped him learn the power of systems.

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ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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We deconstruct Jacob Helberg's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Jacob is the author of The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power. We cover trend spotting, the wisdom of Winston Churchill, and avoiding procrastination.

“If you know in your heart of hearts that something just doesn't feel right with the current path that you're on, I think being open and willing to take some pretty drastic changes, for me, has worked out pretty well.” – Jacob Helberg

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/jacob-helberg2-outlier-academy-show-notes 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/jacob-helberg-outlier-academy-transcript 

CHAPTERS

In this episode, we deconstruct Jacob Helberg's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:42 – Investing in technology that advances national security

00:02:39 – Trend spotting and forming deep-seated convictions

00:06:17 – Avoiding procrastination and the importance of exercise

00:09:07 – On Henry Kissinger and Winston Churchill

00:14:35 – Dropping out of law school and trusting your gut

ABOUT JACOB HELBERG

Jacob Helberg is the author of the incredible new book, The Wires of War, which details the technical battle that's being waged that will determine the future of the internet and, in many ways, the future of global society. It's a battle that's being waged on both the front and back end of the internet, on the front end in the apps we use every single day from Google to Facebook to TikTok and Twitter, it's stuff like misinformation campaigns, fake followers, and fake news, and on the back end, in the hardware, routers, protocols, and even the undersea cables that travel hundreds of thousands of miles crisscrossing and connecting the entire world.

I loved reading The Wires of War because it's deeply compelling, it's really expansive, and it's an incredibly detailed picture that it paints of where we're at and what we face. It's out now and available on amazon.com.

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Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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We deconstruct Jason Crawford's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Jason Crawford is the Founder and CEO of The Roots of Progress. We cover the Gutenberg press, startup failures, and recommended apps.

“I would say the single most powerful technique that I have found is when you start your day, rather than checking email or or anything, start by pulling out a blank sheet of paper, whether that's literal paper or whether, like me, you use an electronic note-taking system, and just think on paper about your day. How's it going? What's up? What am I going to do today? What are my priorities and so forth?” – Jason Crawford

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/roots-of-progress-jason-crawford-20mp-show-notes 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/roots-of-progress-jason-crawford-20mp-transcript 

CHAPTERS

In this episode, we deconstruct Jason Crawford's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover:

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:24 – Research on the Gutenberg press

00:03:51 – Learning, planning the day, and improving sleep

00:10:09 – Recommended apps, including Bear, Readwise, and Anki

00:12:27 – Startup failures, sci-fi books, and success on your own terms

ABOUT JASON CRAWFORD

Jason Crawford is one of the researchers and writers at the forefront of the progress studies movement, which seeks to understand what's driven human progress historically in order to cultivate and accelerate moving forward, which is to say the least absolutely fascinating. Jason Crawford, through his blog and nonprofit Roots of Progress has studied and written about everything from the invention of the bicycle, to the smallpox vaccine. He's one of the world's leading thinkers on how progress happens, why it seems to have slowed or at least narrowed in recent years, and what we need to do to accelerate it in the coming years.

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iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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We deconstruct Howie Schwab's peak performance playbook—from their favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on their life. Howie is the Lead Portfolio Manager for Emerging Markets Growth of Driehaus Capital. We cover regime shifts in the market and obsessing over failures.

“In terms of how we invest, I think integrating and overlaying macro as well as behavioral components, not simply wedding ourselves to this bottom up, here's our specific template and it's time tested is really important.” – Howie Schwab

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/howie-schwab-driehaus-capital-playbook-show-notes 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/howie-schwab-driehaus-capital-playbook-transcript 

CHAPTERS

In this episode, we deconstruct Howie Schwab’s peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover:

(00:01:41) – Regime shifts in the market

(00:06:51) – Learning from investing mentors

(00:10:08) – Great investors obsess over their failures

(00:12:48) – Advice for young investors

(00:16:43) – Howie’s investment philosophy

(00:24:24) – Challenging yourself

ABOUT HOWIE SCHWAB

Howie Schwab manages more than 5 billion in emerging market growth funds for Driehaus which is a firm that's based in Chicago and where Howie has worked for the last 20 years. At Driehaus, Howie is the lead portfolio manager for the emerging market's growth. And he's a portfolio manager for the emerging market, small cap equity and emerging markets opportunities.

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iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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Listen to a trailer for our next 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Howie Schwab of Driehaus Capital.

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In this episode, we deconstruct James Currier's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. James is General Partner of NfX. We cover working with ADD, bonding curves, and a Buddhist perspective of success.

“I think about it from a Buddhist perspective, which is that just being present and being in joy is success, and therefore it's available to anyone.” – James Currier

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/james-currier2-outlier-academy-show-notes 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/james-currier-outlier-academy-transcript 

CHAPTERS

In this episode, we deconstruct James Currier's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:00:35) – Bonding curves and seeing the big picture

(00:03:14) – Working with ADD, avoiding alcohol and sugar, and finding the love of your life

(00:05:22) – Learning from Joseph Campbell and Niall Ferguson

(00:06:05) – Your Life on Network Effects

(00:09:04) – A Buddhist perspective of success

(00:10:13) – Choosing the right industry

ABOUT JAMES CURRIER

James Currier is General Partner of NFX, an early stage VC firm with a focus on startups with potential for network effects. Before founding NFX, James co-founded four successful companies: Tickle (acquired by Monster), Wonderhill (merged with Kabam), IronPearl (acquired by PayPal), and Jiff (merged with Castlight).

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Emi Gal shares the lessons he’s learned building Ezra, why he tracks 150 different biomarkers, what he’s learned doing a Yearly Challenge for the last 14 years, and why he’s focused on achieving peak health by 40, and more. As well as the origin story behind his extreme discipline and his advice for others that want to become more disciplined.

“To make progress in anything, but especially your health, you just need to nudge behavior a little bit every day. I find that tracking 150 different biomarkers does that quite well for me.” — Emi Gal

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/emi-gal-ezra-20-minute-playbook  

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/emi-gal-ezra-20-minute-playbook-transcript   

CHAPTERS

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:01:27) - Why and How Emi Gal Tracks 150 Different Biomarkers

(00:05:50) - How Emi Gal is Reaching Peak Health by The Age of 40

(00:08:54) - The Relationship Between Bone Density and Exercise

(00:10:27) - Why Emi Gal Has Done a Yearly Challenge Every Year Since 2008

(00:18:16) - Lessons Learned Studying and Becoming Antifragile

(00:22:23) - Lessons Learned from Studying with a World Memory Champion

(00:26:56) - Lessons Learned from Interviewing Elderly Americans

(00:31:31) - Why People Would Be Surprised at Emi Gal’s Discipline

(00:34:06) - How to Become More Disciplined

(00:39:05) - Emi Gal’s Favorite Books: Antifragile and The Patient Will See You Now

(00:42:57) - Emi’s Advice for His Younger Self: Embrace Optionality Early On

ABOUT THE GUEST

Emi Gal started his first company, Brainient, when he was just 19. He spent 10 years building Brainient into one of the leading ad-tech companies in Europe before it was acquired by Teads—one of the largest advertising platforms in Europe, with 1.8-billion impressions per month.

After working with Hospices for Hope, a non-profit in Romania that builds and operates hospices for terminally ill cancer patients, Emi realized that one of the biggest problems with cancer is the lack of a fast, accurate, affordable way to screen for cancer everywhere in the body. He founded Ezra in 2018 to solve this problem using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Artificial Intelligence. To date, he’s reduced the cost of getting a full-body cancer screening by 80% and reduced the time required to get screened by 66%.

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🎙 LISTEN ON

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

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Listen as we decode how Emi Gal tracks more than 150 different biomarkers, what he’s learned doing an Annual Challenge for the last 14 years, why he’s focused on achieving peak health by 40, how to become more disciplined, and more. Emi Gal is the Founder & CEO of Ezra, which is bringing fast and affordable cancer screening to everyone.

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This week we’re profiling Adrian Aoun, who founded Forward into 2017 to turn healthcare from a service into a product and reach 1B+ people globally. Before founding Forward, Adrian served as the Director of Special Projects for Google CEO Larry Page, founded Sidewalk Labs, and served as an advisor to the White House on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Here are the 3 big ideas in this week's Cheat Sheet:

Principle: Be problem obsessed, not solution obsessed.

Framework: How to predict the future from first principles.

Insight: Why healthcare should be a product—not a service.

Read the newsletter companion to this episode:

https://www.cheatsheetnewsletter.com/p/problem-obsessions-and-predicting-the-future

Listen, watch, or explore more of this week’s episodes:

Forward’s Adrian Aoun | My Favorite Books, Tools, Habits and More

Listen Now | Watch Now | Episode Guide | Transcript

Forward: Bringing Healthcare as a Product to a Billion People | Adrian Aoun, Founder & CEO

Listen Now | Watch Now | Episode Guide | Transcript

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This week we’re profiling Adrian Aoun, who founded Forward into 2017 to turn healthcare from a service into a product and reach 1B+ people globally. Before founding Forward, Adrian served as the Director of Special Projects for Google CEO Larry Page, founded Sidewalk Labs, and served as an advisor to the White House on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Here are the 3 big ideas in this week's Cheat Sheet:

Principle: Be problem obsessed, not solution obsessed.

Framework: How to predict the future from first principles.

Insight: Why healthcare should be a product—not a service.

Get the Cheat Sheet newsletter in your inbox:

https://www.cheatsheetnewsletter.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices