Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors

Nicolas Cole shares the lessons he’s learned as one of the internet’s most-read writers, including why he’s fascinated with reverse engineering written work—from James Patterson novels to Twitter threads—into templates writers can use, why all great writing changes the reader, why his superpower is his ability to endure boring things for longer than others, and so much more.

“Writers without niches are starving artists. Because again, they’re just competing in these massive competitions. Writers with niches are category kings.” — Nicolas Cole

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

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/snow-leopard-nicolas-cole 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/snow-leopard-nicolas-cole-transcript  

CHAPTERS

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:07:37) - Service Businesses, Linear vs Infinite Scaling, and Picking a Bag of Problems

(00:10:02) - Ship 30 for 30 and Finding Your Niche

(00:17:01) - The Origin Story of Category Pirates and Snow Leopard

(00:20:13) - Category Creation, Competition, and Being Different vs Better

(00:28:48) - Content-Free Content and Blinding Glimpses of the Obvious

(00:35:34) - The Content Pyramid: Levels One, Two, and Three

(00:49:44) - The Content Pyramid: Level Four (Making Non-Obvious Connections)

(00:55:32) - Debunking Common Myths About Writing and Category Creation

(01:04:10) - The Difference Between More Views and More Dollars

(01:11:37) - What is Category Creation?

(01:14:27) - How to Create a Category: Weird Problem + Weird Solution

ABOUT THE BOOK

Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One by Category Pirates (Nicolas Cole, Christopher Lochhead, and Eddie Yoon) shares why all legendary writers who stand the test of time create a category of one. In decades past, David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, Leo Burnett, Gary Bencivenga, Al Ries & Jack Trout, and many more master communicators have all written about the psychology behind how messages spread. Snow Leopard builds on their work with dozens of new insights and frameworks, and brings category creation and design into the digital age.

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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 Nicolas Coles 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 one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Book Club episode featuring Nicolas Cole’s book, Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One.

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Nicolas Cole shares the lessons he’s learned as one of the internet’s most-read writers, including why he’s fascinated with reverse engineering written work—from James Patterson novels to Twitter threads—into templates writers can use, why all great writing changes the reader, why his superpower is his ability to endure boring things for longer than others, and so much more.

“It takes you a really long time to realize that great writing has very little to do with you. It will change you in the process. It can be about you, yourself, your heart, and your story. Everything can be in it, but has to ultimately be about the reader.” — Nicolas Cole

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

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/nicolas-cole-playbook    

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/nicolas-cole-playbook-transcript   

CHAPTERS

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:01:25) - Using Templates to Write Exponentially Faster

(00:06:54) - Nicolas Cole’s Favorite Books: Gary Halbert’s Writing and Portnoy’s Complaint

(00:11:20) - Nicolas’s Daily Routine and Not Disrupting Flow States

(00:15:05) - The Power of Enduring Boring Things

(00:16:24) - Nicolas’s Writing Process and Focusing on the Right Thing

(00:19:25) - Nicolas Cole’s Favorite Writing Tools (Reedsy’s Book Editor)

(00:21:43) - Why All Great Writing Changes the Reader

(00:24:33) - How Sharing Work Publicly Changed Nicolas’ Life

(00:27:27) - The Advice Nicolas Would Give His Younger Self

ABOUT THE GUEST

Nicolas Cole is one of the most-read writers on the Internet. Over the past decade, he’s written over 5,000 articles online and ghostwritten for over 300 Founders, C-level executives, NYT best-selling authors, and Grammy-winning musicians. He’s also the Co-Founder of Ship 30 for 30, which is one of the largest cohort-based writing courses online, as well as Typeshare and Category Pirates.

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

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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 Nicolas Coles 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 one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Nicolas Cole. In it, Nicolas Cole shares their favorite books, tools, habits, and more.

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We've decided to try something new: ✨ 

Starting today, every Thursday we're going to condense down hours of interviews and research to give you the 3 best ideas, questions, and bits of wisdom from our podcast episodes that week in an email you can read in 5 minutes.

We call it Cheat Sheet, and it won’t cost you a dime.

Read the first issue on Abby Levy Miller & Primetime Partners (Episodes #135-136):

https://outlieracademy.substack.com/p/agetech-and-living-to-100

Here are the 3 big ideas and questions that we're covering this week:

What changes when 50% of the U.S. population lives to be at least 100?

What kinds of investment opportunities does this create?

How should this all change the way we think about and approach our lives?

Sign up for Cheat Sheet:

https://outlieracademy.substack.com

For more make sure to listen, watch, and explore the full episodes:

20 Minute Playbook: #135 Abby Miller Levy, Co-Founder of Primetime Partners and Thrive Global | On Living to 100, Getting to the Key Issue, and Choosing What to Major and Minor In

Listen Now | Watch Now | Episode Guide | Transcript

Outlier Investors: #136 Primetime Partners: AgeTech, The Ripple Effects of Living Longer, and Investing in the Future of How We Age | Abby Miller Levy, Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Listen Now | Watch Now | Episode Guide | Transcript

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In Episode #138, we explore building and scaling a fulfillment business with handcrafted algorithms. We’re joined by Jivko Bojinov, ShipBob’s Co-Founder. We cover the challenges of a fulfillment business, ShipBob’s custom warehouse algorithms, and the importance of transparency with staff and customers alike.

“Ultimately, transparency to your customers is extremely important, no matter how difficult it is to display.” — Jivko Bojinov

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

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/shipbob-jivko-bojinov 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/shipbob-jivko-bojinov-transcript 

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to building and scaling a fulfillment business with handcrafted algorithms. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:01:40) – The origin and scaling of ShipBob

(00:06:38) – Meeting customers at their pain points

(00:10:56) – The challenges of a fulfillment business

(00:15:04) – Expanding from ShipBob warehouses to partner locations

(00:24:28) – Custom software for scaling ShipBob

(00:33:18) – ShipBob’s algorithms for stowing, picking, and packaging

(00:43:06) – Strategic projects within the fulfillment space

(00:51:53) – The importance of transparency with staff customers alike

ABOUT SHIPBOB

Jivko Bojinov played professional tennis before co-founding ShipBob with Dhruv Saxena and Divey Gulati in 2014. Jivko is currently the Senior Vice President of Strategic Projects at ShipBob. And over the last eight years, he's led the development and launch of almost every major strategic initiative at ShipBob, from their transition from owning their own fulfillment centers, to developing an asset like partner network of fulfillment centers, to the launch of affordable two day shipping for all of ShipBob's customers.

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🎙 LISTEN ON

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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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Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring ShipBob with Jivko Bojinov.

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In Episode #137, we deconstruct Jivko Bojinov's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Jivko Bojinov is the Co-Founder of ShipBob. We cover falling in love with the problem, inspiration from pro tennis, and maximizing learning early in your career.

“At the start of your career, maximize learning and not your title or your pay, because the dividends that you would make over your lifetime from the greater knowledge and experience that you have early on your career are exponentially higher than getting an extra 5K on your signing from a company out of school.” — Jivko Bojinov

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

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/jivko-bojinov-playbook/ 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/jivko-bojinov-playbook-transcript/ 

CHAPTERS

In this episode, we deconstruct Jivko Bojinov’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

(00:01:21) – A fascination with eCommerce and logistics

(00:02:57) – Making the most of opportunities

(00:04:57) – Inspiration from pro tennis and Rafa Nadal

(00:09:21) – Perseverance under pressure

(00:10:57) – The early morning habit

(00:12:22) – Humility, resilience, and The Count of Monte Cristo

(00:15:30) – Why you must fall in love with the problem

(00:20:07) – Maximize learning early in your career

ABOUT JIVKO BOJINOV

Jivko Bojinov played professional tennis before co-founding ShipBob with Dhruv Saxena and Divey Gulati in 2014.

Jivko is currently the Senior Vice President of Strategic Projects at ShipBob. Over the last eight years, he's led the development and launch of almost every major strategic initiative that ShipBob has shipped, from their transition from owning their own fulfillment centers, to developing an asset-like partner network of fulfillment centers, to the launch of affordable two-day shipping for all of ShipBob's customers.

💌 FREE NEWSLETTER

https://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter

🎙 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

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

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s 20 Minute Playbook episode featuring Jivko Bojinov. In it, Jivko Bojinov shares his favorite books, tools, habits, and more.

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In Episode #136, we explore AgeTech and investing in the future of how we age. We’re joined by Abby Miller Levy, Primetime Partners’s Managing Partner and Co-Founder. We cover becoming an accidental investor, the compelling white space in the senior market, and ending ageism.

“I hope we have a society that isn't plagued by obesity and diabetes because people are excited to live longer and are therefore making trade-offs when they're younger to enjoy a longer, healthier life.” – Abby Miller Levy

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

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/primetime-partners-abby-levy 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/primetime-partners-abby-levy-transcript/ 

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to AgeTech and investing in the future of how we age. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction

(00:03:00) – From business building at OXO and SoulCycle to becoming an accidental investor

(00:07:58) – The compelling white space of the senior market

(00:19:22) – Focusing on seed to Series A and launching incubations

(00:22:15) – Consumer behavior and employment opportunities in the aging population

(00:29:16) – Maximizing today vs. planning for tomorrow

(00:37:18) – Housing opportunities for the senior market

(00:43:15) – Ending ageism, focusing on preventative healthcare, and embracing multiple careers

ABOUT PRIMETIME PARTNERS

Abby Miller Levy is Co-founder and Managing Partner of Primetime Partners, which is a new venture capital firm that specializes in AgeTech, or investing in technology around the future of how we age.

As you'll hear in this interview, the latest data and statistics around aging are almost too hard to believe. Here are just two data points. As of 2007, it's expected that about half of all babies born will live to be over 100 or become what are called centenarians. And by 2024, it's expected that workers aged 55 or older will represent a full 25% of the nation's workforce, with the fastest annual growth rates among those aged 65 and older. And yet, before Primetime Partners was founded by Abby Levy and venture legend Alan Patricof of Greycroft and Apax Partners fame, there were no venture firms focused solely on aging and enabling the technologies, products, and businesses we'll need to support an aging population.

💌 FREE NEWSLETTER

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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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