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December 4, 2024
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Anastasia Soare, Framing, and Public Speaking Skills
At a glance
This edition is brought to you by GrowthPair
Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is your Wednesday edition of Faster Than Normal, exploring one short story about a person, a company, a high-performance tool, a trend I’m watching closely, and curated media to help you build businesses, wealth, and the most important asset of all: yourself.
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Today’s edition:
> Stories: Anastasia Soare & Alibaba
> High-performance: Framing
> Insights: Learning from failure
> Tactical: Public speaking skills
> 1 Question: Playful approach
Cheers,
Alex
P.S. Send me feedback on how we can improve. I respond to every email.
Stories of Excellence
Person: Anastasia Soare
Anastasia Soare, the Romanian-born founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills, transformed the beauty industry with her focus on eyebrows. Arriving in the US with no English skills, she leveraged her art school background to pioneer the "Golden Ratio" eyebrow-shaping technique. "I came here to be relevant, to be significant," Soare recalls of her early days. Her determination paid off. Starting as an aesthetician, she built a beauty empire now worth over $3 billion. Soare's journey from immigrant to beauty mogul exemplifies the American dream. "I sacrificed so much when I left Romania, but I knew that I wanted to," she reflects. Today, at 66, Soare continues to innovate, embracing social media and expanding her product line while maintaining her passion for perfect brows.
Key Lessons from Anastasia Soare:
On customer focus: "I listen to her. I pay attention to what she posts about—what she likes, what she doesn't like, what she would like to see."
On resilience: "Romania gave me drive and endurance. It gave me a deep-rooted sense of heritage and the resilience to work through hardships."
On vision: "I believed in my vision, and that is what kept me going."
Company: Alibaba
Alibaba was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, a former English teacher, and 17 co-founders in Ma's apartment in Hangzhou, China. With $60,000 in initial funding, they launched Alibaba.com, a B2B marketplace connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. In 2000, the company raised $20 million from SoftBank and other investors. Alibaba expanded rapidly, launching Taobao (C2C) in 2003 and Alipay in 2004. By 2007, Alibaba.com went public in Hong Kong, raising $1.7 billion. The company continued to grow, introducing Tmall (B2C) in 2008 and cloud computing services in 2009. In 2014, Alibaba's NYSE IPO raised $25 billion, the largest in history at the time.
Key Lessons from Alibaba
On customer acquisition. Start with a niche market. Alibaba began by connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. This focused approach allowed them to build a strong foundation before expanding into other areas. Don't try to be everything to everyone from day one.
On internal culture. Embrace "996" with caution. Alibaba's infamous 9am-9pm, 6 days a week work culture drove rapid growth but also faced criticism. It's a reminder that intense work cultures can be double-edged swords.
On hiring. Look for cultural fit over experience. Jack Ma famously said, "We don't want geniuses. We want people who are streetwise." Alibaba prioritizes adaptability and alignment with company values over traditional qualifications.
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Accelerants
High-performance tool
⎯
Framing
Framing is a concept from behavioral economics, popularized by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. It's about how the presentation of information influences decision-making. "Framing is the context, point of view, or perspective from which information is presented," Kahneman explains. It shows that how we say something is as important as what we say.
Framing is powerful because it can significantly alter perceptions and decisions. The same information, presented differently, can lead to vastly different outcomes. In business, effective framing can improve communication, negotiations, and marketing.
How are you framing your products or services? Could a different frame lead to better results?
Insights
Denis Waitley on learning from failure:
"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."—Denis Waitley, American motivational speaker, writer, and consultant on high-performance human achievemen
Tactical reads
⎯
> When evaluating leadership effectiveness in startups
How do you measure leadership by Y-Combinator (Read it here)
> When looking to improve public speaking skills
How to Speak by Professor Winston (Read it here)
1 question
Is taking things so seriously improving my performance? How can today feel like play?
That’s all for today, folks. As always, please give me your feedback. Which section is your favourite? What do you want to see more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.
Have a wonderful rest of week, all.
Recommendation Zone
⎯
Save 80% On Payroll With Skilled Offshore Talent
With GrowthPair, you can hire top-tier international marketers for under $10 per hour:
Organic and Paid Social Media Marketers
Email Marketers
Graphic Designers
Growth Assistants
GrowthPair vets and interviews thousands of candidates to bring you only the best. It’s, hands down, the easiest way to find top-tier marketers that are bottom-line friendly.
Don’t just take our word for it — GrowthPair is backed by Alex Lieberman (founder of Morning Brew), Demand Curve, Fiat Ventures, and more.
Book a discovery call to learn more now.
Alex Brogan
Find me on X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
Offshore Talent: Where to find the best offshore talent. Powered by Athyna.
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