- Easy, Breezi by Lillie
- Posts
- Top 5 Everything: March 2023
Welcome to Make life easy, Breezi.
Your friend who sends you a weekly update on what she's working on, reading through, and thinking about – in a list.
I have one rule to this newsletter, lists only. The only exception is this yellow box. I'll use this to say anything that needs to be said in a full paragraph.
We're doing a special edition of the newsletter this week: My Top 5 Everything! I saw my favorite influencer do this on her Instagram and thought I'd recreate it here – in an actual list.
Top 5 Signs That I Was Burnt Out At My Old Job
Everyday felt like a race to 5pm: I had enough motivation to clock my 8 hours but not a single minute more
I lost the ability to care about your work and the people I worked with: which sucked because I loved all my coworkers
I felt extremely overwhelmed by small requests: when I was struggling at work, I had less capacity to deal with…anything. Every request, even the smallest one, felt overwhelming or even impossible
My normal self care routine and healthy habits were non-existent: poor sleep schedule, didn't go outside enough and spent hours doomscrolling
I started to daydream about doing any other job: I reminisced about waitressing and calculated how much I could make doing that full time
Top 5 Habits That Got Me Into Running
Bought myself the Hoka Clifton 9's
Make a fire running playlist
Run west after work for the sunset
Tell yourself it's only 2 miles (which by then the endorphins start kicking in and you won't want to stop)
Downloaded Strava to compete with my friends
Top 5 DTC Brands That I Would Angel Invest In
Bloom Supps: best influencer brand
Dog Is Human: hero SKU + high subscription volume
Graza: best brand + marketing
Saie Beauty: best products
Halfdays: best community
Top 5 Tips I Have For Beating Procrastination
Do the hardest task first: admin tasks, like calling the bank, are always the hardest thing for me so right as I sit at my desk at 8:30am – I force myself to do it. If it's third or fourth on the list, guaranteed I'll find a reason to never get to it
Turn off phone home screen notifications: No joke changed my life, I've programmed my phone settings to automatically hide social media notifications between 9am and 4pm
Listening to 1-hour Soundcloud Mixes instead of Spotify: this is especially amazing for getting yourself into flow state of pure work and focus
Try to internalize the fact that everything you do is a choice: every time I catch myself procrastinating, I pause and ask myself "does this choice support the life I want", sounds deep I know but it works
Set alarms for short tasks: cleaning up your workspace? Set an alarm for 15 minutes so you don't start down the rabbit hole of reading random notebooks
One is way less distracting than the other
Top 5 Lessons I Learned From This Brian Chesky Interview
"There is a really thin line between entrepreneurship and unemployed – instead of trying to figure out which side you're on, just keep working on your dreams"
"Design for 10-star experiences. Most people try to create something that's just good enough. What can you do to handcraft an experience that people are going to love"
"On cofounder dynamics, choose people that are so good - they almost intimidate you"
"Align on principles. That ways you don't need to run every decision by every person. There's inherent trust because every decision will be made on the set of principles you've all agreed on"
"There will always be a tradeoff between Accuracy vs Speed to Market – make the call and follow through"
Top 5 Healthy And Protein-Friendly Dinner Ideas
*View this recipe in the Pepper app
💡 So the idea for Breezi actually started five years ago. In college, I was the only person in my friend group who knew how to cook – my grocery and recipe lists circulated all around campus.
That's why cooking has a special place in my heart, it's been awesome to see my friend Jake build in this space with Pepper – the social cooking app.
Top 5 Skills A Founder Needs To Have
Big Beliefs: You need to have dreams big enough to fit everyone else's under
Magnetic Energy: The energy that radiates from you should be so powerful that it attracts the right people to your mission
Pattern Recognition: Do ten things, find one that works. Do another ten things, find the one that works. What do the those two things have in common? Find out and do that
Bias for Action: When in doubt, ship something
Self Conviction: Even more than the idea or mission, you need to believe in yourself
Top 5 Ways To Impress A Girl On A First Date
Make a reservation (no walk-ins)
If she's deciding between two apps, say "let's just get both so you can try them and see which one you like better"
Don't be on your phone when she's walking back from the bathroom
Tell her you learned something new from her today
Always get dessert
Top 5 Things I Love About My Mom
💗 She has this warm energy that makes you feel heard and listened to
💯 Her IQ is out of this world, she was ranked #1 in her province coming out of high school and become a university professor at age 25
🥣 At dinner parties, she always makes more than enough food so no one has to do that awkward act of finishing a dish
📸 Instead of buying photobooks, she scrapbooks and collages our family photos
🌙 She loves me to the moon and back
This is my mom, Dorothy, do we look alike?
Top 5 Vitamins And Supplements I Make Sure To Take Everyday
Magnesium: brain health
Omega 3's: fatty acid
Pre + Probiotic: digestion
Vitamin D: sun + bone health
Zinc: anti-inflammatory
Top 5 News and Launches From This Week
Landing launches their mobile app, one of the best executed app launches I've seen!
One of my fave snack brands, BelliWelli announced their 15.4M Series A
Immi, another of my fave community-powered food brands, announced their $10M Series A last week too
Met the founder of new deal-based shopping platform, Halo, and really fascinated to see how this takes off
Started using CutOuts in my group chats and loving it
Top 5 Songs I Found On Spotify This Week
Heartbeat by Sandor (house)
Run Away To Mars by TALK (alternative/ indie)
Islands by Hey Ocean! (alternative/ indie)
Drive Tru the Night by Petit Biscuit, Jai Wolf (edm/ future bass)
Top 5 Places I Could Use Help With
Starting to think about branding – who are the best people in this space?
Need a web dev to help built our website – would appreciate any intros!
Still looking for more user interviews, chat with me here
Also still looking for a NY sublet for June + July
Send this newsletter to a friend or give us a shoutout on Twitter/ LinkedIn – my goal is to get to 1,000+ subs by April!!!
Do you guys like this format of Top 5 Everything? I know the topics were all different and even sort of random but I ... kind of like that? Let me know <3
If you found anything in this newsletter helpful, I'd love to connect on Twitter – tweet me a screenshot of your favorite part and let's chat 👋
I'll be back next week with more lists!