Good day,

New week, new opportunities to be better - let’s take them

🔥 1. Focus tips that actually work

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• You only get 3-4 hours of real deep work per day. Protect those hours for what matters most. -

• Work in 90-minute blocks, then take genuine breaks. Walk, stretch, look at something far away.

• Put your phone in another room. Studies show even having it visible drains cognitive capacity.

• Can't start? Commit to just 5 minutes. Starting is the hardest part.

• Create a pre-focus ritual. Same playlist, same spot, same routine. Your brain learns the cue.

• Do a "brain dump" before you start. Write down nagging thoughts so your mind can let go.

🔥 2. “Use psychology to your advantage”

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Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland reveals the formula for persuasion, why people make decisions, and how to use psychology to your advantage.

Rory is the world’s leading advertising strategist. He spent almost four decades at the world's leading advertising agency studying why people behave the way they do and how to change that behavior.

He explains why contrast drives choices and efficiency often destroys value, and how trust, friction, and design shape real-world behavior.

Here are some Tiny Lessons from this episode.

1. Trust is the only shortcut.

2. Visible costs often hide invisible benefits.

3. Efficiency is the enemy of magic.

4. Creativity starts where logic stops.

5. Context creates value.

Quick one

What’s trending?

Nivoda, apparently… over the last 4 years.

Nivoda is an online B2B diamond database.

It allows jewellery retailers to offer an extensive collection of over 2M natural and lab-grown diamonds to customers, without taking on any inventory risk.

Orders from multiple suppliers are consolidated into a single invoice and shipment, and quality-checked by Nivoda.

The platform added colored gemstones in 2023, with more than 80K now available.

Nivoda secured a $51M Series C funding round last November, just 6 months after raising a $30M Series B round.

What's Next

Nivoda is part of the Diamond Tech meta trend.

Diamonds are a $100B industry worldwide. And 18% of the total diamond supply is now lab-grown.

Structurally identical to natural diamonds but grown in controlled conditions, the market value of all lab-grown diamonds is forecast to hit $59.5B by 2032.

VRAI exclusively sells lab-grown diamonds. It is the consumer arm of Diamond Foundry, which has raised $515M in total funding.

Away from lab-grown diamonds, there have also been advances in precision cutting techniques and AI diamond grading.

Synova sells diamond cutting systems which use lasers guided by microscopically-thin jets of water. More than 500 machines have been delivered worldwide.

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Did this motivate you today?

That’s it for today.

Keep showing up, make today count 🏃‍♂️

The Newseum Team