An instructional guide for defeating a friend of his, should that man ever acquire super powers, complete with profiling and a technique breakdown. Patrick McConnell writes that with a straight face, and the joke tells you what reading the rest will feel like.
The lead generation posts carry the substance, and they come out of a real dead end. He had worked through everybody he knew, sponsored three people, and sat with his head in his hands while somebody senior explained that you can just go out to dinner and sign people up. His answer starts from one observation about why anybody joins at all, and the answer is not the company.
He reviews businesses run by other people as well, including a craft company and a couple of nutrition ventures, and those reviews stay level instead of turning into pitches.
There is a piece asking whether being clever has ever cost you something, aimed squarely at the person who keeps improving the plan instead of running it.
Read both parts of the free leads posts, in order, before anything else here.