Millennial Exec

In this episode, Brock & Jeremy discuss non-linear career growth.  Sounds sophisticated, we know, but it's really not.  There is no one path to achieve career goals. Some CEOs arrive in their role as the highest or longest-serving executive in the C-suite, the CFO or Chief Revenue Officer.  Some CEOs arrive in their role by having the best combination of skills, experience, and luck.  

We'll discuss navigating a career path in your current role as well as discussing it with your leader or boss. We'll walk through 4 steps to ensure you are on the right track.

1. Self-awareness

2. Vision

3. Own your experience / Do not overreact to any one step

4. Be comfortable with your narrative

Brock recommends understanding the why to get at your overall goals.  He recommends tracking down Chris Voss's books if you want to understand more about how to think about career negotiation. 

Lots to follow-up on and looking forward to our next episode already.

This week Brock & Jeremy had a chance to speak with Mapate Diop.  Mapate is a co-founder & entrepreneur of WearDiop.com, a custom clothing line.  Mapate is an alum of Venture For America, like Brock.  His co-founder Evan and Mapate were both in Venture For America when they decided to launch Diop.  

Mapate provides his insight on why gathering experiences is important to entrepreneurs and leaders.  In his career, he had focused on internships and jobs to better understand a variety of industries.  During that time, he noted the sea changes of tech and the financial crisis as playing a big role on how he viewed his career.

Mapate was earlier than his peers to things like computer science and startups, relying on both formal and informal networks throughout his career.  Beyond a network, we discuss one of the most important aspects of being first - defining success.  Once you know what success means, you can fail and quickly recover and try again.  

Some practical advice for anyone leading a team or trying to start a business, Mapate has interviewed over 300 of his own customers to better understand his business.  His framework is 1). Know your customer 2). Understand what the thing is they want 3). Why they buy 4). What will ensure they come back.

It's not all about the bottom line at Diop.  Mapate and his co-founder, Evan, have made over 100,000 masks for frontline workers during the COVID-19 response.  Diop has also donated over $75,000 to non-profit organizations in the past few months using the proceeds from mask sales.

Mapate is an inspiring leader.  Follow his progress and get some clothing at WearDiop.com.  

In this episode, Brock and Jeremy are joined by James Chapman, Founder & CEO of Plain Sight.  James talks about his experience as an entrepreneur, founder, and coach to other entrepreneurs.  Achieving our goals is hard even when someone has all the opportunities and breaks.  James, Brock, and Jeremy discuss supporting other entrepreneurs, especially people of color that have not gotten the same opportunities and breaks. 

James has talked with entrepreneurs at all stages of the process. From the beginning when an idea is all assumptions to the last step of the process  - successful investment.  Instead of looking for money, the question founders should be asking is how much risk can I afford to take? 

Some of us are more privileged and able to take risks.  As a result, we have a responsibility to make opportunities for others.  We discussed the steps:

1. Speak up 

2. Be fair in equal opportunity

3. Asking questions of each other

We will be talking to James again soon. Check out James at his homepage.  Follow James on Twitter @iwrotethehustle.  His business Plain Sight is now available.

In this short episode, Brock and Jeremy discuss the murder of George Floyd and some of the questions raised by how companies are responding.  Though we're not always the best at articulating it, this is a topic we're looking to continue to discuss on Millennial Exec.  We can't focus on career development, hiring practices, and diversity in our companies until Black lives matter in every community and every company in our country. Our podcast is dedicated to learning from each other across our generation.  We know the time is now to listen, learn, and take action to make change happen.

We recommend Episode 3 with Kristen Messerli, the Founder of Cultural Outreach, where we discuss both her personal experience but also the goal of Cultural Outreach to support diversity and inclusion in the financial services and real estate industries.  

We could have done a better job explaining how and why this is such an important issue, but the good news is that we'll have plenty of time in the future to explore this.  Today's episode is just step 1 in recognizing our privilege and making the commitment continue to address racial inequity and systemic inequality in business, tech, and career opportunities.

We must do better. We want to do better. We will take time to read, research, and listen, specifically to our future guests who will provide their experience firsthand.

Links and recommendations:

8 Can't Wait:  Specific policies every police department can adopt today to save lives

Jeremy's post on his response to the murder of George Floyd.

"Corporate America has failed Black America," Sunday Business, The New York Times, June 6, 2020.  This article questions whether companies like Amazon or others are just capitalizing on the moment or having a genuine desire to change their practices to address systemic racism.  Please check it out.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s The Other America speech

In this episode, Jeremy and Brock talk to Nicholas Hinrichsen and Chris Coleman the co-founders of Carlypso, a company that simplified the process of buying and selling used cars.  Niki and Chris attended Stanford Business School and launched Carlypso on the advice of Stanford professors. After launch, Carlypso was accepted into Y Combinator and eventually sold to Carvana.

Nicholas and Chris discuss the experience leading each of them to Stanford Business School and the process of building & selling a company.  While at Stanford Business School, the founders attended class with Andy Rachleff. Professor Rachleff studied and wrote extensively on product-market fit. 

During our conversation, Hinrichsen and Coleman talked about gaining experience before and after cofounding a company together. Both Chris and Niki discuss focusing on the long-lasting result of creating a company. Chris framed entrepreneurship as less making the right decision and more as limiting the wrong decisions. In fact, all of the decision-making can be framed as the practice of limiting wrong decisions. 

The rabbit hole of what's possible only gets deeper. Managing it is the key. First-time founders struggle with product. Second-time founders struggle with distribution. If you are curious about the reality of a company's start, ask the founder about the first 3 months, it might be the best way to found out the real story.  It's a question we'll be asking of founders in the future.

Recommendations:

Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman 

Andy Rachleff's perspective

This week Brock and Jeremy interviewed Brian McMillan, Regional Director, EdOps about his career path including several big moments where a memorable conversation with a trusted friend or partner altered his course.  There was so much to talk about we'll definitely be inviting Brian back for a Part 2.

Brian talks about the types of decisions we all face - where to work after college, how to find purpose in what you do, and how to navigate a career when life intervenes with personal choices.  As we think about these decisions, Brock, Jeremy, and Brian discuss the power of mindset as a catalyst for producing results in athletics or work.  Brian has had multiple opportunities to test his approach and authenticity in a variety of environments.

Brian was a Divison 1 basketball player, a successful business consultant, an elementary school teacher, a business school student & intern and now a leader in the education field.  We discuss how being authentic is crucial to show colleagues, students and the community that you are looking to earn their trust.  Valuable lessons about how to consider experience and create buy-in with leadership will be applicable to anyone making a career decision or focusing on growing in their current role. Further, we consider how perceptions are so important in different workplaces like an elementary school classroom or in cities like Oakland and Detroit.  

Brian is a thoughtful and inspiring guest that we'll talk to again.  Thanks for listening.

Recommendation's this week:

Brian recommended the Jocko Willnick's podcast. 

Jeremy recommended Tali Sharot's TED Talk about how to use information to change behavior.

We wanted to feature two programs that mean a lot to us.  Teach for America and Venture for America.

Venture for America is a fellowship program supporting college graduates to experience the world of entrepreneurship. 

Teach for America is a diverse network of leaders who confront educational inequality by committing to participate in the school's that need the most support serving as educators. 

Though the two programs are not affiliated, Venture for America was built to model the structure of Teach for America.  Brian participated in Teach for America in Oakland, CA.  Brock participated in Venture for America in Detroit, MI.

In Episode 11, Brock and Jeremy discuss college education and debate the question of what we'd do in a virtual college environment. Looking back at our college experience, we talk about what aspects continue to inspire and what might change in the future. 

We discuss the tough choices facing a lot of college and graduate students right now. College students are being asked to consider attending a virtual year of classes. We debate what we'd choose to do faced with the same choice.

Considering the options, we talk about the risks of taking chances. The benefits of trying or being willing to try new ideas generally outweigh the cost of those choices. Many college students worry that each choice will advantage or disadvantage them for the rest of their careers. 

In reality, being willing to take chances on a gap year or internship will be just as valuable, if not more so, when you explain it to decision-makers like college admission officers and hiring managers.  Too often we assume we're supposed to respond with "the right answer" when most people just want to hear your story. Often, just telling the story of the year off or the internship will be the difference-maker in an interview process.  Try it!

Recommendations and references this week:

David Brooks's Commencement Address to an empty stadium.

Tim Ferriss on the alternative MBA.

Brock and Jeremy pick up on a thread from Ep.9: What Role Patience? discussing loyalty within organizations and loyalty to individuals. One major variable in everyone's career path, and in our lives, is people.  Since companies are collections of people, evaluating company culture, opportunity and role is key.  On this episode, Brock and Jeremy walk through some of the considerations and factors that can change throughout the onboarding and growth process.

Many millennials have been criticized for "job hopping" because average time at a company is decreasing overall.  Gone are the days of working for 1 company your entire career.  At the same time, reflecting on career choices and opportunities regularly does not make you disloyal.  In fact, loyalty is strengthened when it is obvious to both sides how important and deep the relationship is.  Company culture is one critical piece to the puzzle.  The other is self-awareness.  One extreme example that we bring up is Zappos. Link:  Zappos paid employees at the end of orientation to quit as a way to ensure that only those who understood the role and company goals remained. 

Whether thinking through a major career decision or simply spending some time considering a good day or bad day in your current role, we suggest some steps to avoid making a rush to judgment.  

1. Observe and understand the organization, leaders and team where you entered the company
2. Don't overreact to a bad day. Allow for a meaningful sample size of good days and bad days.
3. Be honest and decisive once you determine what is best.
4. Bring a positive approach to everything.  Be part of the culture you want to enjoy. One final thought, learn, learn, learn.  We only go around once so make sure any company or role is helping you grow.

To reflect on these topics, Jeremy recommended Solitude & Leadership by William Deresiewicz for self-awareness.  

This week Brock and Jeremy discuss one of the topics that has come up in various ways on previous episodes - patience and ambition. Millennials are often criticized as being too ambitious (as if that's a bad thing) or too entitled.  We discuss balancing career velocity with experience and, specifically, how to know when it's time to push harder or farther.

One important aspect in any career path is people.  Companies are just collections of people. Mentors, leaders and teams can be instrumental in how we succeed.  Creating trust and being willing to discuss career advancement helps anyone, Millennials included, have more information about key decisions. More information usually means better decisions too.  

Even without an immediate decision-point, part of career planning is thinking through goals and strategies.  It's too easy to dismiss the role of patience or timing of making a move as "case-by-case" as if there's no preparation or analysis that can inform your choices. We disagree.  We talk through ways to approach self-assessment and decision-making that lead to better outcomes.

Our recommendations this week range from Elon Musk's biography to the movie Little Miss Sunshine.  Check out the episode for a fun conversation about our "dream dinner" with leaders, CEOs and authors we look up to.

This week Brock & Jeremy talk to Christopher C. Rogers, writer, showrunner and executive producer.  Chris lives and works in Los Angeles creating television and writing movie scripts. When Chris and Jeremy attended the University of Mary Washington together, Chris thought he would go to law school and Jeremy thought he never world. Now look.

Chris describes his thought-process to embrace his desire to be a writer and follow that to LA.  Working for Architectural Digest and Disney, he went to UCLA screenwriting class at night.  The key for exploring personal passion is having sneaky projects on the side to fuel big dreams.  A writer is anyone who writes every day.  After 10,000 hours, writers and executive producers are just getting started.  

We talk about narrative (our own) and mentors (each others) to continue to move forward with our goals. Whether starting a company, leading a product or running a writer's room, leaders must create a safe environment for each person to contribute.  Being vulnerable is important so that everyone can celebrate the idea instead of who proposed it.  

Chris provides an image - concentric rings - for how to build trust from the inside out.  Leaders who trust each other create teams that execute so that the best product is delivered to the viewer (or customer).  Brock and Jeremy learn how to apply the lessons of creativity and the entertainment industry to our careers and our businesses.  Thanks, as always, for listening and support the show.  Be sure to sign up at our website, MillennialExec.com, to get notified of all episodes and news.

Chris's Endorsements

Difficult Men by Brett Martin

The Revolution Was Televised by Alan Sepinwall

Jeremy's Endorsements

Halt & Catch Fire

The Cost of These Dreams by Wright Thompson

Brock's Endorsements

It's Time to Build by Marc Andreessen