Outperform with Acceleration Partners

On this episode of Outperform, we take a journey through affiliate marketing and travel with Brian Kelly – AKA, The Points Guy -- one of the largest credit card industry affiliate marketers and travel influencers.

Brian is the founder and CEO of The Points Guy (TPG), the preeminent voice in the industry of credit card points, miles and everything travel-related. Brian launched TPG in 2010 during his time as a Wall Street road warrior, but developed his keen sense for maximizing travel experiences while minimizing spending much earlier at the age of 12.

Since then, Kelly has grown The Points Guy into a powerhouse affiliate marketing travel and lifestyle media platform and was voted Forbes #1 travel influencer in 2017.

Show Notes

• What inspired Brian to start The Points Guy (TPG) site and blog
• Why normal affiliate marketing techniques won’t work with credit card companies
• How much Brian made the first month he did affiliate marketing
• Why Brian is proud to call himself an affiliate
• How large publishers like Lifehacker, Business Insider, etc. are working with The Points Guy through their partner program
• Brian’s take on FTC disclosures
• Advice Brian has for publishers just getting started in affiliate marketing
• What Brian enjoys most about helping people maximize their travel
• What TPG is doing to support charities through Points for Peace
• Brian’s favorite country to travel to
• Brian’s go-to credit card for dining
• Brian’s first choice for coach, business and first-class travel
• Biggest professional mistake that Brian’s learned the most from

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

On this episode of Outperform, we get candid with Kim Scott about radical candor.

Kim is the author of Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller. She is also the co-founder of the company, Radical Candor, LLC.

Kim has been an advisor at Dropbox, Kurbo, Qualtrics, ReelGoodApp, Rolltape, Shyp, Twitter, and several other Silicon Valley companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick Online Sales and Operations at Google.

Previously, Kim was the co-founder and CEO of Juice Software, a collaboration start-up, and led business development at Delta Three and Capital Thinking. Earlier in her career, Kim worked as a senior policy advisor at the FCC, managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo, started a diamond cutting factory in Moscow, and was an analyst on the Soviet Companies Fund.

Episode show notes:

• How Sheryl Sandberg practiced radical candor with Kim
• Why radical candor requires that we undo training we learned as a child
• The four feedback quadrants and how to use the them
• Why well-meaning feedback training often inhibits our ability to give feedback
• Three steps to giving caring, candid feedback
• Why giving feedback immediately is important
• How giving and receiving feedback well is essential to capacity-building
• Difference between rock stars and super stars and how to fairly manage the people in these different modes
• Why companies need to create growth opportunities for people in individual contributor roles – without requiring them to become managers of people
• Why Ruinous Empathy is one of the worst forms of feedback
• One of Kim’s most painful experiences in her career NOT being radically candid with an employee

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

Bestselling author, Gretchen Rubin, joined us on this episode of Outperform to discuss risk-taking, happiness, purposeful growth, our unique tendencies, and how to discover and use them to outperform.

Gretchen is the author of several books, including #1 New York Times bestsellers The Happiness Project, Happier at Home, Better Than Before and The Four Tendencies. Her books have sold almost three million copies and been published in more than thirty languages.

With her work, Rubin has emerged as one of the most thought-provoking and influential writers on habits and happiness.

Gretchen and her sister, Elizabeth, also have their own podcast called Happier where they discuss good habits and happiness.

A graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, Rubin started her career in law. She clerked for Judge Pierre Leval and was clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she realized she really wanted to be a writer.

• Gretchen’s ah-ha moment for leaving her law career and becoming a writer
• Interesting connection between Gretchen Rubin and Daniel Pink
• A secret to Gretchen’s success moving to a full-time writing career
• Why Gretchen doesn’t define happiness and what she thinks people should focus on instead
• Why negative emotions are important
• Secret to happiness – in both life and work
• The feeling that drives out negativity
• What research how shown about happiness in the workplace
• What the four tendencies are and how people can use them
• A line in a well-known advertising jingle that appeals to all four tendencies

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

Daniel H. Pink joins us on this episode of Outperform. Dan is the author of six thought-provoking books, including his most recent New York Times bestselling book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Drive, To Sell is Human, and A Whole New Mind.

This episode is full of fascinating insights from Dan's research, including: 

• Dan’s drive behind writing Drive
• What most business leaders don’t understand about motivation
• Why business leaders often misuse if/then rewards 
• Why extrinsic motivators are like coal and intrinsic motivators are like solar power
• What chronobiology is and why it’s important to understand your chronotype
• Differences between Larks, Owls and Third Birds
• The three stages we move through during the day
• The best time of day to do analytic work, administrative work and creative work
• Why companies need to take chronology into account when scheduling meetings and tasks
• When the research shows kids should be given math or standardized tests
• What Dan learned about the dabbawalas from the research on team synchronization and why companies like UPS, FedEx and Harvard study them
• How a sense of belonging contributes to whether teams flourish or flounder
• Why procrastination can actually be productive
• Timing mistakes Dan has made that he’s learned the most from
• The nappuccino. What it is and how it can result in the perfect nap

This Outperform podcast episode is brought to you by The Next Big Idea Club.

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

On this special Outperform episode, members of our innovative Publisher Development team, Alison Chew and Cassandra Scarbeck, spotlight a few select publishers/affiliates that they think are adding value to advertisers’ affiliate programs.

They review who they are, what they’re doing and what sets them apart in the crowded affiliate marketing landscape.

Show Notes

On this episode you’ll learn about:

• Two exciting technology partners out of the UK and how they’re helping advertisers outperform and drive incremental revenue
• A publisher that is helping retail advertisers increase their shoppers' basket sizes on average of 12%
• How this publisher is driving truly incremental revenue for merchants - all on a risk-free pay for performance basis
• Some well-known Mass Media publishers with massive followings and how they’re partnering with brands to monetize their extensive long-tail content online
• An innovative publisher that’s creating personalized deals tailored to the individual shopper in REAL TIME that are on-brand for each advertiser

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

Tune in to this episode to learn how financial services companies are using the affiliate model to promote their products and what opportunities lie ahead for those in the affiliate space who want to partner with them.

We talk with Marilyn Valace, Regional Director at Impact about how financial services companies are leveraging the affiliate model to market their products and services.

Show Notes

• How SaaS platforms have contributed to the changing landscape of the performance marketing industry
• How financial services providers are leveraging the affiliate model and why they’ve been slower to adopt this form of marketing compared with retail and e-commerce companies
• Important things financial services companies must consider when choosing partners (agency, technology, etc.) and publishers
• Types of publishers financial services companies tend to work with
• How SaaS platforms have made it more feasible for financial service providers to take advantage of the affiliate model
• The role Dodd-Frank, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other compliance mandates play in how financial services companies approach their affiliate marketing programs
• Opportunities on the horizon for financial services companies and performance marketing partners looking to work with them
• Three things agencies and affiliates need to know if they want to work with financial services companies

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

On this episode of Outperform, we profile Jesse Eisenberg, VP of Client Services for Elite SEM.

You’ll hear how he ventured into the world of digital marketing after a few years in the mortgage industry, his rise from account analyst to VP of Client Services at Elite SEM and his thoughts on how the digital marketing landscape has changed over the past five years.

Insights Jesse shares during his podcast interview:

• His thoughts on how digital marketing change over the past five years
• Challenges that companies are facing in online/digital marketing today
• How Elite SEM stays competitive and attracts such a remarkable list of clients
• Elite SEM’s approach to staying on top of the consistent and numerous search engine and social media platform changes
• Things Elite SEM is doing to create an award-winning culture within their organization and how they’re maintaining that amid rapid growth
• A career mistake that Jesse’s learned the most from

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

On this episode of Outperform, we have a candid conversation with speaker and award-winning author, Jenny Evans about resiliency, stress, confidence and human performance. Listen in as we take a deep dive into how our brains work, how it’s impacted by stress and simple things we can do to quickly recover from stress while optimizing our personal and professional performance. Show Notes

• Jenny’s journey to changing her body, brain and performance and how it led her to start her company, PowerHouse Performance
• Jenny’s unique approach to helping others be more resilient and deal with stress
• Why stress is a chemistry problem and how it affects your brain, sleep, and decision-making
• How understanding strategies for optimizing our brain and physiology benefits companies
• Jenny’s definition of stress and resiliency
• Why we can’t reduce stress and what we should be focused on instead
• What the primitive parts of our brain crave that make change difficult
• Why will-power and self-discipline are limited resources
• What a productive morning looks like and how it leads to a productive day
• Time of day our cortisol (stress hormone) levels are highest
• What happens when there’s too much cortisol in the body
• The name Jenny uses to refer to our primitive brain and why she calls it that
• Why, when you’re stressed, you want to mimic fighting or fleeing -or pig out on sweets
• How to alleviate negative side-effects of stress in 30 to 60 seconds
• Why her book is titled, The Resiliency rEvolution (small “r,” big “E”)
• Why long workouts really don’t produce better results
• The #1 way to elevate your fitness and get twice the results in half the time
• How Jenny manages stress day-to-day
• Jenny’s 5 Core Beliefs and how they guide her behavior and decision-making on a daily basis
• Why recovery is so vital to our ability to perform at a high level
• What selling her Powerhouse product on QVC taught her about failure

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

On this episode of Outperform we chat with NYT bestselling author and Book In A Box co-founder, Tucker Max about why and how he and Zach Obront decided to start Book In A Box, what the traditional publishing industry is really like, why he decided to step down as CEO of Book In A Box and what he’s discovered is his true passion.

Show Notes

• The inspiration behind why Tucker and Zach Obront started Book In A Box
• Impressive business results their first author realized from publishing her book through Book In A Box
• The difference between professional writers and people who own a company and want to author a book
• Why a book is so valuable to people who have a business
• How many copies of a book people typically must sell to hit bestseller lists
• What it really means to get a publishing “deal” and the only way to get it
• How you can tell how much a publisher believes in your book by who they hire to design the cover
• The realities of getting on the New York Times bestseller list
• The one and only thing Tucker liked about being a CEO
• What Tucker disliked about being CEO
• What Tucker’s doing now that he’s stepped down as CEO of Book In A Box
• New products/services that Book In A Box is rolling out
• The core values of Book In a Box and why they’re public
• Specific questions Tucker’s asked himself over the past few months to grow as a person, find his passions and outperform

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/. 

On this episode of Outperform, you’ll hear Bob Glazer and Financial Insyghts founder, Peter Atwater, discuss some fascinating topics, including why Peter looks at books, music, architecture and food when researching confidence-levels in the markets and why he recommends that you should buy Adele and sell Pharrell.

Show Notes

Tune in to this Outperform podcast episode with Peter Atwater to learn:

• What happens in our minds when confidence falls
• What the “me-here-now” concept is, how it affects our decision-making and why companies need to understand this
• How architecture gives us a peek into extreme peaks and valleys of confidence
• What Peter sees on the horizon for companies of the future
• Peter’s predictions for political and business environments, social media and global warming
• Key traits businesses will need to have to survive and outperform in future business environments

Hear more Outperform podcast episodes at http://www.accelerationpartners.com/resource-center/our-podcasts/.