Pattern Breakers
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Pattern Breakers episodes

  • Welcome to Season 2!
    In this opener for Season 2, Floodgate Co-Founder Mike Maples, Jr talks sets the agenda for a new season of Starting Greatness and plans for taking the show and content to the next level.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    9 min
  • Breakthrough Lessons: You are Yoda, not Luke
    Nancy Duarte emphasizes that storytelling has been one of the most compelling tools of persuasion for centuries. But founders embracing the storytelling form often make a crucial mistake: They cast themselves as the protagonist in the hero's journey, rather than the specific people they intend to persuade. Getting storytelling right means the founder is the mentor of the story (ie Yoda), rather than the hero (ie Luke.) This is true whether the audience is the customer, future employees, investors, journalists, or the audience at your next TED talk.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    9 min
  • Nancy Duarte: Why storytelling is vital to entrepreneurship
    Nancy Duarte has helped people like Al Gore tell an inconvenient truth, as well as some of the most important tech execs, get their stories told. She has cracked the code in applying story patterns to business communication. In this interview, Mike Maples, Jr of Floodgate asks Nancy for the most important ways that founders can leverage storytelling to turn their movements from ideas to reality.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    39 min
  • Breakthrough Lessons: Why the world needs breakthrough builders; How it can be you
    The future doesn't happen to us: It happens because of us. In this Lesson of Greatness, we introduce backcasting as a tool for entrepreneurs or people in any field who want to create a future that is meaningfully better and doesn't just bring forward the baggage of the past.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    13 min
  • Mike Maples and Shane Parrish: How to create a Breakthrough
    The present has stopped working. Now, more than ever, we need breakthroughs that put us on a better trajectory. In this episode, we flip the script and Shane Parrish from the Farnam Street Blog and Knowledge Project interviews Mike Maples Jr of Floodgate about tools available to people who want to build a better future.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    29 min
  • Breakthrough Lessons: Don't Just Be Resilient: How to be Anti-Fragile
    Everyone knows a fragile team is more likely to fail. But an anti-fragile team is more than just resilient....it's more like a Hydra: When you cut off one of it's heads it grows two back in its place. Anti-fragile teams actually get BETTER when the environment around them is high-pressure and chaotic. In this lesson of greatness, we drill down into what it means to be anti-fragile and how you can apply the concept to your own startup team.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    7 min
  • Manny Medina: From Hell and Back to the Threshold of Greatness
    From his surprising beginnings as a shrimp farmer with Communist parents in Ecuador to his death-defying pivot from a failed startup idea to what is now Outreach, Manny Medina's story is both colorful and compelling. In this episode, Mike Maples, Jr of Floodgate discusses Manny's unconventional journey and his struggles and triumphs on the path to greatness with Outreach, now valued at more than $1 Billion.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    40 min
  • Breakthrough Lessons: You have to take the Initiative
    Commander John Boyd was a fighter pilot who changed the art of war in the late 20th Century. He offers a vital lesson of greatness, especially in times of massive uncertainty: Decisive leaders take the initiative, ALWAYS. This episode describes why that's the case and how the philosophy of taking the initiative can help you achieve greatness in what matters to you.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    11 min
  • Steve Blank: How to turn the tables on COVID-19
    Many startups face difficult choices when it comes to overcoming COVID-19. In this special episode, Mike Maples Jr of Floodgate interviews Steve Blank about techniques founders can use to shape circumstances rather than be shaped by them. Steve has a unique vantage point since he's weathered every dislocation affecting startups since 1978, including the 1987 crash, the dotcom bubble burst, and the 2008 financial crisis.  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    32 min
  • Breakthrough Lessons: Don't Mess with Metcalfe's Law
    Bob Metcalfe has traveled in many orbits, but most recently he has been a professor at the University of Texas....so it seemed only appropriate to honor the unstoppable power of Metcalfe's Law in this lesson of greatness. Mess with it at your peril :)  
    Check out the Pattern Breakers Blog at patternbreakers.substack.com for
    even more Pattern Breaking content from Mike.  
    Mike's book Pattern Breakers is available now wherever you buy books.
    Follow Mike on X!
    5 min

About Pattern Breakers

From the publisher's feed

Host Mike Maples Jr. from venture capital firm Floodgate offers lessons from the rare startup super performers — BEFORE they were successful. Pattern Breakers features interviews with some of Silicon…

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