Seeking Wisdom with David Cancel

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content. blog.drift.com/#subscribe Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day. ----- On this episode of Seeking Wisdom we sat down with Brad Stulberg (@bstulberg on Twitter). Brad is the author of a new book called Peak Performance — which Ariana Huffington called "an essential playbook for success, happiness, and getting the most out of ourselves." Brad was a consultant at McKinsey before diving into the world of personal and professional growth, and now has a business coaching top CEOs when he’s not writing. Brad caught DC’s attention when he wrote an article about Work Life Balance for the New York Times, so we tweeted at Brad about coming on the podcast, he said let’s do it — and we met up at Brad’s apartment in Oakland a few weeks ago. I think you’re going to love this episode of Seeking Wisdom and Brad’s formula — stress + rest = growth. Don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts if you haven’t already and say hey on Twitter I’m @davegerhardt and David is @dcancel. Brad's Book https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Secrets-Underground-Playbook-Building/dp/1683504585/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 The NY Times Article https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/well/mind/maybe-we-all-need-a-little-less-balance.html

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content. blog.drift.com/#subscribe Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day. ----- Before you can lead you must serve. If you're a manager or want to become a manager, this episode is for you. Two Ways To Support The Show 1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app. 2. Leave us a five-star review. Connect With Us Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter. Come hang out with us on Twitter @seekingwisdomio. Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

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When it comes to a list of the top Venture Capital firms in the world, there's usually one name on top of the list:

Sequoia Capital.

Sequoia has been an early investor in hypergrowth companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, and Google (and recently joined Drift as an investor in our Series B).

And on this episode of Seeking Wisdom, we're joined by Sequoia's Pat Grady. Pat is an investor in Drift, and this year was on the Forbes Midas Brink list as one of the top VC's to watch over the coming years.

We talked to Pat about pattern matching, first principles, how he thinks about the funnel at Sequoia, books he's reading, and more.

Enjoy.

01:29 - Pattern matching

02:38 - Thinking and investing using first principles

07:22 - Filtering the lead funnel at Sequoia

10:08 - Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital: "Target Big Markets". Watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw

12:55 - How Pat got started in investing and at Sequoia

18:29 - Growth integration at Sequoia

21:34 - Company growth and Dunbar’s number of 150

24:15 - Pat’s advice for young entrepreneurs

27:40 - Pat’s recommended books: Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057/), and The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Boat-Americans-Berlin-Olympics/dp/0143125478/)

29:55 - See Pat on social media on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gradypb/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/gradypb?lang=en)

3 Key Points:

Companies exist to solve a problem. Answer this first principle question: What is the problem you are solving?

Target big markets. Focus on the big problems.

Create systems and a culture to sustain your company when the number of employees grows well beyond 150.

Two Ways To Support The Show

1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

2. Leave us a five-star review.

Connect With Us

Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter.

Come hang out with us on Twitter @seekingwisdomio.

Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content. blog.drift.com/#subscribe Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day. ----- Ideas. Everyone has them. But do you really need more ideas? Or better execution? That's the topic of a classic DC rant today. And also a huge thank you to everyone for the support at HYPERGROWTH, some news about our Series B, and more. Two Ways To Support The Show 1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app. 2. Leave us a five-star review. Here’s how to leave a review: bit.ly/5-Stars-Only Connect With Us Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter. Come hang out with us on Twitter @seekingwisdomio. Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content.

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Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day.

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Clay Collins is a marketing genius. And you know we don't toss that term out there lightly.

Clay has a unique perspective on marketing and getting people to pay attention. He's got a background in science and psychology -- and actually dropped out of a PhD program to start LeadPages.

If you're interested in marketing, copywriting, or selling, this is one of those "get your notebooks ready" episodes of Seeking Wisdom.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:08 - Looking at big companies and other industries for inspiration

04:19 - Using a “swipe file” to learn from others

10:23 - How Clay created passion and knowledge at his company

13:00 - Found traffic, generating and optimizing leads

17:30 - Endless sales funnels and the growth mindset

21:30 - Organizing your team around the company’s goals

23:10 - Summarizing Clay’s three top points

25:28 - Clay’s background and founding of Leadpages (check out Leadpages at https://www.leadpages.net/)

3 Key Points:

Make a tactical decision be inspired by other companies and industries.

Your hottest leads are the newest leads. Keep your audience engaged on your website.

Marketing should never be done.

Two Ways To Support The Show

1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

2. Leave us a five-star review.

Here’s how to leave a review: http://bit.ly/5-Stars-Only

Connect With Us

Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter.

Come hang out with us on Twitter @seekingwisdomio.

Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content.

blog.drift.com/#subscribe

Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day.

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Patty McCord spent 14 years at Netflix running HR.

And since we were in Santa Cruz where Patty lives, DC gave her a call and she was nice enough to invite us over for Seeking Wisdom.

This one's all about hiring, firing, and building a world-class culture.

Buckle up.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:49 - Intro to guest Patty McCord (Find Patty at http://pattymccord.com/)

03:39 - Patty’s approach with large companies

08:29 - The origins of Patty’s new book (See Patty’s book “Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility” at https://www.amazon.com/Powerful-Building-Culture-Freedom-Responsibility/dp/1939714095/)

11:00 - Finding power in HR and recruiting

17:25 - Advice on interviewing

28:57 - How often to re-evaluate your team

30:44 - Patty’s experience with layoffs at Netflix

34:22 - Learning to be aggressive and not treating the workplace like a family

38:43 - Perks and employee happiness

43:20 - Job satisfaction and performance

54:40 - Patty’s experience at Netflix

57:32 - Performance review and business metrics

1:00:45 - Letting people go

1:08:03 - How Netflix instilled urgency in employees

1:14:07 - Patty’s advice to a growing company

3 Key Points:

Be disciplined in the interviewing process and don’t think of your employees as family.

Manage people at work like any other product innovation, with research and feedback.

Transparency with your employees instills urgency and better performance.

Two Ways To Support The Show

1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

2. Leave us a five-star review.

Here’s how to leave a review: http://bit.ly/5-Stars-Only

Connect With Us

Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter.

Come hang out with us on Twitter @seekingwisdomio.

Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content.

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Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day.

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When we were doing Seeking Wisdom Live at WeWork, a quick story came up.

DC went back to when DG first got his job at Drift -- from the interview process to getting an offer -- and started to a tell a story about hiring, what to look for in people that you can't find on a resume or a LinkedIn profile.

So we sat down and told the whole story, finally, on this episode of Seeking Wisdom.

This one is all about seizing the the opportunity and finding your superpower.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:53 - Dave’s side project Tech in Boston (check it out here: http://www.techinboston.co/)

2:52 - The initial interview and getting an offer

05:13 - Dave’s commitment to learning and building his career

07:23 - Focusing and seizing on opportunity

10:36 - Superpowers as two skills coming together

12:11 - David’s process of finding his superpower

15:00 - Hypergrowth Conference, September 25 2017 - $99 Promo Code: Seeking Wisdom (Register for Hypergrowth here: https://hypergrowth.drift.com/)

3 Key Points:

Do you want to earn or do you want to learn? Make a conscious choice.

Opportunities are rare. Have a sense of urgency and seize them when they come.

Figure out your skills that combine and intersect - this is your superpower.

Two Ways To Support The Show

1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

2. Leave us a five-star review.

Here’s how to leave a review: http://bit.ly/5-Stars-Only

Connect With Us

Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter.

Come hang out with us at seekingwisdom.io and on Twitter @seekingwisdomio.

Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content.

blog.drift.com/#subscribe

Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day.

-----

Terminus CMO Sangram Vajre joins DC and DG to talk about why the traditional sales and marketing funnel won't work forever, and what you need to do to adapt. Learn what it means to flip your funnel and uncover some of the other unconventional methods Sangram has used to grow Terminus.

Two Ways To Support The Show

1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

2. Leave us a five-star review.

Here’s how to leave a review: http://bit.ly/5-Stars-Only

Connect With Us

Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter.

Come hang out with us at seekingwisdom.io and on Twitter @seekingwisdomio.

Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content.

blog.drift.com/#subscribe

Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day.

-----

If you Google "David Cancel Referral Bonus" you'll find a few interesting

results.

Like the time he gave out $10,000 referral bonuses for engineers. And the

time he bumped it up to $30,000 (that's not a misprint).

But at Drift, DC wanted to do something different -- and that's what we're talking about on this episode of Seeking Wisdom.

Two Ways To Support The Show

1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

2. Leave us a five-star review.

Here’s how to leave a review: bit.ly/5-Stars-Only

Connect With Us

Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter.

Come hang out with us at seekingwisdom.io and on Twitter @seekingwisdomio.

Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.

If you liked this episode, we bet that you’ll love our blog content.

blog.drift.com/#subscribe

Subscribe to never miss a post & join the 20,000+ other pros committed to getting better every day.

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On today’s episode our guest is November Project Founder Brogan Graham. November Project is a free fitness movement for weekly public group workouts with locations around the world. Listen in to our discussion about how Brogan created this movement and grew it to a global fitness force.

Two Ways To Support The Show

1. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

2. Leave us a five-star review.

Here’s how to leave a review: http://bit.ly/5-Stars-Only

Connect With Us

Follow David (twitter.com/dcancel) and Dave (twitter.com/davegerhardt) on Twitter.

Come hang out with us on Twitter @seekingwisdomio.

Learn more about Drift at Drift.com.