Aligning On Value - Jonathon Hensley - Entrepreneur Intel - Episode # 24

Join Host Wes Mathews on Entrepreneur Intel as he sits down with Jonathon Hensley, CEO and Chief Product Officer at Emerge. Jonathan shares profound lessons on leadership, strategy, and leveraging AI in business. Learn about his journey from Silicon Valley enthusiast to successful entrepreneur, and get insights into building a strong vision, fostering team alignment, and driving business growth. This episode is packed with valuable advice for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs.

Takeaways:

• The most important lesson in entrepreneurship and leadership is to ensure alignment between your company's vision, team's work, and market offerings. Help every individual understand their impact and contribution towards the company's goals.
• When it comes to AI, it's essential to understand the cycle it is in and the potential it holds. As we move beyond the hype, focus on leveraging AI to enhance expertise and human connections.
• Embrace challenges and seek opportunities for growth in areas where you feel uncomfortable. Adapt and evolve your business to align with market and technological changes for long-term success.
• When building a team in a startup, it's crucial to understand the outcomes needed for each role and hire individuals who share the passion to achieve that success. Clear goals and aligning roles with outcomes are key to effective team building.
• Entrepreneurs should focus on creating a vision that is both inspiring and measurable, ensuring that it provides clear direction and purpose to the team. Aligning the vision with specific objectives that serve a greater purpose can motivate the team and drive success in achieving long-term goals.
• Every entrepreneur needs to understand the fundamentals of strategy, and planning is not strategy. Strategy necessitates knowing the problem you are solving, and the value you bring customers. From there you can strategize what you will bring to customers. 
• The core of a successful product revolves around value. Before you start building, step back and assess the value you are creating, and how what you are building is going to actually deliver on the value. 

Quote of the Show:

• “It fundamentally has to start with what's the problem that you want to solve, right?” - Jonathon Hensley

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathonhensley/ 
• Website: https://www.emergeagency.com/ 
• Book Link: https://a.co/d/aKcbwog 

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2I9O1Du2CFBfhGkvR1Oyem 
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/entrepreneur-intel/id1720785558 
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4d7fcd6e-e68f-4855-bb8a-8f872fc5b799 
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/entrepreneur-intel-5556614