576: Scott Belsky - Adding Texture to Time, Feeling Unrushed, Pushing Yourself Physically, Narrating the Journey, Becoming an Excellent Writer, and Why You Should Never Outsource Your Story
Guest Scott Belsky discusses adding texture to time through challenges, feeling unrushed, and raising kids. He emphasizes persona-led growth, authenticity in communication, and embracing the messy middle of creative journeys. Topics also include the importance of creating lasting memories and instilling resilience in children.
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Quick takeaways
Adding texture to time through challenging experiences enriches life memories and sense of fulfillment.
Embracing persona-led growth by amplifying authentic voices and real-time updates enhances storytelling and engagement.
Deep dives
The Power of Empathy in Leadership
Empathy emerges as the most crucial aspect of leadership, affecting everything from product development to team dynamics. Scott Belsky emphasizes how empathy is a shortcut for building great products, fostering teamwork, effective marketing, and self-awareness. He highlights how lack of empathy leads to mistakes in business and product-market fit.
Driving Alignment with Prototypes and Bias for Action
Scott Belsky values prototypes over endless meetings, as they prompt decisiveness and drive alignment within teams. Drawing from his experience as a quarterback, he equates prototypes to pressure situations, where action is essential for progress. This bias for action extends beyond product development to encompass life choices.
Living in the Present with Texture in Life
Scott Belsky discusses the significance of creating 'time with texture' through challenging experiences, contrasting them with standard beach vacations. Embracing adventure and adversity adds depth to one's life experiences, creating lasting memories. Scott advocates for living each day fully, learning from his aunt's resilience and focus on enjoying life despite challenges.
Narrating the Journey and Direct Communication
Scott Belsky stresses the importance of 'narrating the journey' for teams, providing context and progress updates effectively. He advocates for direct, honest communication in leadership roles, valuing authenticity over polished messages. By sharing real-time updates and engaging with customers directly, he aims to foster persona-led growth, emphasizing the value of genuine, transparent storytelling.
My guest: Scott Belsky co-founded Behance in 2006 and served as its CEO for six years. Behance was acquired by Adobe in 2012. Since then he has had a variety of roles with the company and is currently Adobe’s Chief Strategy Officer, and EVP of Design & Emerging Products. He’s also the author of two best-selling books, The Messy Middle and Making Ideas Happen. Scott holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Hiking > Beach - You're only able to recollect experiences with enough friction to add texture to time as it passes. time spent doing the unexpected and/or being challenged is time with texture. Ultimately, in our dying breath, the more experiences in our lives with texture, the more of our lives we will actually remember and the longer we will feel we have lived.
What adds texture to time? A challenge.
Feeling unrushed - Feeling unrushed (so simple, yet so hard) is indeed such a luxury; one I still fail to achieve.
Persona-Led Growth - People are more likely to share what people say than what companies say. Modern “PR strategy” should amplify the voice of actual builders, embrace personality rather than dull it out, and aspire for more real-time updates vs. major moments.
How to raise kids to become great adults?
"model hard work"
Say, "This is the hard work." Manufacture hardship.
Regulate emotions. Big feelings, little bodies.
Why Scott enjoys working at Adobe... He's a mission-driven entrepreneur. Progress begets progress.
Prototype = Show, not tell.
A prototype is worth a hundred meetings, and almost all meetings that aren’t grounded with a prototype are a waste of time (or worse). A prototype immediately surfaces gaps in logic or business concerns. It is the fastest way to drive alignment.
"A prototype prompts decisiveness"
"It's a hot knife through the butter of bureaucracy."
Why Scott writes a Substack newsletter:
"I want to be part of the creator platform."
Writing clarifies thinking
It's important to stay close to the action. Writing works as a forcing function to do that.
Scott has benefited greatly from running every day. It's important to push yourself mentally and physically. "There's no option to stop."
What's the most important element of leadership? "Empathy. It's a shortcut for overcoming challenges."
“You’re either part of the living or part of the dying.” Scott's aunt Arlis Aron. Fought stage 4 cancer for 15 years. She always focused on living, her garden, breakfast, and traveling. “Decide if you want to live less or live more.”
"Every day is a standalone canvas."
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